"They made a wager with the Heavenly Destiny Exalted."
"The wager originated from a casual conversation between the two. The Sacred Tiger Exalted was belittling the people of the Lower Realms."
"He said he couldn't understand why those from the Lower Realms wouldn't stay put in their own world. Upon achieving the meager cultivation of a True Immortal, they would consider themselves extraordinarily gifted and insist on venturing into the Upper Realm."
"But everyone who came from the Lower Realms to the Upper Realm shared the same fate — being thrashed by the Upper Realm's geniuses until they were battered and bruised, physically and mentally shattered, before wallowing in despair. Utterly foolish."
"The Heavenly Destiny Exalted did not share this view. He cited many examples of people who had come from the Lower Realms yet dominated the Upper Realm."
"But the Sacred Tiger Exalted dismissed them, saying such examples were exceedingly rare. Even if they existed, those individuals could only dominate the Upper Realm — none could dominate an entire starfield. People from the Lower Realms simply could not compare to those born in the Upper Realm."
"The two were dead serious, and before long, they had grown furious with each other, arguing endlessly, each refusing to concede."
"In the end, the Heavenly Destiny Exalted declared that within three thousand years, a genius would emerge from the Hundred Refinements Mortal Realm. This genius would not only sweep aside the prodigies of the entire Upper Realm but also dominate an entire starfield's worth of geniuses. If the Sacred Tiger Exalted did not believe it, he was welcome to make a wager."
"The Sacred Tiger Exalted, unwilling to appear weak, accepted — and so the bet was born."
"But because both were consumed by anger at the time, they placed an extraordinary wager: the loser would have to cripple their own cultivation."
"The Sacred Tiger Exalted came to the Hundred Refinements Mortal Realm over two thousand years ago and set down a grand formation. The person the Heavenly Destiny Exalted had foretold never appeared. Convinced of his inevitable victory, he had been smugly congratulating himself, even periodically seeking out the Heavenly Destiny Exalted to humiliate him."
"But then, unexpectedly, Chu Feng appeared."
"The Sacred Tiger Exalted saw that Chu Feng matched the Heavenly Destiny Exalted's prediction perfectly — almost exactly as described. Terrified of losing the wager, he decided to eliminate Chu Feng by any means necessary. That was why he summoned the Blue Demon Killer God," the old monkey recounted.
"Is this accurate?" Chu Xuanyuan asked.
"I extracted the truth from them while punishing them. He shouldn't have lied to me. I just don't understand — the two of them were friends. How could a disagreement over a topic escalate to the point of crippling each other's cultivation?" the old monkey said.
"Because the Heavenly Destiny Exalted himself came from the Lower Realms. The Sacred Tiger Exalted's contempt for Lower Realm people was, in effect, an insult to him," Chu Xuanyuan replied.
"I see. But they were friends — even if there was cause, surely it shouldn't have gone this far?" The old monkey still didn't quite understand.
"The Heavenly Destiny Exalted obtained a tremendous fortune. His divination arts are no ordinary thing. What he did may have been in accordance with heaven's will. If not for his wager, the Sacred Tiger Exalted would never have come to the Hundred Refinements Mortal Realm to set down that formation, and Feng'er… would have missed one of his opportunities."
"And in my view, even if the Sacred Tiger Exalted lost, the Heavenly Destiny Exalted would not necessarily have truly forced him to destroy his cultivation."
"That wager was merely a way to get him to come to the Hundred Refinements Mortal Realm and remain there for three thousand years. Because the Heavenly Destiny Exalted understood perfectly well how deep the Sacred Tiger Exalted's hatred for him ran."
"So when the Sacred Tiger Exalted came to the Hundred Refinements Mortal Realm and stayed for over two thousand years — and intended to stay all three thousand — it was not merely to win. He wanted the Heavenly Destiny Exalted to destroy his own cultivation."
"Between the two of them, the heartless one is the Sacred Tiger Exalted, not the Heavenly Destiny Exalted," Chu Xuanyuan said.
"What caused the Sacred Tiger Exalted to harbor such deep hatred toward the Heavenly Destiny Exalted?" the old monkey asked.
Chu Xuanyuan smiled faintly, a smile laden with meaning, but he did not answer.
"It seems there is a story between them that no one knows about," the old monkey murmured to himself, curiosity evident in his voice.
Chu Xuanyuan still did not respond.
And the old monkey did not press further. He understood Chu Xuanyuan — what Chu Xuanyuan did not wish to say, no amount of asking could extract.
Not from him. Not from anyone.
"Did you deliberately drive them mad?" Chu Xuanyuan suddenly asked the old monkey.
"No. They simply couldn't withstand my power, and their minds collapsed into madness."
"Come to think of it, the fact that I now possess such cultivation is thanks to your Chu Heavenly Clan's ruins."
As the old monkey spoke, he unconsciously clenched his fist, and a look of both relief and pride surfaced on his simian face.
And who could blame him? Before entering the Chu Heavenly Clan's ruins, any one of those three could have obliterated him without effort.