The Path Toward Heaven

The ice and snow covering the peaks of Green Mountain had been melted by the fairy energy as it spread in all directions, as if spring had arrived. Yet, the melting water was frozen by the cold air the very next moment, turning into the icicles that hung on the upper edges of the cliffs, reminding the people that winter was not over yet.

Pah!!!

An icicle broke off under a cliff and broke into pieces as it hit the ground.

This crushing noise acted like a warning bell to pull the people back from their daze.

It was at this moment that the people had all uttered surprised cries. Some of them began to weep while some clenched their fists excitedly. Most, however, remained silent, because they were still shocked and bewildered.

The Fairy Lady Bai Ren was dead!

Did the Fairy Lady actually die?

The Fairy Lady came back from the upper world, which was something the history books had never recorded before, and the death of a fairy woman…that was something they had never dared to even fathom, let alone heard of.

In the next moment, the people felt a terrible chill when they saw Cold Cicada crawl across the Snow Girl’s face.

Cold Cicada climbed to the top of the Snow Girl’s head and soundlessly made a decorative knot.

Ada poked his head out of the hairs of the Dead Dog gingerly. When he saw the scene, he couldn’t help but feel jealous, though the more apparent feeling he had at the moment was fear.

The fearful feeling could be seen in all the gazes looking at the Snow Girl.

Only a few people weren’t looking at the Snow Girl, but rather at Jing Jiu’s right hand; the Dead Dog, the Immortal Tan and the Chief Nun of the Water-Moon Nunnery were among those few.

Jing Jiu was still holding the Sword-Washing Stream and had no intention of letting go of it.

The intent was clear.

…

…

the Fairy Lady Bai Ren couldn’t have dodged the violent assault of the Sword Formation of Green Mountain led by the Snow Girl, and perished because she was trapped by the silvery whip borne from the Sword-Washing Stream.

The situation had utterly turned around. The elders and disciples of the Center Sect on the cloud boats were stunned speechless; some of them had simply passed out.

What would happen next then? Would the Green Mountain Sect attack the Center Sect?

Not yet. There was a more important matter for Jing Jiu to take care of before that.

If this matter were not taken care of properly, both the Center Sect and the Green Mountain Sect would be merely two names remembered in history.

As far as humans were concerned, the Queen of the Snowy Kingdom was many times more dreadful than the Immortal Taiping.

The Immortal Taiping’s plan of destroying the world had never succeeded, but the humans had suffered nigh annihilation from the monster invasions of the northern snowland.

The Sword Jail of Green Mountain was gone. Even if it still existed, how could the Green Mountain Sect keep on imprisoning her in there?

It was worth noting that she was not as weak as one hundred years ago, and what was worse, she had learned the sword styles of the Green Mountain Sect and could even operate the Sword Formation of Green Mountain!

How much damage could this dreadful Queen of the Snowy Kingdom bring to humans?

The people expected Jing Jiu to find a way to control the Snow Girl.

Judging from the fact that he hadn’t released the Sword-Washing Stream yet, he must be have been very cautious at the moment, meaning that he didn’t have an effective way to deal with her.

The wind and snow intensified, and it grew colder in heaven and earth. The atmosphere among the peaks of Green Mountain suddenly became tense and bewildering.

The gazes shuffled from one spot above the ocean of clouds to another spot; their worried eyes looked at the Snow Girl and then the mountain-like Dead Dog.

Jing Jiu suddenly leapt up from the back of the Dead Dog and arrived before the Snow Girl.

Seeing this scene, the people couldn’t help but inhale some cold air, thinking that what he was doing was the same as courting death by getting so close to her, even though he was the reincarnation of the Immortal Jing Yang.

“Why haven’t you left yet?” he asked her.

His tone sounded like someone bidding farewell to a person who was indulged in eating foods.

The Snow Girl stared into his eyes, giving no response.

“You knew that I would snatch your Inherited Heaven Sword after I got out; so you destroyed it on purpose.”

“I of course didn’t want the Inherited Heaven Sword to exist in the world, but I couldn’t destroy it all by myself. And it would be a terrible situation if the Inherited Heaven Sword ended up in your hands. As such, I had to destroy it since I intended to release you.”

“Why don’t you want to come with me and fight against all sorts of beings?”

“I will go up there sooner or later; but I must go up as myself, not as your sword.”

“It’s truly a pity.”

“It’s over.”

…

…

The two of them eyed each other, exchanging a large amount of spiritual awareness.

It was like what they had done many years ago in the snowland.

The Snow Girl pulled back her line of sight and looked at the night sky.

The remains of the fairy energy were rippling slightly in the night sky, but they were very light now. A lifeform of her state could still sense them.

A black thread was visible intermittently among the stars in the sky, which was the passage bringing the Fairy Lady Bai Ren to this world.

As time elapsed, the black thread grew thinner, indicating that the passage would be closed or dismantled.

The Snow Girl took a deep breath.

The strong wind kicked up again among the peaks of Green Mountain, and was even more violent than before.

The accumulated snow in the pine forest and on the peaks and cliffs were all hurled up by the wind, drifting everywhere. Later, all the snowflakes followed the direction of the wind and headed to the top of the ocean of clouds, and were all inhaled by the Snow Girl.

The Snow Girl breathed all the spiritual energy of the cold source under the ground, her jet black eyes displaying a bright beam, seemingly feeling satisfied. A slight bulge could be seen in her belly.

The elders and disciples of Shangde Peak had been feeling very dejected the entire time. Now they were enraged when they saw this monster swallow the cold source under the ground, wondering how they would practice their Flowing-Snow Sword style in the future.

The expression on the faces of the Immortal Tan, the Chief Nun of the Water-Moon Nunnery and the others was a grave one; it was because they had vaguely guessed what the Snow Girl intended to do and understood why Jing Jiu dared release her.

A Cultivation practitioner suddenly cried in terror, “What is going on in the sky?”

As the people followed his line of sight and looked up at the sky, they found that the stars had disappeared and that a huge whirlpool appeared in the night air. The whirlpool contained infinite amount of thunder and lightning and unimaginably powerful energy. It looked like a huge terrifying eye staring down at the lives on the ground.

The whirlpool of thunder and lightning was in the Thunder Region above the Empty Realm.

It was the omen of incoming heavenly punishment!

“It’s the heavenly punishment!”

“Someone is going to be carried to the upper world!”

The gazes of the Immortal Tan and the others fell on the Snow Girl, feeling shocked and relieved at the same time.

It was not “someone” but rather she who would be carried to the other world.

The black thread in the sky grew increasingly thinner and was on the verge of breaking in half.

“Go,” said Jing Jiu.

The Snow Girl was aware that this was the best and last chance for her; so she swallowed Cold Cicada in her mouth and leapt up into the sky without a second thought.

The strong wind blew in her face, but it didn’t blow off a bit of snow from her body. The expression in her eyes was exceedingly determined, devoid of any emotion.

A few moments later, she arrived in the Empty Realm after passing through the Chaotic Wind.

Heaven and earth responded to it. The whirlpool of thunder and lightning twirled much faster, emitting blue light bolts, looking more horrifying.

“How dreadful the heavenly punishment is!”

Countless surprised cried went up among the peaks of Green Mountain.

Many of them had witnessed the ascension of the Immortal Jing Yang, and some of them had also witnessed the heavenly punishment caused by the fairy book of the Center Sect by the West Ocean.

In comparison to the heavenly punishment tonight, those two were much milder.

The whirlpool of thunder and lightning occupied more than half of the sky, exerting an incredible pressure on the people on the ground.

No Cultivation practitioner dared stay in the sky any longer. They looked at the whirlpool of thunder and lightning that seemed near them while standing on the peaks, feeling extremely terrified. The whirlpool contained at least ten thousand bolts of lightning; any one of them was powerful enough to strike a figure in the Heavenly Arrival State into a puff of green smoke. What would happen if all of them struck down all at once?

“It’s too powerful…”

Nan Wang said this with a trembling voice while looking at the sky.

The Snow Girl had become a white speck by then, flying upwards inside the narrow passage.

The Cultivation practitioners had the same sentiment as Nan Wang when they watched the scene.

Zhao Layue showed an aspiring expression in her eyes.

What the human swordsmen felt sentimental about was not the heavenly punishment, but the Snow Girl’s Cultivation state and the level of her lifeform.

The higher the ascender’s Cultivation state was, the stronger the heavenly punishment.

According to the recordings of the Cultivation world, no heavenly punishment was as formidable as the one happening tonight.

It meant that the Snow Girl’s Cultivation state was superior to any human ascender in history.

Would she be able to withstand this heavenly punishment?

The people looked at the terrifying phenomena in the sky with various emotions and expectations.

The sky suddenly turned white!

Hundreds of lightning bolts struck down from the whirlpool of thunder and lightning at the same time onto the Snow Girl; the striking lightning looked like a huge mountain formed by bright light lines when seen from the ground.

The water in the Blue Lake on top of Bihu Peak was rolling incessantly; the Daoist Hall opened automatically. The unripened Thunder-Soul Wood in the hall had a perfectly burned color on its surface instantly.

Hundreds of light bolts had mostly vanished halfway in the sky; only a handful reached the ground, making such an impact.

What would happen to the Snow Girl who was in the middle of the whirlpool of thunder and lightning?

The bright lightning ceased abruptly.

The rumbling boom reached the ground, but it couldn’t suppress the noise of astonished cries.

The Snow Girl was still in the sky.

She was flying toward the higher point.

The terrifying thunder and lightning seemed to have bypassed the passage.

The thunder kept on rumbling.

The wind and snow turned into a rainstorm.

Standing in the downpour, the people lifted their heads to see her fly higher and higher.

The black thread grew thinner and thinner and was on the verge of breaking apart.

It was at this very moment that an exceedingly horrific barrage of lightning bolts appeared in the Thunder Region.

Thousands of lightning bolts intertwined in the high sky, making sizzling sounds and giving off blindingly bright glows, resembling a huge snowflake illuminated by the sunlight.

The black tread had suddenly snapped like a cotton thread, breaking into pieces amid the lightning bolts and then ashes.

The passage was closed.

“I’ll never come back…hahahaha.”

The voice of the Snow Girl could be heard in the sky.

And her voice grew more distant and fainter.

Everybody could clearly sense the joy in her voice.

It was a joy for being free.

And it was a joy for being unrestricted.