High in the giant locust tree, Yuan Qi climbed back to the fork in the canopy. While circulating his breath to gather strength in preparation for knocking on the pass, he quietly waited for his second molting to arrive.
"Stinky snake, will you transform into a human this time?" the bronze bell asked.
Full of anticipation, Yuan Qi grinned. "When a great demon attains demon kingship, they can assume human form. Back when I became a demon king, the transformation was delayed because I drank so much dragon blood. But this is my second molting; I’ll definitely become human this time."
The bell’s curiosity was piqued at once. "Ah Ying may have passed you the Taiyin Primordial Nurturing Technique, but are you certain you’ve fully comprehended it? If you only grasped the Taiyin aspect, you’ll turn into a woman. You might even end up a hermaphrodite!"
Yuan Qi jumped in fright, his heart fluttering with uneasy dread.
The bell quickly barked, "You’re right in the Pass-Breaching stage, knocking on the Weilu mystic pass! If your heart isn't wholly sincere, the mystic pass won’t open! Pull your mind together, quick! Stop fretting over whether you'll be a man or a woman—let nature take its course!"
Yuan Qi hurried to collect his thoughts.
The bell spun in circles around him, chiming softly to help settle his mind. It thought to itself, *This is my fault. If I hadn’t brought up becoming a man or a woman, he wouldn’t have let his imagination run wild. May his shapeshifting succeed this time!*
The fragrance of blossoms hung thick around them, and the world’s primordial qi was excessively rich. There was no need to ingest great medicine; amidst the scent of locust blossoms, he could knock on the pass and break through.
Before they knew it, night fell and the Nai River surged into view. Watching over Yuan Qi, the bell suddenly felt the air turn chilly, the temperature plunging. Since arriving at Huaihua Palace, this was its first time spending the night outside, so it had not realized the nights were so cold.
It hastily nudged Yuan Qi closer to the fire pit to keep him from freezing stiff.
Just then, at the foot of the giant locust tree on the opposite bank of the Nai River, specks of will-o'-the-wisp gathered together, drifting across the water toward the tree.
"Strange..."
The bell extended its senses, its body shuddering. Those ghostly fires surging toward the giant tree were countless Netherworld ghost soldiers mounted on tall steeds, clad in rotting armor!
These Netherworld ghost soldiers rode in orderly ranks—not only upon skeletal horses, but also atop giant bull demons, bone dragons, and bone phoenixes.
Other ghost soldiers carried tattered war banners fluttering in the wind. As nether winds blew through the fabric, countless bizarre Netherworld creatures with slick, pitch-black bodies slithered in and out of the ragged holes.
At the center of the Netherworld ghost army hovered a canopy covering several mu of ground. It resembled a battered giant umbrella, extraordinarily ornate yet riddled with holes.
All around the canopy hung long, pitch-black streamers, corroded and full of perforations, drifting in the breeze.
Beneath the canopy, nether ghosts stood in grim solemnity. Ghost kings clutching executioner blades stood tall, radiating murderous intent.
Toward the rear beneath the canopy sat an imposing figure wearing an imperial crown hung with jade pendants and beaded tassels. He was clad in a golden-yellow dragon robe, a coiling dragon embroidered across his chest.
Yet this mighty being possessed not a speck of flesh or blood. The face beneath the imperial crown was a bare skull, and the hands gripping the dragon throne were pale, eerie bone!
The bell let out a muffled clang, groaning in dismay. *The place Zhou Qiyun chose has terrible feng shui! The master of Huaihua Palace must be an emperor! No wonder Huaihua Palace was never occupied by anyone—that emperor lived here even after death! Now the master has returned!*
It suddenly understood why the master of the Mud Pill Palace had delayed so long before coming to "harvest" Zhou Qiyun. He had been waiting for the master of Huaihua Palace to arrive.
Zhou Qiyun had occupied Huaihua Palace, and its master naturally could not sit idly by.
The moment Zhou Qiyun clashed with the master of Huaihua Palace would be the moment the master of the Mud Pill Palace reaped his harvest!
*If Zhou Qiyun cannot survive this tribulation, then when the nest is overturned no egg stays whole—Ah Ying will probably be in grave danger too!*
Gazing from afar, it thought silently, *I wonder which earthly emperor this sovereign was.*
At that moment, the Zhou clan ancestor Zhou Qiyun strode forward, followed by thirteen elders with archaic features. Incredibly aged, they were the very thirteen Zhou clan elders who had been sitting in the center of the grand hall comprehending the jade slip Daoist scripture.
Xu Ying was surprised. These thirteen Zhou clan elders had been immersed in comprehending the jade slip Daoist scripture, paying no heed to worldly matters. Why had they awakened now?
Behind the thirteen elders were the Zhou clan members who had dismantled the ruined temple world—men and women, old and young alike. Every one of them wore a solemn expression, as though facing a mortal enemy.
*I only stole a pillar. Surely they wouldn't mobilize such an enormous force over that?* Xu Ying felt thoroughly uneasy.
Passing by his side without breaking stride, Zhou Qiyun said, "A pillar is missing from inside the hall. Who took it?"
Just as Xu Ying was about to make an excuse, the thirteen Zhou clan elders behind Zhou Qiyun raised their hands in unison, pointing straight at him.
Xu Ying gave up making excuses. "I took it. Is that pillar very important?"
Walking toward the palace exterior, Zhou Qiyun said casually, "If you took it, you took it. It's not as though this temporary palace belonged to my Zhou clan anyway."
Xu Ying was quite surprised. Wherever Zhou Qiyun went, he scraped the earth down to the bedrock; why was he so magnanimous today?
"The rightful master of this palace has come to settle accounts," Zhou Qiyun said flatly.
Xu Ying followed him out of Huaihua Palace and looked up, only to see boundless Netherworld ghost soldiers arrayed in midair. In neat ranks, they made not a sound.
At the center of the army, beneath the riddled canopy, an immaculately robed Bone Emperor sat enshrined, ghost kings standing below like civil and military officials.
Xu Ying felt a chill in his heart. "They wouldn't make such an enormous fuss over a single bronze pillar. Ancestor Zhou, he hasn't come for me."
Zhou Qiyun sighed, but a smile touched his face. "He has come for me. It seems the master of the Mud Pill Palace has been waiting for this chance all along, and now it has finally arrived."
Xu Ying understood his meaning. The reason Huaihua Palace had remained unoccupied was that it already had an owner. Others feared this place's master and dared not seize it!
And the master of Huaihua Palace was none other than this Bone Emperor who had mobilized in force!
The reason the master of the Mud Pill Palace had delayed "tasting" Zhou Qiyun was also that he was waiting for the master of Huaihua Palace to come demanding answers!
With the master of the Mud Pill Palace in the shadows and the master of Huaihua Palace in the open, Zhou Qiyun would have to confront both at once; the odds were grim.
Zhou Qiyun said, "When facing these old immortals, one truly cannot make a single mistake. Any slip could mean death."
The mistake he spoke of was Huaihua Palace.
Though the palace was wonderful, the Zhou clan should not have occupied it without discerning its origins. It was only because the Zhou clan had grown so accustomed to acting overbearing for so long that they made such an oversight.
*Judging from the script on the lintel of Huaihua Palace, he is an ancient Qi Refiner, probably older even than Lord Bell's master,* Xu Ying thought, gazing at the Bone Emperor in the distance. *Then who is he? If Yuan Qi were here, he would surely recognize which earthly emperor this was.*
Behind Zhou Qiyun, clear light surged like a tide, billowing upward. He said leisurely, "Yet this will also give the master of the Mud Pill Palace the confidence to strike, granting me the opportunity to slay him and eliminate the threat forever."
Hearing this, Xu Ying's heart stirred. *Does he have the confidence to face two Nuo immortal-level beings at once?*
Clouds surged across the sky amid crackling thunder. Boundless dark clouds enveloped Huaihua Palace, pressing down heavily. Suddenly, amidst flashes of lightning and rolls of thunder, a giant black hand thrust out from the clouds, raging karmic fire burning beneath it as it bore down upon Huaihua Palace!
The black hand slammed into the clear light behind Zhou Qiyun and halted abruptly. Lightning and fire formed a razor-thin sheet of light that swept out in all directions like a blade.
Xu Ying immediately sensed space shudder slightly. Then, a deep cut appeared on the giant locust tree, slicing deep into its trunk.
Not far off, a mountaintop silently flew into the air, severed as though by an invisible edge. Tumbling dozens of li through the sky, it began falling at a slant, only to be struck by the shockwave and suddenly explode.
All of this unfolded without a sound; only after a breath did a dull, colossal boom reach everyone's ears.
Xu Ying hurriedly rallied his divine sense and activated his Heavenly Eye, only then seeing clearly the spectacle in the sky.
Behind Zhou Qiyun stood another Zhou Qiyun, seated within boundless space. It appeared modest in size yet was fathomlessly vast, radiating azure light.
The clear light surging like a rising tide was emanating from this Zhou Qiyun's body!
"A Primordial Spirit?"
Xu Ying immediately recalled the Primordial Spirit of the maiden in the coffin, but then sensed something amiss.
The maiden's Primordial Spirit was powerful and solid as substance, yet invisible to the naked eye; even the light it radiated was fine, microscopic radiance.
Zhou Qiyun's "Primordial Spirit," though larger, seemed somewhat ethereal, and its light was visible to the naked eye rather than being subtle rays.
Examining it closely, Xu Ying discovered a flame atop the head of Zhou Qiyun's "Primordial Spirit"—the yang fire of the soul.
*A soul should have three flames of yang fire: on the left and right shoulders, and at the Baihui point atop the head. How does Zhou Qiyun have only one... It's the Samadhi true fire!* Xu Ying realized in a flash, finding it almost impossible to believe.
Zhou Qiyun had actually merged the soul's three yang fires into the Samadhi true fire. His talent and aptitude were terrifyingly high!
*He does not know Qi Refiner techniques; he must have excavated the tombs of Qi Refiners and Nuo immortals and obtained fragmented inheritances. Relying solely on fragmented inheritances, he forged the Samadhi true fire and cultivated his own soul to such a formidable degree!*
To Nuo masters, the Samadhi true fire was an ancient lost supreme art, unfathomably mysterious, its method of cultivation long forgotten. Yet Zhou Qiyun had recreated it. Such a man of immense courage and wisdom compelled admiration.
Xu Ying looked toward the Bone Emperor and saw that he, too, had a Primordial Spirit hidden within the dark space behind him. That Primordial Spirit was shrouded in black qi and terribly dilapidated; the black qi leaked from rotting holes in its form.
The black hand pressing down like a storm over a fortress had been manifested from the Bone Emperor's Primordial Spirit; otherwise, his attack would have been invisible!
And what blocked the Primordial Spirit's hand was Zhou Qiyun's soul.
One using a soul, the other a Primordial Spirit, clashed in an invisible contest. The aftershocks of their divine abilities erupted between their palms, forming an unseen shockwave that sliced open the giant locust tree and lopped off a distant mountaintop.
Without using the Heavenly Eye, one could not have seen the truth of it at all!
Suddenly, Zhou Qiyun leaped into the sky beside Xu Ying. The next instant, he was already in midair, floating before the canopy.
His robes snapped in the wind. Though his mortal frame was small, he seemed immensely vast. That Netherworld ghost army numbered in the tens of thousands, mounted upon the skeletal remains of strange beasts and spanning dozens of li across the sky. Yet before him, they seemed like nothing more than tiny ants!
His aura erupted with overwhelming intensity. Wherever the clear light shone, the disciplined, perfectly coordinated Netherworld ghost soldiers suddenly fell into disarray. One after another, skeletal ghost soldiers raised their hands, staring at their palms in disbelief.
Where the clear light touched their palms, flesh and skin rapidly grew, and their bones regained vitality. Flesh and skin crawled up their arms, soon reaching their shoulders.
Within their rib cages, hearts were beating, growing.
Their internal organs gradually took form, and their dead, withered skeletons regained life.
Tens of thousands of Netherworld ghost soldiers lost all murderous intent in an instant, each staring dumbfoundedly at their reviving corpses.
Zhou Qiyun stepped toward the space beneath the canopy. The Bone Emperor, whose figure was draped in the canopy's shadow, also raised a skeletal hand. Watching flesh and blood sprout upon his palm, ghostly fire flickered in his eye sockets.
"Is this the Nuo art?"
An ancient voice sounded as the Bone Emperor examined his hand again and again, his words drifting from the shadows. "In my era, no such peculiar sorcery existed. I can feel the great power I possessed when I was still among the living..."
Suddenly, he clenched his fist hard. The flesh and blood on his hand burst apart, reverting once more to bare bone.
"Pity. Resurrection is merely an illusion!"
The Bone Emperor rose slowly, his voice laced with the rumbling of thunder. "You sought to control me using flesh and blood, yet from the flesh you generated, I felt your decrepitude. You command vitality, yet like a mayfly, you age prematurely and wither easily, possessing a lifespan of merely three hundred years—shorter even than us Qi Refiners who never commanded vitality. You have cultivated wrongly, haven't you?"
Zhou Qiyun's expression shifted slightly. Seizing the moment Zhou Qiyun's mind wavered, the Bone Emperor suddenly thrust out a finger. Wherever the skeletal finger passed, space twisted and warped!
At the same time, behind him, his Primordial Spirit bowed toward a floating scimitar. The scimitar whistled through the air, slashing straight toward the soul behind Zhou Qiyun!
The corner of Xu Ying's eye twitched. *The Bone Emperor is right! Zhou Qiyun clearly opened every cave-heaven of the Mud Pill secret depository and commands endless physical vitality and life force, so why does he still age? Why does he have only a three-hundred-year lifespan? Clearly, he has not escaped the trap laid by the master of the Mud Pill Palace!*
When masters clash, an unsettled mind is the greatest danger.
The Bone Emperor had pointed directly at the flaw buried deep in Zhou Qiyun's heart, causing his breath to fluctuate and his composure to falter—and thus a fatal opening appeared!
Right at this moment, the earth near Huaihua Palace suddenly exploded. A colossal behemoth let out a thunderous roar and charged straight toward Zhou Qiyun in the sky!
"The master of the Mud Pill Palace!" Xu Ying exclaimed.
In the night, the behemoth glistened with scales, exuding a towering, ferocious aura, indistinguishable whether dragon or serpent.
And atop the beast's head sat a human skeleton in the lotus position, appearing exceedingly diminutive.
"Master, you've finally deigned to show yourself!"
Zhou Qiyun suddenly burst into hearty laughter. Thrusting out a finger of his own, he met the Bone Emperor's soul-shaking finger. The moment their fingertips collided, the Bone Emperor's finger joints exploded one by one!
Yet the scimitar summoned by the Bone Emperor's Primordial Spirit whistled down, striking Zhou Qiyun's soul square across the neck and severing it in two!
"I have reached the utmost realm of the Mud Pill secret depository; my soul is immortal and indestructible!"
Turning to face the colossal beast, Zhou Qiyun smiled. "Master, when you passed your arts to me all those years ago, you never foresaw this, did you? Today, I shall invite Master to witness the ultimate realm that even you never attained—and send Master on his way!"
Chapter 53