All Heavenly destiny reduced to ashes
Chapter 275 - 136: The Taiming Sect in the Shadows (1/3)

Chapter 275: Chapter 136: The Taiming Sect in the Shadows (1/3)

"Alas, Granny Huai has passed away."

"Really?! I remember she was quite hale. Wasn’t she still..." before the Frost Calamity?"

"It’s the Frost Calamity! Damn those True Demon Sect! Constantly tormenting people, even forcing an old lady out of her house—that’s what they’re capable of!"

"Exactly, she caught a chill in the heavy snow. We all have had a hard time because of it. Her health was already poor by then..."

"Alas, if the old lady hadn’t fallen ill, it might have been all right, but once she did, she went downhill quickly... She survived the Frost Calamity, but didn’t make it to spring."

Similar conversations took place among all those who knew Granny Huai on the main street.

Most people felt a great deal of regret about Granny Huai’s passing, but to be honest, they didn’t find it surprising.

After all, Granny Huai was indeed very old; it wouldn’t have been surprising whenever she had passed away.

Given the recent havoc wrought by the True Demon Sect along with the Frost Calamity, it was already not easy for her to have held on. Now that she has passed, although it is regrettable, it is indeed a matter of natural course.

A small number of people who had received Granny Huai’s kindness, or who had been cared for by her since they were little, felt particularly saddened by the old lady’s death.

They took the initiative to approach Jing Xuan, who oversaw the funeral. Even if they couldn’t afford to contribute money, they were eager to help out somehow, like by chopping some firewood or taking care of small tasks for the old lady’s funeral... If all else failed, adding to the number of attendees to make the occasion more lively was also good.

As for Jing Xuan, who presided over Granny Huai’s funeral, people’s opinions varied: some thought Jing Xuan was grateful and strong, showing no mercy to the True Demon Sect, truly a top-notch hero favored in the Northwestern Border.

While others thought Jing Xuan was just being a spoiled brat, craving attention and acting as if he was very close to Granny Huai. So many people grew up close to Granny Huai, yet it was him, an outsider from Dust Li, who presided over the funeral?

Someone by the roadside remarked with feeling, "Good people really do receive good rewards. I heard that Granny Huai survived the Frost Calamity because Jing gave her a secret medicine from his hometown..."

Someone else muttered, "But she still didn’t get cured, did she? It feels like... a waste of effort."

A passerby overheard and was shocked, "Hush! What are you saying! Medicines can’t cure the natural death of an elderly person! Doctor Bao already said, Granny didn’t die from the chill, it was her time to go, and she should be joyfully buried!"

"Moreover... Jing Xuan is a disciple of the Divine Repository True Person! Do you dare to talk like that about him? Are you out of your mind?"

"That’s right," another passerby whispered, "He has already done so much for an old lady who just helped him out once; he truly is a great and good man!"

Overall, Jing Xuan’s reputation, even as a foreigner, was already quite high in Ming City.

[I never expected... everyone to remember it so clearly.]

Although she could only occasionally wake up, Granny Huai’s soul really did see her coffin being escorted down the main street, with people paying their respects wherever it passed.

Her journey ended at the graveyard, and as the coffin was buried, Granny Huai’s life on this earth was officially declared over.

[I had thought my journey was coming to an end, that my life before was to be concluded with the closure of my coffin... But now, I can do so much more.]

After the funeral, Granny Huai’s soul once again felt the pull of sleepiness, yet it was evident that her condition had greatly improved.

The Dragon Jade could indeed nurture the soul, and that reminded An Jing of the ’Great Abyss Scripture’ he had sent Huo Qing to learn.

If the Dragon Jade were combined with the Soul Nurturing Formation, then the souls within the Dragon Jade could probably endure for ages, just like in the Underworld, until the very end of the soul’s lifespan.

Beyond that, the matter of the Underworld also led An Jing to a conjecture.

Recently, Mingguang Dust, who had been hastily travelling back and forth, had not only taught An Jing the ’Lesser Yang Swordsmanship’ but had also explained the power dynamics of the Five Sects of Dust Li.

Hundreds of years ago, Da Chen was extremely aggressive, and the Conquering General continuously expanded and compressed the vague space between Dust Li and the Northern Border. The entire region of Hanbei was thoroughly developed as a new area during that time, and it was then that the An Family rose to prominence in the Northern Border.

Being situated to the north of Da Chen, the Five Sects of Dust Li, with the only Upper Gate ’Taiming Sect of Xu Shen Mountain’ at its core, outwardly constructed an alliance and covertly resisted the erosion by Da Chen.

However, what was strange was that after the development of Hanbei and Red Leaf Territory, Da Chen completely ceased its national expansion and turned inward.

Immediately after that, Emperor Tianyou ascended the throne and then passed away... Although it did not shake the foundation of the state, anyone with clear eyes could see that the current state of Da Chen was precarious, and thus the originally stable Sects and powers throughout the land were restlessly stirring. Even the alliance within Dust Li was starting to fracture.

The Bright Mirror Sect had been the strongest among the four Middle Gates of Dust Li in the past thousand years, overshadowing even the Pure Yang Hong Fu Mountain Huangyang Sect, and even the Taiming Sect was very wary of it.

Because, three thousand years ago, one of the two Pure Yang Heavenly Lords from Taiming Sect discussed the Tao with the Taiyuan Demon God of Da Chen, who was on the verge of transcending the nine calamities of Lingxiao and reaching the Pure Yang summit.

After the Taiyuan Demon God returned to his mountain, he entered a closing seclusion, ultimately failing to transcend the nine calamities and perishing without leaving any legacy.

The Qi King suffered severe injuries for a century, losing his path to advancement, and soon after, the Taiming Sect’s Hongluo Heavenly Lord also entered a closing seclusion within his Sect and passed away the same year as the Taiyuan Demon God.

The loss of a Pure Yang not only caused the Taiming Sect to lose its absolute prestige among the Five Sects, making the alliance even looser, but also caused Baize Mountain (the Sect of the Taiyuan Demon God) to fall back to the lower ranks of the Middle Gate, turning Taiyuan into a land ravaged by monsters and demons of the True Demon Sect.

This was also the historical background of why Mingguang Dust was captured as a Medicine Slave and why he was later rescued by the Five Sects of Dust Li.

As things stand now, although the prestige of the Bright Mirror Sect is still not on par with Taiming Sect, it now has the boldness to overtake Taiming Sect, interact alone with Da Chen and other Sects from various territories, and even to establish a branch on Taiyuan Mountain.

Yet, the Bright Mirror Sect is merely experiencing the final Chapter of its golden era, and if history follows its usual course, it will probably fall to the level of an ordinary Middle Gate with only four or five Manifesting Holy individuals when the old ancestor Lord Cheng Guang perishes.

Perhaps it’s because the Bright Mirror Sect’s strong position over the last thousand years really displeased many—Upper Gate couldn’t stand a nouveau riche Middle Gate daring to bare its teeth at them, Middle Gate resented their poor buddy suddenly getting rich—so the potentially Manifesting Holy seeds of the Bright Mirror Sect have constantly been targeted.

An Jing felt that this might be the doing of the Taiming Sect. The evidence was clear, namely that ’Bind Spirit Control Divine Mantra Wonderful Scripture’ spoken by the Emperor You Great Obscurity God Venerable.

This Divine Mantra Wonderful Scripture, which could control the Ghost Gods of the Netherworld as well as the Heavenly Demons, was entwined with countless connections to the Taiming Sect.

Great Abyss. Taiming. Although it might be a bit of a homophonic stretch, to say the Great Abyss God Venerable had absolutely no relation to the Taiming Sect—now that would be impossible even for a ghost to believe.