Day of Ascension

At night, Xu Ying and Yuanqi hid in an abandoned temple in the mountains. Xu Ying started a fire, and Yuanqi came close to keep himself warm.

Snake demons couldn’t stand the cold. Their vital energy flowed poorly in low temperatures, making them stiffen and slip into hibernation. That was why he liked to be close to the fire at night.

Xu Ying gave him the remaining half of the duck he had brought, while he made do with the dry rations.

Qin Yan Cave wasn’t really far. Given their physical capabilities, they could cover the distance in a day at most. However, gods and demons blocked their path, not to mention the Exorcists pursuing them, which severely delayed them.

Xu Ying looked around while there was still some light left in the sky. The temple wasn’t large. It had a main hall at the front, though it was impossible to tell which god had once resided there. It had neither a statue nor an altar.

The rear courtyard had a pavilion, and a rusted bronze bell, slightly taller than an adult, hung there.

Below the bell was a deep, six-sided well. Looking down, one could only see pitch-black depths. The bottom was nowhere in sight. Black iron chains, each as thick as a person’s calf, rested on the well walls, their other ends disappearing in the dark depths.

Xu Ying tugged at one of the chains. It was extremely heavy, and the sound echoed up from the well.

The god worshipped here had most likely run away, he thought.

He returned to the fire, slowly regulating his breath and circulating his vital energy to execute the Elephant-Bull Demon Fist. He said, “Yuanqi, I’ll teach you the subtleties of the Elephant-Bull Demon Fist. Watch my movements and compare them with the scripture.”

Yuanqi immediately raised his head. He observed Xu Ying’s demonstration of martial technique, using the light from the fire to compare it to the scripture.

Wherever Xu Ying channeled his vital energy, light flared within him, as though a great sun burned inside him. It illuminated his internal organs and flesh, making it seem as if sunlight flowed beneath his skin.

Yuanqi was puzzled. “Wait, aren’t you doing it wrong?”

Xu Ying was channeling his vital energy to form a great sun, yet nothing like this was recorded in the scriptures.

The Niu family had been snake demons for three generations, and they all practiced the Great-Sun Guiding Method and the Elephant-Bull Demon Fist. Yet, what they practiced and what Xu Ying was doing seemed entirely different!

As Xu Ying demonstrated the Elephant-Bull Demon Fist, the great sun inside him grew increasingly stronger, causing white mist to rise from his head!

The mist had a faint odor. The great sun was tempering his physique and expelling the impurities within.

Xu Ying had purged much of his impurities long ago through the Grand-Unity Guiding Method, which utilized the Thunderous-Rumble Tempering. However, the Great-Sun Tempering could reach some spots that the Thunderous-Rumble Tempering couldn’t, showcasing the Great-Sun Guiding Method’s unique merits.

Yuanqi couldn’t find anything in the scripture about Great-Sun Tempering, though!

“You won’t find it there. I comprehended the Great-Sun Tempering during my battle with Ding Quan. This body-tempering method is likely a missing part of the Great-Sun Guiding Method and Elephant-Bull Demon Fist. It’s not difficult to comprehend,” said Xu Ying.

Yuanqi felt rather indignant. “You comprehended a missing part of the fist art in the heat of battle? Are you bluffing me? Then why haven’t the three generations of my family comprehended it? Are all three generations of the Niu family stupid?”

Xu Ying didn’t say a word. He was a kind youth.

He continued channeling his vital energy. When its flow reached its peak, his skin seemed to crack inch by inch. His progress in the fist art had exceeded the limits of what he could withstand!

In the practice of martial arts, whether one could physically bear the art’s power was extremely important. Forcibly practicing a martial art without a strong enough physique would put immense strain on the body. The more one practiced, the more their body broke down. They would sustain severe internal injuries that left hidden damages behind!

Xu Ying was about to stop when multi-colored light shone from his five viscera[1] through the Great-Sun Tempering!

Before he knew it, his five viscera had grown much stronger, and his vital energy had become much more vigorous!

His pores seemed to open like floodgates. Vital energy was gushing out!

His chest also felt tight, and his heart pounded like a drum, generating new vital energy endlessly and keeping him in peak condition.

Growing excited, Xu Ying continued channeling his vital energy. It overflowed and condensed behind him, forming a qi and a blood fiend. They fused together, transforming into a godly avatar with an elephant head and a human body!

Seeing the fiendish qi behind Xu Ying put Yuanqi in a haze.

Xu Ying had only obtained the Elephant-Bull Demon Fist that morning. He had already manifested an elephant god during the day when he killed the green-robed god, signifying that he had reached the fifth level.

Now, while teaching him the fist art, Xu Ying had gone on to master the sixth level!

“Looks like our Niu family really isn’t that bright.”

Yuanqi groaned. Neither Grandfather, Father, nor I are smart, but we’re not complete idiots. Since Ah Ying is so smart, I won’t have to think if I learn from him. It’s useless even if I try using my head anyway.

Somewhat embarrassed, Xu Ying stopped practicing.

He was here to teach the fist art, but he had achieved a breakthrough out of nowhere and forgot to tell Yuanqi the key points.

The fifth level of the Elephant-Bull Demon Fist only manifested a vague elephant god avatar of vital energy, granting a minimal boost to his power.

The vital-energy fiend of the sixth level had form but lacked physical substance. Yet, it contained immense power, doubling Xu Ying’s strength. It was far stronger than the elephant god avatar!

The Grand-Unity Guiding Method was a top-tier cultivation technique. Coupled with Xu Ying’s pure mind, free of distracting thoughts while cultivating, he made rapid progress.

After seven years of cultivation, Xu Ying’s vital energy had long since reached a level comparable to a god or a demon!

This was a case of deep accumulation leading to a sudden eruption. Xu Ying had seven years of accumulation and an extraordinary comprehension, allowing him to progress rapidly while practicing the Elephant-Bull Demon Fist.

However, that potential was now exhausted, and it would be difficult for him to make significant progress in the near future.

“Brother Niu, the key to the Elephant-Bull Demon Fist lies in your vital energy and body tempering. You can only reach the next level with sufficiently robust vital energy and a strong physique. The Great-Sun Tempering is perfect for you.”

Xu Ying explained the Great-Sun Tempering to Yuanqi in detail. It was indeed better suited to snake demons.

Simply put, snake demons were meat sticks with consciousness. Completing a cycle with the Great-Sun Tempering was very simple, as it didn’t require circulating vital energy to the limbs or other branching areas.

Take Xu Ying, for example. When he cultivated, aside from tempering his five viscera and six bowels, he also had to temper his limbs and head. It was very tedious. Even more troublesome was that he had to temper his fifth limb as well, wasting both time and vital energy.

Although he didn’t know what use there was in tempering his fifth limb, it would hurt a lot if he got kicked there without strengthening it first.

Yuanqi had no such troubles, however. In the time it took a human to complete a cycle, he could complete three.

He practiced the Elephant-Bull Demon Fist by the fire while using the Great-Sun Tempering to improve his physique. The two methods complemented each other and ran in parallel.

Being a snake demon, practicing fist arts wasn’t easy for Yuanqi. He had to distort himself to get into the fist art’s attacking posture. His perseverance in practicing a martial art unsuited for himself had earned him Xu Ying’s admiration.

Xu Ying sat by the fire and took out the cloth bundle he swiped away from Ding Quan.

He had used his snake-catching technique to dislocate Ding Quan’s joints and tendons and then swiped away the cloth bundle in his bosom in the process. Finally, he had the time to check its contents.

Making use of the firelight, he looked at the bundle; it wasn’t large. He spread it open and found a few taels of broken silver and a hand-written copy of a book.

Xu Ying put the broken silver away, delighted inside. This is enough to pay for several full meals!

That was the biggest sum of money he had seen in his life!

Xu Ying then flipped the book open and skimmed through it by the firelight. He gasped when he realized that it was a copy of a cultivation technique that was unlike any he had seen before.

He had studied about fifty to sixty cultivation techniques thus far, all of them demonic. They involved harvesting sunlight essence, transforming it into qi, and strengthening their vital energy. It was about refining the sun’s surplus to make up for one’s own deficiencies.

However, the cultivation technique recorded in Ding Quan’s book was about drawing upon the strength within one’s own body, taking nothing from the outside world!

Xu Ying’s heart pounded. He studied the technique closely, but he still couldn’t make sense of it.

Could this be a technique to cultivate one’s Secret Trove?

It stated that there was a Secret Trove in a person’s brain, known as the Mud Pill. Chaos surrounded it, but it contained immense energy. Through mastering the Mud Pill and harvesting its power, one could refine Radiant Vestige, attaining an undying body with powers beyond comprehension!

However, the book said nothing about how to locate the Mud-Pill Secret Trove or how to unlock it. Even if he possessed the cultivation technique, he had no way to practice it!

It only recorded the method for harvesting the energy within the Mud Pill and refining Radiant Vestige!

Judging from the information from the book, to become an Exorcist, one needed to have Dragon Tracking performed on them to locate their Secret Trove. They also needed a Great Exorcist’s help to unlock them.

Even if they managed to unlock their Secret Trove, they still weren’t an Exorcist! They still needed a unique cultivation technique to harvest the power of their Secret Trove and refine Radiant Vestige.

Radiant Vestige, as it was called, wasn’t a Secret Trove, but the harness of its energy. It was an acquired power.

“The judicial assistant, Ding Quan, likely cultivated to develop his Mud-Pill Secret Trove. His cultivation with the Mud-Pill Radiant Vestige Cultivation Method was only a distorted imitation, yet he was already terrifyingly strong. The Zhou clan’s real refinement method of Radiant Vestige must be even more powerful!”

Xu Ying put Ding Quan’s copy of the scripture away. But my Elephant-Bull Demon Fist has broken through to the sixth level. I don’t have to fear Ding Quan now. If we fight again, I will undoubtedly win even without Yuanqi’s help!

He was confident in his victory!

Demonic cultivation techniques, with the support of martial arts, were no inferior to the exorcism techniques of Exorcists!

Suddenly, Xu Ying heard waves crashing against the shore, and the sound only grew louder. He quickly looked toward the source and saw that Yuanqi had reached a critical juncture in his practice. He was radiating!

Yuanqi opened his mouth and let out a long, deafening elephant’s trumpet!

Baroo!

Vital energy surged through him. It was a sign that he had reached the fourth level, gaining the strength of a divine elephant!

Moreover, vital energy overflowed out of him, condensing into the avatar of an elephant-headed, human-bodied divine being behind him!

This was the sign of reaching the fifth level in the Elephant-Bull Demon Fist!

“I-I reached the fifth level in the Elephant-Bull Demon Fist! I attained a divine elephant’s strength and manifested the avatar of an elephant god!”

Yuanqi was both shocked and overjoyed. He slithered out of the abandoned temple, picked up a huge boulder weighing about two to three thousand jin with his tail, and sent it flying into the air with a flick!

He laughed out loud, his long tongue shaking agilely like waves. However, amid his laughter, he started to cry.

For three generations, spanning two to three hundred years, no one in his family managed to reach the fourth level in the Elephant-Bull Demon Fist. Yet today, with Xu Ying offering him guidance, he reached the fifth level in mere moments!

He had never imagined that cultivation could be so easy and so simple!

He was thrilled. “I’ll reach the sixth level before long, perhaps even transform into a human! Then, I’ll improve by leaps and bounds in the fist art.”

Having cultivated bitterly for a hundred twenty years, his vital energy had already reached the required level. Once he learned the proper method for the Elephant-Bull Demon Fist, he improved rapidly.

Xu Ying raised his hand, extinguished the fire, and whispered, “When you broke through earlier, the flow of your vital energy produced an elephant’s trumpet. It will surely alert the gods nearby and the constables pursuing us. We must leave. Now!”

Yuanqi’s heart sank. He quickly followed Xu Ying and whispered, “It’s extremely dangerous to travel at night. Lingling County’s nights aren’t safe!”

Xu Ying didn’t want to travel at night either. The moonlight wasn’t enough to discern the directions in the deep mountains with dense forests. They could get lost, fall into a deep abyss if they were careless, or encounter ferocious beasts.

However, they had no choice but to get moving. Escaping would be impossible if their pursuers managed to trap them inside the temple.

The man and the snake carefully made their way down the mountain in the darkness. The sound of crashing waves rose from the distance, growing increasingly louder. In the blink of an eye, it grew so loud that it seemed like heaven and earth were crumbling.

The ground beneath Xu Ying’s feet trembled violently. He hurriedly leaped onto a tall tree nearby.

With a few leaps, he was on the treetop. Looking toward the source of the sound, he was rendered speechless.

He saw a snow-bright thread rising between the vast mountains under the moonlight, climbing higher and higher. It was a great river wider and more turbulent than the Xiao River and the Xiang River. It appeared out of thin air, its waters surging and drowning everything in its path!

Xu Ying stared wide-eyed. “Impossible. There’s no such river near Lingling County!”

Yuanqi also slithered up a tree and looked into the distance. He saw ghostly flames darting chaotically within the river, reminding him of a similar incident recorded in an ancient text he’d read.

In a much sharper tone, he exclaimed, “It’s the Hell River[2] of the underworld! And it’s changing its course! Get up the mountain, fast!”

He quickly descended the tree. Xu Ying also leaped off, and the two rushed back up the mountain toward the abandoned temple.

The Hell River surged violently, crashing through the mountains. Wherever it passed, the flowers and grass withered, trees fell, and the animals, whether birds or beasts, lost their lives!

As strange as it sounded, even though the river was over a hundred zhang above the ground, invisible banks seemed to contain it. The water didn’t flood out in all directions, but surged along an invisible channel.

However, the rocky mountain the two were on was right at the center of that river channel!

1. The five viscera refers to the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys. ☜

2. A mythical river in Chinese folk religion and Taoism, representing the river that souls must cross on their journey to the underworld after death. ☜