Chapter Twenty-Three: Zhou Jing, Come Out and Face Me

A howl!
A piercing, mournful scream echoed up from the depths of the abyss.
Monk Zhenyan felt a stir in his heart. Without bothering to pursue the whereabouts of the middle-aged man and the snake demon, he gathered up the Bodhi tree, smoothing its branches and trunk, transforming it once more into his monk’s staff. His golden body expanded, the forms of dragons and elephants twining around him. Gripping the staff, he struck down towards the abyss.
At first, the staff was only nine feet long, but as it neared the chasm, it swelled and spread, its blade-edge blossoming like a white cloud, filling the skies, wild waves surging. Beneath the staff, the abyss seemed poised to collapse at any moment, a sight that chilled the soul.
The one who merited such a response was a woman in crimson.
She wielded a massive axe, cleaving out a stream of axe-light.
The radiance surged forth, powerful enough to split mountains and rivers, and the axe split the monk’s staff apart.
“Vajra Great Sun Tathagata Seal!”
Someone in the void chanted Sanskrit, the sound vast and ethereal.
Behind Monk Zhenyan, his golden body transformed into the Great Sun Tathagata.
The Sanskrit grew ever clearer.
“Om, Vajra, Datu, Ksham…”
The Great Sun Tathagata, incarnate of supreme radiance, subduer of all evil and demons.
The golden form opened its eyes, extending a palm.
Its five fingers represented the five elements, yin and yang coiled within its palm, light flowing through the lines.
The palm grew larger and larger, eventually covering fifteen hundred miles, all to suppress the Demon Mother.
“If you were not wounded, you might still contain me,” the Demon Mother said, half-smiling, as her axe cleaved out a galaxy, absorbing all light between heaven and earth into its stream.
The Vajra Great Sun Seal was struck by the galaxy, the Five Finger Mountain seemed to splinter, the palm was split by a celestial river, fresh blood pouring down.
With a gentle squeeze, the Demon Mother shaped the blood into jeweled lotuses, swallowing them, and what was left spilled onto the ground, its vitality bursting forth like a tide. In an instant, countless wildflowers and grasses sprouted from the barren earth, trees growing madly, expanding from the size of a finger to that of a barrel.
The Demon Mother licked her lips, unsated.
Her body was crystal clear, transparent enough to see her organs and the dwelling of her soul.
A beam of divine light flew out from behind her head and split into three—a technique of transforming one essence into three pure forms.
One essence remained within her, protecting her.
One essence transformed into a demon dragon, striking straight at Monk Zhenyan.
The last essence circled around and within the abyss, forming a gigantic shroud that enveloped it completely.
Vital energy escaped uncontrollably, soaring upward.
Whether human or otherwise,
The mountains lost their essence, turning to dust.
Flowers, grasses, and trees lost their essence, shriveling to ash.
Humans lost their essence, becoming dry corpses.
Pure energy rose in threads of light, like reverse rain.
She was devouring the essence of the entire abyss, treating it as a watermelon.
“All of you here today, not one will escape,” the Demon Mother declared, the pores on her skin transforming into countless mouths, absorbing the essence of the abyss.
Monk Zhenyan raised his alms bowl.
The bowl expanded continuously, covering the sky, Sanskrit manifesting across its surface, transforming into mighty warriors. They leapt from the bowl, landing on the earth, tossing every living person into the bowl, one by one.
Within the bowl was a world unto itself.
Meanwhile, the golden body conjured a lotus, plucked a petal, and cast it out, transforming it into a sea of fire.
The demon dragon shattered the sea of fire and lunged at Monk Zhenyan’s brow.
Eighteen dragons and elephants leapt out from Monk Zhenyan’s body, intertwining to form a divine figure with a dragon’s head and an elephant’s form.
This dragon-elephant deity struck at the demon dragon with a single punch.
Thunder roared in the heavens, the earth trembled.
The dragon-elephant deity’s punch exploded the demon dragon.

The divine light circled and returned once more to the Demon Mother.
The eighteen dragon-elephant deities tore open the earth, lifting a vast expanse of land.
Upon it stood Monk Zhenyan’s golden body, and beside him, figures large and small, human and demon alike.
His golden form radiated star-fire, transforming into the Fire-Light Tathagata, burning away all disasters and tribulations that befell him.
Monk Zhenyan escaped,
Taking the survivors with him.
But among them, Xu Zhong was absent.
Just as Xu Zhong emerged from the abyss, he saw the Demon Mother’s crimson robes.
She looked down at him.
Xu Zhong’s heart leapt; instinctively, he wished to wield that sword again.
But he had no sword, nor was there sword energy in the surroundings.
Even if he could summon that sword, he could not unleash its full power, nor could he slay the Demon Mother.
“Xu Zhong!” the Demon Mother called his name. “A fine name.”
“If you find it pleasing, I’ll gift it to you,” Xu Zhong replied, sweat streaming down his forehead, his heart pounding wildly. He instinctively clutched his chest, as if his heart might leap out at any moment.
“I have a better name,” the Demon Mother murmured, touching Xu Zhong’s head.
The next moment, Xu Zhong collapsed stiffly to the ground, muttering, “Ah, I’m dead!” and similar words.
“I once made a pact with the one who suppressed me. He would not kill me, and I must not kill his inheritor.”
Xu Zhong scrambled to his feet, straightened his clothes.
“Six thousand years—I have waited for you every day of these six millennia.”
Six thousand years!
A chill crept down Xu Zhong’s spine.
The Demon Mother had not been suppressed by Bai Zhaoju.
Before Bai Zhaoju was sealed away, the Demon Mother had already been imprisoned deep underground for three thousand years.
“Six thousand years—time changes all things. Gained some light, lost some past. Now I am free, but I wonder if he still lives.”
The Demon Mother reminisced, her murderous intent undisguised.
Her killing intent condensed into a tangible form, like a dark cloud blotting out the sun.
The next moment, she seized a patch of dark cloud, swept up Xu Zhong, and soared toward the light of the heavens.
The vast lands of the Yu Kingdom, a million miles of rivers and mountains, grand and majestic—the great rivers like dragons lying low, the mountain ranges like white tigers raising their heads.
From the clouds, gazing down, boundless scenery unfolded beneath them. Xu Zhong felt a surge of heroic spirit, swirling within his lungs. With each breath, his sword-heart sprouted like a seed, growing, exhaling and inhaling sword intent. The sword intent stirred the starlight across half the sky, the stars falling onto him like tangible rain, which he endlessly refined into sword energy.
If only he had a sword, he could have infused this energy into its blade.
The next moment, Xu Zhong poured his sword energy into a gourd.
The metal essence swallowed the sword energy, transforming it into flying swords that clashed and tumbled within the gourd, making a noise like wine sloshing in a vessel.
“Reading ten thousand books is not as good as walking ten thousand miles,” Xu Zhong mused, sensing his sword path growing—his tile seemed able to bear the weight of dozens of miles of river and mountain.
What is gained from paper is always shallow; true understanding comes from action.
He merged the scenery before him into his sword path—this was also “action”!
Xu Zhong stood among the clouds, exhaled a breath like sword energy, shattering starlight and clouds.
He drew back his breath.
The starlight around him grew dim, the real world ever more illusory.
They passed through a mountain.
A ripping sound!
They collided with something.
Like a bubble bursting, a milky-white current blew from nowhere, making Xu Zhong’s body crackle strangely, his body shriveled, and balls of spiritual light escaped from behind his head, drifting farther in the roaring wind—his three souls and seven spirits leaving his body.
The Demon Mother reached out, snatching Xu Zhong’s souls and spirits out of the endless gale, stuffing them back into his body.

“It’s the endless astral wind—this wind can blow away a person’s soul. Generally, it’s used on the outskirts of Daoist sects’ paradises.”
Xu Zhong regained control of his body, feeling the lingering terror as the astral wind swept past.
They rode the clouds, tearing through the wind, entering the heart of the paradise.
Xu Zhong stood on the dark cloud and looked out.
In the center of the paradise, a towering peak rose, connecting heaven and earth, stars orbiting around it, sun and moon rising and falling.
Within the mountain surged a mighty sword intent.
This sword intent transformed all the spiritual energy within the paradise into sword energy—when inhaled, it scorched the mouth and throat, burned the lungs.
Xu Zhong summoned all the power of the Golden Radiance Hidden Vault.
He shattered the sword energy into spiritual energy, protecting himself from harm.
“What a formidable sword path!” Xu Zhong murmured.
At that moment, a beam of white light shot from the mountain.
As it drew near, Xu Zhong realized it was not light, but countless swords gathered as one.
The white light howled past, circling the Demon Mother, seeking to slay her.
The Demon Mother expanded her form, in the law of heaven and earth, seized the white light with one hand, the sword energy exploding in her palm.
She forcefully suppressed it, crushing one flying sword after another.
The fragments rained down in a storm of broken swords.
“Who dares trespass upon my Infinite Sword Sect?” someone strode forward—the mountain shook, five flying swords emerged from five points on the peak, circling behind his head.
It was a sword formation.
The five flying swords revealed the formation.
Within each sword, countless other swords.
“Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Sect?” the Demon Mother frowned, but soon noticed the flaw: “Your school is incomplete—this sword formation lacks a mother sword.”
Mother and child swords—the great formation was built of them.
The Demon Mother swirled her water sleeves.
The sleeves caught the wind and grew, boundless, sweeping up the five swords.
The sleeves spun, scattering the swords into countless flying blades that shot across the paradise,
Fusing with the earth and vanishing.
“It’s not the mother sword you lack, but the ability to wield it!” the Demon Mother gazed at the towering peak.
That was the true mother sword of the Ten Thousand Swords Return formation—all swords were born from its spirit.
Xu Zhong cast his Soul-Penetrating Art.
Brilliant halos appeared before him, corresponding to five points on the mountain—the places where the sword formation’s light emerged.
“They are the five radiances of the human body!” Xu Zhong was stunned; he saw the structure and function of those five points mirrored the five radiances within the human form.
Those points constantly honed the sword path of practitioners, nurturing a formidable sword energy.
Xu Zhong’s eyes gave birth to the five radiances.
The Demon Mother drew him closer to the peak.
“Zhou Jing, show yourself!”
“Zhou Jing, show yourself!”
“Zhou Jing, show yourself!”
The echoes rolled through the paradise, shaking it to its core.
And then, a beam of spiritual light appeared.