Transcending the Nine Heavens

“After that, they left me some instructions and left.
When they were leaving, I seemed to hear a woman’s voice say, ‘Yin and yang are only formed when there are male and female.’ That heretical young man nodded incessantly and smacked the few metal fragments once before he said surreptitiously, ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ Then, they disappeared in a flash.”

No matter how silly Chu Yang was, he could also tell that those eight tiny metal fragments seemed to be the Nine Tribulations Sword? But why were there eight fragments?

“After that, I picked up those eight metal fragments and realized that they formed a sword when put together.
I used it as my sword until 20,000 years later when I followed their instructions and came to the Nine Heavens Continent to look for the fated ones.
But when I was here, I discovered that everyone here was filled with greed and fighting viciously amongst themselves.
People schemed against me constantly… At this point, the voice of that heretical young man suddenly appeared in my mind.
He said, ‘When the hearts of people are condemnable, they ought to be killed.’ As such, in a fit of anger, I folded the Nine Heavens, intending to destroy this world.”

“But at this point, the heretical young man’s voice rang in my mind again.
‘Hey, I haven’t finished yet.
When the hearts of people are condemnable, they ought to be killed; but when the hearts of people can be changed for the better, we should edify them whenever possible.’ But at that time, the Nine Heavens had already been half-destroyed by me.”

Xue Leihan had a wry smile on his face.
“I hastily tried to put it back together but I could only shape it into a nine-storey pagoda.
Furthermore, in my haste, it was not stable at all; the moment I put it together, it collapsed again.
And so, I folded the dimension once more, forming the three Heavens.
For some reason, the eight tiny metal fragments in my bosom were shaking non-stop.
Then, they flew out from my bosom and assembled themselves into a sword in front of me before dissembling once more and disappearing in a flash into this continent.”

“However, when the sword disappeared, this continent that had been folded into three Heavens by me also finally stabilized.”

“Then, for some reason, the legend of the Nine Tribulations Sword was birthed.”

When Xue Leihan reached this point, he drank four to five cups of wine in succession before he smiled wryly.
“Everyone knows that the person who folded the Nine Heavens is the master of the Nine Tribulations Sword, but only I know that I’m not! Other than using the sword for 20,000 years and cultivating the spiritual awareness of the sword into a Sword Spirit, I am not the master of the Nine Tribulations Sword at all! The generations of Nine Tribulations Sword Masters are the masters of the sword.”

“But the true master of the Nine Tribulations Sword is but only one — the man who wields the sword through the heavens when all returns to their origin!”

Xue Leihan’s scorching gaze fixated on Chu Yang.
“And you are exactly at the point where all returns to their origin — the ninth Nine Tribulations Sword Master! In other words, you are the one whom those two had chosen.
Now, you should understand why I came specially to explain to you, don’t you…”

He smiled bitterly.
“I can neither kill nor offend you.
Yet I cannot help you either.
When you’ve misunderstood me… How can I not explain myself to you?” Xue Leihan, the all-powerful expert who had folded the Nine Heavens, heaved a heavy sigh.
“…How would I dare to mess with you!”

Chu Yang was in a stupor after hearing all these.

He finally understood now.

There was probably still an enormous secret concealed within the Nine Tribulations Sword.

It definitely didn’t stop at just the Nine Tribulations Sword Technique!

“I understand now,” replied Chu Yang solemnly as he took a deep and chilly breath.

Xue Leihan said, “Therefore, you must reach my level within ten thousand years in order to battle the Extraterrestrial Demons!”

Chu Yang gave him the wryest smile from the bottom of his heart.
“Brother Xue, how old are you this year?”

Xue Leihan was silent for a moment as he calculated.
“Slightly below a million.”

Chu Yang nodded heavily.
“Bro, you’ve cultivated for a million years in order to reach where you are now.
Yet you expect me to overtake you within 10,000 years… to battle the Extraterrestrial Demons.
Right now, I can’t even go up to the Nine Heavens Imperial Court… Don’t you feel that this is kinda… you know?”

Xue Leihan said seriously, “I’m speaking the truth.”

Chu Yang replied with equal seriousness, “So am I.”

They looked at each other in silence.

“I don’t care,” said Xue Leihan.
“Now, I’m going to explain to you about your past life.”

Chu Yang stretched a little and slumped onto the jade table, saying somewhat idly, “Go on.”

“Your past life is something that you have really experienced.” Xue Leihan continued, “When you got the sword tip of the Nine Tribulations Sword, I sensed it at once and came down to take a look.
Yet when I did, I was immensely disappointed — You had only gotten the sword tip and nothing else.
This was completely different from the other generations of the Nine Tribulations Sword Master.
Yet you’re the most important generation, so how did this happen? Therefore, I observed you in close detail.”

“But as I did, I got even more puzzled.
This Nine Tribulations Sword Master was too unfortunate.
I checked the Heavenly Secrets, only to see a complete mess; I was unable to predict your future at all.
Finally, during that time at the Wind Thunder Platform, the time-space dimension went into terrible disorder.”

“After that, I discovered that everything had returned to where it had started.
As for why you had to re-do it all over again, I was completely puzzled as well.
But at that exact moment where time-space dimension had gone into disorder, I could sense the divine consciousness which that heretical young man had left behind shake violently for a moment before it disappeared.
If my guess is right, he should be the cause of it.”

Xue Leihan held out his hands.
“It has nothing to do with me at all.
Furthermore, I can neither save you nor stop it from happening.”

“Everything returning to where it started… This means that all those things that happened in your past life have never ever happened.
You can take it as a dream.” Xue Leihan asked, “Do you understand now?”

Chu Yang looked at him in innocence.
“Do you want to hear the truth?”

Xue Leihan smiled.
“Of course.”

Chu Yang held out his hands in resignation and moaned, “To be frank, I’m ten thousand times more confused now than when you haven’t explained anything!!”