The Path Toward Heaven

Amid thunderous crashing, vast quantities of blue seawater poured down from an immense height. By the time they struck the ground of the Underworld, the force was no different from that of rocks falling from the sky. The water instantly destroyed the hills along the bank before surging into the Underworld River.

Watching the wisps of blue smoke drifting in every direction and up into the sky, Tong Yan said expressionlessly, “How will you explain this when His Majesty returns?”

“His Majesty and I think differently. Sunlight and rain are indeed not things we need, but neither am I willing to let you humans keep trampling us underfoot.”

The Underworld Master walked to his side. Gazing at the terrifying chaos beneath the cliff, he said, “The world is about to undergo an unprecedented upheaval. Prepare to embrace it, or anyone may be swallowed by this torrent.”

“This is destroying the world.” Tong Yan turned and looked into his eyes. “Are you certain you can do it?”

The Underworld Master said, “Today is Green Mountain’s grand ceremony. The vast majority of the powerful figures in the human cultivation world will be there. It is the perfect opportunity for us to break through those passages.”

“And then?” Tong Yan asked.

“Then, as you can see, boundless seawater will fall through the vortex into the Underworld, like a downpour beyond anything your human race could imagine.”

A look of resolve and fulfilled ambition appeared on the Underworld Master’s face. Pointing somewhere in the sky, he said, “Look. Next comes a great wind.”

At the highest point of the dim world, somewhere in the abyss, space suddenly distorted.

It was air moving at tremendous speed. It was wind from the surface of the continent.

...

...

The wind in the Thousand-Mile Wind Corridor howled without cease. Willows beside the lake leaned almost horizontally over the water, creating a rather lovely scene.

Xiao He sat beside the window. Her pale face made the pendant on her earlobe look all the more vividly red.

The wind suddenly grew stronger. A few strands slipped through the formations surrounding the residence, making the window tremble slightly. They stirred the hair at her forehead, and they stirred the pendant too.

The pendant swayed gently, then silently transformed into a red feather roughly the length and thickness of a finger. It drifted out through the window on the wind.

Xiao He had no idea what had happened. As she watched the terrifying waves rising on the lake, her thoughts grew ever more distracted.

The delicate red feather floated out of the window, over the flagstone paths between the thatched cottages, across a pond, and over the white goose on its surface, heading deeper inside.

This was the most heavily guarded academy of the One-Cottage House. Only a few dozen zhang farther in lay the place where Bu Qiuxiao read and cultivated in seclusion.

The courtyards, streams, flowering plants, and trees around the study were all part of the formations in which the One-Cottage House excelled. Yet none could stop the red feather.

Xi Yiyun suddenly opened his eyes, shock and anger appearing on his face. Realizing something was wrong, he sped away.

Unfortunately, the red feather operated on far too profound a level. By the time he sensed it, it was already too late.

Deep within the courtyard stood a seemingly ordinary study.

Bu Qiuxiao sat on the floor with his eyes closed, a book spread open before him. His robes stirred without wind, and his breathing was quiet and deep.

Several dozen days earlier, he had entered a true state of lucid emptiness. His spirit roamed between heaven and earth, comprehending the highest mysteries.

Until the final moment of his attainment of sagehood, he would remain in this state, unaware of any disturbance outside his body.

A leaf fell into the pond beside the study, sending countless beautiful ripples across the surface.

Concealed by those ripples, the red feather floated silently into the study. The wind carried it in front of Bu Qiuxiao, and it drifted slowly past him.

On the verge of becoming a sage, his physical body was tougher than a magical treasure. Yet that seemingly soft feather cut it open.

Without the slightest sound, a tiny wound appeared on his finger.

It was the index finger of his right hand, the finger that rested highest when he held a brush. Who knew how many writings worthy of the sages it had helped produce?

A bead of blood welled up from the cut.

Xi Yiyun and several elderly scholars of the One-Cottage House rushed into the study as fast as they could, just in time to see this scene.

They did not know what had happened, but a powerful sense of unease seized them. They hurriedly began rearranging the formations while channeling their vast righteous energy to stop Bu Qiuxiao’s bleeding.

But it was truly too late.

The bead of blood on Bu Qiuxiao’s right index finger suddenly dispersed into an exceedingly faint bloody mist. It spread out around the study, completely unimpeded by the formations.

That faint mist drifted into the sky. Before long, it came into contact with the true wind.

Boom!

The mountains, rivers, and scenery surrounding the One-Cottage House were all dyed red, as though sunset had arrived in the mortal world ahead of time.

Most terrifying of all, even the howling winds had turned red. The whole world seemed to have begun burning.

The already fearsome wind grew even more violent. Forced to reveal themselves, the One-Cottage House’s formations creaked under the load, barely holding on.

The scholars and disciples of the One-Cottage House, along with the guests from other sects, had no idea what was happening. They came out of the cottages one after another and stared at the phenomenon between heaven and earth, too shocked to speak.

Xiao He rose numbly beside the window. Seeing the blood-red winds in the sky and feeling the increasingly terrifying power of heaven and earth, she instinctively covered her mouth.

“The wind has changed direction!” an elderly scholar suddenly cried in a trembling voice.

Countless startled cries rang out through the One-Cottage House.

The winds of the Thousand-Mile Wind Corridor had never stopped.

The entire cultivation world knew that those winds came from the Underworld deep underground. They were violent and terrifying beyond measure. Only after traveling a thousand miles, worn down again and again by gentle waters and steep gorges, did they finally become harmless breezes that entered Chaotian.

When the founder of the One-Cottage House chose to establish his sect here, he had intended not only to suppress the passage leading to the Underworld, but also to shield the common people from disaster.

Today, those winds had actually reversed! What was happening?

The suddenly shifting wind ripped the lotuses up from the lake and hurled them hard in the opposite direction. For a time, nothing could be heard but a dense barrage of snapping and crashing.

Within a very short span, tens of thousands of lotus stalks broke and flew into the air, where they were crushed to powder. It was a scene of utter devastation.

Terrified shrieks rose from the depths of the lake. Countless ink-black flood dragons fled into the distance, stirring up enormous waves once more.

Far away, at the entrance to the Thousand-Mile Wind Corridor, boundless wind was pouring inward. Xiao He’s inn had already been reduced to ruins.

Deepest within the corridor, at the rocky mountain containing the passage to the Underworld, the wind was even more terrifying. It was as if all the wind on Chaotian had gathered there.

Countless fissures ran through the rocky mountain. Farther inside lay the passages to the Underworld, normally suppressed by the One-Cottage House’s formations.

Violent winds surged into the mountain. The edges of the fissures crumbled at a speed visible to the naked eye, then broke down into powder.

The formations dispersed with them.

...

...

“The Immortal Taiping used a blood sacrifice to create the Heaven-Reaching Killing Formation, forcibly altering the passages between heaven and earth. He sent boundless seawater into the Underworld, then broke through the One-Cottage House’s Stone Bell Mountain to bring in the wind. The wind feeds the flames, producing vast quantities of vapor.”

The Underworld Master’s gaze followed the winds high above down to the space over the Underworld River. Pointing at the blue smoke, he said, “As you guessed, this vapor is poisonous. Once it reaches the surface, it will kill every ordinary person.”

Tong Yan’s face was pale. “It’s like a stove. He wants to put the entire mortal world on top of it.”

The Underworld Master said, “The Immortal once said that heaven and earth are the furnace, and all things are the copper within it. Whether humans or the people of the Underworld, how can we discard the dross, preserve the essence, and move forward without undergoing this refinement?”

“Now you have the bellows and the firebox. What about the flue?” Tong Yan asked. “Could it be the Heavenly Well beside the East Ocean?”

The Underworld Master looked at him appreciatively. “They say you were the best at calculations in the Center Sect, and that Green Mountain later relied on you a great deal as well. You truly are extraordinary.”

“Then you’re bound to fail,” Tong Yan said.

“Because the Water-Moon Nunnery and Fruit Formation Temple guard it together? Perhaps you don’t know that the Immortal once served as abbot of Fruit Formation Temple.”

“But he has underestimated someone,” Tong Yan said.

The Underworld Master smiled. “The Immortal never underestimates anyone.”

“No. However highly you rate that person, in the end you’ll still discover that you underestimated him.”

...

...

Beside the East Ocean, all was still calm.

Neither the endless blue seawater crashing into the Underworld far out at sea nor the winds pouring madly underground from the depths of the Thousand-Mile Wind Corridor had yet affected this place. But the fading yellow talismans and the scriptures growing fainter on the cliff face had still alerted the people of Fruit Formation Temple and the Water-Moon Nunnery.

More than a dozen elders and disciples from the Water-Moon Nunnery hurried to the other side of the mountain. Before long, the eminent monks of Fruit Formation Temple also arrived at the shore of the East Ocean. What they saw shocked them beyond measure: the formation suppressing the Heavenly Well had weakened considerably, and countless sinister, foul auras were spilling out.

The icy auras from the Underworld instantly froze the wild grass beside the cliff into frost-covered stalks, then spread farther outward.

Deep among the grass, an extremely thick layer of ice had also formed over Fruit Formation Temple’s head lecturer and the senior nun from the Water-Moon Nunnery.

Daylight penetrated the ice and illuminated their faces. Their lips could just be seen moving faintly. It was impossible to tell whether they were reciting scriptures or incantations.

What was happening?

The people of Fruit Formation Temple and the Water-Moon Nunnery were deeply shocked. They wanted to repair the formation, but discovered that they could not pass through the freezing aura from the Underworld.

The earth suddenly shook. Gravel showered down from the cliff face, and the frost-bound grass snapped apart inch by inch. An immensely deep, muffled boom came from underground.

In the depths of the sea nearby, Patriarch Xuanyin had opened his eyes at some point. His hands drew the seawater into a vortex before slowly returning to his sides.

A huge hole had appeared in the submerged cliff. Countless dead fish floated around it: innocent creatures crushed to death by the violent undercurrents.

Watching the scene, the patriarch’s eyes filled with delight and pride.

He was very pleased with that palm strike. Even at his peak, he could hardly have done better.

One palm strike.

Of the thirty-three heavens within the Heavenly Well, it had shattered six outright.

A few more strikes, and the well would be completely opened.

But a strike of such power had consumed a considerable amount of his demonic energy. He needed to regulate his breathing and recover for a moment, so he sat down on the seabed again.

A faint wisp of blue smoke rose from the bottom of the Heavenly Well and drifted into the seawater through the opening in the seafloor.

An ordinary person would naturally have been unable to smell it. But what sort of cultivation did Patriarch Xuanyin possess? He immediately detected the anomaly and drew a deep breath.

The blue smoke twisted through the seawater like a snake, drifted toward his nose, and was inhaled. Only a tiny amount dissolved into the water.

As the sea grew calm, a turtle swam aimlessly up beside him. Then, without a sound, it stopped breathing.

The patriarch savored the scent of the blue smoke and looked at the dead turtle. Knowing that the Immortal’s plan had succeeded, he revealed a somewhat deranged smile, his eyes shining brilliantly.

At that moment, he resembled a drunken old idler, or a toad that had inhaled immortal qi.

That turtle was the first living creature from the surface world to be poisoned by the Underworld’s blue smoke. And this was only the beginning. Once the Heavenly Well was opened, it would form a perfect passage between heaven and earth together with the Huge Whirlpool and the Wind Corridor. No one would be able to reverse the process, not even an immortal returning to the world.

As more seawater fell through the Huge Whirlpool, more wind poured into the Underworld through the Thousand-Mile Wind Corridor, and the Underworld’s flames rose higher, their interaction would produce ever more blue smoke. The smoke would pass through the Heavenly Well to the surface and kill an ever-growing number of living beings. Whether they hid in the sea or in the mountains, none would escape death.

Not only Chaotian, but also the Penglai Island and the distant Eastern Yi lands would be unable to escape this catastrophe. Eventually, even the remote continents would be covered by the blue smoke.

It would take decades, perhaps more than a century, for heaven and earth to purify the smoke. By then, every ordinary person would be dead.

...

...

“It can’t be that simple,” Tong Yan said. “The blue smoke is spreading everywhere in the Underworld. Sending it to the surface of Chaotian through a fixed passage must require an enormous formation. Preparing that formation would take a very long time.”

“The Immortal began preparing during his second descent into the Underworld. Think how many years it has been. And I am the one responsible for carrying out the plan here,” the Underworld Master said. “That is the greatest difference between me and the Grand Priest. In his eyes, every living being in the Underworld is his slave, his property. He cannot bear to lose even one. I am different.”

Tong Yan said, “I’ve always thought you presented far too weak a face to Green Mountain over the past century or so. So you were using that to hide your true objective.”

The Underworld Master looked at him with interest. “You really are skilled at deduction and calculation. Your help was a large part of the reason I defeated the Grand Priest so easily. What I don’t understand is why you suddenly returned to the lower realm. Did you foresee all of this?”

“Jing Jiu might be able to calculate all of this. I don’t have that ability. When I encounter a position on the Go board that is too complicated, beyond my ability to calculate, I tend to rely on intuition.”

Tong Yan continued, “That day in Jing Garden, I hadn’t calculated anything. I simply felt that I should come to the Underworld and take a look. So I came.”

“That sort of intuition on the Go board is truly frightening,” the Underworld Master said with a sigh. “Fortunately, your cultivation isn’t high enough. Even though you came, you can’t change anything.”

“My ability to calculate may fall short of Jing Jiu’s, but I still have some. At the very least, I don’t make the most basic mistakes. If coming here couldn’t change anything, why would I have come in the first place?”

A small bell with an ancient air appeared in Tong Yan’s right hand.

The Underworld Master’s pupils contracted sharply. His blue robes billowed without wind, carrying him swiftly away into the distance.

Tong Yan’s finger fell upon the little bell.

Hum!

The bell’s note echoed across the raised platform among the cliffs.

Violent winds arose, and the world darkened. Even the flames in the Underworld River far below were pressed down.

The Underworld Master let out a muffled cry and slammed hard into the cliff, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

...

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