Day of Ascension

Xu Ying’s eyes lit up. If he found the source, he would have an endless supply of that mysterious energy.

Even without unlocking his Mud-Pill Secret Trove, he could absorb the vigor within it, refine Radiant Vestige, and become an Exorcist.

He immediately returned to a meditative state, practicing Inner Vision and entering the ethereal void.

This time, he did not follow the flow of mysterious energy. He moved against it, pushing his divine sense outward toward the real world.

His consciousness went upstream and entered the water current.

Mysterious energies formed cross-currents in the water current, making the flow treacherous. A moment of carelessness would sweep his divine sense away, leaving him lost.

The bell’s voice rang in his mind. “Young man, I’ll anchor your divine sense with bell chimes!”

A bell chime entered Xu Ying’s ears, deep and lingering. His divine sense became incomparably clear and stable, undisturbed by outside interference.

He seized the chance. He wove through the cross-currents one after another, drifting away from the cave, following the wisp of mysterious energy toward its source.

He seemed to pass through ancient spaces into an unfathomable world. The chimes also grew increasingly distant, as if separated by an immeasurable distance.

Xu Ying couldn’t help but feel terrified. If his divine sense could not return, he would become an idiot.

My divine sense followed the mysterious energy across space-time, but it still hasn’t found the energy’s origin. This must be a real spiritual sanctuary! Master Zhong must be wrong!

As he prepared to turn back, the bell chimes grew clearer. He froze in place involuntarily.

Clearer chimes meant he was nearing his physical body!

But how was that possible?

His divine sense had followed the mysterious energy, traversing numerous planes and space-time and covering billions of li. So, how could he be getting closer to himself instead?

Xu Ying’s divine sense chased that wisp of mysterious energy into the Mud-Pill Palace and arrived before the stone wall at the back of the palace. The source lay within it.

He withdrew his divine sense, leaped out of the water, and quickly put on his tattered clothes.

He went to check on Yuanqi; he was still in the midst of molting. So, Xu Ying went to the stone wall behind the palace alone.

Moss covered it, just like the stone walls at other places. Xu Ying looked around. The mysterious energy seeped into this stone wall and disappeared.

He knocked on the stone wall lightly. It was incredibly thick and solid.

After thinking for a moment, Xu Ying said, “Master Zhong, come out for a bit, please.”

The great bell flew out of his mind and asked, “What’s the matter?”

Xu Ying grabbed the handle and swung it into the wall.

The great bell cried out in shock, “What are you doing? Put me down, clang! You damned brat, clang! Screw you! I will kill you, clang! I’d rather die than be humiliated, clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!”

The bell shook violently, but the stone wall didn’t budge in the slightest.

Xu Ying put the bell down. He stepped forward and touched the stone wall, pondering, There’s indeed something off here. The great bell shattered even the city god’s golden body. Ordinary stone can’t be tougher than Him.

The bell hurriedly backed off from Xu Ying, wary. This brat has violent tendencies!

Xu Ying noticed a faint mark on the wall: a blurred left palm imprint. Moved by a sudden thought, he raised his left hand and placed it over the mark.

The stone wall trembled slightly. Then it cracked and parted to either side, revealing a narrow passage. Xu Ying stepped in, and stone blocks sank into the mountain, and the wall receded. The great bell quickly followed.

As Xu Ying advanced, the stone wall retreated continuously. After several dozen zhang, he reached a chamber deep within the mountain.

The stone chamber wasn’t large, only four zhang long and wide. It had a very simple layout: a prayer mat and a jade bed. On the mat was a skeleton clad in green clothes, thin as a cicada’s wings. The bones were visible through the clothing.

The skeleton sat there with its head bowed, its palms seemingly holding up something, though there was nothing in its hands.

Rows of bookshelves surrounded the skeleton, but there were no books on them. Ash lay piled in one corner.

The mysterious energy in Qin Yan Cave came from the skull of this skeleton!

Xu Ying’s heart trembled slightly. Just as he was about to approach, he noticed a pair of silk-wrapped gloves and a snake pole, and he froze on the spot. That seems like the gear of a snake catcher! A snake catcher came here before us!

Snake catchers used silk-wrapped gloves to grab snakes by the back of their heads, and snake poles to startle venomous snakes hiding in bushes. Xu Ying knew these tools well, though he rarely used them after advancing in cultivation.

Yuanqi’s family has lived here for three generations, over three hundred years. How did a snake catcher reach this place?

Thinking of this, he suddenly recalled the book he had read last night. It was the travel journal of Yuanqi’s grandfather. Xu Ying fell asleep while reading it because it was too boring.

Xu Ying murmured, “I said that a snake catcher was hunting down Yuanqi’s grandfather, so he fled to Qin Yan Cave. He found a hidden cave and discovered the Mud-Pill Palace Grotto Heaven.”

“Could it be that he failed to shake off that snake catcher? The snake catcher followed him and found this as well. This person must’ve been extremely clever. He even noticed the mysterious energy in the Cave and found his way here! He must’ve also taken the books on the shelves.”

He looked over at the pile of ashes in the corner. That snake catcher couldn’t bring too many books with him. So, he had simply burned those he couldn’t bring with him!

Xu Ying sighed regretfully. “The master of this stone chamber was most likely the master of the Mud-Pill Palace the coffin girl was seeking. He perished here and left his legacy behind.

“That snake catcher stumbled upon this place and received this senior’s legacy. Fearing others might find it, he burned the senior’s life’s work to ashes.”

Sensing carefully, the great bell circled the skeleton once. He said, “The mysterious energy indeed came from this skull. Before death, he must have used his remaining energy to help others with Dragon Tracking to locate their Mud-Pill Secret Trove.”

Xu Yang went over to the ashes in the corner and brushed them. His eyes lit up when he pulled out a mostly burned book.

That snake catcher had burned too many books. This one lay at the bottom, beyond the reach of the flames. Several pages remained intact, the text still faintly legible.

Studying it, Xu Ying’s heart beat wildly. He cried out loud, “It describes the method to unlock the Mud-Pill Secret Trove!”

The bell flew over and said, “The method to unlock the Mud-Pill Secret Trove? Surely not? The demoness I had suppressed was a Qi Cultivator, and she knows the master of this place. So, he has to be a Qi Cultivator! Exorcism arts and techniques didn’t exist during their era. How could it have the method to unlock Secret Troves?”

Xu Ying was also puzzled. He said, “Could this skeleton belong to someone else? Wait, who is that snake catcher?”

He stared blankly before realization struck. “The Zhou clan of Lingling County rose to prominence about three hundred years ago. Later, they moved to the capital. Their closely guarded secret is precisely the Mud-Pill Secret Trove. Was the snake catcher who followed Yuanqi’s grandfather to Qin Yan Cave the Zhou clan’s ancestor?”

The great bell was taken aback. “Three hundred years ago, a man and a snake entered Qin Yan Cave. Three hundred years later, again, a man and a snake entered. Both snake demons discovered only the white jade palace outside, not the stone chamber within the stone wall. Meanwhile, both snake catchers discovered the stone chamber. This is too much of a coincidence.”

Xu Ying looked around. When the Zhou clan’s ancestor first entered, the chamber must have held enough books to fill a library, likely containing the exorcism arts and techniques practiced by its master.

The Zhou clan’s ancestor took the most important exorcism arts and techniques, and burned those he couldn’t bring with him. With what he kept, he elevated the Zhou clan from a lineage of snake catchers into a powerful noble house.

Xu Ying thought, The Elephant-Bull Demon Fist, which Yuanqi’s grandfather obtained, was most likely a low-level demonic art that the Zhou clan’s ancestor threw his way out of pity.

He spread out the remnant pages and studied them carefully. The text was incomplete, forcing him to fill the gaps himself.

The text stated that among the six secrets of the human body, the Mud Pill is the foremost. The egg of primordial chaos was the Mud-Pill Secret Trove itself, and it contained immense power. One needed to chisel open the primordial chaos first.

One must chisel out a grotto heaven within the primordial chaos to draw out the vigor within the Mud Pill. Once their cultivation reached a certain level, they could chisel out another grotto heaven, allowing deeper exploration and greater extraction of its power.

After one had repeated this until nine layers of grotto heavens were open, they could draw out the full power of the Mud-Pill Secret Trove.

The method to chisel open the Mud-Pill Secret Trove was extremely simple: use all of your strength to strike the egg of primordial chaos!

Xu Ying put the remaining pages away. Indeed, such a matter requires the help of a Great Exorcist. The Mud-Pill Secret Trove is within the brain. One mistake could blow a hole through the head and scatter brain matter. Even with a Great Exorcist’s help, it would be very dangerous.

The great bell said, “I can help you. I’m very strong. Even though that demoness severely injured me, I can still unleash a single strike beyond what any Great Exorcist could match. I won’t do this for free, though. If I help you unlock your Mud-Pill Secret Trove, you must provide me with more vital energy to aid my recovery.”

Xu Ying glanced at the bell, hesitating.

The great bell was undoubtedly extremely powerful. He could fight off Zhou Yihang and City God Xue despite his severe injuries. Even after the bell fell into slumber, Xu Ying had used him to nearly kill both of them.

What Xu Ying was worried about was that the great bell was too ferocious. A full-powered strike inside his brain might not just leave a hole—it could blow his head apart entirely.

Xu Ying thought, Nothing would remain from the neck up, probably.

Noticing his hesitation, the bell asked doubtfully, “Do you not trust me? Xu guy, I’ve experienced no fewer than a thousand battles, big or small, in my life. How dare you doubt me! Don’t you know Master Zhong of the Little Rocky Mountain is reliable and widely praised?”

Xu Ying stammered, “Y-yes, yes, but how did the coffin girl escape?”

The great bell flew into a rage. He bellowed, “Clearly, someone plotted against me and took advantage of the chaos to rescue the demoness! It’s not the first time those bastards have plotted against me.

“They even went as far as committing mass slaughter to make the Hell River change course and crash into Little Rocky Mountain! Otherwise, how could I have let her escape?”

Xu Ying remained hesitant. The bell hurriedly added, “Let’s go outside the cave. I’ll show you my aim!”

He walked out of the stone chamber and arrived at the Mud-Pill Palace. Yuanqi had yet to awaken.

He exited Qin Yan Cave and climbed Mount Wu Wang. A cool breeze blew. The bell floated into the air and said, “You see that tall tree on the mountain?”

Xu Ying looked into the distance. He saw a towering tree atop the cliff of Mount Wu Wang. It stood about thirty zhang tall, looking majestic.

The bell said, “I’m going to unleash my power and destroy it with my chime. Watch closely!”

Xu Ying craned his neck in anticipation. The bell let out a clang, sending shockwaves rippling through space. In the next moment, more than a dozen men and women were blasted out of the forest, flailing helplessly.

His heart skipped a beat. Officials of Lingling County! They actually tracked us down here!

Moments later, the officials slammed into the ground, scattering birds and beasts in panic.

After a brief pause, the great bell said, “I-I noticed some people hiding in the forest and spying on us. So, I redirected my aim and flushed them out. Ah Ying, I’ve exhausted the power I had accumulated over the past two days. The rest is up to you!”

The great bell slipped into the back of Xu Ying’s head like a wisp of smoke and vanished without a trace.

Hurried, heavy footsteps echoed from the forest. The dozen or so government officials emerged, bruised all over from the fall.

Xu Ying stood in place, unmoving. He said calmly, “My cultivation has improved significantly, and I have become a Demon King. You’re no match for me.”

The dozen or so officials were all eager to have a go at him, but a voice rang out, laughing. “Demon King Xu is an anomaly among humans. After becoming a Demon King, it only makes sense that ordinary Exorcist officials are no match for you. So, this time, they don’t have to make a move. I shall subdue you personally.”

Looking toward the source, Xu Ying saw Magistrate Zhou. He emerged from the forest, dressed in a black silk robe, looking extraordinarily elegant.

Zhou Yang commanded in a low voice, “Sword formation!”

Only then did Xu Ying notice that these officials were each carrying sword baskets[1]”>https://i.redd.it/3ohhtlahb0yg1.jpeg[/ref] on their backs, containing about a dozen precious swords. The officials stopped about thirty paces away, drew their swords, and drove them into the ground before retreating.

Zhou Yang approached. He took out a seed from his sleeve and planted it in the center of the sword formation.

The seed took root and sprouted rapidly, growing into a towering tree. Its crown shrouded over several mu[2]. Its branches hung down, thin and long, each flexible yet tough.

Like a demon, the towering tree’s branches lashed out and pulled every precious sword out of the ground with a sharp, metallic ring.

“This tree is called Phoenix Bloom. Legend has it that it’s a demonic tree that has absorbed phoenix blood. Under my control, it will wield a hundred swords and unleash my clan’s supreme technique—the Zhou Heavenly Demon-Slaying Sword.”

Zhou Yang smiled faintly. “Xu Ying, as the magistrate of Lingling County, I care for my people as my own children. I’ll give you a way out. Surrender and pledge loyalty. I will clear your name and make you an official.”

Xu Ying retorted, “Become what? A corrupt official like you people?”

He walked to a nearby willow, snapped off a branch as thick as his pinky, and turned back with a faint smile. “Corrupt dog, let me see how the supreme technique your ancestor took from Qin Yan Cave compares to what I’ve comprehended myself!”

1. To give you an idea of how it looks: ☜

2. A unit of area commonly used in China, equal to 1/15 of a hectare. ☜