A Single Thought Becomes a Demon, Shushan

"Who goes there?!" The corpse-like man hanging on the wall suddenly burst forth with an extraordinary gleam in his eyes.

Who could have entered the secret chamber without his knowing a thing? True Master Qingxu spun around as well.

Dressed in white, with loose hair and bare feet, Yuan Tianyi stood quietly at the entrance to the secret chamber, looking at Luo Bei, who lay on the floor asleep under the most rudimentary Spirit Soothing Incantation he had cast.

"You...!" The hairs on True Master Qingxu's body stood on end. This white-clad man with loose hair and bare feet had entered the secret chamber without a sound, so he was clearly no ordinary figure. Yet Qingxu could not sense the slightest fluctuation of magical power from Yuan Tianyi. All he felt was that this handsome man, beautiful almost to the point of being demonic, possessed an indescribable vastness and majesty.

"If you had taught Luo Bei with care and formed karma with him, your Purple Micro Daoist Temple might one day have risen far beyond its present standing because of him." Yuan Tianyi lifted his eyes slightly toward True Master Qingxu. "For this Purple River Rebirth, to strengthen your soul, you did not hesitate to use the blood and living souls of so many disciples under your sect to refine this pill. Thus, the annihilation of Purple Micro Daoist Temple today was all born from a single thought of yours."

The faint silver glint that flashed through Yuan Tianyi's eyes as he spoke made True Master Qingxu's body stiffen for no reason, as though countless icy needles had stabbed through his entire body, Primordial Spirit included.

The bearing of a grandmaster!

"You actually used the blood and living souls of Purple Micro Daoist Temple disciples?" The corpse-like man hanging on the wall cried out in disbelief. Blood and living souls were the final ingredients for the Purple River Rebirth Pill. The stronger the blood and living souls, the more True Master Qingxu's own soul would grow when he performed the Purple River Rebirth technique, and the more easily he could dissolve and replace Luo Bei's Primordial Spirit. The blood and living souls of cultivators were naturally much more powerful than those of ordinary mortals, but the corpse-like man had never imagined that True Master Qingxu would use the blood and living souls of his own sect's disciples to refine the Purple River Rebirth Pill! After that disbelieving cry, the corpse-like man looked at Yuan Tianyi, then suddenly shuddered from head to toe. "You are Yuan Tianyi, Sect Master of Luofu Sect!"

"Your insight surpasses your Senior Brother's by a hundredfold." Yuan Tianyi looked at the corpse-like figure on the wall. "But your Dao power has been completely lost. Your oil has run dry and your lamp has withered; pills are merely keeping a last breath in you. Even I cannot save you."

"I know." The corpse-like man gave a miserable smile, yet tears rolled from his eyes.

Those tears were red... tears of blood!

True Master Qingxu had imprisoned him here and used pills to preserve his life so that he could witness his own mistake, so that he could watch Qingxu undergo Purple River Rebirth and forge a foundation the Purple Micro Daoist Temple had never possessed before. Yet the outcome was just as he had expected: True Master Qingxu was the one in the wrong.

He shed tears of blood not for himself, but because Purple Micro Daoist Temple would surely be exterminated today, vanishing from this world forever.

Ten thousand years cultivating Buddhahood, one thought becoming a demon!

The illusions and extinction of life and death often lay within a single thought of man!

The red glow emitted by the dark crimson Purple River Rebirth Pill cast True Master Qingxu's twisted face in unspeakable savagery.

"No one will stop my Purple River Rebirth!" With a boom, a bolt of purple mystic lightning exploded in True Master Qingxu's hand and struck toward Yuan Tianyi. At the same time, the silver needle in his hand continued stabbing toward Luo Bei's brow.

Even now, True Master Qingxu remained unaware—or rather, after personally slaughtering his own sect's disciples to refine the Purple River Rebirth Pill, he had become truly heartless and utterly mad, like a lunatic who had lost his mind!

A golden radiance blossomed in Yuan Tianyi's hand, instantly transforming into a giant blade of glass-like flame. The Purple Mansion Divine Thunder released by True Master Qingxu scattered like leaping purple snakes the instant it touched the golden glassy light. As though nothing stood in its way, the enormous golden glass blade cleaved True Master Qingxu in two. Its surging blaze then sliced through the ceiling of the secret chamber as easily as cutting tofu, severing the roof of the chamber and the entire house before shooting hundreds of zhang into the sky.

The disparity in their strength was simply too immense.

In an instant, True Master Qingxu was slain by Yuan Tianyi.

That soaring sheet of glass-like radiance made people within several hundred li turn toward the Daoist temple.

Though he had been cut in half and his Primordial Spirit instantly dissolved by that strike, True Master Qingxu's two falling halves still clutched that silver needle with a death grip.

Yuan Tianyi took one step, crossing the distance in that single step to arrive before the corpse-like man hanging on the wall.

After giving the corpse-like man a slight nod, Yuan Tianyi pressed one finger to his brow.

The divine light in the corpse-like man's eyes instantly dimmed and dispersed.

With that one touch, Yuan Tianyi severed all the life force that the medicinal power of the pills had been sustaining.

Yet in those eyes, streaming with bloody tears, a trace of gratitude flashed through them in the instant before his life was extinguished.

For every additional moment he lived was another moment of overwhelming agony.

Specks of starlight filtered through the enormous breach in the secret chamber's roof. Several brilliant streaks of Sword Qi shot out from Shushan a hundred li away.

Yuan Tianyi glanced at those lightning-swift sword lights, then lowered his head to look at Luo Bei and sighed softly in his heart. I have already paved the road for you. How you walk it will depend on yourself.

No one knew how long had passed before Luo Bei suddenly awoke and sat upright, gasping heavily as if caught in a nightmare.

If someone had truly seized his body, that would have been the cruelest nightmare of all!

Yet he was still himself. Even the medicine on the wounds where those vicious dogs had bitten him seemed to have been changed, and the wounds had been bandaged again. These medicines also appeared more effective than those of Purple Micro Daoist Temple. They felt cool and soothing, and he did not feel any pain at all.

Luo Bei drew a deep breath and looked around. He found himself in an ordinary side room. Two small wooden lattice windows trembled faintly, as though wind blew outside. The furnishings were simple and clean. Aside from the wooden bed on which he had lain, there was a set of pine table and chairs that gave off the fragrance of pinewood. On the wall beside the two small windows hung a calligraphy scroll. Luo Bei did not know that the four characters read "Calm Spirit, Nourish Qi," but he felt their force was astonishing, as though streak upon streak of Sword Qi crisscrossed the paper.

A pair of brand-new black cloth shoes sat beneath the bed. Luo Bei climbed down, put them on, and walked toward the door.

The door stood ajar, and threads of cool, damp wind seemed to drift in.

What place is this? Why am I here again?

Thinking this, Luo Bei pushed the door open with a creak.

Warm sunlight shone outside, faintly dazzling. Yet Luo Bei let out a soft cry and involuntarily widened his eyes.

Outside the door lay a small courtyard, much like one in an ordinary household, planted with common vegetables. Purple wildflowers grew along the edge of the vegetable patch, swaying desolately in the wind. Yet Luo Bei was standing atop a mountain peak!

Like the nameless peak where he had lived in Luofu, this mountain was astonishingly high. The sea of clouds, thick as white cotton, lay beneath Luo Bei's feet.

Everywhere he looked were mountaintops piercing through the sea of clouds—more than a hundred of them.

Those peaks stood above the vast white cloud sea like islands. More than a hundred such peaks stretched together, and under the noon sun, they formed a scene of indescribable grandeur.

But that was not all!

Luo Bei saw at once that many of the peaks held not only strange trees of every kind, but also imposing buildings.

Some peaks were layered upon layer, nearly filled with ancient, majestic palaces and towers. "What are those?!" Luo Bei even saw several sharp, cone-like peaks, likewise covered in trees and palace buildings, floating unsupported in midair.

A cloud sea crouching like tigers and coiling like dragons, countless lofty and magnificent sights, entire mountaintops floating in the air, Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy surging in abundance.

"Just what place is this?" Luo Bei's mind shook violently.

"You... you're awake?" A timid voice came from below.

On the stone steps stretching into the cloud sea, a youth younger than Luo Bei, who had been sitting there in a daze, rose to his feet in alarm.

This youth was even thinner and smaller than Luo Bei. His slightly oversized blue cloth clothes made his frame look hollow in the mountain wind, while his eyes seemed always to carry an unconscious air of humble timidity.

Only after he spoke did Luo Bei notice him below the steps in front of him. Luo Bei paused, then asked, "Who are you? What place is this?"

"I... I... My name is Lin Hang. Th-this... this is Shu-Shushan. W-wait here a m-moment. I'll go tell Senior Brother Ming Zhe." After saying this in a somewhat shrinking manner, the youth turned and quickly limped down the stone steps. He was a youth who both stuttered and had a lame leg.

"This is Shushan?!" Luo Bei remained where he stood, staring blankly at the sight before him as he murmured those words again.

With several whooshes, the thick sea of clouds suddenly split apart. A streak of white Sword Qi and a streak of crimson-gold Sword Qi pierced through, descending before Luo Bei in an instant.

Standing upon the white Sword Qi was a man in a blue robe who looked to be in his thirties. He had a fair, beardless face, lustrous black hair coiled atop his head and secured by a serpentine bronze hairpin. Tall and slender, he looked exceedingly elegant.

The one standing upon the crimson Sword Qi, meanwhile, was a young man in close-fitting green clothes. Over them he wore black leather armor that seemed to be covered in scales. He had thick brows, large eyes, and unruly hair like stiff grass tied carelessly behind his head. He looked both spirited and heroic, bold and unrestrained. "Tsk, tsk, truly rare and excellent bones," the young man exclaimed in admiration the moment he landed before Luo Bei.