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Chapter 70.2: Forever Parted from the Mortal World, the Immortal Unseen

"Lili, run!!"

At the edge of Jiugai Prefecture, Ning Lili, drenched head to toe in blood, heard only a single sharp scream before a massive shadow bore down over her field of vision—it was the black-and-gold mysterious turtle, having reverted to its true form.

In that instant, only a single thought filled her mind: so this is how big you can grow, A' Bai... I should have shown Master, if only I'd known...

In the very next instant, the turtle's shell shattered, and together with the girl behind it, burst apart into a mist of blood.

Beneath the sea of blood, the Vermilion Bird, blood pouring from all seven of his orifices, plummeted straight down from high in the sky; with every inch he fell, a burst of blood bloomed explosively beside him, torrents of blood raining down, drenching an expanse of earth stretching well over a million li.

The Vermilion Bird's eyes split wide with fury, letting out a roar so fierce it tore through his own throat, flickering images seeming to flash before his eyes even then—

In that final instant, Xuanji had given him a faint smile, her nine fox tails spreading out in a single moment to shield the sky, standing between everyone and what was to come—but it bought them less than a single breath's worth of time before every one of her tails was severed, and she fell into the sea of blood.

The Black Tortoise turned his head, gazing at him quietly for one moment, before bursting apart in midair together with the White Tiger and the Crimson Flood Dragon.

——Across Jiugai Prefecture, every cultivator who had thrown themselves bodily into resisting the demons' invasion in this, the very place where the Demon Abyss had first descended, did not even have time to scream before bursting apart into clouds of blood mist!

Beneath a single glance from the eleven Dao Sovereigns, every living being below Mahayana was annihilated entirely!

Heaven and earth fell into dead silence, leaving behind only crimson! The whole land of Jiugai Prefecture had become a land of the dead!

In this moment, the entire world fell utterly silent, and even the wind at their sides had thickened into a dense mist of blood.

Reflected in Chen Moqing's eyes were a pair of eyes whose light had entirely drained away—those crimson demonic eyes, once bright and blazing as stars, were now as dim and lifeless as burnt-out ash.

He slowly raised his arm, his cold fingertips trembling faintly, touching flesh that had melted away, exposing the stark white bone beneath, bared to the open air.

——Under the gaze of the eleven Dao Sovereigns, so close at hand, his great demon had placed himself before him, turning his back to the Dao Sovereigns, spreading his arms wide, and gathered him into his embrace.

Even the Demon Emperor, at the full height of his power at Tribulation Crossing, had the better part of his very flesh dissolve away on the spot beneath the gaze of those eleven beings transcendent beyond Ascension!

Fresh blood soaked through his dark robes, then soaked through Chen Moqing's clothes as well; he seemed to hear a faint, weak voice drift past his ear, far too soft to make out clearly at all.

In the next instant, he was shoved violently away, falling downward; behind him, a rift in the void had quietly opened—one connecting to the demon realm.

A bitter, biting wind scraped past him; Chen Moqing gazed from afar at Cang Shun's eyes, drowned in blood, and felt with absolute clarity that something between them had, in that instant, suddenly been severed.

The contract.

The Demon Emperor had cut, with his own hand, the contract that had bound the two of them together for twelve years, sending his human back to his distant homeland.

In that final moment, he was still gazing at his human, his back turned to the twelve Dao Sovereigns, the corner of his mouth lifting as he said, without a sound:

Don't worry.

Wait for me.

Chen Moqing kept his eyes open, quietly watching the crimson that had swallowed Cang Shun whole, and heard, too, the anguished wailing of countless souls across this world of the living.

In the very next instant, he pressed his palm against his chest without the slightest hesitation, closing his hand around that searing, burning heat.

Above his spiritual sea, the Withered Wood Spring Revival Decree blazed with light!

The crimson branches etched into this blood-red token sprang to life at once, bursting forth from the wood in an instant, spreading out into dense, flourishing boughs, and within the blink of an eye grew into a towering, ancient tree that reached toward the heavens.

The ancient tree stood alone like an entire forest unto itself, its canopy spreading wide and graceful. A faint, hazy figure in a blue-grey robe hovered above the great tree, a long river flowing gently beneath its feet, waves rolling and churning, as though it had drifted down the long river of time itself from some distant age, arriving now before him.

No words were needed. Chen Moqing stepped forward, standing beneath the ancient tree, and heard the immortal let out a long, drawn-out sigh, as though grieving for him, and yet, at the same time, as though finding comfort in him as well.

The spiritual sea reflected the ancient tree, green leaves drifting down. The immortal reached out and touched his head, bestowing upon him the secrets of heaven itself!

Across the land of Jiugai, the color of the sky changed once more; a great sun rose up from out of the boundless gloom, its light illuminating a million li!

Across mountains and rivers, spiritual energy gathered anew, the great Dao rose once more; from the heavens there drifted down a long robe washed in ink-wash hues of rivers and mountains, settling over a tall, slender figure.

Dark hair scattered loose, drifting freely in the wind, wide sleeves billowing; a pair of eyes, swirling with pure golden light, slowly opened, utterly spotless, utterly flawless—yet no longer without joy, without sorrow; instead, they held within them a gaze of deep compassion, looking down upon the dead, silent land below.

Cang Shun's pupils froze in place, the blood still flowing from him seeming, in that very instant, to turn to ice; he no longer had the strength to rise, and yet still he tilted his head back, staring fixedly, unblinking, at the scene unfolding before him—

The young cultivator, now draped in the great Dao of heaven and earth, slowly took a single step forward—one step, and he rose to the very summit—

The heavenly stairway lay beneath him; standing upon the earth, he became an immortal!

The Ascension realm!

Zhe Zhu's expression froze in astonishment, held still for a full several breaths, and then he burst out laughing.

"Huan Chen, oh, Huan Chen, so you really did have one more trick up your sleeve after all!"

"A single seed, left behind in this world, and it turns out to be this world's very last line of defense! And of all things, you actually managed to find someone capable of refining that seed into bloom!"

"But so what!"

The black robe shuddered violently; he seemed to have recalled something that delighted him greatly, laughing so hard he doubled over at the waist: "Let me tell you this, this world's Heavenly Dao is no longer the Heavenly Dao it once was! It corroded this very world, and fled! Your great Dao has already collapsed, the laws of this world are incomplete, even with Ascension achieved, there's no turning back the tide!"

"Unless, you're willing to have your body destroyed and your Dao extinguished!"

Chen Moqing said nothing; his ink-wash robe stirred lightly in the wind, mountains and rivers, the whole mortal world, seeming to swirl and flow within that single robe; beneath his gaze, those brilliant golden eyes looking down, a single talisman slowly caught alight.

His voice, utterly without ripple or wave, rang out across the earth: "This talisman is named, Mountains and Rivers Witness Dusk."

Zhe Zhu's laughter cut off abruptly. He stared fixedly at that talisman, and suddenly sensed something was wrong, striking out at once, with the full force of his power—

The half-translucent talisman drifted and swayed, brilliant golden talisman-script spilling out from it, scattering across the earth!

In that very instant, the mountains and rivers fell still, heaven and earth fell silent, the flowing river of time itself—froze in place, right where it was!

Whether it was Zhe Zhu, or Cang Shun, or every living being across the Nine Thousand Prefectures, all of them froze, utterly unmoving! Behind Zhe Zhu, the eleven silhouettes of the Dao Sovereigns, too, stood frozen in place within their hall of green bone!

The fierce, blazing light of the talisman reflected in those deep golden eyes; Chen Moqing lowered his gaze calmly, and the two longswords, Frost-White and Verdant-Gold, appeared at his sides, their blades humming faintly.

His wide sleeves lifted; he raised a finger and touched Chenjie, pouring the whole of his soul-path attainments into the blade.

"Protect my dao companion," he said, calm and even.

Chenjie hovered before him for one breath, two breaths, three breaths, then slipped through the void away from him, coming to hang suspended at Cang Shun's side.

Ran Cang, without the slightest hesitation, sank straight into the space between his brows, transforming into a single point of blazing, verdant-gold light, dissolving into that spot.

Chen Moqing turned his hand once more, and another talisman caught alight in his palm.

This talisman was named—Heaven and Earth Made Bright.

The frozen river of time across the Nine Thousand Prefectures surged violently in that instant, the great Dao trembling, the long river howling in fury, yet still it could not withstand a single finger's touch from the immortal turning back the flow of time—in an instant, every moment of time throughout the Nine Thousand Prefectures reversed itself by a single quarter-hour!

A single quarter-hour of heaven and earth! An entire lifetime's worth, for every living being!

Within that single quarter-hour, every soul across the Nine Thousand Prefectures who had fallen—was, by the reversing river of time, brought back once more beneath the sky!

They all, without a word of coordination, looked up at once, and saw, high above the vast, boundless sky, that white-haired immortal, a blazing sun hanging at his back!

The talisman burned itself out entirely; Chen Moqing slowly closed his eyes, and his dark hair turned to the pure white of frost and snow.

Zhe Zhu staggered back a step, two steps, three steps, the rift in the void behind him having already vanished, the eleven Dao Sovereigns and their hall of green bone disappearing from sight entirely!

"...The law of time? You've actually mastered the law of time?!" His voice warped for the very first time, his withered body beneath the black robe trembling violently for the very first time, "What manner of talisman is this?!"

Chen Moqing opened his eyes once more, brilliant gold flowing calmly within them, his voice, utterly without ripple, heard across all of heaven and earth: "This world's foremost master of the talisman path, Xingyun's talisman."

"...An unknown nobody, never once heard of!"

Zhe Zhu raised his withered arm high, roaring in fury.

"You are nothing but an ascended one from a lower realm, just see how you intend to mend this world's broken, incomplete great Dao! How you intend to seal the breach where Heavenly Dao has collapsed!"

"This one has changed his mind! This world shall fall today without fail, and you, you shall fall along with it—!"

The sea of blood boiled once more, carrying with it a Dao Sovereign's fury and the full force of his power, plunging straight down from the sky to the earth below, meaning to crush this entire world of mountains and rivers into dust!

Within that towering sea of crimson, swallowing the entire Nine Thousand Prefectures in an instant, Chen Moqing turned his head, gazing across the endless sea of blood at Cang Shun, far in the distance.

Cang Shun read something in his eyes, and in that very instant his expression shook to its core; his vital essence and his very soul ignited at once, as he crossed the sea of blood, crossed the overwhelming pressure of a Dao Sovereign, straining with everything he had to reach him—

Two light, soft words drifted on the wind into the Demon Emperor's ears, like a single seed scattered across a barren, desolate land.

"Wait for me."

The ink-wash robe spread out to cover the sea of blood; the immortal lingered no longer, turning to face the crumbling mortal world head-on.

That day, every living being across the Nine Thousand Prefectures witnessed this scene—

The white-haired immortal in his ink-black robe raised a hand to pluck down the very stars, sealing shut the rift in the heavens, using his own body to mend this world's broken, incomplete great Dao!

The collapsed Dao was rebuilt anew, the shattered sky sealed itself whole once more; the Dao Sovereign who had come from beyond this world was struck down by the immortal, together with the Demon Abyss itself, his blood spilling out across the desolate land!

Amid that torrential rain of blood, a single point of fresh green quietly broke through the earth—a single sprout, unfurling upward.

The newborn sprout swayed gently, a faint halo of blue-green light blooming around it, drifting and wavering like a wisp of unraveling blue-green gauze, swiftly spreading out toward the far-distant horizon, transforming into billowing, free-flowing threads of blue-green silk.

The blue-green silk swept across mountains and rivers, swept across the long rivers, and wherever it passed, flecks of green scattered down like rain, blanketing the earth. Across barren deserts, along the mortal world's farm paths, amid the fallen ruins of once-great sects in the upper prefectures, in the small, distant towns of the lower prefectures—everywhere, star-like sprouts of spring bloomed forth.

A gentle, long, lingering spring breeze swept across the earth, scattering the gloom and haze that had filled the sky; bright, radiant sunlight pierced through the clouds, shining down once more upon the entire Nine Thousand Prefectures, all of creation dyed with the color of spring, a long, lingering spring descending upon the mortal world.

In the final instant, as his immortal power burned itself out entirely, Chen Moqing, his body gradually dissolving away within the boundless void, paused and gazed outward, watching the spring's gentle, radiant scenery unfold, watching his great demon weep tears of blood.

The immortal turned to look back one last time, bestowing upon the mortal world a single spring.

By the time the spring breeze carried a single new leaf, still tinged with green, down into the Demon Emperor's cold palm, the immortal had already vanished from between heaven and earth.

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