Chapter 485: Chapter 1 The Erased Sword Cultivator
Binzhou Town is located at the southwestern estuary of the Endless Star Sea.
The local fishing industry flourishes, and the daily catch, transported via inland rivers, can be delivered to nearby towns. Thus, although Binzhou Town has a small population, it has always been self-sufficient.
Every morning.
The fish market near the south of town is bustling with people—locals and cargo ships from other regions docked along the wharf.
The ships are all made of Gushan wood, since Gushan wood naturally seals its gaps over time, making it ideal for storing water to transport fish.
Zheng Yongfan adjusted the canvas sail, cautiously docking at the pier.
He was likely only seventeen or eighteen years old, but due to the early maturation of mortals in later eras, he appeared as a robust young man of twenty-five.
Zheng’s wife, visibly pregnant with a swollen belly, boldly lifted the curtain and climbed ashore with the agility of a sailor, showing no concern on her face.
"My dear, the baby will arrive early next year—please don’t catch cold. I should’ve left you at my uncle’s house," he said.
"Pah."
Zheng’s wife spat at him disdainfully, "If you die piloting the boat, should I just remarry someone else?"
"Fine, fine, whatever you say."
"I’m heading to pick out some cotton to sew clothes for the baby."
Zheng Yongfan forced a bitter smile and went to settle the cargo ship amid the teasing of other fishermen.
In coastal areas known collectively as the "Tide People," women were inherently outspoken, and it wasn’t rare to see couples living aboard their boats and partnering for daily life.
Zheng Yongfan watched his wife walk toward a tailor shop on the street and disappear inside.
He headed to the fish market to select fresh fish.
Zheng Yongfan noticed that, strangely enough, while today’s catch was mostly larger than usual, the fish had very little meat.
"Such a pity. If they were fatter, they’d fetch a better price."
A fisherman familiar to him spoke up to give advice.
"Young Zheng, if you’re picking fish, you might want to check out the dock in East City. A fresh batch is about to be brought in, and the nets are nearly emptied."
Zheng Yongfan was slightly tempted but quickly shook his head. "No need. Too many problems in East City—I don’t want to deal with Lords looking for bribes."
"Hm?"
Zheng Yongfan’s expression turned odd. The fisherman before him seemed markedly older compared to just half a month ago. Visibly older.
Perhaps in an era of immortality, calling someone "old" didn’t feel quite right.
But Zheng Yongfan’s first thought really was "old."
Deep wrinkles crisscrossed the fisherman’s skin, his cloudy eyes lacked life, rotting marks emerged increasingly, and his joints appeared stiff and rigid.
It didn’t seem plausible for such decay to happen in mere weeks; it would normally take at least ten years.
Shocked, Zheng Yongfan instinctively scanned his surroundings, noticing that other fishermen exhibited similar signs, though not as pronounced.
Smack.
The fisherman’s right eye fell out, his shriveled eyeball resembling the dead eye of a fish.
"Ah, the autumn sea breeze makes these old bones worse and worse," the fisherman muttered.
Zheng Yongfan stepped back hastily, accidentally kicking at a wooden basin of fish, sending water splashing and several fish flopping wildly.
"There’s something eerie—there’s something eerie..."
Having only started sailing a year ago, Zheng Yongfan had heard plenty of tales about evil spirits, knowing the world wasn’t as peaceful as it seemed.
Looking down at his own hands, he saw faint corpse spots beginning to spread.
"No... no, I’ll go see for myself in East City."
Only one thought remained for Zheng Yongfan: fetch his wife and leave Binzhou Town. This place undoubtedly harbored the evil spirits that elders warned of.
He stumbled toward the tailor shop but hadn’t yet reached its entrance when he heard the sound of an infant crying.
"Wah-wah-wah..."
"It’s born, it’s born." Deliriously disoriented, Zheng’s wife stepped out carrying a blood-covered newborn, her posture entirely indifferent to the reactions of the shopkeeper and workers.
Zheng Yongfan’s face brimmed with terror.
The baby was clearly just born—the umbilical cord still bleeding, yet its appearance already resembled that of a two- or three-year-old child.
"My dear, this place isn’t safe—we must leave Binzhou Town immediately."
He grabbed his wife with one hand, cradled the baby with the other, and dashed toward their boat. His back was drenched in cold sweat.
As they ran, the child grew bigger, reaching the size of a four-year-old, tilting its head and clapping its hands.
"Laughing monk, foolish laughter—every house burns incense, yet every day’s filled with mirth."
Chills spread down Zheng Yongfan’s spine. His experience in Binzhou Town felt nothing less than nightmarish, and staying another moment risked eternal damnation.
When the three finally reached their cargo vessel and severed the docking ropes, the cacophony of the fish market faded away in the swelling sea mist.
Zheng Yongfan collapsed powerlessly onto the deck while his wife sobbed in relief beside him.
"My child, my child..."
He propped himself up and inspected the baby, worried that it might have been tainted by the evil spirit. Yet apart from faint traces of the death disease, the child seemed almost ordinary.
"The signs of the death disease are faint? Perhaps my child miraculously survived the evil’s grasp and might even be destined to become immortal."
Zheng Yongfan entirely failed to notice the shadow emerging on the distant sea horizon.
The shadow seemed to wield three flying swords, morphing between the appearances of a child, a young adult, and an aged elder. Slowly, it moved toward the vessel.
"Year after year, people are never the same."
The boat disappeared, and the shadow vanished within a few steps.
......
Unclear how much time had passed.
The brisk wind of late autumn had transformed into the bone-chilling venomous chill of winter.
Whoosh.
A Kun Whale soared across the boundary of the Endless Star Sea, steam rising and roiling with its ascent, as the enormous beast skimmed above the ocean horizon in mere moments.
"Almost there, right?"
Li Mo sat cross-legged atop the Kun Whale’s head, deliberately keeping his Tattooed Beast’s size under ten meters to avoid drawing unnecessary trouble.
Initially, he hadn’t planned to head to Binzhou Town, given the looming millennial Ascension Conference of the Sub-Device Sect—after all, only a century’s time remained.
But since Luo Yang insisted he visit Binzhou Town.
Although Binzhou Town wasn’t affiliated with the Heavenly Sword Sect, it was Luo Yang’s birthplace, and his blood relatives had sent over a letter mentioning the appearance of a deceitful object.
"A deceitful object? Ten years have passed—surely it’s too late?"
For mortals to send letters to cultivators, they had to rely on the help of affiliated Sword Sects, and even then, the correspondence would need to transfer through the outer disciples of Heavenly Sword Sect, often taking one or two decades.
Sighing quietly to himself, Li Mo muttered a few complaints but felt fortunate that Binzhou Town was close to the black market operated by Four Seas Commerce. He could use their array to travel to the Sub-Device Sect.
"What in the world?"
Li Mo’s expression turned grave, his Divine Sense the first to notice anomalies.
Binzhou Town was less than ten miles away, yet his Divine Sense revealed no trace of life—only the scent of decay drifting upon the wind.
He stowed away the Kun Whale, stepped onto his Illusionary Flying Sword, and blended into the breeze.
"Trouble, huh?"
Li Mo dreaded the possibility of encountering a deceitful object—it would waste time he didn’t have, yet he couldn’t ignore it outright.
After all, Luo Yang had carried out the inheritance of the Wood Attribute Sword Body from Green Ru in the Twenty-Eight Sword Tombs, extending his Sword Bone beyond ten segments.
En route, Li Mo continued cultivating his Green Ru Sword Body, which he had only fully mastered recently.
Moments later, Binzhou Town came into view.
Li Mo squinted slightly—the entire town had turned into ruins, with the southern district near the Endless Star Sea completely obliterated.
The town was split in two, the cut frighteningly precise.
Half of it had seemingly been relocated elsewhere, and in the central district, countless mangled corpses remained.
The townsfolk had turned into desiccated husks that could be blown away by the breeze.
When the dried corpses touched hard surfaces, their flesh and bones crumbled into dust like remains thousands of years old.
"Impossible. This was a thriving town—how could the destruction of Binzhou Town escape all notice?"
"Not to mention, the black market is less than a hundred miles away."
Li Mo furrowed his brow.
He belatedly pulled out his Sword Scroll, which contained detailed records provided by Luo Yang.
Li Mo pressed the Sword Scroll against his brow, but the recorded information about Binzhou Town had been erased, leaving only vague, disconnected fragments.
"San Sheng."
Li Mo narrowed his eyes in realization—the forces lurking behind the scenes remained discontent with the illusion of radical change, wielding powers that altered human perception and stirred immense chaos.
"Masked cultivators targeting mortals shouldn’t be San Sheng, though," he muttered.
If it were merely one or two individuals attempting to uncover the truth of Heaven and Earth, the problem wouldn’t have been severe, but similar cultivators now spanned numerous sects.
Scrutinizing the corpses, Li Mo hypothesized that some advanced Sword Intent might be at play.
"Who could it be? This Sword Intent appears to accelerate physical aging, triggering the death disease... none of the Twenty-Eight Sword Tombs hold this..."
"Wait, what have I forgotten?"
Cursing inwardly, Li Mo searched through his memories of the Heavenly Sword Sect repeatedly.
Soon, a long-lost name flooded back into his mind.
Time Sword.
"Damn it. My memories were likely erased during the Nascent Soul Stage—the gap in cultivation made even the Creation Book helpless."
Time Sword had been a disciple of Luo Yang, yet Luo Yang had ceased mentioning them entirely, even when the Fire Spirit Hall fell.
"So... Time Sword is the traitor within the Great Sun Sword Tomb."
Based on Li Mo’s speculation, Time Sword had completed the arrangement in the Fire Spirit Hall and was erased irrespective of the outcome.
"For Time Sword to cause devastation this vast, they must’ve once held the title of Chief within the Great Sun Sword Tomb."
As their presence faded entirely, all records of Time Sword vanished without a trace.
Without hesitation, Li Mo dived into the seawater; remaining in Binzhou Town was far too risky. The scale of the threat behind the scenes was still unknown.
Time Sword’s strength vastly exceeded normal limits.
It was almost certain they had reached the Void Refining Stage, and Li Mo suspected that the Sword Intent they grasped had surpassed Mahayana, attaining the legendary state known as As Dao.
"Could it be the seldom-recorded Time Sword Intent?"
Li Mo doubted Time Sword possessed the talents to rival the Thirteen Immortals, suggesting the forces pulling the strings behind the scenes were even more terrifying than imagined.
A swarm of parasites thriving between the realms of Daoist and Demon, sucking nourishment from both.
Believing they’d uncovered immortal fate, they remained ignorant of the catastrophe brewing across both realms.
Li Mo found himself deeply troubled. San Sheng’s ability had left him isolated, yet the slow rise of the Heart Beast Sect from obscurity and the Sub-Device Sect’s cautious isolation offered hope—they likely escaped the notice of the hidden masterminds.
"For now, I’ll watch and wait. Without Void Refining Stage strength, I can’t influence the situation."
"But... San Sheng must die."