Chapter 46#

Chapter Forty-Six#

After flying at high speed for about a quarter of an hour, Xue Jingci finally arrived near the Heavenly Gate array.

Terrifying black clouds churned and vibrated in the sky. The brilliance of various magic treasures soared into the sky, causing the ground to shake and the mountains to sway.

The torrential rain poured down, constantly washing away the scent of blood, but it could not extinguish the overwhelming fires of war.

Whether they were cultivators of the righteous or demonic paths, they had all fought until their eyes turned red.

Xue Jingci quickly avoided the battlefield and focused all his attention on the Heavenly Gate array.

At this moment, the array was in a defensive state, with spiritual energy fluctuating on its surface, dispersing the sea of clouds attached to it and revealing its massive true form.

Dead and injured cultivators constantly fell from the sky. Blood dripped onto the array and was instantly frozen by the icy spiritual energy, only to be crushed soon after by reinforcements arriving to help.

Xue Jingci’s toes lightly touched the ground, and he landed at the southeast corner of the array, frowning as he looked toward the center.

In the thick curtain of rain, Xie Zheng sat cross-legged on the ground, like a cold and hard statue.

Even in the face of such a tragic battle, his expression remained cold. He was focused solely on repairing the array, without a trace of emotion in his eyes.

Others had long been used to Xie Zheng’s arrogant composure, but Xue Jingci keenly sensed something was wrong.

Xie Zheng’s current appearance was clearly due to the closure of his five senses caused by the decay of his divine sense.

The White Tiger was connected to Xie Zheng’s mind. At this moment, it was also pacing restlessly, as if it had lost its direction and couldn’t perceive anything around it.

Xue Jingci withdrew his gaze calmly and walked toward the other end.

The system followed closely and asked, “Host, the side mission wants you to help Xie Zheng through this crisis. Aren’t you going to save him?”

“He won’t die.”

Xue Jingci said thoughtfully, “But this array already has a clear gap; it must be repaired immediately.”

He sat down cross-legged and swept with his divine sense. In an instant, the structure of the entire array became clear.

He concentrated his mind and held his breath. His aura rose bit by bit, and he released his entire divine sense without reservation.

The long sword hummed behind him. The blade struck the array, emitting a cold killing intent.

Xue Jingci didn’t have the strength to slowly search for the gaps in the array, so he used the sword to attack and test. He soon sensed that fifty-two array stones had moved from their positions.

He opened his eyes. His dark eyes were quiet, adding a bit of solemnity to his pale face.

Blood flowed from his fingertips, and the little spiritual energy he had seeped into the array, wandering among the array stones along with Xue Jingci’s divine sense.

By the time he had repaired the forty-second spot, Xue Jingci heard a faint movement behind him.

Because he intervened to repair the array, the pressure on Xie Zheng’s side was suddenly reduced, and his whole body began to slowly recover from the state of closed senses.

The first thing Xie Zheng regained was his hearing.

Under the pouring rain, there was a faint, very slight sound of coughing—muffled, as if it had only accidentally escaped because it couldn’t be suppressed.

Xie Zheng found it inexplicably familiar. His heart tightened unconsciously, and he couldn’t wait to recover his other four senses.

Next, he regained his sense of smell.

A thick scent of blood spread across the tip of his nose—his own and that of others.

This scent was not unfamiliar to Xie Zheng; the bloody smell around him had been lingering since the battle began.

He made an effort to compose himself and looked around, but his vision remained pitch black.

Xue Jingci was still repairing the array. When he moved the fifty-second array stone to its proper position, his body became a bit unstable, nearly falling to the ground.

The system approached nervously and said, “Host, I see Xie Zheng is about to recover. Now that the array is repaired, we can leave.”

Xue Jingci nodded. The last requirement of the mission was for him to jump into the sea of clouds.

But just as he was about to leave, he remembered something and sat back down cross-legged.

The system thought he was worried about the danger of the sea of clouds and approached, using a paw to lift a jade pendant: “Host, this is the defensive item I exchanged with points earlier. It can withstand one fatal attack. Don’t be afraid.”

Xue Jingci didn’t speak. He just released his divine sense again, pulled out several top-grade spirit stones from his storage bag to act as array stones, and eventually laid down another small array within the Heavenly Gate array.

The system had followed Xue Jingci for many years and seen him lay down countless arrays, yet it couldn’t tell what kind of array this was.

It didn’t dare to make a sound to disturb him, but quietly nestled at Xue Jingci’s feet, watching him with concern.

The system knew Xue Jingci’s physical condition better than anyone. Without spiritual energy and having overextended his divine sense, it didn’t know how long it would take for the host to fully recover this time.

Fortunately, they would soon get the points for the side mission.

Time passed slowly. Xue Jingci finally stood up and looked at the system: “Let’s go.”

They passed by numerous people without causing any stir.

Those people were currently in a similar state to Xie Zheng—at a point of overextended divine sense and loss of five senses.

The kitten nestled against the side of Xue Jingci’s neck. Seeing his clothes stained blood-red and seeing blood seeping through his fingers when he coughed, it couldn’t help but feel heartache. “Host, what kind of array did you just lay down?”

Xue Jingci covered his mouth and coughed several times, but the scenes he had seen in the lower realm surfaced in his mind.

There was very little light in the lower realm. Solar wood and lamps were rare items. Throughout the year, it was only during the lantern festival that one could feel what bright daylight was.

This repair would make the array even sturdier than before, but the light filtering through would also be much less.

So, after thinking for a moment, he embedded another array within the Heavenly Gate array.

Xue Jingci explained simply: “It’s a mirror array. It can refract the celestial light of the upper realm.”

The kitten meowed, still not understanding: “But the side mission only said to repair the Heavenly Gate array. It didn’t say to lay down an additional array. Why did you…”

Xue Jingci was also stumped by its question. After thinking for a while, he answered: “Because… I want to leave a bit of light for the lower realm.”

Life in the lower realm was bitter, but those people were very strange. It seemed that as long as there was a bit of light, they could find the hope to endure the long night.

The system wanted to ask more, but the two had already arrived at the edge of the array.

Xue Jingci gripped the protective jade pendant and leaped. His white clothes were completely swallowed by the sea of clouds.

Xie Zheng also finally completely regained his five senses, and his vision gradually became clear.

He subconsciously looked behind him, feeling that the aura of the techniques left in the surroundings was extremely familiar, yet he couldn’t remember where he had seen it.

The sea of clouds in the distance trembled, as if ripples had been stirred up by a cold wind. A trace of blood-red vaguely flashed by.

Xie Zheng subconsciously took a step forward but was blocked by disciples from other sects.

The disciple was proficient in arrays and had come specifically to help with the Heavenly Gate array during this battle with the demonic cultivators. Seeing the array repaired now, he couldn’t help but feel high-spirited.

“Immortal Master Xie is truly the person pointed to by the prophecy. His divine sense is incomparably powerful. Just now we were all trapped by the array, our five senses vanished, and we couldn’t continue to repair it. If it weren’t for Immortal Master Xie taking action…”

Others heard this and gathered around to offer praise.

An impatient look appeared on Xie Zheng’s face. He tightened his grip on the Demon-Slaying Blade and walked outward against the crowd: “I also lost my five senses just now. Now that various sects are gathered here, perhaps it was some elder who took action to finally repair the array. It has nothing to do with me.”

Everyone looked at each other, momentarily forgetting to stop him.

Xie Zheng’s mind was in turmoil. He mounted the White Tiger and flew toward the sky.

Now that the gap in the Heavenly Gate array had been filled, the demonic army issued the command to retreat.

Xie Zheng killed many fleeing demonic cultivators along the way, only calming down slightly after the blade was soaked with blood.

He was in such a hurry to leave because he wanted to continue interrogating Chen Zhao.

That day, he had handed the golden pestle to Jiang Chengyi and arranged for others to meet Xue Jingci.

Who would have thought the contact person would be led away. When he arrived, he only saw Chen Zhao unconscious, still holding the blood-stained golden pestle in his hand.

The Torture Hall subjected Chen Zhao to severe punishment. Initially, he insisted it was Jiang Chengyi who harbored evil intentions. Later, after meeting the wife of the Medicine Sect’s young master, he finally admitted that it was he who had felt a murderous intent toward Xue Jingci.

But no matter how he was interrogated, he wouldn’t reveal Xue Jingci’s whereabouts. He only said that Xue Jingci was not far away before he lost consciousness, but upon waking up, there was no sign of him, and he didn’t know what had happened.

Xie Zheng personally searched the entire border but couldn’t find a trace of Xue Jingci.

Exactly at this time, the demonic army attacked and the Heavenly Gate array was damaged. He had to rush there immediately to repair it.

He had hesitated, but in the end, he only took Xue Jingci’s soul lamp and decided to continue searching after facing the demons.

Thinking of Xue Jingci, Xie Zheng’s heart throbbed violently. He hurriedly pulled out the soul lamp from his storage bag. Staring at the flickering flame inside, his breathing finally regained its steadiness.

“Xie Zheng!”

Xiao Xun’s eyes were bloodshot, and he blocked Xie Zheng like a madman. “Where is Master… where is he!”

Xie Zheng frowned. Before he could speak, a cold sword was pressed against his chest.

Xiao Xun’s hand holding the sword trembled incessantly. He stared fixedly at Xie Zheng, his expression disheveled and desperate: “You must have seen him. Where is he!”

“I should be asking you that.”

Xie Zheng coldly swung his blade, knocking away Xiao Xun’s sword, and approached him step by step.

“Chen Zhao said that Xue Jingci was injured by the golden pestle and his cultivation was abolished. How could he appear on this kind of battlefield?”

A mournful cry escaped from Xiao Xun’s throat: “You don’t understand… you don’t understand…”

He remembered how he had returned to the cave full of joy, holding the wedding dress, only to see blood all over the ground.

It turned out that all these days, Xue Jingci had been fighting against the love gu in his body and had never truly lost his clarity.

He would rather endure the heart-eating pain than fall in love with him.

In the end, he even used the spiritual energy in his blood to escape, just to come and save Xie Zheng!

Xie Zheng looked at Xiao Xun coldly, his face full of fury: “I haven’t seen him. You know what you did yourself. No need to put on an act in front of me!”

“You killed him. You’ve killed him again!”

Hearing this, Xiao Xun frantically swung his sword at Xie Zheng. Xie Zheng was already furious, so he immediately raised his blade to meet the attack.

Others around saw them fighting and came to intervene.

“Senior Brother Xie!”

“Junior Brother Xiao, stop!”

However, before those people could approach, Xiao Xun’s figure suddenly froze.

Seeing Xiao Xun suddenly fall silent, Xie Zheng felt some confusion, but he heard the crowd gasp. Only then did he look down at the soul lamp in his palm.

The flame shook violently in his hand, on the verge of collapsing.

He stopped abruptly, taking a sword strike from Xiao Xun as he stared fixedly at the weak light.

But soon, that bit of light went out.

Warm blood flowed down from the corner of Xie Zheng’s lips, yet he felt nothing.

The soul lamp was out.

Xue Jingci was truly dead.

Xie Zheng gripped his Demon-Slaying Blade and slowly knelt down, supporting his body. Finally, he spat out a large mouthful of blood and collapsed completely on the ground, unable to find a shred of strength to crawl back up.

Xiao Xun snatched the soul lamp from Xie Zheng’s arms and held it in his embrace, trying to use his body heat to make it relight.

But no matter how hard he tried, the remaining warmth on the lamp faded away bit by bit.

He stumbled toward the Heavenly Gate array.

Zeng Xuanlang, the young master of the Medicine Sect, heard the commotion here and hurried over to save people.

Xie Zheng had a special status. Learning that he had fainted, all the big names from various sects who were worth mentioning hurried over to check.

Zeng Xuanlang immediately applied needles. Xie Zheng’s face was ashen. Although he recovered somewhat and the wound stopped bleeding, he instead seemed to have completely lost his spirit.

Li Xuanfeng, who had just repelled the demonic army, was naturally extremely worried and asked, “How could he be like this?”

Zeng Xuanlang supported Xie Zheng and explained in a low voice: “Your root bone was naturally deficient. Logically, there was no way for you to draw qi into your body to cultivate. Someone once used a technique to reshape it for you. Normally, no problem can be seen, but you are near a breakthrough, which is why you had a fainting reaction when your mind was in turmoil.”

“Naturally deficient root bone?”

Hearing this, voices of astonishment came from the crowd.

In the upper realm, who didn’t know that Xie Zheng’s talent was extraordinary? How could his root bone be naturally deficient?

An incident from the past that he had intentionally avoided surfaced in Xie Zheng’s mind.

Back then, he had just taken Xue Jingci as his master. Every night he would see that person lighting a lamp and flipping through books, seemingly researching some technique.

But the next day, that person would only teach him to use brute force to swing a basic blade technique, not allowing him to practice any heart methods for drawing qi or refining the body.

It wasn’t until half a year later that Xue Jingci allowed him to officially cultivate and handed him a brand new technique.

Xie Zheng asked: “What kind of technique is this?”

Xue Jingci didn’t speak. He just chewed on a fruit and said casually: “I created it myself. It’s beneficial for you. Just practice it.”

At that moment, Xie Zheng’s heart, which had been frozen by the tragic death of his clansmen, gradually revived.

He knew that although Xue Jingci spoke lightly, he had spent countless days and nights researching to write such a technique tailored specifically for him.

Xie Zheng swore that he would cultivate well in the future and not let down his Master’s intentions.

But later, he didn’t expect that it was precisely because of this technique that he broke off with Xue Jingci.

He unintentionally discovered that many things in that technique were evolved from demonic techniques.

Without his knowledge, he had been forced to cultivate a demonic art.

Xie Zheng found it hard to accept and chose to simply leave and head to the upper realm alone.

Pulling his thoughts back from memory, Xie Zheng’s lips trembled, and an uncontrollable pain spread from his heart.

He had never thought that the technique he loathed so much was the very reason he could cultivate.

The technique…

It was that technique!

Xiao Xun’s tearful and questioning words flashed through Xie Zheng’s mind. Previously, he had been certain that he had never seen Xue Jingci here.

At this moment, his head only felt a ringing sound.

No. Not long ago, he had sensed an extremely familiar technique aura near the sea of clouds.

At the beginning, he and Xue Jingci’s techniques were from the same source, which was why he felt familiar with his aura.

But over these years, he had been desperately trying to make himself forget that technique and actually failed to remember it immediately.

That aura appeared on the array…

It was Xue Jingci who helped him repair the array and then fell into the sea of clouds from exhaustion.

Xie Zheng froze in place, forgetting everything around him, leaving only that faint blood-red in the sea of clouds.

Xiao Xun was right; he had harmed Xue Jingci.

He stumbled and ran toward the sea of clouds at all costs, staring fixedly into its depths, and was about to jump down without hesitation.

Li Xuanfeng tightly grabbed his arm and pinned him onto the array, scolding coldly: “Xie Zheng, you’re crazy! Do you know your identity? The safety of the entire cultivation world is tied to you alone. How can you be so impulsive!”

Xie Zheng knelt on the array, tightly clutching that repaired array stone.

the remaining aura had not dissipated, still holding the familiar spiritual energy of the technique.

For the first time since his parents died, he shed tears. He looked up at Li Xuanfeng and asked: “Back then, when Master broke the rules to take me as a disciple, was it because I was the person pointed to by the prophecy?”

A powerhouse in the upper realm had prophesied that within a hundred years, the demonic race would break free from the shackles of the array and cause life to be ruined. And the person who could save everything would come from the mortal world. Over these years, the Lingxu Sect had searched everywhere in the mortal world, and only Xie Zheng’s talent and character were the best.

Li Xuanfeng frowned: “What is this state you’re in! Being so reckless—I’m afraid we were all mistaken.”

“You are right. That person… was never me…”

Xie Zheng closed his eyes. his voice was extremely calm, but blood flowed from the corners of his mouth, and he suddenly laughed again.

“Master, this array was repaired by Xue Jingci. It wasn’t me. You truly chose the wrong person.”

A gasp came from the crowd.

Although over these days, because of Chen Zhao’s matter, Xue Jingci’s reputation had already been reversed.

But there were still few people who would believe that he could repair the Heavenly Gate array by himself.

Zhou Zimò had previously been resisting the demonic cultivators on the outskirts of the array. Hearing this, her brow moved, and she leaned down to inspect the array stones.

The aura of the technique left by Xue Jingci had almost completely dissipated, but Zhou Zimò soon discovered that another array had been cleverly embedded within the Heavenly Gate array.

She remembered when she first took Xue Jingci to the lower realm. She had actually admired this person in her heart, but thinking he was too arrogant, she didn’t praise him directly, instead using Danxia Grass to hint that she knew about him modifying the array.

Seeing Zhou Zimò’s strange expression, other cultivators proficient in arrays also leaned down to inspect and soon discovered this extra array.

“Elder Zhou, this…”

Zhou Zimò remembered the praise she hadn’t had time to say. Touching the array stone, she murmured softly, “You modified it well this time.”

With that, she fell silent and turned to leave.

The crowd fell into silence. Only the vast sea of clouds churned, as if wanting to swallow all traces.

On the ninefold clouds, worldly affairs were complex, but under the layered sea of clouds, there was another world.

Xue Jingci also didn’t know how long he had been floating in the sea of clouds.

Not long after he fell, the jade pendant shattered. He felt himself floating down with the mountain stream water. His body grew colder and colder, and finally, he fainted from exhaustion.

He lay in a patch of frost for a long time—so long he couldn’t perceive the passing of time.

It wasn’t until the spiritual energy in his body suddenly awakened that he gradually gained sensation in his fingertips.

In his muddled state, he seemed to be frozen stiff. He heard the system calling his name many times, but his divine sense seemed to be locked, unable to respond.

Until a white light enveloped him. A gentle power was injected into his cold body. Soul and shell were disjointed, darkness and light tore at each other in confrontation.

Xue Jingci thought sluggishly: what should he say when he met the Main God this time?

Perhaps his body was already dead.

But the system had once said that it had exchanged for some item that could save his life.

But if he lived but lost an arm or a leg, wouldn’t that be very ugly?

Then it would be better to change to a new shell.

The thoughts in his head floated about randomly. After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly remembered again, wondering if Xu Wang had given that amber fragment to Pei Huang.

He had broken his promise before; that little thief would probably be angry, right?

But immediately after, his body gradually regained a bit of sensation. He found he seemed to be being carried on someone’s back.

That aura was gentle and familiar. Xue Jingci couldn’t remember who it was, yet he still subconsciously relaxed his mind and soon fainted again.

It wasn’t until he was woken by the crackling sound of a bonfire that he opened his eyes and turned his head with effort. He actually saw Pei Huang sitting beside him.

And that person’s hand was currently unfastening his inner garment and reaching into his collar.