Chapter 35: Azure Cloud (13)

He Tingtong threw out a Wind Talisman, which perfectly met the wild wind swept by Fu Baiyu. The air wave instantly lifted the people up. Zhang Duixue rode his sword at the last moment, grabbing Yue Qianxun who ran slowly with one hand. Fu Fengyan hugged He Tingtong directly around the waist and jumped onto Zhang Duixue’s sword. The four of them, linked in a string, rode the wind and rolled into the secret realm.

He Tingtong lay in Fu Fengyan’s arms. Pushed by the wind and waves from behind, it felt like someone had punched him from the back, his body numb from the shock. He pressed down with his hand, feeling something wet, slippery, cold, and sticky. When he raised his hand, he saw a patch of wet red on his palm.

The azure jade floor tiles were all covered in blood. The recessed brick patterns were branded on his palm, printing a palm-print of lotus flower pattern.

Waves of shouting came from afar, sounding like an army attacking a city. The sky was scarlet, with no stars or moon visible. The wilderness was filled with vast red mist. Further away, a loud booming sound was heard, houses collapsed, and amid crackling sounds were pavilions wrapped in raging fire. Orange-red sparks scattered like fireflies. Something huge was rolling in the black-red sky canopy. The sound of a large bell came from the air, dang, dang, dang. The sound was extremely crisp and heavy, as if pressing on people’s heads, heavy, making even the heart feel like a mountain was piled on it.

Fu Fengyan lay on the ground acting as a soft cushion. He blinked and stared at He Tingtong. If the enemy didn’t move, he wouldn’t move. His hands were still on the person’s waist, touching through the thin shirt. Warm, cool, taut, fitting against his palms, indescribably appropriate, calming his restless heart.

The wind was too strong, and they were separated from Zhang Duixue and Yue Qianxun. The two fell into an alley. Several corpses were piled up in the alley, seemingly having died not long ago. In the flickering firelight, several patches of gray-white polluted by blood could be seen, soaked with blood, hanging heavily. Broken sword fragments were scattered nearby, and the corpses still tightly gripped the sword hilts in their hands.

He Tingtong’s gaze focused. He rolled off Fu Fengyan, bent down to examine the corpses. The style of clothes was old, and the swords were ordinary spiritual swords, but every sword had a sword inscription. They were Sword Sect disciples, but without disciple tokens, it shouldn’t be something that happened in recent centuries.

Several streams of light fell from the sky again. The earth was trembling. The high wall beside them cracked in the vibration. A few more hits and it would probably collapse completely.

The sky collapsing and the earth cracking, a scene of doomsday.

But He Tingtong had seen too many such scenes and wasn’t shocked at all.

On the ground were lotus pedestal bricks. He Tingtong had seen such patterned bricks when entering other secret realms before. They should be products of the Divine Dynasty period three thousand years ago.

Five thousand years ago, the Emperor of the Divine Dynasty received the will of heaven and unified the Nine Provinces, followed by more than two thousand years of autocracy. Immortals lived forever, while mortals were reduced to nourishment, worse than pigs and dogs. All cultivation path resources were controlled by the imperial family of the Divine Dynasty. For a thousand years thereafter, except for the imperial children, no one in the world ascended.

The giant millstone named Divine Dynasty crushed down from above, oppressing everyone’s flesh and blood. Two thousand years later, cultivators led by the nine great noble families drew their swords and rose up, slaughtering gods and asking the Dao.

That was a vicious battle lasting more than eight hundred years, a death match that snuffed out the path of ascension. In the end, the noble families won a pyrrhic victory. There was no more Divine Dynasty in the world, nor ascension. The power of immortal families was redrawn, forming the current five sects and seven surnames.

Any secret realm involving the Divine Dynasty carried a somewhat evil bloody aura.

He Tingtong didn’t know how the Dean drew such a secret realm for an academy test. He had enrolled sixteen times, and this was the time the Dean had the worst luck.

Pulling Fu Fengyan, who was still lying on the ground, up, He Tingtong walked in the shadows. In a few steps, he reached the alley entrance and peeked out. He saw rolling waves of fire, corpses everywhere. A great battle seemed to be taking place in the distance. Immortal artifacts, spiritual swords, and immortal scripts bombarded each other. Above the pitch-black clouds, ethereal light like rosy clouds could even be seen. In the long street, invisible black shadows curled up on the corpses, devouring souls.

They were evil sins roaming in the city.

He Tingtong drew his sword from behind, approached silently, stabbed that charred human figure with one strike. With a flash of bright light, the black shadow twisted and dissipated.

And on the jade pendant distributed by the academy at his waist, the character “One” appeared.

Before entering the secret realm, the Dean said that one hundred points was the passing grade, and broken jade meant elimination. This meant that while ensuring survival, he had to kill more than a hundred wandering spirit evil sins.

One hundred per person. There were about three hundred and fifty people entering the secret realm. Who knows how big this secret realm was? It didn’t look like a place that could breed thirty-five thousand evil sins no matter how you looked at it.

Relying solely on two legs to search, who knows how long it would take.

“Let’s find Duixue and Xiao Yue first. After meeting up, we’ll see if we can fight a big one.” He Tingtong waved backward, signaling Fu Fengyan to follow.

Fu Fengyan took a step forward, grabbed He Tingtong’s hand, and then squeezed it tightly.

He Tingtong: “…” He looked back at his left hand, then at the innocent-looking Fu Fengyan. Forget it, let it be.

The two held hands and began to wander in the dead city strewn with corpses. Fu Fengyan’s breathing was very steady. When He Tingtong walked fast, he walked fast; when He Tingtong stopped, he stopped. Relaxed and moderate, cooperating tacitly. He was very good at being a follower. He Tingtong didn’t feel like he was dragging a person for a while.

This city was truly abnormally magnificent. Every brick and stone on the ground, every stone building the wall, was jade. The ground was azure jade, the walls were white jade, and the tiles were ink jade cut into square pieces. With the vibration between heaven and earth, those jade pieces slid down with crackling sounds, hitting the ground, sounding as pleasant as wind chimes.

Moving forward for about a li, He Tingtong stopped, seeing a second figure. He immediately dragged Fu Fengyan to hide. Across a small path, he saw another trial disciple draw a sword and kill an evil sin.

It was a sword cultivator, looking somewhat familiar. Should be one of those who went with them to ambush the assessing senior brother’s courtyard during the re-test.

He Tingtong breathed a sigh of relief, worried about meeting Xie Xuanxiao. Otherwise, before the task was completed, a fierce battle would be unavoidable.

Still had to find Zhang Duixue and the others quickly. Just as he was about to go up and say hello, stepping out of the alley entrance, the ground beneath his feet suddenly shook, and fine gravel and broken tiles jumped up.

Fu Fengyan’s grip suddenly increased, dragging him back and hugging him in his arms.

The jade wall diagonally ahead crashed open. Amidst flying bricks and stones, a huge black shadow rushed out dragging a long saber, slashing at the caught-off-guard sword cultivator with one stroke. Hearing a sound of jade breaking, the figure was no longer seen on the ancient road, presumably teleported out.

In just one encounter, one person was eliminated.

The black shadow attacking the sword cultivator dragged the heavy saber, wandering on the street. Walking to the burning building further ahead, it could be vaguely seen that it was a man wearing profound black armor, riding a giant beast more than ten feet high beneath him, also fully armored, panting heavily, steps heavy.

He Tingtong held his breath and focused, sticking to the wall with Fu Fengyan, not daring to move.

After an unknown amount of time, hearing the footsteps fade away, he turned pale and pulled Fu Fengyan to change direction.

The aura of that black shadow just now was more than the tenth realm. And judging by the attire, it should be the cavalry of the Divine Dynasty imperial family.

The Dean was really crazy. Using such a secret realm to deal with a group of small cultivators with an average cultivation of the third realm, did he think there were too many students who could enter the academy this year?

“White Emperor City.”

Fu Baiyu looked at the city wall in front of him, his scalp numb, cursing loudly, “Who the hell stuffed this into Azure Cloud Academy? Do you want people to live or not!”

Most people had read about the Battle of White Emperor City in the General History of the Nine Provinces. This battle cut off the ten-thousand-year path of the cultivation world. Countless Dao ancestors and ancient sages died in this battle. No wonder the commotion in the sky was so terrifying; it turned out the ancestors were fighting up there.

Although what remained now should only be the memories of wandering spirits, and they couldn’t feel those earth-shaking great powers, just standing under this city wall was chilling.

“What are you afraid of? This is a wandering spirit realm.” Xie Xuanxiao looked the calmest among the few. “At most twelfth realm. The realm master should be a siege soldier. It won’t be that difficult.”

He raised his eyes, flew onto the city wall, swept a glance lightly, and had a plan in mind. “Evil sins are attracted by spiritual blood. I will set up an array here to attract all the evil sins in the city. I request the two of you to help kill them.”

Fu Baiyu rolled up his sleeves and said enthusiastically, “Isn’t this unkind?”

Xiangli Xuan still silently held his qin, but had already found a clean place to sit and set up his posture.

“I am helping them. If they search one by one, some people might not be able to gather enough in three days.” Xie Xuanxiao took out a short knife from his sleeve, cut his palm. Dripping blood fell on the ground. He raised his finger, dipped in blood, drew, circulated spirit, and the array was formed under his feet.

Drops of blood stained the snow-white wide robe. Xie Xuanxiao looked at the evil sins swarming towards the city gate attracted by the blood aura, his brows cold.

Raising his finger, the array rose, golden light forming a cage, instantly trapping those filthy human figures in one place.

“I don’t care about the score. I only want the person. As for the rest, do as you please.”

Xiangli Xuan’s brows moved slightly. He flicked his fingers, plucked the qin strings. The music was like flowing water, tranquil and serene, calming the restless evil sins. Fu Baiyu pulled out a long saber from somewhere and started chopping melons and cutting vegetables. Soon he gathered enough points.

He Tingtong withdrew his prying gaze.

He looked around. Many people had already been attracted by the commotion of these three people and gathered towards the city gate.

Xie Xuanxiao was forcing everyone to go over and cooperate with him, otherwise they wouldn’t get enough points. If he controlled everyone, then it would be four against three hundred. Even with wings, it would be hard to escape.

Fu Fengyan: “What do we do now? Beat him up?”

He Tingtong shook his head. “Xiangli Xuan is at the sixth realm. Although that white-haired one from the Fu clan is only at the fifth realm, he has too many heavenly treasures on him, can’t do anything about him. Xie Xuanxiao is a seventh-realm array master; wanting to touch him is doubly difficult.”

Fu Fengyan silently drew a silver-white long sword from behind. “It doesn’t matter, let me do it.”

“I know you are powerful.” He Tingtong pressed down his sword. “But there are still people watching from above. You and I, one third realm and one second realm, beating them would be too ridiculous.”

Digging out a few long jade strips from the ground, He Tingtong chanted silently in his heart and tossed them casually. He glanced at the hexagram image and took Fu Fengyan to find people.

At this time, at the end of a long street alley, Yue Qianxun and Zhang Duixue lay on the ground, not daring to breathe loudly.

Outside the empty lattice window, a huge and majestic figure was pacing slowly, looking inside through the window gap. Under the heavy armor, those pupils were crimson as blood, flashing with madness.