"The second reincarnation begins!"
"Reincarnators may enter the Reincarnation Lands seven days in advance to obtain information on the upcoming mission world..."
Counting the days, Qian Chen had finally received the notification from the Lord of Reincarnation. Over the past half year, he had not ventured out to take further risks. Instead, he had dutifully established a cave dwelling, gathering and refining qi every day to hone his magical power.
He ritually refined the Guanghan Ice Soul Dan along with several newly acquired magical implements, thoroughly digesting all his prior gains and accumulations.
He waited until the opening of the second reincarnation.
Disabling the restrictions on his cave dwelling, Qian Chen sat cross-legged and regulated his breath. Once again, darkness enveloped his vision, and before long he found himself back on the solitary Void Cloud Platform suspended in the void. Compared to a year ago, nothing here had changed in the slightest. Even the mark he had deliberately left behind before leaving remained untouched.
"Sure enough, after I leave the Void Cloud Platform, time here does not flow at all!"
Qian Chen withdrew the faint strand of magical power he had left behind to keep time. Yet when he noticed that five hundred points of his Merit had vanished into thin air, his expression grew even graver. His previous dedication of five hundred merit points on the divine talisman had partly been a test, but the outcome was quite startling... If the immortals and deities of the upper realms could also receive the Merit of the Reincarnation Lands, the background of this place warranted deep contemplation.
"It seems the waters of the Reincarnation Lands... run even deeper than I thought!"
Qian Chen raised his head and said, "Lord God, I want to inspect the mission!"
"In the Great Wilderness Realm, towering peaks stand in vast numbers, and rolling mountain ranges stretch on without end. Among them lie blessed lands and spiritual mountains nurturing the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. Cultivators establish cave dwellings upon spiritual veins to pass down their orthodoxies, and extraordinary beings and sword immortals emerge in endless succession."
"Yet where there are spiritual mountains and veins, there are also bottomless abysses..."
"Legend tells that the abysses connect directly to the Nine Nether Demonic Realm, from which demonic creatures ceaselessly swarm. Cultivators who commune with the Nine Nether and absorb turbid qi are known as the heterodox path... Thus arose the divide between the righteous and the demonic."
"Two thousand years ago, an unprecedented devil among the heterodox path descended into the Sky Rift Abyss, the deepest and most perilous chasm in the Great Wilderness Realm. Beneath it, he discovered a boundless sea of blood. Within that sea, he attained his dao as the Blood Demon, unleashing an unending catastrophe. Wherever he passed, mortals and beasts alike were drained dry of essence and blood... Thereupon, the extraordinary beings and sword immortals of the Great Wilderness Realm joined forces to wage a decisive battle against the Blood Demon."
"At last, through the combined might of seven extraordinary sword immortals of that realm, the Blood Demon suffered a crushing defeat. Because his Blood Demon Incarnation was immortal and indestructible, he was suppressed beneath Heavenly Baleful Peak to be worn away by the toxic fires of the earth's mantle. Two thousand years later, tales of the Blood Demon have gradually faded, and the righteous sword immortals assumed he had succumbed to the toxic fires, no longer remaining vigilant against the revival of the demonic path... Yet at this moment, an anomaly stirs within Heavenly Baleful Peak!"
"Main Quest One: Proceed to Heavenly Baleful Peak and investigate the cause behind the anomalous movement of the Blood Demon's seal. Upon completion, reward: five hundred merit points!"
"Main Quest Two: Unlocked upon the completion of Main Quest One..."
"Side Quest: This mission is a multiplayer quest, and reincarnators will be assigned to different factions. Slaying a reincarnator of an opposing faction awards all items on their Void Cloud Platform and one Moral Point. Slaying a reincarnator of the same faction will result in a faction-wide broadcast and a bounty placed upon you, along with a deduction of half the rewards settled from this mission. This penalty may stack."
"Your Guide has activated the Reincarnation Guide authority and will follow you into this Reincarnation mission!"
"It has finally come..." Qian Chen took a deep breath. At last, he was going to encounter other reincarnators. He only wondered whether the reincarnators of this world were just like those in the Lord God's Spaces of his previous life—steeped in betrayal, slaughter, intrigue, and mutual scheming. Judging by the conduct of Miaokong and Old Daoist Tongshen, Qian Chen felt he shouldn't harbor any fond expectations.
While the other reincarnators remained an unknown variable, Miaokong was already destined to be a mortal enemy.
To tell the truth, with the conflict between the righteous and demonic paths as the central theme of this mission, the situation did not look promising for Qian Chen. Miaokong belonged to the demonic path, and in this main quest, the heterodox Blood Demon unmistakably carried the flavor of the demonic path. Judging by the mission prompt, the strength of the demonic faction was clearly far superior to that of the righteous.
That was precisely why reincarnators were asked to choose factions while the Blood Demon remained sealed.
Evidently, in the judgment of the Lord of Reincarnation, the sealed Blood Demon alone was equal to the entire momentum of that world's righteous path... The sole advantage of the righteous side lay in the fact that the Blood Demon was currently imprisoned. But with Miaokong following Qian Chen into the mission world, that advantage had turned into an immense uncertainty. Looking at the main quest, even without reincarnators causing disruptions, there was a high likelihood of the Blood Demon breaking the seal. Adding a seasoned demonic reincarnator into the mix...
Qian Chen was not optimistic in the slightest. In the worst-case scenario, he might have to face a fully restored Blood Demon working alongside Miaokong.
And there was no telling what sort of deadweight allies the reincarnators in his own faction might turn out to be...
Qian Chen slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air. "My cultivation is already mature, lacking only a wisp of inspiration to condense my magical power into a true talisman and advance to the Spell Comprehension realm. To deal with Miaokong, I have spent the past year preparing in every way, dismantling all the hidden traps he left behind... Meanwhile, he knows nothing about me, likely assuming I am still a green novice who has barely stepped onto the path."
"He is in the light, while I am in the dark. All my preparations, all my bitter cultivation, have been for today's battle!"
"He is an experienced Golden Core cultivator, yet I have also formed a grade-two external qi primordial dan. He is a veteran reincarnator with abundant resources and refined magical implements, but through deception, extortion, and pillaging, I have also accumulated quite a store. He is well-versed in demonic spells, yet I possess the Dao Dust Pearl to protect my mind, leaving me fearless against external fiends... Though I still seem at a disadvantage, it is by no means an impossible fight."
Qian Chen used a substantial portion of the Merit and Moral Points he had reserved for this mission to exchange for daoist books on demonic spells and various demon-suppressing methods. He also traded for extensive lore regarding the Blood Demon lineage and paid ten times the usual price to exchange for several rare natural treasures needed to cultivate the Louguan Dao spells for dispelling evil and subduing demons.
Holding a scroll of the *Secret Demonic Art of the Three Corpses and Hundred Insects* and an abridged copy of the *Three-Lives Restriction of the Secret Demon Soul Impeachment*, Qian Chen gingerly transferred the lingering five-colored silk threads from his heart onto the Three Corpse Divine Fiend. At his heart, three wisps of qi—red, azure, and white—coiled together, and the five-colored silk threads formed by the restriction were transferred directly into them.
Next, Qian Chen washed and tempered his refined Five Poisons Incarnation with various spirit medicines, rented an alchemy furnace from the Lord of Reincarnation, and used exchanged myriad-spirit essence blood to prick designs onto artificial skin also traded from the Lord of Reincarnation. He even spent five hundred merit points to open a rift from the Void Cloud Platform into the Nine Nether.
As Qian Chen gesticulated and chanted the Asura demonic mantra, countless Nine Nether fiends swarmed forward, only to be tricked by Qian Chen into rushing headlong into the furnace.
Three days later, the Five Poisons Divine Fiend was born, taking the place of the Three Corpse Divine Fiend to preside within the White Bone Relic.
Wiping away the nonexistent cold sweat on his brow, Qian Chen sighed. "As expected, the demonic path relies heavily on manipulating the human heart. Without someone like Daoist Zhen gathering all that malice from human hearts for me and offering up a lifetime of cultivation to help perfect the Three Corpses, the quality of this Five Poisons Divine Fiend isn't quite as good as the Three Corpse Divine Fiend... Then again, the Five Poisons are external things after all. How could they compare to the evil qi and demonic thoughts inherent to a cultivator's own Three Corpses?"
"It is naturally a notch inferior..."
"If the Three Corpses hadn't originated from myself and counted as a part of me, this restriction might not have been so easily transferred to take its place."
Qian Chen tapped with his finger, and the Five Poisons Divine Fiend vanished into the White Bone Relic. The fiend formed from the five venomous creatures resembled a hundred-legged poison dragon, combining the characteristics of all five poisons: its body was slender like a viper yet grew a hundred legs; its tail curled upward like a scorpion's sting; a pair of gecko feet clasped a venomous dragon pearl beneath its belly; and as it breathed venomous mist, it emitted the croaking of a toad.
It was an exceedingly vicious and ferocious divine fiend...
Just as Qian Chen was about to voice a few praises, his expression suddenly turned somewhat peculiar.
"I am a direct disciple of Louguan Dao under Taishang Dao. Leaving aside my connection to the Taishang Dao Ancestor, I am still an authentic, upright successor of the Daoist orthodoxy. How is it that when it comes to refining demon gods and employing demonic arts, I am even more adept than those from the demonic sects? Could I have strayed down the wrong path again? When facing Miaokong, he'll unleash a blast of Nine Nether demonic fire, and I'll fling out a White Bone Relic, letting the divine fiend inside ambush him while he's off guard... Just thinking about it feels completely off!"
Qian Chen recalled how, when he had first received the magical implements left behind by Miaokong, he had tried to salvage his image. He hadn't refined two seven-emotion divine fiends into the Seven Baleful Banner, nor had he refined that suspicious White Bone Relic.
How had he ended up here?
Ah! Only by mastering the demonic path could one understand how to break and counter it... Qian Chen came to an epiphany. "Everything I'm doing is just to kill Miaokong!"
Changing into a black daoist robe, Qian Chen circulated his true qi to slightly obstruct his blood vitality. Instantly, his face took on an unhealthy pallor. At the same time, he concealed his two external dan: the Guanghan Ice Soul Dan within his Mysterious Gate aperture, and the grade-seven emerald external dan within the Jade Pillow acupoint at the back of his head.
Drawing his true qi back into his apertures, he used the Seven Baleful Banner to simulate a surge of impure, heterodox true qi.
A heterodox cultivator practicing side-door arts with impure true qi and feeble magical power was freshly minted. Looking at Qian Chen's pale complexion, frail frame, murky black true qi, and the sinister black wind he stirred when casting spells, he looked completely like someone whose foundation had been ruined by the traps Miaokong had left behind.
Qian Chen even practiced several grim, vicious expressions. If he claimed to be a true disciple of the righteous path, probably no one would believe him.
Holding the Seven Baleful Banner in his right hand, concealing the Black Gold Baleful Hook in his sleeve, and driving the pristine Flying Cloud Pouch with swirling dark smoke, he looked at his deep, black-qi-shrouded reflection in the water mirror. Resembling a true heterodox fiend, he nodded in satisfaction. "A fine disguise... my true nature isn't exposed in the slightest."
In the blink of an eye, seven days passed. Fully prepared, Qian Chen vanished from the Void Cloud Platform in this guise.
Darkness reigned all around. The mountain path was desolate and devoid of travelers, yet Qian Chen's figure suddenly materialized there. On this dark, windy night, with his pale, gloomy face, black daoist robe, and faint scent of blood, he looked as though he had stepped right out of the opening scene of a horror film.
Qian Chen waved his hand to brush away the surrounding mosquitoes and whispered,
"I put too much myriad-spirit blood on this robe! It stinks... and it attracts bugs!"
With a flick of his sleeve, he whipped up a gust of baleful qi that swirled around his body, incinerating the swarming insects. In the end, he had no choice but to hurriedly refine a bit of insect-repelling incense into the fabric.
"Had I known, I would have refined an insect repellent that smells like blood... Why did I have to smear all that blood all over myself?"
"Miaokong will definitely charge over the moment he arrives..." Qian Chen glanced around and shook his head. "This is no place for a decisive battle."
Chapter 79