Xu Ying had originally been plunged into immense sorrow. Even so, he had forced himself to hold back his grief and prepare to carry out what the Little Celestial Venerable had requested: flay the face of this disciple of his and refine it into a Nuo master artifact.
The Ancestral Court needed the Little Celestial Venerable. The living beings of the Ancestral Court could never be allowed to know that the Little Celestial Venerable was dead. As his master, Xu Ying would don the mask refined from the Little Celestial Venerable's face, living in this world in his stead, bringing hope to the people of the Ancestral Court, and seeing to completion the great undertakings that the Little Celestial Venerable had left unfinished. Yet a single sentence from the Mysterious Maiden of Samsara froze him in place, rendering all his prior mental preparations entirely useless.
"I am seeing whether he can still be saved..." Casting all else aside, Xu Ying hurriedly asked, "His life force is severed, his Primordial Spirit scattered, and his Great Dao shattered—can he truly be brought back to life?"
The Mysterious Maiden of Samsara stared at the sword qi in his hand and said, "If you flay the skin from his face and refine his entire essence, energy, and spirit into it, then there truly will be no saving him."
Both surprised and overjoyed, Xu Ying promptly dispersed the sword qi and took two steps back to make way for her aid.
Suddenly growing cautious again, he asked, "I have yet to inquire—who might you be, young lady?"
The Mysterious Maiden of Samsara had already introduced herself earlier, but at the time he had been submerged in grief and deaf to the world.
She said, "People believed that after their ancestors died, their souls had somewhere to depend upon, and so the Netherworld came into being. They also believed that after ancestors passed away, they would one day be reborn in the mortal realm, and so samsara came into being. I was born from people's yearning and expectations. Some call me Samsara, some call me the Mysterious Maiden, and some call me the Female Emperor."
In the sky behind her, the bright moon drew steadily closer. Only as it neared could one tell that it was an unimaginably vast realm of samsara, like a shimmering halo of light!
At every moment, hundreds of millions of souls struggled, rose, and sank within samsara, continually plunging deeper into its abyss!
Xu Ying looked closely. Among those souls were human shapes and non-human forms—even flowers, grass, trees, birds, beasts, insects, and fish—along with gods, demons, and even dead immortals. Once cast into it, none could break free!
The sight was truly staggering!
The Little Celestial Venerable's body floated upward, falling into samsara. The Mysterious Maiden of Samsara asked, "Fellow Daoist Xu, do you still have any Jade Pool immortal water?"
Realization dawned upon Xu Ying, and he understood her true purpose in coming to save him. He hastily checked his supply of Jade Pool immortal water, only to find that it was entirely spent. He immediately said, "To keep the Little Celestial Venerable alive, I gave him the very last of my Jade Pool immortal water."
The Mysterious Maiden of Samsara was stunned. Gazing at the Little Celestial Venerable within samsara, she murmured, "What divine calculation. To have foreseen even this."
She soared into the air and entered samsara, her faint voice drifting back: "Fellow Daoist, I must trouble you to protect us. If this cycle of samsara is interrupted, I fear both the Little Celestial Venerable and I will perish completely!"
Within Hunyuan Palace, only a moon-like halo of samsara remained, half embedded in the earth and half rising above the ground.
Inside samsara, countless souls spun as they plummeted into its depths, vanishing without a trace.
Xu Ying peered into the depths of samsara. It was as though he glimpsed a trichiliocosm of worlds and boundless space-time; yet when he focused, he could see only swirling light that seemed ready to swallow even his soul.
He dared not look any longer. He thought, 'What did the Female Emperor mean by divine calculation?'
The Mysterious Maiden of Samsara had been referring to Shenpo, praising Shenpo's miraculous foresight in anticipating that Xu Ying would expend the last of the Jade Pool immortal water on the Little Celestial Venerable.
The Little Celestial Venerable could not assimilate the Jade Pool immortal water on his own. Therefore, no matter what, she would have to step forward to save him, using the immortal water within his body to revive herself.
She was not the true physical form of the Mysterious Maiden of Samsara, but her Primordial Spirit. Her true body was still hidden deep within samsara, locked in a state of death.
Thus, after sending the Little Celestial Venerable into samsara, she too had to journey into it so that after reviving him, she could resurrect her true body.
All of this had clearly been within Shenpo's calculations.
Xu Ying was unaware of this, so he felt little of note, but to the Mysterious Maiden of Samsara, it was profoundly shocking.
Suddenly, Xu Ying sensed something amiss and walked out of Hunyuan Palace.
At some point, a wind had risen outside, roaring with violent clamor. Xu Ying looked toward the sky.
The clear, vast sky had somehow grown murky and overcast. The wind whistled like slashing blades, moving at differing speeds across different areas—where it blew fastest, it even trailed long ribbons of misty vapor.
Xu Ying raised a hand to shield himself from the gale. Suddenly, with a heavy thud, an unknown object plummeted from the heavens and smashed onto the roof ridge of Hunyuan Palace, producing a dull crash.
Just as Xu Ying was about to leap up to inspect what had fallen, another tremendous boom shook the area as a heavy object struck the eastern side of Hunyuan Palace, making the ground tremble.
He rushed to the eastern side and found a large crater blasted into the earth. Within it lay a figure in the posture of a drowned corpse—feet down, face up, features pale, eyes a lifeless stark white.
The corpse had crashed out of the sky, its lower half driven into the dirt while the back of its head rested against the ground, maintaining an eerie floating posture.
'An immortal corpse from Weixu, drowned in that strange eye!' A shock ran through Xu Ying.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The sounds of heavy objects smashing into the earth echoed from all directions. Xu Ying looked around to see drowned corpses hurtling down one after another, slamming violently into the ground. Some struck boulders, some crashed into pillars, and others collided with shards of immortal artifacts, smashing their heads bloody or tearing off limbs on impact.
"Grandmaster, what is that sound?" Zhou Yashu asked, about to step out of the palace to see.
Xu Ying raised a hand to stop him, gesturing for him to guard the palace gates.
Only then did Zhou Yashu see the drowned corpses raining down from the sky. Horrified, he hurried to look up. Across the heavens, large dark raindrops whistled downward, growing larger and larger as they approached—only right before they struck the earth could one discern that they were drowned corpses!
Zhou Yashu shuddered. Those corpses actually radiated immortal radiance, and anomalous immortal Dao gradually diffused around them, corrupting the space surrounding Hunyuan Palace!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The thuds of falling bodies grew ever more frantic. What had started like the prelude to a downpour had now turned into a torrential rain of corpses, bodies plummeting from the sky and crashing down around Hunyuan Palace!
This violent storm struck with unmatched ferocity. Within mere moments, countless immortal corpses had landed around Hunyuan Palace.
Streaks of immortal light emanated from these corpses, polluting the surroundings and forming an anomalous zone.
The crashing sounds gradually ceased. Then, the immortal corpses slowly drifted up from their craters, floating at varying heights and encircling Hunyuan Palace.
Xu Ying laughed aloud. "Fellow Daoists of Weixu, these immortal corpses are nothing more than the immortals who fell by my hand back then! What, a bunch of defeated foes—and dead ones at that—and you expect to use them against me?"
The haze in the sky suddenly parted, turning brilliantly bright.
Xu Ying's heart sank. What had brightened was not the sky, but the strange eye of Weixu.
At that moment, Weixu reappeared across the firmament, fully opened into an incomparable gigantic eye spanning the entire zenith!
The radiance cast by this strange eye illuminated heaven and earth with dazzling brilliance!
"Xu Ying, you think these are the immortals who died besieging you back then? You are mistaken."
The Five Extremes Immortal King's voice drifted languidly from the eye. "Those who died besieging you back then numbered no more than two thousand at most. Those immortals could never fill Weixu. These immortal corpses have an entirely different origin!"
Xu Ying looked up to see an Immortal King towering inside the giant eye, immensely imposing, with five qi piercing across the skies behind him.
The Five Extremes Immortal King.
Xu Ying's heart sank further. What he had feared most had come to pass after all.
The Little Celestial Venerable had defeated the Five Extremes Immortal King and driven back the Ninth Immortal King inside Weixu's strange eye, shaking the world and inspiring countless Qi Refiners of the Ancestral Court.
Yet how formidable were two Immortal Kings?
They had seen through the flaw in the Little Celestial Venerable's seven revolutions of divine art and struck at the weakness. Though they were beaten back by him, they knew full well just how grave his injuries were.
Now, the Five Extremes Immortal King had clearly concluded that the Little Celestial Venerable was helpless and had come to eliminate him once and for all!
Xu Ying swiftly surveyed the surrounding immortal corpses. They floated motionless in the air, exactly like drowned corpses drifting upon the surface of water.
Their attire was exceedingly ancient, bearing no resemblance to the garments worn by immortals of today's Immortal Realm. Instead, it was somewhat similar to the garb of the immortal corpses found within the Ancestral Court's anomalous immortal Dao zones!
'These immortal corpses come from an ancient era! How could Weixu possess immortal corpses from antiquity?' he wondered.
From the strange eye of Weixu flew numerous tiny figures resembling mosquitoes. Only as they drew closer could one make out that they were people.
They were living beings, likely Qi Refiners of the Hua family, of the same origin as Hua Cuoying.
These people did not descend. Instead, they hovered high in the sky beneath Weixu's strange eye, striking bizarre postures that resembled both a dance and a formation.
Suddenly, the corpses straightened their spines, standing stiff and upright in midair!
As if awakening from death in an instant, thousands upon thousands of immortal corpses turned their heads in unison to stare at Xu Ying!
The Five Extremes Immortal King smiled and said, "The Little Celestial Venerable believed that with the incomplete Great Dao of the Ancestral Court, with merely the level of a half-immortal, and with a flawed technique, he could contend against an Immortal King. He truly underestimated an Immortal King. His defective technique required only a single display for me to detect its flaw. Facing me with such an art—was that not seeking his own destruction? Xu Ying, you stand guard over Hunyuan Palace, which means he must be healing inside, does he not?"
The myriad immortal corpses moved at once, pouncing toward Hunyuan Palace!
"How could I not see him off on his final journey?" the Five Extremes Immortal King laughed.
As the corpses surged toward Xu Ying and Hunyuan Palace, Xu Ying reacted without hesitation, instantly activating his Heavenly Dao domain and Domain of Six Immortals. In a single breath, his domain and Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground unfurled. Hidden sceneries such as Slaying Immortals, the Eight Desolations Sun Refining Furnace, the Chaotic Star Sea, and the Abyss of Burying Dao materialized, and Heavenly Dao talismans blanketed the sky before fading into concealment!
Just as the Heavenly Dao domain began to operate, Xu Ying froze. For some reason, he actually sensed the Penglai Immortal Realm!
Yet shouldn't the Penglai Immortal Realm be far away in the Yuanchu Great World?
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Immortal corpses crashed against the heavenly canopy one after another. Their anomalous immortal Dao corrupted the firmament and tainted the Heavenly Dao talismans, eroding gaping holes through the Heavenly Dao domain in an instant.
Corpses tumbled from the sky, plunging straight into Xu Ying's Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground.
Simultaneously, the immortal Dao cast off by many more corpses contaminated the surrounding world, turning Hunyuan Palace into an anomalous immortal Dao zone!
Several among those corpses were exceptionally formidable, likely having been figures on par with Immortal Kings in life, posing an immense danger to Xu Ying!
'I must hold Hunyuan Palace—I cannot let these creatures disrupt the Little Celestial Venerable's revival!'
With no time to ponder, Xu Ying let out a fierce roar. The power of the Immortal Slaying Sword erupted, and sword light swept toward the incoming corpses.
Yet at the very same moment, high in the heavens, the Five Extremes Immortal King struck, sweeping down a swathe of Five-Colored Immortal Light!
Xu Ying's Immortal Slaying sword qi had barely slain several immortal corpses when his Heavenly Dao domain was completely shattered. His Domain of Six Immortals collapsed along with it as the magnificent Five-Colored Immortal Light swept toward him—eradicating the five elements, extinguishing all things!
Anything that had not transcended the five elements would be forced to bow before his immortal light, their viscera ground to dust!
Xu Ying gritted his teeth. Regardless of why Penglai was nearby, he directly invoked the Heavenly Dao of the Penglai Immortal Realm.
This invocation was no minor matter. He felt Penglai right before him!
Three thousand Heavenly Daos and rolling heavenly might surged forth like an overwhelming tidal wave!
In the next instant, an incomparably dazzling glow of Heavenly Dao rose behind Xu Ying, condensing into a supreme Heavenly Dao Divine Person. It raised a hand to meet the sweeping Five-Colored Extinction Immortal Light, clashing head-on with the Five Extremes Immortal King in a titanic impact!
In the sky, the Five-Colored Immortal Light shattered. The terrifying force blasted upward, sending the Hua family experts scattering in panic to evade it!
After trading that direct blow with Xu Ying, the Five Extremes Immortal King felt his breath and qi churn. Deeply shaken, he assumed Xu Ying had regained the memories of his first life and nearly fled in disarray.
At the same time, thick smoke billowed behind Xu Ying, firelight flickering within it as a colossal Black Tortoise divine turtle snorted dense plumes of smoke and flame, emerging from the mist.
The Black Tortoise divine turtle was gigantic, like a moving continent. Upon its back, it carried the Penglai Immortal Mountain! Atop the mountain, Heavenly Dao huabiao pillars stood like pillars propping up heaven and earth, hidden within the fairy realm, three thousand Heavenly Dao runes flickering with light!
The Heavenly Dao huabiao pillars that Xu Ying had forged across three lifetimes had finally been perfected in this life, forming the Penglai Heavenly Dao domain!
Within this domain hovered over a hundred immortals. Though not immense in number, they were living, breathing immortals, not corpses.
Their fighting spirit soared as they waited to battle Weixu.
Only Fairy Gushe had quietly slipped back to her immortal mountain, packed her belongings neatly, stowed her bundles away in her Realm of Xiyi, and thought, 'If things take a bad turn, I'm running immediately.'
Having packed everything securely, she finally returned to join the other immortals.
Carrying the Penglai Immortal Mountain, the Black Tortoise divine turtle charged straight ahead. Trampling and smashing forward, it sent immortal corpses flying in all directions, crushing many to death beneath its feet or snapping them in two with a single bite!
From atop the Penglai Immortal Mountain, the immortals immediately unleashed slaughter upon the scattered ranks of immortal corpses!
Shenpo shouted, "Everyone, our duty this time is to guard Hunyuan Palace! We cannot let these immortal corpses take a single step inside!"
Patriarch Yan Yu was just about to speak when Shenpo's murder-laden glare swept toward him. Patriarch Yan Yu hastily clamped his mouth shut.
Seeing this, Xu Ying abruptly launched himself from the earth and soared into the sky, calling out, "Everyone, I leave this place to you for now!"
Whoosh—
Behind him, the Penglai Heavenly Dao Divine Person rose, charging alongside him straight toward the strange eye of Weixu in the sky.
"Six Secrets ancestral method, Inborn Taiyi!"
Xu Ying bellowed as he circulated the Taiyi Inborn Technique. Six grand Nuo Ancestor cave-heavens manifested behind him, rotating slowly. Simultaneously, phantom silhouettes of six grand Nuo Ancestor cave-heavens faintly emerged behind his Heavenly Dao Divine Person as well.
"Five Extremes Immortal King!"
Xu Ying charged into Weixu, invading the forbidden zone he had never dared set foot in before. "Let me witness your Five Extremes Sky-Transcending Art!"
Chapter 363