Chapter 1472: The Defeat of the Mysterious Gate

Chen Changsheng slowly lost all sense of the passing years.

Fast was exactly that—fast. Slow was exactly that—slow.

When a person could no longer feel the speed of time, it meant that segment of their life had lost its meaning.

This was the inevitable end awaiting everyone.

Or, for a very rare few, the beginning.

Sometimes, a simple "you get used to it" glossed over a great many things.

It was like the chessboard sitting before Chen Changsheng. The game held endless variations, but as it progressed, personal styles solidified, abandoning the bold, interesting moves of the early game.

Perhaps that was exactly why, from then on, Chen Changsheng never won another game of chess against the Demon Sovereign.

...

The Spiritual Energy of the Immortal Realm was changing.

This shift had already put many cultivators on high alert. Jiu Fengchun hid as best he could, but in the end, he was still discovered.

Wherever he went, the mountains and rivers lost their spirit, and the vegetation withered. His pursuers simply followed this trail of decay. As he stepped out from a mountain pass, he found countless cultivators gathered before him, waiting.

He had no idea where they had all come from, but it was obvious they had been hunting him for a very long time.

Countless eyes locked onto him. Jiu Fengchun wanted to turn and run, but his path of retreat was already sealed.

More figures were slowly approaching from behind.

"Monster!"

As the curse echoed through the air, Jiu Fengchun understood that he wouldn't be able to escape this time.

"That is the man! He practices demonic arts and devours the world's Spiritual Energy, leaving all things to wither and all life to die out!"

"Such a vile abomination—everyone has the right to strike him down!"

On that day, Jiu Fengchun offered no explanations, nor did he beg them for mercy as he might have in the past.

He killed every single one of them.

Fresh blood and flesh fell before his eyes. Corpses littered the ground in front of the mountain and behind it.

After slaughtering them, Jiu Fengchun turned to leave.

But then, he noticed Spiritual Energy dissipating from their fresh corpses.

He channeled the Spirit-Devouring Three Methods, draining every last trace of Spiritual Energy leaking from the dead cultivators. The moment the Spiritual Energy was completely absorbed, their flesh and bones crumbled into ash.

"How is this any different from eating people?"

Jiu Fengchun offered a bitter smile and shook his head. He stepped over the layer of ash coating the ground and continued down the road ahead.

Because of this, he had no choice but to change direction, avoiding the main paths as he went.

...

The deaths of nearly a hundred cultivators sent a massive shockwave through the Cultivation World.

Slowly, word of the dissipating Spiritual Energy reached the ears of every cultivator.

"What?!"

"The Spiritual Energy is drying up?"

"Why am I only just now hearing about this?"

"Now that you mention it, it's true. For the past two years, the Spiritual Energy everywhere has been much thinner than before."

"Those people already knew about this, didn't they? So we were the only ones kept in the dark?"

In that moment, almost every cultivator rose in uproar.

This was a massive crisis that concerned their very fates.

The Mysterious Gate had previously worried that this news would impact the ongoing war between the demonic path and the Righteous Path, but paper could never wrap fire. Now, none of the cultivators cared about the Righteous Path anymore. When grand ideals were weighed against personal survival, most people chose themselves.

It was simply human nature.

And it was at this exact moment that the ghost cultivators of the demonic path launched their assault on the Mysterious Gate.

With the cultivators of the Mysterious Gate fractured and divided, the Literary Dao found itself powerless to help, ultimately forced to watch helplessly as this great tribulation unfolded.

"Heavens!"

"Why must you treat our Mysterious Gate so cruelly?!"

A cultivator looked up to the sky and wept bitterly, but a ghost cultivator simply severed his head and swallowed his soul, digesting it into nether energy.

Slowly, nearly half of the immortal mountains and islands in the Cultivation World fell into the hands of the demonic cultivators.

With Shifang Island serving as the dividing line, all the lands to the south became the territory of the demonic cultivators.

The factions within the Mysterious Gate dissolved their alliances. The grand oaths they had sworn to the heavens and the earth shattered in the face of this disaster. They began to fend for themselves, refusing to intervene in outside affairs.

Some of the Mysterious Gate cultivators even abandoned their mountains, descending to the mortal realm to figure out how to survive the days to come.

The Mysterious Gate was truly coming to an end, ultimately leaving behind only isolated immortal mountains towering in place.

He Qing lamented the changes in the world. Every single day brought a new reality. Amidst this upheaval of human nature, she abandoned this region and left the battlefield of the demonic cultivators behind.

There was no longer any point in trying to save the Mysterious Gate.

But there were still those who stayed behind to hold the line against the demonic cultivators. They were the most foolish people in the world, yet they were also the ones no one dared to look down upon.

Xuanji had stayed there for a long time, memorizing the face of almost everyone present.

She bid farewell to them one by one, and each of them told her the same thing.

"The road ahead is long; may you have a future bright as brocade."

A future bright as brocade.

Xuanji didn't know how to respond, nor did she have the right to judge these people.

Once she left, there was every chance they would never see each other again.

And indeed, that was exactly what happened.

Half a month after she and He Qing departed.

The defense lines completely collapsed. Every last cultivator who had stayed behind died on the battlefield.

The demonic cultivators crossed Shifang Mountain and continued their march, corroding the rest of the Cultivation World.

It was a brutal purge, resembling the destruction of the Dao itself.

He Qing murmured, "The destruction of the Dao..."

"What?"

Xuanji froze for a moment.

He Qing turned to her. "Don't you see? This entire upheaval is aimed directly at the cultivators of this world. Spiritual Energy is the foundation of a cultivator, but it is not the foundation of the Dao. The demonic path falling into the Ghost Dao is the exception to the rule. With the Spiritual Energy dissipating and the Ghost Dao taking power, the thing being destroyed... is the Dao of the Daoist Gate."

Xuanji went blank for a moment.

Then He Qing continued, "It is all happening in the unseen workings of fate—it is the will of the heavens at play. This is no longer a situation that any single person can change."

Xuanji fell silent, seemingly understanding what He Qing meant.

"So what do we do now?" she asked.

"We just keep moving forward," He Qing replied. "The tribulation is already upon us. Whether we survive it or not depends entirely on luck."

"Luck..."

Xuanji figured that her luck had always been pretty good.

More than anything, she was curious about what the world would look like after the great tribulation passed.

Would cultivators simply cease to exist?

Would the ghost cultivators rule the world from then on?

It truly was a world-shattering change.

...

Manyue watched the ever-growing number of ghost cultivators filling the city. In her heart, she finally breathed a long sigh of relief.

All of her plans were proceeding methodically.

It wouldn't be many years before everything reached its conclusion.

This struggle, which had raged for thousands of years, was finally coming to an end.

Manyue glanced to the side, spotting Meng Po slowly walking over.

Meng Po looked toward the distant Ghost City and murmured, "New rules are being established. This world is constantly changing. Have you thought about where you will go from here?"

Manyue paused, then replied, "Where should I go? Where can I go?"

Meng Po shook her head, offering no response.

She was always like this, leaving her words hanging in the air.