Chapter 137: A Desperate War
Translator: chuchutrain Editor: celllll
"Towards the end, those in the martial circles could no longer accept the losses of their men inside the ceaseless killing and decided to collaborate together. The Heavenly Wind Continent came out with this combined alliance named ‘Outside Heavens’ as a sect, which united all the sects under the Heavenly Wind Continent under one banner. Under this huge coalition, they had no opponents and crushed all the individual sects of the other continents just like snapping dried twigs."
"Witnessing this scenario, the other two continents, of course, did not want to be outdone and immediately imitated the Heavenly Wind Continent. The Heavenly Sun Continent came out with the ‘Above Heavens’ Sect and our Heavenly Star Continent came out with ‘Beyond Heavens’ as our alliance name. As such, all the martial artists in the three continents congregated under these three banners, even those reclusive experts. As such, the curtains to a grand and majestic stage setting, for the likes of an unprecedented and never to be repeated rain of blood, was opened!"
Speaking to this point, Ye QingChen sighed with sorrow and could not help but grab the wine jar, pouring and downing two more cups in a row. On the opposite side, Ling Tian sat quietly, knowing that the climax of the fight was about to happen next.
"The three sides never stopped engaging in skirmishes and people were dying every other day. Enmities grew deeper and more irreconcilable. At the same time, the expedition of the three continents grew more and more intense. Originally there were still cases of two sides joining forces against one party, but after the alliances were formed, it was a case of every side for their own. In the war of the combined forces, the number of citizens for every country lessened drastically and many of the flourishing and bustling lands actually turned into soulless places without a shadow of a person to be seen! Eventually, the chiefs of the three continents realised that if they were to continue duking it out, the entire world’s population would eventually die out. Thus, after communicating with each other, they came to a consensus of sending out their full forces to have one last battle in the sea! One battle to decide everything, the victors would be crowned kings, while the losers vilified!"
"Once this news spread out, the entire world was shocked! However, for those of the martial way in the three continents, their hatred had already reached an extreme state, where they could not live under the same sky any longer! Those who were weaker had long perished and even more than half of those unrivalled experts had already died in the continuous war! After the three continents published this news, the rest of the martial artists were unwilling to be outdone and agreed to a fight to the death! The location was set to be at Heavenly Wind Continent, on some random mountain, with the timing similar to the deciding battle of the continents! However, their definition of victory was different; the winners would live, while the losers would give their lives! A life and death battle, no one stops until the rest are dead!"
Two sighs were emitted from Ye QingChen and Ling Tian’s mouths, in that instant, both of their thoughts had gone back, to the time when their ancestors were having the final battle. The endless sadness and grief, as well as the burning anger! They could not help but clink their cups, saluting and downing the contents in a go.
"On that day, the three great sects of each continent each employed a total of twenty thousand people from the scattered sects for the life and death battle. Surprisingly, none of them chose to shirk their responsibilities and arranged themselves on the mountain neatly! The head of the Outside Heavens Sect, Meng KaiTian, was the host. But before he even had the chance to finish his opening speech, those cultivators, upon seeing their mortal enemies, had already turned red with anger, rushing forward to begin a heaven shaking bloody murder!"
"In the space used for the final battle, surprisingly, no one ran from the location, all fighting to their death! The fog of war surrounded the wretched place, shrouding it from the entire heavens. A grand total of seven days and nights were used in this desperate and bitter war and for those of the Heavenly Sun Continent as well as from the Above Heavens Sect, all seven thousand of them lost their lives in there! This included people who had achieved the realm of Saints. Even the sect leader of the Above Heaven Sect, Yin JueKong, who had broken through from the apex of the XianTian realm was left on that very mountain!"
"Sssssss…." Ling Tian took a sharp intake of cold air, he had long guessed that the final battle would be cruel beyond belief, but he did not imagine that it would have reached this point! An entire continent of martial artists was actually eradicated, even an expert who had broken through the apex of the XianTian realm was unable to escape! This was simply outrageous and unimaginable!
Ye QingChen had a dismal expression on his face as he continued, "In the end, those who were left no longer had the manpower nor resources to continue, and those still alive did not even have the strength to lift their fingers. The battle came to an impasse and had to be postponed, for those that were still alive barely numbered over a thousand! They consisted of Outside Heavens Sect’s leader, as well as two protectors, a few scattered members of various sects, and the Beyond Heavens Sect leader Sun ZhengYang with nine others; all with major injuries! They were destined never to recover their peak cultivations."
"Facing this tragic sight that looked like a scene from hell, the two leaders burst into tears of grief! They beat themselves up due to guilt and swore, with the mountain of corpses as witnesses, that both of their sects would from then on never take part in any mortal battles. They then commanded all the other sects in the pugilistic world to never seek revenge! From then on, unless they had something of importance, all martial sects were to keep themselves secluded from the ordinary citizens! The mountain which involved the final battle was then renamed as mountain of no hatred, to symbolize that everyone who walked down the mountain no longer bore any grudges in their hearts!"
Ling Tian blew out a breath in amazement, as it turns out, the reason why this world had no signs of martial arts was because of the battle a millennium ago! So, the story behind this was actually so tragic and grim!
"In the return journey, tens of the heavily injured martial practitioners left their mortal frames. Only after half a year of returning to Heavenly Star Continent did the news of the battle at the sea come. Over ten thousand men had ended in mutual destruction in the battle of the three continents and, out of those alive, there were no generals nor marshals left! The blood spilled had turned the entire surrounding sea red, without being diluted for the next few months. Corpses were piled to the point they formed a land mass on their own. After this, the location was renamed as the sea of bloody spirits! The three continents were never able to recover from this setback."
Ye QingChen raised his cup silently, drinking three consecutive cups while sighing unceasingly. Ling Tian was completely immersed in the experience, thinking of the grand and imposing seniors of the past, riding their warhorses across the countless miles of the battlefield. He could not help but show bloodlust in his eyes! Able to participate in the battle of such grandeur, how could there be any regret in their lives? How could one be unhappy if they lived? Or be sad if they passed away?
Ye QingChen did not notice the bloodlust in Ling Tian’s eyes, instead speaking in a low tone slowly, "The next few decades were spent in peace, as every continent slowly recovered. People with talent appeared once again, each occupying positions of power. Centuries passed, and every continent rose from the ashes, ready for another round of power shuffling. However, the difference this time was that no one from any of the martial sects took part, and this only involved internal power struggles within each continent. Thus, it was still relatively peaceful."
"Those cultivators who returned from the mountain of no hatred, after returning to their own sects, set down a will to be passed down the moment they returned. It stated that all their children and grandchildren would never be allowed to take part in the wars of the empires and can never involve themselves in any political battles! They were to live in seclusion, living lives as ordinary people. Were they to disobey these instructions, they would receive punishment from the heavens!"
Ling Tian nodded his head silently, thinking to himself, ‘Those lucky few were really seniors of wisdom. Though the will was harsh, it was able to guarantee that their family remained prosperous, without a possibility of being destroyed!’
"However, amongst these few martial sects and families, there were two powers that had their major characters all killed by the other party. Thus, their hatred was irreconcilable and without any chance of compromise. Even though the Outside Heavens Sect of the Heavenly Wind, as well as the Beyond Heavens Sect of the Heavenly Star stepped in to mediate, they were unable to reach a consensus!"
"Left without a choice, the two super sects could only set some rules: The two families were not allowed to take part in any personal duels. But once every sixty years, the two families would deploy 10 representatives for a battle and the defeated would have to provide gifts to the younger generation of the victors. As for those involved in the battle, their life and death would be decided by the heavens and no one would be allowed to take revenge in secret, or rile up trouble! If any of the rules were flouted, the Outside Heavens and Beyond Heavens Sect would both join hands together and level both families to the ground, letting them disappear into history! For the past millennia, both families have followed this agreement, which is why this place is a lot more peaceful!"
"Dare I ask Senior, these two parties, which are they?" Ling Tian held onto his cup gently, seemingly asking a casual question, but he had already determined the houses to be the Yu Family of the Northern Wei Empire, as well as the ‘Water of Heavenly Wind’. Ling Tian could not help but think about what Xue Leng had said the other night, ‘The thousand-year agreement by our ancestors, the sixty-year battles of three generations!’ Were they the same thing?
Indeed, Ye QingChen confirmed his suspicions, "The two houses are the Yu Family, residing in Northern Wei Empire of Heavenly Star Continent, as well as the millennia old martial family at Heavenly Wind Continent, the Shui Family, nicknamed ‘Water of Heavenly Wind’! In the past, they were known as such: ‘Water of Heavenly Wind, Jade of Heavenly Star. When water meets jade, none shall escape!’ When this sentence was created, there was no one unaware nor did anyone not understand the meaning!"
Ling Tian thought to himself, ‘Indeed, that’s the case!’ But instead, he asked another question, "I know that Mister’s martial arts are exceedingly close to the pinnacle Saint Realm. Might I ask, what do you think of the martial arts of the world currently? What is your judgment, and how would you grade it?"
Ye QingChen merely sighed, "Pinnacle? Saint Realm? How many people actually dare to pass judgment? This old man was never willing to be unduly humble, and I’ve also asked myself once why I could not reach the pinnacle. It could be due to the ferocious battle a millennium ago, which resulted in a huge loss in the constitution of martial arts of the three great continents. Close to 70% or 80% of the top-class skills and manuals have become extinct because of that, never to resurface amongst mankind!"