The Path Toward Heaven

After having written the letter, Liu Shisui didn’t fold it, nor did he put it in an envelope; he

tossed it out of the window.

The letter rose up along with the wind, as if it had two wings attached to it. It headed

toward the southwest at a high speed. Since an amulet of the One-Cottage House was

attached to the letter, it would self-destruct instantly when someone intercepted it, and

the amulet would attack that very interceptor. Only the person who possessed the

energy for this letter could read it.

It was easy for Liu Shisui to find Jing Jiu’s energy; for instance, he could find it on the

Lone Sword and on the jasmine flower.

A few days later, the letter arrived outside Green Mountain, but it couldn’t pass through

the Great Formation of Green Mountain.

Walking out of his manor cave, Yuan Qijing looked at the sky blankly, and he noticed

the letter in the air.

Based on his visual prowess, he should be able to see the content in the letter; but for

some reason, whether it was the magic of the City-Guard Pen or the effect of the

amulet, he could merely see the blurred inky specks. For that very reason, he knew it

must be a letter from the One-Cottage House, so he let the Great Formation of Green

Mountain open a passage for it to pass through.

The letter passed through the passage and headed toward Shenmo Peak.

Following the letter, Yuan Qijing’s line of sight fell on Shenmo Peak. Recalling the

conversation between Jing Jiu and Bu Qiuxiao in Zhaoge City, he suddenly realized that

it was not a bad choice to have Jing Jiu as the sect master. Up to that day, people never

knew the true content of the conversation. All they knew was that the One-Cottage

House no longer supported Prince Jing Xin from that day on.

Seeing the letter drifting to the front of the bamboo chair, Jing Jiu brought it down and

read it, then threw it back into the air.

The letter was set ablaze without the aid fire. It burned to ashes in an instant and

dropped down into the grass at the foot of the cliff.

Zhao Layue spun her head around and asked, “What did Liu Shisui say in the letter?”

Jing Jiu continued combing her hair with the wooden comb, as he replied, “That person

went to the One-Cottage House and took some lotus flowers.”

“What’s wrong with that?” asked Zhao Layue.

“I’m not sure,” replied Jing Jiu. “But I…have a bad gut feeling about it.”

Zhao Layue took the wooden comb from Jing Jiu’s hand, and said, “You have to act

quickly then.”

Jing Jiu got up and entered the manor cave and wrote a list; he handed the list to Gu

Qing and the other two disciples whom were called out by Zhao Layue, saying, “Prepare

all the items on this list within one day.”

Ping Yongjia had no idea what those items were, so he complied with the request right

away. Yet, Gu Qing recognized that two of the items were extremely precious materials

for magic, and thought that the rest must be the treasures of the similar state. “I’m afraid

that we can’t find them all on the nine peaks,” he said.

Yuan Qü could recognize even more treasures because of his family background. He

said while shaking his head, “To say nothing of the nine peaks, I’m afraid that some of

the items are hard to find even in all of Chaotian.”

After the three of them remembered the names of the items by heart, Jing Jiu crumpled

the paper into powders and burned them into a puff of green smoke. He went on by

saying, “These items can be found on Tianguang Peak, Shangde Peak, and Shiyue

Peak. Each of you, go to a peak and find them.”

Those materials for magic were indeed rare. Jing Jiu had spent several decades

collecting them back then. If he began to collect them again, he might not be able to find

all of them even if he spent a few hundred years trying.

Fortunately, he had collected four sets of them. He used one set during his ascension;

there were still three sets remaining on Green Mountain.

Apart from the precious materials written on the list, more common accessory materials

were also needed, like crystals, rehmannia powder, and so forth.

The items were constantly being brought to Shenmo Peak. The monkeys finally had a

job to do. They screamed and cried while carrying the items back and forth, looking and

sounding quite hectic. Noticing the commotion on Shenmo Peak, Yuan Qijing found out

the sorts and amounts of the materials brought over, feeling baffled. He wondered why

Jing Jiu began to set up the formation already since it would be too early to prepare for

his ascension.

Dozens of precious items and those accessory materials for magic had been brought in

the manor cave on the top of Shemo Peak. Afterwards, the stone gate was closed

tightly, with no sound leaking out.

Nobody knew what Jing Jiu was doing inside. Time had passed slowly, and it was

summer soon.

…

…

The floating ice pieces could be seen everywhere on the surface of the expansive

ocean. A godly boat was sailing forward amid the ice pieces.

The Dark Phoenix squatted atop the mast. He watched the waves assaulting the bow of

the boat and the endless icebergs with a grave expression.

He looked the same as before. But if one looked at him closely, they would be able to

notice that a feather on his tail was missing, and that the color of the feathers on him

was considerably lighter now.

The godly boat was heading toward north. It became colder and colder as the boat

moved further north. The ice and frost on the Dark Phoenix grew thicker and thicker; but

he had no intention of coming down from the mast, insisting on squatting amid the chilly

wind that assaulted faces like a sharp knife.

He was slashed twice by Nan Qü in the battle of the West Ocean, and now he had lost

his Cultivation accumulated over a thousand years. The Dark Phoenix was in his

weakest state, yet he felt exceedingly proud at the moment.

The Cultivation of any life form was to contend with nature; physical suffering was a part

of the cost and also the best spiritual energy.

Along with a thud, the speed of the godly boat dropped abruptly; it must have bumped

into an iceberg.

The Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect walked out of the cabin and

checked the crystal boiler that provided the propelling power for the godly boat. After

ascertaining that nothing was wrong with it, he came to the bow of the boat and looked

at the endless ice pieces floating on the surface of the ocean. “Nobody should be able

to pursue us to this place,” he remarked after a moment of silence.

The Dark Phoenix looked down at him from the top of the mast, his eyes full of

contempt, as he thought this man of deviant sect was truly a devil and a coward.

They went to Penglai Island one year ago and snatched this specially made godly boat

from the King of the godly boats by paying only half of its full price. After sailing to the

West Ocean, they had been heading northward the entire voyage.

The orthodox Cultivation sects of Chaotian were searching for them everywhere; but

they couldn’t anticipate that they came to the North Ocean where the Chaotic Wind was

very strong and the weather there felt as cold as if it could pierce through the bones.

The chilly wind whistled, blowing the sparse hair on the head of the Great Grandmaster

of the Mysterious Dark Sect into hundreds of straight lines.

The scenery on the icy ocean was too monotonous, and the Great Grandmaster of the

Mysterious Dark Sect didn’t like to have all of his hair blown away; so he turned around

and entered the cabin.

This godly boat was rather large, containing many rooms in the cabin.

Many formations were set up in the last room in the cabin, where a few wares of

different sizes were laid according to the positions of the stars.

Those wares exuded many sorts of peculiar aromatic smell and spiritual will.

The Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect was fully aware that the bone

marrow of the Old Dragon was in the smallest ceramic pot, the scales of the Fire Carp

were in the wooden round case, and the cartilage of the Flying Whale was in the armor

trunk.

A phoenix feather was placed in that long nanfei bamboo.

Sitting among these precious treasures, Yin San rapped lightly with the bone flute in his

hand, as he looked at the lotus flower in front of him, lost in thought.

The lotus flower looked rather amazing, because it was not in a vat, nor was it in the

water. It seemed to emerge from nothingness.

It was until now that the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect understood

why the Immortal had taken the risk to go to the Thousand Mile Windy Corridor to obtain

this lotus flower.

No matter how one looked at it, this lotus flower appeared to be a common one.

Yin San halted what he was doing and put the bone flute back into his sleeve, asking,

“How was it?”

The Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect replied, “The crystal boiler is not

damaged, but the temperature it provides is not enough for your purpose.”

As Jing Jiu thought of how to ascend, Yin San was thinking of how to achieve total

transformation.

Yin San had already calculated and prepared all the necessary materials for it based on

the recordings of that ancient book. What he needed to do right now was to get to

tempering them.

A high temperature stove with the purest fire was required regardless of whether it was

tempering the swords or the magic pills.

The stove he required must have a temperature much higher than the common stoves

for tempering the swords and magic pills.

As such, they went to Penglai Island and snatched this godly boat. He liked the crystal

boiler designed personally by the King of the godly boats, but unexpectedly, its

temperature was still not high enough.

He had thought of this issue when they went to the Cold Mountain to obtain the scales

of the Fire Carp; unfortunately, not one of the broken pieces of the Sun Banner had

been found there.

Those broken pieces couldn’t scatter with the wind, nor could they be burned into ashes

by the underground fires. So they must be stored somewhere.

Few things in the world could conceal from the Old Ones.

“Neither the imperial court nor the Windy-Broadsword Church put them away.”

Yin San continued while looking at the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect,

“I believe it’s Su Ziye who has done it. Ask him to bring them over.”

“That kid has sold us out once,” the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect

said. “Can we still trust him?”

Yin San said with a smile, “As a lonely soul, he will feel grateful even though he knows

he is being used by somebody.”

…

…

Before the arrival of the first thunderstorm of the year, Jing Jiu emerged from the manor

cave as its stone gate opened.

He went to Bihu Peak after picking up Ada.

Countless natural thunders and lightning fell down from the night sky, bombarding the

top of Bihu Peak, many of which entered Jing Jiu’s body.

He took a bath in Blue Lake; the extra thunder and lightning that could be absorbed into

his body dissolved into the lake water.

Along with a great many “pah” noises, tens of thousands of fish fainted and then floated

to the surface of the lake water, their bellies facing upwards; they looked like tens of

thousands of silver coins on the water.

Those pitiful fish woke up on the second day; but some of them died, and some ended

up in the stomachs of the seagulls.

Yet, Jing Jiu didn’t have a chance of witnessing such a terrible scene, since he went to

Shangde Peak on the same night.

“What do you intend to do?”

The ice and frost hanging on Yuan Qijing’s eyebrows looked like the icicles hanging

under the eaves. They seemed to be able to drop at any moment, but they had no

chance to drop down at all.

The temperature in the manor cave of Shangde Peak was very low, with the snow and

frost forming naturally. Yuan Qijing had kept furrowing his brows from spring to summer

because of Jing Jiu.

“That formation has a flaw; I’d like to make some changes,” said Jing Jiu.

Yuan Qijing knew what he referred to was the Formation of the Dispersed Smoke and

Clouds. “Have you succeeded?” he asked.

“Not yet,” Jing Jiu replied. “I’m afraid that I have to think up a new method.”

“It looks like you also have something that you can’t fix,” Yuan Qijing commented

expressionlessly.

Jing Jiu didn’t feel like paying any attention to his comment. “I’ll go to the Fruit

Formation Temple this autumn,” he said.

Yuan Qijing raised his brows, and the snow and frost dropped from his brows, as he

wondered what was going on with Jing Jiu.

Jing Jiu didn’t explain to him that it was because that person had picked a lotus flower

from the Thousand Mile Windy Corridor.

The lotus flower signified the reincarnation at the Zen sects.

It happened that there was one person at the Fruit Formation Temple who had

succeeded in reincarnation.

He entered the well, and came to the gloomy bottom of the well along with the natural

light.

The Dead Dog opened his eyes, and saluted Jing Jiu by lowering his head slightly.

Jing Jiu glided to the front of his eyes, and touched his forehead with a hand, as he

asked, “What do you think he is doing right now?”

It looked like a scene in which a cat tried its best to extend its front paw in an attempt to

comfort a big boy.

It was evident that he wouldn’t be able to get an answer from the Dead Dog for this

question.

He passed through the gloomy passage filled with the filthy energy, and arrived in the

deep end of the Sword Jail. He looked at that lonely cell again.

The Snow Girl sensed his arrival; she turned toward the stone door of the cell.

The two of them eyed each other again.