The Path Toward Heaven

The stars in the night sky suddenly grew brighter.

A straight light beam full of destructive intent bore down on the street of the residential area after breaking through the clouds and fog and landed on the iron broadsword.

Whoosh!!!

The shock waves spread, and the smoke and dusts rose slightly.

The bottom of Cao Yuan’s pants had ruptured, turning into stripes, and his shoes sunk deep into the ground.

Yet, the pressure of the light was not too great.

It was caused by the pressure of the iron broadsword.

It was due to the heavy weight of the iron broadsword.

It was like a band of water dropped onto a rock when the light landed on the surface of the iron broadsword, countless lights casting in all directions, illuminating the whole street.

The bloody fog had already dissipated. The faces, familiar and unfamiliar, of those who had died in various postures could be seen clearly…

Cao Yuan brought back the iron broadsword. He looked at the middle-aged man; the usually amiable expression didn’t show on his face at the moment.

The battleship fleet that came to the No. Three Forward Base for the mission possessed the most advanced battleships in the Federation of the Milky Way, which had the most powerful laser guns. However, their attacks were blocked by Cao Yuan’s seemingly ordinary iron broadsword.

“Don’t blame me for it. It was you who had the lethal intent first,” the middle-aged man said with a faint smile, no fear showing on his face.

Cao Yuan didn’t say anything while staring at him.

The middle-aged man thought of one possibility. “Are there some people you know?” he asked while pointing at the corpses on the street.

“My colleagues,” returned Cao Yuan.

“You’re a fairy man, be it the ascendant or the cocoon breaker…but, you have dug the mines with these ant-like humans and call them your colleagues.”

The middle-aged man laughed, adding, “You should know, your colleagues are the likes of us.”

Cao Yuan shook his head and said, “Choosing colleagues is not dependent on their capabilities. Even if I didn’t know them, you still shouldn’t have killed them.”

“The fact was that I didn’t want to waste too much time here. But, you can consider this as part of the test.”

The middle-aged man continued after straightening his glasses, “The Sea of Dark Matter is a serious threat. Some sacrifices are necessary when dealing with them. Not to mention a few hundred people have died tonight; everybody on a planet could be sacrificed if it were needed. You have to accept this if you wish to pass the test.”

“Sacrificing a whole planet?” pressed Cao Yuan.

“That’s right. Such an incident had actually occurred. Oh…don’t look at me like that: It was not my doing. And I don’t have such a prowess,” said the middle-aged man with a small smile. “Take it easy. The biggest advantage of this world is the large number of people; it has considerably more people here than in Chaotian. As long as we can kill all of those monsters, it’s not a big deal to have some people killed in the process.”

“Are you the Immortal Chi Song?” Cao Yuan asked suddenly.

The middle-aged man ceased smiling and replied, “Have you heard of me?”

Cao Yuan said, “I heard of your name in Chaotian.”

Feeling surprised, the middle-aged man remarked, “It has been tens of thousands of years since I left Chaotian, and yet my name was still heard there.”

“You’re the founder of the Bloody Demon Church, the most outstanding devil man in history,” said Cao Yuan. “Your successors have done all sorts of evil deeds; of course you wouldn’t be forgotten.”

The middle-aged man didn’t get upset when being admonished. Instead, he let loose a faint smile, showing a contented expression. “Oh, that’s why. How is the Bloody Demon Church?” he asked.

“The Bloody Demon Church was destroyed by the Green Mountain Sect and the Center Sect jointly more than one thousand years ago. Your disciples of later generations were all killed, and your inheritance is broken.”

Cao Yuan added while looking at him, “Oh, that’s not quite accurate. A highly achieved man from your Bloody Demon Church had survived and hid in the back mountain of Cloud-Dream Mountain. Many people had guessed that he might have a chance to revive the greatness of the Bloody Demon Church if he could figure out the method of the heavenly demon. Unfortunately, this successor of yours had lived like a dog for a long time and was killed by an outstanding woman in Zhaoge City more than one hundred years ago. He was really like a dog…when he was put down.”

Cao Yuan was quite earnest when he spoke. The pace of speech was slow; it could be said that he had spoken one word at a time.

The middle-aged man laughed out again after remaining silent for a while, saying, “You’re very angry at the moment, which is why you tried angering me. However, the story you made up is not so good. Since he was my successor and also very talented, how could he be killed by a woman?”

Cao Yuan said, “Like I said, she was an outstanding woman. She was more talented than me, and much more so than you.”

The middle-aged man ceased smiling and said to Cao Yuan calmly, “If you wish to pass the test, you’d better watch your attitude toward someone of the previous generation.”

“In my eyes, there is neither a test nor a senior. Similarly, there is no fairy world.”

Cao Yuan raised his iron broadsword and pointed it at the man, “I’ll kill you first today, and then I’ll kill the people who destroyed the planet as you said.”

“You’re truly a naïve child. Of course…you’re quite powerful, too.”

The middle-aged man sighed while looking at the seemingly ordinary broadsword, “Believe it or not, I don’t have the confidence to defeat you. So I’m not going to take the risk.”

“Do you know anything about the Sea of Dark Matter?” he suddenly asked. “This planet has already been invaded by the darkness. If this is allowed to go on, the planet will become another dead star and then another one of Mother’s Nest.”

“I know,” returned Cao Yuan.

The middle-aged man continued, “Then, you have calculated the speed of the invasion and the width of the passage needed the dark matter to come out at this patch of the space.”

“Seven times two times 6.99,” said Cao Yuan after a pause.

“Believe me, the engineers in the fleet will be able to calculate it more precisely and locate it more accurately.”

The middle-aged man went on with a smile, “But you can calculate again what is needed to seal off the passage from which the dark matter will come out.”

Cao Yuan said while staring into his eyes, “There are two residential areas within this range.”

“Which is why the people on this street and your so-called colleagues were doomed to die tonight,” said the middle-aged man. “You shouldn’t blame me for it.”

Cao Yuan said, “I can seal off the passage and choose not to kill you; but you have to cancel the order.”

“I believe that you have such an ability, but your ability should be applied to the more important matters, not sealing off such a small passage.”

The middle-aged man continued, “Now you have to choose: kill me, save those people, or come with me.”

Soon after, the lights on three battleships glowed slightly before they turned off abruptly.

The starlight illuminated a dozen dark specks in the high sky.

Each of them was a nuclear bomb.

Without a second thought, Cao Yuan darted toward the spot where the nuclear bombs would land.

The middle-aged man flew to the battleship in the high sky with his hands behind his back, paying no more attention to Cao Yuan. What he spoke was still echoing on the street full of corpses.

“If you didn’t die tonight because of your stupidity, come to find me.”

As the observer of Cao Yuan, he had watched this broadsword man for a long time and knew what choice he would make.

He didn’t like the way Cao Yuan acted. If it were up to him, he would like to kill Cao Yuan, but that one didn’t allow it.

Now that Cao Yuan chose his own death tonight, he felt a lot more relieved. Otherwise, he would have such a benevolent person as his colleague; it was truly troubling for him.

…

…

The middle-aged man returned to the battleship and turned around to look down at the ground.

It was too far away from the ground on the battleship, and he couldn’t hear the noises of the explosions on the ground. However, the scenes were rather apparent.

Ten mushroom clouds rose up one after the other, looking like the real mushrooms growing in the documentary films when they were played in slow motion.

A moment later, the lights came to the surface of the ground after passing through the thick dark clouds. They looked rather beautiful, and their high temperature could be easily imagined.

The nuclear bombs could hardly deal a fatal blow to the ascendants, and that was because they couldn’t be deployed fast enough. However, what if an ascendant was foolish enough to stay within the range of the explosion?

It was until that day that the middle-aged man still couldn’t understand what those orthodox Cultivation practitioners had on their minds. As he prepared to retire while shaking his head, he suddenly witnessed a scene, which made the expression on his face to change slightly, “What the heck?”

…

…

Before those nuclear bombs landed, Cao Yuan arrived in a residential area.

How could he save those spaceship crews and regular folks who had no idea what would happen to them?

Majority of the residents had come to the streets because of the alarm, but they didn’t know that ten deadly objects were falling down from the sky.

All Cao Yuan could do was wield his broadsword four times.

He wielded the broadsword at each end of the street once, cutting all the way to the deep underground.

Next, he wielded the broadsword straight downwards, shoving the rocks and dirt in the underground to both sides.

As a result, all the people on the street fell down to the underground.

The nuclear bombs were on their way to the site. Even though the people were in the underground, they, without any other protection, would be killed by the powerful light and heat.

Even though the iron broadsword could be enlarged, it was still small enough to be stored in the small temple in White Town. How could he block such a huge pit?

In the last second, Cao Yuan lay down.

…

…

After a long while, the smoke and fog had finally dispersed, so did the dreadful light and heat.

Along with a booming sound that was as loud as if a mountain was collapsing, a huge figure stood up slowly amid the thin smoke.

The huge body was covered with the black dust from head to toe; the blood was trickling down from those horrible wounds. He looked like a badly eroded large Buddha.

The blood was golden in color.

If he hadn’t had a golden body, he would have turned into ashes by now.

Even though it was the case, he was still wounded severely, and unrecognizable.

The street was unrecognizable as well.

In fact, the street was totally gone.

All the buildings had collapsed. The newly condensed rocks that had melted earlier could be seen everywhere; and the corpses that looked like coals were even more horrible to look at…

He couldn’t save everybody.

It was believed that the inhabitants in the residential area had all died in the blast.

Cao Yuan stood in the midst of the ashes after the nuclear explosion, with the iron broadsword in his hands, and under the seemingly beautiful starry sky with his head lowered; it was unclear what he was pondering.

The faint cries could be heard in the underground.

He lifted up his head and looked at the three battleships in the night sky, no expression showing on his face.

“If you don’t die tonight because of your stupidity, come find me.”

He still remembered the statement the middle-aged man made before his departure.

“I shall then”

He muttered this to himself before he leapt into the night sky.

The sky had no residual of the mushroom clouds; and the starlight was quite bright here, illuminating his shaded face and the iron broadsword.

The broadsword light illuminated the forest on this planet like a flash of Buddhist glow.

The iron broadsword pierced into the bottom of the battleship.

Cao Yuan charged forward while holding the hilt of the broadsword firmly, his head lowered.

The iron broadsword advanced unstopped.

He became a Buddha whenever he lifted up the iron broadsword.

He didn’t scream angrily, but the thunder rumbled in the night sky.

Along with the loud cracking sound, countless broken metal pieces spread out in the space.

A horrific gap was visible on the battleship, slowly extending from the bow to the stern.

The battleship had been sliced in half.

…

…

The battleship had been staying at the edge of the atmosphere when the laser guns and the nuclear weapons fired. It, however, had already drifted back to the space when it broke in half. It was easily imaginable just how powerful the broadsword wielded by Cao Yuan was.

It was soundless in the dark space. The distant permanent star shone on the broken battleship in two halves and the rainstorm-like metal pieces and the dead soldiers who still wore a shocked expression on their faces.

The whole scene looked like an oil painting. It gave off a sacred feeling even though the painting was about the destruction and death.

It was probably because the large Buddha holding the iron broadsword below the battleship looked very much like a god in religion.