The Path Toward Heaven

How fast it was!

Seeing the scene, the people in the Tranquil Garden were all stunned speechless.

But, Zhuo Rusui didn’t see it. He heard the sound of the sword breaking through the air only by now.

Bai Qianjun’s face was as pale as the white ash, thinking that he would be killed by Jing Jiu’s wielding sword if he were the one standing in front of Jing Jiu.

The word “fast” was used to describe the speed of the flying sword.

The Sword of the Universe, having been relieved of rust, became much thinner, like a piece of paper now; so Jing Jiu could make full use of its speed and sharpness.

Its sharpness was probably not comparable to the Lone Sword yet, but its speed was much faster than the Lone Sword.

And its speed was probably not comparable to the Thoughtless Sword, but its destructive power was stronger than the Thoughtless Sword.

In a sense, the speed and sharpness found a perfect balance in the Sword of the Universe, which was a good fit for Jing Jiu’s Underworld Fairy Sword.

It was the reason why Qi Ling was wounded by his sword even when Qi Ling was prepared for the attack.

“It’s useless!”

Looking at the sword residuals created by the rims of Jing Jiu’s clothing, Qi Ling added nonchalantly, “Though you and your sword are fast enough, you are still not powerful enough.”

As the ancient divine animal of the highest state in Chaotian, Qi Ling’s divine body was indestructible, even after changing into human form. Even though the powerful Sword of the Universe could cut open his skin, the sword nonetheless failed to leave any deeper wound. Even if the sword could make thousands of such shallow cuts, which would let seep out thousands of drips of blood, there would be no serious consequence for Qi Ling.

A gust of violent wind suddenly rose in the Tranquil Garden; it was because Qi Ling had inhaled deeply.

He held up his energy and then dealt a thunderous blow. How could Jing Jiu withstand it?

The residuals created by the rims of Jing Jiu’s clothing suddenly scattered. He disappeared from the original spot, meaning he was about to leave the Tranquil Garden.

Since Jing Jiu had no way to withstand Qi Ling’s upcoming strike, he chose to leave the place first, to avoid the Tranquil Garden filled with the ancient energy. For any Cultivation practitioner who could travel fast, they would make the same choice. But Monk Duhai was somewhat worried, because he knew that Jing Jiu was not an ordinary swordsman, so Jing Jiu might take some risks.

After sneering, Qi Ling leaped up and blocked the path to the sky.

Boom!!!

The gate of the Tranquil Garden was bumped open, and Jing Jiu came to the outside along with a dozen sword lights.

Qi Ling turned into a flash of green light and arrived outside of the garden as well. His speed was not a touch slower, and his movement seemed to be even faster, full of energy.

It was the day of paying respect to the stone pagoda. There were many monks performing the rituals and reciting the scripts outside the Tranquil Garden. They were in the middle of retreating, so some of them hadn’t left the area yet.

As Qi Ling’s energy arrived, it caused violent winds, which in turn knocked off the leaves and hurled up the pebbles and stones, filling the air. It was quite chaotic. Many monks fell down on the ground, blood coming from their heads.

The Great Formation of the Fruit Formation Temple had finally been activated.

Along with countless sounds of reciting scripts and beating wooden drums, about three thousand words of amulet from the scripts rose up from various halls, meditation rooms, and stone pagodas, and then turned into the Buddha flames, filling the sky.

It was the Protective Formation of Visible Flame!

This formation insulated the surroundings of the Tranquil Garden, shielding everything inside. It would take Qi Ling some time to get out of the formation if he wanted to.

Qi Ling didn’t pay any attention to the formation as he was pursuing Jing Jiu. Everywhere he passed, the large trees fell down and the ancient bells dropped to the ground, debris piling up on the ground.

Jing Jiu was traveling around the three thousand amulets of Buddha, like a ghost; and sometimes he traveled just like a Buddha flame.

Though the Protective Formation of Visible Flame prevented him from leaving the Fruit Formation Temple, the peculiar movements of the Underworld Fairy Sword worked even better in a smaller area.

Though it was a miracle that Jing Jiu had survived Qi Ling’s pursuit for some time, he nonetheless couldn’t get away from his pursuer.

The one flame among the Buddha flames that filled the sky had suddenly vanished, so had the flash of green light pursuing it.

The figures of Jing Jiu and Qi Ling both reappeared.

Crack!!!

The sword in Jing Jiu’s hand drove into Qi Ling’s chest, and the blood gushed out from it.

Though the Sword of Universe was not deep in Qi Ling’s chest, only a few inches deep, why didn’t Qi Ling evade the incoming sword?

The gate of the Tranquil Garden had been destroyed, so Monk Duhai could see the scene clearly.

As the Buddha flame vanished, Jing Jiu appeared and raised the sword in his hand.

And as the green light vanished, Qi Ling appeared and took a few steps forward.

In a sense, it was not that Jing Jiu drove the sword into Qi Ling’s chest, but rather, it was Qi Ling who bumped into the sword.

It was like a rabbit bumping into a tree or a human bumping into an object.

This was a ridiculous incident; it meant that Jing Jiu had achieved the feat of integrating movement and stillness.

Considering his Cultivation state, this feat was truly unbelievable.

Qi Ling didn’t get angry because of the injury; his dark and profound pupils didn’t show any sign of pain, merely the usual indifference.

“Do you really think your plan will work? Don’t forget that I haven’t struck yet.”

The pursuit among the Buddha flames was merely the first part; Qi Ling hadn’t launched his third strike, and he had prepared it with a great deal of energy built up.

Jing Jiu sensed a whirl of energy as unwavering as a mountain coming out from his sword; Jing Jiu knew that Qi Ling had locked the Sword of the Universe with his divine body.

In his current Cultivation state and strength, Jing Jiu couldn’t pull the Sword of Universe out of Qi Ling’s body. Now he had three options: One was to flee without the sword; the second was to use all of his Sword Source to try and drive the Sword of Universe through Qi Ling’s body to severely wound him; the third was to stand in the same spot while holding the hilt of the sword, waiting for Qi Ling to launch his terrifying strike.

He chose the third option, even though he could be crushed into a bloody pulp.

“If you were in the upper state of Broken Sea, I would be a bit concerned when facing your sword; but you are still very weak, so…”

Qi Ling didn’t strike right away. He kept holding up his energy until it had reached the highest degree, at which point he yelled, “You will die!”

As he uttered those words, Qi Ling threw his fist at Jing Jiu’s face.

His fist looked simple enough, but it contained a great deal of energy and was as heavy as a big mountain; his fist was much more dreadful than any regular magic treasure.

Facing the dreadful, approaching fist, Jing Jiu didn’t show any emotion; all he did was take half a step back, exposing his left hand that had been hiding behind his back the entire time.

A few faint wisps of golden light came out from the cracks between his fingers, exuding an intent that was far more intoxicating than the spring breeze.

It was the fairy energy.

The whole Cultivation circle knew that Jing Jiu held the Fairy Book of Longevity in his left hand, but he had never released it.

Since the end of the Dao Competition, he had been holding it for the entirety of six years.

It seemed that the Fairy Book had already intertwined with his left hand a long time ago.

Seeing the scene in the Tranquil Garden, Bai Qianjun recalled the incident by the Green Sky Mirror six years ago.

When and Jing Jiu’s fists met, the result of which was that he had almost died of having almost every bone broken in his body; fortunately, he was rescued by the Immortal Bai.

Was it possible that Jing Jiu wanted to do the same again?

Bai Qianjun mused cruelly that Jing Jiu would die for sure if he thought his fist holding the Fairy Book could match that of the Great Grandmaster the Unicorn’s.

Many people consider that thinking is the fastest thing in the world; but since thinking needs time, there must be different speeds in thinking. Though Jing Jiu could calculate at an unimaginable speed, not everybody could achieve the same feat. In fact, the vast majority of people in the world couldn’t think as fast as Qi Ling and the speed of his thrusting fist.

As the idea flashed in Bai Qianjun’s mind, Jing Jiu’s left fist had already encountered Qi Ling’s.

The collision occurred without any air wave or smoke and dusts; it didn’t even generate a booming sound.

Both Jing Jiu and Qi Ling had the control of the force at the highest level in the world; as such, they had given all of their force to their opponents, without any leakage.

All the others could hear was a faint cracking sound.

And it was followed by the sound of the earth ripping apart.

Actual ripping had occurred.

A deep ditch appeared on the green stone slabs and led to the Tranquil Garden.

Jing Jiu was lying at one end of the ditch. Though the countenance was still calm, his face was quite pale, indicating he was wounded badly.

Many bones in his hand were fracture, as well as his wrist bones, arm bones and even shoulder bones.

If Jing Jiu hadn’t had a unique bodily structure, those bones would have broken into countless small pieces.

The fight was not over yet, because Qi Ling’s third strike was not completed.

Qi Ling’s fist gave off a ball of light condensed from the green light, entering the Tranquil Garden and arriving in front of Jing Jiu.

At the moment, Jing Jiu had a hard time holding the Fairy Book in his left hand, let alone raising his hand and mounting a counterattack.

If Zhao Layue had enough time to respond to the attack, she would be willing to put herself in front of Jing Jiu to take the brunt of the incoming assault.

Unfortunately, the fight between Jing Jiu and Qi Ling was beyond her Cultivation state, she didn’t have enough time to do anything. She felt regretful at the moment and thought she shouldn’t have listened to Jing Jiu not entering the middle state of Free Travel; otherwise, she would at least be able to call out the Thoughtless Sword to block it for a while.

The expression in Jing Jiu’s eyes was still calm; he didn’t even show any intention to raise his sword. It was unclear what he was thinking at the moment.

…

…

Qi Ling had yelled “You will die”.

It looked like he was going to die.

It was just then that Qi Ling heard somebody else saying the same thing.

“You will die.”

The voice came up from underneath; it sounded very peaceful, actually like a diplomatic plea.

Qi Ling shot a glance from the corner of his eyes, and found the speaker was an old monk performing the Buddhist ritual outside the Tranquil Garden.

There was nothing special about this old monk, save for his ugliness.

The old monk had an ugly red nose and sparse dry hair that had just grown on his formerly bald head; anyone would feel disgusted when seeing him.

The old monk held in his hand a rod of golden steel that seemed to be grated from a black rock.

This rod of golden steel had been inserted deeply into Qi Ling’s waist.

In the blink of an eye, Qi Ling asked himself many questions.

As he arrived in the Buddha flames, he had checked out the surroundings of the arena through his spiritual awareness; he noticed the old monk who fell down on the ground, but he didn’t know whether the monk was alive or not.

When did the old monk sit up? Why didn’t he perceive it? When did the old monk stick this rod of golden steel into his body? And more importantly, what kind of magic treasure was this rod of golden steel? It had a profound Zen energy, but its surface was shrouded with some wafts of black smoke. And how could this rod pierce into his body and cause such a pain….?

“Ahhh!” Qi Ling screamed painfully and angrily.

The rod of golden steel had actually hurt him, including his self-esteem.

He didn’t expect to be injured by an unknown practitioner after coming out of the Cloud-Dream Mountain in a great many years and traveling in the human world.

“How dare a deviant practitioner sneak attacks this old man! You will die!”

Qi Ling was so furious that he had almost lost his mind. He started boosting his Cultivation state madly.

The rod of golden steel in this old monk’s hand obviously had a demonic intent since it had the chilly and gloomy black smoke. It was evident that he had employed the magic of the deviant sects; as such, Qi Ling thought he had no need to limit his own Cultivation state to the Yuanying State.

The horn on his head extended to a length of several feet, which was as crimson as the red reed; and his energy grew much stronger, as powerful as the violent ocean waves.

In a short period of time, Qi Ling had boosted his Cultivation state to the middle state of Dachen!

Even though Qi Ling didn’t change his body back to the original form, heaven and earth had already responded.

Innumerable dark clouds drifted over to the sky above the Fruit Formation Temple; the thunders and lightning were gathering inside the clouds.

Qi Ling brought his palm down on the head of the old monk, with more power than the thunder.

Pah!!!

The old monk brought up his own palm to meet Qi Ling’s incoming palm. It turned out that the old monk had easily blocked Qi Ling’s palm.

The black smoke with both the gloomy and brutal intents discharged incessantly from the old man’s palm. As the black smoke mixed with the golden light shot out from Qi Ling’s palm, it became a bright and gloomy mixture, resembling the lava on the verge of solidifying. And the mixed light illuminated the old monk’s ugly face more clearly.

“Even if you are in your original form, I’m not afraid of you in the least; how could I fear you when you are in such a miserable condition?”

The old monk looked at Qi Ling and laughed out loud.

His laughter had a hint of greed and expectation; he didn’t sound like a highly achieved swordsman at all, but like a monster expecting a tasty prey.

Qi Ling suddenly became extremely alarmed, because he sensed the real danger awaiting him. It was even more dangerous than the hidden thunders in the dark clouds.

Even though it was a fact that he in the transformed state was not as powerful as when he was in his original form, but how many people in the world could withstand his mighty palm, which was in the middle state of Dachen?

Qi Ling couldn’t afford to care about the danger of heavenly thunder at the moment. With a dreadful scream, he attempted to change back to his original form in an effort to get away from here.

But the old monk didn’t give him the opportunity to do so. The old monk rolled his eyes upwards and kicked out both of his legs as quickly as lightning, landing heavily on Qi Ling’s thigh.

Boom!!!

Qi Ling flew up into the sky, and soon changed into a tiny black speck, flying toward the horizon in a straight line, knocking down a mountain on the way.

In the next moment, the milky glow of a magic treasure could be vaguely seen on the other side of the mountain peak. Soon afterwards, the dark clouds dropped lower and the thunders struck down, but it seemed that they had no intention of blocking the black speck.

…

…

On the eaves of the Chenhua Hall, the white cat saw the Unicorn fall down to the other side of the mountain while spitting out blood, and wanted to pursue and kill him, with a lethal intent flashing in his eyes…but all of a sudden he felt the tightness on his neck.

Yin San grabbed the cat by the hair behind his neck and held the cat in his chest. “Ada, the member of Bai family will get there soon; we let go of the ugly horse today, okay?” Yin San said this while looking at the other side of the mountain.

His voice was very friendly and amicable, and he said it in an inquiring tone; but the white cat grew rigid throughout his body. There was no way he would refuse Yin San’s advice.

Yin San turned to the Tranquil Garden and looked at the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect drifting in the air over the Tranquil Garden. “It’s really…a pity,” he remarked with a cold expression in his eyes.

The white cat didn’t know that Yin San referred to the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect when he made the remark; instead, the cat thought Yin San meant it was a pity to let the Unicorn flee. So he meowed twice to utter his agreement. Then, he used his spiritual awareness to ask carefully, “Immortal, is this a scheme plotted by you two, brothers of the same master, against the Center Sect?”

Jing Jiu employed the Underworld Fairy Sword to escape to the outside of the Tranquil Garden, but happened to arrive by the side of the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect; so it didn’t look like a coincidence, but a scheme.

“Punishing the Unicorn is merely a side business.” Yin San continued while looking at Jing Jiu who had just gotten up in the ditch, “The person I want to kill is him.”

…

…

Everything had happened so quickly.

As Qi Ling’s fist was about to hit Jing Jiu, he was sneak-attacked by an old monk and wounded severely.

Qi Ling boosted his Cultivation state to the middle state of Dachen, and almost changed back to his original form; but he was still not the equal of that old monk, and he had been kicked by the monk to a distance beyond one thousand mountains.

The old monk had been sitting on the ground the entire time, and didn’t stand up even once.

Who was this old monk? Was he the Chief Monk of the Fruit Formation Temple coming out from behind closed doors or a highly achieved monk cultivating at the temple in secret?

Not that many people in the world could achieve such a feat.

The old monk flew to the sky above the Tranquil Garden, and the rod of golden steel made of black rock had disappeared.

The people in the Tranquil Garden could sense that this old monk had a profound energy and he was a deviant practitioner.

The old monk swiped his palm toward the Tranquil Garden, and his target this time was Jing Jiu!

Jing Jiu was beaten terribly by Qi Ling when he was in the Yuanying State; but Qi Ling was beaten terribly by this old monk when he boosted his Cultivation state to the Dachen State. Judging by these facts, this old monk should be in the Heavenly Arrival State according to the Cultivation states of the Green Mountain Sect; and he could be ranked in the top ten in the Cultivation circle of Chaotian.

The deviant sects had been on the decline, s when had they produced such a powerful demonic swordsman?

Looking at the old monk, the group in the Tranquil Garden was in despair, thinking that Jing Jiu had no chance to survive this assault.

It was then that something occurred in the Tranquil Garden.

Zhuo Rusui lifted his head and shot the old monk a glance.

He had been staring at the ground earlier when Qi Ling fought with Jing Jiu or during other happenings. He watched the weed swaying in the wind and being crushed by Qi Ling’s energy into pieces, then scattering to oblivion along with the wind.

This was the first time that day that he had lifted his head in the Tranquil Garden at the Fruit Formation Temple.

He saw the face of the old monk first, and remarked reflexively, “Whoa, he’s so ugly!”