Tearing through the fierce wind rushing toward her, tearing through the space that Xie Buchen had frozen, even tearing through—
The heavenly canopy!
At that moment, Xie Buchen’s world was still.
But Jian Chou before his eyes was the only living thing in this still world!
The Human Emperor Sword hung at her brow, already leaving a deep bloody mark, making her entire face appear more fierce and disheveled…
But—
So close, yet an insurmountable chasm!
The Human Emperor Sword could not advance even an inch further!
Jian Chou’s raised hands carried a kind of closeness to the sky, vast and distant.
Her five fingers slightly bent, knuckles white, exerting force to the extreme, yet elegant to the extreme!
“Crack—”
Breaking ice!
The entire frozen space actually let out a crisp, tremendous sound, as if it had been torn apart by Jian Chou’s hands!
The terrifying spatial fluctuations were even more twisted and violent than when Xie Buchen had spoken the word “Fight” and sealed the entire “Realm”!
A black spatial crack, like a sheet of pitch-black thin blade, and like a sharp long sword, starting from where Jian Chou’s hands separated, instantly shot toward Xie Buchen!
That was not merely a madly spreading spatial crack, but also a bolt of madly racing lightning!
Xie Buchen didn’t even have time to react!
“Bang!”
The terrifying crack struck straight at his chest!
Crash!
Blood splattered everywhere!
The Human Emperor Sword flew backward, and flying backward with it was Xie Buchen’s blood-stained figure!
At that moment, the entire world overturned in his eyes!
Jian Chou, who had been close before him, rapidly became distant.
What filled his entire vision instead was a vast, boundless sky—
Baptized by the violent wind and rain stirred up by the previous great battle, the firmament above the heavenly lake was even more pure and clear;
Above the lake surface, karmic fire red lotuses, reflecting the golden-glittering thousand-foot giant Buddha, added countless brilliance;
Over three thousand heads scattered around the giant Buddha now all looked up toward the sky!
As Jian Chou tore apart Xie Buchen’s sealed “Realm,” a huge black crack silently appeared above the giant Buddha’s head.
Some dense, some brilliant stars, some blazing, some dim nebulae…
They spread across that dark void, spread across the ordered or chaotic trajectories of this universe…
Like a drop of thick ink dropped into a clear lake, the entire sky suddenly darkened.
As if a ripple had passed through, the azure sky canopy instantly turned into pitch-black eternal night!
One star after another, invisible during the day, suddenly appeared.
The vast Milky Way, brilliant stars!
A magnificent aura from the primordial universe descended from heaven at this moment, completely enveloping and wrapping Jian Chou within!
Her snow-white skin stained with blood, her figure thin yet upright in the wind.
Her ink-black hair floated in the night sky, dotted with starlight.
The brilliant galaxy, as if casually scattered by immortals, spread out a vast universe.
The barrier between the hidden realm and the great world seemed to have been torn away by Jian Chou’s action.
Thus…
The phantom of an octagonal high platform slowly emerged from that boundless brilliant galaxy.
Eight pillars reaching the sky stretched high toward the lonely night sky, the boundless universe. Vaguely, starlight seemed to gather upon them, flowing endlessly.
On the high platform, those ancient and simple casting patterns seemed to contain the principles of cosmic stellar movement.
Though the entire platform floated in outer space, it didn’t seem abrupt at all, as if it naturally belonged there, was one of the billions of stars, was part of the universe.
The moment it appeared, before Jian Chou’s eyes seemed to spread again those one hundred and nineteen steps of the heavenly path. She stepped on the blood-red steps illuminated by blood and evening glow, step by step…
Ascending to heaven!
At this moment, Xie Buchen flying backward in shock was stunned;
Below the lotus platform, in the remaining four azure lamps, the still-trapped Young Master Ruhua, Lu Xiangleng, Xia Houshe, and even Zuoliu, were all stunned.
No matter where they were, no matter what they were doing, when this octagonal platform appeared, everyone’s heartbeat stopped for a moment!
Then, their hearts seemed to be pierced by a sword, with scalding blood flowing madly, driving them all to madness!
Who could not recognize it?
Who could not remember it?!
That was the One Person Platform that Jian Chou had ascended at the Left Three Thousand Small Assembly, that place towering above the Central Domain!
Day and night overturned, the galaxy hung down!
The scene of Jian Chou stepping on heaven and ascending the One Person Platform alone instantly overlapped with what they saw at this moment, exactly the same…
But…
How was this possible!
The Central Domain One Person Platform, the pinnacle of the Left Three Thousand Small Assembly, had always only appeared during the small assembly, had always only appeared under the control of Master Hengxu of Kunwu. How could it possibly appear elsewhere?
Even…
Summoned by Jian Chou!
“One Person Platform…”
Master Hengxu’s gray Daoist robe fluttered in the wind, but his entire person seemed frozen in place, motionless, with only a bitter feeling spreading from the depths of his throat.
He stiffly looked toward the southwest direction. After a long time, he lowered his head to look at his own palm.
That was the forbidden talisman that had once opened the One Person Platform.
Central Domain Left Three Thousand, Kunwu One Person Platform!
At this moment, someone had actually summoned the One Person Platform without a forbidden talisman?
Who else could it be?
Master Hengxu closed his eyes, opened them again, and finally looked below.
Fudao Shanren stood beside him, standing shoulder to shoulder with him on the Buddha pagoda.
Below was a stretch of bodhi dense forest.
At some point, countless martial monks in blue-gray robes had surrounded the Buddha pagoda densely.
A fat monk wearing □□ robes, with kind eyebrows and gentle eyes, stood directly below, in front of all the martial monks.
He wore a string of thick prayer beads on his chest and held another string in his hand.
Kind eyebrows, gentle eyes, white and fat, with earlobes hanging down a section, looking like a Maitreya Buddha, lips not curved but eyebrows smiling, extremely benevolent.
Putting his palms together, the fat monk bowed to the two distinguished “uninvited guests” on the Buddha pagoda.
“Amitabha, two benefactors, visiting the Chan sect, this poor monk has been remiss in welcoming you from afar.”
Master Hengxu looked at this monk for a long time, then turned to look at Fudao Shanren beside him.
Tattered clothes, thin as a bamboo pole with chicken legs, looking like a fallen old beggar…
He was eating chicken legs bite by bite, as if being surrounded by the entire Chan sect’s martial monks couldn’t stop his love for food.
The light of the forbidden talisman in his palm had gradually dimmed…
The bitter taste in his mouth finally became substantial.
Even though Master Hengxu was among the foremost of the great cultivators in the world, he couldn’t quickly escape from the formation of millions of Chan sect martial monks to rescue anyone.
Not to mention, standing beside him now was Fudao—
That Fudao from Yashan!
A pair of enlightened eyes slowly closed, then opened.
Master Hengxu’s voice was extremely calm, like a sigh, yet very certain: “You calculated against me…”
“Hehe…”
Fudao Shanren’s face didn’t redden nor his heart beat fast, only laughing ambiguously like this.
…
In the Buddha pagoda, on that enormous Buddha statue, golden light remained brilliantly impossible to look at directly.
Above the entire Northern Domain Chan sect, a layer of golden light floated, echoing with that layer of golden light above the Human Realm Island…
Buddha’s light shone everywhere.
But in Xie Buchen’s heart, there was no warmth at all.
He stared blankly at that One Person Platform, even somewhat unable to react…
Others might not know clearly, but as Master Hengxu’s true disciple, having read extensively, he knew more than anyone!
Therefore, the shock in his heart also exceeded everyone’s!
A vague connection emanated from the One Person Platform, like a ray of starlight, falling upon Jian Chou, connecting her with the One Person Platform.
He could clearly feel that at this moment, Jian Chou seemed to be one with the One Person Platform!
At that moment, Jian Chou raised her head and saw his pain and struggle, bitterness and…
Unwillingness!
Yes.
If Qu Zhengfeng hadn’t calculated against him with Nascent Soul Peak cultivation in the hidden realm of Qingfeng Nunnery, if he hadn’t forcibly formed his Golden Core while heavily injured, if he could have returned to Kunwu on time before the small assembly began…
Perhaps everything would have been different?
Unfortunately, there were no such “ifs”!
Entering the Red Killing Small Realm, seizing the Dijiang Bone Jade, fighting in the Left Three Thousand Small Assembly, ascending the One Person Platform alone, all the way from Kunwu’s open and hidden struggles to the hidden realm, repeated killings, even forcibly tearing off half the scroll!
…
All of this flashed through Jian Chou’s mind.
She bathed in starlight, and the stars on the horizon vaguely seemed to have a strange change.
In this mysterious and unfathomable aura, Jian Chou finally extended her right hand—
The long-disappeared fierce ghost axe instantly condensed and reappeared in her palm!
“Snap!”
Five fingers instantly gripped tightly!
An obscure ripple suddenly surged in all directions the moment her five fingers grasped the axe handle!
Like a giant wave washing over, the billions of stars overhead all brightened from dim to bright the moment this ripple passed by!
Brightening along with them was a Dao seal condensed with starlight on Jian Chou’s ghost axe…
Not the Sky-Splitting Slash, nor the Red Sun Slash, but a completely new Dao seal.
A Dao seal that didn’t belong to the ghost axe.
In the vast void, stars were scattered like chess pieces.
The One Person Platform in outer space also overflowed with starlight.
Eight beams of light emerged from the eight pillars reaching the sky, threading through like silk, soft as threads, and in the blink of an eye left the One Person Platform, actually heading toward the lofty sky!
Billions of stars—how magnificent?
Those eight beams of light—how faint?
Yet the moment they reached the firmament, they actually threaded through the most central star like stringing beads, then continued toward the next star!
Actually using billions of stars as beads!
Star after star was strung together, becoming ever brighter!
As the beams of light threaded through, that endless blazing starlight fell down, landing on the ghost axe’s Dao seal in Jian Chou’s hand, seemingly injecting a completely new power into the seal, radiating moving brilliance.
Brighter and brighter, brighter and brighter…
From thin lines of light, becoming thick light seals, finally becoming a brilliant river of light!
What she held in her hand—where was it still a ghost axe?
It was clearly a brilliant, ever-flowing galaxy!
Bathed in starlight, standing under those billions of stars arranged like a chessboard, the ancient One Person Platform still emanated a weathered aura…
Jian Chou gazed at Xie Buchen, only raising the ghost axe high, her voice distant as if coming from the ninth heaven.
“Fellow Daoist Xie, do you believe in heavenly punishment?”
The ghost axe drew that galaxy formed by the Dao seal, suddenly attracting all the starlight from outer space. In an instant, it illuminated the entire void bright as day!
Jian Chou’s figure was wrapped in this starlight, impossible for anyone to see clearly.
Heavenly punishment?
Perhaps it existed.
But it would never punish him.
Xie Buchen didn’t answer, couldn’t answer at all.
He opened his eyes wide, straining to see clearly Jian Chou’s figure wrapped in starlight, to see clearly her every movement, to see clearly the newest Dao seal on that ghost axe!
Countless clues flashed madly through his mind…
Fighting all the way, yet Jian Chou had never used this Dao seal, how similar to him using the power of “Realm” at the last moment?
Almost the moment he saw that brilliant galaxy, he was certain: Jian Chou only had the power for this one strike!
It might shatter him to pieces, or perhaps…
There was a thread of life!
He was still falling toward the distant lake, Jian Chou’s figure becoming smaller and smaller in his eyes, but that brilliant galaxy was like a flowing great river, overturning from the horizon.
A jade-quality seal, just as Xie Buchen was about to fall, was quietly pinched between his fingers…
As long as he crushed it…
Still falling madly, Xie Buchen just blinked slightly, seeming to have made his decision.
The next moment, that brilliant galaxy expanded tremendously in his eyes!
Jian Chou’s raised right hand, holding the ghost axe whose shape was blurred by starlight, slowly fell.
She seemed to see through Xie Buchen’s inner thoughts, only smiling: “I don’t believe in heavenly punishment either. So—if heaven won’t punish, I will!”
“Rumble!”
As her words fell, in the entire dark firmament above, the stars connected like a string of beads had formed a strange seal.
The moment Jian Chou’s ghost axe fell, a huge beam of light came from the depths of the universe, piercing through this seal and falling upon the ghost axe!
The galaxy suddenly became like a bursting dam!
Like falling stars, a beam of starlight from the ninth heaven, from the torn sky, pierced downward!
As if—
Heavenly punishment!
Five fingers tense, flesh and blood mangled, wounds even deeper than bone.
But at this moment, Jian Chou could no longer feel any pain.
She couldn’t even feel that section of red rope wound around her fingers.
The small silver lock at the end of the red rope swayed gently as she swung the ghost axe, a dim silver luster flashing by…
At that moment, Xie Buchen suddenly froze…
The fingers grasping the seal also suddenly stiffened…
He could no longer see anything else in his eyes…
In his daze, it was as if a needle had pricked his eye.
That trace of silver light—how insignificant it was?
In almost the blink of an eye, it was swallowed by the endless brilliant galaxy that swept heaven and earth!
In Xie Buchen’s eyes, that trace of silver light completely disappeared…
What followed was the endless galaxy filling his entire vision!
All sensation disappeared completely in this instant.
Even that endless galaxy darkened, blackened…
“Rumble!”
The magnificent stellar force became a galaxy, pouring down from the horizon, striking diagonally through the thousand-foot giant Buddha’s head.
The entire huge Buddha head actually crashed downward!
Over three thousand heads all screamed.
The next moment, all the screams were drowned by the falling galaxy, becoming a cacophony…
Stellar force like a river, washing downward.
The great Buddha completely toppled, countless heads shattered by the stellar flow.
The entire world, filled with brilliant starlight, absorbed everything into the most primordial universe, transforming everything into the most initial chaos…
Only the One Person Platform still floated in outer space.
Eight threads of light formed by stellar radiance withdrew from the billions of stars, all reaching toward the already exhausted Jian Chou. A breath of nothingness immediately enveloped her entire person, and in a flash, she disappeared without a trace.
Only that ghost axe condensed with stellar force cut through the soon-to-be-bright vast void, plunging into spatial cracks and drifting toward unknown distances…
In the endless Extreme Domain wasteland, the rolling Yellow Springs flowed over layers of white bones on the riverbank, rushing toward the deeper parts of this underworld reincarnation realm.
Countless souls from the Human Realm Island queued up, some wooden, some wailing, some laughing…
A hundred different states.
It had been unknown how many days since arriving in the underworld.
Zhang Tang wore a set of dark black minor official robes, walking slowly through this group of souls with his hands behind his back, a pale green vertical mark on his brow, his face completely cold, giving people a feeling of inhuman ruthlessness.
“Old Zhang, Old Zhang!”
Behind him, a sharp, ear-piercing shout.
Zhang Tang stopped and looked back.
He saw a sharp-faced monkey-like little ghost official standing in front of the Ghost Gate, with deeply sunken eye sockets, two bright red eyes, and a head fully half smaller than ordinary ghosts.
He waved a book filled with ghostly scrawl in his hand, loudly calling his name.
Beside the small-headed ghost stood a green-eyed big-headed ghost, kicking at the souls passing through the gate.
“Damn this bastard, being a person, why give yourself such a complicated name? Grandfather can’t even recognize your characters!”
“…”
Needless to say, these two illiterate ghost officials couldn’t read again.
Zhang Tang looked heavily at these two for a moment, finally turned around and headed toward the Ghost Gate.
Unexpectedly, just as he was three steps away from reaching the Ghost Gate.
A brilliant starlight suddenly streaked across the dark sky of the Extreme Domain wasteland, almost illuminating the entire underworld!
Countless souls and evil spirits all looked up in horror, their souls scattering and gathering in fright.
That was a power that made hearts tremble…
Before Zhang Tang could think about what this light might be, he saw a ghostly, fierce axe carried by that stellar stream, actually flying out of the void!
“Bang!”
A tremendous crash!
The absurdly huge axe actually grazed Zhang Tang’s head, drawing a dangerous arc, and by pure coincidence, struck right into the Ghost Gate!
The character for “Gate” instantly shattered, turning to powder!
At this moment, whether ghost guards or ghost officials, or these passing souls, all trembled!
All gazes converged.
That brilliant stellar stream on the horizon drew a long line.
The axe handle trembled slightly, and that stellar stream gradually disappeared in the distance.
Only on the axe body, those fierce myriad ghost patterns suddenly became red as blood!