The Purgatory Calamity
Chapter 548 - 522 Heaven Gate Sword Jiang Ran_1

Chapter 548: Chapter 522 Heaven Gate Sword Jiang Ran_1

The old man with hollow eyes gave a seemingly benevolent reminder.

A moment later, Pang Jian’s Divine Sense returned to its place.

The figure, resembling a beggar, still sat quietly in the same spot, but his body radiated an aura of death.

His soul was gone, and the vitality in his previously frail flesh had faded; he was clearly dead.

Or rather, he had been dead for some time.

He was one of the people in Hongdu City who had committed suicide upon losing hope during the cataclysm.

Like him, there were several dozen others who had taken their own lives, scattered across different areas of the city.

Someone had submerged their will in the dead brain of this man, constructing an empty void to attract Pang Jian’s Divine Sense and offer advice by using a Secret Skill.

Afterward, that person exited by withdrawing their spiritual consciousness.

Projecting will into a corpse and weaving a unique otherworldly realm was undoubtedly an extraordinary Divine Skill.

Who was that person?

Was it an evil cultivator aspiring to become a True God, or, as he claimed, someone also secretly searching for evil cultivators?

How did he know that Pang Jian held the Origin Demon Sword and his identity?

Looking at the corpse of the old beggar before him, Pang Jian cautiously spread his Divine Sense once again to perceive, and soon noticed another suicide.

"Whoosh!"

He arrived in front of the female corpse, looked down at her closed eyes, and tentatively asked, "Elder..."

The woman, around the age of twenty-eight, was cold all over, with neither blood circulation nor Soul Power.

At her young age, she had cultivated to the Innate Realm, which, among the Individual Cultivators of the Second Realm, was considered quite talented.

For some reason, before the Outer Realm evil demons truly set foot into Hongdu City, she couldn’t bear the strain and actively extinguished her own life force.

"Those hiding in Hongdu City wander through the Sea of Consciousness of different people. Some of the suicides sensed his presence, knew he wanted to control them and lacked the strength to resist, so they simply shattered their souls and died."

"I’m examining the bodies to look for any clues."

The female corpse bowed her head; her blue lips did not move, yet her voice continuously emerged from within: "Kid, stop trying to find me. I only risked warning you because I have a past with Pu Zhaotian."

"The last thing I will say to you is that you cannot stop the catastrophe of the Hongdu Fragment Land."

"It is enough if you can save your own life."

The corpse moved no more.

Next, Pang Jian, filled with doubts, continued to search other bodies for answers, wanting to know who the person was and where their true body was currently located.

As that person had said, he received no more responses.

"Having a past with Shifu, it must also be a Great Cultivator of the Immortal Realm. Being able to transfer a will from one body to another and to create a void in a deathly still brain must be someone of a higher realm than Shang Xiuchun."

"Late-stage Immortal Realm? Or peak?"

"If it’s not an evil cultivator, perhaps he also has the ability to stop this affair before a True God is successfully created."

"..."

As thoughts flitted through his mind like lightning, contemplating how to thwart the plans of the evil cultivator in Hongdu City,

a dazzling sword light emerged from the west of Hongdu Fragment Land.

This sword light split the murky blood sea known as "Blood Prison," shattered the heavy seals of Blood Prison Sect, and abruptly appeared in the skies above Hongdu Fragment Land.

"Lv Qinghe!"

He stopped with his sword, his voice booming like a great bell.

All those moving through the Fragment Land, whether vile Individual Cultivators or those hiding in Hongdu City, heard his call clearly.

They looked up and saw a figure gleaming brightly against the dark night sky.

"Jiang Ran!"

"The Great Elder of Sword Tower, Jiang Ran!"

"Heaven Gate Sword!"

All those hoping for a powerful being to appear and resolve the disaster in Hongdu Fragment Land concentrated their power and gazed skywards, magnifying the bright figure against the night backdrop.

They saw Jiang Ran’s form and the Heaven Gate Sword in his hand.

The Great Elder Jiang Ran’s peak in Sword Tower was called Heaven Gate Peak, and his sword was also the Heaven Gate Sword.

His dream was to use the sword to create a magical Heaven Gate, to allow the beings of Purgatory to pass through and step out of this realm that had been sealed for countless years.

This was his supreme pursuit of the Sword Dao, the foundation for becoming divine.

However, he failed on his path to divinity.

As the Divine Tao broke, his realm didn’t advance but instead regressed, and Jiang Ran’s sharpness to open Heaven Gate for the beings of Purgatory also vanished with his failed ascension.

Years later, he picked up the broken Divine Tao once again, slowly gathering the fierceness to open the gate for Purgatory’s beings, regaining the power of the peak of the Immortal Realm.

"Where is Lv Qinghe?"

Jiang Ran’s Sword Intent surged with life.

A splendid and vast portal, refined from sword light, hovered in the void behind him.

The pitch-black Hongdu Fragment Land was illuminated by this radiant gate.

All the demonic cultivators below in the Fragment Land felt a chill at the base of their hearts under the glare of the dazzling sword light.

"Swoosh! Swoosh, swoosh!"

Bursts of dazzling sword light flew out from the splendid gateway behind Jiang Ran, aiming at various areas of the Fragment Land.

The Blood Prison Sect, Black Wood Sect, and the Ghost Cultivators, who were besieging the righteous Individual Cultivators, were targeted by the sword light from the sky, with evil cultivators perishing in an instant.

As soon as Jiang Ran appeared, the Sword Light Heavenly Gate, which housed the Great Tao in his heart, materialized. The rampant evil cultivators were halted in their tracks.

The evil cultivators illuminated by the Sword Light Heavenly Gate were forced to hide in forests, caves, and jump into lakes and rivers.

They did this to evade the Sword Light Heavenly Gate and to escape the gaze of Jiang Ran.

Below, in Hongdu City.

Pang Jian looked at the tall elder with the appearance of a young boy, thinking about his obstinacy in coming to the Hongdu Fragment Land to meet his death against advice, and Pang Jian recalled the open and covert struggles he had with Shifu.

No one is perfect.

Jiang Ran, frustrated by his defeat in the battle for the Tower Master position and his Shifu’s decision to designate someone else, turned his dissatisfaction into internal strife within the Sect.

In pursuit of reclaiming the Tower Master title, he charged towards the True God position with the Great Tao he aspired for in his heart. After failing, his willpower waned, and he retired into seclusion within the Sword Tower.

He clearly wasn’t magnanimous, failing to support the new Tower Master—Pu Zhaotian—as his Shifu had hoped, doing his utmost to assist him.

Yet his actions, his desire and struggle for the Tower Master position, were upright and honorable.

During the Human Race’s moment of peril, Zhou Wenhao, whom he taught, bravely fought enemies on the Qian Tian Continent, and several Elders who obeyed him prioritized the interests of the Sword Tower.

Today, upon learning that evil cultivators in the Hongdu Fragment Land had attempted to claim the True God position, he knowingly embraced danger and traveled far to be here.

This was the style of a Sword Tower disciple.

From top to bottom, not one disciple or Elder from the Sword Tower was afraid of death; they knew what to do when the time called for it.

Yao Junhong, Wang Ce, Guanghe, though in the Immortal Realm, were far behind Jiang Ran; their presence here was unnecessary.

At the peak of the Immortal Realm, Jiang Ran came with his sword, betting that the layout of the Alien God from the Outer Realm and the strongest from the Fifth Realm had yet to be perfected.

His bet was on a mere sliver of possibility.

"Perhaps, there truly is hope to turn the tide," Pang Jian’s heart stirred with excitement.

The arrival of Jiang Ran, the erecting of the Sword Light Heavenly Gate, and each drop of sword light imposing threats on evil cultivators, gave him a glimpse of potential.

"Brother Jiang’s demeanor is as commendable as ever, truly comforting to Qinghe," the Bone Saint Lv Qinghe said with an easy smile.

Approaching from the northeast of the Fragment Land, he rose towards the sky against Jiang Ran, saying, "I’ve thought long and hard, calculated much, yet never did I expect that you would be the first to set foot in the Fragment Land."

"Knowing the mountain has tigers, yet still choosing the tiger-filled path, Brother Jiang’s integrity is admirable!"

"Creak! Creak!"

As he moved, the Bone Gate, which guarded the northern void of the Fragment Land, began to shift slowly with an unusual sound.

When the Bone Gate moved, the ancient and evil city of White Bone behind it was also pulled along.

"You old scoundrel! I never thought you’d dare to descend upon the Hongdu Fragment Land!"

The woman of the Blood Prison Sect, with excessively rouged cheeks, emerged from the west of the Fragment Land.

She tugged with both hands, and the murky sea of blood named "Blood Prison," restored from its cleaved state, was drawn before her: "My Blood Prison Sect’s three thousand disciples were led to their deaths by you, together with Lu Xiaolin, Cai Xin, and Shi Bingyun, and the Sword Tower disciples!"

"The enmity between the Blood Prison Sect and you, Jiang Ran, is irreconcilable!"

"Boom!"

Like a bloodsphere, her plump body fell into the murky sea of blood, splashing waves upon waves.

"Xie Tong?" Jiang Ran furrowed his brows, took a moment to recall, then said, "When I killed your master, I only remember you glancing from a distance before fleeing the battlefield."

"After seven hundred years, you’re now in the Immortal Realm; not planning to flee this time?"

With a sneer, Jiang Ran continued, "Your master, back then as now like you, was also at the intermediate stage of the Immortal Realm. He could withstand two or three of my sword strikes, I wonder how many you can withstand."

The Sword Light Heavenly Gate silently solidified, transforming into a light sword descending onto the murky sea of blood.

The light sword, assembled from countless crystalline sword lights and containing hundreds of the True Essences of Sword Dao, was all-encompassing, a condensation of many powerful Sword Tower techniques.

"Whoosh! Whoosh, whoosh!"

The sword light fell into the blood soul, and the crystalline sword light in the murky sea of blood precisely found Xie Tong, who was in hiding, slashing the current Sect Master of the Blood Prison Sect and causing her to wail in agony.

"You can’t even withstand one of my strikes, no better than your deceased master; what can you do for the Blood Prison Sect?"

Jiang Ran’s sword force erupted.

The myriad of crystalline sword lights brightly illuminated that patch called "Blood Prison" in the murky sea of blood, piercing it instantaneously with countless perforations, much like a curtain riddled with holes.

Xie Tong of the Blood Prison Sect, along with dozens of hidden Sect members, fell to the ground, alongside the tattered "Blood Prison."

Jiang Ran shook his head in disappointment and, with a casual flick of his hand, gathered all the crystalline sword lights into his palm and threw them back over his shoulder, reforming that grand Sword Light Heavenly Gate.

"Still the same Jiang Ran," commented the Bone Saint Lv Qinghe, clasping his hands and flattering Jiang Ran with insincerity, uncaring of Xie Tong’s fate, "When I was defeated by you back then, I was in the late stage of the Immortal Realm."

"Now, I’ve taken a small step forward, reaching the peak state."

"You’re striking Xie Tong with power over weakness. To strike against me would be an even match, a true meeting of equals."

"Go!"

Lv Qinghe assumed a worshipful pose, clasping his hands and bowing towards Jiang Ran.

The Bone Gate that had shifted behind him, along with the White Bone City beyond it, collided with the Sword Light Heavenly Gate above Jiang Ran’s head as he adopted the ritualistic stance.