The Path Toward Heaven

The clouds and fog had dissipated, and the sunlight shone on Green Mountain again. Every peak on Green Mountain could be seen clearly.

Shangde Peak grew a bit warmer.

The Dead Dog was not narrowing his eyes any longer. He lifted his head to look at the natural light streaming down from the opening of the well; the expression in his eyes grew considerably warmer.

In the deep end of the Sword Jail.

Senior Master Tai Lu’s shout grew weaker, as he murmured to himself, “Is this the one? Is it really the one this time?”

In that lonely cell, the Snow Girl was squatting on the bamboo chair, sensing the changes in heaven and earth. She fell silent for a while and then gurgled softly once.

The sunlight was the brightest on Tianguang Peak; and the hole on the stone monument seemed to be deeper and gloomier.

The Round Turtle under the monument opened his eyes slowly, the gloomy and profound expression in his eyes looking like that very hole.

Looking at the hole on the stone monument, Fang Jingtian remarked sentimentally, “Master, you’re absolutely right.”

…

…

In the ruins of the temple.

Jing Jiu’s feet left the ground, as he glided skyward.

Back when he was in the Fiend Prison, Jing Jiu had cultivated the Underworld Fairy Sword with the aid of the Underworld Emperor. As such, he became much lighter than regular Cultivation practitioners, and much cleaner as well.

It was because the murky energy in his body had been tempered by the soul fires, so he could glide like a fairy man.

However, he wasn’t gliding like the way he had done before at the moment. He wasn’t doing it unlike a human being at all, more like a flag in the wind or a mast on the ocean.

It was because he was still clasping Nan Qü’s hand. As his body drifted sideways in the air, Jing Jiu aimed his right hand at Nan Qü’s body.

His right hand had been wounded severely by Monk Duhai at the Fruit Formation Temple. Later, he looked for the whetstones all over Chaotian, and it took him one whole year to fix and re-sharpen his hand.

His right hand had totally recovered now; and in fact, it was even sharper than before.

He was quite familiar with this posture, because he had flown like this when he dug the tunnels under the Cold Mountain and other places.

He dug tunnels mostly for sharpening the sword, and also for practicing sword fighting.

Maybe, he had had this very fight in his mind at the time.

Seeing Jing Jiu drift in the air, Nan Qü showed strong alarm in his eyes.

However, it was too late. Jing Jiu had already flown away before the alarming thought had fully formed in his mind.

Whoosh!!!

Jing Jiu vanished from the original spot, and was nowhere to be found.

Nan Qü looked down at his body and found there was a big hole in it.

It was empty in the hole; but it acted like that round window at the Three-Thousand Nunnery, from which one could observe spring, summer, autumn and winter, and everything in the world.

Nan Qü vaguely understood what had happened.

The white cat stared at Nan Qü while squatting in a heap of grass, his eyes showing both sympathy and cruelty.

Nan Wang flew out of the hole in the cliff, ready to resume the fight; but she found Nan Qü was in such a terrible and unexpected state. She was startled, forgetting to utter further vulgar words.

…

…

Jing Jiu was flying in the air.

He had never flown so fast in this or his former life, no matter whether he rode on the sword or traveled by employing the Underworld Fairy Sword.

All the scenes on the ground turned into iridescent lines that quickly retreated backwards.

Jing Jiu thought that the traveling Thoughtless Sword couldn’t even move as quickly as he was at that moment.

Yet, this judgment didn’t come from a precise calculation; it was because he was currently in a state that was between a human entity and an object. At the moment, his Dao Heart was both clean and murky.

Strangely enough, he could, in such a state, see clearly the true heaven and earth from those iridescent lines.

The green lines should be the fields and mountains; the red lines should be the walls of the Baotong Zen Temple and the hotpots in Yizhou City.

The occasional white specks should be the rarely seen double hotpots in Yizhou City.

Afterwards, he saw a patch of blue color.

It was blue all over.

It was the same color for the sea and sky.

…

…

The West Ocean had the same color as the blue sky.

Liu Ci stood between the sky and the ocean, holding the sheath of the Inherited Heaven Sword in his left hand, pulling out an invisible sword with the other.

Once the sword sound broke out, it had ceased to stop, giving off a constant noise of metal friction.

It was unclear if the noise came from the sword being inserted into the sheath or pulled out of it.

Countless sword wills of heaven and earth gathered toward his right hand.

His figure under the sunlight looked extremely big and tall, like a godly man, or more like a giant who intended to slash the godly man with his sword.

Nan Qü’s body had suddenly grown dimmer.

The Godly Swordsman of West Ocean suddenly lifted his head and pointed his hand forward.

The Sword of Twelve Storey Building had returned complying with his summoning. Along with many cracking sounds, the sword broke into twelve sections.

The broken parts of the sword acted like the opened-up pagoda, enclosing his body like a layer of strong shield.

Liu Ci’s sword struck down!

No wind could be perceived in the sky; the air felt like a solid ice. The surface of the ocean was very calm, like a gloomy ancient mirror.

Yet, the absolute quietness gave off a sensation of being torn apart, as if the sky and the sea were retreating away.

It seemed as if the heaven and the earth were going to be separated after the sword struck down.

Everybody had sensed it; but nobody could react to it; in other words, nobody dared to react.

Hundreds of flying swords of Green Mountain lowered their tips to show their submission. The Lone Sword was the only exception, as if sword intended to express something.

The Immortal Bai spun suddenly and faced the south, the expression on her face changing slightly.

Bu Qiuxiao sensed the fear revealed by the Dragon-Tail Inkstone, and he arched his brows a bit.

What kind of a sword was the forthcoming one?

…

…

As that sword light appeared on the horizon, Nan Qü had made his move.

He vanished from the original spot.

Five puffs of smoke seemed to have appeared in the blue sky at the same time, but these puffs of smoke were more than a mile from each other.

It was merely the blink of an eye before Nan Qü had arrived at a very high elevation in the sky.

It seemed that Nan Qü wasn’t about to block the striking sword, but rather flee it!

The sword light was seen on the horizon a moment earlier.

The next moment, it arrived at the West Ocean.

The surface of the ocean was illuminated, as if the morning sun had arisen one more time that day.

The energy exuded by that sword seemed ordinary, being neither exceedingly clean nor desolate, devoid of lethal intent. It gave off no other sensations either, almost as if it were little more than s common flying sword, the very epitome of simplicity.

Only someone like Nan Qü and the Immortal Bai could tell that this simplicity stemmed from a plainness borne from extreme complexity, reflecting the saying, “Things return to their original state and truth after a great many remarkable experiences”.

The sword light had passed through where Nan Qü was, and kept on moving forward.

The Godly Swordsman of West Ocean stood in the sky there.

He had already stored his energy to the maximum extend, and he charged toward the sword light without any hesitation.

Countless huge waves formed on the ocean before dying down abruptly.

The sword light didn’t stop, and kept on moving forward.

Pah!!! Pah!!! Pah!!!

The Sword of Twelve Storey Building had broken into pieces.

A flood of fresh blood emerged from the body of the Godly Swordsman of West Ocean. He drifted toward the surface of the ocean, facing upward.

A figure in the upper state of the Heavenly Arrival had been wounded severely by one swing of the sword!

Moreover, the target of the sword light was not the Godly Swordsman; it was merely passing through him.

Witnessing this, all the onlookers were shocked speechless, and even the Immortal Bai felt a chill going to her core.

The sword light didn’t stop after knocking the Godly Swordsman to the sea. It didn’t even slow down a bit, charging menacingly and straightly forward.

A large patch of the sky was illuminated by the sword light.

The disciples of the West Ocean Sword Sect were falling into the sea in tandem; a great many of them had died in an instant.

The sword light suddenly entered the ocean, and then rose up again, vanishing from the eyes of the crowd, as it went to a higher elevation in the sky.

A moment later, a deep and painful cry could be heard in the deep part at the bottom of the ocean.

The huge and dark shadow was dissolving slowly.

The sea water was turning red.

Nan Qü had fled to a higher place in the sky at the moment.

The sword light was pursuing him closely behind.

Countless gazes followed the sword light.

Within a few seconds, innumerable residual remains of the sword light stayed in the sky.

Nan Qü was in front, and the sword light was close behind.

The speed at which Nan Qü was traveling at the moment was far beyond the imagination of the Cultivation practitioners.

Yet, he still couldn’t lose the sword light that was in pursuit.

The residual sword light and Nan Qü were getting dimmer, which meant that they were getting further away from the ground.

Eventually, they got so far away from the ground that the crowd couldn’t see them anymore.

However, nobody withdrew their line of sight away from the sky, instead craning their necks as they looked upward.

After a long while, raindrops suddenly fell down from the sky.

The crowd knew that Nan Qü was dead.

…

…

On the barren mountain.

Nan Qü looked around at the wild mountain.

The black coffin in the ruined temple and those rocks had all turned into the tiniest of powders.

The result was achieved by him and Jing Jiu, both of whom were the sharpest swords in the world, wielding their bodies as the swords.

The flowers, trees, stony rocks and steam of water had all mingled together; one couldn’t be separated from another.

Nan Qü had finally understood the principle.

Was this the “All in One”?

He wondered in silence, and then closed his eyes slowly.

…

…

Above the West Ocean.

Jing Jiu and Nan Qü stood facing each other in the Empty Realm, standing several hundred feet apart.

These two were closer to each other than anybody else in terms of the sword work in the history of Chaotian, disregarding the hostility between Green Mountain and the Foggy Island.

The following conversation occurred by means of their spiritual awareness.

Jing Jiu asked, “Is the current you still you?”

A baffled expression showed on Nan Qü’s pale face, as he returned, “I am, of course, still myself.”

Jing Jiu asked again, “Who is he then?”

“He is himself,” Nan Qü answered.

Jing Jiu remarked, “It makes sense.”

“Who are you then? Are you the All in One?” Nan Qü inquired.

Jing Jiu replied, “I’m Jing Yang.”

Nan Qü understood what had happened. He remarked sentimentally while looking at Jing Jiu, “How outstanding this sword is! How extraordinary this person is!”

…

…

There was a sword on Green Mountain that Nan Qü wished to see but dared not.

There was a person whom Nan Qü wished to meet but dared not.

Yet, he had seen and met both of them that day; so it was the time for him to leave the world.

His body had dissolve into countless light specks, dissipating without a trace.

This was the way the figures in the Heavenly Arrival State left the world, not to mention that Nan Qü was a sword ghost to begin with; as such, his light specks were more spectacular.

Jing Jiu’s line of sight followed those light specks downward.

Those light specks were wrapped with the steam of water, passing through the Empty Realm, turning into beads of water in the air and falling down as the raindrops.

The raindrops fell on the surface of the ocean without causing any spray.

The surface of the ocean, reddened by the blood of the whale, looked very tranquil.

The hostility that had existed for over a thousand years was finally over.

Seeing the scene below, Jing Jiu couldn’t help but feel a bit sentimental, as he said, “The wind stops for a lifetime; and the waves won’t form in a thousand years.”

But, he forgot he was in the Empty Realm, where air was absent; so no sound could be transmitted.

It was quiet in heaven and earth.

…

…