Chapter 2025: Separated Siblings

Three years later, the youth had become a constable in Conglan County. Armed with only his machete, he single-handedly wiped out the Black Cloud Stronghold.

He personally killed 117 of his enemies. The remaining three had not been at the stronghold.

Thirteen years later, the young man received a basic Qi Cultivation manual from the imperial court and mastered it in an astonishingly short time.

He then stormed the Tianyu Sect’s outer sect, defeating countless disciples and killing many before finally beheading the three men who had murdered his father.

His machete stained half of the Tianyu Sect’s outer mountain gate red with blood.

A Foundation Establishment cultivator overseeing the outer sect personally stepped in to subdue him, only to have one arm severed by the young man’s blade.

As a cultivation sect with Golden Core cultivators among its ranks, the Tianyu Sect immediately launched a manhunt to track down and eliminate him.

The young man escaped to a distant land with his younger sister.

It was through this battle that he earned the title God of Slaughter.

Forty-one years later, the God of Slaughter returned!

Both the secular and cultivation worlds of the Heaven Cloud Empire were extremely curious about this legendary figure, and many details about him were gradually uncovered.

They learned that the God of Slaughter was named Duan Po and that he wielded a simple, rustic machete.

He also had a younger sister named Duan Ning.

Now a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, Duan Po once again stormed the Tianyu Sect armed with nothing but his machete, throwing the entire sect into chaos.

The sect’s ancestor, Daoist Master Tianyu, was a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator. He was forced to emerge from seclusion and personally deal with Duan Po, yet even he failed!

In the end, Daoist Master Tianyu had no choice but to let him leave. From that day onward, the Tianyu Sect began to decline.

Some admirers praised Duan Po, saying that he had risen from a life of hardship and vowed to wipe out all evil beneath the heavens and restore peace and prosperity to the world.

However, it was precisely because Duan Po acted so decisively and without restraint that he made more and more enemies as he grew stronger. The hardships he endured were far beyond what an ordinary cultivator would ever face.

In fact, because he had made so many enemies, Duan Po rarely dared to remain beside his younger sister for long during the later years of his cultivation journey. He feared that staying close to her would bring mortal danger to her.

Most of the cultivators Duan Po had offended considered themselves members of the “orthodox path”. Under normal circumstances, they would never lower themselves to taking revenge on an opponent’s family.

In fact, many did not even know at first how these people had managed to offend Duan Po.

Perhaps Duan Po had killed one of their relatives or close friends. Perhaps he had taken an opportunity that should have belonged to them.

Whatever the reason, wherever Duan Po went, blood flowed like rivers, and evil fled at the sight of him.

Whenever he came across injustice, he cut it down with a single wave of his blade.

Over time, it almost seemed as though the entire world had become his enemy.

When Duan Po was seventy-one, he met a mentor who would change the course of his life—Daoist Master Speechless, who was physically challenged and blind.

He once saved Duan Po’s life, and Duan Po later returned the favor by saving his.

When Daoist Master Speechless neared the end of his life, Duan Po hurried back to see him one final time.

In the pouring rain, at Daoist Master Speechless’ request, Duan Po demonstrated the Immortal-Slaying Blade Technique, a set of moves he had created himself.

Though Daoist Master Speechless was blind, his heart saw clearly because he had opened his “Eye of the Heart”.

“What you have created is not truly a blade technique... It is more like... a sword technique,” he said after watching Duan Po’s demonstration.

“Sword technique?” Duan Po repeated uncertainly.

He had always followed his heart and walked his own path. No one had ever formally taught him swordsmanship, nor had he ever changed his weapon. From beginning to end, the only weapon he had ever wielded was that same machete.

Many cultivators even wondered how Duan Po could use such an ordinary weapon to stand against Golden Core cultivators and their powerful armaments.

No one understood it.

Not even Duan Po himself could explain how he did it. Perhaps the only answer was that he possessed the Spirit of the Blade.

Boom!

Thunder roared once more as lightning tore across the sky.

Duan Po wanted to ask the Daoist Master more questions, but it was already too late. At some point, his mentor’s life force had completely faded, and he had quietly passed away.

Duan Po bowed three times before his mentor. Then, in silence, he began preparing the body for burial.

***

Before he knew it, five hundred years had passed.

During that time, Duan Po had stirred up one bloody upheaval after another throughout the cultivation world of the Heaven Cloud Empire.

Primordial World was vast. Duan Po had not even ventured beyond the borders of Aolai, let alone explored the entirety of the Eastern Purva Continent.

The Heaven Cloud Empire alone was large enough for an ordinary cultivator to spend an entire lifetime exploring.

By then, Duan Po had already become an Earthly Immortal, also known as a Land Immortal—the equivalent of a demigod in the Astral Realm.

More than a hundred years earlier, he had slain two Heavenly Immortals of the Heaven Cloud Empire, both Rank Four beings, throwing its entire cultivation world into turmoil!

Even within the Immortal Realm Civilization, immortal-level cultivators were hardly a dime a dozen.

Unlike in Magus World, where it was extremely rare for one law-wielding knight or mage to casually kill another, such things could indeed happen here because of the Immortal Realm Civilization’s uniquely loose and chaotic planar environment.

Precisely because of that, the Heaven Cloud Empire could no longer tolerate Duan Po. In fact, there was no longer any place for him anywhere in the cultivation world of Aolai.

He would have to travel elsewhere in the Eastern Purva Continent, or perhaps leave it entirely, to seek new opportunities and explore the Great Dao in other continents.

Primordial World was unimaginably vast. Even taken individually, each of its four great continents covered a territory far greater than that of an ordinary large-sized world.[1]

Even a prosperous world like Divine Descendants World was only one-third the size of the Eastern Purva Continent.

One could only imagine how vast Primordial World truly was, let alone how magnificent the Immortal Realm Civilization, which spanned countless planes, must be!

Before leaving, Duan Po went to find his younger sister, Duan Ning. She was currently cultivating Daoist arts and alchemy in the Huayu Sect[2] under a different name. ℴ

Duan Ning’s talent was not as extraordinary as her brother’s. Even after five hundred years, she remained only a Golden Core cultivator.[3]

Duan Po, meanwhile, had already become an Earthly Immortal whose combat strength rivaled that of a Heavenly Immortal.

The Huayu Sect was merely an ordinary cultivation sect. Its strongest cultivator was only at the Nascent Soul stage, equivalent to Rank Three in the Astral Realm. Duan Po could probably destroy its mountain gate with a single slash.

He had come to bid his younger sister farewell, but Duan Ning insisted on going with him.

For some unknown reason, she had suffered from a strange condition since childhood that made it difficult for her body to mature.

Although she was already a Golden Core cultivator, she still looked like a little girl with pigtails.

Fortunately, her talent for alchemy was outstanding, and she was much better at dealing with people than her elder brother.

Because of this, the sect master of the Huayu Sect had taken notice of her and accepted her as a direct disciple.

“Take me with you!” Duan Ning pleaded.

“I’ll go ahead and see what things are like. Once I’ve established myself there, I’ll come back for you,” Duan Po replied gently.

“Fine. Where are you going, though?” Duan Ning asked.

Duan Po paused before answering, “The Western Niuhe Continent. The Five Elements Sect.”

“What? That far?!” Duan Ning exclaimed.

***

After bidding farewell to his sister, Duan Po traveled day and night without stopping. Two years later, he finally arrived at the Five Elements Sect near the border of the Western Niuhe Continent.

The Five Elements Sect was bustling with activity. Its members seemed to be busy preparing for some major event, and no one paid any attention to Duan Po as he blended into the crowd.

To be fair, as a subsidiary sect of a sage court named Five Villages Temple, an Earthly Immortal like Duan Po was hardly conspicuous here.

After all, the Great Immortal Zhenyuanzi held a resounding title throughout the Immortal Realm—the Ancestor of Earthly Immortals!

Duan Po had traveled all this way precisely because he had heard that the atmosphere within the Five Elements Sect was harmonious. The cultivators here were said to enjoy loose relationships and few rigid rules.

Duan Po grabbed a Foundation Establishment cultivator by the arm and asked, “Brother, where’s everyone going?”

The cultivator could not see through Duan Po’s cultivation. However, judging by the disheveled man’s appearance and the machete in his hand, he did not seem like an ordinary person.

“Where else would we be going?” he replied. “To make our fortunes on the foreign battlefields, of course!”

The Foundation Establishment cultivator pulled his arm free and hurried away.

Duan Po watched him disappear into the crowd before raising his head. High above the Five Elements Sect, a pitch-black vortex of space and time spun without end. He stared at it thoughtfully.

Meanwhile, on the Eastern Purva Continent...

By decree of Celestial Venerable Yuanshi, the Chan Sect had mobilized in full force.

Although the ruins of Duan Family Fortress were concealed by a mysterious force, and Duan Ning had never revealed her true origins over the past four hundred years, the disciples of the Chan Sect still managed to track her down.

“Who are you? Where are you taking me?”

Duan Ning clutched the golden gourd her mentor had given her tightly as she stared warily at the golden-armored cultivator standing before her.

Behind him, the sect master of the Huayu Sect wore a bitter smile. He showed no intention of stopping the man.

The golden-armored cultivator had restrained his aura almost completely. Although he possessed enough power to flatten the entire Heaven Cloud Empire, he remained extremely respectful toward the young girl before him.

He cupped his fist and explained, “I have come under the orders of the Sage, our sect master, to escort you to Mount Kunlun’s Jade Void Palace.”

“Huh?” Duan Ning exclaimed in astonishment.

Translator’s Notes:

1. The Great Primordial World is divided into four great continents: Northern Kuru Continent, Eastern Purva Continent, Western Niuhe Continent, and Southern Jambu Continent (the last of which has yet to be introduced at this point). ☜

2. Huayu means Transforming Into Rain. ☜

3. Golden Core cultivator = Rank Two. ☜