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The Purple Lightning Sword flew across the sky, and thunder roared. As the Divine Thunder Imperial Edict was executed, the huge humanoid shadow that resembled a ghost shattered loudly into nothingness.

Zhou Heng flicked his sword fingers, and the Purple Lightning Sword returned from the sky. Looking at the place where the shadow had been destroyed, he furrowed his brows and said in a deep voice, “This thing’s strength is no joke. It has surpassed the strongest among those at the Peak of the Seventh Rank and is close to the true Secret Six Rank.”

“You’re right.” Cheng Jianjian nodded slightly and simultaneously retracted the magic weapon that had been spinning around her. “If we didn’t have treasure swords and magic weapons, this battle wouldn’t have ended so quickly.”

For any martial artist at the Peak of the Seventh Rank, the gap between them and the Secret Six Rank is massive, even for Zhou Heng and Cheng Jianjian.

Although the shadow had not truly reached the level of Secret Six Rank, its strength was extremely formidable. Plus, both of them had just arrived in this world, not yet one with the laws of heaven and earth, unable to even manifest their inner visions outward, which greatly reduced their strength.

Thankfully, they had the Treasure Soldier Purple Lightning Flying Sword and Cheng Jianjian’s Secret Six Rank magic weapon, which allowed them to defeat the shadow so quickly.

Otherwise, they would have certainly faced a bitter fight.

“Junior Uncle, Sister Cheng, I… I don’t seem to have been of any use…” Zhu Zhenzhen felt somewhat downhearted.

She had realized that she could only watch Zhou Heng and Cheng Jianjian fight against the shadow, unable to lend a hand, a feeling that made her very uncomfortable.

“What’s a fourteen-year-old genius at the Seventh Rank talking about?” Cheng Jianjian smiled and patted Zhu Zhenzhen’s head, comforting her, “When your Junior Uncle and I were your age, we were nowhere near as formidable as you are.”

“But this time, I seem to be really useless.” Zhu Zhenzhen shook her head.

“Acknowledging your weaknesses isn’t a bad thing,” Zhou Heng said, offering no comfort. “As long as you train diligently after we get out, and grow stronger quickly, you can change this helpless situation.”

“…” Zhu Zhenzhen fell silent for a moment, then nodded vigorously, “I will. I’ll give it my all this time and not hold you back!”

She had grown up on Taihua Mount, and though her talent and temperament were excellent, she had never faced any hardships. This experience was a kind of baptism for her soul.

It would be beneficial for her future cultivation.

Cheng Jianjian was amazed at how Zhou Heng’s words could lift Zhu Zhenzhen out of her despondency.

She couldn’t help but admire Zhou Heng’s ability to read people, to quickly understand Zhu Zhenzhen’s state of mind and offer the appropriate comfort.

It was truly impressive.

“Next, we need to leave this grassland quickly and see if we can find a settlement or other people who were brought here,” Cheng Jianjian slightly steadied her emotions and looked around, “But which way should we go now?”

This grassland stretched endlessly, with no undulations or hills in sight. It was as if the grassland reached the end of the sky itself, without so much as a single mountain peak or slope.

Zhou Heng looked at the sun in the sky, pondered for a moment, and said, “Let’s head east and see.”

Unable to determine their path by the environment, they could only rely on luck, starting their search from the east where the sun rises.

“Okay.”

Upon hearing this, Cheng Jianjian nodded lightly and then slapped the jade gourd at her waist. Immediately, a ball of cloud light flew out and hovered in the air. She smiled and said, “This is a Secret Six Rank magic treasure. It doesn’t have any special effects, but it can carry people while flying, and it’s not slow either.”

“This… Can your Inner Qi sustain it?”

Zhou Heng looked at the ball of cloud light in surprise, then glanced at the jade gourd hanging from Cheng Jianjian’s slender waist.

Sometimes he really wanted to ask, just how many magic treasures were there inside this lady’s gourd? It seemed to be an all-encompassing collection, as if there was everything one could need, never running out, and without any duplicates.

Then, the three of them boarded the cloud light and flew eastward.

As they left, Zhou Heng took out a paper doll that had been “soaked” in the Power of Cave Sky for a long time and casually threw it, transforming it into his own likeness.

This paper doll, tinged with the Power of Cave Sky, could last for an extended period, and it allowed for long-distance sensing and control through the connection with Cave Sky. He had obtained the Cave Sky of Celestial Man for several months, and had managed to “soak” only such a paper doll.

A treasure, indeed.

The moment the paper doll took human shape, Zhou Heng used another magic treasure.

The Seven-Arrow Nail Book!

On the vast grassland, the paper doll raised it hand, and immediately a camp appeared. In the center of the camp was a high platform with a straw figure on it, a lamp on its head, and a lamp at its feet.

The paper doll entered the camp and ascended the platform, went through the ritual steps, drew talismans, made seals, and kowtowed to the straw figure.

The straw figure had a name written on it.

Zhao Zhen!

…

Compared to Zhou Heng and the others who were transported to the desolate grassland, Zhou Yin and Zhou Danqing were much luckier as they appeared in a town.

But they were also unfortunate.

There were no living people in this town, only zombies as strong as fine steel, with immense strength and swift as the wind. The weakest had strength equivalent to the Ninth Grade of the Martial Path, and most were at the Eighth Rank.

There were at least a thousand of them!

Fortunately, they had Zhou Danqing, a Secret Six Rank expert, with them. Otherwise, if it had been just Zhou Yin alone, facing so many formidable zombies, he would have ended up injured or worse.

– At the Lower Third Rank level, no matter how strong one is, it’s still possible to be overwhelmed and killed by numerous weaker martial artists.

However, the greatest advantage of being at the Secret Six Rank is the fusion of the inner scenery with the outer world, commanding the mighty forces of nature. But now, having switched to a different world, Zhou Danqing couldn’t manipulate the energies of heaven and earth at will for a short time. His strength was greatly reduced.

Luckily, through continuous fighting, he sped up the process of his inner world adapting to the new laws and principles of this world. After initially difficult fights, he was later able to kill zombies much faster.

Even so, he was still quite shaken after the battle ended.

“My lord, how did we end up in this place, and what exactly does the Crown Prince of Da Qi want to do?” Zhou Danqing’s face was pale and furious, “It’s outrageous.”

“Zhao Zhen and Zhao Qin have grand designs,” Zhou Yin said with a dark expression, “They must have reached some agreement with Taixu Viewpoint or the Tang Family. We have been used as pawns.”

“How bold!” Zhou Danqing, trembled with rage, said, “Young Master, do you have any special contingency to escape from here? As soon as we get out, we’ll go home and seek justice with the old master and the Tang Family.”

“Special contingency?” Zhou Yin gave Zhou Danqing a faint glance and chuckled lightly, “What, you, as a Protector, are now relying on me? Unfortunately, I’m not sufficiently awakened to activate any contingency.”

In his mind, however, he thought, “If I had a past life’s contingency as powerful as Zhou Heng, I would have used it a long time ago, okay? Why the hell would I still be here fretting over nothing?!”

Nevertheless, he had convinced the entire Southern Jin of his divine reincarnation, so naturally, he was no ordinary person, and in his heart, he also contemplated a way out.

“It’s my fault.” Zhou Danqing respectfully apologized to Zhou Yin, then looked around the town that had become ruins and sighed, “I thought we could gather some information here, but it turns out to be overrun with monsters.”

“Humans turned into monsters, yet the buildings and objects remain. We might still find useful information,” Zhou Yin said with a stern voice. “Danqing, look around and see if you can find any remnants of written records or information.”

Although the town was in ruins, with most buildings collapsed into rubble, there were still some areas that were relatively intact, which might contain something useful.

“A fine idea, Young Master,” praised Zhou Danqing, nodding repeatedly before turning and walking toward the rubble, spreading out his Divine Sense in search of any object that might hold information.

Before long, he indeed made a discovery.

Zhou Danqing came back with three jade stones and four copper plates, his expression grave. He carefully laid these objects on a nearby stone platform and said, “Young Master, there appears to be something awry. Please look at the inscriptions on these.”

“Made in the 823rd year of Emperor Taiyang…” Zhou Yin saw the inscription on one of the jade stones, his expression suddenly becoming startled. He then looked at the other two jade pendants and four copper plates, muttering to himself,

“…823rd year of Emperor Taiyang, these copper plates… 824th year of Emperor Taiyang… 824th year of Emperor Taiyang… The inscriptions on these copper plates are from the Metal Chapter Calendar prevalent before the end of the Battle of Tianyang in the Middle Ancient Era, and they all stop at the year 824…”

In the Middle Ancient Era, a hundred schools established a uniform calendar. To preserve it conveniently, they inscribed it on copper plates, dubbed “Metal Chapters,” and passed it down through thousands of families.

This calendar was thus known as the “Metal Chapter Calendar.”

However, during the Middle Ancient Era, eight hundred states stood side by side, and there were no imperial regnal years on the Metal Chapter Calendars. Only after the end of the Middle Ancient Era, when the Central Dynasty was established, were the imperial regnal years added to the Metal Chapter Calendar.

Taiyang was the regnal title of the last emperor of the Central Dynasty, Emperor Taiyang.

And the 824th year of Taiyang was twenty-four years after the outbreak of the Battle of Tianyang in the 800th year of Taiyang.

“How does this town have so many ancient relics?” Zhou Danqing wondered aloud.

“No, I don’t think these are ancient relics,” Zhou Yin shook his head slightly, caressing the jade stones and copper plates with his hand and spoke in a grave tone, “Perhaps, the people here became a horde of walking corpses in the 824th year of Taiyang, and maybe this is related to the Battle of Tianyang…”

At this point, he suddenly turned his head to look at Zhou Danqing and asked in a solemn voice, “Danqing, what do you know about the Battle of Tianyang?”

“I… I know very little as well,” Zhou Danqing shook his head and responded, “Young Master, do you suspect that the strange occurrences here are related to the Battle of Tianyang? But from the perspective of my inner senses, this should already be another world entirely.”

“Even if we have entered another world, it might not be unrelated to the Battle of Tianyang,” Zhou Yin’s gaze returned to the ruins, “Danqing, let’s search again.”

…

Fang Wen, with sword in hand, traveled alone through a mountain forest.

This swordsman, as beautiful as a woman, walked with a light step that made hardly any sound, a deliberate action on his part to avoid disturbing the monsters that lurked in various parts of the forest.

At the moment, his originally snow-white garments were stained with blood of different colors—red, green, and purplish-black—all mixed together.

When Fang Wen was transported to this Cave Sky world, he appeared directly in the middle of a group of oddly shaped monsters fighting over the carcass of another monster.

The sudden appearance of Fang Wen drove the monsters into a frenzy, causing them to abandon the carcass and pounce on him instead.

All of them were swiftly slain by Fang Wen, one sword stroke per monster.

Unlike the usual Peak of the Seventh Rank or even the Secret Six Rank, his strength stemmed from his own Sword Qi and Sword Soul, and he had not yet found a way to merge his Sword Soul with the external world. Thus, although he was in a different realm, his power was almost unaffected.

He was still formidable.

However, the monsters in these woods were not weak either, with many comparable to the Seventh Rank, and most possessed strong mental contamination. Some could even exhibit all sorts of bizarre and strange abilities, making them unpredictable and hard to guard against.

Therefore, Fang Wen tried to avoid combat with these monsters as much as possible, to prevent the situation from escalating if he couldn’t finish them with a single sword strike, which might attract more monsters.

That would be troublesome.

In his view, the best course of action for now was to quickly leave this forest.

As he walked, Fang Wen suddenly noticed that the path ahead showed signs of man-made carving, although many places were covered by weeds and vines, some traces were still discernible.

“Has someone been here before?” This brightened his spirits, as traces of people meant there could be information to gather, and possibly a clue as to where he was.

Thus, Fang Wen cautiously followed these traces, and after traversing a series of staircase-like paths, he came upon a dilapidated mountain gate archway.

This arch was carved from stone and had collapsed, now overgrown with moss and vines, its original shape barely recognizable. Even the most crucial part, the inscriptions on the arch, were covered with moss and unreadable.

Letting his Sword Soul sense freely, and after confirming there were no monsters nearby, Fang Wen activated his inner Sword Qi and gently blew forward, instantly clearing away the vines and moss with the invisible Sword Qi, fully revealing the ruinous mountain gate archway.

The text on the archway was profoundly faded due to the passage of time, but it was now almost possible to make out the words written on it.

Sword Pavilion.

Fang Wen instantly froze, a look of astonishment spreading across his handsome face as he murmured, “Sword Pavilion? Is this the entrance to Sword Pavilion’s mountain residence? How is that possible…”

Sword Pavilion was the top sect founded by one of the Nine Saints of the Middle Ancient, the “Sword Saint,” and was the ancestral home of swordsmanship before the Battle of Taiyang.

Entering Sword Pavilion once was the ultimate goal for countless Sword Dao practitioners, yet such a mighty sect vanished overnight together with its entire mountain residence, around the year 820 of the Taiyang era, in the middle of the Battle of Taiyang.

Nobody knew where Sword Pavilion had gone.

The founder of Longevity Way had stumbled upon some lost inheritance from Sword Pavilion and thus established what is now known as Longevity Way.

This founder of Longevity Way spent his entire life searching for Sword Pavilion, but even until his death in the fifth stage of Celestial Man, he found no valuable clues.

Fang Wen had not expected to find Sword Pavilion under these circumstances.

What he didn’t expect even more was—

That the ancestral home of Sword Dao had been reduced to nothing but ruins.