Chapter 96#
Inside the branch sword array of the Twenty-Seventh City.
Qi Xun sat with his hands forming a seal, his eyes closed, remaining completely motionless.
Qiao Yin and Qiao Ting stood behind him, waiting anxiously for a long moment until Qi Xun finally opened his eyes.
“Sect Master Qi!” Qiao Yin hurried forward to ask, “How is the First City? Why does it look pitch black from a distance? Why has the teleportation been closed?”
Qi Xun frowned. “I don’t know the specifics, but I saw the ascension tribulation cloud over the First City. City Lord Shangguan is mobilizing the full power of the sword array. However, when I tried to use the Twenty-Seventh City’s branch array to communicate with the others, I couldn’t find the branch array of the Fifteenth City. I fear it has been completely destroyed. They are likely in a state of total chaos right now…”
His words were like a sudden thunderclap on a clear day, and the faces of the surrounding immortal cultivators instantly filled with panic.
Qiao Ting remained relatively calm. “Do you need our help?”
Qi Xun shook his head. “Ensuring the Twenty-Seventh City’s sword array continues to operate without issue is the only thing you—and even I—can do right now.”
Qiao Yin asked with concern, “Then without the Fifteenth City’s array, what can they do?”
Qi Xun raised his eyes, looking into the distance toward the thick tribulation clouds hanging over the First City.
The wind picked up, swaying the hem of his robes.
A snowflake seemed to brush against his cheek.
Deep winter had arrived in North Abyss.
“His birthday is coming up,” he said.
“…Whose? What does that have to do with the lightning tribulation or the sword array?”
Qi Xun raised his hand and spread his palm, catching a small snowflake and staring down at it.
“Happy birthday,” he said, “A-Xue.”
Beneath the tribulation cloud.
An Wuxue looked down at the folding fan, his heart filled with a complex mix of emotions.
He still remembered Qi Xun’s reaction to “Su Xue” when they met again on the Frost Sea.
The way Qi Xun had looked at him just now… it was as if he already knew everything.
He lowered his eyes and composed himself, saying, “After the clash with Qu Wenxin just now, the spiritual energy he attached to the dharma tool was exhausted, so it naturally couldn’t be maintained.”
The folding fan was Qi Xun’s natal dharma tool. To think he would simply transport it here and have it fall directly before him.
He truly wasn’t afraid that An Wuxue would destroy it out of resentment for the past.
He let out a sigh, picked up the fan, and hung it alongside Xie Zhefeng’s two spiritual pouches.
Pei Qian was still thinking about Qi Xun’s words and said urgently, “What on earth did he mean by that fiftieth sword?”
Qu Jizhi shook his head. “I grew up in the First City. I have studied the array path and researched the North Abyss sword array, but I have never seen a fiftieth sword.”
“North Abyss has forty-nine cities; this has been a fixed number since the dawn of North Abyss. Cities have flourished and declined, but the number forty-nine has never changed,” Jiang Qing added with deep worry. “Su Xue, do you know what he meant by the fiftieth sword?”
An Wuxue didn’t know.
And precisely because he didn’t know, he was more worried than anyone else.
If even he didn’t know…
“Perhaps City Lord Shangguan will know the key. I must enter the sword array,” he said, glancing at Qu Wenxin. “Young Immortal Master Qu, regarding your Qu family’s affairs…”
“I will handle it properly. I will not allow anyone from the Qu family who has gone astray to hinder the sword array.”
A sudden violent wind erupted from within the sword array!
The ground shook and the mountains swayed. The immortal disciples guarding outside the array all stumbled, with some of the lower-level cultivators being blown back several yards.
An Wuxue’s heart tightened—Shangguan Liaoliao was likely already forcing the mobilization of the array’s power.
But she didn’t know that the Fifteenth City’s array couldn’t be brought online. Unable to call forth the array’s full power, her forced attempt had already resulted in a backlash.
He hurried to turn and head inside. Jiang Qing stepped forward with his sword drawn. “Su Xue, Little Pei and I will go with you.”
“Fellow Daoist Jiang, your cultivation is only at the early stage of the Tribulation-Transcending realm, and you are seriously injured. Entering now would be risking your life,” he said. “Pei Qian, look after Fellow Daoist Jiang.”
“You got it!”
As soon as Pei Qian agreed, An Wuxue had already taken to his sword and vanished into the array.
Jiang Qing gave a light cough, looking in the direction An Wuxue had vanished with a puzzled expression. He turned to Pei Qian and asked, “Isn’t he also at the early stage of the Tribulation-Transcending realm?”
Pei Qian scratched his head and played dumb. “Maybe he has some secret treasure from Falling Moon Peak that can help…”
Inside the sword array.
Spiritual energy was in an uproar. Amidst the flying sand and rolling stones, the ubiquitous array patterns shimmered with silver light, the glow oscillating in waves.
Protecting himself with spiritual energy and slightly releasing his divine sense, An Wuxue pushed forward against the wind.
Sword light was scattered and chaotic, but the array recognized the aura of its master’s soul. The sword shadows guarding the array dispersed of their own accord whenever they drew near him.
He reached the giant sword in this manner.
He saw Shangguan Liaoliao and others with their hands in seals, spiritual energy erupting from their bodies and flowing through the seals into the array patterns.
A ring of faint, small sword shadows circled the giant sword, rotating slowly and connected to countless intricate array patterns.
These were the miniature representations of the other branch sword arrays.
Sweeping his divine sense over them, An Wuxue could only count forty-seven sword shadows.
Including the primary array, there were forty-eight arrays responding.
Beneath the tribulation cloud, the barrier shrouding the First City grew thicker, yet it seemed fragile amidst the booming thunder.
With one sword missing, the full power of the North Abyss sword array could not be unleashed.
The Tribulation-Transcending experts of North Abyss all had pale faces, their spiritual energy clearly on the verge of being drained dry by the array.
They had already tried twice, yet they still couldn’t mobilize the array’s full power.
As soon as An Wuxue drew near, he heard Shangguan Liaoliao ask: “Why have you come inside?”
The cultivator who had found him familiar earlier also kept glancing his way.
An Wuxue replied: “City Lord, there is no need to try again.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sect Master Qi just sent word. The Fifteenth City’s sword array is destroyed and cannot respond.”
“What!?”
“Then what are we to do!?”
“No wonder our two attempts failed. City Lord, everyone’s spiritual energy is almost exhausted!”
“…”
If the lightning tribulation struck, not only would the North Abyss sword array be lost, but what would happen to the souls of this city!?
Upon hearing this, someone’s hand seal trembled, causing a surge of spiritual wind within the array.
Shangguan Liaoliao remained silent for a moment, then whispered: “Thirty minutes have passed.”
Xie Zhefeng had said there were only forty-five minutes until the first bolt of lightning fell.
Thirty minutes were gone; only fifteen remained.
The floating sword shadows continued to circle the giant sword.
The North Abyss Sword remained steady and reserved, standing immovable beneath the darkened sky.
An Wuxue was also filled with anxiety.
He walked to the empty spot where the shadow of the fifteenth sword should have been. “We cannot wait for the fifteenth sword; we cannot continue to make futile efforts. Sect Master Qi said that all forty-nine are necessary, but fifty swords were prepared back then. City Lord, do you know where the remaining sword is?”
Seeing him enter the array as if walking through an empty field and speaking so calmly about the array’s mechanics, Shangguan Liaoliao was stunned.
“…What fiftieth sword?”
—She didn’t know!?
An Wuxue was even more shocked—because he didn’t know either.
He had thought it was something that happened after his death, but if Shangguan Liaoliao didn’t know and he didn’t know, only Qi Xun did. Yet Qi Xun hadn’t pointed out its location.
Where was this sword?
Where did it come from?
Since Qi Xun had mentioned it, they should be able to find it immediately. Why were all the North Abyss cultivators so lost?
Someone shouted up at the sky: “It’s too late! It’s too late!”
Sizzle—
A sharp, screeching sound seemed to emanate from the sky.
An Wuxue looked up and saw the lightning rolling within the clouds, gradually condensing together.
The lightning carried power enough to annihilate a Long-Life Immortal, and it was about to strike!
Shangguan Liaoliao abruptly withdrew the hand seal she was using to supply spiritual energy.
She raised her natal sword, her fingertips brushing against the blade, and said word for word: “Since it is too late and it cannot be found, this forty-ninth sword doesn’t necessarily have to be an actual sword.”
She swung her sword, casting a shadow, and a spiritual light flashed from her brow.
She said: “Sacrificing an immortal’s life force to the array is something that has been done since the Immortal Calamity.”
The immortals had fallen to establish the Great Karma Array and erase the method for turbid ascension.
Lou Shuiming had committed suicide to fill the void in the Zhaoshui sword’s energy, allowing the Zhaoshui array to be established.
She was going to sacrifice herself to the array!
Someone looked back, seemingly glancing at the countless souls outside the sword array, and then withdrew their gaze with reluctance, laughing: “The power of heavenly lightning is something only those in the Immortal Realm can contend with. For us, this is truly like throwing eggs against a rock. If one sword is missing, one person’s sacrifice might not be enough. If the City Lord is going, take me with you!”
“If two aren’t enough, what about three?”
“Our cultivation is not as high as the City Lord’s, but even mortals know that constant dripping wears away a stone…”
“…”
Why was it a sacrifice of life for the array again!?
An Wuxue gritted his teeth, staring fixedly at the blank space where the sword shadow was missing.
Why a sacrifice again!?
Did it really have to come to this?
If North Abyss’s combat power was sacrificed here, even if the array wasn’t destroyed, wouldn’t the mastermind’s plan still be considered a success?
And… a thousand years had passed since the Immortal Calamity. Was he to watch immortal cultivators sacrifice themselves for the array again?
No.
It shouldn’t be!
Qi Xun’s words clearly meant that the sword was within their reach!
There had to be another way.
Unwilling to give up, his expression sharpened, and he pressed his fingers together to gather spiritual energy.
In an instant, before the matter of the sacrifice could be settled, everyone saw that the cultivator who had only just entered and was supposedly only at the early Tribulation-Transcending stage suddenly used his spiritual energy to trigger the vast, myriad array patterns beneath the giant sword.
Someone shouted urgently: “Young Immortal Master, without the array master’s approval, tampering with the patterns will cause the sword shadows to—” shred you to pieces.
He didn’t finish.
A brilliant silver light erupted from An Wuxue.
The patterns on the giant sword were awakened and spread out. With him as the center, sword shadows circled the sky and earth, and the hum of the North Abyss Sword echoed.
Everyone was stunned.
Shangguan Liaoliao’s grip on her sword tightened abruptly: “You—”
An Wuxue closed his eyes, his divine sense sinking into the vast sword array, searching for that extra sword.
But there was nothing.
His divine sense passed through the thousands of patterns, “seeing” the array he had personally laid down all those years ago, yet he found no trace of that final sword Qi Xun had mentioned!
Where could it be?
Outside the First City.
Xie Zhefeng stood at the peak of a mountain, the Chu Han sword floating beside him. No one else was in sight.
The body of Shangguan Ran, which had been turned into a puppet, had been destroyed by him. The third bolt of ascension lightning would no longer form.
But…
He looked at the sky above the First City.
The first bolt was about to descend.
And the strength of that barrier—it clearly couldn’t block the lightning!
He immediately produced a “Far Horizon” talisman.
The talisman was activated, and the person on the other end asked: “Has the ascension tribulation cloud been dealt with?”
“Qi Xun,” he said solemnly, “did you not repair the forty-nine city arrays?”
“One city’s array is destroyed. There wasn’t enough time.”
Xie Zhefeng’s expression changed—An Wuxue was still beneath that cloud, and the thousands of souls of North Abyss were still beneath that barrier!
He raised his hand to cut off the sound transmission and rush to the primary array.
Even if resisting the tribulation cloud with immortal spiritual energy would draw a hundredfold backlash, he had to go back.
“Xie Chuhan!”
Qi Xun on the other end seemed to have anticipated his move.
“Don’t be in such a hurry to go. We used forty-nine swords to establish the array, but there are a total of fifty that can trigger the North Abyss Sword’s full power. Since An Wuxue is there, the sword is there!”
“The fiftieth sword? Why don’t I know about this,” Xie Zhefeng frowned. “Did you tell him where it is?”
“I didn’t dare. The mastermind is using A-Xue as a facade, traveling the two realms using An Wuxue’s identity. I don’t know how much that person knows about A-Xue’s affairs, nor do I know where they are or if they would overhear what I say to him.”
“This silver lining for North Abyss… if I had spoken of it then, there were too many ears around, and it would have been easy for something to go wrong.”
“But An Wuxue can guess it.”
Outside the sword array.
Qu Jizhi looked up at the tribulation cloud and, in a rare moment of gravity, said to Pei Qian: “If the sword array can’t hold back the cloud, I will use my lifespan and essence blood as a sacrifice to establish a teleportation array. I’ll send you and Qu Wenxin out of the First City. You then turn Qu Wenxin over to the Immortal Venerable and find the source of the North Abyss crisis.”
Pei Qian muttered: “I’m not leaving.”
Jiang Qing’s smile was also gone. He looked at the tribulation cloud and then at the sword array with deep worry.
“I wonder if Su Xue and the others have found that fiftieth sword…”
In the Twenty-Seventh City.
Inside a mortal dwelling with a white lantern hanging outside.
This was the home An Wuxue and Xie Zhefeng had passed by that night.
A child leaned out of the window, looking at the black clouds on the distant horizon. “Mother, it’s so dark there. Are there demons?”
The woman was sewing and said without looking up: “Perhaps.”
The child turned back to look at her: “The immortal master said that night that Father went to slay demons. Do you think Father and the immortal master are both there slaying demons?”
The woman’s hand paused.
She smiled gently: “I’m sure they are.”
Facing the window, the child clasped his hands together and whispered: “Then I wish Father and the immortal master safety and success, and for the gloom to turn to light…”
On the main street of the First City.
People were gradually waking from their deep slumber.
The dark tribulation cloud was pressing so low that chaos had already broken out in the crowded areas. People were clutching their valuables and heading for the city gates.
Carriages and crowds were tangled together in a mess.
Immortal disciples shouted: “Do not panic! Do not harm anyone! The City Lord will not let North Abyss fall! The immortal sects will not let the First City fall!”
But the clouds were getting lower, and the thunder sounded as if it were right next to them.
In forty-five minutes, even a cultivator on a sword couldn’t fly out of the First City, let alone a mortal.
But they just wanted to run.
An immortal disciple who had only just reached the Inedia stage couldn’t stop the chaotic crowd.
She saw a little girl in a purple dress being knocked down by the crowd. She quickly used her spiritual energy to push the crowd aside and help the girl up.
“Where are your parents?”
The girl looked dazed: “I don’t have parents…”
The disciple was slightly stunned.
“Immortal master, why is everyone running? Why is the sky so dark?”
“…Because it’s going to thunder.”
“What’s there to be afraid of? I sleep outside the shops every night and have heard many thunderclaps,” the girl said, looking up at the sky with curiosity. “It just rains and gets my dress wet. It’s so cold…”
The disciple raised her hand and wiped the dirt from the girl’s nose.
Just then—!
Another deafening roar of thunder.
The crowd screamed in terror.
The disciple looked up and saw the lightning condensing into a ball within the clouds, about to fall!
She quickly pulled the girl to her, shielding her with her own body. Using all her spiritual energy to support a thin barrier, she closed her eyes and lowered her head, waiting for the lightning to strike.
Inside the sword array.
An Wuxue had searched everywhere to no avail, and cold sweat was pouring down his brow.
Could it be that there was no extra sword?
Impossible.
Qi Xun wouldn’t lie to him at a time like this, nor would he tell him something impossible.
Where on earth was this fiftieth sword?
They had discussed the matter of fifty swords back then.
It was when they were deciding to establish the forty-nine arrays.
Back then, as he looked at the completed array diagram, he had said: “As the saying goes, ‘The Dao produces fifty, but one is lost,’ leaving exactly forty-nine. Do you think North Abyss was established with that ‘one’ intentionally lost?”
Qi Xun had laughed: “Our ancestors certainly had their whims. Why, do you want to add another silver lining?”
An Wuxue raised an eyebrow: “Why not? Forty-nine is too perfect. If we add one more silver lining to make fifty, wouldn’t there be more room for error?”
“When we have time in the future, it’s indeed possible,” Qi Xun had said.
But back then, they hadn’t even had time to establish the forty-nine arrays. Who would have the heart to make an extra one?
And after the North Abyss arrays were complete, An Wuxue had been imprisoned and punished in the Ancient Tower. The hundred days after that were spent in recovery.
He had set the matter aside and forgotten it.
When his birthday arrived that year, he hadn’t felt like celebrating at all.
Qi Xun, unable to bear seeing him so desolate, had asked him for Chun Hua, saying: “It’s your birthday, after all. You’re only how old and you’re already not celebrating? Give me Chun Hua.”
The Li Huo Sect excelled in arrays and smithing. Qi Xun often refined dharma tools for him.
He had given Chun Hua to the man and continued his recovery.
Half a month later, Qi Xun returned Chun Hua to him, saying: “Here, your birthday present.”
He had laughed: “Who gives someone’s own natal sword back as a birthday present? Since when has the young master of the Qi clan been so frugal?”
At that time, Qi Xun had toyed with his folding fan, took a sip of tea, and said: “A dharma tool is an essential aid for a cultivator. I’m making Chun Hua more useful for you. This is a gift for you—a silver lining.”
A silver lining.
Wait… a silver lining?
A thousand years later, in the present.
An Wuxue’s thoughts came to an abrupt halt. His divine sense, which had been searching the array, was withdrawn.
The silver light of the sword array paused.
The forty-nine swords were essentially the keys to the North Abyss sword array. All forty-nine locks had to be opened simultaneously to unleash the array’s full power.
If one was missing, the patterns were incomplete and spiritual energy was insufficient; the array’s power would be less than a tenth of its potential.
That extra sword that only Qi Xun knew about was the silver lining for the North Abyss sword array at this very moment.
An Wuxue turned his head to look at Chun Hua, which was sheathed and floating beside him.
When Qi Xun took Chun Hua all those years ago, he said he was giving him a silver lining.
But he had looked over Chun Hua repeatedly and found nothing different, assuming Qi Xun was just playing a joke on him.
Could it be… that the sword was “as far as the horizon yet right before his eyes”?
An Wuxue raised his hand, calling Chun Hua back to him.
The Tribulation-Transcending cultivator who had been watching him suddenly realized: “I remember who that face looks like. He—he is—”
The shock on Shangguan Liaoliao’s face had not yet faded.
A blinding flash of lightning!
Boom!
The lightning tribulation had fallen!!!
Shangguan Liaoliao had no other thoughts; she raised her sword, prepared to sacrifice herself to the array.
But her sword light never rose.
The array patterns that had gone dim a moment ago suddenly erupted with a brilliant glow.
An Wuxue’s spiritual energy gathered at the vacancy. The other forty-seven sword shadows circling the giant sword shook violently.
Clang—!
The moment the lightning tribulation collided with the barrier—
Countless array patterns on the North Abyss Sword shimmered with silver light. The forty-nine nodes of spiritual energy flow were unobstructed, and the full power of the sword array converged upon the barrier.
Sword shadows swirled.
Chun Hua was drawn, its blade falling into the vacancy. The forty-nine swords hummed together in unison!