Chapter 86 – The Cloud-Water Chart Appears

Two voices rang out simultaneously, echoing before Taiyi Hall.

“Impossible! How could you have made it out of that godforsaken place alive?” The two spoke in perfect unison, their faces filled with disbelief.

Before the sword forest, Li Fan stood with his arms crossed, watching the ashen-faced Si Kongyi and Baili Chen with a cold smirk, offering no reply.

He merely placed one foot upon a sword hilt, as if intending to give chase.

A phantom blade pierced through him, and a heart-rending agony followed.

Li Fan nearly lost control of his body and almost fell off.

Falling from the sword hilts wouldn’t kill him—it would merely teleport him back to the outermost edge of the sword forest, forcing him to start over.

Of course, if someone were foolish enough to try crossing above the sword forest…

Then they would get to experience firsthand what it felt like to have ten thousand swords pierce their heart.

This was the trial of the sword forest before Taiyi Hall.

Unlike other areas of Cloud-Water Celestial Palace, this place posed no lethal danger as long as one didn’t court death.

At worst, one would simply experience the sensation of being run through the heart by sword after sword.

In his previous life, quite a few cultivators had gritted their teeth through the excruciating pain and made it through the sword forest into Taiyi Hall.

And yet…

The great hall had been completely empty inside. There was nothing at all!

“Could it be that the treasures inside Taiyi Hall had already been taken by Si Kongyi from the very beginning?”

“Was the fortune hidden within Taiyi Hall the 《The Cloud-Water Chart》 all along?”

Though he could use Insect Binding right now to capture the two of them, there was no guarantee he could force them to reveal how exactly 《The Cloud-Water Chart》 was obtained.

As far as Li Fan knew, in the ancient cultivation world, there existed vicious soul-searching techniques that could forcibly read a cultivator’s memories.

Unfortunately, Li Fan didn’t know any of them yet.

So to be safe, it was better to wait until these two had retrieved 《The Cloud-Water Chart》 before making his move.

Li Fan deliberated silently as Blue Flame, his phantom spirit, flickered to life within his sea of consciousness.

His body temperature gradually dropped. Li Fan felt himself becoming incomparably calm and rational.

Nothing external could disturb his state of mind.

He stepped forward, planting his foot on a sword hilt.

Though he could still feel the pain…

Li Fan was utterly fearless.

He walked several steps forward in quick succession, then stopped and pretended to rest—only so as not to frighten Si Kongyi and his companion too much.

Si Kongyi and Baili Chen were already deeply shaken that Li Fan had survived at all.

Now, seeing him draw closer and closer, their shock gave way to anxiety.

Steeling themselves, they clenched their teeth and charged forward several steps.

Four phantom swords struck them simultaneously, and the pain was far from a simple sum of its parts.

The agony multiplied several times over in an instant, nearly causing them to lose their balance entirely.

Fortunately, in the split second before they would have fallen, they braced against each other and barely managed to steady themselves.

Seeing this, Li Fan also advanced three steps, then put on a show of barely maintaining his footing.

And so it went—Li Fan consistently maintained a fixed distance from the two, keeping their guard low.

Yet he projected an air of determination to catch up, maintaining a constant sense of pressure.

Like prey being chased by hounds, Si Kongyi and Baili Chen pressed forward step by step, drawing ever closer to Taiyi Hall.

At last, they reached the end of the sword forest.

Leaping down from the sword hilts, the two of them collapsed to the ground as though completely drained.

But with Li Fan pressing closer behind them step by step, they couldn’t afford to rest.

In his desperation, Baili Chen pulled a blue token from within his robes and, facing the direction of Taiyi Hall, cried out at the top of his voice:

“Baili Chen, one hundred and sixty-fifth generation direct disciple of Cloud-Water Celestial Palace, requests an audience with Ancestor Taiyi!”

Baili Chen’s voice echoed endlessly.

Li Fan abruptly halted mid-step, his eyes fixed intently ahead.

The imposing Taiyi Hall seemed to come alive, trembling as it slowly rose into the air.

The ground beneath their feet began to shake.

Boom!

Boom!

Four colossal legs, thick as the pillars of heaven, extended from beneath Taiyi Hall and slammed into the ground.

A fearsome monster’s head materialized before Li Fan’s eyes like a phantom descending into the world.

The broken swords embedded in the sword forest trembled ceaselessly.

“ROAR!”

With a bizarre bellow, an enormous turtle finally revealed itself in full.

The great hall of Taiyi sat upon its back.

And as the giant turtle continued to howl, two massive black serpents emerged from within Taiyi Hall.

One slithered forward, intertwining with the head.

The other went backward, its gaping maw of blood-red serving as the turtle’s tail.

If the sheer visual impact of this colossal turtle-snake chimera was already staggering enough…

Then the sight upon the monster’s body was enough to make Li Fan physically ill.

Every inch of the creature’s surface was impaled with broken swords.

They were so densely packed it was impossible to tell just how many blades were embedded in its flesh.

At first glance, the monster appeared to be composed entirely of swords.

And the small sword forest before Taiyi Hall seemed like nothing more than an utterly insignificant fraction that had fallen from its body.

“The Taiyi Ancestor of Cloud-Water Celestial Palace? After all these years, is he still alive? Or has he become something bizarre, like Qin Tang and Insect Daoist?” Li Fan couldn’t be certain.

In his previous life, there had been absolutely no rumors whatsoever about this Taiyi Ancestor.

Li Fan dared not act rashly for the moment, choosing instead to observe from a distance.

Baili Chen, upon beholding his ancestor’s true form, was overcome with emotion.

He dropped to his knees and kowtowed repeatedly.

“Your name is Baili Chen? You are a direct disciple of my Cloud-Water Celestial Palace?”

An ancient voice spoke.

The turtle-snake monster slightly lowered its head, as though trying to get a better look at Baili Chen.

“Reporting to Ancestor Taiyi, this disciple is of the Fuyun lineage,” Baili Chen replied, his voice trembling.

“Fuyun, ah…” The ancient voice seemed to drift into reminiscence.

“Mm, it is indeed the aura of the Fuyun lineage, no mistake.”

“So that boy still has descendants living in this world?” The turtle-snake monster vaguely sensed something was off.

But he was too old.

So old that even simple thought had become a struggle.

The agony of countless broken swords embedded in his body gnawed at him like a vicious curse, constantly disrupting his ability to think.

And so, after a brief moment of fruitless contemplation, he spoke slowly: “Then tell me—why have you awakened me?”

Baili Chen seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Suppressing his excitement, he said hurriedly: “This disciple wishes to ask the ancestor to bestow 《The Cloud-Water Chart》.”

“《The Cloud-Water Chart》? What is that? Let me think…”

After a moment.

“Ah. So it’s that. Nothing particularly remarkable.”

The turtle-snake monster’s tone carried a hint of nostalgia. “Back then, Hanhai once said that this thing could only be given to a disciple of Cloud-Water Celestial Palace.”

“Since you are a descendant of Fuyun…”

At this point, the turtle-snake monster hesitated briefly.

Then it continued slowly: “Then I suppose there’s nothing wrong with giving it to you.”

Wild joy broke across Baili Chen’s face, and he kowtowed without cease. “Thank you, Ancestor! Thank you, Ancestor!”

Just as the turtle-snake monster was about to hand over 《The Cloud-Water Chart》 to Baili Chen—

A voice suddenly rang out.

“Wait!”

Baili Chen and the turtle-snake monster turned toward the source of the voice.

They saw Li Fan striding across the sword hilts at tremendous speed, closing in rapidly.

Phantom blades pierced through his body one after another, but the pain seemed to have no effect on him whatsoever.

Li Fan covered three steps in two strides and swiftly passed through the sword forest, landing gracefully on the other side.

Catching his breath, Li Fan cupped his fists toward the turtle-snake monster. “This disciple, Li Fan, is also a direct disciple of Cloud-Water Celestial Palace. I too wish to ask the ancestor to bestow 《The Cloud-Water Chart》!”

As he spoke, he began circulating the 《Cloud-Water Phantom Dream Art》.