“You’re the immortal soul in the ancient immortal residence?” Yi Qing paused. He finally understood what he meant. He scanned him from head to toe and asked, “Aren’t you Bitao?”

　　“You remember?” Luan Xu excitedly nodded. “Yes, yes, yes, I’m that remnant soul. Bitao was my original name. I came down to this Lower Realm to look for you, Great Immortal.” Ever since he got his body back, he had been thinking about coming to the Azure World to look for Shen Ying. Now, he finally… finally found her. Luan Xu – no, Bitao – suddenly felt a great urge to burst into tears. “You have no idea how hard I tried to…”

　　He wriggled his nose and subconsciously moved to cling onto Shen Ying’s legs. Just as he reached out, he was stopped by a green flash. A green leaf stuck out from Shen Ying’s legs and flew toward his face aggressively, hitting it with a clap.

　　A vegetation spirit in the form of a radish flew out from an opening in the seams of Shen Ying’s clothes and bore its sharp teeth at Bitao.

　　“Ji!” Get lost! Don’t even try to steal this leg from me!

　　Bitao: “…”

　　“Enough!” Shen Ying reached out to hold the radish back. She finally remembered who Floaty was. Stepping forward, she said, “Floaty, explain. What’s going on? How many of you are there?”

　　Bitao suddenly remembered the serious matter at hand, “Great Immortal, there are fifteen of us here this time. Ten of us are Mystic Immortals and five are Golden Immortals. The others are at different parts of the Azure World, in the southeast region. We have to hurry. Apart from you, nobody in the Azure World is their match. Especially not when the east has…”

　　“Seven people?” Shen Ying suddenly interrupted.

　　“Eh?” Bitao paused. “How do you know?”

　　“Oh, I came from the masochist’s house,” she answered calmly. “I’m done there.”

　　“…” Done? That’s really fast! We have only been here for an hour and they’re already destroyed? It looks like he had made the right choice in the beginning. But what exactly is a maso… chist?

　　“Oh yes, what is the Day of Re-Harvest?” Shen Ying suddenly asked.

　　Bitao was astonished. “You know about the Day of Re-Harvest!”

　　She nodded, “Why do they want to annihilate the world?”

　　By the time she finished speaking, all of the members of the Xuan Yuan family had gathered around to listen to Bitao. It was all very strange indeed. From the way the immortals spoke and acted earlier, it was obvious that they could not care less about the Lower Realm. Why did they spend all that effort to go there and annihilate everyone? Why would they go to such lengths to destroy even the Qi Refinement children? Their nonchalant attitude and cruel ways made them… far worse than fiendish cultivators.

　　Bitao’s face turned pale. As if he had thought of something, his hands clenched into fists and fell silent. Then, he sighed and finally plucked up the courage to answer her.

　　“The Abode Master of the Qing Tong Immortal Abode in the Upper Realm will conduct a great purge in the Three Azure Realms once every hundred thousand years. They send all living creatures to Samsara to cleanse and renew the world. The day of this great purge is called the Day of Re-Harvest. This is the Abode Master’s 13th time conducting the great purge ever since he created this world.

　　“You’ve annihilated the world 13 times!” Everyone gasped in unison, feeling both appalled and furious. Yi Qing stepped forward. “Why would he do that? These are living creatures we’re talking about!” Do mortals count for nothing in his eyes?

　　“Because the Abode Master… is the owner of this world,” Bitao lowered his gaze. “The Three Azure Realms belong to the Abode Master – they are a mystic realm created using his meridian. As the creator of this world, the Abode Master can do whatever he wants to it.”

　　“Ridiculous! If he only meant to create a mystic realm why did he introduce hundreds of thousands of living creatures into this world in the first place?” Yi Qing pressed further. This immortal had annihilated the world time and time again. He had the ability to create mystic realms, but he could not create living creatures – these could only be created by the Great Dao. In the end, all these living creatures were meant to go through rebirth in the Three Azure Realms.

　　Bitao frowned deeply and clenched his fists even tighter, “That’s because…”

　　“Because of the meridian,” Shen Ying suddenly interrupted.

　　Bitao was taken aback. He turned to her with widened eyes, “You know about this?”

　　“I guessed,” Shen Ying furrowed her brows. “That Abode Master – he did not use his immortal meridian to create this world. He created this world because of the immortal meridian, right?”

　　“That’s right,” Bitao nodded. “The immortal meridian is hard to find and is one of the treasures of the immortal world. One need only possess an immortal meridian to ascend to immortality and become second only to the Young Emperor. Yet… the immortal meridian that the Abode Master obtained was deformed. It benefited his cultivation, but it did not help him to progress significantly. He had no choice but to nurture this immortal meridian.”

　　He paused before he continued, “But the immortal meridian is formed by the condensation of Immortal Qi. The Immortal Qi in the Qing Tong Immortal Abode was only enough for normal training by immortals. It was simply not thick enough to nurture the immortal meridian, unless… the Abode Master could find Immortal Qi from somewhere else.”

　　“He borrows the Qi from cultivators in the lower realm,” Shen Ying continued.

　　“Yes!” Bitao sucked in a deep breath and scanned the crowd. “The Abode Master created the Azure World atop his immortal meridian and introduced hundreds of thousands of living

　　creatures into the world, so that the living creatures would absorb the Spirit Qi from the Heavens and the Earth to improve their cultivations. Once they die, the Qi would naturally feed back into the immortal meridian.”

　　“But… the immortal meridian is formed by Immortal Qi, right?” Xuan Yuanyu could not help but ask. “Spirit Qi simply does not match up to Immortal Qi.”

　　“You’re right, it does not,” Bitao answered. “But we’re talking about millions and millions of cultivators.” Spirit Qi was not as rich as Immortal Qi, but there was strength in numbers. The effect of the destruction of millions of cultivators’ meridians was far greater than a burst of Immortal Qi.

　　“So…” Yi Qing’s expression was as dark as the bottom of a frying pan. “Every hundred thousand years, the Abode Master annihilates the world so that his immortal meridian can absorb the Spirit Qi of all the cultivators?”

　　“… Yes,” Bitao nodded.

　　“…”

　　All of them sucked in their breaths. All the living creatures of the Three Azure Realms only existed for the sake of this immortal meridian. It was no wonder that the immortals began their massacre the moment they touched down onto the Lower Realm. it was no wonder that this day was called the Day of Re-Harvest – it referred to a rebirth of the world. And “Harvest”… it was referring to the harvest of the living creatures. The harvest was the Spirit Qi released when the living creatures died.

　　That was the aim of the immortal in when he created this world? All of them were filled with an unspeakable anger, but none of them could do anything about it.

　　“Don’t worry,” Bitao comforted, “There is a limit to the number of people this Lower Realm can contain. The next time immortals are sent down here will be at least a thousand years later. As long as we make it past today, we will be safe.”

　　This was no comfort – they all still felt a deep sense of alarm. Xuan Yuanyu’s panic and fear came in bouts. If it had not been for Shen Ying, perhaps… this time would have been like the twelve other times before – the Azure World would have been wiped clean by those immortals.

　　A dead and heavy silence filled the air. Anyone who found out that they were but tools that the immortal from the Upper Realm created to produce Spirit Qi would feel terrible.

　　After hearing all of this, Xuan Yuanyu pondered for over ten minutes before he finally regained his composure.

　　“Thank you for coming to our rescue, Sect Master Shen. What should we do next?” Xuan Yuanyu turned to Shen Ying, addressing her as the pillar of support holding the entire Upper Azure World up. Even the traveling immortals and disciples behind him were looking at her expectantly.

　　Shen Ying shook her head, “Didn’t Floaty say we would be alright after today? There’s nothing left for me to do here. You can think about what to do next.”

　　Xuan Yuanyu nodded slowly and thanked Shen Ying again. Then, he turned around and assigned each person a task so that they could repair the damage down to their home.

　　“I’m tired,” Shen Ying turned to Yi Qing. “Chef, let’s go home.”

　　“Yes, Master!” Yi Qing had finished regulating his meridians. He walked forward and stopped Shen Ying. “Master, the transportation array is this way.”

　　“Er…”

　　The two of them turned to walk toward the transportation array, but Shen Ying suddenly recalled something. She gestured toward Bitao, “Floaty, come here.”

　　“Yes, Exalted Immortal!” The lower half of his body was still invisible. Bitao floated toward Shen Ying.

　　Shen Ying walked into the transportation array, still feeling like she was forgetting something.

　　Forget it, I’m too tired. I’ll think about it again next time.

　　The Yi Family’s huge worm: “…”

　　Why isn’t the Great Immortal here yet?

　　ε(┬┬_┬┬)3