Chapter 167: The Road to Heaven Stained with Blood, Chen Changsheng That’s All
Chapter 167 – The Road to Heaven Stained with Blood, Chen Changsheng That’s All
The Western Continent.
“Is this the Road to Heaven that Fu Yao spoke of?”
Staring at the heavily weathered, crumbling altar before him, White Marsh’s eyes brimmed with doubt.
Beside him, the corner of Chen Changsheng’s mouth twitched uncontrollably. He strongly suspected Fu Yao was actively digging a pit for him to jump into.
After a long, heavy silence between man and beast, White Marsh was the first to break it.
“Chen Changsheng, we must walk this Road to Heaven regardless.”
“But before we set foot upon it, could you give me a clear answer? What exactly is running through that mind of yours?”
Facing White Marsh’s inquiry, Chen Changsheng turned his head and smiled softly. “If I told you I am prepared to fight to the death without taking a single step back, what would you do?”
“Do you not know how to converse like a normal person?!”
“Even if you plan to fight to your dying breath, you should have at least tricked me onto the Road to Heaven first before dropping that on me!”
“Springing it on me like this… I don’t even know how to respond.”
“I am going to pretend I never heard that. Try again.”
Seeing White Marsh’s stubborn, indignant expression, Chen Changsheng chuckled.
“Alright, I’ll stop teasing you. I merely wish to collect the bones of old friends. That’s all.”
Hearing this answer, White Marsh’s face was painted with absolute disbelief.
“Hey, I told you to lie to me, but you don’t have to treat me like a total idiot!”
“Just to act as an undertaker, you would risk nine deaths and one life, stepping onto this Road to Heaven where there is no turning back?”
“You couldn’t even fool a three-year-old mortal child with such nonsense.”
“Why are you so certain this is a lie?”
“Because it’s glaringly obvious! Who would wager their very life for something so utterly trivial?”
Watching White Marsh gravely analyze the weights and measures of life and death, Chen Changsheng smiled faintly, his gaze drifting toward the distant horizon.
“Little Black, you are a divine beast. You possess an intellect that surpasses even many human cultivators.”
“But your understanding of this world remains far too shallow. You have yet to grasp the true essence of humanity.”
“In the mortal dust, there is an ancient saying: ‘Fallen leaves must return to their roots.’ While this sentiment is somewhat diluted within the cultivation world, it still exists.”
“Several millennia ago, while wandering the mortal realm, I encountered a peculiar trade known as corpse-driving.”
“They utilized the crudest of talismans and spells to animate the dead, carefully guiding those stiff bodies back to their ancestral homes.”
“The only reason mortals would pay such exorbitant prices for a corpse driver was precisely because they yearned for their departed loved ones to return to their roots.”
“Wu Li has already shouldered the Heaven’s Mandate and is heralded as the Desolate Heavenly Emperor.”
“If he could not conquer this enemy, then the odds are I cannot either—at least, not yet.”
“If they have truly perished, I simply wish to bring them home. That is all.”
Hearing Chen Changsheng’s quiet confession, White Marsh raised his head in thought for a long moment before replying bluntly.
“I still cannot fathom why you would harbor such sentimental attachments.”
“If someone is dead, plotting to avenge them makes logical sense. But what possible use is there in risking your own existence just to drag a corpse back?”
“They are dead. They possess no awareness of what you are doing for them.”
“It is fine if you do not understand,” Chen Changsheng said evenly. “Let me phrase it in a way you can.”
“If I were to fall upon the Road to Heaven, would you simply watch my corpse lie there in the freezing dark?”
Confronted with this question, White Marsh fell completely silent.
If such a bitter reality ever came to pass, it seemed he truly could not bring himself to leave alone.
Even though his mind would know with absolute certainty that Chen Changsheng was dead, stripped of all thought and sensation.
Yet, his heart would inevitably ache with the thought that leaving him there alone would be far too cold, far too lonely.
If he could just be brought back to familiar soil, perhaps the loneliness wouldn’t be so overwhelming.
After a profound silence, White Marsh finally spoke. “I think… I understand your reasoning now.”
“Although I would absolutely collect your bones, I still highly suggest you remain alive.”
“This Road to Heaven sounds infinitely perilous. If you die, I cannot guarantee my ability to drag you back.”
“Hahaha!”
“Rest easy. Wu Li and his vanguard departed eight centuries ago.”
“No matter how world-shattering the war, eight hundred years is more than enough for the curtain to fall. The two of us might not even encounter a single enemy.”
“That actually makes sense. Then let us hurry and set off.”
“Perhaps Wu Li has already conquered the upper realms and become a supreme hegemon. We can simply ride on his coattails.”
Having convinced himself, White Marsh immediately began hounding Chen Changsheng to activate the altar.
Ignoring the beast’s frantic pacing, Chen Changsheng unhurriedly initiated the ancient array according to the exact method Fu Yao had left behind.
A deep, resonant hum echoed through the air!
The altar roared to life, and a violently trembling, precarious gate of light manifested above the stone dais.
Seeing this, Chen Changsheng drew a massive stone coffin from his spatial ring, pulling Little Black inside with him before sealing the lid shut.
Swoosh!
The stone coffin vanished into the vortex of light, and the deeply weathered altar below finally surrendered to time, crumbling into a pile of fine ash.
……
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A chaotic symphony of impacts violently rattled the interior of the sealed stone coffin, yet Chen Changsheng was entirely preoccupied with arguing with Little Black.
“Stupid dog, can you not shrink your form down a little?!”
“You are crushing my ribs!”
“Absolutely not! I finally managed to restore my true, majestic form. I refuse to revert to that undignified state!”
The man and the beast bickered endlessly within the claustrophobic darkness of the coffin for over an hour.
Only when the violent turbulence outside the stone vessel finally subsided did Chen Changsheng carefully push the heavy lid open by a mere hairsbreadth.
Sweeping his divine intent outward and sensing no immediate danger, the man and the beast leapt out of the sarcophagus.
But the moment they laid eyes upon their surroundings, both Chen Changsheng and White Marsh were struck by a suffocating silence.
It was an ancient, desolate thoroughfare paved entirely in massive blue bricks, its staggering width easily exceeding several miles.
Beyond the edges of the road lay nothing but a terrifying, absolute expanse of blinding white void.
Yet the most chilling sight of all was the sheer drop ahead. A colossal segment of this blue-brick cosmic highway had been violently, completely severed.
After a terribly long pause, White Marsh’s mouth twitched. “Wu Li’s handiwork?”
“It reeks of his style.”
“I truly cannot fathom what caliber of enemy could force that arrogant brat to stake absolutely everything in such a desperate gamble.”
“By severing the Road to Heaven with his own two hands, he wasn’t merely attempting to bar me from following. He was burning his bridges, completely cutting off his only avenue of retreat.”
“It seems he has truly plunged into the abyss this time.”
With those heavy words hanging in the silent void, the man and the beast slowly took their first steps onto the Road to Heaven.
……
“Three thousand, two hundred and eighty-one.”
White Marsh mechanically recited the grim tally as Chen Changsheng gingerly placed a severed head into the massive stone coffin.
As their grim march progressed, the ancient blue expanse of the Road to Heaven became stained through the very grain of space with dried blood.
The deeper they ventured into this cosmic graveyard, the thicker the dark, rusted streaks became.
Ultimately, the unfathomable volume of spilled life had thoroughly soaked the very foundation of the Road to Heaven, leaving nothing but an endless path of slaughter.
After finishing his macabre harvest, Chen Changsheng sealed the coffin away within the vastness of his spatial ring, preparing to continue his lonely vigil forward.
At that exact moment, White Marsh, who had been diligently keeping the silent, funereal record, abruptly halted in his tracks.
“Chen Changsheng… do we truly need to keep walking?”
Hearing the tremor in the beast’s voice, Chen Changsheng cast a confused glance at White Marsh.
“What is it?”
“I can smell the lingering scent of those two girls on the stones ahead… and the metallic tang is overwhelmingly thick.”
“If they had merely suffered grievous wounds, the scent would never be this dense. They… they were likely beaten until their very bones were ground to dust.”
Hearing this crushing revelation, Chen Changsheng fell into a suffocating, agonizing silence.
“I understand.”
It was an impossibly brief, hollow reply. Not a single ripple of emotion disturbed the tranquil surface of Chen Changsheng’s ancient face.
Then, without another word, Chen Changsheng resumed his steady, rhythmic pacing, using his own two feet to measure the length of this desolate Road to Heaven.
Seeing this unyielding, tragic resolve, White Marsh could only swallow a quiet sigh and follow closely in the man’s bloody footsteps.