Chapter 1095: Imagination

Chapter 1095: Imagination

Chen Ping'an had changed into a different Dharma robe.
The world was a vast expanse of white, while the Dharma robe was a vivid scarlet.
A tall tree in the snow stood out, blazing red and unusual.

Over by the top of the city wall, for some reason, Zhou Mi's figure had shrunk to the size of an ordinary person.

It was only at this moment that Ma Kuxuan realized he had finally seen the real protagonist. He was quite shocked. When had Chen Ping'an entered the ancestral hall? He had been sitting right at the entrance earlier, yet he had been completely unaware. Ma Kuxuan didn't think he had underestimated Chen Ping'an's cultivation base. He had even taken risks, going against his own wishes, to activate this thunder technique that he had once deeply detested. And in the end, Chen Ping'an had just used a clone to deal with him?

He had originally thought that bringing out this meticulously planned "Zhou Mi," even if it couldn't kill Chen Ping'an, would at least damage his cultivation base, causing him, who had just ascended to the Flying Immortal realm, to fall back down to Jade Pupil.

Ma Kuxuan spoke through his mind, "Did something go wrong with releasing Chen Ping'an's inner demon? Even if he saw through it, so what? You just need to strike while the iron is hot. This guy has been through countless battles and has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. Don't get fooled by him."

This was why Ma Kuxuan hadn't minded being inside the formation earlier. He had let Chen Ping'an take the initiative, not knowing that while the mantis stalks the cicada, the oriole is behind. It wouldn't be that simple to try and steal the spotlight. Logically speaking, for a cultivator, the inner demon is most powerful during the bottleneck of the Nascent Soul stage or when retreating to break through to the fifth realm. This was a necessary path for ancient cultivators; without breaking through the inner demon barrier, one couldn't be considered a Land Immortal. As long as Zhou Mi's hands used some long-lost ancient divine ability to open the cage of the heart and release Chen Ping'an's inner demon, then this formation, which isolated heaven and earth to give Chen Ping'an geographical advantage, would instead become his greatest difficulty in facing the inner demon. The purer this world was, the more it became a pristine Dao field for that inner demon. The inner demon Chen Ping'an faced would be even more like Chen Ping'an himself. Then when the Dao is one foot high, the demon is ten feet high…

At that time, Chen Ping'an would have to face not only Ma Kuxuan but also the visualized counterfeit Zhou Mi, plus the inner demon Chen Ping'an—that would be three Immortals!

Zhou Mi smiled and replied, "It's not that we can't release it, but there's no need. Chen Ping'an's inner demon is very strange. For us, it has no killing power at all and is meaningless. I can't expend my cultivation base to release an inner demon that just sits on the sidelines and watches the show, can I?"

Ma Kuxuan couldn't help but curse, "I said this guy was a monster!"

Zhou Mi said, "My existence makes him wary. This shows that my true body left a deep impression on him."

Ma Kuxuan said casually, "How many people are worthy of Cui Chan and Qi Jingchun joining forces to fight? And later even inviting the combined power of the Three Founding Patriarchs to suppress?"

In ten thousand years, only this one person.

Ma Kuxuan waved his hand, and the scattered remnants of the Heavenly Tribulation Five Lightning scattered across the world, as if receiving an imperial decree, began to gather towards the city wall, pulling out colorful threads and cutting countless snowflakes.

Chen Ping'an didn't stop him, allowing Ma Kuxuan to gather them.

Zhou Mi shook his head, "Anyway, the path is already shattered. There's no need to take them back. Wait until you defeat him first. Be careful not to get contaminated by his sword intent, or you'll be inviting trouble."

Ma Kuxuan only listened to half of it but still didn't withdraw his Dharma decree. However, he did abandon the idea of putting the threads into his sleeve. Tens of thousands of colorful threads converged beside Ma Kuxuan, condensing into a knot-sized ball. Treasures light swirled, shining brilliantly, like a lightning net covering the sky, and Ma Kuxuan was the one holding the net.

Ordinary people don't understand the difference between immortal techniques and divine abilities, lumping them all together as mountain methods. This shows they don't know the difference between immortals and gods.

Tracing back to the source, strictly speaking, the myriad techniques and immortal tricks are the paths created by ancient Qi refiners in their pursuit of the Dao. They all revolve around the principle of gathering Qi, refining Qi, and then mobilizing the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth, manifesting it externally. Divine abilities, on the other hand, are derived from the many authorities of ancient gods. Ancient cultivators would carve purple books, recording those "paths" in volumes—this is the origin of some later Daoist scriptures and secret manuals. Some even collected the imprints of divine abilities in heaven and earth, directly moving and engraving them onto their own bones, the doors of their natal Qi mansions, or on walls, like cliff inscriptions or wall writings. When these ancient Land Immortals or attained cultivators underwent sword release and reincarnation, their later selves would inherently inherit part of the legacy of their former selves. This became the foundation of their Dao attainment and their opportunity to enter the mountains. This is why later generations, when it comes to climbing the mountain of cultivation to become an immortal, place such importance on whether one has an immortal root or is a Dao vessel.

There were also exceptionally gifted ancient cultivators who could directly use those abilities as they were, and as their cultivation deepened, they would improve them, slightly changing their appearance to better adapt to the new human world. As for how to use them, regarding divine abilities, the essence is in the word "penetrate." Divine ability, penetrating the divine—a divine path runs through heaven and earth. This is also the reason why later Daoists built ritual altars, imitating divine abilities. When a Daoist receives a register, is registered in the immortal books, they can "borrow power" from the patriarch. This method requires laying down a path. To walk this path, one needs a travel pass and a token, holding a treasure register to ensure smooth passage. This is the significance of receiving a register. There are also branches like external incarnations, Dharma manifestations that mimic the heavens and the earth, all of which are methods taken from heaven by Qi refiners and used on earth.

This is also why Zhou Mi said the path was already shattered. With Ma Kuxuan's current Immortal realm, he couldn't build a second bridge in a short time.

Moreover, Ma Kuxuan's act of borrowing this Heavenly Tribulation Thunder Pool from the Thunder Ministry was already suspicious of embezzlement, overstepping his authority. He would definitely be held accountable later. Making such a mess now was the price Ma Kuxuan had to pay for treating Chen Ping'an as a hypothetical enemy in the Immortal realm. It was just like him to act on impulse without thinking about the consequences.

Ma Kuxuan asked through his mind, "How's the progress on dismantling the formation?"

Zhou Mi replied calmly, "Very slow, far below expectations. His flying sword's grade is not low. Also, we need to avoid alerting the enemy."

Ma Kuxuan said helplessly, "I keep getting taught by this guy that when fighting, just fight, and it's best not to argue. You naturally don't care, but even with my thick skin, it's not comfortable."

Zhou Mi ignored him, with one hand behind his back and the other clenched into a fist across his abdomen. He held two chess pieces in his palm, gently rubbing them together, making a creaking sound. He wasn't staring at Chen Ping'an, but at… that piece of skin. It had now shed into a Dharma robe that was destined to be unprecedented and unrepeatable—a divine soldier bearing the true name of a demon. It was indeed very interesting. Even if Chen Ping'an gave it to a Flying Ascension cultivator, they wouldn't dare to wear it.

Zhou Mi seemed to explain to Ma Kuxuan the origin of Chen Ping'an's true body, "This kind of instantaneous formation activation, which could fool you, has only two possibilities. One: After killing the prime culprit, destroying the Moon-supporting Mountain, carving words on the city wall, and returning to Haoran, he never actually returned Lu Chen's cultivation base. He has always remained in the pseudo-fourteen realm, two realms above you. And what he borrowed was Lu Chen's mixed Dao techniques. Using them would naturally be effortless and undetectable. Two: The natal divine ability of his flying sword can not only isolate heaven and earth but also follow his whims, build a new stove, and recreate a world. Sword Immortal Chen, did I get anything wrong?"

Chen Ping'an smiled and stretched out an arm, opening his palm as if to signal him to continue.

For a cultivator, the feeling of having the three flowers above the heavenly palace of the head cut off, and having their merits forcibly dispersed by external force, was not pleasant. It forced Chen Ping'an to perform a "self-cutting" to escape. He indeed needed a moment to nourish his spirit. Fortunately, what was cut off didn't flow to outsiders; it was still scattered within this caged sparrow and could be recovered eventually.

If he had to give an evaluation, it was roughly equivalent to receiving half a punch from a martial artist in the eleventh realm.

Ma Kuxuan wanted to help Zhou Mi buy time to break this world barrier, while Chen Ping'an also needed to replace a breath of pure qi and secretly adjust some layouts. They each got what they needed.

In this battle, where neither knew the other's true capabilities, neither could afford to make a single wrong move.

Both wanted to take down the other. Ma Kuxuan didn't want to walk a divine path, and Chen Ping'an certainly didn't want to drop in realm.

But both had an intuition that at a certain moment, just one move could decide life and death.

Either a certain divine ability of Ma Kuxuan's, or a certain punch or sword of Chen Ping'an's.

Zhou Mi said, "From this, he has at least two natal flying swords. One, 'Together in Heaven and Earth,' sets the framework, defines the boundaries, invites you into the trap, and as the host, decides whether to serve a penalty drink or a toast, depending on his mood. The other, 'Together in All Things,' relies on a river of time forged from gold essence copper coins, allowing him to freely arrange things on both banks. These two swords and two abilities complement each other perfectly, equivalent to a saint of the Three Teachings carrying a portable Dao field that was originally immovable. In comparison, the disadvantage is that it cannot raise a realm, but the advantage is that past and future, the four directions and up and down, are all within this realm."

Ma Kuxuan felt it was extremely troublesome and frowned, "Couldn't it be that a single natal flying sword has multiple abilities?"

Zhou Mi smiled knowingly, "Have you forgotten about Zouzi's evaluation of the top ten young cultivators across several worlds? Aren't you curious why only the wild sword cultivator Liu Cai, who appeared out of nowhere, had his two flying swords' names and origins deliberately revealed by Zouzi? Zouzi even revealed Liu Cai's two sword-nurturing gourds. It was clearly intentional, like a letter to the world, so there was no need to send it to a specific person. Liu Guan was the only one on the list at the Golden Core realm. In contrast, the last-place 'Chen Eleven,' the final Hidden Officer, only made the list because he was simultaneously a Nascent Soul sword cultivator and a Wind Riding martial artist. If I'm not mistaken, the sword 'Bilu' nurtured in the sword-nurturing gourd 'Heart's Desire'—one sword in an instant, reaching the highest heavens—is deliberately aimed at this…"

Zhou Mi raised his hand and rolled up his sleeve, "This vast world. No matter how vast the heaven and earth, how yin and yang harmonize, and how orderly the Dao circulates here. A sword cultivator can break all techniques with one sword, and Liu Guan can even break all swords with one sword, reaching the highest heavens and the Yellow Springs, making cages and barriers all illusory."

"Another sword-nurturing gourd from the Dao Ancestor, 'Immediate,' Liu Cai uses it to temper his sword 'White Colt,' which just happens to suppress the river of time in this world. In short, two swords counter two swords, a perfect and difficult matchup."

Chen Ping'an clapped and laughed, "Impressive, impressive. Even though it's a fake, still some distance from a true next-grade work, it's not too shabby."

Ma Kuxuan said, "Don't forget you're the last place. How can you still be so happy?"

Chen Ping'an smiled, "I'm the last among the top ten young cultivators across several worlds. You're the top of the Top Ten Young Cultivators of Tripod Spring Continent. Are you happy?"

Ma Kuxuan twitched the corner of his mouth.

Chen Ping'an said, "Could it be that when Zouzi was making the list, he privately told you that you'd rather be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix, so you gave the last place to me?"

Ma Kuxuan rubbed his face with his hand, grinning, "There will be a time when you cry."

Chen Ping'an chuckled, "Ma Kuxuan, you have a bad habit from birth—you can't stand seeing others do well and want to be above everyone. Also, you only do things you think you can do well. Kuxuan, this isn't good. You need to change. Of course, that's only if you still have the chance to reform."

Ma Kuxuan was severely disgusted by the phrase "Kuxuan."

Zhou Mi, however, glanced at the splash of red in the snow.

Ma Kuxuan sneered, "The old scholar's nemesis once said that being fond of teaching others is a great calamity for people. I heard that you weren't satisfied with just preaching principles, so you went to the countryside to be a village teacher?"

Chen Ping'an said, "I think there are two great calamities for people. Besides the sage's teaching of being fond of teaching others, the other calamity is being ashamed to be someone's disciple."

Ma Kuxuan was momentarily speechless.

Chen Ping'an took a deep breath.

Choosing to settle everything in one decisive battle—wasn't that feasible?

Zhou Mi no longer paid attention to the verbal sparring between these two fellow townsmen of the same age, muttering to himself, "Everyone mistakenly thought that Liu Cai's appearance, from an unknown sword cultivator to the top ten young cultivators across several worlds, was because he was born at the right time, gaining the favor of heaven and earth. They thought heaven didn't want Ning Yao to dominate alone. Just as in the younger generation, there was Cao Ci first on the martial path, then Chen Sword Immortal later. It seemed the sword path should be the same. So Liu Cai was compared to Ning Yao, and people thought that after a hundred years of sword refining, Liu Cai might compete with Ning Yao at the same realm. None of them expected that the sword cultivator Liu Cai's real target was not Ning Yao, but Chen Sword Immortal."

Ma Kuxuan's mind was not ordinary. Instead of gloating, he regretted not having such a nemesis.

Chen Ping'an was certainly a nemesis, but the sword cultivator Liu Cai was a key and decisive move carefully crafted by Zouzi for Chen Ping'an. The significance was different.

But this misjudgment—that Liu Cai had a chance to compete with Ning Yao in swordsmanship—was understandable at the time. Many people thought that since the Flying Ascension City had migrated to the Five Colors World, it was no longer the old Sword Qi Wall with abundant sword cultivation aura. Logically, Ning Yao's breakthrough speed might indeed slow down. Every time she advanced a realm, the time to reach the next would be longer. So Liu Cai, holding two sword-nurturing gourds from the Dao Ancestor, had a chance to catch up.

What was the reality? How could it be? It was naturally to realize they had misunderstood Ning Yao.

Turns out it made no difference whether she was refining her sword at the Sword Qi Wall or not.

In the past ten thousand years, sword cultivators in the world were nothing but Chen Qingdu and other sword cultivators besides Chen Qingdu. Only those two kinds.

Now, Ning Yao was showing signs and momentum of filling Chen Qingdu's place.

It remained to be seen whether the Heavenly Gate of combining the Flying Ascension realm into the Fourteenth realm would block her.

Ma Kuxuan suddenly noticed that Chen Ping'an's expression was strange.

What? Talking about your Dao partner Ning Yao made you think about being a gigolo? Started feeling uncomfortable?

Nowadays, almost everyone in the Haoran world knew the battle record of that Moving Mountain Old Ancestor of Zhengyang Mountain. Extraordinary, jaw-dropping, a series of breathtaking feats when looking back. He had been in the Li Zhu Cave Paradise, first heavily injuring Liu Xianyang, then forcing Chen Ping'an to join forces with Ning Yao against him. He had tangled with them for quite a while, exchanged punches with Song Changjing, and finally seemed to have provoked Qi Jingchun, wanting to move Beiyue Piyun Mountain, which now belonged to the Night Travel God…

But few knew that Ma Kuxuan had once challenged them alone.

At that time, Ma Kuxuan's thoughts were still unusual. Instead, he thought that if the outsider girl and the lackey from Mud Vase Alley—a match of heaven and earth—could get together, thunder meeting fire, and rolling in the sheets, that would be quite good. A flower stuck on a pile of cow dung—that was more interesting.

Chen Ping'an shook his head and smiled, "Fake people are fake. They can't come up with new ideas, only follow a map."

Zhou Mi said, "Oh? Please enlighten me, Sword Immortal Chen."

Chen Ping'an said, "First, let me introduce the earliest names of my two natal flying swords: 'Caged Sparrow' and 'Moon in the Well.' And let me correct you: Liu Cai's sword 'White Colt' was originally aimed at 'Caged Sparrow,' while 'Bilu' was aimed at 'Moon in the Well.' Of course, your judgment now isn't wrong. I melted bag after bag of gold essence copper coins into a river of time, a fool's dream, overreaching, trying to build a small thousand world inside 'Caged Sparrow.' That was also thanks to Liu Cai's appearance. His two flying swords gave me great inspiration."

The implication was that, knowing Liu Cai was waiting on the road ahead, Chen Ping'an didn't detour but went further. You have 'White Colt' that disregards the constraints of the river of time? Then I'll do everything to collect gold essence copper coins and keep spending. You claim 'Bilu' can break all swords with one sword? Then let's see how many ten thousand swords you can break. Ten? A hundred?

Zhou Mi suddenly realized, "Not afraid of dying while holding the Dao, only willing to walk straight. So this is what a sword cultivator is."

Ma Kuxuan smacked his lips, "Tough head."

Zhou Mi showed an appreciative look, smiling, "Believing in fate but not resigning to it—that's a good habit."

Ma Kuxuan asked through his mind, "What do you say?"

Zhou Mi replied, "A bit troublesome. Unraveling the silk cocoon is already hard, and I'm afraid there are cocoons within cocoons. I can roughly deduce that this is one of the illusory worlds, with dozens of backups. Currently, I've found the roots of thirty-two. Although their solidity is probably average, inferior to this Sword Qi Wall, using them to hinder you at a critical moment and ruin your plans wouldn't be difficult."

Ma Kuxuan nodded, "This guy has been scheming since childhood, good at disguises, very cunning. In terms of depth of thought, back then Song Jixin couldn't even tie his shoes for this neighbor. No wonder we're kindred spirits. I pretended to be a fool; he pretended to be a good person. We both succeeded back then."

Chen Ping'an seemed to guess their intentions and said with a faint sneer, "I gave you a chance, but you couldn't take it."

Zhou Mi suddenly said through his mind, "Be careful."

Ma Kuxuan sneered, "Careful what? You keep breaking the barrier. It's best if you can shatter it all at once. If not, it's fine. I'm not going to humor him anymore."

In an instant, the world changed. The sky was clear for ten thousand miles, the moon lovely, with not a single snowflake. The ground, which had been covered in thick snow, instantly showed no trace of white.

At the same time, on the city wall, a line cut across horizontally, with no trace of sword light.

The height of the horizontal line was exactly at the waist of Ma Kuxuan and Zhou Mi, as if an invisible sword immortal swung a sword, cutting across the world.

Zhou Mi looked composed, just standing still, letting his body be cut in half at the waist. The upper half of his body tilted slightly. There was no scene of blood splattering, nor was the body an illusion. The cut was indeed solid, but at the cut of the two halves, a dazzling flow of colored glaze light leaked and overflowed. Two streams of light, one rising and one falling, seemed to try to reconnect, to piece the shape back together, but were blocked by the remaining sword intent. This body was like an "empty shell" of straw. But the straw inside this shell was truly invaluable, being a glazed body refined from a large amount of gold essence copper coins.

Seemingly having received some instruction from Ma Kuxuan, Zhou Mi reached out to grasp the date-sized pocket "Thunder Pool." Another sword light fell straight onto the city wall, splitting Zhou Mi's head. What was originally just two halves became four parts. These two sword lights could hardly be called a line or a single strike. Moreover, a complete massive cross-section of sword light ran through the entire small world.

The sword light burst forth extremely quickly, flashing and disappearing, continuous, cutting again and again, leaving Zhou Mi's form in a mess, riddled with slashes, maintaining only a rough outline, a wretched sight.

But Ma Kuxuan's form had vanished. Chen Ping'an suddenly turned around and delivered a sword.

A dust-like existence high in the air instantly transformed into a towering Dharma manifestation a thousand zhang tall, stomping heavily towards the seemingly tiny Chen Ping'an on the ground.

Ma Kuxuan's external incarnation, clad in multicolored divine armor and majestic, was cut open from the sole of its foot to the shoulder by the rising sword light, like cutting tofu, without any obstruction.

The sword light didn't just break the Dharma manifestation; the sword aura also exploded outwards to both sides, as if a pair of giant hands were forcibly splitting Ma Kuxuan's Dharma manifestation body apart.

Chen Ping'an frowned slightly. For an ordinary cultivator of the same realm, being split apart by a sword in his own world would be normal.

But Ma Kuxuan was no ordinary Immortal. His golden body shouldn't be so fragile.

At that moment, Chen Ping'an's heart tightened. Between lightning and flint, his thoughts turned rapidly. Finally, he chose a compromise: avoid fighting, conceal his trace, and hide.

It turned out that on the city wall, not only did Zhou Mi instantly return to normal, but his entire "person" became extremely real, and his aura changed completely. Damn, it was even more real than Zhou Mi himself.

For a split second, Chen Ping'an almost thought that Ma Kuxuan had long colluded with Zhou Mi and was left in the human world as a backup, just waiting for today to kill him and forcefully seize half of the "one."

Zhou Mi smiled, his expression completely carefree. He casually raised his arm, two fingers together, and slashed down.

Pointing directly at where Chen Ping'an had stood. Just after Chen Ping'an left, behind him, a deep trench appeared on the ground, spreading outwards.

The entire "Caged Sparrow" world almost—just almost—was broken open. The deepest part of the trench and the farthest point had almost touched the boundaries of the world.

Chen Ping'an, who had hidden his trace, was deeply shaken, frowning silently.

Could it really be Zhou Mi?

Otherwise, only a peak great cultivator of the Flying Ascension realm could create such a situation.

He heard Ma Kuxuan's voice saying "come out" like a Daoist saint with words of power, and Chen Ping'an was dragged out from a secret realm, forced to reveal himself.

Clouds rolled. A golden hand stirred a hole, reaching towards Chen Ping'an hanging in mid-air with lightning speed before he could dodge.

He delivered a sword that did penetrate the golden hand as huge as a mountain, but the hand still slammed down with great force. Chen Ping'an had no choice but to throw a punch.

The earth trembled, dust flew. Chen Ping'an was smashed down, landing on one knee in the center of a pit, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

Ma Kuxuan had said he didn't learn boxing. Why was this palm strike, which could be either a technique or a divine ability, no less powerful than Cao Ci's boxing?

Without turning his head, Chen Ping'an struck back with a sword.

But the ever-present Zhou Mi effortlessly pinched the tip of the "Night Travel" sword between two fingers. Zhou Mi raised his hand, and sword energy condensed into a long sword, returning a strike aimed at Chen Ping'an's shoulder.

Chen Ping'an transformed into a dozen sword lights, suddenly coalescing into his true body over a hundred li away.

The next moment, on the ground, as if foreseeing the future, Ma Kuxuan assumed a boxing stance and had already delivered a punch towards him.

The fist energy was violent and unstoppable.

Between this punch and Chen Ping'an, hundreds of mirror surfaces shattered with a loud crash, splattering in all directions, a magnificent scene.

This was the advantage of seizing the favorable time and terrain. Even with a temporary corridor of mirrors set up to block this punch, Chen Ping'an still had to use earth-shrinking teleportation to avoid the fist energy.

Very strange. Zhou Mi formed a hand seal and chanted the word "remove." The deep trench on the ground instantly disappeared, as if time had flowed backward, restoring everything to its original state.

Ma Kuxuan beckoned Chen Ping'an with his finger.

Chen Ping'an was about to speak when Zhou Mi slowly walked forward, smiling, "The swordsmanship of the one who carved words on the city wall—Sword Immortal Chen, you've disappointed me."

Chen Ping'an said, "You don't even dare to speak my name. Are you afraid I'll find your hiding place, or worried that your true body will detect traces, and with a single thought, shatter this glazed golden body of yours?"

Zhou Mi said, "I dare not call you by name directly. Does Sword Immortal Chen dare to call Zhou Mi by name?"

Chen Ping'an laughed freely, "I'm useless, but that doesn't stop you from being even more useless."

Zhou Mi said, "I read a book with two stories. The protagonists of the stories didn't survive because they were protagonists; they were protagonists because they survived."

"One story begins in a place called Mud Vase Alley in Huaihuang County. The protagonist's surname is Chen."

"Another story earlier starts in a scholarly family in Zhongtu Shenzhou, turns at the Sword Qi Wall, spends most of its length in the Barren Wastes World, ends in Haoran, with the conclusion still undecided."

Chen Ping'an suddenly said, "I understand. Good move."