Zhu Sheng raised his sword to meet the attack. Steel clashed, sparks flew, and the two quickly broke apart after one exchange.
The Sword Sect’s signature sword formation took shape. Countless sword shadows swept toward Zhu Sheng. He spun his blade in a flourish, deflecting them one by one.
Only after the Sword Sect disciples joined the attack did the crowd realize that every one of them had reached the Nascent Soul Realm.
The Sword Sect’s Second Senior Brother had even reached the Nascent Soul Realm’s peak!
He was so young, yet so accomplished—and until now, he’d been practically unknown…
People stared in astonishment at Zhu Sheng, who still fought with ease against so many opponents. Someone murmured:
“When a pearl shines before you, even jade looks like rubble.”
But who besides the Sword Sect disciples had been reduced to rubble in Zhu Sheng’s presence?
And who wanted to be a mere supporting act forever?
When it became clear that the Sword Sect disciples were losing, a formation cultivator suddenly shouted, “I’ll help you!”
The call to raze Sangshan to the ground had jolted the crowd into action. One after another, they flew forward on their swords.
Two people exchanged a quick glance amid the chaos, understanding passing between them.
The emperor was old. The young princes beneath Crown Prince Sheng were unwilling to spend their lives in his shadow. That was why they had reached out to the cultivators and ensured the imperial troops wouldn’t come to Zhu Sheng’s rescue today.
Cultivators generally stayed out of worldly affairs, and the empire had always left them alone. But Zhu Sheng’s identity was too special.
Killing the Crown Prince was a terrible crime. Even a Tribulation Transcendence expert couldn’t withstand the emperor’s wrath if it left a million corpses in its wake.
Now that the princes in the palace had intervened, and a secret oath had guaranteed their protection, the cultivators had nothing to fear.
A tree that rose above the forest would be battered by the wind.
At this point, the truth of the Chatu Village tragedy no longer mattered. Zhu Sheng had simply been unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Zhu Sheng had to die at Soul-Severing Cliff today!
…
Soul-Severing Cliff was sheared away by the surging spiritual power. The mountain cracked and crumbled, rocks bursting apart as if the whole slope were collapsing.
Even those with deep reserves of spiritual power eventually ran dry. Zhu Sheng turned his head. A strand of hair slipped beside his ear, and a thin, fresh cut appeared across his shoulder.
“Eldest Senior Brother!”
Zhu Sheng looked up. Beyond the complicated formation, someone stood with a sword in hand, staring at him in alarm.
“E-Eldest Senior Brother, thank goodness you were nearby today. Otherwise, the rest of us would have been trapped in that secret realm.”
“Eldest Senior Brother, you’re amazing…”
The grateful, admiring voices in his memory matched the young face before him. Zhu Sheng recognized him.
Yun Jian, his eleventh junior brother, who had joined the sect two years ago.
“Eldest Senior Brother, watch out!”
Yun Jian suddenly rushed through the protective formation. As everyone watched in shock, he leaped forward to block several thunderburst talismans for Zhu Sheng. Most of the robe over his chest was scorched.
“Yun Jian!”
“Eleventh Junior Brother!”
The Sword Sect disciples stared at him in disbelief, demanding to know why he was helping the devil.
Clutching his chest, Yun Jian slowly straightened. His eyes were full of pain and guilt.
“Eldest Senior Brother… you saved my life.”
Even if his eldest senior brother had done something wrong this time, Yun Jian couldn’t stand by and watch him die.
The Second Senior Brother scolded him bitterly. “You fool! He’s not the eldest senior brother we knew anymore!”
Yun Jian’s voice was strained. “No matter what, I owe him my life.”
Zhu Sheng hadn’t expected Yun Jian to step in and shield him.
After all, he had saved more than just Yun Jian among the Sword Sect disciples present.
Yun Jian’s sudden defection made the other disciples hesitate, but it barely changed the overall situation.
Though Yun Jian had reached only the Nascent Soul Realm, his sword moved so quickly it left afterimages. He did everything he could to block the incoming attacks for Zhu Sheng.
Zhu Sheng met the combined assault of two Sublimation Realm experts. From the corner of his eye, he saw Yun Jian struggling, so he pulled a protective spirit artifact from his cosmic bag and tossed it to him.
“Thank you, Eldest Senior Brother!”
Amid the chaos, Yun Jian thanked him and immediately put on the top-grade artifact.
Their attacks still couldn’t break through. When one more person was knocked from their sword, a middle-aged man bellowed, “Activate the formation!”
Everyone spun back and formed a ring around Zhu Sheng and Yun Jian. They sliced open their palms and used their blood to draw the formation.
Zhu Sheng watched them. “An ancient formation?”
The middle-aged man gave a cold snort.
“At least you know what you’re looking at, brat.”
“We knew your cultivation was formidable. We didn’t come unprepared.”
This was the Ancient Devil-Exorcism Formation, an incredibly powerful formation that consumed an immense amount of spiritual energy and placed severe demands on those who activated it. Anyone whose cultivation fell short risked being consumed by its backlash.
Countless people throughout history had lost their lives to this formation.
It was so dangerous that no one had dared activate it for nearly a century. They must have thought highly of Zhu Sheng to use such an ancient formation against him.
The formation was almost complete. Yun Jian panicked, flew to Zhu Sheng’s side, and grabbed his arm.
“This formation is extraordinary, Eldest Senior Brother. Hurry and go! I’ll hold them off!”
But the formation was complete. There was nowhere to run.
The formation’s vast spiritual pressure crashed down like a collapsing mountain. Zhu Sheng threw Yun Jian behind him. After leaving him with a single command—”Go”—he crushed two spirit stones and raised his sword to meet the attack.
“Eldest Senior Brother!”
Yun Jian didn’t leave. He gritted his teeth, rushed forward, and pressed his palm to Zhu Sheng’s back, channeling his spiritual power into him.
Yun Jian’s power was no more than an ant before the ancient formation, but Zhu Sheng accepted his help. He pulled spirit stones from his cosmic bag to replenish his rapidly draining meridians.
Immortal Lord Wuyang kept no worthless things in his cosmic bag. Zhu Sheng crushed dozens of spirit stones, and his spiritual power surged. Sword intent soared toward the heavens, nearly overpowering the formation.
Some people were already reaching their limits. Sweat trickled down their foreheads.
Zhu Sheng’s gaze turned icy as he forced the Budu Sword down another fraction.
At that critical moment, the Second Senior Brother roared, “Yun Jian!”
Pain flared as a blade pierced flesh. Zhu Sheng’s body stiffened. He looked down and saw a sword buried in his chest.
Slowly, he turned his head. Yun Jian’s face was deathly pale. His lips moved soundlessly.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Eldest Senior Brother…”
He wanted to distinguish himself. He wanted people to notice him.
Yun Jian apologized again and again, but the hand gripping the sword suddenly drove it forward. A heartbeat later, the blade had pierced straight through Zhu Sheng’s slender body.
Zhu Sheng shuddered. Blood poured from the wound, quickly staining his clothes.
“Good!”
“The devil’s badly wounded. Let’s finish him in one blow!”
The sword went through his heart. As Zhu Sheng fell from the sky, everyone cheered, and the formation’s light flared to its peak.
The reward for destroying the devil was within their grasp!
Zheng—
A distant string of zither notes rang out, as heavenly as a song from the skies and clear as a journey into the immortal realm.
The experts felt their meridians go empty for an instant. The spiritual power sustaining the formation broke, and its backlash swept over them.
Screams rang out one after another. The crowd fell from the sky like dumplings dropping into a pot.
Yun Jian, at the very center of the formation, suffered the worst of it. His meridians were gravely injured. Before he could even cry out, he plunged into the unfathomable depths of Soul-Severing Cliff.
Even the most powerful experts had been badly hurt. They hadn’t had time to wipe the blood from the corners of their mouths before they hit the ground and looked up.
Zhu Sheng was suspended in a soft golden light.
The fatal wound on his body was healing before their eyes.
Zhu Sheng himself didn’t know what had happened. As his consciousness blurred, he thought he heard a voice in his ear.
As if… someone were sighing and murmuring softly to him.
“Does the devil have some life-saving divine artifact hidden on him?”
“Impossible! What kind of artifact could bring someone back from the dead?”
Someone spoke in horror.
“That sight… it can only mean…”
Immortal music rang out as golden light filled the sky. This was unmistakably the sign of someone attaining the Dao and ascending!
But how was that possible? Zhu Sheng hadn’t even reached the Soul Formation Realm, and he was in a devil’s body!
How could the Heavenly Dao favor him with ascension to sainthood?
The crowd stared in disbelief as Zhu Sheng’s wounds healed beneath the golden light. Then his figure slowly turned transparent until he dissolved into countless points of light and disappeared.
The last faint note of the zither faded into the wind. The mountains and rivers fell silent.
Someone murmured blankly, “Zhu Sheng… ascended?”
“You could’ve just robbed me of twelve yuan, and instead you gave me a bottle of Ice Dew? Does this scenic area really not answer to the Price Bureau?”
“Anyone want a flower crown? They’re selling them for ten over there, but I’ll let you have one for five. It’ll look great in pictures.”
“Everyone, this is the entrance to Sangshan. Sangshan is a national 5A tourist attraction, and its main peak stands 1,651.6 meters above sea level… Legend has it that an ancient cultivator attained the Dao and ascended here. That’s why the main peak is also called Jade Immortal Peak…”
“Students get half-price admission with a student ID. Please queue in an orderly fashion and scan the code to buy your tickets.”
…
The unfamiliar surroundings were noisy beyond belief.
His cultivation was gone, and there wasn’t a trace of spiritual energy in the air.
Dressed in a long robe, his hair falling loose, a long sword in hand and bloodstains covering his body, Zhu Sheng stood in the scenic area’s plaza. A rare hint of confusion appeared in his eyes.
The memory of a sword piercing his heart was etched into his bones. He raised a hand and pressed it to his chest.
It was whole again.
He lowered his eyes, taking in the oddly dressed men, women, young, and old around him.
“An illusion?”
As he studied his surroundings, his gaze shifted—and landed on two tourists wearing hot pants and short-sleeved tops.
His clear, jade-like eyes contracted. Immortal Lord Wuyang shut them at once and scolded aloud:
“Outrageous!”
Whoever had created this illusion was far too wanton and indecent!
![Immortal Lord’s Beauty Has the Whole Internet Swooning [From Ancient Times to the Modern Day]](https://i2.wp.com/dobynovels.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/am.jpg?resize=151,215 "Immortal Lord’s Beauty Has the Whole Internet Swooning [From Ancient Times to the Modern Day]")
