The Mortal Realm is vast. The ocean lies amidst the land like a basin, and the continent stretches endlessly.
The Purple Luo Mountain Range is boundless, with dense forests inhabited by fierce beasts roaming around.
The rustling of the grass is heard, as a simple, graceful figure walks through the dense forest with a bamboo basket on her back. Her fair, slender hands occasionally pick a strange flower or herb, placing it into the basket behind her.
"The Fire Soft Flower is already collected, just need three more Moon Intestine Grass, and the Sakura Sand Root; once I gather these rare medicines, I can refine the Blood Harmony Pill, and father’s illness will be cured." This graceful figure had a charming face, with bright eyes and pearly teeth; as she walked, her dark eyes surveyed the surroundings, unaware that the sparkling sweat on her brow was about to drip.
After walking for a while in the dense forest, apart from the gentle breeze, the rustling of leaves and flowers, there was no other noise around.
Suddenly, as if hearing a sound from afar, the simple woman lifted her head and looked into the distance.
A streak of black smoke shot up, soaring into the sky; the simple woman was stunned, her face turning ashen white.
"That’s the direction of the tribe!" The simple woman frantically ran forward, tripping over jagged stones on the ground and nearly falling off the mountain. Ignoring the scratches on her body, she reached an open area and looked down.
"Father!" A heart-wrenching wail echoed through the dense forest.
At the base of this mountain, there was a small tribe occupying a few miles, living an isolated life by the mountain and river... yet at this moment, the small tribe of less than five thousand was engulfed in a large fire, with black smoke rising, and helpless humans fleeing in terror everywhere.
However, what made them feel even more desperate was a relentless wall of fire completely isolating the tribe. The flames burned everything that came close; anyone who crossed the wall of fire was ignited, letting out sharp wails as they painfully twisted into a dried corpse.
The tribesmen witnessing this began to retreat, not daring to step beyond the boundary, despair, fear, and hopelessness written on every face. If hell existed in this world, they would believe it, for they were right in the midst of Purgatory!
"Father! Clan Leader! Brother He!" The simple woman cried out heart-breakingly, as the wall of fire relentlessly shrank, pressing toward the gathered tribesmen. Houses, cattle, and sheep were reduced to ashes in an instant. In another moment, this wall of fire would directly annihilate all the tribespeople, reaping their lives.
"Ha ha! Fear, despair, use your resentment, anger, injustice, and fear as nourishment to feed my Flying Sword!"
A gaunt man in a blue robe floated in the air; his voice was hoarse and maniacal, with a joyful intent to kill in his eyes. He tightly gripped a blood-red Longsword, its blade covered in fresh blood, from which emerged twisted, pained heads that roared, filled with endless resentment.
The more terrified and despairing the tribespeople below, the more heart-wrenching their cries, the more heads appeared on the blood-red Longsword. The gaunt man let out a sinister laugh. This Resentful Ghost Flying Sword had absorbed nearly ten thousand people’s resentment; once the tribesmen below perished, the resentful souls would become the best nourishment, pushing the Flying Sword’s power beyond its limits, ascending to a higher level!
The wall of fire moved closer and closer; the simple woman ran madly down the mountain, crying out in pain.
The tribespeople knelt on the ground, loudly begging the blue-clad figure in the sky for mercy.
"Immortal, do not kill us, we have done no wrong, we beg you to forgive us!"
"Spare our tribe, merciful Immortal in the sky, we plead with you!"
This was merely a group of ordinary mortals; the figure standing in the sky made them tremble with fear. This was the legendary Celestial God, only an Immortal could stand in the heavens, but why? We have not committed a grave sin, why does the Immortal bring down fire to punish us?
The gaunt man in the blue robe paid no heed to the humans’ pleas on the ground. Killing these mortals was, in his eyes, akin to squashing ants.
"Hmm? Another one?" The gaunt man in the blue robe suddenly noticed the simple woman rushing up from the mountain below. He revealed a sinister smile, waved his hand, and an invisible force lifted the simple woman, throwing her directly into the wall of fire.
Within the wall of fire, the tribespeople gathered, yet there was no joy in their eyes, only fear and desperation.
A figure in a black robe abruptly appeared, standing directly before the gaunt man in the blue robe.
"Ah..." The gaunt man in the blue robe was startled; this black-robed figure appeared silently, without any warning, causing him to retreat repeatedly, "Who are you!"
The tribespeople below, who had been praying for the Immortal to spare them, saw another Celestial God appear, and began to cry more intensely, wailing loudly as they pleaded with the newly appeared Immortal for mercy.
Yet the black-robed figure shook a white scroll in hand, glanced at it, then at the gaunt man in the blue robe, and nodded.
"It’s you, no doubt about it."
With these words just spoken, the black-robed figure extended a large hand. The gaunt man in the blue robe couldn’t even react before he was gripped firmly. Then, there was a light "pop" sound, and the life force of the gaunt man in the blue robe was utterly extinguished.
Flames flared, turning the shattered flesh into ashes in the hand, as a Cyan Blade emerged at the feet of the black-robed figure, and shot out directly as a streak of cyan light.