The Path Toward Heaven

The spiritual awareness of the Queen of the Snowy Kingdom arrived along with the

whirling snow. It didn’t reveal any willpower, though its intent was evident.

It was curiosity.

This being of highest form in Chaotian had her curiosity piqued, but why?

Was it because a few human practitioners suddenly came to the northernmost part of

the Icy Wind and Violent Sea, where few humans had put their feet before?

Was it because of the white cat drifting in the air like a kite?

Was it because of that pitiful looking rooster who had a broken feather on his tail?

Was it because of the old man with sparse hair, or because of the pair of brothers?

Her curiosity should have been piqued by the latter.

Even the Queen of the Snowy Kingdom hadn’t seen the likes of Jing Jiu and Yin San.

These two were not quite human.

Furthermore, Yin San was about to go through total transformation. It was merely a

legend or a myth in Chaotian; nobody had seen it done, including the Queen herself.

The delicate but extremely powerful spiritual awareness from the distant icy peak

landed on the godly boat. It arrived in the sky one hundred miles away after taking a

look at the lotus flower, the bone marrow, the whale cartilage and the carp scales in the

room.

Jing Jiu intended to turn around and leave the place; but he was afraid of alerting this

spiritual awareness. However, he was also afraid that she might discover something if

he stayed on the same spot.

He didn’t hesitate, but merely thought about the options for a moment before the

spiritual awareness of the Queen of the Snowy Kingdom landed on him and stayed for a

while.

The spiritual awareness was curious of Jing Jiu, and in the meantime wondered why

this inhuman seemed familiar.

“Let’s go,” said Jing Jiu expressionlessly. His lips didn’t move in the least, as if he spoke

in his stomach.

He didn’t dare talk to Ada through his spiritual awareness, because he was afraid that

the Queen of the Snowy Kingdom might hear it.

Ada meowed nervously, wondering what had happened and why they had to leave so

suddenly; didn’t he fear that they might alert her?

The Queen didn’t recognize her own spiritual awareness, but she must have smelled

the scent of the Snow Girl.

Now that Jing Jiu was aware of this fact, he didn’t have enough time to explain to Ada

before he turned into a sword light to head toward the sky.

The speed of the Sword of the Universe was not as fast as his own sword; hence, he

didn’t flee on the sword. What he did was travel with the sword by employing the

Underworld Fairy Sword.

It was the best maneuver he had ever done since he and the Underworld Emperor

invented the Underworld Fairy Sword together in the Fiend Prison.

Ada didn’t realize what was going on until Jing Jiu became a dark shadow on the

horizon. He meowed in resentment and anger, and tried to catch up to Jing Jiu as

quickly as he could.

…

…

“Life is like playing house; if one plays the same role for a prolonged period, they

sometimes fail to differentiate the role from themselves.”

Standing by the railing of the boat and seeing Jing Jiu disappear into the horizon, Yin

San continued, “Their reaction time is about the same, and they are similar in fear of

death.”

He had no knowledge of the Snow Girl, so he couldn’t quite understand why Jing Jiu

fled so fast.

The Queen of the Snowy Kingdom was on the icy peak many thousand miles away; it

was only her spiritual awareness that had come. Both Yin San and Jing Jiu had nothing

to worry about due to their high level of awareness.

The Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect was exceedingly edgy. A few

beads of sweat seeped out from his forehead even in such a cold environment.

So was the Dark Phoenix. Though he told the Great Grandmaster that it would be the

best outcome to be killed by the Queen of the Snowy Kingdom if one was going to die;

but who wished to die anyway?

Thought they were the figures in the Heavenly Arrival State, their level of awareness

was not as high as Jing Jiu or Yin San. As such, it would be easier for them to be

injured when being assaulted by the spiritual awareness of the Queen of the Snowy

Kingdom.

“Immortal, what should we do next?”

The spiritual awareness was like a pair of real eyes staring at the Great Grandmaster of

the Mysterious Dark Sect. His mouth felt a little dry and his voice sounded a bit hoarse.

The spiritual awareness of the Queen came back to the godly boat; but it didn’t launch

an attack, other than remaining curious.

“She wishes to see total transformation. I’ll let her see it then,” said Yin San while

looking at the icy peak in the deep end of the snowland.

Yet, the Dark Phoenix felt upset. He said in a low voice while looking at the icy peak,

“We are not the monkeys on Shiyue Peak; Immortal shouldn’t accept such a

humiliation!”

“I’m not going to lose any weight when being watched by someone, especially by

someone like her.”

Yin San looked in that direction quietly as he added, “And it’s possible that the Queen’s

curiosity might be able to facilitate total transformation.”

The two of them and the Dark Phoenix returned to the room under the deck, and the

spiritual awareness of the Queen had also entered the room with them. The layers of

formations set up on the godly boat had no effect on her spiritual awareness.

An invisible formation was drawn with the spiritual liquid of the Underworld on the floor

of the room.

The Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect reached his hand into the boiler,

and set the powdered high-quality crystals ablaze with the demonic fire.

There were eleven high-level magic treasures of the purest energy hidden under the

floor; they were to be used as the “bricks” supporting the Tripod of Empty Realm.

The Tripod of Empty Realm was the projected shadow of the crystal boiler in this room.

A ceramic bowl was turned bottom up, and the white gray bone marrow of the Old

Dragon was poured into the tripod.

A round wooden case was opened, and the scales of the Fire Carp were dropped into

the tripod.

The armor trunk was opened, and a large cartilage of the Flying Whale was dumped

into the tripod, which was the best fuel for the task.

Later, the Nan bamboo broke apart in the middle, and the feather of the Dark Phoenix

tousled in the wind. The fire in the tripod became dimmer instantly, giving off an eerie

blue glow.

For some reason, a painful expression showed in the eyes of the Dark Phoenix.

Yin San took out the bone flute and brought it to his lips; he started playing a piece of

music.

It was not the Lullaby of Underworld River, nor was it the Huangmei Folk Song. It was

anything but a famous music in the world. Yet, it was played naturally and

straightforwardly; it sounded like the endless flowing water.

As the tune of the bone flute turned upwards, the fire in the tripod grew stronger. The

broken piece of the Sun Banner in it was being slowly burned to ashes.

Yin San walked into the formation while holding the bone flute on his lips. As he came

before the lotus flower, he was still playing the flute.

The lotus flower was neither in a pot nor in the water. It was in the air, quivering slightly

along with the music of the flute.

The lotus flower was not dancing in the air; it quivered because rain water dropped on it.

The surface of the lotus leaves had many crystal clean dews, rolling around as the

leaves quivered. These dews seemed to fall off the leaves at any moment, but they

could always roll back to the center of the leaves somehow.

As the dews were rolling on the leaves, an immensely fresh energy emerged and

landed on Yin San, washing away the rotten and aged smell.

It was an excruciatingly painful process though it seemed to be a desirable

development.

It was because his flesh was also washed away along with the rotten smell.

Those “branches” growing out of the body and the dark skin had gradually separated

from his body, and became the meaty mud under his feet after dropping to the floor.

It didn’t take long before his body had thousands of holes and fractures. Yin San looked

like a criminal going through the death penalty of slicing the flesh one piece at a time.

Many horrific cavities appeared on his face, exposing his white teeth. It looked

horrendous.

A moment later, those white teeth started coming off, so did his lips. For some unknown

reason, the flute music was still being played gracefully.

Even though he was Yin San, a painful expression nevertheless showed in his eyes

when going through such an excruciating pain.

Pah!!! Pah!!! Pah!!!

The rotten flesh and bones continued falling off; and his feet began to decay, exposing

the white bones in them.

The Dark Phoenix couldn’t stand it anymore, yelling, “Immortal, use a drop of the True

Water!”

The flute music couldn’t be stopped, so Yin San couldn’t speak.

He let out a faint smile, indicating it was not the time yet.

His usual amiable smile looked so terrible on his decaying face.

“Would you like to close your eyes and take a nap?” said the Dark Phoenix in a

trembling voice, feeling extremely troubled.

The tune of the flute went up slightly, indicating Yin San consented to his suggestion.

“You said that Jing Jiu was willing to take the risk and come here because he was fed

up with what had happened at the West Ocean. What about you?”

The Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect suddenly demanded, “The reason

you left those marks for him to follow is because you’re fed up as well; so you want to

die?!”

The flute music suddenly became more peaceful; in other words, it became nonchalant,

as if it were the clean dews on the lotus leaves.

Guarding the peaks.

Entering the Underworld.

Washing Green Mountain in a bloodbath.

The Plum Meeting.

The chaos in the world.

Three hundred years in the Sword Jail.

The pain of breaking a part of his body.

Anyone would produce some sort of tiredness after experiencing so many hardships.

Anyone would think life was too hard.

Yin San closed his eyes gradually.

The Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect bowed, and said, “May Immortal

be liberated from all sufferings.”

…

…

In the southern part of the Icy Wind and Violent Sea at night, a floating ice rose and

ebbed on the black and silvery surface of the ocean.

Zhao Layue sat on the ice with her eyes closed, a thin layer of frost hanging on her

eyelids.

She was left behind after she ordered Zhuo Rusui and Gu Qing to go back to Green

Mountain the other night.

It was exceedingly cold here, and the Chaotic Wind could pierce into the bones. It was

hard for her to withstand the cold even though she was in the upper state of the Free

Travel now.

The stars were twinkling brightly in the night sky; but they were suddenly overwhelmed

by a shooting star.

She opened her eyes and looked at the night sky. She finally felt relieved, exhaling a

heated breath, which enshrouded her distinct black and white eyes after it turned into

the mist.

It was said that the wished things would come true if one made the wishes while seeing

the shooting stars.

More importantly, that shooting star was her wish in the first place.

The floating ice dipped slightly.

Jing Jiu landed on the ice. He walked to her side and lay down with his hands

supporting the back of his head, gazing at the stars in the sky. He wanted to take a rest

quietly.

Zhao Layue could easily guess what had happened, but she didn’t ask him.

“I was unable to kill him. I came back after seeing him afar.”

Jing Jiu added, “I think it’s quite humiliating.”

“Do you still remember the Four-Seas Banquet that year?” Zhao Layue suddenly asked.

Jing Jiu shot her a glance, wondering why she mentioned this event.

Thirty years ago, Jing Jiu left Green Mountain with Zhao Layue to travel the world. They

had killed some evildoers and demons, and they left the Four-Seas Banquet on the

sword hand in hand after killing someone during the banquet. The red line left behind by

the Thoughtless Sword outside the Cloud Platform was something those Cultivation

practitioners present couldn’t forget for the rest of their lives.

“It was said that the young monk of the Fruit Formation Temple, whom you like very

much, had made a statement after we had left the banquet.”

Zhao Layue went on while looking at him with a small smile, “The statement was: ‘Come

for fun and go back after having enough fun; it’s indeed the style of a true immortal

man.”

The purpose of her mentioning this was to remind him that he should go there if he

wanted to kill the Immortal Taiping, and it was okay for him to come back empty-handed

if he changed his mind after seeing his Big Brother.

No matter what he chose to do, it would be a proper choice as long as he was pleased

with the decision.

It was the first time Jing Jiu heard of the statement. He didn’t expect the young monk to

be so humorous; but his mood didn’t improve.

He didn’t achieve what he had intended to do, which was nothing like having enough

fun.

He had neither killed his Big Brother nor gotten an answer for that question.

This was the first time he had seen his Big Brother after so many years.

The two of them were not far from each other when they were at the Fruit Formation

Temple; but they didn’t have a chance to face each other.

Thinking of the vaguely visible figure on the godly boat, Jing Jiu suddenly felt tired.

“I’m not sure if I feel sad because I feel tired, or I feel tired because I feel sad; but no

matter what, I feel sad at the moment.”

As he spoke, his countenance was still as calm as ever, looking like the person

considered by all the Cultivation practitioners and the Green Mountain disciples as

indifferent and relentless.

Yet, he was saying that he was very sad.

Zhao Layue touched his face gently while saying, “Don’t be so sad.”

She was a disciple of his, so she had no idea as to how to express her emotion, let

alone to comfort others.

He and she only knew how to express their wishes and how to carry out tasks.

Flop!!!

Ada fell into the sea outside the floating ice. He climbed onto the surface of the ice

exhausted. He was soaked wet from head to toe, and locks of his white hair looked like

the stretched hot cheese. As he was about to complain to Jing Jiu, he suddenly found

that he was in a terrible mood. He understood why after giving it a thought.

Ada sighed before he came to Jing Jiu’s chest and crouched down.