pjbooks Chapter 125 Burning Heaven
Chapter 125 Burning Heaven
The moment the stone tablet shattered, the entire swamp at the bottom of the East African Rift Valley was simultaneously ignited by golden flames and dark red inferno.
The two celestial flames completed their first true fusion the instant the seal shattered. The Heavenly Starfire surged forth from the pale golden star on the hilt of the Primordial Sword, transforming into countless fine golden rays that firmly locked the fragments of the Demon Ancestor's primordial spirit in place. The Burning Soul Flame followed closely behind, its dark red flames spreading along the golden rays. Upon contact with the chaotic power, it suddenly leaped dozens of feet high, transforming the entire altar into the core of a burning furnace.
Jiang Chen stood in the center of the altar, his right hand outstretched, the half-gold, half-red flame pattern on his palm spinning at an unprecedented speed. He could feel the Burning Soul Fire circulating within his body—completely different from the gentle warmth of the Celestial Star Fire. The Burning Soul Fire was unreasonable, disregarded meridians, and defied laws; it followed only one principle: burn. Burn until the enemy was utterly reduced to nothingness, burn until it could no longer withstand the flames.
"No wonder the Burning Heaven Immortal Emperor said his swordsmanship only teaches one thing." Jiang Chen looked down at the ever-expanding flame pattern on his palm, a slight smile playing on his lips. "Burning everything with brute force is also a kind of Dao."
Deep within the seal, the fragments of the Demon Ancestor's primordial spirit, attacked by the two types of heavenly fire, emitted a second shriek. This shriek was no longer a pure mental shock, but a dark red shockwave materialized with chaotic power. The shockwave exploded from the core of the seal, crushing everything in its path in all directions. Wherever it passed, the bricks and stones of the altar instantly turned to dust, and the swamp mud was evaporated into white steam columns that shot into the sky. Within these steam columns were dark red lightning corrupted by chaotic power, weaving together a scene of apocalypse beneath the sky at the bottom of the rift valley.
"Ye Wuhen!" Jiang Chen didn't even turn his head, his voice piercing through the steam and the roar of lightning, "Draw your sword!"
The instant the shockwave struck, Ye Wuhen drew his silver-white longsword from his waist. The moment the sword was drawn, an exceptionally clear and resonant sword cry exploded at the bottom of the rift, forcefully dispersing the chaotic shockwave within a radius of dozens of feet. His body instinctively assumed the starting stance he had known best for the past thirty years—sword tip pointing diagonally to the ground, center of gravity lowered, left hand behind his back. But this time, his right hand did not hold the broken sword with only its hilt remaining, but a complete immortal sword, finally unsheathed after 30,000 years of slumber.
The echo of the sword still resonated. Ye Wuhen looked down at the silver-white longsword in his hand, at the faint scratch on the hilt—a mark left by the Primordial Immortal Emperor when he was young and practicing swordsmanship. Thirty thousand years ago, this sword accompanied the Primordial Immortal Emperor through his most rudimentary swordsmanship enlightenment; thirty thousand years later, it fell into the hands of another sword saint whose sword had been broken. Fate, sometimes, is more unpredictable than the most exquisite sword techniques in a sword manual.
"This sword strike is called 'Cloud Breaker'," Ye Wuhen said softly, as if speaking to the sword, or perhaps to himself.
He drew his sword. A silvery-white sword light exploded from the blade, transforming into a straight silver line that slashed into the densest patch of dark red chaotic lightning at the center of the steam column. The moment the sword light collided with the chaotic power, it emitted a piercing shriek.
It was the remnant of the sword intent left behind by the Primordial Immortal Emperor. Thirty thousand years ago, the Primordial Immortal Emperor wielded this sword, cutting his way from the Qi Refining stage all the way to the Nascent Soul stage. The insights gained from each swing of the sword were ingrained in every molecular space of the blade. Ye Wuhen didn't need to understand these insights; he only needed to trust the sword itself—this was the only truth he had gleaned from holding the broken sword for thirty years: When you have no sword, you learn to trust yourself; when you regain the sword, you learn to trust the sword.
The sword light pierced the core of the chaotic lightning. The dark red lightning was instantly cleaved in two from the center, the cut smooth as a mirror. Dark red chaotic power surged from the broken surface, only to evaporate rapidly under the suppression of the remaining sword intent. The column of steam broke in the middle; the upper half transformed into a cloud of white mist, while the lower half crashed back into the swamp, stirring up muddy waves tens of meters high.
"A fine sword." Ye Wuhen sheathed his sword, his right hand holding the sword as steady as a mountain.
Jiang Chen glanced at him, the curve of his lips even more pronounced than before. "If the Primordial Ancestor knew you used his sword to slay the Chaos Lightning, he would be very pleased."
"What's he so happy about?"
"When he was young, he also liked to use his sword to cut things he shouldn't have." Jiang Chen withdrew his gaze and looked back into the depths of the seal. "It is said that when he was in the Qi Refining stage, he used this sword to cut down a demon beast in the Integration stage. After cutting it down, he ran for three thousand miles, and was chased by the demon beast for three thousand miles. In the end, it was his master who intervened and drove the demon beast away."
Ye Wuhen was silent for a moment, then looked down at the silver-white longsword in his hand and said in an extremely complicated tone, "No wonder this sword is so light."
"light?"
"Born to run away."
Jiang Chen didn't answer, but the smile on his lips was more pronounced than ever. Then he withdrew all expression and clenched his right fist. The half-gold, half-red flame patterns completely merged in his palm. Under the harmonization of the Primordial Sword Intent, the Heavenly Star Fire and the Burning Silence Fire finally completed a complete double Heavenly Fire Formation within the sealed core. At the center of the formation was the fragment of the Demon Ancestor's primordial spirit, locked in place. The edges of the formation were a golden-red light shield woven from the two heavenly fires. The light shield continuously contracted, crushed, and heated inward, stripping away the chaotic power of the Demon Ancestor's primordial spirit fragment bit by bit from its very existence.
"Ancestor Burning Heaven." Jiang Chen raised his right hand, palm facing the core of the formation, his voice piercing through the roar of flames and the shrieks of chaos, "You said you wanted to watch it burn to ashes with your own eyes. Then watch."
He clenched his fists tightly.
The dual Heavenly Fire Formation collapsed inwards simultaneously. Golden Zhou Tian Xing Dou Fire blocked the escape routes of the chaotic power from all directions, while dark red Burning Annihilation Fire burned through the chaotic power layer by layer from within. Under the combined attack of the two Heavenly Fires, the fragment of the Demon Ancestor's primordial spirit let out a final roar—a roar that was no longer a shockwave, but an extremely weak howl, like the final lament of a desperate beast. The roar was continuously compressed and weakened within the dual light shields, finally disappearing completely.
The flames of burning away the last wisp of chaotic power reduced existence itself to nothingness.
The sealing stele at the center of the altar shattered into dust in an instant. The dust was pure white, containing no remnants of chaotic power, like a pile of ordinary limestone fragments. A dark red pillar of chaotic light shot up from the bottom of the rift, piercing the clouds. It was the last remnant of the chaotic power, suppressed for thirty thousand years, before it completely dissipated. Then, the pillar of light began to dissipate from the bottom at a visible speed.
The sulfurous mist at the bottom of the rift valley was completely dispelled by the morning light after the pillar of light disappeared. For the first time in 30,000 years, this swamp was directly exposed to sunlight. The sunlight fell on the ruins of the altar, on the skeleton of the Burning Heaven Immortal Emperor who had sat there for 30,000 years, and on the crimson longsword to the right of the skeleton that had lost all its luster.
After fulfilling its final mission, the Burning Sword had turned into ordinary iron. Its blade no longer flowed with flame patterns, and the crimson color on the edge faded to a common iron gray. But on its hilt, the flame pattern personally engraved by the Burning Heaven Immortal Emperor remained—it was the only signature of an Immortal Emperor on his swordsmanship thirty thousand years ago, more indelible than any divine weapon.
Jiang Chen walked to the remains of the Burning Heaven Immortal Emperor and knelt on one knee. He gently picked up the Burning Silence Sword from the right side of the remains and put it into his storage space. Then, he touched the tarnished flame ring on the left ring finger of the remains with his left hand. The ring turned to ashes the moment he touched it, and a faint wisp of dark red flame rose from the ashes and disappeared into the half-gold, half-red flame pattern on his palm.
"Ancestor Burning Heaven. Your Burning Blaze has merged into the Primordial Sword. From this day forward, all disciples of the Azure Cloud Sect who cultivate the fire-based sword path will regard you as their ancestor." Jiang Chen's voice was soft, yet it echoed in the sun-drenched swamp. "As long as the Burning Blaze remains, your Dao will never perish."
In the hollow eye sockets of the skeleton, the last two dark red lights extinguished completely. But its posture remained unchanged—sitting cross-legged, hands clasped on its knees, back straight. For thirty thousand years, it had stood guard before the seal, watching the suppressed fragment of the primordial spirit be worn away by time day by day, and day by day, it too was worn away by time. Now the seal was broken, the fragment burned, and the enemy was dead. It could rest now.
Jiang Chen stood up, turned, and walked towards the edge of the rift. After a few steps, he stopped and glanced at Ye Wuhen. "Let's go."
Ye Wuhen sheathed his silver-white longsword and followed in his footsteps. The two walked side by side on the swamp at the bottom of the rift valley, which was being bathed in sunlight for the first time. The mud beneath their feet still emitted white steam, dried by the flames of the Burning Soul, which transformed into countless pale golden pillars of light in the morning light. Behind them, the skeleton of the Burning Heaven Immortal Emperor sat quietly in the center of the altar ruins, basking in sunlight for the first time in thirty thousand years.