632: Chapter 622 Imperial Tutor (22)

Qin Yun stood at the end of the wasteland, the azure pagoda suspended in his palm, the nine books and Nine Treasures circulating quietly within his body.

The wind blew from afar, carrying the scent of scorched earth after the war.

He did not immediately set off to suppress the Dark Turmoil.

Because, in that instant just now, he saw another path.

That path was not in the Heavenly Abyss, not behind the Immortal Gate, nor deep within the azure pagoda.

It was like a seed that had fallen into his heart.

The nine books and Nine Treasures were the soil.

The azure pagoda was the root.

The Mortal World was the water.

And he himself was the person who had to hold it all up.

Qin Yun lowered his head, looking at the azure pagoda in his palm, and said softly, "If the old path cannot be walked, then I shall open a new one."

The azure pagoda trembled slightly, as if in response.

Black clouds churned in the sky in the distance.

Those were not rain clouds.

They were the filthy tide remaining from the Dark Turmoil.

Qin Yun looked up, his heavy pupils unfolding.

A thousand miles away, a small city was besieged by black mist.

The city was not large.

The city walls were not high either.

There were few people defending the city, and the highest cultivation level was only Three Origins Realm.

Yet there were millions of Mortals in the city.

Some people were hugging their children and hiding in the granary, some were blocking broken doors with wooden planks, and some were sharing the last of their dry rations with their neighbors.

On the city wall, a young Cultivator gripped a broken blade, his face pale, yet he did not leave.

The veteran soldier beside him coughed twice and cursed with a smile, "Scared?"

The young Cultivator's lips trembled, but he still replied, "Scared."

The veteran soldier was stunned for a moment, then laughed even louder.

"Still not running even though you're scared?"

The young Cultivator glanced into the city, his voice very soft.

"If I run, what will happen to them?"

The veteran soldier patted his shoulder.

"You've got guts."

The young Cultivator smiled bitterly.

"Senior, my legs are just weak; I can't run."

The veteran soldier scolded, "Cowardice is cowardice; don't make excuses for yourself."

The young Cultivator grinned, his smile uglier than crying.

Outside the city, the black tide pressed closer.

A Fallen Being stepped on the black mist, black light flashing in the depths of its eyes.

It looked at these people on the city wall, its tone disdainful.

"Open the city gates and kneel."

No one on the city wall answered.

The Fallen Being said again, "You cannot hold it."

The veteran soldier spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Even if we can't hold it, we must defend it."

The Fallen Being laughed.

"For these Mortals?"

The young Cultivator gripped the broken blade tightly, his voice not loud.

"My mother is in the city."

The veteran soldier added, "My granddaughter is there too."

Another one-armed Cultivator laughed, "I don't have anyone, but I accepted the money for city defense."

The young Cultivator turned to look at him.

"How much?"

The one-armed Cultivator held up two fingers.

"Two Spirit Crystals."

The veteran soldier scolded, "Your life is too cheap."

The one-armed Cultivator let out a 'heh'.

"Can't help it, I'm poor."

The Fallen Being listened to these messy conversations on the city wall, its expression gradually sinking.

"Stupid."

It raised its hand, and the black mist transformed into a giant palm, pressing down toward the city wall.

Someone in the city cried out.

The young Cultivator looked up, watching the black palm, and his legs finally stopped trembling.

He raised the broken blade and said softly, "Mother, I've done my best."

"Your son is no coward!"

The next moment, a hand pressed onto his shoulder.

The young Cultivator's body jolted, and he turned to look.

A man in white had appeared beside him, he knew not when.

The man's expression was calm, his robes neat, not looking like he had just walked from the battlefield.

The young Cultivator opened his mouth.

"Who are you?"

Qin Yun looked at the black tide outside the city and replied, "A passerby."

The veteran soldier widened his eyes.

"A passerby? You're passing through here at a time like this?"

Qin Yun said, "I just happened to see that you are still defending."

The one-armed Cultivator swallowed his saliva.

"Brother, how is your strength?"

Qin Yun glanced at him.

"It's alright."

The young Cultivator said anxiously, "Then you should leave quickly. That thing outside is very strong. It would be good if you could take a few people with you."

The veteran soldier glared at him.

"Are you stupid? A master has arrived, and you're telling him to leave?"

The young Cultivator said with red eyes, "But he doesn't owe us anything."

"There's no need to stay and throw his life away with us."

Qin Yun was silent for a moment.

Afterward, he gently patted the young Cultivator's shoulder.

"I do owe. I have always owed."

"I owe the Mortal World an explanation."

"I owe the Nine Continents an explanation."

The young Cultivator was stunned.

Qin Yun looked up, and the phantom of the azure pagoda appeared behind him.

When the black palm descended above the city wall, it suddenly stopped.

The Fallen Being's expression changed.

"Who are you?"

Qin Yun did not answer.

He just raised his hand and waved.

Azure light spread out, and the black palm dissipated silently.

The black tide outside the city was sliced open as if by an invisible blade, splitting a wide passage down the middle.

Countless Fallen Beings turned to ashes in the azure light.

The Fallen Being wanted to retreat.

But the black mist beneath its feet had already been locked by the death book.

It said in shock and anger, "You dare to kill me? We come under the orders of the Heavenly Abyss!"

Qin Yun walked down from the city wall.

With one step, he landed outside the city.

"The Heavenly Abyss?"

He looked at the Fallen Being, his tone calm.

"Let it wait."

As the words fell, the Heart Sword swept out.

The black light in the depths of the Fallen Being's eyes split, and its entire body began to turn to ash starting from the center of its brows.

Before dying, it still wanted to say something, but it couldn't say anything at all.

The black tide retreated.

It was not a rout.

It was that the entire black tide had disappeared.

The city wall was quiet for a long time.

The young Cultivator gripped the broken blade and muttered, "We won?"

The veteran soldier raised his hand and gave him a smack on the back of his head.

"Put down the blade. Why are you still holding it up? Who are you trying to scare?"

The young Cultivator realized then, loosened his hand, and the broken blade clattered to the ground.

Crying sounds first arose in the city.

Then came laughter.

Later, everyone surged onto the streets, looking at the white-clad figure outside the city.

The one-armed Cultivator leaned against the wall and whispered, "Senior, who exactly are you?"

Qin Yun turned back.

He looked at these people on the city wall.

Looking at their blood-stained faces, looking at their trembling hands, looking at the fear that had not yet dissipated from the young Cultivator's eyes.

He suddenly felt that this scene was clearer than any Origin of the Heavenly Continent.

The path was right here.

It was right on these people who knew they were afraid of death but still did not retreat.

Qin Yun spoke.

"My name is Yun."

The veteran soldier was stunned.

The one-armed Cultivator was dumbfounded.

The young Cultivator asked blankly, "Yun? Which Yun?"

The veteran soldier suddenly knelt, his voice trembling.

"Immortal Yun."

The crowd on the city wall knelt one after another.

The young Cultivator was startled and also followed by kneeling down.

Qin Yun did not avoid it.

He accepted this gesture of respect.

Not for himself.

It was for everyone who had once stood in the front.

For Xuan Zhao.

For Lu Xingzhou.

For those who passed a half-bowl of porridge in the darkness.

Qin Yun raised his hand, and the book of life flipped.

Azure vitality sprinkled into the city.

The wounds of the heavily injured stopped bleeding.

The black light in the eyes of those on the verge of contamination receded.

The death book sank, absorbing the filth remaining in the earth's veins into the coffin patterns.

The void book spread out, repairing the cracked space outside the city.

The Luck book drew in the scattered Luck, protecting this small city once again.

The young Cultivator looked up, tears in his eyes.

"Immortal Yun, will you leave again?"

Qin Yun looked into the distance.

"Yes."

The young Cultivator opened his mouth, his expression dimming slightly.

Qin Yun added, "But I will come back."

The young Cultivator was stunned.

Qin Yun looked at him, his voice very steady.

"In the future, it won't just be me who returns."

"You yourselves must also learn to return."

The young Cultivator did not understand.

But the veteran soldier's eyes turned red as he heard this.

"Does Immortal Yun mean for us not to just wait for others to save us?"

Qin Yun nodded.

"Waiting for others to save you is not shameful."

"But one day, you must also become the people whom others wait for."

The young Cultivator looked down at his broken blade.

"Can I?"

Qin Yun said, "When you stood on the city wall just now, you already were."

The young Cultivator's tears fell instantly.

He hurriedly raised his hand to wipe them.

"My legs were still weak just now."

The veteran soldier scolded, "Even though they were weak, you didn't kneel; that's enough."

Qin Yun looked at them and suddenly smiled.

This smile was very faint.

But it made the people on the city wall feel inexplicably settled in their hearts.

Qin Yun turned and left.

The young Cultivator hurriedly shouted, "Immortal Yun, where are you going?"

Qin Yun did not stop his steps.

"To open a path."

"Open what path?"

Qin Yun's figure had already faded into the azure light, only his voice remaining in the wind.

"A path that everyone in the Mortal World can walk."

After Qin Yun left the small city, he did not go to hunt down those scattered Fallen Beings again.

He knew that the true source was still in the Heavenly Abyss.

But what he had to do now was not simply suppression.

He arrived at the center of the Nine Continents, on an old battlefield that had long been shattered.

Countless factions had once fought for Luck here.

It had also been torn open by the Dark Turmoil, creating cracks in the Great Dao.

Now, only wild grass and broken monuments remained.

Qin Yun stood in the center of the battlefield, the nine books and Nine Treasures appearing one by one.

The azure pagoda hung at the very top.

He said softly, "The old Immortal Path is high above in the outer heavens."

"The new path shall fall upon the Mortal World."

The nine books and Nine Treasures vibrated simultaneously.

The void book laid the foundation.

The book of life transformed into vitality.

The death book suppressed the bottom layer.

The Time Book stabilized the nodes of time.

The Body Scripture stirred the blood and bones of all living beings.

The Treasure book drew in the remaining light of the myriad artifacts of the Nine Continents.

The Book of Fate connected countless unbroken fates.

The Dao book gathered the Great Dao of the Nine Continents.

The Luck book gathered the scattered Luck.

The azure pagoda suppressed from the center.

A very faint staircase slowly emerged.

It did not lead to the outer heavens.

It grew from beneath Qin Yun's feet, extending to all parts of the Nine Continents.

Like a path.

Also like a bridge.

More like a staircase built from the countless Karma of the Mortal World.

Qin Yun stepped onto it.

There was no myriad of immortal light.

There were no falling heavenly flowers.

Only in a very, very distant place, in that small city that had just been saved, the young Cultivator picked up the broken blade again and stood back on the city wall.

A child shared half a cake with his injured mother.

An old man opened his door, letting refugees enter the house to shelter from the rain.

A Disciple of the academy carried his companion on his back, gritting his teeth as he walked forward.

These tiny scenes lit up bit by bit.

Turning into the light on the staircase.

Qin Yun finally understood.

The new path was not a path for him alone.

It was a path that naturally emerged when all living beings were willing to continue living, continue protecting, and continue passing a half-bowl of porridge.

Qin Yun looked up.

Deep in the Heavenly Abyss, that Emperor seemed to feel the threat.

A low roar came from the darkness.

"Yun."

Qin Yun looked toward the direction of the Heavenly Abyss, his expression calm.

"Don't rush."

"This time, I don't need anyone."

"I don't need to walk others' paths."

"I will only walk my own path."

"The path of the Mortal World."