The Path Toward Heaven

This old monk who had made the Unicorn flee after suffering a severe wound was the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect; he had been listening to the recitation of scripts for many years at the Fruit Formation Temple.

Hearing what Zhuo Rusui said, the Great Grandmaster didn’t feel angry, but rather a bit sentimental.

No matter how good-looking one had been at one time, their looks would become unsightly like his after they hid underground for over four hundred years.

No matter how powerful one had been at one time and how close one had been to uniting all the deviant sects, they would become an obedient dog after they were targeted by the Green Mountain Sect.

The Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect was someone who had reigned and commanded all the other swordsmen of the deviant sects for many years back then. However, he had been away from the human world for too long, and when he came back after four hundred years, no one could even recognize him.

Nevertheless, he was still the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect.

He had been acting like an obedient old dog by the side of Yin San over the years, but it was not his true nature.

By the time he reappeared in the human world, people might not recognize him, but heaven and earth had always recognized him.

The violent wind was whistling amongst the courtyards.

The Protective Formation of Visible Flame dropped down in an attempt to suppress him, but all it could do was tousle his sparse hair, not harm him.

Standing in the sky above the Tranquil Garden, he looked like a godly demon.

…

…

In fact, there was at least one person in the Tranquil Garden who recognized him.

“The Young Mysterious Dark Master?”

Jing Jiu felt a bit surprised, because he had expected to see the person who had been living with the turtle shell on his back that day.

In the deepest part of his memory, Jing Jiu remembered that that person had a tense relationship with his Big Brother.

Upon hearing the name Jing Jiu mentioned, the expressions on Monk Duhai and the Dachang’s faces changed instantly. Xi Yiyun and Bai Qianjun realized the dire situation they were in after feeling befuddled for a moment, their faces turning pale.

Zhuo Rusui stared at the old monk, thinking in surprise that he turned out to be that person, and that it seemed he had been right about the monk’s identity.

Zhao Layue stood in front of Jing Jiu to protect him, the Thoughtless Sword hovering to the side.

Jing Jiu reached out his hands as fast as the lightning and grabbed her waist belt; his Sword Source increased rapidly and transformed into a tremendous force. With this newly transformed power, Jing Jiu threw her to the outside of the protective formation.

For some reason, the Protective Formation of Visible Flame acted a little strangely; it could effectively prevent anybody from coming in from the outside, but it didn’t shield people from leaving the formation.

Zhao Layue flew in a straight line and landed in a forest near a building.

Hearing the commotion in the forest and seeing the scene in the Tranquil Garden, the white cat’s devilish pupils shrank again. He attempted to escape.

Jing Jiu was indeed in big trouble.

But that hand fell on his neck again, and he felt the hand was a bit more forceful than before.

“Like I said, we are only going to watch the show today.”

Yin San looked in the direction of the Tranquil Garden and said this calmly.

…

…

The Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect was descending into the Tranquil Garden, and the Protective Formation of Visible Flame followed suit.

The violent wind rose in the Tranquil Garden. Both Monk Dachang and the Monk Duhai stood in front of Jing Jiu with grave expressions.

State Duke Lu, Xi Yiyun and Bai Qianjun couldn’t keep standing upright and were thrown out of the garden to the ground. Zhuo Rusui wrapped his arms around the small stone pagoda in the middle of the courtyard tightly, resembling the small animals holding onto the trees in a flood. He wouldn’t let it go no matter what; and he tried his hardest to keep his eyes open to look at that fast descending figure regardless of how much his eyes were assaulted by the dirt and pebbles.

Monk Dachang leapt up in the air and headed for the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect.

The Protective Formation of Visible Flame sensed the intention and dropped more rapidly in an effort to suppress the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect.

The Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect showed no emotion, as he waved his sleeve lightly. It was unclear what magic he had used when he snatched the Buddhist Treasure in the Protective Formation of Visible Flame.

A skinny palm poked out from his sleeve and slapped toward the ground of the Tranquil Garden with a tremendous force and Zen energy.

With a grunt, Monk Dachang retreated a few steps and fell onto the ground, spitting out some blood. As a trusted bodyguard of the late emperor, he had been cultivating at the Fruit Formation Temple for three hundred years, so he should have had plenty of practice in the Buddhist methods. But he couldn’t even resist the wind generated by the palm wielded by the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect. Worst of all, the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect had a better knowledge of the Zen methods than he did.

There was a grave expression on Monk Duhai’s face as he realized why the Protective Formation operated so strangely.

The skinny palm enshrouded the whole Tranquil Garden.

Nobody could resist and evade the force exerted by someone in the Heavenly Arrival State.

Jing Jiu was pale, but his eyes still looked crystal clean.

Monk Duhai stood in front of Jing Jiu without hesitation. If he let this talented disciple nurtured by the Green Mountain Sect die at the Fruit Formation Temple, how could he explain himself to the Immortal Liu Ci or to the Young Zen Master?

He was the Principal Justice of the Fruit Formation Temple and naturally had a more profound Cultivation state than the Monk Dachang; so he believed that he could resist the foe long enough for Jing Jiu to flee.

Looking at the huge palm slapping down in the sky, his face showed a determined expression, as he was prepared to sacrifice himself.

All of a sudden, a person came over and stood in front of him.

Monk Duhai was startled. Zhao Layue had been thrown out of the garden by Jing Jiu, while State Duke Lu, Bai Qianjun and Xi Yiyun had been knocked out of the Tranquil Garden, and Monk Dachang was knocked down to the ground and Zhuo Rusui was holding onto the small stone pagoda for his dear life. Who else was still in the Tranquil Garden? Where did this person come from?

Seeing this person before him wearing the green official uniform, Monk Duhai suddenly remembered that a middle-aged official came to the Tranquil Garden with State Duke Lu today.

That official looked rather ordinary, and he hadn’t uttered a word the entire time.

Monk Duhai thought that this official had passed out a while ago, but unexpectedly, this person was still conscious and even managed to stand in front of him.

Able to walk around when being suppressed by the energy from someone in the Heavenly Arrival State, he couldn’t possibly be an ordinary person. Perhaps he was a highly achieved swordsman from the imperial court, but…

Even if he were Jin Mingchen, how could he resist this demonic swordsman?

Monk Duhai attempted to pull the official back, but it was too late.

The official wielded his palm toward the sky.

His palm was rather broad, and looked mild, it didn’t look like a hand that had held a sword or done any hard work, except that some blisters could be seen on the edge of some of his fingers, indicating that he had held a pen more often than not. In comparison to the skinny and dreadful palm of the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect, his palm appeared small and weak.

However, everything had changed in the next moment.

The official’s body had suddenly grown taller, as if he was an old farmer looming over his field of crops, or an official of the Pure Heaven Bureau standing in the flying sedan and looking down at the earth below.

A formidable energy exuded from the body of this official, the energy feeling as solid as a real object.

This formidable energy was not the same as the power displayed by an official, but…a sort of royal aura!

A red and shapeless flame came out from the edge of the official’s palm, and it changed into two flying wings, heading toward the sky and later bombarding the palm of the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect with great ferocity.

The countless small black flames in the palm of the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect gave off innumerable burning sounds after it met the two firing wings.

The two firing wings and countless small flames vanished in the air immediately.

The two palms had finally encountered each other, skin to skin.

No matter how perfectly one could control the force, they had no way to prevent the force from leaking out to heaven and earth, because it had surpassed the human ability and was in the territory of the divine.

Boom!!!

The eaves and buildings in the Tranquil Garden had all been crushed to the ground, with no dust rising up, though on the other hand, this made it easy to see everything in the garden now.

The horrifying air waves rolled out in all the directions, knocking down all the buildings on the way, drying up the water in the ponds and burning up all the dry lotus leaves.

The air waves were blocked by the protective formation only after it reached a distance of several miles, and when the air waves bounced back from the formation, they devastated everything on the way one more time.

The colliding palms were very dreadful!

Who was this official?

“The Emperor!”

Looking at the official, the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect had an expression of shock on his face.

He was right. This official who came to pay respect to the pagoda with State Duke Lu was the Emperor of the current imperial court!

No one expected the Emperor, who was busy dealing with the state affairs in Zhaoge City, to come to the Fruit Formation Temple in secret!

He missed his father; so he wanted to come to the Tranquil Garden and sit in front of the pagoda of the spiritual bones, but was he afraid of letting the others know about his trip, thus choosing to conceal his identity?

The matter was of course not that simple.

Was it possible that the scheme plotted by the Immortal had been known ahead of time?

The Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect glanced at Jing Jiu sideways and felt a sense of danger.

He had a similar feeling as what the Unicorn had felt.

Yet he didn’t quite understand it; even if the Emperor had an unparalleled Cultivation state, it still shouldn’t have made him feel such fear; why did he feel so alarmed right now?

The Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect decided not to linger any longer; he had to leave at once no matter how harshly the Immortal would chastise him for it later.

The Emperor pulled back his palm, as he didn’t intend to keep the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect in the garden by force.

The Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect turned around and flew skyward, but he suddenly felt something was not quite right; he looked back and shot a glance at the ground.

The Tranquil Garden had already become ruins, with the only intact object being the small stone pagoda containing the ash of the late emperor, and that was because it was made of special materials and protected by the amulets.

Zhuo Rusui lifted his head to look at the sky while holding onto the small stone pagoda.

As the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect distanced himself from the ground, he couldn’t see Zhuo Rusui’s eyes clearly, but Rusui’s line of sight connected with his.

Zhuo Rusui craned his neck to look at the black speck in the sky while holding onto the stone pagoda, bloody strands filling his eyes.

Since he started staring at the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect, his line of sight had never left the face of the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect; his eyes hadn’t even blinked once.

Receiving the energy with full force from the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect, Zhuo Rusui couldn’t withstand it any longer. He grunted once and fell down on the ground, unconscious. His right hand opened up, revealing a sword amulet that had been squeezed into pieces.

A faint sword will suddenly appeared in the sky.

The Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect felt both scared and furious; he yelled loudly, “The shameless Green Mountain!”

A flash of sword light broke through the air and arrived in the sky. Its energy was unbelievably strong and contained a much more powerful intent. As such, even the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect couldn’t evade it.

The sword light passed through his chest!

…

…

The winter sunlight shone down on the top of Tianguang Peak.

The Round Turtle had his eyes closed and was asleep soundlessly. The stone monument atop the turtle shell was taciturn, and the Inherited Heaven Sword that was inserted atop the monument cast an increasingly long shadow.

The Immortal Liu Ci sat by the cliff’s edge cross-legged, his eyes closed as sword wills encircled his entire body. The sword energy inside his body had been accumulating for three days and was at its height.

Before Zhuo Rusui left Green Mountain, he had told his disciple in a serious tone, “When you arrive at the Fruit Formation Temple, you should look around if necessary. Don’t look at anything the wrong way, or miss anything.”

Sensing the information coming from the distance, Liu Ci opened his eyes, thinking that his disciple had finally done something right.

Soon, a fuming intent flashed in his deep and calm eyes, as he remarked, “It turns out he is the Young Mysterious Dark Master…damn it!”

As soon as he finished the remark, a violent wind rose up on the top of Tianguang Peak.

The Round Turtle opened his eyes for the first time after a great many years.

The shadow on the stone monument had also vanished without a trace.

Just then, the clouds shrouding Yunxing Peak all year long had also instantly disappeared.

Those dark and steep cliff rocks full of formidable sword wills revealed themselves under the sunlight and in people’s eyes.

The elders and the disciples of the nine peaks were all stunned speechless, unsure what had happened.

The leaves on Shenmo Peak were as red as the burning fire. Gu Qing and Yuan Qü walked out of the manor cave and came to the edge of the cliff, looking in the direction of Yunxing Peak.

The two of them sensed the strong sword wills coming from there, thinking in surprise that this should be the true nature of the Sword Peak.

“What has happened?” Yuan Qü asked uneasily.

“I didn’t see anything.”

Gu Qing shook his head, but he suddenly felt a bit worried for his Master.

The Sword Peak showed its true nature all of a sudden; it meant that something significant had happened in Chaotian.

Normally, such an occurrence wouldn’t have anything to do with Jing Jiu because of his low Cultivation state; but somehow, Gu Qing still felt something was out of place.

On Tianguang Peak.

Sitting by the cliff’s edge cross-legged, Liu Ci looked in the direction of the Fruit Formation Temple, remaining silent for a long time.

“Master, you even dare employ a demonic person, the like of the Young Mysterious Dark Master; what place does the Green Mountain have in your heart?”

…