Chapter 45: Sword Master Questions Heaven, Heavenly Patrol Stained with Blood

The laughter of the Heavenly Patrol echoed from behind the rift.

The laughter was not loud, yet it plunged the entire Tian Duan Cliff into brief deafness.

Many ordinary soldiers bled from their ears, kneeling in agony.

Jiang Che swung his sword; the green light of his Sword Vein spread, shielding everyone.

The Heavenly Patrol looked down at him, his tone cold:

"A frog at the bottom of a well."

"You think slaying one Dharma palm allows you to contend with me?"

Jiang Che said, "If you truly could descend, you would have done so already."

The Heavenly Patrol's gaze turned icy.

This was precisely the greatest restriction of the Upper Realm.

The Human Realm was not without barriers.

With the Heavenly Gate shattered and the Reception Gate severed, for a true body from the Upper Realm to descend would require an immense price.

Thus, they could only strike across the realms, or lure Jiang Che into Entering Heaven.

Jiang Che saw through it.

The Heavenly Patrol raised his hand.

The Golden Sea churned, transforming into nine Heavenly Punishments.

Thunder, fire, wind, poison, ice, Evil Qi, Soul, light, Shadow.

The Nine Tribulations fell together.

Xie Wuya's face changed drastically: "Everyone, enter the formation!"

The Nine-Layered Myriad Swords Formation opened fully.

Xie Tingxue returned to her position wounded, the Clear Snow Array protecting the eastern side.

Chen Shanhe led the Northern Garrison Army on the western side, slaughtering the Golden Armored Demon Puppets falling from the rift.

Those Demon Puppets were not living men, yet they possessed boundless strength and were impervious to blades and spears.

The Northern Garrison Army formed groups of ten, using iron chains to bind the Demon Puppets, while the Green Blade Camp Sword Cultivators beheaded them.

The battlefield instantly became gruesome.

Lin Xiaoman lay prone behind a stone, writing while weeping.

"The Nine Tribulations fall."

"Northern Garrison Army's Zhao Hu, both legs severed, dragged a Demon Puppet into the sword formation, dying together."

"Sword Pavilion Disciple Song Qing, guarding the Clear Snow Array, struck by golden fire, yet still delivered three sword strikes."

"Wan Tong Merchant Association Clerk Liu Suanpan, struck by the Thunder Tribulation while moving medicine, protecting the medicine chest before death."

He wrote faster and faster.

Tears dripped onto the paper, then he wiped them dry with his sleeve.

For he remembered what Jiang Che had said.

Remember clearly.

Above the sky, Jiang Che stood alone atop the Sword Tide.

More than half the power of the Nine Tribulations surged toward him.

The Heavenly Patrol sought to kill the formation's core first.

Jiang Che's Green Bamboo Sword struck repeatedly.

He struck the Thunder, and the Thunder shattered.

He struck the Fire, and the Fire parted.

He struck the Wind, and the Wind ceased.

Yet the Nine Tribulations were endless; for every one broken, new tribulation power arose.

His injuries rapidly worsened.

Chest, shoulder, arms—everywhere were gaping bloodied wounds.

Xie Tingxue sought to advance again, but Xie Wuya blocked her.

"You guard the formation."

Xie Tingxue's eyes were icy: "He will die."

Xie Wuya said in a heavy voice, "If the formation breaks, everyone will die."

The hand holding Xie Tingxue's sword trembled slightly.

For the first time, she hated her own lack of strength.

The Heavenly Patrol's voice fell once more:

"Jiang Che, if you kneel, I may spare your soul and seal you as a Sword Slave of the Lower Realm."

Jiang Che laughed while gasping for breath.

"Do you Upper Realm beings have no other words?"

The Heavenly Patrol's gaze turned grimly cold.

The Nine Tribulations merged, transforming into a single golden-black Heavenly Spear.

This spear was far more condensed than the previous giant palm.

It did not strike the formation.

It killed only Jiang Che.

Xie Wuya roared, "Sword Master, retreat!"

Jiang Che did not retreat.

Behind him lay Tian Duan Cliff, the Sword Vein, thirty thousand Sword Cultivators, the Northern Garrison Army, Lin Xiaoman and the other recorders, and the Human Realm that had just learned not to kneel.

If he retreated, this spirit would scatter.

Jiang Che closed his eyes.

Suddenly, many voices rang in his ears.

His father, Jiang Xuan, said: The Jiang Family's sword was always meant to be thrust toward Heaven.

His mother wrote in her letter: If you have entered the game, then draw your sword.

The Sword Spirit laughed and said: Fear is natural, but the sword must remain steady.

The people of Han Zhou shouted: Stand.

The people of Luo'an shouted: City Exists, People Exist.

The People of the Capital shouted: Ask the Lord.

These voices merged into one, becoming his sword.

Jiang Che opened his eyes.

He did not draw upon the full Sword Vein again.

Nor did he borrow the Ten Thousand Swords Formation.

This strike arose solely from his heart.

Upon the Green Bamboo Sword, the Green Light was no longer violent; instead, it became utterly still.

Like the first ray of morning light after snow in Han Zhou.

Like the lamp rekindled amidst the ruins of Luo'an.

Like the first question from the common people inside Zichen Hall after the old Dragon Throne shattered.

Jiang Che spoke softly:

"This sword is named Sword of Establishing the Human Realm."

The sword emerged.

The Green Light met the Heavenly Spear.

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

Only an extremely fine sword line pierced through the black-and-gold Heavenly Spear.

The Heavenly Spear split in two.

The sword line continued upward.

Crossing the rift.

Cutting into the Golden Sea.

The Heavenly Patrol's expression changed for the first time.

He raised his hand to block, only to realize that sword line was not cutting his divine arts.

It was cutting the "height" with which he looked down upon the Human Realm.

The sword line swept past his crown.

Crack.

The Heavenly Patrol Crown cracked.

A drop of golden blood slowly flowed down from between his eyebrows.

The Upper Realm fell into dead silence.

Tian Duan Cliff also fell into dead silence.

Then, the Heavenly Patrol let out a roar of furious rage:

"Jiang Che!"

Jiang Che stood atop the Sword Tide, his body covered in blood, yet he raised his sword to point at Heaven.

"I heard you."

"No need to shout."

Below Tian Duan Cliff, first a soldier of the Northern Garrison Army laughed aloud.

Then, the laughter grew louder and more numerous.

Finally, it turned into a thunderous roar.

"Human Realm!"

"Human Realm!"

"Human Realm!"

The Heavenly Patrol stared fixedly at Jiang Che.

He did not strike again.

For the rift was closing.

Supported by the Sword Vein and the Ten Thousand Swords Formation, the Human Realm barrier began to push back the Upper Realm's rift.

The Heavenly Patrol's voice was as cold as ten-thousand-year-old ice:

"The wound of today will be repaid a hundredfold in the days to come."

Jiang Che said: "Remember to come."

"Next time."

Looking at the gradually closing rift, he spoke word by word:

"I will cut even deeper."

The rift closed.

The Nine Tribulations dissipated.

The Golden Sea faded away.

On Tian Duan Cliff, wind and snow fell once more.

Jiang Che finally could not hold on and fell from the Sword Tide.

Xie Tingxue leaped up and caught him.

Jiang Che leaned against her chest, his voice very faint:

"Did we win?"

Xie Tingxue looked at him, his body covered in blood, her eyes slightly red.

"We won."

Jiang Che closed his eyes and smiled.

"That's good."

In the distance, Lin Xiaoman trembled as he wrote the final line in the History Book:

"The battle at Tian Duan Cliff; the Human Realm did not kneel."