IS Chapter 85

Chapter 85

Dao cultivators can cultivate karma.

Buddhist cultivators can also cultivate karma.

Does Ye Zhuo also understand karma? Li Yuan wondered.

He remembered the library on Misty Green Peak. The library always had a faint, bitter fragrance burning. It was in that fragrance that the man had said a sentence to him.

“I cultivate the void, with no taboos,” he had said.

In the human world, karma is endlessly intertwined. But what about in the void?

——In the void, there is no birth and no death, naturally there is no cause and no effect, in the void, everything is nothing.

Ye Zhuo’s sword is named “No Self.”

This is Buddhist terminology: no self, no form, no sentient beings.

Just like the scene happening before everyone’s eyes now.

Cause and effect, along their own paths, ignited a sky-filled inferno. The sky was filled with crimson red, and this crimson red was also reflected in Tai Qing’s eyes.

It shouldn’t be like this.

All things have a cause, all things have a result.

He could see the cause; he knew where each of Ye Zhuo’s sword strikes came from. He could change the result; he could restrain the man’s sword, preventing each strike from achieving its desired outcome.

It just shouldn’t be like this.

In the intense, decisive, almost bewitching flames, under the grand, dazzling, icy brilliance, Tai Qing heard a sound that did not exist in reality, like the morning bell and evening drum. That sound was more solemn than the sound of his own life-bound magic artifact.

He rang the bell, and karma arose.

That sound extinguished karma.

In the inferno, ashes fluttered, scattering and dissipating along with Tai Qing’s power. Just who in the world was this?

Every time he estimated Ye Zhuo’s strength, it always rose higher and higher, yet it still far exceeded his expectations, Tai Qing gritted his teeth.

——Did the sect forget to divine good or bad fortune for this trip, that he had to encounter such a natural nemesis?

In the flying ashes, the karma he had cultivated throughout his life was meaningless. Tai Qing desperately urged his magic artifacts and waved his spells, struggling to hold on under Ye Zhuo’s sword pressure.

They had already snatched the thing away, why not just escape into the sky, why insist on fighting him to the death in front of everyone?

No, it wasn’t about fighting to the death, it was about wanting him to die!

Did this person want to kill all the Supreme Elders of the Dao Sect, one by one!

Intense despair and terror instantly swept through Tai Qing’s mind.

He remembered the way his junior brothers’ life tablets had extinguished silently, one by one. He remembered those times when he tried to send messages with his divine soul, but they were forever lost without a trace.

Tai Hao and Tai Zi were dead, their cultivation was not enough. Tai Su and Tai Huan were dead, could it be that their cultivation was also not enough?

He remembered that he had thought more than once about what Dao Ye Zhuo had attained at Spirit Mountain, what Dharma he had cultivated on his sword. Where did he ultimately come from, and how old was he really?

And now, finally facing such a sword, Tai Qing inexplicably thought of another person’s sword.

In the far north, there had once been a supremely cold ice vein. That spiritual vein was too cold, no one could use it to cultivate, and the wind and snow raged for ten thousand miles, making it impossible for living beings to approach. Even human Immortals could only barely approach its core area.

At that time, he had been ordered by the main sect to go to the far north to quell the disaster, carrying a peerless immortal artifact. It was in the deepest chamber of the ice vein that he had met that young man in white, as pure as ice and snow.

That man wanted to take the heart of this ice vein to forge a sword for himself.

They had exchanged blows.

Despite being separated by two major realms, the cold energy in that man’s sword still cut into Tai Qing’s heart, lingering for many years. Tai Qing had taken many years to forget that sword and cultivate in peace.

At the end of that fight, that man had taken the heart of the ice vein, while he had taken the ice vein itself.

That man was called Yun Xiangxi, the later Number One Sword Under Heaven. The heart of the ice vein had been forged into Yun Xiangxi’s life-bound sword.

Yun Xiangxi was born for the sword, seeking only the supreme sword Dao his entire life. Thus, his sword shared his name, and was called Xiangxi.

How long had it been since he had thought of this name? Those three words had already been erased.

But under Ye Zhuo’s sword pressure, Tai Qing once again recalled the sensation of being on the verge of death.

Ye Zhuo’s sword was completely different from Yun Xiangxi’s, yet it still made him feel a life-and-death threat. Tai Qing knew that his cultivation success was related to all things in heaven and earth, and he would never recall these things for no reason!

Barely blocking Ye Zhuo’s attack, his pupils suddenly changed, becoming as deep as a vortex. Even more intense karmic power, like a tornado, attacked Ye Zhuo, but this time it was not to attack, but to pry into the person’s past karma since birth.

Ye Zhuo naturally saw through it.

With a smile that was not a smile, he calmly looked back.

Everything he had done in his life could be told to others.

He just didn’t know if Tai Qing had the ability to see it.

Li Yuan and Su Yizhen’s sword duel had already ended. Su Yizhen had naturally been defeated, but the aura on his body had changed. At the perfected stage of the Integration Realm, he seemed to be about to take another step forward.

——But he was blocked by an inexplicable obstacle, clearly only a hair’s breadth away, yet he could never cross it.

“Little Su.” Li Yuan’s gaze followed Ye Zhuo’s figure in the air, and he said to Su Yizhen, “What regret is in your heart?”

“Brother Li Yuan, if one day,” Su Yizhen said, “if one day I had to choose between Palace Master Ye and my sect, what should I do? For whom should my sword be drawn?”

“Why must drawing your sword be for someone?” Li Yuan said.

“The sect raised me and cared for me. If I choose Palace Master Ye, it would be unfilial,” Su Yizhen said. “Palace Master Ye taught me and helped me achieve my potential. If I choose the sect, it would be unjust. If one day, Second Palace Master Ye’s sword points at my sect, what should I do?”

“Brother Li Yuan, my sect and I already owe him something.”

“Why must you choose someone?” Li Yuan said, “If there really is such a day, you are not drawing your sword for someone. You are only drawing your sword for what your own heart desires.”

Little Su was good, but also an unreasonable fellow. Sword cultivators were really difficult.

Su Yizhen looked at Li Yuan.

Every time he talked with Brother Li Yuan, he always felt that the sky was wide and the sea was vast, and his state of mind was guided. If one could truly be unburdened, what would a person be like?

But if one was truly unburdened, would they still be the same person?

“Besides, he is Ye Zhuo.” Looking at the figure in the inferno and ashes, Li Yuan smiled softly.

“He doesn’t need anyone to help him, nor does he need anyone to draw their sword for him. Little Su, do you know what you should do? You will completely absorb the sword vein, cultivate your own stunning sword, and then take this sword to ask him. He will be happy.”

In the sky-filled inferno, looking at the figure covered in brilliance, a trace of longing-like smile appeared in Su Yizhen’s eyes, as if forgetting all the constraints of the human heart, thinking of that scene.

“Yes,” Su Yizhen said, “he will definitely be very happy.”

Although, for that person, the so-called happiness might only be a fleeting moment of ice and snow melting.

But that was enough.

The Sword Sect Second Elder looked suspiciously at his beloved disciple, who hadn’t suffered serious injuries after the fight, and was even watching the battle in the sky side by side with that so-called “Brother Li Yuan,” even occasionally conversing.

Even his realm had a faint tendency to break through.

The Second Elder really didn’t understand. Was this disciple of his, who possessed extraordinary talent, going to be snatched away, suffering the same fate as that Inheritance Pearl? He couldn’t help but grip his sword defensively.

In the sky, Tai Qing had already followed the karmic lines between himself and Ye Zhuo, deeply looking into Ye Zhuo.

Once he understood the cause and effect, many things could be solved.

Even if he couldn’t understand it today, he could still transmit the origins and context to the main sect’s Dao-Protecting True Man.

Besides, he already had a guess.

He looked behind Ye Zhuo, but only saw a boundless, dark void.

In the deepest part of that void, in the abyss-like depths, it seemed to be all flames burning. Other than that, there was nothing.

He saw nothing at all.

Tai Qing almost burned his life to look again——

He saw a series of scenes related to himself blossoming like fireworks.

“Senior Brother, you also saw his sword-drawing stance just now!” A familiar voice, it was Junior Brother Tai Huan.

Appearing with that voice was the scene of that man holding the sword handle pointing to the sky, the sword tip pointing to the ground, and drawing the long sword vertically.

Under a cold, curved moon, he looked like a demon coming to claim lives.

“Ye Zhuo!” He also heard Junior Brother Tai Su’s voice: “The entire Upper Purity Sect has never touched a single finger of the Illusion Sword Manor! Not a single Immortal Daoist has attacked the Illusion Sword Manor!”

Responding to him were the man’s indifferent eyes upon hearing this.

These words were not spoken to Ye Zhuo.

It was the two junior brothers who knew that the overall situation was lost, and that he would one day pry into Ye Zhuo’s karma, so across the boundary of life and death, they were transmitting information to him!

Sure enough, so it was, so it was!

“Ye Zhuo,” Tai Qing uttered, “you are indeed a remnant of the Illusion Sword Manor.”

Who present was not a person with keen ears and eyes? Tai Qing did not make any attempt to hide his words, who could not hear those few words?

The younger disciples were all bewildered, never having heard of this name.

The elders, however, exchanged glances without saying a word.

So that’s how it was, Su Yizhen lowered his eyes.

The Red Dust Sword Immortal stared blankly at Ye Zhuo. For a long time, he silently looked at his own sword. Half of the Floating Life Sword was like snow, and half was clear.

“You are a descendant of Yun Xiangxi, aren’t you?” Tai Qing said, “Could it be that you are——”

Tai Qing looked at Ye Zhuo’s almost perfect face. At that moment, he tried his best to recall Yun Xiangxi’s appearance, but could only remember a patch of cold, pale white.

Twenty years had passed, the heavenly secrets were obscured, and even, no one in the world could remember Yun Xiangxi’s appearance.

Tai Qing only remembered that in Yun Xiangxi’s era, in that era when the world lost its brilliance under the Xiangxi sword, when mentioning Yun Xiangxi’s appearance, everyone said that he was a person of exquisite beauty, like jade piled up and pines aligned.

Tai Qing couldn’t remember anything more.

He remembered that Yun Xiangxi might have had a Dao companion.

Because when he heard this news back then, he had taken it as a joke.

He knew that Yun Xiangxi’s Dao didn’t need a second person as a friend, and Yun Xiangxi’s heart wouldn’t be moved by anyone.

“That Yun Xiangxi who cultivates the Path of Emotionlessness?” he had said at the time, “Even if I have ten Dao companions, he won’t form a Dao partnership with anyone.”

After his junior sister left, he had never looked at anyone else, except for teaching his junior brothers. Naturally, he wouldn’t have ten Dao companions.

But if Yun Xiangxi really had a Dao companion, would there be any bloodline?

How laughable.

How could Yun Xiangxi have a bloodline, how could Yun Xiangxi leave behind a living bloodline?

He had ascended.

He had ascended, after all.

But in any case, he was now completely certain that this person was a remnant of the Illusion Sword Manor.

If his age was truly as the Immortal Dao recognized, only twenty-five or twenty-six, then when the Illusion Sword Manor was destroyed, he would have been no more than an unformed child, just like Shen Xingge of the Hongmeng Sect.

The children of the Immortal sects knew things at that age, but how much affection could they have for the sect, and how much could they hate? In the past, the Micro-Snow Palace and the Upper Purity Mountain had been at peace.

Perhaps they had done too much, one thing after another, forcing the person to rebel.

“I don’t know who you are. But you are related to the Illusion Sword Manor. Today, with Immortal Dao friends present, there is one thing I must explain.” Tai Qing put away all the surging emotions, looked directly at Ye Zhuo, his aura restrained and upright, with the bearing of the Lord of the Dao Sect.

“Whether these words are true or false, you will be able to distinguish them yourselves after I speak.”

As Tai Qing spoke, Daoist rhymes surrounded him: “Heavenly Dao is above, Human Dao is above, all the inner demons and karma in my heart are above. Today, Tai Qing of the Upper Purity Dao Sect makes a grand Dao vow, a heart-demon vow, a karma vow: The Upper Purity Mountain, from top to bottom, has not killed anyone from the Illusion Sword Manor, nor has it made any comments or suppressed the Illusion Sword Manor in any way. These words are true; if they are not true, may my inner demons run rampant, and may I be struck by lightning and die.”

The aura surged, the oath was made, and these words were indeed true.

Under the night sky, no one spoke.

In fact, silence was the norm in the Immortal Dao.

Present here were the Hongmeng Sect, the Taiyue Sect, the Zhaoyan Temple, and Mount Yunxia, all first-class sects that had lasted for hundreds of years. The master retired and was replaced by a disciple, the disciple passed away and was replaced by the disciple’s disciple.

When the Illusion Sword Manor was destroyed, no one spoke.

When the Dao Sect wanted the Four Seas Survey Map, no one spoke.

When the gate to the ghost realm opened at the boundary between humans and ghosts, it seemed that no one really asked what they were doing on this trip.

Therefore, today, when Immortal Tai Qing made a solemn vow to prove his innocence, those people were also silent.

No one objected, saying: Everything you said is false.

But no one echoed, saying: I believe you really didn’t do it.

Only Yin Ye blinked, a very happy, bright smile appearing on his beautiful and soulless face.

Su Yizhen silently experienced the dull pain in his heart vein.

What was the difference? he asked himself.

Was it important whether the Upper Purity Mountain’s hands were stained with blood? That sword vein was already buried in his heart.

Tai Qing finished speaking, looking at Ye Zhuo, waiting for his response. Everyone else was also looking at Ye Zhuo, waiting for him to open his mouth and say something.

At least, don’t be like them, unable to say anything, unable to speak.

Ye Zhuo’s eyes were still calm.

Karma in the mortal world rose and fell like the tides, burning to ashes, only to grow anew.

Who he was, and what relationship he had with the Illusion Sword Manor, these things even he didn’t care about. But the people with guilty consciences had to tell him again and again, reminding him again and again.

It seemed that they all thought that he had to have a reason to kill, and if that reason disappeared, he would stop killing.

He didn’t believe that the first sword in the world was forged to be placed there for people to admire.

In this critical moment of silence, Ye Zhuo spoke.

“What about the Viewing Fire Cave?” he said.

In the deathly suppressed atmosphere, a voice as clear as ice and jade lightly spoke these words, catching everyone by surprise.

Even Tai Qing didn’t react for a moment to what he was saying.

Ye Zhuo looked at him, the corners of his lips slightly upturned, a nearly malicious smile.

“I said, what about the Viewing Fire Cave?” he said, word by word.

“Can you also make a grand Dao vow, a heart-demon vow, a karma vow?”