Volume 5, Chapter 83 – Slaying (Two-in-One)

Meanwhile, after a full seven bolts of origin-chaos heavenly punishment divine lightning had struck down, the black clouds in the sky began to lighten.

Though they still looked incomparably dark and heavy, with black radiance rolling through them like a thunderstorm, at least they were no longer that suffocating pitch-blackness that made it hard to breathe.

Out in the wilderness, the cracked earth had already been covered by a layer of yellow sand. A one-armed giant like an iron tower was kneeling there, his right hand pressed over the wound where his arm had been severed. He suppressed the injuries inside his body while raising his head to look at the empress slowly descending before him.

“Your companion abandoned you.”

Bai Xiang saw the unwillingness in his eyes and spoke as she looked down at him. “So this is the network of relationships you painstakingly built up after your return… it seems your theory was not accepted by everyone.”

“Xue En yielded to power and made a grave mistake…” Fang Yang’s lips moved as he spoke in a tone full of bitter hatred. “He still does not understand what I meant when I said those things to him. He probably thinks the qi path is like the Dao-Void Methods that rose back then, or even like the Sacred Weapon Clan that only rose at the end of the last epoch, as if it were a phenomenon naturally bred by this universe, by heaven and earth themselves…”

“But that is not the truth.” He narrowed his eyes. “It is not… Xia Emperor, you and your path are not that kind of thing!”

“You are different, utterly different! If the Dao-Void Methods and the Sacred Weapon Clan were arranged into their proper places from the moment they came into being, meaning that the existence of those elements would not disrupt the natural order of heaven and earth, but merely replace the old elements, then Xia Emperor, you and your path are overturning all of that at the root.”

“The qi path is a true path to longevity.” He shifted into another tone, one that could almost be called earnest and painstaking persuasion as he tried to admonish Bai Xiang. “How can a path like this be spread so casually and fall into the hands of ordinary sapient beings…”

Hearing that, Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes slightly and said, “So that is what you truly think… Before this, you were always lecturing me about ‘an ordered hierarchy’ and ‘every life having its place.’ It sounded so lofty and dignified. But in truth, you are only a superior figure of the old order lamenting the loss of your power.”

“In the past, longevity was a very extravagant thing for sapient beings.” Bai Xiang suddenly closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was looking toward the heavens, her gaze seeming to pass through the barriers of time and see the countless people in the tide of history who had sought the path of immortality and failed, forced to struggle in a sea of suffering.

“Among demonkind, there are those with extraordinary endowments who can remain undying for a thousand years by virtue of bloodline and birth, sleeping for a hundred years at a time, dreaming through the cycles of spring and autumn.

“But the price is that their sapient light is exceedingly dim. Rather than cultivating or training, they are simply prolonging their existence by instinct.

“And as for the truly sapient and clear-minded race, humanity, if they do not cross the Body Tribulation and do not personally endure Loss of Order, then they are inevitably bound by Heaven’s mandate, their lifespan locked at one hundred and fifty years. Even the greatest prodigy cannot break past it.

“Even if one enters the Venerable ranks, the interference of each round of Void Tribulation still limits lifespan to somewhere between three hundred and four hundred years. Only by attaining the Sage fruit can one begin to prove the Dao of longevity and gain a vast lifespan far beyond the mundane.”

“…That is what you call ‘an ordered hierarchy,’ is it not?”

Bai Xiang lowered her head to look at Fang Yang again. Ignoring how ugly his expression had become, she continued mercilessly, “So-called ordered hierarchy, so-called every life having its place, means that from the moment living beings are born, their place is already assigned.

“A dragon can only give birth to dragons. A rat can only give birth to rats.

“The mundane may not cross the line. They may not seek longevity by their own will. They must kneel at the feet of mighty beings like you, willingly become slaves, have their souls drained and their blood sucked dry, and only then might they be granted half a scroll of law or taught half a chapter.”

“The reason you hate me is simply because I shattered this beautiful dream of yours…”

“Di Xiang—” Fang Yang’s breathing turned ragged. “You… you clearly know that! Then why…? Why are you still doing this? Why create such a terrifying method, letting all beings seek longevity so easily?”

“Do you not understand how terrifying it is when order is broken…? If the sapient beings of the world could so easily gain longevity, if everyone could live eight hundred or a thousand years, what kind of chaos would this world become? Why would you still…?”

“And what would be so bad about that?” Bai Xiang suddenly cut him off.

She… what did she just say…?

Fang Yang stared, his mind nearly freezing up in that instant.

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“I will not bother arguing with you over whether eight hundred years counts as longevity… I will only ask you this: if everyone could live eight hundred years, would that really be so bad?” Bai Xiang continued pressing him.

“Eight hundred years of seeking and striving would multiply the depth of each person’s wisdom several times over.

“How many inventions and creations would appear in that process? How many geniuses and heroes would grow and rise over those eight hundred years?”

“I am not like you, fearing all of that.” Bai Xiang lowered her lashes halfway, her tone turning slightly subdued. “On the contrary, I look forward to such a flourishing age. I look forward to strong enough figures being born… to challenge me.”

“You are insane!” Fang Yang shouted, his voice already turning hoarse. “You are a true anomaly! A true evil! Heaven’s Dao and Heaven’s mandate will never permit something like you to continue existing! You will be punished! You will be destroyed!!!”

“What an ugly display.” Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes, tightened her grip on the Dao sword’s hilt, and raised her arm high.

“Oh, right. There is one other reason I do this. I cannot stand the way people like you loom above others in arrogant self-importance.

“You are nothing but scraps of the old order. The so-called attainment you forged by bullying the weak shatters at a single touch beneath my sword. What gives you the right to lecture me?”

“Watch closely—”

The look in her golden eyes turned colder and colder.

“This is the ‘Heaven’s mandate’ I bestow.”

With that, the sword fell.

At first, Feixiang Heaven’s blade only gave off a faint glow. But halfway through the descent, the thirty-six acupoints carved and shaped within it suddenly blazed to life, connecting through nerves and blood vessels with every acupoint in Bai Xiang’s body. That sort of “connection” meant the sword had truly become an extension of her flesh, allowing her to attach “microcosmic voidburst” to the blade just as she would to her own fists or legs, without the slightest concern that it would damage the sword’s structure.

Most importantly of all, Bai Xiang’s true foundation, her soul-abilities, could be poured completely into the Dao sword through that connection, letting her “create” however she wished within the scope permitted by those thirty-six acupoints.

For example, she could fuse “microcosmic voidburst” and “Sword Qi Divine Force” together without the slightest regard for logic and unleash them directly.

Again!

That bizarre qi-force again!

Fang Yang’s eyes flew wide open. The moment that pure, pale radiance brightened, every hair on his body stood upright.

This was a phenomenon that neither Fang Yang, nor Demon God Jiuli, nor the Blood Lord could see through or understand. “Microcosmic voidburst” had actually fused with an energy form!

Under normal circumstances, that should have been impossible.

This Sage-level technique was simply too overbearing. Precisely because he knew it could not adhere to any energy or any object, Fang Yang’s combat form had always taken the shape of that muscular giant.

The best vessel for “microcosmic voidburst” was a Sage’s fleshly body. Other than innate divine spirits among demonkind using it through their innate divine abilities, or using supreme treasures like Heavenly Stem Precious Jade to tamper with the rules, it should have been impossible for it to attach to any other external thing.

And yet that understanding had truly been shattered today.

There was no time to think through the principle behind it. Fang Yang let out a roar, bent his knees, and sprang violently from the sand. Another layer of “microcosmic voidburst” covered his back, forcibly prying open the void behind him as he clearly meant to shift away and escape.

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Yet the moment he had only half-entered the void, the cold sweat on his face thickened even further.

Because the feeling of death had not faded.

It felt as though no matter how he dodged, no matter where he shifted to, that sword would still catch up and kill him.

Why?

At most, her breakthrough should be because of that sword. But unleashing a sword-force like that was already unbelievable enough. How could there also be this sense of being locked onto…? What was causing this???

Wait… was it because of my wound?

In that slowed instant, Fang Yang’s pupils abruptly contracted as he thought of the injuries on his body.

His wounds were horrifying. It was not as simple as “losing his left arm.” From the left side of his neck down through the left side of his chest and abdomen, the flesh there had been torn apart, even exposing his still-beating heart.

But that was not the truly fatal part. The most troublesome thing was the darkness clinging to the surface of the wound. That was the fused sword-force that had been attached to him when Feixiang Heaven stabbed him directly earlier.

Was that layer what was giving her his location?

If this continues…

Fang Yang had finally realized where the problem lay, but by then there was no time left to make any adjustment.

He could only exert all his strength to force open the void. His body shifted a hundred meters away in an instant, then plunged into another layer of void, shifting again to another stretch of desert wilderness.

There was no pattern. None at all.

With mortal danger hanging over his head, even Fang Yang himself did not know where he would shift next.

The intervals between his shifts were also extremely short. Within a single breath, he shifted eleven times.

And yet, even with that incredibly rapid high-frequency flickering, he still could not escape the pursuit of the sword-light.

Eleven shifts.

The first time, Fang Yang sensed a point of starlight appear ahead.

Each time he shifted after that, the starlight grew brighter.

Starting from the fifth time, his soul nearly left his body as he saw Bai Xiang’s afterimage overlapping with the void itself, a half-transparent figure appearing ahead of him.

Then it grew clearer and clearer, closer and closer.

By the tenth time, the starlight was already right in front of him.

On the eleventh, the light directly covered his entire body. His thoughts went completely blank, as if frozen in place, and he could only watch helplessly as the light gathered into a beam, thinned into a line, and passed straight through him in an instant.

Wuuung—

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Bai Xiang emerged from the light, as though she had traveled within the radiance itself and passed straight through the giant. Her body remained suspended in the air, as if she disdained letting the toes wrapped in black silk touch the earth. Her right hand held the sword-hilt lightly, and her body did not move at all in the wind.

Huuu…

Huuu…

The wind rose, growing stronger and fiercer.

Behind her, less than five meters away, the giant with his back to her suddenly burst with a great spray of blood. His body split into two with the lines of blood, then both halves were shredded inch by inch by the fused sword-force, becoming two exploding clouds of red mist.

Something had dispersed away…

Heaven and earth seemed to sense the fall of a Sage. The surrounding celestial phenomena began to turn chaotic and unstable. The raging wind quickly scattered the red mist, as though some will was swallowing and plundering the remnants left behind after his death.

That was probably something derived from the Dao-Void Methods, related to Void Tribulation and Loss of Order. Bai Xiang had no interest in it. She merely raised the Dao sword by habit, her gaze seeming able to pierce through material obstruction itself as she fixed it on a wisp of remnant soul among the drifting remnants.

‘What is this…?’

The remnant soul was no longer in the form of the giant. It had returned to the image of that immortal-like Daoist. Fang Yang looked even more shocked now. He stared around in disbelief, then suddenly lifted his head, only to see Bai Xiang’s face pressing down over him like that of a Buddha, while he himself felt like an ant fallen into her grasp.

‘This… this is not any method from the Xuandi Scripture!’

He was a Sage after all. Even in the state of a remnant soul, Fang Yang still retained full clarity of mind and could even speak and think as he normally did. Quickly comparing what he knew, he discovered how strange this method was. It was not any soul art ever seen in history. He had never heard of any soul technique capable of imprisoning a Sage’s soul like this!

“You really are tenacious.” Bai Xiang looked down at Fang Yang’s remnant soul. “I have nothing left to ask you. Everything you know, I will take for myself.”

‘Wait—’

Fang Yang’s remnant soul had only just begun to speak when, in the next instant, he felt an overwhelmingly terrifying force descend on him, something almost unprecedented in its sheer magnitude. His Sage-level soul strength could not resist in the slightest under that crushing force. It shattered like a wisp of smoke.

“Old thing. Finally dead.”

Bai Xiang closed her eyes and carefully sensed the mind-force and memories flowing into her body.

“So that is what happened… The reason he disappeared for so many years and failed to return to the Demon Court to preside over affairs was because he had been trapped in the ‘Void-Year.’”

According to Fang Yang’s own understanding, he was not sure whether the “Void-Year” belonged to space or time. He only knew that it could exist randomly in any corner of Void Realm space, and that any living being who fell into it would be forcibly frozen in place. Not even a Sage could escape easily.

“Why does that sound so much like the Sky Sea?”

Bai Xiang frowned.

“But there is still a difference. The immobilization of the Sky Sea was not absolute. My thoughts could still move.

“And according to Fang Yang’s experience, once he was fixed in place, he felt nothing at all. In terms of his own thoughts, it was as if only an instant had passed, no more than the time of a single blink, and yet the time of the real world had already changed enormously.”

“Legend says that beings who manage to escape from the ‘Void-Year’ can gain enormous benefits. But in reality, only beings like Sages with long lifespans can truly enjoy that sort of reward.”

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“Fang Yang was not accidentally trapped in the ‘Void-Year.’ He deliberately went looking for it, trying to seek a way to break through his current realm.”

In an instant, countless thoughts and insights poured into Bai Xiang’s heart, absorbed and comprehended by her, turned into nourishment that broadened her understanding.

Only after nearly three full minutes did Bai Xiang reopen her eyes.

Nothing could be read from her face, neither joy nor anger, but she felt puzzled.

In theory, whether Fang Yang had gained any enlightenment or not, once Bai Xiang absorbed his memories, the result should have become completely clear to her.

But something unexpected had happened.

Those memories gave her the strange feeling that Fang Yang himself did not know whether he had gained any enlightenment.

Did he do that on purpose?

I do not think he has that kind of ability.

Guessing it was probably because of the peculiar nature of the “Void-Year,” Bai Xiang did not dwell on the matter. Instead, amid the blowing sand, she turned her gaze toward a layer of dark cloud at the horizon.

In pursuing Fang Yang, she had unknowingly drifted a considerable distance from the original battlefield. Yet the dark clouds overhead had not thinned in the slightest. Instead, they had become even heavier and gloomier, and within them there seemed to be the faint outline of a giant bird.

“Petty thief… fruit?”

Before Bai Xiang could go to it herself, that enormous shadow suddenly solidified. Its two wings, spanning nearly three thousand meters, beat once with a great rush, and all the sandstorm and dark clouds overhead seemed to turn upside down and come pouring down from the heavens, sweeping toward Bai Xiang in a frenzied torrent.

She raised a hand and split the wind and sand apart with a single sword strike. Then Bai Xiang stepped forward with one black-silk-clad foot, leaned her body ahead, took a single stride, and shifted instantly into the highest heavens.

Only from that position could she see the true form of the giant bird.

It blotted out the sky. On its nine curved, downward-hanging bird heads were nine pairs of eyes, eighteen great eyes in total, like eighteen stars hanging overhead, bringing with them a pressure beyond imagination.

“Di Xiang, our first meeting.”

All nine bird heads opened their beaks at once, and from them came a deeply magnetic male voice.

“There has never been any enmity between us. I even helped you deal with ‘Jiuli’… why not end the battle here? You return to Eastern Xia, I return to my wilderness… what do you say?”

“I do not think that counts as no enmity.”

Bai Xiang stared at the giant bird and answered blandly.

“Besides.”

“You are a demon, a beast, yet you dared to look directly upon my form and even use me to accomplish body-snatching.

“That alone is a capital crime.”