Chapter 424: The Age of Dharma Decline descends! I know a little bit of everything

A dim, cavernous cave, the sound of dripping water echoing.

A colossal, hill-like serpent-headed boulder with distinct scales; looking up, its coiled body occupied nearly the entire cave, winding and twisting, extending to who knows where.

Upon closer inspection, thick, heavy chains were wrapped around the serpent's head, already covered in green moss.

"Demon Chief... the Copper Mount Luoshan Demon Chief? You aren't dead?" Zhang Fan exclaimed in astonishment.

About a hundred years ago, the Three Corpses Daoist had entered this place, followed by pursuers from Long Hu Mountain and faced with the demon-ghosts of Copper Mount Luoshan. At that time, although he had not yet reached the realm of the world's number one expert, he was already a top-tier expert of the world. With his Three Corpses illuminating his fate and his techniques utilizing all things, he fought until the sky grew dark and the earth turned dim, slaughtering the various demons until they withered away.

From then on, Copper Mount Luoshan remained empty for a hundred years, unable to recover its vitality.

"Three Corpses Daoist... he suppressed me for nearly a hundred years..."

That low, hoarse voice was vast and deep, echoing through the seemingly endless cave.

"Little ghost, is he still alive now?"

"He is dead," Zhang Fan said in a deep voice.

"Dead!?"

That low, hoarse voice was stunned. After a brief silence, it sounded again.

"He is dead... His cultivation had already reached the ranks of the world's great experts; those who could suppress him could be counted on one hand. How did he die? Did he meet his destined calamity?"

That low, hoarse voice appeared extremely calm, yet within this calmness, how many complex emotions were hidden!?

"It seems the senior has been suppressed for too long..." Zhang Fan shook his head and whispered.

When the Copper Mount Luoshan Demon Chief was sealed, the great calamity of the Daoist sects had not yet occurred; he could be considered lucky to have avoided a disaster.

"The Three Corpses Daoist was not just a great expert; he was the number one in the world!"

"Number one in the world?"

"Number one in the world!"

Rumble...

Suddenly, the long-sealed chains vibrated faintly. At this moment, even the Copper Mount Luoshan Demon Chief, who had been suppressed for nearly a hundred years, could not help but be moved.

That man had ultimately stepped upon the skeletons of the world's heroes to ascend the throne of the world's number one.

The taboo of the Daoist sects, the Master of the Wu Wei Gate, standing at the pinnacle to witness the ages, cultivating the Three Corpses to illuminate his life and nature.

"Number one in the world... even the number one in the world has the calamity of life and death!" The low, hoarse voice sounded faintly, revealing a trace of desolation, quite like the feeling of an old friend withering away.

"How did he die?"

"He died at the peak of Mount Dongyue, at the hands of True Person Chu," Zhang Fan whispered.

"True Person Chu? Where did a True Person Chu come from in this world? To be titled a True Person, one must be in the Pure Yang Limitless Realm. Who? Who exactly is it?"

The chains rattled; such news seemed even more shocking and harder to accept for the Copper Mount Luoshan Demon Chief, who had been suppressed for nearly a hundred years.

"Chu Chaoran!" Zhang Fan spat out a name.

"Him? That little ghost from Zhenwu Mountain? He attained the Dao of Pure Yang Limitless?" The low, hoarse voice conveyed an inexplicable shock and suspicion.

Back then, when this Copper Mount Luoshan Demon Chief was still active, Chu Chaoran was just a fledgling, unknown little ghost who couldn't even catch the eye of such a world hegemon.

But time is fickle, and a hundred years have passed in the human world, with too many things happening.

In the past, the insignificant Daoist junior had also realized the Pure Yang Limitless and become the world's number one of today.

"True Person Chu is now the world's number one expert, holding half the territory of the Daoist sects," Zhang Fan said in a deep voice.

"Half the territory? Pure Yang Limitless is already the terminus of the human world; how could it be half the territory? Could it be that Long Hu Mountain..."

"Long Hu Mountain is gone," Zhang Fan said suddenly.

"Gone?"

The mottled, ancient chains vibrated again. Having been suppressed for a hundred years, the news the Copper Mount Luoshan Demon Chief heard was one more shocking than the last, each harder to accept than the previous.

Truly, in the cave, one does not count the years, while a hundred years have passed in the world.

"It suffered a great calamity," Zhang Fan murmured softly; this segment could not be explained in just a few words.

"Eighty years ago, I felt a great change in the fortune of the Xijiang region. It seems it was this great calamity. To think it could even make Long Hu Mountain..."

The Copper Mount Luoshan Demon Chief remained silent; this silence was longer than the one just before.

After all, who could have imagined that the Long Hu Mountain Zhang family, known as an immortal family that had not fallen for a thousand years, would also meet such a calamity.

Supernatural powers cannot rival destiny; there is truly no eternal, undefeated existence in this world. As long as one is still in this rolling red dust, there will be great calamities.

But even knowing this principle, even the former master of Copper Mount Luoshan could not remain calm for a long time after learning that Long Hu Mountain had sealed its gates and cut off its lineage.

"Yesterday I saw the flowers blooming brightly, today I see the flowers about to fall..."

"This red dust has already passed a hundred years!"

The low, hoarse voice echoed faintly, reverberating in the cold cave, blending into the slow sound of dripping water.

"Senior..."

Just at this moment, Zhang Fan spoke, pulling the thoughts of the former Copper Mount Luoshan Demon Chief back.

"Rumors outside say that you should have died at the hands of the Three Corpses Daoist, so how..."

Zhang Fan hesitated to speak further.

"How come I didn't die, right?"

Zhang Fan remained silent, only revealing an awkward smile; his question was indeed somewhat presumptuous.

"Because he moved with compassion."

"Compassion!?" Zhang Fan was stunned for a moment.

Based on his understanding of the Three Corpses Daoist, that kind of hero, whose mind was as hard to shake as a mountain and whose will towered over the clouds, decisive in killing, not knowing how many lives he had stained in his lifetime, how could he rashly move with pity and give rise to compassion?

"Young man, the compassion you understand is but a false heart and obsession, small kindness and small charity, not worth mentioning."

The low, hoarse voice sounded, as if it had seen through Zhang Fan's thoughts.

"Back then, that man said that the Age of Dharma Decline has arrived, and it is difficult for the world to produce great practitioners. If this continues, my Dao will be isolated and all techniques will wither. Considering that my cultivation was not easy and that I was able to enter this realm, I should suffer this calamity, so he only trapped me here. If I can see the light of day again in the future, there will surely be a great affinity."

The voice of the Copper Mount Luoshan Demon Chief flowed like water, revealing a hint of aftertaste.

"A person like him, with corpses lying for a hundred miles beneath him, not knowing how many people he killed and how many demons he slaughtered... yet he gave rise to such great compassion..."

"This kind of bearing is like the Heavenly Dao itself, compassionate to all living things, encompassing all things, yet not sparing in slaughter. Whether good or bad, kind or evil, it is all just a part of him..."

"Vast and chaotic as one, thoughts clear when they arise..."

"At that time, I knew he was about to succeed..."

"He was about to step into the realm of the past patriarchs and the great alchemy masters of the previous generations."

The low, hoarse voice actually revealed a trace of yearning and longing.

Even as a mortal enemy, that man still made people admire and move.

"The Age of Dharma Decline..."

Zhang Fan murmured softly. He seemed to see that man, standing at the pinnacle, looking down at all living things, yet seeing all techniques extinguished, incense withering in the temples, possessing slaughter, yet giving rise to compassion in his heart.

Such a contradiction, just like yin and yang, like good and evil, vast and chaotic returning to one, appeared on that man.

Only with such bearing and such temperament could he achieve that great position of the world's number one.

"Not bad, he said that the Age of Dharma Decline has arrived, just as Lu Zu said back then," the Copper Mount Luoshan Demon Chief sighed.

When Daoist techniques were rampant, one or two out of ten would attain realization.

Therefore, in ancient times, great alchemy masters emerged one after another. Let alone the Pure Yang Limitless Realm, even those like Earthly Immortals, separated by a hundred years, would always have someone who could attain it in the human world. ===== CHAPTER 425 =====