"An evil sword immortal? Refining Myriad Spirits Pills from indestructible primordial spirits?"
Xu Ying's head buzzed. He looked up, and the four-armed divine statue was leaning forward, staring intently at the pearl. Yet this deity was dead as well, possessing only a shell without a divine soul.
Its head had not burst open. Light flickered within it, bearing the very soul-beckoning sacrificial text Xu Ying had seen earlier!
Those sacrificial glyphs were glowing, clearly in active operation!
The bronze bell cried, "Those two stone dragons were enchanted by the statue's incense qi earlier! What they were chanting was the soul-beckoning sacrificial text! Those two divine dragons chanted themselves to death! After they died, that spirit pearl drew their souls over, pulverized them, and preserved only the indestructible primordial spirits!"
This method was sinister to the extreme. The divine statue's head was carved full of soul-beckoning sacrificial text, and its body was coiled with overwhelmingly powerful incense qi. Once the soul-beckoning sacrificial text activated, it would lure any living beings with souls into the vicinity. Upon drawing near, they would fall under the spell of the incense qi and become blindly devoted believers.
Once enthralled, they would kowtow to the divine statue and involuntarily chant the soul-beckoning text. As they chanted on and on, their heads would burst open, and their souls would burst from their bodies and fly forth.
Even that was not the end of it. After they chanted themselves to death and their souls took flight, the sacrificial glyphs on the altar would pulverize them, shattering their souls to scattered wisps until only the final trace of indestructible primordial spirit remained to become part of a Myriad Spirits Pill!
The bronze bell said, "A soul consists of the three ethereal souls and seven corporeal souls, but the indestructible primordial spirit is the root of the soul. It lies outside the three ethereal and seven corporeal souls and is infinitesimally tiny. Only by pulverizing the ethereal and corporeal souls can one obtain a minuscule speck of indestructible primordial spirit. To refine a single Myriad Spirits Pill requires at least ten thousand ordinary souls. In ancient times, virtuous cultivators would often slay vicious and malevolent ghosts that plagued the mortal realm to refine Myriad Spirits Pills."
The master of this altar was clearly not slaying vicious, malevolent ghosts; he was using the soul-beckoning sacrificial text to lure people here, slaughtering bodies to harvest souls, and shattering souls to extract their primordial spirits!
This was an act of absolute wickedness!
Xu Ying gazed up at the temple suspended among the five immortal mountains and murmured, "Yuan Qi is still in the temple..."
The bronze bell sighed. "He died a miserable death."
Xu Ying said, "Yuan Qi should still be alive, right?"
"Just consider him dead. It's not like we can save him anyway."
Xu Ying fell silent. When he had drifted in the air atop the bell just now, he had seen altars of various sizes scattered across this immortal mountain like stars, concealed amidst the forests.
If the evil sword immortal here truly pulverized souls and used their indestructible primordial spirits to refine Myriad Spirits Pills as the bronze bell said, how many lives must have been taken and how many souls harvested to produce so many spirit pills?
"Strange. Why did the soul-beckoning sacrificial text I saw earlier look so unorthodox?"
The bronze bell said in bewilderment, "For this evil sword immortal to refine so many Myriad Spirits Pills on such a grand scale, he must be a ruthless figure among ancient Qi Refiners. How could a being like that make mistakes on several talisman glyphs in a mere soul-beckoning text?"
Xu Ying started slightly. This matter truly was bizarre.
Could an immortal make such a low-level error?
Suddenly, an exotic fragrance wafted from the altar—the scent released as the Myriad Spirits Pill matured.
It was a wondrous aroma. Ordinary scents targeted only the nostrils, but the fragrance of the Myriad Spirits Pill targeted the soul itself. A single breath made one's soul ravenous with hunger, filling one with the desperate urge to rush forward and swallow it whole!
Only two of the Ningyuan Temple of Confucius's four divine dragons remained. They were deities sustained by incense offerings, devoid of true mortal flesh. Their incense qi was saturated with mortal desires, and being divine soul-spirit bodies, they found such a fragrance even more unbearable.
A moment ago, the two stone dragons had still been submerged in grief and fury over their brothers' deaths. Now, both lunged toward the altar, shouting, "This spirit pill is mine!"
As the stone dragon behind Xu Ying charged forward, it instantly revealed its true stone dragon form, treading upon mist and clouds as it maneuvered through the air. Its incense qi transformed into flying swords that slashed toward the other stone dragon in the sky.
The other stone dragon commanded the high ground, unleashing its flying swords downward.
The flying swords tore through the air with shrill whistles, striking their bodies in showers of sparks.
The two stone dragons brawled in midair, their tempers flaring with murderous fury. Forgetting all brotherly affection, each wished only to butcher the other and claim the Myriad Spirits Pill.
Suddenly, one stone dragon pinned the other down and crashed onto the altar with a resounding boom. Reaching out a claw toward the spirit pill at the center of the altar, it cried, "I have a premonition—eat this pill, and I will become an immortal!"
*Bang!*
Its head burst open, and its soul floated forth, wispy and ethereal. Suddenly came another bang as the stone dragon pinned beneath it also had its head explode. The two dragons' souls drifted in the air, still grappling and clawing at one another, screaming, "The spirit pill is mine!"
Yet their souls did not fly toward the Myriad Spirits Pill. Instead, guided by the soul-beckoning sacrificial text within the head of the four-armed divine statue standing nearby, they flew directly toward the statue's head.
On the altar, the stone dragons stiffened, standing frozen in place. Several chunks of stone dropped from their shattered skulls, hitting the ground with crisp clatters.
Xu Ying still stood where he was, watching the scene in astonishment. In the span of a few brief moments, four formidable adversaries had perished just like that, leaving the youth utterly stunned.
"This Myriad Spirits Pill is truly sinister."
Xu Ying stepped forward cautiously and asked, "Lord Bell, what are the benefits of consuming a Myriad Spirits Pill?"
The bronze bell replied, "I've only heard that Myriad Spirits Pills can heal injuries to the Primordial Spirit and replenish deficiencies in the soul. I haven't heard of any other benefits."
It paused before adding, "My era was already during the Age of Dharma Decline for Qi Refiners. Many things had been lost to time. Even with my master's peerless talent, he couldn't have known everything—let alone me."
Its tone sounded somewhat subdued. Its master of peerless talent had also vanished from the world after suppressing the demoness. For three thousand years, it had received no news of him whatsoever.
As Xu Ying walked up to the altar, his divine sense was disturbed by the chanting of myriad worshippers. Waves of recitations echoed in his ears, tempting him to drop to his knees and become a faithful believer of this four-armed divine statue!
*If I hadn't developed divine sense, I probably would have died here just like the four dragons from the Temple of Confucius!*
Xu Ying stabilized his divine sense. No matter how powerful the chanting of the multitude grew in his ears, his mind remained motionless, solid and unified as he pressed forward!
The benefits of cultivating the Taiyi Guiding Technique over these past years now showed their worth. Dense as this four-armed deity's incense qi was, it could not suppress his divine sense!
Xu Ying arrived at the feet of the divine statue and looked up. Seeing the statue glowing with golden light and wrapped in thick incense, he thought to himself, *This deity must have more than five hundred years of cultivation! Eight hundred or even a thousand years is entirely possible!*
Across the land of Shenzhou, temples with five hundred years of unbroken incense could indeed be found, but grand temples with eight hundred or a thousand years of continuous incense were few and far between.
Earlier, during his fleeting glance from above, he had seen dozens of altars. With one divine statue per altar, that meant dozens of statues!
Factoring in the parts of this mountain he hadn't seen, along with the other four immortal mountains, the number of divine statues was likely far greater!
Where, then, had all these deities come from?
Xu Ying gave a light leap and landed on the altar.
Suddenly, the chanting of myriad worshippers surged into a deafening clamor, making Xu Ying's head swell until it felt ready to burst!
*Clang!*
The bell rang out with a resonant, lingering chime that shielded Xu Ying's mind, rendering him impervious to external sorcery.
Xu Ying's swollen head returned to normal. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief. Entering the altar, he plucked the Myriad Spirits Pill floating above it and asked, "Can an ordinary person eat a Myriad Spirits Pill?"
The bronze bell replied, "I don't know either. Ah Ying, I keep feeling like something isn't right. We'd better leave quickly."
Xu Ying also felt as though he had overlooked something. Tilting his head back, he swallowed the Myriad Spirits Pill. Before he could even taste its flavor, he noticed the fingers of the massive hand gripping the edge of the altar twitch slightly!
Xu Ying instantly realized what he had overlooked.
*The souls of the two stone dragons were absorbed into the four-armed divine statue!*
He sprang into the air immediately. With a sharp slap, the two dustpan-sized hands of the four-armed deity slammed violently together, and Xu Ying leaped out from between the palms just as they shut!
*The four-armed statue originally had no divine soul, but after absorbing the souls of those two gods, it gained one!*
While still airborne, Xu Ying saw the deity's other two hands swatting toward him like swatters after a fly, yet he had no purchase to push off from.
Xu Ying tapped the tip of his foot against the bronze bell, vaulting upward once more to evade the strike.
The bronze bell plummeted. Just as it was about to curse Xu Ying for being disloyal, Xu Ying stamped down hard on the four-armed deity's face, shooting downward like an arrow released from a bowstring, headfirst toward the altar!
He landed upon the altar just as the bronze bell dropped down. Grabbing the bell's handle, Xu Ying surged forward in a single stride and dashed off the altar.
The entire sequence was crisp and fluid. The four-armed deity was left dazzled, its four hands flailing through the air without brushing a hair on Xu Ying before the youth fled the altar with the bronze bell in tow.
Xu Ying channeled the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist. The Elephant King divine body manifested behind him, his feet packing the force of a ten-thousand-jin divine elephant. Each stride carried him seventy or eighty feet, every push of his feet shattering rocks and bursting the earth as he sprinted wildly forward.
Behind him, the four-armed deity roared. Clamping both hands onto the colossal altar, it hoisted the immense weight and swung it around in a full circle.
*Whoosh—*
The altar spun through the air, breaking the sound barrier in an instant and producing a thunderous boom as it hurled straight toward Xu Ying!
Looking back and seeing this, Xu Ying was scared out of his wits. He sprinted for dear life. A deafening roar shattered the air as the massive altar slammed down behind him, the surging shockwave throwing him and the bell high into the air amid a storm of crumbling boulders!
Xu Ying's body shuddered violently. The Elephant King divine body behind him grew unsteady and frail, its vital blood scattering like dust.
The youth tumbled across the ground upon landing, then sprang to his feet and resumed his frantic sprint.
Behind him, the four-armed deity bent its knees and kicked off with explosive force, howling in pursuit. The bronze bell's chime turned hoarse as it cried, "Ah Ying, faster! Faster! That bastard is catching up!"
Xu Ying tore along at top speed when sharp whistling suddenly erupted from behind. Greatswords seventeen to eighteen feet long came tearing through the air, carrying terrifying sword qi. Wherever they passed, trees toppled and boulders split without a sound.
Xu Ying dodged one of the greatswords, watching as it grazed the ground and tore through everything in its path, gouging a deep trench into the earth!
The four-armed deity's incense flying swords were terrifying beyond measure, boasting power unlike anything he had ever seen. Seeing that he was about to be trapped by sword after sword while the deity bore down from behind, Xu Ying spun around mid-sprint, gathered his qi into a sword, and unleashed a beam of sword qi like a soaring rainbow that slashed down at the four-armed deity!
Caught off guard, the deity instantly raised both arms to guard itself while mobilizing its incense qi. Yet Xu Ying's Realm Breaker sword qi was concentrated and fierce, capable of slaying an expert like Zhou Yihang; upon meeting the statue's arms, its power surged explosively, seemingly on the verge of shearing them clean off!
The four-armed deity's forward momentum halted instantly, and it retreated at high speed to evade the sword light.
Its incense qi immediately materialized into dark ash-green shields before and behind it. In the brief moment it was delayed, Xu Ying had already used the opening to vanish without a trace.
The four-armed deity was incandescent with rage. Clouds gathered beneath its feet as it ascended step by step, sprinting through the sky in search of Xu Ying's whereabouts. Unable to locate him, it took out its wrath on others, ruthlessly slaughtering the Yongzhou officials and the deities under Vice Prefect Ling's command.
After it departed, the ground swelled slightly, and Xu Ying crawled out from the dirt. He had not fled just now; instead, taking advantage of the four-armed deity's retreat, he had dug a hole and buried himself, narrowly escaping disaster.
"That deity is far too strong!"
Xu Ying let out a breath and looked up. In the sky above, the floating boulders had revived, embarking on a slaughterous rampage. The four-armed deity was also laying waste to the forces under Regional Inspector Zhou Heng and Vice Prefect Ling, inflicting heavy casualties on both mortals and gods in an instant!
Xu Ying engaged his Heavenly Eye to look closer. As these figures died, their ghosts separated from their bodies, drifting down like snowflakes toward the five immortal mountains.
The bronze bell said, "With so many dead, and all of them powerful experts, their souls will likely cause quite a few Myriad Spirits Pills to mature!"
Xu Ying frowned. "It will probably cause quite a few divine statues to revive as well!"
The survivors who had escaped the carnage plunged downward to take refuge in the immortal mountains. Xu Ying felt deeply uneasy and whispered, "Lord Bell, we must reach the grand temple as soon as possible to rescue Yuan Qi."
The bronze bell said, "Yuan Qi died a miserable death. Ah Ying, let's head outside. Once we're out, we can erect a golden body for him in a village so the people can worship him. His corpse probably hasn't started stinking yet."
***
The grand temple.
This temple hung suspended between the five immortal mountains. Within it, treasured auras soared to the heavens, and immortal light misted the air. Walking into this place refreshed the spirit and cleared the mind, making one feel as though their cultivation was steadily rising with every breath.
Yuan Qi was coiled excitedly before the temple hall. Around him were Nuo masters, monsters, deities, and even several nearby villagers.
Whether mortal, monster, or ghost-god, all sat upright before the hall, listening in silence.
The hall was a towering, majestic immortal palace, radiant with dazzling light that illuminated the eyes. Above the hall drifted a blazing sun, its radiance lighting up the ruined temple world and making it as bright as day.
Before the hall sat an immortal clad in white robes, with white eyebrows and a white beard. His white garments, brows, and beard drifted without wind, radiating an immortal demeanor that inspired instinctive awe in all who beheld him.
The immortal light around him circled ceaselessly like flying swords with their points facing outward.
The immortal spoke: "A person once obtained my Dao techniques. At the beginning of his cultivation, he contemplated the circulation of the Xuanji mechanism, finding that when his true vital energy flowed in compliance, it felt comfortable, but when it flowed in defiance, it felt agonizing. That person therefore followed the natural course. After several years, his cultivation had not advanced an inch, while his fellow disciples made rapid progress. The disciple asked me, 'If I follow the natural course, why do I lag behind others?'"
The immortal smiled. "To follow the course of Heaven is mortal; to defy the course of Heaven is immortal. Such is the Dao of cultivating truth."
The moment these words fell, the crowd beneath the hall broke into an uproar, murmuring in discussion and sighing in utter admiration.
The white-robed immortal said, "Since you have entered my Immortal Realm, fate has brought us together. Today, I shall impart to you an immortal technique known as the *Detailed Explanation of Daoist Truth and the Xuanji Mechanism*. How much you comprehend will depend on your fortune."
He closed his eyes and began chanting the true scripture. The people below scrambled to commit it to memory and comprehend it. It was indeed a scripture of unfathomable wonder, and several immediately began to cultivate it in earnest.
As soon as they tested the technique, the vital qi within their bodies circulated according to the Xuanji mechanism—soothing when flowing in compliance, yet bringing agony when flowing in defiance, just as the immortal master had proclaimed.
Chapter 34