Chapter 122#

An Wuxue suppressed the urge to step forward again.

—Everything around him, except for himself, was a phantom image.

This was Xie Zhefeng’s life and death.

But it was also the moment of Xie Zhefeng’s ascension.

He didn’t understand what Xie Zhefeng was trying to do, nor did he understand how Xie Zhefeng could have died during his ascension.

He could only watch as his junior brother pointed his sword at his own soul, as if he couldn’t see the ascension tribulation clouds overhead, and slowly forced the inner demon’s muddy energy within his soul together.

This scene seemed familiar.

An Wuxue had seen Xie Zhefeng force a flaring inner demon into a corner and split his soul to suppress it.

But that was only a small portion; while it would cause agony, it wouldn’t be life-threatening.

But at this moment in the past, the inner demon’s muddy energy in his junior brother’s soul was enough to envelop his entire sea of consciousness. Thick black spiritual energy surrounded Xie Zhefeng, appearing even more terrifying than the lightning tribulation from the high heavens.

Was Xie Zhefeng trying to root out the inner demon before his ascension?

As soon as this thought surfaced, he dismissed it.

Impossible.

An inner demon of this magnitude could no longer be instantly slain.

Why did Xie Zhefeng develop an inner demon before he had even ascended back then?

During those days of the Immortal Calamity, why had his junior brother never spoken to him about being troubled by an inner demon!?

And what was the “present” Xie Zhefeng doing?

With the inner demon not yet removed, he actually dared to trigger the ascension lightning tribulation, and even dared to have his soul leave his body before the lightning fell…

An Wuxue had only pondered for a moment when, before his eyes, Xie Zhefeng drove Chu Han to strike at his own soul!!!

In an instant, the man’s entire body went into spasms. Soul-cleaving was a hundred times more painful than scraping bone. Xie Zhefeng was in so much pain he nearly collapsed.

The Xie Zhefeng of that time was not the long-lived immortal who had weathered a thousand storms that An Wuxue saw now. He had never experienced the pain of a split soul. With just this one strike, he had bitten through his lower lip without realizing it.

But after that one muffled groan, he didn’t stop. He continued to use the Chu Han sword to separate his soul!

Strike after strike.

From about the seventh strike, Xie Zhefeng’s entire body was shaking, and even the surrounding spiritual energy was trembling.

He could no longer hold Chu Han steady with his spiritual power, yet he continued to bring down the sword. The blade didn’t fall accurately, and occasionally he would waste effort piercing his soul painfully.

He still did not stop.

The tribulation clouds grew lower and lower.

An Wuxue understood.

—He was racing against time!

Xie Zhefeng wanted to split his soul before the first lightning bolt fell!

“…What on earth are you trying to do?” An Wuxue murmured.

The Xie Zhefeng of the past could not answer him.

Even if An Wuxue had stood before the Xie Zhefeng of a thousand years ago and asked him this, the other probably wouldn’t have been able to answer—his junior brother was in so much pain he had almost lost consciousness.

Chu Han continued to flash with sword light.

Only a short moment had passed, but for someone undergoing the punishment of lingering death, it seemed longer than a mortal’s entire life.

Xie Zhefeng’s face was paler than the flying snow of the Frost Sea.

An Wuxue felt that Xie Zhefeng was about to give in.

Even he, watching from the side, felt the pain.

But Xie Zhefeng simply did not stop.

The famous sword that had been stained with the blood of countless demons was pointed at its master’s soul, clumsily and crudely separating nearly half of Xie Zhefeng’s soul.

The moment the part of the soul surrounded by the inner demon’s muddy energy was completely isolated, Xie Zhefeng’s whole body trembled, and he spat out several mouthfuls of black blood.

Xie Zhefeng suddenly fell from the lotus platform.

Sensing its master’s peril, the Chu Han sword hummed and sliced through the air, flying rapidly to Xie Zhefeng’s side to catch him.

Xie Zhefeng spat out another mouthful of blood.

The black blood fell directly onto the Chu Han sword, soiling the snow-white blade.

In the blink of an eye, Xie Zhefeng looked as if he were on the verge of death from severe injuries.

The ascension tribulation clouds were extremely dangerous. Those who died under the lightning tribulation far outnumbered the long-lived immortals since ancient times.

When the long-lived immortals of the past ascended, which one of them hadn’t been fully prepared?

Yet Xie Zhefeng first triggered the ascension lightning tribulation, then split his soul in two, and now looked as if he were about to lose consciousness during the tribulation.

But Xie Zhefeng’s eyes were unfocused as he looked into the distance, his lips moving slightly, softly murmuring something.

An Wuxue listened closely.

—“Senior Brother.”

He was calling for his senior brother.

Just those two words were more effective than any life-saving elixir.

Xie Zhefeng straightened his back again, sat up to meditate once more, and forced out the other half of his soul, which was still temporarily clear.

The two separated soul light spheres floated before him.

The surrounding spiritual energy surged violently.

The wind grew stronger, breaking the tall pines and turning the flying snow into sharp blades.

Rumble—

A muffled thud came from within the tribulation clouds.

The dark clouds pressed down; the lightning tribulation was poised to strike.

Before Xie Zhefeng, a faint, translucent skeleton began to take shape.

This empty skeleton glowed with a faint silver light. It was clearly still just a phantom, but for every bit it solidified, it gained tenfold the aura of slaughter.

An Wuxue’s mind wavered, even more horrified—this was a Sword Bone.

Cultivators have skeletal structures, and these structures naturally have innate spiritual energy.

An immortal cultivator’s skeletal structure senses the Heavenly Dao and is categorized as Jade Bone, Sword Bone, Formation Bone, and so on. It is the same for demon cultivators if they follow the immortal path; if they follow the demonic path, it is a Demon Bone.

An Wuxue was born with a Jade Bone. A Jade Bone is uniquely gifted in sensing the Heavenly Dao, and practicing and tempering the heart is always a bit clearer than for others.

And for those without a gifted Jade Bone, their skeletal structure carries their path, and everything else depends on cultivation.

Luoyue Peak consisted entirely of sword cultivators, so their physical bones were naturally Sword Bones.

In his previous life, An Wuxue’s skeletal structure was both a Jade Bone and a Sword Bone.

And Xie Zhefeng’s was a unique, murderously sharp Sword Bone.

Seeing this, An Wuxue already understood what Xie Zhefeng was doing.

But it was precisely because he knew that he was even more shocked.

“Slaying the Self…”

To ascend via the Unfeeling path, one must see all living beings without partiality. Whether it be all beings or oneself, kin or strangers, all must be considered with an even heart.

The partiality in this world lies in “emotion” and “the self.”

If one does not slay emotion, one must slay the self.

If the Dao heart is flawed, one must sever the threads of attachment. The word “slay” implies severing, a matter of personal conviction; one only needs to have no attachments in one’s heart. All who ascended through the Unfeeling path in the past followed this route.

“Slaying the Self” was actually even more straightforward—it meant sacrificing one’s life to sever the spark of vitality, killing oneself.

If a person is dead, where can there be attachments?

No one had ever done this.

Even the former greatest sword in the world, Nanhe Xianzun Qu Wendao, followed the path of severing emotion.

Because if one slays oneself, one’s life is gone. What is there left to talk about regarding ascension?

This path had only ever existed in ancient, handed-down records.

In his previous life, An Wuxue had even heard many Unfeeling path experts sneer at this route, treating “Slaying the Self” entirely as a joke played by ancestors on their descendants.

But Xie Zhefeng actually did it.

This man had actually found another way by taking a different approach.

That was to split off another “self.”

All immortal cultivators know that an inner demon is something that hinders cultivation.

If one is to ascend, the inner demon must be rooted out, otherwise nothing will survive under the tribulation clouds.

But Xie Zhefeng deliberately kept the inner demon, even taking a risk by allowing it to occupy the majority of his sea of consciousness. Thus, when he separated the inner demon, the soul occupied by the inner demon would be his primary soul—the “self” that needed to be slain on the path of Slaying the Self for Unfeeling ascension.

Afterward, he extracted his own Sword Bone and left it for the half of the soul that was clear.

The clear half of the soul occupied the skeletal structure, while the other half of the soul, surrounded by the inner demon, occupied the flesh and blood.

In this way, Xie Zhefeng split himself into two “selves.”

Then next…

An Wuxue watched blankly.

The soul occupied by the inner demon trembled and drifted back into Xie Zhefeng’s body.

…Just as he thought.

Next, Xie Zhefeng could only use the Sword Bone to manifest a form, undergo the tribulation with the Sword Bone body, and before the final lightning bolt fell, kill “himself”—kill the body that only had the inner demon left.

Using the bone to slay the body.

A perilous gamble; the slightest error would mean the total annihilation of his soul.

An Wuxue, witnessing this firsthand, was already breaking out in a cold sweat.

If he hadn’t known that Xie Zhefeng succeeded, his heart would be in his throat right now.

Right… Xie Zhefeng succeeded…?

Since he succeeded, why did he still have an inner demon a thousand years later?

Why—

His thoughts were cut off.

Because in the center of the pine forest, a sudden change occurred!!

Xie Zhefeng’s clear soul landed on the Sword Bone and was working hard to manifest a physical form.

On the other side, the body that had lost its skeletal structure should have been nothing but a walking corpse.

Without a skeletal structure, it was impossible for it to be a truly living thing.

But “Xie Zhefeng” slowly opened his eyes and stood up.

Amidst the fluctuations of spiritual energy, muddy energy was introduced at some point.

—Xie Zhefeng actually had two skeletal structures in his body!!!

One was a Sword Bone, and the other was a Demon Bone.

The Sword Bone had been extracted, but the Demon Bone remained. The body entered by the inner demon had a bone, and thus it actually became the living Xie Zhefeng!

The dark clouds blocked all light. In the dimness, An Wuxue saw the filthy spiritual energy around “Xie Zhefeng” gradually fade, eventually being drawn into “Xie Zhefeng’s” body.

That was clearly just the inner demon.

But the inner demon controlled Xie Zhefeng’s body with the Demon Bone. Its aura was no different from his junior brother’s cold presence. Looking from a distance like this, no one could say this wasn’t Xie Zhefeng.

An Wuxue’s mind was in great turmoil.

The moment he clearly saw “Xie Zhefeng’s” wooden and cruel expression, his eyes widened, and his pupils trembled violently.

He had no doubt that the person who struck that sword in front of the Luoyue mountain gate a thousand years ago was his junior brother.

At that time, his “junior brother” had looked down on him with such a cold expression, saying he got what he deserved.

He had never misidentified Xie Zhefeng.

And he truly had never misidentified him.

Because this was… “Xie Zhefeng.”

While An Wuxue entered the vision of the life and death of another brought by the Soul-Nurturing Tree essence, Xie Zhefeng also remembered everything he had forgotten about his ascension tribulation.

At that time, it wasn’t as simple as just rooting out the inner demon to ascend.

He split his soul and extracted his Sword Bone, thereby abandoning his own living body, intending to use the Sword Bone as his body and kill himself.

But he didn’t know about the existence of the Unfeeling Curse, much less that he actually had two skeletal structures.

The inner demon shouldn’t have been able to control his body to “come alive,” but the remaining demon bone became the medium for the inner demon to control the body, helping the inner demon temporarily become him.

The inner demon was something he had split off from his soul, so it knew everything he knew.

Therefore, the inner demon knew that it couldn’t take action against Xie Zhefeng—even though Xie Zhefeng had no power to fight back at that time.

Only Xie Zhefeng could resist the ascension tribulation clouds; a muddy cultivator would only have their soul scattered under an immortal’s ascension tribulation clouds.

Even if it had temporarily “come alive” within the demon bone, its end would be one of two—either being slain by Xie Zhefeng or being destroyed by the lightning tribulation.

The inner demon was not reconciled to this.

For so many years, no matter what it used to tempt Xie Zhefeng, he had never developed a heart for falling into demonhood.

Now, Xie Zhefeng was even taking a life-or-death risk for the sake of the common people and An Wuxue, intending to slay himself and destroy the inner demon under the tribulation clouds!

Not only had it failed to make Xie Zhefeng fall, but today it was also doomed to die.

It was all because of that An Wuxue.

It possessed Xie Zhefeng’s abilities and knew that someone had returned to the Luoyue Peak’s mountain-protecting array.

The returnee’s aura was chaotic and his steps were staggering; he was clearly severely injured.

It was An Wuxue.

It was his senior brother, who was as noble as the untainted snow and worthy of all the beauty in the world.

The inner demon chuckled.

It wove an illusion with spiritual energy to cover the ascension tribulation clouds above Luoyue Peak.

At that time, all the Luoyue Peak disciples looking up saw only the illusion of the tribulation clouds dissipating and immortal energy wafting out.

They thought that Chu Han Xianzun had finally ascended and emerged from seclusion, becoming the only long-lived immortal in the two realms and four seas at the end of the Immortal Calamity.

But the true Xie Zhefeng was still on the Burial Frost Sea, using the Sword Bone as his body to resist the lightning strikes that had already begun to fall.

Instead, it was the inner demon that stepped out of the Frost Sea with the Chu Han sword. It walked out of the Burial Frost Sea so openly and met the disciples who came to congratulate and report.

A disciple told it that First Disciple An had slaughtered the entire Lihuo Sect and had fallen into demonhood at the Thorn River, and was being hunted by all the sects.

The disciple asked tremblingly how the Xianzun would handle it, and whether to first open the Luoyue mountain-protecting array to shield First Disciple An against the sects.

“Oh?” it said with great interest. “Why open the array? The thirteen rules for executing demons were set by him personally. Falling into demonhood with one’s body is a capital offense. If there is guilt, he should naturally—be executed.”

…

Xie Zhefeng did not know what was happening in front of the Luoyue mountain gate.

He was struck by one heavenly lightning bolt after another. His soul was in pain, and his Sword Bone was aching. He was in a daze, as if he had forgotten what the four seas were and where the two realms were.

The only thing supporting him to live against the heavens was An Wuxue.

He thought that as long as he could successfully ascend, from then on, his feelings would no longer hinder his path, nor would they affect the state of the common people.

He would have destroyed the inner demon and could clear the four seas with his senior brother, and set off the fireworks his senior brother loved to see in a time of peace.

He endured until just before the final lightning bolt fell.

The Sword Bone, tempered by the lightning tribulation, was finally able to manifest a complete body.

But when Xie Zhefeng opened his eyes, he couldn’t see his true body, nor could he see the Chu Han sword.

With a thought, he sensed that the Chu Han sword was on the steps a hundred feet behind the Luoyue mountain gate.

In an instant, Xie Zhefeng reached the area behind the mountain gate.

He saw “himself” holding the Chu Han sword, walking up the steps one step at a time.

Chu Han was unsheathed, stained with the extinguished vitality of another, triggering frost; the surroundings were filled with falling, rootless wind and snow.

Xie Zhefeng was both shocked and stunned—how was this possible? He had already extracted the Sword Bone, how could the inner demon still control a boneless body!??

“The final lightning bolt?” The inner demon looked up at the sky, using Xie Zhefeng’s face, and said playfully, “You actually succeeded. What a pity…”

A pity for what?

Rumble—

The final heavenly lightning was about to fall.

Xie Zhefeng didn’t have time for detailed thought.

Having reached this step, he couldn’t afford any mistakes.

With a movement of his palm, the Chu Han sword immediately recognized its true master and returned to his hand with a swish.

The moment the sword light struck his own body, the inner demon smiled at him.

“Do you know what I just did?”

“We should…”

“See each other again.”

Xie Zhefeng was stunned.

Chu Han had already pierced through his body.

He died.

He killed himself.

His vitality was extinguished, and the lightning fell.

The final lightning bolt was a tribulation of questioning the heart. It had no power and would only destroy those whose path was incomplete but who dared to attempt ascension.

If the questioning of the heart failed and the Heavenly Dao did not permit it, Xie Zhefeng’s soul would be completely annihilated from then on, leaving not even a remnant.

He clearly felt death, but did not feel the pain of the lightning.

The wind and snow in all directions receded like a tide. He seemed to lose consciousness, and it was as if his soul fell into the Yellow Springs water behind the Star River path, but then immediately floated to the surface.

Was he dead?

Was he… not dead?

His consciousness returned to Luoyue Peak.

The Heavenly Dao had recognized his Slaying the Self.

The ascension tribulation clouds finally truly dissipated. Immortal power surged around Luoyue Peak, and the four seas celebrated together.

From then on, Xie Zhefeng lost his flesh and blood, leaving only his skeletal structure.

From that day forward, his physical form was always an incarnation carrying his dead bones.

A thousand years later, within the Thorn River, An Wuxue’s remnant soul aura vanished, and Xie Zhefeng’s inner demon flared up again.

Every time he left Luoyue Peak, he traveled as an incarnation, and it didn’t matter where his true body was.

Because his true body was only a set of immortal bones.

Because Chu Han Xianzun had already been a dead person who had ascended from the moment the tribulation clouds dissipated a thousand years ago.

The Yellow Springs water behind the Star River path had soaked up countless past lives and deaths, and blocked endless resentful souls that dared to try to turn back.

Only one set of dead bones had ascended to the azure heavens, waded through the Yellow Springs, and returned to the world of the living.