Chapter 144#
Jiang Qing also looked up at the tribulation clouds overhead, saying in disbelief: “You actually dare to directly trigger the immortality-ascending lightning tribulation? An Wuxue, even if you don’t care about your life, you don’t care about the demon bone throwing the world into chaos either!?”
He had specifically left An Wuxue in a dilemma because An Wuxue had no other choice.
If he followed his plan, An Wuxue could at least preserve some things by making trade-offs.
But if he ascended like this…
Not only would An Wuxue die under the lightning tribulation, but the demon bone would ultimately remain unresolved—it was the worst possible choice.
Jiang Qing never could have imagined this.
“…How could you trigger an immortal cultivator’s lightning tribulation?”
He wanted to use An Wuxue to dig out the buried karma of the secret Turbid Immortal method from the fifth pillar of heaven. But if An Wuxue died, no one in the world would be able to find the fifth pillar, let alone the secret method.
“No…” He shook his head. “If you die in the heavenly tribulation, and the balance between Xie Zhefeng and Rong Ji shifts, with demons throwing the world into chaos, I still win!!”
His tone was confident, yet he raised the spiritual sword in his hand, which was identical to Chunhua, pointing the blade at An Wuxue and Xie Zhefeng.
“…What on earth are you trying to do?”
Xie Zhefeng didn’t even glance at Jiang Qing.
The snow lotus sword mark on his forehead flickered, and dark energy swirled around him. His sword bone’s immortal power had been struggling with the demon bone’s demonic power for a long time. That face, usually as cold as frost and snow, was now covered with a layer of eerie violence.
He stared fixedly at An Wuxue, his voice raspy: “Senior Brother, the Heavenly Dao is incomplete. The final lightning strike will lack the control of the Heavenly Dao’s power and be unrivaled. You…”
How could An Wuxue cross the tribulation?
He paused.
Xie Zhefeng had seen more than one immortality-ascending tribulation cloud.
He had also struggled against inner demons under those clouds, never once allowing them to shake his original heart.
But at this moment.
With the inner demon’s thousands of words unstoppable in his sea of consciousness, he said in a daze: “You will die.”
An Wuxue had already died once.
This hard-won lifetime…
Xie Zhefeng’s gaze suddenly darkened, his eyes instantly filling with blood-red color.
It would be better if he just fell into demonhood directly, killed Rong Ji, killed Jiang Qing…
No.
That wouldn’t do.
His eyes flickered, thousands of thoughts flashing in an instant.
He had once hoped so much that Senior Brother would forgive him and be with him, and even just now he was lamenting being unable to stay with his Senior Brother.
But at this moment…
He said hurriedly: “Before the tribulation clouds are fully formed, if you break your path and start over, the clouds will disperse on their own. Senior Brother, turn to the Path of Ruthlessness—”
An Wuxue placed his fingertip on Xie Zhefeng’s blood-stained lips, stopping his words.
As the tribulation clouds gradually condensed, his peach-blossom-petal eyes curved, and he gave a small smile.
“How could I do something as foolish as handing everything over to others? Junior Brother, trust me.”
The violent blood-red color in Xie Zhefeng’s eyes faded slightly.
“I asked you before, if there were someone I wanted to kill, would Junior Brother draw his sword for me?”
“…Naturally.”
An Wuxue gave a light laugh.
His eyes shifted, his gaze falling upon the wind and snow.
“Then I want you, now, to help me kill Rong Ji.”
Xie Zhefeng was stunned.
Rong Ji.
That was his biological mother whom he had never met until today, the source of half his bloodline.
And where the other half of the demon bone resided.
If he struck with his sword and dealt a killing blow, the demon bone would become one. His thousand-year immortal path and eight hundred years of soul division to suppress his inner demon would vanish in a single night.
He would no longer be the pure and noble Immortal Venerable Chuhan, but a demon destined to be unable to escape his fate.
But he was only stunned for an instant.
He nodded and said: “Okay.”
He promised his Senior Brother.
With a “hum.”
The Chuhan sword, which had been doing its best to block Rong Ji, turned back and returned to Xie Zhefeng’s hand.
The white-clad woman drifted down, her bare feet treading upon the hard ice.
She raised her hand, covering her mouth with her sleeve, and gave a charming smile.
Her sleeves were still stained with Xie Zhefeng’s blood. The sleeves fluttered, the bright red exceptionally striking against the white.
“Why stop fighting—my child?”
Xie Zhefeng took one last look at An Wuxue.
He turned, holding Chuhan, and walked toward Rong Ji.
Only then did An Wuxue turn his eyes to Jiang Qing.
Jiang Qing could not have imagined this scene at all, and remained standing there, utterly confused.
“You’re letting Xie Zhefeng kill Rong Ji? Triggering the lightning tribulation and letting the demon bone become one—is the Head Disciple lending me a helping hand?”
An Wuxue shook his head gently.
“I could actually kill you first right now,” he said, “but I want you to see with your own eyes the moment when I didn’t choose any of those paths, yet your thousand-year scheme came to naught.”
Jiang Qing’s cheek twitched.
“…Absurd!”
An Wuxue ignored him.
The tribulation clouds condensed, and the sky suddenly turned completely dark.
Heavy wind and snow, a dim sky—the vast Guixu Sea was like an abyss.
At this moment, the heavenly tribulation was formed, and the first heavenly thunder gathered within the layered clouds.
Xie Zhefeng stopped in front of Rong Ji.
The sword bone trembled, and immortal power condensed at the edge of the Chuhan sword.
Rong Ji felt his unchangeable murderous intent, and her smile faltered.
In the next instant.
The Chuhan sword light broke through thousands of demonic powers, shredded the gale, and cut through the thick snow.
Countless sword lights fell.
Xie Zhefeng held the hilt of the Chuhan sword and struck with lowered eyes.
Rong Ji had been able to push him back just now only because he couldn’t harm her in the slightest.
Now that he struck with full force, the power of a great demon was vulnerable before the strength of an Immortal!
The Chuhan sword light fell upon Rong Ji’s brow.
She looked down with a dazed expression, seeing blood blossoms blooming on her chest.
Chuhan passed straight through her chest, cold as the thousand-year-old ice of the deep sea.
A sword through the heart!
Xie Zhefeng rarely recalled the day Xie Zhui died.
At that time he was too small, having to use both hands to grip his father’s sword.
He wasn’t as tall as Xie Zhui; as the blade pierced upward into the other’s chest, both his eyes were covered by the blood the other spat out.
But now he was much taller than Rong Ji.
The blood of the last Snow Demon in the world didn’t stain his white clothes in the slightest.
The immortal power dispersed.
The great demon fell, and exuberant demonic power went in all directions, stirring up waves.
The woman’s figure vanished into the sword light.
Her final expression seemed to be only one of daze.
She had long been insane and didn’t know what Xie Zhefeng was doing.
Chuhan trembled slightly, the sword’s hum piercing the nine heavens.
The heavy snow between heaven and earth stopped abruptly.
From then on, there would be no more Snow Demon tribe in the world.
However, the immortal spiritual power in the world suddenly hitched.
Xie Zhefeng gave a muffled groan and suddenly knelt on one knee upon the hard ice, Chuhan stabbing into the floating ice to support his body.
The demonic power didn’t disperse; instead, it became even more rampant.
—The demon bone had become one!!!
In just a few breaths, Xie Zhefeng’s body was surrounded by turbid energy. He lowered his head, his whole body trembling.
An Wuxue swept forward and knelt before Xie Zhefeng. Just as the Chuhan sword was humming and the demonic power was nearly out of control, he leaned against Xie Zhefeng’s shoulder.
The man’s whole body stiffened.
His Junior Brother called to him with his last shred of reason: “Senior Brother… kill me…”
“Boom—”
Muffled thunder rumbled within the tribulation clouds.
Jiang Qing still stood not far away, shaking his head in alarm: “An Wuxue, what on earth are you doing? To have reached this step!!!”
He suddenly laughed loudly: “Xie Zhefeng has fallen into demonhood; he’s become a Turbid Immortal!!! Isn’t this still my win?”
An Wuxue’s calm voice cut through the gale: “Aren’t you curious why I triggered the immortality-ascending lightning tribulation?”
Jiang Qing’s laughter stopped abruptly.
An Wuxue closed his eyes.
His divine sense spread out, sliding into Xie Zhefeng’s brow and clashing with his Junior Brother’s divine sense.
But he didn’t touch the Life and Death Incantation’s yin and yang seals located in their seas of consciousness.
In a fleeting moment.
The fifth pillar of heaven suddenly appeared, standing upon the surface of the Guixu Sea, towering between heaven and earth, casting bright light in the darkness!
An Wuxue saw countless karmic lines spreading from the fifth pillar in all directions.
These karmic lines were things An Wuxue had been able to see faintly before.
Before he triggered the immortality-ascending lightning tribulation, he could only see the lines and could only seek things within karma.
Jiang Qing precisely wanted him to find the secret Turbid Immortal method from the karmic lines, which was why he had laid his plans until now.
But after triggering the lightning tribulation, he could not only glimpse karma but also use the power of the pillar to directly draw out these karmic lines.
The karmic lines spread out, and not only An Wuxue and Xie Zhefeng but even Jiang Qing could see them.
Jiang Qing was stunned and instinctively reached out into those karmic lines.
—Within them was the karma he wanted to retrieve!
But he only grasped at empty air.
This karma was something he could see but not touch.
Spiritual power condensed at An Wuxue’s fingertips.
A karmic line leaped out from the river of karma. The past karma that was out of Jiang Qing’s reach was easily taken into his hand.
He spoke to his Junior Brother, and also to Jiang Qing.
“Master indeed had no method for bone extraction. But I know where another path lies. By using my Path of Floating Life to trigger the immortality-ascending lightning tribulation, at the moment I have one foot on the path of an Immortal, the ascender can already borrow the power of the pillar.”
“The path I practice is the path of a thousand karmas in the vast floating life.”
The fifth pillar of heaven, which governed the world’s karma and was hidden in the mortal world, had chosen him during the chaos of the immortal disaster.
A thousand years passed in the blink of an eye. At this moment, he finally returned to the Heavenly Dao. His divine sense was connected to the fifth pillar, and from these countless karmic lines, he found the one belonging to the demon bone.
Only by all the immortals and Nan He together setting up the Great Karmic Array could the great karma of heaven and earth be changed.
But now, An Wuxue, relying only on himself, easily extracted the karmic line he sought.
Jiang Qing finally realized his purpose. His expression changed abruptly, and he swung his sword, heading straight for An Wuxue’s heart.
—He wanted to kill An Wuxue!
The Chuhan sword left Xie Zhefeng’s hand almost at the same time.
Xie Zhefeng was unable to help himself, yet Chuhan still struck without hindrance, piercing the chest of Jiang Qing’s incarnation in an instant!
At the moment Xie Zhefeng was about to lose control and absorb turbid energy into his dantian.
With a stir of spiritual power at An Wuxue’s fingertips, the karmic line shook violently and vanished into nothingness in an instant!!!
Presently.
At this moment.
The past karma related to the Snow Demon’s demon bone was destroyed by An Wuxue.
The past one thousand three hundred years, from Xie Zhefeng’s birth until this very moment.
All karma related to the demon bone was extracted from all things in the world and the cycle of karma.
An Wuxue rested against Xie Zhefeng’s neck and raised his eyes to look at his Junior Brother’s perfect profile, which looked as if drawn with ink.
He saw the violent intent in his Junior Brother’s eyes vanish completely, and the sense of clarity gradually returning.
He couldn’t extract Xie Zhefeng’s bone, but he could root out the cause of the past. Without a cause, the demon bone naturally had no effect.
From now on, Xie Zhefeng would have only a pair of proud and sharp sword bones.
He slowly rose.
Chuhan flew back to him and Xie Zhefeng, and blood spurted from the chest of Jiang Qing’s incarnation.
He looked at An Wuxue in disbelief: “You actually…”
“The demon bone no longer exists in this world, and the common people are still protected by an Immortal. In this game,” An Wuxue sighed, “is it still your win?”
Jiang Qing’s expression was distorted, and blood kept flowing from the corner of his mouth.
“I didn’t win,” he said gloomily, “and you… didn’t win either. If you had listened to me and found the secret Turbid Immortal method first before ascending, you wouldn’t have needed to cross the tribulation at all! But in order to obtain the power to change karma, you directly triggered the lightning tribulation. Even if you find the secret method now, it’s useless. The heavenly tribulation has arrived, and you’ve even severed the path of ascending by cultivating turbidity.”
He sneered: “You can’t kill me, and yet you’re going to die—no one can cross the nine-fold heavenly tribulation!!!!”
“You’re wrong.”
An Wuxue held Chunhua and stepped across the floating ice, one step at a time, until he stood before Jiang Qing.
“I triggered the lightning tribulation for two reasons: one was to extract the karma, and the second was to use the help of the Heavenly Dao to shatter your soul.”
Jiang Qing had already collapsed.
This incarnation of his was about to dissipate.
“The two worlds… are full… of my puppets,” Jiang Qing spat out another large mouthful of blood and used his last bit of strength to say disjointedly, “My soul… is everywhere… how can you kill me?”
“Fellow Daoist Jiang.”
An Wuxue’s voice drifted in the fierce wind.
“Haven’t you noticed that the tribulation clouds you see when you look up aren’t just locked onto me—they’ve also locked onto you?”
Jiang Qing’s pupils shrank.
He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything.
The incarnation suddenly dissipated.
But An Wuxue knew he was there.
And knew his soul was escaping into a new incarnation.
His low words were like a chant washing over the sea.
“I can’t find you, but the Heavenly Dao can find you easily.”
Before his words fell.
The first heavenly thunder had already fallen!
An Wuxue had long possessed the strength to cross the heavenly tribulation. The first heavenly thunder was not difficult for him.
Spiritual power flourished around him, easily blocking the might of the heavenly thunder.
At the same time.
The tribulation clouds actually spread to another part of the Guixu Sea, and the first heavenly thunder suddenly fell there too!!!
Jiang Qing appeared above the sea and had to meet the lightning tribulation with all his strength.
In this instant, he finally understood what An Wuxue had done.
“An Wuxue!!!”
The second lightning tribulation followed close behind.
Another of Jiang Qing’s incarnations died under the heavenly thunder.
This was an immortal cultivator’s immortality-ascending lightning tribulation; when it fell upon someone who cultivated turbidity, the power was even greater.
Chunhua blocked the lightning tribulation above An Wuxue’s head. An Wuxue used his divine sense to transmit his voice to the person fleeing across the vast sea: “This move was taught to me by you, Fellow Daoist.”
“When the master of a puppet mark crosses a tribulation, under the lightning tribulation, all spiritual tools or people inscribed with the puppet mark will be called to account by the Heavenly Dao together.”
“The day I interrogated Qu Wenxin, I wanted to see your soul not because I thought I could see anything from it, but to set down such a puppet mark.”
“This puppet mark was modified by me. It’s silent and invisible, it can’t control the person it’s placed on, and it doesn’t need to be supplied with spiritual power. Its only use is to connect me and this puppet mark. I originally only thought that since it was in your soul, if I ever truly clashed with the person behind the scenes, I might be able to see if they also had such a mark in their soul—that was all.”
Ultimately, this puppet mark lay hidden within Jiang Qing’s soul until it was triggered by him now.
The heavenly thunder counted Jiang Qing as an aid to his tribulation.
He was able to use the power of the Heavenly Dao to kill Jiang Qing!
Several lightning tribulations fell in succession.
It had already reached the seventh tribulation.
Chunhua’s power to block the tribulation slowed slightly—the power of the lightning tribulation was growing heavier and heavier.
And no matter how far Jiang Qing escaped, the tribulation clouds spread to follow him.
“No, impossible…!”
“Even Qu Wendao couldn’t kill me, how can you!?”
“You won’t be able to cross the ninth heavenly thunder either. An Wuxue, if I die, will you be able to live?”
An Wuxue said not a word.
He didn’t want Jiang Qing to escape the Guixu Sea boundary and bring this impossible-to-cross lightning tribulation into Langfeng City.
With a stir of his mind, the ancient transmission talisman Qin Wei had left him before floated in front of him.
This talisman could transmit to any place in the world.
The talisman vibrated, and An Wuxue struck with Chunhua’s sword intent.
The sword intent of his full-force strike passed through the transmission talisman and reached Jiang Qing in the blink of an eye.
Jiang Qing had just withstood An Wuxue’s seventh lightning tribulation, having destroyed an unknown number of puppet incarnations.
He was currently re-possessing a new puppet.
In the blink of an eye, Chunhua’s sword intent arrived abruptly and pierced his brow without another word!
At the same time, the eighth heavenly thunder fell.
Chunhua’s sword intent, drawing upon the vast power of the Heavenly Dao, rippled into Jiang Qing’s soul!
His eyes suddenly widened, his pupils shrank, and his black eyes gazed blankly toward the north, somewhere unknown.
He didn’t even have time to say a single word.
The power of the Heavenly Dao’s lightning tribulation has the ability to question the heart. When it falls upon a cultivator’s body, if they die within the power of the heavenly tribulation, their past will flash before their eyes in an instant.
His expression was vacant, his eyes hollow, yet he seemed to see many pasts he had already seen.
But his past was thousands of years of suffering in the depths of the Underworld Sea, a life worse than death.
Loneliness.
Pain.
Silence.
Hatred.
Powerlessness.
In the blink of an eye, Jiang Qing showed a look of agony, and the light in his eyes suddenly vanished.
Heaven and earth seemed to fall silent for a moment.
With a “clang.”
The sword intent rippled out.
The incarnation crashed down.
The karmic fire mark at the corner of his eye faded.
The tribulation clouds chasing Jiang Qing suddenly dispersed.
Among the thousands of winds in the Guixu Sea, an unknown one carrying the wind from Beiming blew away thousands of years of the past.
The karmic fire was extinguished, and the soul shattered.
He was dead.
He was truly and properly dead.
Dead under the first sword he had ever forged.
His bones were gone, and his soul was annihilated.
Chunhua’s sword intent didn’t stop, rippling out of the sea area and opening a barrier.
In the distance, it seemed that cultivators were coming to investigate the situation.
With the barrier open, everything from the outside world could not reach An Wuxue’s eyes beyond the lightning tribulation.
An Wuxue had just withstood the eighth lightning tribulation.
His internal organs were severely shaken, and his meridians were so painful they were numb.
In order to kill Jiang Qing, he had included Jiang Qing, a half-step ascended demonic cultivator, in his own tribulation range. The lightning’s power was already immense, and now it was even harder to withstand.
He had already exhausted his spiritual power.
He only felt a fishy sweetness in his throat, and his whole body was weak; he could barely stand.
He was about to use Chunhua to support himself.
The man who had just regained his clarity took him into his arms.
The cold breath enveloped him. On this chilly sea area, it was exceptionally warm.
Immortal spiritual power was passed into his meridians through the puppet mark.
The other’s voice was laden with the despair and choking sobs he rarely heard: “Senior Brother, you have one more lightning tribulation.”
The Snow Demon was dead, Jiang Qing was dead, and the heavy snow had stopped.
When the tribulation clouds dispersed, the sky would wash away the darkness.
The four seas would return to peace, and the karmic hindrance Xie Zhefeng could never cross in his life had been removed.
Yet the first thing he said to his Senior Brother was “you have one more lightning tribulation.”
An Wuxue hadn’t felt bitter even after withstanding eight lightning tribulations.
During the immortal disaster, he had had countless brushes with death and had never feared it.
Much less now when things could be considered fulfilled.
But when Xie Zhefeng spoke, his eyes suddenly filled with moisture.
One more lightning tribulation.
One more lightning tribulation that severed the path to ascension.
He was destined not to be able to cross it.
But he belatedly realized that he… didn’t want to die.