Chapter 95
Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW
You can buy coins here to unlock advanced chapters: https://gravitytales.com/coins-purchase-page/
Chapter 95: Title
“You…” Suiyin froze, staring at Lu Ciyou and Yan Li clutched in Wen Zhishu’s hands.
Hostages.
“Why…?”
Wen Zhishu gave a low laugh. “That look on your face—it’s exactly how Xia Wuwei reacted when she saw me at the Sixteen Peaks of the Dark Domain. Shock. Confusion. Disbelief.”
Sixteen Peaks of the Dark Domain…
Realization struck. Suiyin dropped the Wugui sword, her gaze blazing with hatred.
“Pei! Jiu!”
Wen Zhishu—no, Pei Jiu—slowly clapped.
“Correct.” The same gentle smile remained.
Though swords might clash any moment, she kept smiling as if sharing tea with a friend.
Suiyin’s grip tightened on her blade. “Body snatcher! Where’s Wen Zhishu’s true spirit?!”
Pei Jiu’s shoulders shook with silent laughter. “Just now? You think I seized this body recently?”
Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Suiyin, it’s always been me. Did you truly believe that sickly weakling could reach Lingyang Secret Realm alone?”
“I knew Xia Shi would come. Waited on her path. Wanted to see how the fallen genius would look after four hundred years in hiding.” Her smile turned vicious. “Pathetic. Clinging to useless kindness. Even fetching Ziyan Lotus seeds for me.”
The seeds that would awaken Xia Shi’s cold poison.
All according to plan.
Steel flashed as Suiyin lunged. “Die!”
Pei Jiu sidestepped the strike. “Look closer.” Golden light erupted around them—Xia Shi’s spiritual power fueling the formation.
In Pei Jiu’s palm glowed half a golden seal, mirroring Xia Shi’s Tai Chi Seal. “I split my golden seal. Her endless cultivation? Her leaking power?” A cruel chuckle. “It’s been feeding me all along.”
Mad laughter echoed as Suiyin turned to Xia Shi—once bright-eyed, now gaunt beneath thunder tribulation. The Wugui sword clattered to the ground.
That familiar hollow sensation returned—her spirit tearing free.
“Ah Yin! Don’t listen to her!”
Aunt Yan’s voice rang out, but it was too late. Suiyin stared as a hand pierced through her torso, yanking her spirit out with brutal force.
She then saw her own face twist into a mad, sinister grin.
“The Divine Bone! It’s mine!!”
The sickly original vessel was carelessly tossed aside for this superior body.
Pei Jiu flexed her new limbs, testing their movements.
“Show yourself!” Yan Ge arrived, fury blazing across her face.
Pei Jiu scooped up the Wugui sword and swung it casually. The blade offered no resistance.
With Tiansui’s Divine Bone in this body, any occupant could wield the weapon.
“Pathetic. The Immortal Capital leader’s own sword can’t recognize its true master? Even a low-grade Heartless Sword’s spirit wouldn’t be so blind.”
The Wugui sword abruptly shuddered in her grip, whether provoked by her words or not.
Yan Ge lunged forward to seize the Divine Bone, Suiyin trailing close behind.
Both miscalculated Pei Jiu’s current power. Merging Xia Shi’s full spiritual power with half of Tiansui’s Divine Bone, wielding both Past Mirror and Glazed Purification Brush – she’d surpassed Great Ascension. Even Tiansui herself couldn’t expel her now.
Yan Ge’s obsession had weakened her former prowess. Before she could touch Pei Jiu, the Wugui sword stabbed through her shoulder.
The blow flung her backward. Landing hard on one knee, Yan Ge stared at the blade buried in her flesh. Her gaze softened. Jaw clenched, she ripped the sword free and wiped its bloody surface.
The Long Sword wailed.
Yan Ge stroked its edge. “This isn’t your fault.”
The Wugui sword vibrated, rage coursing through its steel.
Sword fury.
Suddenly, the hilt tore from her grasp.
Understanding dawned. Ignoring her wound, Yan Ge leaped after the weapon.
“Stop!!”
Meanwhile, Pei Jiu studied the weakening spirit trapped in her formation – Suiyin’s essence fading from prolonged separation.
“How will your precious sword immortal manage without a sword spirit?”
Suiyin sneered, “She’s nothing like you, parasite. Xia Wuwei needs no blade to rule sword techniques’ pinnacle!”
Pei Jiu’s face tightened. Watching the dimming spirit, she chuckled. “How loyal.”
“No matter. You’ll vanish soon enough.”
She raised her hand to activate the formation – then screamed as steel shattered bone.
The Long Sword had skewered her arm, nearly severing it. Pei Jiu frowned. The blade had clearly aimed for her heart. Why miss?
She turned her head and saw Yan Ge gripping the blade of the Wugui sword, her palms a bloody mess.
Yan Ge wasn’t trying to save her. If the Wugui sword pierced this body’s heart, it would mean the Shenwu Sword slaying its master. Not only would the sword shatter, but even the half Divine Bone couldn’t withstand such a strike and would vanish completely.
Yan Ge fought for the Divine Bone. For Tiansui.
Why did everyone sacrifice so fiercely for others? Suiyin did it. Yan Ge did it. Even those two followers she’d brought would die for each other.
How… irritating.
Resentment swelled in Pei Jiu’s chest. She snorted coldly, determined to crush this millennia-old hope.
“You think Tiansui can return?”
Yan Ge paused while calming the Wugui sword, then muttered as if deaf, “You killed her—what about Tiansui? Tiansui’s Divine Bone is inside…”
“Past Mirror’s twelve transformations! Tiansui underwent twelve! She can’t return!” Pei Jiu crowed. “Her soul scattered ages ago.”
“Impossible.” Yan Ge’s eyes burned crimson. She remembered Tiansui’s words clearly—
Tiansui told me she only did eleven transformations. There was still an opportunity—she could return.
“She lied.”
Pei Jiu relished Yan Ge’s shattered expression. When she turned to resume her task, the sword spirit had vanished from the formation.
Instinctively, she glanced toward Xia Shi—there was the faint figure by her hand.
“Hmph.”
The demon suppression array had emptied. Once the Heavenly Dao barrier fell, the Nine Realms would be obliterated.
Pei Jiu frowned. The eighty-one heavenly lightning strikes had ended, but the barrier held. The tribulation clouds still loomed.
Suiyin didn’t know why she’d been pulled back into the Heartless Sword. Her spirit felt frail—she might fade completely soon.
But she clung on—she couldn’t abandon Xia Shi.
As a mere soul, she floated weakly above the Heartless Sword. Translucent hands cradled Xia Shi’s face as she pressed a reverent kiss.
A dragonfly’s touch—the kiss lasted but a moment.
Meanwhile, under the Heavenly Dao Tree in the Void:
Xia Shi sat beneath the tree, facing the formless Heavenly Dao consciousness.
“How long will you stall? The outside world is in chaos.”
Xia Shi remained calm, steadier than the Heavenly Dao itself.
She observed the tree’s reflection on the water. The Qinghu Region area had darkened completely. If the barrier broke, Black Mist would engulf the entire tree—the Nine Realms’ doom.
“What are you waiting for?” Xia Shi asked. “I survived one Tribulation of Becoming an Immortal. This heavenly lightning feels stronger.”
“Eighty-one strikes completed, yet the barrier stands. The tribulation clouds remain. What scheme is this?”
The Heavenly Dao answered, “You.”
Xia Shi detected no feeling in those words. The Heavenly Dao spoke in a monotone, utterly unreadable.
“One lightning remains,” the Heavenly Dao lifted a hand, expelling her from the Void. “Don’t prove my judgment wrong.”
Xia Shi’s eyes flew open—just as a Long Sword stabbed through her chest.
The sword holder was Suiyin.
She hazily recalled that chaotic night when she returned to the Sanqing Realm, the dream where she couldn’t remember Pei Jiu’s face yet clearly saw Suiyin’s features.
In the illusion of Lingyang Secret Realm, she’d witnessed Pei Jiu thrusting a blade through her heart.
These overlapping visions now mirrored reality with terrifying precision.
Blood stained Xia Shi’s lips as she staggered upright, facing that familiar countenance.
"Pei Jiu."
A smile tugged at Pei Jiu’s mouth, unexpectedly pleased by this recognition.
"You still know me beneath this borrowed face."
Such discernment could only come from intimate familiarity.
"CRACK!"
Turbulent tribulation clouds gathered strength for the final heavenly lightning strike.
"Eighty-one strikes completed! Why another?" Panic surged through Pei Jiu.
She strained to bury her sword deeper into her opponent’s chest.
Failure wasn’t an option.
"Xia Shi!"
"Master Fan!"
New voices joined the fray as Lu Ciyou and Yan Li awoke, rushing to intervene.
Xia Shi’s palm whipped through the air, ensnaring them all with unbreakable dragon sinew.
Pei Jiu struggled vainly against the bonds and restraining hands.
Helpless, she watched Xia Shi rise with Heartless Sword gleaming, meeting the sky’s wrath head-on.
"No!"
Understanding dawned – the Heavenly Dao itself sanctioned this trial. Survival meant ascension.
"This shouldn’t be happening!" Pei Jiu roared, bursting free to seize the Past Mirror.
"Never!"
The Wugui sword streaked through the air, shattering the artifact into luminous fragments that rained upon all witnesses – even cultivators beyond the Heavenly Dao barrier.
Memories flooded every mind:
The Nine Realms’ ancient catastrophe.
Qinghu Region’s bloody history.
Pei Jiu’s intricate schemes.
Yet beneath the storm, Xia Shi saw only one figure materializing in the electric haze.
"…Master."
