Four Sages of the Ancestral Court

Xu Ying swiftly departed with Hu Zhuojun, the two of them cautiously making their way through one Immortal Dao anomalous zone after another. Xu Ying moved faster and faster, but his breath grew increasingly unsteady. The Taiqing Qi he had absorbed into his body moments ago was beginning to stir up trouble, violently clashing against his own yuan qi and placing him in a perilous state. Hu Zhuojun was puzzled. *What is the Divine Marquis running from? Is he afraid someone will catch up to him and demand that mass of white qi? But with the Little Celestial Venerable and my master here, who else could there be to fear?* Still holding her hand, Xu Ying suddenly darted into an Immortal Dao anomalous zone. As the Immortal Dao invaded, Hu Zhuojun could barely endure it. The Dao images within her body fell into chaos, and inner demons began to sprout. Right then, the phantom image of the Linglong Golden Pagoda materialized around Xu Ying, enveloping them both inside. Hu Zhuojun felt the effects of the Immortal Dao vanish in an instant, astonishing her. Even if her master, Yuan Gongtong, were here, he would have had to proceed with extreme caution to avoid falling victim. She had not expected Xu Ying could use a divine power to suppress the anomalous Immortal Dao. Yet even though Xu Ying could suppress the anomaly here, he still advanced with utmost care, steering clear of hazardous spots. Eventually, they reached the center of the anomalous zone. Xu Ying let out a breath and lowered his voice. "Zhuojun, we'll rest here for a moment. The qi I just absorbed... I can't suppress it anymore..." His complexion looked rather grim. Hurriedly sitting cross-legged, he said, "Guard the pagoda door. The Linglong Pagoda has thirty-three stories. If the anomaly invades and you can't resist it, carry me up to the next floor. Understand?" Hu Zhuojun quickly replied, "Understood. But what is the anomaly here?" Xu Ying was already unable to speak, merely raising a hand to point outside the pagoda. Hu Zhuojun looked over at once. Hanging from the cliff opposite them was a person. The figure was suspended from the cliff by a golden rope, one end of which was tied to a crooked tree. *It's just a dead person.* No sooner had the thought crossed Hu Zhuojun's mind than she saw the corpse on the golden rope turn around to face her. Its neck had been snapped by the golden rope, its head lolling to one side, its tongue dangling long from its mouth. Hu Zhuojun felt a prickle of dread. She blinked—and suddenly, the corpse on the golden rope opened its eyes, staring unblinkingly right at her. Hu Zhuojun turned to Xu Ying. "Divine Marquis, could the anomaly you mentioned be that cor—" Before she could finish, a chill breeze blew into the Linglong Pagoda. Hurriedly looking back, she saw that the corpse had somehow floated over and pressed its face almost directly against the pagoda door. *Don't be afraid. It's just the corpse of an immortal.* Hu Zhuojun braced herself. Just as she thought this, the crooked-necked corpse's neck twitched, and the golden rope began to slither slowly, suddenly rearing a head from behind the corpse! Hu Zhuojun jumped in fright. The golden rope was no rope at all—it was a golden snake! The corpse reached out to shove the pagoda door, and the golden snake slammed violently against it. Suddenly, dense Dao patterns emerged on the first floor of the Linglong Pagoda, glowing and revolving to hold back the corpse and the golden snake. Enraged, the crooked-necked corpse and the golden snake struck furiously, shattering one Dao pattern after another! Seeing this, Hu Zhuojun remembered Xu Ying's instructions. She immediately visualized new Dao patterns to repair the divine power. She had been present when Xu Ying taught the Dharma at the Linglong Heavenly Sect and had grasped many profound things. Naturally gifted, she had mastered numerous Dao patterns. Yet the speed of her repairs lagged far behind the destructive rampage of the crooked-necked immortal corpse and the golden snake! Seeing the first-floor entrance on the verge of breaking, Hu Zhuojun gritted her teeth, gathered Xu Ying into her arms, and rushed toward the second floor! *Bang!* The first-floor entrance blew apart. Hu Zhuojun reached the second floor and looked back. The crooked-necked immortal corpse was practically inches from her face, but fortunately, it was held back by the second floor's intangible barrier. *I haven't cultivated on the mountain for long, and my comprehension of the Linglong Pagoda's Dao patterns is limited. I'm afraid I won't be able to hold them off!* Cold sweat beaded on Hu Zhuojun's forehead. Xu Ying was still straining to refine that white qi, his internal yuan qi surging wildly—clearly at a critical juncture and incapable of paying attention to anything else. She had no choice but to grit her teeth and persevere, hurriedly repairing the damage wrought by the crooked-necked immortal corpse and the golden snake. Before long, the second-floor entrance fell, and Hu Zhuojun carried Xu Ying up to the third floor. Soon after, the third-floor entrance breached, and Hu Zhuojun gritted her teeth, carrying Xu Ying into the fourth floor. The fourth floor fell, the fifth floor fell, the sixth floor fell... After a long struggle, Hu Zhuojun carried Xu Ying to the thirtieth floor. The Linglong Golden Pagoda had thirty-three stories in all; now, only three floors remained before they had nowhere left to run! Hu Zhuojun clenched her teeth. In this life-or-death crisis, the Dao patterns she had previously failed to memorize and the principles she had struggled to grasp underwent rapid refinement through trial after trial—her cultivation was advancing by leaps and bounds! Back when Xu Ying had preached at the Linglong Heavenly Sect, she had sat below listening, bewildered and lost among many of the Dao patterns. But now, she actually understood! Never had she imagined that she would comprehend the Immortal Dao mysteries within the Linglong Golden Pagoda in such a manner. *Yet it's still not enough to stop this anomaly!* Her heart sank further and further. The thirtieth floor was also about to give way. Hu Zhuojun carried Xu Ying into the thirty-first floor, thinking silently, *Divine Marquis, if you don't wake up soon, you'll never wake up again.* The next moment, the thirty-first floor's door shattered! Not long after, the thirty-second floor's door gave way! Standing on the thirty-third floor, Hu Zhuojun exerted every ounce of her strength to repair the entrance, but the Dao patterns on this final door flickered unstably. The crooked-necked immortal corpse and the golden snake that had hanged it were on the verge of breaking through! *Bang!* The door exploded. Shielding Xu Ying with her own body, despair gripped Hu Zhuojun's heart. *I gave it everything I had...* Right at that moment, a large hand suddenly seized her wrist. The world spun around Hu Zhuojun as she was swept off her feet, landing safely on the ground an instant later. She hurriedly looked at the person beside her. It was Xu Ying who had caught her hand and flown out of the Linglong Pagoda with her at the eleventh hour! Xu Ying turned around. In the time Hu Zhuojun had carried him from the first floor to the top, his aura had surged explosively, and his Primordial Spirit had grown more than tenfold! From a three-inch figurine, it had transformed into a three-foot child! His Primordial Spirit attainments had leaped three tiers as a result, conquering three stories of the Twelve-Storyed Mansions and leaving his Primordial Spirit imprint on the second through fourth floors. Yet the greatest benefit the Taiqing Qi brought him was not the boost in cultivation, but his comprehension of the Taiqing Dao, along with the enhancement of the Taiqing Primordial Spirit when employing One Qi Transforming into Three Purities! Just as the golden snake and crooked-necked immortal corpse were about to break free from the Linglong Pagoda, Xu Ying raised his hand and clenched it tightly. In an instant, the pagoda's tiers collapsed into one another, leaving behind only a single story! Inside the pagoda, the previously shattered Dao patterns roared back to life. Heavenly thunder and earthly fire erupted simultaneously, refining the immortal corpse and golden snake into oblivion in the blink of an eye! Xu Ying spread his fingers, and the pagoda dissolved. Hu Zhuojun watched, dazzled. Xu Ying wielded the Linglong Pagoda divine power far more skillfully than either she or Yuan Gongtong. In particular, refining the immortal corpse and golden snake to death inside the pagoda was a feat she could never pull off. "We shouldn't linger here!" Xu Ying knew that once the immortal corpse and golden snake perished, this Immortal Dao anomalous zone was broken, no longer able to conceal their whereabouts. He prepared to leave immediately. Suddenly, he spotted something gleaming golden among the corpse's ashes. Walking over, he saw a length of golden rope. "So this golden rope was what turned into the golden snake and manipulated the corpse to cause havoc?" Xu Ying picked up the golden rope and tossed it to Hu Zhuojun. "This is an immortal artifact. Take it for self-defense." Hu Zhuojun was both surprised and overjoyed. "An immortal artifact? Even our Linglong Heavenly Sect only has a few of them!" Xu Ying said, "This golden rope is remarkably powerful; it can hang an immortal to death. The corpse's neck was snapped by it. Once activated, it binds an enemy and locks their Primordial Spirit within their body, leaving them stripped of all transformations." Hu Zhuojun was thrilled, but Xu Ying continued, "However, I inspected it just now and found a flaw. Because it hanged an immortal, that immortal's soul remains trapped inside the rope. When you refine it, that immortal's soul will attempt to seize your body." Hu Zhuojun was startled, gripping the golden rope tightly, not daring to refine it. Xu Ying chuckled. "Guard your Primordial Spirit with the Linglong Pagoda and refine it without fear." Hearing this, Hu Zhuojun gritted her teeth and immediately set about refining the golden rope. Sure enough, the moment she began refining the treasure, a wave of towering resentment surged along her divine sense, dispersing it instantly before plunging into her body and heading straight for her Primordial Spirit! Hu Zhuojun's Primordial Spirit was still within her Twelve-Storyed Mansions, having yet to leap out from the pavilions to bathe in the waters of the Jade Pool. Her female Primordial Spirit snapped its head up, only to see surging bloody light beyond the Twelve-Storyed Mansions, with a beam of bloody light hurtling straight toward her. Even though the immortal had been hanged, his soul remained immensely formidable—far beyond what her Primordial Spirit could match. Just as he was about to devour her Primordial Spirit, golden light blazed, and a Linglong Pagoda appeared, trapping him inside! Hu Zhuojun sighed in relief and channeled her Primordial Spirit with all her might, yet she could not refine the immortal's soul to death. The immortal's soul slammed left and right, on the verge of breaking through the suppression of the Linglong Pagoda. Xu Ying suddenly raised his hands, his ten fingers shifting through countless variations as he carved out diverse Dao patterns in an instant, tapping her throat in succession with his fingertips. The force of his fingers drove the Dao patterns into Hu Zhuojun's Realm of Xiyi, where they transformed into seven specks of profound light, flew into the Twelve-Storyed Mansions, entered the pagoda, and materialized as the Seven Treasures Sarira! "Zhuojun, your pagoda lacked the Dao patterns of the Seven Treasures Sarira. I've lent you a hand! When you have free time, study these Seven Treasures Sarira Dao patterns carefully." No sooner had he spoken than Hu Zhuojun's Linglong Pagoda surged with power, reducing the immortal's soul to ashes! Overjoyed, Hu Zhuojun quickly expressed her thanks. Xu Ying was about to speak when his heart suddenly tightened. Beside his and Hu Zhuojun's shadows, an extra shadow had appeared. "Divine Marquis, where were we?" the Little Celestial Venerable's voice came from behind him. Xu Ying stiffened for a moment before relaxing again. He smiled. "We were discussing the matter of whether it was betrayal." The Little Celestial Venerable stepped beside him, murder in his eyes, and said softly, "Then did he betray the Ancestral Court? Did he betray those righteous souls of the Ancestral Court who looked forward to fighting alongside him against the Immortal Realm?" Xu Ying took a long, deep breath and carefully sensed the position of the Linglong Golden Pagoda, preparing to summon that heavyweight immortal treasure. Yet he also knew that the Linglong Heavenly Sect was vast distances away; even if the pagoda flew toward them right this second, by the time it arrived, his corpse would probably have long grown cold. Right then, the surrounding Immortal Dao anomalous zones trembled, and four figures walked in from different directions. The four were tall, short, fat, and thin. The tall one had slender limbs and stood a hundred zhang tall; the short one had stubby limbs, resembling a three-foot child; the fat one was like a mountain of flesh, clutching a roasted beast leg more than ten zhang long, repeatedly tearing off bites; as for the thin one, he resembled two bamboo poles propping up a ribcage, into which two arms and a head had been stuck. The four paid no heed to the Immortal Dao anomalous zones, walking straight through them toward this spot. The Little Celestial Venerable's mind tensed as he felt himself locked onto by all four. While fighting Yuan Gongtong, he had already sensed the four heading in this direction, never expecting they were indeed coming for him! The four—tall, short, fat, and thin—shifted their gazes away from him, landing in unison on Xu Ying, each breaking into a smile. "So it is the Four Sages of the Ancestral Court." The Little Celestial Venerable swept his gaze over them and remarked calmly, "Could it be that you intend to stop me?" "The Four Sages of the Ancestral Court!" Hu Zhuojun showed a look of shock and murmured, "Even they have appeared?" Xu Ying whispered, "What's the background of these Four Sages of the Ancestral Court?" Hu Zhuojun asked in surprise, "You haven't heard of the Four Sages of the Ancestral Court? They are god-men from forty to fifty thousand years ago who tore through the wilderness and dispelled ignorance, among the earliest beings to become half-gods and half-immortals! They rendered immense meritorious service and wielded peerless power, which was why they were revered as sages. There are four such figures, so they are called the Four Sages. They are older even than the Little Celestial Venerable, though they retired into seclusion as early as thirty thousand years ago, long before the Little Celestial Venerable rose to prominence." Excited beyond measure, she added, "Figures out of myth have shown up! Lihenyuan is about to get lively!" The stubby-limbed one looked up and said, "Little Celestial Venerable, we remember the grudges from back then too. We'd love nothing more than to flay his skin, pull his tendons, and chat over his grave." The thin one's gaze lingered on Xu Ying's face as he added sinisterly, "And piss on his grave." "That's right, curse him, humiliate him!" the tall one's voice boomed from high in the sky. Xu Ying blinked, inwardly crying out in dismay. *Could these Four Sages of the Ancestral Court also be karmic rewards accumulated from my past?* The pot-bellied fat one lowered his beast leg and chuckled. "However, we didn't come here to settle past grudges. Old grudges can wait. We, the Four Sages of the Ancestral Court, have returned to the world for you, Little Celestial Venerable." The short one looked up, his voice booming like a great bell. "Indeed. You arranged the duel between Chu Tiandu and the Weixu successor—anyone with eyes can see your motive. Your true target is the Immortal King of Weixu!" The thin one finally shifted his eyes from Xu Ying to the Little Celestial Venerable. "The Weixu Immortal King's strength is consummate. Though your talent is exceptional, you haven't fought in years. You have no real measure of how wide the gap between you and an Immortal King truly is." The tall one's voice drifted down from the sky. "You have been invincible for far too long. When one remains undefeated for too long, it's easy to work in isolation. Lacking opponents, you will easily suffer at the Immortal King's hands." The fat one put down the beast leg and sighed. "The four of us old ghosts came here to let you familiarize yourself with an Immortal King's combat strength through our power. We know none of us can match an Immortal King alone, but joining forces, the four of us old ghosts should be able to rival one." The Little Celestial Venerable wore a solemn expression. "My thanks to the four Fellow Daoists!" The four bowed in return together. "You flatter us. The Little Celestial Venerable exhausts his mind and spirit for the future of the Ancestral Court; we four are merely offering a token of our regard." The Little Celestial Venerable said, "Yet I will not hold back." The fat one chuckled. "Going all out in a life-or-death struggle is precisely what we want. Otherwise, how could you prepare for your decisive battle with the Immortal King?" Xu Ying tugged at Hu Zhuojun's sleeve and quietly backed away. Hu Zhuojun quickly followed him, and the two slipped away. Xu Ying's face darkened and brightened in turn. Silently taking out his mask and putting it on, he thought, *It seems I accumulated quite a lot of 'karmic rewards' back then, and now they're coming to knock on my door one by one! Once the Four Sages of the Ancestral Court finish their battle with the Little Celestial Venerable, they'll definitely come looking for me. Add the Little Celestial Venerable to that, and I'm afraid my doom is sealed!* Leading Hu Zhuojun, he rushed toward Lihenyuan, bypassing one Immortal Dao anomalous zone after another. Suddenly, an extraordinarily terrifying surge of divine power throbbed behind them—muffled and horrifying, as though supreme divine power were piercing the nine heavens and boring through the earth! Xu Ying immediately channeled the Linglong Pagoda to shield himself and Hu Zhuojun. That dreadful shockwave struck four times in total; after the fourth, everything abruptly fell silent. Xu Ying dispersed the Linglong Pagoda. Just as he stood there in suspense and bewilderment, an extra shadow appeared beside him once again. The white-robed scholar had appeared behind him. With a hoarse voice, Xu Ying asked, "Where are the Four Sages of the Ancestral Court?" "Lying on the ground." The Little Celestial Venerable said calmly, "Where were we?"