Chapter 6 – Watching Immortals Battle from the Mountaintop

The Endless Ruins Abyss lay at the easternmost reaches of the Great Xuan Kingdom—bottomless, perpetually shrouded in dense fog. Anyone who accidentally slipped and fell would surely be reduced to nothing, not even bones remaining.

No one knew what lay beneath the Ruins Abyss. A place where even birds dared not venture, it had been a forbidden zone for humanity for countless years.

Yet through his previous simulation, Li Fan had learned that the dense fog above the Ruins Abyss dispersed once every fifteen years. Today, he had come to the Ruins Abyss to witness it with his own eyes.

After all, if his guess was correct, the two cultivators Daoxuanzi and Kou Hong had very likely arrived in this immortal-barren land through the Ruins Abyss.

Li Fan stood in silence, gazing at the awe-inspiring endless abyss not far away, waiting patiently.

After an indeterminate amount of time, the thick white fog emanating its ancient aura finally began to change.

“Wuuu…”

What sounded like the low howl of some primordial beast seemed to drift up faintly from below. Only as the sound gradually grew louder did everyone realize it was actually the sound of wind.

The dense white fog churned and rippled in layers.

Then the wind grew stronger and stronger, forcing massive amounts of white fog to surge upward from the Ruins Abyss like an inverted waterfall, shooting straight toward the heavens.

The gale persisted for nearly half a shichen before the heavy fog finally dispersed.

His expression grave, Li Fan took out a telescope and peered toward the bottom of the Ruins Abyss.

At first, the bottom of the abyss was pitch black, impossible to make anything out.

Gradually, tiny points of light appeared, scattered like stars.

After a long while, brilliant light erupted from the depths of the Ruins Abyss, and a mirage-like inverted panorama filled Li Fan’s vision.

According to intelligence, the visions that appeared at the bottom of the Ruins Abyss differed for each observer.

And the scene before Li Fan’s eyes shook him to his core.

A ruined sect gate, collapsed buildings everywhere. The ground and walls, covered in cracks, bore the marks of sword strikes and spell impacts.

Several areas appeared to have been stained with blood, exhibiting an eerie dark crimson hue.

Scattered corpses and weapons strewn across the ground seemed to silently bear witness to a catastrophe from years past.

Li Fan was deeply shaken. Shifting his view, he spotted four large characters carved into the smooth cliff face of a nearby precipice.

“The Immortal Dao Is Dead!”

All four characters were a blackish red, as though written in blood.

Even separated by an unknowable distance, upon seeing those four characters, Li Fan could feel the indescribable terror and despair contained within them.

“The Immortal Dao is dead… What exactly happened here? And what on earth happened to the entire cultivation world?” Li Fan was lost in thought, silent for a long time.

…

The fog had only cleared for half a day before it began gathering once more. Li Fan returned to Xuanjing.

Afterward, time flowed onward, and soon the anchored fiftieth year arrived.

On this day—Li Fan’s seventieth birthday—thousands of soldiers in Xuanjing stood at the ready.

“Daoxuanzi! Don’t push me too far!”

Kou Hong spun around with a furious roar, hovering to a stop above the skies of Xuanjing.

Yet before Daoxuanzi could even respond, a chorus of voices rose from below, echoing throughout the city.

“Young Kou Hong, we act on the orders of Immortal Master Daoxuanzi and have been awaiting you here for quite some time!”

Accompanying those voices was an overwhelming barrage of bullets.

Caught completely off guard, Kou Hong took the full brunt of the assault.

“How is this possible? Did Daoxuanzi know all along I would flee here? Since when did he become so cunning?!” Kou Hong was both shocked and enraged.

Then, to his horror, Kou Hong discovered that his spiritual energy was being rapidly depleted while he fended off these weapons. A sweep of his divine sense, and he immediately understood.

“Mortal Taint?! Daoxuanzi, how utterly despicable!” Kou Hong stared with disbelief at Daoxuanzi, who had just arrived on the scene, as though seeing this century-old friend for the very first time.

Daoxuanzi, meanwhile, was completely bewildered.

“What is going on with these mortals? Why are they attacking Kou Hong under my banner? And how do they even have Mortal Taint?” The situation was so sudden that Daoxuanzi’s mind went blank.

But seeing Kou Hong nearby, already consumed by extreme fury, Daoxuanzi snapped back to his senses with a shudder.

“Something is very wrong here! Kou Hong, these mortals were not sent by me!” Daoxuanzi hastily explained.

“Oh? You have the nerve to do it but not to own it?” Kou Hong laughed in his fury. “Or are you afraid that once word gets out about using Mortal Taint, every cultivator in the world will hunt you down? Or perhaps you’re more worried about your precious century-old reputation being destroyed in an instant?”

Daoxuanzi knew his sworn brother’s temperament well. He had already lost all reason, and nothing said now would reach him.

Daoxuanzi had a nagging sense that he had fallen into some kind of trap.

The eerie aura of this place only heightened his growing sense of danger.

Clashing with Kou Hong now was not a wise move.

So he patiently tried explaining once more: “In all our hundred years of friendship, when have you ever known me to lie? This place truly isn’t—”

But before he could finish, an aged voice suddenly rang out from every direction, cutting him off mid-sentence.

“How can Immortal Master Daoxuanzi turn his back on us like this? Was it not agreed that if we helped you slay this Kou Hong here and seize his Core Formation technique, you would lead my people out of this immortal-barren land?” The voice carried a note of grievance, tinged with resentment.

“Core Formation technique?!” Both Kou Hong and Daoxuanzi’s expressions changed simultaneously at those words.

“Still claiming it wasn’t you! Besides you and me, who else in this world could possibly know about this?!” Kou Hong’s hair and beard stood on end—he had reached the absolute peak of his rage.

“This person actually knows about the Core Formation technique…” Daoxuanzi’s heart sank completely.

The voice from below continued its relentless monologue: “You should know, to obtain that Mortal Taint you spoke of, we provoked the wrath of the masses. Public outrage is boiling over as we speak. If the Immortal Master does not honor his word and take us away, it won’t be long before my entire clan is wiped out with nowhere to be buried!”

Slandered and framed, Daoxuanzi’s mind was in utter turmoil. He bellowed: “Shameless wretch, shut your mouth!”

He flew toward the source of the voice, seeking to find the mastermind behind it all, but found only a strange rectangular object. The voice was emanating from within. And similar devices were scattered throughout the entire city of Xuanjing—there was no telling how many more there were.

“So cautious…” Daoxuanzi felt utterly helpless.

“Is the Immortal Master already resorting to silencing witnesses?” The somewhat mocking voice continued from inside.

Daoxuanzi ground his teeth so hard they creaked, then crushed the device to powder in his grip.

But in Kou Hong’s eyes, it looked exactly as if Daoxuanzi, having been exposed, was lashing out in shame to silence anyone who could testify against him.

Kou Hong let out a long, heaven-shaking howl: “Daoxuanzi! We have known each other for a hundred years, yet it seems I misjudged you all along! You want the Core Formation technique? Then why resort to such underhanded schemes? I’m done running. Come and take it if you can!”

“Dao Art: Flame Dragon’s Fury!”

A raging fire dragon coiled around Kou Hong, unleashing a thunderous roar that shook the heavens.

The fire dragon glared ahead, then spewed forth a crimson stream of flame that shot straight toward Daoxuanzi.

Daoxuanzi let out a helpless sigh. With a soft incantation, a flying sword materialized behind him out of thin air, transforming into a streak of white light that surged forward to meet the crimson blaze.