Heavenly Wheel Ascension

The disciples of the Thousand Lotus Valley, witnessing a stranger suddenly assault their sect with such devastating power, felt their hearts tremble with a fear that tempted them to simply surrender. Several lower-level practitioners, starting from the Blood Transformation stage, now rose with ragged breaths.

"I don't want to die being crushed like this," one young man muttered, trembling. "That senior said he comes from the Heavenly Path Pavilion. Has the Heavenly Path Pavilion risen again?"

The whispers of fear spread like a plague through the ranks of the white-robed disciples. Under the massive shadows of the Ancient Gold Dragon and the wingbeats of the Thousand Feathered Moth that blotted out the moon, their faith in the sturdiness of the Thousand Lotus Valley began to fracture. Granny Lotus, standing at the peak of the pagoda, felt this shift; she knew that if her disciples' fighting spirit collapsed, the Thousand Lotus Valley would truly be destroyed.

"Silence! Anyone who dares waver in their faith to the sect shall be made a sacrifice to the Purification Lotus!" Granny Lotus roared, her voice carrying a divine compulsion that pierced the consciousness of the disciples.

"Noisy," Zhi Xuan replied coldly. He advanced step by step, each footfall cracking the sect’s formation. "If any of you renounce your sect oaths and take shelter under the Heavenly Path Pavilion, you shall be spared from tonight’s calamity."

A deathly silence immediately enveloped the valley. Zhi Xuan’s offer was not mere words; it was a test of the threads of fate. Several disciples who had long been oppressed by Granny Lotus’s rigid rules began to lower their weapons, their eyes gazing with doubt at the brown-robed figure standing arrogantly above the clouds.

"Do not listen to that devil!" shouted a Law Enforcement Elder as he swung his sword. However, before his words could finish, a black shadow streaked past with a speed exceeding light.

SRAKK!

The elder’s head was separated from his body—not by a sword, but by the flutter of Xiao Die’s wings, which were as sharp as the highest blade. Blood splattered, staining the purity of the silver lotus petals below. That incident served as a sign to the disciples: death stood right before their eyes, while the promise of safety was offered by the conqueror.

"Three breaths," Zhi Xuan said, his voice echoing like a funeral bell. "Choose life in a new service, or die as fertilizer for a withered lotus."

Granny Lotus trembled violently, not just from rage, but because she felt her authority being forcibly plundered. She saw hundreds of her disciples beginning to kneel, discarding their sect talismans and prostrating themselves toward Zhi Xuan. This mass betrayal shattered the stability of the Great Heaven Purification Formation. The silver light sheltering the valley began to dim, leaving large gaps that revealed the dark night sky.

"You... you traitors!" Granny Lotus shrieked. She raised her lotus-bulb staff to the sky. "If you refuse to be protectors, then be sacrifices! Blood Lotus Art!"

Instantly, the lotus roots that had previously glowed white turned into a disgusting blood-red. The roots shot out from the bottom of the lake, attempting to entwine the legs of the disciples who had surrendered. Heart-wrenching screams broke the night as the life essence of the disciples began to be forcibly sucked away by their own sect to strengthen Granny Lotus’s final defense.

Zhi Xuan remained silent. He took one more step, and the formation completely collapsed. A heavy pressure immediately forced Granny Lotus to the ground, and the bonds sucking the essence of every disciple were severed. Zhi Xuan spread his arms, and immediately from the sky appeared giant swords with dark blades carrying a reddish lightning aura.

"I don't have time to give you an interesting game," Zhi Xuan said coldly, moving his hand downward. "Thousand Lotus Valley ends here."

"Stop!" a low, thundering roar rumbled from behind the mountain as a cross-slash came from the north.

Zhi Xuan snorted sharply. He moved the dozens of giant swords to intercept the strike. The impact of the giant swords and the slash exploded in the air, emitting a spiritual wave that swept through the surrounding atmosphere. Zhi Xuan withdrew the pressure from Granny Lotus, spun in the air, and stared coldly.

From behind the curtain of mist split by the explosion, an old man in a gray robe bearing a lotus emblem stepped out of the void. He carried no weapon, but each of his steps seemed to tread upon the veins of the earth, causing vibrations that neutralized Zhi Xuan’s sword intent.

"Great Elder Lin!" Granny Lotus shrieked hoarsely, crawling up with the remnants of her shattered dignity. "Kill him! This devil has destroyed our sect's foundation!"

Zhi Xuan raised an eyebrow before offering a thin smile. "The Thousand Lotus Valley... truly so grand with a middle-stage Weaver monster."

"A Weaver Transformation practitioner with two beasts of this level?" Great Elder Lin’s voice sounded raspy, yet each word carried a weight of Law that made the air around Zhi Xuan feel thick. "Young man, you truly do not know the vastness of Heaven and Earth."

Great Elder Lin stared wildly at the gold dragon and the celestial moth beside Zhi Xuan. A glint of greed could not be hidden as he gazed at the beasts, which were of celestial bloodlines. Great Elder Lin streaked through the air and stood atop the ruins of the destroyed sect formation.

"Young man," Great Elder Lin’s voice became pressing and sharp. "You have collapsed my sect without cause, made my disciples waver, and suppressed an early-stage Weaver elder. Such treatment cannot be ignored."

Great Elder Lin raised his palm, and five dark orbs appeared in his hand. "Hand over those two beasts of yours, then cut off your tongue and your hands. If you do, I can guarantee you may leave this territory alive."

Zhi Xuan was silent for a moment, but then his shoulders began to shake until a low laugh, saturated with contempt, exploded from his throat. The laughter shook the silence of the valley, sounding like the scraping of a sword against an ancient tombstone. He looked at Great Elder Lin with a gaze as if he were watching a clown dancing on the edge of a grave.

"Cut off my tongue? Hand over celestial bloodlines to an old fogey whose very breath smells of graveyard soil?" Zhi Xuan wiped the corner of his dry eye. "I have cultivated for five hundred years, yet this is the first time I have heard a delusion worse than a mortal trying to catch fish in a muddy swamp."

Great Elder Lin clenched his hand, staring cruelly at Zhi Xuan. "A sharp tongue. Do you think you will win and live today?!"

Great Elder Lin wasted no more words. The five dark orbs in his palm shot into the sky, spinning to form a formation that swallowed the moonlight. Instantly, the space around Zhi Xuan seemed to fold; the pressure increased a thousandfold, attempting to force the youth to kneel before the majesty of the Thousand Lotus Valley.

Zhi Xuan snorted harshly. He raised his palm and formed a commanding five-element disc. He threw the five-element disc into the sky, clasped his hands together, and formed a complex mudra. A formation creating a dark vortex brought forth a shadow finger that ripped through the void.

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The finger moved while the five-element disc collided with the formation made by Great Elder Lin. A massive explosion occurred when the formation hit the five-element disc, but the formation remained sturdy even as Zhi Xuan sought an opening to launch the shadow finger. Zhi Xuan coughed up blood, wiped it away roughly, and reappeared in the air.

Under the starry sky, Great Elder Lin carved something into the air, which immediately formed a blooming lotus petal. The petal met the shadow finger, and a spiritual wave swept the surroundings as soil and stone cracked and rose into the air. Slowly, the petal enveloped the shadow finger and devoured it before it was detonated.

The explosion resulting from the collision of the shadow finger and the lotus petal spat out shockwaves that leveled the remaining buildings around the Nine-Story Pagoda. Dust and spiritual smoke billowed high, but in the midst of the chaos, Great Elder Lin stood arrogantly, his gray robe unstained even by the soot of the blast.

"Quite a mysterious technique from a middle-stage Weaver," Great Elder Lin hissed, his voice traveling through the floating debris. "However, the law you hold is merely crumbs of what the universe truly offers. You challenge me in a territory where my roots have reached the very heart of the earth!"

Great Elder Lin shot into the air, a move met by Zhi Xuan’s snort before he gave chase. They clashed techniques in mid-air, every flash of light splitting the clouds and shaking the ground. However, Zhi Xuan was at a disadvantage, seen by the way he crossed his arms in front of his chest when a lotus palm from Great Elder Lin forced him back.

Zhi Xuan was thrown back several hundred yards, his feet splitting the clouds and creating snapping lightning. Even though his body had recovered, the burden of fighting a middle-stage Weaver expert who had merged with the energy source of his origins was no easy task. Every time his fist clashed with Great Elder Lin’s palm, he felt as if he were striking an endless cliff wall.

"Brat, you have diverse techniques, but you lack one thing," Great Elder Lin stepped through the air, every footfall growing a lotus of light that immediately exploded into energy thorns. "You have no roots! In this Thousand Lotus Valley, I am the living law!"

Zhi Xuan wiped the blood flowing from the corner of his lip, his eyes as blue as a dying star now glinting with a horrific intensity. He glanced down toward the Nine-Story Pagoda, which still stood firm amidst the destruction. He knew that Great Elder Lin had not yet released his domain and was already draining his energy like this.

At that moment, Zhi Xuan moved rapidly, becoming a shadow in the air, appearing above the head of Ao Sheng, who coiled in the sky and growled low. Xiao Die herself let out a loud shrill, and from her wings, she flapped lethal powders. She faded herself, turning into thousands of tiny moths, each of which launched threads capable of absorbing vitality upon hitting an opponent.

Seeing Xiao Die's understanding as she formed nets around Great Elder Lin’s territory, Zhi Xuan snorted coldly. Ao Sheng coiled in the air and carried Zhi Xuan flying above the starry sky. Zhi Xuan spread his arms, and immediately behind him appeared the Six Paths Reincarnation Disc, manifesting the gates of each path.

The sky glowed in six colors, forming a vortex of dark clouds that blackened as if in heavenly wrath. From below, pure shock was etched onto the faces staring at Zhi Xuan’s rare True Domain. The elders, who had initially felt hope that Great Elder Lin could suppress Zhi Xuan, now saw that hope vanish upon seeing a domain so unreachable.

Great Elder Lin gasped, his steps in the air pausing for a moment as the entire atmosphere around the Thousand Lotus Valley trembled. His eyes, once full of greed, now widened, reflecting the shadow of six giant gates standing majestically behind Zhi Xuan’s back like pillars supporting a collapsing sky.

"Six Paths of Reincarnation...?" Great Elder Lin’s voice sounded raspy, as if his vocal cords had just been snared by barbed wire. "How can a practitioner of the lower realm have law comprehension of this level! This is a Forbidden Domain!"

Great Elder Lin spread his arms and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, a True Domain extended behind him. The domain expanded, forming an image of a giant lotus, but each of its petals carried a faint law of devilish darkness.

The two domains clashed in the sky, creating a boundary line that split the heavens. On one side, Zhi Xuan’s Six Paths of Reincarnation radiated an ancient, judging aura, while on the other, Great Elder Lin’s Ancient Devil Lotus Domain spread a pressure of harmony, albeit decorated by darkness.

"You feel you have roots?" Zhi Xuan hissed, his voice now resonating with the six gates behind him. "Look closely—the Ancestor of your Valley did not build this sect on purity!"

Zhi Xuan moved his finger, attempting to devour the territory of Great Elder Lin’s domain to nullify his techniques and bring them under his own law. Meanwhile, Great Elder Lin had to move in rage and suffocation as he fought off Zhi Xuan’s domain while dodging the nets chasing him.

"You celestial moth bastard!" Great Elder Lin moved his fingers, opening his palm and forming a seal as if to trap the celestial moth. However, every time the tiny moths were struck, they simply split themselves and multiplied.

Great Elder Lin was increasingly cornered. Cold sweat began to drench his forehead as he realized that every fragment of the Thousand Feathered Moth was not merely an illusion, but a manifestation of the law of infinite life. Xiao Die, in her form of thousands of celestial insects, continued to weave threads that slowly ensnared his domain's essence and weakened it.

He began to be overwhelmed, facing the pressure of thousands of tiny moths swarming him and Zhi Xuan’s domain pressing down. But at that moment, a sliver of dark shadow with nine tails emerged from Zhi Xuan’s body, creeping toward Great Elder Lin. Instantly, Great Elder Lin choked as he felt his soul beginning to be devoured from the inside.

Inside him, Great Elder Lin’s Divine Spirit began to waver and crack atop his Divine Wheel. Great Elder Lin could see for himself a silhouette with nine tails of darkness devouring his soul and his life as if it were a common thing. He choked himself; his domain fell into total chaos.

Great Elder Lin shrieked hoarsely, his eyes bulging. He felt a cold touch that did not come from the outside, but from the depths of his bone marrow and his very sea of consciousness. The shadow of the nine tails was not an attack, but a conquest of life that seemed to be erasing his name from the book of existence.

Great Elder Lin slowly collapsed from the inside, his soul vanishing as if swallowed by something. The shadow of nine dark tails crept back out of Great Elder Lin’s empty husk, slithering back into Zhi Xuan’s body with a haunting, chilling giggle. Great Elder Lin’s body immediately drifted toward Zhi Xuan as he summoned the Divine Cauldron, storing the empty shell inside before taking it into his body.

A silence deeper than a blind night enveloped the Thousand Lotus Valley. The remaining disciples and elders were frozen, silent witnesses to an impossible sight: a Great Elder of the Weaver Transformation stage, who should have been an unshakeable pillar, fallen without even getting to release his final peak attack. That body was now gone into Zhi Xuan’s cauldron, leaving a horrific void in the air.

"That senior... is he a heavenly curse?! Who exactly is he?!" shrieked one disciple, his face radiating profound fear. "Great Elder Lin is dead... just like that, he is dead..."

"Is this the curse of the Heavenly Path Pavilion?! Senior, we surrender!" wailed one disciple, prostrating deeply. "We are willing to leave the Thousand Lotus Valley to join the Heavenly Path Pavilion!"

"Great Elder Lin... our pillar of heaven... vanished without a trace," sobbed a core disciple, his hands shaking violently as he discarded his white sect robe. "If even a Weaver becomes mere food for his cauldron, what is the meaning of our existence here? We are just ants waiting to be stepped on!"

"Right! Look at that gold dragon! Look at that celestial moth!" shouted a deacon with a deathly pale face. "This valley always taught about purity, but tonight I only see hypocrisy collapsing. The Heavenly Path Pavilion has sent a Death God to collect a debt!"

In another corner, an early-stage Soul Transformation elder stared blankly at the sky, still bruised from the clash of domains. He laughed bitterly, a sound that was cracked and dry. "Hahahaha! For hundreds of years, we oppressed small sects, considering ourselves the masters of this land. Now, one person... just one person and his two beasts, has uprooted us to the core. This is no longer a battle; this is a purging!"

"Elder Hu, what should we do?" asked a female disciple beside him hoarsely. "Do we truly have to surrender our souls to the Heavenly Path Pavilion?"

Elder Hu turned, his eyes dim and no longer possessing a spark of life. "Your choices are only two: become a follower of the rising sun, or become the dust of the setting moon. I... I do not want to be dust." He then threw his jade sect badge into the pool of blood and prostrated toward Zhi Xuan with a raspy voice. "This sinful servant... begs for forgiveness from the Heavenly Path Pavilion!"

Granny Lotus, seeing the disciples she had taught with an iron fist and the elders who were supposed to be the last bastion, now scrambling to declare loyalty to the enemy who had just destroyed their home.

"You... cowardly dogs!" she shrieked, her voice raspy and full of hatred. "You betray the ancestors for a moment’s safety? Remember, the Ancient Han Clan will not let traitors live!"

"The Ancient Han Clan won't even be able to save your life tonight," Zhi Xuan whispered right behind Granny Lotus, his voice like the scraping of a tombstone against the wind. "I hate rats from the Ancient Clan."

Granny Lotus did not have time to turn as Zhi Xuan coldly pierced her aged back with his hand, tearing out her Divine Wheel and Divine Spirit and crushing them without hesitation. "In your next life, you had better stay away from the Ancient Han Clan."