Evil Venerable of the Sword Dao
Chapter 625 - 061: Silent Annihilation Purple Flame

Chapter 625: Chapter 061: Silent Annihilation Purple Flame

Seeing the monster with blood-red fur again, Zhou Yan’s heart went cold. Almost instinctively, he gathered an endless Thunder Fire Purple Flame, deriving an endless Killing Dao, and charged toward the blood-red furred monster.

That fear, almost rooted in his soul, seemed as if the creature hid an immense and dangerous secret.

Zhou Yan’s heart had tightened up.

As the Purple Flame roared out, like clusters of exploding orbs, it spread in all directions, the dense Purple Flame automatically dispersed, scattering like the Heavenly Girl scattering flowers.

This mode of attack was something Zhou Yan had never used before, it was also a method he did not know how to use.

Once the Purple Flame dispersed, its power could not be guaranteed. What’s more, the blood-red furred monster was even fiercer and stronger than before—the Purple Flame’s concentrated strike had previously only made it recoil, but now, as the Purple Flame spread out like fireworks, could it hold back?

Zhou Yan had faced many hardships on his path of cultivation, achieving an astonishing level of resolve. One could only imagine this! But facing this monster, his mind immediately became unstable, his will collapsing, so much that he couldn’t even properly execute his best offensive method.

In that moment, Zhou Yan’s gaze suddenly turned rigid, that piercing sensation of being locked-on by bloodthirsty, brutal eyes struck deep into his heart.

In that moment, Zhou Yan’s pupils sharply contracted, his body froze.

He felt as if he had seen death, saw himself struck down by the blood-colored monster, his body shattered, his soul dissipated—a miserable end.

It was profound pain and shock, as well as intense despair and helplessness.

Facing such an enemy and fumbling, with such dangers before him, Zhou Yan felt powerless.

Even though Zhou Yan had thought of many solutions, there was no opportunity! Even with the capability, a mistake could plunge him into an irredeemable abyss.

"Was it underestimation? Or was I just careless?"

This was Zhou Yan’s last query because he felt as though everything about him had dissipated like smoke!

He seemed to see at the far end of the endless starry sky, a man who looked much like him lying on a snowy-white hospital bed, with an inverted IV bag hanging beside him. The man was emaciated and withered, never awakening, while an old woman secretly shed tears by his side.

It seemed like he had also seen, outside the endless Thunder Domain, a similarly gaunt young man whose eyes were filled with an intense yet desolate sense of despair.

And that look was not only of despair but more so disappointment, a deep hue of it!

Disappointment.

The look of disappointment.

Why did the look of disappointment seem so familiar?

No, do not let anyone be disappointed, don’t let any person down!

He could not disappoint the Zhou family’s grandfather, that was the first look of disappointment he ever encountered and also the one that dealt the greatest blow to his spirit.

Disappointment, why feel disappointed?

...

Endless confusion rose in his heart, a moment stretched as long as a century.

It seemed as though he had experienced the reincarnation of fate, breaking the shackles between heaven and earth. As Zhou Yan’s gaze had frozen, it had mysteriously flickered, like a statue still for a thousand years, subtly moving a finger—an indescribable alternation between stillness and motion.

Zhou Yan’s world gradually cleared up, as if everything were but a dream, with no one knowing what had happened, not even Zhou Yan himself.

Ahead, his condensed Purple Flame continued to move forward, while the blood-red furred monster that was charging him was still fixated on him with its bloodthirsty eyes, full of killing intent.

It was as if time had not passed at all, but that cycle was just in the blink of an eye.

The Purple Flame scattered like fireworks, turning into waves of rotating orbs. Suddenly, they began to shrink, finally morphing into a cluster of Purple Fire, which rushed into the brow of the blood-red furred monster.

At that moment, time seemed to freeze again. The body of the blood-red furred monster was frozen in the void, then gradually it began to break apart.

Waves of flowing blood in the void formed worm-like blood-colored creatures, eventually joining together and turning into a blood-colored ruler-like object.

As soon as this object appeared, Zhou Yan felt a tremor in his soul’s Dantian, and the Killing Stone Tablet suddenly rushed out.

The Killing Stone Tablet suddenly bloomed with endless rays, projecting a cascade of golden radiance.

The golden brilliance enveloped the blood-colored ruler, which struggled and twisted incessantly, seemingly unable to resist, and its struggling force faded away. The blood-colored ruler transformed into a transparent Jade Ruler and suddenly flew into the golden radiance of the Killing Stone Tablet.

The golden radiance withdrew back, the light of the Killing Stone Tablet subdued, becoming like any ordinary stele, still in the void.

Zhou Yan was astonished and was about to carefully observe the stele, when suddenly it turned into a stream of light, entering into his Dantian, settling silently in his soul’s Dantian.

At the scene, everything returned to normal, as if nothing had happened. Not far in front of Zhou Yan, Yun Shu still seemed frozen, not having snapped back to reality.

Zhou Yan moved his thoughts, his sensing power emerged, trying to understand Yun Shu’s inner thoughts. However, he was slightly shaken upon this sensing—because Yun Shu’s thoughts were still on how to apologize!

That meant, the previous encounter and exchange with ’Heavenly Heart’ that Yun Shu had with him, all of it didn’t exist!

That segment of memory, gone.

Did it truly not happen, or was it erased?

Time had inexplicably moved forward just a little, yet it had erased a vast stretch of experiences.

Zhou Yan attentively used his sensing ability for a moment, nearly peeking into all of Yun Shu’s thoughts, yet he still found nothing abnormal.

Zhou Yan became puzzled again, he carefully sensed his own situation, everything was unchanged, the amount of energy within him remained the same as before.

"This scene, did it really happen, or is it just a sign of my ’Heavenly Decline’?" Zhou Yan was also somewhat perplexed.

However, Zhou Yan didn’t dwell on it for too long, because regardless of whether it was real or not, the experience still provided him with many benefits.

Zhou Yan silently contemplated, focusing his thoughts on the Purple Flame Void.

In the Purple Flame Void, Zhou Yan invested a portion of his Soul Consciousness, directly deriving a Dragon-shaped Sword Soul avatar to replace his true self, entering the Enlightenment Space, and starting to comprehend the characteristics of that one Purple Flame attack.

At this time, Yun Shu had already come to her senses. With a guilty expression on her face, she hesitated, "Zhou Xuanzhe, the earlier matter that involved you, I was in the wrong. From now on, I will never trouble you all again, I hope you won’t hold Yun Shu’s previous actions against her."

Yun Shu’s words were very sincere.

Although some events had happened in the course of fate, if the person involved is unaware, they will still go on to do the same thing again.

Though such variations existed, the outcomes didn’t change much.

It’s like a button that makes people forget everything; once pressed the first time, they would then—

"Eh? There’s a button here, what’s this about, let’s press it to see."

"Eh? There’s a button here, what’s this about, let’s press it to see."

...they would fall into this cycle of curiosity and endless reincarnation.

If Yun Shu were to lose her memory once more, then when she came to her senses, she would apologize to him, Zhou Yan, all over again.

Sometimes, that’s just the way it is, as if it were the predetermined trajectory of progress.

Yun Shu’s apology followed the exact same pattern as before, yet her words were noticeably different.

Zhou Yan thought for a moment, then said, "Actually, when you saved my parents, I had already forgiven you. Because if it weren’t for you, my parents might not have survived, and I would be in immense sorrow right now. Therefore, I don’t dwell on the past and I even owe you thanks."

Zhou Yan didn’t use the previous response, but instead answered with a similar mindset, nearly instinctively avoiding repeating the same words from before, avoiding that feeling of familiarity.

Zhou Yan’s response eased Yun Shu’s tension.

She instinctively patted her chest—the previous scene had somehow naturally repeated itself once again.

Zhou Yan’s gaze slightly sharpened, then he let it go. He was not again distracted by Yun Shu’s voluptuous figure and her blood-stirring actions, but rather, he pondered a question—how are the past, present, and future defined?

And how is the term ’breeding ground’ defined?

If it’s ’breeding,’ then hasn’t the Sovereign who controls it ever considered that the ’livestock’ being bred might attain Transcendence?

If I were the owner of that ’livestock,’ would I guard against such possibilities?

If I am guarded, it suggests that the Breeding Ground has flaws, which would mean everything within the Breeding Ground is under constant surveillance and that there could be no fortuitous escapes.

How could a firefly compete with the glory of the full moon?

If there’s no guard against it, then it also suggests that notwithstanding apparent opportunities for Transcendence in the Breeding Ground, it is – in fact – impossible, and perhaps the course has already been set.

So, the so-called ’Transcendence’ might simply be a façade, a guise of hope, of dawn on the horizon, encouraging Cultivators to maintain faith in their Cultivation, preventing them from falling into despair and giving up.

Zhou Yan suddenly understood this, and his heart sank sharply. It was a terrifying answer, but without needing further analysis or speculation, Zhou Yan could be sure that this answer was very close to the truth.

Reality is cruel.

A higher being would never be at peace with a flawed Breeding Ground, and one without flaws would naturally be entirely under the control of a higher being.

Zhou Yan suddenly saw through it all.

He involuntarily stood frozen in place.

At this moment, Zhou Yan sensed a curious sense of ’familiarity’ arising in Yun Shu’s heart—as if the scene of her apologizing to Zhou Yan had happened at some unknown time before.

The scene before her seemed oddly familiar, and even the next sentence she could say would be exactly the same.

Yet, for some unknown reason, the subsequent sentence that should have been the same became somewhat different.

It seemed she was instinctively avoiding this ’sameness,’ seemingly instinctively refusing to let what was happening now overlap with a fragment of a familiar memory.

This is what Yun Shu thought to herself, while Zhou Yan sensed this very train of thought from her.

Zhou Yan withdrew his sensing ability. In that moment, because of these changes to his train of thought, he caught a spark of an idea—the feeling of sudden enlightenment rose up naturally.

This time, he seized this thread of thought and unexpectedly comprehended it.