Chapter 77 – One Sword Across Three Thousand Li
“You’ve returned.”
The Moon Mother’s eyes reflected Chou Bodeng’s figure.
Her expression was dazed, even the alluring eerie blue at the corners of her eyes had lost its charm. For a moment, she seemed like a bewildered and ignorant young girl, her face bare, not yet painted with ancient glamour. Her voice was youthful, faintly carrying a hint of joy from a reunion that had been awaited for tens of thousands of years.
The old acquaintance said nothing.
The red-robed youth stood upon the Golden Crow.
Behind him was a sun radiating with ten thousand beams of light. His vermilion robes billowed along with the solar corona. The Taiyi Sword was held flat, a line of clear light. His face, his silhouette, his long fingers were all coated in a thin layer of golden light, making him look more like a divine statue than the Red Emperor Gu Yu who had torn the sky to descend.
His pupils were dark and serene, reflecting no image.
Four Voids.
No heaven, no earth, no man, no living beings.
The daze on the Moon Mother’s face gradually faded, and venom seeped out bit by bit.
“You’ve returned…” she said faintly, then burst into laughter. “You’ve finally returned!”
The eerie blue feathers suddenly unfurled.
The Moon Mother’s figure stretched into a straight line, the tip of her silver staff leaving a trail of crackling lightning in the air. The Jade Armillary Sphere spun rapidly, and the sea of clouds within a thousand-li radius swirled into a massive vortex.
Even Huaining Jun was within the range of this vortex.
The Moon Mother paid no attention to Huaining Jun, not caring whether she was overstepping her bounds or committing insubordination. Or perhaps, from the very beginning, she had never sincerely followed Huaining Jun. Whether it was directing the demon tide to attack Zhunan or standing by as the Red Emperor Gu Yu killed Zuo Liangshi, she had always sat high in the clouds with her long legs crossed, watching from above, playfully employing the usual tactics of a scorpion-tailed beauty. It was only at the moment Chou Bodeng appeared that her true emotions were suddenly detonated.
Three thousand li of cloud locks stretched across the sky, three thousand li of lightning sealed the air horizontally. Clouds and lightning intertwined to form a net that covered the heavens and the earth, enveloping Chou Bodeng within it.
At the edge of the net, Huaining Jun was like a stone in a river, an island in the sea, his white robes fluttering.
He nocked the third arrow to his bowstring.
The people of Zhunan had seen many changing cloud phenomena, but they had never seen such a brilliant one. All the clouds had turned silver, lightning brewing within them, each cloud a mass of ten thousand lightning bolts. The sky became a blinding vortex of intense light, and everyone was forced to close their eyes, lest they lose their sight forever.
However, even with their eyes closed, their vision was still a bright, hazy white.
Only a handful of people with higher cultivation could barely make out the battlefield in the sky. Some of them looked bewildered; the enraged Moon Mother’s strength was beyond imagination, yet the person fighting her was incredibly young. Others looked thoughtful, as if they were struggling to guess something.
Only Jun Changwei, who had been caught by Old Heavenly Craftsman, had a sorrowful expression.
The vortex of cloud and lightning spun rapidly, and the Moon Mother’s figure disappeared from the overly dazzling canvas. The moment the thousands of lightning bolts surged towards Chou Bodeng, the Golden Crow raised its head and cried out to the sky. Its three-thousand-meter-long wings beat vigorously, and fire like lava and burning blood gushed from the sun wheel, rushing along its wings like two long, sharp sabers, one on the left and one on the right, cutting into the entire vortex.
The vortex was cut in two, the sky was cut in two.
The moment the Golden Crow broke through the cloud diagram, the Moon Mother appeared above Chou Bodeng, vertically inverted. Her feathers were magnificent, but she had used the intense light to perfectly conceal her movements, and her flight was silent and unpredictable.
With her fingers forming a blade, the Moon Mother stabbed down at the top of Chou Bodeng’s head.
Clang—
The hand-blade collided with the Taiyi Sword.
The Moon Mother’s strike missed, and the wings on her back instantly spread. She soared up without hesitation. The next moment, a sword light grazed her face, the narrow cold light illuminating her long, narrow eyes and the eerie blue at their corners.
The sword light arced diagonally, cutting into the sea of clouds.
Chou Bodeng did not pursue.
His face was illuminated as pale as paper. Although the Moon Mother’s hand-blade had not succeeded, its violent force had penetrated the body of the Taiyi Sword, causing Chou Bodeng’s right arm to tremble slightly.
“You shouldn’t have appeared so soon.”
The Moon Mother’s voice was ethereal.
They had brought that remnant of his divine soul out of the Great Wilderness. Although they didn’t know who had saved him or how, no one knew better than them how shattered his divine soul was… To dare to come out and fight before his divine soul was settled and his spiritual soul was at peace… he had truly gone mad long ago.
The Moon Mother clapped her hands and laughed loudly.
“You’ve gone mad!”
Chou Bodeng was unmoved.
With the Moon Mother’s applause, lightning and silver locks broke through the stream of fire, once again crisscrossing. The water vapor that formed the cloud diagram rose from the Cangming Sea. The Cangming Sea was vast and endless, but the Golden Crow’s river of fire could not be sustained. It wore a circle of curse shackles made of runes, and the moment it ignited the sun’s fire, the curse shackles tightened, restricting its power.
It was the Heaven-Herding Rope used by the Hundred Clans of Kongsang to regulate the climate of the four seasons.
The Golden Crow cried out, its voice filled with frustration and anger.
The net of lightning and cloud contracted. Chou Bodeng’s free left hand pressed down remotely towards the nine cities of Zhunan.
Ten thousand swords unsheathed.
In the nine cities of Zhunan, from the Pavilion Elders of the Mountain Sea Pavilion down to the ordinary disciples, everyone simultaneously lost control of their swords.
All the longswords shot up into the sky at the same time, all slashing at the intersections of the cloud net’s grid. Amidst the whistling of ten thousand swords, the net shattered in an instant. The moment the net was completely destroyed, the threads of lightning did not dissipate, but were all absorbed into the bodies of the swords, fine sparks of fire dancing along them. Chou Bodeng flipped his left hand, and the ten thousand longswords converged into a single giant sword. With a point of his finger, it shot towards the Moon Mother, who had reappeared elsewhere.
The silver light in the heavens and earth converged. In the nine cities of Zhunan, any cultivator who practiced the sword subconsciously looked up to admire this strike, to admire this strike that controlled qi with thought, that broke a god with mortal swords.
A sword that streaked three thousand li across the land!
The Moon Mother held her staff horizontally.
The Jade Armillary Sphere spun, and streams of clear light, some falling, some arcing, some swimming, enveloped her in layer upon layer, like the celestial phenomena itself. The sword formed from ten thousand swords collided with the celestial phenomena, and the streams of clear light shattered one after another. The longswords also shattered one after another, and the Moon Mother’s figure was continuously pushed back.
The last stream of clear light shattered, and the Moon Mother’s pupils reflected the oncoming remnant of the giant sword.
Elsewhere.
After Chou Bodeng pointed out that sword, his red robe flickered, and he moved forward with the wind. The Taiyi Sword hung low, its tip drawing a line of snow in the air. He met a point of light that was shooting towards him like a meteor.
The third arrow, Yinshi Star.
Compared to the first two hour-arrows, Yinshi Star seemed much more low-key. It left almost no trace as it passed through the air, its body pitch-black, with only a speck of dust-like light at its tip. However, its speed was incredibly fast, arriving in an instant. Chou Bodeng had just moved when Yinshi Star was already before him.
The Taiyi Sword rose.
The clouds churned, as if a great crowd was gathering.
The moment the rising sword style collided with Yinshi Star, the area within a hundred-li radius of Chou Bodeng simultaneously darkened. The white clouds turned to ink, day and night were once again reversed, and the people in the nine cities of Zhunan, regardless of their cultivation level, could not peer into the battle within. On the city wall, Half-Diviner nervously looked down at his Star-Pushing Plate, only to be stunned to find that all the astrological signs on it had disappeared.
The celestial phenomena were hidden, which meant it was “unspeakable.”
Others only felt the gloom, but Chou Bodeng, within the range of “Yinshi Star,” saw thousands of stars. The hour of Yin was close to dawn, the moon had already set, and the sky was filled with stars. Without the sun or moon, it was the time when the starlight was most brilliant. Thus, the hour of Yin was the star. The pitch-black sky was dotted with stars.
Not just thirty-six.
But countless.
As brilliant as a dream pursued until death.
The river of stars slowly spun, for a thousand years, ten thousand years, a million years… As long as one never woke up, one could remain immersed in it forever. The Yinshi arrow was not shattered by the rising sword style, but shattered on its own, into thousands of specks of stardust, which swirled strangely in the air, forming a magnificent and fleeting illusion.
Between heaven and earth, past and present, an illusion aimed solely at one person.
It was what he sought in life and death, and also what imprisoned him in life and death.
Surrounded by stardust, the Taiyi Sword’s rising strike paused in mid-air.
How can one in a dream know they are but a guest?
All the star orbits straightened, and thousands of specks of stardust shot out, a deadly killing intent hidden within the magnificence.
A fine golden thread pierced through the gloom, like the first few rays of light piercing through the dark clouds when the weather in Zhunan suddenly changed from overcast to clear. The next moment, thousands of rays of light broke through the clouds.
The illusion collapsed.
The Taiyi Sword rose.
“Like a dream, yet not a dream, it all turns to nothing in a flash.”
In Zhunan City, Monk Budu, whose cultivation was not high enough to see the battle in the sky, put his palms together, lowered his eyes, and muttered to himself, his voice so soft it was almost inaudible.
High in the sky.
One in a red robe, one in a white robe, brushed past each other.
The Taiyi Sword pierced Huaining Jun’s shoulder, and the autumn water blade cut Chou Bodeng’s side. Huaining Jun’s expression was calm, as if he was not surprised that Chou Bodeng was able to decisively shatter the vast expanse of stars. The moment they passed each other, they both turned back at the same time, their two swords colliding, and were both forced back over a hundred li by the other.
As Huaining Jun retreated, he raised his left hand and pointed.
The Cangming Sea churned up a thousand-meter-long water dragon, which shot out, heading straight for the Golden Crow. Chou Bodeng tapped his longsword in the void and gracefully rose from his retreat, seemingly slow but actually fast, landing on the water dragon’s head. With a stomp of his foot, the dragon’s head dispersed into a cloud of mist.
Chou Bodeng passed through the mist and went straight for the Golden Crow.
He saw that at some point, the tangible and intangible Heaven-Herding Rope wrapped around the Golden Crow was tightening bit by bit.
It seemed as if someone in the unseen world was pushing the millstone of the heavens, pulling the kite that had drifted to the edge of the sky back under control… If there really was such a millstone, then the person tightening the invisible chains must not care at all whether the kite was intact or not—the Golden Crow struggled fiercely, and wounds had already appeared on its body!
***
At the same moment, in the distant Kongsang.
The verdant mulberry wood stretched its vast branches towards the eight poles. The Divine Fu Tree in Fu City covered dozens of li and was already enormous, but the size of this Fusang tree of the Hundred Clans was already impossible to calculate.
White clouds flowed over its branches, the sun and moon rose and set in the flowing clouds. It reached up to the heavens and down to the underworld. Countless gears turned in the mulberry crown, and countless gold and silver chains extended from the mulberry branches, some driven into the ground, some into the void. There were also twelve towering white stone pillars, standing at equal distances with the divine tree as their center.
The pillars were ninety meters in diameter, and the stone platform at their base had nine levels.
Led by the Taiyu Clan, whose sleeves and collars were embroidered with the Taiyin dual fish pattern, the remaining Heaven-Herding Clans of the Hundred Clans stood in an orderly fashion on the stone base according to their rank, from large clans to small, from high status to low. The official chroniclers in their white robes and wide sleeves stood on the highest level with the clan chiefs. The edges of the nine-level platform were serrated, with yin and yang carvings, like a rotating axle.
The Heaven-Herding Clans poured their spiritual power into the yin and yang carvings, while the chroniclers performed ancient steps, chanting ancient heavenly incantations in low voices.
The nine-level platform slowly turned, twisting the intricate Heaven-Herding Ropes. The gear teeth engaged continuously, and the verdant Fusang tree surged with clouds and mist, the light of the sun and moon rising and falling. A rumbling thunder suddenly sounded, and after the sun gear and moon gear engaged, they suddenly stopped, and lightning faintly flickered on the celestial wheel.
The chroniclers subconsciously stopped their steps.
“Continue.”
The Taiyu Clan Head’s expression was cold and sinister.
The chroniclers looked at each other. Some continued to step forward, while others hesitated.
An elderly chronicler stepped out from the crowd, spread his arms, and blocked everyone. “We cannot continue! The sun’s orbit and the moon’s track are locked together, which means the celestial orbit is in disarray. If we forcibly pull the Golden Crow back to the second quadrant now, we will injure it! We must correct the orbit first, then calibrate the sun and moon! Otherwise, even if we calibrate the sun and moon now, they will fall into disarray again in the future! If the celestial orbit is not right, how can we right—”
The old chronicler’s eyes bulged slightly.
“Continue!”
The Taiyu Clan Head drew his sword, and with a single stroke, flung the thin, dry old chronicler off the pillar.
The heavenly incantations sounded again, and the chroniclers in their snow-white robes once again began their ancient steps. Dark red sparks flew from the sun and moon gears as they slowly turned with a roar.
The Taiyu Clan Head held his sword, his cold gaze fixed on the divine Fusang tree.
Since the disappearance of the Yuan Bird, the abnormalities of the ten suns and the nether moon had already attracted the attention of the immortal sects. No matter what, they had to make the Golden Crow and the Mysterious Rabbit return to their old positions before the immortal sect alliance meeting… The Heaven-Herding Hundred Clans were already too many, there was no need to add more!
In the distance.
The old chronicler’s eyes were wide open, blood and dirt staining his white robes. The sun and moon of the Fusang tree were reflected in his cloudy pupils. He made a muffled sound from his throat:
The celestial orbit is not right… how can…
How can the sun and moon be righted?
***
Huaining Jun did not go to intercept Chou Bodeng.
He stood still in the flowing clouds and once again took out the Twelve Earthly Branches Bow. He held the bow in his left hand and slowly drew the fourth arrow from the void with his right. Compared to the first three arrows, this time he seemed to have some difficulty drawing the hour of Mao as an arrow. The hour of Mao was originally sunrise. The reason he could draw a dark arrow was because in the original count of heaven, the Golden Crow was already dead at the hour of Mao, and the Clear Continent had already fallen into obscurity.
This was a phantom arrow.
It was also the most powerful arrow.
The dusk of the hour of Mao.
“After all these years, you are still burdened by the common people.”
Huaining Jun nocked Maoshi Dusk to the bowstring, and his arm also began to crack. The string of the Twelve Earthly Branches Bow was drawn back bit by bit, the arrowhead aimed straight at Chou Bodeng’s back, which was unguarded as he went to save the Golden Crow.
Chou Bodeng did not turn back.
The string gradually became like a full moon.
Huaining Jun sighed.
Suddenly.
A fine “crack” sound came from the Twelve Earthly Branches Bow. Huaining Jun did not hesitate, about to shoot the arrow that was powerful enough to kill both the Golden Crow and Chou Bodeng at the same time, but it was already too late. The twelve Chen stones embedded in the Twelve Earthly Branches Bow shattered at the same time, erupting with a dazzling light. The entire sky distorted and shattered in this ball of light.
Before his avatar was devoured by the light, Huaining Jun’s peripheral vision swept over the Cangming Sea.
He saw that in the depths of the thick miasma, a bewitching, scarlet saber light swept out.
A look of realization flashed across Huaining Jun’s face.
Before the Incomplete Mountain was broken, heaven and earth were connected, and the high gods of Cloud City could use the Incomplete Mountain as a ladder to walk freely on the earth. But after the Incomplete Mountain was broken, the upper and lower realms were separated, heaven and earth were cut off from each other, and the high gods from beyond the heavens could no longer personally descend to the mortal realm, nor could they bring true divine artifacts into the mortal realm.
Unless, like the Red Emperor Gu Yu, they tore open the sky and opened a path between the two realms.
Huaining Jun’s method of bringing the Twelve Earthly Branches into the mortal realm was essentially the same as the Red Emperor Gu Yu’s.
He used the cover of the miasma to set up a Two-Realm Gate in the sea that connected the upper and lower realms. But just as the Red Emperor Gu Yu was bound by invisible rules when he tore the sky, a divine artifact brought through the Two-Realm Gate would instantly collapse once the gate was found and destroyed.
But how could Chou Bodeng be so sure that Shi Wuluo would be able to find and destroy the Two-Realm Gate in the vast Cangming Sea before Maoshi Dusk left the string?
Maoshi Dusk and the Twelve Earthly Branches Bow completely shattered, transforming into a rose-colored vortex in the sky.
In the nine cities of Zhunan.
The corner of Jun Changwei’s eye caught Taiyu Shi standing among the ruins with his hands behind his back, his head raised and his eyes fixed on the Golden Crow’s movement, a suppressed smile of triumph escaping his lips. Jun Changwei cursed, propped himself up, and was about to force himself to stand. Old Heavenly Craftsman slapped him on the shoulder, unceremoniously pressing down on his wound.
“What’s wrong?” Old Heavenly Craftsman asked impatiently, while keeping an eye on the situation in the sky. “In a hurry to pay back your debt?”
“I’m going to kill that guy.”
Jun Changwei squeezed the words out from between his teeth.
“Forget it, forget it,” Old Heavenly Craftsman glanced at the composed Taiyu Shi. “Your Gold-Inlaid Saber is already broken, what are you going to kill him with now? Besides…” Old Heavenly Craftsman sneered, “the Mountain Sea Pavilion isn’t completely useless… Hmph, Taiyu.”
Just as Old Heavenly Craftsman had said, the Golden Crow being trapped by the Heaven-Herding Rope had reminded the originally tense Pavilion Elders and disciples of the Mountain Sea Pavilion that there were members of the Taiyu Clan in Zhunan… A group of the less seriously injured Pavilion Elders drew their sabers and, with cold expressions, surrounded Taiyu Shi and another Taiyu Clan elder.
The smile on Taiyu Shi’s lips vanished.
He retreated in a panic behind his elder. “Without any proof, you want to offend the Taiyu Clan and Kongsang at a time like this?”
The Taiyu elder who had accompanied the clan chief’s second son had a grim expression, all his previous triumph of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind, had vanished… Since Zuo Liangshi’s death, the Mountain Sea Pavilion, which had always been skilled at weighing pros and cons, had undergone many subtle changes.
“What need for proof?!” Qing Huaiyu sneered. “The mere Taiyu Clan, is there anyone my Mountain Sea Pavilion can’t afford to offend?!”
The ink saber was unsheathed.
Jun Changwei struggled to turn his head, his gaze returning to the sky.
Runes and ancient curses swirled around the Golden Crow like flowing clouds. The runes emitted a dazzling golden light, while the ancient curses tightened circle by circle. The Golden Crow, bearing the heavy sun, was forced to fold its wings, like a bound bird, being pulled bit by bit, slowly deviating from its course. Blood gushed from its magnificent black feathers, dripping down onto the surface of the Cangming Sea, which instantly turned a vast white.
As Chou Bodeng reached the Golden Crow, a deep blue, almost black shadow shot out of the golden light without warning, carrying a sharp wind.
The Taiyi Sword was held horizontally.
Chou Bodeng retreated several meters.
The Moon Mother, her magnificent feathers as lustrous as metal, floated in mid-air, two deep, bone-visible wounds on her wings. Most of her beautiful face was covered in fine feathers. She had blocked Chou Bodeng’s attack of ten thousand swords as one with her own body. The true body of an ancient god was as hard as a heavenly soldier.
After surviving, she had not gone to assist Huaining Jun, nor had she gone to intercept him, but had hidden near the Golden Crow, waiting for Chou Bodeng to walk into her trap.
“You’ve come?”
The metal-like wings behind her contracted slightly. The Moon Mother floated in the air, fine feathers creeping up her face, revealing a strange beauty in her terrifying appearance.
Before Chou Bodeng could answer, she shrieked hoarsely like an enraged female bird, answering her own question.
“Of course you’d come! How could you not come!”
Her figure flickered, and she appeared directly in front of Chou Bodeng, her long staff slashing diagonally.
“You have to protect the common people! Wherever the common people are concerned, you will be there!”
“How great! So holy and virtuous!”
The silver staff and the Taiyi Sword collided. In a single breath, dozens of dark red sparks flew out, branding Chou Bodeng’s dark pupils.
“Good! Protect the common people! What are the common people?! And what are we!”
Metal clashed against metal.
The Moon Mother’s face was twisted by deep-seated resentment and past adoration… Those grievances, loves, and hates, intertwined for ten thousand years, finally erupted into a monstrous rage. The wings on her back suddenly spread, and thousands of iron feathers turned into arrows, enveloping Chou Bodeng from all directions, pinning him to the spot.
“What in the world are we!”
Her five fingers splayed open, curving into claws, and she grabbed at Chou Bodeng.
“Tell me!”
Feathers were everywhere, and Chou Bodeng had no way to dodge.
A line of scarlet, its edges dipped in ink, swept up from below.
The Moon Mother’s figure exploded on the spot, scattering into a cloud of eerie blue smoke, then reappeared a hundred li away, stumbling. Her gaze swept over the scarlet saber, and she coughed and laughed at the same time. “So it was he who killed the Scripture Woman… Good… good! We’ll meet again someday…”
She stared at the second saber strike swung by Shi Wuluo, a strange smile in her pupils.
“You have to give me, give us, an answer!”
The scarlet saber was like a bowstring.
The Moon Mother’s figure shattered into thousands of points of light, her sharp, venomous laughter still lingering in the air. And the moment the Moon Mother retreated, Chou Bodeng had already broken through the light that imprisoned the Golden Crow with a blank expression.
He spun around, and the Taiyi Sword cut the Heaven-Herding Rope.
Snap!