The righteous path punishes Heaven

Chapter 58 Nemesis

"Hey, have you heard? The Ice Lotus Fairy is holding another martial arts contest to find a husband!" a disciple said to someone next to him.

"I've heard that this is supposedly the last time the Ice Lotus Fairy will hold a martial arts contest to find a husband. If no one can defeat her, then no one in the entire sect will have a chance to become her Daoist partner!"

"I don't know what Senior Brother Ren is thinking. He is one of the top talents in our sect, with amazing talent, handsome looks, and a good family background. In every way, he is a perfect match for Fairy Ice Lotus!"

The disciples gathered in a large hall, which was specially designated for disciples to rest and meditate, and talked quietly.

Just today, the Ice Lotus Fairy announced once again that she would be holding a martial arts contest to find a husband. This would be the last time she held such a contest, and she would be able to attract more and more disciples to come and challenge her.

Zhang Yunling also happened to know this news. With his intelligence, he had already figured out that this was a trap set by Chu Yanbing to lure him into taking on the challenge.

Despite his burning desire for revenge, he was powerless against Chu Yanbing, who was at the Nascent Soul stage, despite his low Foundation Establishment cultivation.

If he were to go, it would be a near-certain death. He needed to have a trump card that could rival Chu Yanbing. If he was truly powerless, he could then seek Sun Jie's help.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yunling took out the scroll that Ren Jixing had given him the night before.

He got up and tightly closed the cave entrance, setting up a divine sense seal to prevent anyone from disturbing him. Only then did he feel relieved and return to his residence to sit cross-legged in meditation.

He slowly unrolled the scroll, which was covered with neat handwriting, but what caught his attention most was the large characters written on the far left: "One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones".

What kind of cultivation technique is this? Could it be related to Sanqing Mountain? Or did this scroll originally come from Sanqing Mountain?

Zhang Yunling only lingered on this thought for a moment before stopping and starting to look at the words.

Strangely, the handwriting at the end changed in a bizarre way after Zhang Yunling touched it, transforming from the original ordinary martial arts instruction into something else entirely.

“This…” Cold sweat immediately broke out on Zhang Yunling’s forehead. This was somewhat similar to the situation he had encountered in the Xuanxu Ancient Realm. Curiosity drove him to continue reading.

Daotian Continent is the center of the Five Regions. Originally, the spiritual energy that living beings on this continent could obtain from the Nine Heavens was the most abundant. However, because the Nine Heavens were destroyed and then rebuilt millions of years ago, a large amount of spiritual energy was dissipated and gradually filled every place in the Five Regions.

This has led to a situation where cultivators, who were originally mostly concentrated on the Dao Tian Continent, have now spread to various schools of thought, with cultivators in each of the five regions (east, west, south, north, and center) having different cultivation methods and pursuing different goals, thus giving rise to the Three Thousand Great Daos.

But all cultivators believe one thing: that the source of all their power belongs to the first supreme god who was born: the Supreme Heavenly Lord of the Righteous Path.

The Heavenly Lord is the progenitor of all cultivators, and the highest achievement for all cultivators is to reach the level that the Heavenly Lord once reached.

But this is a legend from countless years ago, and it is impossible to verify whether the Heavenly Lord actually exists. However, the cultivators from the Southern Heaven Land in the Five Regions tried to spread their newly established faith to the cultivators of the other four regions, which was Buddhism.

Buddhism itself is in conflict with Taoism. Various academic theories such as law, military strategy, and Confucianism were originally born in the mortal world, and were later studied and used by cultivators as their basis for comprehending the three thousand great paths.

But Buddhism is different. Buddhism was not developed by ordinary people or monks. This new belief and theory originated from an organization called the White Horse Temple. Although the Nine Heavens collapsed and the power of the Great Dao dissipated, the Dao is impermanent, and there are still people who will transcend the Three Thousand Great Daos and seek a new path.

Buddhism had a significant influence on Taoism, and over the past few thousand years, it has spread rapidly from the Southern Heaven to the other four regions. Gradually, some people from the White Horse Temple began to achieve enlightenment and ascend from the five regions to the Nine Heavens.

Although the Nine Heavens were destroyed, the spiritual power they contained was still very strong. The powerful beings who had transcended tribulations and ascended to heaven used this power to reshape one new heavenly palace after another, which they called the Paradise.

When the universe was born, three supreme deities emerged from the chaos: the first was Yuanshi Tianzun, the second was Lingbao Tianzun, and the third was Daode Tianzun.

If the appearance of Buddha would truly affect the Dao, then Buddha would not appear. However, since Buddha exists above the Nine Heavens, it proves that Buddha and Dao share the same origin.

The Primordial Celestial Venerable transformed into a giant, separated heaven and earth, and then dissipated into endless spiritual energy.

Lingbao Tianzun teaches and enlightens all living beings, spreading the Dao so that all living things can feel, understand, and walk on their own path.

The Celestial Venerable of Morality separated his divine soul and transformed it into cultivators to teach all living beings. From then on, there were true cultivators, true immortals, and true heaven.

Spiritual energy is the origin of all things; the fundamental component of all things is energy.

Feel the Qi, experience the Qi, become the Qi...

......

And so, Zhang Yunling stared at the scroll for a very long time, without drinking a drop of water, forgetting to eat or sleep, just absorbing spiritual energy, sitting cross-legged and breathing deeply, trying to comprehend every word and every sentence written on the scroll.

"One Qi transforms into the Three Pure Ones, and Qi is everything. If I resonate with the Qi of all things with myself, the Three Pure Ones will be with me, and all things will be under my control."

"Human life arises from the gathering of vital energy. When vital energy gathers, there is life; when vital energy is strong, there is health; when vital energy weakens, there is weakness; when vital energy dissipates, there is death..."

A flood of thoughts overwhelmed Zhang Yunling, who felt as if a thousand insects were gnawing at his heart, his insides burning. It was as if the sheer volume of information was too much for his fragile body to handle, and he was on the verge of collapsing and shattering at any moment.

From the depths of the universe, a gaze descended, watching everything that was unfolding.

For seven days and seven nights, Zhang Yunling was immersed in this experience. His veins were bulging all over his body, his skin was red, his hair was disheveled, and he was trembling uncontrollably as if he were going mad.

The scroll seemed to respond to Zhang Yunling's enlightenment, gradually emitting a faint golden light and slowly merging into Zhang Yunling's lower abdomen.

The questions that he couldn't yet comprehend gradually came to his understanding as the scroll was absorbed, as if some unknown entity was secretly controlling everything in a place unseen by anyone.

......

The Grand Martial Arts Arena of the Quanzhen Sect's Inner Branch.

Chu Yanbing has been standing on the martial arts arena for ten days and ten nights. Since she launched this final martial arts contest to find a husband, many inner disciples have wanted to challenge her, but she has rejected them all.

She has already refined the Ghost Soul Nascent Soul, so she no longer needs to care about these ants. She only has one target to hunt, but she has not yet seen that person.

Finally, Chu Yanbing lost her patience and shouted in one direction, "Zhang Yunling!! Get out here and fight me right now! What kind of man are you, cowering like a coward?!"

"what?!"

"The Ice Lotus Fairy actually... specifically requested that Senior Brother Zhang come out to participate in the martial arts contest to find a husband?"

Upon hearing this, the inner disciples exchanged glances and began to discuss their opinions in hushed tones.

Ren Jixing was also somewhat puzzled. Could it be that the Ice Lotus Fairy fell in love with Zhang Yunling at first sight at the Pei family banquet last time?

At this moment, a person flew out of the Elders' Pavilion; it was none other than the First Elder, Ren Tianxiong.

“Holy Maiden! You have held several martial arts contests to find a husband within the sect before. Considering that the scale was small and the impact was not significant, I have not interfered. But now that Yun Ling has just recovered from a serious illness, why do you want to ask him to participate in the challenge?”

Hearing Ren Tianxiong's reprimand, Chu Yanbing felt wronged and began to make up a lie on the spot: "Elder Ren, you don't know, Zhang Yunling once told me in the Pei family's guest room that if I wanted to become his Daoist partner, I would have to go back to the sect for a competition."

If I had won, he would have agreed to let me be his Daoist partner. But now I've waited here for ten days, and he's turned into a coward!

Upon hearing this, Ren Tianxiong frowned and asked in a deep voice, "Couldn't you have discussed the time and place with the other two before making such a big fuss here?"

Seeing that the cave entrance remained tightly shut, Chu Yanbing gritted her teeth and turned to leave. But at that moment, a figure flew out from behind her, followed by a loud voice:

In my youth, I was full of youthful vigor and ambition; what harm did my meager efforts cause?

Things are different now than they were back then; right and wrong, victory and defeat, are no longer matters of life and death!

"Chu Yanbing, you want war? I want war even more! Today I will wash away the blood feud of yesteryear and make you pay a thousandfold!"