touchnovel Chapter 29 Spirit Realm Rift
Chapter 29 Spirit Realm Rift
On the third day after leaving the forbidden area, Ling Chen began to have the same dream frequently.
In his dream, he stood on a scorched battlefield, the earth cracked beneath his feet, dark red magma surging from the fissures. A rift had been torn open across the sky above, stretching to the edge of endless darkness. Within that darkness, something seemed to breathe—slowly, heavily, each breath causing the earth to tremble. He looked down at his hand; the sword mark on the back of his hand emitted a faint blue light, its glow flickering with each breath, like a struggling star unwilling to be extinguished.
Then he heard a voice.
The voice didn't seem to come from the outside world; it seemed to rise from the depths of his own consciousness—old, weary, exactly the same as the original voice of the Celestial Venerable that he had heard in the Sword Servant's memories.
"The final foundation of the Nine Revolutions Demon Sealing Array is in the Divine Realm. The Mortal Realm foundation is already in your hands, the Spirit Realm foundation is at the place where Yan Shi fell, and the Divine Realm foundation is at the old site of the Conferred God Platform. Only when all three foundations are activated can the Demon Lord be resealed."
Ling Chen wanted to ask a question in his dream, but his body was out of his control. He could only listen to the voice continue speaking.
"Your time is running out. The Demon Lord has awakened and is gathering strength to break through the seal. The Shadow Demon General's remnant soul has been severed, the Furnace Holder's supply hall has been destroyed, and the old network of subordinates has been wiped out—these setbacks will make him more cautious, but they won't stop him. With each passing day, he recovers a little more. When he has gathered enough strength to break through the next seal, he will come to you in person."
"Before that, you must find the legacy of the Flame Servant. The Burning Heaven Sword is in the Extreme Flame Wasteland of the Spirit Realm, the place where the Flame Servant perished. But the Extreme Flame Wasteland has a trial—only by passing the trials left behind by the Flame Servant can you gain the approval of the Burning Heaven. The Flame Servant's trial is not as gentle as the Sword Servant's. The Sword Servant tests your understanding of the sword path, while the Flame Servant tests your will to burn in the face of adversity. If you cannot pass the trial, you cannot take the Burning Heaven with you."
"There's one more thing. Both of your attendants have their past life memories sealed. The Ice Attendant's memories are sealed in the Frost Condensation Sword, and the Flame Attendant's memories are sealed in the Heaven Burning Sword. Only when all three attendant swords are repaired will their memories be fully restored. Until then, they can only trust you intuitively—just like Su Qingyuan shielded you from the three elders' questioning on the Qingzhou arena, yet she couldn't explain why. That wasn't a rational weighing of options; it was the Ice Attendant's remaining loyalty deep within her consciousness making the choice for her."
In the final moments of the dream, the sword imprint suddenly blazed brightly, illuminating the scorched battlefield as if it were daytime. Within the light, he vaguely saw a figure—tall, upright, with long, flowing hair, his natal sword pointing diagonally at the ground, its tip leaving a long sword mark. It was the back of the Celestial Venerable, his own past life.
The Celestial Venerable did not turn around, but said a sentence with his back to him.
"This time, don't let her kneel on the Investiture of the Gods platform."
When Ling Chen woke up, the sword imprint was emitting a faint light in the darkness, like an eye that refused to close.
Three days later, a rift appeared in the spirit world.
The Spirit Realm Rift is located at Broken Sky Cliff, three hundred miles north of Qingzhou. It is the only stable spatial rift between the mortal realm and the spirit realm. The rift is about ten zhang wide and several tens of zhang high, its edges covered with dense sealing inscriptions by ancient cultivators, and guarded by people sent by the three major sects in rotation. Normally, the rift is grayish-white, with only weak spatial fluctuations emanating from it, but today is different—dark red demonic energy faintly seeps from the depths of the pitch-black rift, a faint smell of blood permeates the air, and a low-frequency vibration has been constant for more than a month. The Qingyun Sect disciple on duty said that this vibration started last night and has been going on for a full six hours now.
Jian Xuan stood before the crevice, his expression grave. Behind him stood Ling Chen, Su Qingyuan, Xiao Lie, and Han Tie, all fully prepared for their departure. The five of them had set off from the Qingyun Sect before dawn, traveling for three hours on their swords. When they arrived at Duan Tian Cliff, they saw that a corner of the sealing inscription at the edge of the crevice had been shattered—it had shattered silently, as if something had sucked away the supporting structure from within.
"The Spirit Realm lies beyond the rift," Jian Xuan said, pointing to the dark fissure. "This tremor is unusual. Even when demon generals tried to sneak across before, it only caused the sealing runes to flash a few times. This time, a corner of it shattered—either a powerful figure has arrived, or they are gathering a large army." He turned to Ling Chen. "The Spirit Realm is not like the Mortal Realm. The demonic forces there are deeply entrenched, and the number of righteous humans in the Spirit Realm is very small, mostly consisting of rogue cultivators and ancient remnants. But there is one group you might be able to win over—half-demons. Half-demons have mixed bloodlines and are disliked by both the righteous and demonic paths, having long been enslaved by the demons. Some of their resistance fighters operate underground in the Spirit Realm, fighting against demonic rule. If we can find Bai Ze's former subordinates, it can make up for our manpower shortage."
"Bai Ze?" Ling Chen remembered the name.
"The Demon Emperor Bai Ze. The supreme ruler of the demon race, with his own power in the spirit realm. He joined forces with the human race's Heavenly Venerable at the end of the war between gods and demons to seal the passage to the demon realm. The demon race and the human race were allies in that war. Ten thousand years have passed, and the demon race has long been divided, but Bai Ze is a staunch anti-demon. If he were still alive, he would definitely help us."
"He's still alive." Old Mo's voice suddenly rang in Ling Chen's mind, carrying a complex emotion. "Bai Ze was saved by you in your past life, and given his nature, he's been looking for an opportunity to repay that favor for the past ten thousand years. You have the Myriad Dao Returning to the Void Diagram. After finding him and revealing your identity, he will give you the Demon Emperor's Token. In the Spirit Realm, allies of the demon race are more useful than human identities."
Jian Xuan handed Ling Chen a communication talisman engraved with a sword mark: "This talisman can maintain contact even after passing through the spatial rift, but it can only be used once. Crush it when you find the Flame Servant's remains or need reinforcements, and I will bring people over. I will personally guard the Broken Sky Cliff; no demonic cultivators will intercept your retreat within a hundred feet of the rift's exit." After speaking, the old man took out a small jade sword, less than a foot long, from his sleeve and placed it in Ling Chen's palm. "This is a sword mark I used when I was young, infused with thirty percent sword intent. It can withstand an attack from those below the Void Realm, and if a demonic general arrives in person... it can hold them off for a few breaths."
Ling Chen carefully put the jade sword away from his body and bowed respectfully.
Jian Xuan accepted his bow, then looked past his shoulder at Su Qingyuan: "Miss Su, the ice-type spiritual energy is thin in the Spirit Realm, so the consumption of Frost Condensation Sword Intent will be much greater than in the mortal realm. Your dantian suffered a hidden injury in the battle at the Supply Hall, so don't push yourself too hard."
"I know." Su Qingyuan gripped the hilt of the Frost Condensation Sword.
The group stepped into the rift one by one. The feeling of spatial tearing was similar to that of a teleportation array, but far more brutal—darkness, oppression, and ringing in the ears, like being dragged to another world by a giant hand gripping one's heart. When his feet touched solid ground again, Ling Chen smelled the scent of this unfamiliar world. The demonic energy in the air was faint, and in the distance, several floating islands could be vaguely seen suspended under the hazy sky. Nearby, charred, withered trees stood with twisted, leafless branches, and the earth beneath their feet was cracked with countless fine lines.
They appeared in a wasteland.
Xiao Lie drew his Crimson Flame Sword, the flames illuminating an area of several feet in radius: "This is the Spirit Realm? How come it's even more eerie than the Sword Tomb?"
Han Tie held the Golden Scale Sword horizontally in front of him, the golden inscriptions on its blade shimmering slightly as he warily scanned his surroundings. Just as he was about to say something, a cold arrow shot silently from behind a withered tree, aiming straight for his back. Ling Chen drew his sword and deflected the arrow, black demonic energy seeping from the broken shaft.
"alert!"
Countless dark red eyes lit up in the withered forest. Demonic beasts—at least twenty in number, the size of hunting dogs but with bone spurs covering their backs, their drool corroding the ground and sending up puffs of white smoke. The leader was exceptionally large, nearly ten feet tall at the shoulder, its left eye blind, replaced by a dark red demonic core embedded in its socket.
Su Qingyuan made the first move. Her Frost Condensing Sword pierced the ground, and an ice wall rose up, splitting the beast horde in two. Xiao Lie and Han Tie charged into the horde from the left and right, their crimson flames and golden scales weaving a reaping net. Ling Chen's target was the one-eyed beast king—his piercing gaze penetrated the beast king's thick bone armor, and deep within its chest cavity, a fist-sized demonic core was pulsating crimson. That was it.
With a swift movement, he dodged the sweeping bone tail, and with an extremely tricky angle, Duan Nian pierced through the gap in the bone armor, penetrating the demonic core with a single strike. The Beast King let out a deafening scream, its massive body crashing to the ground. The remaining demonic beasts, having lost their Beast King's leadership, fell into disarray and were systematically killed by Xiao Lie and Han Tie.
The battle lasted less than the time it takes to drink two cups of tea. After clearing the battlefield, Ling Chen crouched down to examine the beast king's corpse, using his Soul-Severing Technique to pry open its chest cavity. The demonic core was shattered, but the fragments emitted a faint resonance beneath the sword tip—not demonic energy, but fire-elemental spiritual power. Before being corrupted by demonic energy, this beast king was originally a fire-attribute spirit beast that lived in high-temperature areas. The remaining fire-elemental spiritual power within its body repelled and intertwined with the demonic core, like a parasite forcibly grafted onto it. The demonization was not a natural evolution, but rather an artificial modification.
"A discovery?" Su Qingyuan sheathed her sword and walked over.
Ling Chen placed the fragment of the demonic core in his palm, sensed it for a moment, and then looked up at the continuous mountain range deep in the wasteland. From the residual fire-type spiritual energy fluctuations of the demonic core, he could detect a very faint resonance of the same origin—it was the sword intent of Burning Heaven. It was far away, intermittent, but its direction was clear. These demonic beasts were patrol dogs used by the demon race to guard the outer perimeter of the Flame Servant Ruins. The demonic cultivators who modified them would never have imagined that the forcibly grafted fire-attribute spirit beasts would become natural resonance devices for Burning Heaven.
"About three hundred li to the northeast," Ling Chen said.
Su Qingyuan followed his gaze. The mountain range was blurred under the hazy sky, but the ridgeline faintly glowed with a dark red light. That was the Extreme Flame Forbidden Land—the place where Yan Shi had fallen, the burial ground where the Burning Heaven Sword had slumbered for ten thousand years.
"Elder Mo, what is the trial left behind by Attendant Yan about?"
Old Master Mo remained silent for a long time, so long that Ling Chen thought he wasn't going to answer.
"Burn." Elder Mo's voice was soft. "The trial deep within the Extreme Flame Forbidden Land has only one stage—you will have to walk through the flames of the Burning Heaven Sword. Yan Shi was the one who had the highest hopes for your past life, not because you were powerful, but because he felt that you knew better than anyone when to fight with all your might and when to turn back. He believed in 'never abandoning in desperate situations.' If you retreat even half a step during the trial because you cannot withstand the intense heat of the Burning Heaven Sword, the Burning Heaven Sword will never acknowledge you as its master."
He paused.
"The sword servant tests comprehension, the ice servant tests loyalty, and the fire servant tests willpower. He never believes in tears."
Ling Chen pressed the sword imprint onto the back of his hand, feeling the slow yet firm pulse of the imprint beneath his knuckles. Of the three attendants, the Sword Attendant was the first he saw, the Ice Attendant was the first he recognized, and the Flame Attendant—he didn't even know what the attendant who stood in front of the Celestial Venerable ten thousand years ago looked like. But the Blazing Heaven's sword intent awaited him in the north, and he had to go.