Chapter 1366: My Love for You is Longer Than Time

This indeed was a question that interrogated the soul.

Qing Ba Zhi, Qing Jiu Ye, and even Qing Qi Shu.All had tempered their physical bodies from a young age, polished their martial skills, and stood out amongst children their age. They received divine grace at the Tree Altar, thus acquiring divine power and becoming revered holy warriors, mastering strength beyond the mundane.Their faith in the Dragon God was not a matter of a few months or years.It was from childhood to adulthood, passed down through generations.Their faith in the Dragon God could even be said to be the most fervent in the entire Holy Clan of the Sea of Forests.For the degree of faith directly affected their power.And now, Qing Hua said that Granny Xiao Fan had always deviated from the true meaning of the divine oracle?

"No need to prove it," Qing Jiu Ye said in a low voice. "In this moment, are you representing yourself, or representing the god?"

"What is the difference? I am the Holy Maiden of Green, and also the god's agent. The divine oracle enters my ears, and I speak every word truthfully." Qing Hua said, "The will of the god, I will not distort, will not misinterpret, will not conceal... Is this not the duty of a god's attendant?"

"What is the divine oracle you heard?" Qing Jiu Ye asked again.

"Of course, it is to kill this blasphemer and guide the Holy Clan to the correct path!" Qing Hua said with a serious face, "Otherwise, why do you think I could harm her? It is Lord Dragon God who has withdrawn her power!"

"I absolutely will not obey this divine oracle!" Qing Ba Zhi said angrily.

Qing Jiu Ye said, "Granny Xiao Fan is like our mother. She sews the clothes on our bodies, cooks the food in our stomachs, teaches us how to be people, and raises us into adulthood. If a god loves people, how could they instigate a child to kill their mother? How could they instruct a mother to kill her child?"

"It is the god who gives us food and clothing, it is the god who gives us protection. It is the god who leads us out of the darkness, it is the god who gives us the future!" Qing Hua sang with reverence, then looked at the two holy warriors: "You may be confused by what is before you, but the god will ultimately guide us towards the light... The moment she chose blasphemy, the moment she chose to deviate from the divine oracle, she was no longer our Granny Xiao Fan, but a heinous blasphemer. Do not forget where your power comes from! Are you also going to blaspheme?"

"No. It was Granny who took care of us as we grew up, it was Granny who found food, it was Granny who protected our clan members... The one who truly protected this land, the one who truly did her best to shine here, has always been Granny Xiao Fan, not the god!"

Qing Jiu Ye still had his bow drawn to full tension, and said, "The deity bestows divine power, and I have also paid through cultivation. The deity requires faith, and I have never missed a single sacrifice, never without sincerity. But if the divine will is to kill the priestess grandmother, then this god... I will not believe anymore!"

This was truly blasphemous speech!One who abandons the god shall be abandoned by the god.Without divine power, the so-called holy warriors are merely ordinary people with slightly stronger bodies.However...One breath passed, two breaths passed, three breaths passed.Many breaths passed.There was no change in Qing Jiu Ye's body.His muscles were still powerful, his bow and arrow still steady.His power was not withdrawn due to the blasphemous words, nor did any divine punishment descend.

"It seems this is not the will of the god, but your will." Qing Ba Zhi held his javelin, his gaze now cold as he looked at Qing Hua: "Stay further away from Granny!"

Forced back by this chilling killing intent.Qing Hua involuntarily retreated a few steps."How... how could this be?"She was confused, bewildered, completely unaware of where things had gone wrong.It was clearly the god, clearly the god...It was the god's will.

The three young people confronted each other on this side of the study, their emotions intense and complex.Thus, no one noticed that the white-haired old woman, slumped in the reclining chair, was already in tears at some point.Her lips trembled, but she couldn't utter a single word for a long while.

"Granny, what's wrong?" Qing Jiu Ye was the first to notice something was amiss. He flashed in front of Granny Xiao Fan, put away his bow and arrow, and tried to help her up, but then remembered her injuries and dared not move carelessly, only asking anxiously, "What's wrong?"

In her confusion, Qing Hua also turned to look at the kind-faced old woman.Qing Ba Zhi leveled his javelin, his body already blocking her path, watching her warily.Qing Hua was stunned once more. She had never seen such a strange expression on the faces of these people.But the divine oracle...

Granny Xiao Fan finally stammered out some sound, her voice trembling: "Did... did you... hear?"

"Heard what?" Qing Jiu Ye was utterly confused.

Tears filled the wrinkles. Granny Xiao Fan had been fighting the strange power on that dagger, and at the same time resisting the constant chaotic divine oracles.But just now...The chaotic divine oracles that had plagued her had been replaced by a new divine oracle.This was the scent of the "true decree" that she was very familiar with.And this divine oracle had only two words—"Xiao Fan."

These two words appeared in her heart, and echoed in her ears.They had appeared countless, countless times in her dreams.

"Heard... heard it." Qing Hua said, still in a daze.As the Holy Maiden of Green, of course she would not miss the divine oracle.But why?Why would the true god call Granny Xiao Fan's name? And in such a delicate, gentle manner...

Qing Hua verified the reality of that sound, confirming to Granny Xiao Fan that it was not a hallucination in her daze.She let out a half-formed "ah" and fell silent.Her withered hands slowly rose, covering her face.Trembling, trembling, she couldn't completely cover it.Like a child, like a child who had been wronged to the extreme, she began to cry hoarsely and dryly.

She understood.Everything was clear now.Why there had been two completely contradictory voices of the god for so many years...Why Guan Yan, who was already at the end of his life back then, had said to her—"I will love you forever in my own way."She finally understood some of the sentences she had seen while meticulously examining the texts in this study, sentences she hadn't been able to fully comprehend before—"You need to know what you should believe in, peace, health, happiness, or god?""The Buddha says he cannot fulfill your every wish. I say, if I were the Buddha, I would not be so."

He had already shattered his golden body and cremated his relics, yet he spoke of being the Buddha. In fact, he had become a god.The source of that dark period had never been just those elders, never just the swallow-owl. It should have been the source of that chaotic divine oracle... which was the original Dragon God!And for so many years, Guan Yan had been the god's opponent, as the other half of the "god", always accompanying her...Those "correct divine oracles" that she recognized were the dense expressions of love over a long time.They were Guan Yan's confessions to her after each brief victory in their struggle!She had always known that she had been loved sincerely.But she had never known that he was still loving!

Looking at Granny Xiao Fan covering her face and wailing, Qing Jiu Ye and Qing Ba Zhi were both stunned and at a loss.In their impression, Granny Xiao Fan was kind, and also strict. She was tolerant, and even more resilient.For the sake of the Holy Clan, she could force Qing Qi Shu to go hunting. But she would also stay up all night sewing a stealth cloak for Qing Qi Shu the night before he went to battle in the Skull Forest.She handled all matters, big and small, in the clan, painstakingly, for ten years, a hundred years, several hundred years, all as one day.When had she ever been so fragile, when had she ever cried like this?

Looking at Granny Xiao Fan like this, Qing Hua suddenly couldn't hold the dagger anymore. With a loosened grip, she let it fall to the ground.Clang!She herself also knelt on the ground."What have I done?" She shook her head in pain, fear, and bewilderment, holding her head and crying: "What have I done? How could I be like this? I don't know... sobbing... Qi Shu!"

"You ask what you've done!" Qing Jiu Ye stepped forward, gritting his teeth and drawing his short blade, ready to strike a fatal blow.Qing Ba Zhi moved his javelin, but in the end, did not stop him.

"Don't hurt her!" The white-haired old woman on the reclining chair recovered somewhat at this moment, finally stopping her emotions.She took a breath and pulled the short dagger out of her abdomen.After a muffled groan, she said, "It's not her fault, she couldn't control herself."

Her body was in pain, but her eyes were calm and peaceful.After centuries of arduous endurance, her heart finally had a reliance, a place of return.

Qing Hua looked at the kind old woman in a daze, her eyes blurred with tears: "But the god..."

"You say you are the Holy Maiden of Green, you must listen to the voice of the god. You say we must follow the guidance of the Dragon God."Granny Xiao Fan sat up slightly, looking at her and said, "But Qing Hua, do you really know what the result is of completely following the guidance of the Dragon God?""We have already walked this path, which was the several hundred years of the dark period!""This path we have walked, is the night invasion that killed countless competing tribes and also countless of our own clan members.""Everyone thought that the Holy Maiden could only receive vague fragments of the divine will. That was because I had secretly arranged things using the Tree Altar to interpret the divine oracle alone, but in fact, you could hear clearly even then, right? The divine oracle broke through my arrangements and was conveyed to you, to influence you... Then do you remember the divine oracle at the Forest Altar last time?"

Granny Xiao Fan asked, "The god told us to kill the extraterrestrial visitor and offer its head to the swallow-owl. The god also told us to help the Dragon God's messenger and kill the swallow-owl. The god is so contradictory, which way should we go?""I think... perhaps the god doesn't know right and wrong. But we who truly live in this world, we who spend every day with our clan members, should be able to distinguish what is the better choice, shouldn't we?"

Her eyes held compassion: "Child, we believe in god, what do we believe in?Believing in a great existence is only out of reverence, only out of worship...Believing for the sake of belief?No. We believe in god, hoping for protection, hoping for blessings, hoping for peace! Hoping that our family and friends are safe, and our brothers and sisters are happy.Our faith has demands, we want to escape this cycle of suffering.That's why we speak of faith.What do we believe in?!"In the surging Dragon God Tree Forest at night, by the bedside of that old mother.The old woman reached out and grabbed her son's neck. With just a twist, she could kill him.But this twist, no matter what, couldn't be twisted down.The sturdy man could clearly smash this old woman to death with one punch, but he only struggled to protect his neck, his face flushed as he shouted, "Mother!"The old woman met his eyes, as if struck by lightning. She loosened her hand and slapped herself, crying, "From now on, I will not believe in god!"

In the tree house of that family of three.The beautiful woman, who was pulling her daughter's hair back and whose left hand was about to fall as a knife, suddenly bent her elbow—Crack!She directly used force herself, folding her entire left arm at the elbow joint, bending it completely backward.Even though her face contorted in pain, she still refused to let that hand knife fall.The child cried out in fear, snatched away by the man who held her. In her father's arms, she still cried out: "Mother, what's wrong?""I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." This former Holy Maiden of Green, who was before Qing Hua, cried helplessly.

In the study.Granny Xiao Fan's tone gradually became agitated. She rose from the reclining chair: "A true god will never instruct a mother to kill her son, a true god will surely not bear to harm human relationships! If there is such an act, it is an evil god! A wicked god!""The god loves the world, I respect the god. If the god harms people..."She waved her hand, gathering all the books in the study.Then she walked out."Follow me!"

The figure of the gray-haired, even somewhat hunched old woman, at this moment possessed a power that stirred people's hearts.Qing Ba Zhi, Qing Jiu Ye, and Qing Hua, who was still in a daze, all followed behind.Together they walked into the night.After flying out of the study, Granny Xiao Fan flicked her hand back.The entire study instantly burst into flames!Burning fiercely!She ignited the study, ignited the oldest Dragon God Tree in the entire Land of Divine Protection.Qing Ba Zhi and the others stared at this scene in a daze.An entire vibrant Dragon God Tree, boiling with golden flames, illuminated the entire Land of Divine Protection, and also dispelled the night invasion.The night here seemed to have never been so bright.Golden light shone, brilliant and resplendent.

"Clan members!"With the fiercely burning golden flames as a backdrop.The white-haired old woman stood in the air, shouting to the entire Land of Divine Protection—"Let us ask ourselves, what is our faith?!"

Life is indeed like this, going east and west.

Outside the Skull Forest.Before the colossal fallen Dragon God Tree..."The time has come."Guan Yan said calmly.He flicked his long sleeve and soared directly towards the sky.The night sky of the Sea of Forests Realm was dark and starless, but he himself became the light.There was no bright moon in the night here, but his snow-white monk robe fluttered, resembling the bright moon.Indeed, there was no need for farewells.

Without a word, Jiang Wang tapped his toes and soared into the sky like a blue bird, crossing the fallen Dragon God Tree and stepping into the depths of the Skull Forest.Human skulls hung on the thin trees, appearing so clearly in his extraordinary vision.Cold and silent.There was a most extreme form of cruelty.The last time he left this place, he thought they would be cleared away.Perhaps this place would also bloom and bear fruit, attracting birds and beasts.But no sooner had he left the Sea of Forests Realm than the swallow-owl reappeared...As if fate were unchangeable.

A figure in a green robe stepped on clouds, crossing this human purgatory in a few steps, and found the "home" in the depths of the Skull Forest.The wooden house was as it was yesterday, the swallow's nest still hung under the eaves.Even the position had not changed...As if waiting for someone to return.

A tailless swallow at this moment poked its head out, just meeting Jiang Wang's gaze. Its eyes held some surprise and some anger, probably recognizing Jiang Wang... Its wings fluttered slightly, as if about to fly out.A cold light pierced the sky, and Jiang Wang's sword struck, directly cutting the swallow-owl back into the swallow's nest!The feeling of spinning and turning upon suddenly entering the swallow's nest could no longer affect Jiang Wang in the slightest. Within the suddenly enlarged swallow's nest, his body followed his sword, and with one step, he had already caught up with the swallow-owl.

The swallow-owl possessed four divine abilities, which Jiang Wang had long known.He directly raised his left hand and pressed down the Fire Realm upon the enraged swallow-owl that had just recovered!A single spark exploded a world.Flame birds flew, flame flowers bloomed, and fiery meteors streaked across the sky... Everything was born anew, and the brilliant world of fire instantly covered the swallow's nest.The swallow-owl flickered its body and flashed, but it could not escape this world of fire at all!In an instant, it was burned into a fiery bird and reduced to flying ash.

Killed in one move!Master Guan Yan's statement that the swallow-owl's combat power was below the limit of the Inner Palace realm was truly somewhat generous.Where was the combat power of the Inner Palace limit? It clearly possessed four divine abilities, but they were completely disconnected, unable to be integrated into one, and not like the brilliance of a Heavenly Palace realm cultivator. It probably relied on no one being able to truly kill it within the Sea of Forests Realm, and its fighting technique was very crude, its fighting choices even more riddled with errors...In the past, looking at it, I only felt it was sharp and fierce, with unfathomable divine abilities. Looking at it now, it is nothing more than a chicken or dog.If compared to the human race, it would probably not even be able to enter the main competition of the Inner Palace level on the Observing River Platform.

Perhaps today's swallow-owl was stronger and more terrifying than its previous state, but in front of the current Jiang Wang, it couldn't even fully unleash its strength.Directly controlling the Fire Realm was enough to kill it.The process was very easy... but Jiang Wang was not surprised.With his current strength, facing an opponent at the Inner Palace level, no matter how he abused and killed it, it wouldn't be strange. It would be strange if it were difficult to kill.

He had already killed four Outer Tower realm human demons.Killing a swallow-owl at the Inner Palace level, even if it was a most wicked fowl, what was there to speak of!After all, under Master Guan Yan's arrangements, it had not received any supplement of hatred power for a long time. The fact that it was still alive was entirely due to the reverse support of the Dragon God's divine power, and it showed none of the supreme wickedness that had caused Master Guan Yan to return without success back then.

The swallow-owl's corpse was burned to ash, floating and scattering.Before long, a bizarre scene occurred.Black substances were born in a blank space, pieces of black substance formed into broken feathers, and the broken feathers gradually became complete and sculpted... The swallow-owl slowly took shape from head to tail again.Its speed of regeneration was so fast, it seemed that it was indeed as Senior Guan Yan said, at a critical moment.Regenerating within the Fire Realm naturally required more power. Otherwise, before it could take shape, it would turn to flying ash.Golden light flowed on the swallow-owl's body, which was probably the divine power protecting it and allowing it to survive in the Fire Realm.With the power of that Dragon God, it was probably not difficult to help the swallow-owl adapt to the Fire Realm.The tailless black swallow with golden light looked quite imposing.

Jiang Wang said nothing and swiftly advanced his Long Si, flicking left and then right, a strike of the character 'Ren' at its head!The character 'Ren' supported heaven and earth, and the Fire Realm became even more vibrant.It didn't even have time to utter a cry, let alone say anything harsh. The swallow-owl, radiating golden light, was split into two halves as soon as it was fully formed!It looked as if it was still in the process of regeneration, but forever stopped at the last step of piecing together its limbs... The two halves of its body had fallen.Jiang Wang stepped forward slowly and cut off the swallow-owl's beak at his leisure, then crushed and absorbed it with Bu Zhou Feng.With a light flick of his long sword, a translucent flower of sword qi fell, and the remaining corpse of the swallow-owl was shattered into pieces, piece by piece, extremely fine...Presumably, the more thoroughly it was shattered, the more Dragon God power it would consume when it regenerated.Although Master Guan Yan said that it was enough to just delay the swallow-owl and prevent it from rampaging.He had urgently invited Jiang Wang to the Sea of Forests Realm, or perhaps it was more to limit this move by the Dragon God, or even... just to protect Granny Xiao Fan.

But Jiang Wang was not willing to do so.Senior Guan Yan had Senior Guan Yan's greatness, and he, Jiang Wang, also had Jiang Wang's responsibility!He not only wanted to kill the swallow-owl, to keep killing the swallow-owl, but also to kill it quickly and repeatedly.Kill it as quickly and as often as possible!Kill it so that the swallow-owl has no breathing room, preferably so that the Dragon God's divine power flows away like a rushing river!

Before long, the outline of the swallow-owl appeared in its original place once again, gradually solidifying into shape.There was still golden light illuminating its wings, helping it resist the power of the Fire Realm.As soon as it appeared, it vibrated its wings and flashed away instantly!This time, it seemed to have gained more divine power from the Dragon God, showing a tendency to break through the Fire Realm and even leave the swallow's nest.However...When it reappeared, a long sharp blade just happened to be placed on its neck.Jiang Wang pulled casually—And so, with one sword, its head was severed!

He had fought hard against it in the past and had seen its various forms.Today, he had already killed it twice.He had a thorough understanding of the swallow-owl, and when dealing with this swallow-owl whose consciousness was not always clear, there was no way for his erroneous path to fail.Even the swallow-owl that had devoured thousands of skulls and absorbed much wisdom, its eyes before death were still full of confusion!It couldn't understand at all why it had boldly moved through space to avoid battle, only to happen to collide with the opponent's sword.How did escaping for its life turn into delivering itself to death?

Of course, Jiang Wang would not pay attention to its feelings.He was just repeating what needed to be done.With a slight tap of his toe, he stepped forward. Once again, he cut off the swallow-owl's beak and shattered it into Bu Zhou Feng.In the third Inner Palace, that usually cold and desolate divine ability seed even felt a little joyful.The swallow-owl was a most wicked fowl born under the Dragon God's nurturing, absorbing the malevolence of this realm. The swallow-owl's beak naturally possessed the ability to extinguish life.Jiang Wang's current Bu Zhou Feng was formed by relying on it.Now that he had this excellent opportunity, there was no reason not to do it again and again...He was completely using the Dragon God's divine power to continuously strengthen Bu Zhou Feng.Although the effect would definitely be weakened significantly after multiple additions. But for a precious trump card like a divine ability, any chance to strengthen it, no matter how slight, would make people flock to it.

Before long, the swallow-owl regenerated once more.This time, the divine light on its body exploded, directly breaking open the Fire Realm that enveloped the swallow's nest.Saying it was "broken open" was also not accurate.The golden divine light just flickered, and the foundation that constructed the Fire Realm seemed to be drawn away, and the entire Fire Realm collapsed on its own.Within his own Fire Realm, Jiang Wang could vaguely detect some application of rules. The power of the Dragon God descending from afar subtly manipulated certain rules, thus causing the Fire Realm to disintegrate...He couldn't fully understand its mysteries yet, but he could roughly "see" the process...It was truly a marvelous application.

But these were not the most important things at the moment.Within the rapidly collapsing brilliant Fire Realm.The green cloud mark under his feet flashed and disappeared, and Jiang Wang's body followed his sword, reappearing in front of the swallow-owl.The swallow-owl's eyes were still fierce, and with a flap of its wings, it disappeared.And Jiang Wang directly turned around and drew a潇灑橫線 (瀟灑横线) – a stylish horizontal line –A renowned scholar brought low, life and death divided!Behind him were falling flame meteors, under his feet were wilting flame flowers, and around him were flame birds scattering like fireworks...That sharp horizontal line divided his clean features into two halves.His clear eyebrows and eyes, and his stern lips!In front of this green-robed swordsman.The tailless swallow with golden light and black feathers was once again severed into two.The swallow's body was shattered by the sharp sword light, and the swallow's head was swept up by a wisp of frosty wind and dissipated into nothingness.Like reaping wheat or cutting grass.It was crushing and overwhelming!