The Path Still Remains

A violent explosion shook U Minh Mountain.

Hundreds of sword energies moved at the same time.

Not like a random rain of swords falling without order.

Each followed a trajectory already linked to the rest.

Some tore through the Yin corpses.

Some struck directly at formation flags.

Others slashed toward the bone pillars and the critical points maintaining the corpse-summoning system.

The Yin corpses at the outer edge were almost instantly crushed apart.

The two Blood-Soul Demon Bodies controlled by the Foundation Establishment cultivators tried to charge forward and block the attack.

Sword energies closed in from multiple directions at once.

The layers of Yin energy protecting them cracked again and again.

One cultivator realized the danger and immediately tried to retreat.

But the instant he changed direction, more than ten sword energies cut across his escape route.

The Demon Body was forced to turn back and defend.

Another current of sword energy immediately pierced through the opening that appeared.

A scream rang out.

The Blood-Soul Demon Body was torn apart.

The cultivator controlling it suffered violent backlash.

Before he could stabilize his soul, the remaining swords had already converged.

His ability to resist was cut away completely.

The second Foundation Establishment cultivator fared no better.

He tried to create layer after layer of Yin energy defenses.

But the sword energies continuously changed their attack angles.

The protective barriers collapsed one after another.

Within a very short period of time, both Foundation Establishment Demon Bodies shattered inside the sword formation.

The Golden Core cultivator immediately understood that if he continued defending independently, he would eventually suffer the same fate.

He roared and drew every bit of Yin energy he could control back toward his Blood-Soul Demon Body.

The enormous figure contracted slightly.

But its defensive layer became much denser.

Both arms crossed over its chest.

More layers of Yin energy formed around it, directly confronting the sword energies now converging upon him.

The sword formation descended.

The outermost defense broke after several collisions.

The second layer began cracking when the sword energies altered their trajectories and simultaneously struck the weak points.

The black-robed cultivator inside spat out blood.

But he clenched his teeth and maintained the technique.

More Yin energy was drawn from the mountain formation to reinforce the final defensive layer.

Hao Nhien saw it.

He did not change targets.

He knew the man was using every resource available within U Minh Mountain to maintain the Blood-Soul Demon Body.

If Hao Nhien concentrated all the sword energies on one opponent, there was no guarantee he could destroy him before Berserk ended.

So he maintained the original structure of the formation.

The sword energies not directly attacking the Golden Core cultivator turned toward the formation flags and bone pillars behind him.

The cultivators maintaining the corpse-summoning ritual were immediately caught inside the attack zone.

They were forced to abandon their seals and flee.

A massive bone pillar snapped in half.

Immediately afterward, the formation lines connected to it began going dark one after another.

Part of the Yin energy being transmitted toward the Blood-Soul Demon Body suddenly weakened.

The Golden Core cultivator’s expression changed sharply.

He was about to shift his attention toward protecting the crucial formation points when the sword energies above him converged at once.

Hao Nhien lowered his sword again.

“All of them.”

“Fall.”

Hundreds of sword energies descended across the mountainside in a single coordinated rhythm.

The ground shook violently.

Massive slabs of stone exploded one after another.

The formation network beneath the surface was torn apart in multiple places.

Bone pillars collapsed.

Formation lines that had only just lit up were severed.

Structures hidden deep inside the mountain began collapsing beneath the repeated impacts.

One large cliff shattered.

A mass of earth and stone behind it collapsed directly over part of the destroyed formation.

Then a second cliff followed.

Cracks spread farther across the mountainside.

Underground corridors and stone stairways were buried one after another.

The final explosion came when an entire section of U Minh Mountain’s slope gave way, creating an enormous field of shattered stone.

Dust rose high into the air.

Almost the entire area vanished behind it.

Hao Nhien forced the sword formation to remain active for one more beat.

But the True Qi inside his body had already dropped to a dangerous level.

The Golden Core continued rotating in an attempt to replenish him.

Yet under Berserk, the rate of consumption was vastly greater than the rate at which new power could be produced.

He had no choice but to end the technique.

The last sword energies dissolved.

U Minh Mountain gradually fell silent again.

Most of the structures and formations within the sword formation’s range had been destroyed.

The Yin corpses could no longer gather into any organized force.

And the auras below Golden Core that Hao Nhien had sensed before had either vanished entirely or been buried deep beneath the collapsed mountain.

But when the dust began to settle, a figure was still standing among the ruins.

The Golden Core cultivator.

His Blood-Soul Demon Body had completely disappeared.

His robes were torn to pieces.

One arm hung uselessly at his side.

Blood covered his chest.

His breathing was heavy.

The aura that had once been stable had weakened dramatically.

But he was still alive.

Hao Nhien looked at him.

He was not particularly surprised.

Using a sword technique he had never practiced before to nearly destroy an entire Yin Soul Sect stronghold and injure a Golden Core cultivator to this extent already far exceeded anything he had been capable of before his breakthrough.

But it was still not enough to end the battle.

Because at that exact moment, Berserk ended.

The power that had been forced to its limit vanished almost instantly.

What remained was an enormous emptiness throughout his body.

True Qi that had been moving like a flood rapidly diminished.

At the same time, his muscles and meridians were hit by a level of weakness so severe that he could barely remain standing.

Hao Nhien collapsed.

One knee struck the stone hard.

His other hand braced against the ground to keep his body from falling completely.

He tried to circulate True Qi.

The Golden Core still existed.

But the amount of power he could directly mobilize had nearly run dry.

The small amount of newly generated True Qi was nowhere near enough to immediately restore him after Berserk.

Hao Nhien drew in a deep breath and tried to stand.

His body did not respond.

Ahead, the Golden Core cultivator remained still for a moment.

He seemed unwilling to believe that the terrifying sword energies from before had truly ended.

Only after confirming that Hao Nhien was no longer attacking did he slowly begin laughing.

At first, the laugh was faint.

Then it grew louder.

Each sound forced more blood from the corner of his mouth.

No authorization was given for this copy from the author's publication; readers at the official posting support the writer.

“So…”

“That power had a price after all.”

Hao Nhien said nothing.

The black-robed man walked forward.

His steps were far less steady than before.

At times he had to stop simply to stabilize his breathing.

But the distance between them was still slowly shrinking.

Hao Nhien tried to activate Spirit Wings.

His body, weakened after Berserk, could no longer sustain the burst.

He tried directing the flying sword with his intent.

There was too little True Qi available.

Even lifting the sword from the ground had become difficult.

Yet Hao Nhien had not completely despaired.

From the moment he chose to use Berserk to unleash the Tieu Dao Sword Formation, he had already accounted for the possibility that the attack would fail to kill every enemy.

The three-day weakness afterward was a price he understood perfectly.

And the reason he had still dared take that risk—aside from wanting to destroy the Yin Soul Sect stronghold—was that he had always preserved one final escape route.

The Cosmic Ark.

As long as he retained enough awareness to summon it, he could open the dwelling form and take himself inside.

Even a Golden Core cultivator might not be able to enter that space.

Hao Nhien could remain within the Ark until the weakness from Berserk passed, then deal with the remaining injuries afterward.

That was why he had been willing to gamble.

He had never believed he would truly be forced to remain on the battlefield with no ability to resist while a wounded Golden Core cultivator decided whether he lived or died.

Hao Nhien immediately sent his intent inward, reaching for the familiar connection to the Cosmic Ark.

Nothing happened.

He paused.

Perhaps his soul, after heavenly tribulation and the sword formation, was simply too unstable.

He concentrated again.

He tried to summon the dwelling form the same way he had countless times before.

The Ark still did not appear.

This time, Hao Nhien’s expression truly changed.

He could clearly sense that the Cosmic Ark still existed within his soul.

The connection between them had not been severed.

Yet no matter how he pushed his intent, the Ark did not respond to the summons.

A trace of unease appeared within him.

Hao Nhien had never encountered this before.

Even when gravely injured in the past, as long as his soul remained conscious enough, he had always been able to maintain the connection and summon the Ark when necessary.

He clenched his teeth and sent his awareness deeper through that connection.

Immediately, a strange pulling force traveled back from within the Cosmic Ark.

It tugged at what little soul power he had left.

Hao Nhien stopped at once.

The Ark had not vanished.

It had not been destroyed.

Something seemed to be happening inside it.

A process he had never sensed before.

Whatever it was, the Ark could not respond normally to his command to manifest.

And when he tried forcing the connection, that process reacted by drawing additional soul power from him.

An image of Tieu Lan, still unconscious inside the Ark, flashed through Hao Nhien’s mind.

But he had no evidence that the abnormal state had anything to do with her.

The most frightening part was that he could not even enter to check.

Hao Nhien tried one final time.

This time, he used only the faintest thread of intent.

The result was the same.

The soul that had already been pushed close to exhaustion throbbed with another sharp pain.

He had no choice but to withdraw.

Only then did Hao Nhien fully understand where his calculation had gone wrong.

Using Berserk had not been a completely reckless decision with no escape plan.

He had prepared for the possibility that the sword formation would fail to kill everyone.

He had even accepted losing most of his combat ability for three days.

Because he had believed the Cosmic Ark would guarantee him a place of refuge.

What he had never considered was that his final escape route might suddenly become unusable.

The Golden Core was still slowly rotating in his dantian.

His body had survived heavenly tribulation.

The Cosmic Ark was still inside his soul.

Nothing he possessed had truly disappeared.

And yet at this moment, none of those things could save him from the enemy’s hand.

Footsteps approached.

Hao Nhien raised his head and looked toward the black-robed man.

He immediately discarded every useless thought.

He was still alive.

His soul had not dispersed.

And as long as his consciousness remained, he still needed to search for another opportunity.

The black-robed cultivator stopped several steps away.

He looked down at Hao Nhien, who was supporting himself with one hand and struggling not to fall.

His mouth slowly twisted upward.

“Run.”

The hoarse voice echoed among the shattered rocks.

“I want to see how far you can still run.”

He raised one foot and kicked.

Hao Nhien immediately lifted an arm to block.

His body no longer had enough strength to withstand the impact.

He was sent flying.

His back slammed into a large slab of stone.

Violent pain spread through his chest.

But his bones endured.

The black-robed man noticed.

His eyes changed slightly.

He approached and studied Hao Nhien’s body.

“Good body.”

Hao Nhien braced a hand against the ground and tried to sit up.

A foot immediately pressed down against his shoulder.

The stone beneath him cracked.

But the shoulder bone did not break.

The changes brought by the Golden Core tribulation had not yet fully completed themselves.

Even so, his endurance had already increased significantly.

The black-robed man noticed that as well.

Instead of continuing to attack with full force, he slowly withdrew his foot and looked at Hao Nhien differently.

He himself was badly wounded.

The Blood-Soul Demon Body had been destroyed.

One arm was nearly useless.

The amount of True Qi he could mobilize had fallen dramatically.

But he could still circulate power.

Hao Nhien, meanwhile, was suffering the aftermath of Berserk.

His ability to resist was almost gone.

The man watched him for a while before speaking.

“Killing you now would be too easy.”

“After everything you’ve done to the Yin Soul Sect, I don’t want it to end so simply.”

He crouched down.

His remaining hand pressed against Hao Nhien’s chest.

Hao Nhien immediately sensed danger.

But before he could respond, a stream of freezing Yin energy entered his body.

This time, the man did not use power to destroy flesh or meridians.

Extremely thin strands of Yin energy followed the pathways through which True Qi normally flowed.

They slowly attached themselves to the walls of his meridians like invisible membranes.

Hao Nhien immediately focused inward.

The meridians newly tempered by heavenly tribulation remained intact.

But the Yin energy was changing their ability to conduct power.

Routes that had once been open began developing resistance.

Streams of newly formed True Qi slowed.

Then dispersed.

Hao Nhien tried mobilizing a thread of True Qi produced by the Golden Core.

The instant it left the dantian, it encountered obvious obstruction.

It traveled only a short distance before weakening and dissolving before reaching the point he intended.

Hao Nhien’s pupils contracted slightly.

If his meridians had been cracked or severed, he could still have relied on the adaptive and restorative methods he had cultivated to attempt repairs.

But the enemy was not destroying them.

He was turning the intact circulation pathways themselves into cages for True Qi.

The black-robed man watched Hao Nhien’s reaction.

The corner of his mouth curved upward.

“Your Golden Core has formed.”

“Your body survived heavenly tribulation.”

“Even your meridians have been tempered far beyond what they were before.”

He continued feeding Yin energy inward.

“But if those roads no longer allow your power to pass through…”

“how much can any of that still help you?”

Hao Nhien did not answer.

He was analyzing the structure of the Yin energy attached to his meridians.

It did not fully merge with his True Qi.

Nor did it directly damage the meridian walls.

Instead, it formed layers of obstruction that could remain even after the user stopped actively maintaining them.

Another thread of True Qi emerged from the Golden Core.

This time Hao Nhien changed the route.

It advanced several inches.

Then the resistance appeared again.

The force stopped and gradually dispersed.

The black-robed man laughed.

“Yes.”

“Keep trying.”

“I want to see exactly how much ability a Golden Core cultivator has left when he can no longer circulate True Qi.”

Hao Nhien looked up.

“You want to cripple my cultivation?”

“Cripple it?”

The man shook his head.

“No.”

“A body that has only just survived Golden Core tribulation would be far too wasteful to destroy.”

He withdrew his hand.

But Hao Nhien immediately sensed that the strands of Yin energy attached to his meridians remained.

They showed no sign of dispersing after losing the external supply.

The black-robed man looked him over from above.

“Your body is excellent.”

“The Golden Core you just formed has a foundation rarely seen.”

“But what interests me most is your soul.”

His voice slowed.

“If we can preserve all of that and make you serve Him…”

“then perhaps the losses U Minh Mountain suffered today would still be worth the price.”

Hao Nhien looked at him.

The man’s gaze had changed.

It was no longer simply the gaze of someone who had defeated an enemy.

It resembled someone examining an object that could be useful for a long time.

“You plan to turn me into a Yin corpse?”

The black-robed man laughed.

“Yin corpses are only tools for attrition.”

“With a body and soul like yours, how could we treat you so simply?”

He sat down several steps away.

Close enough to observe.

Far enough that direct contact was no longer necessary.

“Do you know why some powerful cultivators can still end up kneeling before others?”

Hao Nhien did not answer.

“Because a strong body does not mean the soul cannot be changed.”

“There are methods that can make a person forget what he once believed.”

“There are techniques that can make obedience feel like the only choice he has ever wanted.”

The man smiled coldly.

“You destroyed our plans in Heavenly Eye.”

“You killed Mac Ta.”

“Now you’ve brought down U Minh Mountain.”

“But imagine if one day you yourself became someone who served Him.”

“I wonder what the people who trust you would think then.”

He stared directly at Hao Nhien.

“Hoa Van.”

“Cat Loi.”

“Even Lac Van.”

“I would very much like to see what happens when the man they respect returns and personally leads them before Him.”

Hao Nhien said nothing.

But his eyes turned cold.

The black-robed cultivator seemed pleased by the reaction.

He did not immediately invade Hao Nhien’s soul.

Instead, he continued using part of his awareness to inspect the Yin energy embedded in Hao Nhien’s meridians.

After several checks, he confirmed that Hao Nhien could barely circulate True Qi outside the dantian.

The weakness from Berserk also showed no sign of fading.

Only then did he relax further.

Now only one thing remained to be tested.

The strength of Hao Nhien’s soul.

A thin thread of spiritual sense slowly approached him.

At first, it merely brushed across the outer fluctuations.

The man tested Hao Nhien’s response without immediately going deeper.

He understood that cultivators with powerful souls often possessed methods of defense.

So most of his own spiritual sense remained outside.

Only one small branch probed forward.

Hao Nhien noticed immediately.

Nothing changed in his expression.

But within his sea of consciousness, the Soul Art began circulating silently.

The black-robed man tested again.

This time, the spiritual sense advanced slightly deeper.

He immediately realized that Hao Nhien’s soul was far stronger than that of an ordinary cultivator who had just entered Golden Core.

More surprisingly, it still remained remarkably stable despite his severe injuries and nearly exhausted True Qi.

“As expected…”

The man looked at Hao Nhien.

Greed became increasingly obvious in his eyes.

Hao Nhien remained still.

The Soul Art continued circulating quietly.

With the soul power he had left, the Soul Sword probably could not directly kill a Golden Core cultivator.

But if the other man willingly sent his spiritual sense close enough, Hao Nhien could still strike unexpectedly.

He waited.

Then—

Fire erupted behind the black-robed man.

Lanh Hoa had arrived.

The moment he saw Hao Nhien on the ground beneath the enemy’s control, he charged without hesitation.

All of his True Qi poured into the Fire Spirit Sword in his hand.

The blade came directly toward the black-robed cultivator.

The man immediately sensed the danger and spun around, preparing to raise True Qi in defense.

At that exact instant, Hao Nhien struck.

The Soul Sword followed the thread of spiritual sense the man had sent inward.

At extremely close range, it stabbed directly into his soul.

The Golden Core cultivator’s entire body suddenly locked.

His movement froze for one beat.

The protective True Qi, already greatly weakened after the sword formation, had not yet condensed when Lanh Hoa’s sword arrived.

Slash!

Blazing sword-light cut forward at the exact moment the black-robed cultivator faltered beneath the soul attack.

He clenched his teeth and desperately forced what little True Qi remained into a layer of Yin energy defense.

But the Blood-Soul Demon Body had already been destroyed.

His meridians had suffered severe damage.

The barrier that formed was so thin it was almost transparent.

Lanh Hoa’s blade struck it.

A dry cracking sound rang out.

A blazing red fracture appeared across the Yin barrier.

Then countless smaller cracks spread immediately outward.

The black-robed man’s eyes widened in horror.

His mouth opened as though he were about to shout something.

The entire barrier before his chest shattered.

The Fire Spirit Sword continued through.

“No—!”

The cry never fully left his throat.

He desperately twisted his body, trying to escape the descending blade.

One foot slammed into the ground.

His remaining good arm rose to protect his chest.

But his soul had just been struck.

Every physical reaction lagged behind his intent by one beat.

That one beat decided life and death.

The blade cut through the raised arm.

Then slashed diagonally from the shoulder into the chest.

Fire power erupted through the wound, burning away the last currents of Yin energy he tried to call back to protect his body.

The black-robed man’s pupils contracted violently.

He still tried to circulate his cultivation.

A trembling hand reached toward Lanh Hoa, attempting one final counterattack.

But the True Qi he gathered immediately slipped from his control.

A faint strand of Yin energy left his fingertips.

Then dispersed into the air.

The horror in his eyes gradually became unwillingness.

A Golden Core cultivator, however badly wounded, had never imagined that he would die beneath the sword of a Foundation Establishment layer-eight cultivator moments after believing his enemy’s life was already entirely in his hands.

His lips moved.

Perhaps he still wanted to say something.

Only blood came out.

Lanh Hoa did not immediately withdraw his sword.

He rotated his wrist and drove the last of his fire power through the blade into the man’s vital point.

He gave him no opportunity whatsoever to counterattack.

Firelight flashed.

The black-robed man’s body shook one final time.

Then he collapsed among the shattered stone.

The Golden Core aura he had struggled to preserve rapidly faded away.

Lanh Hoa withdrew his sword and looked down at the corpse.

There was no joy on his face at having killed someone above his own realm.

Only coldness remained when he remembered seeing his Clan Chief beneath the man’s foot.

“Disrespect the Clan Chief.”

“Die.”

Hao Nhien remained on the ground.

His eyes were still open.

But his vision had already begun to blur.

He heard Lanh Hoa calling him.

He saw the familiar figure rushing closer.

But his body no longer had enough strength to respond.

The cold within him remained.

The strands of Yin energy the black-robed man had planted inside his meridians did not disappear when their creator died.

They remained firmly attached to the newly tempered circulation routes, preventing the True Qi generated by the Golden Core from moving freely.

A tiny strand of True Qi appeared in his dantian.

Hao Nhien forced his concentration to remain.

He guided it toward a familiar meridian route.

After only a short distance, the current slowed.

Then stopped completely.

He wanted to examine it more carefully.

His soul had already reached its limit.

The backlash from Berserk made even maintaining consciousness increasingly difficult.

Even so, in the final moments before his awareness sank away, Hao Nhien confirmed one thing.

His meridians had not been destroyed.

The pathways still existed.

They had even become more resilient after being tempered by heavenly tribulation.

What prevented True Qi from flowing was not an ordinary injury.

It was the layers of Yin energy attached to the inside, changing the way power could pass through them.

Lanh Hoa’s voice calling his name seemed farther and farther away.

Hao Nhien tried to hold onto the sensation.

But darkness was already falling.

And just before consciousness disappeared entirely, one question surfaced in his mind.

If the path was still intact…

then what, exactly, was stopping the flow?