Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The Underworld Master was undoubtedly the best swordsman in the Underworld, on the par with the immortals Tan and Bai; how come he was wounded by the sound of a bell?!
What was this small bell?
Tong Yan tapped the small bell in his hand again, his face turning even paler.
An invisible energy dissipated in all directions, as if it would freeze or destroy everything in its path.
Boom!!!
The cliff collapsed.
The Underworld Master let out a painful and furious shout as he came out from behind a rock, darting toward Tong Yan.
Tong Yan summoned his zhenyuan in an effort to tap the small bell the third time, but he couldn't bear the burden any longer, spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood that looked like the bloody rain.
He was on the brink of dying in the hands of the Underworld Master.
Looking at the countless soul fires in the night sky, Tong Yan displayed a regretful expression in his eyes. He held tightly onto a hard object in his sleeve while uttering an instruction.
As the wind blew over the platform and a green light flashed, Tong Yan had disappeared from the original spot.
Landing at the edge of the cliff, the Underworld Master looked at the energy in the distance as he wiped the blood stains from the corners of the his mouth with his sleeve, saying with a changed expression, "I didn't expect you to have the Scenic Cloud Bell and the Seal of a Thousand Miles…"
The blood stain on the blue cloth was as noticeable as the sound of the bell echoing in the air.
The Scenic Cloud Bell was a special magic treasure of the Center Sect. It was said that it was a natural divine object tied to the neck of the Unicorn since ancient times. It was as heavy as a mountain, so it was impossible to operate it like the flying swords and other magic treasures from a distance. One had to employ its power by holding it in the hands.
No matter how high a Cultivation practitioner's state was or even if they were disgraced immortals, their spiritual souls would disperse in agony as long as the sound of the Scenic Cloud Bell reached their ears. Even if they could survive by mere luck, they wouldn't have any strength left in them to resist further attacks.
If it were the Immortal Tan who had suddenly knocked the Scenic Cloud Bell, the Underworld Master would have no chance of surviving the assault regardless of how powerful he was.
Though Tong Yan was very talented, he hadn't reached their Cultivation state yet, so the most he could do was wound his opponent severely, but he couldn't change the situation completely.
Yet what the Underworld Master failed to wrap his head around was that the Scenic Cloud Bell was the magic treasure the Immortal Tan brought with him all the time and that the Seal of Thousand Miles should have been taken away by the Center Sect. So why did Tong Yan, a traitor of the Center Sect, have these two precious treasures?
…
…
"The world is on the brink of being destroyed at the moment."
The Immortal Taiping said to Jing Jiu, who was on the other side of the cliff, "The Underworld River will flow to the human world. By that time, all the disputes and arguments between us will end."
The strong wind was howling, and the sword lights looked like countless fallen leaves encircling the cliff. Nobody could stand anywhere near the two of them. The Immortal Guangyuan and Nan Wang came to midair on their swords.
Hearing what the Immortal Taiping said and sensing the changing energy of heaven and earth, the people were all stunned speechless.
If what he said was true, that the Huge Whirlpool would change the passage to draw a great amount of seawater to the Underworld and that the Underworld River would be used as a stove…it would be the end of the world for sure!
If a large amount of seawater met the Underworld River and the combined water were set ablaze by the wind from the Thousand-Mile Wind Corridor, the poisonous steam would rise out of the Heavenly Well and spread to everywhere on the ground and ocean. No matter how gigantic the world was, how could it withstand the boiling heat of a stove as large as heaven and earth?
If all this were true, how would they deal with it? Everyone gazed at Jing Jiu to see his reaction to the news.
"It's still the same old stuff," said Jing Jiu after pulling back his line of sight. "Why can't you think out some new methods?"
The Immortal Taiping replied with a faint smile, "It's hard to find new things in the world. The old ones are often the best and most effective, such as you and me."
"Over the last few hundred years, you haven't succeeded in anything; you should know the reason by now," said Jing Jiu.
"I've prepared for this event for hundreds of years. The only obstacle is the Green Mountain, but I'm on Green Mountain now."
Looking at the small green curtain sedan, the Immortal Tan, and the patch of cloud and fog, the Immortal Taiping continued, "These people are here for Green Mountain. Who will stop me?"
A majority of the strong swordsmen in the Cultivation circle of Chaotian had come here because of the Inauguration Ceremony of the Sect Master of Green Mountain. As a result, the defenses of the passages leading to the Underworld were extremely weak and easy to break down.
The plan sounded simple enough, but it was actually quite clever.
Hearing this, the Sect Master of the Great Marsh and the others were furious. Even those elders of Green Mountain who supported the Immortal Taiping had a slight change of attitude. The Immortal Guangyuan couldn't help but sigh in disappointment.
"Don't sigh," said the Immortal Taiping while looking at the crowd around Tianguang Peak. "The event has nothing to do with you people. The miasmas coming up from the Underworld won't be able to harm you in the least. You will live your life as usual, and actually, you will find that you can live a quieter life from now on."
"But, what about our family members? What about our descendants? They will all die!" an angry voice rang out in the sky. It was unclear which sect this speaker was from.
The Immortal Taiping said, "Those mortals will die sooner or later; there is no difference between dying a day earlier and dying a day later."
This indifferent answer echoed lightly in the surroundings of Tianguang Peak; but it silenced all the voices, because the statement contained something extremely nonchalant and cruel.
After a long while, a trembling voice rang out, "Master, why are you doing this?"
The speaker was Nan Wang. She looked at the Immortal Taiping blankly, her eyes full of bewilderment, as if she were still the young girl who had just entered the inner gate.
The Immortal Taiping flashed a favorable smile at her, but said nothing.
Many of the Cultivation practitioners qualified to participate in the Inauguration Ceremony of the Sect Master of Green Mountain knew the secret event a few hundred years ago and that the Immortal Taiping intended to kill all the mortals and establish a world just for the Cultivation practitioners; but they had no idea of the real reason behind his insane obsession.
Nan Wang had vaguely guessed the reason after she broke through the Heavenly Arrival State, but she still wished to get the answer from her Master.
"What is the purpose of Cultivation? It's the ascension of course. It's because that is the only path or the destiny of the human Cultivation practitioners."
Looking at the gray sky full of thunder and lightning, the Immortal Taiping went on calmly, "What place lies beyond a successful ascension? Is it the fairy land or the above world? Back when I looked up at the mouth of the Heavenly Well from the Underworld, I thought about this. Chaotian is the above world for those in the Underworld, but is it the fairy land? Of course not. It's only another place."
Many Cultivation practitioners were agitated, wondering what that place would be if it were not the fairy land that was found after ascension.
The others, like the Immortal Tan, fell silent.
The Immortal Taiping continued while looking at the Immortal Tan, "There is a powerful barrier between our world and the other world. Ascending is to break through the barrier. If you went to that world, you would find that it is not a fairy land, but a strange, cold and almost desolate world, and that there is an exceedingly powerful being in that world."
"You have never ascended; how are you so sure about this?" demanded Zhao Layue.
"I have been the person standing on the highest spot in this world going back many years, so I can see further than anybody else."
The Immortal asked the Immortal Tan, "Do you think I'm wrong?"
The Immortal Tan still remained silent.
Even as the Immortal Taiping spoke, he never stopped contending for the control of the Inherited Heaven Sword with Jing Jiu.
The Great Formation of Green Mountain encasing the peaks was descending toward the ground, the cracks on the ground widening.
The bolts of lightning in the dark clouds kept striking down, slicing the water in the lake on Bihu Peak into various shapes. The violent wind and snow on Shangde Peak grew stronger. The sword wills on the Sword Peak became increasingly more chaotic, forming a powerful sword will in the air to enclose the Immortal Taiping and Jing Jiu completely inside.
The sounds of trees breaking and cliffs collapsing were heard everywhere, making thudding and clanking noises.
The whistling wind blew in the faces of the Cultivation practitioners, making them look pale, their clothes flapping like the flags, yet the wind failed to disperse the patch of cloud and fog, and the face of the Immortal Bai was still invisible.
An aged and deep voice broke out, "The ancient scripts in the Zen Sect have indeed mentioned 'the heavenly demons in the outside world'." The speaker was the same old monk of the Fruit Formation Temple.
In fact, in addition to the ancient scripts of the Zen Sect, many books of other sects had some vague recordings of the sort, but for various reasons and due to different understandings, the conjectures and theories was hard to be verified, which was the same as a wildflower hidden among a vast field of green grass.
The Immortal Taiping asked Jing Jiu, "You should know what that coward on the Disgraced Immortal Island said, and you might have even seen it yourself. What do you say about it?"
Jing Jiu fixed his gaze onto a very faraway place after traveling through the ocean of clouds, the lightning and the wind and snow, but he didn't answer this question.
He had told Zhao Layue that he saw tens of thousands of flames on the burning flying swords after his ascension, watching as they traveled like shooting stars amid the distant stars.
If every flying sword was an immortal who had successfully ascended, how powerful would that world be?
Crack!!!
A few flashes of lightning illuminated Bihu Peak, followed by the raindrops falling down from the sky.
The sword wills of the Sword Formation of Green Mountain grew weaker after they fell down onto Jing Jiu and the Immortal Taiping; they couldn't even block the wind and rain coming from the real world now.
"This world is too weak."
The Immortal Taiping said this with disdain while looking at the peaks in the wind and rain.
The raindrops fell on his dark face, wetting his clothing. He looked a bit unkempt, like a farmer who was busy stopping the flowing water out of a gap in the river bank.
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The Underworld Master was undoubtedly the best swordsman in the Underworld, on the par with the immortals Tan and Bai; how come he was wounded by the sound of a bell?!
What was this small bell?
Tong Yan tapped the small bell in his hand again, his face turning even paler.
An invisible energy dissipated in all directions, as if it would freeze or destroy everything in its path.
Boom!!!
The cliff collapsed.
The Underworld Master let out a painful and furious shout as he came out from behind a rock, darting toward Tong Yan.
Tong Yan summoned his zhenyuan in an effort to tap the small bell the third time, but he couldn't bear the burden any longer, spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood that looked like the bloody rain.
He was on the brink of dying in the hands of the Underworld Master.
Looking at the countless soul fires in the night sky, Tong Yan displayed a regretful expression in his eyes. He held tightly onto a hard object in his sleeve while uttering an instruction.
As the wind blew over the platform and a green light flashed, Tong Yan had disappeared from the original spot.
Landing at the edge of the cliff, the Underworld Master looked at the energy in the distance as he wiped the blood stains from the corners of the his mouth with his sleeve, saying with a changed expression, "I didn't expect you to have the Scenic Cloud Bell and the Seal of a Thousand Miles…"
The blood stain on the blue cloth was as noticeable as the sound of the bell echoing in the air.
The Scenic Cloud Bell was a special magic treasure of the Center Sect. It was said that it was a natural divine object tied to the neck of the Unicorn since ancient times. It was as heavy as a mountain, so it was impossible to operate it like the flying swords and other magic treasures from a distance. One had to employ its power by holding it in the hands.
No matter how high a Cultivation practitioner's state was or even if they were disgraced immortals, their spiritual souls would disperse in agony as long as the sound of the Scenic Cloud Bell reached their ears. Even if they could survive by mere luck, they wouldn't have any strength left in them to resist further attacks.
If it were the Immortal Tan who had suddenly knocked the Scenic Cloud Bell, the Underworld Master would have no chance of surviving the assault regardless of how powerful he was.
Though Tong Yan was very talented, he hadn't reached their Cultivation state yet, so the most he could do was wound his opponent severely, but he couldn't change the situation completely.
Yet what the Underworld Master failed to wrap his head around was that the Scenic Cloud Bell was the magic treasure the Immortal Tan brought with him all the time and that the Seal of Thousand Miles should have been taken away by the Center Sect. So why did Tong Yan, a traitor of the Center Sect, have these two precious treasures?
…
…
"The world is on the brink of being destroyed at the moment."
The Immortal Taiping said to Jing Jiu, who was on the other side of the cliff, "The Underworld River will flow to the human world. By that time, all the disputes and arguments between us will end."
The strong wind was howling, and the sword lights looked like countless fallen leaves encircling the cliff. Nobody could stand anywhere near the two of them. The Immortal Guangyuan and Nan Wang came to midair on their swords.
Hearing what the Immortal Taiping said and sensing the changing energy of heaven and earth, the people were all stunned speechless.
If what he said was true, that the Huge Whirlpool would change the passage to draw a great amount of seawater to the Underworld and that the Underworld River would be used as a stove…it would be the end of the world for sure!
If a large amount of seawater met the Underworld River and the combined water were set ablaze by the wind from the Thousand-Mile Wind Corridor, the poisonous steam would rise out of the Heavenly Well and spread to everywhere on the ground and ocean. No matter how gigantic the world was, how could it withstand the boiling heat of a stove as large as heaven and earth?
If all this were true, how would they deal with it? Everyone gazed at Jing Jiu to see his reaction to the news.
"It's still the same old stuff," said Jing Jiu after pulling back his line of sight. "Why can't you think out some new methods?"
The Immortal Taiping replied with a faint smile, "It's hard to find new things in the world. The old ones are often the best and most effective, such as you and me."
"Over the last few hundred years, you haven't succeeded in anything; you should know the reason by now," said Jing Jiu.
"I've prepared for this event for hundreds of years. The only obstacle is the Green Mountain, but I'm on Green Mountain now."
Looking at the small green curtain sedan, the Immortal Tan, and the patch of cloud and fog, the Immortal Taiping continued, "These people are here for Green Mountain. Who will stop me?"
A majority of the strong swordsmen in the Cultivation circle of Chaotian had come here because of the Inauguration Ceremony of the Sect Master of Green Mountain. As a result, the defenses of the passages leading to the Underworld were extremely weak and easy to break down.
The plan sounded simple enough, but it was actually quite clever.
Hearing this, the Sect Master of the Great Marsh and the others were furious. Even those elders of Green Mountain who supported the Immortal Taiping had a slight change of attitude. The Immortal Guangyuan couldn't help but sigh in disappointment.
"Don't sigh," said the Immortal Taiping while looking at the crowd around Tianguang Peak. "The event has nothing to do with you people. The miasmas coming up from the Underworld won't be able to harm you in the least. You will live your life as usual, and actually, you will find that you can live a quieter life from now on."
"But, what about our family members? What about our descendants? They will all die!" an angry voice rang out in the sky. It was unclear which sect this speaker was from.
The Immortal Taiping said, "Those mortals will die sooner or later; there is no difference between dying a day earlier and dying a day later."
This indifferent answer echoed lightly in the surroundings of Tianguang Peak; but it silenced all the voices, because the statement contained something extremely nonchalant and cruel.
After a long while, a trembling voice rang out, "Master, why are you doing this?"
The speaker was Nan Wang. She looked at the Immortal Taiping blankly, her eyes full of bewilderment, as if she were still the young girl who had just entered the inner gate.
The Immortal Taiping flashed a favorable smile at her, but said nothing.
Many of the Cultivation practitioners qualified to participate in the Inauguration Ceremony of the Sect Master of Green Mountain knew the secret event a few hundred years ago and that the Immortal Taiping intended to kill all the mortals and establish a world just for the Cultivation practitioners; but they had no idea of the real reason behind his insane obsession.
Nan Wang had vaguely guessed the reason after she broke through the Heavenly Arrival State, but she still wished to get the answer from her Master.
"What is the purpose of Cultivation? It's the ascension of course. It's because that is the only path or the destiny of the human Cultivation practitioners."
Looking at the gray sky full of thunder and lightning, the Immortal Taiping went on calmly, "What place lies beyond a successful ascension? Is it the fairy land or the above world? Back when I looked up at the mouth of the Heavenly Well from the Underworld, I thought about this. Chaotian is the above world for those in the Underworld, but is it the fairy land? Of course not. It's only another place."
Many Cultivation practitioners were agitated, wondering what that place would be if it were not the fairy land that was found after ascension.
The others, like the Immortal Tan, fell silent.
The Immortal Taiping continued while looking at the Immortal Tan, "There is a powerful barrier between our world and the other world. Ascending is to break through the barrier. If you went to that world, you would find that it is not a fairy land, but a strange, cold and almost desolate world, and that there is an exceedingly powerful being in that world."
"You have never ascended; how are you so sure about this?" demanded Zhao Layue.
"I have been the person standing on the highest spot in this world going back many years, so I can see further than anybody else."
The Immortal asked the Immortal Tan, "Do you think I'm wrong?"
The Immortal Tan still remained silent.
Even as the Immortal Taiping spoke, he never stopped contending for the control of the Inherited Heaven Sword with Jing Jiu.
The Great Formation of Green Mountain encasing the peaks was descending toward the ground, the cracks on the ground widening.
The bolts of lightning in the dark clouds kept striking down, slicing the water in the lake on Bihu Peak into various shapes. The violent wind and snow on Shangde Peak grew stronger. The sword wills on the Sword Peak became increasingly more chaotic, forming a powerful sword will in the air to enclose the Immortal Taiping and Jing Jiu completely inside.
The sounds of trees breaking and cliffs collapsing were heard everywhere, making thudding and clanking noises.
The whistling wind blew in the faces of the Cultivation practitioners, making them look pale, their clothes flapping like the flags, yet the wind failed to disperse the patch of cloud and fog, and the face of the Immortal Bai was still invisible.
An aged and deep voice broke out, "The ancient scripts in the Zen Sect have indeed mentioned 'the heavenly demons in the outside world'." The speaker was the same old monk of the Fruit Formation Temple.
In fact, in addition to the ancient scripts of the Zen Sect, many books of other sects had some vague recordings of the sort, but for various reasons and due to different understandings, the conjectures and theories was hard to be verified, which was the same as a wildflower hidden among a vast field of green grass.
The Immortal Taiping asked Jing Jiu, "You should know what that coward on the Disgraced Immortal Island said, and you might have even seen it yourself. What do you say about it?"
Jing Jiu fixed his gaze onto a very faraway place after traveling through the ocean of clouds, the lightning and the wind and snow, but he didn't answer this question.
He had told Zhao Layue that he saw tens of thousands of flames on the burning flying swords after his ascension, watching as they traveled like shooting stars amid the distant stars.
If every flying sword was an immortal who had successfully ascended, how powerful would that world be?
Crack!!!
A few flashes of lightning illuminated Bihu Peak, followed by the raindrops falling down from the sky.
The sword wills of the Sword Formation of Green Mountain grew weaker after they fell down onto Jing Jiu and the Immortal Taiping; they couldn't even block the wind and rain coming from the real world now.
"This world is too weak."
The Immortal Taiping said this with disdain while looking at the peaks in the wind and rain.
The raindrops fell on his dark face, wetting his clothing. He looked a bit unkempt, like a farmer who was busy stopping the flowing water out of a gap in the river bank.
