Chapter 345 - 187: Saint Fan of Calamity (2)
The Immoral Taoist had no time to feel the sting of his loss. After putting away the Five Qi Heroic Spirit Pouch, he cast a spell to resist the calamitous aura while simultaneously pulling a Black Gold Dragon-Seeking Ruler from his sleeve. He spat a mouthful of primordial qi onto it, and the ruler began to spin wildly. It went faster and faster, as if it didn’t know where to stop. He couldn’t help but curse before shouting, "What are you kids still doing here? Run!"
The martial brothers, the Immoral Taoist and the Jide Taoist, led solitary lives. As masters of divination, they had always traveled widely and built an extensive network of contacts.
Even among Primordial Spirit True Men, they were the sort of people one should never cross. For that reason, now that the assailants had struck, they had likely come prepared to slaughter every last one of them. Any talk of the Purple Tribulation Pearl Fruit was merely a delaying tactic...
The young cultivators present, however, were another matter. They were not only exceptionally talented but also came from significant backgrounds. If the enemy had any reservations, they might not go so far as to kill them all.
Of course, the Immoral Taoist was not ignorant of the danger. The enemy’s Divine Techniques were simply too profound. Even if he and the Jide Taoist joined forces, he had no confidence they could handle the situation. Their position was already precarious, and having to protect these kids was a fatal flaw in their defense.
"If there’s truly no other way, our only option is to risk it all," Mi Yuan Dao said with a grave expression. "But our foe is a powerhouse from the Innate Demon Sect..."
Zhong Shenxiu shook his head. "That’s no different from placing our lives in the hands of another. Unacceptable."
Members of the Demon Sect weren’t always monstrously evil, but more often than not, they were utterly without scruples, acting on their every whim. To place one’s life in their hands... the outcome was truly impossible to predict.
What’s more, the Innate Demon Sect was the foremost among the Demon Sects of the Profound Yellow Realm. Its history predated even many of the great orthodox sects. Before the orthodox path flourished, they had once ruled the Shen Zhou Land. Therefore, the trust between the orthodox and demonic paths was fragile at best.
But that being said, simply waiting for death was definitely not the best course of action.
Zhong Shenxiu’s brow furrowed deeply. As he glanced around, he could see that everyone was already steeled for a final, desperate struggle.
Even Xuzhuang had his hand secretly on his True Inheritance Golden Sword, his brow furrowed in thought. He was calculating if he could use the Primordial Treasure Lotus Parasol to escape, should their opponent prove utterly ruthless and go for the kill.
No matter how perilous, it was better than offering their necks to the blade. Given the character of everyone present, they would not lack for decisiveness when the time came.
Zhong Shenxiu suddenly raised a hand to point, his voice cutting through the tension. "Might I ask, Zhenren, if we were able to shatter this pocket world, could we turn the situation around?"
"Huh? What a stupid question." The Immoral Taoist rolled his eyes in annoyance. Just as he was about to say something else, his heart skipped a beat. "Zhong the Kid," he asked, "you don’t actually have a way, do you?"
Before Zhong Shenxiu could respond, the Immoral Taoist continued, "If you can break us out of this dimensional prison, I can guarantee I’ll get you all away."
Zhong Shenxiu shook his head and simply said, "Whether it works or not, I only have one chance to try."
The Immoral Taoist replied instantly, "Kid, just give it your best shot. If we escape, I promise I’ll make it worth your while."
"That won’t be necessary. I am merely doing what I can," Zhong Shenxiu replied faintly, then suddenly declared, "Zhenren, get ready!"
The Immoral Taoist’s expression grew solemn. Everyone else held their breath, their focus unwavering. They watched as Zhong Shenxiu calmly formed a hand seal and pointed upward. A purple mist swirled into existence above him, and from within it, his Gangyun slowly ascended.
"What is this?"
When Zhong Shenxiu claimed he could shatter the confinement of this inverted world, everyone was astonished, but no one questioned him.
After all, for a prodigy of his rare talent—a Daoist of the Upper Profound Orthodox Sect, no less—who was highly favored by his sect’s masters, it was not impossible that he had been granted an incredibly powerful life-saving measure.
However, for him to raise his Gangyun and prepare to channel a technique was far beyond anyone’s expectations. ’Could a Nascent Soul Cultivator possibly wrestle with a Primordial Spirit True Man?’
The gulf between a Nascent Soul Cultivator and a Primordial Spirit True Man was as vast as the sky and the earth. Their opponent hadn’t even revealed themselves, yet they had pushed both the Jide Taoist and the Immoral Taoist into a corner. The disparity in power needed no words.
Zhong Shenxiu could not possibly be ignorant of this fact. And yet, he simply raised his Gangyun to its highest point with an air of indifference, slowly formed a hand seal, and pointed upward!
A brilliant purple light flared, instantly illuminating the space. Under its glow, the inverted world grew faint and illusory. The light seemed to punch through the barrier, shooting into the depths of the void to add a new purple star to the sea of constellations.
Faintly, from within Zhong Shenxiu’s Gangyun, an ancient gateway emerged. It was engraved with mountains and rivers, birds and beasts, and a world of star rivers.
It seemed infinitely vast, its supreme presence captivating every soul. It seemed infinitely high, as though it hung above the universe itself, gazing down upon the myriad heavens and their countless beings. It seemed the most noble existence between heaven and earth, inspiring a natural submission. It seemed the most profound gateway in all creation, recording the very origin and flow of the Great Dao...
’This is...!’ Xuzhuang’s Spiritual Sense jolted as an unbelievable guess surfaced in his mind.
The Immoral Taoist shuddered. The hand-rolled cigarette that seemed glued between his teeth fell from his mouth as he stared, utterly dumbfounded.
"Halt!" The single, inscrutable syllable came calmly from Zhong Shenxiu’s mouth.
A nearly invisible talisman lit up on the gateway. A bolt of Purple Sky Divine Thunder, looking so ordinary it seemed no different from one Zhong Shenxiu would normally cast, shot out from behind the portal. And then—
All calamities dispersed, and the pocket world shattered!
That bolt of Purple Sky Divine Thunder merely struck empty air, yet it instantly annihilated everything in all ten directions. A true scene of world-ending destruction unfolded in a flash, shattering the space like a mirror.
Once again, the vast, star-filled cosmos filled their vision.
With a single strike, Zhong Shenxiu had actually broken open the Inverted Heaven and Earth, bringing everyone back into the void of space.
"Damn it, good on you, kid!" the Immoral Taoist roared. The Wine Immortal Gourd shot into the void with the speed of lightning, vanishing without a trace in less than the blink of an eye.
...
After a long moment, countless wisps of primordial qi flowed in from all directions, converging in mid-air. They coalesced to reveal a handsome man wearing a fishtail crown, robed in a Golden Threaded Profound Robe, holding a tattered scroll, and treading barefoot on flames of green and white. He stared deeply into the distance where the Wine Immortal Gourd had vanished, coldly spitting out three words: "Pure Yang Treasure!"
"No wonder True Man Yan Tian wasn’t optimistic about this trip of yours. So there really was a massive pit waiting for you to fall into."
A flippant, gloating voice echoed through the void. "If not for your good luck," it taunted, "if you’d been careless for just a moment and been struck by that Pure Yang Treasure, I’m afraid your entire cultivation would have been washed away. All those thousands of tribulations and hundreds of trials would have been for naught..."
The handsome man in the Golden Threaded Profound Robe showed no change in expression, but his voice was cold. "Why didn’t you help me stop them?"
The voice feigned surprise. "Help you stop them? If I had been struck by that Pure Yang Treasure and had my cultivation washed down the drain, wouldn’t the victim have been me, Hong Xian, instead of you, Saint Fan of Calamity?"
Saint Fan of Calamity’s brow twitched, and the faint sound of world-destroying winds whispered through the void. It accompanied his frosty words, which seemed poised to annihilate a million miles of space and reduce it all to dust—
"Stop, stop, stop—!" Hong Xian shrieked. "Saint Fan of Calamity, your cultivation of calamity arts is already causing your Thunder Tribulation to arrive prematurely, and you still dare to use your Divine Techniques so wantonly?"
"If you face your Thunder Tribulation now, it will be certain death!"
Saint Fan of Calamity sneered. "In that case," he snarled, "I might as well kill you first, you androgynous freak."
Suddenly, an arctic chill seemed to sweep through the void, and Hong Xian’s tone dropped to absolute zero. "Saint Fan of Calamity, who are you calling androgynous? I am a Pure Yang Child, a man born and bred!"
"Bwahahahahaha!" Saint Fan of Calamity howled with derisive laughter, looking as though he were crying from it, gasping for breath as he spoke. "A Pure Yang Child! A man born and bred! A ’masculine man’ whose Spiritual Treasure’s true form was refined from a little pink kerchief! Bwahahahaha..."
"You’re dead meat! You’re dead! I’ll kill you!" Hong Xian shrieked. "No, I won’t kill you. There’s no need for me to lift a finger! Without the Purple Tribulation Pearl Fruit, you’ll die under your Thunder Tribulation within two hundred years!"
"And you still want to overcome the Three Calamities, to ride the momentum of this fated tribulation and reach for Pure Yang? Keep dreaming!"