Chapter 2567: Chapter 123: This Sword Was Born in the Wildman Forest
The Nameless Valley in the east of Yue Country had already been completely razed to the ground.
The space here was thin, the pit in the earth incomparably deep, and the Vitality abnormally chaotic.
The tacit agreement between the two sides in the battle to keep things "silent and swift" was at last shattered by a force they could no longer control.
The terrifying celestial phenomena of flashing lightning and crashing thunder, of heaven bright and heaven dark, now lay bare to the world without the slightest concealment. Even a hundred li away, they could be clearly seen.
In a blink, a white rainbow went straight eastward, and a black shadow veered toward the west.
From "this wretch can be wiped out with a flick of the hand" to "this person is extremely dangerous," the Unborn Sect Founder who wreaked havoc upon the world, and the Mountain and Sea monster that had just donned human skin, finally reached a consensus once more.
Thus one went east, one went west, each withdrawing in his own direction.
...
Under a clear, bright sky, a white rainbow cut through the clouds.
The sea of clouds noiselessly swallowed the rainbow light, and a single white bone seed fell to the ground, transforming into the figure of the Unborn Sect Founder, Zhang Linchuan.
At this moment he looked utterly bedraggled, with not a trace of his former composed bearing.
His right ear along with nearly half of his scalp had been sliced off. Though the blood had long since stopped, the pulsing veins, red blood, white bone, and raw flesh were twisted into a neat cross-section, a ghastly sight to behold.
His left hand had also had three fingers forcibly severed!
When he included Yue Country in the list of targets for his main body’s tribulation, the King of Yue, Wen Jingxiu, and the hidden minister Gao Zheng were the only two dangers he had anticipated; at most he had added the possibility of timely intervention from Twilight Drum Academy. Never had he imagined that an ordinary Godly cultivator of Yue Country would possess such strength.
He had indeed had his Realm cut down by a terrifyingly powerful True Man like Zhongxuan Chuliang, whose Tao Path inspired dread, and who had struck with forethought against one unprepared. Yet he had still believed that sweeping aside Godly cultivators should pose no problem.
Against ordinary Godly cultivators, it was not quite like slaughtering chickens, but there was no real challenge to speak of. Even one as strong in the Divine Arrival as Zhang Xun, he could have killed without suffering the least injury.
In this fourth tribulation, he had been cautious to the utmost, selecting the most appropriate targets, avoiding any potential dangers within Yue Country. Using the rifts of the present world, he severed the possibility of being tracked by Yue’s hidden minister Gao Zheng. Yet in this head‑on struggle with Ge Fei, he failed to gain any advantage...
With the vision of one who had once ascended to become a True God, with a near‑perfect Bone Holy Body, and with a whole arsenal of unfathomable mysterious magic and Divine Arts, he had actually been unable to slaughter his opponent as effortlessly as he had foreseen.
On the contrary, he suffered wound after wound.
At the price of three fingers, one ear, and half his scalp, all he had managed was to tear off one of Ge Fei’s arms.
By the later stages of their battle, there was no way to control its ferocity; every restriction they had set was smashed apart.
His identity, after all, could not endure the light of day. He could not fight for long, could not be noticed by any righteous experts. Seeing that the domain of silenced sound and sealed shadows had been blasted to pieces, he launched one final offensive and seized the chance to withdraw—
It so happened that Ge Fei had conceived and arranged precisely the same plan.
He had walked alone all his life, never confiding in another, but for the first time, in this person Ge Fei, he smelled the scent of a "kindred."
They were both equally cold and ruthless. But his ruthlessness was the extinction of emotion and severance of desire, with only the Dao in his heart. Ge Fei’s ruthlessness was that bestial nature occupied everything, and the Dao was merely what his primal desires demanded.
Their paths were different, but their outward signs were alike, their destination similar.
Zhang Linchuan vaguely surmised that this Ge Fei was not that Ge Fei, just as he had, by using his Seven Spirits in place of his life, swapped out six identities apart from his main body.
If the former Ge Fei had truly possessed such ability, how could he have been so lackluster on Guanhe Platform, and returned from the Mountain and Sea Realm with no achievements?
This current Ge Fei, however, surpassed Zhang Xun by far!
He suspected that the true identity of this present Ge Fei likewise could not bear the light. Otherwise, why would Ge Fei so tacitly maintain silence with him in their struggle, and why, after revealing his true strength and shattering the seals, would he also choose to hastily depart?
For the moment, however, he had no mind to probe further.
It was not that this sense of near‑kinship would give rise to any feeling of closeness in him. If given the chance, he would certainly grind Ge Fei to dust and extract this man’s secrets bit by bit, and he believed himself capable of doing so. But that would require more time to set the board, and that time was not now.
At present, with six tribulations being crossed in unison, every one of his identities was facing life and death head‑on; he had no time to waste.
The present world was vast, and its hidden places many.
He, Zhang Linchuan, was by no means unique.
As for this venture into Yue Country, aside from saying his luck had been poor, he had nothing more to add.
He admitted he had stumbled, then continued to move forward.
Just as in Fenglin City, when the Bone Tao’s plan failed, he turned instead to scheme for the Holy Body. In Deer Frost County, when the identity of Lei Zhanqian was erased, he turned to scheme for the Evil Seed. The day before yesterday, when the Church of Lifeless was annihilated in a single night, he turned to walk the path of Nine Tribulations!
The road is forged by those who walk it.
In this life, there is no dead end.
Let the Heavenly Will be as it may!
After he had withdrawn far from the battlefield and once again cut off divination and concealed his tracks, he once more began to plan for the tribulation of his main body.
A truly powerful being must face life and death with cold calm, yet must never make light of life and death.
With six bodies crossing the life‑and‑death tribulation together, the calamities designed for each identity were all the optimal choices, precisely tailored to the circumstances of that body, all having been calculated and recalculated countless times in the past.
It was certainly not that his mind was scattered across six lives. Each Spirit had inherited the wisdom of the main body, had fused with its new identity, and possessed the capacity for independent thought. They were merely all under his overarching control.
Nonetheless, he often descended with his primary Thought into a subsidiary body, thereby mobilizing more power to help that body develop more effectively.
Each of his identities had been managed with the utmost painstaking care. Every possibility originating from that self was completely familiar to him. As for the evolution of the future, he had planned it out who knew how many times. Hence, in a situation where time was so tight, he could swiftly formulate and set into motion one plan after another.
