"Ling Siyi of the Demon Ancestral Court, I'm afraid Young Master Xu of Jade Void will not be accompanying you back to your ancestral court." A voice carried over from afar. Looking into the distance, one could see purple qi rolling in slowly, stretching across ten thousand li. Beneath the purple qi, a small boat glided forward as though sailing through the Milky Way. The tiny craft nudged the stars aside, parting them in waves, resembling an emperor star on an imperial inspection.
"Where Young Master Xu is going is my Ziwei Ancestral Court."
At the bow of the boat, a youth in yellow robes stood with an air of dignified grace and supreme nobility. He bowed slightly and said, "Nan Ziyan of the Ziwei Ancestral Court, acting on imperial decree, invites Young Master Xu to visit our ancestral court as an honored guest."
Before Xu Ying could speak, a hearty laugh suddenly rang out: "The Ziwei Ancestral Court is no longer the dwelling of the Great Emperor, yet you still put on such grand airs? Daoist Yuan of the Shangqing Ancestral Court has arrived to humbly invite Young Master Xu of Jade Void to grace us with his presence!"
An elder and a youth approached, lacking any grand phenomenon like ten thousand li of rolling purple qi, plain and understated. The old Daoist smiled and said, "If Young Master Xu is to visit an ancestral court, he should come to my Shangqing Ancestral Court. All of you must wait in line behind us."
The girl in red, Ling Siyi, countered, "Does the Shangqing Dao Sect consider itself superior to others?"
"The Shangqing Ancestral Court certainly has no right to stand above the rest!"
Divine power surged in the distance as an Earth God strode forward. He was squat and short, standing less than two feet tall, leaning on a deer-head staff and wearing an official's hat. Yet even without looking directly at him, his approach gave off the imposing impression of a colossal god standing tall between heaven and earth, radiating immense menace.
"The Heavenly Dao Ancestral Court is indeed superior to all others. Naturally, the Heavenly Dao Ancestral Court should precede you in inviting Young Master Xu Ying of Jade Void as our guest!"
The Earth God bowed toward Xu Ying. "Young Master Xu, the Heavenly Dao Ancestral God formally invites you to visit the Heavenly Dao Ancestral Court!"
Xu Ying felt a stir in his heart. *They're all visitors from ancestral courts. But why do they keep calling me 'Young Master Xu of Jade Void'? Could it be because my home is on Kunlun's Jade Void Peak?*
Judging by their origins, they had come from different ancestral courts, each seeking to invite him as their guest. *Since when did I become so popular?*
Suddenly, Zi Xi let out an apologetic chuckle. "Everyone, you've arrived a step too late. Young Master Xu cannot accompany any of you as a guest, because I am about to harvest him and turn him into a lantern to hang right here."
The moment these words fell, everyone's gaze snapped toward him.
The Earth God's expression darkened. "Apologize to Young Master Xu!"
Taken aback, Zi Xi laughed aloud. "You little pipsqueak, do you even know who you're talking to?"
Nan Ziyan, the youth from the Ziwei Ancestral Court, also frowned and said, "No matter who you are, you must apologize to Young Master Xu."
Both startled and enraged, Zi Xi drove his six secret cave-heavens, his aura climbing higher and higher as he barked, "I am Zi Xi, disciple of God King Xuankong! I have devoured four thousand six hundred top-tier experts of the Taishi Great World, and my cultivation shakes heaven and earth! Even if an Immortal King or a God King—"
Ling Siyi, the girl in red, frowned and advised, "If you apologize to Young Master Xu, you might still live. Why seek your own doom?"
Zi Xi choked with fury. How imperious and awe-inspiring had he been these past days?
He had devoured so many powerhouses, stripping them of their immortal herbs, seizing their six secret cave-heavens, and taking them for himself. The survivors had been terrified out of their wits, scurrying and hiding like rats. Yet now, these few fools had rushed in and dared tell him to apologize to Xu Ying!
"You ignorant fools don't know the height of the heavens or the depth of the earth! In that case, I'll send you on your way!"
Without another word, Zi Xi mobilized his six secret depositories. Six massive cave-heavens whirled behind him, and his Primordial Spirit grew ever more formidable. Splaying his fingers wide, he swept a colossal palm downward toward them all!
*Rumble!*
The sky seemed to shatter beneath his palm, and fractured space surged through his fingers like a torrent of glazed crystal!
"Did you not hear clearly just now?"
The Earth God was the shortest, but his temper was by far the fiercest. Stepping forward, he said in a chilling voice, "I hail from the Heavenly Dao Ancestral Court. You dare deploy a Primordial Spirit before me? Do you not know that every Primordial Spirit is cultivated by mimicking the genesis of the Heavenly Dao Ancestral God?"
A great drum manifested before him. The squat Earth God raised an absurdly oversized mallet and struck the drum with all his might.
*Thump!*
Visible waves of force rippled outward, crashing directly against the massive hand of Zi Xi's Primordial Spirit!
Zi Xi's magic power had genuinely attained the level of an Immortal King. In terms of raw magic power, this Earth God was merely a local god of the Heavenly Dao Ancestral Court and far from his match.
Yet that drumbeat held a bizarre power. Wherever the shockwaves passed, the soul, primordial qi, divine consciousness, heart power, and yin-yang that comprised the Primordial Spirit began unraveling and tearing apart!
The elements that formed a Primordial Spirit lacked only the physical vitality of a mortal fleshly body, but a Primordial Spirit was close to the Dao. Far closer to the Great Dao than a fleshly body, it could unleash far greater might through Dao methods and divine powers—this was precisely what made a Primordial Spirit so potent.
Zi Xi pushed his six secret depositories to the limit, finally halting the collapse of his Primordial Spirit!
However, the entire right arm of his Primordial Spirit had exploded under the drumbeat's impact, and half of its shoulder had vanished as well.
"Your Primordial Spirit hasn't even achieved the twelve marks! You haven't so much as brushed the edge of the Ancestral God—you possess hollow magic power and nothing more!" Standing before the great drum, the Earth God sneered. "Achieving the twelve marks is merely crossing the threshold. To reach the Ancestral God's level, one must observe the Ancestral God in person.
"Your Primordial Spirit is far too weak!"
Zi Xi was wracked with agony, tears streaming down his face. Damage to the Primordial Spirit meant damage to the soul, and wounds to the soul were a hundred times more agonizing than fleshly injuries—pain that no ordinary being could endure.
He drove his six secret cave-heavens and drew upon the soul power of his Bubbling Spring depository, desperately mending his Primordial Spirit while panic gripped his mind. *Where on earth did these freaks come from?*
His six secret depositories were immensely powerful, and the injuries to his Primordial Spirit healed at astonishing speed. In just a short breath, the exploded soul of his Primordial Spirit reconstituted itself, and its yin-yang, divine consciousness, heart power, and primordial qi were restored in turn.
At the same time, he activated his Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground and stepped into the Domain of Six Immortals to execute his Mount Sumeru divine power. The heavens abruptly split open, and another Mount Sumeru descended from the sky, crashing down upon everyone present!
His divine powers were derived from deciphering God King Xuankong's Heavenly Dao and inherited from the ancient Buddha. His techniques blended both traditions, uniting their greatest strengths!
This Mount Sumeru, cloaked within a Heavenly Dao domain, descended from the firmament while myriad Buddhas stood erect in the void, pressing down with immense weight—truly an extraordinary display of might!
Daoist Yuan of the Shangqing Ancestral Court praised, "Such magic power is indeed formidable; this old Daoist is no match for it. However, with all that magic power, you haven't even formed an immortal domain—that is truly disgraceful!"
"Shangqing Domain!"
His own Shangqing domain unfurled, instantly swallowing Zi Xi inside it.
Zi Xi felt his primordial qi, divine consciousness, soul power, yin-yang qi, and everything else fall under tremendous suppression. The descending Mount Sumeru shrank drastically, its power severely diminished!
Even so, Mount Sumeru still possessed enough force to threaten everyone's lives!
He had devoured far too many powerhouses, and his magic power was simply too vast. The six immortal domains of the six secret depositories were no hollow boast. With all six secret depositories fully unlocked and standing within his Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground, he was effectively an Immortal King across six immortal realms: fleshly body, primordial qi, divine consciousness, heart power, soul power, and yin-yang!
*Thump, thump, thump!*
The squat Earth God beat his great drum again. The drumbeats crashed forward, rattling Zi Xi's Primordial Spirit. As his Primordial Spirit suffered grievous shocks, his Mount Sumeru divine power instantly fractured and collapsed. Zi Xi's Primordial Spirit continued to shatter,
yet as his six secret depositories operated, it gathered as quickly as it dispersed. The immortal herbs of his six secret depositories were enough to keep both his physical body and Primordial Spirit undying and indestructible! Even these emissaries from mysterious ancestral courts, armed with their exotic treasures, could not slay him.
Ling Siyi marveled as well. "This man truly is strong. However, there are many things in his body that do not belong to him—it is very bizarre. This cultivation belongs to those people, not him. Come out!"
The girl in red produced a willow branch, demon qi swirling around it. With a gentle wave, layers of Dao patterns rippled outward.
When the Dao patterns swept through Zi Xi, his flesh trembled violently, and countless alien blood and flesh began to sprout. Human faces suddenly grew out of his body, followed by heads, then necks!
Body after body forced their way out of him, growing as they emerged.
These bodies were remarkably bizarre. Floating behind them were cave-heavens—the very secret depository cave-heavens that Zi Xi had transplanted into himself!
Zi Xi had hunted down the guests who had come to attend the assembly, carving out their six secret depositories and grafting them onto his own body before fusing them into one to form his own six secret depositories. Yet Ling Siyi's willow branch was so demonic and eerie that it actually caused those secret depositories to regenerate their original masters!
Zi Xi screamed in agony, desperately driving his Primordial Spirit to lunge at the red-robed girl. "What demon art are you using to harm me? I'll kill you first!"
Ling Siyi blinked in surprise. "There are foreign objects inside his Primordial Spirit too? Let's draw them out and see." She raised the willow branch and flicked it gently once more. The demon qi atop the branch swelled, and willow leaves spun like pinwheels. The leaves resembled a maiden's eyes, their veins mirroring the Dao laws of heaven and earth. As Zi Xi's Primordial Spirit lunged forward, human faces began sprouting across its surface in the very next instant.
Those were the souls of the Taishi Great World powerhouses he had consumed. Originally, they had been crushed and eaten, their immortal herbs absorbed; now, stimulated by the bizarre Dao power within Ling Siyi's willow branch, those shattered souls reassembled!
Terror seized Zi Xi's heart. He felt as though these people were monsters!
Yet at this moment, he was the true monster.
In his insatiable greed, he had stripped the flesh and blood of the Taishi Great World experts who came to the assembly, leaving behind only hollow human skins, while he devoured and refined the six secret immortal herbs within their flesh to turn them into his own cultivation.
Not only that, but he had absorbed their Primordial Spirits and even their souls to wring out the five secret immortal herbs within. Xu Ying and the others watched dumbfounded. The once-unbeatable Zi Xi had collapsed completely in mere moments, virtually helpless before these individuals!
Naked human bodies grew out of Zi Xi one after another, then detached from his form, raining down from midair like a downpour.
Beneath them lay the divine kingdoms of Mount Sumeru's Four Realms, where the common folk had known little peace in recent days. With the upheavals on Mount Sumeru, heavenly gods fell from time to time, and celestial signs had grown exceedingly bizarre.
Yet life had to go on. That day, outside the capital of the Mushan Kingdom, the populace was laboring in the fields when a sudden *thud* sounded as something plummeted from the sky.
The people hurried over to look, only to see a large crater smashed into the ground. Inside lay a naked person, sprawled motionless at the bottom.
Before they could recover from their astonishment, *thud, thud, thud* echoed endlessly as a rain of people poured from the heavens. Countless naked human bodies tumbled down, landing unharmed yet devoid of any breath—fresh, pristine corpses.
This would become one of the most bizarre occurrences in the history of the Mushan Kingdom.
High in the sky, all the flesh and blood belonging to others had grown out of Zi Xi's body, leaving behind only Zi Xi himself.
His Primordial Spirit suffered the same fate: the souls of others grew from it, and though they regenerated, they died as quickly as they were born, departing one by one toward the Netherworld.
The power of Zi Xi's physical body and Primordial Spirit plummeted rapidly, and before long, he was knocked back to where he had started. With disheveled hair, he looked at everyone in panicked terror.
Now, his strength could only rival young experts like Shen Baiyu and Li Pingsheng. That earlier Immortal King-level combat power had been like an ephemeral dream—once awakened, nothing remained.
Seeing this, Xu Ying sighed inwardly.
*The Yuanshou world was just the same. How many people harvested one another in vicious internal strife, sacrificing countless lives, all to fulfill the ascension of the master of the Mud Pill Palace alone?*
Shen Baiyu, Master Fire Dragon, and the others were equally dazzled by the sight. Li Pingsheng muttered, "Just what are their origins?"
Master Fire Dragon whispered, "Why do they want to invite Xu Ying, this great arch-villain and arch-devil?"
Han Zekang, however, walked over to the small boat, bowed to the yellow-robed youth Nan Ziyan, and asked, "Brother, the others all have their unique skills and treasures. What are yours?"
Nan Ziyan smiled faintly. "I hail from the imperial house of Ziwei. For such trivial matters, there is no need for me to act personally, lest I tarnish our imperial style."
The Earth God, the old and young pair, and Ling Siyi all snorted in unison, clearly displeased with him.
Petrified with fear, Zi Xi glanced left and right, snarling viciously, "Don't you dare do anything reckless! I am God King Xuankong's eldest disciple, and this is Mount Sumeru, God King Xuankong's domain! If you kill me, God King Xuankong will never spare you!"
Xu Ying curled his middle finger and said calmly, "Zi Xi, do you remember? If I flick this finger, all six of your secret depositories will shatter, and your forehead will be pierced clean through, ending your life."
Just as he was about to flick Zi Xi to death, Shen Baiyu suddenly spoke: "Fellow Daoist Xu, I wish to avenge my master. I hope you can grant me this opportunity."
Xu Ying hesitated. Before he could agree, Li Pingsheng called out, "Fellow Daoist Xu, the one who accompanied me here was my Fourth Martial Uncle. He treated me like a son. A father's vengeance must be paid by his son—I want to slay my Fourth Martial Uncle's murderer with my own hands!"
Xu Ying took a step back.
Zi Xi burst into laughter. "Shen Baiyu, Li Pingsheng, he is Xu Ying! He is the arch-villain who severed the Heavenly Road! He is the one guilty of monstrous crimes—"
Shen Baiyu and Li Pingsheng lunged forward, fueled by interwoven fury and hatred, striking with lethal intent.
Zi Xi's strength was roughly on par with theirs. Seeing both of them pounce so fiercely, he split his hands, attacking their vital points simultaneously on the left and right!
To his shock, neither Shen nor Li dodged or deflected. They took his divine power head-on, their own palm strikes slamming into his body.
Zi Xi's chest caved inward from the impact. In the next breath, Shen and Li's twin palms struck simultaneously from the left and right—one slamming into the left side of his head, the other into the right!
*Bang!*
Blood and gore splattered everywhere.
Flesh surged at the neck of Zi Xi's headless body, attempting to grow another head, but Shen and Li hammered his six secret depositories with a barrage of fists and palms. In an instant, his six secret depositories shattered completely.
His headless body immediately ceased its regeneration. Blood geysered from his neck, and his flesh slumped into an ordinary corpse.
His Primordial Spirit tried to flee, but Shen and Li's Primordial Spirits gave chase and tore it to shreds!
*Strength seized through extortion and slaughter is ultimately nothing more than an illusory bubble,* Xu Ying thought, shaking his head.
Chapter 388