The Path Toward Heaven

There was only one old man in the dark Fiend Prison.

If one could witness the scene, they would feel it odd.

The old man was conversing with himself, and arguing with himself.

He was now angry, then despaired, sometimes fearful, and sometimes hateful; and sometimes he was calm, almost nonchalant.

In the next moment, the old man started hurting himself.

He used many magic methods in an attempt to slice himself open. He acted like those uneducated women in the villages who wanted to dig out the ghosts inside their bodies.

He had even employed the Heaven and Earth in a Jar again, to change the Fiend Prison into a small hut.

The heaven and earth changed colors, causing thunder and lightning; the ground shook, with dusts rising up everywhere. Eventually, everything went quiet.

The old man was covered in blood, kneeling on the ground and holding his head. His appearances changed constantly, as if two people were struggling in the quilt nonstop, yelling dreadfully at each other.

“You can’t kill me! Don’t kill me! I beg you! I have only lived for thirty thousand years; I haven’t lived long enough…”

…

…

A voice suddenly burst out somewhere within earshot.

“Kill him.”

That voice was a bit weak, but very calm.

Another voice rang out.

“Please kill him.”

The voice was calm, but very determined.

Soon after, more and more voices burst out in the surroundings.

These voices came from the prisoners of the Fiend Prison.

The Fiend Prison became smaller, so they were all close together.

They were formerly the highly achieved swordsmen of the deviant sects or the formidable demons, and had survived the drastic change in the Heaven and Earth in a Jar.

They all desired to have him killed.

Only one swordsman of the Underworld said something different from the others.

He merely hoped that the Underworld Emperor could live.

However, he was like all the other prisoners of the Fiend Prison, willing to sacrifice his own life for the death of the Old Dragon.

“Kill him!”

The shouts of the prisoners bellowed out in a rhythmic tone, like an enraged battle cry.

…

…

Another violent earthquake occurred in Zhaoge City.

The lowering water in the large hole suddenly rose up, with countless sprays shooting out between the cracks.

Bu Qiuxiao and Yue Qianmen flew to a higher elevation to look down at the ground, with a grave expression. The rest had backed to a distant place just in time.

The powerful energies in the sky drew near Zhaoge City. Everybody sensed that something shocking was under the way.

In the ruins of Taichang Temple, Liu Ada was still crouching under that stone slab, his tail erect facing skyward, staring at the hole where the Fiend Prison used to be.

The filthy water spread out, and the ground was filled with debris.

His eyes was as sharp as a sword, staring at an unremarkable spot up ahead; his tail wiggled slightly, ready to strike at any moment.

In a corner of the ruins, a thin black snake was twisting and struggling, with wounds all over his body, the scales falling off.

Neither Bu Qiuxiao nor Yue Qianmen nor the figures in the Heavenly Arrival State in the distance noticed this.

Liu Ada lifted his front paw lightly and took a step forward, ready to launch a sneak attack at the opponent.

A hand suddenly reached out from the side, grabbed his neck and heaved him up.

The white cat that in the fighting mood was quite formidable, and he would scratch her face without hesitation even if it was the Immortal Bai of the Center Sect.

But he didn’t strike when he saw the person; it was of course not because the person had a handsome face.

Liu Ada was dumbfounded and baffled, wondering why Jing Jiu stopped him from going over to cut it into pieces so that both of them could eat it, as the stupid dragon had become a small black snake.

Jing Jiu held the cat to his chest without saying anything, and walked toward the underground filled with the rainwater and dusts.

The Fiend Prison was surrounded by formations on all sides, and those formations were very strong. It was unclear what method Jing Jiu employed to avoid activating the formations. He entered it trouble free.

Before he disappeared in the underground, Jing Jiu took a final look at the small black snake struggling in the mud.

…

…

The small black snake sprang up from the ground, and arrived in the sky a few miles from the ground. It twisted and struggled against the wind, growing bigger with each twist.

One minute later, the small black snake changed back to the original body of the Old Dragon.

Such a huge thing suddenly appeared in the sky above Zhaoge City, bringing with it a tremendous wind; as a result, many roofs were blown off, and a great deal of dusts rose up.

The huge black dragon was present in the sky, reaching a size about ten miles long and resembling a shadow in the sky casted by a distant mountain, or a very dark cloud.

The Old Dragon was still struggling and rolling about, appearing to be in great pain. Once in a while, a scale would fall off from the sky and drop to the ground, which would hit the ground to create a deep pit, or destroy a residential house.

Bu Qiuxiao flew to a higher place in the sky and looked down at the huge dragon, his expression grave.

Yue Qianmen also escaped to a distant place. His anger reached an extremely high level. Though he would like to help his great grandmaster, he was unable to get close.

Though the Old Dragon was still scuffling about painfully, the struggle and pain in his eyes grew fainter, even somewhat numb.

Suddenly, the dragon’s tail waggled toward the southern part of the city and sliced a patch of cloud there; and then he turned his body around, as if he was ready to head toward the north.

“Cultivationists, it’s time to strike.”

The serene and determined voice of Liu Ci, the Green Mountain Sect Master, came down from the high sky.

He and many other important figures realized that the spiritual soul of the Old Dragon had already been controlled by the Underworld Emperor and lost his sensibility.

If they let the Old Dragon leave Zhaoge City, the Underworld Emperor might have a chance to escape.

This would be something unallowable by the humans of Chaotian. To prevent the Underworld Emperor from escaping, killing the Old Dragon along with the Underworld Emperor would be the inevitable choice.

The Young Zen Master sang a Buddhist mantra in the deep end of the Lotus Cloud.

In the small green-curtain sedan, the Grandmaster of the Water-Moon Nunnery remained silent.

Bu Qiuxiao remained silent.

The Immortal Tan, the Center Sect Master, also remained silent.

Remaining silent didn’t necessarily mean they had the same opinion. The silence of the Water-Moon Nunnery meant acquiescence; the silence of Bu Qiuxiao was a sign of dilemma; and the silence of the Immortal Center Sect Master naturally meant their objection.

The Old Dragon was the divine guardian animal of the Center Sect and regarded by the Center Sect disciples as their great grandmaster. How could he let the Old Dragon have a mishap in front of him?

A cold and slightly nonchalant voice suddenly burst out, “A person escaped from the underground earlier. Who was he?”

Hearing the voice, Liu Ci arched his brows slightly, not uttering another word.

The Young Zen Master in the Lotus Cloud was silent now.

Bu Qiuxiao chuckled wryly, without saying anything, thinking that since the Immortal Bai was here, his and the others’ opinions were not important anymore.

The Immortal Bai was unparalleled in her Cultivation state and capability, and was the strongest swordsman in Chaotian, similar to the Green Mountain Sect Master and a few others.

She had another identity, which was the Cultivation partner of the Center Sect Master.

The entirety of Zhaoge City fell silent because of the sudden arrival of the Immortal Bai.

It was because of her identity and temperament, and because someone had just escaped from the underground as she said.

A formidable voice suddenly burst out from the ground.

“Did the Immortal intend to say that the Underworld Emperor had already escaped from the underground?”

A golden light ray rose from the Royal Palace and arrived in the sky.

The golden light was blinding, but it had a hint of benevolent Zen intent.

As the light ray faded away, the Emperor materialized.

The Center Sect Master and the others greeted him.

Regardless, the Emperor was the ruler of Chaotian at least in name, and his Cultivation state was not weaker than any of these important figures in the Cultivation circle.

Liu Ci chuckled. It seemed that he felt the Emperor had chosen an interesting moment to present himself.

The Emperor looked at a spot in the west and said to the Immortal Bai, who had been hiding all this time, “If the Underworld Emperor hasn’t escaped yet, he must still be inside the Old Dragon’s body. The Old Dragon’s spiritual soul is under his control. If he fled Zhaoge City, the inhabitants of the whole world would suffer.”

The Immortal Bai didn’t show herself, nor did she respond to the Emperor. It was evident that she was unpleased.

The Old Dragon above Zhaoge City had slowly changed the direction of his head.

Yet, the important figures in the sky still couldn’t obtain consent.

The atmosphere was both reticent and filled with anxiety in this moment.