Mysterious Martial Arts: The Record of the Swordsman

Chapter 353: Heaven made the mountains stand tall

Chapter 353: Heaven made the mountains stand tall

The wind that had been raging all night in the Tongtian Hall finally stopped. Jiang Wen pondered Luo Chunyi's words and suddenly retorted, "No, the First King Luo should have been defeated by the later Grandmaster Zhang Sanfeng."

"Zhang Sanfeng..."

Luo Chunyi's voice suddenly became undulating. He slowly raised his head, his jade-like face gleaming with an eerie light. "Do you think there can only be one King Luo?"

"The practice of hidden treasures is not some secret art of immortality. The Buddha said, 'One flower, one world; one leaf, one Bodhi.' Therefore, in hundreds of billions of worlds, He manifested hundreds of billions of incarnations to universally save all sentient beings. King Surah was arrogant and proud; he merely wanted to emulate the Buddha."

Luo Chunyi's jade-like skin had a translucent quality in the dim light, revealing bluish blood vessels beneath, but without a trace of blood. "As early as the Zhiyuan era, King Shouluo obtained the 'Northern Heaven Iron Pagoda Secret Scripture' and studied and practiced the method of concealment day and night. He also broke down his martial arts and memories into countless parts and hid them in Buddha statues, scriptures, and even the bodies of living people all over the world. Each hidden treasure may give birth to a 'King Shouluo'."

“Some of these hidden treasures are hidden in ancient Tibetan temples, some are buried in tombs in Jiangnan, and some are left in the Xuanzheng Academy in Dadu. The one I found is the one he left in the Xuanzheng Academy in Dadu.”

Yuan Chengzhi felt a chill run down his spine. He had spent half his life wandering the martial world, witnessing countless extraordinary people and events, but he had never heard of such an unbelievable claim. A single person could split into countless selves, living in different times and places, and even if one died, thousands upon thousands more would rise up—

This is no longer martial arts; it's clearly sorcery.

"Now, it's your turn to answer me."

Luo Chunyi's gaze fell on Jiang Wen's face, his tone as calm as if he were stating something unrelated to himself, "Why did you say that I am already dead?"

Jiang Wen did not answer immediately. He seemed to have encountered an extremely thorny and complicated problem. After a difficult struggle, he finally chose to give up.

"You mentioned the punishment of escaping the heavens..."

He raised his head and looked at Luo Chunyi, his eyes calm and deep, carrying a sense of academic superiority. "I have pondered this for a long time. Whether it is the method of hiding treasures of the King of Shouluo or the longevity and life-extending secrets of various Taoist schools, they are essentially doing the same thing—fighting against death. But they all failed in the end. Because entropy increase is the most fundamental rule of the universe."

"Increase in entropy?"

Luo Chunyi frowned slightly. He had never heard of these two words before, but after seeing Jiang Wen's expression, he felt a sudden pang of fear.

"Yes, entropy increases."

Jiang Wen casually tossed a dry branch into the charcoal brazier. The branch crackled softly when it came into contact with the fire and quickly burned into charcoal.

"Everything that is orderly will eventually become disorder. Cloth will become brittle, iron will rust, glaciers will melt, robots will malfunction, and our bodies will age and die, eventually turning into a handful of dust. This is all because entropy is quietly devouring order. Nothing can escape this rule—not even so-called gods."

He pointed to the peaks outside the palace, in the direction of Manting Peak, where the cold forests and verdant greenery intertwined, and countless years of withering and flourishing had passed.

"The ability of 'Nute' to summon the dead was something I couldn't understand at all. I even suspected that perhaps it really did bridge the gap between the living and the dead, bringing the dead back to life, but now I realize I was wrong."

“There is no such thing as the dead coming back to life. Those ‘dead’ who crawled out of the ground, those who appeared before us with martial arts and memories from hundreds of years ago, including Fu Yushu, Yu Zhenzi, and you, Luo Chunyi—none of you have truly come back to life.”

Jiang Wen's gaze fell on Luo Chunyi, an unprecedentedly formidable enemy, and his tone carried a hint of regret.

"In other words, the 'Execution of Escape from Heaven' will continue forever. The real Luo Chun died long ago, more than four hundred years ago, in that winter. You think you escaped, but you have never truly left that execution ground, and you never will."

Luo Chun stood there motionless, seemingly deep in thought about something, or perhaps whispering to someone.

At this moment, Jiang Wen drew the Zhanlu sword from his waist again, its blade pointing to the sky. As the sword was drawn, it emitted a very faint hum. The blade was as deep as water, and in the flickering firelight, it shone with a layer of almost black light.

"By the way, the reason I drew the Zhanlu sword so many times before was not to test the depth of your martial arts skills."

Jiang Wen spoke calmly, yet each word was sharp as a needle: "Zhanlu is a weapon forged by Ou Yezi from divine iron and beast charcoal. When it encounters rare and exotic objects, it becomes as deep and still as a secluded spring. And I have discovered that from the moment you stepped into this Tongtian Palace, Zhanlu only takes this form when you use your movement technique."

"This shows that there is nothing wrong with your martial arts itself. The harmony of Yin and Yang, the integration of heaven and man, and even riding the clouds and controlling the flying dragon to travel beyond the four seas are all good. You have indeed reached the pinnacle of Taoist martial arts."

Jiang Wen slowly sheathed his sword, and the all-consuming ghostly light dissipated. "But there's something wrong with your people."

“When an ordinary person severs one of the twelve meridians, their martial arts skills are mostly ruined. But you have severed the Lung Meridian of Hand-Taiyin, the Pericardium Meridian of Hand-Jueyin, the Large Intestine Meridian of Hand-Yangming, and the Stomach Meridian of Foot-Yangming... Now, you have severed seven of the twelve meridians, and the Dai Meridian and Yangwei Meridian have also collapsed. But your martial arts skills have not declined. On the contrary, your strength has become stronger and your speed has become faster and faster.”

Jiang Wen took a step forward at this moment, and the experience of Hui Xike gave him a completely different perspective: "As far as I know, during the Yuan Dynasty, King Shouluo traveled all over the world to suppress the strange and barbarian things. Back then, he fought you to the death and even tried to sever your heart meridian to kill you. Could it be that he also discovered that you had a problem?"

Luo Chunyi listened quietly, his face expressionless. He raised his right hand, which had turned completely white like mutton fat jade, with slender fingertips and nails that were a faint bluish-gray.

"You guessed right. I had a great adventure, and I am indeed different from ordinary people. Ordinary people only have forty-eight extra meridians, and they are scattered all over the body without forming a system."

Luo Chunyi's fingernails scratched across his wrist, making a cracking sound. The Taiyuan acupoint should have been there, but there was no trace of a pulse, as if there had never been any blood vessels or meridians there.

"And I have a total of 1,372."

His voice remained calm, yet it sent chills down one's spine.

“These extra meridians and acupoints intertwine within my body, forming countless circulations of true qi independent of the twelve regular meridians and the eight extraordinary meridians. Severing one meridian is merely blocking a large river, but I have thousands of streams within my body. The more regular meridians are severed, the more true qi that originally flowed into the regular meridians will flow into the circulations of these extra meridians and acupoints. The more meridians are severed, the purer the true qi becomes, and the stronger the skill becomes.”

Yuan Chengzhi gasped. He had practiced martial arts since childhood and was proficient in the superior internal skill of Huashan Hunyuan Gong. Naturally, he had a thorough understanding of the meridians and acupoints of the human body and knew what this meant.

Extra points outside the meridians are anomalies in the human body's meridian system. They may be used to treat illnesses, save lives, and stimulate potential, but using them for circulating qi and energy is utterly inconceivable.

If one takes a wrong step in the twelve regular meridians or the eight extraordinary meridians, it may lead to internal energy disorder and qi deviation. How much more so when it comes to sending true qi to more than a thousand extra meridian points and conducting repeated life-and-death experiments?

He felt that the person speaking so eloquently in front of him was nothing more than a monster in human skin.

A faint, emotionless smile appeared on Luo Chunyi's lips.

"I once wondered, what would happen if I could circulate my true energy solely through these 1,372 extra meridian acupoints? Could I... really become an immortal?"

Jiang Wen looked at him, his eyes showing no surprise, only a knowing pity.

Luo Chunyi insists that cultivating martial arts and pursuing immortality is going against the will of Heaven and forcibly seizing the destiny ordained by Heaven, and therefore he should be punished by Heaven. But what he just said is probably the reason why the "punishment of escaping Heaven" came for him.

Jiang Wen discovered this clue from the blood-red "Martial Arts Sublimation Body" in Luo Chunyi's information.

Jiang Wen had previously believed that the walking corpses summoned by the Rattan Shield Gate, as well as Fu Yushu and Yu Zhenzi, were different "deceased" summoned back from the underworld by the Taoist priest Qingniu Weng. But it wasn't until he saw Luo Chunyi's status bar, and after his earlier probing, that he suddenly realized—they weren't many individuals at all, but the same thing, a being that constantly changed, evolved, and received information after coming into contact with "Xi Yi".

To expedite his descent, he had specially lit the "Descent Incense" at the Immortal Banquet in the Manting Pavilion. The "Immortal Records" clearly state: "Mix various incenses, burn them until the smoke rises straight up, and attract cranes to descend. When offering sacrifices to the stars, burning this incense is the foremost, and it is extremely effective in verifying one's spiritual power. This is the origin of the name 'Descent Incense'."

The so-called "descent of the true spirit" can not only descend upon celestial beings, but may also include those lingering echoes of information that have long since dissipated between heaven and earth, yet are imbued with the aura of the mysterious.

As Luo Chunyi said, internal strength and Taoist cultivation are originally from the same source, nothing more than refining essence into qi, refining qi into spirit, and refining spirit into emptiness. Taoists of the Shangqing School need to burn incense, bathe, and fast for a hundred days in order to barely communicate with the true immortals descending from heaven and earth. However, people in the martial arts world are inherently filled with greed, anger, ignorance, and hatred. Just like Fu Yushu's ambition, Yu Zhenzi's hatred, and Luo Chunyi's obsession, they do not need complicated sacrifices or long waits. As soon as the image of the Green Ox Taoist approaches, as soon as the smoke of the incense rises, those lingering information echoes that wander on the edge of the cave will rush up like sharks smelling blood, taking over the bodies of living people.

"Therefore, I underwent a transformation of my true nature to achieve physical metamorphosis, hoping to master Yin and Yang and ascend to the heavens, but I still don't understand why I have fallen into the punishment of escaping the heavens..."

Luo Chunyi's voice broke the silence, still in that gentle and calm tone, as if he were talking about someone else's affairs, but Jiang Wen vaguely heard a kind of madness that was calm to the extreme, a kind of persistence that had been worn down by endless pain but had never faded in the deepest part.

Jiang Wen looked at him with a strange expression, remained silent for a long time, and then slowly spoke.

"Because 'Lao Dan is immortal'."

Luo Chunyi's pupils suddenly contracted, but then he heard Jiang Wen continue speaking.

“Sang Yue kept saying that ‘Lao Dan is immortal’ is what the opening of the Tao Te Ching says: ‘The valley spirit never dies; it is called the mysterious female. The gate of the mysterious female is called the root of heaven and earth. It exists continuously and inexhaustibly. People think this is a Taoist way of nourishing life, talking about breathing exercises and guiding the breath, which can make one live forever, but they are all wrong.’”

"Later physicists say that information is immortal. So-called death is just the particles that make up a person breaking apart and returning to the universe, but the information carried by those particles will never disappear. They will be etched in the wind, in the water, in the stone, and in every trace of the world. Therefore, some people believe that as long as extremely demanding conditions are met, this information will reassemble and become the original."

"However, the principle of entropy increase implies that the arrow of time has only one direction, which is always forward. This means that we can never go back to the past. Everything will always be pulled mercilessly by the arrow of time toward the future, never to return."

Luo Shuang'er stood to the side. She didn't understand what "physicist" or "information conservation" meant, but she could feel the chill in Jiang Wen's words, the kind of madness that seemed to be about to overturn Luo Chun's understanding of the entire world.

There was much more that Jiang Wen didn't say.

The "valley" symbolizes emptiness and low-lying areas, yet it can contain and nurture all things. "God" refers to unpredictable biochemical functions. "Immortality" means that this creative power never stops. Quantum field theory also suggests that the so-called "vacuum" is not empty, but rather a boiling sea filled with quantum fluctuations.

Energy can be borrowed from the "empty" field, and as long as it is returned in a very short time, this tiny fluctuation creates the foundation of all things in the world. This vast ocean, which is composed of antiparticles, envelops the material world, and is constantly filled with ebb and flow like tides, is also known as the "Dirac Sea".

There, antiparticle pairs are constantly "created from nothing" in a very short time and then quickly annihilated. This is the "valley" and "god" of physics—the void itself is the endless source of all things. The meaning of "the valley is full when it gets one" is that when an electron on a negative energy level absorbs enough energy to jump to a positive energy level, it will leave a "hole" in the vacuum. This hole exhibits the same mass as an electron but with the opposite charge and is predicted to be an antielectron.

Another very important point is that every particle has a corresponding antiparticle, and there may be an anti-world composed of antiparticles, in which information from any material universe is preserved.

In physics, "immortality" does not refer to the immortality of a soul, but rather to the eternal existence of the laws governing information and transformation. Hawking once believed that when a black hole emits thermal radiation, all information falling into the black hole may be permanently lost in the form of "heat." This conclusion clearly conflicts with quantum mechanics, because quantum mechanics requires that information must be preserved intact.

The resolution of the black hole information paradox represents one of the most brilliant arguments in modern physics regarding "immortality." The holographic principle, proposed in the 1990s, posits that information within a black hole is not stored within its volume, but rather encoded on the two-dimensional surface of the event horizon. AdS/CFT duality theory further provides mathematical verification of this view, demonstrating that the evaporation process of a black hole is unitary in boundary quantum field theory; information does not disappear, but is encoded in Hawking radiation in a complex manner.

This demonstrates that, according to quantum theory, information is not lost. Like a drop of ink falling into the ocean, the ink droplet as a "three-dimensional entity" simply disappears, but all the information it contains (color, composition) is transformed and preserved within the molecular structure of the entire ocean. It never truly disappears; it is only due to the time vector caused by entropy increase that it cannot be reassembled into its original form.

"The 'Langhuan Paradise' described by Sang Yue, the 'Heavenly Punishment' you speak of, and the 'Gate of the Mysterious Female' described by Lao Dan are all essentially the same thing. It is a converter that can unlock the secrets of the 'Dirac Sea' and restore the information of all things. It is this invisible 'gate' that connects the interface between the 'visible' and the 'invisible,' allowing the traces of these dead to reappear and granting the deceased eternal life in a quantum way!"

Jiang Wen believes that this special mechanism, similar to the event horizon of a black hole or the collapse of a quantum superposition state, is how Laozi, in a way that is almost beyond human imagination, pieced together information that had long been lost, pulled the "deceased" back from the "probability cloud" of infinite possibilities, and manifested it as a specific "real event".

The miniature Gate of Mystery is a special transformational grotto that connects the "intangible world of possibilities" to the "tangible world of certainty"!

Luo Chun stood motionless, his eyes becoming vacant, like a jade statue abandoned in the wilderness.

"...But why would the Dao Ancestor do this?"

Jiang Wen looked up at Luo Chunyi, his gaze sharp as a sword.

"Because it was never a blessed land where immortals lived, nor a hell to punish those who defy the heavens. Just like the Misty Road of Yunnan, which has become an infernal hell that shelters lovesick men and women, this place may have been a laboratory established by Laozi, the founder of Taoism, to unravel the most bizarre and unpredictable mysteries of this world and to find out the true face of 'Xi Yi'."

"As the Keeper of the Archives of the Zhou Dynasty, Lao Dan was in charge of all the books in the world, and naturally knew the secrets that had been passed down from ancient times and should not be known to the world. Since he went west out of Hangu Pass not to live in seclusion, but to seek answers in the Qin State, he may have also chosen to open up this cave world. This place is both his research room and the trap he left behind. Any Xi Yi who tries to sneak into this world and peek into its mysteries will be swallowed up and become Lao Dan's experimental sample."

"The Dao Ancestor Lao Dan bore too much alone. Even though later figures like the Great Lord Qing Tong, the Heavenly Emperor, and the Emperor Tai of Fusang followed the path he left behind and arrived at this 'Langhuan Blessed Land,' they still couldn't solve the problem. Lao Dan didn't die; he simply possessed wisdom beyond human imagination, bearing these forbidden knowledge alone, facing the indifference, chaos, and ineffability surrounding the universe, studying them, trying to understand what they were, and even trying to find a way to fight them..."

After a long while, Luo Chunyi suddenly smiled.

The laughter was soft and faint, yet it carried a deep-seated madness—neither the madness of anger nor the madness of despair, but a madness born of finally understanding the meaning of one's existence and finally finding one's ultimate destiny, a madness so calm it was almost stoic.

“Young master is right.”

Luo Chunyi's voice was soft, yet it clearly resonated throughout the entire hall, without the slightest ripple. "I died on that snowy night in the thirty-first year of Zhiyuan. When the heart meridian is severed, a person dies. This night is nothing more than a dream given to me by the Heavenly Punishment."

But he quickly raised his head, looked at the shattered starry sky above the palace, and a very faint smile appeared on his lips.

This smile contained neither joy nor sorrow, but only a detached acceptance of life and death. Yet, in an instant, it burst forth with a heroic spirit that could illuminate the entire Tongtian Hall—a resolute determination belonging to this former seeker of the Dao, a solitary courage that knew the road ahead was a bottomless abyss, yet was still willing to sacrifice himself for it.

"Since life and death are no longer meaningful, then let's face this challenge."

These words, spoken without a thunderous roar or a murderous aura, instantly sent chills down Jiang Wen's spine.

He could sense that Luo Chunyi had finally let go of all his thoughts and restraints, even all the shackles of being a "human," and had concentrated all his cultivation, his tossing and turning pain, and his countless obsessions into this final strike.

Jiang Wen took a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes.

The Zhanlu sword remained in its sheath; he did not draw it. The next moment, a vast and boundless aura erupted from Jiang Wen's body.

This is not the fierce and domineering power of the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms, nor the annihilation of all things in the Northern Darkness Divine Art, nor the unparalleled sharpness of the Six Meridians Divine Sword. It is an indescribable and unclassifiable aura, like the chaos at the beginning of heaven and earth, or like the nothingness after all things have returned to silence.

At this moment, all 365 acupoints on Jiang Wen's body surged with immense internal energy, like stars in the Milky Way, connected by silver ribbons of light, forming a surging river of internal energy.

His inner energy surged like the Yellow River's nine bends, originating from his dantian, flowing through the eight extraordinary meridians and connecting the twelve regular meridians, finally converging into a point of cold light in the palm of his right hand—

His right hand was raised in a gesture of nonchalance, yet it seemed to be holding an invisible longsword. Although there was no sword in his hand, sword techniques flowed forth continuously.

"Tai Xuan Jing Divine Skill".

The Tai Xuan Scripture has never been a martial art, but rather a profound and extraordinary realm. The Tai Xuan True Qi itself has no attributes, but it can be transformed into any attribute.

It can represent yin and yang, stillness and restlessness, strength and gentleness, purity and turbidity. When faced with fierceness, it is the gentlest water; when faced with coldness, it is the fire of the great sun.

The hundreds of moves on the stone wall of Xia Ke Island—sword techniques, palm techniques, fist techniques, and light footwork—all merged into one at this moment, becoming indistinguishable from one another. Jiang Wen no longer needed to focus his inner energy, memorize the moves, or calculate the location; everything was natural and spontaneous.

His footsteps on the bluestone slabs were like the Lingbo Weibu (a martial arts technique); his palms clapped lightly, like the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms; his fingertips flicked slightly, like the Six Meridians Divine Sword. All martial arts, all realms, all cultivation levels had become instincts in his body.

Jiang Wen's figure gradually became blurred. His true energy manifested as countless versions of himself moving simultaneously, each using different moves, yet harmoniously unified. Even Luo Chunyi's speed, which surpassed human limits, could no longer easily penetrate his defenses—because Jiang Wen was no longer "one person." He was using heaven and earth as his sword and all things as his moves.

Luo Chunyi watched this scene, and a hint of admiration finally flashed in his eyes.

Then, he moved as well.

Without any warning or sound, Luo Chunyi's body began to transform completely into a human figure sculpted from mutton-fat white jade at a speed visible to the naked eye. The jade color spread from his fingertips to his arms, from his neck to his cheeks, and finally even his clear eyes turned into two warm jade beads, within which flowed a faint light like a cicada illuminating the night.

Zhuangzi said, "To abandon one's limbs, discard one's intelligence, separate oneself from form and knowledge, and become one with the Great Void—this is called sitting in oblivion." At this moment, Luo Chunyi's presence also became extremely faint.

He stood just three zhang away from Jiang Wen, yet it seemed as if he might transform into a wisp of breeze at any moment, riding a flying dragon and disappearing into the world. His breath was in sync with the mountain wind, his heartbeat resonated with the tides, and his consciousness merged with the stars, seemingly reaching the highest realm of the Taoist concept of "unity of heaven and man."

But in the next moment, he made his move.

This attack had no technique, no trajectory, and not even any killing intent.

Just like the sunrise in the east, the moon setting in the west, the cycle of the seasons, and birth, aging, sickness, and death. But this is the flow of celestial secrets, the operation of the Way of Heaven, which is irresistible and inescapable.

Luo Chunyi gently raised his right hand, and streams of white internal energy flowed slowly from his palm. At first, it was just a thin wisp, but in an instant, it transformed into a roaring, surging river of energy that swept across the entire Tongtian Palace and rushed towards Jiang Wen.

Jiang Wen found himself amidst a long river of clouds, instantly overwhelmed by countless images. This was not a simple internal force attack, but rather Luo Chunyi's ultimate strike, unleashed after burning away all his emotions and desires, burning away all his memories, and burning away the last trace of himself as a "human being."

He saw Fu Yushu, the pure and evil man who always wore a perfect mask, standing on the edge of the cliff at the Golden Summit of Tianzhu Peak in Wudang Mountain, looking down at the sea of ​​clouds, his eyes filled with boundless emptiness. He only knew that he had to win against everyone and take away all the good things, but he didn't know what he was living for.

He saw Yu Zhenzi, the Taoist who had gone mad all his life, kneeling in the snow on the Tibetan plateau. He roared desperately at the sky, furious at his senior brother's high-sounding words. He craved power, dignity, and the ability to overcome all oppression, but in the end, he was consumed by his own desires and turned into a beast that only knew how to destroy.

He saw himself in Luo Chunyi, the young eunuch who had traveled to famous mountains and rivers, his eyes filled with longing for the immortal path. He looked up at the immortal banquet at the foot of Manting Peak, followed in the footsteps of Laozi at Hangu Pass, fought to the death against the extreme power and speed of King Shouluo, and finally faced endless torment alone in the hell of the punishment of escaping the heavens.

He even saw Dongxuan, the sect leader of the Xiandu Sect who barely knew Jiang Wen, and saw him at different ages, each holding the cold corpses of his master and senior brothers, weeping bitterly in the pitch-black night. In the chaos of the world, weakness was the original sin. Dongxuan's will to hold on gradually eroded, but he couldn't even find the dignity of his sect. In the end, he could only watch helplessly as he was swallowed up by darkness.

Countless images and emotions surged through Jiang Wen's mind like a tidal wave. Joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hate, and desire—all the seven emotions and six desires of humankind were vividly displayed within this long river of clouds. Jiang Wen's Tai Xuan Scripture realm trembled incessantly, but he gritted his teeth, letting those emotions flow through his heart without making any judgments or lingering over them.

At the far end of the picture is an ancient tomb hidden deep in Leiping Mountain, Zhuyangguan, Jurong.

Hidden deep within this secluded place, overlooking a cold pool and connected to rocky peaks, the tomb entrance is carved from a single piece of dark blue granite, densely engraved with Shangqing School runes. In the very center of the entrance is a line of ancient clerical script: "Tomb of Tao the Hermit of Huayang".

As the scene shifted, Jiang Wen actually saw Tao Hongjing.

The grandmaster of the Shangqing School, hailed as the "Prime Minister of the Mountains," sat in the dimly lit tomb chamber, a scroll of bamboo slips spread out before him. His hair was completely white, his face etched with wrinkles, and his eyes were filled with a despair that penetrated to the very marrow of his bones. On the bamboo slips were his own startling words, written in vermilion ink, intended solely as a warning to future generations—

Even if this overturns the Shangqing School's centuries-old understanding.

"All true immortals do not possess the bodies of living people."

Jiang Wen saw that he was studying the secrets of the Azure Bird Descent Technique—the Azure Bird Method, a secret tradition of the Shangqing Sect passed down for thousands of years. It was originally used to summon the Azure Bird under the Queen Mother of the West to deliver messages and guide true immortals to descend and impart Taoist teachings. However, it is unknown when or how the descent of true immortals such as the Azure Boy Daoist, the Western City King, the Pure Void King, and the Three Mao True Lords began, but the descents became less and less frequent. Instead, they were replaced by beings full of malice.

They are neither born nor die, neither defiled nor pure, and have no fixed form. Those who are possessed by them gradually lose themselves, becoming walking corpses, and eventually going completely mad. Among the patriarchs of the Shangqing School throughout history, many even disappeared silently during the process of summoning "true immortals," leaving not even a trace of their remains.

Tao Hongjing devoted his life to investigating the truth. The seeds of the Supreme Star Ascension Talisman transmitted by the Queen Mother of the West had been switched as early as the Han Dynasty. Therefore, the talismans that have been passed down to this day do not summon any true immortals, but rather strange things from an unknown place.

It was in this despair that Tao Hongjing took the initiative to step forward, even willing to put aside his hatred and join forces with the Buddhist sect to seek an opportunity. Finally, he found a clue in the things left behind by the King of Xicheng, and then carried out a mysterious ritual on Leiping Mountain in Jurong Zhuyangguan. This ritual was lost to later generations and completely unimaginable.

No one really knows what happened that day. Only learned scholars who have read through various versions of the Shangqing School's "Zhen Gao" can decipher the terrifying truth from the incomplete and taboo text: "Three days after the altar was erected, something came from the sky. Its body was like thick ink, winding and unpredictable. It could not be stopped by prohibitions or curses, and it was called the 'Sky Blue Bird'."

The summoned bluebird was neither cloud nor mist, neither smoke nor vapor, without feathers or wings, without eyes or nose, seemingly completely different from the recorded appearance of the bluebird.

No one knows how Tao Hongjing drove away the "Sky Bird". The high-ranking officials of the Liang Dynasty at that time could only hear from the craftsmen and blacksmiths that this Taoist master, based on the "Four Directions are the Righteous, and All Evils Return to Their Place" method in "Baopuzi: Dengshe", created an outer coffin with distinct edges and perfect precision, and an inner coffin with smooth and polished inner walls.

Centuries later, Luo Chunyi entered the tomb and discovered that it was strictly sealed off using the "Shangxuan Bifei" method of tomb protection. An iron coffin was suspended in the air by iron chains, and a sword, a bowl, and a mirror were placed inside the coffin for protection. In addition to the mysterious characters of the "Xunlou Ascension Book," the tomb was also densely covered with winding, clawless, scaleless, and angleless dragons. Even so, if someone got close to the suspended coffin, they could still faintly hear the faint sounds of thousands of insects chirping and bones rubbing together coming from inside the coffin.

At the end of the scene, Luo Chunyi opens the hanging coffin, takes out a bright blue, cold jade seed, and slowly swallows it. He then gains the ability to walk through the void...

"You shouldn't have done that."

At this moment, another scene appeared before Jiang Wen's eyes.

He felt as if he were driving a carriage, with several children inside, some talking loudly, some playing, some sitting quietly, and some sleeping soundly. Their eyes would occasionally fall on his back, as if as long as they could stay together, they would not be afraid even if the sky fell.

As the road came to an end, a familiar desolate mountain suddenly appeared before us, stretching across the winding stream. Overlooking the surrounding peaks and clear waters, the landscape was picturesque. It resembled a towering pillar, majestic and imposing. Several small black dots of people were chasing each other as they walked up the mountain.

Jiang Wen's feet were taking root, merging with the rock veins that had stood there for millions of years. His fingers transformed into pine trees on the cliff edge, his hair scattered into the clouds covering the mountains, his breath became the long wind that swept through the valley, and even his heartbeat slowed to the unchanging sound of the Nine-Bend Stream for millennia.

Even though the carriage has faded from memory, the laughter of his disciples remains as clear as if it were right beside him, one after another. He is a pillar supporting the sky, standing tall and unmoving amidst the long river of clouds...

The illusion shattered abruptly. He already knew how to drive away this uninvited guest, but he still wanted to see what level Luo Chunyi's martial arts had reached. The other party also showed it without reservation, repaying his appreciation with all his might.

So, at the very last moment of the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, countless invisible sword energies, countless sharp swords of wind and rain, and countless wisps of chilling light all converged and gathered on the sword held by Jiang Wenxu.

Jiang Wen gently swung his sword through the void.

This sword strike was light and graceful, effortless yet imbued with the principles of thrusting, counter-attacking, slashing horizontally, and chopping backwards. It encompassed all the variations of sword techniques in the world. It transcended the limitations of space; although Jiang Wen and Luo Chunyi were three zhang apart, the sword energy appeared before Luo Chunyi's brow the instant it was unleashed.

Then, this sword strike, which transcended the common sense of martial arts, went against the vast and majestic momentum of the long river of clouds, bringing out endless sword light like a waterfall cascading down, until finally only a jade-colored flying needle remained, still heading straight for Jiang Wen.

Quantum mechanics posits that when positive and negative collide, they annihilate each other. As the antimatter shell on Dongxuan's body was gradually neutralized, time finally began to flow over him, and the injuries he had suffered earlier began to manifest themselves.

Luo Chun's jade-like skin gradually regained some color, and he seemed to have transformed back into the shy and gentle traveler from the deep mountains, dressed in an ill-fitting gray robe.

But in those eyes, there was no longer a trace of curiosity or admiration, only a bottomless weariness that had spanned hundreds of years, and a sense of relief at finally reaching the end...

………………

After the turmoil subsided, Jiang Wen stood there, leaning on his sword.

The Tongtian Hall was even more dilapidated. Jiang Wen's original hair ornament had long since flown away, his hair was disheveled, cold sweat poured down his forehead, and a few strands of wet hair clung to his temples.

The limit of the Tai Xuan Scripture, which lasts for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, has long been passed. At this moment, he feels that all the meridians in his body are throbbing with pain, his dantian is empty, and he doesn't even have the strength to lift a finger.

On the other side, Luo Chunyi stood tall and imposing.

His gray robe had long since turned to dust in the sword energy, and the pure white jade color of his body was fading away at a visible speed, first at his fingertips, then his arms, then his neck and cheeks. The warm and jade-like luster receded like the tide, revealing the dry and wrinkled skin underneath.

Deep wrinkles, as if carved by a knife and axe, covered his face. His once jet-black hair turned into snow-white strands in an instant, falling down in a rustling sound. His back slowly hunched over, and his once upright figure shrank into that of a frail, bald old man in just a few breaths.

Luo Shuang'er quickly stepped forward and reached out to support Jiang Wen's arm. Jiang Wen then took Luo Shuang'er's hand, slowly stood up, and laboriously walked to Luo Chunyi's side, but the other party had already died and was completely lifeless.

"Senior Luo, it's all over. I'll accept your 'Celestial Martial Arts'."

Jiang Wen remained silent, the scene from just moments ago still seemingly replaying in his mind's eye.

At the last moment, the sword light flashed like a bolt of lightning, reflecting in Luo Chunyi's eyes, which had already turned into jade. He looked at the sword with no fear or surprise in his eyes.

He didn't even resist; he just said one thing.

"My lord, that place is full of wandering ghosts like me... No rush, I'll wait for you..."

(The scroll of the towering mountain, the end.)