Cohabitation with Sword Spirit-Chapter 253 - 213: Xue Mofei’s Cat

In the broken and incomplete memories of Wang Jiu, only a vague impression of the bloody battle with the Demon Emperor remains.

From the beginning of the battle to the successive falls of the Jiu Immortal Venerables, these memories are relatively clear.

However, as the battle reached its climax and he and the Demon Emperor unleashed their earth-shattering ultimate moves, fighting desperately to the death, the memories began to blur.

By the late stage of the final battle, both sides were covered in wounds, their strength simultaneously began to wane, and the memories grew even more muddled and confused. So much so that the outcome of the final battle was hard to ascertain, relying only on the fact that he was still alive, and humanity continued to thrive and revive the Immortal Dao, to speculate that it was his victory, and that the Demon Emperor and the Demon Race had been completely eradicated.

And while looking at the earliest spirit vein map in the history of Xiangzhou preserved by the Saint Sect, Wang Jiu could finally determine just how tumultuous the battle with the Demon Emperor had been back then.

The Jiuzhou Continent was struck down to only a broken remnant of Central Province.

That spirit vein map is exactly a part of the Central Province spirit vein map from those years—about less than half, in which apart from the main spirit veins, the remaining branches have undergone significant distortion and change.

If not for Wang Jiu having once studied the spirit vein maps of all under heaven while cultivating the Earth Sword, knowing the spirit veins of Jiuzhou inside out, he truly wouldn't recognize this severely distorted, childlike scribble-like spirit vein map now.

Apart from Central Province, the other provinces all seem to have been destroyed in the final battle, no, perhaps not completely destroyed; though he and the Demon Emperor had once fought such that the earth was scorched for thousands of miles, it wasn't intentional map bombardment, purely the result of the shockwaves from the collision of immortal techniques and demon skills. And given their mastery in wielding power, not much energy would actually scatter out.

As long as there wasn't a deliberate attempt to destroy Jiuzhou Continent, the shockwaves alone shouldn't have been enough to obliterate more than eighty percent of Jiuzhou Continent, but... it most likely broke the Dragon Spine.

Why was the Jiuzhou Continent of that year not unified like today's Xiangzhou, but rather divided into nine great provinces?

It had nothing to do with geopolitics and other reasons from time immemorial. The reason Jiuzhou Continent got its name was that the world at that time was indeed composed of nine independent continents, with even subtle differences in the Laws of Heaven and Earth between different continents.

Two Dragon Spines, hidden deep in the earth and above the firmament, forcibly glued the Jiuzhou Continent together. And during the final battle, when the Celestial Divine Sword and the Great Demon God Emperor wielded the Laws of Heaven and Earth as solidified weapons against each other, Sword Qi and Demon Cannons pierced through the three realms, and the two Dragon Spines above and below the heavens were unfortunately shattered.

Without the Dragon Spines, the Jiuzhou Continent was instantly scattered, fallen into the endless Chaotic Void.

The Chaotic Void naturally has the gravitational pull to disintegrate order, not to mention that the two of them were frequently releasing map bombs, furthering the collapse of Jiuzhou... In Wang Jiu's memories, Yuezhou, then the Demon Race's main base, was half-destroyed by his single strike.

And today's Xiangzhou is exactly the former Central Province, the heart of the once Immortal Dao World.

That's why it could revive civilization from a dead end, and several great noble families of that year all preserved their seeds.

Also, that's why he awoke here.

The once prosperous Jiuzhou Continent might just be reduced to this Xiangzhou, which evolved from the remnants of Central Province.

Shen Ziyu watched from the side, seeing Wang Jiu's expressionless face naturally exude a high and distant aura of countless epochs of vicissitudes, creating a slight oppression in one's heart.

However, before Shen Ziyu could open his mouth to ask, Wang Jiu collected his nostalgic thoughts about the past and said: "The next question is, who founded the Saint Sect?"

Shen Ziyu pondered for a moment, said: "This matter, even I am not very clear about. I only know that it was a pair of brothers who rose in the troubled times, had some fortunate coincidences, and some great wisdom and courage. In short, during the chaos, they resetsablished order, attracted many cultivators of the time to follow them with supreme personal charisma, and gradually established the Saint Sect. But the specific life information has become rather vague. Even their specialized cultivation techniques are now described vaguely, only noting that one was proficient in Five Elements Fire Technique, while the other was proficient in Five Elements Water Technique, both having top-notch cultivation of the time."

Wang Jiu listened, pondered for a while, temporarily unable to determine their possible identities.

He was different from Zhao Yuming among the Jiu Immortal Venerables, who was good at interpersonal interactions. He seldom paid attention to unrelated people, so he didn't remember any cultivation sects or noble families of that year having special expertise in Five Elements Magic that allowed a pair of brothers to rise above all top inheritors during chaos and create the name of the Saint Sect.

However, such world-class experts rising from obscurity are not uncommon. Without the inheritance of great families, they may not necessarily be lost in the crowd. Wang Jiu himself was a nameless orphan abandoned in the Sword Pool by his parents, did he not eventually grow step by step to become the world's number one?

In short, since there is still verifiable information within the Saint Sect, it does not matter.

"The third question, how strong is the current Saint Sect?"

Hearing this question, Shen Ziyu couldn't help but ponder as well.

"Regarding the sect's secrets, I can't speak too precisely. I can only say that the Saint Sect is transcendent in the world."

Wang Jiu contemplated for a while: "Transcendent in the world means having the strength to subdue the world, yet not strong enough to directly intervene and suppress everyone?"

Shen Ziyu was somewhat surprised: "Whoa, you could even guess that?"

Indeed, at least within Shen Ziyu's knowledge, the strength of the Saint Sect far surpasses any of the Seven Great Noble Families within the Three Academies, even stronger than the combined forces of two or three families.

On the other hand, the Saint Sect is absolutely not stronger than the Seven Great Noble Families combined. Even one sect and the Three Academies together are only slightly stronger than the Seven Great Noble Families. Moreover, within this sect and academies, there is no shortage of disciples from the Seven Great Noble Families.

As for the Sect Leader of the Saint Sect, Shen Ziyu received the transmission of techniques for many years. Although he didn't dare arrogantly speculate that the upper limit of the Sect Leader's strength is precisely as he knows, roughly speaking, it should be in the late stage of the Sea Overturning Realm, still two or three steps away from the legendary Earth Split Realm. And as Sect Leader ages, his vitality isn't as vigorous as when he was young. In his lifetime, he can only rely on meticulous effort to refine his True Essence Realm to the peak of the Sea Overturning Realm, but that qualitative step seems difficult to take.

And in this world, while masters of the Sea Overturning Realm are not numerous, they can still be counted, and the sect along with Three Academies takes up half of it. Moreover, there are some masters from noble families stuck at the peak of the Mountain-Overturning Realm, whose combat ability is hard to estimate.

Therefore, the Saint Sect does not possess the power to directly suppress the world through force. The world respects the Saint Sect not only for its martial advantage but primarily for its reputation over the years—hence, the envoys representing the sect and walking the world bear an exceptionally heavy responsibility.

Secondly, the Saint Sect's consistently high and unfathomable mysterious image is widely known. People know the Saint Sect is strong but rarely can anyone articulate the extent of its strength, even the Patriarchs of the Seven Great Noble Families might not be clear. Shen Ziyu certainly knows quite a bit, but would never let these matters leak to his family.

Then how did Wang Jiu guess it?

"Years ago, a friend of mine once proposed this point of view: the ruler among cultivators should transcend the world, and incidentally created an ideal model. And now the Saint Sect seems to bear some resemblance to that ideal model."

"I see." Shen Ziyu nodded, acknowledging this explanation, "But, why are you asking this?"

Wang Jiu said, "I need to ascertain how confident I am in annihilating the Saint Sect if one day we become enemies."

"Pfft!"

Shen Ziyu hadn't been drinking tea, yet he sprayed out tea on the spot.

"You want to annihilate the Saint Sect!?"

Wang Jiu said, "At present, there is no plan to do so. But when the two sides become adversarial, I need to possess the strength to eliminate the enemy."

Shen Ziyu remained silent for a long time, truly unsure what to say.

If anyone else claimed to annihilate the Saint Sect single-handedly, it would be a joke not even worth laughing at. Yet coming from this Celestial Divine Sword, it inexplicably carried an oppressive tension.

Though now this Celestial Divine Sword's overall strength is merely equivalent to a cultivator in the Cloud Flipping Realm, even any master from the Rain Cover Realm could easily manipulate it. But this sword is immortal, and as time passes, it grows stronger… it is akin to the world-destroying Great Demon King from those stories: unable to be destroyed, only sealed, and every few decades or a century, the seal must be unlocked to wreak havoc.

Shen Ziyu, having cultivated at the Saint Sect for over a decade, understands the significance of originating from the Primordial Era better than anyone.

After a long silence, he finally spoke, "But you and the Saint Sect should have no grievances or enmity, why make such extreme plans?"

Wang Jiu explained, "Because extreme situations always occur, I wonder if you've heard of Xue Mofei's cat?"

Shen Ziyu looked bewildered, "What cat?"

"A cultivator named Xue Mofei once proposed this assumption: in a sealed box, there is a cat and a deadly mechanism with a fifty percent chance of triggering. If you don't open the box, no one knows whether the mechanism is activated. So theoretically, the cat's life or death depends on the observer opening the box. And at this moment, if no one opens the box, then this cat…"

Upon hearing this, Shen Ziyu pondered, echoing, "Half alive, half dead?"

Wang Jiu said, "Wrong, it's a dead cat."

"... What?"

"When there is a possibility for something to go wrong, no matter how small, it will develop in that direction. So when a cat has a fifty percent chance of being a dead cat, it is certainly undoubtedly dead."

"..." Shen Ziyu felt like his academic worldview was being shattered.

Wang Jiu added, "Therefore, when a large organization possibly harbors malice towards me, no matter how low the probability, it will inevitably lead to conflict."

"..."

Wang Jiu explained, "Back when I and the Jiu Immortal Venerables launched a coup to overthrow the Myriad Immortals Alliance, it was because they inexplicably sought trouble with me, forcing me to kill thousands to gain peace."