The Path Toward Heaven

Jing Jiu hadn’t bowed to anybody for many years.

His Grandmaster was the Immortal Daoyuan, who had left the world quite early. After that, his Master, the Immortal Cheng Zhou, had followed suit.

The grandmasters and senior masters on Green Mountain had been either killed by him and his Big Brother or locked in the Sword Jail later.

Since then, he became the Cultivation practitioner of the highest status in Chaotian; as such, he had no need to bow to anybody.

However, General Li had a much higher status than him.

The full name of General Li was Li Chunyang.

He was known as the Immortal Chunyang when he was in Chaotian.

He was none other than the Immortal Chunyang who defeated the army of the Underworld jointly with the former emperor, resulting in a peaceful period of two thousand years between the humans and the Underworld.

The Immortal Chunyang was the fourteenth sect master of the Green Mountain Sect, the last ascended fairy swordsman, and the Master of the Immortal Daoyuan.

The surname of Li was a popular one in Chaotian; five of the ascendants from Chaotian had such surname. Jing Jiu thought of the other four in the beginning and overlooked the Immortal Chunyang. It was because he didn’t wish to connect the matter with the ascendants of Green Mountain; and he didn’t want to confront one of his own grandmasters.

No matter what, he had no choice but to accept the fact the moment he saw General Li on Tianguang Peak.

The Immortal Chunyang had ascended long before the Immortal Daoyuan brought him to Green Mountain from the royal palace of Zhaoge City.

He hadn’t seen this grandmaster in person, but he saw the portrait of his in that small building; as such, it was impossible for him no to recognize him.

The sword work of the Immortal Chunyang was naturally powerful to the extreme and as profound as ocean and sea, and was absolutely on a par with Jing Jiu. His Cultivation state must have improved considerably after he ascended and became the ruler of the Federation of the Milky Way.

More importantly, he was a grandmaster…There was no point in him contending with General Li.

A waft of gentle wind blew past the hut on the top of Tianguang Peak, tousling the rims of the clothes of the two people when it arrived at the cliff’s edge.

The ocean of clouds under the cliff’s edge was also disturbed slightly. It was unclear if Jing Jiu, who had been maintaining the same bowing posture, had the same emotion as the disturbed clouds.

Nothing could be heard in the wind, including the sound of breathing and the dialogue in the game.

Fortunately, the silence didn’t last long.

General Li came to the cliff’s edge and looked down at the peaks under the sunlight with his hands folded behind his back.

He was called the Immortal Chunyang after he became a Cultivation practitioner, and General Li after he ascended, which sounded like the separation of Yin and Yang, just like the sunlight and the darkness of night.

“I’ve always thought that Little Dao would ascend; but I have waited for many years here and failed to see him.”

Li Chunyang went on sentimentally, “I found out that so many things had happened after I read your novel.”

Among the seniors on Green Mountain, Jing Jiu was most familiar with the Grandmaster, the Immortal Daoyuan, rather than his own Master.

It shouldn’t be difficult for the Immortal Daoyuan to ascend and become a fairy man based on his Cultivation state and talent; however…Jing Jiu felt a bit sentimental while thinking of what had happened more than one thousand years ago.

“Did you really kill that evil man of the Southern Sea?” Li Chunyang turned to ask him.

Jing Jiu replied, “I killed him along with Liu Ci.”

“This junior Liu Ci was rather outstanding; but it’s a pity,” commented Li Chunyang.

It was indeed a pitiful thing. If those incidents hadn’t happened, the Green Mountain Sect should have produced at least three more ascended swordsmen given its plentiful resources.

“The pitiful things have been with us the entire time,” remarked Jing Jiu.

It was evident that the pitiful things they mentioned had different meanings for each of them.

Li Chunyang asked after a moment of silence, “Is there any outcome after you met her?”

“No,” replied Jing Jiu.

“You’re a disciple of Green Mountain. She won’t believe you even though you have killed Chi Song and destroyed that battleship with your sword.”

Li Chunyang continued, “If you described us as belonging to the branch of Chenmo Peak in the novel, there might be a possibility that you could change something in this patch of the sea of stars.”

This statement seemed nonchalant, but it was actually rather significant and grandeur, like a whale jumping out of sea and intending to swallow everything in heaven and earth.

In the real world depicted in the novel “The Path toward Heaven”, the inheritance had continued from the founding grandmasters to Li Chunyang, Daoyuan, Chengzhou, Taiping, and Jing Yang.

If the earlier ascendants were all from the branch of Chenmo Peak, they would have a deep grudge against Jing Jiu.

The insensible statement actually contained a great deal of meaning and possibilities that could be calculated. Jing Jiu was of course fully aware of all this, saying, “I don’t tell lies.”

Not telling lies was due to a high self-confidence; it was because he had no need to do that.

However, if it was necessary someday to do so, he would tell lies better than anybody else.

“In this case, you had Cloud-Dream Mountain under your control, right?” asked Li Chunyang while shooting him a deep glance.

Thinking of the capability of Tong Yan, Jing Jiu believed that he, with the help of Zhao Layue and the others, should be able to have tight control of Cloud-Dream Mountain. “It should be the case,” said Jing Jiu.

Thinking of the prowess of the Bai family two thousand years ago, Li Chunyang remarked delightfully, “I didn’t expect you, a junior, to have achieved the feat the seniors like us failed to do.”

Jing Jiu didn’t want to say something to show his modesty, because he thought it was too hypocritical; but he was not inclined to say anything to show his contentment, because he thought it was too boastful. As such, he didn’t give a response.

The sceneries in the game created by the Twirling Rain Company were marvelous. The sunlight would change its colors and shadows as the sun traversed in the sky, and the shadows of the peaks and the colors of the ocean of clouds would change wonderfully with the moving sun. Seeing the picturesque sceneries, Li Chunyang found himself feeling a bit of nostalgia, commenting, “It’s rather interesting. Why didn’t we come up with the idea?”

“It’s because I’ve had a lot of leisure time,” said Jing Jiu.

“I’ll arrive on the Main Planet tomorrow. We’ll talk about specific issues when we meet face to face.” Having said that, Li Chunyang turned to head toward the hut, soon disappearing into a flowing light.

This place was not the real Green Mountain, but that in the game, a part of the internet world. It was hard to conceal their conversation from that girl.

Looking at the empty hut, Jing Jiu remained silent for a while before he came to the stone monument and patted on the thick shell of the stone turtle gently, and backed out of the game as well.

…

…

The cabin door of the gaming compartment opened; Jing Jiu walked out from it.

Ran Handong was doing some calculations; and Zong Lizi, Jiang Yuxia and Hua Xi were watching something in the next room. They were probably doing study for the courses at the College of Priests. Hearing the opening sound of the cabin door, Zong Lizi stood up and came to the door to receive Jing Jiu. Jiang Yuxia stood up to boil the tea with the iron kettle. Hua Xi opened her eyes wide, not knowing what to do.

Jing Jiu shot Hua Xi a glance.

Hua Xi felt a bit shy. She bent her knees slightly to greet Jing Jiu with a curtsy.

Jing Jiu didn’t say anything. He led Zong Lizi coming out of the small building, passing through the lawn and arriving in the compound of the mansion.

There were stone steps at the deep end of the lawn leading to the underground. No wind could be perceived in the quiet underground tunnel, nor was the floating train.

“Where are you going?” Zong Lizi asked curiously after taking his black backpack.

“Find a quiet place to take a rest.”

Having said this, Jing Jiu took his leave.

There were many small holes by the railways of the floating trains for collecting the rainwater; the sword wills enshrouding them turned into cold intent rapidly.

…

…

The planets were their homes for the humans and those intelligent beings.

The happy families are all the same, and the planets suitable for humans are basically the same. The Main Planet, the Stargate Base and Chaotian had a similar geometrical structure. However, the world of Chaotian had been warped into an endless ground due to a totally different spatial rule; on the other hand, the Stargate Base had been modified into a carved and hollow ivory ball by the distant ancient civilization. The Main Planet was the only one that had still maintained its primordial condition as a planet. The deeper the underground was, the more pressure it had; and the mass became increasingly heavier in the deeper underground, so was the temperature.

The lava could be found everywhere in the deep underground, and it looked as red and warm as the heated iron liquid in the smith shop.

The lava was as hot as the boiling water. Well, actually this depiction was not accurate; it was glowing hot because of the extremely high temperature.

Jing Jiu was submerged in the lava, with his head exposed only. Feeling the pressure and temperature on his skins, Jing Jiu let out a sigh of feeling exceedingly comfortable.

He had encountered some tough issues after he came to this strange world more than one hundred days ago. He was truly annoyed, which is why he came to the Main Planet with Zong Lizi.

The environment in this place felt familiar to him, giving him a sensation of affection. This place easily reminded him of the bottom of the Gathered-Soul Valley, making him generate an illusion of returning to his infancy.

The sprays coming out of the lava in the distance looked like the fireworks in the night sky, as well as the explosions of the nuclear bombs in the space.

He looked at these scenes quietly, deep in thought.

He closed his eyes after a certain number of fireworks exploded. His whole body plunged into the lava.

The dim surface of the lava had a rupture as the fresh lava gushed up like bright fire, and it also looked like the sword light of the Thoughtless Sword.