I, the transmigrated villain, please wait, gentle master.

Chapter 163 Kun Gang Has a Remaining Gold from Yu Pu (2)

The drought demon remained unmoved and retorted, "Why can't water flow backwards?"

The vendor exclaimed incredulously, "Of course water can't flow backwards! Have you ever seen a person age backwards and become young again? People strive for higher places, and water flows downhill—that's the way of nature!"

The drought demon retorted, "What nonsense about heavenly principles! Don't you know that even when people defy heaven, heaven never closes off a way out?"

The vendor scoffed, "Brave warrior, why are you imitating me and putting on an act? I mean, the River of Oblivion flowing backwards is too abnormal. Something abnormal must be amiss. We should be careful."

"There's nothing to be wary of," the drought demon said, explaining that it was merely its unique zombie body attracting the water flow.

Most zombies share the common trait of "absorbing water." Hairy zombies transform into Uncorrupted Bones, and Uncorrupted Bones grow into Drought Demons. During this process, they need to constantly absorb water vapor to accelerate decay and regeneration.

The saying that "when zombies appear, there will be a great drought" and the name "drought demon" both originated from this.

Zombies are not afraid of water; in fact, water is what gave them their life. If it were an ordinary river or sea, the drought demon would certainly not be afraid, and might even thrive and increase in strength upon encountering water.

However, the River of Oblivion is not an ordinary water in the human world.

Li Tingyun himself was somewhat afraid of the 800-mile-long River of Oblivion. Not a drop of its water could touch him; if it splashed on his body, it would burn like fire. As his clone, Hanba was naturally afraid as well.

As a zombie, once he gets close to the riverbank, the river will rise, and waves of water will surge towards him. Although he has transformed into an immortal drought demon and has almost no sense of pain, the river water will still leave unsightly scars and even bloody holes on his body.

These wounds heal exceptionally slowly.

“Brave warrior, speaking of the River of Oblivion, have you ever heard the saying, ‘The River of Oblivion does not ferry those with feelings’?”

The vendor gradually got used to being held upside down in mid-air, head and feet dangling, and pointed to the river water rippling even without wind. "Legend has it, it's just a legend. Long, long ago, a beautiful goddess lived in the River of Oblivion..."

As people live longer, they may not earn enough money or develop more skills, but they will certainly hear a lot of gossip.

He was eager to share the anecdotes he had heard, even though he wasn't sure if he was safe.

He's just itching to chatter; he can't stay still. Once he starts talking, he never stops.

Just like when he talked at length about that little devil whose soul was torn apart.

Li Tingyun dislikes talkative people. Mei Shiyu had stopped him before, so he listened to him ramble on and on. Now that no one is stopping him, he certainly won't indulge him.

The drought demon grabbed the vendor with both hands and shouted, "Let's go!"

Aiming at a small boat on the riverbank, he accurately launched it out.

With a muffled thud, the vendor tumbled into the boat, clutching his head. The small boat began to sway from side to side as it picked up water.

Before he could even think about why there was a ferry crossing on the banks of the River of Oblivion, and why there was a boat moored there, the vendor just sat up straight with a bewildered look on his face, shook his shoulders, and thought: How strange, it doesn't hurt at all.

Just then, a weathered voice came from under his buttocks: "Young man, you... crushed... this old woman."

The vendor hurriedly stood up and saw a brightly colored carp lying in the boat. He had almost turned it into a dried fish by sitting on it. The moment he stood up, the "dried fish" jumped and hopped out from between the two partitions at the bottom of the boat. With a "plop," it transformed into a human figure, becoming a thin and withered old woman.

The old woman glanced at him and said, "Which blind ghost dares to disturb your great-aunt's peace and quiet?"

The vendor looked closely and scrambled from the bow to the stern of the boat. What old woman? It was clearly a messenger from the underworld, Meng Po!

Meng Po glanced at Li Tingyun, and her expression changed even faster than she had glanced at him. She thought to herself: So it's this little ancestor.

The drought demon called her "Old Guai Zi" and got straight to the point: "I need you to do something for me."

When he was a child, he heard fishermen say that carp were also called "carp-legged creatures" because they liked to leap and jump, making them quite difficult to catch. Meng Po usually liked to transform into a red carp, swimming around in the River of Oblivion, or lying lifeless in a small boat, unaware of how long she had lived such a boring life. What else could they call her but "Old Carp-Legged Creeper"?

"Young man, how rude! Is this how he asks for help?" Meng Po thought to herself, but said something else entirely, her kind and amiable demeanor just like that of a friendly old lady next door: "Oh, my little darling, what can I do for you?"

"Little Ancestor" pointed to the vendor who was slumped at the stern of the boat.

No words were spoken.

Meng Po asked, "Who is this person? Why did you send him here to me?"

"He doesn't look like a furnace cauldron. I've never seen a furnace cauldron this ugly... I'm afraid it wouldn't work for him to refine pills."

"Even if you crush it, you can't refine it into an ordinary pill, let alone use the Qiankun Cauldron to refine pills!"

“Opening the Qiankun Cauldron once will consume an unknown amount of cultivation. If you can’t find a top-quality cauldron, I advise you not to waste your energy.”

If Mei Shiyu were to know that Li Tingyun had destroyed so many alchemy furnaces yet remained persistent, with the ultimate goal of refining an immortal pill from the Qiankun Creation Cauldron, a treasure of the Fengdu Ghost Realm and a divine artifact left behind by Nuwa, she would probably "tactfully" advise him: Go to sleep early, maybe you can have anything in your dreams.

He's dreaming! It's like trying to fly to the sky and stand shoulder to shoulder with the sun before you've even learned to walk.

Not to mention that the Qiankun Cauldron was originally cast from a piece of refined gold that was born with heaven and earth when Pangu wielded his axe at the beginning of the primordial chaos. In the prosperous period of ancient times when humans and gods lived together and gods were everywhere, only a few innate creator gods could control it.

For example, there's Nuwa, who created humans from clay, and Fuxi, who drew the trigrams to divide yin and yang and establish the five elements.

However, even later generations, such as the powerful Zhuanxu, a descendant of the divine race who severed the connection between heaven and earth, were unable to use the Qiankun Creation Cauldron for their own purposes.

Now, the ancient era of the flourishing of the divine path has come to an end, and those legends of overwhelming mountains and seas and the collapse of the heavens and earth have gradually faded away. One after another, the primordial gods have fallen, and after the severing of the connection between heaven and earth, all living beings in the Three Realms and Six Paths have no possibility of becoming gods.

In later generations, the immortal race flourished, and the Heavenly Dao became the dominant force. Those who descended to the mortal realm had only one path: to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and ascend to immortality. Besides cultivating immortality, there were also those who cultivated demonic arts, but throughout history, while many attained immortality, none truly became demons.

This situation arises not only because cultivating demonic arts is against the will of Heaven and makes one vulnerable to encirclement and suppression, but also because of the numerous wars that broke out between gods and demons in ancient times, in which evil always prevailed over good and the demons were defeated.

The ways of demons, monsters, ghosts, and other evil beings have always been considered inferior to the righteous path.

Li Tingyun's path of cultivation is neither purely immortal nor purely demonic, but a dual cultivation of immortality and demonism. In everyone's eyes, the "path" he walks is twisted and chaotic, with no future in sight. He neither stands on the side of good or evil, nor on the side of right or wrong, and he stands on both sides. He is straddling two boats, which is really easy to get into trouble.

Li Tingyun's strength is beyond doubt. If we say that with his cultivation level, no one in the lower realm can surpass him, no one would dare to refute that. However, he has not yet reached the final step, and has not yet truly broken through the limits of being a "human". He is neither a true immortal nor a true demon, let alone a god.

So where does his confidence come from, and why does he think he can wield the Qiankun Cauldron?!

Mei Shiyu was unaware that Li Tingyun intended to use the Qiankun Cauldron to refine pills.

Even if they knew, they probably wouldn't dare to believe it.

It's normal that he doesn't believe it. If this were told to others, no normal person would believe it.

But there are a few abnormal people who believe him, and they believe him without a doubt.

The so-called "abnormal people" refer to the Fengdu Emperor, the Ten Ghost Kings, and the underworld officials including Meng Po.

Actually, these dead ghosts should have been the most unbelievable.

No one in the entire lower realm knew more about their precious Qiankun Creation Cauldron than they did.

However, in the entire lower realm, no one understood Li Tingyun better than them, nor just how terrifying his strength truly was.

He massacred villages, wiped out entire families, and killed countless people. All the heinous things he did, all the evil deeds known to everyone, are, in a way, proof of his undefeated record in battle. He didn't even need to use his natal divine weapon or reveal his true form or primordial spirit to be invincible. No one could stop him from doing anything.

But these are insignificant compared to his true strengths.

Meng Po witnessed firsthand the horrifying scene of him unsealing the Qiankun Creation Cauldron.

He truly wields the Qiankun Cauldron!

Seeing is believing. This old woman can't just gouge out her own eyes and pretend she didn't see anything, can she?

From then on, no matter what outlandish ideas this little ancestor might have, Meng Po always bet all her winnings on him. She dared to say: there are three absolutes in this world: the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, people are born, grow old, get sick and die, and Li Tingyun is an eternal god—if he were to lose, the sun would have to rise in the west.

He was actually able to open the Qiankun Cauldron.

Is he really a genius? Yes, he is.

This is enough to show that he possesses the power to contend with the ancient gods and the aptitude to rival the celestial beings.

There's probably nothing in the world he can't do.

A person like him should belong to the heavens, not be left to wander in the bustling human world.

His existence has disrupted the balance of the three realms for far too long, yet no great calamity has descended to help him ascend, which is abnormal.

Perhaps even the Heavenly Dao Ruler was stunned by his "cultivating both immortality and demonic arts" approach!

Who knows.

But then again, there's nothing he can't do... except alchemy.

Li Tingyun's ability to control the Qiankun Cauldron does not mean he can refine a single immortal pill. His pill-refining skills are still far too poor, shockingly so. The only difference is that he cannot blow up the furnace using the Qiankun Cauldron.

This is not his progress, but Ding's achievement.

"No, this time, it's not for alchemy," Hanba waved his hand, pointed at the vendor, and said to Meng Po, "I have important matters to attend to and cannot stay here long. Please take him to be reincarnated for me, so that he can be reborn as..."

After thinking for a moment, the drought demon said, "I'll make do with being an emperor, albeit reluctantly."

Become an emperor? An emperor?! Upon hearing this, the vendor nearly fainted, muttering to himself, "If I were an emperor, wouldn't I have to use a golden hoe to till the land? No way, no way, I can't carry that. My destiny isn't strong enough; I definitely can't carry it!"

"You're making things difficult for this old woman!" Meng Po said sternly. Fearing that Li Tingyun would not be fair, she softened her tone and explained, "What he is reincarnated into next life depends on his own fate. If I had the ability to defy fate, why would I be here brewing the Soul-Soothing Soup year after year?"

"Is it really that hard to defy fate?" Drought Demon asked seemingly casually.

Meng Po said, "That's natural," thinking to herself: No matter how powerful this little devil is, he's still too young. It's understandable that he says things out of ignorance.

He then said to him earnestly, "Fate is determined by Heaven; how can it be changed?"

The drought demon chuckled, its tone utterly sarcastic. "If that were the case, how could I be who I am today?"

Meng Po sighed, "How can fate and fortune be confused? Fate cannot be changed, but fortune is not. An egg, when cracked open from the outside, is food; when cracked open from the inside..."

The drought demon asked, "Is it life?"

Meng Po said, "No, it's still food. Whether it's a chicken or an egg, it will eventually be served on the table. That's fate."

Upon hearing this, the drought demon said, "That's interesting."

Meng Po continued, "An egg, at the moment it is laid, falls into the phoenix's nest, befriends the phoenix and lives as a neighbor to the phoenix, spends its life resting on the parasol tree, drinking from the clear spring, singing in the nine heavens, its voice echoing across the four fields—this is destiny."

"Fate is hard to change, and fortune is hard to predict. It is almost impossible to change a person's fate, but there are indeed some insidious methods that can seize another person's destiny."

"However, fate only affects a moment, not a lifetime. Some are poor first and then rich, some are strong in old age but frail in youth. What is destined to be yours will eventually come to pass. What is most frightening is not the unpredictable nature of fate, but the dramatic ups and downs of life..."

"Instead, they give up on themselves before they can even wait for the day when things turn around."

The drought demon grew impatient. "Stop talking nonsense! I'll just ask you one question: can you do it, or can't you?"

Meng Po insisted, "I can't do it, I can't do it! I don't have that kind of ability. I can only do a favor and send him to the Reincarnation Well, so that he can be a human in his next life and not a beast. As for his fate, it depends on the good deeds he has accumulated in this life."

The drought demon took a different approach: "Let's first change the merit book so that he can complete his merits, and then let him be reincarnated."

Meng Po hurriedly said, "No, no! This is deceiving Heaven! You can hide it for a while, but not forever. If something goes wrong in the future, the retribution will be a hundredfold or a thousandfold! Who can withstand endless divine punishment? You are trying to kill him."

The drought demon cursed, "This won't work, that won't work, where do all these problems come from? If it were me, I would have changed it long ago! Who cares about divine retribution? We'll deal with the future later. If it comes, I'll bear it; if it doesn't, I'll be the one who benefits! Fortune favors the bold, haven't you heard? The bold are the first to enjoy the world."

He's like someone who's unafraid of the itch of having too many lice and doesn't worry about having too many debts. He has no reverence for cause and effect or reincarnation, so there's no sin he wouldn't dare to commit.

Taking advantage of the pause in their conversation, the vendor raised his hand and said, "Actually... I don't think that much. I just want to be born in a peaceful country with a wise ruler and good officials. There is no war, no tyranny, and the people have land to cultivate, enough to eat, and their children and grandchildren can grow up safely and go to school. That would be very, very good."

Meng Po shook her head and said, "Does such a country exist in the human world? You won't find it."

"It should be known that since the fall of the Great Liang Dynasty three hundred years ago, the Central Plains were filled with heroes vying for power, and the dynasty fell apart. To this day, there has been no legitimate successor."

"For three hundred years, countless small countries have been born and died in a day, and their national lifespan has not been long. It has been a long time since a 'human emperor' who can unify the world has appeared in the world."

The vendor counted on his fingers, overwhelmed with emotion: "Back then, I was also a subject of the Great Liang. It turns out that so much time has passed since the fall of the Liang Kingdom..."

“I used to hear storytellers say, ‘The world, after a long period of division, will unite; after a long period of unity, will divide again.’ How come, hundreds of years have passed and the world is still not at peace?”

Meng Po said, "The fall of the Great Liang Kingdom was not a natural occurrence, but an unexpected disaster."

"It was only because the fate of the royal family and even the nation was altered that the dragon vein was severed, and the emperor's destiny could not be passed on, which caused chaos in the world and the collapse of the human order."

"This situation is neither the will of Heaven nor known when it will be resolved."