Chapter 2281: North Kills South

Ren Qiuli borrowed the Yue Kingdom’s Son of Heaven Seal and the Yin Xian Alliance Scroll from Wen Jingxiu.

The former was to falsely implicate Yan Dao and brutally kill Jiang Wang. The latter was for when things went wrong, to forcibly send Jiang Wang to Yin Xian Lin in the Yue Kingdom during Dao Li 3729.

Jiang Wang, who was not skilled in calculation, unexpectedly managed to grasp a rare opportunity, a gap that appeared once in a thousand years, and escape into the river of history.

Unexpectedly, in Dao Li 2531 in the Yue Kingdom, he was watched by Zhuge Yixian…

She knew there were people beyond people, but she didn't know she was actually a pawn in someone else's calculation.

Zhuge Yixian borrowed that glance from the Star God, almost exploding her calculation power, causing the Tian Ji Pan to collapse on the spot, and the Chang Sheng Si Nan to almost fall into the years.

Fortunately, during the subsequent escape, she found another opportunity, crossed the space-time gap, arrived at the Yue Kingdom in Dao Li 3729, and guided Jiang Wang to this place at this time.

But this time she couldn't remain aloof. She could only offer herself as bait, letting the contract of the Yin Xian Alliance sweep her along.

In the depths of time, Jiang Wang fell, and she also fell.

Woo woo woo… Woo woo woo…

Amidst the roaring waves of the past years, Jiang Wang heard the mournful sound of the wind. Sharp and piercing, like a ghost's cry.

Space-time was like a page, flipped by the wind.

He held his sword, Huai Zhen, letting that legendary long scroll sweep over him. In the violently turbulent historical currents, he quietly looked at Ren Qiuli.

San Mei True Fire burned eternally in space-time, still clinging to Ren Qiuli's Dao body, giving her a fiery outline in the river of years.

At the moment the Yin Xian Meng Yue arrived, he perhaps couldn't resist, or perhaps had a chance to resist, but none of that mattered. Because at that time, he did nothing but look at the forty-nine virtual shadows of the Tian Ji, feel the response of the Shou Nan Chang Sheng Jing crossing space-time, and gaze at Ren Qiuli's "truth."

He let the years change, and space-time flip.

At a certain moment that couldn't be precisely defined, it was still Dao Li 3729.

The Yin Xian Alliance had just been established, all the dust had settled, all parties had dispersed, and Gao Zheng was on his way back — but Gao Zheng's historical projection had already died in Mirror Lake. So, in the year Jiang Wang appeared, he wouldn't appear again.

In the sound of the wild wind, there was a painful sinking feeling, born in the deepest part of the heart. It was as if his Yuan Shen was wearing shackles, grabbed by countless invisible hands, tearing desperately, wanting to pull away from his Dao body, to tear down into the abyss.

This kind of baseless and hard-to-shake-off pain was frightening, and even more so, a dangerous warning. But for Jiang Wang… pain was just an experience, and the wind was the final horn call.

The moment he regained a real sense of himself, Jiang Zhenren moved.

He didn't even have time to notice where he had appeared. His body had already transformed into a startling rainbow, piercing through the space-time between him and Ren Qiuli, one sword striking Tian Gu!

Between him and Ren Qiuli, there was thick black fog. Every wisp of fog was twisted with extreme resentment. Living things touched it and fell, positive thoughts met it and were defiled.

But it wasn't until Chang Xiang Si completely separated them, until the fierce heat of the world's top-level Zhenren Dao body burned and expelled them, that Jiang Wang felt the existence of this black fog.

Time didn't matter, place didn't matter, the environment didn't matter. What mattered was that this battle had reached the time to end.

His eyes only saw Ren Qiuli.

His sword pierced through the years.

His line of sight was a chain, his hearing was a cage, space-time was cut, and cause and effect were crushed.

He had chased her for so long in the history of the Yue Kingdom, from killing at Mirror Lake to Yin Xian Lin, from Dao Li 2531 to Dao Li 3729. This was a sword that wouldn't allow Ren Qiuli to escape again!

Ren Qiuli also didn't avoid it.

She gazed at Jiang Wang expressionlessly, allowing his line of sight to physically bind her, allowing his hearing to isolate her. She stood in the thick fog, deeply trapped in the infinitely falling darkness, yet she was peeled away by one sword, sealed in a piece of independent space-time.

She felt eternal loneliness.

What kind of sword style was this?

All known intelligence had no clue about this sword. This was Jiang Wang's comprehension during his years of chasing her through time.

This was the reason for this kind of top talent's success in life-and-death battles, winning time after time.

Top talent is immeasurable!

Ren Qiuli had long known this kind of thing. Facing this kind of person, past intelligence couldn't count. The last time she knew was also here.

Once, she was also a person who constantly created miracles, walking all the way here with a flawed origin. Now, she repeatedly fell short of expectations, even this final choice required effort to achieve.

Fortunately, she still had a choice.

She acted very indifferently. This world was just a series of characters, extending like an infinite illusion along the long axis of time and space. In fact, everything was in repetition. Things that had already happened would happen again and again.

Jiazi, Gengwu, Guiyou…

The only reality was the human heart.

But she had actually never felt another heart.

Facing Jiang Wang's unavoidable sword, she simply raised her right hand and clenched it into a fist in front of her. This was a truly not very powerful fist, a little thin, a little pale. Her palm was facing upwards, as if she was picking out her heart and air-drying it under the sunlight.

There were no words, no intense expression.

She opened her five fingers, as if releasing a bouquet of flowers—

Peng!!!

Around her appeared countless virtual shadows of Luopans, each about one zhang square, some horizontal, some vertical, some tilted, interwoven at different space-time nodes, gathering into layers of illusion, their pointers all rotating wildly.

The Tian Ji Zhenren's calculation power was pushed to its limit, and it exploded at this moment!

Peng!!!!!!!!

Ren Qiuli, who was best at calculation… didn't calculate.

Or perhaps she had already calculated the result of her chase and kill with Jiang Wang in Yin Xian Lin and simply decided to end everything at this moment.

Her Dao body was like delicate porcelain, instantly covered in cracks.

But before her Dao body cracked, all her power exploded like fireworks.

Not a single wisp of this power attacked Jiang Wang. She knew it was impossible for her to kill Jiang Wang, so she didn't waste a bit. Under precise calculation, this surging power divided like a great river, heading to different space-time nodes—she wanted to thoroughly destroy this mirror-reflected history, to let Jiang Wang be forever lost in the chaos of space-time until his life was exhausted and he vanished.

More importantly, a part of her Yuan Shen power folded back, penetrated the Dao intent of the Shou Nan Chang Sheng Jing, and plunged like a fallen arrow fish into that infinitely falling darkness.

To cause death with life.

To throw a spark into an oil pot.

"Roar!"

In that endless darkness, a violent roar suddenly arose.

This sound had been lurking in the bottomless cave, but at the moment of its appearance, it erupted with endless malice, polluting space-time and making hearts sink!

Jiang Wang already knew where this place was.

This was the legendary Abi Ghost Cave!

Ren Qiuli's hidden move in Dao Li 3928 was to hide near the Abi Ghost Cave. This was to send Jiang Wang to the most dangerous place and lay the most irreversible ending.

Now, she had even exploded her calculation power and burst her Yuan Shen to stimulate the Tian Gui deep within the Abi Ghost Cave, provoking power that far exceeded the limits of this historical segment, to thoroughly bury Jiang Wang—

With Ren Qiuli's current power, she absolutely couldn't summon a Tian Gui. But if she completely disregarded the continuation of the "Space-Time Mirror River Tian Ji Array" and burst the power of this array in one go, it was possible to receive feedback of Tian Gui level power!

In other words, the appearance of the Tian Gui meant the destruction of the "Space-Time Mirror River Tian Ji Array."

The bridge back had already broken!

The Tian Gui's brutal killing of Jiang Wang was one calamity, the Tian Gui directly supporting the burst of the "Space-Time Mirror River Tian Ji Array" was another calamity, plus Ren Qiuli's precise severing of the river of history.

With these three calamities occurring simultaneously, a deadly situation formed in an instant.

At this moment, Jiang Zhenren faced an evil ghost in front, a cliff behind, no road to heaven above, and no door to enter the ground!

Jiang Wang, with the sword he had honed in the river of history, had chopped time, broken space, and arrived, yet he abruptly stopped before Ren Qiuli's brow.

In life-and-death fights, he seldom had moments where he stopped his sword.

But Ren Qiuli was already dead.

This sword had no meaning to continue forward.

The tip of the sword hovered before this woman's crown. With just a touch of the sword intent, it shattered into flying ash, turned into dust and smoke… all scattered.

Ren Qiuli's death left nothing behind.

The mirror-reflected space-time didn't mourn for her.

Looking up at the sky from this dark cave, there was only one opening.

The long night had no moon, but there were a few cold stars.

There was the Seven Stars Array forming the Northern Dipper like a wine dipper, and the Six Stars hanging horizontally in the south like a winnowing basket.

But behold—the stars of the Dipper in a line killed through the stars of the箕, and the dim light in the south scattered.

Today, the Northern Dipper killed the Southern Dipper!

Jiang Wang had a dim enlightenment in the midst of the darkness. At this moment, his knowledge was still leaping, his mind seemed to sit in an endless high place, watching the years flow, the mountains and rivers change, the Dao intent flowing in his heart, heaven and earth all engraved on his palm lines.

And piece by piece, the years condensed into flying snow, falling on his head and shoulders, melting into his Dao body.

Just as Gao Zheng had said, the time he lost in the Space-Time Mirror River Tian Ji Array could be recovered by killing the array setter. The earlier he killed her, the more he would recover.

He had originally chased for so long, and the time he had lost exceeded ten years. Now, time returned, and he had only lost one year.

A Zhenren's lifespan is one thousand two hundred and ninety-six years. Using one year to kill a Zhenren like Ren Qiuli was not a very big price.

But the danger was still far from being removed.

The moment Ren Qiuli's body died was the moment the deadly situation opened up!

The roar full of malice from the depths of the dark cave grew nearer, the invisible pulling force intensifying a hundredfold, a thousandfold. Jiang Wang could almost feel every single hair on his body bearing a terrifying downward pull. His mind was also sinking, as if hung with thousands of jin and ten thousands of jin of heavy iron stones, and the force was still intensifying almost infinitely.

With his Zhenren body and immortal divine ability, he found it difficult to bear and temporarily couldn't free himself.

It was like a water ghost tangling you at the bottom of the water, like evil thoughts in a mud pit pulling you down.

They were dirty, smelly, and hopeless. Everything about them was ruined!

So they also wanted to drag you into the abyss.

The weight of a sinking human heart is the burden that those who walk upwards must bear.

Time was urgent. In this entanglement, he would only forever lose the way back. Jiang Wang suddenly reached out and grabbed the jade pendant he was wearing around his neck, throwing it directly into the dark cave—

This was an exquisite and smooth jade pendant that had been glowing and heating up when it entered the Abi Ghost Cave.

The moment it left his body and fell, it especially emitted radiant light, manifesting as a noble and beautiful goddess, dancing in the empty darkness.

Accompanied by the sound of tides as music, it soothed his sinking heart.

This was…

The Chu Land Water God, Xiang Furen!

Great Chu Xiao Gong Ye, so gifted.

Grand and majestic Great Chu, commanding gods and controlling ghosts was a tradition. The Chu Land Water God, Xiang Furen, was like a fish in water in this Abi Ghost Cave, also suddenly allowing Jiang Wang to open his golden lock!

Also in this time segment.

That ethereal and otherworldly Immortal Dragon Dharma Body still hung high in the sky of the Yue Kingdom, searching exhaustively to find all traces connecting to the Yin Xian Lin本体.

That ferocious and dangerous Demon Abyss Dharma Body searched for Mirror Lake in the Qiantang River, its barbarian body stretching horizontally, as if taking this as a bathing basin.

Within the Yue Kingdom's Tai Miao, there was a lively little fatty wearing brocade clothes, quietly sneaking into this place. Just before touching the offering platform, he probed out his small fat hand and took the volume of the alliance scroll that had just been offered in the morning, holding it in his hand.

Excitedly, he unfolded it with both hands. As this scroll revealed its true form, he saw four large characters on the far right—

Yin Xian Alliance!

At the moment he unfolded the alliance, this little fatty could no longer bear the power. The instant he saw these four characters, he lay down on the ground and slept soundly.

Precisely at this moment, a crystal clear immortal thought jumped out of his body, transformed into human form, and directly imprinted itself on the alliance!

This was one of the hidden moves Jiang Wang had left in Kuaiji City.

Originally, he had only left a beacon here with the future monarch of the Yue Kingdom to prevent himself from being unable to find the way back. But at this time, it served its purpose, connecting the broken bridge of space-time.

Ren Qiuli borrowed the Yin Xian Alliance Scroll from Wen Jingxiu in Dao Li 3928, and Jiang Wang borrowed the alliance from the young Wen Jingxiu in Dao Li 3729. And this year was the key historical node where the Yin Xian Alliance was just established!

Within the Yue Kingdom's Tai Miao, light temporarily flowed and thousands of turns occurred.

As this scroll of the Yin Xian Alliance unfolded to its fullest extent, Jiang Zhenren, with a Qing Shan hanging sword, leaped out.

With a casual brush, he threw the fat little Wen Jingxiu onto the offering table to sleep, letting him hug the long axis and curl up like a ball—he would surely get a good beating when he woke up.

And after retracting his Dharma Body in a thought, he stepped out of the Tai Miao, stepped onto the high sky, and stepped into the roaring tide of time!

Jiang Wang jumped back from Yin Xian Lin to the Yue Kingdom, and then from the Yue Kingdom of Dao Li 3729, jumped back into the river of history. Before the "Space-Time Mirror River Tian Ji Array" completely collapsed, he jumped back to Mirror Lake and landed on that time corridor.

The time corridor was collapsing!

That semi-transparent dome was already covered in cracks. With a cracking sound, it completely shattered, and the surging river tide poured down, surging towards every empty room.

Ren Qiuli's burst before her death completely destroyed Mirror Lake and the mirror-reflected history of the Yue Kingdom. Although it was mirror-reflected, it also shook the foundation of the country.

The Yue Kingdom would forever lose its Cave Heaven treasure tool.

The Qiantang River also breached its dike as a result!

Jiang Wang appeared at precisely this moment, stepping on the waves of the river of years, above the out-of-control great tide of Qiantang, reflecting in the vision of Bian Liang, the head of the Yue family.

Bian Liang was startled.

The Yue Kingdom's monarch, Wen Jingxiu, wearing a dragon robe and looking very majestic, also involuntarily took a step back!

He never thought that a top-level Zhenren like Ren Qiuli, who put calculation first, in a situation where she held the upper hand, with heaven and earth as the board and years as the game, borrowing the Yue Kingdom's Son of Heaven Seal and the Yin Xian Alliance, mobilizing the power of the entire Yue Kingdom's history, making such thorough preparations… unexpectedly still couldn't keep Jiang Wang!

Unexpectedly, Jiang Wang still walked out of time!

Only in this transaction with Ren Qiuli did he lose Mirror Lake, attract an enemy like Jiang Wang for himself, and also lead to the country's stability being shaken and the Qiantang River breaching its dike.

And the so-called future national protector Tian Ji Zhenren, Ren Qiuli, was forever buried in time—another Zhenren named Qi Sha, her whereabouts were still unknown.

He held the chess pieces himself, clearly having thought things through, yet every step seemed to be wrong.

After Gao Shi died, the entire board was lost!

Moreover, he could foresee losing more games, losing more.

What could stop Jiang Wang in the current Yue Kingdom? If Jiang Wang wanted revenge, he had a basis in reason and justification in emotion. Could the Yue Kingdom hold on?

Wen Jingxiu gritted his teeth inwardly. Instinctively wanting to retreat, he instead took a step forward and bowed with a mournful voice: "Jiang Ge Lao! Wen Jingxiu was terribly wrong! Please, for the sake of the world—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Jiang Wang had already drawn his sword!

Wen Jingxiu's face turned pale with fright. Just as he wanted to resist with his life, he discovered that this sword was not aimed at him.

Jiang Wang walked out of the dissipating historical flow, one sword chopping towards the flood peak of Qiantang that surged several hundred zhang high!

This was the sword he had held back while killing Ren Qiuli in the Abi Ghost Cave.

It was named Years Like Song.

But behold—

The sword light opened up a piece of sky.

In that roaring and majestic sword light, virtual shadows killed out one after another, killing towards the just raging floodwaters.

These virtual shadows, some were remembered by people, some were not.

Kang Long Army Vice Supervisor Min Chuifan.

Fierce general of the Taizong era, Long Ruzhi.

The Three Friends of Hu Ling.

Ge Shizhi Zhen…

They were all the last flow of light from this segment of history after Mirror Lake shattered. Evolving within such magnificent sword light, it could also be said that these outstanding people of the Yue Kingdom fought for their country one last time.

A hero's heart, not worn away by the years.

How many sighed the same way at ancient and modern ambitions!

When the surging, whistling, sea-like sound of the sword ended, the flood that swallowed heaven and rolled the earth also quieted.

People only saw the water surface flat as a mirror, the river wind rippling lightly for a thousand li, and clear waves reflecting the shadows of people crying or laughing. The breached long dike stood tall again, as if it had never collapsed.

It seemed as if nothing had happened.

But nothing could return.

This was the end of September, Dao Li 3928.

Tai Xu Ge Yuan Jiang Wang, with one sword, fixed Qiantang.

Wen Jingxiu looked at Jiang Wang with complex emotions, yet he only saw a streak of Qing Hong.

Above the vast river surface, only Jiang Zhenren's lingering voice remained—

"To Jing Wen Zhong!"

"To Jing Gao Zheng!"

"To the generations who cultivated on this land!"