Immortal Travel of Longevity

Grand Secretary Song died an especially gruesome death, his body run completely through by a spear. His entire chest seemed hollowed out, but what terrified people most was that the Jinwu Guard had stood by and assisted.

That meant this matter had His Majesty's explicit permission!

"Grand Secretary Song served the Imperial Court diligently for so many years, yet His Majesty killed him just like that!"

"I heard his corpse is to be exposed for three days."

"What exactly happened? For His Majesty to be this furious, bypassing the Ministry of Punishments and Court of Judicial Review entirely to send the Jinwu Guard directly into Song Manor..."

"I heard Grand Secretary Song was blinded by greed and schemed to seize Commandery Princess Ruyi's family properties."

"Ah?!"

"Which commandery princess?"

"You probably wouldn't remember the name, but since the dynasty's founding, she is the only person allowed to receive an imperial edict standing up. You should know who that is."

Only then did the crowd come to a sudden realization. Put like that, it wasn't surprising at all.

Rumors had circulated in the early years that the commandery princess and the emperor were as close as siblings. Their relationship was so strong that Commandery Princess Ruyi didn't even need to be announced before entering the palace; she could simply walk right in.

Because of Grand Secretary Song's fate, the fearsome reputation of the Commandery Princess Manor resonated throughout the Imperial Court from then on. No one ever dared lay a finger on the manor's affairs again.

Yet there was an indirect beneficiary to this turmoil.

With Grand Secretary Song dead, his seat as a Grand Secretary of the Cabinet had opened up.

And the emperor casually named someone to fill the vacancy.

Xie Huan never could have imagined that he would one day sit as a Grand Secretary of the Cabinet.

He was somewhat terrified, largely because this imperial favor had arrived far too suddenly.

What he did not know was that Yan Nantian had been completely distracted at the time. Ruyi's death had left him with no heart for court politics. Xie Huan's name came to mind on a whim, and Yan Nantian gave the order right then and there.

Taking up this seat, Xie Huan was still in a daze. Over a decade of hard work had not been in vain after all.

He could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

...

Many things had happened in the jianghu recently.

Ever since Wang Ping'an, the master of Nanbeilou, passed away, the few remaining seniors of Nanbeilou had scattered. Perhaps having seen enough of life's passing scenery, they stepped out of that building once more to roam the jianghu.

For a time, many peerless martial arts were passed down and spread.

And the martial artists' obsession with slaying demons grew ever deeper. Countless people surged forward to join the fray, taking the places of the fallen.

Aside from Daoist cultivators, martial artists were also heading south to fend off the demons of Hongyuan Tianxia.

Defensive lines were constructed in the Southern Parts, and city walls were raised. Cultivators from across the Mortal World gathered here, while martial artists wielded saber and sword, using their vitality and blood to slay demons.

Yu Youyu naturally came as well.

She witnessed the terror and brutality of the demons firsthand. After a raid, all that remained was ground covered in blood and bones gnawed clean.

How had the world turned into this?

Yu Youyu did not quite understand. She could not shake a bad premonition, one that applied not just to the Southern Parts, but to the entire world.

Spring, the thirty-first year of Shunzhi.

In the Southern Region, swathes of black shadows suddenly surged into view.

"What is that..."

The soldiers on the city walls gazed out, narrowing their eyes to see more clearly.

But in the very next moment, their eyes shot wide open in horror.

"The demons are coming!!"

A soldier screamed, immediately lighting the beacon fires.

In an instant, all the cultivators and martial artists along the entire defense line in the Southern Parts were alerted.

But the dense, uncountable swarm of demons made everyone's hearts tremble.

Even the Daoist cultivators of the world felt a profound sense of powerlessness.

In merely half a day.

Tragic news came from the Southern Parts.

The Three Southern Passes—Ning'an Pass, Chengwu Pass, and Demon-Slaying Pass—were all breached.

"Go, run!!"

This Demon Race assault caught everyone completely off guard.

This was far beyond anything seen in the past. It was no longer a simple demon disaster; it was a demon tide.

Survivors who barely escaped with their lives roughly estimated that nearly ten thousand demons had attacked the Southern Parts this time.

"Where did so many demons in this world come from?!"

The Daoist cultivators of Quanshan were unspeakably horrified at the news. To their knowledge, the Southern Domain had at most a thousand demons. How had that number jumped to ten thousand in the blink of an eye?

Where did these demons come from?!

The Daoist cultivators were baffled, but during several clashes with the demon tide, they discovered something strange.

"These demons act as if they've gone mad. They've completely lost their minds..."

"These aren't demons!"

"These are monsters!"

This sudden remark awakened them to the truth.

Turning back, they saw the speaker approaching, clad in a Daoist robe and holding a Whisk.

"Sect Leader!"

"Greetings, True Man!"

Daoist Sanyuan cast his gaze forward and said, "When living things alter their forms, they are demons. When objects gain sentience, they are spirits. When human souls linger, they are ghosts. And when the chaotic energies of heaven and earth abruptly form anomalies, they are monsters."

His gaze fell upon the monster's corpse before them.

When he raised a hand, a wisp of baleful fiendish energy slithered out from the corpse.

Daoist Sanyuan turned pale with fright at the sight.

With a flick of his hand, he completely obliterated the wisp of fiendish energy before him.

"It's a Fiend!"

He cried out in shock. He had originally thought these monsters were nurtured by baleful aura, but looking at it now, that was not entirely the case.

Someone else's hand was at play here!

"This is trouble!"

Priest Sanyuan deeply understood the gravity of the situation. If it were merely baleful aura, they would only need to resist it with force. But this wisp of fiendish energy left him temporarily at a loss for how to respond.

To think there were traces of Fiends in Hongyuan Tianxia?

"Fiends?"

A voice rang out.

Daoist Sanyuan paused and looked over.

He saw a Daoist priest approaching, holding a long wooden staff.

Daoist Sanyuan was startled, finding the figure familiar.

The Daoist was unkempt, his hair disheveled and his face covered in grime. He looked somewhat aged, yet the imposing aura radiating from him was not weak in the slightest.

"Have you taken a look, Fellow Daoist?"

Daoist Sanyuan asked.

Daoist Wuwei came to his senses and looked at him. "Greetings, Fellow Daoist Sanyuan. I am Wuwei, of Qingxian Temple."

Daoist Sanyuan immediately remembered. "So it is Fellow Daoist Wuwei!"

He stared in surprise and asked, "How did you end up in such a state, Fellow Daoist Wuwei?"

Daoist Wuwei shook his head. "I have lived deep in the mountains for a long time and rarely venture out. My hair got too messy, and I became too lazy to manage it."

He looked at Daoist Sanyuan and said, "I sensed a massive surge of demonic qi between heaven and earth. The moment I descended the mountain, I heard about the demon uprising in the Southern Parts. I didn't expect to run straight into a demon tide right after arriving."

Daoist Sanyuan sighed softly. "The current situation is already highly critical. The cultivators of the Mortal World are far from capable of fending off these demons. Now that the Three Southern Passes have been completely breached, leaving countless dead and wounded, I fear the present circumstances..."

Daoist Sanyuan trailed off, wanting to speak yet holding back.

Daoist Wuwei said, "What lies before us is a Tribulation of the Mortal World. Ordinary Daoist cultivators like you are likely powerless."

He paused, his gaze drifting into the distance.

"Now, all we can do is wait."

"Wait?"

Daoist Sanyuan was taken aback for a moment, but then realization dawned on him.

He opened his mouth, ultimately saying, "The Human Dao will decline!"

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