The boundary between the mortal realm and the cultivation world is known as the 'Gate of Ascension'. Rather than being a sacred land shrouded in auspicious clouds, it is a colossal, gear-like bronze structure spanning tens of thousands of miles. Countless 'Heavenly Spiritual Roots', resembling blood vessels, converge here, filtering and condensing the soul essence plundered from the lower realm before pumping it to the upper realm.
When Xiao Wuchen stepped onto this void, the slowly turning gears suddenly emitted an earsplitting grinding sound.
'Halt! This is a forbidden zone of the Heavenly Realm. Mortals are lowly; those who cross this line will be annihilated, body and soul!'
Hundreds of heavily armoured 'Heavenly Patrol Generals' positioned themselves in front of Xiao Wuchen, their spirit beasts spewing true fire powerful enough to incinerate mountains and boil seas. Behind them, the upper realm appeared and disappeared — a celestial palace built upon the blood and tears of mortals.
'Chi Kui, stay away.' Xiao Wuchen's voice was cold and flat. His right-hand demonic sword, 'Rootless,' was completely covered in deep purple veins. The runes connecting the sword hilt to his arm flickered wildly and emitted a low-frequency noise, as though some kind of program were collapsing.
"Alright! I'll go to the back row and lend you a hand!" Chi Kui instinctively curled up into a ball and rolled to the edge of the void rift.
Using the body as an array: Overclocking Mode:
Xiao Wuchen closed his eyes, and the system's scarlet interface exploded completely in his mind.
[System log: Taboo Protocols Fully Activated, Overdrive Mode Initiated! Synchronisation rate: 99% (Warning: only 1% left before losing all humanity). Array load: 95% (red alert: host's bones are crushing).
"Power... Enough."
Xiao Wuchen suddenly opened his eyes. In that instant, the space around him underwent a violent 'frame jump'. The dozens of immortal attacks that had been rushing towards him paused strangely in mid-air for 0.1 seconds before being forcibly shattered by the cybernetic runes flowing across his body.
Ignoring the Sky Patrol Generals, he fixed his gaze on the massive barrier connecting the mortal and immortal realms.
Tenth Form: Extreme Moon Fall.
Xiao Wuchen leapt into the air, his figure flickering and overlapping in the void like 'erroneous data' inserted into this spacetime.
He hung upside down, 10,000 metres in the air, his right hand holding the demonic sword, Rootless, pointing directly downwards.
Arc Moon Slash – Tenth Form: Extreme Moon Fall
This sword strike was no longer a simple slash.
This sword strike was no longer a simple slash.
As the sword fell, the gravitational field around Xiao Wuchen underwent a terrifying reversal. The air within a thousand miles was instantly sucked away, forming a massive black sphere. The so-called Sky Patrol Generals didn't even have time to scream before they were crushed by this distorted gravity and sucked into the centre of the black sphere.
A dark red sword pillar pierced the black sphere and crashed down with immense force against the barrier between the mortal and immortal realms.
This was a 'logical collapse' in the physical sense.
The once indestructible bronze gear barrier, which represented the order of Heaven, began to crumble under the impact of the sword. Gravity twisted and tore apart the barrier's atomic structure. Netherflame burned wildly along the crack, igniting all the immortal crystals and spirit stones that maintained the formation.
The barrier of the Crimson Path shattered, leaving behind a massive, shocking crack stretching across the sky. On the other side lay the Upper Realm, brimming with spiritual energy yet chillingly cold.
Xiao Wuchen landed steadily, his right hand dripping with blood. The demonic energy in his veins mixed with his blood and corroded the ground, forming deep pits. The synchronization rate on the system panel jumped to 99.5%.
Memories of 'hometown', 'comrades' and even 'Hongluan' rapidly turned into strings of grey, unreadable gibberish in his mind.
'Master... you really cleaved the heavens in two!' Chi Kui scrambled over and stared at the crimson path leading to the Upper Realm, filled with shock and fear.
Xiao Wuchen glanced back at the mortal realm below. The blood rain had temporarily ceased, but the landscape was still devastated. 'Creditors, I've arrived.'
He stepped into the crevice, demonic sword in hand.
As the aftershocks of 'Tenth Form: Extreme Moon dissipated, the previously illusory upper-realm scene solidified completely. A blood-red tear was torn open, the pure energy of the celestial realm colliding violently with the stench of blood from the mortal realm to form a destructive storm.
Fragments of the bronze gear fell to the mortal realm like meteorites, each one burning with purplish-black nether flames.
Xiao Wuchen stood on the charred, broken edge, his gaze piercing through layers of spiritual mist. What he saw were not islands of bliss, but islands suspended in the void. Countless transparent conduits connected the islands and flowed with compressed mortal divine consciousness in liquid form.
'This is... the price they pay for immortality,' Xiao Wuchen said hoarsely.
[System log: warning! Interference detected from upper realm rules. Synchronisation rate: 99.7% (locking in host's last tear duct function). Visual correction: Activating 'Eye of Truth', automatically blocking all illusory appearances].
In his vision, the exquisitely beautiful celestial palaces vanished and were replaced by intricate, cold 'soul processing factories'.
Lu Qingyun's observation:
'A worm from the mud has actually managed to bite through the cage.'
A fastidious and emotionless voice came from the clouds.
Xiao Wuchen abruptly looked up. Above him, dozens of layers of clouds parted to reveal a man dressed in a pure white Daoist robe, spotless and immaculate, standing with his hands behind his back. Not only was he perfectly formed, but the flow of spiritual energy around him followed an almost mathematical rhythm of extreme precision.
He was the number one genius of the Immortal Realm and agent of the Heavenly Dao — Lu Qingyun.
Lu Qingyun lowered his eyes and gazed coldly at Xiao Wuchen, whose body was covered in runes and whose right hand was deformed. It wasn't the gaze of someone looking at an enemy, but rather at an "error code" that must be deleted.
'Xiao Wuchen, you should have died peacefully during the harvest and become fuel for this grand order.' Lu Qingyun slowly extended his right hand, golden holy light flowing from his fingertips. 'Forcibly continuing this flawed destiny is a desecration of the world's beauty.'
The Rhythm of Destiny
The instant Lu Qingyun extended his hand, the demonic sword, Rootless, in Xiao Wuchen's right hand, trembled more violently than ever before.
'Buzz—!'
This wasn't fear, but a violent repulsion between substances of the same origin. Xiao Wuchen could feel the blood of his 'Supreme Spiritual Root' flowing within Lu Qingyun's golden body — the bloodline mark that had been stolen from him years ago.
'My blood... is it useful?' Xiao Wuchen grinned, a ferocious smile spreading across his blood-soaked lips.
[System: Host core component detected.]
[Heavenly Remnant Seal Activity: MAX]
[Killing Intent Judgement: No reason needed; only a fight to the death.]
A Shattered Greeting Gift
Lu Qingyun flicked his finger and a golden halo instantly spread through the air. This was no ordinary spell, but rather the direct manifestation of the rules of the Heavenly Dao, attempting to erase Xiao Wuchen, this 'foreign object'.
'Chi Kui, get into the crack!'
Xiao Wuchen roared, wielding the demonic sword 'Rootless' in his right hand and arcing it sharply to meet the golden halo.
[Arc Moon Slash – Second Form: Half-Moon Breaking Technique]
The dark red sword energy collided with the golden light. There was no violent explosion, only the ear-piercing noise of the two forces cancelling each other out. The void beneath Xiao Wuchen's feet shattered inch by inch, but he did not retreat. Netherflame leapt wildly along the blade, actually burning wisps of black smoke from the golden Heavenly Dao rules.
Lu Qingyun's brow furrowed slightly — the first time in ten thousand years that he had shown an expression other than contempt.
'An incomplete thing, yet it dares to defy the laws of nature?'
'I am the "laws of nature" you speak of; the sole exception.' Xiao Wuchen held his demonic sword upside down, his blood-red hair whipping wildly in the storm of the void. 'Lu Qingyun, cleanse your neck. I will repay this debt, inch by inch.'
He stepped across the shattered void and set foot on the land of the Upper Realm for the first time. Behind him, the blood-red path to the mortal world slowly closed, symbolising that his path home was now completely severed.
As Xiao Wuchen took heavy steps into the spiritual land of the Upper Realm, the crimson rift stretching tens of thousands of miles behind him slowly began to heal as the rules were restored.
"Master! Wait for me!' Chi Kui cried out, using all three hands to scramble and crawl through just before the rift disappeared completely. Glancing back at the mortal realm, now reduced to a tiny black dot, he saw a rare look of bewilderment in his six eyes. However, the dense, almost liquefied spiritual energy of the Upper Realm made him shudder immediately.
'My God! Is this the Upper Realm? Even the air reeks of condescension and greed!" Chi Kui huddled at Xiao Wuchen's feet, spitting as he looked at the floating mountains and rivers of spiritual energy around him.
Xiao Wuchen didn't turn around; his gaze was fixed on the distance. Although Lu Qingyun's will avatar had dissipated, there, an even more terrifying aura of killing intent was converging from all directions.
In Xiao Wuchen's sea of consciousness, the system panel had completely switched to 'Battle Damage Mode', with a scarlet error bar occupying half of his vision.
[System log: Suppression of the laws of the upper realm detected! Synchronisation rate: 99.9% (note: the host is about to enter the 'divinity/demonicity' threshold). Forced Mission: Before humanity is completely wiped out, destroy the outer gate of the Qingyun Immortal Sect.
'99.9%?' Xiao Wuchen murmured softly. Images of Hongluan's laughter, his old master's teachings and the Jinyiwei brothers drinking cheap liquor by the campfire turned into pale stone tablets and rapidly sank into the abyss of his heart.
His demonic sword, 'Rootless', sensed the annihilation of his state of mind. The Netherflame on the sword turned from purple to black and corroded the surrounding spiritual energy, creating wisps of black smoke.
'Xiao Wuchen, traitor! You killed my Heavenly Patrol General and destroyed my Heavenly Gate! Your crimes deserve death!"
Dozens of streaks of light shot in from the distant floating island. Each streak represented a highly skilled Outer Sect Elder. Rather than fighting individually, they quickly took their positions according to an ancient formation, forming a massive golden array known as the 'Nine Revolutions Demon-Slaying Array'.
'Those protected by the Heavenly Dao live within this array; those who defy the Heavenly Dao die instantly!'
A golden pillar of light descended from the sky, bearing the 'Power of Order', which was powerful enough to suppress evil spirits and attempt to purify Xiao Wuchen on the spot.
(Arc Moon's Chaotic Shadow: A Spatial Frame-Jumping Massacre).
A cruel, mechanical smile curled the corners of Xiao Wuchen's lips.
'Order? My existence is to correct your 'orders'."
He moved. To the elders, Xiao Wuchen's body suddenly appeared in multiple distorted images. This was because he was moving too fast for the laws of the upper realm to detect his real-time location, due to his body possessing the 'ethereal' quality.
Arc Moon Slash – Third Form: Crescent Moon Shadows.
Space tore apart as if ripped by giant hands, and Xiao Wuchen appeared in nine different locations.
The first slash severed the array's spiritual energy supply line.
The third slash grazed an elder's throat, and the Nether Flame instantly devoured his primordial spirit.
The ninth slash appeared directly at the centre of the array's core.
Visually, the entire area produced a strong 'frame skipping' effect, as if torn film had been forcibly spliced together.
When Xiao Wuchen returned to his original position and slowly sheathed his sword, the entire 'Nine Revolutions Demon-Slaying Array' still glittered golden. The next moment, however, nine deep cracks simultaneously exploded at the centre of the array. The self-proclaimed noble elders of the immortal sects didn't even have time to scream before their bodies, along with the shattered array, disintegrated into a cloud of blood mist amidst disjointed visual afterimages.
The Hunter's Stance
Chi Kui stared dumbfounded at the immortal sect relics scattered on the ground, forgetting entirely to check the corpses.
'Master... this isn't just chopping; you've "edited" the entire sky...'
Xiao Wuchen stood silently in the pool of blood, his pale face expressionless. He gazed at the main peak of the Qingyun Immortal Sect, where the demonic sword that had pierced his veins was emitting a hungry hum.