The Purgatory Calamity
Chapter 580 - 548: Cold Fog Seals the Sky_1

Chapter 580: Chapter 548: Cold Fog Seals the Sky_1

The ice sealed everything in frost.

But those tiny, mustard seed-like spots, each bearing the essence of Li Chu’s soul, remained active.

With Divine Sense peering within, Pang Jian magnified the spots representing Li Chu by tens of millions of times and discovered that each tiny spot seemed to be a miniature, wondrous world.

The scenes within them were all the same.

Each tiny world was a crimson maple forest, its soft leaves blanketing the earth, with villages and towns nestled at the frontier of the woods.

A bold and uninhibited child lay on the thick blanket of maple leaves, a dog-tail grass dangling from his lips, legs crossed, gazing leisurely and contentedly at the sky above.

He exuded an air of nonchalance, as if dreaming about the future, weaving his fanciful reveries.

This seemed to be from Li Chu’s childhood, a time when he was carefree and yearned for a beautiful life ahead.

The autumn breeze was slightly chilly, yet the sun was warm, and he obviously didn’t feel cold.

He wasn’t cold, as if his belief made it so.

So, when Pang Jian released the might of the "Heart of Winter," filling his body with Extreme Cold Alien Power, his shapes formed from soul will and intent still observed Pang Jian’s physical condition.

He appeared to be looking at the sky, but in reality, he was gazing at Pang Jian’s Dantian Fragment Land, flesh and bones, Creation Divine Pool.

"Do you see anything?"

Pang Jian sneered coldly.

An endless dense fog of extreme cold wafted from the "Heart of Winter," surging outward from his body, rapidly spreading through the void.

The purest force he commanded was the power of extreme cold.

Thus, as the maple leaves began to fall, he condensed a mist with the ultimate cold force, the principles of the Tao of Cold Ice, shrouding the entire maple forest within.

"Crack! Crack!"

The maple forest, maple trees, and maple leaves were either frozen within the cold, eerie fog.

Or, they were directly shattered by the cold.

Most of the still maple trees were covered in ice, while the falling leaves, being in motion, were almost entirely shattered by the cold force.

In an exceedingly short time, the void maple forest, evolved from Li Chu, was left without a single leaf.

The dense fog continued to spread, gradually submerging the void maple forest and making the battle between Pang Jian and Li Chu harder to scrutinize.

...

Several hundred miles away.

"I can’t see anything."

Wang Ce peered out, only to see the wildly spreading dense fog, and he asked instinctively, "Can any of you see the details?"

Yao Junhong gave a wry smile, "We’re in the same boat; what you can’t see, neither can I."

Li Yuqing and Wu Sujin, two cultivating geniuses from West Soil, also had their brilliant soulful eyes fixed on the dense fog.

But they too could not discern the state of the battle.

"If Liou Youyu were here, with the Mysterious Heavenly Divine Mirror to peer through, perhaps we could see more clearly," Wu Sujin said.

No sooner had she spoken than a figure passed through the seals of Panshi Fragment Land and rapidly approached the four of them.

It was Liou Youyu of Yuan Qing Divine Nation.

As Wu Sujin had expected, she had indeed brought the Mysterious Heavenly Divine Mirror, immediately suspending it overhead and casting the scene within the fog for all to see.

In the mirror, maple trees were wrapped in ice, maple leaves utterly destroyed.

And Pang Jian, without anyone knowing when, was sitting beneath one of the maple trees.

He was lost in thought, his angular face showing no signs of anxiety or impatience, only calm.

...

"This maple forest seems to be in the Fire Maple Tribe."

In the Observatory, suddenly a deep and resonant male voice could be heard.

A figure as majestic as a mountain, blurred at first, gradually came into focus, ultimately manifesting into a resolute middle-aged man.

He possessed an unshakeable presence, his body exuding a thick aura of desolation. He looked towards Li Wang from within the stone column.

This was Pei Yishan of the Desolated Terrains, a real Powerhouse of North Ruins, whom even his adversary, Dong Shangqing, held in high regard.

Beside him stood another column that could represent Li Chu, yet since its creation, Li Chu had scarcely descended upon it in spirit.

It wasn’t that Li Chu was unwilling to come, but that often Li Wang did not inform him at all.

The True Gods of Purgatory World could almost all be accommodated by Li Wang, but for Li Chu alone, there was an exception.

Because of this, Li Chu was unaware of Pang Jian’s identity as Realm God.

He only learned from Pei Yishan afterward that when Li Wang disclosed this information to the True Gods, he deliberately did not summon him.

At the moment, Li Wang was sipping tea, glanced at Pei Yishan, and asked, "What do you want to say?"

"That maple forest and the Fire Maple Tribe are his lingering inner demons," Pei Yishan snorted and said, "You clearly could settle this matter, smoothen the scars in his heart."

Li Wang wasn’t angry, simply responding indifferently, "Why should I resolve his inner demons?"

"Had you not interfered, he would have resolved his inner demons long ago!" Pei Yishan retorted angrily.

As composed as he was, the reason he engaged in a verbal confrontation with Li Wang at that moment was because he knew how hard things had been for Li Chu.

He knew that Li Chu had become vile and merciless over the years, and the present Li Wang bore a large part of the responsibility.

"The internal affairs of the Jiuli Sect are not subject to interference by outsiders," Li Wang said, still without anger, "From the moment he left the Fire Maple Tribe and entered the Desolated Terrains of the North Ruins, he has been one of your people."

"What right does a Sky God from the Desolated Terrains have to enter the territory of my Jiuli Sect? What right does he have to lead the Fire Maple Tribe?"

...

The maple leaves scattered, and the maple trees froze.

Pang Jian, with his sword resting on his knees, was beneath a maple tree, matching his Divine Power against that of the Sky God, Li Chu.

The maple trees, encased in Cold Ice, suddenly began to tremble and violently shattered the solid ice.

A tender green wave of light emerged from the emptiness beneath this grove of maple trees.

Visible profound Tao patterns, moving like dragons and serpents within the wave of light, rapidly gave rise to new trees in the maple forest, transforming the area into a dense woodland.

In the distance, forest lands created by Li Chu’s power also began to approach this place.

"Whoosh! Whoosh, whoosh!"

The rustling leaves and branches sent out interwoven networks of bright green lightning, breaking the world of Cold Ice.

The thick frost fog, infused with Extreme Cold Power, was also being slowly eroded away.

"Hmph!"

Pang Jian exerted his power in secret.

Starlight and moonlight bloomed from his body and merged into the frost fog.

Additionally, numerous bolts of Thunderous Lightning filled the woodland, collaborating with the Extreme Cold Alien Power in the fog to annihilate the Great Tao laid out by Li Chu.

At the same time, Pang Jian continued to inquire the Source Demon, "Have you found his true body yet?"

"Not yet."

The reason Pang Jian had not mobilized the Origin Demon Sword was that although Li Chu’s aura and Divine Power were omnipresent, his true body was nowhere to be found.

Without locating the true body, no matter how many maple trees were cut down or woodlands erased, Li Chu would not be fundamentally hurt.

Suddenly, Li Chu’s voice came through the tiny heavens within Pang Jian’s body.

"I was born in a maple forest and hail from a tribe within the Jiuli Sect. In a way, I share a common origin with Li Wang."

All the children within the miniature heavens spoke while smiling coyly, "After the Jiuli Clan was oppressed into silence, on the lands once belonging to the Jiuli, the Jiuli Sect was born."

"The Jiuli Sect of the South Abyss consists of nine tribes, each cultivating their own spirit spells and secret skills."

"The tribe I was born into used to stand on equal footing with Li Wang’s tribe, and my ancestor was the fiercest rival to Li Wang for attaining Godhood."

"Godhood is incredibly precious. Back in the day, the Jiuli Sect fought desperately for just one Godhood."

"Li Wang and my ancestor battled fiercely for that one place of Godhood, and naturally, Li Wang prevailed. He lived up to expectations and used that place to successfully ascend as a True God."

"Thus, he established his supreme status within the Jiuli Sect."

"But my ancestor died in battle, and our tribe subsequently became the weakest within the Jiuli Sect."

"From childhood, I knew that Li Wang was the king of our nine tribes and we should revere him, treating him like our deity of faith. Even though I knew he rose to power over the dead body of my ancestor, I could not complain."

"It could have continued like that, as I had intended to become just an ordinary warrior within the tribe."

"The trouble was, I exhibited exceptional talent for cultivation from a young age, showing the potential to become the Jiuli Sect’s second True God."

"However, Godhood must be fought for, and it comes with a price to pay before one is qualified to attempt fusion."

"When a new place of Godhood became available, he did not fight for it on my behalf but instead handed it to someone else willingly."

"As a result, I left the tribe and ventured alone into the Desolated Terrains."

The child symbolizing Li Chu spoke unhurriedly within Pang Jian’s body, which he had frozen solid.

At this moment, the two didn’t seem like opponents determined to decide a winner.

"It was Pei Yishan from the Desolated Terrains who made a promise to me, willing to fight for a place of Godhood on my behalf. Pei Yishan did not let me down—he kept his word and enabled me to ascend as a True God with the Tao of Plant."

"But what I wanted was not just that."

"The tribe that raised me was still the weakest within the Jiuli Sect. After I left, my people lived even more miserably. And now that I had become a True God, one of the strongest in this world, Li Wang still refused to look after my tribe in any way, allowing my people to fade into obscurity."

"After I became a True God of the Desolated Terrains, he would not allow me to return to my tribe, not even to offer any help."

"He was the king of the nine tribes and the nominal leader of the True Gods, and indeed he was stronger than me."

"After all, I didn’t even possess a true Divine Artifact."

"Pei Yishan could fight for a place of Godhood for me, but he couldn’t help me with this."

"I was truly powerless against Li Wang. Only if he left Purgatory or fell in Purgatory could I fulfill the promise I made to those in my tribe before I left."

This Sky God of the Desolated Terrains took form as a newly sprouted sapling, smiling as he looked at Pang Jian.

The real him did not speak.

The voice came from inside Pang Jian, from the children within those miniature heavens, "Pang Jian, if you wish to unseat Li Wang from his leadership position just like I do, we could form an alliance in secret."

...