Chapter 566
Zhao Jingfan slowly opened his mouth, four words echoing in his mind—"Is it coming for me?"
He certainly understood what Master Zhang meant. Zheng Fa's story at the Jiushan Sect was simple enough; though there had been some setbacks, he hadn’t suffered any major grievances...
But when it came to the Zhao family's affairs, Master Zhang was in the dark.
What he did know was that within the Jiushan Sect, Zheng Fa had a relatively good temper, while Master Zhang's temper... well, only Zheng Fa could keep it in check.
Zhao Jingfan quickly racked his brain, trying to recall:
"Zheng Fa... um..."
"Wang Gui's family bullied him."
Zheng Fa's sister, Zheng Shan, paused at this, seemingly forgetting the name she had once mentioned with gritted teeth just a few years ago.
"Wang Gui? Where is he?"
Master Zhang was already irritated, and her voice was even colder, making Zhao Jingfan, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, feel a chill run down his spine.
"Wang Gui..." Zhao Jingfan seemed to be deep in thought, and after a long pause, he slapped his forehead. "During the Great Freedom Demon Calamity, he seems to have died!"
He muttered, "Actually, I don't think Zheng Fa cared much about their family."
Master Zhang nodded slightly, turning to look at the still-closed eyes of Zheng Fa, and coldly said to Zhao Jingfan:
"And what else?"
"Uh... um..."
Zhao Jingfan seemed to remember something, and cold sweat immediately broke out on his forehead.
"…"
Master Zhang just stared at him, and Zhao Jingfan swallowed hard, dryly saying:
"… me."
He had bullied Zheng Fa a bit back in the day, hadn’t he?
"And my mother..."
It seemed like his mother was even harsher...
Master Zhang furrowed her brows, scrutinizing him from head to toe.
Nearby, Master Huang and Old Ancestor Blood River from the Jiushan Sect were also watching Zhao Jingfan, deep in thought.
It was Zheng Shan who finally spoke up:
"My brother didn’t take it to heart... He used to correspond with Madam Zhao often, and the Seventh Young Master had a good relationship with my brother. Every time he came, he brought me spirit pills!"
Master Zhang, of course, knew that Zheng Fa and Zhao Jingfan had a very good relationship. Upon hearing Zheng Shan's words, she withdrew her scrutinizing gaze and turned back to Zheng Fa.
Seeing her like this, Zhao Jingfan couldn’t help but glance gratefully at Zheng Shan, feeling that the spirit pills he had taken advantage of were finally contributing to the sect today.
From the looks in Master Zhang and the others' eyes, he had no doubt that they were contemplating ways to eliminate the Zhao family, even to wipe out the Qingmu Sect.
He had only known that Zheng Fa was doing well in the Jiushan Sect.
Now he understood; given the current state of the Jiushan Sect, if Zheng Fa were to fail in his tribulation, the few Nascent Soul cultivators in the sect would probably go mad...
No, those Golden Core disciples seemed to have a hint of murderous intent as well...
He glanced at Zheng Fa, who had his eyes closed and an expression as calm as a still pond, and thought to himself how absurd it was:
He felt that if anything happened to Zheng Fa, the Hundred Immortals Alliance would surely be engulfed in a storm of blood and chaos.
Was it Zheng Fa undergoing the tribulation, or was it him?
...
The inner demon, Zheng Fa, was thinking the same thing.
He looked at Zheng Fa, his expression one of utter despair.
"So... you really are countless versions of me?"
Zheng Fa's eyes lit up, clearly having thought of many things.
He was genuinely curious about the inner demon; aside from wanting to test the strength of the inner demon's oath, he had two other important considerations:
One was how the disciples of Jiushan would face their inner demon tribulation.
To be fair, the inner demon Zheng Fa before him was harmless mainly because of the Yin-Yang Fish jade pendant from the Tianhe Patriarch.
But the disciples of Jiushan didn’t have such a treasure.
Studying the inner demon further would greatly benefit the disciples of Jiushan in their "First Fifty-Year Plan."
On the other hand, and perhaps more importantly—
Who exactly was he?
Traveling to the modern world was certainly a boon, but with Zheng Fa's personality, he had always felt a knot in his heart.
What was the relationship between this world's Zheng Fa and the modern Zheng Fa?
From the inner demon, he saw a glimmer of an answer to that question.
"So, rather than being an inner demon, you are... other possible versions of me?"
The inner demon Zheng Fa looked confused, clearly not understanding what Zheng Fa was saying.
But Zheng Fa's thoughts were far-reaching.
Tang Muda had once discussed his views on the essence of spiritual energy, one of which was the concept of parallel worlds.
Now, this inner demon was likely a collection of himself from parallel worlds?
Parallel worlds...
"So, what do you remember? Cultivation secrets? Ancient lore?"
Zheng Fa pressed on.
"I don’t remember," the inner demon Zheng Fa shook his head and replied, "The techniques I know are actually just the ones you know."
"…"
Got it.
It wasn’t that the version of himself from the parallel world was foolish.
It was that he was foolish.
Somehow, that didn’t provide much comfort...
Zheng Fa's expression grew contemplative.
Though this inner demon was somewhat useless, it had given him many other speculations.
He could clearly see that the souls coming from those stars were of various ages, genders, and backgrounds.
But now, this inner demon looked exactly like him.
If this inner demon hadn’t deceived him...
Then in this process, could it be said that... other possibilities of Zheng Fa had vanished?
Or perhaps, some of Zheng Fa's "fate" had disappeared?
After cultivating for so long, Zheng Fa's initial biggest question was why spiritual energy was declining.
Now, that question had transformed into a deeper one:
What is the essence of spiritual energy?
At this point, Zheng Fa had a very rudimentary answer to that question:
Physical rules.
For instance, Dao Fruits are essentially a combination of physical rules.
When a cultivator practices a set of techniques from a Dao Fruit cultivator, they are essentially reorganizing their life form according to these rules.
Zheng Fa couldn’t be sure about the techniques of the Taishang Dao.
But he was quite familiar with the techniques of the Tianhe Sect, the Heavenly Sovereign, and the Great Freedom Demon Ancestor.
Essentially, this is a targeted evolution of life, with the endpoint being the Dao Fruit.
The problem is, conversely, Dao Fruit cultivators stand at the end of this path, using sentient beings as nourishment for their self-evolution.
To put it simply, a Dao Fruit cultivator is akin to a progenitor of a gene, with descendants inheriting some of their genes and producing new traits through the recombination of those genes.
And these beneficial traits or abilities are then absorbed by the progenitor, refining their own genome.
In Zheng Fa's view, the techniques of the Demon Sect are the closest to this essence.
But the Divine Path and Immortal Path also subtly point towards this.
If he combines this with his observation that the inner demon comes from the stars, or if, as he speculated, it comes from a parallel world...
A thought suddenly sprang to his mind:
Are those parallel worlds, like the Jiushan Realm, actually the Dao grounds of some Dao Fruit cultivator?
Only the physical rules within those Dao grounds, like the Jiushan Realm in the past, are special—determined by that cultivator's Dao Fruit.
These stars might even be more special than the Jiushan Realm:
The Jiushan Realm has no other version of itself...
But these stars do.
Even the modern world has them.
If the modern world can be considered the Dao ground of the Tianhe Patriarch, then does this distinction imply that:
The Heavenly Sovereign is weaker than the masters of these stars, and also weaker than the Tianhe Patriarch?
As for who is weaker between the masters of these stars and the Tianhe Patriarch...
He naturally had no way to judge.
In fact, when the Tianhe Patriarch raised his sword to the heavens, his target was probably those stars above.
If there is a distinction in strength among Dao Fruit cultivators, then the ancient immortals... might be stronger than he imagined?
...
All these speculations left Zheng Fa's mind increasingly muddled.
Now he could only confirm two things:
First: Although he didn’t know what the ancient immortals mentioned by the Five Sects were, the stars in the sky clearly belonged to a different level of beings, stronger than ordinary Dao Fruit cultivators, and should not be taken lightly, but they were far from Zheng Fa.
Second: The existence of countless versions of himself among those stars made Zheng Fa even more concerned.
The inner demon Zheng Fa looked at him, not quite understanding what he was thinking.
"How about you split some of your soul power and let me study it?"
Zheng Fa suddenly asked.
The inner demon Zheng Fa stared blankly at Zheng Fa, his face showing a kind of indignation as if saying, "You don’t treat me like a person."
Zheng Fa just smiled.
"Not a chance!"
"…"
Soon, the inner demon Zheng Fa realized that the previous statement was not a question!
"Wow, you really are exactly the same..."
Holding the piece of soul torn from the inner demon Zheng Fa, Zheng Fa murmured.
Though he didn’t have the deep understanding of soul research that Old Ancestor Blood River had, he still recognized his own soul.
The soul fluctuations of this inner demon were indeed indistinguishable from his own.
"… So strange."
"What’s strange about it?"
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