Just as Zhu Yun and Luo Tian escaped the fate of being roasted alive by the sun, they plunged straight from the bright side of the Great Black Heaven into its shadowed half, heading directly for the Shadow Demons' nest with the intent to slaughter them all.
After being baked for thousands of years, both had utterly spent their energy and resources. Yet the moment they finally had a chance to strike back, even knowing that a terrifying First-Rank Great Demon was lurking in the dark, they couldn't restrain themselves.
Three months earlier, Zhu Yun had thrust a single sword through the shadow barrier that separated the light and dark halves of the Great Black Heaven. With Luo Tian in tow, he plunged headlong into the Shadow Demons' central den, the Shadow Demon Pillfield.
In that instant, the sword energy Zhu Yun had honed for thousands of years erupted into billions of vaporous streams, sweeping through the Pillfield like a storm of clouds, leaving no inch untouched.
Among the three Pure Yang disciples currently revealed to the world, each wielded a path of swordsmanship as peerless as it was distinct.
Shang Xi's sword was a vast rainbow, the result of three thousand years of tempering its yin and yang perfectly harmonized, its strikes grand and thunderous.
Jing Qian's sword was invisible and formless, everywhere and nowhere sharp as an illusion, born and dying in the void, a killing edge that left no trace.
But Zhu Yun's sword was ethereal, light as mist, pervasive and unresisting, vanishing into every crevice, dissolving all things like drifting clouds or evaporating smoke.
Under his blade, over ten million Shadow Demons stood intact in form, yet all their vitality and spirit were silently stripped away by the sweeping cloudlike sword-qi.
A once-thriving demonic stronghold was frozen into stillness, every trace of life and motion wiped away, turned into a land of death.
Of these, more than ten million Shadow Demons below the Star-Seizer realm perished outright. Nine thousand four hundred twenty Star-Seizer Demons fell, along with four hundred twenty-seven Heaven-Mending Demons and nineteen at the Second Rank.
Only those nineteen Second-Rank demons, whose bodies were destroyed in the mortal realm, could still rely on their Immortal Energy Mountains to slowly regenerate new forms. The rest were annihilated, their souls extinguished.
That one strike from Zhu Yun forged through millennia of imprisonment and suffocating restraint repaid in full the karmic debt of slaughter he owed compared to the other Pure Yang disciples. It was a single blow that balanced all accounts.
And when the field was finally cleared of demons, his old companion Luo Tian, ever in perfect sync, made his move.
Raising the mighty black cauldron that served as his domain, the former Priest of the Kitchen God Hall released boundless cauldron-qi that enveloped the entire Shadow Demon Pillfield.
Every corpse of every demon was sucked into that cauldron, where they were roasted within immeasurable Great Sun True Flames and boiled using the Kitchen God's most secret techniques.
Luo Tian gathered the blood and essence of millions of Shadow Demons to brew a single legendary dish, "The Shadow Demon Celestial Life Porridge."
It was said that just a single sip of this porridge could massively enhance one's cultivation, spontaneously increase one's life-fate weight by one tael and five qian, and instantly condense an extraordinarily powerful Shadow-Element Heavenly Fate.
Just one look at that cauldron of divine porridge was enough to tell it could easily serve thirty bowls. It was the hard-won harvest of Zhu Yun and Luo Tian's desperate struggle.
But such brazen slaughter could not possibly escape the notice of the Lord of the Great Black Heaven, the Shadow Demon Emperor, a First-Rank being.
Darkness as thick as night suddenly swept across the land, and a colossal Shadow Demon incarnation blotted out the heavens as it descended upon Zhu Yun and Luo Tian.
Luo Tian paid the oncoming threat no mind. He was wholly absorbed in tending his porridge, utterly confident that Zhu Yun would hold the line.
Zhu Yun's answer was a flash of green, an emerald sword shaped like a bamboo leaf that burst forth in a rain of misty blades, turning back upon the Shadow Demon Emperor's projection.
For a moment, the entire Shadow Demon Pillfield dissolved into hazy sword rain.
It was none other than Zhu Yun's painstakingly forged path-foundation, his First-Rank spirit machine, the Longevity Immortal Sword Embryo.
This sword embryo had long since been perfectly refined and was only a few final strokes away from emerging as a true Prime First-Rank Immortal Sword.
That was the source of Zhu Yun's confidence in daring to challenge a First-Rank opponent head-on.
Sword rain and demonic power collided, their auras entwining astonishingly. Zhu Yun held his own. That alone spoke volumes of his true strength.
To become a First-Rank great power meant being among the finest of all Second-Rank cultivators, those who could once slay across realms as easily as drinking water. The Shadow Demon Emperor itself had risen by such feats, once hailed as the Heaven-Demon Saint Child, equal in rank to a Dao Son.
Now it had become Zhu Yun's whetstone, his test of worth.
Yet this was already Zhu Yun's limit. His realm was still only Heaven-Mending; both the quality and quantity of his Immortal Spirit Qi lagged far behind the Emperor's Immortal Essence.
He could only burn bright for a brief moment, fifteen minutes of glory, dancing on the edge of a blade.
Then came his roar across the battlefield:
"Cook! Are you trying to get me killed? Why is it taking so long this time!"
From behind the cauldron came Luo Tian's strained reply:
"These demon corpses are tainted! Someone poisoned them. I need twice the time to boil out the venom before the porridge is safe!"
"We've fallen for the Shadow Demon clan's trick again!"
Zhu Yun cursed, but there was nothing for it. He could only squeeze out every drop of his power and hold the Emperor at bay.
It wasn't carelessness on their part; the Shadow Demon Emperor was simply that vicious, and ruthlessly extravagant besides.
To ensnare Zhu Yun and Luo Tian, it had sacrificed tens of millions of its own kin, all to delay the cook's completion of his divine dish.
That act alone showed how deeply these two thorns in its side had humiliated the Great Black Heaven's ruler.
This, after all, was their fourth foray from the sunlit side to butcher the Shadow Demon brood.
Each time they harvested their fill, the pair would retreat into the blazing sun to digest the gains, and every re-emergence saw their strength leap higher.
But after the third massacre, the Emperor had finally laid a perfect trap. It had unleashed its full might to exhaust them completely, then driven them into the sun's core, the hundred-day furnace, the most lethal region of all, sealing every path of escape.
It was certain that the two would perish there, roasted to ashes.
And yet, against all expectations, the pair rose once more from the flames alive, furious, and returning to strike again.
However, this time the Shadow Demon clan's immense sacrifice finally seemed to pay off; they had the two troublemakers right where they wanted them.
Beside the Shadow Demon Emperor, two more towering auras suddenly rose, each belonging to a Second-Rank Shadow Demon King, both of whom had carved three characters upon their Fate Steles atop the Mountain of Immortal Essence.
The pair of Demon Kings joined the battle in an instant, sweeping toward Luo Tian in a surge of demonic might, only to be caught and locked in place by a wisp of ethereal sword-qi that bound them tight, nailing them outside the battlefield.
Neither Zhu Yun nor Luo Tian wasted a word; they fought with everything they had, their coordination seamless, each knowing the other's next move without needing to speak.
But as the quarter hour reached its end, Zhu Yun's limit was fast approaching. Luo Tian didn't hesitate any longer. With his Kitchen God Dharmic Manifestation flaring around him, he leapt into the Great Sun True Flame itself.
He invoked his secret arts, sacrificing his own body, burning his blood and essence to accelerate the brewing of the Shadow Demon Celestial Life Porridge, pouring even more divine potency into it.
Within moments, half his body had melted away, but the precious porridge was finally complete.
Zhu Yun slashed several times in succession, turned, and grabbed what was left of Luo Tian, dragging him toward the sunlit side of the Great Black Heaven.
Luo Tian, now holding a black cauldron that he had shrunk down to half a foot long, cradled it lovingly in his arms as Zhu Yun dragged him through the void.
"A fair trade!" he said cheerfully, grinning through the pain. "This is the finest porridge I've ever made worth savoring to the last drop!"
He didn't care that he was half-dead; all he could think about was the pot of porridge. Truly, madness had its own kind of genius.
The Great Black Heaven was vast. Zhu Yun fought and retreated at once, aiming for the sunlit side, but the Shadow Demon Emperor had anticipated this. It had already woven an immense shadow barrier in that direction, cutting off all escape.
It was at that very moment that Zhu Yun received Jing Qian's Sword Lotus transmission.
Ordinarily, Zhu Yun owed Jing Qian a small favor. As a senior disciple, he would have gone all out to help his junior.
But the timing couldn't have been worse; he was in the middle of a life-or-death struggle, stretched to his limit.
Not only could he not assist, but his own situation was so dire that he ended up requesting Jing Qian instead.
Using the green vertical eye between his brows, he sent a message across the cosmos.
Far away in the Yingfutu Realm, Jing Qian saw Zhu Yun's peril firsthand and clicked his tongue in disbelief before receiving a crucial instruction from his elder.
"Chi Xiao," came Zhu Yun's voice, "find my senior brother Ren Chong and ask for help. Show him what's happening to me, borrow a few of his sword strikes if you can."
Ren Chong and Zhu Yun had once been the twin Dao Sons of Pure Yang Heaven. The two had risen together from obscurity, their bond deeper than brothers. Had the Sword Lotus Pool not been extinguished all these years, Zhu Yun would have called his brother long ago.
But the Sword Lotus was a single-line communication; Zhu Yun and Ren Chong couldn't reach each other directly. The only one who could pass messages between them was Jing Qian inside Pure Yang Heaven.
Following Zhu Yun's command, Jing Qian moved to another blooming lotus, pressed Zhu Yun's recorded message onto Ren Chong's Sword Lotus, and sent it out, then began waiting once again.
All his grandmasters had long ventured beyond the heavens, seeking opportunities and conquering worlds far outside the Daoyuan Divine-Spindle Universe.
Each was farther away than the last, and the greater the distance, the harder the communication.
Jing Qian waited a full stick of incense's time before a response finally appeared upon Ren Chong's Sword Lotus.
"That useless Zhu Yun," the message read, "squawking over trifles. Let him handle it himself, don't shame our Pure Yang Heaven."
Jing Qian froze for a moment, then dutifully forwarded the message word for word to Zhu Yun, adding his own remark at the end:
"Zhu Yun Grandmaster… that's a bit harsh, isn't it?"
In the Great Black Heaven, Zhu Yun nearly broke down. He fired back instantly:
"My brother's just showing off again! He must be in a bad way himself, probably can't even swing a sword right now!"
"Chi Xiao, if you don't believe me, tell him to send his current state over so we can see it for ourselves!"
Jing Qian agreed. It made sense how could Ren Chong, who once cut down the previous Dragon Emperor of the Vast Sea with a single sword across countless realms, be stingy about lending a few sword strikes?
So Jing Qian relayed Zhu Yun's words in full:
"Grandmaster Ren Chong, Grandmaster Zhu Yun says you're on your last legs and can't even muster a sword strike anymore. He asks that you stop pretending and show us your condition so we can assess whether a rescue is possible."
This time, Ren Chong took a full quarter hour to reply.
"Zhu Yun talks nonsense," came the cold transmission. "If he could rescue me, would he still be groveling before some petty demon like a dog pulling a cart?"
"Very well, let your children see what indescribable terror truly means."
Immediately, a hazy phantom image appeared before Jing Qian's eyes. Within that vision, Ren Chong was completely naked, his arms spread wide, bound tightly to an enormous crucifix by a blood-red thorned vine.
His innate spirit machine, the Creation Immortal Sword, a true Prime First-Rank artifact, was nailed straight through his chest like a massive spike, pinning him dead to the cross.
All of his cultivation had been completely sealed. His flesh was utterly drained; every time even the faintest wisp of new Immortal Essence tried to emerge within him, it was immediately devoured by those blood-colored thorns.
The colossal cross stood planted atop a holy mountain.
From one shifting fragment of the illusion, the view looked downward from the mountain's peak, revealing billions of devout believers encircling it, kneeling and chanting in unison, day and night, without pause.
At that moment, Ren Chong seemed both like a god being worshipped by all living beings and a sacrificial offering being presented to some unimaginable existence.
Something indescribably horrific was unfolding within that scene.
Even as a mere observer, Jing Qian could feel the torment and strangeness of Ren Chong's condition, his state balanced between divinity and damnation.
His own cultivation was far too shallow; his insight was too limited to truly comprehend what he was seeing.
So, without alteration, he relayed the vision exactly as it appeared to Zhu Yun.
A moment later, Zhu Yun's voice came back, unusually heavy:
"Elder Brother… endure a few more years. Once I survive the trial before me, I'll come to free you myself."
Jing Qian shook his head, then sent a message to both of them:
"Don't lose heart, my two Grandmasters. I've only just reignited the Sword Lotus Pool, let me try reaching out to the others."
With that, he moved to the Sword Lotus belonging to Grandmaster Yuan Yang, transmitting everything, including the troubles of himself, Shang Xi, Zhu Yun, and Ren Chong, in full.
Then he continued, one lotus at a time, sending the same message to Feng Yi, Long Quan, Yang Chun, Zhi Yuan, Lei Ming, and Zhu Tian, the six most senior of the Pure Yang Disciples.
By the time he was done, all twelve Sword Lotuses in the pool had been activated and alerted.
Yet, even after a long wait, not a single response came back.
Instead, it was Ren Chong who spoke again, his weary tone cutting through the silence:
"So you're the boy Chi Xiao, eh? Don't waste your strength. Our Pure Yang Heaven is bound in cause and effect, our calamities are unending, and there is no release."
"Generation after generation of disciples carry this curse. Every Pure Yang Son is born with disaster entwined in his fate."
"We face the tribulations head-on, cutting through the storms with our swords, never fearing the path ahead."
"But if even I have fallen this deep into the tribulation, then those elder Pure Yang Sons fare no better."
"Judging by my own state… it wouldn't surprise me if Grandmaster Yuan Yang has already perished. You'd best not pin your hopes there."
With those few words, Ren Chong laid bare the grim reality of Pure Yang Heaven.
This was a sect of unrelenting slaughter, a lineage of war and vengeance, despised by countless foes and cursed daily by unseen enemies.
Their strongest elders stood at the front, shielding those behind, facing the fiercest and deadliest of calamities.
But when they could no longer endure, the calamity aura naturally passed down the chain, spilling into their disciples.
It would continue like a flood, wave after wave, until it drowned all who bore the name of Pure Yang Heaven, erasing them to the last.
And now that even the newly risen Jing Qian, the latest Pure Yang Son, was feeling the touch of impending catastrophe, it could only mean one thing: his predecessors were suffering fates far, far worse than his own.
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