Aspiring to the Immortal Path

The Chessboard Mountains were located in the southwestern region of the Heavenly Summit Divine State. This sprawling mountain range was said to be home to 9,481 mountains, and while some suspected this number to be exaggerated, nobody doubted that it was the largest mountain range in the northern continent.

The headquarters of the Stellar Net Gate was located here.

The highest peak of the Chessboard Mountains was the Heavenly Essence Mountain, its peak thrusting into the clouds. Upon this cloud-ringed summit was a majestic palace, the principal palace of the Stellar Net Gate: the Eonic Palace.

Owing to its altitude and the surrounding cloud layer, the Eonic Palace appeared like a heavenly Immortal palace, glowing with a divine light and circled by flocks of cranes. On occasion, one could see Immortals flying about, on their own or atop clouds, adding to the divinity of this place.

But the normally relaxed atmosphere was broken today by the ringing of a bell.

This was an ancient bronze bell suspended above the Eonic Palace. It was surrounded by twinkling stars, and with every toll, one of those stars would go out, and the next toll would be even deeper.

This was the famous Fallen Star Bell of the Stellar Net Gate.

Although the Fallen Star Bell was just a divine treasure, its reputation had nothing to do with its sonic powers. This bell had been forged by Reverend Celestial Music of the Vast Wilderness Continent, and it was capable of letting out sorrowful tones that confused the mind, casting opponents into immense sorrow that drained them of their will to fight.

But this treasure had the special property of growing stronger with each toll. To express the power of a real divine treasure, it would need ten-some tolls, but at a hundred tolls, it was said that it could make the heavens and earth themselves wail in grief, the sun and moon shed tears.

But cultivators weren't foolish enough to let their opponents accumulate power for such a powerful attack. Usually, the bell was only able to toll a few times before the opposing party threw over a few spell arts, which was enough to interrupt its tempo, so the bell wasn't very practical. Reverend Celestial Music was ultimately overcome with indignation and sorrow over the limitations of the bell, and one day, holding it in his hands, he committed suicide. His will attached to the bell in death, increasing its power but doing nothing to fix its flaws.

Not long after that, the Stellar Net Gate bought the bell and hung it over the Eonic Palace. They applied a secret art to it that surrounded the bell with stars, each star representing a cultivator at Violet Palace or higher. Each new Violet Palace cultivator would mean a new star. At Earth Immortal, this star would become a moon, and a sun at True Immortal. Gold Immortals would no longer be tracked on the bell.

In the same fashion, with the death of a Violet Palace cultivator, a star would go out, and the bell would toll.

Over the years, the number of stars on the Fallen Star Bell had risen from the initial 212 to 388, manifesting a sect's ascent and glory.

In this period, the bell had tolled only once or twice at a time, mostly for a person reaching the end of their lifespan.

But today's tolling broke the pattern.

When the first toll rang out, the Immortals of Heavenly Essence Mountain were startled and wondered which of their colleagues had passed. They hadn't heard of anyone reaching the limits of their age recently, so it must have been one of those who had gone to the Court of Myriad Domains. This was a dangerous adventure, so it wasn't strange for one or two to die.

Just when they were about to go back to their business, the bell tolled a second time, and then a third, a fourth…

The Immortals were stunned, but the bell continued to ring, each toll pounding against their hearts and unsettling their minds. The resting found it hard to sleep, those playing chess couldn't bring themselves to play their pieces, those playing zithers snapped their strings, and the painters spilled their ink. All of them stared in dumbfounded shock at the Eonic Palace as the bell tolled for the eighth time.

The Fallen Star Bell did not care about their reaction, continuing to ring out, and as the number of tolls climbed, the tolls became all the more tragic.

The sound was of mourning, weeping!

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The Immortals began to tremble, one of them shouting, "Impossible! There must be something wrong!"

Yes, everyone chose to reject the sound in their ears, preferring to believe that some heartless bastard was playing a trick, some idiot was messing around—even though they knew that there were no idiots in the Eonic Palace.

No matter what they thought, the bell continued to toll, and none of their prodigious power could stop it. In front of this bell, they trembled like helpless children.

No longer able to contain themselves, they flew to the Eonic Palace, and all the while, the bell continued to ring, thundering in their hearts, stirring up clouds of sorrow and tears of misery.

When the bell tolled for the thirtieth time, the sorrow began to flood out of the mountain, and even those who didn't know the bell's meaning began to feel an inexplicable sorrow, each toll like a knife stabbing into their hearts.

By the time they reached the palace, they found the doors open. A man in a robe adorned with silver stars held a mallet and sorrowfully struck it against the bell again and again, and with each swing, a star disappeared.

"Sect Master!" the Immortals all cried out.

And then they saw a group of people kneeling in the square: none other than Yan Beiqiu's group.

But this group that had left with more than a hundred people now only had ten-some left.

Why was there even an Earth Immortal missing?

Could it be…

Their vision went dark.

"Beiqiu, what's going on here?" A True Immortal charged out and roared, "Where's everyone else? Why were you guys the only ones to come back?"

The normally cunning Yan Beiqiu simply wept.

Her behavior and the endless tolling of the bell made their hearts go cold.

The tolling grew increasingly mournful. In all of its existence, it had never before so fully manifested its power, and its moment had finally come. Even Immortals with their godly wills could not maintain their composure before this flood of sorrow, all of them kneeling before the steps and beginning to weep.

The sounds of lamentation grew louder and louder, and when the bell tolled for the hundredth time, its sound resounded throughout the entire Heavenly Summit Divine State, and everyone seemed to hear that weeping coming over the horizon.

The bell rang 104 times in total before finally stopping, and with the last toll, a moon representing an Earth Immortal also went dark.

This world was finally able to experience the immense power of the Fallen Star Bell, everyone plunged into an immense sorrow, even the trees and stones shedding tears.

Numerous disciples, True Immortals, Earth Immortals, and True Lords were prostrate in the square, all hierarchy or concerns about image disappearing, everyone holding their heads and weeping.

Only the sect master seemed to ignore the Fallen Star Bell's power. After striking the bell for the 104th time, he turned and entered the hall.

In the depths of the palace, the sect master fell to his knees and shouted, "This incompetent Xing Lan caused the deaths of the supporting pillars of the sect. Ancestor, please punish me!"

A sigh resounded. "I already know of this matter. Did we find out who did this?"

Yan Beiqiu immediately replied, "This disciple is incompetent!"

She naturally meant that she hadn't been able to find the culprit.

"Did you bring back any bodies?"

"Only one," Yan Beiqiu said, taking out a body. This was one of those that Tang Jie had used to frame the Bejeweled Star Lord. Yan Beiqiu had taken it and used a secret art to seal it and prevent it from turning into Returned Remnants.

A wind blew over the corpse, and two beams of light issued from the corpse's eyes, projecting an image into the air. In the image, the last thing he saw was displayed: Tang Jie swinging his blade down.

"It was him?" Yan Beiqiu shuddered.

She naturally couldn't forget this person.

"Do we know this person's name and background?" Sect Master Xing Lan asked.

A person on the side replied, "This person is called Hong Qianli. His cultivation is at Soul Projection, but his sect is unknown. He seems to be a wandering cultivator."

"'A wandering cultivator'? How could a wandering cultivator dare to attack my Stellar Net Gate? And how could he kill more than a hundred of my sect's elites? There must be a conspiracy behind this!" that elderly and majestic voice resounded.

Xing Lan immediately replied, "Master, can you reverse the scene any more than this?"

The majestic voice sighed. "No. It's been too long since the incident, and his soul has already dissipated. Being able to see his last moment was the limit. But since we have an appearance and a name, then no matter where this person runs, he can't escape the Overflowing Heaven Divination."

"'The Overflowing Heaven Divination'?" Xing Lan said in alarm. "Master, are you speaking of that senior?"

The elderly voice in the palace replied, "Didn't the Heaven's Equal Sect also lose many people? If they have no idea on the culprit, then even the Overflowing Heaven Divination can do nothing. They need our information, and we need them. Go—take this information to the Heaven's Equal Sect. They will tell us where this Hong Qianli is."

"Master, please punish me!" In a small room in the back mountains of the Heaven's Equal Sect, Whitebrow Shao kneeled on a mat, his body trembling as he tearfully spoke.

Shockingly, the person he was prostrating to seemed to be a child of only seven or eight.

The boy waved his hand and had Whitebrow Shao rise, and then he gave an elderly sigh. "Forget it. This was a calamity that they were destined to encounter. For this trip to the court, I performed a divination. I saw that while there was great danger, if they could turn this danger into fortune, they would be able to seize the blessing of the heavens. Alas, this was not their destiny."

"'The blessing of the heavens'?" Whitebrow Shao was aghast. "Was the person who killed them someone favored by Fate?"

The boy slowly nodded. "If not for that, how could he have killed so many members of the Heaven's Equal Sect and left us with no clue to find him with?"

"Then…"

"Don't panic, don't panic," the boy said. "The clues will naturally come. There are plenty of ways to overcome Fate and catch the criminal. At the very least, that old friend of mine has a lot of experience in this."

Whitebrow Shao was once more shaken. "Master, do you mean that other master? But would he agree?"

"He will. Even without using the Overflowing Heaven Divination or peering into Fate, I know that he will come." The boy suddenly stopped speaking, gazing into the distance. "He's more impatient than I expected. He's already here."

A few moments later, several figures flew over, led by an Earth Immortal in blue robes, the image of a rooster emblazoned on his chest. This man prostrated in front of the hut and said, "On orders of the Godhead of my lowly sect, the lowly Mou Siming pays respects to the Ageless Immortal Elder."

The boy nodded and said, "Did you bring what I need?"

"Yes, Immortal Elder." Mou Siming raised his hands, and a projection emerged from his palms, displaying Tang Jie.

"This person is called Hong Qianli, and he is a Soul Projection cultivator. He participated in the massacre of my sect's cultivators. We currently do not have any other details."

Unexpectedly, the boy's eyes glowed as he said, "He is circled by such powerful Fate energy, the sign of one blessed by the world… Having him will be enough!"

He threw out an eight trigrams mirror, which reflected the image of that projection, next to which appeared the words "Hong Qianli."

This image in the mirror ascended, and an image of the Vast Wilderness Continent appeared beneath. Tang Jie's projection circled in the air before suddenly rushing toward the continent below.

"Found him!" Mou Siming shouted in delight.

But the area indicated by the mirror was so vast that it was impossible to display it in its entirety within the mirror.

"Such a big area?" Mou Siming was startled.

The Overflowing Heaven Mirror was a Fate Dao armament. As it was able to control Fate, so long as one had sufficient details, the mirror could reveal everything. But for the mirror to only display a region was very rare indeed.

Even the Ageless Immortal Elder was startled. He concluded, "Perhaps it has to do with the power of Fate surrounding him. We might be able to narrow the area down if we're closer."

He was unaware that Hong Qianli was a fake name. With one of the conditions incorrect, it was naturally difficult to pin down his location. There were many people with similar appearance who shared the same name, but basically none who had both the same name and exactly the same appearance. For this reason, the Overflowing Heaven Mirror required these basic conditions, with additional details enhancing the result. If the basic conditions were wrong, it would naturally be difficult to get an accurate result.

In the past, the Ageless Immortal Elder would have definitely noticed a problem. But the Heaven's Equal Sect had never made such a low-level mistake before, so he wasn't mentally prepared for such a situation, and Tang Jie was also tangled in threads of Fate. The Dao of Fate was mysterious and unfathomable, and its powers could manifest in all kinds of ways. It wasn't strange for one of these abilities to be countering divination.

After some thought, the Ageless Immortal Elder said, "Whitebrow, you have made a grave error which led to devastating losses to my sect's elites. You are to immediately go to the Heart Devouring Stream and be punished for five hundred years."

Whitebrow Shao said in a trembling voice, "Yes!"

The Ageless Immortal Elder added, "Flowing Wind, take the Overflowing Heaven Mirror and go with them to catch that Hong Qianli child."

"Your disciple will obey." A young man emerged from the void, bowing to the Ageless Immortal Elder. Taking the mirror, he flew off.

"As you command!" Xing Lan deeply bowed.