"Zoe Shen, it's not what you think. After Joe Di left, I never left or wandered the Forgotten Mountains... In fact, you were the first person I saw after he departed." Nora Xiu was anxious; her reputation meant more to her than her own life.
If such rumors reached Joe Di's ears, not even death could clear her name.
From Nora Xiu's eyes, Zoe Shen saw a sincerity that struck her. She suddenly remembered that for cultivators, pregnancy could last more than ten months.
"Nora, there's no need to worry. It's extremely difficult for martial cultivators to conceive, and those who do often give birth after twelve months. You're a true cultivator, so maybe it's different for you..." Zoe Shen trailed off. Twelve months she could understand, but two years? That was beyond her comprehension.
Suddenly, Nora Xiu seemed to remember something and pulled out a dozen jade slips from her ring.
These jade slips were all left to her by Joe Di, each containing a vast amount of information. She had been in seclusion and never found the time to examine them until now.
One by one, Nora Xiu swept the jade slips with her spiritual sense, then tossed them aside.
Zoe Shen stared blankly at Nora Xiu. She had heard of jade slips before—they could record a great deal of information, often more than a book. But could Nora Xiu really grasp the contents of an entire jade slip with just a glance?
Are true cultivators really that powerful?
Nora Xiu paid no attention to Zoe Shen's expression. She anxiously flipped through the jade slips, and soon her eyes reddened, tears welling up inside them.
"Nora, what's wrong?" Zoe Shen quickly supported Nora Xiu.
Nora Xiu put down the jade slip, gently touching her flat stomach. "I'm really pregnant. I saw from the jade slips that it's extremely difficult for cultivators to conceive. Many even stop cultivating for a while just to get pregnant. Even after conception, it can take many years, sometimes even more than ten years..."
Suddenly, Nora Xiu felt that the distance between her and Joe Di was no longer so vast. At last, there was a bond between them.
Zoe Shen did not doubt Nora Xiu's words. She hadn't cared about cultivators before, but now she wanted to join their ranks and no longer wished to pursue martial arts.
"Nora, now that you're pregnant, you must take care of yourself and nurture the fetus." Zoe Shen was genuinely happy for Nora Xiu; with Joe Di's child, she would not be alone anymore.
"Mm." Nora Xiu's expression softened as she caressed her still-flat belly. "I have a feeling this is no ordinary child."
Nora Xiu's words were not just the affection of a mother, but more of an intuition—she felt her child would be extraordinary.
It's a pity her mother was gone. If her mother were still alive and knew she was pregnant, she would be overjoyed.
...
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Another nine thick arcs of lightning crashed down. Joe Di closed his eyes in despair—not because he couldn't withstand this wave of tribulation, but because it was his final wave.
But he still hadn't broken through the shackles of the Immortal Emperor realm; he remained at the Immortal Venerable stage. In other words, even after surviving the tribulation, his strength was still stuck at the Immortal Venerable level. After this wave, he couldn't even sense the barrier to Immortal Emperor anymore.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Joe Di's bones shattered inch by inch, flesh flying everywhere.
Sometimes, one's state of mind really matters. Joe Di was desperate to pass the Immortal Emperor tribulation and return to see Nora Xiu. In the years outside, what he missed most wasn't the Black Reincarnation Bridge, but Nora Xiu.
Now, his Immortal Emperor tribulation had failed, just like when his alchemy failed before—he couldn't find any reason for his failure.
The Immortal Emperor tribulation descended, and he survived it. There was no mistake, but he simply couldn't break through the Immortal Emperor barrier. Worse, now he couldn't even sense that barrier at all.
After the final wave of tribulation, Joe Di was completely paralyzed. At this moment, he didn't even have the chance to collect the Primordial Thunderstone into his ring.
The Rule Cycle continued to operate slowly, and Joe Di slipped into unconsciousness.
Suddenly, cocoon-like threads appeared in the space around Joe Di, wrapping him and his Primordial Thunderstone together.
The threads multiplied, eventually forming a giant cocoon.
This was the void outside the lower plane. If it were in the Immortal Realm, any strong cultivator could tell at a glance that the cocoon enveloping Joe Di was formed by mysterious cosmic rules.
After Joe Di's tribulation, he didn't ascend to Immortal Emperor, but was instead wrapped in a cocoon formed by cosmic rules, as if in hibernation.
Whether or not Joe Di succeeded in his tribulation, to be able to fuse his Dao laws with cosmic rules and materialize a cocoon was already an extraordinary feat.
...
Just tens of millions of miles from Joe Di's tribulation site, a strangely-shaped spaceship was parked.
At this moment, seven or eight men and women sat in the ship's cabin, all staring nervously at a giant display screen ahead.
"The space-shaking lightning fluctuations have ended." As soon as Joe Di's tribulation finished, the bearded middle-aged man at the front breathed a sigh of relief.
"Captain, what should we do now? Should we stick to the original plan and head to this new star system?" asked a young man.
The bearded middle-aged man, addressed as captain, turned his head and swept his gaze over the group. "Earlier, our scans showed there might be a life-bearing planet in the star system we're heading to, but I think we absolutely shouldn't follow the original plan and go to that possible life planet."
"Why?" someone asked.
The captain said gravely, "If I'm not mistaken, those violent spatial lightning fluctuations and the intense life force just now mean someone was undergoing a tribulation. That means the life planet we detected is almost certainly... no, definitely a cultivation planet. You all know how terrifying cultivators are. For them, wiping out an entire planet is nothing. If we go, we're not colonizing—we're inviting disaster."
"I agree with the captain."
"I agree too..."
Four or five people immediately voiced their agreement.
The captain continued, "Not only should we avoid going there, but we must also discourage the higher-ups. When we return, we'll just say it's a useless, abandoned planet."
Upon learning that their destination might be a cultivation planet, everyone quickly reached a consensus and nodded solemnly.
Even those few who wanted to visit the cultivation planet dared not speak up now. Besides, they were all too old to begin cultivation.
...
"These are spirit stones..." Zoe Shen was shocked as Nora Xiu took out the spirit stones, her scalp tingling. She had seen these before; every martial artist dreamed of owning such treasures. Back then, so many martial artists managed to reach the innate stage thanks to the spirit stones brought from Fairy Star.
Nora Xiu giggled. "Zoe, these aren't immortal stones; they're spirit stones, but they're top-grade spirit stones. When I started cultivating, I used these top-grade spirit stones. Besides top-grade, there are also middle-grade and low-grade spirit stones. Joe Di only gave me top-grade ones—never anything less."
In fact, Joe Di didn't have any middle- or low-grade spirit stones; besides these top-grade ones, he also had immortal crystals. He gave Nora Xiu some immortal crystals, but reminded her that beginners should use lesser spirit stones to cultivate gradually. Unless her progress was stuck, she shouldn't use high-grade immortal crystals while her cultivation was weak.
Zoe Shen took a deep breath and looked at Nora Xiu. "Thank you, Nora. You've shown me another world. Otherwise, I'd still be sitting in a well."
Nora Xiu subconsciously touched her belly again. "It was Joe Di who brought me into this world. I'm just passing on what he taught me to you."
Zoe Shen nodded, saying nothing more. Although she hadn't learned cultivation directly from Joe Di, she still owed him, and she was considered one of his students.