Chronicles of the Mortal Immortal Tribulation

Chronicles of the Immortal Tribulation in the Mortal World

She fell into the mortal world for him, and he would cross the immortal path for her.

At the Ninth Heaven, on the Execution Platform, Liu Ruyan destroyed her own Dao Fruit and gave up a thousand years of cultivation, all to keep his soul from perishing.

"Zhang Xiaofan, if there is a next life, I won't be an immortal, and you... don't practice this damn Dao either."

A message spread across the Three Realms: The Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation has been activated. Liu Ruyan... her soul has been scattered.

At that moment, the Soul Devouring Pearl, long dormant within the young man's body, suddenly erupted in a blood-red light that shot into the heavens.

The blood moon hung in the sky, casting the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation atop Tongtian Peak in a crimson glow. A hundred thousand ancient swords hummed and trembled, their interweaving sword energy slicing the air into countless tiny whirlpools. Liu Ruyan stood at the heart of the formation, her white robes fluttering. A bottomless abyss lay beneath her feet, and the Ninth Heaven teetered behind her.

Opposite her, Zhang Xiaofan was pinned to an altar by seven soul-binding chains. He was drenched in blood, his face no longer recognizable. Only his eyes remained fixed on her. His lips moved, but no sound came out.

"Liu Ruyan, you are the Nine Heavens Goddess. How dare you betray the Immortal Realm for a mere mortal and steal the blueprints for the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation? Do you know your crime?" The Sect Master stood with his beard and hair bristling, his voice booming like a bell and shaking the mountains.

Liu Ruyan did not look at him. Her gaze remained on Zhang Xiaofan. Her eyes held affection and reluctance, but more than anything, they held a tender resolve.

"My crime?" She laughed softly, her voice clear as jade striking stone. "What crime have I committed? I met him when we were both nobodies. He risked his life for me, and I left the Immortal Sect for him. What crime is there in that?"

"How dare you!" the Sect Master roared. "Mortals and immortals belong to different worlds. That is the Heavenly Dao! You are an immortal, he is a mortal. Each of you should accept your fate. And yet you defy Heaven and still claim to be innocent?"

"The Heavenly Dao?" Liu Ruyan looked up at the sky. The blood moon seemed like a gigantic eye, watching everything with cold indifference. "If the Heavenly Dao had any compassion, it wouldn't make those who love each other live forever separated by the divide between mortals and immortals!"

Before her words had faded, she formed a hand seal. Nine beams of light shot from her fingertips and sank into the heart of the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation. In an instant, the formation shook. A hundred thousand ancient swords turned around, their points all aimed at her.

"Liu Ruyan, have you gone mad?" The Sect Master's expression changed drastically. "If you reverse the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation, your soul will be scattered and you will never be reborn!"

"I know." Liu Ruyan's voice was calm and even. She lowered her eyes to Zhang Xiaofan, full of tenderness. "Xiaofan, do you remember our days in Caomiao Village? Back then, you weren't a cultivator, and I wasn't the Nine Heavens Goddess. We were just two ordinary people, working from sunrise to sunset."

Tears mixed with blood and ran down Zhang Xiaofan's face. He remembered that evening when he was carrying firewood down the mountain and saw her standing beneath the old locust tree at the village entrance. The setting sun stretched her shadow long. She turned and smiled at him, and for that instant, the whole world faded away.

"Those were good days." Liu Ruyan's eyes reddened too. "Too bad we can never go back."

She took a deep breath and brought her hands together sharply. The Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation fully reversed! The hundred thousand ancient swords turned into streaks of light and pierced her from every direction!

"No!" Zhang Xiaofan let out a scream of anguish. The soul-binding chains clanged, but he could not break free.

Blood stained her white robes. Liu Ruyan's figure gradually grew transparent amid the swordlight. She looked at Zhang Xiaofan, her lips moving. Her voice was soft, yet reached his ears clearly.

"Zhang Xiaofan, if there is a next life, I won't be an immortal, and you... don't practice this damn Dao either."

The final streak of swordlight pierced her chest. Her body became specks of light and vanished into the blood-red night sky.

The Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation slowly quieted. A deathly silence fell over the summit of Tongtian Peak. Only Zhang Xiaofan's roar echoed through the empty mountain valley.

Three days later, a jade message slip flew across the Six Paths of the Three Realms.

The Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation has been activated. The Nine Heavens Goddess, Liu Ruyan, has had her soul scattered.

At that moment, Zhang Xiaofan was imprisoned beneath Tongtian Peak, every bone and tendon in his body shattered. Deep inside him, the Soul Devouring Pearl, dormant for ten years, suddenly stirred with a searing heat.

Ten years earlier, in Caomiao Village.

Zhang Xiaofan was an orphan adopted by an old hunter in the village. He spent his days hunting in the mountains and catching fish in the river. Life was hard, but he was content. Then one day, beneath a cliff in the back hills, he found a pitch-black pearl.

The pearl felt cold in his hand, yet carried a faint warmth, as if it were alive. Zhang Xiaofan tucked it against his chest, and that night he had a dream. In the dream, a woman in white stood on a cloud with her back to him. Her voice was ethereal. "This pearl is called the Soul Devouring Pearl. It can devour the soul power of all things under Heaven. If you can control it, you can embark on the path of cultivation."

Zhang Xiaofan woke with a start, drenched in cold sweat. He looked down at his chest. The black pearl lay there quietly, glowing faintly.

From then on, Zhang Xiaofan's life changed completely. He discovered that he could see things other people couldn't: wandering ghosts in the mountains, water demons hiding in deep pools, and even celestial birds and spirit beasts concealed beyond the clouds.

He thought he was going mad, until one day a Daoist who claimed to be from the Qingyun Sect came to find him.

"Young man, you have an exceptional spiritual root, and a rare power of soul-devouring within you. Would you like to come with me and cultivate on the mountain?"

Zhang Xiaofan hesitated. The village elders had told him that cultivators were immortals, lofty beings who had no need for worldly food. He was just a mortal and wanted nothing more than to live out his life in peace.

But when he saw the Daoist casually wave a hand and scatter the evil ghost that had haunted the village entrance for years, he was tempted.

"I... I will."

Qingyun Sect, Tongtian Peak.

Zhang Xiaofan joined the Dazhu Peak branch as an outer disciple. His aptitude was mediocre, and his cultivation progressed slowly. His fellow disciples often mocked him, but he was resilient and never lost heart. Every day, after finishing his lessons, he practiced sword-flying alone in the back hills.

Then one day, he met her by a cold pool in the back hills.

It was a night with a bright moon and sparse stars. Zhang Xiaofan was practicing sword-flying when he suddenly heard a melodious zither coming from deep within the pool. He followed the sound and saw a woman in white sitting on a green stone beside the water, an ancient zither across her knees. Her slender fingers plucked the strings.

Moonlight fell across her face, revealing a beauty beyond the mundane. Her eyes were closed, her expression focused, as if she had become one with Heaven and Earth.

Zhang Xiaofan stared, entranced. He forgot to control the sword in his hand, and it dropped straight into the cold pool.

With a loud splash, the music stopped abruptly.

The woman in white opened her eyes. Seeing Zhang Xiaofan in such a sorry state, she curved her lips in a faint smile. "Who are you? Why are you here so late at night?"

Zhang Xiaofan's face turned red. He stammered, "I... I'm Zhang Xiaofan from Dazhu Peak. I... I was practicing sword-flying and disturbed you by accident. Please forgive me, Immortal Maiden."

The woman in white studied him, a flicker of surprise in her eyes. "Are you the Host of the Soul Devouring Pearl?"

Zhang Xiaofan froze. "You know me, Immortal Maiden?"

"My name is Liu Ruyan. I am the Nine Heavens Goddess." The woman in white rose to her feet. In the moonlight, her figure seemed veiled in gauze. "The Soul Devouring Pearl is an ancient divine artifact. It can devour the soul power of all things under Heaven. With it inside you, you are destined for an extraordinary life."

Zhang Xiaofan scratched his head, a little embarrassed. "But my aptitude is mediocre. I've been cultivating for so long, and I still can't even master the simplest sword-flying technique."

Liu Ruyan smiled faintly. "How could the Soul Devouring Pearl's power compare to an ordinary sword-flying technique? If you can control it, you'll be one of the strongest cultivators in the world."

From then on, Zhang Xiaofan secretly went to the cold pool every night to learn how to use the Soul Devouring Pearl from Liu Ruyan. Though she was the exalted Nine Heavens Goddess, she had no airs and patiently taught him every detail.

Gradually, Zhang Xiaofan found himself looking forward to each night more and more. He loved watching Liu Ruyan play the zither, hearing her stories of the Ninth Heaven, and seeing the gentle smile that sometimes appeared on her face.

One day, he finally worked up the courage to ask, "Ruyan, why did you come to the mortal world?"

Liu Ruyan was silent for a long time before she softly replied, "Because I was running away."

"Running away from what?"

"An arranged marriage." Liu Ruyan raised her head and gazed at the full moon. "The Immortal Realm and the Demon Realm are about to go to war. To cement their alliance, the Celestial Emperor plans to marry me off to the Demon Realm's Crown Prince. I didn't want to, so I secretly came down to the mortal world."

Zhang Xiaofan's heart tightened. An emotion he couldn't explain surged inside him. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but found he had nothing to say.

He was just a mortal, while she was the Nine Heavens Goddess.

Mortals and immortals belonged to different worlds. That was the Heavenly Dao.

But when he saw the fleeting loneliness in Liu Ruyan's eyes, he suddenly wondered: What did the Heavenly Dao matter?

"Ruyan," he blurted out, "why don't you... stay here?"

Liu Ruyan was stunned, then smiled. "What a foolish thing to say. I'm an immortal, and you're a mortal. Between us..."

"I don't care!" Zhang Xiaofan interrupted her. "All I know is that I like you."

Liu Ruyan's smile froze. She looked at Zhang Xiaofan, whose clear eyes brimmed with determination and resolve.

At that moment, she suddenly felt as though all her cultivation over the past thousand years had been nothing but preparation for this boy's arrival.

"Xiaofan," she said softly, "do you know that a romance between an immortal and a mortal invites Heaven's wrath?"

"I'm not afraid." Zhang Xiaofan stepped forward and took her hand. "As long as I can be with you, I'm not afraid of anything."

Liu Ruyan's eyes reddened. She lowered her head and looked at their joined hands. After a long while, she gave a gentle nod.

"All right. I won't go back."

But their happiness did not last.

The Immortal Realm soon discovered Liu Ruyan's whereabouts. The Sect Master came down from the Ninth Heaven in person to take her back. Liu Ruyan refused, and a fierce clash broke out between them. In the chaos, she was struck by the Sect Master while protecting Zhang Xiaofan, leaving her gravely injured and on the verge of death.

Zhang Xiaofan's eyes went bloodshot. The Soul Devouring Pearl erupted within him, sending a monstrous wave of blood-red light into the sky and forcing the Sect Master back several steps.

"The Soul Devouring Pearl!" The Sect Master's face changed drastically. "You actually gave the Soul Devouring Pearl to this mortal!"

Liu Ruyan coughed up blood and gave a bitter smile. "So what if I did? Even if I die, I will never marry into the Demon Realm!"

Theme: Zhang Xiaofan