Ch80 - The Fallen

Translator: transcendentwings

CW: this was a very sad and yet infuriating chapter for me at the same time

It was a rainy night when Qingliang valley was surrounded by the purple-robed disciples of Heishui Castle.

Ghostly rain sprinkled onto the empty grass, bloody winds kept the chaotic clouds in check, the pine torches flickered nonstop as they were struck by the water droplets, and large masses of shadows silently closed in on Qingliang Valley.

The stone tablet in front of the valley, where Xu Xingzhi had once sat on and drank in the daytime, had been broken into two halves and collapsed completely.

The lord of Heishui Castle had a dark expression on his face like a ghost as he demanded angrily: “Hand over Wen Xuechen!”

Within the gate located in the valley, Wen Xuechen frowned and asked the disciple beside him: “Shifuhasn’t exited seclusion yet?”

Fuyao-junwent into seclusion a month ago, meditating and cultivating, intending to ascend to the peak of the Golden Core stage, and try to transform into the physique of a Nascent Soul practitioner.

After Qingjing-junpassed away, although the other three sects didn’t bring it up, the immortal sect leaders all began to speed up their cultivation progress simultaneously.

For any member of the righteous sects to cultivate, one must first have innate talent, secondly, one must calm and clear the mind, and thirdly, one must be indifferent to emotions and desires. It isn’t easy to achieve success. Some burn incense and pray, sit on a futon, eat vegetarian food and recite scriptures, yet only end up with a thin body even after a lifetime. Among the disciples of the four sects, half are able to successfully refine their qi, another half of that are able to form their golden cores, and those who are able to obtain the physique of a Nascent Soul cultivator are further only those who possess extraordinary spiritual energy. In these years, onlyMingzhao-junof Danyang peak has truly comprehended the cultivation way, and Mingzhao-junhad been in the world for three hundred years, which shows just how difficult it was to cultivate.

After the war of conquest, those of the demonic path bowed their heads and extended peace was achieved. There was also a unique and young lord, Qingjing-jun, to hold the fort, so all the sects were a little lax in advancing further.

No one would have predicted that the rising star that so many high hopes were placed upon would fall so quickly.

Once this single pillar of support was gone, the hearts full of worry in each sect also rose. Three months ago, Zhou Yunlie, the lord of Yingtianchuan successfully raised his cultivation to the seventh level of the Golden Core stage and Fuyao-jun’s cultivation progress had been brought to a critical moment that any mistake would ruin all his previous efforts.

Wen Xuechen didn’t believe that it was a coincidence that the demonic cultivators began to cause trouble at this time. However, Qingliang Valley was surrounded and the scale of this incident had already developed out of control, and avoiding it blindly would also just be detrimental to the reputation of Qingliang Valley.

He gripped the yin-yang band on his wrist and commanded: “Open the gates.”

The gate to the valley opened wide and Wen Xuechen was pushed out by the accompanying disciples.

The lord of Heishui Castle raised his eyes when he saw the handsome, weak, white-haired young man and sneered: “You are Wen Xuechen?”

Amid the pitter-patter of rain, Wen Xuechen’s voice still couldn’t hide his disdain: “You came to find me, but you don’t know who I am?”

The lord of the castle sneered: “Wen Xuechen of Qingliang Valley, you loathe those who do not follow the righteous path to the core, who doesn’t know of you? But the relationship between the demonic path and four sects have been repaired for several years. My son only came to Qingliang Valley to present gifts to you, why did you kill my son?”

Wen Xuechen frowned: “When did I kill him and why would I want to?”

“My son came forth to drop off gifts and soon after he departed your Qingliang Valley, he passed away from poison. The two disciples who followed him were all witnesses. If it wasn’t you, who else could have killed him?” The castle lord’s heart ached when he mentioned this, and he hated that he couldn’t make the other bleed with each word he bit out, “Wen Xuechen, your cruel methods are really as lethal as the rumors made them out to beah!”

Wen Xuechen’s brows furrowed deeper and more extensively: “For me to have done such a thing, what good would it bring Qingliang Valley?”

The lord of Heishui Castle had always heard of Wen Xuechen’s reputation for being merciless to those who were not of the righteous paths. Now hearing him say this, he thought the other was deliberately evading responsibility and pretending to be virtuous. He became even more incensed and roared: “Stop f*cking pretending already! You killed my son, I want you to pay with your life!”

Wen Xuechen saw that the other was already furious, eyes full of bloodthirst and didn’t want to agitate him any further, he chose to take a step back and answered: “. . . This matter is not clear yet, we are just conversing in hypotheticals and will be unable to determine right or wrong like this, so why don’t we invite you, the castle lord, to enter the valley to talk, have a discussion to slowly clarify this matter.”

“‘Slowly’?” The castle lord of Heishui Castle sneered fiercely, “I don’t know if your so-called ‘slow’, is for the sake of ‘discussing things clearly’, or to be able to delay time and wait until the other three sects arrive so as to force my small Heishui Castle force to surrender?”

After saying that, he raised his hand and a Qingliang Valley disciple wearing green cicada-colored clothes was pushed forward from behind him.

The expression on Wen Xuechen’s face changed.

After learning that the cultivators of the demonic path surrounded the valley, he felt as if something was unusual. He first lit up thexizhaolamp in his room and it just so happened that Zhou Beinan and Qu Chi were both not in their rooms, so he dispatched a disciple with strong sword-manipulating skills to send a message from the rear of the valley to Danyang Peak, which was closest to Qingliang Valley, to inform Qu Chi of this matter and ask him to come over when he was available.

And the disciple who was delivering the message had clearly taken a secret outbound path from Qingliang Valley. . .

Before he could figure out the key to this trick, the lord of Heishui Castle laughed strangely: “On one side, you delay time with me while on the other, you send disciples to other sects in order to inform them. Wen Xuechen, you played a very good cardah.”

The two disciples of the demonic path who were escorting the young disciple took advantage of the situation to twist the disciple’s arms and kick him in the crook of his knee.

The young disciple’s body swayed, his two eyes were washed by the rain until he couldn’t open them, his hair that was fastened by a jujube wood hairpin loosened from its knot and a few strands fell, but he kept his back upright like a poplar and remained immovable.

The two demonic disciples who detained him felt humiliated. Both cultivated the body and gathered power into their fists, punching him in the ribs twice.

There were two sharpkakasounds of bones snapping causing that young disciple’s face to blanch as he bowed over, nearly shattering his teeth in pain.

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Who would have thought that after the young disciple let out a violent roar, he actually thrust his right leg straight into the mud roughly and resolutely raised his body upwards! Amid the brisk sounds of bones breaking, he declared: “Qingliang Valley will never kneel in the face of evil!”

“Oh, is that so?”

The lord of Heishui Castle sneered as he unsheathed the sword by his waist, transforming it into a concentrated line of white light.

When the sharp edge swiped across, a decapitated head went flying and the jujube wood hairpin that was about to slip out rolled into the mud, damp with rain.

. . . His resistance was over.

Across the shadow of rain, Wen Xuechen almost snapped the yin-yang ring on his hand into pieces!

He flipped his hand and the eight trigrams array spun out, the friction against the curtain of rain throwing out large sparks into the air, directly charging towards the face of the lord of Heishui Castle!

The castle lord was no pushover either as he raised his blade to block. The array cut through the sheet of raindrops and clashed against the sword. The tiny, hot, dark red sparks intermingled in the rain and mist, scattering across the face of the lord of Heishui Castle: “You killed my Qingliang Valley disciple, I want you—”

Yet the lord of Heishui Castle squeezed out a sinister sneer at this moment.

The sound of the blade clashing with the wheel seemed to be a signal and Wen Xuechen’s voice was swallowed up by the sudden shouts calling for death erupting from all directions!

The roars around Qingliang Valley were like the bubbles in boiling water, shocking Wen Xuechen’s mind. He circulated his spiritual power and surveyed his surroundings. In the hazy shadows created by the rain, he sensed thousands of wet and menacing faces!

The different branches of demonic cultivation were split evenly, some bigger and others smaller. Heishui Castle only had a thousand, even if the whole castle were called upon in this assault, it was impossible for them to gather such a large force!

In a flash, Wen Xuechen was suddenly struck by a realization.

They had come prepared!

He raised his voice louder: “The sealing array of the valley, activate—”

Before he finished speaking, a bright and clear glow like moonlight was emitted from his body and spread across thousands of meters. The spiritual energy was injected into the ground and shortly after, the sealing array of the valley that had been in place for hundreds of years ran across the ground in all directions, the dazzling light surged outlining each line, brilliant like the snow. The screams of the disciples of the demonic path could be heard across the entire battlefield.

“Bai Yunyou, light the thirty-six sticks of soul guiding incense, lead five hundred disciples to the east and form the yang gathering array!”

“Yes!”

“Su Qing, west side, gathering yang array!”

“Yes!”

“I will guard the south gate, north side, Feng Wuhua, defend it for me!”

“Yes!”

“Once the three arrays merge, the center will be encircled and the soul-snatching array will be activated, do you all understand!?”

Wen Xuechen issued four orders in a row, and all the disciples heeded them and set out. While the disciples took up their positions and set up the defensive array, only Wen Xuechen gritted his teeth to funnel his spiritual power to maintain the operation of the entire valley sealing array.

After a moment, he turned to the disciple who was accompanying him and beckoned: “Come here.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but the cacophony of the rain and meeting weapons were so loud that the disciple couldn’t hear him clearly: “. . . Wen-shixiong, what did you say?!”

“Go back!” Wen Xuechen raised his voice, “Tell Xian-meinot to worry if she hears the sounds of weapons and to rest at home and not run out into the rain. I will go back to accompany her soon!”

The disciple cast his gaze around and found that there were only a dozen or so disciples still here. He couldn’t help but worry: “Wen-shixiong, butyouonly have these few present. . .”

“I’m fine!”

That accompanying disciple’s face turned pale and when he saw Lu Yujiu who was on night watch at the south gate tonight, he called out: “Lu Yujiu, take good care of Wen-shixiong! Do you hear me?!”

Lu Yujiu gritted his teeth as he gripped the hilt of his sword: “Yes!”

Zhou Xian, who was resting in a bedroom within a palace in the valley, picked up on the chaos outside. She placed the scroll in her hand down and slowly approached the eaves with a lantern and a hand supporting her waist. From afar, she saw hundreds of disciples silently forming several rows, racing in three directions in an orderly manner.

She frowned, but didn’t disturb the disciples who were gathering in formation.

Just as she took two steps out from under the eaves of the hall, she heard a familiar voice commanding: “Liu Zixu, take two hundred disciples to the south gate, Wen-shixiongis there!”

After giving the order, he hurried to Wen Xuechen’s bedroom. When he looked up and saw Zhou Xian in the corridor, his expression changed and he rushed forward: “Wen-furen. . .”

Before he could comfort her, Zhou Xian interrupted him: “No need to waste words, tell me quickly, what happened?”

After the disciple reported to her as it happened, the expression of Zhou Xian’s face changed abruptly.

Noticing the change in Zhou Xian’s expression, the accompanying disciple immediately comforted her: “Wen-shixiongwas precisely worried that Madam would be anxious,you, should return quickly to rest,Shixiong’s spiritual power is high, he’ll definitely be able to handle it.”

He knew that Wen-furenalso ranked on the Heavenly Rankings before, even if she were pregnant now, it would be a waste of time for him to try and stop her.

However, it was really troublesome for Wen-furenin her current state, if something were to happen. . .

Just when he was apprehensive that Zhou Xian would act impulsively, Zhou Xian actually patted his shoulder a few times to comfort him: “Don’t panic. If Chen-geasked me to wait for him patiently, then I will wait.”

Zhou Xian’s brows and eyes were as gentle as moonlight, even if a lot of worry swam inside, her eyes still bent into crescents as she buried all her fears deep down inside: “Go help Chen-ge ba. Go onba. Tell him thatA-Wang and I are fine and are both waiting for him to return.”

The attending disciple swiped at his burning eyes and was about to turn around to leave when he suddenly heard a free heartbreaking shouts from the south: “Wen-shixiong! Wen-shixiong!!!”

. . . No one knew when Wen Xuechen had a heart attack.

Perhaps it was when he sent Lu Yujiu away and asked him to lead a dozen disciples to deal with the frontal attack of the Heishui Castle disciples;

Maybe it was when the arrow array attacked him and he was forced to split his spiritual consciousness in order to block it;

Or possibly it was even earlier, as early as when he saw the head of the disciple carrying his missive flying out, his heart and pulse already unstable.

No one knew when he abruptly toppled over, just like no one knew how much spiritual power it took to support the valley’s grand formation with the power of a single individual, how much pressure was forced onto a person like Wen Xuechen who had a serious heart condition.

—Once the valley-sealing formation was activated, someone must continuously infuse spiritual energy into it. The demonic cultivators’ assault came without warning, Fuyao-junwas still in seclusion, and the other disciples weren’t able to arrive in time. He could only fight with his life on the line to operate the formation to ensure that the disciples could successfully gather up and fight the enemy in unison.

However, his life force was like the string on an instrument which was eventually overwhelmed, snapping in two.

Hundreds of meters away, outside the valley, Jiu Zhideng was holding an oil-paper umbrella, standing solemnly in the air like a flowing cloud. The rain didn’t wet his clothes, and his figure was as unadorned as clear snow. He leaned over and watched the battlefield mired in blood and fire, it was unknown what he was thinking about.

The lord of Heishui Castle stood beside him, slightly hunched over, his eyes full of genuine gratitude: “Thank you, Lord, for avenging this blood feud for me!”

Jiu Zhideng peered at him with a sideways glance and replied coldly: “You’re welcome. Since the lord of the Castle has changed his mind and decided to be loyal to the demonic path, I will certainly aid you in avenging this grudge.”

The lord of Heishui Castle quietly sized him up and probed: “I wonder if the death of my son will affect the relationship between the Lord and the four sects of the righteous path. After all,you. . .”

“I have long planned to lead an assault against the righteous path.” Jiu Zhideng adjusted his sleeves and calmly continued, “I just didn’t expect Qingliang Valley to take the lead, so we of the demonic path don’t need to be polite.”

At this point, he looked calmly into the eyes of the lord of Heishui Castle and stated serenely: “Wu Xiang’s death was a great contribution to the demonic sects. It is a shame, but also a supreme honor. One day, the history of the demonic paths will be recorded and your son will be listed as a meritorious follower.”

The words of Jiu Zhideng made the lord of the Castle shed tears: “My Lord. . .”

At this time, a disciple riddled in sword wounds approached them on his blade to report. As he knelt down to pay his respects, his voice couldn’t conceal his excitement: “My Lord! Wen Xuechen of Qingliang Valley has died! He is dead!”

Jiu Zhideng was slightly taken aback: “Who?”

The disciple’s eyes were full of joy: “My Lord, it’s Wen Xuechenah!”

He repeated: “. . . Wen Xuechen passed away?”

“Yes!” The disciple who delivered the message declared, “It seems that due to him utilizing his spiritual energy for a prolonged period of time, his heart condition was triggered and his body couldn’t bear the burden. . .”

In other words, he was exhausted to death.

The messenger continued: “The disciples of Qingliang Valley guarding the south gate have lost their composure and were directly attacked by us. Now our disciples are fighting with those of Qingliang Valley for his body!”

The lord of Heishui Castle was delighted and blurted out: “Snatch it over! He is my son’s murderer. . .”

Before he finished, he realized that he had no authority to speak here and stared at Jiu Zhideng in fear.

Jiu Zhideng came back to his senses from the news of the man’s death, clenched his fists and ordered coldly: “Seize it! At any cost! Whoever can bring Wen Xuechen’s body back to me will be rewarded heavily!”

To obtain Wen Xuechen’s body, both side went crazy.

More and more disciples fell on both sides and many disciples were so lost in bloodlust that they stepped on those who fell to continue charging forth.

However, Wen Xuechen’s death was too much of a shock to the disciples of Qingliang Valley that it was like getting struck by a bolt of thunder. The pain was unbearable and the more anxious they were, the more mistakes they made.

Whatever spiritual skills and defensive formations were all forgotten.

The craziest one among them was Lu Yujiu, who almost violently circulated his ghostly cultivator energy, manipulating the deceased demonic disciples to stand back up and stab the backs of the demonic disciples who pushed forward from behind them.

No one even noticed, everyone was going berserk, the sword glares and shadows swirled and twisted together, everyone was funneled through the narrow south gate, causing it to collapse.

Finally, a demonic disciple in a purple robe lay on the ground and found a wrist wearing a lightning-struck jujube wood yin-yang band among the corpses. He dragged him out with great joy, slung him across his back and staggered away, riding his blade.

Lu Yujiu was about split apart with the amount of rage he felt as he condensed his ghostly spiritual power into a bone arm in mid-air, frantically trying to grab the demonic disciple who escaped, but his fingers were only able to tear off a strip of Wen Xuechen’s collar.

Lu Yujiu was in so much pain that his face was white as a sheet as he screamed: “Wen-shixiong!”

Abruptly, he heard a woman’s voice behind him: “Qingliang Valley disciples, listen to my command! Gather up in formation!”

The attending disciple’s face was covered in tears as he followed Zhou Xian, calling out wretchedly: “Wen-furen!!”

Zhou Xian held the spear that she hadn’t wielded in a long time, expressionless, her voice as sharp as a blade: “Gather up in formation!”

The heavy rain washed her face into a bloodless bone-white: “Disciples at the south gate! Form a gathering yang array, combine it with the other three formations! Expel the enemy!”

The gentle woman didn’t even have time to shed tears in the moment, she merely ordered decisively: “This Qingliang Valley is his Qingliang Valley, I will defend it for him! You all have to defend it for him! Remember, there are only the dead in Qingliang Valley, no surrenders!!”

The author has something to say:

Although Wen Xuechen’s body was successfully snatched away in their hands, the lord of Heishui Castle was still unsatisfied.

Looking at the deceased man with his purple lips and pale face, he ranted in a low voice: “Hundreds of demonic disciples’ lives were exchanged for only a corpse. This is too much of a loss on our part!”

Jiu Zhideng raised his hand and slowly brushed back the white hair on the corpse’s temples. There was a hint of nostalgia in his expression.

He studied this person carefully.

This person never had him in his eyes. To him, he was probably a huge blemish among the four sects, if he were stained even slightly, he would feel dirty.

. . . However, what could he do nowne.

Would the other still be able to scold him, ordering him to scram?

Thinking of this, Jiu Zhideng lowered his gaze and muttered to himself: “It’s more than worth it to exchange a hundred or so demonic practitioners for Wen Xuechen.”

“Seal off Qingliang Valley and don’t let anyone in or out.” Then, Jiu Zhideng ordered, “Hand Wen Xuechen over to me. I will pass him off to the best corpse refiner at the main hall and have him made into the most exquisite living corpse.”

The lord of Heishui Castle thought that Jiu Zhideng was forcing his disciples to seize the body for personal revenge, but after hearing the four words “refined into living corpse”, he was vaguely enlightened: “You. . .”

Jiu Zhideng quietly mused: “As a practitioner of arrays, he is familiar with the mountain-sealing formations of the four sects. If I am able to utilize him for my own purposes. . .” He glanced at the castle lord, the corners of his lips raised in a careless manner, “Then, for the remaining three sects, there is no need for us to work so hard to capture them like we did for this one.”

Author’s Chapter Summary: conspiracies, corpse snatching, valley sealing formation

The translator has something to say: I was holding my breath since the last chapter and when it actually happened, I was devastated to say the least, WXC definitely isn’t my favorite character, but he didn’t deserve to die like that nor did he deserve being used like a puppet later, this chapter was hard to translate (emotionally), the demonic cultivators in this chapter really made be feel disgusted, including JZD, I may have pitied him before and gave him the benefit of the doubt, but now, I only have negative feelings, sorry. On a happier (but also very mournful note), it is great to see how strong ZX is, sweet to see that she has already named their child here, but also so sad that she didn’t get to mourn her love before being thrust in the midst of war, even prioritizing the sect and the disciples instead of going after WXC body, which I know must have taken so much willpower to suppress that urge

Heyo, long time again, I’m sorry for the inconsistent updates, this recent chaos can be attributed to (drumroll please) a new job! Yay! Indeed I’m starting a new job soon and there was just a bunch of onboarding tasks I had to complete and such, so sorry for the delay. However, hopefully with my new work schedule and work structure, I’ll actually be able to post chapters more consistently! I did also take some time off in between switching jobs to try and stockpile on some chapters, which, didn’t go as well as I had hoped actually. I was overly ambitious and was hoping to translate at least two chapters per day, but errr, it didn’t actually work out like that. Partially because I reached a very emotionally heavy part of the story which made it difficult for me to translate in one sitting and also because the length of some recent chapters are really long which I’d rather not chop the chapters and leave you guys on a cliff hanger to give myself more translating time or would you guys actually prefer shorter sections but more frequent and consistent (hopefully) updates? And finally, I know I am very bad at replying to comments, I am sorry, hopefully I start getting into the habit of doing so now because I do like discussions of plot and reading your lovely insights despite errr how old some of these comments will be haha

But seriously, thank you all for sticking with me so far and sorry for the long ramble