Chapter 55

Heifeng Jiansui’s body shook as blood poured from all its pores. If the human body could be considered as an ever-expanding universe, then the laws which had been just extracted from it were like the Heavenly Dao governing the principles of its existence.

He immediately began controlled breathing, stopping his blood from gushing out. His white face seemed like an ailing man.

“The Quintessence Sword Dao you chose as your Principle Dao… isn’t bad at all, I say. It is sufficiently profound enough that deconstructing it will unseal nearly all my memories. So… was playing with my body worth losing the Principle Dao that opened up your path to Perpetuity? You didn’t even get a chance to push me down, so bad~.” Aina’s voice was quite playful as she spoke.

Heifeng Jiansui had gained insight into numerous Dao. Only those that had condensed into Daoscripts on his body were swallowed by Aina. Of course, the Dao scripts of a mortal yet to begin cultivation weren’t worth much, and even the Quintessence Sword Dao’s most fundamental principles had gathered into the Daoscripts.

Even so, Heifeng Jiansui couldn’t respond. Unbearable pain was filling his body. In truth, he had underestimated Aina’s Four Path Swallowing Dao. He naturally believed that since Ganwu Aina’s bloodline was descended from him and since she was only a mortal, he could naturally take control over the Perpetual Sword Dao when it entered her body and force her to capitulate.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be that easy.

Even so, he didn’t stop. Before this, he had fought with the Four Path Swallowing Dao and examined her body, so he was confident that he could still turn everything around!

“A lecher like you actually cultivated to Perpetual Emperor, huh? As a former Chaos Sovereign, I am quite surprised that the morals of cultivators have declined so much. No matter, I did promise you that I owe you a favor for awakening my memories. As such, I won’t kill you after I am done swallowing.” The imperious voice casually revealed her true cultivation.

But it didn’t shake Heifeng Jiansui’s heart. Even he was a former Chaos Sovereign after all.

His eyes tightly closed, Heifeng Jiansui ignored Aina’s mocking and the pain wracking his body as he connected to his Principle Dao that was slowly being deconstructed in Aina’s body. Slowly but surely, he gained insight into the deconstruction principle of the Sword Dao.

Aina would deconstruct his Sword Dao in its entirety in about 12 minutes. Before that, he had to…

Heifeng Jiansui opened his eyes. His entire body was trembling, and the qi and blood was madly burning. Even so, he stood up from his crosslegged posture, looking Aina in the eye.

Around Aina’s body, four pillars had formed. Countless beasts seemed to have been carved on them, their mouths all open. The energy of Primal Chaos lingered in the air, as if a world would open in the boundless void.

She wasn’t paying attention to Heifeng Jiansui. Her eyes were closed as she focused on the deconstruction of the Daoscripts she had stolen from Heifeng Jiansui. The aura around her was increasing step by step, and if not for the restrictions innate to her technique, spacetime would have shattered.

Heifeng Jiansui looked at her face concentrating on cultivation, looking vulnerable to the world. He thrust his finger at her in a sealing gesture.

A gallon of blood was immediately spat out by her.

“You… how…” Aina weakly looked at Heifeng Jiansui. Just now, the Sword Dao that she was deconstructing broke out of the sealing of the Four Path Swallowing, inflcting her with internal injuries!

“You don’t need to act weak. That was only your lungs being torn, something that won’t kill you easily.” Heifeng Jiansui’s answer caused her to grit her teeth.

“Taking control over your Principle Dao even when it is sealed in my body… How is it possible?” Aina was astounded. This lecherous bastard unexpectedly had deep schemes!

“It isn’t that difficult. That body of yours… it is descended from the guardian beasts of my legacy. You are mortal, yet to breakthrough to the Life Desolation boundary. Your Principle Dao can only deconstruct my Sword Dao to awaken your memories, not directly comprehend it. There are many reasons.” Heifeng Jiansui’s tone was chiding, as he pointed out her mistakes.

“So your lecherous actions… were they a façade for your true schemes?” Spitting out some blood, Aina asked again.

“II would have been interested in violating you if you weren’t the Soulthrall Princess. Even I am not dumb enough to get intimate with a woman who can turn me into a puppet.” Heifeng Jiansui shook his head.

“So what do you want now?” With her life hanging on Heifeng Jiansui’s thoughts, she felt a bit resigned.

“Swear to the Dao of the Heavens to serve me as a retainer.” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui mentally transmitted an extremely long oath to her.

“This oath is…huh?!” Most long oaths were designed to turn the swearer into a puppet by turning every possible action into a clause. Heifeng Jiansui’s oath was longer than most… but it didn’t focus much on controlling her. She even had limited ability to ignore his commands.

No, the longest part of the oath restricted her by many, many terms from attacking Heifeng Jiansui. All physical, mental, energy based attacks against him were forbidden. Magic treasures and formations against him were forbidden. Scheming and manipulations against him were forbidden. All manners of attacking him that were within the realm of possibility were forbidden!

After going through it in its entirety, Aina couldn’t help but smirk. Her former cultivation of Chaos Sovereign seemed to have terrified him into drafting this contract.

Seeing the immense caution he held against her, Aina felt pride swell up in her chest. She couldn’t help but feel some measure of respect build up for him. Without letting him know of her thoughts, Aina began with the oath.

Heifeng Jiansui did not let go of his caution until she completed her oath. Only when the aura of the Heavenly Dao resonated did he calm down. This meant that the Heavens had witnessed the oath.

“Haha, I never thought that I would end up tricked into serving you as a retainer. What are your orders?” Aina’s sarcastic tone made Heifeng Jiansui shake his head.

“First of all, completely deconstruct the Daoscripts you stole from me and completely awaken your memories.” Hearing Heifeng Jiansui’s first order, Aina was a bit dumbfounded.

‘Don’t you want your Daoscripts back, aren’t you afraid of the soul breaking pain of Daoscript Deconstruction?’ This obvious question lingered in her head but she didn’t ask. He was most likely acting like this to try and alleviate the mistrust she felt for him.

Returning to her statue-like posture, she returned to deconstructing the Daoscripts she had stolen. Bit by bit, the foggy memories in her Sea of Consciousness became clearer.

+++

Heifeng Jiansui looked relieved that the soultearing pain of having his Daoscripts deconstructed had disappeared. Aina gave him a apologetic gaze.

“Forgive me. I-” Stopping her apology, Heifeng Jiansui interjected, “Yeah, it was the fault of your technique, I know you weren’t torturing me or the Heavenly Dao would have declared judgement. How much of your memories are unsealed?”

“Nearly all of them. Other than some memories that were sealed by me before reincarnating that can only be opened after breaking through to Chaos Sovereign once more, I have access to the entirety of them.” Hearing Aina’s confident answer, he fell into thought. Facing a true Chaos Sovereign, there were many questions to ask.