Chapter 140#
The memories that followed were incomplete.
When the Soul-Nourishing Tree spirit extracted Jiang Qing’s memories through Chunhua, Jiang Qing had not been dwelling on the details of the Immortal Disaster.
The past flashed by as quickly as drifting shadows.
An Wuxue could only see a blurred history.
He saw the beginning of the Immortal Disaster, when the first Turbid Immortal to ascend to immortality appeared, throwing the four seas into chaos within a single day.
Falling into demonhood prevented one from ascending to immortality—this had always been a natural barrier constraining immortal cultivators.
Once that barrier vanished in an instant, many geniuses also fell into demonhood and cultivated turbidity. Demonic cultivators became like an incurable plague, increasing in number.
Cultivating as a demon required turbid energy, but the turbid energy of heaven and earth was either deposited at the bottom of the deep sea where ordinary cultivators could not reach, or suppressed and purified by the towering pillars of heaven and the spiritual veins of the earth.
Beyond that, all the world’s evils—resentment, hatred, loathing, greed, and inner demons—could transform into turbid energy.
Demonic cultivators with low strength could not obtain the turbid energy beneath the pillars and spiritual veins, so they were left with only one choice.
Murder.
In those hundreds of years, the world was filled with wails of grief, and the ground was covered with bones.
An Wuxue watched the bloodlight of the past flash before his eyes, his heart burning with fire, and anger filling his chest.
He wished he could seize Jiang Qing by the collar right now and interrogate him.
Why?
What did they do wrong?
The one who abandoned the path was Qu Wendao; the one who broke the sword was also Qu Wendao.
If you cannot vent your revenge for your death and the breaking of your sword upon Qu Wendao, must you let the common people die in vain?
How innocent were they!!!
He watched the wronged souls of over a thousand years ago, powerless to help.
He saw Immortal Venerable Nan He and the Immortal Lord of Beiming fighting in the Underworld Sea; saw Chunhua’s edge in Nan He’s hand; saw him under the Ancient Tree, slaying the great fox demon; heard the peerless great demon kneeling and begging for mercy…
The Immortal Disaster lasted for several hundred years.
Every time Chunhua was drawn, Jiang Qing would know everything that Nan He knew, and thus An Wuxue also saw these past events mixed with Nan He’s memories.
At that time, Jiang Qing was still in the realm of a Turbid Immortal, and Jiang Qing’s shadow was behind many of the disasters during the Immortal Disaster.
He enticed the demons of the four directions and the Turbid Immortals to wreak havoc on the human world, and through his own connection with Chunhua, he knew Qu Wendao’s movements.
Thus, the demons of the two worlds could always avoid the trail of Nan He, the world’s number one sword, and successfully destroy the pillars and spiritual veins.
The pillars collapsed, the human world was in chaos, and the hidden fifth pillar of heaven, which governed karma, sensed the crisis of the Heavenly Dao and bestowed blessings upon the mortal world near Jingji Plain. An Wuxue was born; Jiang Qing sensed the karma and led demonic cultivators there, but unfortunately Nan He arrived too quickly, and An Wuxue, with his golden body and jade bone, still entered the immortal path.
Later, the Snow Demon tribe collaborated with Jiang Qing and, taking advantage of Nan He fighting the Turbid Immortals in Mingri City, broke through Langfeng City in one fell swoop.
When Nan He brought the young An Wuxue to defend Langfeng City, the city was filled with corpses, and only the few remaining immortal cultivators were still holding out in front of the City Lord’s Mansion.
They only had time to save those cultivators and Xie Zhefeng.
The Immortal Disaster lasted for so many years, and Jiang Qing always knew he was no match for Nan He, never acting personally and never showing his face.
The cultivation world only knew that the Fetal Spirit tribe was neither immortal nor demon, appearing to be leaderless, and gradually vanished during the Immortal Disaster.
But what kind of person was Nan He?
Qu Wendao had long suspected the root of this sudden disaster.
From then on, Qu Wendao began to plan the Great Karmic Array.
After many more years, An Wuxue achieved great accomplishment and established his path. By a stroke of luck, although Nan He did not know what was special about Chunhua, he happened to give this sword to his head disciple.
From then on, Jiang Qing lost his perception of Qu Wendao.
The next gap, An Wuxue was able to fill in based on what he knew and some guesses.
Chunhua passed into his hands. Although he was Nan He’s head disciple, he didn’t rank high when all the immortals were in the world, and there were many things he didn’t clearly know.
If he didn’t know, Jiang Qing didn’t know.
This step in the dark brought a turning point to the long-lasting Immortal Disaster.
But by then, the four pillars of heaven had been destroyed. Nan He consulted heaven and earth with the Qu clan’s divination method and determined that the path to immortality was almost severed, with only a thread of hope remaining—and this thread could not be obtained without seeing through life and death.
This path, from ancient times to the present, no one could walk.
The method of cultivating turbidity to ascend to immortality was still there, but immortal cultivators could not ascend. Turbid Immortals would only increase in number. If this continued, unless Nan He, the world’s number one sword, was immortal, the balance between immortals and demons would eventually be lost.
The only way to save this decline was to make the method of cultivating turbidity disappear completely, making it impossible for both immortals and demons to ascend!
But the method was already known to the whole world; was it necessary to kill everyone in the world?
That was impossible.
Nan He went into seclusion for many days, contemplating the ancient methods of heaven and earth, and finally thought of using karmic lines.
—He decided to sacrifice himself to his path.
On the day the immortals fell, Jiang Qing’s memory became clear again.
An Wuxue saw his Master find Jiang Qing.
“It really is you,” Nan He said.
His tone was neither sad nor happy, not even angry.
Array fluctuations rose from all sides, and the Great Karmic Array gradually fell.
Jiang Qing was trapped in the array, his eyes blood-red. He sneered a few times and murmured: “My tribe… is skilled in karma. This karmic method was something I taught you back then, which you then created by supplementing with the Qu clan’s array path. Now… you use it to kill me.”
He hated it to the extreme.
“Not to kill you,” the Sword Venerable said, “but to kill all of you.”
“You will die too.”
“The Immortal Disaster began because of you. Your resentment is a debt left from when I had not yet become an immortal. I should have thanked the common people with my death.”
“You can thank the common people with your death, but why could you break the sword and sever the karma back then? You truly have the common people in your heart, Qu Nanhe!!!”
“In the eyes of the people, you are so just and upright. If I die, will there be no one in this world to remember your sanctimonious selfishness?”
The mockery and ridicule of a thousand years ago drifted into An Wuxue’s ears.
He looked at his indifferent Master, looked at the nearly insane Jiang Qing.
His heart felt stifled.
When the immortals fell, the Luoyue mountain protection array had shielded him, Xie Zhefeng, and a group of Luoyue disciples within the sect. He had not seen the moment the array was completed.
He hadn’t expected it to be… like this.
It seemed he had never truly known Qu Wendao.
The one he knew had always been his Master, Sword Venerable Nan He.
The Master in his eyes a thousand years ago had the common people in his heart and was just and selfless.
But now he looked at the past through Jiang Qing’s memories and became one of the common people in Jiang Qing’s words.
In Jiang Qing’s memories, Nan He gave no further response.
The array was completed.
Immortal spiritual power poured into the Great Karmic Array. The immortals sacrificed themselves to the array, changing the great karma of heaven and earth. In all the karmic lines of the past, the existence of Turbid Immortals was erased.
An Wuxue “stood” in the array, his mind called back by the piercing light.
His heart shook, and he instinctively lunged toward Nan He, shouting: “Master!”
He had too many things he wanted to ask his Master.
Sword Venerable Nan He naturally could not hear the call across time and space.
He was just looking at Jiang Qing.
The spiritual light of the Great Karmic Array submerged everyone, swallowing Nan He’s distant and cold back.
The power of the immortals’ fall shook the heavens, and karma was changed!
From then on, the method of cultivating turbidity to ascend was erased from everyone’s memory, and the Turbid Immortals were wiped out by the karma of heaven and earth.
At the end of the Immortal Disaster, there were no immortals in the world. In the rush, Xie Zhefeng took over the position of Immortal Venerable with his half-step ascension realm. An Wuxue was appointed in the face of danger and began to travel the four seas, planning the Four Seas Ten Thousand Sword Array to replace the pillars.
It seemed that like a survivor of a catastrophe, the dust was about to settle.
—But Jiang Qing did not actually die.
The karmic fire burns brightly, and the soul is not extinguished.
At the moment the Karmic Array turned, he cut off his tail to survive, voluntarily slashing his realm down to the Tribulation stage, so he was not counted among the Turbid Immortals by the Karmic Array.
He escaped the erasure of karma, but was still broken into pieces by the power of the immortals’ fall.
After Nan He’s death, An Wuxue traveled the four seas to set up the Four Seas Ten Thousand Sword Array, and Xie Zhefeng was out all year round slaying demons. Jiang Qing’s cultivation had plummeted. He didn’t dare show his face and had to disperse his strength and soul, hiding across the four seas to recover.
The fetal stone An Wuxue found in the depths of the Underworld Sea was one of his incarnations.
The fetal stone had not been invaded by the merman tribe’s turbid energy at all.
It was because one of Jiang Qing’s fragments was recovering in the ten-thousand-fathom abyss. He drew the remains of the Immortal Lord of Beiming for his own recovery, but as a result, the merman tribe thought they had gotten lucky and produced a peak Tribulation stage great demon.
After An Wuxue and Xie Zhefeng’s dual cultivation, they encountered the fetal stone. Out of kindness, they sealed it in a purification spiritual array, which instead locked away part of Jiang Qing’s strength for several hundred years.
The next memories began to flow in fragments again.
An Wuxue’s divine sense was washed by the past of several thousand years, his thoughts in a tangle, and his soul exhausted.
Suddenly—
In his daze, he dully sensed that the barrier he had set up was broken!
Spiritual power brought a strong wind, sweeping before his eyes.
An Wuxue snapped his eyes open!
He saw Qu Jizhi’s right arm covered in blood, with a deep wound having appeared at some point, turbid energy rising from the wound. He wanted to raise his sword to act, but was constrained by the turbid energy.
Jiang Qing lunged toward An Wuxue!
Pei Qian looked flustered, just about to block this sword for him.
“Clang—”
Chunhua’s edge appeared, the tip of the sword striking Jiang Qing’s blade. Spiritual power collided, causing the floating ice to vibrate and the waves on both sides to surge!
Jiang Qing’s eyes were dark and sinister now that An Wuxue had peered into his memories, entirely losing his previous gentle and harmless appearance.
His sword momentum was blocked by An Wuxue, but his spiritual power became increasingly turbulent. Turbid energy stained the blade, and in the blink of an eye, he swung his sword again.
Qu Jizhi, sitting to the side and dispersing the turbid energy, shouted: “Head Disciple, Jiang Qing is too strange! I just killed his initial Tribulation stage immortal incarnation, and this is his suddenly appeared demonic incarnation. His strength has increased instead of decreasing; it’s a peak Tribulation stage cultivation!”
Peak Tribulation stage—Qu Jizhi and Pei Qian naturally could not stop him.
Right now, the entire Langfeng City could not produce a single peak Tribulation stage expert.
An Wuxue stabilized his breath and parried the moves.
His mind calmed slightly, his grief gone, replaced by anger as he said: “A thousand years ago, you forged a sword identical to Chunhua, entered the Lihuo Sect with it, and deceived everyone there into believing that the fifth pillar of heaven was still in danger and its spiritual energy was insufficient. You lied, saying you were entrusted by me, using Chunhua as a token of trust, to take away the remaining spiritual veins.”
Chunhua was a famous sword that had gone through Immortal Venerable Nan He and An Wuxue; who would think that someone holding Chunhua was an evildoer with schemes?
No wonder the sword marks of Chunhua in the scenes Qi Xun sent were so much more than in his memory—
“You used a fake Chunhua to dig away all the spiritual veins, and even took away the last words of Old Sect Master Qi and the others, causing the entire Lihuo Sect to suffer a disaster, with not a single word left behind!!!!”
Before he finished speaking, the spiritual power in An Wuxue’s hands surged, and Chunhua’s sword light rippled out, unstoppable.
Jiang Qing was immediately struck back by Chunhua’s sword intent. His aura grew disordered, and he retreated several steps.
He lowered his head, gave a muffled groan, and looked up.
An Wuxue met Jiang Qing’s gaze.
The floating ice shook, and the wind and snow hit his face, blurring his vision.
He stared fixedly at Jiang Qing, bloodshot streaks appearing in his eyes.
A long-lost anger weighed down on him. He took several deep breaths and bit his lower lip hard.
He tasted the blood on his lips.
He said word by word: “The people of the Lihuo Sect never did you any harm. Even knowing that the consequence of the spiritual veins being emptied was the entire sect sacrificing themselves to the disaster, not a single person was afraid, letting you take the spiritual veins.”
“Jiang Qing, you hate Qu Wendao for breaking the sword and severing the karma; you resent him for looking far and wide and living freely after abandoning his path and entering the Path of Ruthlessness. What about you? Aren’t you also trampling on the sincerity and trust of others, doing selfish things?”
Jiang Qing’s expression froze, and the hand holding the sword lowered slightly.
He nodded and said self-mockingly: “Yes.”
An Wuxue was stunned.
Jiang Qing, however, walked toward him slowly.
They had been at each other’s throats just now, yet Jiang Qing approached now without a sharp murderous intent, and the hand holding the sword did not condense spiritual power.
Qu Jizhi had been hurriedly expelling the turbid energy from his wound; seeing this, his brow furrowed, and his hand holding his sword tightened, ready to strike at any moment.
Pei Qian also stood on guard beside An Wuxue: “Suxue, what do we do now…?”
An Wuxue didn’t move.
His divine sense silently spread, approaching the barrier Xie Zhefeng had set up, wanting to detect something.
But on the other side of the barrier, besides the agitating spiritual power, there was still no movement…
Jiang Qing stopped in front of him.
They were less than half a zhang apart.
At this distance, no matter who suddenly drew their sword, if the other party was undefended, they would easily be pierced through the heart!
But Jiang Qing just stood there, looking An Wuxue up and down carefully.
The mockery on his face faded, his lips curled into a smile, and his eyes were filled with admiration.
An Wuxue found being looked at like this extremely strange.
His gaze grew darker and darker.
Jiang Qing didn’t look like he was looking at an opponent.
Instead, it was like—like a blacksmith looking at a sharp blade he had forged, an expert looking at a matchless sword technique he had created, a painter looking at his most proud painting…
“Suxue. This name was given to you by me.”
An Wuxue instantly felt completely uncomfortable.
Pei Qian immediately gave a “bah”: “A dog was barking just now! No one calls him by that name!”
Jiang Qing’s eyes rolled, still staring fixedly at An Wuxue. He gave a light laugh: “I like this name very much, so I’ve always hoped you could truly become Suxue. Unfortunately, you still chose to be An Wuxue.”
An Wuxue said coldly: “I have always been An Wuxue.”
Jiang Qing, with a smile on his lips, said to himself: “The people of the Lihuo Sect were indeed innocent, and I am indeed doing selfish things. So what? Speaking of which, I have to blame you. You sealed one of my fragments for no reason, locking away more than half of my spiritual power, causing me to not dare to act and hide for many years.
“Actually, I didn’t take you too seriously at first. I’ve seen too many self-important favored children of heaven, and in the end they all died. What I was worried about back then was Xie Zhefeng instead. I knew that ascending was basically impossible, but he was the person Qu Wendao placed high hopes on when he fell—I know Qu Wendao too well. To receive his final deathbed command, Xie Zhefeng must have had the potential to grasp that thread of a chance at ascension.
“At that time, I suddenly learned through Chunhua that Xie Zhefeng was in seclusion to strike the Immortal stage. Time was tight, so I could only secretly find the fifth pillar of heaven and sacrificed a lot of my cultivation to corrode the pillar with turbid energy. I wanted to destroy it completely before Xie Zhefeng crossed his tribulation while you all were unaware of its existence, severing the last thread of hope for ascension.”
He sighed, as if truly feeling pity. “Who knew the fifth pillar of heaven still had a connection with you and could actually call you here? You purified the fifth pillar and ruined all my plans.”
An Wuxue’s wrist, holding Chunhua, was trembling.
His chest heaved, his blood surged, and it was only a final shred of reason that pulled at him, preventing him from acting rashly at this moment.
Jiang Qing turned a blind eye to his anger and gave a “ya.”
He squinted his eyes and smiled, continuing: “In the ten-thousand-fathom abyss, you happened to seal more than half of my strength, and during Xie Zhefeng’s ascension, you once again stabilized the last pillar in the dark—I didn’t expect you to obstruct me again and again. How could I let you go?
“The An Wuxue I learned about through Chunhua was destined from childhood to sit in the position of the head disciple of Luoyue Peak. He suffered grievances without holding a grudge, was criticized without resentment, always putting heaven and earth, the common people, the sect, family and friends… everyone before himself.”
He said word by word, “Noble and pure, like a clear breeze.”
“Such a person… such a person who is much brighter than the Jiang Qing of the past. If he also encountered a close friend drawing a sword against him, was abandoned by his beloved, and was deserted by everyone, what would he think before he died?”
“So you only sacrificed the lives of the entire Lihuo Sect to load me with a foul name!?”
“Yes,” he said softly, “the extermination of the Lihuo Sect, falling into demonhood by cultivating turbidity, the ten-thousand-sect ambush—after the arrogance of youth comes everyone pushing over the falling wall, dying with no one caring, no one arguing for you—these were all carefully prepared by me for you.”
“In order to turn you… into another me.”
Jiang Qing admired him.
“Suxue, we are exactly the same.”