World's No. 1 Swordsman-Chapter 424: Grand Heavenly Net Technique

On the Moon, atop the jagged rim of a crater, a bald monk struggled to pull himself upright. He kicked his legs and slowly extracted himself from the dust where he had crashed headfirst.

Huai Jing sat on the ridge and exhaled. He looked back to his "long" flight, feeling a pang of nostalgia for the days when all he had to do was flip to effortlessly soar tens of thousands of li.

It couldn't be helped. His defense was astonishing, his combat skills overwhelmed cultivators of the same level, and his cultivation sometimes advanced unexpectedly. However, he had one fatal flaw: he was a slow flyer.

Hence, after leaving Earth, Huai Jing had to keep adjusting his course while chasing the Moon, which followed a spiral path through space as it orbited Earth. Had he not been angry enough mid-flight to push his cultivation up another realm and become as strong as Nascent Soul Realm cultivators of the Daoist sects, it would've likely taken him even longer to catch up.

The breakthrough made reaching the moon much simpler. Capitalizing on his formidable defensive control, Huai Jing cast Indestructible and crashed onto the lunar surface.

He had hoped that the impact would cause a strong enough tremor to reach the Small Immortal Realm deep in the Moon. However, he got knocked unconscious instead, making him look like a planted onion for several hours.

When he woke up, he realized that Wang Sheng and the others hadn't come looking for him. The impact was either too weak or the Small Immortal Realm's barrier was so strong that it had blocked the vibrations.

His next problem presented itself.

"The Small Immortal Realm's barrier can probably resist even the attacks of a Grand Dao Golden Immortal. I recall Emperor Ziwei setting it up." Huai Jing frowned. "What was the unsealing method... sixteen different procedures, I think...? Forget it. I'll find the entrance first and then figure out the rest."

He brushed off his robes, leaped, and skimmed close to the lunar surface in search of a crater that he'd be familiar with.

Xiaomiao had sent Huai Jing to look for her brother with thorough instructions.

Aside from Lady Meng, who might know how to enter the Small Immortal Realm, only the reincarnated arhat knew the entrance's location. If Qing Yanzi or the Celestial Master were the ones on the Moon, they likely would have tried digging three thousand zhang into the ground instead.

After half a day of searching, Huai Jing finally found the Moon Palace entrance. He hovered at the bottom of the crater with a solemn expression. In the thin lunar air, he summoned his Buddhist power and shouted into the silence, "Open sesame!"

The Moon Palace didn't respond.

"Emperor Ziwei is almighty! Long live the Immortal Emperor! May the friendship between the Immortal Dao and the Buddhist sects endure!"

Huai Jing rubbed his head and formed the Vajra hand sign with both hands. Buddhist light surged around him. As a wrathful Buddha phantasm appeared behind him, he fired dozens of beams downward.

"Om! Ma! Ni! Pad! Me! Hum![1]"

Cracks spread across the crater floor, and faint golden light seeped out.

With a soft pop, the light dissipated just as Huai Jing ran out of strength. He stumbled slightly and sighed in defeat.

I can't remember the right unlocking method...

If the technique to lift the seal was incorrect, the Moon Palace gate would not open—not even for him, who had a golden body.

"This is really testing my patience," Huai Jing muttered as he floated back a thousand zhang to sit on a crater. He then closed his eyes and sifted through fragments of memory in an attempt to find the correct way to unseal the Small Immortal Realm.

Though he wasn't reluctant to use his past life's golden body, he didn't want to waste it either. He'd only use it if he was ready to do whatever it took to get his desired outcome.

After all, his golden body from his past life comprised only two hundred five bones. Losing a piece meant losing it forever.

***

Inside the Small Immortal Realm.

Wang Sheng sat beside the Pool of Transcendence, closed his eyes, and meditated. Mu Wanxuan was still in the pool.

Yaoyun gradually appeared on top of Spiritless. Focusing on the Moon Palace entrance, a trace of confusion flickered in her eyes. She had sensed a faint disturbance before, but it was so subtle that the Moon Palace's barrier had merely faltered for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Wang Sheng asked.

Yaoyun shook her head and faded back into Spiritless.

Meanwhile, Mu Wanxuan's eyelashes trembled slightly, and her eyes opened slowly, confusion flickering in them. She stood still, lost in thought. It seemed as though she was having trouble trying to grasp the Dao of Balanced Yin and Yang.

***

Deep in a remote stretch of tropical rainforest, southern border.

Having traveled hundreds of kilometers past the Hua Republic's border, Xiaomiao and Shi Qianzhang were now close to the busy lands of a few small nations. By rights, they should have been deep inside the corrupt cultivators' territory, yet they hadn't seen a single one.

Afternoon sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting scattered patches of light on the ground. Beside a gentle stream, a sleepy young girl soaked her feet and stifled a yawn.

A short distance away, Liu Yunzhi lay quietly. More than a dozen colored talismans had been plastered on him, and a small cloth pouch hung from his neck.

Faint Buddhist light seeped from the pouch into his forehead, throat, and chest. Silver veins swelled under his skin, and fine silver dust drifted out from his pores.

On a paper crane, Shi Qianzhang darted swiftly through the forest and soon descended beside Liu Yunzhi. He bent down and examined him for a while.

"He's still not purified?" he asked.

With another yawn, Xiaomiao answered, "It should be done soon. Anyway, how was your scouting?"

Shi Qianzhang frowned. "It's strange. As you said, I searched for terrains suitable for settlements, but I only found signs that there used to be villages in those areas. It's as if the villages themselves have been lifted and moved away. If you hadn't told me to look for traces of herbs or poisonous plants, I probably wouldn't have thought people had lived there."

"How large an area did you search, Brother Qianzhang?"

"About a hundred li south and two hundred li east to west. I didn't dare go further. I could see foreign towns in every direction, so I dared not risk showing myself."

"You searched such a broad area and didn't meet a single cultivator. That already says a lot." Xiaomiao silently fell deep into thought. She then added, "I'm afraid it's worse than we imagined. The corrupt cultivators on the southern border were already weaker than the Daoist sects and excluded from the qi meridians. An ancient cultivator can probably purge those corrupt cultivators without anyone noticing."

Shi Qianzhang froze for a moment, then nodded gravely.

"Go south from here all the way to the sea," a thin, trembling voice instructed from behind them. "Then follow the coast west and find a valley..."

Xiaomiao sprang to her feet. Shi Qianzhang had already drawn two stacks of talismans.

At the edge of the forest, Liu Yunzhi had opened his eyes. He looked completely drained, but the silver light in his eyes was now gone. Beads of blood seeped from his pores, making him look quite frightening.

He coughed twice and breathed in shallowly. Some color returned to his pale face.

Shi Qianzhang walked over silently and took off the small cloth pouch around Liu Yunzhi's neck. Faint Buddhist light still flickered from within it. When he opened it, he discovered that the sarira inside had grown noticeably smaller.

He frowned. "Can this thing still save Big Sister?"

"Don't worry. Buddhist Master Huai Jing will find a way," Xiaomiao replied softly as she hopped over in her sandals.

Pain flickered in Liu Yunzhi's eyes. Repeatedly, he muttered under his breath, "Sorry... I didn't know I'd be... I'm sorry..."

Shi Qianzhang and Xiaomiao exchanged a look.

With a nod from Xiaomiao, Shi Qianzhang cleared his throat. "Your forefather's an idiot."

Liu Yunzhi blinked, then smiled helplessly, half-bitter, half-amused.

"He's probably not under their control anymore." Xiaomiao snapped her fingers. Still worried, she added, "Your forefather's a devil."

"I don't know if he's truly turned into a devil." Liu Yunzhi sighed. "No need to test me. The heart devil inside me has already been purged."

"Heart devil?" Shi Qianzhang asked in confusion. "What's that?"

With a faintly pained expression, Liu Yunzhi let out another sigh and closed his eyes.

Shi Qianzhang rummaged through his storage artifact and took out a porcelain bottle. He then shook out a pill. "Open up."

He then shoved it gently into Liu Yunzhi's mouth.

The pill dissolved quickly, bringing back more color to Liu Yunzhi's face. After a few minutes of meditation, he peeled off the talismans on him and exhaled deeply. "How long was I unconscious? How long do we have left before the Immortal Dao Conference?"

"It's in two days," Shi Qianzhang replied.

Beside him, Xiaomiao pulled out her old-style smartphone and opened a short video, showing the foot of Mount Hua packed with people. Outside the venue, tens of thousands of cultivators had already gathered.

"This was posted a few hours ago," she said. "The ones arriving now are just unaffiliated practitioners."

Liu Yunzhi's expression tensed. "They're planning to establish their authority at the conference. They'll go after Daoist Master Bu Yan and the Celestial Master—"

"We've already guessed as much," Xiaomiao interjected. "Master Qing Yanzi isn't stupid, and Chief Chi Ling has people working in secret. We don't have enough influence to do anything about it. Let's just handle what's in front of us."

She then turned to Liu Yunzhi.

"Brother Yunzhi, you told us earlier to head south along the coast, then west. Why?"

"You'll find the corrupt cultivators' corpses there," Liu Yunzhi muttered. "Most of them weren't properly disposed of. I was there, too."

Shi Qianzhang froze.

Xiaomiao's eyes narrowed as realization dawned. "The sects on the southern border have already been wiped out? You said you were under the control of your heart devil. What exactly happened?"

Liu Yunzhi's eyes dimmed as he gathered his thoughts. In a hushed tone, he explained, "It started two years ago, when I was desperate to break through. While delivering pills to my forefather, I begged him for a new technique. He gave me one called the Grand Heavenly Net Technique. Using it made my cultivation skyrocket in no time.

"But only a few months later, whispers began echoing in my Dao Heart while I was meditating. The devil a Dao Heart nurtures is called a heart devil. The Grand Heavenly Net Technique was created to breed one. When I tried to drive it out, it seized control of my Dao Heart instead.

"As it turned out, my forefather was the one truly controlling it. I remember everything that happened after that. If not for the situation now, I wouldn't have had the face to tell you any of this."

He looked down at his hands and laughed bitterly. Regret clouded his eyes.

Visibly shaken, Xiaomiao and Shi Qianzhang exchanged uneasy looks.

"There's actually a technique like that?" Shi Qianzhang muttered.

Xiaomiao's gaze sharpened. "After that, the corrupt cultivator forces on the southern borderlands began spreading the Grand Heavenly Net Technique?"

"That's right. About a year and a half ago, I headed to the south with more than a dozen cultivators who were also bound by their heart devils. We spread the technique there, and it spread like wildfire. Within half a month, most of the six major corrupt sects saw their members' cultivation soar, unaware that the technique had turned them all into slaves."

Pain and fear mixed in Liu Yunzhi's eyes.

"About a year ago, my forefather brought me here. He only gave me two orders."

"And those are?"

"Cultivators who hadn't reached the Golden Core Realm yet were to take their own lives. The rest were tasked with the cleanup; they destroyed bodies and eliminated all evidence. The southern border's corrupt cultivators are now completely under my forefather's control..."

Shi Qianzhang drew in a sharp breath. He tensed as goosebumps rose across his skin.

1. A Sanskrit mantra most commonly associated with Avalokiteśvara(Guanyin/the Bodhisattva of Compassion). The mantra means "the jewel in the lotus(union of compassion and wisdom)." ☜