Luo Qi successfully completed the moonlight baptism, grew legs, and shed his clam shell.
He put away his purple-gold clam shell and excitedly rushed back to the new home he shared with Jing Jia.
But as soon as he entered the courtyard, he saw Jing Jia in her wedding dress.
She was kneeling stiffly before a man, begging for mercy.
He immediately ran over, intending to help Jing Jia up.
But Jing Jia not only refused to get up, but also demanded he kneel with her.
It turned out that the thin old man before them, dressed in a green Taoist robe and wearing a nine-beam Taoist crown, was Jing Jia's master, the Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Sect.
Jing Jia was an orphan, raised by the Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Sect.
She considered her master like a parent.
For a major life event like marriage, she needed the witness and blessing of elders.
Luo Qi was a demon and had no elders.
So she sent a message back to the Heavenly Dao Palace, hoping her master would come to witness her wedding.
Unexpectedly, when her master arrived, he flew into a rage.
He said she was being foolish, that humans and demons were different and could not marry.
He even threatened to kill Luo Qi and take her back to the sect for penance.
He forbade her from descending the mountain in the future and to focus solely on cultivation.
Jing Jia pleaded, hoping her master would grant her wish.
Her master had always treated her exceptionally well, so she thought his threat to kill Luo Qi was just an outburst of anger, meant to scare her.
So she pulled Luo Qi along, begging together, hoping her master would bless their union.
As a result, the Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Sect saw Luo Qi and immediately drew his sword, intending to kill him.
Jing Jia, not expecting her master to actually try to kill Luo Qi, stepped forward to protect her husband.
She engaged her master in combat, and Luo Qi naturally would not stand by.
He joined the fray, and the two of them fought the Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Sect.
This made the Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Sect even more furious. In his rage,
he unleashed the Heavenly Dao Boundless Sword, intending to kill them both.
Once the Boundless Sword was deployed, one sword could transform into thousands.
It was endless, hence its name, Boundless.
As a disciple of the Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Sect, Jing Jia naturally knew its power.
To protect Luo Qi, she also resisted with the Heavenly Dao Boundless Sword.
But her cultivation was still shallow; how could she possibly block her master, whose sword technique was perfected?
She was instantly defeated, her body shredded by her master's Boundless Sword, and she met her end.
The Boundless Sword was immensely powerful, capable of not only destroying the physical body but also harming the soul.
Therefore, those killed by the Boundless Sword could not even become ghosts.
Jing Jia vanished into thin air before Luo Qi's eyes.
All that remained were the golden hairpin that fell to the ground and her fiery red wedding dress.
Luo Qi went mad. He wanted to fight the Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Sect to the death.
He transformed his two purple-gold clam shells into a purple-gold shield.
Facing the rain of swords, he charged at the Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Sect.
He was originally an ancient rare species, the Purple-Gold Clam, whose shells were impervious even to the nine heavens' tribulation lightning.
As long as he hid inside, the Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Sect could do nothing to him.
However, he did not want to hide now; he only wanted to avenge Jing Jia.
But he overlooked that he had just completed his moonlight baptism.
Shedding his shell and growing legs had consumed all his cultivation, leaving him at his weakest.
Before he could even approach the Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Sect, he felt a searing pain in his legs and lost consciousness.
When he awoke, he found himself at the bottom of the碧波潭 (Bibo Pool).
A man in black stood outside his clam shell, looking at him.
The man in black told him that the Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Sect had already left.
His legs had been severed by the Boundless Sword, and at the critical moment, the clam shell had drawn his body inside.
The Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Sect, believing he had been annihilated, had departed.
It was the mysterious man in black who discovered he was not dead and brought him back to the bottom of the pool.
Although his life was saved, he had been wounded by the Boundless Sword.
His legs could never grow back, nor could he leave the clam shell.
He could even never leave the Bibo Pool again, or he would immediately perish.
But Luo Qi did not care. Jing Jia was dead, and he did not wish to live alone.
He wanted to go ashore; he wanted to die with Jing Jia.
The man in black's next words calmed him down.
For the man in black said that although Jing Jia had been pulverized and her soul scattered,
her spiritual obsession had been preserved, and she had now become a vengeful spirit.
He had a method to resurrect Jing Jia.
He could teach Luo Qi this method, but in return, he wanted the Tíhú Pearl.
Luo Qi had initially wondered why this mysterious man in black had saved him.
And kindly taught him how to resurrect Jing Jia, harboring some suspicion.
Upon hearing his request, Luo Qi understood. Without a second thought, he agreed.
This was because his Purple-Gold Clam clan were ancient rare species.
Born with three treasures within their bodies.
The first was their purple-gold clam shell, which could defend against attacks in combat.
It could also absorb enemies within, suppressing their cultivation.
The second was his inner elixir, also called the蜃珠 (Shèn Zhū).
Once activated, it could not only emit black light,
corroding cultivation and souls, but also enter dreams to kill people.
The last was what the man in black called the Tíhú Pearl, also known as the Spirit Pearl.
This was the pearl within his clam shell, but not all pearls within him were called Tíhú Pearls.
Only those over a thousand years old were called Tíhú Pearls.
His Purple-Gold Clams were naturally gifted. Inside his shell,
pearls under ten years old were called 迷魂珠 (Míhún Zhū),
which emitted a scent like orchids and musk, capable of instantly incapacitating people.
Pearls over ten years old but under a hundred were called 迷情珠 (Míqíng Zhū).
Their emitted scent could stir emotions.
Only those over a thousand years old were called Tíhú Pearls.
After refinement, they could provide cultivators with a profound enlightenment and advancement in their realm.
He had cultivated for two thousand years, and within him, there was only one Tíhú Pearl.
Furthermore, this Tíhú Pearl had to be willingly removed by the Purple-Gold Clam to be effective.
Therefore, if the man in black tried to seize it by force, it would not work.
It turned out that the man in black had saved him, healed him, and offered to help him resurrect Jing Jia.
All he did was to curry favor with Luo Qi, making him willingly hand over the Tíhú Pearl.
For Jing Jia, Luo Qi feared nothing, so why would he begrudge a Tíhú Pearl?
He immediately made the exchange with the man in black, and generously gave him many Míhún Zhū and Míqíng Zhū as well.
The man in black told Luo Qi that vengeful spirits would advance as their cultivation increased.
Similar to cultivation, a vengeful spirit would advance to become a vengeful demon.
When a vengeful demon advanced further, it would be like a cultivator ascending, undergoing a transformation.
At that point, they would shed their spiritual form, grow a new physical body, and regain their memories.
Therefore, what he needed to do was to create more vengeful spirits and vengeful demons.
For Jing Jia to devour, increasing her cultivation to the level of transformation.
In gratitude for the extra pearls Luo Qi gave him, the man in black promised.
After a hundred years, when Luo Qi had also prepared sufficiently,
he would bring Jing Jia's vengeful spirit back to the Bibo Pool.
This also resolved Luo Qi's problem of being unable to go out to search for Jing Jia.
So after the man in black left, Luo Qi remained at the bottom of the Bibo Pool.
Using his蜃丹 (Shèn Dān) to cast a dream-entering technique, he called himself the Great Immortal of Bibo and entered the dreams of the common people near Kongming Mountain.
He instructed them to offer young girls for him to create vengeful spirits.
As the hundred-year agreement with the man in black approached,
the nourishment he had prepared for Jing Jia to devour was almost complete.
He longed every day for the man in black to return with Jing Jia.
Instead, he was met by Ji Shiyou and Ming Yue.
And Jing Jia's golden hairpin. He didn't know what had happened to Jing Jia.
This left him somewhat bewildered. He had been at the bottom of the pool for so many years,
confined in the Purple-Gold Palace formed from his clam shell, with no one to confide in.
His bone-deep longing for Jing Jia had driven him to a state of near madness.
He desperately wanted to talk to someone, which was why he recounted his and Jing Jia's past to Ming Yue and Ji Shiyou.
"What a tragic story. If only we had known.
Jing Jia was so pitiful, we shouldn't have burned her to death with the dan fire in that ruined temple!"
After hearing the story, Ming Yue sighed from within the golden lotus, while Ji Shiyou wished he could sew her mouth shut.