Chapter 1335: Knowing is Easy, Doing is Hard

What did I behold?

Jiang Wang recalled the state of utter unawareness, the immense solitude, the aimless wandering… and finally spoke in a flat tone, “Aside from the sensation of my divine soul gradually dissipating, I felt nothing.”

Without awareness, there is naturally no perception.

With the five senses empty, of course, nothing could be seen.

Yu Beidou was silent for a moment, then said, “Regarding this matter, I must still offer you my apology. Though my intention was to save you by ‘slaying’ you, leaping from the River of Fate itself carries unavoidable peril. Especially as I too had to experience a period of ‘death,’ unable to watch over you…”

“To speak of the River of Fate, your entire life resides within its waters. Once you depart, you lose that entire life. Everything built upon that life, including innate instincts like seeing, smelling, hearing, and tasting, vanishes… The body becomes like a bird with broken wings, the heart like a fish without water…”

Yu Beidou raised his gaze and asked, “That feeling, it must have been terrifying, no?”

“Between life and death, who can be fearless?” Jiang Wang’s tone was calm. “Among the myriad beings, I am but one.”

Yu Beidou suddenly laughed. “Not seeing is good; seeing nothing is a good thing.”

He shook his head and sighed. “Knowing too much is not necessarily the root of suffering.”

Judging by his tone, that brief period of leaping from the River of Fate seemed to involve some other critical juncture. Yet, Jiang Wang sifted through his memories and found only a period of unaware solitude and the suffering of his divine soul gradually peeling away.

Indeed, he had “seen” nothing.

Regarding the method to help him evade Yan Chunhui’s sword.

Yu Beidou explained it with ease, and understanding it was not complex.

However, the ability to briefly snatch a person from the River of Fate and then return them… Such a technique can truly be called miraculous.

It is not something an ordinary True Person could accomplish.

At the moment that palm descended, Jiang Wang was indeed shocked and enraged, not knowing why Yu Beidou had suddenly struck, and feeling deeply deceived… But at that time, all emotions, along with his vitality, were extinguished by that palm.

Before a contemporary True Person, he had no room for resistance.

Upon “awakening,” along with the return of perception, anger naturally also returned.

However, facing a contemporary True Person of terrifying strength like Yu Beidou, Jiang Wang did not wish to court death and thus suppressed his feelings.

Hearing Yu Beidou speak these words now, explaining that his intentions were not malicious and that he had not intended harm, Jiang Wang could not help but ask, “Since the True Person said you could not receive Yan Chunhui’s sword, why do you appear completely unharmed? Could it be that just now, the True Person leaped out of the River of Fate alongside me?”

Yu Beidou watched him for a moment, then smiled. “Do you truly believe that briefly leaping from the River of Fate can completely evade the scrutiny of a True Monarch who has grasped the Dao? It is merely because Yan Chunhui’s attention was entirely focused on the Blood Demon and me. He did not carefully probe your state and cared not for your life or death, which allowed your ‘death’ to be established. If I had leaped from the River of Fate with you, we would have both perished together on the riverbank. Do you know what the banks of the River of Fate look like?”

Jiang Wang naturally did not know and thus could only shake his head.

“It is best not to know. As for why I appear unharmed…” Yu Beidou still wore a smile. “Do you not remember what you did for me?”

“Destiny Blood?” Jiang Wang’s thoughts turned slightly, quickly grasping the crucial point. He then asked, “Was the mass of Destiny Blood buried in the point of aversion not from the Blood Demon, but the True Person’s foundation for rebirth?”

“Not so.” Yu Beidou said, “If that mass of Destiny Blood had not been separated from the Blood Demon, how could it have deceived the Fortune-telling Demon? Though this nephew of mine’s cultivation is not equal to mine, his mastery of divination is profound; he is not so easily deceived.”

Jiang Wang said faintly, “Only I am easily deceived, is that right?”

His rather resentful remark seemed to have completely failed to enter Yu Beidou’s ears. He simply continued his own line of thought. “The Blood Demon has ancient origins, being the worldly embodiment of the Emotion Severing and Desire Extinguishing Blood Demon Art. Tracing its roots is too difficult, and to utterly destroy it is also beyond my capability. Yan Chunhui stands at the pinnacle of the extraordinary, his flying sword is the strongest in the world, capable of shattering a Divine Realm flesh body to transform into a sword, something I cannot receive. But fortunately, two matters occurred simultaneously.”

“While I was suppressing the Blood Demon, I was also intertwined with it. At that time, I was already prepared to use the Blood Demon as a shield. When Yan Chunhui’s sword flew in, he had to slay the Blood Demon before slaying me. To Yan Chunhui, it was all within one sword, and there was no difference… But to me, it was different.”

“With the Blood Demon’s demise, the Blood Demon’s Destiny Blood lost its master. I had long since instilled a soul mark within it, and your suppression of it at the point of aversion in the Innate Chaotic Array perfectly triggered my arrangement. As my physical body was destroyed here, there I was already drawing upon the power of the Innate Chaotic Array to borrow the Destiny Blood for my rebirth.”

“In other words…” Jiang Wang found it hard to suppress his astonishment. “Everything that happened in the Soulsever Gorge was within your divination?”

“Who can calculate everything?” Perhaps out of a measure of guilt, Yu Beidou was quite humble this time. “It was precisely because I had too many demands within the Innate Chaotic Array that unavoidable loopholes appeared, allowing the Fortune-telling Demon an opportunity to exploit, leading the four great demons to converge and plunging you into a life-or-death crisis. It was precisely your feat of battling and defeating the four of them alone that allowed you to leap out of this situation and win me a crucial step.”

“So, I was that important?”

“You were indeed very important!” Yu Beidou encouraged him with great fervor. “Never underestimate yourself at any time. You are excellent!”

“And then?” Jiang Wang asked.

Yu Beidou said, “Then I am extremely grateful to you.”

The old physiognomist patted his chest with resounding thuds. “Great kindness need not be spoken of; this old man remembers it in his heart!”

Jiang Wang was expressionless. “…Oh.”

Yu Beidou burst into laughter, having had his fill of jesting, then straightened his expression and asked, “What reward do you desire?”

This was the reward of a contemporary True Person!

This old man sitting casually before Jiang Wang at this moment was the highest achiever of ancient destiny divination techniques in the world, capable of suppressing a Diviner while simultaneously suppressing the Blood Demon, and on top of that, facing the True Monarch Yan Chunhui… He even had the ability to interfere with the River of Fate.

He was absolutely one of the strongest True Persons in the world.

What kind of benefits could he offer? How generous would his reward be?

Jiang Wang was no longer the country bumpkin who did not recognize treasure mountains; he had already entered and exited the state treasury of Qi. With his current perspective, he instantly thought of many possibilities.

The benefits Yu Beidou could provide were too numerous, enough to make any cultivator below the Divine Realm dazzled.

Even as a cultivator in the Inner Mansion realm, even if he were the first in recorded history, there was no reason to look down upon such benefits.

But in the end, Jiang Wang merely said, “Although I paid one Knife Coin for a talisman, your protective talisman truly did help me block the Fortune-telling Demon’s blood divination. While you led me into a perilous situation this time, you also saved me. These two matters are not entirely equivalent exchanges, but in my view, they cancel each other out. You only need to give me the reward you promised.”

He only wanted what he was due, no more, no less.

Other than that, he did not wish to have any further entanglement with Yu Beidou.

He disliked this feeling of being led by the nose, no matter how many reasons Yu Beidou had. This kind of bewildering, so-called “cooperation” was enough for one time.

His, Jiang Wang’s, life would not be entrusted to anyone. Yu Beidou could calculate all the gods and ghosts he wished, but Jiang Wang could not willingly be a pawn. No matter how many benefits were offered.

Yu Beidou naturally heard the distance in his words.

But there was no displeasure on his face; instead, he smiled cheerfully. “Good, good. Nothing good comes from being associated with me. Jiang Qingyang, you are a man of great wisdom!”

“Here are the Dao Yuan Stones I promised you…”

He reached into his embrace to rummage, and after a long while, froze there.

But soon, he laughed without any awkwardness. “Hahahaha.”

He naturally withdrew his hand and patted Jiang Wang on the shoulder. “Can you wait a couple of days?”

“What kind of look is that?”

“Do you think I, Yu Beidou, would renege on a debt? Am I that kind of person?!”

Throughout the cave, Yu Beidou’s roars continuously echoed.

“What liar? Rude fellow!”

“It’s not that I’m not giving it, what’s wrong with a few days later? Absolutely clueless! Truly rotten wood that cannot be carved!”

“Is this old man short on money? My storage box and that flesh body were shattered together just now!”

“What IOU! We extraordinary cultivators, what IOU do we write!?”