Chapter 610: Also No First Nor The Word One

Xu Fengnian looked up at the old man.

Wang Xianzhi was far from dead, showing no resentment, just quietly looking down at the young man.

It was as if the entire world had paused.

Wang Xianzhi finally closed his eyes. The scattered aura condensed into another Wang Xianzhi, who drifted down to the ground.

A gust of wind swept through the old man's ethereal form.

"You won," Xu Fengnian said calmly.

Two pillars of heaven, covered in golden-yellow ancient seal script, slowly descended in the west.

It was evident that this Wang Xianzhi, though his form was dispersed, his spirit was concentrated. Although he was no longer able to kill Xu Fengnian, who had exhausted all his strength, the Heavenly Gate was open, and he could leave whenever he wished. Once Wang Xianzhi passed through the Heavenly Gate and looked down on the human world as an immortal, given the old man's notoriously rule-breaking nature, how would Xu Fengnian, with nowhere to hide, manage?

Wang Xianzhi paid no attention to Xu Fengnian, nor to the two unexpected guests who appeared in his peripheral vision: a man who halted his horse but then raised his hand to retrieve the Momentary Spear, and a beautiful, gender-ambiguous young man who retrieved the embroidered Winter and Spring Thunder dual blades. The old man walked towards the Heavenly Gate but did not step through it. Instead, he stood with his hands behind his back and smiled, saying, "There's no point."

Wang Xianzhi turned around, looked towards the east, and said in a deep voice, "Jiang Fuding, continue to fight the tide for ten more years."

The old man then shifted his gaze northward and calmly stated, "Yu Xinlang, you are to go to the extreme northern ice plains."

Finally, Wang Xianzhi gazed at the young shepherd boy who had stumbled about a mile away, and smiled, "He has some affinity with me."

Lou Huang, the swordsman from Wudi City, arrived a step late, clutching the hilt of his Bodhisattva Barbarian sword, his eyes bloodshot.

Lou Huang removed his scabbard, knelt on both knees, plunged the ancient sword beside him, kowtowed deeply, and choked out, "Your disciple, Lou Huang, respectfully bids farewell to Master."

Wang Xianzhi finally looked at his disciple and instructed, "When my soul disperses, you need not seek revenge. Bury my bones on the summit of Mount Kunlun."

Lou Huang's face was buried in the rough sand, and he made no sound.

Wang Xianzhi did not dwell on his disciple's stubbornness. He turned to look at the young prince, who appeared to have suddenly gained immense wealth only to have it all vanish, and, for the first time, revealed a knowing smile. He said, "They all say there is no second in martial arts. You painstakingly defeated me, and now there is no first. I feel a bit sorry for you."

"I still have enough skill left to make a trip to Dragon Tiger Mountain, so these past years of martial arts practice won't have been in vain," Xu Fengnian replied. "Future enemies should rightfully be met on the battlefields of the imperial court."

"Anyone who defeats me should indeed possess such an demeanor," Wang Xianzhi nodded.

As Lou Huang stood on the edge of the battlefield, Huang Sanjia and Miss Haha also approached.

Huang Longshi, who had successively schemed against both Xu Fengnian and Wang Xianzhi, showed no complacency. The old man, holding the little girl's hand, scoffed at Wang Xianzhi with a cold laugh, "You couldn't stop heaven's wrath from leaving millions of corpses, so you merely sought to ensure that future generations, with a common man's rage, could cause blood to splatter three feet high, thereby standing against that former power. Yet, you fail to see that everyone has their own destiny; it's hardly your concern to worry about this. In the future, generals and prime ministers will not be born into status; the emperor's throne will be rotated. Not to mention ordinary scholars, even peddlers and porters can sit upon it and have their fill. The fewer immortals there are in the martial world, the more highly chivalry will be valued. Wang Xianzhi, what's wrong with a small handful of flying immortal figures disappearing from the martial world? The very concepts of chivalry and righteousness will sustain it. Without ascension, the martial world, whose origin was never in the heavens to begin with, will naturally not die."

"Good," Wang Xianzhi chuckled.

Wang Xianzhi scanned his surroundings, then brought his gaze back, muttering, "If that's the case, then my staying in the martial world was not in vain."

Wang Xianzhi let out a soft cry.

His soul split into three, transforming into rainbows and departing.

The magnificent Heavenly Gate gradually faded.

Wang Xianzhi did not ascend, reincarnate, or cling to life; instead, he magnanimously bestowed three opportunities upon the future martial world.

One went far to Wudi City in the East Sea, another far to Tai'an City in the capital, and the last one directly entered the nearby young shepherd boy.

Lou Huang abandoned his long sword, walked empty-handed to his master's fallen body, gently hoisted it onto his back, and gradually departed northward.

Huang Longshi took his daughter's hand and headed east. "Everything has a beginning and an end. After I die, remember to find my daughter and take good care of her."

Bai Huerlian, having put on his embroidered Winter and Spring Thunder blades, walked up to Xu Fengnian and asked, "Are you going to Dragon Tiger Mountain?"

Xu Fengnian nodded and counter-asked, "And you?"

Bai Huerlian smiled faintly. "I don't have a habit of being in debt. Since you killed Wang Xianzhi for me, I'll try to see if I can kill Tuoba Pusa."

"Don't die," Xu Fengnian said softly.

Bai Huerlian merely smiled in response.

Xu Fengnian said to Xu Yanbing, "Uncle Xu, please take that child back. I intend to take him as my disciple."

Xu Yanbing grunted in acknowledgment, then spurred his horse northward with his spear, finding the scrawny shepherd boy who had fainted on the ground, "overwhelmed by the burden."

On Dragon Tiger Mountain, a seemingly young Taoist priest was fishing by a deep pool, his purple bamboo fishing rod without hook or bait.

In front of him floated a verdant leaf.

Taoist Zhao Huangchao occasionally stared intently at the fluctuating ley lines, sometimes raising his hand to perform calculations of heavenly secrets. Initially, everything largely remained within the expected framework. Zhao Huangchao appeared relaxed; even when the ley lines shifted between brightness and obscurity a few times, the reclusive Taoist priest merely frowned, never showing great alarm.

Until the leaf instantly withered and turned yellow, then snapped along one of the ley lines.

Zhao Huangchao stared silently, watching the two halves of the leaf drift on the surface of the deep, emerald pool, his face pale.

Zhao Huangchao suddenly looked up, staring northwest, and exclaimed angrily, "That old fool Wang is so useless!"

A crimson rainbow crashed into the deep pool.

Zhao Huangchao decisively cast aside his fishing rod and ascended the mountain, soaring through the air. He intended to cross the mountains, rush northward, and reach Di Fei Mountain, where he had forcefully nurtured a malevolent dragon within the foremost Taoist sacred land.

The deep, bottomless pool had half its accumulated water displaced by that "distant guest," as if a giant green lotus had blossomed on Dragon Tiger Mountain.

Zhao Huangchao trod on the canopies of ancient towering trees as if walking on flat ground, his body leaning sharply forward, his Taoist robe flapping in the wind.

The Great Celestial Master traveled with the wind.

However, a chilling murderous aura enveloped his back. Knowing something was wrong, Zhao Huangchao quickly formed hand seals with both hands, just as he was about to utter the ominous word "formation," when a monster whose face he had never had a chance to discern grabbed one of his legs from behind!

The visitor to Dragon Tiger Mountain sneered, "Go back!"

As a result, Zhao Huangchao's body was lifted high, then casually and violently hurled towards the deep pool, where the water surface was turbulent and undulating.

The Taoist had no time to release the force of the impact; his back crashed heavily into the water.

The visitor was determined to beat the "dog in the water." He landed in the pool almost simultaneously with Zhao Huangchao, appearing beside the Taoist. His five fingers, like hooks, firmly pressed down on the Taoist's head, pushing him further down!

One standing, one lying, they both broke through the pool's surface and plunged downward.

In the blink of an eye, Zhao Huangchao's head and back simultaneously slammed into a protruding bluestone at the bottom of the pool.

The bluestone immediately shattered!

The person slightly raised his arm, still clutching the Taoist's head, and swiftly slammed it against the stone wall at the side of the deep pool.

Zhao Huangchao was pinned against the stone wall as if nailed.

The person, still unwilling to stop, retracted his fingers, then thrust them forward again. This continued repeatedly, and the Taoist's head struck the stone wall again and again, like a bell being rung.

On Dragon Tiger Mountain, more than a hundred dull, horrifying sounds of a "bell being struck" echoed.

The entire pool seethed and churned, then turned into a cloud of white mist.

As the water receded and the stones emerged, the pool emptied, and the person became visible.

Taoist Zhao Huangchao's skull and spine were completely shattered; from beginning to end, he couldn't utter a single word, dying an absolute death.