Chapitre 24: Returning Home to a Changed World
Cao Erzhu unleashed the Release Type of his Penetrating Divine Senses with a ferocious howl. For over two decades, he had cultivated the God Punishment Tribulation. Now, that immense power was ready to erupt, no longer contained by the oppressive spiritual intimidation he once mastered.
The Release Type was a pure, unrestrained torrent of destruction. It was not designed to intimidate but to annihilate.
"Crush them into dust in one stroke," Cao Erzhu thought coldly.
His arms tensed, and with a sharp crack, the two figures in his grasp—Xi and Yu Zhiwen—were wrenched into the air as if the very wind had been torn apart. The sea of lightning around him surged, forming a colossal silhouette of the Thunder God looming behind him, a shadow of his destructive will.
Beneath the silver moon, Cao Erzhu smashed Xi into the stone pool below with an ear-splitting boom. The sheer force of the blow etched a black streak through the air. Blood began to pool and spread, but Cao Erzhu's rage was far from quenched. The violent energy of the God Punishment Tribulation swirled, ready to rain down upon his enemies, obliterating them from existence.
Yet, just as the final moment of obliteration arrived, a flicker of clarity returned to Cao Erzhu's eyes.
He paused, suddenly aware that if he let the Penetrating Divine Senses continue their course, these two would be utterly erased—not just their bodies, but their souls and memories, too. And with their destruction, so too would vanish the cherished memories of his old master and Sister August.
"He only laughed at me..." Cao Erzhu reflected, the flames of his fury dimming slightly. Did this offense truly merit death?
He recalled Yu Zhiwen's soft voice, telling Xi, "Don't hurt anyone." Though she was a venomous woman, her words reminded him of humanity—a reminder that they were not mere beasts to be slaughtered for every slight.
With a deep breath, Cao Erzhu muttered to himself, "Let this be her saving grace." He knew well enough that vengeance wasn't always the answer. He wasn't a bloodthirsty maniac who killed out of fear or to eliminate potential threats.
Just as the storm of lightning was about to crash down, Cao Erzhu shouted, "Return!"
In an astonishing display of mastery, the countless lightning bolts shooting from the Thunder God's back ceased their advance and were drawn back into his body, as though the bowstring of the heavens had been snapped. The powerful image of the Thunder God faded into the night, disappearing completely. The void fell silent once again, leaving only Cao Erzhu's towering figure illuminated under the moonlight.
This reversal defied common wisdom—the old saying, "spilled water cannot be taken back," did not apply to him. His father had been a strict master. "Any technique that isn't perfected is not ready for use," he'd always said. Cao Erzhu had learned to control his power with the precision of a blade.
However, sparing life didn't mean sparing punishment.
The spark of an idea lit in Cao Erzhu's mind. A thunderous energy swirled in his chest as he raised his hand, forming a colossal palm of lightning behind him. "Go!" he commanded.
With a deafening crash, the giant palm slammed onto the stone pool, blasting Xi into the ground. Purple lightning snaked through the water like a coiled serpent, seizing Xi in an electric grip, and locking him within the depths of the pool.
"Ugh... ugh..." Xi awoke to excruciating pain. His body convulsed uncontrollably, his nerves aflame. It was as though he had been pulled back from the gates of the underworld, only to find himself submerged in agony.
But even in this state, memories of the recent battle flashed before him. The humiliation, the overwhelming force...
"Am I truly this weak?" Xi questioned himself in despair.
He could accept his defeat when faced with legends like Kui Leihan, the gods of the old world. But this... to be overpowered by someone his age? Before he could even summon his most powerful weapon, the Hell's Lord White Sin?
His thoughts, clouded by doubt and disbelief, were interrupted by a fist—Cao Erzhu's enormous sandbag-sized hand descended once more, landing squarely on Xi's face with a sickening thud.
Xi's consciousness flickered as his world turned red with blood. His mind reeled as he registered the face of his attacker. Cao Erzhu...
Just as Xi's vision darkened, his final thought drifted, "Is the flaw within me?"
Bang!
The next punch silenced his inner turmoil. Xi's body went limp, floating like a ragdoll in the water, his muscles twitching involuntarily from the electric currents.
"Hah..." Cao Erzhu exhaled, finally feeling a sense of release. "I knocked him out," he muttered with some satisfaction.
Then his gaze shifted toward Yu Zhiwen, the delicate beauty who had been spared his wrath.
"Don't pretend to be asleep." He could sense her consciousness stirring, even as she lay submerged in the pool.
With a soft flutter of her lashes, Yu Zhiwen opened her eyes, stars shimmering within them. Her body, though battered and bruised, refused to give in to the pain.
"Cao Erzhu... you've misunderstood me," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the sound of the water and her ragged breathing.
Yu Zhiwen had fully activated her Pearl Gem Star Eyes—her last line of defense. Should her situation worsen, an automatic array would transport her deep beneath Qingyuan Mountain, to a hidden sanctuary that no one could breach. It was a safeguard against the unpredictable.
But now, seeing Cao Erzhu's restraint, she realized that no attack would come.
"I wasn't going to fight," she murmured. "I just wanted to tell you… Xu Xiaoshou is in trouble. If you can…"
"Enough!" Cao Erzhu snapped, cutting her off.
Yu Zhiwen bit her lip, the pain radiating through her body amplifying her sense of helplessness.
Cao Erzhu lowered his fist and sighed softly.
He had four no-kills.
But now, with this stranger whom he once thought could become a friend, it no longer mattered.
Cao Erzhu lost the desire to explain. He grabbed the girl's slender arm and lifted her out of the water effortlessly.
After all, it was Xi who harbored malice towards him from the start, not Yu Zhiwen.
He tossed the girl onto the shore, turned his head, and began walking down the mountain, not sparing another glance.
"Wait a quarter of an hour, then save him."
"I'm heading down the mountain, don't force me to take action again."
Yu Zhiwen, watching the towering figure leave in silence, realized that this person likely had no connection to Xu Xiaoshou.
Neither enemy nor friend.
Between them, only unfamiliarity lingered, perhaps a fleeting encounter or merely a spiritual connection.
There was no reason to expect help.
Expecting someone to intervene just because of a piece of paper with "Xu Xiaoshou" written on it was likely her own wishful thinking.
Yu Zhiwen relaxed. She dispelled the water stains from her skirt with a flick of her spiritual source and glanced at Xi, refraining from acting hastily.
A quarter of an hour...
She would wait.
Reflecting on her actions, they seemed absurd.
Attempting to drag someone into a battle for no reason—through Cao Erzhu's eyes, she must have been truly annoying.
"Sorry..." Yu Zhiwen's eyes dimmed, and she abandoned any notion of dragging others into this conflict.
She sat quietly, her gaze lost in the night sky, absorbed in her thoughts.
However, during the monotonous wait, as the minutes ticked by, her starry eyes suddenly trembled.
The world before her, revealed through her unique vision as a divine sorcerer, lit up with principles of the Divine Path, shining so brightly they almost blinded her.
"This... is far beyond what an ordinary divine sorcerer could achieve. Not even I can reach this level. It's Hallmaster Dao!"
Yu Zhiwen gasped as she realized what was happening. Her lips parted as she activated her spiritual senses, probing into the distance.
Cao Erzhu was walking down the mountain slowly.
He had said a quarter of an hour, and it would be exactly that. He wasn't in a hurry.
Feeling something unusual, Cao Erzhu stopped and looked at the night sky with a puzzled expression.
The sky was clear, as before. Yet, something felt off, though he couldn't quite grasp it.
"Run!"
"Cao Erzhu, run!"
The witch's voice suddenly echoed in his mind, urgent and panicked.
Cao Erzhu frowned in annoyance. Why was she communicating telepathically again? They were supposed to stop interfering with each other.
Ignoring her, he resumed his descent.
However, just as he lifted his foot...
Buzz!
The ground beneath him glowed faintly—trees, stones, flowers, and grass all lighting up, creating a strange teleportation array under his feet.
"Witch!"
Cao Erzhu was furious.
Reacting instantly, he stepped out of the portal just in time.
But the witch had prepared for this. Another gate of starlight appeared where he retreated.
"Don't come back!"
Her voice was the last thing he heard before he was whisked away.
Cursing himself for showing mercy earlier, thus allowing the witch to gain the upper hand, the scene around him shifted.
"This is..."
The base of Qingyuan Mountain?
He had been teleported down?
Cao Erzhu quickly turned, his spiritual senses expanding.
The entire Qingyuan Mountain was aglow. Every flower, tree, and stone, even the wind itself, carried traces of a strange, mysterious energy.
The mountain glowed as if detached from the outside world, transformed into a complex pattern that sparkled like daylight.
This power, when reduced a million times, felt similar to the strange mark left on his hand by the old man.
"Divine Secret..."
"Divine Sorcerer..."
Cao Erzhu muttered, still not comprehending why Yu Zhiwen had teleported him out of the mountain.
Boom!
A deafening rumble echoed from the sky above.
Divine Path patterns began to sketch themselves across the heavens, forming an illusory yet overwhelmingly powerful force, even grander than Qingyuan Mountain's great array.
Even Cao Erzhu felt shaken.
"Holy Power?"
The Holy Power of the Divine Sorcerer painted a brilliant canvas, seemingly spanning across all five regions.
A chilling laugh echoed in the distance.
"None of you can escape..."
"Greater Teleportation Technique!"
Boom!
The space on the horizon shattered.
Figures descended from the sky, each one dressed in white robes—some burly, some elderly, others wielding swords or knives.
Among the white-clad figures, Cao Erzhu vaguely made out a few distinct silhouettes:
Two women, a man, and... half a person?
"Is that a person? Or a puppet?"
A deep sense of unease swept over Cao Erzhu, and he realized why Yu Zhiwen had quickly teleported him away.
She had done it to help him escape.
"But isn't she supposed to be the enemy?"
"And I just beat up her friend..."
Cao Erzhu scratched his head, confused by the complexity of those in the spiritual cultivation world.
"Anyway, none of this concerns me."
He prepared to leave, heading back to town to see his father. But something felt odd about leaving so abruptly.
Pausing, he pulled out a piece of paper left by Sister August from his spatial ring.
"Xu Xiaoshou."
He stared at the elegantly written name.
At the same time, Yu Zhiwen's interrupted words echoed in Cao Erzhu's mind.
This name... Xu Xiaoshou.
Cao Erzhu scratched his head, feeling that everything that had unfolded tonight was somehow tied to this name. But...
"Who is Xu Xiaoshou?" he muttered, storing away the note left by August.
The name August left behind could have been an answer to his lingering question, but he wasn't sure. The mysterious witch—Yu Zhiwen—left neither a good nor bad impression, more like a passing stranger. He couldn't even tell if the Xu Xiaoshou she had mentioned was the same person referred to in August's note.
Cao Erzhu hesitated briefly.
Since he had descended the mountain, was there a need to return?
With a deep breath, he turned his steps toward Changde Town, thinking about the meat Uncle Yang and the others had requested—something he hadn't hunted yet. Despite everything that had transpired, he had only managed to secure the venison for his father.
Xu Xiaoshou—the name popped into his mind again. Cao Erzhu glanced back at the great array on Qingyuan Mountain. So, this was the legendary array?
Continuing his descent, he recalled the terrifying power of the God Punishment Tribulation, which had overwhelmed those two in its six morph forms. Knowing that the spiritual cultivation world had people like Yu Zhiwen and that ancient swordsman brought him some comfort.
If he ventured into the spiritual world, at least he wouldn't be the weakest among the younger generation.
Again, Xu Xiaoshou surfaced in his thoughts. Cao Erzhu glanced at the shattered space above Qingyuan Mountain—was that a spatial black hole?
A strange premonition gnawed at him. The mountain and the town felt like two different worlds. Going up or staying down would lead to entirely different choices, different paths.
He kept walking.
But his steps faltered. With every few steps, he found himself glancing back, haunted by the memory of his father's stern scolding. If he came home a month early, surely he'd get a beating. Yet, if he turned back toward the mountain...
Twenty years. For twenty years, the furthest Cao Erzhu had ventured was Qingyuan Mountain. Beyond that, the world was vast and unknown, and though the unknown scared him less than most, the idea of what might happen to his father if he left haunted him more.
What would happen to the old man if he didn't return?
The town had been devastated earlier today—he had to find out what had happened. Who Xu Xiaoshou was didn't matter!
"I don't care about the spiritual cultivation world..." he muttered, sprinting toward home.
For the first time, his steps were chaotic, leaving tracks that even an inexperienced hunter could follow—a mistake he'd never make under normal circumstances.
Xu Xiaoshou flashed again in his mind. Shaking his head, he tried to clear his thoughts, focusing on getting back home.
When he finally stood at the hill overlooking the village, his mind was still fogged by thoughts of Xu Xiaoshou. Only then did he regain some sense of clarity.
The scene before him was one of devastation.
Buildings collapsed. Dust lingered in the air. It was a battlefield.
Cao Erzhu's mind buzzed with a strange, unrelenting noise.
"I took the wrong path…" He forced a bitter smile and slapped his head, trying to shake off the unsettling thought.
He turned and attempted to run down another path, but the way back up the mountain…
There was only one path, the same one he had always known.
The forest looked the same from every angle, every direction.
"I didn't go the wrong way…"
He turned again to verify his route, but all he saw was destruction.
"I definitely took the wrong path…"
Spinning in confusion, his eyes locked onto the familiar path leading to the mountain.
Suddenly, his knees gave out, and the massive man crumpled to the ground.
Neither Yama nor the people who had fallen from the sky had frightened him, but now... for the first time, Cao Erzhu felt utterly powerless.
Boom!
In the distance, Qingyuan Mountain lit up again. Explosions reverberated through the night sky, reminiscent of the sounds he'd heard while meditating by the waterfall earlier that day—noises that came from the direction of home.
None of this should have happened.
"Why is it different this time? Nothing ever happened before..."
"Ahhh!!!" he screamed, clutching his head.
Tears blurred his vision as he staggered toward the ruins of the town.
"Father!!!"
He charged blindly through the debris, forgetting that he could use his abilities to teleport or transform into lightning. He clawed through the rubble, his hands trembling, snot and tears mingling with the dirt on his face. Finally, he reached the wreckage of his home.
"Thud."
His foot hit something.
Looking down, he saw a cracked signboard. "Blacksmith Shop"—his father's shop.
No father, no father…
Hugging the broken sign, Cao Erzhu wiped his nose and forced a smile. He hadn't seen his father yet. That had to be a good thing. Maybe the old man was out. He never went out, but… maybe.
Or maybe he was in the underground cultivation room—though it was small, it could withstand the God Punishment Tribulation.
Then Cao Erzhu noticed something in the backyard of the destroyed blacksmith shop—a large wine barrel, somehow intact amid all the destruction.
"Strange…" he muttered, crawling towards it, wiping his tears away.
On the barrel, an emblem—a familiar "handshake" symbol—caught his eye.
His smile froze.
With trembling hands, he lifted the heavy lid of the barrel.
The familiar scent of wine wafted out, faint but distinguishable. But mixed with it was a sickening, overpowering stench—the smell of blood, like a freshly killed boar.
Cao Erzhu's face twitched as he peered inside.
"Ahhh!!!"
He screamed, his pupils contracting in terror.
In the blood-filled barrel, where there should have been wine, he saw a head.
His father's head.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone