Chapter 276

"......Song Zhen Ren?" Xie Bi An's eyes brightened up as if they were illuminated by the light.

Xu Zhi Nan was slightly stunned. He would never have thought that Song Chun Gui, who had his golden core dug out and his lifelong cultivation destroyed by him, dared to appear in front of him and look directly into his eyes. It seemed that he had reorganized his flags and drums and even brought so many people to fight Xu Zhi Nan again.

What rights did a mortal, who didn’t even have a core, have?

"Song Zhen Ren, how is your health?" Xie Bi An saw that Song Chun Gui had lost a lot of weight in just a few days. Even with the best immortal medicine, the wound where his core was dug out certainly could not fully recover.

Song Chun Gui waved his hand to stop the disciple who was pushing his wheelchair for him. Using his only hand, he jabbed the sword on the ground and slowly stood up.

Everyone held their breath as they were watching Song Chun Gui, who was once the famous Lone Sword of the immortal cultivation world, barely able to stand up on his own now.

His body swayed several times and finally stood up straight amidst the crowd's concern.

Song Chun Gui nodded his head to Xie Bi An in greeting and said blandly, "White Immortal, I am still weak without my golden core, but I will get better.” There were signs of fatigue on his face, but his gaze was extraordinarily clear. That was not a pretended indifference, nor did he hide his disappointment and desolation, but all his emotions were frank and reasonable as if he was showing everyone the process of healing his serious injuries. Pain means pain, and unyielding means unyielding.

Xie Bi An was speechless for a moment. At this point, he could not help but imagine that if he was the one who had his golden core dug out, had his lifetime of painstaking cultivation turned into nothing, and still had to be a stepping stone for evil, would he be able to stand up again?

How many people in this world could stand up again?

Song Chun Gui said slowly: "You don’t have to feel too sad for me. I was born incomplete, but even if I’m incomplete, it does not prevent me from becoming an adult. Without the golden core now, I have no chance to be on the path to immortality, but I can still cultivate, practice with my sword, and dare to do things the others dare not do. The Dao is in my heart, not in my dantian."

"'The Dao is in your heart, not in your dantian'*. Well said. We admire Song Zhen Ren's open-mindedness." Xie Bi An immediately had respect for him. His previous thoughts on Song Chun Gui were very contradictory. Although he knew his personality, he was angry at his foolish loyalty and filial piety to Li Bu Yu. Now, it seemed that only Song Chun Gui, who implemented his original intention from beginning to end, could really keep his heart of Dao. Even if he lost all his cultivation, he could still say such magnificent words.

"Senior Brother Song, everyone follows you." A cultivator of Wuliang Sect said sincerely, "As cultivators, we always talked about 'cultivating the heart first', but in reality, everyone only cared about the amount of spiritual power and sword skills. Cultivating the heart had long become empty words. But you didn't give up on yourself even though you lost your golden core, and you even took your injury to lobby various immortal sects and casual cultivators to fight against the core thief together. This is the great Heavenly Path to ordain conscience for heaven and earth and to secure life and fortune for the people*. "

"You're right." A casual cultivator stood up and said, "There are two things I don't agree with most in my life. First, the immortal cultivation world is controlled by the so-called famous orthodoxy, and they only care about one’s family background. Second, people are not particular about wisdom and kindheartedness. They only care about the level of cultivation. How many useless disciples are in a sect, and how many talented people have no heart and virtue? This immortal cultivation world has long been rotten. It should be rebuilt after putting it in a desperate situation.”

"Yes, Song Zhen Ren lost his golden core, but the Dao is in his heart. The world must not fall into the hands of the core thief!"

The crowd shouted in unison and were looking at Xu Zhi Nan's eyes. Despite their fears, they did not lose their unswerving determination.

Xu Zhi Nan looked around at the crowd and smiled in anger: "Good, very good. If you are not willing to reshape the immortal cultivation world with me, I can't force you, so I will send you all to the Underworld. I believe the turmoil there has just ended and there are many things waiting to be done, so all of you can come in handy."

With a swish sound, Song Chun Gui drew his sword: "White Immortal and the rest are not alone. Today, the immortal cultivation world will reform radically and eradicate a cancerous tumor like you!" A large number of cultivators rushed into Luojinwu.

Xu Zhi Nan gave orders to the Chunyang Sect’s disciples, "Kill them."

Many disciples hesitated or cowered. They looked at each other and were hesitating. No one acted first for a moment.

Xu Zhi Nan said in a stern voice, "Kill them!" With a wave of his hand, the Golden Carved Jade Suit he wore emitted a burst of golden light. His body expanded and finally transformed into a golden-armored giant to face the cultivators who rushed into Luojinwu.

Some of the Chunyang Sect disciples followed Xu Zhi Nan to fight, but the majority made no move, seemingly waiting for an outcome to be determined.

A great battle officially started at Luojinwu.

With Xie Bi An and Fan Wu She in front, a dozen swordsmen simultaneously attacked Xu Zhi Nan fiercely, attacking his joints, arteries, and other vital points from all angles, but Xu Zhi Nan's body was so indestructible that ordinary swords could not hurt him at all. He was like a person driving away the mosquitoes and defeating the attacking cultivators who were surrounding him one by one.

After fighting several times, those who were still willing to fight Xu Zhi Nan had already disregarded life and death. Even if they were forced to retreat by Xu Zhi Nan, they would soon rush up again and make him overwhelmed by the number of people.

Among the disciples of Chunyang Sect, there were those who were willing to follow Xu Zhi Nan, but from the number of people, they could see that he had already lost the will of his people. More people were waiting to support the winning side. Therefore, it looked like he was fighting alone even though this battle was in his Chunyang Sect’s lair.

However, Xu Zhi Nan's power was far beyond people's imagination. He could even summon the snow owl while fighting fiercely with the swordsmen. Chunyang Sect’s fire attribute and Cangyu Sect’s ice attribute were extremely incompatible. Previously, he was able to use the ice skill because he used Qi Meng Sheng's body. Now, he had changed to a body with Chunyang Technique and could even control Cangyu Sect’s magical treasure. This showed his profound cultivation.

Although everyone tried their best, the battle situation tilted to Xu Zhi Nan again, and the crusaders suffered heavy casualties. Xu Zhi Nan only had superficial wounds. His body was a real impregnable and indestructible city.

Many people were either dead or wounded. Looking at the flawless golden-armored giant, even if they fought to the end of their lives, it’s difficult for them to reverse the losing battle. From that moment Xu Zhi Nan occupied Qi Meng Sheng's body to commit crimes, they had never really defeated this man after several crusades and battles.

Is this how it is going to be? Is the immortal cultivation world about to fall into the hands of a core thief?

Xie Bi An wiped off the blood from the corner of his mouth, hollowed out his dantian without thinking about the consequence, and injected his spiritual energy into his sword, knowing that this might be his last sword move.

Suddenly, something flew out of his qiankun bag. He subconsciously went to grab it, but he missed. He turned his head suddenly to see that the Heavenly Secret Talisman had been held in Fan Wu She's hand and was emitting a treacherous black death aura.

"You......"

Fan Wu She's eyes were quickly darkened by the black death aura: "Why bother wasting time? Let me end this battle quickly."

Xie Bi An closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his pupils were full of painful struggle. He said in a trembling voice: "Wu She, if your inner demons grew after this battle, this time… I’ll take you away.”

Fan Wu She hooked his lips into a smile: "It’s a deal."

"No need." A cold voice interjected the battlefield, like a cool breeze blowing in a glacial valley, followed by a condensed crystal-like arrow that shot at Xu Zhi Nan's temple at a speed difficult for the naked eye to see.

Xu Zhi Nan had broken through the Indestructible Heavenly Fire. Even though his physique had become so huge, his speed was still amazingly fast. He could have dodged, but he did not. He just let that arrow hit himself, as if he just wanted to show everyone that his body was flawless and seize the pleasure of victory from the despair on everyone’s face.

That ice arrow only had half of its arrowhead pierced into Xu Zhi Nan's flesh and could not go deeper anymore.

Xu Zhi Nan looked down from above at Qi Meng Sheng, who shot the arrow, and slowly pulled it out and threw it beside her feet. His gaze was even gloomier and colder.

Qi Meng Sheng raised her head and looked at him. Her voice was indifferent, but there was an aura of approaching storm clouds: "Let’s end this here."

 

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PS from Emzie: Get it QMS!! 

to ordain conscience for heaven and earth and to secure life and fortune for the people* [为天地立心、为生民立命]---there’re a total of 4 phrases for this to make it complete. 为天地立心，为生民立命，为往圣继绝学，为万世开太平：To ordain conscience for Heaven and Earth. To secure life and fortune for the people. To continue lost teachings for past sages. To establish peace for all future generations.

 

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