The Path Toward Heaven

The Center Sect and the Green Mountain Sect had been competing with each other for many years for the orthodox leadership, so it was natural for them to pay attention to each others’ styles. The old man was well aware of the energy revealed by the sword style of Green Mountain. As such, when Jing Jiu came out from the pond by riding the sword, he had already recognized that Jing Jiu was a Green Mountain disciple, and deduced Jing Jiu’s identity after some inference.

“The Green Mountain Sect has actually sent someone to contact the Underworld Emperor; do you intend to collaborate with the Underworld?”

The old man sneered, “Yeah, that evil man had already collaborated with the Underworld before, so this is the tradition of your Green Mountain Sect.”

No Cultivation practitioner could accept the accused crime of collaborating with the Underworld.

Jing Jiu didn’t intend to say anything more. “I’m not Zuo Rusui. Let’s be clear about that,” he said after a moment of silence.

“I don’t care who you are,” the old man said expressionlessly. “All I know is that you are a Green Mountain disciple. It’s an offense worthy of death to meet the Underworld Emperor in secret. Even if you could escape from here, the sentence would be the same. If you tell me your purpose of coming here and what you have done, I can spare you by not eating you up, and you will live a decent life here in the Fiend Prison.”

Regardless, he couldn’t possibly let Jing Jiu leave the Fiend Prison. Nevertheless, the old man had given a condition, meaning that he was willing to negotiate. The Old Dragon was the Divine Guardian animal of the Center Sect and was of a high status, who was now he was willing to negotiate with a young disciple of another sect. It was obvious that Jing Jiu’s Underworld Fairy Sword had been a tremendous headache to him.

Yet, it was impossible for Jing Jiu to accept his terms.

The old man said curtly, “This is my territory. No matter how fast you can run, you still can’t get out of here. If I had used my full power, you would have died a while ago.”

“It’s exactly because this is your territory that you can’t use all your might.”

Jing Jiu pointed out his predicament calmly. “And have you ever wondered why I have been fleeing the entire time rather than counterattacking?”

Jing Jiu was actually utilizing this pursuit as a means to adjust to his current body, like what he had done back in the small village learning how to farm and chop vegetables.

His body had gone through some changes again after learning the Underworld Fairy Sword. Under normal circumstances, it would take a few years for him to get completely used to such changes.

However, this pursuit and the mental pressure it brought had shortened this process greatly. He believed that the adjustment would be complete soon.

The assistance of a divine animal in the Dachen State was a valuable opportunity for Jing Jiu to become adjusted his body to the Underworld Fairy Sword, so he must cherish it.

The old man laughed out loud, full of mockery, as if he had heard the most ridiculous thing in the world.

Jing Jiu, in his current Cultivation state, couldn’t even resist a swordsman of the Dachen State for a brief moment, let alone defeat such a swordsman.

The Underworld Fairy Sword might be able to help Jing Jiu get closer to the old man, but how could he possibly harm him?

On the contrary, Jing Jiu had to keep a certain distance from the old man for the sake of safety.

So then, how could he attack the old man?

“The whole territory of the Fiend Prison is yours, so I have no way to escape from here no matter how fast I move.”

Jing Jiu said while staring at the old man, “In other words, if I attack anything randomly in this territory, I am actually attacking you.”

Having said this, Jing Jiu whipped his right wrist slightly, and the black iron sword pierced into the stony cliff wall nearby with a sizzling sound.

The surface of the stony cliff was dark green in color, having many flowing lines after being exposed to the high temperature and violent winds.

There were cracks between some lines, which showed the pinkish stony crust underneath, resembling disgusting rotten meat.

Jing Jiu inserted his sword deep inside the crack.

The iron sword, though it wasn’t very sharp, pierced into the pinkish stony crust; and the blood-red liquid came out from it.

It didn’t look like the blood, but more like the lava.

The old man’s body shivered like being struck by the lightning, and his eyes were full of fury and shock. “What are you trying to do, you son of a bitch?!” the old man yelled.

“Now that you know that I am a Green Mountain disciple, you are prepared to use the Method of Searching Soul to let me suffer the excruciating pain of my spiritual soul being cut into pieces.”

Jing Jiu said while staring at the old man, “It seems that the hostility of the grandmasters of the Center Sect toward Green Mountain was indeed very strong.”

The old man yelled sternly, “So what? I don’t like the flying grasshoppers of your Green Mountain! Just looking at the lot of you annoys me! I’d like to burn you all to death by fire.”

“I understand your feeling,” Jing Jiu said. “I don’t like the old men on the Cloud-Dream Mountain either. This is fair. You want to harm me; it is only fair that I want to harm you.”

In the beginning, the old man intended to swallow Jing Jiu and then retrieve his shattered memories using the Method of Searching Soul.

Jing Jiu had said at the time that all the pains the old man attempted to inflict upon the Green Mountain disciples would boomerang upon him.

Jing Jiu shook his wrist a little, and the iron sword twisted halfway in the crack, going clockwise. The pinkish inner wall had become even more rotten, and the fluid discharged like the lava.

The old man grunted once. The beads of sweat came out from his forehead and soon disappeared after being blown away by the wind; his voice trembled slightly.

“I am the heaven and earth, far and wide. The damage you have caused is not even as much as a bite by a mosquito. So you shouldn’t think the pain would make me…Ahhh!”

The old man suddenly cried out in horrible pain.

The dreadful cry echoed at the very large second level of the Fiend Prison, and it was a horrendous sound.

“The sword is poisoned!” the old man screamed dreadfully while clutching his stomach with both hands.

The pinkish stony wall was visibly rotting at a high speed.

The reason the stony was rotting was because of the greenish energy given off slowly by the iron sword.

What kind of poison could make this divine guardian animal feel so much pain?

There was only one answer.

It was his own poison.

It was the green water in the pond.

The iron sword had soaked in the pond water for three years, and it hadn’t eroded, instead absorbing the poison in the pond water.

The current iron sword was like the hand of a ghost reaching out from the Underworld River, and it could make anyone feel so much pain that they didn’t want to live any longer after being scratched by it even slightly.

The old man clutched his stomach, his face ashen. “Little rascal of Green Mountain!!” he shouted bitterly while staring into Jing’s eyes, “I must kill you and cut you into a million pieces even if I will suffer some internal injuries. And then I will imprison your soul and torment it constantly with the chaotic wind!”

As he said “Little rascal of Green Mountain”, the thunders had already rumbled in the Fiend Prison, with the violent wind whistling and the rocks rolling.

The water in the green pond shot up like a reversed waterfall to reach the top of the cliff, and then fell down like the rainstorm.

Jing Jiu evaded the violent energies with all his might. He was also like a candle flame in the wind, which could go out at any time. But when the flame was lit again, it had already been at a faraway spot.

Hundreds of bolts of lightning and thunder boomed at the same time, illuminating the whole Fiend Prison. The bolts of lightning as thick as large tree trunks looked like the forest in the barren and jagged field.

There was no way for Jing Jiu to evade the lightning forest this time. He dropped to the ground from the sky, two trickles of fresh blood oozing out from his ears, and the expression in his eyes grew dimmer.

Jing Jiu had already suffered injuries earlier. He could last this long because the old man was restricted from employing more powerful magic methods in the Fiend Prison.

However, angered by Jing Jiu’s attacks, the old man even employed the magic methods of the Dachen State, as if he was ready to cut his own stomach.

Since the difference of Cultivation state between the two of them was simply too big, Jing Jiu, facing such a crazy swordsman of the Dachen State, would have only one fate, that is death.

However, Jing Jiu wasn’t even thinking about the outcome. He thrust the iron sword in his hand into the ground in front of him.

The old man’s painful and angry scream echoed throughout the heaven and earth again.

The old man waved his sleeve furiously from a distance of one mile away; the chaotic wind rose up from the ground and carried a dozen thunder flames to head toward Jing Jiu from all directions.

Boom!!!

Jing Jiu was knocked to the foot of a cliff one thousand feet away.

He attempted to get up, but failed. All he could do was sitting on the same spot.

The fresh blood coming out from his mouth reddened half of his cloth, and then became black after being burnt by the residual lightning.

At the moment, Jing Jiu looked like a piece of botched Thunder-Soul Wood.

Yet, he was still quite calm, his eyes devoid of any fear or worry. He thrust his iron sword backward into the cliff wall.

The old man felt a sharp pain, like being hit directly. “Go to hell!” he yelled dreadfully.

As the old man spoke, he grabbed in the dark air with his trembling hands and created countless bolts of lightning, heading toward Jing Jiu.

…