novelraw Chapter 3 : Chapter 3
Chapter 3 : Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Twelve hundred years ago, when the Sword Sovereign wielded his sword to break the Demon Abyss, he once shaved off the summit of Yunmen Mountain with a single strike.
Afterward, Yunmen Mountain was renamed Yunmen Terrace.
The Sword Pavilion lay at the far southeastern edge of Qiankun, while Yunmen Terrace lay at the far southeastern edge of the Sword Pavilion.
Beyond Yunmen Terrace was the Red Sand Sea, where Qiankun met the Demon Abyss.
If the three-thousand-li Sword Pavilion was Qiankun’s city wall, then Yunmen Terrace was the Sword Pavilion’s watchtower.
Aside from Sword Pavilion cultivators, disciples from other sects also took turns standing guard there year-round.
In the heavy rain, the cultivators stationed at Yunmen Terrace stared solemnly into the Red Sand Sea.
Ever since the Sword Sovereign cleaved open the Demon Abyss twelve hundred years ago, the Red Sand Sea—once a battlefield—had become a place where cultivators from all sides tempered themselves.
Some, confident in their own strength, even crossed the Red Sand Sea and ventured deeper into the Demon Abyss for training.
Once you entered the red sands, life and death were on you.
The Red Sand Sea was perilous, but back then it had been the Sword Sovereign who had cut his way into the Demon Abyss, not the Demon Abyss invading Qiankun.
Within the Red Sand Sea, demons did hunt cultivators, yet no demon dared approach Yunmen Terrace.
But now, the radiance of clashing arts swept in from afar, drawing nearer and nearer to the defensive formation around Yunmen Terrace.
“I will keep my eyes on them. The rest of you check whether someone else is using a feint to strike elsewhere,” Baili Yue said.
He was a Sword Pavilion disciple currently on rotation guard.
Any cultivator assigned to this post had already reached the seventh realm, the Tianji Realm.
The other cultivators agreed.
Baili Yue fixed his gaze on the distant struggle.
Several cultivators in training were chasing a demon, but it did not look as though they had forced the demon toward Yunmen Terrace.
Instead, it seemed the demon had been heading here all along, and they could not restrain it.
In their pursuit, they were being dragged back toward Yunmen Terrace by the demon’s lead.
If that was truly the case, what did this demon intend?
Since Yunmen Terrace had been established, any demon bold enough to approach had been cut down before the terrace. Was this demon seeking death?
The more Baili Yue watched, the stranger it seemed. Judging from the fight, these cultivators were no match for the demon, and yet the demon held back at every turn.
For some reason, Baili Yue felt an odd, inexplicable familiarity from it.
Frowning hard, he asked the Sitting-Forgetting Island cultivator beside him, “Shi Lian, help me take a look. There is something off about this demon. Why do I feel it is… familiar?”
Sitting-Forgetting Island cultivators were skilled in divination and often possessed profound intuitive insight. Shi Lian watched for a while, then shook his head.
“I only find it strange that it keeps holding back. I do not feel any familiarity. Could it be a demon’s mind-bewitching art?”
Baili Yue knitted his brows and pondered for a moment, then shook his head in confusion.
The more closely he examined the demon, the more unfamiliar details he could find—yet that unaccountable sense of familiarity stubbornly clung to his heart.
“The more ominous it is, the more careful we must be,” another cultivator said.
Baili Yue nodded.
No matter what, Yunmen Terrace could not be allowed to fail. Whatever was strange about this demon, if it dared draw near Yunmen Terrace, they would cut it down.
The rain grew more and more urgent.
The demon sprinted through the downpour and reached the base of Yunmen Terrace. Several cultivators pursued it closely.
They seemed ashamed—unable to stop a demon even as it barged all the way to the terrace—and each of them unleashed their strongest techniques at once, flooding the air with radiant light.
On Yunmen Terrace, Baili Yue’s sword light had already condensed.
Carrying the power of the formation, he cut down at the intruding demon with icy resolve.
There was no path forward and no route back.
The demon lifted its head to look at Yunmen Terrace.
Upon that eerie face, so unlike the countenance of Qiankun’s living beings, there appeared a steadfast, resolute expression as it rose fiercely to meet the sword light head-on! Sword light and demonic Qi collided violently.
The rainwater in the air splashed outward from the point of impact, and for an instant, heaven and earth seemed to fall silent.
Baili Yue’s expression changed in shock—he had felt Sword Intent from that demon!
The demon’s Sword Intent was desperate and mournful.
It blocked his strike, even though his sword carried the formation’s power.
Yet after that single clash, the demon had exhausted everything and began to fall.
Below, the pursuing cultivators’ killing arts bloomed in brilliant profusion.
Just then, a sword light appeared, drifting and elusive.
With a gentle press, it received that dazzling flower woven from countless spells, then swept once—and the cultivators only felt their vision blur.
Before they could react, they realized they had already arrived atop Yunmen Terrace.
Shuang Wenlü had arrived as well, his left hand still holding the demon.
The cultivators on the terrace had their nerves drawn taut. Seeing the sudden change, they instinctively formed seals and activated their artifacts, ready to strike.
Baili Yue was the exception. Shock and joy surged through him as he fell to his knees.
“Grand Patriarch!”
News that the Sword Sovereign had emerged from seclusion had already spread among the Sword Pavilion disciples.
Many disciples outside were racing back, eager to see the Grand Patriarch.
Baili Yue wanted the same, but duty bound him to Yunmen Terrace, and he could only lament the missed chance. Who could have expected the Grand Patriarch would come to Yunmen Terrace himself?
Shuang Wenlü had not emerged for nine hundred years.
Unless he permitted it, the world could not preserve portraits or likenesses of him.
Many did not recognize him, but Baili Yue had seen him before.
Only then did the others understand who stood before them.
They lowered their hands, their wary looks turning into curiosity and reverence.
Shuang Wenlü raised two fingers and tapped the demon’s forehead. The demon’s form scattered like old dust, transforming into a tall young man.
“Cen Rui?” Baili Yue exclaimed. “Did you not return just a few days ago?”
The words had barely left his mouth before he realized what they implied, and his face changed at once.
This Cen Rui had been rescued by the Sword Sovereign.
If the “demon” before them was the real Cen Rui, then what had the “Cen Rui” they let pass a few days ago been?
“Heaven and earth are in upheaval. Among the demons, some may have gained new means. The old methods of detection may not be able to pierce them.”
Shuang Wenlü held his fingers like a sword and left a sword shadow within the Cleansing Pool.
The so-called Cleansing Pool was, in truth, a smooth surface like a mirror. It resembled a slab of transparent, immaculate jade, reflecting different light and shadow depending on whether the sky was clear or overcast, as though ripples were stirring across water—hence it was named a “pool.”
The Cleansing Pool could illuminate a cultivator inside and out, to check for traces of demons.
Shuang Wenlü’s sword shadow reflected in the jade wall.
Like a fish gliding through water, it circled once and then vanished.
With the illusion-breaking effect of that sword shadow, no demon would ever be able to evade the Cleansing Pool’s inspection again.
“Send word to the various sects. Have them conduct their screening anew.”
After speaking, Shuang Wenlü looked at Cen Rui, who sat with his eyes closed, regulating his breath. There was approval in his gaze.
“When he awakens, have him go directly to Bai Ya.”
Cen Rui had not failed to live up to Bai Ya’s praise.
After the demon’s scheme had swapped their identities, he had immediately guessed the demon would exploit his identity to stir chaos.
Though he did not know what the demon planned, he understood how much trouble could be wrought if the demon, plotting against the unguarded, moved under the name of Junji Peak Master’s disciple.
Thus, after forcing his way out of the trapped formation the demon and the system had set, he crossed the Red Sand Sea by brute force and fought his way to Yunmen Terrace.
The system’s methods were bizarre.
With his identity exchanged with that demon, the road home became a hell of knives and flame, a path where survival was nine deaths to one life.
Elders and friends alike became life-and-death enemies bent on killing him.
He could have chosen to preserve his life within the Demon Abyss first, waiting until he found a way to reclaim his identity before returning to the Sword Pavilion.
But the demon that had stolen his identity would not wait.
Whether the cultivators of Yunmen Terrace could recognize him or not, whether he could restore his identity, whether he could survive this perilous road—so long as the Sword Pavilion cultivators stationed on Yunmen Terrace sensed something abnormal about him, they would begin to suspect those who had passed in and out of Yunmen Terrace before.
The Sword Pavilion’s foundations ran deep, with countless senior experts.
With that alertness raised, he did not believe the demon could still overturn the heavens.
With a heart of grim resolve, Cen Rui charged onto this road of life and death.
Yet not long after he entered the Red Sand Sea, someone had begun watching over him.
Bai Ya had followed Shuang Wenlü to search for his disciple and happened to see Cen Rui break out within the Red Sand Sea.
But they did not intervene at once.
For Cen Rui, this was a rare tempering and a rare opportunity.
If he forced his way through this path, then after cutting out that one sword, his cultivation could advance another step.
Only after Bai Ya confirmed he was unharmed did he quietly return.
After leaving a sword shadow in the Cleansing Pool, Shuang Wenlü had no intention of lingering.
Shi Lian, the Sitting-Forgetting Island cultivator stationed here, called out, “Senior, please stay.”
Shuang Wenlü looked over.
Shi Lian bowed respectfully.
“Before this junior came to stand guard, my island master said that if I were fortunate enough to meet you, I should invite you to visit Sitting-Forgetting Island as a guest after the time of a single cup of tea.”
Hearing this, Shuang Wenlü smiled.
“One cup of tea—good. I have received the invitation.”
The time of a single cup of tea was enough for him to take a trip to the Demon Abyss.
A sword rose from Yunmen Terrace like thunder splitting the sky, tearing through the heavy clouds.
A line of azure clarity lit the gloom overhead.
Where the sword light passed, the torrential rain parted from that moment onward.