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Chapter 67: The Sect Master of Tianshu!

Thousands of years later, the cultivators who had witnessed this battle for supremacy would still remember this very scene.

The foremost sword cultivator of the younger generation across the Nine Thousand Prefectures had returned, his blade cutting down Tianshu!

Tianshu's host of stars had blazed bright, and still a Tribulation Crossing cultivator had descended upon the world!

The Demon Emperor had awakened, ascending to Tribulation Crossing in a single step!

It was, without question, one of the most heavily inked pages in ten thousand years of the cultivation world's history. In the days to come, every record and chronicle across the Nine Thousand Prefectures would set down this day—and, just the same, would set down the fate of Tianshu Sect.

In this moment, the entire cultivation world, gazing from afar at the battlefield that was Tianshu, found itself recalling a truth it had deliberately tried to forget for five thousand years—

Once the Demon Emperor emerged, no one at the same cultivation realm could ever contend with him!

Through the quiet, endless night, the handsome man in dark gold robes let his black hair stream free and wild, a cold, radiant full moon at his back, his tall, upright figure rising like a great moon hung in the sky, its light pouring across ten thousand li.

The stars themselves hid away, the sun's brilliance nowhere to be seen. Across the vast heavens and earth, only the Demon Emperor reigned supreme!

Tianshu Sect's most prized possession, the Big Dipper Star-Plucking Array, it could not even hold for the time it takes to brew a cup of tea before it shattered outright!

The forty-nine mighty cultivators of Tianshu turned into blood-red shooting stars, scattering down across the land of the Nine Thousand Prefectures!

His crimson demonic eyes, like ice eternal from time immemorial, swept down over Tianshu. Cang Shun reached out his hand once more, and Mo Chen's body, though a thousand meters away, fell straight into his palm! The quasi-immortal who had just borrowed the power of the great array to leap to Tribulation Crossing now wore a face stricken with terror, seized by the throat with a single hand of the Demon Emperor, hung dangling ten thousand zhang above the earth!

Whether it was Tianshu Sect itself or the greater part of the Nine Thousand Prefectures' cultivators who had witnessed this scene, every one of them went pale with terror, not daring to so much as breathe; between heaven and earth, it seemed nothing remained but deathly silence and the lingering scent of blood that had yet to disperse!

——This was the Demon Emperor's might at its very peak, a single fit of rage enough to spill blood across a thousand li. Even a mighty cultivator who had once stood at the very summit of the cultivation world could do nothing before him but be ground to dust!

"...Why... why has your cultivation... recovered so quickly..."

Mo Chen's entire body shook violently, his frozen pupils reflecting those bone-chilling crimson demonic eyes; his cultivation, fallen back to mid Mahayana, was pinned utterly beneath the Demon Emperor's suppression, unable to summon forth so much as a single thread of power.

Below Tribulation Crossing, all were mere ants! A false Tribulation Crossing propped up by the Big Dipper Star-Plucking Array could not withstand a single blow before a true Tribulation Crossing cultivator!

The corner of Cang Shun's mouth curled upward, "Because Benzun's dao companion possesses talent beyond compare, and you worthless lot are nothing before him but useless sacks of flesh, having wasted several thousand, even tens of thousands of years of age for nothing."

Back when he had sacrificed himself at the Demon Abyss, he had already reached great perfection of Mahayana, half a step from Tribulation Crossing.

The Demon Emperor had been born bearing the mandate of heaven itself, such that even in breaking through to Tribulation Crossing, he needed not undergo the heavenly tribulation.

Once, Cang Shun had believed this a gift bestowed by Heavenly Dao. Only later did he come to understand, it had never been any gift at all, but rather, Heavenly Dao had intended from the very start that he should die answering the calamity, and even in breaking through to Tribulation Crossing, he had still been fated to seal the Demon Abyss with his own body, a road that led only to the executioner's block, what need, then, for heavenly tribulation to interfere further?

After his reawakening, his strength had gradually returned, and with the help of his human, he had slowly cast off the shackles of Heavenly Dao. When the soul array fell into place between his brows, Heavenly Dao's means of control were severed completely, his soul no longer subject to any outside hand, restored wholly to himself, and in perfect accord with the heart of his human, he felt heaven and earth open wide before him, his mind and will flowing unhindered, nothing beyond his reach, nothing he could not do for the sake of his human!

And so, in a single night, the Demon Emperor of old had returned fully to great perfection of Mahayana, only half a step from Tribulation Crossing.

As for the dual cultivation technique that came after, the one with the lower cultivation progressed all the faster, their talent growing ever higher, while the one with the higher cultivation received all the more in return, their own progress all the greater.

Chen Moqing had always been the foremost prodigy of the Nine Thousand Prefectures, like the first great sun rising out of ages of eternal darkness. Through their dual cultivation, both of their cultivations surged forward at tremendous speed, and Cang Shun broke through once more, at last crossing over that final half-step threshold, ascending into the realm of the quasi-immortal!

"Had it not been for Benzun's dao companion, crossing into Tribulation Crossing would still have taken a good deal more time yet." Cang Shun laughed softly, "Heavenly Dao was unjust to me, yet it did manage one good thing, it sent him to my side."

In this world, his human alone had been willing to sever Heavenly Dao's shackles for his sake, and his human alone possessed the power to defy Heavenly Dao itself.

And so, they had been destined for one another from birth.

Mo Chen: "......"

His lips parted, as if some foul word were about to burst free, only to be forcibly swallowed back down.

Cang Shun kept his grip on Mo Chen's throat, having already shattered every meridian in his body, and said impatiently, "What, is that useless sect head of yours still not coming out?"

Mo Chen's entire body throbbed with agony, fresh blood welling up at the corner of his mouth, and yet he still kept his eyes shut tight, refusing to speak.

He tried to force himself to endure, but then he heard the Demon Emperor's laugh, utterly devoid of warmth: "Did you think Benzun was as kind-hearted as his dao companion?"

Mo Chen seemed to sense something, his eyes flying open, and in his terror-stricken gaze, the Demon Emperor, his presence at its absolute peak, stamped one foot down!

Ten thousand li of mountains and rivers shuddered with a thunderous, drawn-out roar. The ten-thousand-year foundation of Tianshu Sect split apart with a deafening crack, the fissure sweeping swiftly across the entire grounds of the sect, in the span of mere breaths, that towering sect, once piercing the very clouds, collapsed and crumbled beyond all hope of recovery!

The mighty peak that had overshadowed the Nine Thousand Prefectures for ten thousand years fell to ruin just like that, and yet still it strained to hold up one last sect-protecting array, clinging to a hopeless, last-ditch resistance.

A biting cold wind swept past. Chen Moqing raised two fingers together and slowly drew them across Chenjie's blade. A single stroke of the sword split the long night apart, its sword-light sweeping through heaven and earth in one unbroken line, cleaving the sect-protecting array wide open!

The great array that had enveloped the whole of Tianshu Sect dissolved, powerless to resist, amid a roar like the dying wail of a giant in its final throes, the foremost great sect of the Nine Thousand Prefectures was razed flat to the ground!

"No... no!! The lifeblood of our forebears, ten thousand years of their labor!!"

Mo Chen sobbed hoarsely, each cry of grief soaked in blood; in this moment he seemed in even greater agony than he had been in defeat moments before, retching up great mouthfuls of blood again and again, utterly on the verge of collapse.

Cang Shun let go of him with open disgust, binding him in place in midair with a spell instead. Mo Chen's head snapped up at once, his eyes a mess of burst blood vessels, nearly splitting at the corners, even his fear forgotten now, nothing left in him but furious rage, "Demon Emperor! All for the sake of one human! Do you have any idea how much you've destroyed, the lifeblood of generations of our forebears and sages!!"

Cang Shun remained utterly unmoved, the corner of his mouth curling into a scornful smile. "Did you think putting on some righteous, sanctimonious act could cover up Tianshu's mountain of crimes? In this rotten, broken-down sect of yours, there isn't a single floor tile that's clean."

"The debt owed to Benzun's dao companion, the debt owed to the demon realm, neither has been settled with you yet."

Chen Moqing walked over to his side, and Cang Shun caught hold of his hand at once. He looked calmly into Mo Chen's twisted, furious eyes, a thread of silver light flickering across the dark depths of his own. "Grand Elder, I'll be borrowing your memories for a moment."

"What are you planning to do? No! Wait!! You can't—"

The instant Mo Chen met those eyes, rippling now with silver light, a terror more profound than any he had ever known rose up from the very depths of his heart. He struggled with all his strength, yet could not break free of the Demon Emperor's binding spell, his mind shuddering violently as he felt something drawn directly out from within his skull, torn free of his body.

A technique of the soul path, memories laid bare!

The silver sea within Chen Moqing's eyes lay still, not a single ripple stirring; his slender finger moved slightly, pointing toward the silver mirror that still hung over the training ground, recording this very scene.

Mist gathered over the silver-white mirror's surface, then slowly cleared away, and in moments, image after image began flashing past at great speed—Mo Chen's memories, projected across the Nine Thousand Prefectures!

Mo Chen had already lived some ten thousand years, his memories vast and tangled beyond counting; Chen Moqing selected directly from the memories of his time after becoming an elder of the sect.

In that very moment, every cultivator across the Nine Thousand Prefectures who was watching Tianshu Sect through their battle-viewing artifacts bore witness to the past of this mighty cultivator of Tianshu, one who had once held power over the sect, who had once commanded fear and respect across the entire cultivation world, and who had only gradually withdrawn from the world after Yu Bai's sudden rise to prominence.

At first, some among them had harbored no small resentment toward Cang Shun and Chen Moqing, believing that this pairing of human prodigy and Demon Emperor was acting with far too much tyranny and cruelty, that it was wrong to drench an entire sect in blood merely to settle a private grudge, when that sect had committed no great wrong.

And yet, once they laid eyes upon Mo Chen's memories with their own eyes, no small number of them were struck utterly dumbstruck on the spot, left speechless, and more than a few felt as though struck by lightning, learning hidden truths about their own families and sects for the very first time.

"Wait? My ancestor... my ancestor didn't fall to heavenly tribulation?! He was ambushed and killed by Tianshu Sect?!!" Chu Langtao, who had already been moved several thousand zhang away from the training ground, roared out loud, his eyes bloodshot.

The Chu family's ancestor had, ten thousand years ago, stood at the very peak of Tribulation Crossing across the entire cultivation world, half a step from ascension, only to fall amid the heavenly lightning of his ascension.

Within Mo Chen's memories was a sect meeting held in secret, where several of Tianshu Sect's mighty elders, older than himself and now fallen for several thousand years, had spoken with laughter of how, back then, they had given everything they had to ambush that heaven-defying prodigy, the head of the Chu family, during his ascension tribulation, ensuring his failure to ascend, all to safeguard Tianshu Sect's position as the foremost sect for ten thousand years.

"Why... why was it that my child, less than three years after entering your Tianshu Sect... was taken by your elders to temper a sword blade with..." In another sect of the central prefectures, a sect head wept openly on the spot.

Within one great and ancient clan, the aged head of the family burst out in fury: "Mo Chen!! Out of nothing but jealousy, you slaughtered my dao companion's entire family, thirty thousand souls, and disguised it as the work of demonic cultivators?!!"

"Tianshu Sect! I will drench Tianshu Sect in blood!! So it was you all along who left my master without so much as bones to bury! It was you all along!!"

Even among the cultivators of the lower prefectures, there were those who wept tears of blood.

The silver mirror reflected a cold, forbidding light, and frost gathered across Chen Moqing's eyes as well.

Even though he had expected as much, he had never imagined that behind Tianshu Sect, behind these high-ranking elders who had each lived for several thousand, even ten thousand years, such a towering mountain of blood debt had already been built up.

Even Cang Shun found himself genuinely taken aback, raising an eyebrow.

"...No! No! These are all lies! None of this is true! My Tianshu, the foremost sect under heaven, is a righteous and upright order! Noble and virtuous through and through! How could this be! How could this possibly be!!"

Mo Chen was still screaming, howling in utter collapse, forced to witness scene after bloody scene unfold from his own memories, many of which he himself had already forgotten, or rather, had deliberately chosen to forget.

And yet, no matter how he struggled, the great silver mirror remained suspended before him without fail, its surface reflecting back his own twisted, hideous face, showing him for exactly what he was: a sewer rat exposed in broad daylight, with nowhere left to hide.

It was only in this moment that Mo Chen realized, with mounting horror, that it had been a very, very long time since he had last looked at his own reflection.

A prodigy who, in his youth, had harbored ambitions that soared past the clouds, who had once boasted that he would become the foremost figure of his age—now, in his twilight years, unable to bear even looking at the face staring back at him from the mirror.

What filled Mo Chen with even deeper despair was this. From this moment forward, in the eyes of the entire world, Tianshu Sect had truly, irrevocably fallen.

The mirror's surface rippled once more, and another new scene rose to the surface, still another secret meeting of Tianshu Sect.

Everyone watching had already realized that, in every secret meeting within Mo Chen's memories, the purpose had either been to purge those within the sect deemed dissidents, to destroy some "demonic cultivator" who had offended Tianshu, or else to eliminate some "uncertain factor" that might one day threaten Tianshu's future.

In this particular meeting, there now appeared a figure with white hair and snow-white robes, bearing a presence unlike anything of this mortal world.

Someone sharp-eyed among the onlookers had already recognized him, that was none other than Tianshu Sect's current sect head, the foremost master of the sword path, the Immortal Venerable, Yu Bai!

And not only that, beside Yu Bai stood yet another figure, one who should never have had any reason to appear within Tianshu Sect at all—

"Isn't that Ling Wankong, the Grand Elder of Jinwu Sect?!"

"What is he doing here? Could it be that Jinwu Sect and Tianshu Sect have been in collusion with one another all along?"

The crowd was struck with shock once more, and just then, the viewpoint within Mo Chen's memory shook violently, and all at once, the scene shattered apart!

High above in the sky, blood sprayed across the heavens in every direction, yet before it could even strike the ground, it was scattered without a trace by the raging winds.

Cang Shun's sharp brows lifted; his thumb brushed lightly over the knuckles of Chen Moqing's hand, stroking back and forth, his expression betraying nothing at all.

Mo Chen was dead!

He had suddenly chosen self-detonation, and the most brutal, most agonizing kind at that—the shattering of his own soul, which once begun, could not be stopped—and so this Grand Elder of Tianshu Sect met his end this way, perishing in utter, suffocating agony.

The force of a Mahayana cultivator's self-detonation could, under ordinary circumstances, have leveled ten thousand li of land flat, but bound as he was by the Demon Emperor's restraining spell, it dissolved instead into nothing more than a thick, bloody mist of rain, scattering down across the ruins that had once been Tianshu Sect.

Forty-nine of Tianshu's high elders, the Grand Elder among them, all had now perished, and yet, even now, an utter silence reigned within what remained of Tianshu Sect, not a single disciple emerged from beneath the ruins, as though none of this had anything to do with them at all.

Chen Moqing tapped his fingertip lightly against Cang Shun's palm and said, quietly, "He's here."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a crimson-black longsword tore through the sky, standing poised above Tianshu!

Its blade was long and narrow, its body a deep black, wound through with veins like streaks of blood. The moment it hung suspended in the air, a ghostly wind rose up on every side at once, and the shadow-image of the Bridge of No Return even flickered into being, leading toward a land of shadows thick with wandering ghostfire—as if, the instant this sword appeared, the mortal world itself turned upside down, and all were doomed to plunge into the underworld!

The foremost sword under heaven, Yanluo!

Beneath Yanluo's blade, no living soul survives!

Beneath that dark, howling, ghost-wind-wracked sky, Chenjie's blade blazed brilliant, its snow-white sword-light surging straight up into the heavens, becoming an eternal, undying flame amid the boundless darkness.

At the very place sealed off by Cang Shun's cold, unblinking gaze, a figure with white hair and snow-white robes drifted gently down, coming to rest before Yanluo.

——Tianshu Sect's sect head, the Immortal Venerable unrivaled in the sword path, Yu Bai, had finally made his appearance!

Once at peak Mahayana, he now stood at great perfection of Mahayana, half a step from Tribulation Crossing!

Though he had yet to cross into Tribulation Crossing, his presence was somehow even more overwhelming than Mo Chen's, forcibly elevated to that realm by the Big Dipper Star-Plucking Array! As though he were a blade cast down into the mortal world by Heavenly Dao itself, pressing down upon ten thousand worlds!

Cang Shun let out a scornful laugh, "No wonder you spent so long hiding like a tortoise with its head drawn in, turns out you were in secluded cultivation, breaking through all along."

Yu Bai said nothing, only lowering his snow-white lashes, his gaze untouched by the dust of this world as he looked down upon the Demon Emperor and his former disciple, his eyes lingering for a brief moment upon their two hands, fingers interlaced.

Then, evenly, he spoke. "This teacher knows his error."

"Back then, I should not have struck you down with only four swords."

"A moment of weakness, and it became an unforgivable mistake."

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