Chapter 1146.2: The Great Peak of the Five Hells (1/2)

“Hmph, a pack of spirit fragments almost extinguished by hellfire wants to escape from my hands?” She Nong snorted and brandished his spear, rushing the prisoners in turn.

Other than the prisoners of the first layer, any other that could survive in the other eight would be great experts of the fourth realm. Though they’d been refined by hellfire for endless eons, the irresistible allure of freedom inspired a prodigious desire for survival.

Caught off guard by the depths of their desperation, She Nong was swept off his feet by their momentum.

“Tianqi!” Lu Yun shouted.

“Yes, master!” Tianqi’s body ballooned several sizes bigger and he sent out the peak of Mount Tai, turning it into an uncrossable mountain in front of the Gates of the Abyss.

The mountain of the two realms would sever the two!

Upon the towering landmass, the words “Great Peak of the Five Mountains” flashed with bloody radiance and shifted into “Great Peak of the Five Prisons”!

Boom—

The prisoners that circled around She Nong crashed to a violent halt when they ran into Mount Tai, and were sent flying backward by a flare of bloody light. Mount Tai wasn’t just a mountain between two realms of the great wilderness, but the most magnificent divine mountain of the fourth realm, one that could sever yin from yang!

In this case, yin referenced hell and yang referenced the fourth realm. There were five hells in the fourth realm, with the Hadal Hell as the foremost. Mount Tai could suppress all five with its strength alone!

Being the mountain god of Mount Tai, what Tianqi released in the Hadal Hell was far beyond the limits of the fourth realm and unequivocally stopped the prisoners in their tracks.

……

“Holy, this kid’s the god of Mount Tai!” She Nong shuddered when he scrambled up from the ground and saw Tianqi summon Mount Tai in a fit of blazing glory.

“Didn’t the god of Mount Tai die? How is he alive again?” He swept a glance over Lu Yun. “If this lord is the master of the god of Mount Tai, won’t he be even greater than the legendary mountain god?”

She Nong shuddered again and tightened his hand around his spear, howling a war cry as he charged forward. Plainly, Tianqi’s identity was greater than what Lu Yun understood it to be.

Within the Hadal Hell, the Bridge of Forgetfulness fully released its true might. It was formed from the seepage of this hell’s energy to begin with, so its spirit could grow in this realm and perfectly control its body.

The bridge and She Nong flanked Tianqi and brought up his rear, scything through the dense horde like two dragons.

……

Lu Yun stood next to Tianqi, having shrunk himself to be the same size as his disciple. He frowned as he gazed upon the harrowing battle before him.

The prisoners had been weakened to the extreme. They were on par with Tianqi, just barely reaching the threshold for the fourth realm. They would likely regress from their sophisticated existences after a while longer and devolve into the lower life forms of the third realm, nothing else in their future but to wither away and die.

“Tianqi, what crime have they committed to be locked away here, never to see the light of day again?” Lu Yun suddenly asked.

“Well…” Tianqi blinked. “I once entered the Hadal Hell after I became master of the human hell, adding some truly wicked beings who were a plague upon life. Those who later betrayed humanity and swore fealty to other races were thrown in here as well.”

“Betrayal is just a matter of perspective and change. These people just wanted to live,” Lu Yun refuted thoughtfully.

“Indeed.” Tianqi nodded. “In their eyes, they did no wrong. But in mine, they committed unforgivable sins. Death would be a blessing to them.”

If one shed the constraints of mortals and ethics, then there was no right or wrong in the matters of the world. Everything was a matter of personal perspective, just like the age old enmity between the chaos creatures and the worlds. Both sides just wanted to survive and protect their own interests.

However, living beings were also no primitive beasts. They possessed civilization, ethics, restrictions, and thus naturally right and wrong, good and evil came into being.

The Sal Tree of Life and Death had grown in hellfire and supported the human dao hell. When later irrigated by civilization, it’d turned into the Karmic Tree to determine right from wrong, define good and evil, and pass due judgment!

“Master, are you pitying them? You must know that, just like what She Nong said, they’ve destroyed countless Hongmeng realms. They carry boundless retribution on their shoulders,” Tianqi quickly said when he saw Lu Yun’s expression.

“Sometimes what you see and hear isn’t the truth. Su Xiaoxiao was once covered with retribution because she poisoned multiple major worlds.” Lu Yun shook his head lightly. “If there comes a day in which we are defeated… do you think we’ll be imprisoned here as well?” he murmured as he watched the prisoners furiously throw themselves against Mount Tai, the Bridge of Forgetfulness, and She Nong in a maddened bid for freedom.

Tianqi’s eyes widened.

“They’re not necessarily characters of extreme evil. Maybe they’re just failures. After all, history is written by the victorious. The retribution they bear might be just the result of a different definition of good and evil compared to the victors.” Lu Yun suddenly thought of the history of the world of immortals he’d compiled. Though he was an immortal now, he was still human and thus harbored innate prejudices and biases. There was good and evil in his book, and his enemies were all down as villains.

“Master, do you mean to release them back into the fourth realm?” Tianqi seemed to understand something when he looked at his master’s expression.

“I need to make plans for the future. If there comes a day in which the immortal dao travels through the fourth realm, we need to have a foundation in this world! The two of us won’t be able to stir up even a ripple in the fourth realm with our strength alone. We need to gain a foothold here!

“And, what if we’re defeated? This could be another potential avenue of retreat for us.” A crazy thought rose in Lu Yun’s mind as he scanned the multitudes of prisoners. He could bring them under his banner and have them fight for him!