Translator:Sparrow Translations Editor:Sparrow Translations
This epic battle on the Black Sea within the Barren Expanses was destined to be engraved in the history of the Grand Celestial World.
Because in this battle, the supreme leader of the Dragons, Emperor Jue Xuan Shang, had been slain by the Celestial Sect of Wonders.
Yet in this battle, the Leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders and the Heaven-Destroying Sword that petrified the entire world didn’t show up from the beginning to the end.
The outcome of this battle shook the entire Grand Celestial World. Both the Barren Expanses and the Divine Lands entered a long state of silence and contemplation.
Back during the contest of the Spirit Sea, Shen Yuan had just come back to life before he was sent back to hell once more by Lin Feng. This piece of news shook the world and consolidated Lin Feng’s position as the number-one person since the beginning of time.
Even thought Shen Yuan had fallen to Lin Feng’s hands, Xuan Shang and the Hades Emperor who had yet to return were both powerful beings that stood at the top of the world.
The only humans who were currently alive that could be considered on the same scale were the Great Void Holy Man and Shakyamuni.
The few of them represented the mightiest forces in the Grand Celestial World today.
However, everything had a prerequisite, and that was Lin Feng wasn’t considered in the rankings. Otherwise, everything would be different.
Lin Feng passed on his position to Xiao Yan, and he disappeared into the heavens with Mount Yujing and he no longer stepped foot on the Greater World. However, every legend related to him would be engraved onto the world for all time.
The Celestial Sect of Wonders continued to climb and improve over the years, and they were recognized by the entire world as the Grand Celestial World’s number-one holy ground, while their influence and power was unrivaled by any other power in the world.
Many of the reasons that led to this current backdrop came from Lin Feng himself.
But today, the Celestial Sect of Wonders that had accomplished immense feats that awed the entire world stunned the world once more. Everyone was rendered speechless as their jaws hung open, and their tongues tied up.
Lin Feng and Xuan Li were both absent, and his disciples defeated and killed the most powerful being below Lin Feng himself – the ancestor of the dragons, the First Dragon, Xuan Shang!
Lin Feng left behind the Heaven-Destroying Sword Formation, the Taiji Celestial Star Formation, and the Bell of Destiny. The Celestial Sect of Wonders’ second-generation sect leader, Xiao Yan, controlled the Netherworld Sea that was ranked along with the Black Sea amongst the Grand Celestial Seven Seas. However, the entire group travelling to the Black Sea and murdering Xuan Shang still sent ripples across the Greater World.
People realized that the Celestial Sect of Wonders without Lin Feng was still a towering might and was still an unrivaled force to be reckoned with.
What gave them even more complicated feelings was that this colossal entity was still in the midst of expansion and development.
In the East Sea above the Divine Lands, within Vaidūryanirbhāsā World and on top of the Stupa Pagoda that was four hundred and eighty thousand feet tall, light permeated the various worlds.
There were three human figures sitting atop the Pagoda. Two were real while the other was virtual, and the person on the left-most position had the Five Nirvana Worlds and the Five Wisdom Kings projected above his head. It was so vast that it seemed to fill up the entire Greater World, and this was the Shakyamuni.
The person in the middle had forty-eight thousand arms, and his body was like glass – the Cosmic Marble Buddha, and there was a virtual light shadow to his right, as if there was another Buddha sitting within it.
The Shakyamuni and the Cosmic Marble Buddha were both staring deep into the void. Their gazes pierced through boundless distances and into the Black Sea within the Barren Expanses.
The two Buddhas were calm, and their eyes gradually shifted towards the extreme west, where the Kunlun Mountains were located within the Divine Lands, and where the Celestial Sect of Wonders were.
Mount Yujing was nowhere to be seen, and Lin Feng was no longer at the Kunlun Mountains.
Shakyamuni and the Cosmic Marble Buddha surveyed the Kunlun Mountains once before they withdrew their eyes and looked up into the endless skies.
There was a world-destroying up in the heavens, and high above in the outer realms. Outsides couldn’t feel it, but Shakyamuni could see it.
There were multiple Buddhas sitting below the Stupa Pagoda, beneath the enormous dome.
There was an arrogant and angry-eyed being. He wore a golden kasaya, and his skin was as black as charcoal. Glass-like light flickered around his body, and there seemed to be a sphere of demonic power hovering over his head.
Within his head, there was an enormous black ape with blood-red eyes. This ape was also sitting down in a lotus position and his hands were in a meditative gesture.
There was a solemn being beside the first, and he was also dressed in a golden kasaya. However, he had short white hair on his head and his eyes were greenish-red. Glass-like light glowed all over his body, and he appeared as peaceful as he could be.
Similar to the other Buddha, there was another sphere of demonic power levitating above this person’s head. There was a giant white ape with a body as white as jade, and four limbs that resembled flames. He was also sitting in the lotus position.
There was yet another tall and skinny Buddha with good-looking features standing beside them. Glass-like light radiated around him as well, and colorful radiance permeated outwards.
There was a peacock in the sphere of demonic power above this Buddha’s head. Its tailfeathers were open, and it was filled with wisdom and seemed to embody true wisdom.
There were huge amounts of radiance beneath these three Buddhas.
The person that was at the forefront was an elderly-looking Buddha. His eyes were as clam as water, and his palms were in a meditative gesture as he stared at the Kunlun Mountains towards the west. The corner of his mouth curled upwards into a faint smile.
At the same time, in the skies above the Great Void Sect’s Mount Baiyun within the Divine Lands, there appeared to be a sparkling mirror shining upon the world.
The mirror’s light seemed to reach every corner of the world, and it felt omnipresent and inscrutable at the same time.
This luster belonged to the Supreme Heavenly Mirror, and Mount Baiyun was covered under layers of clouds at this point and nobody could see through these clouds to see what was going on.
There were some human figures that could be seen on the mountaintop.
Ever since the Great Void Holy Man returned to life from the Death Sea, he hadn’t set foot on the Greater World and neither had he returned to Mount Baiyun.
Over the years, even though the Great Void Sect didn’t seal off the mountain like they did after the War of the Two Worlds, they became a lot low-profile and their disciples rarely roamed the world.
Everything seemed to revert to the situation before the battle of Xiling City. However, everyone knew that the political backdrop was far from the same as before, and the Great Void Sect themselves knew this.
The Heaven-Destroying Sword had gone through its third round of enhanced cultivation, and it was now truly able to destroy the entire world. Even if the Tai Yi Holy Man and the others wanted to sacrifice themselves against this force, there was nothing they could do.
The Heaven-Destroying Sword was hovering in the outer realms high above the clouds, and a battle would mean apocalypse for the entire world.
Lin Feng’s display of power and the sword that killed Shen Yuan all those years ago shook the Greater World, and this scene fell into everyone eyes and would remain at the bottom of their hearts for eternity, never to be forgotten.
On top of Mount Baiyun, people of the Great Void Sect looked in the Black Sea’s direction in silence, and they turned towards the Kunlun Mountains in silence, before they looked up into the skies above them.
Within the Kunlun Mountains, near the southern foot of Mount Kunlun and near the western Shu regions, there was another spiritual mountain standing tall.
This was the location of the old Ethereal Mountain.
The Celestial Sect of Wonders’ rapid progress was stifling to the world yet seemed extremely normal. Amongst the human world of cultivation in the Divine Lands, the greatest transformation wasn’t in the gradually recovering Great Zhou Empire, and neither was it in the Royal House of the Northern Tribes who had been improving steadily, and neither was it the Great Qin Empire who were now headed by Shi Xingyun who had returned to anchor Xiling City. It wasn’t the Mount Shu Sword Sect who had remade themselves after being broken, and neither was it the Gu Dynasty who had recently returned to the Divine Lands.
The largest change happened in the southern foot of the Kunlun Mountains. This sect was a tiny sect that the Great Zhou, the Great Qin Empire, and Mount Shu wouldn’t pay any attention to. This was a sect so small that not even the Great Barren Sword Sect, and even the Huo Family that belonged to the Great qin Empire would pay attention to – yet, it was this tiny sect that was soaring sky-high.
This small sect was the Ethereal Mountain Sect, and the person currently in charge was Chu Yang. He was known to the world as the Nine Heavens Swordmaster.
There was now a Destiny-level magic treasure holding down the fort of this unassuming little sect, and it was the sword that shared the same reputation was the heirloom of the Mount Shu Sword Sect, the Heaven-Opening Sword – it was the Nine Heavens Sword.
Chu Yang himself was in the second-level immortal soul stage, and he casually defeated the current leader of the Mount Shu Sword Sect, Ji Wenrui, who was already in the third-level immortal soul stage. This piece of news shook the world.
Xin Longsheng and the Tiangang Swordmaster of the Mount Shu Sword Sect were still alive, but they didn’t reveal themselves. If not for them, others thought that Chu Yang himself was capable enough to lift the Ethereal Mountain Sect into the greatest sect of swordplay after the Celestial Sect of Wonders.
Even so, Chu Yang’s name reached every corner of the Divine Lands and he had become one of the most powerful individuals outside the Celestial Sect of Wonders. His potential was endless, and his abilities were astounding.
Others respectfully addressed him as Sword Emperor, but Chu Yang himself rejected this title and this made everyone feel as if that was a little wasted. The title of Sword Emperor belonged to the Celestial Sect of Wonders’ second-generation Elder, the Tian Shu Swordmaster, Han Yang. If Chu Yang hadn’t been so adamant about his decision, Han Yang’s title would probably be a little shaky.
Chu Yang and the Ethereal Mountain Sect had always been close to the Celestial Sect of Wonders. Rumour had it that Chu Yang was one of the rare few outside the Celestial Sect of Wonders who had been personally advised and guided by the Leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders.
There was another rumor, that Chu Yang wanted the hand of one of Lin Feng’s direct disciples in marriage – the Sword Celestial Master, Luo Qingwu. This bit was true, except he hadn’t been able to get what his heart desired up till today.
Chu Yang was still refining and remaking the Ethereal Mountain Sect with his abilities today, and it could be said to be a holy place that had shed the coldness and sourness of the old days.
Chu Yang sat atop the Ethereal Mountain calmly. He was currently staring towards the inter-world passage that connected to the Barren Expanses towards the south, and his thoughts were within the Barren Expanses while he maintained a calm look from the beginning to the end.
He turned towards the north, which was where the Celestial Sect of Wonders were located, at the northern foot of Mount Kunlun. He heaved a faint sigh, and the corner of his mouth curled subtly into a smile. “I wonder where master Lin is. I wonder if he knows Qingwu and her brothers and sisters have established such a grand empire?”
Nobody knew that Mount Yujing, which had vanished from the Divine Lands for many years, was currently hovering in the void space above the Mountain in the Sky, which had taken over as the Celestial Sect of Wonders’ mountain gate.
Rolling purple energy permeated the void space around the towering and still majestic white-jade mountain. The black Yin-Yang Sea was still tumultuous beneath the mountain, while the leaves of the Black Heavenly Treasure Tree on the mountaintop swayed as it flickered with seven different colors.
Everything seemed the same as before, yet it felt as if there were some different things but everything was just too hard to fathom and understand.
Within the Heavenly Cosmic Ray World on the top of the tree, there was a smaller Black Heavenly Treasure Tree.
There were two people sitting beneath this tree, and they were separated by a chess board. These two people were facing each other while they played a fine game.
One of them was a man dressed in white. His features appeared as normal as ever, but there was a mysterious feeling about him as if nobody could guess his real age. The aura around him was vast and tremendous, yet it also felt profound and mystical, unmeasurable and indescribable.
This person was the Great Void Holy Man – the Great Void Sect’s opening ancestor, the person who had just returned from the Death Sea, and the person who hadn’t shown himself in the Greater World since the fact.
Ever since he departed the Death Sea and the Spirit Sea, the Great Void Holy Man had been traversing the void space. His presence seemed to be in all the worlds at the same time, and he felt omnipresent yet it didn’t feel like he was anywhere at all.
He received an invitation not too long ago, and here he was inside Mount Yujing.
The person that sent this invitation was the man before him that was currently playing a game of chess with him.
This man was a purple-robed youth with long hair that draped behind his back – who else could it be, but Lin Feng?
The game before them right now was the Celestial Heavenly Array that Lin Feng had just taken back from the Black Sea.
The Great Void Holy Man stared at the chessboard before him in silence. His thoughts were all focused on the Celestial Heavenly Array, and his consciousness didn’t flow out of this place.
He continued looking at the chessboard as he asked plainly, “What’s the conclusion of your disciples’ expedition to the Black Sea?”
Lin Feng smiled and placed another piece calmly onto the chessboard. He wasn’t hurried or draggy as he said, “Emperor Jue insisted on a fight, and my disciples have condemned him to his death. The youngster are a little hasty and careless, please forgive them.”
