The Path Toward Heaven

Liu Ci stepped into the sky as the sword boat slowly backed up.

He stood upright in the sky while staring at the Godly Swordsman of West Ocean.

Though Liu Ci didn’t utter a word, everybody present understood that he had accepted the invitation of duel from the Godly Swordsman.

Seeing him fold his hands behind his back, the Cultivation practitioners felt somewhat startled, wondering where his Inherited Heaven Sword was.

Even though the figures in the Heavenly Arrival State only needed a flash of their minds to call out their flying swords, it would still take a moment.

During a battle at such a high level, shouldn’t he call out his flying sword in advance?

The ocean wind blew through the space between Liu Ci and the Godly Swordsman of West Ocean, making a wave of four miles long.

The bright sunlight had suddenly changed its route and deflected, as it had become blisteringly hot.

Many Cultivation practitioners suddenly felt a pain in their eyes, with tears running down uncontrollably.

The two powerful figures stood staring at each other, but the sword wills coming out from them had already been so formidable; and the onlookers could hardly look at them.

As far as the Green Mountain Sect was concerned, this duel between the two strongest swordsmen of the world was not worthwhile.

However, Jian Xilai had already drawn his sword, Liu Ci, as the Sect Master of Green Mountain, had no choice but to accept the challenge.

Two enormously powerful energies were locked together in the sky, and the two sides would strike at each other at any moment. His opponent was one of the strongest swordsmen in Chaotian, so Liu Ci couldn’t spare a friction of his mind to think about such matters as the fact that he didn’t actually have a sword and where Nan Qü was at the moment…

Even if Nan Qü would suddenly appear as predicted by Jing Jiu, he couldn’t do anything about it for the time being.

Since all members of Green Mountain were here, what could Nan Qü do even if he showed up?

If Nan Qü wanted to take the advantage to sneak-attack Green Mountain, he would encounter an unexpected outcome.

…

…

Above the icy surface of the ocean, Shaoming Island looked like a black gemstone in snow. The top section of the island had been slashed off by a single swing of the Godly Swordsman’s sword. It was very smooth, and looked even more spectacular when the reflected sunlight off it created an iridescent panorama. If one looked closely, they would find some tunnels on the island.

The sword boat of Shangde Peak, hovering high in the sky, was surveying the island from above.

Not far away were the Cloud Boat of the Center Sect and the Boat of Diligent Study of the One-Cottage House; the recitations of the scripts by the masters of the Fruit Formation Temple could be heard vaguely in the clouds.

The Immortal Taiping had no chance of escaping from such a tight siege, no matter how powerful and resourceful he was.

Back when Yuan Qijing looked at the blood stains on the Dark Phoenix’s tail, he was not worried that the bird might disobey the will of his own life board to sneak into Shaoming Island to help his Master; in fact, he had another suspicion in mind.

There was a tiny bubble among the blood stains, and a tiny dark speck could be vaguely seen in the bubble.

As the red lantern in front of the ruined temple on the distant mountain was burned down, this blood bubble broke as well.

The dark speck in the blood bubble drifted up into the air, and turned into a little child after growing with the wind.

The child wore a dark colored jacket and a bun on his head. His face was as ashen as a ghost, and his build was as small and skinny as a ghost as well.

“I think I’m seeing a ghost.”

As Yuan Qijing’s white hair was ruffled by the wind, he looked a bit aged.

His countenance was still as dull as before, his voice was full of sentiment.

Nan Qü’s sword ghost had unexpectedly appeared on the sword boat of Green Mountain.

This had happened too suddenly and unexpectedly.

Not even the Dark Phoenix could respond to the incident in time.

Crack!!!

The child of sword ghost passed through Yuan Qijing’s body and went out of the cabin.

It wasn’t until then that the Three-Foot Sword had returned to the cabin from the icy surface of the ocean.

It turned out that Nan Qü’s sword ghost had been hiding inside the body of the Flying Whale.

The Flying Whale pretended to crush into Shaoming Island and die with the Immortal Taiping and was intercepted by the Dark Phoenix.

The child of sword ghost followed the blood of the whale to arrive on the Dark Phoenix’s tail, and as a result entered the sword boat by evading the sword formation of the Green Mountain disciples, closing the distance between him and Yuan Qijing.

More importantly, Yuan Qijing’s Three-Foot Sword had been hovering above the surface of the ocean to maintain the ice covering the perimeters of Shaoming Island.

All this sounded simple enough, but to achieve this, one had to understand the true relationship between the Master Dark Phoenix and the Immortal Taiping and the true view of Yuan Qijing on the Immortal Taiping.

This sneak attack could be considered one of the most successful ones in the history of the Cultivation world.

As the Three-Foot Sword returned, Yuan Qijing’s body was covered with a thick layer of ice and snow. As such, no wound could be seen on his body; but judging by his faltering breath, he should have been injured severely.

The child of the sword ghost came out of the cabin; he also looked a lot dimmer now.

The Young Sister Yushan was the first one to notice the eerie incident; she screamed loudly, alerting the others.

The Green Mountain disciples didn’t lose their senses at such an unexpected event and reacted very quickly. Countless sword lights slashed downwards.

In the blink of an eye, the temperature on the sword boat dropped dramatically, a thin layer of frost forming on the deck.

The child of the sword ghost drifted amid the frost and snow, and it seemed that the sword ghost could travel faster than those sword lights.

Duan Liantian hit the floor heavily, not a hint of living breath emerging from him as a large hole lay present in his chest. His sword pill had been broken into pieces. His master-less flying sword plummeted diagonally toward the ocean below.

The Dark Phoenix rushed out of the cabin with an angry bellow; his black wing pierced at the child of sword ghost like a sword.

However, the movements of the sword ghost were rather peculiar, seemingly like the real residual of sunlight; he kept on attacking his opponents while evading the assault from the Dark Phoenix.

Chi Yan grunted once and retreated with a broken-off arm.

The figure of the ghost was drifting hither and thither.

What the child of sword ghost was doing had surpassed the common knowledge of the normal sword work. He suddenly backed up a hundred feet and arrived at a spot of the sword boat after rubbing against the Dark Phoenix’s wing.

“Protect Young Sister!”

The disciples of Shangde Peak gathered together and slashed their swords downwards.

The fresh blood splashed everywhere. More people were dying.

The wind and snow had suddenly grown violent in the sky.

The child of sword ghost stopped short for a brief moment.

Soon, he had unexpectedly snuck into the sword boat.

Though they were all aware of what this weird thing intended to do, it was too late to do anything about it.

With a loud cracking sound, the center of the formation of the sword boat was damaged. The boat fell toward the ground, and then broke into countless pieces, being unable to withstand such a heavy load.

The disciples of Shangde Peak leapt up by riding their swords in tandem. Those dead or wounded disciples fell along with the broken pieces of the sword boat.

The Dark Phoenix flew skyward with a sharp shriek, chasing after that small and constantly shifting figure of ghost in the sky.

The sword lights flashed. The disciples from other sword boats came over to the rescue, but three of them were killed instantly by the child of sword ghost.

The wind and snow grew violent again. A transparent icy ball had suddenly appeared in the sky.

The child of sword ghost was trapped inside the icy ball.

But it didn’t take long before the icy ball cracked open after many ruptures formed on it.

Standing amid the wind and snow, Yuan Qijing stared at a spot in the sky, his long and loose hair covering his face.

He wielded the Three-Foot Sword at the spot with both of his hands.

A great amount of wind and snow enshrouded the West Ocean.

The figure of sword ghost was drifting intermittently amid the wind and snow.

Without a command, all the flying swords from all the sword boats headed in that direction.

Hundreds of flying swords and hundreds of formidable sword lights broke through the wind and snow, pursuing the drifting figure.

Under such a powerful pursuit, any demon or devil man of the Underworld would be destroyed, regardless of how powerful they were.

Yet, Liu Ci was fully aware that it was still not enough; it was because they were facing the most powerful fairy man of sword in the world. Moreover, it was evident that he was in a very peculiar state.

Seeing the figure in the wind and snow, he raised his thin brows, readying to strike.

Countless tides had suddenly occurred on the West Ocean.

The Sword of Twelve Storey Building had arrived.

Boom!!!

The tides dissipated, and the ocean wind disheveled the wind and snow.

The Cultivation practitioners of various sects lifted their heads and looked up at a high spot in the sky. In the Empty Realm high in the sky, two tall figures were vaguely seen fighting against each other.

The thunders boomed and the bolts of lightning struck down.

…

…

In the ruins of the temple on the barren mountain.

Jing Jiu took a step forward while staring at Nan Qü; his right hand clasped the other person’s hand.

Nan Qü’s hand was aged and cold, full of wrinkles. It didn’t even look like a hand, more like a lifeless object.

Countless sword lights shot out from their clasped hands, dispersing in all directions.

The hidden wound in Nan Wang’s body got worse after being triggered by the sword wills. She leaned her head against Jing Jiu’s back, her face pale.

The white cat stared into Nan Qü’s eyes while squatting on Jing Jiu’s shoulder, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

He might be able to act like a coward on other occasions; but it was a matter of the very survival of the Green Mountain Sect today. As one of the Principal Guards of Green Mountain, the white cat believed that he simply couldn’t back out.

The sword lights continued coming out from the clasped hands of Jing Jiu and Nan Qü, looking like snowflakes shooting up and falling down slowly onto the ruins of the temple.

Whoosh!!! Whoosh!!! Whoosh!!!

As innumerable sword sounds broke out, the rubbles in the ruins of the temple and pebbles were sliced into the tiniest shreds, which were then hurled up by the wind.

The wind was then sliced into pieces as well and turned into a gust of mild breeze like a warm spring wind, blowing over Jing Jiu’s face. Yet, no change of expression could be noted on his face.

Nan Qü stared at Jing Jiu and remarked sentimentally, “You’re truly a perfect sword. Unfortunately, your current Cultivation state is too low.”

He referred to the principle of “The state of a sword improves with the Cultivation practitioner”.

Jing Jiu said, “You are merely a sword at the moment, without any Cultivation state.”

He referred to the principle of “The developed sword ghost replacing the soul”.

“I didn’t expect you to know this,” Nan Qü said with a slightly changed expression.

Jing Jiu said, “Your Dao Tree was damaged back then; so you had no choice but to temper your body into a sword. As such, your body is almost indestructible.”

“Yes,” said Nan Qü. “Almost no object in this world can harm me.”

“But I’m quite special,” said Jing Jiu.

He was indeed special. Though Nan Wang in the upper state of the Broken Sea couldn’t harm Nan Qü, Jing Jiu could.

A tiny rupture appeared on Nan Qü’s wrist; in the next moment, a rupture occurred between his thumb and forefinger, from which the blood and flesh could be seen clearly.

Strangely, the blood and flesh were grayish white; so his body truly looked like a dried-up corpse.

“Everything is authentic without the distortion of the Cultivation state.”

Nan Qü stared at Jing Jiu and continued, “Your problem is that you attempt to cultivate the sword to a higher state; but when your Cultivation state is still low, this sword is not so special anymore.”

No sooner had he finished this statement than a section of Jing Jiu’s belt dropped off.

Soon after, a part of his hair dropped off.

Then, a portion of his earlobe dropped off.

Looking at the bead of blood hanging on Jing Jiu’s earlobe, the white cat was too stunned to speak, wondering how he could be injured.

Nan Qü looked at Jing Jiu with a faint smile, as he asked, “You will die if you don’t let go of your hand; aren’t you afraid of the outcome?”

The sword sound continued in the midst of heaven and earth; but it sounded a bit warped, as if somebody was snorting.

The sword lights shot out in a chaotic manner, cutting up anything that was in their way.

Jing Jiu had told Liu Shisui in the small village that he was good at cutting up things.

Yet, today he had encountered someone who was similarly as good.

The difference was that one of them used the human body as a sword and the other used a sword as the human body.

Like Nan Qü said, Jing Jiu’s Cultivation state was still too low; if he insisted on clasping his hand, he might die.

Jing Jiu didn’t wish to die.

He was unwilling to let his hand go either.

“The Sword Formation of Green Mountain will arrive soon; aren’t you afraid of the outcome?” Jing Jiu asked Nan Qü.