Chapter 429: Run

Words : 1966 Updated : Oct 15th, 2025

"Ten thousand years ago, Azure Mist Mountain was not the quiet, deserted place it is today," Elder Baimei began, a distant look in his eyes. "Back then, I delighted in taking on students; my disciples and followers numbered well over a hundred!" Elder Baimei sighed deeply again; one could almost picture how vibrant and bustling Azure Mist Mountain had been in its heyday. Now, he had but one disciple, Xiu, at his side. Hearing his Master reminisce, Xiu scratched his head sheepishly. The elders of Azure Mist Mountain from that bygone era had all remarked that Ah Xiu himself was an exceptionally rare talent; even so, he had knelt outside his Master's gate, petitioning for a full thirty years, before Venerable Elder Baimei finally acknowledged him as a disciple. "Among my disciples from that time," Elder Baimei said, "was Tian Xing. I learned he was utterly devoted to pursuing the Dao, yet he had also committed heinous acts using an art called the 'Essence Harvesting Death Formation.' By rights, I should have eliminated him to rid the world of that evil. However, guiding one from wickedness towards virtue – that too, in my eyes, accumulates great merit. And thus, Tian Xing became one of my disciples." "A thousand years and more passed," Elder Baimei continued, "before I truly came to understand the rare nature of this disciple of mine, Tian Xing. His natural talent was nothing special — in fact, it was downright poor — yet his spirit was fierce enough to challenge Heaven itself! Do any of you truly grasp what that means? He began his path with the miserable aptitude of a Five Spirit Root. All his life, he never once came across a heaven-sent treasure or miraculous encounter to change that fate. Even when he managed a so-called 'fate-defying' breakthrough and reached Foundation Establishment, his talent only improved slightly — to a mere Four Spirit Root." Elder Baimei's voice grew heavy with emotion. "But through sheer, unyielding will alone, Tian Xing forced his way forward. He shattered his Golden Core with his own hands — and against all odds, successfully formed his Nascent Soul!" A flicker of lingering awe flashed in Elder Baimei's eyes. "His Nascent Soul Tribulation was a Three-Nine Heavenly Tribulation. To those of you blessed with superior talent, that might sound ordinary. But for someone like him, with such meager foundations, reaching even that level was as difficult as scaling the heavens themselves. At the time, I told him plainly: with his roots, stepping into the Divinity Transformation realm would be nearly impossible. And yet, that unyielding spirit of his — that refusal to accept his limits — was enough to win the admiration of the entire world." Hearing these words, the expressions of everyone present shifted slightly. A Four Spirit Root... For someone with such poor aptitude to reach the Nascent Soul stage — by any measure, that was an act of defying the heavens. Elder Baimei continued, his voice growing heavier. "Later, he came to me and said he had accepted the Mandate of Heaven, that he would lie dormant for a millennium. But I... I truly underestimated him. Most people would give up when faced with such impossible odds. But Tian Xing? He never would. I never imagined," Elder Baimei added, his voice dropping low, "that his resolve could be so... unyielding." Noticing the anguished fury now burning in his Master's eyes, Xiu's face turned even paler. "Unyielding, Master?" he asked hesitantly. "You... you never spoke of how my senior brothers died… They…" At last, this ancient elder, who had lived for who knows how many millennia, showed a trace of age. Between his brows, a deep, helpless anger smoldered. "The lifespan of a Nascent Soul cultivator is about two thousand years," Elder Baimei said heavily. "But Tian Xing... he was never willing to accept even that limit. His talent was mediocre, but his comprehension was unmatched. He claimed to have destroyed the 'Essence Harvesting Death Formation' back then. Yet over the past thousand years and more, he secretly took its core principles and combined them with our Azure Mist Mountain's own 'Fortune-Locking Art'... and created a new, monstrous formation!" Elder Baimei's voice darkened. "Our 'Fortune-Locking Art' was meant to draw ambient power from the people of a town, a city, or even an entire region. But Tian Xing... he twisted it. He turned it into a method to steal life itself — siphoning vitality directly from his fellow disciples of Azure Mist Mountain, all to seize Heaven's fortune for himself! For over a millennium, he has secretly gathered the blood essence of our disciples, forging deep karmic bonds with every single one of them." "At that juncture, Tian Xing was at the peak of Nascent Soul, with merely a few decades of his lifespan left. His lightning tribulation [for advancing] was also imminent." A shadow of fear flickered across White Brow's eyes. "No," he corrected himself, his voice strained, "that wasn't his tribulation; it was Azure Mist Mountain's disaster! Thousands of our disciples, high and low throughout the sect... he used their very lives as fuel, sacrificing them to weather his Great Primordial Spirit Tribulation!" "I..." Xiu stammered, his face frozen in shock. Both Ah Xiu and Bai Rourou stood motionless, their eyes wide and glassy with disbelief. They could hardly even begin to comprehend the sheer despair that Elder White Brow and the other masters of Azure Mist Mountain must have felt that day. Thousands of individuals effectively 'enduring' a tribulation together as sacrifices... the resulting lightning bolts, amplified a thousand times over, would have created a cataclysm far transcending any Heavenly Tribulation previously recorded! How could any of Azure Mist Mountain's disciples possibly have endured that? Even masters of such heaven-defying power could do nothing but watch, wide-eyed and helpless, as their disciples were sent to their doom! The memory of that horrific scene still brought a look of terror to Xiu's face. He finally understood now: why his Master had never taken another disciple, and why, for all its reputed might, Azure Mist Mountain had so few followers. Yet, one crucial point still eluded him. "Master," he asked hesitantly, "With thousands undergoing that tribulation... what became of that monster, Tian Xing...?" "On that day," White Brow stated, his voice heavy with memory, "every soul in Azure Mist Mountain, from the most senior down to the newest novice, there wasn't one who didn't want him dead." White Brow slowly shook his head, a profound dread replacing all other emotion in his eyes. "We could only watch, powerless, as our disciples met their doom," he said. "No living being could have survived a lightning tribulation of that magnitude. Tian Xing himself... he too was seemingly annihilated, turned to dust and smoke within that disaster. And yet... I refuse to believe it!" "I saw him!" White Brow insisted, his voice trembling. "Through the searing baptism of that tribulation, I saw him smile at me! I remember that very smile – it was the same one he wore back when I was convinced he could never possibly reach Nascent Soul, right before he defied all odds and summoned the Three-Nine Tribulation! His smile then... it was identical! And never before... nor since... have I seen a smile that could fill me with such profound, soul-deep dread." White Brow expelled a long, ragged breath. "I am utterly convinced," he stated, his voice unwavering, "Tian Xing is still alive. And for these ten thousand years since that day, I have never ceased my investigation!" "At long last, I found what I was looking for," White Brow continued, his voice barely a whisper. "But the truth... the truth has only deepened my fear." "He's still alive?!!" Xiu and Bai Rourou exclaimed in unison. Xiu's eyes nearly burst from their sockets. He balled his fists, the horrors of the past replaying in his mind. "A monster capable of such heartless cruelty," he seethed inwardly, "how could he possibly have been allowed to live to this day?!" His eyes narrowed to slits. "Master, is he concealed within the Tian Xing Abode? We will seek out that Abode, break it open, and ensure he meets his final, absolute end!" However, what White Brow said next sent a chill through both Xiu and Bai Rourou, so profound it seemed to turn their very hands and feet to ice, making their scalps tingle with unspeakable dread. White Brow's gaze was distant, his eyes utterly devoid of light. "No," White Brow whispered, his eyes vacant. "The Tian Xing Abode... it is but a fragment of what he has become. For these last ten thousand years, his true aim... has been to Transcend the Void itself!" "And now," White Brow continued, his voice hollow, "throughout the entirety of Eternal Sun Prefecture, anyone... anyone at all could be him. There are... many hims!" ... As his final words hung in the air, simultaneously, across Eternal Sun Prefecture – within True Yang Faction, among the Lin family of Qilin Mountain, and from the Nangong family of Hundred Treasures Pavilion – and indeed from many other powerful factions, individuals began to step out from their homes and strongholds. They moved into open areas, tilted their heads back almost imperceptibly, and gazed towards the distant direction of Azure Mist Mountain. And on each of their faces, an identical, eerie smile began to spread. "Master," a new, ancient voice seemed to resonate, from all the smiling figures, "so you did indeed invite those Li family members onto Azure Mist Mountain after all? It appears that for these last ten thousand years or more, you have indeed been probing into my true identity." "And the Azure Cloud region Li Clan... a noteworthy clan indeed! My chosen vessel for rebirth, Feng Qingyang, perished at your hands, thereby foiling my grand designs. The Li Clan's rapid ascent in recent times is surely no common occurrence. And now, alongside that 'esteemed' Master of mine, you've actually managed to trace things back to my very doorstep." "Thirteen of your Li family juniors are currently running rampant within my Divinity Transformation Abode. So much so that even I cannot fully fathom what makes your Li family so exceptionally strange. How... amusing." The eyes of every single one of these eerie figures glinted with an icy, inhuman light. "Since things have reached this pass," a chilling, unified voice seemed to issue from them all, "Our Eternal Sun Prefecture absolutely cannot permit the Azure Cloud region Li Clan to endure!" Then, figure after figure from across Eternal Sun Prefecture began to surge towards the Li family's main seat in the Azure Cloud region! At that very moment, back within the main Li family compound, Li Yaowen, who had been quietly recuperating her spirit with eyes closed beneath the Primal Blood Tree, suddenly snapped them open. The Primal Blood Tree itself seemed to react in kind. Woman and Tree shared a look, and reflected in that shared gaze was an expression of utter, boundless terror. Together, their senses stretching out, they looked beyond Merit City's borders. And there they saw them: indistinct, shadowy figures soaring through the sky towards the city, arriving in endless streams! "Run!" Li Yaowen shrieked, her voice cracking. "Everyone, run for your lives!!!" Never before in her entire existence had Li Yaowen ever let loose such a raw, strength-sapping cry – a shout utterly saturated with pure despair and bone-deep terror! --- 2/2 Donate on Ko-fi ➡️ [https://ko-fi.com/darktea] ⬅️ Get Early Access to 50 Chapters: Search for "Dark Tea" on Ko-fi (Explore tab) and join my membership to read ahead!

Chapter 429: Run

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