Chapter 460: The World

After a bit of bluffing…

Cough! Cough!

It should be said that it was after a serious conversation!

Chi Jiuyu discovered that his life blade was still very obedient, fully possessing the qualities of an excellent sword spirit—

Abundant spiritual awareness, profound potential, and most importantly, respect for the master, devotion to the master, placing the master's will above all else…

Not even requiring her to guide or educate it!

According to the "Miscellaneous Talks on Nurturing Blades and Cultivating Spirits" in the Transmission Hall, this was already the most elite sword spirit!

But it still stubbornly clung to its name, and that habit of saying "Yu Yu" couldn't be broken…

Hmm…

But these were trivial matters!

In short, judging by the current situation, her previous education and training had been extremely successful.

"Then let's end this discussion for now; we'll settle the name issue later when we return." After a pause, he vowed earnestly, "Don't worry—I'm not a master who rules autocratically; I'll definitely consider your opinions thoroughly!"

"Mm!" The emerald-gold blade seemed delighted, circling Chi Jiuyu continuously, its rainbow light flickering, "Yu Yu! Master! Good!"

"Alright! Let's go then!"

The blade in hand, its light transformed into a rainbow, sweeping up its wielder.

Sigh~

Thinking back on this Xian Sect Grand Competition, it was truly frustrating.

I, the number one prodigy of the myriad worlds!

Day after day, either sneaking like a rat into the Shenshan wilderness, or half-dead from injuries…

Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river!

Once my foundation is fully replenished, I'll re-enter the Xian Sect Grand Competition and give all the competitors in my group a real lesson in strength!

Hum~!

Amid a surge of waves, a slender emerald-mystic blade-light shot into the sky as a rainbow.

Although she eliminated Dog弟, her uncle's sword strike's "value" was simply overpowered, so she herself was injured.

She must quickly find a place to rest and recover properly.

By eliminating Dog弟, she gained spoils, so her spiritual item reserves instantly multiplied several times over.

Mainly because her starting supplies were so meager—anyone else was richer than her…

In short!

Among the spoils she obtained, some were common healing pills available on the market, perfect for immediate use.

In an instant, that slender emerald-mystic blade-light vanished.

Only golden fragments churned on the sea surface, the half-sunken setting sun sinking slowly.

Until the last sliver of sunset vanished beyond the horizon, a grayish hue had already blanketed most of the sky.

Only then did a blade-light arrive, "late as ever," landing above the sea, resolving into an old man in a gray wide-sleeved robe.

As if rushing too urgently, his spiritual aura was unstable, his chest heaving unevenly.

Gazing at the empty sea, the gray-robed elder's face darkened with grief: "Younger Brother Kunlan, it's all my fault—if only I had noticed in time and rushed to join you in repelling the enemy…"

His voice choked, tears streaming from his aged eyes, as if heartbroken beyond measure.

His voice drifted across the sea, crystal-clear to distant patrol disciples too afraid to approach, causing them to wear expressions of oddness.

But soon, Kunyuan wiped his tears and spoke firmly: "Rest easy—your wife and daughter I shall raise. Do not worry, younger brother."

Kunlan's wife was a Nascent Soul cultivator—an excellent material.

His daughter's cultivation was lower, but she possessed a special physique—her value was still considerable…

Bundled together and sold, they could fetch considerable resources.

Thoughts flashed like lightning.

Kunyuan no longer hesitated; he swiftly turned and raced back into Canglan Sword Palace.

The facade was already complete; now he must hurry to claim the assets.

If he didn't move fast, those other old bastards would never let this opportunity slip!

Rest easy, younger brother—on the day I attain the Venerable Realm of Return to Void, I will summon the entire sect to give you a grand funeral!

Many patrol disciples watched Kunyuan rush in and then vanish just as quickly, feeling utterly speechless…

He thought he could claim all of Kunlan's inheritance with just one sentence…

Uncle Kunyuan was truly greedy.

Poor Uncle Kunlan, who spent his life toiling for the sect, braving fire and water, harvesting countless spiritual essences to reach this point—only to end up like this.

As they pondered this deeply…

Some sharper, more astute disciples were already calculating how much benefit they could extract from this incident.

This was a Soul Transformation Immortal!

Even if he was poor, as the saying goes, "When a man dies, his debts vanish"—his remaining assets were beyond what ordinary cultivators could match.

As for Kunlan's wife and daughter?

A Nascent Soul guarding the estate of a Soul Transformation Immortal was already asking for death!

It was no surprise if the other uncles and aunts stripped her skin, cracked her bones, and devoured every last bit!

What needed doing now was to find a decent enough excuse to serve this "fat meat" on the table.

After all, this was how it had been—and how it always would be.

…

……

"Nothing but petty, scurrying schemes."

At the highest point of the Xuan Realm, the once-vast bronze Armillary Sphere—formerly as massive as an ancient star—had now shrunk to the size of a palm, held in the hand of a man in a black robe with black hair, whose aura was overwhelmingly domineering.

It was the Hegemon!

His gaze reflected everything within the Xuan Realm.

The Fruit Domain, Zhitui Xiancheng, the Sword-Rearing Sea…

The Blood Hall, the Bone Forest, the Wailing Infant Mountain…

All matters of the righteous and demonic paths within this world.

"This realm has been too deeply affected. To excise the病灶, one must apply a drastic remedy."

Human nature is hard to fathom; good and evil blur into chaos in but a single thought.

Precisely because they understood this, the gathered Immortals never denied the unseemly side of human nature.

It was just that this world had been influenced by Xuan, and that side had been magnified greatly…

"After the Grand Competition, we shall purge the病灶 according to the original plan, then nudge the flow of time to guide things along," said Hong Zun.

Dan Zu glanced at Xu Xing. Seeing he seemed to have nothing to say, he spoke up: "Once all matters within this Xuan Realm are resolved, what then? Should we keep it within the realm as a grotto-heaven, or release it back into the Sea of Chaos to evolve on its own?"

Indeed.

Once the internal situation of this world was resolved, should it be kept within the Grand Xuan Realm?

Or released back into the Sea of Chaos?

After all, this was the first Immortal Net testing ground.

Xuan had once been able to influence this world in silence; it was hard to guarantee that afterward It would not turn Its attention to this world again, and then use the lingering traces within to attempt to influence the Immortal Net in return…

The Immortal Net was still in its infancy; many aspects were far from perfect. It was better to be cautious.

Each of them turned the matter over in their hearts, each with their own answer, but in the end, without prior arrangement, they all looked toward Xu Xing.

Xu Xing: "……"

Why are you all looking at me.

If you have thoughts, just say them outright!

Xu Xing, expression unruffled: "I rather feel it should be released back into the Sea of Chaos. What do my fellow Daoists think?"

Although the current Grand Xuan Realm already possessed the 'Immortal-Washing Pool,' even if all the people of the Xuan Realm were to stay, it could be done.

But doing so would delay the progress of the 'Ascension Plan' for other worlds.

Moreover, among this generation of cultivators in the Xuan Realm, there were essentially none fit for use—wouldn't they simply be seduced over to the enemy at the slightest provocation?

One had to remember that the Xuan Qi of this world was an incarnation of 'Xuan.'

Unless their very cognition was directly altered.

But that would be even more of a loss than the gain.

It had already been proven that excessive intervention by high-level forces would strip cultivators of the possibility of merging with the Dao. After all, the essence of cultivation was to enlighten one's own self, to bear the Dao through the self.

"My thoughts align with my junior brother's," said Bie Xuening as well.

A completely unsurprising answer.

"As for Xuan, by the day the Immortal Net spreads across all the heavens and worlds, we shall have to face It eventually."

The Ancient Body was now gravely wounded, and Xuan was stretched thin. If even now It found an opening, then there would be no point in continuing to perfect the Immortal Net.

"How can we give up eating for fear of choking?"

Oh?!

Usually you just draw your sword and charge in headlong—this time the reasoning you came up with is actually quite thorough!

Master Mei Zu stared at Bie Xuening in astonishment.

Bie Xuening: "……"

What is that look supposed to mean?

I'll draw my sword and cut you down, believe it or not!

……

……

Just as the gathered Immortals were deliberating.

The competition among the participants of the Xian Sect Grand Competition grew ever fiercer.

Even though Lin Changsheng—who had harvested the most points—was hiding away to recuperate, the contestants were still being eliminated one after another.

Backstabs and being backstabbed played out at every moment.

One second they were cooperating, the next they were throwing themselves into fierce combat.

The whole point was 'loyalty and righteousness.'

The truth was, this Xian Sect Grand Competition was unlike those before. As prodigies of the Xian Sect, the contestants carried their own pride; the vast majority found it hard to accept being eliminated in the end with a big fat zero.

In past Xian Sect Grand Competitions, even if you couldn't win, at least you had a chance to show yourself. This time, a zero was truly a zero.

Under such high-intensity searching, even a Path of Concealment cultivator from the Grand Supreme Dao Sect was rooted out and killed.

However, the constant eruptions of conflict among the participants of the Xian Sect Grand Competition also left the high-level cultivators of the righteous and demonic paths in the Xuan Realm somewhat baffled.

Aren't they the vanguard?

How did they start fighting among themselves, and so viciously at that!

Faced with all these oddities, the final choice of the Return-to-Void cultivators of the Xuan Realm was…

To stand by and watch!

Mainly because the number of Soul Transformation cultivators from beyond the heavens that had appeared was somewhat beyond expectations.

I thought there were just a dozen or so, maybe twenty at most.

But now another batch has been appearing one after another; counting those we eliminated by strategy earlier…

Cough! Cough!

Counting those we wiped out with strategy before, and those who killed each other, there must be seventy or eighty already!

This isn't cabbage we're talking about!

This is seventy or eighty Soul Transformation cultivators?!

And they're Soul Transformation cultivators with absurdly strong combat power and peerless, exquisite spiritual arts!

And they've just been thrown in like this, left to slaughter each other.

Just thinking about the implications makes one's blood run cold—the Void Transcendents of the Xuanxiang Realm are even afraid to investigate the terrifying world behind all this…

Earlier, they had confidently claimed they were Void Transcendent masters who could survive in the cracks by exploiting the dirty schemes behind these outsiders from beyond.

But after actually witnessing the earth-shaking spiritual arts of the participants in the Xian Sect's grand competition, they no longer dared think so.

What if…

I'm just saying what if!

What if the world behind them is far beyond imagination, where Soul Transformation cultivators are as common as dogs and Void Transcendents walk the earth?

What if, in their world, there are tens of thousands of Void Transcendents, or even terrifying cultivators beyond the Void Transcendent realm?

Will I be treated as cannon fodder when I go over there?

The Void Transcendents of the Xuanxiang Realm, who cultivate by shepherding all living beings to nourish themselves, finally grew afraid.

…

…

Under the jurisdiction of Tianling Sect, a ruined Miao city.

A thick layer of black clouds hung in the sky, drizzling rain mingled with cold wind, chilling the heart.

Bricks and broken tiles lay scattered along the roadside.

Mu Yong stood by the road, his mood as oppressive as the overcast sky.

The world's development had become increasingly incomprehensible to him…

He had been given a chance to live again, yet was constantly restrained, living from day to day in peril.

Huh~

He exhaled softly, the breath forming a white stream in the cold wind.

Qi flowed through his meridians, dispelling the chill.

If not for the truth of the "Shepherd of Spirits, Nourisher of Self, Transforming to the True" scripture, and if his many techniques and spiritual arts couldn't function normally, he would even doubt whether this "second life" was merely his own fantasy…

But…

If the techniques and spiritual arts are real, why has the world's development deviated so drastically?

Just as Mu Yong felt a wave of confusion, a voice suddenly called out from behind.

"Brother Mu!"

As he turned to respond, an anomaly in the sky made his pupils contract sharply.

Amidst the hazy clouds, crimson light spread, turning the entire sky a blazing red in an instant.

The thick clouds rapidly melted away, like winter snow meeting sunlight.

Boom!

As if a great sun had fallen, a terrifying heat wave tore through the black sky; in the air warped by extreme heat, a crimson meteor streaked across the heavens.

"Fuck your ancestors! Come fight me one-on-one if you've got guts!"

A wild, boisterous voice echoed across heaven and earth, yet now carried a note of frustration.

It was those audacious Soul Transformation cultivators!

His robes flapped violently in the rolling heat wave; the surrounding high temperature made him feel as if trapped in a furnace, sweat pouring down in an instant.

Unlike the other Miao-level disciples behind him who screamed and fled, Mu Yong stared fixedly at the sky.

Behind the crimson meteor formed by their raging blood qi…

Was a colossal steel giant, as massive as a mountain, its joints clearly showing assembly marks; twelve pale blue spiritual energy wings spread from its back, fine grains of spiritual energy streaming out like sand.

Its shoulder armor layered seven tiers of sharp blades, each blade etched with deep blue spiritual energy patterns.

The reactor casing on its back was covered with protruding energy nodes, pale blue electric arcs leaping between adjacent protrusions.

Dark purple spiritual energy circuits, centered on the reactor, extended like living blood vessels, crawling across the armor's exterior; within every groove, liquid radiance floated, and the spiritual energy fluctuations it emitted carved black vortices into the void.

Though its size was immense, its speed surpassed even the crimson meteor.

'What… is this?' Mu Yong stared, dumbfounded.

All he heard was the roaring of engines.

Even after the Great Collapse, when he had attained the Void Transcendent realm, he had never seen such a 'monster'.

From within the steel giant came a chuckle: "Brother Qiu, stop resisting—I'm being gentle…"

"Fuck your ancestors! This is cheating! Come fight me one-on-one if you've got guts!"

"Brother, times have changed," came another voice. "This competition is won by brains."

"***! ****!"

One chased, the other fled, their exchange filled with "birdsong and flower fragrance." (End of chapter)