Day of Ascension

“Bull-bullsh.. Outrageous!” Meng Po flew into a rage, bellowing, “Watered down? My soup? Nonsense! My soup can even make immortals feel groggy and forget their past lives. Clearly, you’ve fed it to that person too many times, and they have developed a tolerance!”

Only after saying it did she realize her blunder. She hurriedly added, “Please forgive me, Emissary. But my soup has definitely not been watered down.”

Holding a bowl of Meng Po Soup and the green paper umbrella overhead, that person drifted away and gradually disappeared into the hazy mist.

***

Back in the world of the dilapidated temple, Xu Ying suddenly jumped off the bell and landed on the immortal mountain below. He darted through the forest, evading the search of the four stone dragons. Dazhong followed closely behind him, and they arrived at the closest altar.

Beside the altar stood a shattered stone statue. Though broken into several pieces, its heroic silhouette remained visible. In life, it must have appeared grand and divine, with an imposing presence.

Strangely, thick incense qi still coiled around the statue. It was even denser than Xue Lingfu’s.

Xu Ying was confused. “The god is dead, but their incense qi remains. How strange.”

After a god’s death, their incense qi would dissipate. That was common knowledge.

As Xu Ying approached for a closer look, bursts of clamor entered his ears. The lingering prayers within the incense qi still echoed faintly.

People prayed to gods for various things, such as favorable weather, good fortune for their descendants, lasting peace and stability, blessings to continue their lineage, and a bountiful harvest. These thoughts and desires resembled the Actualization of Qi Cultivators and Exorcists. When combined with incense qi, they became mystical power.

The mystical powers of gods depended on two factors: the length of time they had received offerings and the number of worshippers. The longer the worship endured and the more believers they had, the stronger their mystical power became.

Xu Ying examined the fractured surfaces of the stone statue. They were irregular, likely the result of prolonged erosion followed by collapse. Yet the damage on the statue’s head seemed different. It did not look like ordinary weathering.

The top of the statue’s head had split open, and the inside was hollow. Judging from the fracture marks, something seemed to have burst out from inside by force.

Xu Ying exclaimed in shock, “The god’s head is empty! But why?”

There was no reason for a statue’s head to be hollow. Gods did not require physical brains. They only needed their souls to enter the statue.

Xu Ying leaned halfway into the statue’s head and discovered some strange patterns on the inner walls. They resembled writing, yet they were unlike any characters he recognized. The interior was too dark to see clearly.

Xu Ying pulled back and said to Dazhong, “Master Zhong, make yourself smaller.”

Dazhong shrank to 2 chi tall.

Grabbing the bell by the loop, Xu Ying leaned halfway into the statue’s head once more and shook the bell firmly. Realizing his intent, many strange patterns appeared on Dazhong, emitting a faint glow.

With the light, Xu Ying could now see the characters and illustrations on the inner walls.

He realized that he didn’t recognize any of those characters. Dazhong, however, recognized them.

“It’s a soul-summoning incantation, written in the script Qi Cultivators used to inscribe talismans! Such incantations are used to summon wandering spirits, but the script here doesn’t belong to the orthodox path. It resembles an evil-path summoning technique used to refine artifacts or concoct elixirs with souls. Several characters are even written incorrectly. Clearly, the one who wrote the incantation wasn’t an ancient Qi Cultivator.”

Holding the bell, Xu Ying pulled back and said in confusion, “Ancient evil technique? If this is an immortal realm, why are there gods here? And why would there be soul-summoning incantations?”

Gods needed incense offerings from the people. There shouldn’t be anyone in the immortal realm to worship gods.

Moreover, what use would there be for summoning ghosts and souls in the immortal realm? Did such things even exist there?

Xu Ying looked up toward the grand temple surrounded by five immortal mountains in the sky. “Then, is the one preaching the Dao in the temple really an immortal?”

Suddenly, he went into a daze, then looked toward the other immortal mountains. “Look, Master Zhong. Don’t the positions of these five immortal mountains resemble the five viscera in the ethereal void?”

Dazhong laughed. “Ethereal void, and the five viscera’s positions? How is that possible? This should be the immortal realm. There was even an immortal preaching the Dao in the grand temple earlier...”

His voice gradually faded. Compared to the immortal realm and the immortal preaching the Dao, the ethereal void was clearly more believable. After all, even during his era, his master had never seen an immortal realm before, let alone an immortal.

He let out a chime. Using the echoes bouncing off the mountains, he mapped the surrounding terrain. Only then did he realize Xu Ying was correct. This place indeed resembled the ethereal void.

In the ethereal void, the five viscera hung inverted from the sky as mountains. The five immortal mountains here also had their bases facing the sky, while their peaks faced downward. They seemed to have originally been buried underground in that position. Even after rising and orbiting the temple, their orientation had not changed.

The five immortal mountains floated at different heights, following the arrangement of the five viscera. Their shapes, too, bore resemblance to the organs.

More importantly, if they truly were immortal mountains, there should not have been falling boulders or hair-like filaments growing within the cracks.

These five immortal mountains looked more like petrified organs, corrupted by some foreign force that caused them to rot and mutate.

When the bell chime faded, Xu Ying quickly retreated with Dazhong, slipping away unnoticed.

Not long after they left, two stone dragons arrived together, treading on clouds. Finding no trace of Xu Ying, they furrowed their brows.

One of the stone dragons sighed. “It would’ve been better if we had brought a few earth gods with us.”

Leading Dazhong, Xu Ying headed toward a second statue. Suddenly, a loud cry came from the sky. He quickly looked up, only to see the court gods clashing with the government officials under the prefect. They fought fiercely atop floating boulders as their divine abilities collided in a devastating clash.

The scream had come from an official who had received the Zhou clan’s teachings. Severely injured, he quickly activated his Mud-Pill Secret Trove, channeling the vigor within to heal his wounds. Unexpectedly, his vigor leaked out of control, and the boulder underneath him absorbed it.

The boulder was covered in hair-like filaments. The moment they touched the vigor from his Secret Trove, the strands writhed wildly and pierced into his body like thirsty roots absorbing water.

The official sensed his Secret Trove’s vigor rapidly draining away and was terrified. He let out a miserable scream. However, as he screamed, he quickly shriveled, soon turning into a skeleton.

In only a few breaths, the burly seven-chi-tall man had shrunk into a tiny skeleton barely two or three chi tall. The boulder even drained the vigor within his skeleton.

Following the official’s death, the boulder took on the color of flesh, oozing bloody water. Its countless hair danced in the air like tentacles, hissing. They grabbed the officials and gods who couldn’t dodge in time and pierced them.

The gods weren’t like the officials. After all, gods born from worship were not flesh and blood. Only demons that became gods possessed physical bodies. Meanwhile, the guards were all human, either Zhou clan’s disciples or descendants who had unlocked their Mud-Pill Secret Trove. Their vigor was astonishing.

That vigor drained away at a terrifying speed. In mere moments, several of them were sucked dry.

Those engaged in battle couldn’t help but stand frozen in shock.

As the boulder devoured their vigor, its hair regained its elasticity. They were actually blood vessels of varying thicknesses and lengths extending from its flesh.

They lashed out in all directions, seized nearby boulders, and latched onto them, transferring part of the absorbed vigor.

Immediately, that boulder’s hair also came to life. They flailed around, captured a demon god in the midst of battle, and “devoured” him.

Xu Ying looked up and saw chaos in the sky. Numerous boulders drifted through the air, their hair dancing wildly as they went around, capturing people. Anyone caught was quickly drained of vigor.

Some tried desperately to leap toward an immortal mountain. Alas, their strength failed them midway, and they plummeted from the sky with miserable screams.

Xu Ying’s heart skipped a beat at the sight. This immortal realm is bad news!

Dazhong said worriedly, “Many people have already entered the grand temple to listen to the immortal preaching the Dao. It seems Yuanqi is also there.”

Furrowing his brow slightly, Xu Ying arrived at the second altar. This one was in better condition. It stood at the intersection of two mountain paths, with a platform extending neatly from the cliff below.

A statue stood next to the altar. Its four arms rested on the altar’s edges, and its head was lowered toward the center as though something there had captured its attention.

This statue wore a fiery crown, bore a terrifying appearance, had a pair of wings on its back, and an azure dragon coiled around it.

Its stone body had already turned golden and radiated brilliant light, as though forged entirely from gold.

This god has attained a golden body that’s even stronger than the city god’s!

Xu Ying was shaken inside. He had witnessed City God Xue clashing with Zhou Yihang. When Xue Lingfu channeled his mystical power, his shrine floated into the air, and the chants of the masses echoed around him, creating an overwhelming pressure.

Yet the pressure emanating from this statue was even greater.

His cultivation was definitely more profound than Xue Lingfu’s, and his golden body superior.

Even from a distance, Xu Ying could hear the people’s chants coming from the statue. The sound drifted between near and far, strange and indistinct.

As Xu Ying approached to take a closer look, a dragon’s cry came from the sky. Treading on green clouds, a stone dragon about four to five zhang long sped forth, roaring as it landed between Xu Ying and the altar.

As the stone dragon landed, incense qi swirled around him. He transformed into a human with a dragon’s head, standing over a zhang tall, emitting a faint golden glow.

Soft chanting echoed from within him. It was the people’s thoughts, though far weaker than the statue’s.

“Xu Ying, I am Shi Longzi of the Confucian Temple. By the order of the City God, I shall bring you back with me!”

Shi Longzi condensed his incense qi into a flying sword, hovering before him. He said coldly, “You’d best not resist, as the City God has already given permission for me to kill you and bring back only your soul.”

Just as Xu Ying was about to speak, two more dragon cries rang out. Two stone dragons descended from the sky and transformed into tall, slender dragon-headed men. One landed behind Xu Ying to the left, while the other stood to the right.

They condensed qi into swords without a word, forming a three-way formation with Shi Longzi.

Xu Ying looked up. Another stone dragon circled overhead atop green clouds, sealing off his escape route.

He recognized these four stone dragons. They were the dragons carved around the stone pillars of Ningyuan Confucian Temple.

It had several large stone pillars, each several zhang tall, with stone dragons coiled around them. Scholars would offer incense there in hopes of getting a good score on their exams. Over time, the stone dragons absorbed abundant incense qi, and faint sounds of reading constantly emanated from them.

Xu Ying had also gone to the Confucian Temple before, but he really wasn’t the studious type and hadn’t offered any incense.

“I killed both Zhou Yihang and Zhou Yang with sword techniques.”

Xu Ying condensed his qi into a sword. Sword qi swirled around him as he said faintly, “You four have committed no evil and have a good reputation among the scholars. Don’t force my hand.”

A chill ran down the stone dragons’ spines. Zhou Yang’s cultivation and strength were comparable to theirs. Since he could kill Zhou Yang, he could naturally kill them.

More importantly, Xu Ying had even killed Zhou Yihang, which placed him on a level with a City God.

City God Xue had a golden body and had enjoyed five hundred years of offerings. His mystical powers were extraordinary.

Even if the four dragons joined forces, victory was far from guaranteed.

In truth, Xu Ying was uneasy. His cultivation had yet to recover. Earlier, when Dazhong carried him through the air, he needed to siphon Xu Ying’s primordial qi to maintain flight. Thus, his reserve had diminished rather than recovered.

If the four dragons attacked, he would likely be in trouble.

Suddenly, Shi Longzi knelt on the ground with a plop. Wearing a strange, faint smile, he kowtowed toward the four-armed statue, muttering strange prayers.

The expressions of the two stone dragons behind Xu Ying immediately changed. They shouted in unison, “Xu Ying, what have you done to our fourth brother?”

Stealthily gathering a breath of primordial qi, Xu Ying shook his head and said, “I didn’t do anything!”

One of them moved cautiously to Shi Longzi’s side while keeping an eye on Xu Ying. He called out, “Fourth Brother, what’s wrong with you? Who sneak attacked you---”

Just as he was about to help Shi Longzi up to his feet, he suddenly revealed a strange smile himself. Then, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed profusely to the four-armed statue, chanting the same prayers as Shi Longzi.

Dazhong warned in a whisper, “Ah Ying, something’s wrong with this statue and altar!”

Xu Ying shuddered with fear.

Gods relied on the people’s faith and incense qi to gain divine abilities. Shi Longzi had enjoyed four hundred years of flourishing worship, and his incense qi was robust. How could he suddenly worship another god and become a believer in this statue with no soul inhabiting it?

As the two stone dragons knelt there, the chants picked up speed. The smiles on their faces grew increasingly twisted. Then two loud bangs erupted simultaneously.

Shi Longzi and the other stone dragon’s heads exploded from within.

Xu Ying frantically channeled his divine sense, polishing it into a mirror to open his Third Eye. The two stone dragons’ divine souls flew out of what remained of their heads and drifted toward the altar, as though embraced by the four-armed statue.

The altar was so tall that it blocked his physical line of sight. However, through the vision of the Third Eye, everything about the altar became clear to him.

At the center of the altar was a furnace-like structure, with a pearl floating in the middle, spinning vertically.

The two divine souls reached the center of the altar and suddenly shattered. Their souls scattered and their spirits disintegrated, leaving only a speck of Eternal True Spirit that flew into the pearl.

Dazhong cried out, “Ah Ying, even if an immortal exists within this ethereal void, he’s an evil Sword Immortal! He’s using the Eternal True Spirit in people’s souls to refine the Myriad-Spirit Pill to repair his Primordial Spirit!