Chapter 517
“The Heaven-Law Immortal was arrogant, and I acknowledge that he crossed the line. But there was something the Heaven-Law Platform had protected for hundreds of years.”
“I see.”
“Yes. At first, I wanted you to find the answer slowly on your own. But from the moment you destroyed the Heaven-Law Platform, you had no choice but to learn that answer.”
Unhwi listened quietly.
He did not bother asking why that had to be.
There was such a thing as a shortcut in everything in the world.
Unhwi had merely taken one without intending to.
The Heavenly Wayfarer rose from his seat.
“Follow me.”
“Where are we going?”
“There is something I want to show you.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer left Sun-Moon Pavilion.
Unhwi followed.
The Heavenly Wayfarer walked.
It was the same as when they had gone to the meeting place of Heaven Beyond Heaven.
The scenery flashed past in an instant.
They were heading west.
They continued west.
They did not stop.
The Heavenly Wayfarer’s footwork was close to folding distance itself.
With one step, a mountain swept past. With two, a river passed them. With three, an entire plain ended behind them. Unhwi followed at full speed with his movement art, yet the Heavenly Wayfarer’s steps were far too effortless to be called steps at all.
He walked as though taking a stroll, while mountains and rivers flew backward around him.
The Heavenly Wayfarer always showed rather than told.
Unlike the time they had gone to the meeting place of Heaven Beyond Heaven, the situation now was unmistakably different. That alone revealed how important this matter was, and Unhwi understood it clearly.
And so.
He drew out everything he could possibly draw out and chased after the Heavenly Wayfarer.
Walking ahead, the Heavenly Wayfarer gave a peculiar smile.
Was he surprised that Unhwi could keep up at this speed?
Or did he consider this much only natural?
There was no way to tell.
The scenery changed.
The familiar mountains and fields of the Central Plains disappeared, replaced by grasslands.
Vast grasslands.
Wind swept across an endless expanse of grass.
They had reached the Western Regions. A desert came into view. Somewhere below, the Soul-Killing Gate would be there, along with countless martial artists of the wastelands.
Then it vanished.
The ocher earth turned red, then green again.
How long had they been traveling?
Had one day passed? Two?
At the Heavenly Wayfarer’s distance-folding speed, even Unhwi’s sense of time had blurred.
The air changed.
It became humid. Clinging. Nothing like the humidity of the Central Plains. The moisture was so heavy that it seemed to spread across the skin the moment it touched him. The temperature rose. It was hot. Sweat began to bead on his body.
Then a forest appeared.
Calling it a forest was insufficient.
It was a jungle.
The trees were tall. Unimaginably tall. Giant trees two or three times the height of the oldest trees said to be the tallest in the Central Plains blotted out the sky. Their trunks were massive. Even ten people spreading their arms around one would not have been enough to encircle it. Those towering trees stood densely packed together, vines weaving from one giant trunk to another. Moss covered everything.
The trees.
The rocks.
The ground.
The sky could not be seen.
The crowns of the giant trees concealed it. Thin shafts of light descended between the leaves. Light filtered green. Even in broad daylight, the jungle was dark.
Like twilight.
The sounds were different too.
Sounds never heard in the martial world. High pitches. Low pitches. Cries or songs—it was impossible to tell which. They echoed from every corner of the jungle. Whether they came from insects, beasts, or birds was impossible to distinguish.
Minute particles of energy floated in the air, catching the light and glittering.
Green.
Gold.
Indigo.
Nothing like them existed in the Central Plains.
Unhwi stopped.
At the entrance to the jungle.
The Heavenly Wayfarer looked back.
“You are not surprised.”
“The world is vast.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer gave a faint laugh.
“The Central Plains are not the entire world, true enough. But this place is another world altogether...... so you are not wrong.”
Unhwi did not show it, but he knew this place.
How could he not?
This vast jungle.
He had burned every last inch of it to the ground.
Unhwi looked around.
His senses were reacting. His ability to perceive the energy of the world was nearly being overloaded here. There was simply too much energy.
No.
More precisely, it was too dense.
If the energy of the Central Plains was a stream, the energy here was a river.
“The energy here is dense. The influence of the Thousand-Year Chaos never reached this far.”
“I see.”
“You truly are not surprised.”
“I had suspected as much.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer continued speaking as he walked into the jungle.
“Compared to the Central Plains, this place remains almost untouched.”
“So that is why......”
“Peach Blossom Garden is here.”
That was right.
Peach Blossom Garden.
The place Unhwi had burned down in his previous life.
The starting point of everything that had turned Heaven Beyond Heaven completely against him and had ultimately returned to him in the form of death.
“Follow me.”
“Yes.”
The deeper they entered the jungle, the denser the energy became. Every breath drew energy into his lungs. His body reacted. Even without conscious intent, his energy channels tried to absorb it on their own.
Unhwi turned his head.
There was a presence.
On a branch to the left.
Someone was there.
His skin was dark brown. Patterns had been marked across his body.
Green and gold patterns ran from his forearm to his shoulder, then from his shoulder up his neck. His clothing was made from leaves and leather. A spear rested in his hand. A wooden spear.
Yet energy flowed from its tip.
He was a martial artist.
Unhwi’s eyes narrowed.
He read the man’s energy.
Unity of Heaven and Man.
The man on the branch looked down at Unhwi.
Wariness filled his eyes.
But there was no hostility.
Because he had seen the Heavenly Wayfarer.
The Heavenly Wayfarer raised one hand lightly.
The man on the branch bowed his head.
Deeply.
A gesture filled with respect.
Then he vanished.
Into the leaves.
Without a sound.
As though melting into the jungle.
The Heavenly Wayfarer spoke as he walked.
“They are the Forest People. They are born, raised, and die within this jungle. They practice martial arts different from those of the Central Plains and live in a different way.”
“I see.”
“Their roots are the same as those of martial artists from the Central Plains. Both use the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. But the branches differ. The energy of this place is different from that of the Central Plains, so naturally, their martial arts developed in a different direction.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer pointed ahead.
“The Forest People guard Peach Blossom Garden.”
“Because you cannot entrust everything to the Thunder Demon Cult alone.”
“Something like that. Though ‘entrust’ is not quite right.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer corrected Unhwi.
“We made a promise.”
A promise.
Unhwi committed that word to memory.
The deeper they went into the jungle, the more presences of the Forest People he sensed.
On branches.
Between vines.
Within the shadows of giant trees.
Ten.
Twenty.
Thirty.
More.
He could not see them, but he could feel them.
With the senses of Manifestation of the Boundless.
The presence of the Forest People spread throughout the entire jungle.
This jungle itself was their territory.
Their home.
And several among those presences were anything but ordinary.
Many at Unity of Heaven and Man.
Two at Manifestation of the Boundless.
One at the Harmony realm.
It had been a while since he had felt anything like this.
“Do you know why I am explaining all of this even though you already know it?”
“I have an idea.”
“Hmm?”
“You are the same as someone in my memories, Heavenly Lord, yet also a different person.”
“Hmm.”
“Are you not trying to become the same?”
The Heavenly Wayfarer chuckled softly.
“Close, but not the answer.”
“If I ask you for the answer, will you tell me?”
The Heavenly Wayfarer shook his head.
“Heh heh. Find it yourself. I am curious whether you will take another shortcut this time or follow the proper path.”
Unhwi silently nodded.
They walked a little farther.
When the air of the jungle grew heavier still, light appeared between the trees.
A clearing.
A vast one.
The giant trees had withdrawn in a circle around it, and their arrangement almost seemed as though they were paying homage.
The sky was open.
A circular expanse of sky.
Light poured down through it.
Warm light in stark contrast to the darkness of the jungle.
At the center of the clearing stood a building.
A building made of stone.
Its design did not belong to the Central Plains. It had been constructed by stacking massive blocks of stone. Patterns were carved into the walls.
Patterns similar to those marked on the bodies of the Forest People.
Green and gold patterns glimmered faintly across the stone.
A formation surrounded the building.
A wall of energy.
Unhwi could see it.
Formation markings floated in the air.
Layer upon layer.
Five layers.
Its form was different from formations of the Central Plains, but the principle was the same.
A wall meant to stop intruders.
The Heavenly Wayfarer raised his hand.
The formation parted.
A path opened.
The two stood before the building.
The Heavenly Wayfarer looked back at Unhwi.
“This is Peach Blossom Garden.”
Unhwi looked at the building.
He had burned this place down in his previous life.
The memory surfaced.
The memory of that day, when he had been filled with rage.
But now was different.
This time, Unhwi had not come to burn it.
He had come to understand it.
The Heavenly Wayfarer opened the door.
He went inside.
Unhwi followed.
***
The interior was spacious.
And.
It was overwhelmingly red.
Shelves lined the walls, and row upon row of objects rested upon them.
There were easily thousands.
Red stones.
Blood Stones.
A faint trace of energy seeped from each one, though in truth, calling it energy was difficult.
It was the residual echo of the energy that had once dwelled within someone while they were alive.
Lingering will in the truest sense.
Or perhaps life itself.
Unhwi looked at one of the Blood Stones.
The Heavenly Wayfarer stood beside him.
“You already know what this is.”
“Yes. A Blood Stone.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer nodded.
“They are made from the corpses of martial artists.”
“......”
“Not from the living. From the dead.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer’s voice was firm.
“Remember this above all else. Not a single Blood Stone in this place was made from someone who was still alive.”
“I know.”
Unhwi answered.
The Heavenly Wayfarer looked at him.
His eyes shifted slightly.
As though trying to read something.
But he did not ask.
Unhwi did.
“Heavenly Lord.”
“Hmm.”
“Why do you make Blood Stones?”
Even in his previous life, Unhwi had never known why the Heavenly Wayfarer gathered these Blood Stones here.
Or why he made them.
He had never bothered to ask.
𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮
Nor had he wanted to know.
No matter how much the Heavenly Wayfarer seemed like heaven itself, he was still a man. Every person had secrets of his own. Asking would have been discourteous.
But not anymore.
Even in his previous life, Unhwi had become entangled with Heaven Beyond Heaven, but he had been entangled with them as an enemy. He had never become involved with them through the Heavenly Wayfarer like this.
Now they were enemies and allies at once.
And being in such a position meant there was now a reason he needed to know.
The Heavenly Wayfarer looked at the Blood Stones.
For a long time.
“Do you know what remains when a martial artist dies?”
“A corpse.”
“Only a corpse?”
“Energy remains.”
“Yes. Energy remains.”
The Heavenly Wayfarer picked up one of the Blood Stones.
He placed it on his palm.
The red stone glowed faintly in the Heavenly Wayfarer’s hand.