Transcending the Nine Heavens

“What’s wrong?” Wei Wuyan asked, “Didn’t you know that what you’re doing is defying the natural order?”

“What do you mean?” Chu Yang frowned. He had been doing this all along, and he didn’t feel at all that what he was doing was against the natural order.

Wei Wuyan sighed, “I’m not surprised at your sword movements nor your ability to defeat them. I’m also not surprised at the way you battle, but I’m surprised at how strong your heart is!”

“How strong my heart is?” Chu Yang repeated.

“Because just now, you’re definitely not fighting with your whole heart for one purpose! And neither for multiple purposes!” Wei Wuyan said, “You’ve devoted all your heart in battling, comprehending your sword movements and understanding how your opponents attacked you, all at the same time!”

Wei Wuyan’s eyes almost bulged out of his eye sockets. “Do you understand what I mean?”

Chu Yang was a little puzzled. “Isn’t this just doing three things with one heart? What’s wrong about this? I’m just doing it this way just now.”

Wei Wuyan said crazily, “How is this doing three things with one heart? It isn’t! It’s doing three things with three hearts!”

Chu Yang was stunned. “How will I have so many hearts?”

Wei Wuyan paced one round. “Did you feel very supernatural just now? Other than this, you can’t feel anything else? And these three things persist in your heart at the same time without bothering one another? And, do you feel that you have a breakthrough?”

Chu Yang frowned and recalled the state that he was in just now, but realized he couldn’t get into it no matter what. He said as he pondered, “Yes, it’s this case.”

“This isn’t doing three things with one heart. It’s the Tao state,” Wei Wuyan sighed. There were envy and a sense of loss in his eyes. “The Tao state is the highest spiritual realm in the process of cultivation of martial arts. Once one enters this realm, all the difficulties that one has regarding martial arts can be solved! Arriving at this realm comes by luck. Normally, it will only occur once or twice in a fierce battle when your mind is fully devoted to fight. This realm is ethereal and elusive…”

“The Tao state…” Chu Yang pondered and said, “I see, this is the Tao state!”

Wei Wuyan said a little pitifully, “In the battle just now, you really should drag some time; the longer you stay in the realm, the more harvest you’ll get… Normally, such a situation occurs only once in thousands or hundreds of battles for people with Saint level or above! Some Supreme Martial Artist may not be able to encounter this even once in their whole life… Now, you’re only a Martial Emperor, but you can enter such a realm. Yet you ended the battle so easily and gave up the continuation of this Tao state. It’s such a pity.”

Chu Yang said remorsefully, “I didn’t know this before.”

Wei Wuyan comforted him. “It’s already very good! This time around, you’ve entirely rounded your eccentric sword movements, and you also conveniently learned two great techniques… It’s already considered a big harvest for you!”

Chu Le’er finally ran up to Chu Yang. “Big brother… you looked so mighty just now.”

Her face was still a little pale, clearly showing that she hadn’t come out from the fear she had just now. The first thing she did after she ran over was to pull Chu Yang’s sleeves.

Chu Yang frowned and patted her shoulders, saying nothing.

Now, comforting Chu Le’er or doing anything else would be of no benefit to her. She must go through this kind of mental cultivation by herself.

Chu Le’er looked a little bitter in her eyes. She was naturally anticipating his big brother’s comfort…

Wei Wuyan couldn’t bear this and wanted to comfort her, but Chu Yang’s wink stopped him from doing so.

“Let’s go ahead,” Chu Yang said.

“Aren’t you burying these corpses?” Chu Le’er couldn’t bear herself from saying.

“They’ll be buried,” Chu Yang said lightly and looked up at the black weird birds which were gathering in the sky. As the foul smell of the blood diffused into the air, more and more such birds were gathering in the sky above the three.

Screeching sounds were heard from behind as the three walked for a little distance.

Upon turning around, Chu Le’er vomited on the spot. She finally understood what Chu Yang meant when he said ‘they’ll be buried’.

Being eaten by birds was also called being buried…

Black birds rushed down from the sky and hurled viciously towards the few corpses on the ground. Soft yet horrible screeching sounds were heard, and it made people’s hair hold up.

The flesh and bones of the five corpses decreased at a rate visible to the naked eye. In the end, the ground became clean, only leaving a stretch of brown spots on the ground.

All the bits of blood, flesh, bones, hair and clothes were gone. The most terrible thing was, the skulls, which were the hardest of human bodies, were all pecked into pieces before they were all swallowed…

Chu Yang and Wei Wuyan were emotionless. They seemed to have long thought of this scene, or this scene seemed to be just a common sight to them.

After Chu Le’er finished vomiting, she followed after the two exhaustedly. After walking forth dozens of step, she turned around and realized that what she had vomited had also gone…

The darker the Black Blood Forest was as the three gradually got deeper into the forest.

It was quiet all around. There were even no chirping sounds of birds.

Chu Yang suddenly thought of something. Frowning, he said, “Brother Wei, the beaks of the birds were all very hard.”

Wei Wuyan said, “Oh?”

Chu Yang said seriously, “But after they pecked on the ground, there seemed to be no change on the black ground.”

Wei Wuyan laughed. “I see, you’re talking about this.”

He stamped one foot on the ground. With a bang, the whole Black Blood Forest seemed to tremor for a bit, but the ground beneath his foot only sank in slightly. “Do you see this? Because this Black Blood Forest is a folding point of the Nine Heavens, the soil was the hardest here. It’s even several times harder than the average steel!”

“So the trees in the Black Blood Forest normally grow very slowly. They’re as hard as, or even harder than, fine steel!”

Wei Wuyan used one palm to split open a small tree next to him which was as big as the mouth of a bowl. He pointed to the tree grain in the middle and said, “Look.”

Chu Yang looked in the direction of Wei Wuyan’s finger. The grain of the tree was dense and it had a countless number of circles.

“Normal trees of this thickness will grow a minimum of ten years outside here. Trees that grow easily may grow this thick even in only two years. But in this Black Blood Forest, it needs a minimum of 500 years!” Wei Wuyan said.

Chu Yang agreed softly and thought, “If that’s the case, the Black Blood Poisonous Core Vine in here is aged tens of thousands of years? That’ll be so great…”

The three went in all the way.

Chu Le’er’s body was weak from vomiting and she walked unsteadily behind. But Chu Yang not only didn’t support her, but he also didn’t allow Wei Wuyan to do so.

Chu Le’er creased her brows stubbornly and walked forth step by step. She felt sourness in her hip bones and a burning pain under her feet. Her eyes teared up and she couldn’t help but start sobbing.

Wei Wuyan sighed. “Let me carry you.”

“No,” Chu Yang said lightly, “Why talk about the path of great Tao when she can’t even bear to walk a few steps?”

He looked indifferent.

Chu Le’er tilted her small head to one side sulkily. “I can walk by myself!”

“Then walk by yourself!” Chu Yang said with no pity at all.

Chu Le’er felt even more wronged.

Out of spite, she even hastened her pace.

Chu Yang revealed a trace of satisfaction in his eyes.

Chu Le’er’s physical stamina had reached its limit just now. But under spite, she had unknowingly broken through her physical stamina. But since she hadn’t cultivated before, Chu Yang couldn’t allow her to break through to the next limit of her stamina again. This would pose severe damage to her body…

So, wait till she couldn’t support herself anymore later, he must carry her.

There was nothing blocking them as the three walked on; it was as if the battle just now hadn’t happened before.

There were some movements after they slowly walked for some dozens of miles.

There were shadows within the bushes, but these people never showed up themselves.

The shadows continued to follow the three slowly in the dark like bodyguards. These shadows didn’t show up, nor did they retreat. This made the three a little vexed.

After walking for another period of time, Chu Yang finally couldn’t bear any longer. With a long whistle, he burst out all the sword energy he had. Using the Sovereign level’s sword cultivation, he held on to his sword and plunged into the bushes on the left!

Don’t you just want to test my cultivation before deciding what to do with me? I shall give you an answer first.

Wei Wuyan immediately stood still to protect Chu Le’er.

Chu Yang’s sword light shot fiercely into the bushes, and instantly shrill cries were heard and blood scattered outwards.

With a flash, Chu Yang, surrounded by sword light, rushed out of the left bushes like an inexhaustible death god. Casting out of his body a spell of death, he plunged into the bushes on the right!

A stretch of shrill cries was heard again.

Chu Yang held his sword and pursued after his opponents, even sweeping through those bushes at the front. The foul smell of blood instantly filled up the air.

Fluttering sounds were heard. It was those big birds which had come after sensing the foul blood smell.

The three continued their walk. Chu Yang, still casting death from his body, took the lead. Wei Wuyan smilingly and quietly followed after him.

This Chu Yang indeed had good wits.

First, he let those people follow after him. Then, in the end, he put on an appearance that showed he couldn’t bear being followed anymore. Anyone who saw him would think that he had absolutely exercised his real martial arts under rage. How could they see that this was actually a trap?

Or that this was bait.

By only revealing himself to have the cultivation of a second stage Emperor level, those who confronted Chu Yang would definitely not be super experts, and a Monarch level one at most. And Chu Yang could practice his sword at ease again…

Even Wei Wuyan might not have recognized that Chu Yang was acting if not knowing Chu Yang’s cultivation in advance.

Indeed.

After a sudden silence in the surroundings, a cold voice sounded, “I’m just wondering who’s so daring to kill people of our faction. I see, it’s a young sword genius, a Sword Emperor!”

Chu Yang smiled coldly, saying, “People of your faction? What faction are you from?”

There was silence again in the dark.

After a long time, that voice sounded lightly, “You don’t need to know what faction I’m from. Kid, you only need to know that I’m the faction ruler and killing you, this Sword Emperor is a piece of cake for me.”

Before he finished saying, a black shadow, accompanied by a strong gust of wind, descended from above. A little black light advanced towards Chu Yang as quickly as a bolt of lightning!

In this dark Black Blood Forest, such an attack appeared to be very gloomy!

…