Chapter 377
Chapter 377
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 378
Chapter Title: Heavenly Calamity Mutates, Dao Embryo Emerges
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Fu Xiu rushed to the prefectural yamen at top speed, only to see Prefect Xia Fenghua packing his luggage, ready to flee Youzhou with his entire family.
Fu Xiu hurried forward and blocked Prefect Xia.
"My lord, the disaster has erupted. We must lead the city's people out of here!"
Xia Fenghua shoved him aside angrily.
"Lead them? How? You know this is a heavenly disaster, don't you? If we can escape alive, that's already our ancestors burning incense for us!"
Fu Xiu frowned, but he noticed that Xia Fenghua's family—everyone except him—was already in the midst of transformation, so he said no more.
Xia Fenghua summoned the Earth Book to shield his family, then activated a Ten Thousand Souls Banner. He shook the banner, and ghostly divinities flew out from it, lifting his entire household into the air.
As Xia Fenghua was about to leave, he noticed Fu Xiu still standing there, looking lost and helpless.
Feeling a pang of pity, Xia Fenghua tossed him a Ten Thousand Souls Banner.
"Fu Xiu, save as many as you can—it's up to your own abilities now!"
He rose into the air with his family, shaking the banner as ghostly divinities bore them aloft on a canopy of somber clouds, vanishing into the sky.
Fu Xiu clutched the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, feeling a slight sense of relief. He immediately headed straight for the Talisman Masters Association, thinking to himself:
"The Ten Thousand Souls Banner can summon ten thousand ghosts at once, enough to save ten thousand people. With this treasure, and mobilizing the talisman masters from the association to activate the Heavenly Court Token and open the Minor Heavens, we might just save the people of Youzhou."
His heart burned with fervor.
Because of his duties in Youzhou, the headquarters in Jade Heaven City had sent him a Heavenly Court Token, allowing him free access to the Minor Heavens. The token could not be given to outsiders, and bringing others inside required applying at headquarters. But this was a dire crisis, so he decided to break the Red Mountain Hall Talisman Masters Association's rules and act on his own!
He burst into the Red Mountain Hall's branch hall and shouted:
"Hu Yifang, Li Yu—we've got work to do! Hu Yifang—"
Fu Xiu slowed his steps as talisman masters came into view one by one.
The Red Mountain Hall talisman masters wore smiles on their faces. Some had backs splitting open with half a body arching out; others were reduced to empty skins dangling there; still more clung to trees like cicadas.
Fu Xiu's heart sank. He didn't bother searching for others—maybe some were left, but it didn't matter now.
He could do it alone.
He shook the Ten Thousand Souls Banner. Though it appeared to be a demonic path treasure, it could paradoxically safeguard a county or provincial city's destiny and repel evil incursions.
At this moment, ghosts flew out from the banner under his control, transporting nearby people in the midst of transformation into the Red Mountain Hall.
He worked alone, soon filling the hall inside and out with the transforming masses.
"Open the Minor Heavens and send them inside—they'll avoid the disaster that way."
Fu Xiu muttered to himself.
He summoned the Heavenly Court Token and unsealed it.
The token emitted a faint glow, but no portal appeared at its other end.
Refusing to give up, Fu Xiu tried again using the secret method taught by headquarters, unsealing the Heavenly Court Token once more. Yet the gateway to the Minor Heavens still failed to manifest.
Fu Xiu attempted it over and over. Each time, the token bloomed with light, proving he hadn't erred, but the door to the Minor Heavens never opened!
He kept trying until his Dao heart shattered.
Suddenly, Fu Xiu dropped to his knees and burst into sobs, his body trembling uncontrollably.
Soon, the second transformation arrived.
Many crawled on the ground like cicada nymphs seeking high places to molt.
Fu Xiu wasn't among the crowd; he remained kneeling there.
After a moment, his body shuddered, and a soft crack sounded from the back of his neck.
He began to transform.
In the capital, Xijing, the Supervisor of the Si Tian Monitor wore a look of terror as he raced toward the Wenyuan Pavilion.
Soon after, the thirteen grand secretaries of the Inner Cabinet gathered, each with a grave expression.
Yan Xizhi sank deeply into his seat, his brows furrowed tight.
"How long can Youzhou hold out?"
He asked abruptly.
"Heavenly disasters vary in speed."
Xia Canghai replied.
"Slow ones might last two or three years, even a decade or eight. Fast ones could end in two or three days. Silver Province once suffered a heavenly disaster—an incendiary one that lasted a single day, burning a thousand li to ash. We still don't know Youzhou's disaster type."
He paused, then added:
"No one can escape alive."
Yan Xizhi exhaled heavily.
"We can't let the heavenly disaster live, or the harm will be greater. Mobilize the Hall of Martial Prowess."
The other twelve grand secretaries said nothing, merely nodding silently.
Only the might of the True King's Nine Halls could eradicate a heavenly disaster now.
"From here to Youzhou, with our cultivation, transporting the Hall of Martial Prowess would take two days of flight."
Xia Canghai said.
"Using the Realm Above Realms, we could arrive in moments."
Yan Xizhi hesitated, then shook his head.
"We cannot use the Realm Above Realms. It's our final weapon against Despair Slope and the True Gods from Beyond the Heavens. I'll go with you, Lord Xia, bearing the Hall of Martial Prowess to Youzhou and quell the disaster. The rest of you stay behind to manage state affairs. West Niu New Continent cannot fall into chaos."
He rose and strode out.
Xia Canghai stood and followed.
The Hall of Martial Prowess lifted from Xijing once more, radiating strands of dazzling, enchanting immortal light as it sped toward Youzhou.
Yan Xizhi and Xia Canghai stood at the hall's entrance, gazing into the distance, silent.
"The last disaster was a thousand years ago, right?"
Yan Xizhi said.
"Someone tomb-robbed, disturbed the tomb's master, and triggered one."
Xia Canghai nodded.
"That time, we used the Hall of Literary Glory. Later tallies showed millions dead—one province nearly wiped out. No disaster-level events since."
Yan Xizhi frowned.
"Now one appears again."
Xia Canghai sighed.
"A few days ago, nightfall came a quarter-hour early again."
Yan Xizhi's brows knit tighter.
"I sense this disaster ties to changes in the True Gods. This might not be the only one—second, third disasters could follow."
"Do you know how many disasters struck in the True King Era's final years?"
Xia Canghai replied:
"I've read some history of that era, but my Xia clan records are sparse."
Yan Xizhi said:
"Most records of the True King Era's end were lost, deliberately destroyed. In the Realm Above Realms, our ancestor let it slip."
He paused, then continued:
"He said thirty-seven disasters struck at the True King Era's end, killing untold millions. The True King had no choice but to forge the Nine Great Immortal Halls to suppress them."
Xia Canghai's body trembled faintly. After a moment's silence, he said:
"If this is an omen, then over thirty more disasters await."
Yan Xizhi sighed.
"Yet in the end, the True King Era fell to a cataclysm."
The two fell silent, speaking no more.
Suddenly, Xia Canghai asked:
"That woman by Chen Shi—what level is she now?"
"Disaster-grade."
Yan Xizhi said.
"Probably crippled in the fight. Not much threat. She's odd."
Xia Canghai asked:
"Odd how?"
"She's humanoid."
Yan Xizhi explained.
"Prehistoric disaster remnants in records are rarely humanoid—twisted shapes like netherworld ghost tribes. But she's human. That's likely why the True King didn't kill her, just suppressed her in the Qixia Temple."
The two lapsed into silence again.
Xia Canghai broke it once more.
"Once we enter the disaster domain and find it—what then?"
Yan Xizhi replied:
"Follow the Nine Halls' activation rite. Locate the disaster, raise the Hall of Martial Prowess, bombard it to oblivion."
"That's all.
Xia Canghai nodded slightly.
At that moment, a streak of light flashed across the sky, blindingly fast, leaving the Hall of Martial Prowess far behind.
The two grand secretaries stared in surprise, straining to see, but the light was too swift to identify.
"Headed to Youzhou, it seems."
Xia Canghai said.
Yan Xizhi nodded.
"To Youzhou."
Xia Canghai asked:
"Who? Who outpaces an immortal hall?"
Yan Xizhi hesitated but said nothing.
At the foot of Taihua Mountain, Azure Sheep trudged onward with Chen Shi and Blackie Pot on his back, his wounds grave. With the disaster erupting, Taihua's mountain gods could no longer hold out, involuntarily transforming, leaving Azure Sheep with ever-dwindling borrowed power.
He kept wanting to stop, to turn back, to veer toward where Elder Daoist Jinghong hung.
The disaster warped his cognition, convincing him Jinghong's location was an immortal holy site. A voice in his mind ceaselessly called him there—go, and ascend!
Yet Azure Sheep resisted the temptation and pressed on doggedly.
On the mountain path, many crawled along the ground like golden cicadas, single-mindedly heading toward Elder Daoist Jinghong.
Azure Sheep moved against the tide. Every step was agony untold; after endless trudging, he still hadn't escaped Taihua Mountain.
He halted abruptly, rigid on the path, frozen.
He was slowly molting.
He could no longer resist the disaster's influence.
Moments later, Azure Sheep shed a layer of skin, picked up the fallen Chen Shi and Blackie Pot, and resumed bucking the crowd.
The disaster affected him, but his will still drove his flesh onward, away from the disaster's heart.
He clung to one conviction: get Little Ten out.
He had to deliver this child from the disaster domain!
He was Chen Yindu's grandson. The brothers had died rescuing him; Azure Sheep had perished en route. This child, saved at the cost of lives, had to be gotten out!
"Uncle Sheep, kill me. Release the disaster."
Chen Shi said weakly.
Azure Sheep stared straight ahead, plodding on—whether he'd heard was unclear.
Chen Shi struggled fiercely, trying to roll off his shoulder. With his last strength, he gasped:
"Uncle Sheep, kill me. Use the disaster inside me against it—we might survive—"
Azure Sheep clamped him tight and kept going.
Chen Shi struggled on, glimpsing Azure Sheep's face by chance and freezing. Azure Sheep's eyes were deathly pale in the second molt, yet he marched mechanically. Clearly, all his will fought the disaster's pull; he couldn't hear.
Chen Shi tried rousing his qi and blood, his body sieving out blood from every pore.
He'd meant to muster cultivation for a suicidal spell, but seeing this, he relaxed.
"So death is this simple."
He thought silently, continuing to churn his blood.
Blood seeped from his body, his temperature rising, then cooling.
Chen Shi sensed death nearing. Soon, he'd be a cold corpse.
"Then that polite disaster will probably take over my body."
Chen Shi thought.
Two outcomes then: worse, two disasters erupting and dooming countless lives; or the two clash, the scholar disaster slaying Jinghong.
It was the most helpless choice, Chen Shi's final gambit.
Annihilation or survival!
His body chilled further; vision dimmed, the sky shrouded in hazy gray mist.
He twisted his head laboriously toward Taihua Mountain's heart, where massive tentacles dangled from the sky, piercing the void.
They suspended Jinghong aloft.
Lady Shiji still battered him, but Jinghong's body swelled ever larger. The disaster raged on.
Chen Shi's eyelids grew heavier; death loomed closer.
Then, a beam of light caught his eye.
The light streaked from afar, straight for the airborne Jinghong.
It halted, revealing a young man.
Chen Shi's mind fogged; he saw only the youth's blurry form, wreathed in strange radiance. A halo formed behind his head.
In the halo sat a thousand-zhang primordial spirit; beyond the light loomed a Divine Shrine.
The shrine pulsed oddly, resonating with heaven and earth's great Daos.
Chen Shi's head wound throbbed, as if splitting anew.
Chen Shi strained to widen his eyes, seeing the youth's blurry form fuse with the thousand-zhang primordial spirit, the void great realm, and that unfathomably profound Divine Embryo, exuding a world-shaking aura. Then, he thrust a finger.
Tears rolled from Chen Shi's eyes, yet he pried them open, desperate to see the man's face.
At that instant, the transforming Jinghong sensed mortal peril. Countless flesh tendrils withdrew from the void, whipping through the air toward the youth!
Faced with a dire foe, he halted the disaster mid-eruption. His aura surged as he sought to slay the youth first!
"Pfft!"
His occiput exploded in a spray of blood and brains. Jinghong, trailing countless fleshy tentacles, flew backward, crashing against a mountaintop with a boom.
The disaster's influence vanished abruptly.
All the crawling people froze, standing dazed, staring blankly around.
Azure Sheep, trudging head down, halted too. His pallid eyes regained a spark of awareness.
He came to, looking skyward.
The youth who slew Jinghong was disengaging the fusion; primordial spirit, great realm, and Divine Embryo were separating.
Azure Sheep stared at the mysterious Divine Embryo and froze, then roared in fury. Wounds burst open across his body.
Blood gushed!
Enraged beyond measure, eyes blazing, he snapped off a sheep horn.
"Don't go, Uncle Sheep!"
Chen Shi clutched his goatee with his dying strength.
"Don't go—you'll die—"
Chen Shi's words cut off as his final breath escaped. He perished.
"That's your innate Dao Embryo!"
"Little Ten, your Uncle Sheep will avenge you today and reclaim your innate Dao Embryo!"
Azure Sheep set down Chen Shi and Blackie Pot, gripped his horn blades, and dragged his mangled body toward the youth.
Just then, a hand seized his shoulder.
Azure Sheep turned, startled.
"Chen Shi" had risen at some point, standing behind him with a kindly smile.
"You stubborn goat—never listen. His Majesty told you not to go, but you insist. That temper's just like your parents'."