Cultivation System: Elder Edition

Chapter 476

Realm in Chaos (II)

Everything was wrong--that was the conclusion Xing Yahui reached as she barely dodged the strike of a shadow blade and retaliated, bringing down yet another enshadowed figure.

It did little to ease the hell on earth, however, as there were literal thousands swarming from every direction. Just yesterday, it felt like the realm bolstered an azure-blue sky and nature was reminiscent of a literal paradise; now, however, the sky was covered with gray clouds, while the entire world beneath seemed to hold a strange, ashen sheen over it.

"AAAGHHH!" a blood-curling scream dragged her out of her thoughts as she glanced sideways, catching the fading glimpse of a distantly familiar figure from one of the Holy Lands being skewered like a pig.

Blood sprayed out every which way, adding further to the already pooling bits below. Gritting her teeth, she pulled back and threw a few daggers forward, killing another shadow figure.

"Master," she mumbled. "What the hell is happening?!!"

"... many things, I feel," the voice in her head responded. It was rather sullen and deep. "Nature of Death Qi is extremely transient--unlike most other forms of Qi, it has no tethers to reality. Its nature is that it returns to Dao, where Dao converts it into Life Qi and the cycle continues. Quite a few of the less savory types have sought means and ways of capturing Death Qi before it leaves, as its potency was always well understood.

"Battlefields where thousands died often became impossible to approach for months, if not years, purely due to the sheer quantity of residual Death Qi that was slow to dissipate. But wielding it was... impossible. Merely being around it meant certain death for the weak, and touching it or interacting with it posed a threat even to Emperors."

"So... how is this possible, then?"

"Sages."

"... huh?"

"There exists only one power capable of even remotely utilizing Death Qi. They call themselves Sages of the Abyss. But..."

"... but?" Xing Yahui silently rolled her eyes but played along with her Master's strange flamboyance.

"But… they hadn't been heard of for many, many, many years. It was believed they had gone extinct."

"Clearly not."

"Hm," her Master sounded rather... somber, something she'd almost never experienced before. "Even so, this is strange. It's unlikely to have been possible without masters of this realm helping."

"Ah." Xing Yahui sighed; it was all beyond headache-inducing. Had she known, she would have never left for this place, experiences be damned. "What do we do? Just keep fighting?"

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"... unfortunately, your Master doesn't know any purifying arts. In my day, they were all hoarded by those damn Monks. Even if you keep fighting, they will keep being reborn; the nature of Death Qi is transient, but until it is returned to Dao... it cannot change. And whatever artifact or array is trapping it here... it's unlikely we have means of destroying it."

"Then... what?! Are you telling me we'll die here?!"

"I didn't say that," the woman said, her voice lightening slightly.

"... what?"

"I sensed some familiar children among the masses," she said. "And if they're here, so is that man."

"That man? What man? Ah! Did one of the hermit seniors sneak in?"

"Hm? No. What are you on about? That man you refused to follow when your Master told you--the very same man who gave us a hint for our predicament."

"... ah," Xing Yahui sighed; she never did quite figure out her Master's obsession with that rather ordinary-seeming man. Even if he were here, what good would it do?

From her Master's words, Xing Yahui suspected only an Emperor or a Monk of direct lineage would be able to fix their current predicament. And there were none of either of them here at the moment.

**

Song Jing casually swung the great sword and split the shadow into two. Motes of Death Qi spat out like water from a well, coalescing back toward the rear, where, undoubtedly, another shadow was formed.

It was quite an impressive formation, in fact--not only was it trapping Death Qi from escaping, but it was also reading Memories of Dao of this place. Figures who once came here and fought were remade through Death Qi. Of course, they were nowhere near as strong as their actual forms, but they were made more so for psychological damage than anything else.

Something of this nature and quality was certainly not of this realm, which puzzled him a bit; he'd come here for a Washing, intending to experience parts of struggle his Seniors warned him about, but he hardly experienced much in all this time. Children buzzing about, old men and women sucking up to him, few fools challenging him...

It was all beyond mundane--until now, at least.

As he cleaved yet another shadow, he realized there would be no end to them; though he could use Buddha and purify them one by one, he had nowhere near enough Qi for it. In fact, only Imperial Seniors from the temple might be able to purify all this Death Qi naturally.

Their best hope of getting out of this place was to shatter the formation instead. The issue there, however, was that it was so well hidden he was unable to find it despite searching for it all this while. Ordinarily, any formation that was in any way manipulating Qi would have to come into contact with it. Only those of extremely high grades--or using special artifacts as cores--could hide their nature so perfectly.

"AAGHH!! N-NO, HELP, PLE--" a scream rang out from his right, and he caught sight of a man being split in half. A bizarre thing had started to occur in the past few hours--some of the shadows began resembling the very people who had perished. It added another level of psychological torture to the already breaking mentality of the children here.

"Hold the line for a moment," he called out casually to the few around him.

"Y-yes, Senior Jing!"

They responded and rushed forward in a bid to prove themselves; he ignored them, however, looking around the massive gash that was slowly shrinking. He didn't know what caused this, but it was likely a stroke of luck that nobody foresaw. Even if it was shrinking, it was still a massive safe haven that could be held on to for some time.

"... oh?" It was about five minutes later when he looked over to the western side, where he spotted an oddity.

The west was holding up.

He was certain that it would be the first side to falter and fall, as most others seemed to have been bearing some kind of a grudge towards the man assigned as the guardian of that end, but it was enduring the best out of all sides... even his.

The reason wasn't the man, but rather a set of children that looked less like they were fighting for their lives and more like they were having the time of their lives.

It was in hell, after all, where the true, brightest stars shone--the veneer would flatten, and those without light in their heart would falter. The Dao would never grace them.

... but he could not hear the Song from those children. There was no tune, no hum, no melody.

Just silence.

Deep and empty.

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