Xu Ying walked past them, hesitated, and then stepped back. He asked the sorrowful old man, "Venerable Elder, do you have any more tea? I'm feeling a bit thirsty."
The sorrowful old man's tone was curt. "None!"
Xu Ying pressed politely, "Where might one buy this tea of yours, Elder? I can go drink some myself."
The corners of all three figures' eyes twitched wildly, each swallowing their rage in silence.
Seeing that they had no answer, Xu Ying walked on.
The sorrowful old man let out a foul breath and said, "Where is the yellow joss paper? Take it out quickly and see if there's any reply from above!"
The white-robed elder grumbled, "You check it dozens of times every day, and you were clamoring to look just now. Isn't it still unanswered?"
Even so, he pulled out the yellow joss paper given to them by the Earth God and glanced at it. There were still no directives written upon it. He cursed under his breath, "Are they turtles up there? Why so slow?!"
The woman in the red gown turned to stare at Xu Ying's retreating figure, unreconciled. She muttered, "In the past, one cup would knock him out cold, and arranging a random identity for him would buy decades of peace. Now he's actually come asking for Meng Po soup himself!"
Indignant and aggrieved, she added, "Just what on earth is put into that Meng Po soup? Why does drinking too much of it become an addiction?!"
Xu Ying walked out onto the severed cliff and passed the spot where the chain-bound giant had stood. He saw two enormous footprints sunk deep into the earth, crushing the vegetation beneath.
*Who on earth was he?* Xu Ying pondered.
Suddenly noticing a shadow under the moonlight, he looked up and saw that the maiden from the coffin had arrived beside the footprints at some point, quietly studying them.
Xu Ying brightened with joy and smiled. "Lady, thanks to the help of your bronze basin, I was able to return safely to Wuwang—and even made quite a fortune along the way."
The maiden looked at him with puzzlement. "Can a Qi Refiner be short of money? Wouldn't turning stone into gold suffice?"
Xu Ying's eyes widened, a wave of sheepishness washing over him. "I was never taught that. Can a Qi Refiner like me learn it too?"
The maiden looked him up and down and gave a gentle smile. "You've already reached the Pass-Breaching stage? Turning stone into gold is still a little tricky for you, then. First you do this, then like that, and then like this, and that will do it."
She gestured with her hands, looking thoroughly earnest.
Just as Xu Ying was about to imitate her, the bronze bell whispered, "She's teasing you. That isn't a real spell."
As if overhearing it, the maiden cast her gaze over. The bronze bell felt as though struck by a heavy blow, letting out a sharp *clang!* In the next instant, it found itself somehow knocked out of Xu Ying's mind, hovering behind his head!
Startled, the bronze bell hastily ducked back behind Xu Ying's head, flustered and feeling its old injuries throb with pain. *The demoness has grown stronger again! Will I ever manage to send her back to Little Stone Mountain in this lifetime?*
Paying it no mind, Xu Ying asked, "Do you know the giant who left these footprints, Lady?"
The maiden nodded gently. "He should be an old acquaintance of mine. That acquaintance was extraordinarily learned and witty in conversation, and he once resided on Mount Wuwang. I received much care from him in the past and benefited greatly."
Xu Ying thought for a moment and inquired, "Inside Qinyan Cave, there is a white jade palace called the Mud Pill Palace. Could that giant just now have been the Master of the Mud Pill Palace?"
The maiden looked astonished. "It should be him. You know him?"
Xu Ying's heart pounded furiously, blood rushing to his head.
He steadied himself, but when he tried to speak, his throat felt parched. "What sort of person was he?"
The maiden shook her head. "When I knew him, he was deeply passionate and eager to help others, yet cautious by nature. He possessed great vision, grand ambition, and far-sighted wisdom, commanding the reverence of the world. In my era, he was one of the most dazzling figures—one of those with the greatest hope of ascension."
She hesitated, then added softly, "Three thousand years have passed without meeting. I do not know if an old friend remains the same friend."
She lowered her voice. "This world has changed so much; it has grown so unfamiliar. Do people... change as well?"
Xu Ying's heart continued to race. *The man she described bears no resemblance to the Master of the Mud Pill Palace in my impression. The master I know is a sinister, deceitful schemer who laid trap upon trap, turning his successors into chives to be harvested once they matured.*
They were clearly two entirely different people!
The maiden in the coffin looked out toward Jiuyi Mountain in the night and whispered, "A Nuo Master crossing a tribulation will set a precedent never before seen in all of history. Even if this Nuo Immortal fails, it is enough for him to look down upon the present age and become a foundational grandmaster."
Xu Ying stared into the depths of the night, murmuring, "He won't succeed. It's impossible for him to succeed. He is already fish on the chopping block..."
The maiden sighed with emotion. "Indeed. Such a brilliant and peerless figure, yet he is destined to perish beneath the Heavenly Tribulation..."
Light flickered in Xu Ying's eyes, and far across the night, radiance began to shine as well.
Suddenly, distant Jiuyi Mountain lit up like a beacon blazing through the dark.
It was the Cosmic Altar array laid out by the Nuo Masters of the Zhou clan. The scale of this sacrificial ground was unimaginable. Among the heavenly gods governing the Heavenly Dao, there were three hundred and sixty identifiable deities—the number of a complete cosmic cycle.
And the Zhou clan had erected three hundred and sixty individual altars, scattered across all nine peaks of Jiuyi Mountain. Some perched on the summits, some clung to the mountainsides, and others rested deep within the valleys.
Every altar, large and small, now blazed with light. The Nuo Masters of the Zhou clan were conducting the Grand Heaven Appeasement Sacrifice upon them!
A normal sacrifice to Heaven was offered to a single heavenly god. But the Zhou clan was offering this sacrifice to the cosmic host of heavenly gods across the entire Heavenly Dao world!
As the three hundred and sixty altars ignited, the peaks of the great mountains concealed within the new territory were illuminated one after another!
In the quiet night atop the high ground of Mount Wuwang, everyone fell dead silent. Even the donkey whose soul had been battered forgot to bray.
The scale of those altars was far too vast. This was no ordinary ritual to appease the heavens; these were altars for divine descent!
They were altars meant to invite the heavenly gods to descend from the Heavenly Dao world!
Even Young Master Xiang and Thirteenth Mistress were profoundly shaken. Their previous mission to summon the Plague God in the Kingdom of Zhudu had already been a grand undertaking.
The Plague God had descended, spreading pestilence and redirecting the course of the Nai River, which in turn triggered a whole chain of upheavals!
Yet Zhou Qiyun's scale this time was hundreds of times greater than theirs!
"So rich," Imperial Uncle Li muttered under his breath, squeezing his shriveled purse.
The old ancestor of the Guo clan stroked his beard and spoke in a voice that was not loud, yet carried clearly across the slopes: "Just how many graves and tombs did Captain Zhou rob? Being a tomb-robbing captain really makes a fortune. Xiaodie, go pack your things when we get back. You and I are going to dig up ancestral graves too."
Guo Xiaodie curled her lip. "With you still alive, Old Ancestor, where would our Guo family get an ancestral grave to dig?"
Old Ancestor Guo flared in anger. "Bah! I meant digging up other people's ancestral graves!"
Old Ancestor Shi remarked wistfully, "Captain Zhou has been digging for gold for over two hundred years. If we only start now, wouldn't it be too late?"
Imperial Uncle Li offered a sheepish smile. "Captain Shi, hasn't your Shi family been digging for gold for ages already?"
Having his background exposed did not faze Old Ancestor Shi in the slightest. He laughed it off: "Captain Li jests. Word has it that apart from robbing tombs, Captain Zhou obtained other harvests in this new territory. It is said he had the help of the Yuan clan and a youth who raises a giant snake."
A bizarre silence fell over the crowd; no one spoke.
Right here on this mountain was a giant snake, and right here was a youth who raised it. Everyone had seen them clearly on their way up.
The Yuan clan was an established ancient family; though in decline, they still had Yuan Wuji holding the fort. But the youth with the giant snake possessed no such mighty faction behind him. Whoever seized him first would own him.
"If Captain Zhou could rob him, why can't my Guo family?" Old Ancestor Guo said, stroking his white beard.
Guo Xiaodie whispered, "Old Ancestor, has our Guo family turned into Captain Guos as well?"
Old Ancestor Guo spat in disdain. "Bloody hell, how could an honorable man do such a thing?"
He paused, then added, "Fortunately, I am no honorable man. If we don't become Captain Guos, we'll be left so far behind by these old bastards that they'll eat us alive without us even realizing it. The Jianghu is a treacherous place."
His voice was booming, ringing across the entire mountain.
Standing upon the cliff, Xu Ying could not help but develop a favorable impression of Old Ancestor Guo. *He's the only one whose villainy is refreshingly straightforward.*
Just then, the sky above Jiuyi Mountain convulsed. It was as though a dense layer of thunderclouds had gathered aloft, within which colossal entities churned, appearing and vanishing amid flashes of lightning.
Xu Ying grew tense, craning his neck to watch.
The maiden stood beside him, gazing into the distance. "That isn't the Heavenly Tribulation. It's their sacrifice pulling the Heavenly Dao world closer to our mortal realm. The things inside the clouds are heavenly gods who sensed the offerings. They are stretching their forms and following that resonance down."
Xu Ying felt deeply shaken. This was not the first time he had seen a heavenly god, yet an instinctive tremor still ran through his soul. Even from such an immense distance, he could hear bizarre murmurs carrying across the wind—the whispers of gods!
"Could Zhou Qiyun be bribing the heavenly gods?" Xu Ying asked.
The maiden's eyes held an astonished gleam. "It is indeed a bribe, but how could heavenly gods be swayed by bribes? Even if he presented mountains of offerings, they would not show the slightest mercy when he faces the Heavenly Tribulation! Those are two entirely separate matters. Heavenly gods must act according to the Heavenly Dao."
Suddenly, the vault of heaven was torn wide open. Even people a thousand li away could behold the spectacle, as though a gargantuan celestial body had approached from beyond the stars. Colossal limbs ground against the sky of Shenzhou, their massive scales trailing long plumes of white vapor as they slowly descended from the heavens!
It was a heavenly god responding to the resonance of Heaven and Man! Sensing the prayers and offerings from the Heavenly Dao world, it stepped down into the mortal realm, landing upon one of the altars on Jiuyi Mountain!
*Rumble!*
The sky above Jiuyi Mountain cracked and detonated continuously under immense pressure as yet another heavenly god answered the resonance, breaking through the barrier between the two realms to descend from above.
Upon Mount Wuwang, the old ancestors and numerous mysterious masters rose to their feet one after another, eyes wide with horror as they watched.
Even the true body of the Son of Heaven of the Nether Court sat bolt upright inside his sarcophagus, twisting his stiffened neck to stare toward Jiuyi Mountain!
His head had been pierced through by an eight-faceted sword. Standing nearby, Qi stole a glance and saw a clean, hollow opening through the skull from front to back. Looking through this hole in the head, it actually functioned like a telescope.
Qi clicked his tongue in wonder and called Niu Zhen and Niu Gan over to look.
The two Niu brothers were nether gods who had drifted in the underworld; seeing the Son of Heaven of the Nether Court set them trembling from head to toe, leaving them far too terrified to look.
"What on earth is Captain Zhou trying to do?" Old Ancestor Guo tugged at his beard and shouted, "Does he want to summon every heavenly god down into the mortal realm?!"
Hearing this, Xu Ying's heart jolted violently. He murmured, "Brilliant."
The maiden in the coffin was shaken to her core, instantly seeing through Zhou Qiyun's plan. She whispered, "He isn't bribing the heavenly gods—he's kidnapping them! He... he..."
Overwhelmed with excitement, she breathed, "Perhaps he truly has a chance of surviving the tribulation!"
Dull, oppressive thunder exploded incessantly deep within the clouds. More colossal entities descended into the mortal realm bearing a mysterious power that twisted and disrupted mortal consciousness, settling upon the opulent altars across Jiuyi Mountain to feast upon the offerings.
More and more heavenly gods descended from the Heavenly Dao world, until the sky a thousand li away seemed on the verge of collapsing under the sheer weight of divine auras!
In this brief span, over a hundred heavenly gods had descended to the mortal earth, and still more were answering the resonance of Heaven and Man!
The old ancestors of the great clans clutched their fists, watching with bated breath. Every one of them was an existence who had pushed Nuo techniques to the absolute pinnacle of this era. On the path of the Nuo, they had reached the ultimate limit; there was no road ahead!
They too had sought other paths—robbing tombs, digging for relics, tracing the steps of predecessors, and scouring the past of ancient Qi Refiners, unearthing many world-shaking secrets and treasures.
They had seen ceremonies like the Zhou clan's divine sacrifice in ancient records and murals, but to have researched it so thoroughly and executed it on such an astonishing scale belonged to the Zhou clan alone!
And to act with such unrestrained madness belonged to Zhou Qiyun alone!
"Just what does Captain Zhou intend to do?!"
Radiance erupted behind the ancestors as they manifested their Hidden Scenery latent transformation grounds, churning the surrounding winds and rains into turbulence.
Among the Hidden Scenery grounds of these Nuo Immortal ancestors, some took the shape of celestial palaces and heavenly gates, some appeared as vast surging rivers, some as endless mountain ranges, some as suns, moons, and open skies, and others as swirling fields of stars.
Their divine souls soared to the highest points of their respective Hidden Scenery grounds, peering into the distance to see more clearly.
"They wished to refine Primordial Spirits, yet every single one of them refined it wrong," the maiden beside Xu Ying murmured in surprise.
Xu Ying nodded gently. Though his own cultivation was still shallow, even he could tell that what these Nuo Immortals had refined were not proper Primordial Spirits at all; every one of them was tainted and chaotic.
Suddenly, the winds and clouds over Jiuyi Mountain surged violently as tribulation clouds erupted!
The power of these tribulation clouds surged in from beyond the heavens. It arrived with terrifying speed, shrouding Jiuyi Mountain in an instant. The thunderclouds expanded continuously, roiling outward to swallow ever greater distances!
The nine peaks of Jiuyi Mountain spanned roughly a hundred li, yet the thunderclouds swiftly surpassed that radius, enveloping the first tier of outer mountains around Jiuyi, then the second tier, and then the third!
The power of the tribulation clouds stemmed from the Heavenly Dao world—the power of Heavenly Dao divine artifacts!
The so-called resonance between Heaven and Man occurred because Zhou Qiyun had actively invoked the Heavenly Tribulation at this very moment, drawing a response from the Heavenly Dao divine artifacts to bring down the trial!
Yet the sheer might of this Heavenly Tribulation was utterly horrifying. The terrifying power pouring from the Heavenly Dao world continued to press outward, accompanied by the thunderous roar of heavenly lightning and heavenly fire crackling through the clouds, turning the sky simultaneously blinding and pitch-black!
The thunderclouds rolled into the inner three tiers of the Hundred Thousand Mountains, yet showed no sign of stopping, continuing to swell outward.
Xu Ying felt an indescribable terror engulf his heart, watching almost breathlessly. Centered on Jiuyi Mountain, the clouds soon surpassed the five-hundred-li radius seen during the tribulation of the Chaozhen Taixu Cave-Heaven.
And still they did not stop.
The thunderclouds expanded further, churning like an immense millstone, rolling, spreading, rolling, and spreading again!
By now, the radius of the Heavenly Tribulation had reached eight hundred li.
Only then did the speed of its expansion begin to slow.
Upon Mount Wuwang, everyone tasted the true meaning of hopelessness.
For to be without hope was sheer despair!
Before a supreme Heavenly Tribulation of this magnitude, no one could hold any prospect of survival!
Beside Xu Ying, the maiden in the coffin let out a melancholy sigh. It was precisely this sort of supreme Heavenly Tribulation that had barred everyone from their dream of ascension.
And yet...
"Zhou Qiyun found his chance," Xu Ying whispered.
He had kidnapped the cosmic host of heavenly gods from the Heavenly Dao world!
Three hundred and sixty heavenly gods had been abducted by him into the mortal realm.
Chapter 86