IS Chapter 168

The heavens and the earth were eerily silent.

Everyone seemed to hear that calm voice.

“Yun Xiangxi,” he said.

“Get out here.”

The sound of swords rang out, and the dazzling cloud and rosy sky were torn apart by a long, east-west crack!

A silent thunderclap boomed above everyone’s heads, and even the ground trembled violently. The dreamlike clouds and rosy sky shattered, and everyone saw the sky overhead—on both sides of that abyss, the sky was so riddled with holes and so fragmented that it seemed it might collapse at any moment.

This scene was visible throughout the world. The immortal sects of the four seas could see it. In the outskirts of Yongjing, the emperor, still following the ritual of offering sacrifices to heaven, walked step by step toward the center of the high platform, his eyes fixed ahead, as if he hadn’t seen the unfathomable chaos churning above.

Within the Upper Purity Mountain, there was a deathly silence.

The venerable elders of the Xian Dao were preparing to ascend on clouds, but now they stared in astonishment as the grand heavenly gate was cleaved in two, and the descending celestial path was frozen in mid-air.

The Dao Ancestor of the main sect was enraged. A huge dharma form rose into the clouds and looked toward the direction of the sword light—so it was the southwest! So it was the Green Mountains! With such heaven-defying abilities, why condescend to remain in this tiny mortal realm?

This sword had not only severed the barrier between the immortal and mortal realms but also the very rules of the Great Dao between the upper and lower realms. The mortal realm would tremble, and so would the immortal realm. Perhaps—perhaps all the mortal lower realms connected to this immortal realm would, at this moment, witness this shocking flaw in the Great Dao!

Everything was in chaos. Everything would fall apart. The Dao Ancestor looked around but had no means to mend it. The beings from the upper realm would surely intervene. When that happened, the fate of the mortal realm was unpredictable!

Everything that was once solid collapsed. In the next instant, the entire realm was affected by the heavenly rift. The entire territory of the human realm curled upward, swept away by an invisible torrent, flowing toward that rift.

The one who had unleashed this sword stood calmly atop the Green Mountains. He was directly beneath the heavenly rift, and at that moment, everyone seemed to see him, that aloof and radiant figure in red robes standing with his sword, immovable as a mountain.

He was called Ye Zhuo, the Number One Sword Under Heaven. Everyone knew it.

Everyone also heard that name.

Yun Xiangxi. A name that, twenty years ago, had also resonated throughout the Xian Dao and the mortal realm.

Ye Zhuo said, “Let Yun Xiangxi get out here.”

The people of the mortal realm heard it. Did the immortals of the immortal realm also hear it?

—Beyond that endless heavenly rift, shadowy figures began to appear. They were enormous, ethereal forms. The huge shadows looked down, and people could see the magnificent colors on their bodies, the ethereal aura of immortals. These were the countless celestial gods of the upper realm. A sword from the lower realm had shattered their realm, so naturally, they looked down, toward the source of this commotion.

A profound pressure descended. Among those celestial gods, a huge dharma form raised its right hand, and at that moment, the very lifeblood of the mortal realm seemed to be strangled.

A massive palm descended, as if to crush the entire mortal realm.

At the same instant, in the eastern heavens of the mortal realm, wind and clouds surged. Amid the cosmic wind and thunder, a massive golden dragon dharma form suddenly appeared. It abruptly raised its huge dragon head in the sea of clouds, and after a primeval dragon’s roar that echoed through the ages, a huge, resplendent golden dragon eye calmly gazed at that heavenly rift. It was difficult to describe the pressure and majesty of that moment. It calmly met the gaze of the immortals behind the rift.

The silent confrontation was like a form of communication. The immortals quietly stared at it, and after a long while, slowly withdrew their hand and retreated to their original positions to observe. The golden dragon also seemed to have received a satisfactory result, disappearing into the boundless sea of clouds, but the golden light and scales still occasionally surfaced after the dark and dreary atmosphere.

Before one phenomenon had ended, another emerged. “It’s truly ‘eight immortals crossing the sea, each displaying their unique abilities.’ What do you say, little brat?” Feng Jiang said calmly, holding the water jar in front of the medicine hut.

Within the Upper Purity Mountain, the Dao Ancestor’s face changed several times. First, the Hidden Abyss Black Dragon, then the golden dragon. When had the mortal realm become so powerful? He could already sense the stern questioning from the Ninth Heaven.

And Li Yuan still stood calmly on the water platform in the cold pool.

In truth, he had been feeling a vague connection these days. Was it his elder brother? Li Yuan withdrew his gaze from the golden dragon dharma form, still looking at the figure in red robes.

Cultivation level aside, the matter of succession was something for the future, but when out in the world, he was the Hidden Abyss Black Dragon clan master, and his elder brother was the golden dragon crown prince. The attitude of either of them represented the stance of the entire dragon realm.

The matter between Ye Zhuo and Yun Xiangxi would end between Ye Zhuo and Yun Xiangxi. No one else, nothing else, not even any other realm, should interfere in the slightest. He and his elder brother were here, from beginning to end.

Around the rift, more lofty celestial gods slowly revealed themselves. Their faces were unclear, but one could sense their magnificent majesty. Looking up, it was like an infinitely deep, brilliantly illuminated cave of ten thousand Buddhas. They had all been alarmed by this sword strike.

—Then, would Yun Xiangxi come? Did the celestial gods of the upper realm know this name? He should have ascended to the upper realm only twenty years ago.

The Red Dust Sword Immortal gazed at the sky, recalling the era that once belonged to Yun Xiangxi. He had once admired him, once followed him. All the sword cultivators of the world had been like that. Then everything had come to an abrupt end, and all news of that person had ceased in the immortal realm.

The people of the Upper Purity Mountain also thought of that name in unison. Old matters from the past, thought to be long over, were suddenly stirring up monstrous waves at this moment.

Everyone was wondering.

The celestial gods in the sky seemed to be interacting and conversing. Were they also wondering? Were they also discussing that name?

Ye Zhuo was not thinking about anything.

He felt the pressure of the Heavenly Dao coming toward him.

When rules that had remained unchanged for ten thousand years were suddenly torn open, something would naturally be enraged.

The Heavenly Dao of the mortal realm, the Heavenly Dao of the immortal realm, and the Great Dao of the three thousand worlds—he saw them all. They wanted to restore their order, to mend this cleaved heavenly rift.

Before this, these things had never so plainly revealed their existence. The cracks that petty, scheming people had spent day and night creating had not awakened them, but this sword had summoned them all. So that was all it was.

Ye Zhuo faced them directly, his fingers pressed on the sword hilt, with no intention of retreating. The pressure of the heavenly condemnation was indeed profound. He felt a slight tightness in his chest, as if he wanted to spit out a mouthful of blood, but before he could move, strands of pale golden merit light swirled around him, some from the glass beads on his wrist, some from the Northern Border, and some from other scattered places. He heard the clear cry of the black bird, seemed to smell the fragrance of the Jianmu tree, and heard the rustling sound of drawing symbols on paper. He held his sword still, feeling a sense of clarity and tranquility in his heart.

But the rift he had cleaved was mending. Ye Zhuo calmly watched it, his heart without any waves.

When the rift had healed halfway, the power of the Dao was evenly matched with the power of the sword. Further down, it would heal itself with overwhelming force and then free itself to punish this ignorant and arrogant person who dared to provoke the laws of the Great Dao.

Ye Zhuo simply watched it quietly.

Strike another sword? He wouldn’t. He simply listened to the soft hum of his Life-Bound Sword, feeling everything dissipate in the autumn wind and mountain mist.

Until the healing process was more than halfway complete, and the cleaved sky, like an opening eye, was about to close abruptly.

Another sword light suddenly blazed on the opposite shore of that endless chaos.

On the opposite shore of the immortal realm, a shocking lightning bolt as cold as the ages erupted, accompanied by a whistling sword cry. A long sword, ice-white all over, was nailed between the rift between the two realms like a sharp arrow.

The wildly writhing heavenly rift seemed to be frozen instantly.

In the next moment, the entire sky, and everything in it, shattered into snowflakes and scattered.

Heaven and earth, black and yellow, universe and prehistoric times, there had never been such a heavenly rift, nor had there ever been such a snow.

Ye Zhuo smiled slightly. A kind of peace that came from a sense of things being just as they should be, of everything being settled.

Above the mortal realm, there was now only a void of chaotic mist. The boundary was gone, and the rules had all dissipated. Within the mist, all the celestial gods looked down.

Then, they fell silent, and with a gentle sweep of their immortal sleeves, they slowly made way for a path. In the space they had cleared, sword light suddenly poured down, unfolding layer upon layer.

—Laying out a long staircase from the immortal realm to the mortal realm.

At the end of the long staircase, a huge, snow-white dharma form, like those countless celestial gods, slowly walked toward the mortal realm. The closer he got, the more the ethereal, illusory aspects dissipated, and people saw his true face. He had no three heads and six arms, no bronze tendons and iron bones. He was a white-robed swordsman who looked to be in his early twenties, completely cold, standing there like an unmelting glacier.

He raised his hand, and the ice-white long sword flew back into his hand. This sword was indeed suitable for him.

Ye Zhuo watched quietly until he came before him.

Yun Xiangxi’s face had never changed, just like the look in his eyes when he looked at Yun Xiangzhuo, it had never changed.

“Xiangzhuo,” he said, “It’s been a long time.”