Volume Two: The Mortal Realm Chapter 111: The Frenzy of Fate

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Everyone looked up to the slowly cracking dome above. The deafening roar of shattering rock and the surging divine light seemed to engulf everything in an instant. Humans are but driftwood caught in the raging tides of fate. Life is like this; everyone is like this—where is the freedom?

“Boom!”

The dome shattered completely. The divine light pouring in was not illumination, but madness, destruction, and cold death. Amid the thunderous roar and the chaotic, blinding light, Ye Mingke vaguely saw the old beggar beside him, his twisted, ferocious face silently opening and closing his mouth in a roar.

“Go.”

The old beggar’s roar rose again, overpowering even the sound of the collapsing mountain. His hands drew heavy, laborious circles. Only then did Ye Mingke sense the thick, viscous light flowing like a stream among the people, following the old beggar’s gestures. This light carried a terrifying aura of destruction. More light cascaded down from the cracked dome above.

The old beggar’s face was grotesquely distorted, pushed to his limit. Ye Mingke scooped up Aru, while Liu Xi grabbed Xu Zixian’s shoulder, and together they frantically retreated.

But it was already too late.

The divine light surging from above was overwhelming. The silvery-white circle traced by the old beggar’s fist was stretched to its limit, crawling with cracks. The old beggar roared and swung his hand, blasting the entire cracked “silver moon” toward the ground.

Wild spiritual energy roared and surged inside the cavern, like a furious dragon rolling and tearing through everything. Before the force hit, Liu Xi, who had been running ahead of Mingke, turned to grab Ye Mingke’s shoulder, hurling him and Xu Zixian further into the tunnel. She turned abruptly, her body radiating cyan energy, blocking the tidal wave of spiritual force behind them. But her resistance was brief; the overwhelming tide of spiritual energy struck her, sending her flying.

A vast tidal wave of spiritual energy swept through.

“Boom!”

The entire cave trembled and collapsed, its dome raining down soil and stones like a violent storm. Terrifyingly, the ground, directly hit by the spiritual force, was torn open by massive, jagged cracks spreading rapidly.

Ye Mingke ran amid the falling debris, but the ground beneath him suddenly cracked open. His foot slipped into the void, and the surging tidal wave of spiritual energy crashed against his back.

“Bang!”

The figures of Ye Mingke, Xu Zixian, and Aru were scattered by the impact.

“Rumble—”

From the sky, one could see the vast underground cavern shaking violently. Large sections collapsed and cracked apart, turning into chaotic ruins. This continued for several minutes before subsiding.

The once flat and peaceful snowfield was gone, replaced by swirling dust storms mingling with drifting snow, forming a haze of confusion. Within the mist lay a chaotic, rugged landscape of broken stones, like a huge, dirty scar suddenly marring the snowfield.

A young man dressed in purple, with flowing white hair, stood with arms folded atop the rubble, gazing lazily downward at the scene beneath the night sky.

Behind him stood a dozen respectfully positioned immortals. Among them was Yi Yi, who had once clashed with Liu Xi.

But at this moment, Yi Yi bowed low, not daring to raise his head, showing more reverence to the purple-clad white-haired man than to the celestial immortal Ling Chen.

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Four elaborately dressed immortals stood directly behind the purple-clad immortal, closest to him.

“Sitian, your move was truly brilliant—combining the strength of several of us to cast the Grand Brightness Technique from the Abbot’s Island. That cursed Sword Sacrificer should have been slain with a single blow. We’ve saved ourselves quite a bit of effort.”

Among the four was a beautiful female immortal with a supple waist, a sensual pink spirit serpent coiled around her neck. She gazed down at the dust below, smiling coquettishly, her words filled with flattery.

The Celestial Court had garrison posts in each prefecture, but the highest-ranking immortal at a garrison was only called a Guardian. Only the immortal commanding all the garrisons in Yangjing was titled Sitian—meaning “Administrator of Heaven.” The seventy-two prefectures of the Great Xia, spanning a million li, all answer to him.

Hearing the woman’s flattering words, the lazy-faced purple-clad immortal said nothing in response.

Next to her, a white-bearded, dignified immortal stroked his beard and chuckled.

“Hahaha, indeed, a one-strike kill truly shows the majesty of Lord Sitian. But a woman who only barely reached the peak of the Wheel Sea through secret arts, and another who somehow broke through the twelfth stage of martial cultivation—at best they’re comparable to peak Tongyuan warriors. To be slain by Lord Sitian’s blow is their honor.”

“If it weren’t for regulations requiring the Celestial Court’s Guardians to eliminate any martial cultivators breaking through the innate threshold, Lord Sitian wouldn’t have needed to act. We could have handled it ourselves.”

The purple-clad man seemed indifferent to the sycophantic immortals. He lazily glanced downward.

“I’m not thinking that far ahead. I just want to finish this quickly and go back.”

“Check if they’re all dead.”

As soon as he finished speaking, several immortals took flight, descending swiftly, while the others followed, lowering their altitude to look upon the now quiet, dust-settling ruins.

The wind howled through the rubble in the dark night, sounding like ghostly wails as it stirred up dust.

Ye Mingke lay trapped beneath the debris, terrified to open his eyes. The blinding light of destruction still seemed to linger before him. His spiritual eye frantically warned him. In his perception, thirteen brilliant suns rose simultaneously in the night sky above: eight smaller, four brighter, and one overwhelmingly radiant, overshadowing all others like a dawn sun blazing between the moonlight.

He had learned to gauge cultivators’ strength through his spiritual eye.

Eight were Wheel Sea level, four Tongyuan, and the last—Ye Mingke had only sensed such dazzling brilliance on Sword Nine—likely the “Spirit Transformation” his old beggar had mentioned.

Spirit Transformation beyond Tongyuan. The innate weapon’s womb spirit, capable of briefly transforming all things into spirits to fight for him.

The last battle, involving just one Tongyuan, one Wheel Sea, and one Da Jing level cultivator, had already been agonizing. Now, faced with these terrifying enemies whose strength multiplied more than tenfold, even breathing felt difficult to Ye Mingke.

At the first moment of combat, they were nearly overwhelmed and crushed.

Is anyone still alive?

Alive… can we survive this time?

Suddenly, four bright suns blazed across the night sky, descending onto the dust and ruins below.

Silence fell. The four suns slowly sank.

But amidst this silence, a fist strike exploded like thunder. A tall figure leapt up; after a brief flash of one sun, it shattered explosively.

The three other immortals sent to investigate were shocked and quickly ascended in retreat. But the figure tore through the dust, took several strides, then leapt high again—another sun and another immortal exploded midair.

The tide of events reversed violently. By the time the figure appeared, several Tongyuan cultivators had already forced forward. Unfortunately, they only managed to shield two immortals; two others were slain by the fists.

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The old beggar, clad in tattered clothes, bloodied and dust-covered, stood on a massive upturned stone amidst the ruins, fists clenched, facing the many imposing cultivators in the sky with the solemnity of mountains and seas.

Behind him, dust billowed.

“Sword Sacrificer, how could you still be alive?”

Some immortals spoke in disbelief.

“Even if she broke through the twelfth stage of martial cultivation, that barely matches the early Tongyuan realm. A single level difference shouldn’t cause such a drastic power change.”

“And she’s not the only one alive. It seems my Grand Brightness Technique didn’t work as intended.”

The purple-clad immortal, who had lazily watched two cultivers fall to the old beggar’s palm without moving, finally showed interest and looked down at the old beggar from his commanding height.

“You’re only at the first layer of the Five Viscera stage of martial cultivation. How could you withstand my Grand Brightness Technique?”

“Who said I broke through the twelfth stage and reached the thirteenth?”

The old beggar stood firm on the giant stone, glaring at the immortals ahead without a trace of fear, speaking calmly.

“Climbing the martial tower layer by layer is just too slow.”

Within the dust behind him, Ye Mingke overturned the massive stone trapping him, collapsed to the ground, and gasped violently to steady his breathing.

“Aru.”

He reached behind him in horror, finding only the tied sword case. Aru, whom he had hurriedly carried, had been scattered by the tidal wave of spiritual energy.

He frantically searched among the stones, opening his spiritual eye to no avail, then turned to search farther away.

After a few steps, he suddenly stopped. At the center of the ruins, the ground had been torn open by the fury of the spiritual energy, forming a deep, massive fissure.

Beneath it yawned a hellish maw, roiling with dark red and black terrifying flames. Stones falling into the inferno melted instantly.

Could this be the underground fire vein Xu Zixian mentioned?

Could Aru have fallen right into it?

Ye Mingke’s heart felt like it was being scorched by the flames—intensely burning and filled with dread.

He looked around. His spiritual eye covered no sign of Aru or the others. Beyond its range, swirling dust and the black smoke rising from the fissure filled the air.

The dense smoke stung his nostrils, making each breath agonizing.

Yet, he charged through the chaotic ruins, crossing the broken earth and the hellish fires below, because he had to find the friends who might still be alive.

…

“So that’s how it is. Sigh, this is troublesome. I’ll have to intervene.”

The purple-clad immortal in the night sky cast a lazy gaze downward, smiling faintly at the pitiful old man, whose entire body surged with fierce energy and who burned his life source, gathering strength.

“But a master like you, though troublesome, is interesting. Especially since you dare to reveal your true realm and burn your life source to delay—it’s to buy time for your comrades behind you?”

He smiled, then turned to the many immortals beside him.

“Go down and kill the others still alive below. Be quick.”

He looked back at the old beggar, still smiling.

“As for me, I’ll take my time, accompany you, and watch as those you desperately try to protect die one by one before your eyes.”