novelraw Chapter 89 : To Attain Jade Radiance
Chapter 89 : To Attain Jade Radiance
Chapter 89: To Attain Jade Radiance
Lu Changyuan’s sword stroke blasted apart several black spirits wielding blades and axes.
“The spirits are rioting… The Nether River is about to emerge?”
No.
Something was wrong.
Everything was wrong.
First it was the Three-Life Tree, then the Nether River—something was accelerating the entire Nether Kingdom.
Lu Changyuan reversed his grip on his sword. The blade flashed so swiftly that before Mei Zhao Zhao could even see his movement, he had already frowned and looked toward the heavens. His sword momentum did not halt—he drew it back and flicked, the sword tip already thrusting toward the three ghostly shadows silently forming behind Mei Zhao Zhao.
Out of the corner of her eye, Mei Zhao Zhao caught sight of a dark silhouette rising from the young man’s shadow—holding a round hammer, ready to smash it down upon Lu Changyuan’s back.
“Watch out!”
The words escaped her before she realized it.
The dim lantern light shone upon the hammer, reflecting Lu Changyuan’s profile.
Calm as an ancient well.
Lu Changyuan twisted aside, dodging the strike. His leg lashed out with a sonic boom, sending both the hammer spirit and its armor flying with a single kick.
He shouted, “That Xiao Qingfeng—what Dao does he cultivate!?”
Mei Zhao Zhao hesitated only briefly. “The Path of Transformation.”
“The Path of Transformation?”
Lu Changyuan’s pupils suddenly widened. With a single stroke, he decapitated the spirit before him. “This is trouble.”
Xiao Hai suddenly charged forward again, baring dense fangs as though to pierce Lu Changyuan’s skin and crush his very bones.
Clang!
Severed Thought met those fangs head-on, sparking a terrifying flash of light.
Xiao Hai’s strength alone already possessed the might of the Fifth Realm.
Then, the illusory sky of the Nether Kingdom was suddenly torn open. From within came an overwhelming surge of chilling Nether Qi.
A river descended from the heavens.
The Ghost Gate opened—the Nether River emerged.
“These monsters aren’t spirits! They’re constructs Xiao Qingfeng created with the Transforming Life Technique!”
Lu Changyuan swept past the unending black-armored spirits being born one after another, struck Xiao Hai back once more, and then looked toward the sky. “The Sun-Moon Sundial has obscured Heaven’s Will? He’s using the power of the Nether River to trace back the past? What on earth is Xiao Qingfeng trying to do!?”
Mei Zhao Zhao said anxiously, “I don’t know either—the sect only ordered me to find Xiao Qingfeng.”
Xiao Hai suddenly froze midair, his face twisting in pain. His blood burst through his skin again, dyeing the ground beneath his feet into a pool of crimson.
Lu Changyuan held Severed Thought in hand, muttering, “The Nether River… stopped!?”
From past experience, once the Ghost Gate opened, the Nether River should have poured down from the heavens, flowing entirely into the void beyond the palace walls. At that time, one only needed to set sail into the void to reflect one’s Dao upon the Nether River.
Yet now, the river above had not fallen. It seemed stuck in the heavens, though the power of retrospection it carried had already taken effect—houses around them were slowly solidifying into reality.
Mei Zhao Zhao stared in disbelief. “What is that?”
Suddenly, an unfamiliar melody resounded throughout heaven and earth.
From the thick fog rose a golden skeleton, standing before the rift carved by the Nether River. From afar, it pointed a finger toward Xiao Hai—who then exploded completely.
Xiao Hai’s blood stained the memorial tablet in his belly. The tablet, which he had swallowed, was already shattered into fragments, and as his body burst apart, the fragments floated into the air.
Those blood-stained fragments slowly coalesced into the three characters of Xiao Qingfeng, then abruptly transformed into a single droplet of golden blood, which shot into the sky.
The golden skeleton reached out and caught that droplet, placing it between its brows.
A weary, ancient sigh followed.
“Three hundred seventy-two years in the Nether Kingdom at last… I’ve waited long enough.”
Lu Changyuan stood there, stunned.
He whispered,
“To turn death into life… to attain Jade Radiance!?”
Fifteen hundred years ago.
Daoist Chang’an emerged into the world, sweeping across the land. Every cultivator of the Jade Radiance Realm—he either slew or defeated them all.
From then on, the world was Chang’an’s.
And because of Daoist Chang’an’s indiscriminate killings—no matter whether one was tainted by the Desire Demon or not—anyone who committed evil acts would be annihilated, body and soul, by a sword descending from beyond the heavens.
Daoist Chang’an’s heavy-handed punishments forcibly suppressed the chaos of that era.
Thus, the demonic path had to hide itself away, leaving only the righteous paths of those cultivating the Art of Severing Desire visible in the open world.
A thousand years passed, during which many powerful demonic sects perished.
Yet, inevitably, a few ancient remnants endured. Daoist Chang’an could not possibly scour every corner of the world with perfect precision—there were always omissions.
Under these circumstances—
Five hundred years ago, Daoist Chang’an disappeared.
The demonic path, suppressed for a millennium, finally bared its fangs and launched a ferocious counterattack.
Not only that—
For that thousand years, Daoist Chang’an had personally suppressed the Desire Demon, pinning it firmly in the heavens. Any trace of its corruption that fell upon the mortal world would be detected by his Supreme Pure-Spirit Forget-Immortal Technique.
After a thousand years of hunger, the Desire Demon also began to stir.
The White Domain Dao Sect’s master, though strong, was powerless to fully contain it. At that time, she had yet to comprehend the final sword of the Profound Sword—she was formidable, but not yet capable of slaying an enemy across ten thousand miles. Thus, she too could only follow her master’s path and begin purging the demons.
But how could these demons be so easily purged?
This time, countless demonic sects from the shadows poured forth, plunging the world into utter chaos.
In such a time—
A boy was born in Huangshi Town.
His name was Xiao Qingfeng. He possessed decent talent and soon joined a small sect called the Changchun Sect. By the age of thirty-five, he had already reached the Third Realm.
Unfortunately, the sect master later fell into demonic ways, and the entire sect was destroyed overnight, leaving Xiao Qingfeng alone and without allegiance.
In this chaotic world, those who avoided ambition often survived longer—but Xiao Qingfeng was not content. He wanted to climb higher, step by step. Thus, he desperately sought fortune. While being hunted one day, he stumbled into a small mountain village.
His pursuers reached the place, looked around, and left without a word.
The village was filled with peach blossoms, chirping birds, and fragrant air—a rare paradise untouched by the chaos of the world.
Xiao Qingfeng was not foolish. In such troubled times, a peaceful place like this could only exist under the protection of a powerful cultivator.
He soon discovered that the great cultivator was an old man with a stooped back who sat at the village entrance every day, watching the cooking smoke rise.
Xiao Qingfeng approached and begged to become his disciple.
At first, the old man refused. His life was nearing its end. Yet Xiao Qingfeng knelt before his house for an entire month, pale and weak, until he finally fainted.
When he awoke—
He found himself inside the old man’s room. He knew he had succeeded.
The old man was a mighty cultivator of the Dawning Sun Stage.
From that day forth, he began teaching Xiao Qingfeng diligently. In time, Xiao Qingfeng advanced to the Fourth Realm, just as he was about to approach the Dao itself.
The old man asked him, “Why do you cultivate immortality?”
Xiao Qingfeng answered, “To survive.”
“To seek eternal life?”
“No. I just… want to live.”
Eternal life was too distant a dream. He only wished to survive this age of turmoil—to live until the world found peace.
The old man nodded and patted his shoulder.
The next day, Xiao Qingfeng comprehended the Path of Transformation.
This Dao, when cultivated to its peak, allowed one to be reborn from a single drop of blood—so long as blood remained, one could not die.
It perfectly aligned with his will to live.
When Xiao Qingfeng went to share the good news, he found the old man already at death’s door. Only then did he realize—the old man had known his days were numbered, and had sacrificed his own lifespan to help Xiao Qingfeng overcome his bottleneck.
As he was about to pass away, the old man said, “My name is Chen An. I once served as a hall master of the Sun-Moon Palace.”
From him, Xiao Qingfeng learned a long-buried secret.
The Palace Mistress of the Sun-Moon Palace had shattered the sect’s supreme treasure—the Sun-Moon Sundial—and ordered Chen An to return it to the Nether Kingdom. Chen An had tampered with it; one who possessed his jade anklet could accurately locate the Sundial within the Nether Kingdom.
Though the Sun-Moon Palace had been annihilated, and its mistress and guardians vanished from the mortal realm, retrieving the Sundial would not be too perilous.
But since the Nether Kingdom had not yet opened, Xiao Qingfeng decided to seek other fortunes first.
Fifty more years passed.
Xiao Qingfeng married a woman from the Pleasure Sect as his Dao companion. His life seemed complete; he even broke through to the Sixth Realm.
Yet he was still unsatisfied—perhaps even despairing. Xiao Qingfeng knew he had no chance to break into the Jade Radiance Realm. Years ago, he had exhausted his essence in a reckless attempt to reach the Dawning Sun Stage. His Dao path had reached its end.
Lacking talent was the cruelest fate of all.
Chen An had perished before reaching Jade Radiance—would he share the same end?
As he wavered between struggle and frustration, news came—
“The Nether Kingdom is about to appear.”
~~~~~~~~~
The golden skeleton’s flesh began to sprout piece by piece until a handsome man stood reborn.
“At last…”
He sighed softly and waved his hand. Nether Qi wove itself into garments upon his body.
Memories surged within Xiao Qingfeng’s mind.
He had entered the Nether Kingdom. When it closed, he was trapped within, drifting alongside it into the void.
At the Dawning Sun Stage, the Path of Transformation possessed boundless applications.
To obtain the Sun-Moon Sundial, Xiao Qingfeng dissected dozens of spirits. Then, with one stroke, he severed himself—transforming his true body into a skeleton, so as to withstand the corrosion of Nether Qi.
His consciousness, through the Transforming Life Technique, became a spirit.
A spirit was the final trace of a dead person’s thought—he had turned his own will into a spirit, blending flawlessly into the Nether Kingdom.
He followed the other spirits, endlessly chanting:
“The Lord of the Nether shall return. Her wings shall one day shine upon all the Nether Kingdom. The citizens of the Nether would give everything for their Lord.”
Day after day. Year after year.
Until his bloodline—along with the memorial tablet carrying it—entered the Nether Kingdom. Within that tablet, he had hidden a drop of his own blood. It could serve as both his final retreat and the spark for his awakening.
Thus, Xiao Hai’s arrival completed the last piece of his puzzle.
“Nearly four hundred years… such a painfully long time.”
Xiao Qingfeng stood high in the air, his voice echoing across the entire Nether Kingdom.
Countless black spirits fell upon the ground, bowing as they were born.
His body, his will, his everything—had become one with the Nether Kingdom.
Xiao Qingfeng murmured, “I can attain the Dao.”
He said it with absolute certainty.
Transforming death into life—the Nether Kingdom, the border between life and death itself—perfectly aligned with his path.
He raised the Sun-Moon Sundial high. The waters of the Nether River surged over him, transferring the authority of the Nether Kingdom bit by bit. Soon, the entire city would fall under his control.
The black spirits lowered their heads before him, chanting in a new tongue: “Lord of the Nether.”
They were his spirits—his citizens.
Was he Xiao Qingfeng?
No.
He was the Lord of the Nether—
the newly born Lord of the Nether!
Xiao Qingfeng declared, “Purge the ministers of the old king.”
The black spirits received his command, raised their spears, and charged toward the unconscious spirit of the former Lord of the Nether, slaughtering mercilessly.