The Path Toward Heaven

A human being can’t step into the same river twice.

A dog can’t serve two masters at the same time.

What happens when the above situations occur?

Dead Dog couldn’t give an answer to the question.

Neither could Jing Jiu.

After a moment of silence, Jing Jiu said, “This is our problem. It has nothing to do with you.”

Dead Dog closed his eyes.

Jing Jiu turned around and walked down the gloomy passage, soon disappearing into it.

Here was the Sword Jail.

The swordsmen of the Underworld, the cruel deviant Cultivation practitioners, and the demons of the Abyss were imprisoned in the cells on both sides of the passage.

It was soundless in the passage. The hideous and horrifying devil energy could be sensed intermittently behind the walls, like the mountains on the foggy ocean surface.

Once a trace of the horrifying energy was leaked out from the prison gate, it would pollute the Dao Tree of Cultivation practitioners, and could even destroy it.

Jing Jiu didn’t pay any attention to this, because those demons in the prison cells had no way to perceive his arrival.

As he passed a certain cell, Jing Jiu halted his steps and glanced at it.

This was the cell for Senior Master Tai Lu.

Senior Master Tai Lu was the peak master of Mochen back then, and had been in the upper state of the Broken Sea for a while.

During the internal war of Green Mountain, Senior Master Tai Lu was severely wounded, but he wasn’t willing to surrender or promise to go to the Hermit Peak and stay behind closed doors. As a result, he was locked up here.

The former Mochen Peak became the current Qingrong Peak.

Was it six or seven hundred years ago?

He was still alive!

…

…

Jing Jiu kept going forward.

The passage grew wider, and he reached a large hall. The ground in the hall was covered by green slabs, with the lightings hanging on all sides; it appeared less gloomy and horrifying than the passage leading to it.

There was a passage to his right side that was brightly illuminated, leading to the far end. There was a lonely cell at the end of the passage.

Jing Jiu looked at it in the distance, and he didn’t go that way.

This passage and the cells were surrounded by the most formidable sword wills in all of Chaotian.

Anyone who got close to the area would be cut into pieces by those sword wills.

Jing Jiu couldn’t get close to the area either.

It was he who had personally set up those sword wills back then.

His Big Brother had been locked up here since he was suppressed by Jing Yang, Liu Ci and Yuan Qijing in collaboration

The Immortal Taiping was said to be behind death doors.

The three-hundred-mile prohibition around Green Mountain was announced.

All these of course were false.

The army of the Jing Imperial Court outside the Cold Mountain was not there to protect the Immortal Taiping; it was requested by him to intimidate his Big Brother’s outside helpers.

Being behind death doors was the same as being imprisoned.

Shangde Peak later used this reason to suppress Lei Poyun.

Like he had told Zhao Layue, history repeats itself continuously, like the path on a mountain.

…

…

Jing Jiu looked at that cell silently.

The sword wills he had set up were still there, as formidable as before; nobody should be able to escape from there.

His Big Brother had indeed escaped from the Sword Jail by transferring his soul to a devil of the Underworld through the Thunder-Soul Wood.

The whole thing should be clear by now.

Jing Jiu turned and walked toward the passage straight ahead.

This passage was illuminated by the light, but not as brightly, and the energy was ordinary.

The cells here imprisoned the ordinary demons of the Underworld and the disciples of Green Mountain who had badly violated the sect rules.

Jing Jiu walked up to the front of a stone room, fixing his sight on the lock.

It was a very complicated sword lock. To open it, one had to know the procedure of the sword wills summoned by the swordsman and the fine differences in their strengths.

However, it was not difficult for Jing Jiu at all. He reached out his hand and gripped the sword lock, and the lock opened after a barrage of faint sounds of friction.

After the stone door was pushed open, Liu Shisui was seen sitting on a pile of hay.

He stood up and faced Jing Jiu with a tired look.

Jing Jiu looked at him quietly.

“Why did they treat me like this?”

Liu Shisui couldn’t understand it, and he felt truly dejected this time.

The situation was different last time when he was locked up in the Sword Jail.

He didn’t understand why he had to withstand such treatment after coming back to Green Mountain with tremendous difficulty.

Usually, Jing Jiu would talk to him after taking him out of this place; but he had something he wanted to talk to Liu Shisui this day.

He hadn’t told Liu Shisui about it before, and he didn’t tell him when he knew Liu Shisui was to go to the Old Ones as a mole.

This place was the most terrifying Sword Jail of Green Mountain, and it was also the most secured place. Here they didn’t have to worry about being eavesdropped by somebody.

Jing Jiu said, “Someone wants to harm me, so you are affected as a result.”

Liu Shisui looked at him and said seriously, “But even now, you are still not willing to tell me why you killed Senior Master Zuo Yi.”

“I’m not going to elaborate on the reasons,” Jing Jiu said, “I only tell you what the situation was back then: He wanted to kill Zhao Layue, so we killed him.”

“Okay, that’s reason enough,” Liu Shisui said after some thought.

Jing Jiu said, “Even if this matter turns into nothing, your future on Green Mountain won’t be very bright.”

“Why?”

Liu Shisui wasn’t upset; it was because he really didn’t understand why.

Jing Jiu thought that his Big Brother was interrogated and locked up in the Sword Jail for a long time after coming back from the Underworld, and his Big Brother had actually achieved something much more important than Liu Shisui did.

If Shangde Peak were not their original territory, something really bad would have happened.

“It’s because you stayed in the darkness for a while, and now you want to appear even brighter than everybody else; this causes uneasiness in some people.”

Hearing this, Liu Shisui fell silent.

He had already felt the changed attitude in some people, such as Big Brother Jian Ruyun, after he came back to Green Mountain.

It was probably because of jealousy, or other more complicated reasons.

Jing Jiu continued, “The moment you decided to go to the Old Ones, the possibility of you becoming a Sect Master of Green Mountain fell to zero. It’s because your experience among the Old Ones will be something many will hold against you. One has to blend into the darkness when walking in the dark, so this is an offense nobody can be cleared of.”

Back when his Big Brother wanted to compete for the position of sect master, the senior masters and elders of other peaks used this reason to veto his proposal.

You had so many supporters in the Underworld, so who knew what was on your mind? What was the true relationship between you and the Underworld? Even if you didn’t have a true relationship with the Underworld, you brought in the highly achieved swordsmen of the Underworld and killed so many disciples of the orthodox Cultivation sects; what would other orthodox sects think of it, if you became the Sect Master of Green Mountain?

In the end, his Big Brother relied on killing others to become the Sect Master of Green Mountain.

What his Big Brother did was kill anyone who dared oppose him; those offenses he couldn’t be cleared of would then be forgotten by others.

“I don’t care about this, because I have never thought of becoming sect master.”

Liu Shisui said seriously while looking at Jing Jiu, “Therefore, I have no regret.”

“I know,” said Jing Jiu.

Liu Shisui felt quite pleased.

His Young Master knew what kind of person he was and believed he would be the same kind of person forever. This was something that made him happy.

Liu Shisui continued, “I’ll keep on acting this way. If I try my best to eliminate as many evildoers as possible, this world will become a better place.”

“But the evils in this world will not be less because you have tried to eliminate them, and that is because the evil is not a tangible thing.”

Jing Jiu continued, “All the things in the world have their own order by which they proceed and function. It is benevolent when they all abide by the rules; on the other hand, it is evil when the rules are violated and the order is broken. If you want to eradicate the evils, you have to wipe out the soil in which evils grow; in so doing, the evils will have no opportunity to show up.”

“What should we do then?” asked Liu Shisui.

Jing Jiu said, “To build a most powerful and stable order in the world.”

“How can we achieve this?” asked Liu Shisui.

Jing Jiu said, “By becoming the most powerful person in the world.”

This was not an advice for benevolence, but an advice for Cultivation.

It was useless to think of all the other things; the Cultivation was the only correct path to take.

Liu Shisui mused that Xiao He’s issue would be solved easily if he were the Sect Master of Green Mountain.

It was because he could make his own rules by then.

“Where should I go next?”

“To the Fruit Formation Temple. The energy in your body is too mixed. hopefully, you will be able to get help there.”

Jing Jiu handed him a letter.

Liu Shisui put it away carefully.