The River Cleanses Chenyu

The Chenyu Mountains stretched out endlessly, covering nearly a million li, a span vast enough to rival a cluster of lesser worlds. A small world like 'Earth' was merely ten thousand li in circumference.

Deep within the mountains.

Three young cultivators, two boys and a girl, walked together. One carried a long staff, another wielded a great axe, and the third bore a bow and quiver.

"This trial—we have to make the top ten of Giant Ape City," said the broad-shouldered, tiger-backed youth with the great axe, his voice brimming with fighting spirit. "Only the top ten can qualify for the entire tribe's grand competition. Perform well there and the tribe will devote its full resources to training us."

"An opportunity like this comes only once every ten years. We can't afford to miss it," added the lean youth with the bow.

"We're Xiantian, but we're still mortals," the black-robed girl nodded. "Only by opening the Zifu can we truly become cultivators."

The Shaoyin clan was too powerful.

Its population was too enormous. Internal competition was fierce beyond measure.

"Look. What's that?" The broad-shouldered axe-wielder stared in shock into the distance.

"This…"

"A wave…" The lean youth and the black-robed girl stared in terror at the distant horizon.

A colossal wave, stretching beyond the horizon, surged toward them. It spanned ten thousand li—far beyond the sight of Xiantian lifeforms. Seeing a deluge taller than the mountains themselves rushing in from afar, they were utterly stunned.

Against such world-shattering power, these three Xiantian-level youths had no chance to resist.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The seemingly majestic peaks crumbled into fragments before the wave.

"No!"

"I refuse to accept this. I haven't made a name for myself."

"My mother's vengeance is still unfulfilled. I haven't killed the lord of Giant Ape City!"

Each of the three had their own wishes.

All their lives, they had never left the Chenyu Mountains. As Xiantian cultivators, their range of activity was limited to a few tens of thousands of li around Giant Ape City. The enemies they made were naturally other members of the Shaoyin clan. While the top-tier Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals stood united, a great deal of enmity festered amongst the lower ranks.

Just like in the China Ji Ning had known in his past life—one country, yet countless grudges and grievances within. When a tribe grew to such a scale, internal hatred was equally staggering.

If a monstrous genius did appear, and he killed his own kin in revenge, the high-ranking Loose Immortals, Earth Immortals, and even the Celestial Immortal ancestor would back that genius. Such backing only deepened the genius's loyalty. The Shaoyin clan's official rules demanded kindness to all tribesmen, providing basic living aid even to the poorest—this ensured that the ordinary members understood that the tribe was good to them; the evil ones were only certain individuals within it.

"No—!"

The three youths were unwilling.

Rumble.

The endless rushing waters of the Primordial River Su surged onward. A single thread of riverwater shot out ahead of the main wave, wrapping around the three youths.

"We…" The three were stupefied.

They stared blankly at their surroundings. A thin stream of riverwater had encased them like a giant bubble. Outside this bubble, the boundless River Su was wreaking havoc, shattering peaks and overturning the earth.

"What kind of power is this? This is Shaoyin territory. Who would dare attack us like this?" they wondered. As tribesmen, they knew the clan's lair was supposed to be safe. A disaster of this magnitude could only be the work of a legendary existence.

"That's…" They noticed a short, stout man standing in the sky at the center of the endless wave. He looked like a Fiendgod.

They had the sense that the boundless river was under this stout man's control.

"If I had power like that…" the youths thought, their hearts trembling with fear yet burning with desire as they watched mountains collapse and the earth churn.

…

Giant Ape City was one of the many cities in the Chenyu Mountains.

It was a settlement for mortals. Within Shaoyin, a strict hierarchy prevailed—some places were for mortals, others exclusively for cultivators. Over ten million mortals lived in Giant Ape City, along with many Xiantian lifeforms and several dozen Zifu Disciples and a single Wanxiang Adept who managed the city.

"Heavens!"

"Who did this?"

"Who dares to attack our Shaoyin clan?" The countless citizens on the streets and in their homes watched in horror as the distant wave rose like a wall of water as high as the sky. Beyond the city walls, the distant mountains collapsed and the earth churned.

The wave swept toward the city.

But a cluster of River Su water wrapped around the entire city, encasing it like a water-ball, keeping it safe.

…

From Ji Ning's perspective, the city of Giant Ape City was like a toy, bobbing up and down within the water-ball as it drifted in the flood.

Ji Ning had been trained by his father to kill since childhood, and he had roamed the wilds as a youth, killing many. He held no mercy for his enemies in the Shaoyin clan. However, for one thing, these were mortals—vast numbers of them. Killing mortals as a cultivator incurred severe karmic sin. His tribulation would already be hard enough; piling on the sin of mass slaughter would make the Heavenly Tribulation horrifically dangerous. For another, even in the depths of his hatred, he had limits.

Just as when he avenged Chuncao, he had killed Jiang He but spared Jiang He's child.

In the same way…

Ji Ning's pride made him disdain slaughtering the countless mortals of Shaoyin.

Would those mortals grow up to become cultivators? Become strong?

Then come. By all means.

If they could kill Ji Ning, then he would deserve his fate. But whoever attacked him would receive no mercy.

…

"Fiendgod!"

"Immortal!"

"Heavens."

Shaoyin's countless mortals had been spared. They looked up at the spectacle, especially at the stout man controlling the river, their hearts filled with terror.

After killing Fengmo the Fiend, Ji Ning immediately began to destroy everything to shatter the formation foundations. While he worked, Uncle White, Xiaoqing, and Mu Northson appeared at Fengmo's palace. The palace was already ruined, but Uncle White rapidly began setting up formations. He first deployed a trapping formation spanning ten thousand li, then layered even more powerful arrays.

This time, Ji Ning had spared no expense, purchasing rare treasures from Heavenly Treasures Mountain. The cost was not less than what he had spent on the formations at Mount Yan.

But because Uncle White had so little time to set them up, he had chosen formations that could be deployed quickly.

Though they were inferior to the three great deadly formations, Uncle White planned to set up a full ninety-two layers of arrays, all within a ten-thousand-li radius. Compared to that, even Mount Yan's defenses weren't so insane.

"Flee!"

"Hurry."

Ji Ning did not kill mortals.

But he showed no mercy to cultivators. Because he had broken many formation foundations, space itself could now be torn open. Some cultivators managed to flee in panic, but many more were swept away and killed by the surging River Su. Ji Ning had no leisure to protect those cultivators.

"Kill, kill, kill!" Mu Northson was the most savage. At the very start, he had charged out of Uncle White's formation range, piloting his Yixian puppet and releasing Seven Cycles Wind and Thunder, slaughtering wildly.

Primal Daoists? Wanxiang Adepts? Zifu Disciples?

Anyone from Shaoyin—kill, kill, kill!

Ji Ning sighed inside but did not stop him. "If my cousin were here, she would probably vent her rage just like this. But I can't let Junior Apprentice-Brother kill too much. Karmic sin is already showing on him." Ji Ning's divine sense noted that Mu Northson's karma, previously balanced, was now gathering a turbid aura of sin.

Killing cultivators incurred very little sin.

But Mu Northson's strength was too great, and the slaughter was too extensive. Sin was accumulating.

"Your strength is still too low. Too much sin will be deadly." With a thought, Ji Ning made the River Su surge even more violently. He deliberately swept away groups of cultivators, killing them in great numbers. Ji Ning had originally possessed a golden aura of karmic merit, albeit a small amount. But as he directed the River Su's cleansing, the golden light shrank, turning into a pure karmic aura.

That pure aura's range and density steadily declined.

"Kill, kill, kill…"

Resentment.

Bloodlust.

The grudges and malevolence of the slain cultivators coiled around Ji Ning. The three Northsea Swords within his body absorbed and refined them, growing stronger. After his slaughter at the Eastwood Mountains, where he had killed so many Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals, the swords had already attained power comparable to top-grade Immortal-ranked flying swords. Though the cultivators he killed now were weak, their total killing intent was less than that of the few Bronze Demon Guards he had slain.

But after killing so many cultivators, Ji Ning's karmic merit had dropped sharply.

"Where are they? Where are they?" Mu Northson found that there were no more targets in sight. Then he spotted a distant city—one that Ji Ning had set down, safe within its water-ball, filled with mortals.

Mu Northson's eyes were red. He was in a berserk frenzy. He did not even spare a thought to distinguish mortals from cultivators.

He flew toward it, ready to kill.

"Junior Apprentice-Brother, those are mortals! Mortals!"

"So what? Anyone from Shaoyin deserves to die!" Mu Northson was completely unhinged.

"Kill them, and karmic hellfire will descend. You will die too," Ji Ning roared.

…

When Ji Ning had killed Fengmo the Fiend and begun his rampage, the many Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals in the Chenyu Mountains had already noticed. They had each activated their formation barriers, protecting the other regions of the mountains. But the territory of over a hundred thousand li that Fengmo had overseen was now impossible to save. They were too late; many formation foundations had been destroyed.

All the Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals floated in the air, within the protection of their own formations. They watched the stout man manipulate the River Su, destroying the land.

"To be this crazy, it can only be Ji Ning. The one releasing Seven Cycles Wind and Thunder must be Mu Northson."

"We attack?"

"Do we just endure this?"

Some were furious.

"An ancestor has commanded that if Ji Ning attacks, we are forbidden to engage. Protect the tribe as best we can and leave everything to the ancestors. I've already crushed the messenger talisman. The Celestial Immortal ancestors should arrive soon," a dark-haired immortal said in a low voice.