Chapter 149: Fall of Caisheng Hall
Caisheng Hall was the shrine hall of the Mystic Granny. The so-called shrine hall was the place where her dark statue received yin incense.
The Granny Society had grown remarkably strong in recent years, and the yin fires blazed prosperously within Caisheng Hall.
A hundred yin oil lamps sat arrayed beneath the Granny's dark statue, their flames burning day and night without cease. The yin fires burned constantly as well, their qi weaving clouds and mists throughout the hall. This qi condensed into extraordinary power that resembled swirling cyan ribbons encircling the dark statue.
The dark statue absorbed this extraordinary power, its strength gradually swelling.
Before the shrine hall stood Yu Daozhi. A dark alcove hovered behind his head, radiating black light. A dark fetus resided within it, and his nascent soul rested in the dark fetus's palm.
His nascent soul was not large—merely an inch or so.
For anyone outside the great clans, reaching the Nascent Soul Realm was already extraordinary. In any given county, such a figure would stand at the pinnacle.
Even in a place like the provincial capital, he wasn't among the absolute elite. Yet across the entire province, those who had entered the Nascent Soul Realm numbered no more than a hundred.
He was the master of Caisheng Hall, overseeing all its affairs. More than twenty disciples served in the hall, and at that moment they lay in ambush across various corners, eyes fixed on the gate leading from the front yard to the back.
Yu Daozhi sensed the incoming foe's oppressive aura. The intruder had stormed the front yard of Caisheng Hall and slaughtered everyone there—including two instructors—in the span of a few breaths. Impressive.
Even sensing that his opponent's cultivation fell short of his own, Yu Daozhi dared not strike rashly.
He probed the other's aura. No breath. No heartbeat. Only blood qi surging in endless waves alongside a perfectly round, boundless golden core. Wherever the core moved, ocean-like blood qi followed.
This was a profoundly advanced Dark Samadhi.
Dark Samadhi meant entering trance with a darkened heart.
At its deepest levels, it brought utter calm, devoid of stray thoughts—forgetting breath, forgetting heartbeat.
Fetal breathing replaced respiration. Golden core revolution replaced the pulse.
Yu Daozhi had only ever heard of such a practice. He'd encountered plenty of Golden Core cultivators, but never one versed in this Dark Samadhi.
He had once believed the notion of a golden core substituting for heartbeat to be mere legend.
Until he sensed the man separated from him by a single wall.
"This person's momentum has eased slightly. He's pulling back."
Yu Daozhi detected Chen Shi's hesitation and doubt—likely the boy had noticed his own prowess and lacked assurance of victory.
A mutual retreat would suit just fine.
Each step back, and the seas and skies opened wide.
As for avenging Caisheng Hall's instructors and disciples, washing away the humiliation—that could wait.
He had always been steady.
If he could avoid a desperate fight, he would.
Once the intruder withdrew, he could rally the instructors, hall masters, and heads from the other halls, awaken Granny, and eliminate the fool at leisure.
His survival thus far in the Granny Society—a perilous outfit in a place as dangerous as Gongzhou's provincial capital—stemmed from precisely this: caution, steadiness.
He fought no uncertain battles. That was his creed for staying alive.
He still remembered his green days, tangling with a foe.
The man was a classmate of his. He'd planned to drug and sell him to a human farm for exam funds, but the plot was uncovered. The classmate had been weaker at first, yet in that life-or-death pinch, he'd erupted with shocking power, nearly cleaving Yu Daozhi in half!
Only later did the anesthetic kick in. The classmate passed out, and Yu Daozhi sold him to the farm anyway.
From then on, he knew: without total certainty, don't move.
Just as this thought crossed his mind, he suddenly detected the opponent's heartbeat.
The foe's Dark Samadhi state had shattered!
He felt that heart pounding like a Yellow Turbans strongman drumming a war drum over a zhang tall—boom!—a deafening throb propelling blood qi to every limb and capillary tip!
He felt the breathing too—like the massive bellows of a kiln stoking ore, expelling foul qi before inhaling with ravenous fury, whale-like in its devouring ambition!
That prior Dark Samadhi had epitomized perfect calm, every blow calculated with ruthless precision—flawless, unerring.
But now the man had exited Dark Samadhi into a state of utter frenzy!
Alert flared in Yu Daozhi's heart. This state would be savage beyond measure, domineering, assaults ferocious!
"I claim this wind and thunder!"
A thunderclap voice boomed from the front yard, shaking the firmament.
The skies abruptly brightened.
Yu Daozhi looked up to see a golden talisman dangling from the heavens, inscribed in blood qi: Three Purities script above, the names of the Ninefold Responding Origin Thunderclap Universal Transformation Sovereigns below; Wind Earl to the left, Thunder Duke to the right, Rain Master beneath, cloud motifs at the base!
Blood qi coalesced in a single stroke, the sigil radiating light, invoking heaven and earth's mystic forces!
"Hah!"
Winds rose.
"Crack!"
Thunder crashed.
Yu Daozhi's face drained of color. He swiftly recalled his nascent soul into his dark intent, frantically searching his sleeve for talismans. At the same time, he bellowed, "All disciples, heed me! Find rain-banishing talismans—wind-subduing ones work too! Hurry!"
The disciples scrambled to search upon hearing him.
"Don't offer your golden cores! Don't offer your golden cores!"
Yu Daozhi shouted a warning. "Heavenly thunder's afoot!"
Suddenly, a thunderbolt plunged from the skies, blasting a tree in the back yard. That ancient tree, centuries old, split down the middle in a blaze of lightning, thunderfire roaring at its core.
Pain stabbed Yu Daozhi. He'd nurtured centipedes within that tree, feeding them severed human limbs and hands harvested during live extractions. Over the years, the creatures had awakened spirituality.
He'd refined those centipedes into treasures. They'd formed inner cores, flying forth like swords to crack skulls and shatter brains.
Even spewing venom or burrowing into flesh posed no challenge.
Yet with limbs from so many corpses and gorged on human blood, their yin qi had grown excessively heavy. Heavenly thunder annihilated them.
Boom! The wall and gate exploded in fragments. Amid shattered bricks and tiles charged a giant some sixteen feet tall. Each stride covered over two zhang; two disciples concealed behind the wall flew back vomiting blood. His next step brought him before Yu Daozhi!
The killing demon sported three heads and six arms. The central head was a true human one, boyish-faced, no older than twelve or thirteen. The other two were blood-qi condensations, demonic and savage.
A necklace of human heads encircled his neck—dark demon visages forged from blood qi, horrific and snarling. The necklace whirled at blinding speed, those demon heads snapping wide to gnash at the air.
His garb hung in tatters, blood qi armor cladding his form. The belly-plate bore a massive golden face—a five-chi-wide ghost mask, fanged maw agape like an endless void.
Six weapons filled his grasp: fu-axe, halberd, bow-and-arrow, treasure sword, imperial bell, short-halberd, long-rope—all blood-qi manifestations!
Blood ribbons coiled his frame, talismans aglow within them. They draped from shoulders through armpits, trailing behind his head.
"Hah!"
The near-ten-foot sword whirled with the killing demon's spin and cleaved down!
Yu Daozhi, talisman unfound, channeled mana to erect his nascent soul force field.
Never had he witnessed such horrific war intent and slaughter aura. It crashed alongside rampaging blood qi, reddening his sight. The demon lunged from the crimson glare!
His cultivation outstripped the foe's by a full realm—a chasm no amount of battle will or killing intent could bridge.
Yet it hurled him back to that year: dosing his classmate for sale to a human farm.
The man inferior in cultivation and strength, yet nearly slain him!
This childish-faced youth evoked the same terror of death!
The longsword hissed through his nascent soul force field like cleaving bamboo. In the next instant, it kissed his throat!
Eyes bulging, cold sweat bursting free, Yu Daozhi threw up a hand to parry.
Golden light bloomed on his palm—a golden body technique called the Great Wheel Bright King's Radiant Curse. A pity it was but a fragment.
Thirteen years of painstaking refinement had gilded only his hands.
Eroded by the nascent soul force field, the longsword crumbled to rot. It shattered on colliding with his golden hand; blade fragments raked face and chest, drawing blood trails.
The sword's horrific force hurled Yu Daozhi backward. He smashed through the shrine hall's doors, splintering them asunder.
Chen Shi pivoted on heel; fu-axe whirled with his spin and hacked down!
"I'm steady, not some ripe persimmon!"
Yu Daozhi regained footing, shame-rage surging. His body shuddered; demon souls streamed from within, hitting ground to scuttle at speed toward Chen Shi!
Mid-scuttle, whoosh—they took wing, lunging to rend and bite!
His demon souls derived from spirits of children perished midway through live harvesting.
Fleshless ghosts, yet refined to vast potency.
He scorned porcelain dolls: too time-intensive, riddled with flaws. Instead, demon souls—captured wronged ghosts fed his blood, tempered in yin fire and mystic rites day and night.
Perfected, they became ghost golden cores. Released, they wounded grievously, potent beyond measure, free of the dolls' jar-bound weakness.
His nascent soul force field dwarfed any golden core's, capable alone of crushing Golden Core cultivators outright!
Their cores would melt and perish in its depths.
Nascent souls lorded voids impervious to spells!
They struck from nothingness, impossible to guard—one hit sufficed, no second needed!
Thunder raging overhead forbade nascent soul deployment. Spells it was.
The demon souls battered Chen Shi's blood armor but bit through, rending flesh. Blood sprayed!
Concurrently, demon heads from Chen Shi's necklace rocketed free, wheeling about him in a maelstrom of mutual savagery with the souls.
Chen Shi's belly ghost mask yawned cavernously; a long tongue lashed out, coiling a demon soul and reeling it to doom!
Wounds ignored, Chen Shi chopped with fu-axe even as feet spun anew—short-halberd smashed!
Yu Daozhi blocked high; axe-halberd exploded, short-halberd menaced!
Yu Daozhi reeled back, toppling yin oil lamps in swathes.
Short-halberd burst; imperial bell hurtled!
Yu Daozhi grunted, bell pulping him till eyes, ears, nose, mouth wept blood.
Bell sundered; long-rope ensnared!
It yanked him airborne toward Chen Shi. He burst it free; Chen Shi wheeled, loosed arrow—whoosh!—transfixing chest, flinging him back to nail the shrine wall.
Layer-eroded by nascent soul field, the shaft's force waned sharply. Chest pierced, but vitals spared.
Panic gripped Yu Daozhi's heart.
Beneath the wall loomed Granny's dark statue.
The shrine's Granny image was no true body—a construct for yin fire gathering.
His blood splashed the dark statue. Chen Shi's feral visage loomed; he cried, "Granny, save me!"
The dark image sub-body roused at once, unleashing torrents of dark power amid cackling glee. "Worthless wretch—must Granny herself intervene?"
Chen Shi's rear small shrine ascended. Light beamed; the image winked from its perch. Next instant, it manifested atop the small shrine's dark alcove.
Vast Righteous Qi flooded in, subjugating, offering it skyward!
The Granny sub-body recoiled in horror, grasping for dominance—powerless against the shrine's mystic might!
Red Mountain Lady tumbled from the shrine, materializing dazed in the hall, bewildered at her plight.
Chen Shi brandished the subjugated Granny image: a colossal hag's head floated overhead, maw gaping, tongues myriad lashing to bind Yu Daozhi, ripping him from the wall, hauling him close!
Chen Shi's blood qi roared; six arms reformed arsenal. Longsword speared chest—hilt twisted a full turn.
Fu-axe hacked neck; imperial bell crushed crown; short-halberd impaled torso.
Teeth clenched, Yu Daozhi locked gazes, spat gore, roared, "Perish together!"
Nascent soul rocketed forth for Chen Shi—just as it neared brow center, thunder smote from above.
Nascent soul wisped to ash.
Yu Daozhi froze, eyes dulling, life snuffed.
Chen Shi wrenched longsword free from the corpse—but demon souls had gnawed his armor ragged, flesh a gory ruin, vigor ebbed.
Yu Daozhi slain, demon souls went inert, assaults ceased.
Chen Shi booted the husk from blade and halberd, whirled outward to slay!
Whirlwind incarnate, he rent and hacked the back yard; arrows whistled; rope lashed; short-halberds flew dart-like; sword qi ravaged.
Fake hills crumbled, trees sheared—back yard razed near-flat!
Chen Shi pulped a disciple's skull underfoot, arrowed a fleeing other. Silence reclaimed the grounds.
Roars rent the air as he scoured for survivors. None but he remained.
Chen Shi dismissed dharma body. Frenzied blood qi steadied; excess rotted midair, splattering as a three-headed, six-armed dharma diagram on the stone.
He halted, staggered toward the front yard, steps faltering.
Red Mountain Lady hastened after.
At the collapsed front-to-back gate lay rubble. Zhao Kai had gnawed bricks and shards with teeth, dragging himself atop the debris to slump against a broken wall, facing the yard.
Smile gracing his lips, eyes wide—as though witnessing Chen Shi's vengeance.
By Chen Shi's arrival, breath had fled.
Chen Shi stood vigil beside the ruins a moment, gathered the body, and departed.
Behind, Caisheng Hall's shrine hall boomed to ruin.