The Purgatory Calamity
Chapter 540 - 514: Trans-Border Assassination_1

Chapter 540: Chapter 514: Trans-Border Assassination_1

Shang Xiuchun, an individual cultivator by origin, was the lord of Hongdu City.

The conflict between the Sword Tower and the Gui Sacrificial Sect to the north of the Fragment Land was something he, as the city lord, could not possibly be unaware of.

In fact, ever since the Gui Sacrificial Sect began its pursuit of Dong Tianze, he had been quietly paying attention.

Yet, he had acted as if he knew nothing.

With his strength at the mid-stage of the Immortal Realm, it wasn’t easy for Shang Xiuchun to achieve his current realm and status, and offending either the Gui Sacrificial Sect or the Sword Tower was absolutely out of the question for him.

As an individual cultivator like him, accustomed to surviving in the cracks between major sects, he had long been used to playing dead.

If possible, he would willingly remain a shrinking turtle forever, continuing to pretend to be completely oblivious.

However, the space teleportation array established within his city had suddenly collapsed and shattered.

The destruction of the space teleportation array meant that no powerful experts from either Sword Tower’s side, or the Gui Sacrificial Sect’s side, could rely on the array to arrive in an instant.

"No longer able to feign ignorance, huh."

Inside the City Lord Mansion, Shang Xiuchun knew that the urgent matter at hand was not to investigate how the teleportation array was shattered but to make an immediate decision.

"Sword Tower, Gui Sacrificial Sect."

"Pang Jian of the Extinction Realm, Xing Heng of the Immortal Realm."

After pondering for a moment, Shang Xiuchun hastily relayed a message to Sword Tower, informing them that the space teleportation array in Hongdu City had been secretly destroyed.

He didn’t immediately pass the news to the Gui Sacrificial Sect because he felt that Xing Heng would certainly not suffer a major loss, and also because... Sword Tower was the weaker of the two forces.

Generally speaking, the weaker side is also unlikely to rashly challenge a powerful authority.

After all, there were two True Gods seated within the Gui Sacrificial Sect.

...

Cloud Wilderness.

The four elders of the Immortal Realm, who were sitting quietly next to the space teleportation array, almost simultaneously received a message from Xu Yu, informing them that the space teleportation array in Hongdu City had been sabotaged.

Jiang Ran, who wasn’t too fond of Yao Junhong and the others before, stood up first and decisively said, "Activate the Sword Boat!"

The other three great elders didn’t say a word, and instantly transformed into three beams of sword light, shooting straight toward the location where the Sword Boat was docked.

Seconds later, a Sword Boat carrying four Great Cultivators of the Immortal Realm flew away from the Panshi Fragment Land.

"The array that could connect with us over in Hongdu Fragment Land has been destroyed by someone!"

Only after the Sword Boat had departed did Qi Qingsong comprehend through the Sword Command in his hand what had happened.

Seeing Li Yuqing preparing to leave with sword in hand, he quickly stopped her, "Panshi Fragment Land also needs someone to guard it! Relying on only Elder Mu might not be enough to protect the three great cave heavens. Moreover, if the four of them going to Hongdu can’t help Pang Jian turn the tide, your going there would be useless!"

"The Gui Sacrificial Sect has no deep hatred with our Sword Tower, and Xing Heng, no matter how rampant, definitely wouldn’t dare to do anything to Pang Jian!" Zhuang Yuyan added.

With these words, Li Yuqing felt somewhat reassured, and said, "The one who destroyed the space teleportation array clearly has ill intentions, wishing to see us and the Gui Sacrificial Sect erupt in intense conflict."

"Don’t worry, with those four rushing over, there will be no issues," Zhuang Yuxin reassured.

...

Northern Hongdu.

Over the lake.

Deep within the thick Qingming ghost fires, a hundred-zhang tall ferocious "Mysterious Ghost," in the form of Xing Heng, tore at the Spiritual Power Strong Shield.

Amid the burning of the sinister and evil Qingming ghost fire, the heavy snowflakes like swan’s down "pop" and fizzled out.

In the turbulent void of ghost fire, faint strands of icy-blue ghostly lightning would emerge, seemingly only spawning upon the extinction of snow.

In the beginning, the ghostly lightning was sparse, neither explosively powerful nor did it contain astonishing Taoist principles.

But gradually, those nascent strands of icy-blue ghostly lightning began to gather increasingly.

Only when the snowflakes stopped drifting did the ghostly lightning become dense, like giant pythons and dragons roaming in the depths of the Qingming ghost fire, slowly condensing into thunder Taoist seals that had never been revealed in the Purgatory World before.

Sudden thunder arose amidst the ghost fire!

"Boom!"

Those icy-blue lightning strands transformed into thick lightning bolts of silver, gold, red, black, and blue, or condensed into thunder vortices and thunder spheres.

Thunder magic has always been the bane of ghostly paths.

And this Thunderous Lightning, which gathered more and more along with extremely cold snowflakes and was hidden with the divine might to obliterate all evil ghosts across myriad realms, belonged to Thunder Emperor and was a method mastered by the Thunder God that commanded the heavens.

Such profound and inscrutable Thunder Tao seals dwelled in the Thunder Pond within Pang Jian’s Fragment Land Dantian. After pondering for many years, he had only grasped a hint of its essence.

Yet even this hint, this shallow understanding, was enough to annihilate the Qingming ghost fire transformed by the "Mysterious Ghost"!

For one reason only: the sheer restraint provided by the Tao.

The righteous and irascible Thunder Emperor, who hated all beings in the world like the Ghost Clan and the Gui Sacrificial Sect that toyed with the souls of living beings.

His thunder method, specialized in eradicating such heretic ghost magic!

"The Thunder Emperor’s Thunder Righteous Method eradicates evil ghosts and destroys heaven demons; it truly is the bane of evil demons."

Pang Jian had a realization.

His towering golden spiritual soul descended from his Spirit Sea of Consciousness to the Fragment Land Dantian, settling above the thunder vortex within the Thunder Pond.

Strands of his divine consciousness entered the profound thunder patterns within the Thunder Pond, as if swimming in a myriad of stars obliterated by thunder and lightning, watching beings defined as evil demons by the Thunder Emperor reduced to ash and smoke.

He contemplated the teachings of the Thunder God, apprehended the Thunder God’s resolve, as if he himself had become the Thunder God!

He saw the alien gods worshiped by the Ghost Clan, the demon gods venerated by the Demon Clan, directing their followers to commit evil across different star rivers, witnessing the suffering of once prosperous and ancient civilizations.

The deceased, their living souls devoured by the Ghost Clan.

When a civilized nation faced extinction, it sparked an apocalypse of unprecedented human tragedy and, in turn, gave rise to the boundless evils within the human heart.

Evil serves as the sustenance for Demon Gods, used by Them to amplify Their own power.

The Thunder Emperor, who brazenly created the Thunder Divine Court in a bid to dominate the heavens, harbored an intense abhorrence for the deeds of the Ghost Clan and the Demon Clan.

He made an ultimate vow.

He swore to eliminate all Evil Demons from every world; He wished to annihilate the Alien Gods of the Ghost Clan and to extinguish all Demon Gods!

His grand ideals, the colossal wishes He emitted, were infused into the Thunder Divine Court He forged, branded upon the Thunder Pond within.

And they didn’t diminish over tens of thousands of years!

Pang Jian, seated in the Thunder Pond with his Spiritual Soul, and with Divine Sense imbued with divinity, bridged the thunder patterns and felt for the first time the Thunder Emperor’s obsessive grand vow.

Wiping out all Ghosts and Demons, including their worshippers, was equally an extreme ideology.

Just how vast was the world beyond, and how numerous were the Ghost and Demon Clans?

Was it truly necessary to annihilate the entire Ghost and Demon Clans, allowing these ancient and intelligent races to vanish forever from the Star River?

The Thunder Emperor, was He not a type of Demon Himself?

With this thought, Pang Jian shivered back to alertness, withdrawing his consciousness from the Thunder Pond.

He felt a sense of fear wash over him.

For a moment, he felt his will being influenced by the Thunder Emperor’s grand vow lingering in the Thunder Pond, obsessed with clearing the world of all Ghosts and Demons following the Emperor’s line of thought.

If he were to proceed that way, his comprehension of the Thunder Tao would skyrocket, but he would become another Thunder Emperor.

He would become another Thunder Demon!

"Face the Demon, confront the Original Demon, practice the Original Demon Fusion Spell, and you’ll resist the mental poison of the Thunder Emperor. Pang Jian, Demon is unpredictable; Demons... not all are promoted from the warrior ranks of the Demon Clan."

"All beings can become demons, all can transform into Demon Gods!"

"An extreme ideology, a thought straying from one’s heart, takes root, grows persistently stronger - and when it bears the fruit of Demon, that’s when it becomes one!"

"You’ve seen the Original Demon and weren’t corrupted or defeated; only then can you withstand the influence of the Thunder Emperor!"

"..."

The Origin Demon, with the form of an exquisitely beautiful prince of the Ghost Demon Clan, spoke profound truths in Demon Sound that allowed Pang Jian to gain a clearer understanding of the so-called Heaven Demons and Demon Gods.

The Thunder Emperor, hellbent on wiping out the Ghost Clan and Heaven Demons and on destroying swathes of the Star River, had unwittingly become a Demon Himself.

Yet He knew it not.

Pang Jian awakened, not deeply ensnared, not marching deeper along the Demon Path laid by Him.

Yet, just that was enough to extinguish the ghostly fires of Qingming.

It was also enough to squash the "Mysterious Ghost" formed from the devouring of countless vicious spirits and Ghost Objects!

He held his sword, with his Spiritual Soul locked onto that hundred-zhang tall "Mysterious Ghost," only to see the coarse and wide Thunderous Lightning hanging in the sky and massive thunder orbs immediately enveloping the "Mysterious Ghost."

The elongated thunderbolts were his sword light, as were the thunder orbs and thunder vortexes!

An ocean of thunder formed around him, turning the Origin Demon Sword into the Thunder Divine Sword. With a determined intent in his heart to slay the "Mysterious Ghost," the Thunderous Lightning obliterated it on the spot!

At the moment when the "Mysterious Ghost" was vanquished, Pang Jian’s understanding of the Thunder Tao suddenly advanced a great step forward.

"Xing Heng, take my sword!"

He sent a sword strike through space toward the distant void.

"Whoosh!"

A sword light, twisting with innumerable bolts of lightning and exuding utmost sharpness and chill, cleaved toward the void where Xing Heng was, causing the Gray Stone Ritual Platform to be the first to shatter.

As the platform crumbled, Xing Heng pulled up the four Witch Ghost Flags from below, transforming them into barriers impeding Pang Jian’s sword force.

"Boom!"

A muffled sound followed, and a dense black curtain replaced the deep space.

In the midst of the thick Demon Element Power, six massive Demon Realm Cave Heavens emerged with a rumble.

Those floating skeletons and flesh ablaze with endless flames, those realms where Demon Generals and Demon Women coexist, those visions of countless followers cheering the Great Demon God became a powerful mental evil force, cleansing Xing Heng’s heart and Spiritual Soul.

This Great Cultivator of the Gui Sacrificial Sect was also briefly lost and sunk in descent.

And that fleeting moment was enough.

From the dark enclosure of the Sky-covering Demon Array, a refined ice-thunder sword light burst through the thick, deep curtain, piercing through Xing Heng’s forehead.

"Hiss!"

Without a world-shaking noise nor a shrill scream, Xing Heng’s Spirit Sea of Consciousness was instantaneously reduced to ash.

In the Extinction Realm, he achieved a cross-realm assassination of an Immortal Realm being with ease.

The north of Fragment Land fell into immediate silence.

The Individual Cultivators who had come to watch, Qian Bo and Yang Ronghao beneath the lake, and the ever-composed Dong Tianze, were all stunned as they gazed up into the void.

Unlike the others, Dong Tianze had always firmly believed in Pang Jian’s ability to kill Xing Heng.

What truly surprised him was that Pang Jian didn’t have to do it this way; he could have held back.

He was solitary and unattached, with no family nor Sect, free to act recklessly.

Pang Jian had Sword Tower behind him, had Pang Lin to protect, and many close friends and relatives.

How could he dare to execute a Protector of the Gui Sacrificial Sect from the Immortal Realm while the Sword Tower’s influence weakened?

...