Eternal Life by Dual Cultivation

Chapter 251 - 177: The Fall of a Golden Core

The outer seas of Hanyue Continent.

On the vast ocean, a strikingly beautiful Fu Yin Xue, dressed in a jet-black Feather Cloak, rode her Flying Sword in pursuit of a Cloud-Piercing Jade-Winged Sea Eagle fleeing in a panic several miles ahead.

This type of Third Grade Spiritual Bird was naturally vigilant and cunning, fierce and difficult to handle. Coupled with its incredible flight speed, even an ordinary True Pill Cultivator would find it hard to track and kill.

Fu Yin Xue had only come out on a whim today to clear her head, but she had ended up discovering this usually rare Spiritual Bird.

What delighted her even more was that the creature, with a wingspan of over a hundred feet, appeared to be injured.

Taking down this creature would be equivalent to earning three years’ worth of Cultivation Resources. Without much hesitation, Fu Yin Xue decided to act.

As time passed, their high-speed chase had taken them thousands of miles away from Hanyue Continent, and the distance between them was steadily closing.

With a stoic expression, Fu Yin Xue performed a Sword Technique. A streak of Sword Qi, as clear as water, shot through the air and slashed viciously at the Cloud-Piercing Jade-Winged Sea Eagle’s neck.

SLICE—

The sharp Sword Qi sliced across the Spiritual Bird, leaving a wound several feet long and deep enough to expose bone. A great spray of fresh blood gushed out.

The Cloud-Piercing Jade-Winged Sea Eagle let out a pained cry and desperately tried to accelerate its escape.

In its current state, it was no match for the Female Cultivator behind it.

As it turned out, Fu Yin Xue’s luck was quite good today. About fifteen minutes later, she had closed the distance again and sent another slash from her sword.

With new wounds piling on top of old, the Cloud-Piercing Jade-Winged Sea Eagle gradually slowed. The sharp Sword Qi rained down more frequently, leaving an increasing number of injuries on its body.

A few moments later, the massive creature finally breathed its last. Fu Yin Xue froze its corpse in ice and then tucked it away into her Storage Pouch.

...

Back on Hanyue Continent, the weather in the high Celestial Vault suddenly turned. Black clouds from an unknown source blotted out the sky, enveloping the entire continent and its surrounding seas.

Before the Cultivators in the Marketplaces could even react, tens of thousands of blood-red, destructive lightning bolts descended from deep within the dense clouds, pouring down like a torrential storm.

In an instant, every inhabited area on the massive island, which spanned tens of thousands of miles, was subjected to an indiscriminate attack.

Hanyue Gate’s main sect grounds bore the brunt of the assault. Under the dense bombardment of innumerable blood-red lightning bolts, the Third Grade Protective Array held for less than a hundred breaths before collapsing, revealing the throngs of terrified Disciples within.

Desperate roars echoed as the auras of two Golden Core Masters erupted from deep within a cave-dwelling inside the sect. They transformed into streaks of Escape Light, fleeing for their lives toward the outer seas of Hanyue Continent.

Behind them followed the auras of several other True Pill and Pseudo Core Cultivators.

However, a giant hand over a thousand feet wide, condensed from blood-red lightning, materialized out of thin air. With a casual scoop, it swept them all into its palm.

As the giant hand clenched shut, the ceaseless, shrill screams quickly died down, as if those Cultivators had never existed.

Under the near-endless deluge of lightning, Hanyue Gate’s main sect grounds were inevitably reduced to rubble. From the Cultivators to the Spirit Beasts and Spirit Companions, not so much as a single blade of grass, a tree, a brick, or a tile was left behind.

Next were the Marketplaces, cities, mines, Medicinal Gardens, villages, and harbors. All were annihilated in the deluge of lightning.

In the span of about fifteen minutes, by the time the last bolt of blood-red lightning had faded, the surface of Hanyue Continent was a scene of utter devastation. Along with its many surrounding islands, all traces of civilization had been erased, transforming it into a completely lifeless dead zone!

Immediately after, dozens of incandescent Thunder Balls, each over a thousand feet in diameter and wreathed in arcing electricity, slowly descended from the clouds. They darted back and forth rapidly in mid-air along specific trajectories, trailing afterimages in their wake.

Their targets were the souls of the Cultivators that had not yet dispersed. Any soul that came within a certain distance of the Thunder Balls was completely devoured and annihilated. None were spared.

After several minutes of this purge, the Thunder Balls flew back into the clouds and disappeared.

Then, a Bronze Round Mirror, thousands of feet in diameter, mottled with age, and suffused with a dense Dao Rhyme, descended from the sky like a primordial mountain peak pressing down from above.

Its smooth, polished surface slowly began to glow, revealing innumerable, impossibly fine strands of chaotic-hued light that exuded a profound sense of unpredictability and the fickleness of fate.

The Bronze Round Mirror hovered in mid-air and began to rotate slowly. The countless strands of chaotic light within it were instantly twisted into a tangled mess, losing all their former clarity and order.

From this point on, even a master proficient in Celestial Secret Calculation would find it impossible to discover what had truly happened on Hanyue Continent.

First, slaughter the living. Second, extinguish their souls. Third, scramble the Celestial Secrets and throw yin and yang into disarray.

This was the true intent of the mastermind behind the scenes: to ensure that certain truths would be forever submerged in the River of Time, never to be known by the outside world.

Having accomplished this, the Bronze Round Mirror slowly ascended, disappearing deep into the black clouds.

Immediately after, the sky full of black clouds silently dispersed. The boundless, deep blue Celestial Vault was vast and profound, yet not even a single large bird could be seen.

Meanwhile, Fuyue Continent had suffered a similar devastating attack from an unknown Great Power. In the wake of the cataclysm, the vast continent was left barren, without a single blade of grass.

Several hours later, Fu Yin Xue returned to the outer seas of Hanyue Continent.

The celestial prodigy stared blankly at the continent before her, which had been transformed into an Asura Death Realm, a deep chill seeping into her bones.

’I was only out to clear my head. It’s been less than a day... How could Hanyue Continent have suffered such a cataclysm?’