IS Chapter 111

The snow surface was dotted with bloodstains, and Yun Xiangzhuo’s robe was also stained with large patches of fresh blood.

Before today, Yun Xiangxi would not have allowed such marks to appear on his body. But after today, everything had changed.

Why? No reason.

The icy aura mixed with blood permeated his lungs. Everyone was already dead, and only he and Yun Xiangxi remained under the heavens.

Yun Xiangxi repeated his words thoughtfully, “I’m afraid?”

“You’re afraid,” Yun Xiangzhuo said. “I have you and mother in my heart. I don’t think that’s wrong.”

“The Path of Emotionlessness, if I can’t cultivate it, I can choose not to. If I can’t prove it, I can choose not to. Yun Xiangxi, you are severing your own emotional ties and proving your own Path of Emotionlessness.”

Why kill everyone today of all days? Why, before drawing his sword, did he seem to genuinely try to be a father, a husband, a flawless elder brother, a young master?

Because he wavered, he was afraid! He realized that he might have genuinely wanted to step into that role for a moment!

His sword path had gathered dust, and this dust might hinder his cultivation one day, so he brushed all the dust away, and from then on, he would never waver again. Such dust would never appear on Yun Xiangzhuo’s sword path, and he would be satisfied with such a result.

Yun Xiangxi looked at him, a faint smile in his eyes: “Then should I kill you as well?”

Yun Xiangzhuo: “You won’t.”

He lowered his eyes, seeing the vast expanse of white. Actually, he seemed tired, as if he could no longer hold on, no longer stand. A hazy darkness surrounded him, and as soon as he closed his eyes, he would fall forward, never to wake again.

But those thoughts had never been as clear as they were now. *Xiangzhuo, you have wisdom*, he seemed to hear Yun Xiangxi say again.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Yun Xiangxi asked him, as if sincerely inquiring of a fellow Dao friend.

In fact, Yun Xiangxi had always treated him this way. He wouldn’t treat him like Ling Ye and the Swordsmith, treating him like a child. Yun Xiangxi treated him as someone who, like himself, should understand everything, should be able to learn everything, an equal.

“Because…” Yun Xiangzhuo struggled to raise his eyes again, Yun Xiangxi’s figure blurring into a vague white light in his eyes.

Because I am your shadow, your heart’s twin, your second Life-Bound Sword, my carving is complete.

…Or not.

“Because I am a part of your sword path,” Yun Xiangzhuo said, “You can kill others, but you won’t kill yourself.”

Yun Xiangxi looked at him. That faint, superficial smile had faded away.

“There are no opponents for you in this world, no one to discuss the Dao with, and there is no sword path you want to cultivate anymore. Your path in the mortal realm has come to an end.” Yun Xiangzhuo’s voice slowly, slowly echoed in this icy and stagnant world, the pale white full moon overlooking the three thousand worlds from above.

“You don’t care about others, you just want to see what another version of yourself would be like. You want to see what your cultivated sword path really is, what is right, what is wrong, whether it can be further improved. You just want to look in the mirror, that’s all.”

“Yun Xiangxi, I won’t be like you. You have already fallen to a lower path.”

“Won’t you?” Yun Xiangxi looked at him, his condescending gaze falling on him. “Xiangzhuo, you can only cultivate the Path of Emotionlessness now.”

Not an order, but a statement.

Your sword is already broken.

You have severed ties with all your relatives, your teachers and friends are dead, and the most important person in your heart has formed a blood feud with you.

From now on, you can’t cultivate any other path, you can only cultivate the Path of Emotionlessness. The same Path of Emotionlessness as him. You say he has fallen to a lower path, but from now on you can only be with him, exactly the same, both fallen to a lower path.

His blood still flows in your body, your sword is used very well, they all say you have unparalleled talent, this is because your father gave you the same killing sword bones as him. This body will accompany you for the rest of your life, and from now on every time you pick up a sword, you will see his eyes.

Yun Xiangzhuo said, “I won’t.”

Yun Xiangxi chuckled, noncommittal.

“I’m going to ascend,” he said.

Yun Xiangzhuo quietly looked at him.

“The path in the mortal realm has indeed come to an end for me. The Heavenly Dao is flawed, the Dao lineage is broken, to continue, I can only go to the Upper Realm.”

As he said this, the icy aura on his body was flawless, as if he had entered the Supreme Dao. Having brushed away the dust, his cultivation had long been fully restored, returning to that realm that no one could see clearly.

Ascending to the Upper Realm, for many people, is a millennium of arduous cultivation, a life-or-death opportunity, a distant dream, the end of a lifetime of cultivation. But for some people, is it just a step on his path to heaven, a step that can be crossed with a lift of the leg?

“Actually, I was planning to leave six years ago,” Yun Xiangxi looked at him, “But you were born. I thought, I might as well stay another twenty years, wait for you to grow up, and ascend together.”

“I was wrong.” A sigh, almost inaudible.

As the sigh fell, Yun Xiangxi looked towards the night sky.

An ancient, frigid aura suddenly soared from his body.

At that moment, it was as if a towering, heaven-piercing sword had been drawn out, pointing towards the vast Heavenly Dao that governed all things. The magnificent sword intent reported to the heavens above and to the earth below, almost arrogantly proclaiming its existence.

Heaven and earth shook, a muffled thunder rumbled, and it seemed as if an ancient and majestic behemoth was enraged. Dense clouds instantly gathered into a pitch-black vortex that filled the entire sky. A wild wind rose, and lightning that tore through the sky like the veins of the human body instantly erupted!

Yun Xiangzhuo looked up at the sky.

Yun Xiangxi had told him that the realms were decaying, the Heavenly Dao had flaws, the Boundary Breaking Lightning Tribulation had disappeared long ago, and transcending the tribulation to ascend had become an old tale. The path to immortality was broken, and cultivators in this realm who wanted to reach the Upper Realm could only enter through the Heavenly Gate when it opened approximately every ten years, and ascend by passing the test.

What was the test? Only those who walked in knew. Yun Xiangxi said that ascending in this way was not necessarily the righteous path.

And today, Yun Xiangxi did as he said. He used his own strength to make the Heavenly Dao open its eyes, which had perhaps been dormant for a long time, and summoned the long-vanished, most orthodox, and most powerful Boundary Breaking Lightning Tribulation.

In the sky, the wrath of thunder had taken shape, and a dense, ominous black-purple lightning danced like dragons and snakes. The Heavenly Dao of this realm had finally gathered its due majesty and law today, and struck towards the one who Delusion to break through the boundary.

——That was the most terrifying and violent Ninefold Heavenly Lightning in ancient records, each strike capable of annihilating both body and soul. A person who could attract this lightning had to be either a world-destroying demon with heinous sins and endless karma, or an unparalleled genius with earth-shattering cultivation who suppressed all living beings and created his own sect.

Both of these people were considered monstrous anomalies, and the Heavenly Dao would punish kill them without leaving any room for survival.

A mighty gale had risen, and Yun Xiangxi’s white robes fluttered in the wind. He held the Xiangxi Sword and took a step forward.

With a thunderclap, everything was silent, and the first world-destroying lightning bolt crashed down.

Yun Xiangxi raised his sword.

The vast thunder light and sword light annihilated everything.

The wind blew across Yun Xiangzhuo’s cheeks, and the pressure of heaven and earth was unreservedly poured onto the entire Illusion Cloud Cliff. The sea roared and the mountains collapsed, and any living thing here would have its soul scattered, but the place where he stood was calm and peaceful, as if nothing had happened.

Yun Xiangzhuo knew why.

It was because Yun Xiangxi still didn’t want him to die. Yun Xiangxi didn’t care about anything, except himself.

He watched the lightning tribulation, each strike more violent and cruel than the last, and silently counted its number in his heart. The thunder light that illuminated the mountains and rivers again and again lit up and extinguished in his empty pupils.

*Yun Xiangxi, take your sword and live on.*

When the heavenly lightning reached the eighty-first strike, everything ended. In the silence of the creation of the world, light footsteps sounded, and Yun Xiangxi came towards Yun Xiangzhuo with his sword in hand. The Gate to the Upper Realm opened with a bang in the high sky behind him, each step like a drumbeat resounding in Yun Xiangzhuo’s heart.

A sharp whistle came from afar. Something more had appeared beside Yun Xiangxi.

A cluster of extremely brilliant phantoms, in which thousands of sword forms evolved. Yun Xiangzhuo of course knew what this was, it was the Sword Meridian generated by the accumulation of the Illusion Sword Manor’s sword path over hundreds of years, the Immeasurable Emptiness.

The Immeasurable Emptiness accumulated the purest and most refined true meaning of the sword path, and was a naturally born sword dao spirit. When the Illusion Sword Manor was open, all the sword cultivators in the world wanted to come and comprehend it.

“After I leave, it will teach you.”

Yun Xiangxi turned his wrist, and the Sword Meridian shone with a cold light. The thousands of sword shadows within it changed, and he pushed it inch by inch into Yun Xiangzhuo’s heart.

As soon as the Sword Meridian touched his body, a mouthful of blood spurted out of Yun Xiangzhuo’s mouth.

The human body was weak and could not contain the Sword Meridian. But only when the Sword Meridian was integrated into the soul could it exert its greatest effect. Yun Xiangxi’s hand did not pause, and slowly and firmly pushed the Sword Meridian towards Yun Xiangzhuo’s heart.

Yun Xiangzhuo vomited blood again and again, and a heart-wrenching pain came from his chest. He heard the Sword Meridian’s mournful cry, and thousands of sword forms appeared within the Sword Meridian. Thousands of sword edges clashed with Yun Xiangxi, and it seemed to want to resist Yun Xiangxi, to protect him, but it still finally sank into Yun Xiangzhuo’s heart inch by inch.

In the end, most of the Sword Meridian was used up, and the remaining could not be pushed in. The human body had a limit, and if it went in further, Yun Xiangzhuo’s spirit platform would be completely destroyed and he would explode and die.

Still too small.

Yun Xiangxi withdrew his hand and cut off the remaining small half of the Sword Meridian. The brilliant light had already dimmed, and it scattered on the ground.

Yun Xiangzhuo was still standing, not falling down. Yun Xiangxi reached out and slowly wiped the blood from the corners of his lips.

The child, covered in blood and not yet reaching his waist, gasped for breath with difficulty. He looked up at him, his eyes calm and indifferent.

“I’m leaving,” Yun Xiangxi said to him.

In the wind, Yun Xiangzhuo’s hoarse and cold voice sounded, word by word.

“Yun Xiangxi, I will kill you.”

Yun Xiangxi stared deeply at him, and finally, broke into a smile.

“I will wait for you in the Immortal Realm,” Yun Xiangxi said, “Always.”

It was certainly good for someone exactly like himself to walk the same sword path.

Changing the path midway, practicing completely different sword techniques, and finally coming before him was also acceptable.

It just so happened that in this world, Yun Xiangxi had never had either a like-minded companion or a mortal enemy.

“Xiangzhuo, take care.”

Yun Xiangxi ascended.

Such a person, he ascended.

Actually, no one had taught Yun Xiangzhuo about good or evil, right or wrong. All of this was meaningless to Yun Xiangxi. Yun Xiangzhuo had only heard fragments of these words from others or his mother.

They said that at the beginning of man, his nature is good, heaven has its rules, earth has its tracks, good will be rewarded, and evil will be punished.

In fact, that was just the desire in people’s hearts.

There are immortals who live forever, and there are also demons who live forever. The Heavenly Dao has no good, and the Heavenly Dao has no evil. Man is inherently neither good nor evil.

The only things that truly exist are life, death, victory, and defeat.

That day, Ye Zhuo, who was about to turn six years old, looked up at the endless sky, until the Gate to the Upper Realm slowly closed and disappeared into the distant horizon. Inside, the wind and clouds surged, and the colors were strange and bizarre.

*Yun Xiangxi, you must live on.*

*Take your sword path, your emotionless and pure heart with you.*