Death… and me

Yang Ruo Lan felt as if her heart was on fire. Chu Fei Ling was equally panicky.

Just when their family was about to be reunited, this happened!

In such a large-scale fight, everyone's lives hung by a thread and it was incredibly perilous! Even for Martial Emperors or Martial Monarchs, dying in this kind of fight was not unusual!

How could King of Hell Chu be embroiled in this fight so easily?

How could the Shi Clan of the Upper Three Heavens be defeated so easily by the families of the Middle Three Heavens? Were they not courting death?

"Who brought my son into this?"

The couple was both incensed and in panic. They wished that wings would grow from underneath their feet so they could rush over to their son to help him and extricate him from this fight.

Neither of them knew that this fight was single-handedly masterminded by their son. He caused it, he planned it, and he wanted to end it…

To be precise, their son brought others into this fight. In the end, the main culprit was… the King of Hell Chu himself!

However, in the hearts and minds of parents, their son would always be the most obedient, loyal, cute, and well-behaved…

In Yang Ruo Lan's heart, she knew that her son was not much older than her grandson. How could such a young and cute kid cause such a huge storm? What storm? To her, someone tricked her son into it!

Hence, she resolved to get him out of it!

The two of them rushed in panic for more than 150 kilometers before remembering that they should buy horses.

No matter how panicky they were, they were tens of thousands of kilometers away from the Lake of Death. How could they reach that place in just a few days? Even if the two of them rushed there at full speed without resting, they would need five days at least before they could reach the Lake of Death!

Five days… to a life-and-death battle, it was a very long time!

Yang Ruo Lan pushed her horse on as she chastised herself.

Had she come with her master and Wu Qian Qian, it would have been much better! She would have made it!

However, she could not bear to leave her grandson. She had to wait for her grandson to turn a month old before she could leave, and that was after dilly-dallying for a while too. She never expected such a huge thing to happen!

…

Mountain.

The mountain rose straight into the clouds!

This was the Heavenly Sword Peak!

This was the historic place where life and death battles were fought!

This mountain peak was rumored to have been more than 30 000 meters tall but after the fight between the two Supreme Martial Artists, Chen Feng and Liu Yun, the top half of the mountain had virtually disappeared. At 15 000 meters, it was just flat ground!

It was as smooth as a mirror and as one looked at it, there seemed to be no unevenness.

For tens of thousands of years, not a single blade of grass grew there. The entire mountain peak formed into a single entity like a huge metal plate.

In the center of the plain, whose surface not a single weapon could scratch, there was a huge lake. The lake was easily 300 meters wide and its surface was like a mirror. Green smoke rose off it.

There was an island at the center of the lake, and that was the Life and Death Island!

Legend had it that this lake was formed from the intense fight between Chen Feng and Liu Yun. Supreme Martial Artist Liu Yun had the high ground and with one punch, he made this huge hole. It connected directly with the subterranean hot springs and formed this lake!

Furthermore, this entire lake was warm! Steam rose off it!

At a height of 15 000 meters, they were surrounded by snow and wind. The entire place was frozen but in the center, there was a lake which steamed. It was a miraculous sight.

Of course, nothing lived near the lake. There was not even a single blade of grass. However, no one knew if anything lived in the water.

The fight between the two Supreme Martial Artists invoked the divine powers of the heavens and flattened the mountain. Grass, flowers, trees, and even seeds were all interconnected. Together, they were crushed into smithereens! Furthermore, this place was too tall and even with powerful gales, no seed could reach here. Hence, for tens of thousands of years, everyone recognized this as a place of death!

On the two sides of the lake, there stood two stone steles, each over 300 meters tall!

One of them wrote in a flowery and cursive script, "The morning wind comes from within the universe!"

The other one wrote in bold strokes, "Flowing clouds swirl in the skies beyond!"

(Translator's Note: Chen Feng and Liu Yun literally mean 'morning wind' and 'flowing clouds'.)

The two stone steles looked at each other as if they were in a perpetual face-off, just like the two Supreme Martial Artists ten thousand years ago. Furthermore, they stood opposite each other, silent and solemn!

"This is the Lake of Death!"

Chu Yang looked at the two stone steles and said quietly. Even with his pride, he could not help but feel awed in face of the two mementos of these two legendary people.

"This is a good place indeed," said Gu Du Xing with a sigh. "As a sword cultivator, what joy will it be for the two Supreme Martial Artists to witness me fighting to the death with all my force?"

Everyone felt the same. Even Ji Mo and Luo Ke Di, who were usually mischievous, nodded their heads.

They all felt the same way. To them, the two stone steles were their predecessors! They looked down coldly but fairly at them.

In their hearts, they did not dare blaspheme.

"This is why this can become the place for a showdown in the Middle Three Heavens!" Mo Tian Ji said, exhaling a breath of fog. "For thousands of years, anyone with the right to die here has been a genius! All of them were exceptional cultivators! However, if they die here, their corpses would be thrown into the lake. After tens of thousands of years, I wonder how many corpses lay at the bottom of the lake!"

"Today, how many more corpses would fill this lake?" Mo Tian Ji said solemnly, "I hope that we are able to move forward from here!"

Everyone fell silent.

If they could move on from here, they would do so as victors.

The rules of a showdown in the Lake of Death dictated that all losers would have to stay here!

Anyone could head up the mountain. However, only the winners could descend!

"We brothers will definitely move on. I'm sure of it!" Dong Wu Shang's eyes blazed passionately. "However, even if we die, it'll be an honor to be buried here!"

A thousand cultivators stood in there in silence.

Even the Martial Monarchs among them were silent. As they faced these two stone steles, their eyes brimmed with respect.

The Exalted Elder of the Ao Clan, Ao Wu Yang, sighed in a low voice and said melancholically, "Many years ago, my third uncle-ancestor, fought to the death with others here. At that time, he was a Grade 2 Martial Monarch. He lost and died. His corpse was thrown into the water and he could not come home!"

After he said that, the entire Ao Clan all looked at the water and bowed.

Tan Tan walked out from the crowd and looked at the body of water and then at the two stone steles. Suddenly, an odd sensation rose in his heart as he slowly took a step forward.

Everyone was looking respectfully at the Ao Clan's tribute so none of them noticed him. When Chu Yang realized, Tan Tan had already walked 30 meters.

"Don't approach the front of the stele!" Chu Yang shouted.

The moment he said that, Tan Tan had turned around, lifted his head and looked at Chen Feng's stele.

Suddenly, Tan Tan's body started to tremble and his hair started to fly in the air. Then, with a boom, Tan Tan's body was sent flying like an arrow from a bow. He landed hard on the ground, which was as hard as metal, and bounced like a toad. He could not seem to get up.

A powerful pressure suddenly appeared. It was as if a demon had appeared in mid-air and was looking coldly down at everyone. This vast and divine aura choked everyone.

This pressure swirled around in mid-air for a bit before slowly disappearing.

Everyone suddenly felt as if their body could move. They could not help but feel shocked.

Xie Dan Feng rushed to lift him up. Tan Tan's face was one of shock and he arched his brows in shocked as he said, "F*ck me! These two rocks can hit people! F*ck!"

Everyone's face was confused.

What happened was that Tan Tan looked at the word 'wind' on the stele. Then, a powerful pressure appeared and rushed out from the words on the stele. It sealed the meridians on Tan Tan's body before chucking him furiously away.

Chu Yang grimaced and said, "This is what Supreme Martial Artist Chen Feng funneled into the stele. The two of them could not determine who was better so they used all their power to make a stele each other and faced each other across the lake. When one of the steles could destroy the other one, the victor would be determined… However, after tens of thousands of years, both steles remained standing. Hence, until now, no one could intervene!"

"Lucky you were far from it and the pressure only brushed you. Had you walked to the center of the lake, you would be in serious trouble!"

When everyone looked at Tan Tan, they could not help but laugh.

"Boss, how do you know about this?" Ji Mo was very curious. Chu Yang was evidently not from the Middle Three Heavens, so how could he know about it so well? Even those from the Middle Three Heavens may not know as much.

"How do I know?" Chu Yang chuckled bitterly and thought, "The Nine Tribulations Sword brought me here many years ago. I've experienced it once, so how could I not know?"

"The last time, my experience was much worse than Tan Tan. My legs were almost broken and blood poured from my orifices. However, I looked at the word 'cloud' from Liu Yun's stele."

Unlike Tan Tan.

At that time, I was much weaker than Tan Tan now…

"Even a Martial Saint cannot resist this pressure!" Ao Wu Yang sighed.

"Even a Supreme Martial Artists cannot resist it!" Chu Yang said solemnly. "These two auras forbid anyone else from interfering! If anyone tries to suppress one of the two of them, the other will come and attack the intervener! This is the combined strength of two supremely powerful Supreme Martial Artists, how can anyone resist it?"

Everyone exhaled in shock.

"I feel that these two Supreme Martial Artists are strange!" Ji Mo said. "There were many legends about their fight but the two of them never seemed to have been injured. This was not the first time they fought on such a scale too and it seemed to be the tenth or so fight… did they fight because they were bored?"

Chu Yang snorted and said, "What rubbish! When you're at that level, you'll know what a delight it is to find someone who can fight you!"

Ji Mo smiled and said, "I'm not worried. Even if I reach that stage, I believe there will be more than one person who can fight me…"

"You'll always be everyone's target!" Luo Ke Di said coldly, breaking Ji Mo's fanciful dreams.

Everyone smiled slightly.

At this moment, a young girl's voice rang out weakly, "Dong Wu Shang!"

…