Chapter 160: Painting Realm, Observing People Through Bone

Lotus Field Town was like a brand new world. All its people and demons had vanished without a trace, and the entire town had become a self-contained, interconnected spatial domain, separate from everything else.

This was another picture.

Within this picture, no matter how chaotic the battle, the town’s true form would remain unaffected.

Meanwhile, the town’s demons continued to run and jump around, bewildered, completely unaware that in a parallel dimension to theirs, two ancient malevolent deities were silently confronting each other.

“Little Lian, don’t touch these paintings!” Autumn quickly grabbed his sister’s hand as she reached for the black cat painting.

Little Lian looked up and blinked. The small black cat was nestled in her arms, rubbing against her arm, very affectionate.

Autumn pulled Little Lian aside and warned her, “It’s Ghost Festival now. If you touch these paintings, you’ll go outside, and then big brother won’t be able to find you.”

Little Lian nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.

Autumn sighed as he looked at the paintings hanging on the wall. He pinched Little Lian’s chubby cheek and said, “Don’t ever touch them again, okay?”

Little Lian opened her mouth and babbled something.

“Haven’t you just eaten?” Autumn said. “I’ll cook fish for you when Grandpa gets back.”

The black cat in Little Lian’s arms opened its dark, jewel-like eyes wide and let out an expectant meow.

“Grandpa…” Autumn whispered, absently stroking the black cat’s body, a sense of foreboding settling in his heart.

As the land receded with the lotus boat, the entire world became deep blue lake water.

True Immortal Han Chi stood on the giant serpent’s skull, gazing across the boundless lotus pond. Each lotus leaf in the pond was as large as the roof of a grand mansion.

Snowball-sized water droplets rolled on the lotus leaves, gleaming emerald green and rustling. The clouds in the sky were neatly arranged, like countless white pieces scattered across a chessboard.

This world consisted almost entirely of the sky and the lotus pond, with hardly any other objects.

True Immortal Han Chi knew this was the dueling ground Zhang Qieyu had specially chosen.

He frowned as he looked at the mirror-like surface of the water before him.

Zhang Qieyu stood on the Xiushi serpent’s massive head, but his reflection in the water was not his own!

In the reflection, a gigantic monster with a human face and a dragon body was coiled around the Xiushi serpent’s head. It lay on the serpent’s skull, its facial features like carved wood, and where its ears should have been, large fins had grown. Its upper body resembled a long-starved human, with distinct ribs, while below its abdomen was entirely serpent, its body as thick as Jiuying’s neck, yet appearing extremely slender compared to the current Xiushi serpent.

“Yaoyu…” True Immortal Han Chi looked at the reflection in the water and spoke its name.

Meanwhile, Zhang Qieyu, still smiling, stood on the large green-headed serpent. He gazed nostalgically at his phantom image in the water and said, “After that battle three thousand years ago, I never thought the three of us would gather again.”

Yaoyu, Jiuying, Xiushi – three fierce deities who should have died long ago were all present today.

Unfortunately, this reunion was not among old friends.

True Immortal Han Chi said coldly, “If the texts are correct, Jiuying and Xiushi are your blood brothers. Yet today, you use Xiushi as a puppet and Jiuying as food for your belly. Indeed, fierce beasts may cultivate human forms, but they can never become truly human.”

Zhang Qieyu laughed heartily. “True Immortal Han Chi, a respected master of a renowned orthodox sect, didn’t you also nearly betray your master and ancestors?”

True Immortal Han Chi stroked his long beard and replied calmly, “I harmed no one from my sect, and what I took was merely a portion of the sect’s qi luck. Moreover, the Heavenly Sect’s century of prosperity was born from my efforts.”

Zhang Qieyu said, “You simply had no need to kill. If someone from your sect had stood in your way, I doubt you would have shown any mercy… Indeed, in this world, who would choose to be a demon hunted by all when they can be a revered and virtuous person?”

True Immortal Han Chi paid no mind to his words. He merely stared intently at the Xiushi serpent’s body, which had swelled up and was now gradually recovering.

His spiritual energy surged continuously beneath his robes.

Zhang Qieyu, however, kept smiling as he looked at the reflection beneath the water. “Do you know how our father died?”

True Immortal Han Chi did not reply.

These old grievances had festered in Zhang Qieyu’s heart for too long. Before this decisive battle, he recalled the past and spoke, unable to contain himself: “It’s laughable, but the ancient Dragon Kings, who wielded immense power, actually believed in an absurd legend—that the Nine Sons of the True Dragon would together rule the Nine Provinces. Later, everyone realized it was merely a tactic by a great deity to divide the Dragon Kings’ authority through bloodlines; each son a True Dragon bore weakened its power… Such a crude legend, indeed.”

Zhang Qieyu’s smile never faded, though his expression turned sorrowful. “But back then, Father King actually believed this legend. Unfortunately, he only managed to have eight sons before his death, and his most favored concubine bore him a daughter instead. The legend of the Nine Sons of the True Dragon never came to pass, and he was left dying in the subsequent divine war. Do you know who finally killed him?”

True Immortal Han Chi guessed the answer.

Zhang Qieyu said, “We killed him on his throne… devoured his flesh, drank his blood, divided his scepter… even his concubines.”

True Immortal Han Chi sighed, “Devouring raw flesh and blood, fratricide – that is your true nature. I should not have trusted you before.”

Zhang Qieyu licked his dry lips. “No matter how delicious Jiuying is, it still can’t compare to Father’s flesh and blood back then.”

True Immortal Han Chi commanded the great serpent beneath him, gliding across the mirror-like water surface, closing in on Zhang Qieyu.

“It’s truly not easy that you’ve survived until now,” True Immortal Han Chi said, his voice devoid of emotion. “Now, spit out Jiuying’s remains, and I will give you a chance to live.”

Zhang Qieyu’s face was cold. “I’m actually quite curious what gives you the confidence to face me today?”

True Immortal Han Chi did not answer. All expression faded from his face, leaving him as unmoving as a stone statue at the bottom of a peak valley.

From his back, a sword broke free from its sheath.

Zhang Qieyu coldly looked at the sword in his hand and scoffed.

“That sword of yours is an excellent blade in the human world, but battles between deities never rely on swords,” Zhang Qieyu said, as if instructing a junior. He extended his hand, and the entire space before him converged towards him. “We have sharper weapons.”

As Zhang Qieyu extended his hand, the entire space abruptly inverted.

The sky and water swapped colors, and standing on the Xiushi serpent was no longer Zhang Qieyu, but the colossal monster with a human face and a dragon body.

“Empty theatrics,” True Immortal Han Chi said, unperturbed. “Your cultivation is gone. What you rely on now is merely the monster beneath you and the authority of Lotus Field Town. As for me, I am but one step away from the Five Paths. Spit out Jiuying; it will be better for both of us.”

The great sword on his back, however, had already ascended, splitting into nine swords, their tips pointing directly at the Xiushi serpent.

In the Xiushi serpent’s pupils, the sliver of an iris was almost imperceptible. It was no longer the docile great black serpent of Lotus Field Town; its body, infused with the ferocity of countless demon beasts, now contained an uncontrollable, rampant viciousness.

The great swords crashed into the Xiushi serpent.

Zhang Qieyu extended his slender, bony arm. His merman-like face had blood-red pupils, and his serrated mouth curved into a vicious, revealing smile.

The nine sword shadows shifted erratically in the air, but Zhang Qieyu didn’t even blink. He simply stretched out his hand and completely solidified the space in front of him.

The high-speed flying swords were like fish frozen in ice.

The ethereal projections formed by sword energy and intent were crushed and shattered by the spatial compression. The true sword itself remained motionless within the spatial cage, unable to advance even an inch.

“If you had met me a few centuries earlier, perhaps I might have agreed to your proposal,” Zhang Qieyu said, his fingers moving rapidly. He seemed like a deity issuing commands; the lake water overturned, the heavenly clouds tore apart, the azure sky collapsed, and everything appeared to be placed in various containers, transforming into inconceivable shapes.

“But I’m dying now. What use is trading with you just to prolong my meager existence for a few more centuries?” After forming complex hand seals, Zhang Qieyu flicked a finger, and everything in heaven and earth, including the sword, surged towards True Immortal Han Chi with overwhelming force.

True Immortal Han Chi stood atop the great serpent’s head, his white robes fluttering, his face stern. As he watched everything in the world rush towards him, he too extended his hand.

The great sword halted before him.

Jiuying’s central head, which held most of Jiuying’s authority, had its law-like powers now grafted onto him.

Space twisted and wavered in a very short time, like a flame being blown outwards by a strong wind, yet True Immortal Han Chi stood at its center, completely unaffected.

“This sword was originally named Heavenly Edict, the inherited sword of my sect’s leader. From today forward, I wish to rename it Beheader,” True Immortal Han Chi declared, his words like a decree that manifested its will.

He gripped the sword again and, with a 'Great River Entering the Stream' stance, cleaved open an almost absolute space. His figure lifted from the great serpent’s head, pushing the sword forward. As the sword reached Zhang Qieyu, True Immortal Han Chi and the ancient sword abruptly swapped positions. The True Immortal extended his hand, his palm seemingly holding the lotus pond, his back like it supported the sky. As his palm descended, the distance between the sky and the pond water abruptly shortened.

With a thought from Zhang Qieyu, heaven and earth inverted once more.

He transformed back from Yaoyu into his human form, his speed several times faster. He precisely slipped through the gaps in the shifting space, evading the palm strike that encompassed the might of heaven and earth.

As they left the bodies of the fierce deities beneath them, the two colossal pythons, like wild horses without reins, erupted in ferocity and charged at each other.

The Xiushi serpent’s body was much larger, currently propped up by Jiuying’s bones, resembling a colossal mountain of flesh.

Even when the Xiushi serpent had swallowed a mountain-sized divine elephant, it had not been much different.

Although its form was immense, its movement was cumbersome. Meanwhile, the head of the great serpent-like Jiuying, whose horns originally extended backward from the sides of its head, now turned their sharp edges forward, cutting into its opponent as its serpentine body moved.

The necks of the two great pythons collided in mid-air. They struck each other at the heart region, so the earth-shaking roars erupted almost simultaneously with the impact.

The Xiushi serpent’s body was barely moved, but Jiuying’s head was knocked sideways. As it toppled, it quickly flipped its head over, opened its massive, serrated maw, and bit into the Xiushi serpent’s body.

The Xiushi serpent opened its massive mouth and, with a roar of fury into the air, exhaled a breath mixed with ice and fire.

Ice and fire were also among Jiuying’s innate abilities. As the Xiushi serpent digested it, Jiuying’s powers were gradually grafted onto its body.

Jiuying could feel its body inside the great python’s belly, its iron-like bones gradually being crushed and digested. Its rage and pain drove it to furiously assault the python, trying to climb onto its body and tear its flesh with its massive maw, which exhaled a grayish-white mist.

Their bodies quickly became intertwined, their sharp teeth piercing each other’s scales, leaving their bodies bloody and mangled.

However, Jiuying’s body was formed from countless grayish-black mists of death spirits. After being bitten off, these spirits flowed back into its body, transforming into real flesh and blood.

Thus, despite the vast difference in their sizes, after a round of entanglement, it was the Xiushi serpent that suffered heavier injuries.

“Heavenly Soul Lamp?” Zhang Qieyu watched Jiuying regenerate its body and understood. The great serpent had swallowed the Heavenly Soul Lamp into its belly.

True Immortal Han Chi paid no attention to the battle below. He knew that while Jiuying was formidable, killing the current Xiushi serpent would be exceedingly difficult, and if he waited for Xiushi to completely digest Jiuying, he would have no chance at all.

Therefore, he had to quickly kill Yaoyu.

Unlike the brutal, flesh-on-flesh combat of the giant pythons, True Immortal Han Chi and Zhang Qieyu’s confrontation was far more intense, yet this exceedingly fierce battle left not a single wound on either of them.

Both wielded authority over space. The moment a killing intent arose, they could distort space to evade attacks.

Unless there was an overwhelming disparity in their strength, they would never be able to determine a victor.

During this time, they even conversed about some topics.

“What exactly is hidden in the Southern Wild?” True Immortal Han Chi asked. Although he had traveled through the Southern Wild, he had only ever explored its fringes.

“The souls of fierce beasts, homeless ghosts, and headless gods,” Zhang Qieyu replied readily.

“Is the legend true?” True Immortal Han Chi asked.

“What legend?”

“That in the center of the Southern Wild, a god of the God-King level once perished?”

“Hahaha… How ridiculous for mortals to speak presumptuously of gods? While your cultivation may grant you a firm standing in Southern Province, before a God-King, how are you any different from an ant? A thousand years ago, those who obtained the twelve God-King thrones were beings no one could possibly fathom, and no living creature could kill them!”

“What were they before they became God-Kings?”

“What were they? What do you think they were?” Zhang Qieyu burst into laughter, twisting space to once again divert the trajectory of the flying sword. Simultaneously, space shattered like ice, hurtling towards True Immortal Han Chi. “Of course, they were all like me—gods or evil spirits who struggled to survive in the Age of Gods!”

“So… if fate had been on your side, perhaps you would now be the master of a divine kingdom?” True Immortal Han Chi asked.

After revealing his ferocity, the wicked souls within Zhang Qieyu began to churn incessantly. His pupils grew redder and redder, like the moon over Linhe City.

He harbored too much resentment about that past.

Those who became the masters of the twelve divine kingdoms were not necessarily the twelve strongest of that era. Several of them had, at the most crucial moment, stolen the divine authority and ascended to supreme existence.

And gods like him, who managed to survive until today, largely lacked the courage for a desperate struggle in that chaotic era.

In his hand, he held the great spatial sword that had sustained him until now. Everything in heaven and earth became highly distorted as it passed through this space. The light blue condensed, transforming into a deep ocean blue.

He pressed forward, sword in hand, towards True Immortal Han Chi.

The two fought from the heavens down to the depths once more. The massive lotus leaves in the pond were almost entirely uprooted, and the mud from the bottom churned upwards, polluting the mirror-like deep blue waters.

Zhang Qieyu had not made a move for over a century, and True Immortal Han Chi had not drawn his sword for sixty years.

Now, in this unrestrained world, their battle had almost no limitations, as if it would only end when heaven and earth were completely pierced through.

Both had disheveled hair, like withered trees swaying violently in a gale. As heaven and earth inverted for the thirteenth time, an unprecedented, overwhelming killing intent welled up in their usually placid eyes.

They had both, by unspoken agreement, reserved their most potent killing moves for this moment.

True Immortal Han Chi made the first move.

“Azure Heavens Sword!” he roared.

Following his words, an azure sword light, almost covering the entire sky, appeared.

A simulated Azure Heavens Sword manifested in the air, formed from half of the qi luck of Guardian Peak!

“Eastern Sun Sword!” True Immortal Han Chi roared again.

Half of the qi luck from Return Yang Peak surged forth like overturning rivers and seas, and ten thousand feet of golden light erupted skyward from behind True Immortal Han Chi’s head.

These two swords formed the sky and the sun, appearing as if truly formed. The moment they emerged, they covered the original appearance of True Immortal Han Chi’s heavenly scroll painting, causing a gigantic rift to appear.

Zhang Qieyu stared at the two swords, his expression hardening. “It seems what you’ve done is even more extreme than I imagined.”

Below them, Jiuying and Xiushi were entangled in the water, like dough fritters dropped into a hot oil wok, sizzling together and endlessly churning in the boiling, oily water.

True Immortal Han Chi glanced at them, then withdrew his gaze.

“Cloud Inquiring Sword!” he continued, his words unbroken.

When the Cloud Inquiring Sword arrived, the entire boundless space trembled uneasily, clearly unable to withstand the strain.

Zhang Qieyu abandoned the thought of fighting to the death. He voluntarily dismantled the grand formation he had set up and attempted to flee, temporarily avoiding the sharp edge of the attack.

But he couldn’t move.

With a flick of his finger, True Immortal Han Chi had set a lock.

It was the Sword Lock art, and under his current authority, this lock was immeasurably stronger.

As the Cloud Inquiring Sword struck, heaven and earth shrieked. Where the sword passed, it left an immensely wide vacuum, and the surrounding air solidified for a moment before filling the void.

The Cloud Inquiring Sword struck Zhang Qieyu.

Zhang Qieyu’s body was shattered.

The next moment, Zhang Qieyu’s true form reappeared before another scroll painting.

The scroll painting in his hand vividly depicted the two pythons entangled in battle and True Immortal Han Chi slaying him with a sword.

A sneer curved his lips.

Just as he was about to destroy the painting.

The sword from within the painting astonishingly burst through the scroll and pierced his brow.

Zhang Qieyu was killed again.

The next moment, his figure reformed before another scroll painting. On this scroll, it vividly depicted him viewing a scroll, then being stabbed by a sword from within that scroll.

Zhang Qieyu flicked a dot of ink from his finger, pinning down the sword within the painting to prevent it from flying out again.

But soon after, another sword burst through two scrolls.

It was the Immortal Sword, Minglan, from Heavenly Cavern Peak.

Zhang Qieyu died again.

Before the next painting, the old man came back to life once more.

This time, the painting before him was a scene of himself viewing a scroll within a scroll he was viewing.

Several paintings appeared simultaneously within one painting.

Fortunately, Heavenly Cavern Peak had the weakest qi luck among the four peaks. This replicated Immortal Sword Minglan only killed him once before he thoroughly pinned it down within the painting.

When the sect leader’s sword, named “Heavenly Edict,” arrived and killed him.

The painting before him became a scene of him viewing a scroll within a scroll within a scroll he was viewing!

Under his ingenious painting skill, the laws of space had almost reached a miraculous realm.

After the Heavenly Edict sword killed him several more times, the painting before the old man became like countless mirrors reflecting each other, making it impossible to distinguish what was real from what was false.

True Immortal Han Chi had only managed to unleash these five swords, which ignored spatial laws, by accumulating a century’s worth of half the sect’s qi luck. Unfortunately, even after the Immortal Sword Heavenly Edict shattered, he still couldn’t truly take Zhang Qieyu’s head.

Meanwhile, at the Sword Edict Heavenly Sect, a desperate scene unfolded.

Every single person in the Sword Edict Heavenly Sect could feel the spiritual energy being drained from the peaks like water. Along with the spiritual energy, many people’s cultivation realms were also drawn away. Many whose realms were already unstable even fell an entire major realm, overcome with despair.

Only at this moment were the Peak Lords and Martial Uncles, who had been immersed in the joy of their sect leader’s return, finally awakened as if by a bucket of cold water.

It turned out that when their sect leader had ridden the serpent out, it had seemed effortless, but in reality, he had gambled the entire sect’s future.

Then, they discovered something even more alarming.

The remaining half of the sect’s qi luck also seemed to be slowly draining away…

What kind of terrifying enemy was worth True Immortal Han Chi gambling the entire Sword Edict Heavenly Sect on?!

Deep within the wasteland where Lotus Field Town was hidden, Thirteen Rainstar stumbled through the wilderness, leaning on her sword. Her Daoist robe was covered in weeds, and her beautiful face was smeared with blood.

She couldn’t tell which direction she was going, and with every step, her despair deepened.

Three Dao Lords had died one after another, and the sect master had also failed to leave the town.

Although she had escaped Lotus Field Town by the skin of her teeth, finding an opening in a mural using her superb Dao-breaking technique before True Immortal Han Chi could kill her… the Purple Heaven Daoist Sect now had no future.

Severely wounded and difficult to heal, she now struggled even to walk out of this wasteland. Even if she survived, her path of cultivation would likely end here.

She paid no attention to her direction, merely propping herself up with her sword, walking step by step forward.

After a long time, she stopped.

Before her appeared a red line.

After a moment of hesitation, she suddenly realized that this was the renowned Red River… and on the other side of the Red River lay the legendary Southern Wild!

Thirteen Rainstar’s breathing grew heavier.

The Southern Wild was a forbidden land for the entire Southern Province.

The entire Southern Wild carried a soul-penetrating pollution, unavoidable even for those in the Purple Court Realm.

She should never have crossed that line.

But at this moment, Thirteen Rainstar, filled with utter despair, found an unknown courage. Leaning on her sword, she walked towards the quietly flowing Red River.

She cut through the thorns and made her way to the bank of the Red River.

Legend had it that this great river was a ribbon from a goddess’s arm, stretching for tens of thousands of miles, encircling the ruins of the entire Southern Wild and preventing its pollution from reaching further.

Thirteen Rainstar scrambled and crawled to the bank of the Red River, a place she had never set foot in before.

She brought her face close to the water, and there she witnessed another eerie ability of the Red River—it showed all things as skeletons.

Her reflection in the water was a horrifying, flesh-colored skeleton.

She looked at the water’s surface, as if sensing a dark omen for her future, and shed tears of despair.

When she wiped away her tears and slowly looked up, her hand suddenly froze.

She saw a shadow in the water on the opposite side.

It was a girl who looked to be fifteen or sixteen.

She was small and slender, with extremely messy short hair framing a somewhat round face that was nevertheless picturesque and exuded a fierce spirit. The girl wore a black and white cross-collared Daoist robe, with a knee-length short skirt below. What was most striking was her back—it bore a weapon case like a blooming array of flowers, with various weapons unfurling like a peacock’s tail.

Even though she already carried dozens of weapons on her back, she was not content, with a narrow saber at her left hip and a long sword at her right, making her entire presence seem like a weapon radiating killing intent.

Thirteen Rainstar thought she was mistaken.

How could there be anyone on the other side of the Red River? And how could there be such a young girl in the world?

Her gaze followed the reflection upward, eventually meeting the girl’s eyes.

Such a person truly existed…

Thirteen Rainstar knelt down in fear.

The girl casually stepped across the Red River as if it were solid ground, walking to her bank.

Thirteen Rainstar perked her ears, constantly wary of the other party suddenly drawing a weapon to kill her. But all she could truly hear was the thumping of her own heart.

The girl paid no attention to her the entire time.

Thirteen Rainstar looked at the Red River and thought of the most unbelievable thing… the girl’s reflection in the Red River was not a skeleton!

By all accounts, no matter what cultivation realm a person was in, they should appear as a skeleton in this Red River.

Feeling that her life wouldn’t last much longer and not wanting to die with unanswered questions, she gathered her courage and spoke: “Red River… why is your reflection…”

She didn’t finish her question when the girl uttered three words: “Cannot be viewed.”

The Red River showed all things as skeletons, yet it could not show her.

Then, Thirteen Rainstar seemed to understand something, having a moment of realization. But soon, as the echo of the three words “Cannot be viewed” faded, this fleeting insight was also erased from her mind.

As the girl vanished, her brief memory also faded away.

She dully turned around, looking at the mountain path and the wilderness behind her, finding no one there.