The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 235 The Way of Immortality

“There are countless Taoist temples in the Tang Empire, and every temple site is a small fortune place under the coverage of the big fortune place in the Divine Land. In all directions of the Divine Land, there are East Penglai, West Shushan, North Xuelu, South Dongting, and Center Zhongnan, these sites are known as the five small fortune places of the Divine Land of Shenzhou. These places are popular among the masses, also in keeping with the Great Tao and where all the Luck congregates. Thus it is said that the five Great Tao Taoist sects are greater than the sum of the tens of thousands of Taoist temples.”

Xu Pingjing stood with his hands clasped behind his back, and continued to add, “The five sects have occupied five great fortune lands separately. So it is expected that they thrive in the world. However, with such blessings, the five sects should naturally share the Immortal Court’s burdens. The most important thing is to guard the Tang Empire and protect the status of the Taoist sect.”

“The four of us, plus Zhang Jiuling, can become the head of the five sects is by lucky chance. It is also a responsibility. If we can establish merit and virtue for the Immortal Court, and be recognized, in the future, there may be an opportunity to have a place in the Immortal Court!”

As he said those words, Xu Pingjing seemed to have felt something. He looked up at the Milky Way of stars and muttered, “A city built from white jade sits in the heavens, the city consists of twelve buildings and five city walls. Within those walls lives immortals who caresses my head and teaches me immortality. Thus is the ultimate pursuit for Taoists.”

After heaving a deep sigh, Xu Pingjing turned back and looked around at everyone. “We Taoists rule the mortal world for the Immortal Court. Our purpose is to make the Taoist sect thrive. So whenever the world is in Chaos, the Taoist sect would get out in the world and support the feudal prince to take the Central Plains.”

“At this moment, the dynasty of Tang Empire is about to collapse, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and Militarism are all fighting for world power. All the foreign nations have entered the borders, and war has erupted in Youyan, Hexi, Xi Chuan and south of the Five Ridges. Even up in the heavens, Gods from four different sides are fighting for the Immortal Court territory. The incumbent immortals are also facing adversaries from all four sides. You could say that the wars in both heaven and on earth are reflections of each other like the two sides of the same coin.”

“If the heavens are in chaos, the mortal world would be chaotic and vice versa.”

“Now that the Tang emperor has lost his sense of morals, all the heroes of the world are uprising while the feudal princes are still fighting among each other. The borders have been lost, which has affected the situation up in the heavens. The Tang ancestors’ land has been invaded by foreigners, different Gods from each religion have gotten their piece of Tang’s land. They’ve also gathered the people’s incense offerings, luck and beliefs, so they are now more powerful. Hence we’re witnessing the rise of all the different Gods.”

“After years of war, people have suffered countless pain and deaths, so the Luck has dissipated and the incense offerings have been greatly reduced. The power of the mortal offerings had been greatly reduced, and the power of the Immortal Court has, in turn, been weakened, which means that they too cannot immediately fend off their adversaries from all sides.”

As he said those words, Xu Pingjing sighed repeatedly, wearing a sad expression on his face.

Bai Jingxue of Shushan added coldly, “Today’s war rivals that of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. In fact it’s probably bigger. If the immortals were defeated by their rivaling Gods, and the Immortal Court was taken by them, then similarly, their corresponding cultivators and forces on earth would be stronger because of their protection. In the end, the Tang Empire is bound to end up in the hands of foreigners.”

“Similarly, if the Divine Land were taken by a foreign force and lost the power of mortal beliefs and offerings, the Immortal Court Holy Land would also fall into the hands of foreign Gods.”

Xu Pingjing added with a deep sigh, “Whenever foreigners invade, the people pray for the immortals to come to their rescue. But what they don’t know is that the immortals are struggling to protect themselves, and the immortals too are expecting the mortal world to flip the scales and help the Immortal Court.”

“All in all, during this time of crisis, the Taoist sect should be of one mind. First, wipe out the evildoers, then plan to dominate the world. After that, drive out the foreign forces, and re-establish order and people’s beliefs. Only then, could the Immortal Court and the Taoist sect mutually benefit.”

As he said that, Xu Pingjing looked at the other three with a spark in his eyes. “Li Ye appeared out of nowhere and disrupted the order of the heavens and earth. He is definitely the evildoer. It’s all good if he dies in the hands of the Buddhists. If not, the Great Immortal-killing Formation must be prepared to be activated at any time!”

Bai Jingxue coldly added, “Zhang Jiuling killed two juniors for his own self-interest. He has such disregard of the bigger picture and order, why didn’t you talk him out of it?”

“Not true,” replied Wu Jinling of Xuelu. He shook his head and added, “Those two juniors, although their cultivation was only of Qi-refining Level 9, I heard that they are reincarnations of immortals. So they had to be taken care of before their strengths were not fully recovered. Thus it was best to kill them.”

Bai Jingxue frowned and added, “Reincarnations of immortals? If they truly were reincarnations of immortals, why didn’t they help the Taoist sect instead of getting caught up with Li Ye?”

Dongting’s Wang Sanxian sighed and added, “The Immortal Court is not a piece of iron. They too have different understandings of the Great Tao. It is inevitable that there would be disputes and form different factions. The fact that those two reincarnated descendants walked with the evildoer is also a reflection of this kind of battle.”

Bai Jingxue laughed coldly. “The Gods are attacking in unison, and the Immortal Court still has infighting?”

“Chaos is everywhere, and the war is everywhere.” Wu Jinling continued to shake his head and add, “This is the world of chaos, the world of great wars!”

...

Poof! The Luke Sword penetrated into an Arhat’s chest and foot’s length of the sword blade popped out from the arhat’s back. Blood was dripping down like raindrops.

With eyes like a wolf, Li Ye held the arhat’s shoulder in one hand and looked at the Arhats who were coming at him from the back. The blood on his lips made him look like an injured tiger who had the will to swallow heaven and destroy earth.

There were about twenty corpses of fallen Arhats in the mountains, some hung in the treetops, some inlaid into the cliffs, some stuck in the mountains and some were split. Broken limbs and guts were scattered everywhere.

The battle had sustained for a long time. Li Ye had more than a dozen wounds, some of which were deep enough to reveal his bones. His robes were half soaked in blood, painting most of his body red. His breath was no longer as strong as it was at the peak, and he was no longer able to kill a higher-leveled cultivator with one slice.

A dozen Arhats surrounded Li Ye and stared him down, but no one came forward.

They all looked grim and alert as though they were not facing a monk of the same realm, but a warrior God from heaven.

Li Ye took out his Luke Sword and loosened his hand that held the arhat’s shoulder. The Arhat’s body fell from the air with fear and despair still showing on his face.

This Arhat did not expect that one of the strongest forces in the Western Regions, the thirty-six Arhats, would lose more than half their numbers when they attacked Li Ye together.

A bloody and cruel smile appeared on Li Ye’s lips, which made him look like a devil who just came out of hell. His bloody dripping body, ripped robes, and scattered hair made him resemble a demon. And wherever the demon went, reign of terror and bloody storms followed.

He wielded the Luke Sword and a ray of blue Sword Qi dropped and caught up with the Arhat’s body. The Qi erupted on the body, and blood splashed like fireworks. The corpse, which was previously whole, now split and turned into pieces of minced meat. Then the pieces of the corpse showered down like rain.

“Devil, I’m gonna bring you down with me!”

The seventeenth Arhat made a roar that shook the heavens and earth, and his eyes were bloody-red. Clenching his teeth with hatred, he rushed to the front and sliced Li Ye’s head with his Buddhist knife.

A ray of golden light suddenly appeared like a stream of clouds, which clearly reflected Li Ye’s cold and tyrannical expression.

“Seventeen, don’t do it!”

Seeing the seventeenth Arhat rush out without any fear, several Arhats were greatly frantic.

Li Ye had already killed the former Arhat, but worse, he destroyed the corpse. That act was meant to anger them and force them to fight with him.

At this moment, Li Ye’s fighting power still existed. Anyone who fought with him one on one could not beat him, but be murdered. The previous battle had proved this.

This Tang Spiritual Master of Spiritual Pool had extremely high combat power. He only needed one sword attack to kill them. If they did not attack together, it would be impossible for them to harm Li Ye. Li Ye was no ordinary Spiritual Pool Master, he rivaled a Spiritual Master of Yin Shen.

However, seventeen had already rushed out. Seeing that he was going to die, three Arhats close to him, quickly launched their movement techniques to rescue him. They had to ensure that he would not die in Li Ye’s hands.

Li Ye looked up and grinned, the cold and bloodthirsty expression he revealed was beyond words. Stars flew up from the Luke Sword like fireflies in the summer night. That was the addition of the green lotus’ power.

He tread with a shadow-less step and as he moved sideways, he avoided the golden blade attack of the seventeenth arhat. His Luke Sword attack came out from a very tight corner, which instantly went towards the seventeenth arhat’s stomach.

The seventeenth arhat was made with fury. He was close to completely losing it as he saw his comrades fall one after another. Otherwise perishing together with Li Ye would not be the only thing on his mind. However, Li Ye was not planning on giving him the opportunity.

When the seventeenth arhat saw that his golden blade miss Li Ye and only manage to take a few hairs off Li Ye, he was shocked. He realized that the situation was not in his favor. Seeing Li Ye’s sneer appeared in his peripheral vision, his body trembled.

The Luke Sword broke through his protective Spiritual Qi and penetrated his abdomen. At first he felt cold as ice, then the pain pierced through him, overwhelming all his senses. The seventeenth arhat could not refrain from screaming, but his scream was half drowned by the mouthful of blood he sprayed.

Li Ye grabbed the seventeenth arhat’s shoulders and looked at the other three charging arhats coldly with his murderous eyes. With seventeen in Li Ye’s hands as hostage, they did not dare to advance for fear of being harm to seventeen.

“Let him go!”

“Devil! You cannot kill him!”

A cruel smile appeared out of the corner of Li Ye’s mouth. And the Luke Sword that penetrated the seventeenth arhat’s body emitted a pillar of yellowish green light, which headed directly towards the closest person, the nineteenth arhat.

He did not expect Li Ye to have such a move, so he yelled out of shock and tried to avoid the light pillar. But the light pillar still got him and penetrated his shoulder. The attack shredded a lot of his flesh and blood, and his right arm was no longer able to move.

“You d*mn devil, you will be hacked into pieces!”

Threatened the other arhats, who were all beyond boiling point.

If Li Ye weren’t so “treacherous and cruel”, and full of tactics, how could they lost so many men to Li Ye? There were only twelve of them left.

No, not twelve. After the death of the seventeenth arhat, there were only eleven left. Plus, the nineteenth arhat had been seriously wounded, so he had lost all fighting ability.

Li Ye tossed the seventeenth arhat to the side. The green light pillar pierced through his body and the hole left in his abdomen had spread to his entire body, leaving him in a state beyond death. Only his eyeballs were still bulging, and revealed a lot of pain.

Without a moment’s delay, Li Ye turned and rushed towards the depth of the mountain.

With the fight lasting till now, he no longer had the strength to maintain the Morning Purple Shower territory. Even launching the different Sword Methods of the ‘Purple Clouds from the East’ was a heavy task now, he could manage perhaps just one or two more attacks.

“Don’t run away devil!”

“You cannot escape from us!”