Xu Ying looked at the old man. The elder held a bronze lamp whose light was dim, and the smile on his face was somewhat stiff. He clearly was not adept at dealing with people.
"Many thanks for Senior's assistance," Xu Ying said sincerely.
The old man looked troubled and stammered, "Assistance... actually, it is a karmic bond..."
Xu Ying blinked, feeling rather puzzled, unsure what he meant by constantly speaking of a karmic bond.
Seeing that Xu Ying still did not understand, the old man did not explain further and carried the lamp up the mountain. Xu Ying followed behind him, only to see that Mount Fengdu was extraordinarily towering and majestic, standing tall amid the myriad stars of the Nether Sea.
Whenever the waters of the Nether Sea dashed against Fengdu, stars would rise from the sea, growing larger and larger, drifting all around Fengdu.
The stars were star souls, upon which countless ghosts dwelt. When ghosts were washed over by the Nai River, they were distributed among the various star souls to live there and spend the rest of their post-mortal days in peace.
Xu Ying noticed that many droplets of water were rising from those star souls. They looked like raindrops, yet rather than falling onto the stars, they continually ascended, flying out of the stars and falling into the Nether Sea.
"Ghosts forgotten by their kin and old friends gradually drift away, turning into water droplets in the Nether Sea. Their imperishable true spirits condense together to form a spirit root connecting Heaven and Earth. This spirit root is Fengdu."
The old man used the bronze lamp to illuminate the damp mountain path. It was very slippery and bitterly cold here. Walking along the path, every step left behind a glistening footprint.
Xu Ying noticed that these footprints were the spiritual light left behind after the ghosts dissipated.
"When a mortal dies, the physical body is destroyed; when a ghost dies, it is forgotten. No matter who it is, sooner or later comes the day when they are forgotten. Once the vow-power tethering the soul disperses, the soul drifts away. Those ghosts ultimately turn into the waters of the Nether Sea, the stones of Mount Fengdu, and become the spirit root of Heaven and Earth."
The old man's voice drifted back. The rust-eaten oil lamp creaked faintly.
Xu Ying followed him in climbing. He had seen spirit roots of Heaven and Earth before—for instance, there was one in the Taiyi Lesser Mysterious Heaven. That spirit root was the Yin-Yang Twin Vines, rooted in the Taiyi Lesser Mysterious Heaven and connecting the myriad worlds of the heavens.
Mount Fengdu was also a spirit root of Heaven and Earth, rooted in the Nether Sea, its peak towering straight into the pitch-black sky, its other end piercing into who knew what world.
Without realizing it, Xu Ying followed him to the summit. Looking as far as the eye could see, there were dilapidated buildings, collapsed divine temples, and smashed divine idols everywhere.
A terrible war had once taken place here. There were even fragments of immortal artifacts lodged within the ancient ruins, glowing with shimmering twilight hues—captivating, yet fraught with peril.
Around the immortal artifact fragments, flesh and blood proliferated, earthworm-like tentacles sprouting in all directions and encroaching outward. Looking along the direction from which the fragments had come, faint light trickled down from the sky—the twilight glow of another world revealed where the immortal artifacts had pierced through this world.
Xu Ying walked before a collapsed divine idol. The idol's head alone was as immense as an ordinary mountain peak, and its streamers resembled long rivers, with the incense smoke qi inside still active.
And such idols were by no means few on Mount Fengdu.
Only now did Xu Ying notice that the old man was lame, walking with a limp. Xu Ying had not noticed while ascending the mountain earlier, but now that they were on flat ground, the elder's impaired leg became apparent.
The old man held the oil lamp ahead, dispelling the nearby darkness.
In the shadows lurked furtive creatures of indistinct appearance, flitting through the ruins with palpable malice, only to be driven back by the lamplight.
The old man brought him before a damaged palace and led him inside.
Within this palace flowed a trickling river shrouded in dense, hazy radiance, its water coming from origins unknown. After a moment, a jade coffin floated down along the river.
A person lay face up inside the coffin, hands resting upon his chest, appearing both dead and alive.
A sword was plunged into his chest, the phantom image of an immortal sword still branded in the wound, swaying faintly, flickering between light and dark.
Seeing this phantom of the immortal sword, Xu Ying was slightly taken aback: *This immortal sword bears a striking resemblance to the Sword Dao contained in the Sword Dao Return to Truth Art!*
He had already comprehended the four-character immortal formula of the Sword Dao Return to Truth Art and possessed a profound understanding of the Sword Dao. Seeing the immortal sword imprint on the chest of the deity in the coffin, he immediately realized there had to be a connection between the two!
However, the Sword Dao Return to Truth Art had been carved upon the precipice of the Mount Shu Sword Sect. The Founding Patriarch had attained enlightenment and become a sword immortal precisely upon seeing the supreme arts on that precipice.
As for who had left the Sword Dao Return to Truth Art on the cliff face, the Founding Patriarch had left no records.
Now, Xu Ying felt he might have found the source of the Sword Dao Return to Truth Art!
For the immortal sword brand plunged into the chest of the deity in the coffin stemmed from the very same source as the Sword Dao Return to Truth Art—and was even more profound than the Sword Dao recorded therein!
"Fellow Daoist Xu, I ask for a karmic bond."
The old man set down the oil lamp, took out a dried bamboo slip, and presented it to Xu Ying.
Xu Ying looked at it; on the bamboo slip was a divination text, reading:
"The stars of the Nether Capital run wild; the kun fish leaps from the sea. Nether fires blaze on the other shore; a karmic bond arrives of itself."
Xu Ying was astonished. Holding the bamboo slip, he asked, "Where did this come from?"
The old man said, "Within the Nether Sea lies the immortal mountain of Penglai, upon which dwells a divine maiden skilled in divination who cast a hexagram for me. The hexagram meant that when the stars above the Nether Sea fell into chaos, the kun fish leaped from the waters, and the nether fires on the other shore burned, the karmic bond would arrive."
He looked eagerly at Xu Ying and said, "Fellow Daoist Xu, forge a karmic bond with me."
Xu Ying looked at him, then glanced at the jade coffin in the water. Recalling the "karmic bond" the old man repeatedly mentioned, he suddenly understood and smiled. "Why didn't Fellow Daoist say so sooner?"
He produced a jade bottle only a palm tall, which contained none other than Jade Pool immortal water.
Overjoyed, the old man hurriedly took the jade bottle, uncapped it, held it to his nose, and took a whiff. In a rush, he pushed open the jade coffin and brought the Jade Pool water to the lips of the man inside.
The person in the coffin was a man, appearing forty or fifty years of age, bearing some resemblance to the old man.
He wore a purple imperial crown whose form was intricate, resembling an altar yet also a shrine. Incense burned within the coffin, sustaining an unbroken thread of incense smoke.
The old man hesitated, looking up toward the sky and then toward the other shore of the Nether Sea, a worried expression on his face.
Seeing him open his mouth as if to speak, Xu Ying immediately caught on and said, "Forge a karmic bond?"
The old man handed him the oil lamp and said, "Forge a karmic bond. In a moment, once I take the Jade Pool immortal water, strange anomalies may arise around Mount Fengdu. If you see anything in the sky or upon the sea, shine the lamplight upon it."
Xu Ying held the oil lamp and said with a smile, "That's simple enough. Leave it to me."
Still anxious, the old man took a needle and trimmed the wick of the oil lamp upward, brightening the flame.
Xu Ying asked, "Fellow Daoist, I haven't yet had the chance to ask. Dare I ask who you are?"
The old man fed the man in the coffin the Jade Pool water. Deep within Mount Fengdu, an inexplicable vibration suddenly resonated—like a heartbeat: *thump*, and then another *thump*.
An inexplicable power awakened from within the mountain, as profound as the Nether Sea, as towering as Fengdu. This power grew stronger and stronger, swirling around the man!
The man's narrow eyelids slowly opened, and a ponderous voice suddenly detonated from the darkness of Heaven and Earth:
"In the primordial era, mortals called me Beiyin, and they called me Fengdu; they addressed me as Emperor."
He wore robes of red and black, their hems embroidered with the shapes of the myriad worlds of the heavens, his aura surging ever stronger.
The old man beside the coffin suddenly grew larger and larger, taller and taller, his robes flapping as he enveloped Fengdu, transforming into a heaven-propping Primordial Spirit standing amid the Nether Sea, his head brushing against the dark sky!
He radiated monstrous divine might that stirred the Nether Sea into turbulence!
The immortal sword imprint plunged in his chest also began to fade!
Suddenly, the light of the immortal sword shone dazzlingly bright, Dao resonance vibrating within the blade as it exerted itself to thrust even deeper into the man's chest—
*Boom!*
All around Mount Fengdu, waves suddenly surged to the heavens, lightning flashed, and thunder roared. Countless star souls rose from the sea, resembling countless massive astral bodies, with countless ghosts living upon them!
At this moment, star souls danced around the oil lamp, stars circling about, and countless voices issued from the old man's mouth, overlapping into a deafening chorus:
"I am what mortals call the Great Emperor Beiyin, Emperor Lord Beitai, the Master of Fengdu! I am the Emperor who governs the Heavenly Dao of the Netherworld, a spirit born of Mount Fengdu's spirit root of Heaven and Earth, a natural god ruling over hundreds of millions of star souls!"
With a hum, brilliant lamplight shone outward. Upon countless stars, ghosts great and small prostrated, calling upon the holy name of the God of the Nether Sea.
Their cries and the prayers of ghosts and spirits coalesced into boundless Dharmic power, reviving the Heavenly Dao of the Nether Sea and causing Mount Fengdu's spirit root to shine brightly once more!
Within the Fengdu Bodhimanda, shattered idols continually repaired themselves amid the gale and thunder; palaces seemed to reverse through time, rising again from their ruins!
The old man, standing as tall as Mount Fengdu, let his robes billow, his sleeves swirling around Fengdu as his earth-shaking voice rang out: "Mortals call my name in death, awakening me from the darkness, and my bronze lamp shall shine upon them, guiding them to be reborn among the star souls after death!"
As the divine power of the Fengdu deity grew stronger and stronger, the brand of that immortal sword also grew brighter and brighter.
Lightning and thunder roared over Fengdu, and a torrential downpour arrived without warning. Shielding the lamp with one hand, Xu Ying looked up, only to see the sky suddenly tear open, where colossal shadows swam within the thunderclouds!
Remembering the old man's words, he raised the bronze lamp and shone it toward the thunderclouds.
A sound like the bellow of an ox came from the thunderclouds. When the light struck the shadow, it was as if struck by a heavy blow; it retreated upward at high speed and was soon blasted back into another spacetime!
Just as Xu Ying let out a breath of relief, the heavens suddenly caved in, and countless towering shadows stood on the other end of spacetime, surging toward the Nether Sea!
Flustered, Xu Ying hastily stimulated the bronze lamp. Lamplight illuminated the rain-drenched sky, beams piercing through the clouds to strike those imposing shadows one by one, knocking those terrible entities back into their original spacetime!
"What are those things?"
As Xu Ying was looking around, just as those shadows receded, a God Bridge spanning heaven and earth suddenly arched forth, thumping onto Mount Fengdu!
The God Bridge pressed down upon Mount Fengdu, weighing upon the massive mountain until it rumbled and began to sink into the Nether Sea!
Xu Ying channeled the lamp, casting a pillar of light onto that God Bridge.
Once illuminated, it was revealed to be an arched bridge connecting two realms, carved with profound patterns and suspended between heaven and earth—as if by crossing this God Bridge, one could ascend!
"What a magnificent God Bridge!"
Xu Ying marveled. He turned the oil lamp, illuminating from the head of the bridge to its tail, only to see a person standing motionless at the far end of the bridge, wearing a fanged mask.
He shifted the lamplight, and the masked figure on the bridge suddenly moved. When Xu Ying shone the light over again, in just a brief moment, the masked person had already reached the middle of the bridge.
Hit by the lamplight, the masked person froze once more. Yet in his hand was a talisman; he had already raised it, radiating golden light.
The light of the oil lamp was suppressed by the talisman, growing dimmer and dimmer, while the masked person, bearing an eerie smile, shifted inch by inch toward the opposite end of the bridge.
Suddenly, with a crisp snap, the immortal sword imprint lodged in Beiyin's chest shattered inch by inch!
Shock appeared on the masked person's face. As he hesitated over whether to keep advancing, a deep, heavy voice suddenly came from beyond the heavens: "Beiyin has revived. Come back. We have fallen to the lower realm and are treated like prisoners; why risk our lives?"
The talisman in the masked figure's hand suddenly combusted, erupting with blinding radiance. The light of the bronze lamp in Xu Ying's hand was completely suppressed, blinding him.
When the glare cleared, the God Bridge linking the two realms and the masked person upon it had vanished without a trace!
The divine figure in the coffin slowly sat up and gazed out toward the sky beyond, where the entrance to the outer world was slowly closing. The waves outside Mount Fengdu gradually subsided as well, the waters of the Nether Sea returning to calm.
"Now that tens of thousands of years have passed, the divine name of Fengdu is likely known to none among the living. Only those ghosts still chant it in silence, preserving a wisp of incense smoke for me to keep my Primordial Spirit from perishing."
Beiyin flew up from the coffin, landed on the ground, and said to Xu Ying, "Many thanks for Fellow Daoist Xu's karmic bond. Beiyin shall engrave it in his heart."
Xu Ying returned the oil lamp to him; the flame within the lamp gradually brightened once more.
Beiyin hung the lamp upon the mountain, and light returned to the Nether Sea.
"Who were those who attacked Fengdu from another world just now?" Xu Ying inquired.
"They are heavenly fiends," Beiyin said. "I can repel them with this lamp. Over the years, they have continually sought to invade Mount Fengdu. In the past, I could repel them with this lamp, but just now I needed to heal my wounds, giving them an opportunity. Fortunately, Fellow Daoist Xu was here, resolving my pressing crisis."
"Heavenly fiends?"
Xu Ying was stunned. He looked toward the other shore of the Nether Sea; amid those nether fires, there were heavenly fiends as well. Where did heavenly fiends come from?
Great Emperor Beiyin said, "I do not know where they come from either. I have been dead for too long, suppressed here. I only know that suddenly a great abyss appeared in the sky, with strange eyes behind the abyss, and then the heavenly fiends appeared. Because of my death, they set their sights on my golden body. If they were to invade and seize my golden body, the consequences would be unimaginable."
"The heavenly fiends only appeared after the Heavenly Abyss appeared in the sky?"
Xu Ying was deeply puzzled. When did the Heavenly Abyss appear?
"Over forty thousand years ago, this abyss suddenly appeared in the sky. It is not the Cangwu Abyss. This abyss is different from the Cangwu Abyss; within this abyss lurks great evil."
"Was that masked person on the God Bridge a heavenly fiend as well?"
"No. I sensed that he is the evil within the abyss."
Great Emperor Beiyin did not know much about this either. Xu Ying set the matter aside for the moment, took out the bamboo slip, and inquired, "Mister Beiyin, where is the owner of this bamboo slip, that God-Woman who does fortune-telling, right now?"
Great Emperor Beiyin said, "The divine maiden of the Penglai Immortal Isle vanished along with that immortal island. Back then, I met her on the sea, and she cast a hexagram for me, but today even I do not know her whereabouts. When she read my fortune, it was fifteen thousand years ago."
Xu Ying's heart stirred. The God-Woman on the immortal mountain of Penglai had read Dongyue's fortune at least twenty-odd thousand years ago, and she had read Beiyin's fifteen thousand years ago—an immensely long span of time.
Even an Ascension stage Qi Refiner would surely have died by now!
*Only a Qi Refiner who harvests chives could survive, or perhaps Mount Penglai preserved her life, though that would require her to have consumed the immortal medicine beforehand.*
Xu Ying turned the bamboo slip over in his hands, many doubts rising in his mind. *Could someone truly predict what would happen ten or twenty thousand years in the future? Even Yuan Tiangang likely wouldn't possess such ability, would he? How was the divine maiden of Penglai able to foreknow the future?*
Chapter 276