Day of Ascension

This calamity at the parasol tree came and went in a flash, but the destruction it left behind was anything but minor. The flesh pythons had nearly stripped the parasol tree bare. Exorcists also suffered devastating losses, with only one in ten surviving.

The beautiful woman and her husband were among the survivors. Looking around, they saw that the flesh pythons had devoured some Exorcists’ legs, while others had half their bodies dissolved by the creatures. It was a pitiful sight.

A chill ran down the couple’s spines. Looking up, they saw that the divine birds had also suffered heavy losses. Their corpses lay scattered everywhere. The surviving divine birds and the phoenix had vanished. The phoenix had borrowed the parasol tree to undergo its tribulation; when it ended, only devastation remained.

“The lecher who peeked at Xiaodie taking a bath was right. There really was danger here. But how did he know that?”

The beautiful woman was puzzled and said softly, “Also, how did he get into Mount Jiuyi?”

The Guo clan was part of the imperial family. The emperor had borrowed the Guo clan’s name to come to Mount Jiuyi in search of the Abyss of Cangwu. While the emperor could not leave the Capital lightly, the Guo clan could. Therefore, aside from a few imperial relatives, nearly everyone on the mountain belonged to the Guo clan.

The Jinwu Guards monitored the steep, dangerous sections of Mount Jiuyi, which were extremely difficult for ordinary people to access. Yuan Weiyang’s presence had already aroused their suspicion. With Xu Ying’s arrival, the couple wondered if Mount Jiuyi contained a hidden passageway that allowed people to come and go freely.

“Also, what exactly is the Abyss of Cangwu? How did His Majesty know that by passing through here, one could enter the underworld?”

The couple exchanged looks, reached the same conclusion, and said in unison, “Let’s find that lecher and see what else he knows!”

They went looking for Xu Ying, but he had disappeared as well. They could not find Yuan Weiyang, her servant, or Guo Xiaodie either.

“We should report this to His Majesty first!”

The couple hurried back to the main hall of the Cangwu Sect, only to find that the Emperor was not there. They asked Eunuch Chen, but even he did not know where the Emperor had gone. Anxiety welled up inside them. “Where on earth did they go?”

“So, your name is Demon King Xu, and you’re a demon?” Guo Xiaodie asked, sizing Xu Ying up repeatedly.

Xu Ying thought for a moment. “My name is Xu Ying. I’m probably a human.”

Guo Xiaodie bumped him with her shoulder and smiled. “Don’t be so sure. What if you’re not? Come on, let big sister check whether you’ve got a tail.”

Xu Ying jumped in alarm and hurriedly slapped away the hand reaching for his backside. Guo Xiaodie burst out laughing. “You definitely have a little tail hidden in your pants!”

Xu Ying flushed bright red. “I don’t...”

Yuan Weiyang cleared up the misunderstanding and explained to Guo Xiaodie that Xu Ying had entered Dao immersion under the parasol tree, so he couldn't have gone into the mountains to peek at her bathing.

Guo Xiaodie was easygoing and did not dwell on whether Dao immersion might have allowed him to see her anyway. She let the matter drop.

Nor did she question how Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang had entered the mountain despite the Jinwu Guards sealing it off. Instead, she eagerly led them to search for the source of the masses of flesh that had climbed the cliff face.

Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang were also extremely curious about that bizarre flesh. Earlier, it had grown wildly, turning into many giant flesh pythons that attacked everything in sight before suddenly dying.

It had then decayed and rotted with equally astonishing speed. Guo Xiaodie fetched a stick and prodded the dead flesh. She wrinkled her nose at the putrid stench. “Mount Jiuyi is a sacred mountain. Why would these weird things appear here?”

The Jinwu Guards on the mountain were currently cutting up the rotting flesh, dividing it into chunks of varying sizes and tossing them off the cliff to keep the smell from becoming unbearable.

Xu Ying stepped forward to examine the remains and noticed numerous tooth-like bones embedded in the decayed flesh. He had no idea what kind of creature this had been.

Dazhong was somewhat uneasy. “Ah Ying, remember the heavenly god I was suppressing in the well on the Little Rocky Mountain? It attacked the young phoenix. It’s part of the same group as the demon girl in the coffin! I scared off the heavenly god, but I’m afraid it saw through my bluff. It’ll probably come back again!”

Xu Ying whispered, “Master Zhong, you should be able to suppress it a second time since you did it once before, right?”

Dazhong let out a muffled snort. “Once my injuries are healed, of course. But the key is that I haven’t fully recovered. I need a large amount of vital energy to erase the palm imprint left by that demon girl! Where did Zhou Qiyun go? If only he could let me take another sip, just one sip...”

Xu Ying shook his head and came to the edge of the cliff. Looking down, he thought, Strange... After Old Ancestor Zhou went up the mountain, he vanished without a trace. An event as momentous as the phoenix’s appearance should have drawn him out. How come there’s still no sign of him?

Below the cliff, the fleshy masses were climbing out of the small lake, which was the road leading to the Abyss of Cangwu. Guo Xiaodie suddenly leaped straight off the cliff. Using Cloud-Ladder Heavenly Bound, she landed by the lakeshore in no time and waved hard at them.

Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang exchanged a glance; with a flick of their swords, sword qi enveloped them. They shot through the air, transforming into two streaks of sword light that descended from the sky and landed in front of Guo Xiaodie.

Uncle Xiao had no choice but to use the Yuan clan’s Divine Sense Leaping art to move through the air. His speed was much slower than theirs. Young Master has gotten flashy these past few days. He’s probably picked up bad habits from that Xu Demon King.

Guo Xiaodie’s eyes sparkled as she said excitedly, “What kind of mystic art is that? Teach me! I’ll trade you the Guo clan’s Cloud-Ladder Heavenly Bound for it!”

Xu Ying was also envious of her Cloud-Ladder Heavenly Bound and smiled. “This is the Sword Kinesis Mantra. You need a very deep understanding of sword techniques to cultivate it.”

Guo Xiaodie beamed. “The Guo clan is one of the few Exorcist families that specializes in martial arts. Plenty of us practice swordsmanship, and I'm no amateur.

“But to practice Cloud-Ladder Heavenly Bound, you first have to cultivate the Ode of the Azure Skies. Before that, you have to perform Dragon Tracking, open the Crimson Palace Secret Trove, and develop the power within the Secret Trove. Do you still want to trade?”

Xu Ying said firmly, “Yes!”

Guo Xiaodie took out a thick scripture and slapped it into Xu Ying’s hands, smiling. “I’m not taking advantage of you. This has the Ode of the Azure Skies. It contains martial arts techniques, and the eighth move is Cloud-Ladder Heavenly Bound. If you can cultivate it, that just means you’re really capable.”

Xu Ying took out a wrinkled piece of paper with just over two hundred characters on it. “This is the Sword Kinesis Mantra. If you don’t understand it, come ask me.”

Both of them got what they wanted and were feeling utterly delighted. Yuan Weiyang watched as one handed over an ancestral ultimate art while the other just as readily took out the Sword Kinesis Mantra. Her heart sank.

If I didn’t have the burden of the Yuan Clan, I could be as straightforward as they are, she thought.

Xu Ying flipped through the Ode of the Azure Skies. After only a few pages, he couldn’t help but frown. Every stage of cultivation required drawing on heart energy from the Crimson Palace Secret Trove. Without abundant heart energy, cultivating the Ode of the Azure Skies would exhaust it and slowly kill the practitioner.

Earlier, when he fought Guo Xiaodie, he had already sensed the astonishing power within her body. It was likely the result of the Crimson Palace Secret Trove.

Noticing his frown, Guo Xiaodie couldn’t help looking smug as she said with a laugh, “The Crimson Palace is hidden deep within one’s heart, inside a ventricle. The heart is the source of qi and strength, so what the Crimson Palace stores is heart energy.

“My Guo clan has so many brave and wise generals because our heart energy is extraordinary. If you haven’t opened the Crimson Palace Secret Trove, then even if you obtained the Guo clan’s Ode of the Azure Skies, you can’t cultivate this technique!”

She laughed. “Essentially, I got the Sword Kinesis Mantra for free!”

She lowered her head and studied the two hundred characters of the Sword Kinesis Mantra, staring blankly. After a long while, her face flushed red with frustration, and she said angrily, “A human wrote this scripture? I can’t understand anything!”

Yuan Weiyang wore a faint smile, thinking, Xu Ying and I wrote this scripture. We aimed to keep it concise and precise, with every single character containing the mysteries of sword techniques and approaching the Dao itself. Without talent in this area, of course, one couldn’t understand it.

Xu Ying flipped through the Ode of the Azure Skies and saw that its inner mantra first refined the heart, using the heart as the source. To refine the heart was like refining a pill, and the ventricle was like a furnace. The six apertures born within the heart became six vents in that furnace, allowing one’s physical strength to erupt to its fullest potential.

Its pure physical power far surpassed that of the Elephant-Bull Demon Fist. It even exceeded the True Cultivation of Ba Snake, and the Zhou Clan's Vajra Indestructible Body was likely inferior as well. It was a top-tier body-refining method.

As for the forms in the Ode of the Azure Skies, they involved visualization of the azure skies. By borrowing the transformations of the sun, moon, stars, wind, and clouds as Dao avatars, the practitioner cultivated a Radiant Vestige and gained immense power.

Aside from the inner mantra, there were also eight exquisitely refined martial arts techniques. The eighth was Cloud-Ladder Heavenly Bound. One had to master the first seven moves before this one could be cultivated. Attempting to cultivate any of them without first opening the Crimson Palace Secret Trove was courting death.

The Ode of the Azure Skies isn’t hard to cultivate, but forcing it without enough heart energy carries enormous hidden danger. Xu Ying closed the volume, intending to return it to Guo Xiaodie.

Dazhong’s voice came from beside him. “Ah Ying, you’re already a Gate-Knocking Stage Qi Cultivator, having ascended the first heaven. Your heart energy is strong enough. Even if you haven’t opened the Crimson Palace Secret Trove, cultivating this technique shouldn’t be a problem.”

Xu Ying felt a stir of interest and flipped through the Ode of the Azure Skies again.

Guo Xiaodie put away the Sword Kinesis Mantra and smiled. “Stop looking. You won't learn it no matter how long you stare at it. Let's jump into the lake and find out where those fleshy masses came from!”

She leaped into the lake and followed the flesh downward. The lake looked deep, but it was only a thin layer of water. She passed through the water and plummeted toward an incomparably terrifying rift. No one could tell how deep it went. A crimson glow emanated from the depths, profound and unfathomable.

It was the Abyss of Cangwu.

Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang also jumped in. Yuan Weiyang used Divine Sense Leaping, actualizing a place to stand in the void, and stood above the Abyss of Cangwu without falling.

Xu Ying circulated sword qi, letting clusters of sword qi whirl around him and suspend him in midair. Guo Xiaodie stood on a Cloud-Ladder.

Uncle Xiao also jumped into the water after them. These three little ancestors absolutely can’t be allowed to come to any harm!

They looked up and saw the flesh spread beneath the lake like a gigantic blood-red fan. It extended from the water above and continued along the lake's underside. Countless flesh-colored strands branched through it, resembling a vast network of nerves.

Guo Xiaodie gave a light leap and traveled hundreds of zhang, following along the flesh. Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang hurried after her. The flesh continued along the Abyss of Cangwu. They traveled for more than ten li without finding its end. After another ten-plus li, the flesh began climbing upward.

Xu Ying looked up and saw that it was a lake, glittering with ripples of light.

Guo Xiaodie jumped out first. Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang also each leaped out of the water. The three of them landed on the ground, and each cried out in surprise.

Upon hearing their cries, Uncle Xiao hastily leaped through the water and landed with a splash. Without even shaking the water from his clothes, he released his cultivation, opened all five Yellow Court grotto-heavens, and stood guard in front of Yuan Weiyang. When he saw their surroundings, he cried out in shock as well.

Behind them was a huge water vat, the one they had just emerged from! Ahead stood a grand hall built into the mountainside, with vermilion pillars, blue-tiled eaves, and jade-green doors.

Strands of flesh, like tentacles, crawled out from the vat, stretched across the ground, and disappeared into the hall. More flesh tentacles clung to the doors and threshold like dried earthworms, utterly devoid of life.

Guo Xiaodie mustered her courage and walked toward the great hall.

Xu Ying whispered, “Master Zhong, is there danger?”

Dazhong’s voice was grave. “Yes. I sense two experts in that hall—no, three!”

Guo Xiaodie’s voice came from ahead. “Your Majesty, why are you here? Who is this white-browed young man?”

Xu Ying was stunned by the words and stepped forward. Inside the hall, he saw a middle-aged man with a gloomy, irritable expression; on the other side, a white-browed youth. Both faced the deity statue enshrined in the hall, neither speaking nor moving.

He’s that middle-aged man who eats spirit pills like they’re meals!

Xu Ying recognized the man. He was surrounded by thick incense qi, with an iridescent cloud rising above his head. He had a majestic aura, moving with a dragon’s poise and a tiger’s stride, solemn and imposing. He was none other than the ruler of the Divine Land, Emperor Shengshen Zhangwu Xiao!

The emperor glanced at Xu Ying and froze, then let out a cold snort. Clearly, he had recognized Xu Ying, too.

That snort wasn’t loud, but it exploded in Xu Ying’s mind like a bolt from the blue. At the same time, Dazhong shook, scattering the snort apart.

“Trying to ruin my meal?” said the emperor.

Dazhong raged. “The Emperor is not a good person!”

Xu Ying looked toward the enshrined statue and couldn’t help freezing up. He blurted out, “This is a flesh-and-blood deity?”

The statue enshrined in the hall was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man, seated cross-legged on the shrine, holding a horsetail whisk and smiling at them with great compassion.

He was made of flesh and blood, not carved from wood or molded from clay. Those wormlike flesh tentacles had crawled out from between his brows. The flesh tentacles that attacked the phoenix had come from his body!

The surrounding walls were covered with talismans and talismanic scripts. The floor beneath him was densely layered with them, and even he was plastered with talismans.

“Your Majesty, this is an ancient Qi Cultivator who’s already dead,” said the white-browed youth, Zhou Qiyun, in a flat voice.