Chapter 47: The Grand and Proper Path

Li Shen’s smile became somewhat stiff.

"Having not seen you for just a few hours, I honestly barely recognized you. To be reasonable, who could have ever imagined this? Back then, I simply took you for an ordinary martial artist, never expecting you to be a young immortal master. Please forgive me for leaving you unattended beside me earlier, and I hope you can let go of your anger."

Xie Peiling said with a playful smile, "Right, I killed a woman who was also a cultivator just a moment ago."

Li Shen was momentarily stunned, then waved his hand dismissively. "We were merely acquaintances... it is nothing of importance. She was an eyesore anyway, and I honestly had no way to deal with her. The immortal master has merely rid me of a lingering worry, a great favor I shall forever keep in my heart. If there is ever anything you need, I will certainly spare no effort to assist you."

"There is indeed something I need your help with right now."

"What is it?"

"Go ahead and cut off your own head."

Li Shen’s voice gradually turned cold. "This is hardly the time for jokes."

Xie Peiling said with utmost seriousness, "How could this possibly be a joke?"

Li Shen no longer bothered to conceal his murderous intent. He pointed at Xie Peiling’s head and cursed, "You truly do not know what is good for you! Do you really take me for a coward? Even a clay figurine has three parts of temper, let alone a man like me. Since you show no benevolence, do not blame me for showing no righteousness! Who could be so unreasonably bullying as you?"

Xie Peiling scoffed derisively, "I am bullying you, and what of it?"

Suddenly, the moment he finished speaking, the entire world was swallowed by a vast expanse of white mist, stretching endlessly beyond the horizon, leaving only Xie Peiling and Li Shen behind.

At that very moment, two cultivators materialized by Li Shen’s side.

Li Shen kept his head lowered, his hands clenched tightly into fists.

"I leave this to you..."

One of the two, a youth clad in green robes, smiled and said, "Your Li family has aided the likes of us for decades. This is merely a trivial matter."

***

They turned their gaze toward the bamboo-hatted youth standing before them. The other person asked, "Fellow Daoist, why not reveal your true appearance?"

Xie Peiling replied, "You are not worthy."

The man shrugged. "Whether I am worthy or not can only be decided after exchanging a few blows. Furthermore, how can you be so sure that I am inferior to you?"

Ignoring the literal meaning, Xie Peiling approached it from another angle: "So, all the illicit deeds the Li family has committed over all these years were orchestrated by you behind the scenes?"

The green-robed cultivator cursed angrily, "You are utterly ungrateful! You actually dare to make an enemy of us for the sake of those mortal worms. Little do you know, it is their highest honor to be transformed into nourishment for our cultivation! The Great Dao is merciless. Ever since I set foot upon this path, I made up my mind long ago to ascend to the peak by any means necessary. All those so-called glorious and righteous paths of the world are mere falsehoods. If we follow that logic, in this nation where everything proceeds by routine, how many people could ever break through the Qi Refining stage and become true Foundation Establishment cultivators?"

Xie Peiling was momentarily taken aback. He did not know how many Foundation Establishment cultivators resided in the Response to Heaven Taoist Temple, but the ancestor of the Righteous Spirit Sect, Jiang Zhenguang, unquestionably far surpassed the Foundation Establishment realm. Even the lords of entire regional cities had to remain above the Foundation Establishment stage. Yet such powerful entities trembled in fear before Jiang Zhenguang, terrified of displeasing him or becoming an eyesore.

Xie Peiling said with a stern expression, "Your cultivation method defies the Great Dao and violates natural principles! How can such logic possibly exist under heaven? What would happen if everyone in the world acted as you do? And what would happen if one day, an even greater cultivator chose to turn *you* into nourishment?"

"That would still be me! He is the same as me—he is Hui Feiran, and I am Hui Feiran, and he is me! We are all prisoners upon this road! He is simply another version of myself walking the exact same path with the exact same conviction! For me to become nourishment and help him ascend to the supreme peak is equivalent to helping *myself* ascend to the supreme peak! How can anyone call this a violation of natural principles?"

Hui Feiran’s momentum surged to its absolute peak as he pointed at Xie Peiling and roared, "Selatur, why waste words with such a wet-behind-the-ears brat? A fellow so stubbornly obstinate can only be dealt with by the blade. Let us see whose Great Dao of heaven and earth is stronger—his, or ours!"

With nothing more to say, Xie Peiling instantly drew his long sword.

A surge of white light illuminated the surroundings, transforming into a faint, slender silver line that rushed forward with the ferocious speed of a pouncing tiger. The sword Qi arrived before Selatur and Hui Feiran in the blink of an eye, attempting to cleave them in half at the waist, resonating as it did with the talismanic world they had spent years crafting.

Hui Feiran remained completely unmoved, showing no trace of emotion as he merely watched the incoming sword slash across. In an instant, his body was cleaved into two halves, yet not a single drop of blood flowed out. Instead, colorful micro-particles gathered together at the severed wound.

Seizing the opportunity, Selatur swung directly downward and vertically split Hui Feiran’s already bisected body, turning those two halves into four separate segments.

***

Xie Peiling would never squander any opportunity. Formulating a sword incantation with his fingers, he conjured a burst of brilliant sword light in the snap of a finger. With a single slash, countless razor-sharp currents of energy erupted, one following closely behind the other, cascading endlessly with wave after wave of consecutive cuts.

Selatur chanted a spell, gathering deep blue light above his head that swiftly transformed into a cauldron, sucking in the vast majority of the scattered sword Qi. As for the remaining sword Qi—which was intentionally let through—it instantly sliced the already four-segmented body into even smaller pieces. Without pausing, Xie Peiling used his left hand to draw circles in the air, remotely manipulating the intersecting and chaotic sword light in the distance to hack away repeatedly as if chopping vegetables.

Stepping atop the giant cauldron, Selatur leaped with all his might, pulling out a bead hanging from his waist and clutching it tightly in both hands.

Xie Peiling naturally sensed his petty maneuver. Suddenly abandoning his assault on Hui Feiran, he thrust his sword directly toward Selatur.

High up in the air, Selatur seemed to be riding the wind and treading the void; in his eyes, Xie Peiling was no more than a speck of dust. Closing his eyes, Selatur unleashed a blazing radiance that transformed him in an instant into a towering Dharma manifestation standing several zhang tall, plunging toward Xie Peiling like a falling meteor.

The manifestation wore heavy armor and wielded a long spear. However, his realm was ultimately too low, and this Dharma manifestation was no different from a mere illusion. Xie Peiling’s fully powered sword thrust pierced straight through the soles of its feet, instantly tearing it apart down the middle as though it were made of tissue paper.

Within the sword light lay yet more sword light; amid the blinding radiance dwelt infinite murderous intent.

Witnessing this, Xie Peiling inwardly sighed. This sword technique was something he had learned from Xu Yuanming. Even though he had not witnessed Xu Yuanming execute it in person back then, the mere sight had left a profound shock in his heart.

How was it possible that the projected sword Qi embedded within a single sword stroke could manifest and encompass an entire city? What kind of cultivation realm was required to achieve such a feat? Just how profound was his swordsmanship?

That sword strike had carved itself deeply into his heart like a blade. If he possessed such strength, how could he ever have fallen to such a state?

When that time came, anyone who wished to kill him would do so as silently and invisibly as Xu Yuanchong—leaving others to know only that a man had died, with no one ever discovering the truth, exactly like the members of the Chu family in Yianzhou City.

Without a doubt, this sword strike was currently Xie Peiling's most formidable attack.