The Path Toward Heaven

“All of you, get away!” yelled Nan Wang tersely.

The Immortal Guangyuan waved his sleeve to release a few sword lights, forcing Zhao Layue and the others to get behind him.

The flying swords leapt up, and the glows of the magic treasures illuminated the peak top in the whistling wind. The disciples of Green Mountain and the representatives of various sects were escaping from the site in a hurry.

“Master! Senior Master! Please! If you two keep on fighting like this, the Great Formation of Green Mountain will crumble!”

The Immortal Guangyuan yelled at the two brothers at the edge of the cliff as he held his right hand in front of him, his sword will as heated as the flames, in an attempt to block the whistling wind and the dreadful sword wills.

“I don’t care.”

An icy and defiant grin flashed on Liu Shisui’s dark face; it was rather odd to look at since it seemed to have total disregard for life and death.

“What about you? You shouldn’t care so much either. Besides yourself, whom do you care about? Are you regretful that you didn’t kill this little guy in the beginning when you still had a chance?”

“What about you? Do you think it such a wonderful feeling to fight against the whole world?”

The Immortal Taiping laughed out loud, saying, “No, it’s not fighting against the world, but rather destroying it; it’s the destruction of an old world, and that does indeed feel wonderful.

…

…

The dreadful roars kept bellowing out in the deep part of the ocean.

The remains of a godly boat from the Penglai Island were found on the surface of the ocean. Holding tightly onto the planks, the sailors struggled to stay afloat among the waves while listening to the distant roars; their hearts were filled with despair.

The roars came from the Secret Realm of Singing Spring at the Huge Whirlpool. The sound of spring was nothing like a plopping melody; it had always been so dreadful.

However, the roars from the secret realm had other sorts of sound that day, sounding like cries of pain and relief from real people.

Those sailors were swallowed up by the huge waves before they had enough time to form a fleeting thought, ultimately plummeting down into the bottomless abyss.

This godly boat of Penglai Island was unfortunately there to become a part of the blood sacrifice conducted by the Immortal Taiping, yet on the other hand, the demons summoned by the Dark Phoenix from all over the world had known their fate from the very beginning.

Some demons who had a higher spiritual awareness had attempted to break free from this fate, but they couldn’t resist the imprints etched onto their spiritual souls by the Underworld; they could do nothing but let themselves be swallowed up by the Huge Whirlpool.

The huge Dace Devils and the Demons of the Swallowing Boat or those peculiar demons that the humans in Chaotian had never seen before showed up in the sea. They screamed while rushing toward the sky outside the cliff; but they couldn’t drop into the deep part of the whirlpool since they had already been dismembered on their way to the bottom of the whirlpool and turned into fountains of fresh blood before becoming patches of bloody mist in the end.

The painful and despairing cries of the demons were even louder than the sound of the Huge Whirlpool.

The bloody mists were not washed away by the torrential sea water; instead, they condensed into drops of water in midair.

Countless bloody mists connected together in the air, forming an exceedingly complicated pattern in the sky above the Huge Whirlpool as they transformed into a complex three-dimensional diagram.

If Kou Qintong were still alive, he might be able to recognize that this was the Heavenly Slaying Formation that the Bloody Demon Church had tried for many years but failed to deploy due to a shortage of blood.

…

…

The awakened Giant on the other side of the distant ocean had heard the sound again, displaying a worried look. He picked up a large stick and headed toward the deep part of the ocean, ignoring the screams and curses of those spirits who had been awakened unexpectedly.

The Giant was very tall, his head almost touching the roof of the sky. One stride of his was at least one mile long; but he walked very slowly because his body was really heavy. It was unclear how long it would take for him to arrive at the Huge Whirlpool.

Seeing the huge figure disappear into the deep part of the sea, the spirits stopped cursing and put down the long spears and bows in their hands, not knowing what to think.

An aged female spirit had suddenly flown out from the deep part of the forest and yelled sharply in language that was as vulgar as actual swearing. An astonished look showed on the faces of the spirits as they hastened to fly to the other side of the mountain range.

…

…

The Heavenly Slaying Formation couldn’t slay all the people in the world. Even the evil Bloody Demon Church didn’t have such intention.

As was the Immortal Taiping’s plan, the function of this formation was to activate the great power of the Huge Whirlpool and change the passage created by nature; that is, he intended to change the flowing direction of the sea water that came out from another huge whirlpool in the northernmost place and headed toward the Abyss.

He intended to eventually bring the sea water to the Underworld.

The Underworld was dark and monotonous because it was sunless. The Underworld River, flowing slowly and emitting a glow and heat, was the most noticeable existence there.

The battle in the Underworld had neared its last stage.

The Underworld army loyal to the Grand Priest was trapped by the Capital Army of the Underworld on both sides of the Underworld River. They launched a fierce and unexpected counterattack when their situation seemed hopeless.

The Capital Army would sustain a great loss if they attacked the other side in an attempt to wipe out the army of one hundred thousand strong loyal to the Grand Priest.

Standing by the edge of the cliff on the stone platform on a high mountain, the Underworld Master was watching the Underworld River in the distance quietly; the blue cloth he wore was as noticeable as the Underworld River.

“Fewer soldiers will die if we keep on trapping them there; but the cost is very high. More importantly, it will be unstable in the Underworld Capital. Hack! Hack!…”

Tong Yan coughed twice before he covered his mouth with his fist. “I still think that we should attack them; and you have to find a better reason to refute my advice,” he continued.

The Underworld Master said with a faint smile, “I didn’t want to explain things to you a few days ago, because I wasn’t sure if the incident I had imagined would happen. I’ve invited you to come here today for the purpose of witnessing something spectacular with us.”

Tong Yan sensed that something was out of place. He followed the gaze of the Underworld Master and saw an opening suddenly appear in the dark sky.

Boom!!! Boom!!! Boom!!!

It seemed that the thunder was rumbling in the Underworld, which had never happened before.

But what was striking down was not the thunder and lightning…it was endless seawater.

Illuminated by the dim glow, the blue seawater looked like a huge blue ray of light dropping down relentlessly from the sky and pounding the ground.

Seeing this incredible scene, Tong Yan was a bit pale. “What is going on?” he exclaimed hoarsely.

The inhabitants of the Underworld had never seen seawater before. They had merely heard of it in the stories told about the human world. So they didn’t immediately associate the stuff dropping down from the sky to the seawater. Yet, the Grand Priest had seen seawater; his semitransparent face displayed an astonished and bewildered glow, murmuring, “Has the sky broken?”

…

…

Boom!!!

The seawater dropping down from the sky had hit the ground of the Underworld with a crushing power, destroying a hill instantly

Hundreds of subordinates of the Grand Priest stationed nearby were instantly crushed into pulps of meat.

The earth shuddered incessantly, and the Underworld River thrashed restlessly. The army of the Grand Priest fled in all directions in terror. But it was impossible for them to beat the high speed of the torrential sea water.

The fatal blow to the army of the Grand Priest was not the seawater going over their heads, but the meeting of the sea water and the Underworld River.

Along with countless and frequent sizzling sounds, the sea water poured into the Underworld River. The river was set ablaze instantaneously, becoming a horrible ocean of fire.

Those soldiers of the Underworld who had escaped the assault of the sea water were engulfed in the ocean of fire and died a terrible death.

“What the heck is going on?” demanded Tong Yan while staring into the eyes of the Underworld Master.

The Capital Army of the Underworld had ceased carrying out Tong Yan’s strategy many days ago. No matterthe cost, the army abided the idea of the Underworld Master and pressed forward slowly and gradually. In the end, the subordinates of the Grand Priest were all driven to this patch of the valley, and in the meantime, his own army was also placed in a very tight spot; they could neither attack with ease nor retreat…Judging from his expression, the Underworld Master had known what would happen that day ahead of time; otherwise, he wouldn’t have stationed his army at a place inside the mountain that was high but enclosed in advance.

“Isn’t this scene spectacular?” the Underworld Master asked excitedly in a trembling voice while pointing to the blue sea water pouring down from the high night sky.

The passage had been widened by the raging seawater, and the amount of seawater increased as well. The flames on the Underworld River were not extinguished by the seawater, and instead, more green smoke came out from the river; some broken pieces of the soul fires could be vaguely seen amid the smoke and fog.

“Spectacular? Do you have any idea what this means?”

Tong Yan continued while staring into his eyes, “If the seawater keeps falling down, the miasma will encase the whole Underworld. What will you do then?”

The Underworld Master replied with a small smile, “The smoke is very light; it will go up.”

Looking at the green smoke on the Underworld River and the flowing direction of it, and seeing the soldiers of the Underworld die while covering their mouths, Tong Yan had finally understood why.

“It turns out…this is the doing of the Immortal Taiping,” he mumbled.

The Underworld Master remarked sentimentally, “The green smoke is going to change the world. Aside from my Teacher, who else can achieve such a great feat?”

After some moments of silence, Tong Yan said, “Even if…even if the humans in Chaotian suffer a heavy casualty, a great many inhabitants of the Underworld will also be killed by the miasma.”

The Underworld Master said with narrowed eyes, “You’re wrong. This was not a war between the Underworld and the human world; it’s a war staged by the Cultivation practitioners against those regular mortals who are wasting the resources and yuanqi…The killed people, whether they are the humans or the inhabitants of the Underworld, will only be regular mortals.”

Killing all the mortals and establishing a world just for the Cultivation practitioners was the crazy ideal of the Immortal Taiping; it was the reason why the entire world regarded him as a demonic person.

“I’ve thought that someone as smart as you wouldn’t support such a crazy idea with the passing of several hundred years,” said Tong Yan while staring into the eyes of the Underworld Master.

With a faint smile, the Underworld Master returned, “You shouldn’t forget that I’m a student of the Immortal.”

Tong Yan’s face grew paler still.

It was because the Underworld lacked the energy of heaven and earth.

And it was also because he had never felt so scared in his entire life.