Chapter 429 – Heavenpath (Part 2/3)
What was the Heavenpath?
Actually, even Daoist Zui didn’t know exactly what it was. He was merely aware that all Monarch Realm experts who were at the end of their lifespan would choose to try and overcome it. Because a Monarch Realm expert of the past who’d been at the end of his lifespan had immediately stepped foot into the Saint Realm upon overcoming the Heavenpath!
No one knew what exactly resided above the Heavenpath because those who knew had either died or vanished. Even the Sword Sect’s Founding Ancestor, the Unfettered One, was the same.
If he had any other choice, then even Daoist Zui would be unwilling to attempt the mysterious Heavenpath. Because he wasn’t even the slightest bit confident in his ability. However, it couldn’t be helped because if he didn’t try, then only a natural death would be awaiting him. He’d cultivated throughout his lifetime to attain such a cultivation, so how could he be willing to transform into dust?
He had no other choice!
At a spot over 30m away from Daoist Zui, Su Muzhe stood there with a solemn expression on his face, and there was worry in the depths of his eyes. If Daoist Zui overcame the Heavenpath and advanced into the Saint Realm, then the Sword Sect would be matchless throughout the entire southern territory and even the continent. At that time, the Sword Sect would relive its former glory. Conversely, if Daoist Zui failed, then the Sword Sect would be eternally doomed… truly doomed….
This time, Daoist Zui’s success or failure wasn’t just related to Su Muzhe but the entire Sword Sect’s fate!
Daoist Zui suddenly glanced towards the surroundings while standing in midair, and then he laughed coldly. “Yuan Tian, Yu Linglong, Ghost King… are all of you that impatient?”
A wave of fluctuation arose in midair, and then two men and a woman appeared on a mountain 3km away from the Sword Sect’s Sky Peak, and they stood in confrontation with Daoist Zui from afar.
“Old Bastard Zui, your thousand years of cultivation weren’t easy, so why seek death impatiently right now? After all, you should be aware of the outcome your Sword Sect would face if you died!” The person who spoke was a middle aged man whose bare upper body was covered in black tattoos. The middle aged man was the Sect Master of the Ghost Sect. He was called Ghost King, and he was a sworn enemy of the Sword Sect!
Daoist Zui laughed coldly and said, “You don’t have to trouble yourself with worrying about that. However, I never expected that Fairy Yu and Yuan Tian would actually work together with the Ghost Sect. Both of you should be clearly aware of what sort of place the Ghost Sect is, not only would cooperating with it stain your reputations, it might even turn against you in the end. Both of you should have thought of that, right!?”
“Daoist Zui, don’t waste your time!” Ghost King chuckled and said, “Even if you have a silver tongue, it’s impossible to change the current situation where your Sword Sect is all alone and without support. It’s still the same as before. If you fail, then the entire Sword Sect will be annihilated, and not a single disciple of it will survive. Of course, I believe that if you succeed, then you will definitely slaughter our sects to the very end as well. So, everyone’s fates are in your hands! Haha!”
Daoist Zui glanced coldly at Ghost King, and then he gazed at Yuan Tian. The latter smiled lightly and said, “If the Sword Sect agrees to be a vassal of my Origin School, then I can let bygones be bygones and resolve the enmity between out sects. Moreover, I can help Brother Zui overcome the Heavenpath. What do you think?”
Ghost King’s expression changed when he heard this, and a gloomy expression appeared within his eyes. However, he didn’t speak a single word.
“How absurd!” Su Muzhe said furiously, “Become a vassal of your Origin School? Then wouldn’t Martial Uncle Zui and I become sinners of the Sword Sect? How could we face the Sect Masters of the past when we perish in the future? Moreover, how could the disciples of my Sword Sect draw their swords once our sect submits to your Origin School? Yuan Tian! What a great plan it is to destroy the foundation of my Sword Sect!”
Yuan Tian seemed to have expected this, and he smiled and didn’t speak further.
At this moment, everyone within the Sword Sect had sensed the situation the sect was in right now. They were being jointly sieged by three sects, and the disciples of the Sword Sect couldn’t help but feel a surge of panic when they thought up to this point. The strengths of every single one of these three sects surpassed the Sword Sect, so could the Sword Sect resist their joint forces? The answer was no!
It was impossible, so only death awaited them!
When they thought about this, many disciples of the Sword Sect started to become restless, but it was quickly suppressed by the higher-ups of the Sword Sect. At this very moment, the Sword Sect could absolutely not allow any mistakes to occur.
Daoist Zui seemed to be aware of it as well. So he immediately paid no further attention to Yuan Tian and the others. The three of them wouldn’t stop him from attempting to overcome the Heavenpath. Because they didn’t dare to! If they were to obstruct him now, then they would have to face his practically suicidal revenge, and if he were to fight with all his strength, then he was confident in his ability to kill at least one of them!
Yuan Tian and the others were aware of that as well. So, they hadn’t attacked. At the very least, they wouldn’t until Daoist Zui failed to overcome the Heavenpath.
Even if they intended to attack, Daoist Zui still had a backup plan. Because the Sect Guarding Grand Formation of the Sword Sect was set up by the Sword Sect’s Founding Ancestor himself. Even though they were unable to bring forth its complete might, it was still sufficient to obstruct the three of them for a period of time!
In short, the fate of the Sword Sect still depended on his success or failure.
Time passed slowly, and it wasn’t long before noon arrived.
Daoist Zui slowly opened his eyes in midair. At this moment, he was at his peak state. In other words, he could begin.
With a wave of his right hand, the Azure Sword transformed into an azure glow that shot into the sky. Its glow was like a pillar that shot towards the sky, and it entered the sky in an instant. Right after that, a wave of violent shaking arose in the sky before it seemed like the sky had been split open to reveal an enormous pitch black rift.
Subsequently, a multicolored path slowly extended out from within the pitch black rift, and it wasn’t long before it extended down from the sky and arrived in front of Daoist Zui.
Daoist Zui took a deep breath, and then he stepped onto the path under the shocked gazes of everyone in the surroundings. The weather in the sky had immediately changed when he stepped foot on the multicolored path. The sun was still blazing in the sky just moments ago, yet dark clouds had covered the sky in an instant. After that, an almost 3km long bolt of black lightning tore through the clouds and shot down towards Daoist Zui!
The bolt of lightning was extremely terrifying. Everywhere it passed, space was shattered inch by inch to reveal numerous pitch black spatial tears. The might of the heavens and the earth that was contained within those rifts caused some comparatively weaker disciples of the Sword Sect to be instantly forced flat on the ground while trembling violently.
The disciples of the Sword Sect gazed at the black bolt of lightning with astonishment. If it were to descend onto our Sword Sect, then the entire sect would probably be obliterated into powder in an instant, right?
A wisp of a solemn expression flashed through Daoist Zui’s eyes as he gazed at the enormous bolt of lightning, and then he swiftly slashed the Azure Sword towards it! In an instant, a strand of sword qi that was 300m long and over 100m wide had tore through the sky and shot violently towards the black bolt of lightning.
Bang!
An enormous explosion resounded in the sky above the Sword Sect, and then the black bolt of lightning flashed through the sword qi and shot explosively towards Daoist Zui at a speed which wasn’t visible to the eye.
Daoist Zui’s expression changed because he’d underestimated the Heavenpath in the end. He didn’t dare think further as he tightened his grip around Azure and swung it swiftly, causing countless strands of sword qi to surge like a tidal wave that enveloped the black bolt of lightning.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A wave of violent explosions resounded in the sky as countless strands of black electricity sprayed towards the surroundings along with Daoist Zui’s sword qi and descended towards the ground. Su Muzhe’s expression changed and was just about to act when Daoist Zui slashed once more with his sword. In an instant, countless rays of light shot out and blasted the sword qi and electricity into nothingness.
Deafening cheers immediately erupted from the disciples of the Sword Sect when they witnessed this scene.
Even Su Muzhe revealed a trace of a smile. Looks like Martial Uncle Zui is still quite confident in his ability to overcome the Heavenpath!
They hadn’t noticed that the solemn expression in Daoist Zui’s eyes hadn’t eased up but grew heavier instead. Because just this initial test allowed him to realize that he’d severely underestimated how terrifying the Heaven Path was, and his confidence to deal with its following attacks had started to waver!
Ghost King’s face fell because Daoist Zui’s strength had slightly exceeded his expectations. If he’s really able to overcome the Heavenpath, then wouldn’t the entire Ghost Sect be entire annihilated? When he thought up to here, Ghost King was about to act yet was stopped by Yuan Tian.
“There’s no need to be impatient. There are 9 barriers in order to overcome the Heavenpath, and he has merely passed the 1st barrier. According to my estimations, he’ll be able to survive through 2 barriers at most with the strength he possesses. After that, he’ll definitely die if he doesn’t possess any other trump cards!” said Yuan Tian in an indifferent tone.
Ghost King hesitated for a moment, and then he abandoned his intention to act and gazed at Daoist Zui again.
Daoist Zui stood on the spot in midair for a moment before he took a step forward, and he traversed 3km with just this single step. Right at this moment, countless strands of black energy surged out from within the pitch black rift, and then an enormous black finger that was over 1k wide appeared from within the rift before it descended towards Daoist Zui.
At the moment it appeared here, the heavens and the earth had dimmed down while the mountains around Sky Peak had been instantly transformed into level found by the pressure emanated by the enormous finger. Moreover, the ground was still collapsing layer by layer….
The smiles on the faces of the Sword Sect’s disciples had instantly frozen on the spot when they witnessed this scene, and they stared blankly at the enormous finger. Who exactly does it belong to? Why does it possess such terrifying might? Can our sect’s guardian resist it? At this moment, such thoughts couldn’t help but arise in their hearts.
Su Muzhe had an extremely heavy expression on his face as well. If the Sword Sect didn’t have a grand formation protecting it, then Sky Peak and all the disciples of the Sword Sect would have probably perished beneath this finger just now. Because even he felt quite horrified by the terrifying might contained within that enormous finger! It was truly too terrifying!
At this moment, Yuan Tian and the others had extremely solemn expression as well. The Heavenpath was a path that they would have to take in the future as well. They hadn’t come here entirely for the sake of annihilating the Sword Sect, and they had another reason for coming here today. It was because they wanted to witness how terrifying the Heavenpath was. Now that they had, their expressions had turned solemn.
This attack was very strong, and it was strong to the point they weren’t confident in their ability to resist!
However, they revealed a mocking expression in an instant because it was Daoist Zui who had to face this attack right now!
Daoist Zui’s expression had become extremely solemn as well. No matter what, he had to withstand this attack! Because if he failed, then he wouldn’t be the only one who died, and the thousands upon thousands of disciples of the Sword Sect who were relying on him would die as well!
Clang!
The Azure Sword shot into the sky.
“Disciples of the Sword Sect! Heed my call! Lend me your strength!”