Lu Zhao sat cross-legged at the heart of the Thunder Pool as Chu Zhaoran used Drunken Immortal Brew to form a misty armor around him. Yin thunder from the earth’s veins converged with the yang thunder of the Nine Heavens. Lu Zhao’s bones turned transparent, and black runes appeared in his marrow: the Heart-Eater Curse. A phantom Yinglong burst from his body and devoured the yin thunder. Chu Zhaoran was stunned. “This is the true Profound Thunder Saint Physique!” A Demon-Slaying Edict from the Qingya Cave Heaven arrived out of the blue. Yuhengzi accused Lu Zhao of massacring a village. Chu Zhaoran took a sword blow for him and, with his dying breath, told Lu Zhao to seek a bronze coffin in the Burial Dragon Abyss. When Lu Zhao touched the Thunder Ministry’s remains inside, he discovered that they looked just like him. Chu Zhaoran’s lingering soul revealed the truth: 480 years ago, the previous incarnation of the Venerable Ziyang, Qingxu Zi, sealed the Sword Demon’s soul in Lu Zhao’s body as it passed through reincarnation, hoping to survive his tribulation. Yuhengzi led his followers in an attack. Lu Zhao used Yinglong’s inverse scale to awaken the Thunder Ministry’s blood edict, then shattered the spiritual veins with three sword strikes. Yuhengzi offered up the Soul-Devouring Blood Jade, and Qingxu Zi’s lingering soul appeared. “Will you kill me to attain the Dao, or defy Heaven and change your fate?” A mirror in the void showed Lu Zhao’s past lives. In every one, the Sword Demon had devoured his heart and driven him into demonic madness, while his corpses piled up into a Taiji diagram. Qingxu Zi confessed, “The Soul-Devouring Blood Jade contains the other half of my primordial spirit, the half I lost when I failed my tribulation.” Lu Zhao swallowed the thunder talisman from the Nine Heavens Profound Thunder Art and leapt into the bronze coffin. “I choose a third path: defy reincarnation and change fate!” The star gate collapsed as the coffin closed, and a new cycle of reincarnation began. Lu Zhao used his Sword Demon clone to absorb the parasitic poison, refining the soul-corroding parasite into sword-soul energy. The Starfire Sword Chief sacrificed himself, offering up his sword seed to help Lu purge the mother parasite. “I have no regrets!” Lu Zhao severed the threads of causality. The seventy-two sword realms became chaotic sword energy, reshaping the laws of Heaven and Earth. A voiceover said, “The Great Dao is fifty, Heaven’s workings account for forty-nine, and one escapes.”
