Chapter 870 - 337: 9 Tribulations True Immortal (Part 2)
The two people from the Xuan Sect were simply no match for her.
However, the Xuan Sect was the Righteous Alliance Leader, numerous and powerful. Facing the onslaught of many, Fu Ming was still defeated.
Under the offensive of a high-ranking elder from the Xuan Sect, she was severely wounded and fell into a valley.
The crowd entered the valley for pursuit.
Fan Wubing was among them.
However, he firmly believed his senior sister was definitely not a Demon Cultivator, and his intention for finding her was not for her execution, but to save her.
In his cultivation journey, where he had never had much luck, this time he was fortunate enough to find Fu Ming first.
At this moment, Fu Ming was at death’s door, liable to perish at any time.
Fan Wubing didn’t think much. He believed in his own world and vowed to repay the life-saving grace and the favor of recognition. So, he began an escape with her.
Facing the pursuit of the Xuan Sect, who even Fu Ming couldn’t defeat, Fan Wubing’s journey of escape was extremely difficult.
Countless times he brushed against death.
But he could always survive, just like cultivating in the sect, no matter how severely it cost him.
Fu Ming was severely injured, her foundation completely destroyed, all her cultivation vanished, turning her into a complete mortal. She repeatedly asked Fan Wubing to abandon her, not to delay his own path of cultivation.
But Fan Wubing was indeed a stubborn person, refusing to abandon her.
While on the run, he pondered ways to help Fu Ming rebuild her foundation.
During this time, he asked Fu Ming why she was labeled as a Demon Cultivator. But Fu Ming always remained silent.
Later, by chance, he accidentally discovered that it was because Fu Ming, in a secret realm, killed the son of a core elder of the Xuan Sect while competing for a treasure with others. So that elder abused his position for personal revenge, labeling Fu Ming as a Demon Cultivator.
After learning the truth, Fan Wubing sought out Fu Ming to ask,
"Why couldn’t you tell me for such a simple reason?"
Fu Ming replied,
"I didn’t handle the aftermath well and got exposed. I was too ashamed to say it."
From that moment, Fan Wubing truly began to understand his senior sister.
"Then why not explain?"
"This is the Cultivation Realm."
This answer left Fan Wubing with no room for argument.
However, after this day, the conversation between them became more frequent.
Fu Ming was someone who was almost completely inept in everything except cultivation. She was extremely bad at managing her personal life... because she became a mortal, food, clothing, shelter, and transportation took up most of her life. But most of this was handled by Fan Wubing.
Fan Wubing was very reliable, almost never making Fu Ming feel hardship.
Yet correspondingly, Fan Wubing quite bore everything alone.
Having left the sect to live a loose cultivator’s life, the already scant resources were mostly used by him to find ways to help Fu Ming rebuild her foundation, leaving only the leftovers for himself.
Yet, his cultivation seemed different from others and did not stagnate due to the lack of resources.
On the contrary, during the escape, he developed an extremely acute combat intuition.
With his clear-cut ways of handling things, he became a chivalrous hero in the realm of loose cultivators.
A hero dragging along his family.
For him, this period was actually a happy time because he had a sense of controlling his own life.
But the endless pursuit from the Xuan Sect,
eventually pushed them into a desperate situation.
Facing the strongest onslaught yet from the Xuan Sect, Fan Wubing knew he could not continue escaping with Fu Ming. However, he did not abandon her to escape alone but instead chose to attract the enemy away by himself, securing her a chance to escape.
Fu Ming, who always listened to his arrangements, vehemently opposed this decision.
But he was "stubborn," undertaking the risk alone.
Ultimately, he was driven by the Xuan Sect, into a perilous land filled with yin evil. Given his cultivation and situation, there was absolutely no chance of surviving it.
As expected. Upon entering, his soul was consumed by Evil Qi.
Death loomed right before him.
Ever since childhood, his desperate perseverance brought him a glimmer of hope. Just when his soul was about to be entirely corroded, he encountered... a sword.
This sword could speak.
It called itself Peach Blossoms.
Peach Blossoms said it could help him escape peril, but only if he became its Sword Slave.
Fan Wubing, always wanting to defy fate, would never become someone else’s slave, preferring to die unyieldingly.
Thus, Peach Blossoms changed its tune, proposing only a symbiotic relationship.
Worried about his senior sister’s situation, Fan Wubing, after some struggle, agreed. But to his shock, this sword was a thorough demon sword. From the moment he established a symbiotic relationship with it, he treaded the path of the Demon Dao, never to return.
The newly liberated Peach Blossoms, alongside Fan Wubing, began its first massacre upon returning to the world.
There were thirty-seven participants in the Xuan Sect’s pursuit. Their cultivation was generally one to five levels higher than Fan Wubing’s.
Yet, all thirty-seven were ultimately killed by Peach Blossoms in extremely brutal manners.
Fully aware of having fallen into demonhood and being unable to turn back, the righteous Fan Wubing, too ashamed to face his senior sister, secretly left a farewell letter before plunging into the chaotic Cultivation World, becoming a lone ranger.
Nevertheless, he still adhered to his own moral principles. In Peach Blossoms’ view, these principles were laughable.
The man and the sword bickered daily over various matters.
They despised each other yet could not escape their symbiotic relationship. Neither could do without the other.
Like most loose cultivators,
Fan Wubing handled affairs cautiously, never attacking unless provoked. However, if circumstances compelled him to kill and loot, he would leave no traces, reducing foes to dust.
Time flowed on in cycles of "centuries."
One century after another passed by.
Fan Wubing traversed over a thousand large and small secret realms, Cave Heaven Blessed Lands.
He grew stronger and stronger.
When he parted from his senior sister, he was a Nascent Soul.
Through battles and perilous journeys.
He reached Unity and Dao, ushering in his own Cultivation Mahayana.
On this path, he gained immensely.
Fame, glory, achievement, admiration, friends aligned with his beliefs.
He also met someone he liked. However, she was the Saintess of the world’s number one sect, the Holy Sect, representing the world’s righteousness, sacred and inviolable, pure and untouchable. Keeping the secret of his Demon Cultivator identity deeply hidden, he had no chance of approaching her. Yet, fate allowed them to share an intimate memory one night.
After this, he chose to leave.
After a long period of silence, he faced his Heavenly Tribulation.
For the first time, he felt the wondrous journey called "ascension."
A broader world beckoned him.
However, he did not choose ascension.
Because he had regrets, unfinished matters in this world.
After achieving fame and success, he began to search for traces of his senior sister Fu Ming. He considered that with her foundation destroyed and turned into a mortal, his senior sister might have been captured by the Xuan Sect, met misfortune, or died of old age.
Yet he found not even a semblance of Fu Ming’s remains or any similar trace.
Intertwined with this matter, he was unwilling to ascend.
Each subsequent Heavenly Tribulation was stronger than the last. The Heavenly Dao seemingly told him he was too potent to stay in the Cultivation Realm and should move to a vaster world.
Even facing the Heavenly Dao, Fan Wubing, like the naïve young man of old, showed an immature side and insisted on remaining in the Cultivation Realm.
Heaven’s wrath descended upon him with Tribulations fiercer than anyone else’s.
But he always endured them, though his post-tribulation state was consistently tragic.
From a One-fold Tribulation Immortal, to Three-fold, to Five-fold, to Seven-fold, to Eight-fold.
Everyone believed if he did not ascend, he would surely perish under the Ninth Heavenly Tribulation.
While waiting for the final Heavenly Tribulation, Fan Wubing suddenly came across a brand new Dao never seen before.
This Dao held sway over the destiny of all things, even the fate of other Daos.
He named it the Destiny Dao.
He couldn’t help but wonder, perhaps mastering the Destiny Dao would reveal his senior sister’s fate? Could it change everything?
But the Destiny Dao was truly elusive and intangible.
Before the ninth Heavenly Tribulation arrived, he could not master it. However, he gained an Acquired Dao, barely able to glimpse destiny. He named it—
The All Things Law Dao.
In his eyes, destiny was the very rhythm of all things.
Finally,
The Ninth Heavenly Tribulation descended.
This time, Fan Wubing ceased resisting, accepting the arrangement placed upon him by the Heavenly Dao. With the invincible stance of a Nine-Tiered Tribulation Immortal, he ascended from the Cultivation Realm.
On the day of ascension,
the immortal title "Seven Luminaries True Monarch" resonated throughout the world.
Thus, Fan Wubing embarked on the Path of Eternity to the Great Thousand Worlds.