Chapter 1237: Cleanse

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[What?!]

Everyone was baffled, even Bali Yuyu, by Zhuo Fan’s choice.

[Didn’t he always love Chu Qingcheng? Why…]

Zhuo Fan walked before Bali Yuyu and sighed as he gave her the life stick, “There’s no need for you to stay in hell because of me. Go back.”

“You’re giving me life because you owe me?” Her big eyes watched him.

Zhuo Fan shook his head, “No, that intention might have been before, but now I truly want you to live. Just because the heart chooses to.” 

Bali Yuyu looked at the peak Saint with questioning eyes.

“He is sincere.” The Saint judged.

Bali Yuyu bit her lip and looked at Chu Qingcheng as she held her own death stick, “I understand what you’re thinking. Even though you want to die, I will respect your decision.”

“Both hearts agree. The deal is concluded.” The Saint spoke.

Zhuo Fan smiled and patted Bali Yuyu’s shoulder, taking her death stick and walking to Chu Qingcheng.

Bali Yuyu’s eyes teared up.

He Xiaofeng was baffled, “What’s up with them? Why did he yearn for the death stick more than his life?”

“Insatiable fools like you could never understand life and death.” 

The peak Saint sneered at them, then he flashed next to Chu Qingcheng and Zhuo Fan. His huge palm hovering overhead, “Having chosen death, this palm shall destroy you.”

Zhuo Fan hugged Chu Qingcheng with a peaceful expression, “Will you regret us dying?”

“It matters not, not when neither life nor death can part us.” Chu Qingcheng smiled back, then sighed, “I just feel a bit of loss since I don’t know where I came from…”

“I had someone look into it. We’ll know it soon, if we survive.”

“Since death doesn’t matter, neither does anything else as I’m with you.” Chu Qingcheng muttered.

Boom!

The huge palm slammed down, the two vanishing in a flash of bright light, dead.

Everyone watched them vanish, then Zhao Chen shrugged, “I came to the Nether Sea yet got nothing for my troubles, losing instead my genius aide.”

Crack!

He Xiaofeng’s clenched his fists.

[I have it much worse than you. Do you have any idea how much Chu Qingcheng was worth? The ancient and fragmented records of the Sacred Mountains say that she could become a Sovereign.] 

[It’s an utter loss letting her die here in the Nether Sea. I shouldn’t have brought her. I thought she might be of help searching for a Sovereign’s domain, but…]

He Xiaofeng flicked his sleeve and left.

Bali Yuyu watched the two vanish with a bitter smile. The peak Saint called out before she went as well, “Wait.” 

“What is it?” Bali Yuyu frowned.

“Dao is descending and the end of days is nigh. The only hope lies with Zhuo Fan. Seeing your sincerity towards him, I can trust you. The Nether Sovereign wishes to ask you if you will help him.”

“H-he’s still alive?” Bali Yuyu cheered…

Zhuo Fan and Chu Qingcheng appeared back on the stone platform, with the Nether Sovereign watching the couple with a nod, “Living fear death, but that is mere regret of the things they have to give up by dying, the things they couldn’t do. Letting go of everything makes life and death meaningless. Zhuo Fan, you passed the last test.” 

“Thank you Sovereign, for your wisdom.”

Zhuo Fan bowed, “Only, aren’t you worried that I was certain you wouldn’t kill me?”

The Nether Sovereign raised an eyebrow, “Kill you? Did you really think I never thought of it? Except for the three guardians, the other testers were Zhuo Yifan from your heart and that peak Saint. None of them have ever gone easy on you. By failing to grasp the tyrannical path, you wouldn’t have passed the first trial. You took on his fist intent and, while you can’t feel it, your body is in shambles. Any more strikes and your body would have crumbled and left you in the Nether Sea forever.”

Zhuo Fan shuddered from shock.

“On the second trial, if Zhuo Yifan had won, you wouldn’t be you anymore. Your heart would’ve regressed to the time of being the Demonic Emperor in Sacred Domain, with the hundred years of experience in the mortal domain erased.”

The Nether Sovereign continued, “In the third trial, was it really just a game with the Child Sovereign? With your Spirit King soul power, didn’t you find it odd how you still stood after four hours of relentless running? The trial strained your mind. Your spirit would’ve been spent to death if you hadn’t understood the path.” 

Gulp.

Zhuo Fan’s heart froze. He always thought they used different ways of teaching him, not realizing the deadly danger lurking beneath.

The Nether Sovereign mocked, “The three trials and the five testers, all passed onto you their path while also ready to kill you in the process. Nothing is free in this world. The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward, with the reward always in correlation with the price. They were earnest in passing their path to you, that meant holding nothing back, even if it meant ruining everything by killing you. It is the only way to truly invest oneself in teaching, by giving their all so that you can understand them.

“Just like that last palm, it struck not you, but your heart. Had you not let go of all your worries, even believing to have a lucky break, the palm would’ve shattered your soul. It had nothing to do with Miss Chu at all. It was all you, ha-ha-ha…”

Zhuo Fan felt a chill down his spine, realizing with a start just how close he was skirting death.

[The Sovereigns were too playful, hiding death behind their smiles and making me confused.]

The Nether Sovereign smiled.

Rumble~

The skies shook hard, the sound slamming into their ears. The Nether Sovereign grew worried and rushed things, “Zhuo Fan, once you return, focus on understanding my life and death path, as well as the other three paths. It’s all up to you to stop the end of days.” 

“End of days?”

Zhuo Fan started, but then a prismatic glow entered him from the Nether Sovereign.

The gloomy sky shattered and golden rays shone down from the high heavens.

Nether Sovereign shouted, “Go!”

The two were blown away and vanished from sight.

The Nether Sovereign turned to the golden glow above and whistled. The other testers arrived, looking grave, “Heavenly Sovereign, after all these years, you still managed to force your way in.”

“Ha-ha-ha, you asked for this, didn’t you?”

The sky let out golden ripples and a humongous eye appeared with twelve golden rings in its center. 

“It would’ve been impossible to barge in here with your four Sovereign paths holding me back. But you had to be suicidal and pass them all on.”

“Suicidal?”

The first guardian mocked, “We’ve died eons ago. Everyone here is a mere damned soul clinging to their path. How is that suicidal?”

The huge eye focused on him, “Tyrant Sovereign, Shadow Sovereign, Child Sovereign, Nether Sovereign, and Rebirth Sovereign. You know yourselves to be damned souls so why do you keep fighting me? I’m not doing this out of my wish, but for the world’s Dao!” 

“But your path is frightening.”

The old fisherman said, “The world is of yin and yang, condoning good and evil within its boundaries, without any extremes. All the creatures had the right to live!”

Hum~

Heavenly Sovereign mocked, “Dao is the foundation of everything in existence, discarded like a rag the minute the demonic path arrived. The world is tainted, no longer caring about Dao. What’s terrifying is the demons in humanity. As the Heavenly Sovereign I shall stand in heaven’s stead to enact the Dao by purging all demons. As such, since you’re all born of the demonic path, you all must be removed for being opposite of my path.” 

“We aren’t demonic cultivators, but people, in coherence with Dao.” Nether Sovereign spoke, “We seek the good in people, while you can’t see right from wrong. Of course we walk different paths!” 

“Humph, we really are different men on different paths. You want to use the demonic path to fuse the ten paths, to fight my heavenly path. But all your hopes will be in vain, with your plan in shambles. I will be the one to fuse the paths and not the one you rest your hopes on!”

Heavenly Sovereign mocked, “Farewell for good, old friends… Cleanse!”

Hum~

The huge eye shone in eleven golden rings, unleashing a ripple of light. The Nether Sea vanished then and there, despite the Nether Sovereign’s calm face.

“Heavenly Sovereign, you will fail. Our paths shall bear witness…”

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