Death… and me

In the early morning on the next day.

Everyone was starting to leave the mountain.

Chu Yang was beaming with joy and smugly bidding farewell to his brothers. Everyone was patting each other on the shoulders and exchanging jokes and blissful conversation.

Everyone gradually disappeared beyond the horizon.

Heaven and earth returned to silence and stillness.

There wasn't single drop of blood that remained beside the Lake of Death, and it was just so clean.

Snow began to flutter down from the skies.

Chu Yang had a faint smile on his face as he walked back calmly.

There was only one tent left. His brothers worked together before they left and helped him tie his tent down securely, and half of his tent was buried in the world of ice and snow.

A tent like this could only be worn down by the wind, but it wouldn't be blown away.

There were piles of food and wine inside, and there were enough supplies for Chu Yang to enjoy for half a year. There were lamps and flints on a table on one side, and these could last him for more than a year.

There were marvelous animal hides, and several layers were stacked up from the tent's ceiling to the walls and even the floor.

Chu Yang was lying down on the animal skins, and he was blinking as he contemplated for a long time.

He thought to himself, "Du Gu Xing is responsible, and Mo Tian Ji will make plans. I am very assured."

"They have their own targets, and I am also very assured about that."

"You guys can dominate the Nine Heavens even without me in the future!"

"As for Mo Qing Wu… I won't think about her for now."

"She has Mo Tian Ji as her elder brother, and he will never treat his sister badly."

"Tan Tan, who is a devil king about to awaken, and Master Meng Chao Ran's wish are all not problems at all."

"Can I be rest assured about everything else?"

Chu Yang smiled faintly, and a dash of listlessness waved across his eyes. "Have I made up for all my regrets in this life?"

"There will no longer be anything that I can't forget about and let go of."

"It's a pity, that I've grown up so much, but I haven't experienced being inside my mother's embrace – not even for a second. Mother… I don't even know how you look like!"

The Lake of Death's water was starting to rile up.

There seemed to be something calling out intensely from the bottom of the lake!

The Nine Tribulations Sword's tip, its blade, and its edges were moving intensely and restlessly.

Chu Yang had a faint feeling as if he couldn't hold it back.

The intertwined space was also rolling over and over turbulently, and his sword spirit was nowhere to be seen.

"I'm very assured!"

Chu Yang was just lying down silently, and he didn't move an inch.

Chu Yang felt his Nine Tribulations Sword's movements in his body from daybreak to sunset, and his heart was crystal clear.

"I can't suppress it anymore," Chu Yang could feel that his body was taking one step after another towards the Lake of Death as if he wasn't in control of himself, as if he was being sucked over…

"It's over!"

His sword spirit's last sentence before this took away every inch of hope in Chu Yang's heart. It said, "This time, your chance to survive this tribulation cannot be more than fifty percent! You may not even have a thread of chance at all!"

That was the reason why Chu Yang had pleaded for his sword spirit to help him.

Chu Yang channeled all of his sword spirit's soul power to help him suppress the Nine Tribulations Sword's unusual movements. Afterwards, that gave him immense spiritual power, and he ensured that his brothers would firmly remember what he said today by shouting at them and giving them sharp warnings.

Those were their lifelong goals!

Initially, Chu Yang wanted to extract some thought techniques and martial arts that were suitable for his brothers to cultivate. However, his sword spirit sunk into a deep slumber after doing all that for him.

Its soul power had been completely expended!

This time, his sword spirit had an open mind.

"Chu Yang can't survive this tribulation anyway, and that means I still have to sink into a deep sleep anyway. I will sleep for ten thousand years in this instance."

"If Chu Yang can transcend the tribulation, then I can awaken as and when I want to following Chu Yang's improvement in his cultivation."

Darkness descended upon the earth once more!

Clatter!

The Nine Tribulations Sword's tip sparkled brilliantly as it suddenly flew out from Chu Yang's dantian, and it began to fly rapidly around Chu Yang's body.

Clang!

The Nine Tribulations Sword's blade suddenly emerged from his body in a flash, and it radiated as if it was a sovereign descending upon the world.

Swish!

The Nine Tribulations Sword's edge flickered with chilly lights in front of Chu Yang's body.

The three parts of the sword chimed brightly!

Winds suddenly gusted turbulently, and waves rolled torrentially in the Lake of Death!

A sound that resembled a dragon roar that resonated throughout the heavens seemed to ring out from the deepest regions of a human soul. A beam of sword light surged out from the Lake of Death like a divine dragon emerging from the ocean, and it rushed through the water's surface accompanied by roaring thunder and lightning!

Two great Paragon's divine senses exerted pressure at the same time and met with this sword light!

A boom could be heard as the Paragons' divine senses were dispelled in the blink of an eye. The beam of sword light flew into the air as if it was slicing the heavens open.

Somewhere in an unknown place far away, two people opened their eyes at the same time, and an expression of utter disbelief flowed from their eyes before they spit out a mouthful of fresh blood at the same time.

"Who is that, who's so powerful?! Can he be a God?" They asked at the same time, and their eyes were heavy and solemn.

This force crushed their divine senses that they had been maintaining with their full strength with one hit! What kind of cultivation rank was that?

They turned around at the same time, and their eyes seemed very conflicted as they stared at something in the void. In that place, during a time far, far away, they had… they had left their divine senses there before!

"Let's take a look!"

…

A thunderclap crackled in the sky.

The sky was black, and it suddenly separated into two different colors hideously.

Half of it was bright as day.

The other half was pitch-black, and it was the of black that was almost transparent!

The sword chimed like a dragon as it rushed into the heavens!

A boom could be heard as the entire Nine heavens quivered vigorously! Landslides happened at the same time in countless large mountains and canyons, while avalanches of snow occurred on countless ice peaks and snowy mountains!

The same phenomena occurred in the Higher Three Heavens, in the Middle Three Heavens, and the Lower Three Heavens!

The sword tip ringed out, the sword edge hummed, while the sword blade howled sharply!

Three beams of sword lights intertwined with each other and surged up at the same time!

Four beams of sword lights waltzed through the air in the sky, and they sliced open the night sky into countless pieces!

The sword lights flickered chaotically after a long while before they transformed into lightning bolts one after another that connected the heavens to the earth!

Darkness returned to the world.

Four sword lights intersected with one another to form a word in the dark night sky.

"Come!"

Chu Yang chuckled as his body drifted out from his tent.

His eyes became constant and resolute in that moment.

"No hope?"

"Heh, even if I only have one thread of hope, will I, Chu Yang, give up?"

"Death is just an affair, and the obliteration of my soul and my spirit is nothing!"

"But before my body dies, I will still be Chu Yang!"

"I will still be the Nine Tribulations Sword's owner!"

"I'm coming!" Chu Yang laughed as he leapt into the sky. He met with that immensely powerful pulling force as his body resembled a flying dragon dancing in the sky. He plummeted into the Lake of Death in a flash!

Torrential waves rolled through the Lake of Death!

The sword lights in midair vanished in an instant, and the sword tip, blade, and edge followed behind Chu Yang as if they were children jumping into their mother's embrace, and they dropped into the Lake of Death with a swish!

The Lake of Death churned and raged, and it became smooth and flat like a mirror in the next moment!

It calmed down to the point where there wasn't a single ripple on its surface!

Everything returned to normal.

As if, nothing had happened at all!

What happened here caused the entire Nine Heavens to rile up!

Everybody in the Nine Heavens saw that giant word that stretched across the sky at the same time. "Come!"

"Come? Where?"

"Come?"

Everyone was looking up at the sky neatly.

Chu Fei Ling and Yang Ruo Lan were both very exhausted. They felt as if their legs were filled with lead at their current strength.

They were still one thousand two hundred and fifty kilometers away from the Heavenly Sword Peak.

Right at this moment, flashes flickered across the sky hysterically as they witnessed the word that descended from the sky and onto the ground at the same time –"Come!"

"What's happening?" This word shook them so much in this instant that they collapsed onto the ground at the same time, and they had no strength left.

"This word seems to come from the Heavenly Sword Peak's direction!" Chu Fei Ling focused on the giant word and said gravely.

"What?" Yang Ruo Lan immediately got to her feet. "Did something happen at the Heavenly Sword Peak…"

"We have to hurry!"

They got to their feet at the same time.

They couldn't be bothered about their reputation because of their families and chivalry, and they ran for a distance before they came across a caravan, and they just snatched two horses and galloped away.

The nine great families in the Higher Three Heavens became deeply worried.

"Come!"

There was a small and obscure courtyard inside the Zhuge family, and an elderly man dressed in hemp cloth heaved a deep sigh.

Inside the Zhuge family's main hall.

Someone was flipping through the family's chronicle of events.

On the first page.

This page detailed a diary that the Zhuge family's first generation of ancestors had left behind.

"When the Sword Master obtained the fourth piece of the Nine Tribulations Sword, a strange phenomenon occurred in the sky, and a word 'Me' stretched across the heavens…"

Every intellectual and thinker inside the Zhuge family wore solemn expressions.

The family with the greatest strength amongst the nine great dictatorial families, the Ye family.

They were also flipping through a book that had amethyst pages.

This book was as large as a room. This book was made from amethyst, and this book alone was a treasure trove of vital energy!

But only one such book was made!

Every page had fine and thin wordings that were packed very closely together that were carved from a sword tip!

This was the true chronicle of the Nine Heavens!

In other words, this book detailed the lives of the previous generations of the Sword Master of the Nine Tribulations Sword, and the true dictator of the Nine Heavens!

"Here, here. There are records here."

Someone was pointing at a small section of words on the second page.

There was an elderly man with silver-white beard and hair who was looking at this row of words, and he seemed to feel the dominating and weaving sword qi that came from the person who wrote the book, and he began to read out those words softly and with a respectful look on his face.

"When the Sword Master obtained the fourth piece of the Nine Tribulations Sword, a large word appeared across the heavens –'Sword', and this word connected the heavens and the earth!"

Everyone's faces were as solemn and heavy as ever.

Another page was flipped.

"There's more here!"

"When the Sword Master obtained the fourth piece of the Nine Tribulations Sword, a large word formed from sword qi appeared in the sky –'Master'!"

On the sixth page.

"When the Sword Master obtained the fourth piece of the Nine Tribulations Sword, a strange phenomenon occurred in the heavens. A giant word that permeated with sword qi stretched across the skies and read, 'Heaven'!"

On the eighth page.

"When the Sword Master obtained the fourth piece of the Nine Tribulations Sword, a strange phenomenon occurred that shook the entire world. Sword light formed an enormous word in the sky, and its radiance extended for thousands of miles as it shone over the entire Nine Heavens –"Earth!"

On the tenth page.

"When the Sword Master obtained the fourth piece of the Nine Tribulations Sword, a giant word appeared- 'Who'!"

On the twelfth page.

"When the Sword Master obtained the fourth piece of the Nine Tribulations Sword, a large word appeared –'Can'!"

On the fourteenth page.

"When the Sword Master obtained the fourth piece of the Nine Tribulations Sword, a large word that radiated as brilliantly as ever read –'Stop'!"

On the sixteenth page.

"When the Sword Master obtained the fourth piece of the Nine Tribulations Sword, the mountains crumbled, while the paths to the Nine Heavens were completely blocked for three months! The passages going up and down were barricaded. At the same time, a colossal word descended upon the world –'Me'!"

…

The elderly man with white hair heaved a long sigh as he read these words.

After a long while, his eyes were lackadaisical and his voice was heavy as he said, "Did you guys see that? Those were the life experiences of the past eight generations of the Master of the Nine Tribulations Sword. Furthermore, the records are clearest bout the fourth piece of the Nine Tribulations Sword! There aren't any descriptions about the other pieces."

"There was one word attributed to every generation. When those words are combined together, it means – The Sword Master's Heaven and Earth, Who Can Stop Me!"

"Now, another word has appeared in the heavens. This word is 'come'!"

"This means that this generation's Master of the nine Tribulations Sword, and also the ninth generation, has obtained the fourth piece of the Nine Tribulations Sword!"

"Those nine words combined together forms a complete sentence – the Sword Master's Heaven and Earth, Who Can Stop Me From Coming?"

"The catastrophe has begun!" The silver-haired elderly man heaved another long sigh and said, "Where will my family go and what will we do?"

Everyone was stunned to the spot, dazed and speechless.