I risked my life, using the butterfly effect to shatter the immortal realm.

Chapter 15 Reunion Under the Heavenly Pillar

At the foot of the towering pillar, the gale-force winds howled like ghosts, specifically targeting the cracks in one's bones.

The pebbles on the rocky beach were as sharp as knives. A pale hand gripped a crevice in the rock, its fingernails cracked, and dragged out a mud-covered, mangled body.

Yu Liang lay on his back, his chest heaving violently, each breath like a bellows being pulled, causing his lungs to ache.

He didn't look at the sky; he just stared intently at his lower body.

The left sleeve fluttered freely, dancing wildly in the wind.

Even worse is what happens below the knees.

There's nothing left there.

No blood, no wound, not even pain.

The trouser legs lay flat and shrunken on the ground, as if those two legs had never existed.

This is the reward demanded for "causal fraud".

When the world saved that foolish woman Ling Qingxuan, it took away her left arm; when it found Su Xiu and Pig Master, it took away her legs.

"We've lost so much money..."

Yu Liang grinned, wanting to laugh, but a mouthful of sweet-smelling blood gushed from his throat.

"If I can't extort a mountain of gold from the Suspended Mirror Bureau with this deal, I'll go back to my grave and tear off the gold paint from their gates even as a ghost."

"Hmph."

An extremely untimely squeal of a pig was abruptly inserted into this poignant last message.

Yu Liang strained to tilt his head.

A dozen or so feet away, a pink pig's head peeked out from behind a black rock, followed by Su Xiu's small face, which was painted like a cat's.

The girl was clutching a thick wooden stick, trembling like a leaf, clearly mistaking the commotion that had just emerged from the crack in the ground for a vengeful ghost.

When she finally saw the figure whose half-body was "disappearing," Su Xiu slammed the stick in her hand onto the instep with a "clang."

"Yu...Yu Liang?"

Her voice was trembling with sobs; she seemed to disbelieve him, and was terrified.

The person in front of me looked more like a ghost than a ghost, especially those empty trouser legs, which gave me the creeps.

"Why are you crying?" Yu Liang rolled his eyes, his voice hoarse but with a roguish air. "Hold back your tears. I'm not really dead yet. Save them for that old bastard's grave later."

"Wow--!"

Su Xiu couldn't hold back any longer and stumbled over to him, wanting to hug him but not daring to touch the missing leg. Tears streamed down her face like broken beads.

"You're a madman! A big liar! You said evil people live for a thousand years... Where are your hands? Where are your legs? How will you run away now that you don't have legs? How will you pay me back?"

"No legs, no shoes; what do you know?"

Yu Liang cursed, but his gaze passed over Su Xiu and was fixed on the piglet that was running over happily.

The little creature held a purplish-black fruit in its mouth, with tiny silver snakes crawling on its skin—it was a Thunder Fiend Tribulation Fruit that had grown from the crack in the Heavenly Pillar.

An ordinary cultivator would be burned to ashes by the lightning and fire if they touched it.

"Hmph!"

The piglet ran to Yu Liang's side, spat out the fruit, and took a big bite like chewing a large radish.

The purplish-black juice splashed everywhere, each drop scalding the stone and producing a bluish smoke.

Su Xiu's eyelids twitched violently at the sight.

The pig swallowed the fruit, which contained the raging power of heaven, in a few bites, let out a burp, and strange golden patterns appeared on its pink belly.

It didn't stop, but moved closer to Yu Liang's broken limbs, opened its mouth, and swallowed that void.

hum.

An extremely powerful warm current forcefully rushed into the body through the broken opening.

That's not spiritual energy.

It was some kind of more primordial and ancient life energy, as if it were forcibly commanding the order that had been shattered by the Heavenly Dao to grow anew!

Yu Liang's pupils suddenly contracted.

I watched helplessly as starlight gathered in the empty left sleeve and trouser leg.

White bones grow, meridians connect, flesh and blood are forged.

That terrifying sense of emptiness, of being "forgotten" by the world, is being forcibly filled by this energy.

In the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea.

Yu Liang tried moving the five fingers of his left hand and flexing his toes.

came back.

He scooped up the piglet, planted a hard kiss on its forehead, and his eyes were full of shrewd calculation: "Piglet, from now on you're my real father, Su Xiu is the second oldest. This isn't a pig, it's a living elixir of immortality!"

But he didn't let go.

Instead, they seized the opportunity to grab the piglet by the scruff of its neck and dragged it right in front of them.

Those eyes, which always held a mocking tone, were now narrowed into slits, gleaming with a cold, scrutinizing light.

"However, even though he's my biological father, some accounts still need to be settled."

Yu Liang lowered his voice and unconsciously twirled his left thumb and forefinger.

"Just now, in the underground river, in front of the archway of the 'Demon Suppression Division - Ninth Prison,' you did speak."

The piglet kicked its hooves wildly, blinking its innocent black bean eyes and snorting, "Grunt?"

"Don't play dumb with me."

Yu Liang remained unmoved, staring intently into its eyes. "Back then, you were all red, and your voice sounded older than mine. You cried out 'Hungry,' and said 'There are gods inside.'"

"Lord Pig, what exactly is this Ninth Hell? What kind of deities are imprisoned inside? And you yourself... what powerful being were you reincarnated as a pig?"

Su Xiu, who was standing to the side, sniffed, wiped her tears on her sleeve, and came over, staring at the pink piglet with a suspicious look on her face.

"I asked it eight hundred times along the way, and even threatened it with a roast suckling pig, but all it did was eat and sleep, and grunt. Yu Liang, do you think it might have been possessed by some dirty thing back then?"

"Possession?"

Yu Liang sneered, stroking the piglet's smooth fur with his fingertips. "What kind of filthy thing would dare to swallow the Thunder Fiend Tribulation Fruit? This little thing doesn't even have a single causal thread on its body, it's as clean as a black hole."

He shook the pig in his hand violently: "Speak! If you keep playing dumb, when that old bastard comes, I'll throw you out as a sacrificial offering!"

The piglet rolled its eyes back from being shaken, its pink tongue lolling out, and let out an extremely perfunctory and adorably silly "...Oink."

Those eyes were clear and foolish, showing no trace of the vicissitudes and terror they had felt underground.

Yu Liang stared at it for a long time before finally sighing.

I can't see through it.

The very existence of this pig is a huge paradox; even reason seems to avoid it.

"Okay, you're tight-lipped. You're particular."

Yu Liang stuffed the pig into Su Xiu's arms, his playful smile instantly vanishing, replaced by the cold glint of a gambler about to go all in.

He looked up towards the east.

Golden clouds rolled there, and a stench of killing intent could be smelled from dozens of miles away; even the wind carried the smell of blood.

That old bastard is coming after us.

Ling Qingxuan had a scent he deliberately left on him; as long as Huang Long wasn't blind, he could find his way here by following the scent.

It's time to put an end to this.

This is an open conspiracy, but also a dead end, with no way to retreat.

"Su Xiu, stop crying, get back to work."

Yu Liang struggled to his feet, stretched his newly grown left arm and leg, and pointed to a jumble of rocks at the base of Tianzhu.

"See that rock that looks like a turtle's neck? The one with the huge boulder on top of it."

Su Xiu sniffed and nodded blankly.

"Go, dig out the soil from that pit underneath. Don't use a stick, just use your hands to loosen the soil."

Su Xiu was stunned. Her tears hadn't even dried yet when she was completely bewildered by this absurd request: "Dig in the dirt? Now? That god is about to come and kill us! You don't want to run away, and you want me to play in the mud?"

"Just dig, stop talking nonsense!"

Yu Liang slapped her on the back of the head, not hard. "That's a grave for that old bastard. The soil is a bit loose so he can lie down comfortably."

Su Xiu bit her lip, her face clearly saying "You're crazy," but her body language betrayed her.

She tossed the pig aside, rolled up her sleeves, and rushed over, digging in the dirt with her hands while muttering, "You damned liar, you gambling addict, if I die this time, I'll haunt you as a ghost and haunt you to collect my debts..."

Yu Liang ignored her complaints.

He dragged his still somewhat weak body, walking and stopping intermittently through the rocky forest.

Every now and then, pick up a stone and place it in a spot, or draw an X and let the pig urinate there.

To cultivators, this was nothing short of madman's performance art.

It has no spiritual power, no formation, it's like children playing house.

But in Yu Liang's eyes, the world looks completely different.

The left thumb and forefinger gently twisted, as if the fingertips were pinching an invisible thread.

This pillar that has stood for thousands of years is not made of stone, but is a massive and suffocating "knot of cause and effect".

The erosion of countless years has long since made this knot teeter on the brink of collapse.

The rocks were being pulled by countless "qi lines" stretched to their limit, like a giant burdened with a heavy sin, whose knees had long been shattered and who was just one straw away from breaking the camel's back.

Even a kick from a Golden Core cultivator could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

"alright."

Yu Liang dusted off his hands and sat down on an inconspicuous bluestone.

Behind him was a bottomless abyss, and in front of him stood a towering black pillar.

Su Xiu ran back covered in mud, her little face as dirty as a cat's: "Yu Liang, what are we doing? Can those messy puddles and pig piss really keep that terrifying god away?"

Yu Liang took out half a hard, dry flatbread from his pocket, took a bite, and chewed it with great relish, as if it were the most delicious food in the world.

"We are repairing the tombs of our ancestors."

He pointed to the oppressive black rock formations above his head, a crazy smile curving his lips. "This place has good feng shui. It's big enough and heavy enough to suppress the Golden Core."

Boom! ...

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a thunderclap exploded in the sky.

A golden beam of light tore through the clouds and crashed down with a devastating force.

As the smoke and dust cleared, Huanglong Zhenren was found with disheveled hair, bloodshot eyes, and tattered Taoist robes. He no longer possessed any semblance of his former ethereal and otherworldly appearance.

He held a whisk, its silver threads now a dark red.

That was blood, and that was anger.

"Run!"

Huang Long's voice was like a demon crawling out of hell, hoarse and venomous, "Why aren't you running away? You burrowing bug! I'm going to tear your soul out and burn you like a sky lantern for a hundred years!!"

A terrifying spiritual pressure instantly enveloped the rocky beach, and the air seemed to freeze.

Su Xiu's face turned pale, and her legs went weak, instinctively wanting to back away.

Yu Liang grabbed her shoulder.

His hands were steady; he even leisurely brushed the dust off her shoulders, as if the person standing in front of him wasn't a vengeful god, but a neighbor collecting debts.

"I can't run anymore."

Yu Liang swallowed the last bite of the biscuit, clapped his hands, and looked at the arrogant Golden Core cultivator as if he were a dead man.

"Taoist Master, since we're here, why don't we... choose a stele first?"