The Forbidden Mantra

"Kill him!" Just as the selection of the House God commenced and the tide-like shadows receded once more into the House Fire, the vast vault of heaven above the Chopra estate suddenly plunged into darkness. Bizarre, rainbow-colored light poured down from the sky like a torrential rain... Vast delusions shone with radiant luster, refracting a myriad of dazzling, bewitching lights like colored glaze, splendid beyond compare. All manner of false views manifested from the void, endowed with substance, proliferating and intertwining like corals. Souls steeped in despair had turned into amber, strung into beads wound around wrists, while agates condensed from countless sacrifices gleamed atop a crown. Amidst boundless silver radiance, a figure that seemed cast of pure gold sat cross-legged atop the sky, enveloping the entire Chopra estate beneath him—locking down inside and outside completely, trapping everyone in a single net! A domain. A domain so immense that it completely encompassed a fifth of Xiangzhou, blanketing the entire mountain! Purity, wisdom, tranquility, auspiciousness, liberation... The Seven Treasures of Wulou, transformed from all these meanings, manifested between heaven and earth, swallowing everything through every pore. The moment that figure manifested, the entire Chopra house had already fallen into his grasp. What was even more terrifying was the magnificent halo behind his back. Within layers of interlocking aureoles, a vision from the deepest reaches of the Vortex was revealed—that magnificent, towering figure! Lofty as a mountain range, vast as the boundless ocean, with three heads and six arms holding high all kinds of ritual instruments and secret rites. Looking down upon all! The moment it appeared, a violent pressure like that of the deep sea bore down upon everyone's souls. Ordinary mortals suffered soul collapse in an instant, merging into the Seven Treasures Domain and becoming part of this realm forever. In the ears of weaker Celestial Chosen, wondrous sounds had already begun to chime. Enraptured, they fell to their knees in worship involuntarily, as if rejoicing upon hearing the Way; fires of delusion rose from their souls, consuming their bodies. The stronger ones could still maintain their sense of self, but darkness swirled across their vision, every step an agony, struggling to breathe. The crackling sounds of shattering echoed incessantly. Merely from that downcast gaze, countless protective alchemical items were triggered, hairline fractures swiftly spreading across them. At this moment, everyone felt those eyes, lofty as the heavens, looking down upon them. Infinite wisdom and serenity seemed contained within those pupils, stirring yearnings of surrender. "Holy crap..." Ling Shuo's expression shifted slightly. He subconsciously took a step back, reflexively trying to put everyone in front of his chest as a shield, only to realize a second later that it was utterly futile. He tried to edge closer to Ji Jue, but then, catching himself, wanted to back away again... He just wanted to curse his lungs out. *Are you people from Wulou Temple completely insane?!* The person who had arrived was none other than one of the four Karmadanas of Wulou Temple's Upper Court in the mortal realm, an expert of the Exaltation tier—Badanta! Countless believers throughout the Thousand Islands worshipped him as a god... *Wait, what the hell is behind him?* Ling Shuo gathered his courage and took a look, then froze. He couldn't help but look again at that three-headed, six-armed form and the array of ritual instruments. *Is that... the Lower Court in the Vortex, Dharma King Shanzhu?!* *Motherfucker!* Ling Shuo trembled, his face twitching, cold sweat breaking out. He felt certain there was no walking out of here in one piece today. He didn't even know if that old fossil would show the Wild Gathering any face and spare them... But even if the old bastard showed face to the Wild Gathering, could Ling Shuo represent the Wild Gathering? Maybe if his godfather Ling Liu were here! At most, he was Ling Liu's envoy and lackey, sent here in his stead to witness the changing of the guard in the Chopra family. Yet even if Ling Liu came in person, wouldn't he still have to bow his head before Shanzhu and address him as Guru? *Crazy, all of them are crazy! Once that pestilent wind blew, why did everyone lose their minds?!* *Wulou Temple's claws have reached all the way into the Seven Cities, and you slipped in so effortlessly. Ten to one you've been in bed with the Chopras for years! After today, Xiangzhou might as well be renamed Wulou Temple's Upper Court!* At this moment, the figure looking down from above was aloof and indifferent. He didn't bother stopping the Celestial Chosen trying to flee the domain, giving an impression of complete nonchalance. Yet countless eyes across the heavens seemed to overlap into one, forming a pair of eerie, corporeal pupils that fixed directly upon the motionless Ji Jue. "Among a crowd of mediocrities, to think there lies such fine jade. What a pity, what a pity..." Badanta's voice resonated between heaven and earth, growing higher and more resonant. "A mere heretic, and yet you will not submit?!" "Then come at me!" Ji Jue was amused. He shook his head with a sigh. "Dawdling for half a day, when your backer is still cowering down in the Vortex, at most peeking at the mortal realm through you, his meat-puppet camera. "Putting on such airs—who are you trying to scare? "If you've got the balls, why don't you have him come up here?!" "Stubborn fool!" The furious bellow swept between heaven and earth, causing the vision of everyone present to black out again and again as it reverberated without end. Badanta's face remained placid as a still lake, showing neither joy nor anger. With downcast eyes, he said impassively, "If that is so, then bow before the True Dharma. "A mere heretic... "—Kill him!" In the void, countless spirits seemed to chant and praise in unison. Like thunderclaps echoing in every soul, mere ethereal words felt powerful enough to rewrite one's sense of self and replace the soul, forcing all who listened to prostrate before the True Dharma. "*Om Ah Hum, Mahakalaya, Hum Phat—*" This was the secret mantra passed down by Wulou Temple! The so-called—Forbidden Art! That voice, originating from the Holy Spirit, acted not only upon the soul, but also blanketed material reality, rewriting all phenomena and altering reality itself. In a single thought, heaven and earth were transformed. And thus, within this domain, Ascension and Desolate Ruins were cleaved in two! In an instant, everyone felt their bodies stiffen and their minds daze, barely able to move. A thick barrier materialized out of thin air between physical body and soul. The boundary between matter and spiritus abruptly became razor-sharp, unable to overlap or interweave any longer. In short... it banned Embers! With matter and spiritus sundered, infinite resistance was imposed out of thin air upon the functioning of all alchemy and alchemical creations. A ten-tenths effort would lose six tenths off the bat, and might not even produce one tenth of an effect in the end. With just this one utterance, all Embers Celestial Chosen within the domain were knocked into the dirt! Unless one's own soul far exceeded Badanta's tier to gain immunity, one had to break it with an equivalent Forbidden Art, or counter it using other secret arts—such as Aether's Rewriting, Heart Pivot's Non-Thought, or even Desolate Ruins' Great Form Without Shape. Unfortunately, there was no time for that. Without hesitation, Badanta raised his palm and pressed downward! Dazzling golden light coalesced out of thin air, forming a colossal hand that filled heaven and earth. Whipping up tempestuous winds and raging waves, it slammed ruthlessly toward Ji Jue. The gigantic hand woven from boundless fanaticism and devotion reduced all obstruction to illusions and rendered all resistance futile. Once locked on, escape was impossible. *Die!* The giant hand crashed down— And then ground to a dead halt. It was... held back?! Badanta's expression froze, his eyes widening. He subconsciously leaned forward slightly. Looking closely. Not just because his strike had been halted, but because the thing that had blocked it was... *Wait, what the hell is that?!* In the void, an enormous silhouette emerged. Illuminated by the House Fire, the dormant, magnificent evil spirit actually extended a limb—a colossal centipede-like monstrosity reared up, shielding Ji Jue. That was... the Chopra family's House God! Not only Badanta, but Ling Shuo, lying sprawled on the ground nearby, was dumbstruck. He looked up blankly—it really was the House God; the House God had moved! As if protecting its master of its own accord. Even though its main body remained dormant, the moment Ji Jue encountered danger, the House God had sprung into action without any command whatsoever, shielding Ji Jue behind it! *You beast! What the hell are you protecting?!* Seeing that the 'Dharmapala' he had schemed for so many years to secure was actually defending his enemy sent Badanta into an even greater rage. Meanwhile, Ji Jue raised both hands. Showing them off. Ten fingers on two hands, the Creation of Non-Offensive. But that wasn't the point. The point was that on those two hands, across all ten fingers, were ten gleaming rings. Atop each ring shone a glimmer like a spark of starlight. The Chopra family's patriarch tokens! *Since when the fuck did the Chopra family have this many patriarch tokens?!* And it wasn't just ten. At that moment, Ji Jue pulled a necklace off his neck—densely strung along it were nothing but patriarch tokens! What was more, each one was flashier, newer, and looked more authentic than the last. Never mind Badanta; even the Chopra family elders lying half-dead on the ground were left slack-jawed, their vision darkening in disbelief. *No, wh-what... what the fuck is this?!* "Apologies, but that's just how we Embers folks are," Ji Jue said with a shrug. "Whenever we run into something we haven't seen before, we just want to get our hands on it, take a closer look, inspect it from all angles, and then study it a bit..." How to put it? The Chopra patriarch token did have technical complexity, but at best, it was mediocre. Nor could it be high. If they had hired a grandmaster to encrypt it, Lou Feng wouldn't have cracked it with such casual ease. Spiritus verification? You have to be kidding. What kind of spiritus transmutation couldn't they handle? What kind of soul verification couldn't they forge? What was even more unfortunate was that, leave aside hiring a grandmaster, if the Chopra family had trusted an outsider with a token tied directly to their House God, they would have been truly insane. After all, nobody outside was allowed to touch it or see it. Making do with their own craftsmen was fine—how could artisans raised by the family not count as artisans? Besides, with the House God's protection, nobody could steal it anyway. Descendants surely wouldn't be reckless enough to casually hand over their patriarch tokens for a cracker craftsman to study, right? Wait, surely not? The answer was: oh yes, they would. Very much so! With Minkler's full cooperation, Lou Feng had cracked the entire verification protocol of the patriarch token in less than a few hours. Then, before the ship even reached Xiangzhou, Ji Jue had used Minkler's spiritus and blood as materials to manufacture a whole batch of high-grade knockoffs—all using the exact same serial number. Whoever wore the ring was Minkler! Whoever wore it was a candidate for family head! Even if the House God might sense something off about the taste once it swallowed him into its belly, so long as Ji Jue wasn't crazy enough to dive in voluntarily, draped head-to-toe in patriarch tokens, he was invincible in the Chopra household! "One shouldn't be too rigid in life," Ji Jue said with a warm smile, offering consolation. "As the saying goes: if the mountain will not come to me, I will go to the mountain. I might not be able to take the name Chopra, but Chopra can certainly take the surname Ji!" *Since you're all going to be my dogs in the future, wouldn't the House God be my dog too?* *Just look at how eager it is—it's having way more fun than it ever did following you guys...* *Don't worry, once I'm done playing with it, I'll give it back to you!* And just like that, the power of ten times a candidate for family head was in hand! And then... Smiling, Ji Jue drew something from his pocket that caused Badanta's expression to change drastically. A tiny bottle. Holy Oil!