Chapter 222 - The Previous Life

“My swordsmanship is not strong enough. How can I break the magic of the Infante-level vampires?” Feng Tianming asked to the sky.

His primordial spirit was also in a strange world. There was a gray land around, with all kinds of swords on it.

He stood in the center at a huge sword with tens of feet long planted in the ground. And there were two words carved on the sword—Sword Tomb.

“Swords are ancient holy items. As the most precious and exalted weapon, they’re advocated by both people and Gods. The Scarlet Heaven Sword is the sword of the emperors. The sword power in it contains the so-called emperor power. But I can’t activate it completely all the time.”

Feng Tianming stared at the exquisite Scarlet Heaven Sword in his hand and rubbed it with his other hand. The sword seemed to have a feeling and bloomed with a bright red light.

He continued to say to himself, “Sword Taoism. My sword Taoism can cover the sky. But how to do that? As my sword comes out, thousands of beams of sword power will flow out like rivers. To cover the sky with the supreme sword power.”

Finishing speaking, he closed his eyes and waved the sword in his hand slowly. The sword began to move with his heart and his body with the sword, therefore, his every move came from his inner heart.

He was getting faster and faster, even forming afterimages. He shuttled froth and back in the Sword Tomb, and, everywhere he passed, he would leave several afterimages which would then disappear after lingering on for a while.

Then, he violently displayed the Raging Sea and Roaring Waves to brandish the Scarlet Heaven Sword in his hand, and a beam of one-thousand-foot long sword power suddenly submerged the sky ahead like the huge wave of the doomsday.

“Clang, clang!”

Suddenly, all the swords in the Sword Tomb moved. There were tens of thousands of swords here, including many rare spiritual swords.

These swords rose to the sky one after another, all rushing toward Feng Tianming with killing intentions.

“Universal Chop!”

Feng Tianming made a roar. The holy sword in his hand immediately shone in bright red light. He brandished it down with rage.

“Rumble!”

The imperial sword power rushed out violently and crushed the first batch of swords in the front into broken bits. Then, he rushed to the sword shrubs with his sword.

He launched attacks faster and faster, and the attacks were getting heavier and heavier. With the Dance of Thousand Blades, he shuttled among thousands of swords. The thousands of beams of sword power around him became his best defense.

Now, the strength of his sword had been improved; each attack he made was the limit of his current realm. One sword after another had been broken by him, and no sword could approach his body at all.

“No, my sword needs to be stronger. Dugu Baitian could kill all the enemies with only one strike. What I need is not the sea-like sword power, but the sword power that can cover the sky!”

Feng Tianming suddenly realized at this point. He immediately reduced his sword moves and sword power, pointed his finger out to release the will of the Covering Sky Sword Skill, and began to study the real Tao Law of the Covering Sky Sword Skill.

What he wanted was not only the sky-covering sword will but also the sky-covering strength in every attack and every move he made. He now only pursued to cut everything with the least moves.

The Taoism was simple. Why pursue gorgeous and fancy sword moves? Why pursue as many moves as possible in a short time?

A move was enough. It could form thousands of strokes, and the thousands of strokes could integrate into one. It could break and cut all the things. And all these were not about swordsmanship, but about the sword will and killing intention.

He also pursued only one beam of sword power to split and cover the sky. When the sword power swung, everything was broken.

“Since then, I have to subtract those redundant moves. It’s okay to pursue speed, but there can’t be any extra move of each attack.”

Standing on that huge sword, Feng Tianming mumbled to himself. His physical body in the outside world had also undergone subtle changes at the moment. There was a beam of vague sword power surrounding him.

Part of the auras in his body was slowly becoming a kind of supreme sword power. Only a chance was needed to really stimulate this sword power.

When it was awakened, Feng Tianming could really cut everything. This sword power could break the eight directions and cover the sky.

Misawa Chihiro, who was beside him, also finally captured the Innate Prana Power. And she was now integrating the power into her body, and, at the same time, feeling the swordsmanship with the help of the experience just now.

At the moment, Leng Yueyan and Ning Zhe in another place had also made breakthroughs.

In a beautiful fairyland, Leng Yueyan’s primordial spirit sat on a stone. She was waving her arms to gather the surrounding natural Taoism.

With the ancient-historical-time Taoist body, her cultivation speed, in the era of the late arts, was only second to that of Wang Bugui owning the small pendant. Just now, she had gathered so many natural auras and attracted much Taoism power.

This was undoubtedly the best cultivation environment for Leng Yueyan. She could absorb these pieces of Taoism power and then integrate them into her body.

Sometimes, she could even gather the wills of the Taoism. Each will represented a kind of Taoism. After mixing them together and understanding them, she could create her own Taoism.

With such a terrible way of cultivation, it was no wonder that everyone possessing an ancient Taoist body would become terrifying after they grew up. In a way, they represented the Taoism.

Surrounded by the Taoism, they could activate the Taoism in each of their moves. With a lot of Taoism power close to them, they were born to be invincible.

However, some pictures disturbed her heart when she was cultivating.

“Fan Kong, I’ll let you be an immortal in this life, but are you willing to abandon Buddhism for me in the next life?”

“Yu Zhu, don’t say that.”

“I just want an answer from you. Between me and Buddhism, which one will you choose…?”

“I…”

“Hehe, you still don’t want to abandon Buddhism for me. I want you to repent for a lifetime and know that the three thousand dharmas are not as good as me…”

…

In these pictures were there only two people, which was the previous life of her and Ning Zhe. In the last life, she was still a Taoist nun, and Ning Zhe a Buddhist disciple.

It seemed that they were destined to meet each other. And just because of a passing by, a bad fate was planted in their life.

When the fate bloomed, a past that couldn’t be recalled was created.

“The Lord Lao Zi and the Three Star Kings, they never change. They drive away evil spirits and protect human beings. They are wise and clear, and their minds are peaceful. Their three spiritual souls are eternal, so are their seven animal souls.”

Leng Yueyan gestured and recited the Taoist Heart Purifying Divine Incantation to try to suppress the mind demon. But no matter how she recited the mantra, her heart couldn’t be calm.

Memories of her previous life came to her intermittently. After she came back from the Palace of Purple Clouds, she would always see these terrible past events every time she cultivated.

The fragments of memory were slowly accumulating in her mind sea. She had almost seen all the things she met in her previous life till this day.

The more she saw the past, the more she hated Ning Zhe. In the memory of her last life, she actually fell in love with him and was abandoned by him just because he was devoted to Buddhism.

No matter how she begged, he would only reply, “Please go back, benefactor Yu Zhu. Buddhism and Taoism are not interlinked. There is no fate between you and me, so let’s not meet again.”

In the last life, as Yu Zhu, she had no hesitation to disobey the will of her sect to stay with him. But in the end, when fighting for the Path to Immortality, she died for him and helped him to be immortal.

This was Leng Yueyan’s previous life, and that was why she was so disgusted with Ning Zhe. She had paid so much for him in the last life, but he was still unwilling to let go of Buddhism.

“In this life, I want you to answer me whether you choose me or Buddhism.”

Leng Yueyan looked up at the beautiful stars and whispered to herself.

Ning Zhe, who closed his eyes beside her, had already experienced all those, and he even saw more than Leng Yueyan.

Because he became an immortal in the last life. And in the years after Yu Zhu’s death, he prostrated on the ground under the bo-tree, guarding the tomb under it for three thousand years.

He recited the Buddhist scriptures day and night and missed the perished woman every night. In the end, he found out the so-called immortality and the pursuit of Buddhism were nothing after he lost her.

“How can I face her in this life? I don’t want to let her down again. But I can’t lose the Buddhism either. I have to make atonement for her, as well as repent in front of the Buddhas. How should I decide?”

“Is this the most difficult thing to neglect love in the whole life of cultivating Buddhism?”

Kneeling in front of a huge golden Buddha, Ning Zhe asked many questions. The sound of reciting the Buddhas could be heard from time to time, and the ancient temple bells were also echoing.

But the Buddha in front of him didn’t give him any answer. It just gestured in the Zen seal and looked forward mercifully. Asking the Buddha about love, he couldn’t get any answer from the Buddha.

“The answer to all this needs to be found by myself?”

Ning Zhe looked up at the Buddha, but it still made no response. Therefore, he got up slowly and walked back. All the pictures around him dissipated quickly like sand, and his primordial spirit returned from the Great Emptiness.

“You chose to get out, too.”

When he opened his eyes, he found a beautiful figure in front of him. At a glance, he found it was Leng Yueyan in a Taoist robe and who was looking at him coldly.

“I couldn’t get the answer in front of the Buddha, so I have to come out to find it myself.” Ning Zhe said slowly.

Leng Yueyan swept the horse tail duster in her hand, replying, “Thousands of years has passed, and you still haven’t figured it out yet? Since you appear here as a mortal, it proves that you regret it.”

“You still haven’t figured it out after you killed your own life, ended the immortal way and returned back to the mortal world?”

“I…” A frown sat in Ning Zhe’s eyebrows. He dared not look at the woman in front of him.

“Then tell them about it and let them evaluate it to see if you can figure it out.”

Leng Yueyan said in a cold voice. Then, she swept her sleeve to turn around with no more words.