Chapter Ninety-One: Ferrying Souls at the Dawn of Creation

The Pure Yang Diagram spread over a thousand miles, blotting out the clouds and veiling the moon. Vast torrents of solar essence surged and roiled, scorching and oppressive, filling the dark, frigid vault of space with blazing brilliance.

Yet that earthshaking power was being suppressed by another force.

“Wipe out the Pure Yang Church! Tear apart that damned diagram! Kill the men and drag the women back as trophies!”

A host of star fiends shouted and sneered as they fearlessly charged into the Six Slaughters Pure Yang Grand Array, for even if they were annihilated by the killing formation, they could be reborn within the Black Sun.

That gave them boundless confidence.

Sssht!

The star fiends struck together in concert. The pitch-black ancient weapons in their hands rippled with waves of dark radiance, coalescing into an unrivaled sword light that pierced heaven and earth, powerful enough to threaten even experts of the Reverse-Slaying realm.

“Hold the line!”

Several Reverse-Slayers from the Pure Yang Church gave low shouts, forming hand seals and activating the divine power of the Pure Yang Diagram. At the same time, they had to guard against the wicked man Lord Nightward and withstand the undead legion created by Black Dragon Zhao.

The difficulty of it all shocked them; they had never imagined this battle would become what it had.

That swarm of star fiends clung to them like a parasite, bombarding them without end. No matter how formidable the Pure Yang Diagram was, no matter how vast and profound their Reverse-Slaying spiritual power, there would still come a moment of exhaustion.

Fortunately, the sect master had already sent them word: endure a little longer, and these star fiends would suffer catastrophic losses.

Boom!

A wash of fire swept into the heavens. Several blazing slaughter techniques erupted from the Pure Yang tradition, splendid yet terrifying, releasing an astonishing killing intent as they rapidly shattered the black armor on the star fiends’ bodies.

In the process, the Pure Yang Reverse-Slayers were also wounded. A peerless black radiance forged by thousands of star fiends struck them full on, leaving them coughing blood.

“Go.”

The gaunt Pure Yang Elder flicked a finger, sending out a vermilion Pure Yang ancient thunderbolt. Wreathed in dangerous arcs of electricity, it traced a sudden curve through the void and shot toward the Black Sun.

It was the perfect moment. More than two thousand star fiends had just been reborn, stepping out of the Black Sun with ancient weapons in hand and cruel smiles on their lips, as though they had already foreseen the downfall of the Pure Yang Church.

“What is that?”

Black Dragon Zhao, presiding over the Dark Shrine, saw the Pure Yang thunderbolt streak toward him and immediately frowned in confusion.

It was bright red, no larger than an egg, with faint sparks of lightning flickering across its surface.

“No good!”

A sudden unease surged through Black Dragon Zhao, and his expression changed dramatically. He abruptly cut off the flow of star fiend power, but by then the more than two thousand fiends who had emerged from the Black Sun were already within the thunder pearl’s range.

Boom!

The ancient thunderbolt exploded, unleashing boundless destruction. The star fiends stared in stunned disbelief.

Before they could even make sense of it, a storm of lightning had already drowned them.

“Aaaah! What is this!”

“My soul is scattering, no—! I don’t want to die!”

A rolling roar of terror filled the air like thunder. The more than two thousand star fiends howled in agony; nearly half of them were instantly reduced to utter oblivion, so fast that even the black light formed by their armor had no time to envelop them.

“Old Source, it’s so bright over there! What happened?”

The little bald boy, his beautiful eyes shining with starlight, looked toward the Pure Yang grounds a thousand miles away, where a sea of blazing lightning had suddenly spread.

“It’s those little star fiends who got hold of the shrine, clashing with the local minor sects in this starfield,” Old Source said, utterly unsurprised. Scenes like this were all too common in the spirit-energy cosmos.

“Is that so.” The little bald boy smiled.

“Our Primordial Church believes in saving people. Even if they are star fiends, so long as they submit to our Primordial teachings, mend their ways, and turn toward goodness, all hatred can be washed away.

Dan Ya always says that suppressing disaster is a merit, and guiding people is also a merit. The Starsea Holy House only knows how to suppress disaster and knows nothing of guiding people. Just that alone makes them far inferior to us.”

“Your young master speaks wisely.” Old Source also laughed. This trip outside had indeed made the young master much more perceptive; the sect master’s method had its advantages after all.

“Come, let us suppress disaster and guide people. Remember to show the bearing of our Primordial Church. We must not dishonor our grandeur.”

Full of high spirits, the little bald boy looked at the star fiends and the Pure Yang Church locked in fierce battle, feeling that his appearance here carried great meaning.

“Rest assured, Young Master.” Old Source thumped his chest in guarantee.

...

“The outcome is settled.”

The Pure Yang Elder’s eyes were cold and indifferent. Though old and gaunt, with no blood left in him, every word he spoke carried the steady authority of a veteran leader, inspiring confidence.

“Twenty percent of the star fiends are gone!”

The purple Nine-Fire Daoist was overjoyed. As expected of the sect master’s intervention, twenty percent of the star fiends had vanished. Though it did not seem to strike at the root, it was enough to create imbalance, greatly easing the pressure on them.

“What happened? What did that Pure Yang old bastard do!”

Lord Nightward was shocked. He was holding the yellow-skinned shrine while battling two Pure Yang Reverse-Slayers. When he turned his head, he saw that two thousand of his men had been wiped out clean by lightning.

One must know that the undead army of the Dark Shrine had been indispensable in allowing them to contend head-on with the Pure Yang Church.

Losing twenty percent of their forces in one blow was like having an arm severed.

“Next... hmm?”

The Pure Yang Elder was holding the thunder pearl, about to send out another one, when his expression suddenly changed. His eyes flew wide, and two streaks of shocked brilliance shot forth as he looked toward the distant sky.

At the same moment, the other five Reverse-Slayers of the Pure Yang Diagram, along with the three great giant star fiends, all turned pale with alarm as they sensed an unprecedented sacred aura descending.

Within that aura was the power of light.

“It’s light... a Light Realm powerhouse! Which senior has arrived?”

The wicked man Li trembled as he spoke, glancing left and right, his whole body shuddering.

In an instant, a terrible thought took hold of him: could it be that a great figure from the Light Realm had been dispatched by the Starsea Holy House, coming here specifically to wipe them out once and for all?

Panic seized the wicked man Li.

Light rain poured down, petals danced through the air, radiant and dazzling, and a pure, tranquil aura filled the void of space.

Gradually, a sound of indescribable clarity drifted over.

The three shrines all shrank back at once, like mice before a cat, their auras lurking in concealment. Even the smear of blood-stain on the Pure Yang Diagram began to dissolve quietly.

Sacred light rain fell from heaven to earth, illuminating all things. At this moment, not only the outsiders, but even the disciples within the Pure Yang Diagram, all felt a kind of holiness and purity.

Without warning, without reason, a tide of emotion spread through every heart.

“I...”

Black Dragon Zhao stood frozen in place. At some unknown point, tears had streamed down his face, two shimmering rivers slowly tracing the rugged lines of that stern and commanding countenance.

It was hard to imagine that such a giant star fiend, one who had roamed the starry heavens and killed without blinking, would weep.

“My whole life... why have I committed so many evil deeds? Why...”

The wicked man Li, a burly man seven feet tall, raised his head and howled. Tears blurred his eyes, his vision growing hazy. Both hands unconsciously lifted to wipe at the tears at the corners of his eyes, then paused before his face. He stood there utterly dazed.

Clear, cool sacred music flowed like silk, unbroken and lingering in the ears.

It seemed like the divine melody heard when the universe first opened, rising from the depths of chaos, or like the laws of the primordial beginning completing the spirit-energy cosmos and purifying the countless evils of the world...

Even the Pure Yang Elder, an ancient man who had lived through endless ages and whose resolve had never wavered, trembled and raised his hands at the sound of that soul-stirring divine music.

“Looking back... my hands are stained with blood. At dusk’s end, I cannot even say that I have a clear conscience...” The old man’s gaunt figure swayed as he murmured softly, trembling all the while.

Before long, tears of remorse welled and fell.

Most astonishing of all, every single one of the six Pure Yang Reverse-Slayers was crying in a trance, without exception.

If the Reverse-Slayers were like this, there was no need to mention the thousands of star fiends.

Some were howling in tears, some beating their chests and stamping in regret and remorse for what they had done in the past, and some even sat down on the ground, wailing like aggrieved children.