Chapter 362
Chapter 362
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 363
Chapter Title: Tianzhen Dojo
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Crown Prince Louche climbed upward along the chain, glancing back to see Chen Shi and Wen Wuyu hurrying toward him. He thought to himself, "The Lord of Tianchi does have some skill. To think a mere skeletal imp could be this powerful. But he's just bones—no true fleshly body. Without a body, there's no bloodline. Without a bloodline, he can't gather the divine blood of the various races to fully awaken his own. At best, he's nothing more than a skeleton."
The nation of Feathered Folk bordered Tianchi Nation, its people mostly winged ghosts with feathers.
Feathered Nation had the same custom as Tianchi Nation: when a new lord ascended the throne, the divine blood of each race would be gathered to cleanse the new lord's marrow and sinews, elevating their bloodline power and boosting their strength straight to the ninth layer, turning them into unparalleled warriors!
Offering divine blood served three purposes: first, to demonstrate the races' loyalty to the lord; second, to grant the lord the power to suppress them all; third, so that when foreign enemies invaded, the lord could lead from the front and guard the nation's gates. Without sufficient strength, he'd be cut down on the battlefield in moments.
Most ghost nations around Yin Mountain followed this rule.
"Though I'm no match for him, the ones from Feathered Nation exploring the Immortal Hall this time aren't just us!"
Crown Prince Louche's eyes flickered. This place lay at the border between Tianchi and Feathered Nation. After word spread of an immortal's appearance, experts from both lands had flocked here to investigate, and many had entered never to return. Crown Prince Louche had come with his uncle, Lou Tianyi, to explore the Immortal Hall.
Lou Tianyi had already led the group inside the Immortal Hall, while Crown Prince Louche had been ordered to stay outside with the other experts, guarding against intruders.
Lou Tianyi was a grand expert who had awakened eight layers of bloodline power, his strength vast and unmatched, rivaling the patriarchs of the tribes.
For ghost race bloodlines, advancement grew harder the higher one went, but the gains in power grew greater too!
From the sixth to seventh layer of bloodline came a massive leap, and from seventh to eighth, the elevation was even more astonishing!
"With Uncle Tianyi's power, dealing with them will be effortless!"
Crown Prince Louche's gaze shifted as he thought, "Tianchi Nation will soon have a new lord."
The Immortal Hall lay right before them. Crown Prince Louche rushed in first, only for a blaze of light to surge toward him. He jolted in alarm and leaped back, but the light overwhelmed him all the same.
When the radiance faded, he found himself not dead, but in another bizarre space.
Crown Prince Louche stared blankly at the scene before him, murmuring, "What the hell is this place?"
Just then, light flashed behind him as Chen Shi and Wen Wuyu entered the Immortal Hall's strange space one after another.
Crown Prince Louche's heart skipped. He tensed for battle—when the ground beneath him suddenly turned crimson. Surging flames erupted at his feet.
Crown Prince Louche flapped his wings and took to the air, fleeing in panic. Glancing back in haste, he saw a massive sun rising from the clouds where he had stood moments before, crimson light wreathing a fireball that blazed fiercely, radiating boundless heat.
"What is that thing?" Crown Prince Louche panicked.
Chen Shi and Wen Wuyu stood before the slowly rising colossal sun, feeling the surging pure yang energy from the true solar fire within it. They were utterly awestruck.
Chen Shi especially so—he suddenly felt an urge to weep.
It matched!
It finally matched the descriptions in the books!
When studying with Scholar Zhu, he had always harbored doubts. Sunrise and sunset, the rising sun in the east, work at dawn and rest at dusk—these phrases made no sense in Xiniu New Continent, found no correspondence!
He had no idea what "lone smoke in the vast desert straight, long river sinking sun round" meant, nor did he grasp "dusky mountains far in evening chill, humble hut in poverty."
Now, at last, he could comprehend the meaning behind those poetic lines!
The sun rose slowly above their heads, climbing into the sky. Following its path, Chen Shi spotted a pale, somewhat dim white moon hanging over a distant sea of clouds.
Verdant mountain peaks dotted the cloud sea.
Beyond the heavens twinkled clusters of stars, forming rivers of light.
These stellar rivers differed from those in the Minor Chiliocosm he had seen before.
In the Minor Chiliocosm's star rivers, the stars took shapes like pentagrams, hexagrams, pagodas, cauldrons, flood dragons, white tigers—odd forms aplenty. But in this Immortal Hall space, stars were stars: distant suns composing brilliant galaxies that lit the cosmos.
"The immortal here isn't one of our ghost race immortals. He's from Huaxia Divine Continent!"
The thought struck him: "This space inside the Immortal Hall is actually his Void Great Realm!"
The Immortal Hall's design and style weren't ghostly at all—they bore clear marks of the yang world.
And with the sun, moon, and stars here—especially the form of the star rivers—matching the temple's starry vault, Chen Shi deduced that the Immortal Hall's master must have been a cultivator from Huaxia's ancestral lands during the True King era!
This cultivator had undergone tribulation in Xiniu New Continent and attained immortality!
The moment they entered the Immortal Hall, they had stepped into this immortal's Void Great Realm!
But why hadn't this immortal ascended? Why had the Immortal Hall fallen into the underworld?
"Chen Shi, look behind you!" Wen Wuyu's voice snapped him back.
Chen Shi turned, his heart pounding.
The other half of the sky in this great realm looked utterly different from what they had seen. It teemed with thick tendrils of flesh, like tentacles climbing into the heavens, spiderwebs extending in all directions, thin membranes linking the different masses.
Suddenly, countless thread-like flesh strands plummeted from the sky not far away, dropping hundreds of zhang before barely halting.
Vast quantities of flesh writhed slowly, coiling over the surface of some colossal entity.
That entity was a star, now filthy and defiled, its surface blanketed in flesh—though through the membranes, intricate fu patterns could still be glimpsed.
Those were the runic seals of Tian Shang Star!
The star's surface bore divine aspects, godly names, divine script, with stellar fire flowing—yet all polluted by flesh.
The flesh slowly dragged Tian Shang Star upward, hauling it into the sky.
Chen Shi looked up to see stars everywhere enshrouded in flesh, hanging in the firmament.
Every star in this half of the sky had been corrupted!
Even the cloud sea was tainted, thick flesh wriggling sluggishly through the mists like earthworms, protruding segments before burrowing back in.
"This immortal has been evilized!" He shuddered inwardly.
Just then, the sun moved into the polluted sky, its light refining the evil.
Wherever the sun passed, flesh fled chaotically from the cloud sea. The flesh in the sky sizzled under the true solar fire, retreating in all directions as the heavens gradually cleared.
Seeing this, Chen Shi breathed a sigh of relief. "This immortal is saving himself!"
The cloud sea beneath their feet suddenly churned violently. Thick flesh tentacles burst through, invading the other half of the sky with whistling shrieks, lashing toward the great sun!
The blazing sun erupted in true solar fire, scorching the flesh into flames, filling the air with stench.
Yet more flesh shot from the cloud sea like sharp swords, piercing into the sun to inject evil qi!
The great sun refined the evil qi, the flesh inside crackling and bursting segment by segment into ash.
But wherever the sun went, fresh flesh emerged to impale it, gradually dimming its glow.
The sun pressed on into the depths of the fleshy sky, its light growing ever fainter, turning eerily baleful—when suddenly the moon flew into the polluted heavens too, orbiting the sun. The moon reflected its light, shining brightly once more.
Where moonlight fell, flesh froze and shattered with pops, plummeting down.
The sun's radiance brightened gradually. Sun and moon circled one another, yin-yang power erupting ceaselessly, tempering the oncoming flesh into dust!
Chen Shi watched, heart racing.
"These flesh are trying to corrupt the sun! And this immortal uses yin-yang tempering to resist the evilization and restore himself!"
The thought had just crossed his mind when he sensed something racing through the clouds below. He urgently stepped out on lightning, fleeing several li.
A streak of fire bloomed under Wen Wuyu's feet as he leaped away with him. From where they had stood, flesh tendrils erupted from the clouds, grasping at empty air.
A cry of alarm came from afar. Chen Shi looked to see Crown Prince Louche flying frantically through the sky, dodging flesh tentacles.
Wounded by Chen Shi and Wen Wuyu, his speed had plummeted, leaving him in dire straits, capture imminent.
At that moment, the clouds roiled as a thousand-zhang ghost god burst forth on flapping wings, wielding a wind-fire staff hundreds of zhang long.
He swung the staff, unleashing gales and flames that rolled through the sky, scorching the flesh into retreat and rescuing Crown Prince Louche.
"Uncle!" Crown Prince Louche cried, shocked and elated.
The bird-headed deity was none other than Lou Tianyi, Feathered Nation's bloodline eighth-layer powerhouse, his aura overwhelming. With a casual beckon, Crown Prince Louche flew involuntarily to his shoulder. His voice boomed like muffled thunder.
"Wasn't Your Highness guarding outside? Why enter the Immortal Hall? This place is extremely perilous. If I hadn't heard your voice, you'd be dead by now!"
One after another, Feathered Nation ghost gods emerged from the clouds to land beside Lou Tianyi—the experts who had followed him, each a bloodline eighth-layer titan from Feathered Nation's tribes.
At that moment, Xiang Kun, Right Concubine, and other young Tianchi experts entered too, appearing on the cloud sea and gazing about in confusion. The two little yakshas had somehow entered the Immortal Hall as well, incense in hand, and sped toward Chen Shi upon spotting him.
"Your Majesty!"
Right Concubine, Enchanting Witch, Electric Dragon, and the others approached and paid respects to Chen Shi. Xiang Kun snorted, approaching reluctantly before bowing too.
"Don't pull that long face."
Right Concubine nudged him discreetly and whispered, "Put on a good show. His Majesty might name you crown prince yet."
Xiang Kun fumed. "He's a skeletal ghost. Why would he name me crown prince?"
Right Concubine said, "Can he even sire heirs? How? Of course he'll adopt one. You've got a shot."
Xiang Kun itched to throttle her with his trunk.
But with Feathered Nation holding the advantage now, if they remained scattered, forget seeking immortal fortune here—they'd die on the spot!
Crown Prince Louche's voice rang out. "Uncle, over there—that's Tianchi Nation's new lord! And Prince Xiang Kun!"
Lou Tianyi's gaze flashed like lightning toward them. "In that case, Tianchi Nation can use a new lord and crown prince!"
Xiang Kun roared, "I'm the previous lord's prince, not his son!"
"Same difference!"
Lou Tianyi brimmed with killing intent as he advanced.
Chen Shi frowned slightly and summoned Lady Shiji.
Lady Shiji flew from the little temple, her almond eyes glaring as she barked, "What manner of demon are you? Kneel before this palace!"
Chen Shi murmured softly, "My lady, they outnumber us."
Lady Shiji laughed. "Rest easy, messenger. When have I ever feared odds? One comes, one dies; two come, a pair dies! What treasure is that in their hands?"
Her expression shifted subtly, eyes on Lou Tianyi's wind-fire staff.
Chen Shi turned to Prince Xiang Kun. "Prince, do you recognize it?"
Prince Xiang Kun thought, "Does he truly see me as his son now?"
Irritated but compliant, he said, "It's called the Wind-Fire Staff, Feathered Nation's national treasure. When activated, winds carry flame-formed golden dragons and pythons that roll endlessly. One strike shatters anything."
Chen Shi whispered, "My lady, that Garuda ghost god just used it to repel the flesh assault. This flesh is likely from a true immortal..."
Lady Shiji smiled. "No worries, messenger. I have a plan."
She thought privately, "If I can't block the wind-thunder staff, I'll ditch the messenger and flee."
War seemed imminent when a little Daoist boy poked from the clouds. He glanced about, adjusted the cap atop his head, and smiled. "Honored guests, I am this place's master. Could you do me the honor of not fighting?"
Chen Shi's heart stirred. He blurted, "You're the Immortal Hall's master?!"
The little Daoist boy turned at his words, surprised. "A human cultivator! Little Daoist Tianzhen offers greetings, greetings!"
He bowed all around, smiling. "This is my Void Great Realm. I'm straining to suppress the evil transformation. If you fight here, I might lose control and doom you all. Please, I beg you!"
He spoke in ghost tongue, which Lou Tianyi, Xiang Kun, and the others understood.
"This isn't a ghost race immortal's hall?" Lou Tianyi despaired.
Tianzhen Daoist smiled. "No. I am Tianzhen Daoist of Taihua Azure Goat Palace in the yang world. When the True King sealed immortals and slew all with hope of ascension, I fled here and hid. Cursed by evil transformation, I've secluded myself."
Chen Shi grew more astonished. "Are you an founding ancestor of Taihua Azure Palace? I heard that when the Three Treasures Eunuch discovered Xiniu New Continent, the Eighteen Daoists aided Ming soldiers in subduing demons and spirits. Fifteen perished, and the surviving three founded Taihua Azure Palace. What relation do you bear those three?"
Tianzhen Daoist laughed. "You mean the three palace-founding ancestors. I'm True Yang Ancestor's Dao attendant, not them. True Yang Ancestor saw my innocent nature and gave me the Dao name Tianzhen, saying I'd achieve great things. But we call it Taihua Azure Goat Palace, not just Azure Palace."
He grinned, flashing tiny tiger teeth. "We really have an azure goat on the mountain."
Unable to hold back, Chen Shi revealed, "Later the goat went missing, so it became just Azure Palace."
Tianzhen Daoist gaped. "Missing? Who stole it?"
Chen Shi stammered, "A villain surnamed Chen..."
Tianzhen Daoist paused, shook his head. "Lost is lost. I can barely save myself—why fret? Later I did cultivate to great heights, but True King sent killers after me—even wielding True Yang Ancestor's True Martial Evil-Slaying Sword from the ancestral lands to take my life."
Puzzled, he said, "I fled and fled, hiding here at last. I've done no wrong. Why kill me?"
Saddened, he added, "Even Ancestor wants me dead, or he wouldn't unleash the True Martial Evil-Slaying Sword. But I've never done evil—"
Lou Tianyi dismissed his true form, reverting to a zhang-high frame, and strode forward. "Since you're no ghost immortal, can you send us out?"
Tianzhen Daoist replied, "Of course. That's why I came—to ask you not to fight, stay cordial, then I'll send you off. Here for treasures? I only cultivate; nothing valuable—but I'll draw you protective talismans!"
He extended a finger, writing in the air. Immortal light soon coalesced; a protective talisman appeared before each, adhering to their skin and fading in.
Prince Xiang Kun asked, "Sir, did my father come here? Do you know how he died?"
Tianzhen Daoist asked for a description. After Xiang Kun spoke, he said, "He came, with many others. They squabbled here. I sent them out. And they died?"
Prince Xiang Kun nodded.
Tianzhen Daoist sighed deeply, waved gently, and a portal tore open in the cloud sea, leading straight to the Immortal Hall.
The crowd filed out.
"Wait!"
Tianzhen Daoist stopped Chen Shi, scrutinizing him and frowning. "You seem to have the same affliction as me—you've been possessed by evil qi too!"
Chen Shi thrilled. "You can tell? Have you a cure?"
Tianzhen Daoist smiled. "I'm a Dao boy, burner of Ancestor's furnace—not a Daoist elder. I can't cure myself, but I have the yin-yang tempering method to suppress it. Want to learn? I'll teach you."
Chen Shi recalled the sun and moon circling to temper flesh—impressive indeed. He bowed in thanks at once.
Tianzhen Daoist imparted the yin-yang tempering: an inner observation art using the eyes as sun and moon, visualizing the self as if bathed in their dual light, tempering evil qi. At higher levels, it manifested as Dao images: sun and moon in one's primal spirit dojo, orbiting the cultivator to suppress evil nature and qi, averting corruption.
At Void Return Realm, one opened a void realm where sun and moon appeared, tempering ceaselessly against evilization.
"This I devised while furnace-tending. It can carry you to ascension realm. Beyond that, no idea."
Tianzhen Daoist pondered, then shook his head. "I'm too dim; years of thought, no solution—oh, right. I took Ancestor's True Martial Evil-Slaying Sword. When you leave, take it to Taihua Azure Goat Palace, return the immortal sword. Do me this favor: tell True Yang Ancestor I want to go home. I've done no wrong. Ask him to plead for me before True King—"
Devastated, he said, "I miss home so. I beg you, fellow Daoist!"
He bowed deeply to Chen Shi.
Chen Shi returned the bow, lips twitching, but held back from revealing True King's death. He turned and exited the Void Great Realm.
His figure materialized in the Immortal Hall. Xiang Kun and the others hadn't left yet, still standing inside.
Wen Wuyu nodded toward Chen Shi's back.
Chen Shi turned to see a little Daoist boy facing away, kneeling on a rush cushion.
His hands cradled an immortal sword radiating rosy glows.
The boy was but half a body; the other half lacked all flesh. He had long perished.
He hadn't escaped the True Martial Evil-Slaying Sword.
Chen Shi steadied himself, approached, bowed to the boy, and took the sword. Softly, he said, "Rest easy, Brother Tianzhen. I will deliver this sword to Azure Goat Palace, so they may welcome you home!"
The little Daoist boy seemed to hear, a faint smile touching his remaining half-face.