The Path Toward Heaven

The Green Sky Mirror was above them, and the Sword of the Universe was under them, but Jing Jiu and Tong Yan were not completely sealed inside. Fortunately, those dreadful fires couldn’t get in the space between the mirror and the sword. The only problem for them was that the metals were excellent transmitter of heat; so it didn’t take long before Tong Yan felt the scorching heat under his feet.

It reminded him of the saying “ants in the hot pan”; he leapt up in the air without hesitation, employing the Escape Method of Heaven and Earth of the Center Sect to hover sideways in midair.

Jing Jiu was fully aware that this was merely a temporary solution; he couldn’t even withstand the Chaotic Fire of the Sun Banner for too long, let alone other swords and people. If the situation went on, the Sword of the Universe would melt, and Tong Yan would be burned to death even before this happened. He had already predicted this, so he didn’t hesitate to call out Cold Cicada and put it on his head. Meanwhile he thrust his right hand in the air, and a big pit appeared on the ground, removing the dirt around him somewhere else.

An exceeding chill spread from Jing Jiu’s head to his feet, like an overcoat covering his whole body, with the rest of the coldness transmitted to the Sword of the Universe and then scattering in every direction, lowering the temperature in the space.

Seeing the small beetle with the snow white body, Tong Yan was startled, wondering what this strange treasure was and why it could even manage to reduce the heat of the Sun Banner.

Cold Cicada felt restless while crouching on Jing Jiu’s head. It had crouched on Liu Ada’s head; but it was quite different to crouch on Jing Jiu’s head than it was crouching on Liu Ada’s head. It was actually standing on top of its master’s head, which was somewhat disrespectful. And what did its master want it to do? Did Jing Jiu want it to put out these formidable fires? But, it was merely a snow beetle of the lowest state in the Snowy Kingdom, so it didn’t have such ability.

As Cold Cicada was thinking of all this, the voice of the Green Girl came out from the inside of the Green Sky Mirror that was bombarded by countless shooting flames, “That’s it! I have had it! I can’t stand it anymore!”

Glancing at Jing Jiu, Tong Yan thought that he had said that the Green Sky Mirror could resist the heat, but it didn’t take long before the mirror gave in.

Jing Jiu felt puzzled as well. According to his own calculation, the Green Sky Mirror should be able to resist the heat better than the Sword of the Universe; yet, the Sword of the Universe had just become red and not yet melted, but why did the Green Sky Mirror yield first?

The Green Girl flew out of the Green Sky Mirror while flapping her transparent wings. As she saw Cold Cicada on Jing Jiu’s head, her eyes gleamed. She rushed to Jing Jiu like the bees heading to the flowers. The Green Girl felt being cooled down a bit after she sat on Jing Jiu’s shoulder while holding his head sideways as well as Cold Cicada’s. “If you can’t find another way to get out of this, all of us will die,” she whispered into his ears.

It was evident that she meant that more than one person would die.

The sky became dark red in the Illusionary Realm of the Green Sky Mirror.

In a southern village of the former Chu State, the eldest son of Grand Scholar Zhang was eating the dinner; his hair was completely white. He was sweating fiercely in such a hot day; the millet porridge cooled by the cold well water couldn’t induce his appetite.

Looking at the bright and scorching hot sky, he threw the bowl on the ground and broke it into pieces, as he swore, “Damn it! What has happened to this world?!”

The eldest son of Grand Scholar Zhang was the first one to wake up after the Green Sky Mirror was sealed off by the ice. He found that this world was quite different from the previous one and time passed more slowly. Besides himself, nobody else had woken up; his son and granddaughters were still asleep, so were the other people in the village and in the cities. It was so eerie that anybody would feel scared of the situation.

His temperament was similar to his parents; and he was fearless in the critical moments. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have attempted the assassination of the Emperor without his father’s permission. If it were anybody else, they would be scared to death in such an eerie world. However, it took him only ten days to get used to the situation. Since a great amount of foods was stored in his house, he had no need to worry about starving to death, as long as he could cook the food himself. But, he was regretful that he had often criticized the cooking skill of his daughter-in-law, because his own cooking was awful in comparison.

As for those who were still asleep, they had no need for foods. He thought that they would wake up sooner or later, so he was not worried. He would take a preserved fish from one house one day and pick up some vegetables from another house the other day; he was living a leisurely and comfortable life. However, the whole world had suddenly grown very hot since this afternoon. Though it was dusk, the dark night hadn’t arrived yet, making him feel extremely uncomfortable.

He walked out of the small courtyard with the aid of a wooden stick. He crested a hill and looked at the distance. He had taken off all of his clothes, and the sweat was everywhere on his skinny body.

The green trees had become dry, on the verge of dying. If the situation continued, the rivers would dry up, and those people who were still asleep might be dead due to the extreme heat even before they woke up.

The eldest son of Grand Scholar Zhang turned his head and glanced at his own courtyard, thinking of his lovely granddaughter. His dry lips started trembling slightly, as he murmured, “Your Majesty, we are all going to die if you don’t intervene.”

…

…

All of a sudden, the sound of ringing bell occurred in the deep end of Jing Jiu’s Dao Heart.

He had already returned the bell to Sese; but where did the sound of a bell come from?

In the next moment, he vaguely heard somebody saying to him, and understood what was going on.

Though the Green Sky Mirror could still resist the Sun Banner for a while, that world couldn’t.

This result was a little bit different from what he had calculated, so he had no choice but to make some changes to his plan. He would have to use that method ahead of time, hoping that it wouldn’t affect the eventual outcome.

The shooting flames bombarded the Green Sky Mirror constantly, making thudding and dreadful noises. The flames shot up from the cracks on the ground, burning the Sword of the Universe frenziedly; one must be inclined to wonder if the sword would change back to the same fire rod as it was in the snowland.

All of a sudden, a large amount of dirt and sand appeared from nowhere, most of which fell on the surface of the Green Sky Mirror; the rest dropped on the ground, and some on the Sword of the Universe.

The Sword of the Universe gave off a buzzing sound, and a mist came out from the sword. The shaft of the sword grew dimmer, meaning that its temperature had dropped a great deal, so had the temperature of the Green Sky Mirror.

The Green Girl was startled, wondering where all this dirt and sand came from.

Remembering that Jing Jiu had grabbed at the air and looking at the large pit on the ground, Tong Yan wondered if the dirt and sand came from the pit.

But, the dirt and sand were ablaze at the time; why were the fires all gone by now? And why did the dirt and sand feel so cold at the moment?

By the edge of the cliff on the snowy mountain, Wang Xiaoming sensed an extremely cold energy on the other side through the Sun Banner, feeling stunned, and wondered what was going on.

The temperature of the Sun Banner was exceedingly high, much higher than anybody could imagine; but that cold energy had managed to extinguish a majority of the fires. How cold could it be?

Wang Xiaoming couldn’t fancy what kind of object could possibly have such a cold energy in the world; not even the Three-Foot Sword on Shangde Peak of Green Mountain could achieve such a feat.

…

…

To say nothing of the Three-Foot Sword on Shangde Peak, the chilly source at the bottom of Shangde Peak and the icy peak in the deep end of the snowland were not as cold as the energy contained in the dirt and sand.

The universe is the coldest place in the world.

Jing Jiu had sent the burning dirt and sand to the universe. No matter whether it was the Chaotic Fire of the Sun Banner or any other kind of fire, they would be extinguished instantly there.

The temperature of the dirt and sand had dropped tremendously.

Jing Jiu then brought them back and used them to cool down the Green Sky Mirror and the Sword of the Universe.

If Jing Jiu could send unlimited quantity of objects to the universe, the Sun Banner would be useless against him; but it was not the case.

If that were the case, any magic treasure and swordsman in Chaotian would be defeated by him with a flick of his fingers, let alone the Sun Banner.

Even if the process was similar to simply take out the money from a purse, one still needed time and effort to reach into the purse and take out the money from it; but in this case it was a large amount of dirt and sand.

The cold dirt and sand blocked those dreadful fires, but their temperature increased abruptly.

Jing Jiu was well aware that this method couldn’t resist the fires for too long, and told Tong Yan, “I’ll go kill him.”

“What are the odds?” Tong Yan asked.

Thinking of the secretive magic treasures of the Seal of the Underworld Emperor, the bamboo board and the Underworld Fairy Sword he had, Jing Jiu replied, “Two out of ten.”

The Green Girl commented worriedly, “This is not good enough!”

Jing Jiu said to the Green Girl, “It’s hard for me to die. If I couldn’t kill him, I would take you with me and leave.”

The Green Girl had entered his body and seen the dark and cold, boundless world in there, so she believed that Jing Jiu should have the ability to leave with the Green Sky Mirror. “But why won’t you take him with you?” she demanded.

“It’s because he is alive,” Jing Jiu said.

The Green Girl protested hurriedly, “But I’m alive too.”

“You two are different.”

Jing Jiu looked at Tong Yan and said, “If you have any last words, tell her first.”

Having said that, Jing Jiu took the Green Girl from his shoulder and handed her to Tong Yan, and vanished without a trace.

Cold Cicada looked at the surroundings in terror while in the Green Girl’s bosom, wondering if its master had disowned it.

Without the aid of additional cold dirt and sand, the temperature of the Green Sky Mirror was increasing rapidly; it grew redder by the second. If the situation went on, the bronze mirror would melt. The Sword of the Universe was in much worse condition; it started growing softer, looking like a noodle, or even a pancake.

Since the Green Girl was a spirit, she looked a bit better. Yet, Tong Yan couldn’t withstand such a high temperature. Countless holes appeared in his clothes, all caused by the fires. His hair was dry and withered, and many blisters had formed on his face and by his mouth. He looked a lot worse than the Sword of the Universe.

Cold Cicada crawled to and fro on Tong Yan’s face, trying to reduce the heat and pain for him. In fact, Cold Cicada was in the worst condition itself. Its snow white body had been burned red, and was on the brink of being cooked.

“Hold on for a little while. He might be able to kill the guy soon.”

The Green Girl kept on flapping her wings and evading the fires while flying around, as she cheered Tong Yan and Cold Cicada on.

“The odds of one out of ten are not good enough.”

Tong Yan told the Green Girl, “Get in the Green Sky Mirror. I’ll leave with you.”

It wasn’t until then that the Green Girl realized that Tong Yan must have a backup plan, feeling surprised. She wondered why you people who were good at playing chess were so relentless and cruel.

They would discard any chess piece without second thought, and hide their true strength until the last moment.

It suddenly occurred to her that Jing Jiu’s ability of playing chess was even better than Tong Yan; did it mean that Jing Jiu had also concealed a backup plan?

Hearing what Tong Yan said, Cold Cicada stopped treating his wounds and jumped to his shoulder, looking at the movements of his mouth closely.

Cold Cicada remembered clearly that its master had said that he had two out of ten chances to succeed, but this person claimed that its master only had one out of ten chances. Did it mean this person disbelieved its master or he thought its mater lied to him?

Yet, no matter what, this person had deceived its master; Cold Cicada thought that it would find a way to tell its master when he got back.

…

…

There was a hole on the other side of the snowy mountain.

It was created when the Sword of the Universe was blocked by the Sun Banner and flew through the mountain.

The snow flew out from the small hole, and more and more snow was flowing out from it later on, looking like a frozen waterfall.

This was caused by the avalanche that had happened earlier.

The foot of the mountain was filled with the snow.

The surface of the ground suddenly bulged and rose up gradually, as if a snowman was standing up.

It was indeed a snowman.

The snowman was very small. Its lower body was still submerged in the snow, so it looked even more miniature in size.

This snowman had a pair of black eyes, but nothing else. No nose or mouth could be found on its face.

It was totally white, except for the two black eyes.

The snowman looked in the direction where the heat came from, perceiving the scorching hot temperature. Its emotionless eyes were exuding a cold and dreadful energy.

…