Chapter 355
Chapter 355
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 356
Chapter Title: One Thought
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Entering a state of guarding with intent on its own?"
Lady Shiji was stunned.
The current state of Chen Shi's skeletal body was called guarding with intent, or guarding with one thought. It meant retaining a single thread of consciousness to hold onto the body.
This was commonly used in cultivation.
For instance, guarding the dantian or guarding the brow center—both involved turning one's intent into a single thought to watch over a specific spot, thereby refining qi.
Some cultivators, when practicing, would send their primordial spirit out of their body to roam the world, leaving behind one thought to guard their form and prevent their spirit from getting lost amid heaven and earth, unable to find its way back.
Chen Shi's guarding was clearly an unconscious retention of one thought to watch over his body.
Lady Shiji observed Chen Shi's skeleton and discovered that when it grew tired from cultivation, it would even rest. At night, under the service of those burly palace maids, it would soak in the magma pool, arms spread comfortably.
After bathing, it would don a fur cloak, wear a crown, and strut about the palace with great dignity.
It didn't stay in the palace all the time; it would go out walking too, though it never spoke or interacted.
Lady Shiji watched Chen Shi's skeleton pace back and forth before her and sighed inwardly, "This body of the upper emissary looks so appetizing, but alas, I can't absorb it."
Having come out this once with great difficulty, she gazed toward the eastern palace at that massive copper coin and thought, "The coin is still here—where is the deity who controlled it? Even someone as mighty as you has fallen? No, impossible!"
She floated up gracefully, flew out of the palace, and landed in the eye of that giant copper coin.
Lady Shiji lightly touched the coin, carefully sensing the aura within. This treasure was extraordinarily powerful, long refined through sacrifice, drawing on the incense offerings of the realm. Its master would surely have left traces of their aura.
She probed the coin's interior with her divine sense, finding only scattered extraordinary powers and numerous fragmented remnants of thoughts—nothing else.
"These remnant thoughts must be Brother Zhao's final consciousness."
Lady Shiji sighed, her expression dim with grief.
At that moment, divine power fluctuations emanated from the palace. Lady Shiji's heart jolted. She soared into the air and flew to hover above the palace!
A voice called from within the palace, "Kill the tyrant!"
Below, chaos reigned as dozens of ghost gods stormed the palace, clashing with the guards and charging toward the king's hall where Chen Shi was.
These ghost gods clearly didn't know the primordial spirit had already departed—what remained in the skeleton was merely Chen Shi's one thought. Even if they killed Chen Shi, they would only destroy his skeletal body, leaving him unscathed.
Lady Shiji noticed that quite a few ghost gods had already breached the king's hall. She hurried toward it, thinking, "The upper emissary entrusted this body's safety to me. If I fail, won't my standing drop again?"
"Install the crown prince! Restore order to the court!" a ghost god shouted.
The moment Lady Shiji rushed into the king's hall, blood light flashed. Chen Shi's skeletal form moved like a phantom, weaving through the cluster of ghost gods before coming to an abrupt halt.
The dozen or so ghost gods in the hall froze, their bodies rapidly shriveling into desiccated corpses.
Ahead of him, a ghost god general roared in fury. His body swelled section by section, revealing a true form dozens of zhang tall, wreathed in blazing wrathful flames. He threw a punch, and even before the flames touched Chen Shi, they began exploding and expanding!
This was a peculiar flame divine ability, a bloodline power. The flames burned at extreme temperatures, detonating on contact with astonishing might!
Chen Shi's skeletal body spun the Blood Lake Hell behind his head madly, raising a hand to meet the punch.
That ghost god general was of the fire tribe, his body immensely burly, while Chen Shi's skeleton seemed utterly frail by comparison. At the instant their fists collided, roaring flames engulfed the skeleton, scorching its bones red-hot and glowing—yet failing to reduce them to ash!
At the same time, another ghost god charged from the other side of the hall. With a wave of its hand, a torrential flood surged forth destructively, slamming into Chen Shi's skeleton. Where water and fire met, the clash of cold and heat could shatter even the sturdiest treasures!
Yet Chen Shi's skeletal body stood firm. The Blood Lake Hell's divine power erupted. The fire ghost ahead spat fresh blood, hurled backward by the immense force. As it flew through the air, countless hands from the Blood Lake Hell behind Chen Shi's head seized its face, dragging it toward the blood lake!
The fire ghost was filled with terror, struggling desperately, but the ghostly hands still hauled it into the Blood Lake Hell!
Chen Shi's skeletal body turned its head toward the water ghost.
Seeing the tide turn, the water ghost fled at once. With a stamp of its foot, it transformed into a great river, waves propelling its form as it whistled away, bursting out of the palace.
Chen Shi's skeletal body stomped heavily. The Blood Lake Hell behind his head spread flat, instantly transforming everything within a sixteen-li radius centered on the king's hall—
Into his Blood Lake Hell!
The water ghost tumbled into the Blood Lake Hell, struggling fiercely, but felt its blood qi draining away at speed. In a blink, it became a withered skeleton sinking into the lake, its resentful soul left writhing in the blood waters.
Whoosh—
The Blood Lake Hell rose upright in midair, contracting swiftly into a pool about a foot across, hanging behind Chen Shi's skeletal body.
On the ground, the dozens of ghost gods who had stormed the palace lay as shriveled corpses.
The other guards remained unharmed, staring about in shock and uncertainty.
Lady Shiji was equally stunned and uncertain. She had intended to assist, but seeing the skeleton's actions, she knew her help wasn't needed.
Yet this was merely a skeletal body—refined to such a terrifying degree!
What astonished Lady Shiji most, though, was the combat instinct in the one thought Chen Shi had left behind—it was simply too terrifying!
"Even the upper emissary himself might not realize that this single retained thought's battle instincts could wield the skeletal body so powerfully!"
Chen Shi's skeletal body sat down cross-legged, activating the Blood Lake True Scripture to refine the blood qi it had just seized, consolidating and expanding the Blood Lake Hell.
Lady Shiji stood guard for it, thinking, "Those who attacked this time must be ghost monsters coveting the throne among the ghost gods. Too cowardly to come themselves, they bribed a batch of ghost gods to assault the palace. These fools saw me leave and thought to seize the chance to eliminate the upper emissary."
To dare such a thing under the noses of the various ghost tribe patriarchs—pure lust for power had blinded them!
In the days that followed, Chen Shi's skeletal body continued its routine: cultivate, bathe, sleep, cultivate, bathe, sleep.
It occasionally faced one or two assassination attempts, but before Lady Shiji could act, the skeletal body dispatched the ghost god assassins itself!
Only then did the people of Tianchi Kingdom realize that their King Chen appeared frail but possessed profound strength.
This day, Chen Shi's skeletal body refined all the divine blood it carried. It strode out of the palace, left the Tianchi capital, and headed toward Boundless Cliff.
Lady Shiji followed closely, wary of ambushes.
Within the Tianchi capital, no one would dare summon hundred-zhang or thousand-zhang ghost gods to assassinate King Chen. But outside, they had no such restraints.
Lady Shiji trailed Chen Shi the whole way and indeed encountered thousand-zhang ghost gods awakened with bloodline power along the road. But after a brief clash with her, they retreated at once, not daring to strike at Chen Shi.
Chen Shi's skeletal body reached the Blood Creek, meticulously collecting divine blood just as Chen Shi would, then returned to Tianchi Kingdom to continue cultivating.
Lady Shiji's eyes widened. Was this something a single thought could accomplish?
In Huangpo Village's Chen household, Chen Shi's mother Wu Qingyu wore a frosty expression, glaring angrily at Chen Tang.
Chen Tang stood by the wall, head bowed, clutching a chest and avoiding her gaze.
Blackie Pot tucked its tail, head down beside him.
Qingyang whistled idly, looking around.
Little Liang, the fox tribe's young chieftain, perched on the wall, sighing throatily.
Granny Sha, covered in dirt and grime, held her son Toward Heaven Rain in one hand and her apprentice Little Dingxiang in the other, her face wreathed in smiles.
A Zhu sat obediently on the doorstep.
"Nephew-in-law, this matter isn't Little Tang's fault—"
Du Yiran coughed, about to speak, but Wu Qingyu's icy gaze swept over. He fell silent like a cicada in winter, not pleading for Chen Tang.
They had gone to extract demons from Chen Shi in the underworld, with Chen Tang making every preparation, yet something still went wrong.
Earlier, they had smoothly extracted over sixty demons, sealing them in the soul-searching sack without issue. Chen Tang's setup was indeed ingenious—
Demon extraction was effortless and worry-free. Even against remarkably powerful demons, they could suppress them.
But they noticed that the later demons emerged stronger and stronger.
When the sixty-fourth demon possessed him, its demon domain had expanded over four hundred li. Even with the many experts Chen Tang had trained, they struggled to contain it.
Chen Tang had no choice but to activate the heavenly mechanism, suppressing the demon. Granny Sha blasted its soul from Chen Shi's body, and Blackie Pot bit down, finally sealing it.
But with the sixty-fifth demon, Chen Tang's setup finally faltered.
This demon was even more terrifying. While Chen Tang mobilized the talisman god heavenly mechanism to suppress it, the demon seized the chance to possess the heavenly mechanism itself.
It detached from Chen Shi's body, only for another demon to occupy Chen Shi's corpse and escape into the sky!
Chen Tang and the others battled the talisman-demon heavenly mechanism fiercely, finally suppressing it. Then they searched for "Chen Shi" for days before finding "him" and fighting another brutal clash to capture him.
They returned Chen Shi's corpse to Huangpo Village, leading to Wu Qingyu scolding her husband.
"You nearly got several uncles killed!"
Wu Qingyu fumed. "You almost lost Little Ten too! Didn't you say it was foolproof?"
Chen Tang said, "I didn't anticipate two demons appearing simultaneously. It was my mistake."
Wu Qingyu softened her tone. "Two demons—one took the talisman god heavenly mechanism, one took Little Ten's body. So, is it possible
That multiple demons appear in Little Ten's body at once?"
Chen Tang replied, "The sea of consciousness dries up, revealing the abyss. As long as the sea remains, the abyss stays sealed. When one demon occupies Little Ten's body, the sea surges forth, closing the abyss. Thus, multiple demons won't occupy one body."
Wu Qingyu said, "That's for one demon climbing from the abyss. But what if two or three climb out at the same time?"
Chen Tang shook his head. "I've checked court records of demon transformations—never a case of two demons in one body."
Wu Qingyu shook her head. "The demons in their bodies weren't as numerous as Little Ten's."
Chen Tang pondered, then gravely said, "You're right, my lady. Trouble Granny Sha to summon Little Ten's primordial spirit first. We need to plan carefully."
Granny Sha performed the rite, calling back Chen Shi's primordial spirit. Chen Shi woke groggily to see the courtyard filled with Granny Sha, Du Yiran, and others debating layouts with Chen Tang and Blackie Pot on handling twin demons or triplet demons—the discussion heated.
"I'm awake!"
Chen Shi asked, "Have you removed all the demons from my body?"
"Mm-hmm."
The group mumbled evasively. "Awake? Good, good that you're awake."
Chen Shi grew suspicious. "Dad, did you fail to extract all the demons from me again? Did something go wrong?"
Chen Tang kept a straight face. "Just a tiny mishap. But we've pinpointed the issue—no mistakes next time."
They continued strategizing, leaving Chen Shi aside.
Wu Qingyu brought steaming-hot food and set it on the table, smiling. "Let them be. They've tossed you around for days without a bite—
Eat up while you can."
Chen Shi sat and devoured it ravenously.
He'd eaten nothing in the underworld, and his body in the yang world had been chased everywhere—his stomach was empty.
Wu Qingyu watched him eat with a smile. "Slow down—there's more in the pot if needed."
Chen Shi looked at her. Wu Qingyu glanced at herself puzzled, then laughed. "What is it?"
Chen Shi swallowed hard, head down. "As a kid, I'd see other families and dream of this—parents by my side. Now it's real. I feel so happy, but scared it's fake, a dream. Wake up, and you're gone."
Wu Qingyu ruffled his hair, smiling. "We're together now as a family—no more separations."
Chen Shi shoveled rice, mumbling thickly, "We still need to find Grandpa! I can refine the demonic qi from him!"
Wu Qingyu laughed. "Yes, bring back your grandpa!"
Chen Shi hesitated, then whispered, "Mom, a secret. In the underworld, I became king of Tianchi Ghost Kingdom. Believe it?"
Wu Qingyu's eyes flickered as she smiled. "I believe you, of course."
Chen Shi scratched his head. "It's so absurd, and you believe it."
Wu Qingyu chuckled. "I've seen even wilder things happen to you back then. A mere throne in Tianchi Ghost Kingdom? How could I not believe?"