Chapter 130: Soul-Severing, Spirit-Slaying Slash

The moon is full! The night is as bright as day!

At the peak of Mount Luoling, Nan Luo stood quietly, gazing out at the world and the entirety of the mountain range. He reflected on the days when he first arrived, greeted by all the living creatures of the mountain, and thought back to the long, weary years he had been trapped within the Lunar Stele. Only now, in this moment, did he finally grasp the sheer exhilaration of perceiving the world with his own true eyes and feeling it with his own physical body.

Quan Yin had offered her soul to take Nan Luo’s place, allowing him to escape. Nan Luo had not refused. Yet, the reality of the situation was far from as simple as Nan Luo or the woman in purple had envisioned. Emperor Jun plotted against the heavens and the earth, even disrupting the cycle of reincarnation; how could he ever let anyone escape so easily?

Although Quan Yin had successfully replaced him on the Lunar Stele, Nan Luo’s soul had not emerged intact. He had only been able to retrieve half of it through the soul-manipulation arts of the woman in purple, after which he found it impossible to break free any further. In desperation, he had been forced to let the woman in purple sever the connection. If not for her secret arts protecting him, the very moment his soul was severed, Nan Luo would have been scattered into oblivion.

While he had not lost his three spirits and seven souls, each was now only half-complete. Under normal circumstances, an injured soul that cannot be mended in time—even if it does not lead to immediate death—risks eventual dissipation. Given that Nan Luo was missing half of his essence, he would surely have perished had it not been for the woman in purple.

Surviving the initial severance, however, did not guarantee long-term safety. Thus, she had imparted to him a method for nourishing the soul, a specialized practice for tempering his spirit. She claimed that at its highest level, it could even summon spirits and command souls. Nan Luo did not covet such power; he only desired to mend his fractured soul as quickly as possible.

After helping him escape the Lunar Stele and passing on the Daoist technique, the woman in purple had departed. Before leaving, she told him her name was Meng Ziyi. When Nan Luo asked why she was no longer afraid of being known, she sighed and replied that those who cared already knew, and since there was nowhere left to hide, she had no choice but to face them.

In the end, her expression turned cold as she declared, "I would like to see who can do anything to me once I return to the Mountain of a Thousand Turns and Infinite Calamity. Let them scheme with all their might and employ every divine ability; they surely cannot collapse the cycle of heaven and earth."

Nan Luo found her words enigmatic. He understood only that someone was plotting against her, or perhaps that she was merely a single piece in a much grander design, and that targeting her was merely a process rather than the ultimate goal. These were only vague, fleeting intuitions; he could not be certain, and he feared that even Meng Ziyi herself did not fully understand the nature of the game.

Watching her draw soul-runes in the void and form a mysterious array centered on that snow-white rock, he couldn't help but ask about the stone and the three characters etched upon it. This time, she did not conceal the truth. She explained that the stone was the Stone of Three Lives, formed alongside the Mountain of a Thousand Turns and Infinite Calamity. It was not a magical treasure in the traditional sense, yet it possessed boundless and profound uses.

Having said this, she began to tap rapidly upon the stone, her hands enveloped in a hazy, seven-colored spiritual glow as she traced complex runes into the air. Her movements grew slower and seemingly more arduous until, finally, a hazy valley appeared in the void, manifesting slowly within the Luoling Cave. Nan Luo recognized it clearly; it was the very valley he had carried Meng Ziyi through years ago. She had told him then that the valley drifted outside the world, without a fixed path, and that no one could predict its movements. Yet, she had summoned it here. He thought to himself, "It seems not only are the Stone of Three Lives and the Mountain of a Thousand Turns and Infinite Calamity inseparable, but she herself is one with them."

What kind of existence was this Mountain of a Thousand Turns and Infinite Calamity? He turned his thoughts to himself and the Emperor’s machinations. "Is the Emperor of Heaven plotting something? She said the cycle of reincarnation is in chaos—is this connected to him? If so, someone must be working in the shadows to obstruct him. Could it be the Wu Clan?"

Everything felt shrouded in mist. Ever since he had been manipulated into becoming this mountain god, he had tried to fathom the Emperor’s deeper schemes, but he lacked the perspective to analyze them. Hearing these fragments from Meng Ziyi only added to his confusion.

Most incredible of all was that after his escape from the Lunar Stele, Emperor Jun seemed entirely indifferent. When he had been besieged by enemies from all directions, Nan Luo had expected the Emperor to intervene, but he hadn't. And now, even after his escape, the Emperor remained unmoved. Nan Luo could not believe that the Emperor was unaware of the situation or lacked the means to control the Lunar Stele.

Gazing at the bright moon in the sky, he drew a deep breath and cast his worries aside. "Whatever changes the world may undergo, I have escaped. I will no longer concern myself with those affairs. I shall return to Mount Yangping."

At this thought, the image of Bei Ling, trapped beneath the steps of the Yuxu Palace, surfaced in his mind. "Yuxu Palace..." he murmured.

Nan Luo’s impression of Yuxu Palace was neither good nor bad. Though he had failed to enter its gates, he had obtained the *General Outline of Yuxu Spells* there, which had been invaluable to him when he had nowhere else to learn. During that year of climbing, his cultivation had surged, and upon returning to the Taiji Palace, he had been enlightened by the Heaven Master Tongxuan, glimpsing the threshold of the Immortal Dao.

However, since learning from Qingqing the details of Bei Ling’s capture, he felt an intense rage toward those who had seized her, especially Huang Long, who had ambushed her.

He had no confidence in his ability to rescue Bei Ling. He had spent over a year just climbing the mountain where the palace resided, and he considered the master of Yuxu Palace to be on the same level as the Heaven Master Tongxuan. Furthermore, he could currently only command a fraction of his power, and with half his soul severed, he felt like a frail invalid—not exactly ill, but weak and listless.

A year had passed since his escape. Had he not spent that time nourishing his soul in the mountains, he would likely struggle to even control his own body, let alone ride the clouds or cast spells.

Feeling he had just enough strength to protect himself, Nan Luo decided to leave. This was why he had climbed to the peak of Mount Luoling, to look down upon the world one last time. Qingqing had departed a month ago, knowing he was capable of self-protection. For this headstrong disciple, Nan Luo could only advise her to be cautious and to use the Banana Leaf Fan if she encountered danger.

As for Quan Yue, she seemed to view him as an enemy; ever since Quan Yin replaced him in the Lunar Stele, she had treated him with cold indifference. Nan Luo could only sigh; he knew he owed a debt to Quan Yin that he could never repay.

The moon hung in the center of the sky, frost covering the mountains. Nan Luo turned and departed, disappearing from the peak of Mount Luoling.

Moments after he vanished, a hazy figure appeared in his place—dreamlike and ethereal under the moonlight, drifting like a celestial being of the moon. She stood silently, her gaze fixed upon the direction in which Nan Luo had disappeared.

From afar, Nan Luo felt as though someone were watching him. He turned to look, but discovered nothing. Shaking his head, he murmured, "It seems I must find a way to heal my soul as soon as possible."

For so many years, Nan Luo had been like one trapped in a sealed chamber, oblivious to the affairs of the world. Though the world had not seen events as earth-shattering as the founding of the Heavenly Court, there was a palpable sense of a coming storm. It seemed that all the great masters had their own agendas, scheming in the dark.

To describe the current state of the Primordial World as an undercurrent of turbulent tides would be no exaggeration. Nan Luo was like a bird that had just escaped its cage, or a fish that had fought to break free from a net. He decided that once he visited Yuxu Palace, he would go nowhere else. He would return to Mount Yangping to live in seclusion, sit in meditation, and nourish his spirit. Let the world descend into chaos—what did it have to do with him?