Chapter 61

The floating clouds were like galloping horses, rushing past the falling person.

Fluffy clouds brushed past Yan Bujian's tattered sleeves. He was like a dead leaf picked up and thrown away by a strong wind, falling straight towards the vast earth. His eyes, once sharp as swords, were now dim and lifeless, golden blood congealed in the corners of his eyes, and his breathing was so weak that it was almost cut off.

The cold and majestic voice from the heart-searching calamity repeatedly gnawed at his mind:

"What does the common people mean to you?"

He wasn't a headstrong man. On the contrary, he had always been suspicious and cautious. From the Golden Core to the Return to Void stage, to the innate sword bone, the dragon-like jade fish, and the Wind and Thunder Order, the symbol of his loyalty... it was as if an invisible hand constantly pushed him forward, effortlessly allowing him to obtain opportunities that others would struggle to obtain in their lifetimes.

This path is so smooth that it is shocking.

But the smoother things went, the deeper the doubts in his heart became: Why did the thunder tribulation never come when he broke through?

This unusual calmness caused him to repeatedly sound the alarm in his heart: Would that final, heaven-shattering calamity gather the power to annihilate heaven and earth? Would the difficult conscience that others faced at the Spiritual Transformation stage be suppressed until the very end, delivering the fatal blow to him?

The former was fine, no matter how powerful the thunder was, he could still draw his sword to meet it; but the latter...

The wind whistled in my ears, and the outline of the earth was clearly spread out before my eyes: the indigo mountains were like dormant dragons, the emerald rivers were like winding jade belts, small cities were scattered on the plains, smoke was curling up, and people were vaguely visible.

But the mundane world could not enter his heart at all.

What does it mean?

What could it mean?

Yan Bujian's consciousness drifted in the void, and scenes from the past flashed before his eyes like shattered glass - the punishment he received from distant relatives as a child, the loneliness of huddling in the corner of a dilapidated temple on cold nights, the pain of being scolded and beaten for not being able to beg, the loneliness after being injured in a battle with demons when he first entered the mountains alone...

He struggled to survive in the mortal world, growing up alone and helpless. He never felt a single ounce of warmth from the crowd, nor did he consider himself one of them. Before meeting Lin Yibai, his world consisted solely of survival and hatred. The lives and deaths of others, the rise and fall of the Three Thousand Continents, were all irrelevant to him.

He knew that no matter what, he could not empathize with the people in this world, so when the immortal will came to him to admonish him in the empty mist, he turned around and left without hesitation.

If he is questioned, he will perish.

There is no turning back.

The most terrifying thing about this calamity was not the tremendous thunder that could shatter the body, but the power that could expose the indifference and alienation in the deepest part of his heart to the Heavenly Dao.

If he truly exposed such a cold and narrow-minded Dao, the Heavenly Dao would know about it. Even with his unparalleled cultivation and the status of a supreme immortal, he would be nothing more than a cold-blooded bystander. Who would then protect the sentient beings in the human world?

The chill of a dead heart was worse than the burning pain of a thunderstorm. He slowly opened his eyes, his distracted gaze piercing through the layers of floating clouds and directly into the depths of Yunshan Mountain—that was the direction where Lin Yibai was sleeping.

His gaze passed over the mountains and rivers, catching sight of the blooming dream palm in the valley, and the girl sleeping within its stamens. She remained as beautiful and serene as ever, her long eyelashes drooping, a faint smile on her lips, sound asleep, completely unaware of the sudden change unfolding high in the sky.

He had promised her, whispered before the sleeping flower, "Wait for me," and promised to return to her after completing his mission, to escort her safely out of Yunshan, and to give her a stable home. But now...

"I'm sorry." Yan Bujian's voice shattered in the wind, with an unprecedented fragility, "This time, I'm going to break my promise."

Yan Bujian took one last deep look into the depths of Yunshan. His eyes were filled with lingering love, deep reluctance, and profound guilt, but in the end, it all turned into determination - the next moment, a dazzling light suddenly burst out from his forehead, like a star about to explode, dispelling all the dark clouds around him!

His path will be cut short, but the fairyland is still hanging above the Three Thousand Continents. If he dies, the fairyland will fall out of control, and the entire Three Thousand Continents will be reduced to scorched earth. The peace in the valley will eventually be destroyed and swallowed up.

Rather than letting the returning immortal realm become a world-destroying disaster, it would be better for him to put an end to it all with his own hands while his cultivation remains intact.

He actually chose to self-destruct his soul, and with his cultivation that was about to reach the heavens, he would destroy the immortal palace that hung above the heads of all living beings!

A crimson-gold light pierced the heavens like a falling sun, illuminating the skies of the entire Three Thousand Continents. Encased within that light was the shattered body of Yan Bujian. His robes shredded like a broken butterfly, his blood-stained hair dancing wildly in the wind, dangling in mid-air, revealing the resolute determination of impending death.

At this moment, the creatures below all stopped, some standing on the ridges of the fields, some crowded on the city walls, billions of eyes were cast towards the sky, but their breathing was all frozen.

Among them were soldiers from Canyang City in Youzhou, the maid he had redeemed in Wangjiang Tower, and the withered woman sighing at the door at the foot of Yunshan Mountain... But even more were ordinary people who had never seen him before—a farmer just returned from the fields, his trouser legs still stained with mud; a woman holding a swaddling child, pausing to gently pat the hand of a sleeping baby; or an old scholar in the academy, clutching an unfinished scroll...

Although they did not know who this person was, nor did they understand why the ethereal fairy palace above their heads was hanging without falling, nor did they understand why the thunder and lightning in the sky suddenly stopped, they understood something heavy from the figure blocking everyone in the sky - that was the protection of the lights of the thousands of homes below at all costs, and the sacrifice of not taking a single step back even though they knew they would fall.

The first person to kneel down was a white-haired old woman from Canyang City.

She trembled as she leaned against the wall, tightly clutching the string of Buddhist beads made from jujube seeds in her palm. Tears welled in her cloudy eyes as she murmured a prayer to the sky: "Immortal, please don't die... You shouldn't have such an end..."

Her voice was not loud, but it was like a pebble dropped into a lake, instantly stirring up a thousand waves. The city's inhabitants followed suit, young and old, men and women, some kneeling on the ground, some clasping their hands together, muttering broken prayers. The combined sound drowned out the whistling wind and carried off into the distance.

The sound of prayers echoed from every corner of the Three Thousand Continents.

The farmer in the field put down his hoe, fell to his knees, and slammed his forehead into the earth.

The old scholar in the academy opened the window, placed the scroll on the desk, and bowed deeply to the sky: "Establish a mind for heaven and earth, and a destiny for the people... The immortal's actions should be a model for all generations!"

The monks on the city wall raised their swords, blades pointing to the sky, each with tears in their eyes: "Immortal, you must hold on! When you return, we will be at your command to protect the peace of the Three Thousand Continents!"

The children held their parents' hands, their faces tilted upwards, their eyes devoid of fear, only pure awe. A little girl with pigtails pulled a handkerchief-wrapped candy from her bosom and, standing on tiptoe, held it toward the sky, "Master, have some candy...eat it and the pain will go away..."

Thus, thousands of wishes arise from these most ordinary prayers.

At first, it was just a tiny bit of light, like the dimmest star in the night sky, but it gathered in the direction of the wind, and gradually became a string, a stream, and finally turned into a white torrent that spanned the sky and earth, rushing towards the burning figure in the sky - the torrent was not as violent as a thunderstorm, nor as restrained as spiritual power, but like the melting snow in spring, like the charcoal fire in the warm stove on a winter night, it brought the most sincere warmth of millions of lives, gently wrapped around Yan Bujian's broken body.

The moment the willpower touched his skin, a warmth immediately spread throughout Yan Bujian's limbs and bones. That warmth was like a pair of gentle hands, gently smoothing the cracks in his meridians, stopping his tendency to self-destruct, and slowly supporting his body.

Yan Bujian suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils, which had been dilated by the pain of the explosion, suddenly contracted. He looked down in disbelief at the white torrent pouring into his body.

What's this?

He could clearly feel that every strand of wish power contained a vivid thought.

These thoughts were like tiny pieces of light, gradually illuminating his dark sea of ​​consciousness, which was full of cracks, and then passed into his heart, allowing him to hear every prayer clearly.

The torrent continued to converge. More and more points of light rose from every corner of the Three Thousand Continents—whether it was the frozen wastelands of the far north, the vast shores of the East China Sea, or the deep valleys of Western Sichuan—wherever there were people, there was the surge of willpower.

A white warmth continuously flowed into his body, and his previously dissipated spiritual energy began to flow again. His shattered meridians slowly mended under the nourishment of his willpower. Even the crack deep within his sea of ​​consciousness, ripped open by the heart-searching tribulation, gradually healed in this warmth. Yan Bujian lowered his gaze and saw, on the ground below, thousands of figures kneeling toward him, like the most devout pilgrims in the universe. His eyes suddenly warmed, and a soft touch quietly emerged from the depths of his usually cold heart.

——He had never met these people and had never really taken them seriously, but at this moment, it was their wishes that pulled him back from the brink of death.

"Now, you should have the answer."

That ancient voice sounded in his ears again, but this time it no longer sounded cold and majestic, but instead had a gentleness that seemed to see through everything.

When Yan Bujian heard this, his eyes, which were once filled with loneliness and alienation, reflected the pious figures of countless creatures below, and gradually became warm.

As a child, he suffered from hunger and cold, with no one to care for him. He walked the path of cultivation alone. He once believed that the world was heartless, so he plunged into the path of ruthlessness, shutting out the entire world and locking himself in loneliness.

Until this moment, the power of countless wishes, like a gentle spring breeze and rain, gently lifted him from the brink of self-destruction—

It turns out that it is not that the world is heartless, but that he is trapped in the past and has never seen that there are sparks in the dark night. The simplest warmth is always hidden deep in the world.

He was blinded by a leaf and thought that the world was cold.

"The 'human world' I want to protect." He finally whispered softly, his broken voice reunited in the power of his will, "Not only her, but also all of humanity."

——The moment the words fell, the power of will surrounding his body suddenly boiled over, transforming into a brilliant beam of light that penetrated the heaven and earth, completely dispersing the stagnant calamity clouds above his head!

As the clear light of heaven returned, Yan Bujian felt the solid barriers within him crumbling. It wasn't just a breakthrough in his cultivation, but something deeper—a heart frozen since childhood, finally melting under the power of all living beings.

He looked down at his hands. A celestial mist, distinct from his spiritual power, flowed through his fingertips. From this moment on, this power was no longer his alone. Within each ray of celestial mist, the glimmer of countless wishes shone.

Once you have a clear conscience, you will reach the sky in one step!

Yan Bujian's heart was not much shaken by this final breakthrough.

He still looked deeply at the ground beneath his feet. After taking a deep breath, he felt the majestic immortal power in his body, and a trace of determination slowly flashed in his eyes.

Now, there is one last thing left to do.

He just raised his hand and waved it, and countless red-gold fairy mists gushed out from his body, and then flew towards various places in the Three Thousand Continents like a meteor shower!

These brilliant lights fell into the mountains and merged into the rivers, awakening the earth veins that had been silent for a hundred years - the originally gray mountains turned green again, the dry rivers surged again, and even the land destroyed by demons began to grow tender green shoots.

One after another, spots of light representing the origin of the earth's veins rose from the ground and gathered like fireflies, forming a dazzling fairy road paved with light spots from bottom to top, leading straight to the fairyland above everyone's heads!

——With this action, his spiritual veins reignited, and the path to immortality was reshaped! The spiritual energy of the Three Thousand Continents became richer than ever before, and even the air was filled with a faint immortal aura.

Seeing this, the creatures below all burst into earth-shaking cheers. People cheered, jumped, and kowtowed deeply to Yan Bujian who was high in the sky.

This is the new life of the Three Thousand Continents and also their hope.

After completing all this, Yan Bujian stood suspended in the sky, his sleeves fluttering like a crane in the rustling wind. He looked down at the newly renovated mountains and rivers beneath his feet, the lights of countless homes scattered across the world like stars. A faint smile slowly spread across his pale face.

At this moment——

At the moment when the Immortal Road was about to completely connect with the Immortal Realm, a bone-chilling chill suddenly burst out from his dantian!

The force was like a venomous snake emerging from its lair, instantly entwining his meridians. The immortal energy that had been flowing smoothly suddenly boiled over, sending piercing pain rippling through his internal organs. A sweet sensation lingered in his throat, and golden blood flowed from the corners of his lips. His body swayed, unable to move, and he plummeted from the sky like a kite with a broken string!

"—Hahaha! A hundred years of planning, finally this moment!"

A crazy laugh rose into the sky from where Yunshan was.

Everyone looked in horror, only to see a gray shadow suddenly rush out from the depths of the ruins of the Bo Deng Sect! The shadow was eerily fast, like a netherworld fire sweeping through the air, and in a flash, it was in front of Yan Bujian!

The gray shadow condensed into the appearance of a sinister young man - although his eyebrows and eyes still retained some of his old image in the Fish and Dragon Realm, his whole body was already surrounded by an indelible bloody aura, making him completely different.

His five fingers, like hooks, fiercely grasped Yan Bujian's throat, his sharp nails instantly piercing his skin. Watching the winding golden blood flow down his pale neck, "Xiao Mi's" misty gray eyes gradually became stained with an extremely evil blood color.

Yan Bujian was strangled by the neck, breathing hard, and the immortal power in his body became increasingly disordered due to the erosion of the cold power. He looked at the young man in front of him and said with difficulty -

"Lin...Wuya?!"