The Path Toward Heaven

As one practiced the sword work long enough, the sword would become sharp, and the yellow leaves would fill up the sky. A youth without the advice of a master could become a strong swordsman.

On the other hand, the long and tiresome journey would eventually come to an end.

The cloud boats of the Center Sect returned to Cloud-Dream Mountain.

A great many sprays formed in the clouds and fog outside the mountains; they then broke into pieces and became oblivion just like a wonderful dream.

When these cloud boats were on their way to Green Mountain the day before, they were certain of the forthcoming triumph even though they kept reticent and didn’t show an overly arrogance.

It was deathly quiet as the cloud boats approached their mountain gate; no sound could be heard.

The Fairy Lady Bai Ren came back to the human world but died at the hands of the Queen of the Snowy Kingdom.

What made the people of the Center Sect feel horrified was that the Immortal Sect Master had collaborated with the Green Mountain Sect and attempted to kill the Immortal Bai.

Thinking of all this, hundreds of gazes were fixed instinctively on the cloud boat at the front, yet they didn’t see the tall figure there.

It was unclear when the Immortal Tan had left the cloud boat and gone back to Cloud-Dream Mountain in advance.

He went to the back mountain first and visited a few elderly hermits, though it was unclear what they had talked about. After that, he descended on the cloud and entered the deepest part of the Great Formation of Cloud-Dream.

He was counterattacked by the Pagoda of Suppressing Devils on Green Mountain the day prior and was severely wounded. It was unclear why he didn’t try to have his wound treated after coming back to Cloud-Dream Mountain instead of handling these matters first.

The clouds and fog dispersed slowly, exposing the huge and horrific figure of the Unicorn.

The Immortal Tan looked at the Unicorn quietly; his eyes were amiable and nonchalant. The wrinkles on his forehead had been gone a while ago.

His eyes had a strange expression. It seemed that he was looking at another place or another period of time.

What he gazed at was not the Unicorn, but that person.

In other words, he was gazing at the patch of cloud and fog that had never dispersed.

The two of them were Big Brother and Young Sister with the same Master. Later, they became Cultivation partners for hundreds of years. However, they had never known each other’s thoughts well enough; what they had were schemes hidden deeply in their minds.

The Immortal Bai had hidden her thoughts more deeply than his and much earlier. As such, it was not a shame that he had been defeated by her this time. If he hadn’t been persuaded by the Immortal Jing Yang, he wouldn’t have been sneak-attacked by her.

It occurred to him that it was she who had told the Unicorn to reveal how to dismantle the magic of clouds and fog by employing the Pagoda of Suppressing Devils on purpose three hundred years ago.

“How is Young Sister Yuan?” asked the Immortal Tan.

“You don’t have to pretend to care about her,” snapped the Unicorn. “I don’t wish to meddle in your family matter; but I’d like to ask you why you gave the Scenic-Cloud Bell to Jing Yang.”

The Immortal Tan said, “I didn’t give it to him; but I did give it to Tong Yan.”

Feeling surprised, the Unicorn exclaimed, “How could you plan to pass the position of the sect master to that traitor?”

“Little Zao is still sleeping in Dayuan City. I don’t know when and if she will wake up,” said the Immortal Tan. “Whom can I pass it to besides Tong Yan?”

This was a part of the agreement between him and Jing Jiu.

However, Tong Yan was still ignorant that he was given back to the Center Sect from the Green Mountain Sect by Jing Jiu.

Two gloomy flames formed in the eyes of the Unicorn, as he protested, “That traitor dared give the Scenic-Cloud Bell to Jing Yang. Do you think I’ll agree and let him come back? Or agree to have him as the sect master?”

“I’m the Sect Master of the Center Sect. Your opinion doesn’t count,” snapped the Immortal Tan.

The Unicorn laughed violently, “Have you ever thought that I could swallow you with one gulp since you’re severely wounded and the Scenic-Cloud Bell is in the hands of Jing Yang?”

“What is this then?” the Immortal Tan prompted.

No sooner had he finished the sentence than an ancient and elegant bell appeared in his palm.

It was none other than the Scenic-Cloud Bell.

With a sudden change of expression in his eyes, the Unicorn uttered a long and sharp shriek.

He didn’t do it because he was frightened; it was because he was extremely enraged.

How many times would such a scene occur?

…

…

How fast would one travel when employing the Escape Method of Heaven and Earth with the endless fairy energy?

The energy hidden amid the warm spring sunlight drifted intermittently forward. It could travel one hundred miles in an instant.

Yet, the energy was still not traveling as fast as the sword light. The tracks of the traveling sword light were a bit off; it couldn’t travel straightly in heaven and earth as it had done in the beginning.

The Fruit Formation Temple was very close to the East Ocean.

As Tong Yan answered the first question of the Chief Nun of the Water-Moon Nunnery, the Immortal Bai had arrived in the temple along with the sunlight. She appeared in front of a meditation room after turning into the fog in the forest.

This meditation room was called the “White Mountain”, where the Immortal Taiping and the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect had listened to the scripts back then.

The Immortal Taiping died, and so did the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect and the Main Master of the Script Instruction Hall. And yet, she was still alive.

The Immortal Bai walked into the meditation room and looked at the Buddha statue quietly; it was unclear what she was reflecting on.

The sounds of bells echoed melodiously in the temple. The recitation of scripts could be heard throughout the temple, adding more sensations to the sunlight.

The Chief Monk of the Fruit Formation Temple had passed away a few years ago, and the Young Zen Master was faraway in the snowland. Nobody in the temple could sense her arrival at the moment.

The sounds of bells and recitation of scripts could help conceal her energy to render her a moment of rest.

…

…

A vegetable garden was situated outside the Fruit Formation Temple.

There was an abandoned house in the garden.

A jug of pickles, a half of which was gone, remained in the house.

A sword light flashed past the house and traveled upwards along the cliff.

A small and round hole appeared on the yellowish wall of the temple.

A gust of gentle wind rose in the back kitchen.

Several ruptures appeared on a stone animal in a grand hall.

The stone pagoda in the Tranquil Garden was illuminated by the sword light.

Jing Jiu materialized by the stone pagoda. He looked at the temple halls outside while caressing the stone pagoda.

…

…

The sound of bells ceased.

Yet, the sound of reciting the scripts lasted a long time.

The monks were reciting the script of “Three-Thousand Wishes” today. It was unclear if it was the fate believed by the Zen sects or they were motivated by the immense change that had occurred the day before.

The script depicted leaving the sufferings behind and going to the world of three thousand wonders. The last sentence of the script was: “Use the most wonderful magic method to leave the sufferings of thousands behind.”

As this sentence of the script drifted in the wind, Jing Jiu and the Immortal Bai had met again.

There was a small stony square outside the White Mountain meditation room, and on the other side of the stony square was the pagoda forest of the Fruit Formation Temple where the highly achieved monks of the previous generations were buried.

The Chief Monk who had passed away a few years ago were buried under the new pagoda at the front.

The Immortal Taiping would have had his own pagoda if he chose to stay here as the Chief Monk.

Jing Jiu flicked his fingers lightly; an ancient bell in a distant temple hall rang out.

The sound of the bell alarmed the monks of the Fruit Formation Temple one more time.

A few green glows drifted up from among the temple halls and the pagoda forest, and then gathered together gradually, resembling a monk robe gliding in the wind. It was none other than the Great Formation of the mountain gate.

It was almost impossible for the Immortal Bai to leave the place even by means of the Escape Method of Heaven and Earth.

And she had no intention of leaving the place. She seemed to enjoy listening to the sound of the bell with her face tilting upwards and eyes closed, her hands folded behind her back.

Hundreds of monks came over and surrounded the pagoda forest.

Jing Jiu waved his hand a few times.

The monks understood what he meant and retreated to the outside of the pagoda forest uneasily.

For some reason, Jing Jiu didn’t turn into the sword light and slash the Immortal Bai into pieces, who was one hundred feet away.

Nor did the Immortal Bai strike.

The two of them stood in the pagoda forest quietly.

A gust of gentle wind blew over along with the special pine tree smell, tousling the white cloth and the white skirt.

Pah!!! Pah!!! Pah!!!

Many faint and crisp sounds burst out in the deep parts of Jing Jiu and the Immortal Bai’s bodies.

Countless ruptures appeared on the surfaces of the stone pagodas, as the wild grass on the ground lay broken to pieces. The painted surface of the Buddha statue in the White Mountain room was mostly peeled off in an instant.

The Great Formation of the mountain gate in the sky had responded strongly as well. The huge monk robe in the sky had a few clefts, and the sunlight shone through them and illuminated the stone pagodas, making them look like chess pieces on a chessboard.

Sensing the dreadful energies drifting among the temple halls, the monks of the Fruit Formation Temple displayed a benevolent expression on their faces while incessantly chanting the mantras.

The drifting energies were neither that of the sword wills nor that of the magic methods; they were the wounds suffered by Jing Jiu and the Immortal Bai since they evidently had the injured intents.

The Immortal Bai opened her eyes before asking, “How long can your offense last?”

“I don’t know,” replied Jing Jiu.

Back at the West Ocean, Jing Jiu had communicated a great deal with Nan Qü by means of the spiritual awareness in a very short time, and he did the same with the Snow Girl.

Yet, he and the Immortal Bai conversed in actual words.

They didn’t do it for a special purpose; they did it simply because they were truly tired at the moment.

After a day and a night, they were both tired to the extreme, and their wounds were also quite serious.

A golden liquid kept on seeping out from the wound on the Immortal Bai’s body. If she hadn’t protected her Dao Heart with the fairy book, she would have died a while ago by the East Ocean.

Though Jing Jiu looked the same as before, how could he be the same after being struck by the fairy book in the royal tomb on Longevity Mountain?

The Immortal Bai said to Jing Jiu, “Because of the Green Mountain Sect or the Jing Family, your influence on the Fruit Formation Temple is greater than I imagined.”

“Hence, you shouldn’t have chosen to come to this place,” said Jing Jiu.

The Immortal Bai said, “I heard that Liu Shisui had lived here for many years, that your Big Brother had been the Chief Monk here for many years, and that your elder brother was buried here.”

“That’s right,” said Jing Jiu.

“Have you recalled many past events when you come here?” asked the Immortal Bai. “Have you ever thought that only those who are going to die will recall such things?”

“Where does your confidence come from?” Jing Jiu asked.

The Immortal Bai suddenly asked while gazing at the spring sun in the sky, “What do you think it is?”

Jing Jiu had entered the Green Sky Mirror for the Dao Competition.

There were many other talented Cultivation practitioners in the mirror at the time, like He Zhan and his free-traveling friend Jiang Rui.

The two children, standing by the ditch at a poor village in Zhao State, asked each other a similar question while pointing to the sun in the sky.

Yet, the sun in the Green Sky Mirror was not the real sun, but rather the Retrieved Heavenly Orb.

Even the two children were well aware that the world they were in was a fake one…

Why did the Immortal Bai suddenly raise such a question?

Did she expect some specific answer?