Chapter 112 – I Couldn’t Ask for More
“That saber!”
The red-robed High God cried out. Clouds and mist swirled. Looking down from above, Shi Wuluo’s figure was tiny compared to the heavenly gods, who were often hundreds of meters tall, yet he was constantly ascending. A slender black figure passed, and giant-like heavenly gods collapsed dejectedly behind him. Blood flowed from the gods’ magnificent corpses, streaming over the towering steps to form a dark red carpet.
The High Gods at the end of the Heavenly Staircase, who were observing the slaughter, were unconcerned about the continuous deaths of the Lower Gods. Compared to the true Ancient Gods from the era of Cloud Center, all the Lower Gods selected from Kongsang were merely the lowest-ranking servants of the Heaven Beyond Heavens. It didn’t matter how many servants died. They were like pawns in a battle, disposable sacrifices not worth a second thought. But they could not ignore that saber, that scarlet saber with its bewitchingly curved blade. It could actually shatter the gate-towers of the Heavenly Staircase, and it allowed them to feel an extremely familiar aura.
“The Divine Lord was really willing to leave such a good thing for him.”
After a moment, a heavenly god sneered. The god who spoke had four faces and four arms. Each face had only a single, long vertical eye, observing the four cardinal directions. At this moment, its indigo pupils were filled with unconcealable jealousy and hatred.
In the Primeval Era, the Divine Lord had commanded the heavenly gods to wield giant hammers and pound the Self-Growing Soil, which contained metal essence and jade, to form the foundation of the Twelve Continents. Later, he used Primeval Copper, extracted from the deepest magma, to cast twelve great cauldrons, which were buried in the lands of the Twelve Continents to establish the layout of mountains and rivers. After casting the twelve cauldrons, a portion of the Primeval Copper remained. The Ancient Gods of the Heaven Beyond Heavens had all guessed that the final portion of Primeval Copper had likely been cast out of Cloud Center with the Divine Lord and ended up somewhere in the mortal realm. But no matter how Kongsang, acting on the orders of the Heaven Beyond Heavens, searched, they could never find a trace of it. It was the most ancient and sacred copper; neither mortals nor great demons could possibly refine it. Even in the Heaven Beyond Heavens, if they were to find that portion of Primeval Copper, it would require the combined efforts of many High Gods, or the intervention of one of the Five Cardinal Emperors.
No wonder Kongsang couldn’t find the last of the Primeval Copper. It had indeed been left to the mortal realm by the Divine Lord.
The four-faced god’s gaze was burning with undisguised fervor. Seeing Shi Wuluo ascend another three thousand steps, it abruptly rose and descended from the clouds. “I’ll teach this fellow who doesn’t know there’s a Heaven Beyond Heavens a lesson.”
…Wu Bing, that idiot.
The red-robed High God watched coldly as Wu Bing leaped down to intercept Shi Wuluo, and couldn’t help but sneer inwardly. He should have thought about it. So many High Gods had noticed something strange about that scarlet saber, so why hadn’t any of them made a move? Obviously, in a flash, everyone had figured out why the Ancient Emperors had remained silent after Shi Wuluo ascended the Heavenly Staircase. The last portion of Primeval Copper was incredibly precious. If Shi Wuluo hadn’t left the mortal realm, protected by the boundary seal left by the Divine Lord, no one would have discovered the saber’s peculiarity. But he just had to leave the mortal realm.
It was true that Shi Wuluo was the Heavenly Dao. If the Heaven Beyond Heavens were still Cloud Center, it would undoubtedly be constrained by him. But after Incomplete Mountain was severed, the Heaven Beyond Heavens had been separated from the mortal realm for tens of thousands of years, and over time, it had seized the mortal realm’s Qi aura, long since surpassing it. As a Nether Spirit of the mortal realm, Shi Wuluo’s arrival in the Heaven Beyond Heavens meant he would instead be suppressed by it. The two were like a Kui Dragon and a Soaring Serpent. Although the Kui Dragon was noble, its lifeline had long been seized by the Soaring Serpent. Thus, the serpent usurped the dragon. What’s more, he was arrogant enough to want to fight the entire Heaven Beyond Heavens, with its ninety thousand gods and three thousand gate-towers, all by himself. He was simply courting death!
A man destined to die was not worth worrying about. What truly made the Red Emperor and the others hesitate to act was that scarlet saber forged from Primeval Copper. There was only one scarlet saber, and only one portion of Primeval Copper. But aside from the White Emperor who had fallen into the wilderness and the Azure Emperor whose whereabouts were unknown, there were still three Ancient Emperors in the Heaven Beyond Heavens. Whichever of the three Ancient Emperors acted first would become the target of the other two. Their strengths were comparable, so they were at a stalemate, each waiting for an opportunity… Perhaps long ago, the Divine Lord, who stood above the Five Emperors, could have made them bow their heads. But the Divine Lord had long been exiled, had later perished twice, and now his life was like a flickering flame.
The sea of clouds parted to the left and right. As if a meteorite had fallen from the sky, heavy armor weighing tens of thousands of tons crashed down. The chains connecting the armor plates burned with azure flames, which turned the surrounding thick sea of clouds into vast billows of steam. Where the war boots landed, huge dents were left in the white jade steps. Wu Bing stood on a step a hundred levels higher than Shi Wuluo.
Shi Wuluo did not stop. The scarlet saber tumbled, and after slitting one Lower God’s throat, it was withdrawn and thrust diagonally, flinging another Lower God who tried to ambush him from the left into the air. A red line flashed, and two bodies crashed down heavily. The hem of his black robes brushed past the blood as he ascended, covering another ten steps in an instant.
Wu Bing looked down from his high perch at the approaching young man. Seeing that he had no intention of stopping, he snorted coldly. The arm on his front-facing side lifted a Shield-Axe that was a full three hundred meters high and brought it down heavily. A deafening crash. A circular void was blasted into the sea of clouds. Dense cracks appeared on the white jade steps. The face of the Shield-Axe was dozens of kilometers wide and high, like a thick bronze gate, sealing off the Heavenly Staircase and blocking Shi Wuluo’s path.
Shi Wuluo placed his left hand on the back of his saber and pushed it forward horizontally. The sound of bronze colliding was like the tolling of a great bell. Wu Bing stood his ground, unmoving. The arm holding the Shield-Axe dipped slightly, the heavy armor moving like a living creature to dissipate the force of the impact. Shi Wuluo used the momentum of his retreat to soar up, landing on the gate-tower of the nine-thousandth step. His scarlet saber hung low, a glint of light sliding from the hilt down the blade to the tip.
“How reckless! You will die without a burial place!”
Wu Bing rebuked him sharply. His south-facing face, with its indigo vertical eye, was contorted in fury. When he opened his mouth, flames rolled deep in his throat, and his voice, as coarse as armor, stirred up wave after wave of turmoil in the sea of clouds.
But another, subtle voice reached Shi Wuluo’s ears:
…Give me the Primeval Copper, and I’ll ensure you leave unscathed.
The answer he received was a dazzling flash of saber light. Shi Wuluo swooped down from the gate-tower like a falcon. He gripped the saber in his left hand, holding it horizontally, and its edge cut into the Shield-Axe carved with a Zhenmeng Giant Beast. The Zhenmeng Giant Beast on the shield suddenly opened its ferocious golden eyes, which blazed with roaring flames. Its fangs bared, it prepared to tear this reckless madman to pieces.
“Stubborn fool! Do you think the Divine Lord was really good to you?… What a joke! You are the Heavenly Dao, the will of the unseen world. As long as he controls you, he can control the entire world! Why do you think he taught you the Method of Shaping Bones and Transforming Form! He is the Divine Lord, and the only one above him is you! If you were still a Formless Nether Spirit, even the Heaven Beyond Heavens couldn’t do anything to you! But since you took a physical form, you are bound by the constraints of a body!”
The roaring flames reached Shi Wuluo, only to be split down the middle by the incomparably sharp blade qi emanating from him, flowing away to the left and right. Wu Bing raised his Shield-Axe and smashed its face down onto the hundreds-of-meters-wide stone step, intending to crush Shi Wuluo into dust like an ant. The instant the Shield-Axe smashed down, Shi Wuluo withdrew his saber and retreated again. The fierce wind swept past his face, blowing the hair that fell to his shoulders. The firelight cast his face in a fiery copper hue, as if he had returned to a time long, long ago, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Divine Lord before the celestial furnace for smelting copper.
…What kind of sword do you want?
The Divine Lord turned his head and asked him. The drawn-in Wind of Earthly Qi gathered in the belly of the furnace, fanning the Quci Charcoal into a roaring fire. The warm red light made the Divine Lord’s white robes seem to burn, and the corners of his eyes were like cinnabar. He was the most beautiful sight in heaven and on earth, a beauty he longed to touch but could not.
What, you’re spacing out?
A fingertip, red as new jade, tapped lightly on the Shamanistic Nuo Mask, as if in reproach, but his tone held a clear, yet subtle, hint of amusement.
…I don’t want to use a sword.
He was silent for a long time before answering in a low voice. The Divine Lord seemed a little surprised and asked why.
Yes, why? He couldn’t answer. He felt he might have said the wrong thing, but for some reason, he was unwilling to take it back. But the Divine Lord suddenly smiled. He said with a laugh, “Then use a saber. From now on, you’ll be the number one saber user.”
Why didn’t I know how to answer back then? The answer was so simple. In heaven and on earth, the greatest swordsman will only be you, can only be you. But I want to protect you. To clear the thorns from your path.
The scarlet saber spun in the wind, its light leaping and flickering. It flicked up embers of dark red fire, shooting them at the Shield-Axe and producing a tremendous sound unfitting for such small flames. It felt as if what landed on the shield were not sparks, but meteorites falling from the sky. Wu Bing retreated step by step, leaving deep footprints on each and every heavenly step.
He roared like thunder:
“You’re so foolish you can’t even see you’re being used by him?”
“I couldn’t ask for more.”
Shi Wuluo’s scarlet saber flung out a torrent of fire.
I couldn’t ask for more!
***
A dark red, bloody fire swirled in the dim obscurity. Outside the City of the Netherworld, deep in the Great Wilderness, blood flowed from the eye sockets of a Bone Whale carrying a withered peak on its back, winding into a long river. The river of blood encircled the Netherworld City, flowing through four gates along pre-designed channels and converging at the base of a high platform in the city’s center. The platform was built of piled skulls, trapping a faint flame within.
One hundred thousand Wilderness Emissaries stood around the platform in designated positions, each standing on a dark pattern. If someone from the Heavenly Works Mansion were here, they would recognize the formation they stood upon as the one invented by the traitor Xie Yuan for refining a god into a weapon. The Netherworld City, enclosed by the bones of a Cloud Whale, was a furnace of unimaginable size. It was precisely because Xie Yuan had proposed this concept that he had stood out from the many evil cultivators who entered the Great Wilderness and had been held in high regard.
This was not the first time the Great Wilderness had tried to refine the Divine Lord’s remnant soul, but it had never been very effective, as the soul would always spontaneously burn itself out at the moment of success. The stalemate lasted for a long time, until three thousand years ago, when Xie Yuan, or rather, Mister Xi, entered the wilderness, bringing a turning point.
Thinking about it, it’s a pity that guy died. I should have told Huai Ningjun to save him in Zhunan… but Huai Ningjun always seemed to dislike him, so telling him might not have worked anyway. The black shadow gazed from afar at the center of the “furnace,” its form flickering. The Divine Lord bestowed the Dao, only to end up dying at the hands of those he taught… how interesting. But it’s not hard to imagine this outcome. Perhaps the first mortals who ascended Incomplete Mountain and obtained the Dao were truly grateful and never forgot their original intentions. But what about after one generation died? Ten generations? A hundred?
The only ones who received the Dao directly from the Divine Lord were that first batch of mortals. After they all died, generation after generation of cultivators in the Twelve Continents grew accustomed to cultivating and wielding power. Since this power came from their own daily practice, they naturally came to believe their strength was the result of their own efforts… At that point, how many would still feel gratitude for the Divine Lord’s grace? Even if the Immortal Sects hadn’t hidden the Divine Lord’s past, the result wouldn’t have been much different. Greedy and forgetful. It’s only natural. Stupid.
The black shadow once again made the same assessment as before. I just wonder, if the Divine Lord could return to the Primeval Era, knowing that his gamble would end in a complete and utter loss, would he be willing to bet again? After some thought, the black shadow couldn’t help but sneer. If he’d still be willing to bet again even then, he’d be so stupid… so stupid that even I couldn’t find the words to describe it.
A bell with dim, obscure patterns in the Netherworld City was struck heavily. The chime was so powerful it caused the dark red light and mist enveloping the entire city to tremble slightly. After the bell rang, the prepared Wilderness Emissaries ignited the talismans in their hands and threw the specks of fire into the river of blood. A foul wind blew, and the surface of the blood river erupted into a great fire hundreds of meters high. In the flames, a remnant soul, vaguely clad in white.