Way of Heaven

Chapter 27- Descent

Translator: BipBop

Forlorn, icy, murky, the vacuum of the Zhenwu World, unchanged for millennials, was suddenly visited by an uninvited guest, a colorful soul pearl!

Whoosh!

The vibrant pearl shifted into a ray of light and flew to the Zhenwu continent, bursting.

It passed shocking scenes as it flew. Broken star fragments littered the vacuum, spinning.

Suddenly, a torrent of lightning streaked the void, fragmenting space. The sparking, raging lightning converged into an immense eye. It was the heavenly dao’s eye, its pupils indifferent. The Zhenwu World’s heavenly dao’s defensive instincts were set off.

Staring at the object that reeked of a foreign aura, the eye twitched. The lightning in the eye condensed into a golden spear. The spear darted forward, crackling, emitting an aura of pure destruction, obliteration.

The spear barreled forward. The branch of the world tree warped, narrowly avoiding the incoming spear. Only the void passage that was slowly fading away remained.

Boom!

The golden spear fiercely collided into the void passage. An explosion ripped, causing a web of spatial cracks. A fiery wave of destruction bombarded space, setting the world alight with the flames of chaos.

The heavenly dao of the Zhenwu World felt the foreign aura vanish. It gestured. Laws flowed forward soothing the waves of spatial destruction and mending the spatial cracks. 

Huh. Weird.

The eye of the heavenly dao turned around. In the distance, it saw a colorful ray of light fading away.

A foreign aura… slipped through the net…

The once soothed lightning began to vibrate again. The eye of the heavenly dao instantly warped through the vacuum. It chased the pearl.

The pearl, Mu Yuan’s soul fragment felt his surroundings become solid and stiff. The entire world was trying to restrict his movements.

He immediately tapped into the Origin Energy that merged with his soul fragment. He shattered his surroundings, sweeping towards the Zhenwu Continent at an even faster speed.

…

In the Zhenwu Continent, the living beings cultivated, killed, and pursued dao, the usual. A mortal would experience life and death before returning to the heavens and earth. The cycle would continue.

Crack! Boom! Rumble!

An explosion roared from the skies, resounding across the entire continent. Strings of lightning manifested, covering and streaking the sky.

Countless living beings raised their heads, staring blankly at the thunder and lightning. They had never seen anything like this.

Before they could react, the strings of lightning converged forming a sea of lightning that ravaged the sky, sparking, bursting into a hellstorm.

The reverberations shook space itself, encompassing the sky. Was this the end of the world? It shook the hearts of all living beings.

“It’s God’s wrath!”

“The time for God to punish the living has come. The cataclysm has come!”

…

Panic enveloped the hearts of countless. There were numerous cities and countries of the Zhenwu Continent. Every single mortal and some low-level cultivators knelt on the ground in awe and fear, their bodies trembling from head to toe. They prayed for God’s forgiveness. May God forgive our sins.

All the powerful cultivation sects opened up their sects’ protective formation. The sect’s experts emerged one after another. They stared at the horrifying scene in the sky. 

Suddenly, a colorful pearl emerged at the center of the lightning storm, catching everyone’s eyes. 

It exuded a rainbow fuzzy light. Lighting constantly bombarded it, trying to annihilate the pearl.

“What’s that?”

Seeing this scene, the experts’ hearts trembled. If they were in such a situation, they would get obliterated in a blink of an eye.

As time went by, the light from the pearl dimmed. It looked like it was going to be destroyed by the lightning. 

In the vacuum of the Zhenwu World, where the living beings of the world couldn’t see, the destructive force of lightning that was controlled by the eye of the heavenly dao rammed into the pearl, trying to dig in.

The lighting condensed into another golden spear. The spear swept towards the pearl.

Crack!

Webbed cracks began appearing on the pearl’s body, the pearl’s light extinguished. It appeared that the foreign aura had been “completely” wiped out. The pearl fell towards the Zhenwu Continent, lifeless.

The eye of the heavenly dao wanted to completely obliterate this foreign object. Suddenly, it felt a familiar ripple of energy closing in. The ripple was getting faster and faster, expanding. It then glanced at the pearl that didn’t have even a shred of aura.

The heavenly dao withdrew his energy and warped to where the ripple was. It began to suppress the ripples.

The forgotten pearl dropped into one of the eight regions of the Zhenwu Continent…

The trembling mortals of the continent saw the lightning fade away. They began to weep, crying tears of joy. They had survived.

All the emperors, advised by the court, hastily announced a “Book of Sin” in response to the disaster. It provided new opportunities, lowering tax and slave labor.

TL Note: Stuff like a Book of Sin were real. Chinese emperors, upon seeing some sort of disaster, would make an edict that addressed the wrongs with the empire or court, thinking it was a sign.

In the Xuan Region, the sect masters of the major sects saw the pearl fall from the sky. Greed arose in their hearts. After all, that was an object that could survive such a brutal lightning storm, a supreme treasure! 

The major sects in the region sent out their disciples. Some hidden sects emerged to join in the hunt. They were going to find that treasure. They became scrounging for information about the pearl’s whereabouts. 

Other sects that weren’t in the Xuan Region secretly sent their own disciples to join. Their purpose was naturally the same. The world began to change.

…

Tang Dynasty, outside of Luo City

The body of a teenage boy was thrown on the ground by two undertakers. His clothes were ragged, and his face was thin. It was a mass grave just outside the city. Dead bodies littered the place.

A breeding ground for rats, and a paradise for vultures, this mass grave was where the dead bodies of the poor were placed. The bodies would soon become food for the wild beasts.

One of the undertakers glanced at the teenage boy and sighed. “Aye, the boy was so young. He still had his whole life ahead of him.”

The other undertaker coldly snorted. “The kid can only blame his bad luck. The kid didn’t have eyes. He dared to block the Third Young Master Luo’s way.“

The other undertaker chuckled and took out a piece of jade pendant from his shirt. It was shaped like a dragon. “I didn’t think there was anything to gain from burying the body of that beggar. But, I was proven wrong. Who would’ve expected that that kid would have such a fine jade pendant on his body?”

His job was to collect corpses that died from accidents. He only dealt with corpses that no one wanted. He would bury them, so they wouldn’t become wandering ghosts. At the same time, they had the right to collect the valuables from the corpse. This was an unspoken rule.

Once he heard this, the first undertaker rushed over and examined the jade pendant. “This jade pendant is exquisite. It’ll definitely fetch a good price. Once we sell it, I’ll be able to redeem Xiao Cui from the brothel. We’ll get married.”

He began to reminisce. He remembered the first time he entered the brothel. Xiao Cui’s voluptuous body and charming skin…

The other undertaker gave him a deriding look. “Look at you! So indecent! Once I get the money, I’ll buy a large piece of land. I’ll be a landlord. Not only will I be able to enjoy a large plot of land, but I will also be able to collect rent, amassing a vast wealth. When that happens, I can have as many women as I want.”

The two undertakers discussed their future lives passionately. They didn’t notice a cracked pearl appear in the sky. It was the size of a marble.

The pearl wandered the mass grave, hovering. Suddenly, it turned into a ray of light and pierced the eyebrows of the dead teenage boy.