This thought kept churning in His mind. He thought, since they don't cherish this world anyway, why not make it His?
—To annihilate all living beings, to turn the world into His property, and to become a “person” as independent as the creator of this world.
Once He developed selfish desires, He had already gone against the original intention that brought Him into the world.
The world wants Him to save Him, and at the same time save countless lives; but He only wants to use lives and the world as stepping stones.
In order to achieve his goal, the first thing He had to do was to find a way to close the path to heaven; otherwise, before He could refine the world, it would collapse and be destroyed.
So He found Jiang Hua, who was searching for his way home, and told him that if he was willing to help him design an array to seal the path to heaven, He would use the power of the Heavenly Dao to send Jiang Hua back.
Jiang Hua, who was already in despair, was like a drowning person grasping at the last straw. Regardless of whether the straw was good or bad, he desperately tried to make a comeback.
Jiang Hua began to study how to seal the Path to Heaven, and he did not disappoint the Heavenly Dao, actually coming up with a way to seal it.
But having the formation alone is not enough, because completing the formation requires a large amount of spiritual energy, and even if He uses all His authority to gather spiritual energy, it is still not enough.
Just when Jiang Hua thought he had failed, Heaven suddenly told him that it had found a way to replenish the remaining spiritual energy.
It turns out that the Heavenly Dao used its identity to persuade those beings who had already broken through the Tribulation Transcending stage, saying that if the Path to Heaven was not sealed, the world would collapse sooner or later.
Among those who had reached the Tribulation Transcending stage, there were many who were absolutely capable of ascending and leaving this world, but in the end, they all chose to sacrifice themselves and devote themselves to the formation.
They sacrificed themselves for countless reasons: some for their families, some for their friends, and some simply for the noble principles they held dear.
But whatever their reasons, their sacrifices were real. How many people in the world would be willing to give up hundreds or thousands of years of cultivation, abandon wealth and honor, and leave their relatives and friends to die silently in the extreme cold?
Although Jiang Hua told them that the formation would only absorb the spiritual energy from their bodies and that the Heavenly Dao would preserve their souls for reincarnation, would the one after reincarnation truly be themselves? No one knew the answer.
Jiang Hua greatly admired their sacrifices when setting up the formation and decided that he would complete the formation no matter what.
Accidents happen in an instant—
Just as Jiang Hua finished setting up the formation and was about to pull their souls out, Heaven suddenly intervened.
He somehow bewitched a cultivator in the Tribulation Transcending stage, causing him to ambush Jiang Hua. Jiang Hua was already weakened after setting up the formation, and was killed without any resistance.
Meanwhile, the Heavenly Dao was not satisfied with a rigid formation. It felt that a formation alone was far from enough. So it broke its oath and instead of taking their souls out of the formation, it cruelly turned their souls into part of the formation.
Trapped within the formation, they lost most of their memories due to its influence. Unable to find their past or see their future, they were trapped in the extreme cold, enduring the bitter cold and pain day and night.
Countless beings, unable to bear the pain of this confinement, choose to sleep, but if the number of awake souls falls below a certain threshold, the sleeping souls will be forcibly awakened.
The reason Yu said Qin Moyu's birth was a miracle is because Yu is not actually human. Her race can conceive as a spirit, but the probability is extremely small. Under normal circumstances, it may take 100,000 years to conceive, let alone in a place like an extremely cold land.
Qin chose to fall into a deep sleep because he couldn't bear being trapped, and Yu happened to meet him there when he had just woken up, thus creating a wonderful fate.
But the cruelty of Heaven was not satisfied with sealing the path to heaven. After ordering Jiang Hua to be killed, out of curiosity about the world Jiang Hua had traveled to, He invaded Jiang Hua's soul and unexpectedly obtained the story in Jiang Hua's mind.
“Those stories…” Jiang Hua lowered his eyes slightly, his voice a little lower, “they were stories I told her.”
The pain of pregnancy kept her awake at night. To lull her to sleep, Jiang Hua would read her favorite online novels. That's why he could remember the plot so clearly. Even after transmigrating, he could still roughly retell the story because of his longing for her.
But Jiang Hua never expected that this novel, which he considered insignificant, would inspire the Heavenly Dao, leading Him to decide to replicate these stories, thus resulting in their burning.
The legendary story is filled with bloodshed and betrayal on the road to fame. He experienced the pleasure of controlling other people's lives, but it made Jiang Hua even more miserable.
He never imagined that what he had initially thought was a chance to go home, and his decision to leave behind a legacy in this world, would ultimately become his only way to atone for his sins.
The soul remaining in the place of inheritance can sense what is happening in the main body at the same time, so he was able to guess that Shen Mo came here for the seal of the road to heaven.
"If you manage to reach the extreme cold, please apologize to them for me." Jiang Hua bowed deeply to the two of them. Qin Moyu understood that this bow was not for them, but for those trapped in the extreme cold.
Having studied the Path to Heaven, Jiang Hua easily recognized the familiar spiritual energy on Qin Moyu's body—a subtle fluctuation that only those possessing the Red Lotus Karmic Fire could exhibit.
When Qin Moyu was telling her story, she mentioned that her parents came from an extremely cold place and that there was a remnant of her mother's soul deep in her soul.
After a long silence, Qin Moyu slowly spoke:
"They don't blame you."
He looked at Jiang Hua and repeated what Yu had just said: "In our quest for freedom, we tried incredibly hard to find our past. The moment we remembered it, we were all grateful, grateful that at least our deaths had some value."
Although they were used as tools by the Heavenly Dao, at least their deaths sealed the path to heaven, allowing the world to continue operating. Their sacrifices were not in vain.
That is enough.
Jiang Hua remained speechless for a long time. He looked deeply at Qin Moyu, as if he could see their figures through Qin Moyu.
"Thanks……"
His body vanished completely with a soft murmur.
He stayed behind to protect the legacy, and not only did he fulfill his mission, but he also received forgiveness, which is enough.
After Jiang Hua disappeared, the modernly decorated room, like sand blown away by the wind, slowly sank into darkness, leaving only an empty room and an open door.
The room inside the door contained all the treasures Jiang Hua had collected in his life. He considered himself not a person of this world and only wanted to go home. He didn't even want to take a single thing with him, but left it all to the destined people of this world.
Looking at the dazzling array of treasures, Qin Moyu felt a tightness in his chest, completely devoid of the joy of acquiring precious items.
Shen Mo placed his hand on Qin Moyu's shoulder, looked at the treasures, and said softly, "Heaven still needs his story, so his soul should still be with Him."
Qin Moyu's dim eyes suddenly brightened.
"You mean..." He turned his head, anxiously awaiting an answer.
Shen Mo patted his head and said, "We still have a chance."