That day, Bai Yao and Chu Jinghong left Myriad Snow Palace.
The Karma-Tracking Compass pointed toward a miasmic demonic abyss in the Southern Border.
That demonic cultivator was hidden extremely deep, having joined a secluded demonic sect.
And his cultivation realm had already advanced from the Golden Core Stage of the past to the Nascent Soul Stage.
When Bai Yao found him, her eyes were so red they practically dripped with blood.
In that demonic sect, there was a sect master at the Soul Formation Stage, along with a host of Nascent Soul demonic generals.
They wanted to take action to teach this reckless outsider a lesson.
Chu Jinghong stood to the side and unsheathed his sword, Qingyun.
Above the heavens, ten thousand rays of azure light shone. The demonic cultivators instantly recognized the sword, and they quickly brandished their magic treasures to turn against their own.
They declared that they could execute this villain on behalf of the Sacred Son and Sacred Daughter.
“Scram, all of you.”
...
In that battle, Bai Yao was covered in blood.
Golden Core against Nascent Soul.
Logically speaking, she had absolutely no chance of winning.
Yet, relying on her Unblemished Body, she stubbornly endured the erosion of demonic energy, slashed the demonic soul banner with her Chixia sword, and, at the brink of death, comprehended a wisp of frost snow sword intent.
With her final strike, she pierced the demonic cultivator's chest.
Then, she used her frost snow sword intent to freeze his dantian.
Chixia stabbed into the demonic cultivator's body, strike after strike.
Stained with blood, Chixia's crimson glowed even more intensely.
Before dying, the scorpion-tattooed demonic cultivator grinned hideously. Over the years, he had already buried a sacrificial array around this demonic sect.
If he was going to die, he would drag everyone down with him!
He forcibly mobilized a sliver of spiritual energy and activated the array.
The array sacrificed everyone in the demonic sect, including himself, summoning the Red Scorpion Demon Lord of the Body Integration Stage.
A sea of blood surged to the heavens. The Red Scorpion Demon Lord had been asleep for many years. Seeing two living humans standing before him, he immediately cackled with evil words, declaring that he would refine them into blood.
Chu Jinghong, a mere Soul Formation cultivator, was not flustered in the slightest when facing a demon lord two realms higher than him. He even felt a bit like laughing.
Bai Yao did not even raise her head to look at the demon lord.
The demon lord was baffled. The two of them were clearly just at the Soul Formation and Golden Core Stages. Why were they not afraid?
Chu Jinghong chuckled sinisterly as he pulled a jade token out from his robes...
The demon lord had laid low for many years, and even in death, he never expected that he, of all people, would have the honor of being executed by a Red Dust Immortal.
...
The twenty-seventh year.
Chu Jinghong broke through to the Void Refining Stage.
On the day of his breakthrough, he was so excited that he flew three laps around Myriad Snow Palace, almost getting frozen out of the sky by a single glare from Su Jinxue.
Upon hearing the news, the elders of Qingyun Heaven were deeply comforted.
“The Young Lord indeed did not disappoint the Sacred Lord's expectations!”
Chu Jinghong stood atop the clouds, hands clasped behind his back, looking profoundly deep.
“It's merely the Void Refining Stage, nothing worth mentioning.”
The very next moment, however, he turned around and carved the news into transmission jade slips, sending out three hundred of them to every single peak in Qingyun Heaven.
Bai Yao watched him, fell silent for a long time, and then asked, “Senior Brother, didn't you say it was nothing worth mentioning?”
Chu Jinghong coughed.
“Master once said, one must keep a low profile in life, but report good news immediately.”
Bai Yao: “...”
Time marched on.
The thirtieth year.
The fortieth year.
The forty-ninth year.
On Myriad Snow Palace's Immortal Lord's Peak, Su Jinxue often stood alone at the summit.
Clad in red, her bare feet stepping on the snow, her red eyes gazed in the direction of Qingyun Heaven.
That Sacred Lord's Peak was obscured by layers of clouds.
She could not see Zhang Mingyuan.
But the Soul-Tracking Imprint allowed her to feel that he was still there.
His aura was growing stronger and stronger.
Getting closer and closer to that gate.
That immortal gate.
Su Jinxue lightly pressed her fingertips against her chest. Her expression was calm, but a trace of emotion that others could not comprehend was hidden deep in her eyes.
“Soon,” she murmured.
...
Inside the grotto-heaven of Qingyun Heaven's Sacred Lord's Peak.
Zhang Mingyuan sat cross-legged.
After forty-nine years of seclusion, the aura around him had become completely harmonious and integrated.
The boundary of the peak Mahayana Stage had almost vanished before him.
The immortal gate was right before his eyes.
Only one step remained.
Behind him, the Qingyun Great Dao, inherited by successive generations of Qingyun Heaven's Sacred Lords, slowly emerged.
It was a grand and upright path of laws.
Azure clouds spanning ten thousand miles, a sword opening the heavenly gate.
As long as he walked down this path and survived the immortal tribulation, he could become an immortal.
Zhang Mingyuan slowly opened his eyes.
In the depths of his pupils, an azure divine light swirled.
He looked up at the faintly visible immortal gate in the void, the corners of his mouth curving slightly upward.
“Little Xuexue, wait for me.”
“Your hubby will be back soon.”
Right at this moment, however,
a soft sound suddenly echoed from the depths of his small world.
Clang.
The sound was very soft,
yet it was like a drop of blood falling into an eternally silent abyss.
Zhang Mingyuan's expression changed slightly.
“Hmm?”
Within the small world, the Dog Slaughterer sword, which had been silent for many years, suddenly flew out on its own.
Its dark red blade hovered in the void.
The originally mottled rust began to peel off bit by bit.
It was not breaking.
Rather, it was more like a certain seal was shedding its skin.
A wisp of an ominous, deathly, and utterly desolate aura slowly emanated from the blade.
Zhang Mingyuan's heart skipped a beat.
“Oh crap!”
“There's danger!”
Just as he was about to raise his hand to suppress it, the Dog Slaughterer sword suddenly let out a low hum.
The next moment,
Boom!
A dark red light shot into the sky from the grotto-heaven of the Sacred Lord's Peak!
The entire Qingyun Heaven was instantly enveloped in the red light.
The mountains, palaces, sea of clouds, and spiritual peaks were all dyed with a bizarre shade of dark red.
The red light was neither scorching hot nor freezing cold.
It was like the residual glow left behind after the end of all things.
Wherever the red light shone, a sense of desolation inexplicably welled up in everyone's hearts, as if they were witnessing the end of the world, where all laws withered and the stars turned to ash.
The expressions of everyone in Qingyun Heaven changed drastically.
“What happened?”
“The Sacred Lord's Peak!”
“Is this the Sacred Lord's aura? No, this isn't the Qingyun Great Dao!”
Atop Myriad Snow Palace's Immortal Lord's Peak, Su Jinxue suddenly looked up.
In the next instant, her figure vanished.
When she reappeared, she was already standing in the sky above Qingyun Heaven.
Her red robes fluttered, and her black hair danced in the wind.
She looked down at Qingyun Heaven, which was enveloped in the dark red light, her red pupils contracting slightly.
This aura was too bizarre.
Ominous and deathly, it felt like the end of all things.
But Su Jinxue did not act immediately.
Because she could feel that although this red light was terrifying, it had not harmed anyone in Qingyun Heaven.
Even the grass and trees had not withered.
It merely enveloped the area,
as if announcing the awakening of some existence.
Su Jinxue looked toward the depths of the Sacred Lord's Peak, her brow furrowing slightly.
“Zhang Mingyuan...”
She could feel through the Soul-Tracking Imprint that he was still alive.
His aura was not in disarray either.
But she had never seen this law power on Zhang Mingyuan before.
...
Inside the grotto-heaven.
The Dog Slaughterer sword hovered in front of Zhang Mingyuan.
The rust on the blade was completely gone.
The sword, which had originally looked worn-out, dull, and even somewhat unremarkable, now fully revealed its true form.
The blade was long and wide, entirely dark red, as if it had been soaked in the blood of countless eras, or like a setting sun fished out from some destroyed world.
Upon the blade's edge, there was no cold gleam.
Only deathly silence.
Then, the sword laughed.
“Hehehe...”
Zhang Mingyuan stared at it expressionlessly.
“Your laugh is awful.”
Dog Slaughterer: “...”
The bizarre laughter paused for a brief moment.
Immediately after, it laughed even louder.
“Hehehehehe!”
Within the horror, there was actually a bit of playfulness.
Like an old thing that had slept for too long, finally finding what it had been waiting for.
Rate on N.U.
