As a Father, I Just Want to Watch You Achieve Immortality Chapter 1703: Devouring the Four Heavenly Kings—Li Che Breeds Monsters, Heart Unstained as Pure Heart Completes Fifth Transformation
Previously on As a Father, I Just Want to Watch You Achieve Immortality...
Whoooosh——
A fierce gale roared through the air, forcing the vast array of trees across the rugged mountains and dense woods to bow low.
Two massive craters had formed in the soil.
Cold rain cascaded endlessly, pouring from the heavy, gray skies above.
Jin Taixui breathed in ragged bursts, dashing back in desperation before halting at the craters' edge, his eyes wide and veined with red as he fixed his gaze on the pair inside them.
Zhou Peng's features twisted into something monstrous, his hand gripping Yun E's finger tightly.
Yet on that distorted visage, peace and contentment shone through, as though... simply clasping Yun E's finger meant grasping his entire universe, brimming with profound delight.
A soft, moonlit radiance bathed Yun E's form, her delicate, china-smooth skin etched with tiny fissures, ready to crumble into fragments scattered across the dirt at the slightest touch.
The icy downpour continued unabated.
Jin Taixui dropped to his knees in the mud, anguish twisting his features; after years of grueling practice on Wushen Mountain, emerging from piles of slain foes and rivers of blood, he ought to have grown indifferent to mortality.
For in Wushen Mountain's harsh tests, droves of young hopefuls and Divine Children met their end every round.
Still, the passing of Zhou Peng and Yun E stabbed Jin Taixui with a sharp, unbearable sorrow—they counted among his closest companions.
Memories flooded Jin Taixui's mind: shared escapades across the jianghu, along Guangling Dao, the highways, the Grand Canal...
Frolicking wildly, braving dangers side by side, venturing into the unknown as one...
Bursts of laughter, waves of happiness, enduring tempests united, flaunting their flair in unison.
Huddled on the wet earth, Jin Taixui confronted his frailty and helplessness, hot tears tracing paths down his face while his expression crumpled in sobs.
The unbreakable warrior seldom shed tears like this.
All at once.
A mighty power ripped through the storm, scattering the raindrops violently.
Two silhouettes materialized nearby, prompting Jin Taixui to sniffle and raise his gaze; through the blurring torrent on his cheeks, he made out Li Che and Xi Xi.
Catching sight of Xi Xi eased the tension gripping Jin Taixui's chest.
Xi Xi clasped Li Che's hand, her face tinged with sorrow.
She glanced toward the craters, where the duo lay intertwined by the fingers, and a heavy ache swelled in her heart, like an ocean of grief flooding her breast.
"Dad..."
"Xi Xi... Yun E is gone..."
Xi Xi's spirits plunged into despair, fat droplets spilling from her eyes.
Impossible to distinguish whether they were rain or tears.
Li Che's ebony robes whipped about in the tempest, his thick, dark locks lashed by wind and water, while he softly stroked Xi Xi's hair, his eyes settling on the pair in the craters who had burned through the Temple God’s power until their demise.
"No, they’re just sleeping."
Li Che tousled Xi Xi's hair tenderly, a gentle smile on his lips as he said it.
Xi Xi blinked in surprise, tilting her face up to Li Che, aware that despite her youth, she wasn't naive.
The vital essence of Zhou Peng and Yun E had faded away...
But Xi Xi held her tongue; perhaps Dad merely sought to soothe her pain?
"Don’t worry, dad will go wake them up." Li Che smiled.
This left Xi Xi utterly stunned, though a flicker of expectation lit her eyes despite herself.
Resurrection...
Was such a feat truly within reach?
Xi Xi pondered the enigmatic Underworld, home to so many formidable masters—surely they could manage it?
Jin Taixui rose to his feet, brushing away his tears with scant words, yet the exchange between Li Che and Xi Xi left him feeling dazed as well.
Li Che gave Xi Xi's head another pat, then let go of her hand and advanced, materializing next to Zhou Peng and Yun E.
Zhou Peng's appearance was nightmarish, his head swollen like a boar’s, with curved fangs pointing upward, radiating a savage presence.
In contrast, Yun E radiated even greater beauty, and both had shed their childish forms for mature ones, awakened by the Temple God’s power buried in their spirits.
"Reincarnated Temple God..."
Li Che's gaze sharpened, a quiet breath escaping him.
In the instant that followed, he concentrated his mind.
Their forms were enveloped in a shroud, vanishing from the craters.
Upon returning, they stood within Mo City.
Shhhh——
The rain descending upon Mo City from the celestial vault carried essence to mend the ravaged streets. Mo City didn't suffer perpetual showers, but Li Che's frequent disruptions had worn it down.
He kept drawing mighty warriors here for clashes, inflicting harm on the city repeatedly.
Ink-black precipitation cloaked the skies and land, draining all vibrancy from the urban sprawl in that instant, veiled in misty downpour that evoked only the stark monochrome of demise.
Li Che remained the sole living soul in Mo City; everything else consisted of lingering spirits of the departed.
Yun E and Zhou Peng's corpses landed upon Mo City's soil.
As beings reborn from Temple Gods, might their essences be reclaimed?
Li Che held no certainty, but attempting it seemed worthwhile. Though reincarnated Temple Gods, these two had matured right before his eyes.
From their early days in Golden Light Prefecture City, raised alongside Xi Xi, Li Che harbored fondness for them as well.
His fingers splayed wide, summoning gales that wove through the heavens and earth in endless coils.
"Soul Return——"
Soul Capturing!
The grave incantation echoed like an ancient shaman's rite, bridging the gateway between the Netherworld and the mortal realm, forging a conduit through oblivion for lost souls to traverse death and emerge renewed.
Shhhhh...
Once Soul Capturing took effect, strangely, this invocation diverged from its prior executions.