The Path Toward Heaven

Chapter 609: The Returned Fairy Lady

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Countless flashes of lightning struck down from the dark clouds, entering Bai Zao’s body.

This was a process, the process of someone arriving.

Lian Sanyue could try and cut off this process, but she didn’t.

She was gazing at Bai Zao under the dark clouds quietly, her eyes full of pity and affection, devoid of caution and disdain.

After the failure in her ascension attempt, Lian Sanyue used the Method of Transforming Silk Worm into Butterfly to be reborn, but she felt her mission was even more pressing than ever; so she started looking for her successors all over the world. The young and talented disciples, who had participated in the Plum Meeting that year, including Luo Huainan, Tong Lu, Tong Yan and He Zhan, became her potential candidates. Bai Zao was her earliest candidate; but she was born feeble and was too weak, so Lian Sanyue thought this child couldn’t withstand the pressure. As such, Lian Sanyue turned her attention to Zhao Layue and went to the Plum Meeting for her purpose.

Zhao Layue was almost perfect in every aspect; but she went to Shenmo Peak and became the inherited disciple of Jing Yang. Hearing this news, she was aware that Zhao Layue couldn’t become her successor, and she had utterly given up on it after she learned that Jing Jiu was actually Jing Yang.

It was then that Bai Zao came back from the snowland, her disability was completely gone, with her afterwards demonstrating a strong willpower underneath her feeble appearance. As a result, Lian Sanyue had selected Bai Zao as her successor without hesitation. Bai Zao didn’t disappoint her either. During her sleep, Bai Zao and Tong Yan plotted the scheme of the West Ocean, which had almost had the Immortal Taiping killed.

Lian Sanyue and Bai Zao hadn’t established the relationship of a master and her disciple.

Lian Sanyue had been soundly asleep over the last few years when Bai Zao went to the Waster-Moon Nunnery to visit her. In fact, the two of them hadn’t met each other that many times. However, the two of them were actually the true master and disciple in terms of their similar ideals, methods and vision; Lian Sanyue regarded Bai Zao as her true successor.

An adorable and considerate girl like her had become such a dreadful person because of the scheme and ambition of the Center Sect and the Bai family.

How could Lian Sanyue not feel her heart wrench?

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...

Along with the thunderous booms, countless flashes of lightning entered Bai Zao’s body.

Even those figures in the Heavenly Arrival State would be struck dead when facing a bombardment as powerful as the heavenly punishment.

Bai Zao was still sleeping soundly with her eyes closed.

After a long while, the flashes of lightning had finally ceased, and the clouds returned to their former tranquil condition, covering the whole sky like a huge gray carpet.

Bai Zao woke up; she opened her eyes and looked down at the royal palace, Zhaoge City and Chaotian below.

The expression in her eyes was not indifferent, but it was a bit nonchalant all the same, like a faint nostalgia that would vanish without a trace if being blown by a gust of wind.

The nonchalant emotion was not as light as water, but more like wind; it was a sort of emotion that someone who felt far superior to everything in this world would have, as if the person was a god looking down at the human world.

“You’re not bad, but why haven’t you succeeded in ascending?”

Standing in the sky, she said to Lian Sanyue calmly, “It’s because your fighting spirit is too strong. You should know that humans need to communicate with heaven rather than fight others.”

Her voice was very pleasing to the ears, sounding like spring water or zither music; but it sounded more like the fairy music, without any earthly feel to it.

However, such a wonderful music-like voice sounded like the bellowing thunder in the ears of regular people; in fact, it was exceedingly dreadful to them.

The eunuchs and the palace servant girls behind the palace walls passed out one after the other while covering their ears with their hands. The chancellors in the grand hall and those soldiers of the divine army outside the city walls felt dizzy and had a hard time standing on their feet.

The Boat of Diligent Study of the One-Cottage House retreated one mile outside the royal palace; the lotus cloud in the south had grown dimmer. The practitioners of other Cultivation sects had fled to more distant places.

The humans couldn’t stand a casual and gentle voice of hers, and the Cultivation practitioners like the Young Zen Master and Bu Qiuxiao had to distance themselves. All this meant that she had a powerful energy that surpassed the ability of humans to handle.

Looking at the figure as small as a dark speck in the sky, a shocking thought crossed the onlookers’ minds that the person in the sky was not Bai Zao, but...that fairy lady.

“A saint will come in one thousand years” was a proverb in Chaotian.

The saints didn’t always refer to those in the One-Cottage House; they were also those who had succeeded in ascension.

Those Cultivation practitioners who had succeeded in ascension were called the fairy men.

The stories about the fairy men who came back to the human world had been told in Chaotian, but nobody had witnessed the event with their own eyes.

It seemed credible that such an event occurred to the Center Sect.

The practitioner who had succeeded in ascension a thousand years ago was the Fairy Lady Bai Ren of the Center Sect. Before her ascension, she had left a few fairy books for Cloud-Dream Mountain. Some of those fairy books were used to suppress the Underworld Emperor and kill the Immortal Liu Ci; it was not surprising that one of the fairy books brought her back to the human world.

The Immortal Tan said that Lian Sanyue was the strongest swordsman in Chaotian; but if the Fairy Lady Bai Ren came back...even if it was merely a piece of her spiritual awareness came back, no one in this world could possibly resist her; in fact, all the swordsmen in this world couldn’t even resist her after combining their strengths.

All the people in Zhaoge City knelt down on the ground because of the spontaneous awe and shocking sensation they experienced at the sight of her.

It was similar to the occasion when all the deviant practitioners and demons in the cells by the sides had to kneel down as the Snow Girl walked down the dark and gloomy passage in the Sword Jail.

It was because the levels of life forms were different, and it was a fear stemming from their instinct; it was true intimidation.

All the people knelt on the ground and greeted the woman in white in the sky. The divine crossbows behind the palace walls and inside the city walls lowered their tips, unable to point at her. The assassins of the Old Ones and the hidden members of the Curtain Rollers in Zhaoge City didn’t dare lift their heads when they sensed the formidable energy in the sky; they knelt on the ground, trembling from head to toe.

Standing in the passage between the side hall and the grand hall, the Royal Concubine Hu clenched the carved figures on the door tightly, the joints in her fingers turning white; her face looked paler as she dropped on the floor, feeling paralyzed, her eyes full of fear and terror.

The Drifter was gliding aimlessly above the beams in the side hall; the leaf like band on her forehead was messy and drenched. The glows on her small face were mixed, indicating that she was in a chaotic mood and extremely fearful.

The Fairy Lady Bai Ren had returned to Chaotian.

It was soundless in all corners of the world; and tens of thousands of people knelt down on the ground.

Yet, a few people didn’t.

In that restaurant in Zhaoge City, Yin San brought the teacup to his lips and took a sip while looking at the fairy lady in white in the sky with arched brows.

Hiding behind Yin San, the Green Girl only dared peer over his shoulder and looked at the sky, her eyes full of fear and surprise. She had lived on Cloud-Dream Mountain for tens of thousands of years; she saw Bai Ren, with her own eyes, grow into a shockingly talented Cultivation practitioner from a little baby, become the most powerful swordsman in Chaotian, and finally succeed in her ascension and become the fairy lady...She was more aware than anybody else of how powerful and formidable Bai Ren had been, not to mention that she was now a fairy lady after her successful ascension. She must be many times more powerful than before, maybe a thousand times, or even a ten thousand times more powerful.

She noticed that Yin San didn’t show any fear on his countenance, and it was not something he faked; so she yelled at him, “She is the fairy lady! A real fairy lady!”

Yin San pointed to the woman in white with his hand holding the teacup, and said nonchalantly, “The fairy lady...She is of course a fairy lady when she is in that world; but she is back in the human world, she can’t be called the fairy lady anymore.”

...

...

Ping Yongjia didn’t kneel; it was because he had no idea what was going on. Otherwise, he would swear something vulgar about the fairy men and the ancestors because of the extreme shock he would have; he was deeply influenced by Zhuo Rusui and Yuan Qü in this regard.

He was sitting on the stone steps with his eyes closed, trying his hardest to reverse the sword source in an attempt to force out all the sword wills from his body.

The gentle wind ruffled his cloth, bringing those shapeless but tangible sword wills toward the ray of morning sunlight like the catkins.

Jing Jiu was standing inside the ray of morning sunlight, so he was not kneeling down.

He was gazing at the woman in the white dress in the high sky, quietly and staring into her eyes, as if he wished to see something deeper in her soul.

Innumerable tiny but pure sword wills came over from outside the sunlight, but they were instantly swallowed and digested by those spheres of light. Lian Sanyue’s magic method of “A Wonderful Night” was indeed formidable; but it still couldn’t block every sword will. A few sword wills had sifted through like those fish slipping through the fishing net, because there were too many sword wills drifting toward the sphere of morning sunlight.

A few patches of the morning sunlight were shattered.

If all of them were broken, Jing Jiu would be able to free himself from the trap. By that time he would like to try and kill that fairy lady.

He hadn’t seen Bai Ren before. His encounter with her after his ascension was a sneak-attack on her part; but he was fully aware of how powerful she was. He might have a chance of fighting against her the moment he was ascending in his former life; however, nobody in Chaotian was her equal right now, even though it was merely a piece of her spiritual awareness or a replica of her real body coming back to the human world.

And if he killed this replica of Bai Ren, he would also kill Bai Zao, whose body was possessed by Bai Ren. Yet, no matter what, he would have to try and kill her. It had nothing to do with bravery and fearlessness, or relentlessness and indifference; it was something he must do. Otherwise, they would all die at the end that day.

...

...

Lian Sanyue didn’t kneel, of course. She looked at Bai Zao in the high sky quietly, her eyes devoid of pity and regret. Her eyes at the moment were as calm as her voice.

“Let’s fight first, no matter whether I’m right or wrong.”

Having said this, she leapt up from the square, breaking through the air, her dress tousling slightly. A few moments later, she was in the dark gray clouds.

The instant she disappeared into the dark clouds, the Fairy Lady Bai Ren had also disappeared from her original spot. She went to a higher spot in the sky.

Lian Sanyue and the Fairy Lady Bai Ren faced each other ten miles apart.

They were in the Empty Realm, where it was windless and soundless, a place without air.

To fight each other here would cause minimal air waves; as such, the effect on the people in Chaotian would be minimal.

...

...

The gap in the dark clouds was filled up immediately, so the people on the ground couldn’t see what was going on in the sky. Though some of the Cultivation practitioners could go to the Empty Realm to watch the fight, who would dare to?

A great many people walked out from behind the palace walls, the palace hall, the roofed boats, and other places. They were all craning their necks upwards, looking like those geese waiting to be fed.

The clouds were suddenly illuminated by a light from a higher spot; but nobody knew what had happened there.

All of a sudden, an extremely fine fissure appeared among the clouds, and it soon ripped open.

A figure dropped down as fast as a shooting star; it was Lian Sanyue falling down from the sky.

The thunderous booms could be heard all over the sky; they were the results of explosions when an object collided with the air at an enormously fast speed.

The people scattered in all directions to escape in terror.

The reactivated Great Formation of the royal palace was easily broken through.

The “shooting star” landed in the square.

The impact produced a great many cracks on the solid green stones covering the square, looking like a spider-web.

Lian Sanyue lay in the middle of the spider-web, motionless.