Not long after Xu Ying and the others departed, the mangled heap of flesh and blood finally assembled back into human form. Even the tattered garments upon him were restored to their former state.
The hoopoe crown atop his head was also just as it had been.
Such was the nature of a heavenly fiend. A heavenly fiend memorized every physical trait of a body, and even if blasted to pieces, it would regenerate completely.
He strode toward the mountain peak, which had been reduced nearly to a flat plateau. Yet as he took a stride, his foot suddenly found only empty air, and he nearly tumbled over.
The feather-robed youth looked down and saw that he was missing a leg.
His clothes had been pulverized, and his hoopoe crown shattered as well. Restoring those things had cost him too much "cultivation base," leaving him unable to regenerate the limb.
Black vapor roiled across the youth's body. His left leg split down the middle into two, though both were noticeably thin. He paid it no mind, however, and reached the summit.
He drew in a deep sniff. It was the scent left behind by Zhu Chanchan.
To him, the scent of an immortal herb possessed a fatal allure, enticing him to hunt.
***
Meanwhile, a ray of sunlight shone across Beichenzi's eyelids. He opened his eyes weakly, greeted by Xu Ying, Zhu Chanchan, and the bronze bell watching him with concern. Seeing him awake, the two humans and the bell all breathed a sigh of relief.
"Elder Beichen is all right!" Xu Ying smiled. "I told you good men are blessed by heaven, and so it proved."
Zhu Chanchan chimed in with compliments. "Old Master Beichen fought a grand battle against the heavenly fiend! Matchless in valor, boundless in loyalty, towering across the ages! Anyone hearing of the old master's deeds would give him a thumbs-up and praise his steadfast righteousness!"
Beichenzi struggled to sit up, wheezing. "I suppose I'm getting on in years... When I threw my life into fighting that heavenly fiend, his vitality slammed into my Primordial Spirit, throwing my divine sense into disarray and knocking me unconscious..."
Suddenly, he shoved Xu Ying and Zhu Chanchan aside, knocked past the bronze bell, and leaped right off Yuan Qi's enormous head. "You little bastards! Trying to make an old man lay down his life for you—I quit!"
*Thump!*
A dull crash echoed up.
Yuan Qi was slithering at full speed and shouted in alarm at the sound, "What was that? Ah Ying, what happened?"
Xu Ying held onto the great serpent's black horn and peered downward. "The old gentleman jumped off your head. I only treated the internal injuries to his five viscera and six bowels. His Primordial Spirit, Realm of Xiyi, and Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground were all rattled and wounded. He can't use his magic power, couldn't fly, and plummeted straight down."
Yuan Qi jumped in fright and screeched to a halt. "Which side did he jump toward? Left or right? Right beside my right flank is the Abyss of the Yin and Yang Realms!"
"The right."
Xu Ying strained his eyes downward and finally spotted Beichenzi. The white-haired old man had plunged about a hundred fathoms into the abyss, but fortunately he had slammed onto a protruding boulder, preventing him from falling all the way in.
Had he plunged into the abyss, even gods could not save him, and Xu Ying would have had to look for another "enthusiastic protector of the Dao."
Beichenzi's head was spinning from the impact. Murmuring voices drifted from the depths of the abyss, sounding like countless trapped demon kings whispering into his ears, scrambling his thoughts and making it nearly impossible to concentrate.
Terror seized Beichenzi's heart. He tried to muster his magic power, but he could not stir even a shred of his cultivation base. Panic-stricken, he yelled, "Xu Ying, save me—!"
Suddenly, the boulder loosened and slipped.
Beichenzi screamed. Forcing his Primordial Spirit forward, the spirit grabbed the cliff face with one hand and clutched his arm with the other, keeping him from plunging into the void. The boulder battered down the abyss walls, ricocheting left and right for what seemed like an eternity before finally vanishing into the depths.
The chaotic whispers made it harder and harder for him to concentrate, leaving him unable to control his Primordial Spirit.
Just as he could hold on no longer, the bronze bell wobbled down with its mouth facing upward, caught him neatly, and carried him sluggishly back out of the abyss.
The bronze bell landed back atop Yuan Qi's head. Beichenzi rolled out of the bell's mouth, his body limp and his chest heaving as he gasped for air.
Just moments ago, despair had engulfed him; he had believed he would fall into the abyss and meet a gruesome end. Rescued now, he nearly burst into tears.
He possessed an inexplicable dread of the abyss. In his youth, he had seen countless mighty Qi Refiners attempt to explore it, only for none of them ever to return. The abyss was his living nightmare.
Xu Ying praised, "The old gentleman's loyalty truly reaches to the clouds! Worried that we might lose our lives, after jumping into the abyss he turned right back around."
Beichenzi snorted. "Loyalty my ass! I couldn't get away! If I could, I would have ditched you bastards long ago!"
Throwing caution to the wind, he stopped acting polite toward Xu Ying and unleashed a barrage of curses, casting his former dignity entirely aside.
The bronze bell whispered to Zhu Chanchan, "He's rattled."
Zhu Chanchan nodded. "Fuming with rage."
Xu Ying consoled him, "Elder, hurry and nurse your wounds. The heavenly fiend isn't dead yet; he's still chasing us. We still need you to regain your grandeur and fight him off."
"Fight him off my ass!"
Beichenzi's fury showed no sign of abating as he continued to rant. "To think that I, Beichenzi, have strode proudly for three thousand years! I've watched seas turn into mulberry fields and witnessed the rise and fall of dynasties. How many momentous events were mere smoke passing before my eyes? And to think today I've landed in the hands of you little scoundrels!"
Zhu Chanchan kindly chimed in, "Elder, I'm afraid only Ah Ying and Lord Qi here are younger than you. It's hard to say who the little scoundrels really are."
Beichenzi's heart gave a jolt. He thought to himself, *That foul snake is certainly younger than me, but that wretched Xu Ying is bound to be far older than I am.*
He then thought of all these years scurrying about the mortal realm, laboring in hardship, living in constant dread, racking up countless merits and toils. He had thought bitter hardship would yield sweet reward and good days lay ahead, never expecting his fate would be to end up eaten by a heavenly fiend. Stripped of all composure, he began cursing roundly once more.
Xu Ying waited until the old man had exhausted himself before speaking up. "Elder, hurry and cultivate. By the way, do you have any miracle pills or medicine for healing? I recall some Qi Refiner techniques contain pill formulas that can craft elixirs to heal wounds."
"What good is healing? I still can't beat that heavenly fiend!"
Complaints aside, Beichenzi still retrieved a few jade vials from his Realm of Xiyi, poured out several spirit pills, and swallowed them. Closing his eyes to focus his mind, he refined the medicinal power to nurse the wounds in his Primordial Spirit and divine sense.
However, the heavenly fiend had possessed an immortal's corpse, making him terrifyingly strong. The injuries he had inflicted ran far deeper than that; Beichenzi's images of the Great Dao and his Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground had also suffered damage.
Such wounds were not something miracle pills could cure. They required secluded cultivation, constant visualization, and, in severe cases, seeking out various Dao images to comprehend before one could return to their peak.
Yet how could Beichenzi have such an opportunity right now?
Beichenzi sighed in despondence. He said to Xu Ying, "If the heavenly fiend catches up, we're as good as dead. I'm definitely finished; at most, I can take two or three more hits before being devoured. This bell of yours is definitely done for as well."
Xu Ying glanced at the bronze bell. Though Zhu Chanchan had repaired it, its vitality was depleted, and it could hardly display much power.
Beichenzi said, "Now, I'm at my wits' end. Either you toss this little girl into the abyss, or we all die together."
His eyes flickered as he looked toward Zhu Chanchan. "Or perhaps... if this little girl lets me have a bite, just one bite..."
Zhu Chanchan hastily ducked behind Xu Ying, poking her head out to glare fiercely at him.
Xu Ying smiled. "Elder must have other methods, right? Let me help you think..."
He paced back and forth atop Yuan Qi's head. Suddenly his eyes lit up, and he grinned. "Elder has lived from Emperor Wu's era to the present day; surely you have many friends?"
Beichenzi laughed out of sheer fury. "You want me to drag my friends down? Let me tell you: people in my line of work don't have friends! Even if I wanted to trap someone, there's nowhere to look!"
Xu Ying's eyes gleamed. "Do you know of any perilous places that could suppress the heavenly fiend?"
Beichenzi shook his head. "Entering those perilous places would kill me even in my prime. Going now would only get me killed faster."
Xu Ying pondered. "Then is there anywhere that can conceal us from the heavenly fiend's senses?"
Beichenzi's expression shifted slightly. "There is one such place..."
He whispered, "An Earth God shrine... Where are we now?"
Xu Ying was unfamiliar with the geography, so he had Yuan Qi carry them into the air. Beichenzi looked around in all directions and despaired. "We are too far from that Earth God shrine. It's in Daozhou; we won't make it in time."
Suddenly, a parasol tree standing tall on a peculiar peak came into view.
Beichenzi wept with joy, pointing toward the peak and shouting, "That's Mount Tongbai! The Azure Parasol Divine Tree is on that mountain! Perhaps Fengxian'er is hiding there!"
Xu Ying, Zhu Chanchan, and the others all let out sighs of relief. Yuan Qi descended from the sky and raced toward Mount Tongbai. Flying on a sword through the air consumed far too much magic power for a creature of his massive size; slithering across the ground was much less exhausting, and hardly any slower.
Before long, they arrived at Mount Tongbai, ascended the peak, and reached the base of the azure parasol tree.
The blossoms on the tree had long since withered, and many green fruits hung from the branches. Xu Ying sent out his divine sense, quickly sweeping the divine tree from top to bottom, but found no trace of Fengxian'er's aura.
Still refusing to give up, Xu Ying flew atop his sword qi, circling the divine tree while tapping its trunk to see if a cave-heaven lay hidden inside.
Beneath the divine tree, the great serpent Yuan Qi suddenly spoke up. "I know another way to survive. But it requires the old master's cooperation."
Beichenzi frowned. "What could a petty snake demon like you possibly know?"
Yuan Qi said, "Ah Ying definitely has a seal inside him. Whenever he does something astonishing, it's because a leak opened in his seal, allowing a portion of his memories to awaken. I was thinking..."
Beichenzi cut him off firmly. "Impossible! Don't even think about it!"
Yuan Qi countered, "If we don't take this step, we will all die here. Beichenzi, what is it that you have wanted most in this life? Has it been watching an ageless youth against your own will all this time? Don't you want to do the things you actually wish to do?"
"An ageless youth?" Zhu Chanchan's expression shifted as if remembering something. She hastily looked up toward Xu Ying on the azure parasol tree, murmuring in her heart, *Could that legend be true?*
Disbelief was written all over her face.
Beichenzi's expression darkened and brightened in turn. He too looked up at Xu Ying, watching the boy ride his sword qi and tirelessly tap the trunk of the tree.
Yuan Qi pressed on. "Right now, if you don't help him undo the seal, we all die here. The thing you've wanted most in your life will remain forever unfulfilled. If you help him break the seal, then once the heavenly fiend is destroyed, the worst that can happen is you seal him back up."
The great serpent slowly coiled around Beichenzi, fixing his eyes upon him. His voice drifted now from the front, now from behind, now from the left and now from the right, persuasive and coaxing. "This is the only way out of our current doom. You don't want your life to end while you're still playing the jailer watching over a prisoner, do you?
"In your final moments, when you look back on the greatest highlight of your life, surely you don't want it to be just playing a jailer?"
The great serpent coiled higher and higher around Beichenzi, his voice turning airy and haunting. "Who knows? Perhaps battling the heavenly fiend will be the most magnificent battle of your life.
"And perhaps unsealing Ah Ying will be your life's greatest stroke of genius."
"Silence!"
Beichenzi roared, his face grim as he scolded, "A petty snake demon dares try to beguile me? Do you think my three thousand years of cultivation and my three thousand years of tempered Dao heart were gnawed up by dogs?"
As if struck by a heavy blow, the great serpent's coiled body collapsed like water, and he slithered away in dejection.
Beichenzi stood proudly, though his face remained conflicted.
Just then, Zhu Chanchan said in a trembling voice, "The heavenly fiend is here—he's nearby! What do we do?"
Beichenzi's face drained of color. He pulled a yellow robe from his Realm of Xiyi and shook it with a sharp snap. The robe flew upward as if draped over an invisible figure, rustling loudly as it tore through the air and vanished.
Having dispatched the yellow robe, Beichenzi brought out an altar. An alcove shrine rested upon it. The old man drew a peach-wood sword and stepped onto the altar.
No god was enshrined within the alcove; instead, a single paper talisman was worshipped inside.
The characters upon the talisman were written in bird-and-worm seal script using a golden brush. They were far more intricate than any script Xu Ying had ever seen, carrying a natural Dao charm.
Before the talisman, an arm-thick stick of incense had been lit. Wisps of fragrance rose straight toward the paper talisman, absorbed into its surface. A stick of incense like that could not be burned through in six months, let alone a year!
Beichenzi stood atop the altar, wielding his sword in ritual, paying homage to heaven and earth, chanting incantations under his breath.
At that very moment, a young man wearing a hoopoe feather crown and draped in golden-threaded feather robes stepped onto Mount Tongbai, appearing before them.
The bronze bell shielded Zhu Chanchan as it retreated, shouting, "Ah Ying! Get down here quickly!"
At the same time, Yuan Qi roared, "Beichenzi, what are you waiting for? Strike!"
Beichenzi gritted his teeth. With a sharp swish, his peach-wood sword thrust forward, slicing through the burning head of the arm-thick incense!
The ember rested upon the tip of his sword. With a gentle flick, he extinguished it instantly.
Before the shrine, the incense was severed. Not a wisp of smoke drifted toward the paper talisman anymore.
Between heaven and earth, all sound abruptly ceased.
Then, a gentle breeze began to blow. The wind grew stronger and stronger, howling fiercely and setting all the grass and trees thrashing. Dark clouds rolled across the sky in mere moments, emerging from nowhere.
Heaven and earth altered color. The ferocious wind made even the Azure Parasol Divine Tree sway wildly in the gale!
*Crack!*
A colossal bolt of lightning fell from the sky, slamming brutally into the Azure Parasol Divine Tree and splitting it straight down the middle!
The divine tree crashed down with a thunderous roar. In the midst of the lightning, a figure landed heavily upon the ground, half-crouched, slowly raising his head. It was Xu Ying. The lightning from a moment ago seemed to have transformed into a luminous pattern, crackling and dancing restlessly between his brows.
He slowly rose to his feet. Across thousands of miles, the dark clouds in the sky spun into a frantic vortex—and he was the center of that vortex!
Chapter 111