An unwilling roar and stubborn fury surged from the resonance of his chest, erupting from his throat...
Xu Xian exerted every ounce of his strength,
Propping himself up from the ground.
His fingers sank deep into the stone.
But before he could even crawl up, he was slammed back down instantly by the thunderous might.
"Agh!"
Once, and then again—rising, being slammed down, rising, and being slammed down again...
Over and over,
Again and again,
The thunderous might surged, its intensity steadily increasing.
His hair was a mess...
His clothes were shredded...
His skin was cracked...
His bones were shattered...
Before his blood could even flow out, it was vaporized by the lightning qi...
The sword embryo awakened,
Feeding back into his body.
The acquired sword body pushed its potential to the limit, burning spirit essence to repair his physical form. His powerful vitality mended broken bones and split skin time and time again...
Xu Xian employed every method at his disposal.
Even Grandpa Tortoise was thrown out.
The stone stele shattered.
The iron chains snapped.
Grandpa Tortoise wept,
"Crap! What the hell are you doing?"
Grandpa Tortoise's physical body was obliterated almost instantly by the heavenly punishment.
Only a remnant soul remained, coexisting with the Sovereign.
The three-thousand-mile lightning curtain fell in its entirety. Mountains and rivers were destroyed, and the mortal world fell into chaos. The youth rose and fell repeatedly until, at a certain moment, he could no longer stand.
His body was smashed deep into the cold stone.
His face was contorted,
And blood seeped from his seven orifices.
The little book spirit retreated back into the sea of consciousness...
Xu Xian was defeated.
He had lost to the tribulation of heavenly punishment.
There was no more movement from him!
He was unwilling,
He was stubborn,
His eyes were blood-red, yet he still refused to compromise.
The Twilight Emperor's mockery continued to echo through his sea of consciousness, more piercing than the roaring thunder at his ears.
At the very, very end,
That call of "Sword, come!" rose again,
And that sword intent manifested once more.
It struck toward the sky above the abyss,
But the scene of defying fate and changing destiny did not repeat as it had the previous two times.
That world-shaking strike was extinguished in a single breath before this world-destroying heavenly punishment.
Rumble!
Rumble!!
Rumble rumble!!
...
The three-thousand-mile lightning curtain poured down, raging for a full half-hour.
When the lightning finally dissipated and the clear sky reappeared, the entire Northern Borders was shrouded in smoke, wind, and snow.
The water vapor created by the lightning rose and met the cold currents, gathering into clouds in the high heavens, which then condensed into rain.
It fell.
Splash!
Splash!
A heavy rain began without warning, covering thousands of miles. It was as if a hole had been torn in the sky itself.
The waters of the River of Heaven poured back into the mortal world.
The rain washed away the dust and dispersed the smoke.
The wind stopped,
The rain grew heavy,
And amidst the haze, the river gorges and ravines were filled, transforming into a vast ocean.
At the very center where the lightning tribulation had landed, that abyss was first covered by the collapsing crust of the earth and then filled by the mountain floods turned into rain...
Outside the curtain of rain,
The saints were slow to recover their senses; none of them moved a step.
The lightning tribulation had fully descended.
There was no immortal aura.
Was Xu Xian dead?
It was unclear,
But they thought that in all the world, no one should be able to emerge unscathed from such a heavenly punishment.
Forget a human,
Even a god would have died.
They remained silent, feeling neither joy nor sorrow. Despair quietly took root and gradually overflowed.
If...
Becoming an immortal,
Required this,
Then this immortality was not worth achieving.
Within the rain,
Jiang Wanyin, Lei Yunche, Yao Xiqiao, Lin Fengmian, and Ye Xianyu couldn't care about anything else. Once the lightning tribulation ended, they rushed toward the center immediately.
They appeared one after another,
Suspending themselves in the rain as they stared at the massive abyss being slowly filled by rain and snowmelt.
Their expressions were exceptionally grim.
Worry and confusion were tangled together.
Simply because,
They could no longer sense their little junior martial brother's aura.
Was he really dead?
They couldn't accept it.
They were equally at a loss.
Jiang Wanyin shifted forward, her Water Sword Intent surging. With the support of her great power, the curtain of rain over the thousand-mile abyss hung upside down, and the waters flowed backward.
The abyss reappeared.
Ten feet,
A hundred feet,
Ten miles,
A hundred miles...
The girl's eyes flashed with a sharp light, and a hint of ferocity appeared on her face.
The five of them held their breath and focused.
Silently praying.
Waiting...
The rain stopped,
The sky cleared,
And the water in the deep pit was drained.
The sky brightened and then dimmed again,
As the setting sun lingered, dyeing the horizon red. It cast its light over the Northern Borders, but the sight of the golden mountain under the sun could no longer be seen.
Across thousands of miles of land, the protruding peaks were gone, and the lowlands and hills had accumulated into marshes.
The Northern Borders.
Under a world-destroying lightning tribulation, it had not been silenced; instead, it had welcomed a new life.
It had been transformed into a land of marshes.
The wind was no longer cold.
The ground was no longer frozen.
Everything seemed like a good omen.
However,
The members of the Wendao Sword Sect could not find a shred of happiness.
Their hearts remained suspended in mid-air.
They attempted,
To find the figure of their little junior martial brother among the ruins.
But as time passed,
Their efforts yielded no results.
Their worry persisted, yet they had no time for grief.
Jiang Wanyin ordered the four to leave and take positions in the four directions to continue blockading the far north.
Whether it was defeat or victory,
This matter was of grave importance.
They could not let the outside world know, let alone allow any word to leak out.
Otherwise,
Fanzhou,
Would very likely repeat the setbacks of five hundred years ago.
For the Wendao Sword Sect,
A new crisis would arise.
Jiang Wanyin stood guard alone, waiting...
She knew,
Xu Xian wasn't dead; he had to be alive.
Because,
The lamp far away on the Immortal Pavilion of the Wendao Sword Sect was still lit.
Even if,
The flame had dimmed a little.
At the very least, it had not gone out.
The experts of various races hiding outside the far north remained still, their hearts filled with differing thoughts.
Speculation,
Deduction,
These were played out repeatedly.
Jin Yu asked Jin Qing, "Did he succeed?"
Jin Qing shook her head. "I don't know."
Jin Yu asked again, "He's dead, right?"
Jin Qing still shook her head. "He's not dead."
"How do you know?" Jin Yu continued to press.
Jin Qing gave her a faint look and said cryptically, "Because I haven't seen the immortal swords return..."
Jin Yu suddenly understood.
Xu Xian had immortal swords on him—more than one. If he died, the immortal swords would surely return to the sect.
Without the return of the immortal swords,
It meant he wasn't dead yet.
Naturally, Jin Qing wasn't the only one who could think of this. Therefore, even though the lightning tribulation had dissipated for some time, not a single one of them had crossed the boundary.
They were afraid of inviting trouble and being part of a post-event reckoning.
However,
If you were to say Xu Xian truly became an immortal,
They didn't believe that either.
And so,
They were also waiting. They wanted to see it with their own eyes and confirm it personally before they could decide what to do in the future...
Xu Xian's life or death, and whether he became an immortal or not,
Were closely linked to the entire world.
The twilight faded,
And the galaxy filled the sky.
The night in the far north had never been as clear and transparent as tonight, with ten thousand miles of stars.
In the silence, Jiang Wanyin, who hadn't moved all day, felt her ears twitch slightly.
She then furrowed her brows.
Deep within the abyss, amidst the wasteland, a series of bubbles rose from a shallow puddle...
Gurgle...
Gurgle gurgle...
Jiang Wanyin's heart hung in her throat again, her eyes fixed intently on the water's surface.
Suddenly, a mud-covered palm reached out, sending ripples across the water. Then, a figure crawled out from within.
He emerged from the sludge,
Like a sprout in spring pushing through the frozen earth, growing unyieldingly.
He crawled out,
He stood up,
He was covered in mud and in a state of utter wretchedness, yet his hands were still tightly clutching two iron chains.
On the other end of the chains, two clumps of black mist were imprisoned.
One large,
One small.
Jiang Wanyin recognized the person. She was first stunned, then dazed, her suspended heart falling and then rising again.
She took a step and arrived before him.
Her eyes were filled with heartache, her voice weak and hesitant. "Little Eleven, you..."
Xu Xian bared his teeth, revealing blood-stained teeth as he gave a forced smile. "I won't die."
Jiang Wanyin's throat bobbed, her eyes flickering. She had a thousand words but didn't know where to start. In the end, she only whispered softly:
"It's enough that you're alive..."
Xu Xian gave a bitter smile and tilted his head slightly. Seeing the brilliant galaxy above, he said in a raspy voice:
"Yeah. As long as I'm alive... there's still a chance."
Jiang Wanyin comforted him, "Don't think too much. Let's return to the sect first. Things will get better."
Xu Xian didn't refuse and nodded with a smile:
"Okay!"
Rate on N.U.
