Day of Ascension

Bei Chenzi heard that voice and felt his scalp go numb, and he trembled. Pretending to stay calm, he shouted, “Xu Ying! This is a matter of life and death! If you can’t stop him, we’re all going to die!”

He had never seen Xu Ying after the seal was loosened, nor did he know what terrifying consequences its removal would bring. He had merely inherited this duty from his predecessor.

Before him, a group of Qi Cultivators had maintained Xu Ying’s seal. Age had eventually caught up with them, making it impossible to continue, and mistakes inevitably crept in as they arranged Xu Ying’s fate. After they passed on, the responsibility fell to Bei Chenzi and the other two.

He had heard some rumors about Xu Ying and knew that maintaining the seal was extremely important. Yet with death looming over them, he had no choice but to loosen it.

He forced himself to stay calm. At least I didn’t remove it completely. The sealing runes and the incense are still present. Once he kills the heavenly demon, I’ll rekindle the incense and force him back under control!

“How dare you?”

Xu Ying laughed heartily. Behind him, the realm of ethereal void suddenly appeared.

The Five Sacred Immortal Mountains, Black-Iron Pass, Bronze Heavenly Gate, Jade Capital Immortal Pass, Twelve-Story Tower, Jasper Pool, Divine Bridge, Sea of Chaos, Yellow Court, Crimson Palace, Jade Pool, Jade Capital, Heavenly River and Heavenly Mountain, and even the Gushing Spring all manifested one after another!

“Bei Chen, how dare you!”

His soul stood on the Third Heaven of the Gate-Knocking Stage. Within the ethereal void, there was only a sword qi resembling a rainbow, the manifestation of the Myriad Mountains Bow to Jiuyi, and a cloud of heavenly tribulation.

This was the Dao avatar Xu Ying had comprehended.

His cultivation realm remained at the third heaven of the Gate-Knocking Stage, completely unchanged.

His exorcism techniques had likewise seen no advancement. He had only opened two grotto heavens of the Mud-Pill and Crimson-Palace Secret Troves, and only one for the Yellow-Court Secret Trove.

His exorcist cultivation also remained the same. Bei Chenzi felt a chill run down his spine. The seal was broken, but his cultivation wasn’t restored. We’re done for!

He had expected Xu Ying to regain some of his old cultivation, but his cultivation level hadn’t changed in the slightest.

Yuanqi and Dazhong felt their hearts sink. They had believed that lifting the seal would be enough to survive this disaster. Only now did they remember Xu Ying’s cultivation level. The heavenly demon possessed an immortal corpse, making him the equivalent of a living immortal.

How could someone at the Gate-Knocking Stage possibly defeat such an existence?

Boom!

Thunder rumbled in the sky. An unnaturally thick bolt of lightning tore through the sky and struck Xu Ying. The impact erupted into a blinding flash, illuminating everything behind him.

In that brief instant, everyone saw immense shadows lurking in Xu Ying’s boundless ethereal void. A second lightning bolt struck his head. The searing white light revealed the shadows more clearly. They were Manifestations of the Great Dao unlike anything imaginable.

There were bronze mountain peaks, abysses that buried the Great Dao, giant trees that shrouded the stars, monstrous beasts that swallowed the heavens, and nebulae that gave birth to countless stars.

Each avatar was enough to shatter the mind of anyone who looked upon it. With every lightning bolt, they became more distinct, gradually solidifying from illusion into reality, as though they were about to step fully into existence.

Even the heavenly demon felt a stab of fear. He lunged at Xu Ying, determined to kill and devour him before those Dao avatars could fully manifest.

Whoosh

The stone ax at Xu Ying’s waist flew up and hacked straight at him.

The heavenly demon flickered, manifesting countless phantoms around him. They stepped forward at once and attacked in unison to block the stone ax!

The ax quivered lightly and also split into countless phantom axes. Next, the right arm of every feather-robed youth, real and phantom, was severed. Then every phantom ax and feather-robed youth vanished, leaving only the real heavenly demon standing with the stone ax embedded in his forehead.

Bei Chenzi, Dazhong, and Zhu Chanchan were all startled. Xu Ying was clearly still only at the third heaven of the Gate-Knocking Stage, yet his ax strike had been so exquisite that the heavenly demon could not evade it, no matter how he dodged.

This ax strike was nothing short of miraculous. It had cut through an immortal with ease, threading through every opening, bypassing its strongest defenses, and striking straight at its weakest points. Exploiting every flaw, it shattered all resistance with a single chop.

Yet, while it sounded simple, who could find the flaws in an immortal corpse and a heavenly demon?

The stone ax had sunk deep into the heavenly demon’s head. The surging murderous aura and fiendish qi battered the heavenly demon’s brain and consciousness, making him shake violently. Within him, a black shadow would occasionally jolt so fiercely that it seemed it would break free at any moment.

Immortal light suddenly coiled around him, wrapping itself around the stone ax before swinging it back at Xu Ying.

After all, this was an immortal’s body. Even in death, the immortal qi lingering within it could withstand the stone ax’s fiendish qi.

Thunder kept crashing down from the sky, striking Xu Ying squarely on the head. With each bolt, the Dao avatar behind him grew more tangible.

As the ax descended, Xu Ying caught it with one hand and swung it again, cleaving the immortal light apart.

Experts admired the technique; laymen watched the spectacle. Dazhong, Yuanqi, and Bei Chenzi couldn’t grasp the mysteries hidden within the exchange, but Zhu Chanchan could. She saw the profundity contained in that single ax strike, and her Dao heart trembled.

She couldn’t help recalling the day she first became her master’s disciple. He had demonstrated the divine ability to turn a pillar into a treasure. In an instant, a stone pillar had transformed into an artifact, becoming a stone dragon that coiled into the sky and soared through the air.

The sight had shaken her to her core, overturning everything she thought she knew about Qi Cultivators.

Now she had long surpassed her master of those days. She could wield Divine Abilities far greater than turning a pillar into a treasure. Yet, the transformations within Xu Ying’s ax strike still filled her with a shock unlike anything she had ever experienced.

“Divine abilities can be used like that? Dao arts too? He’s not human. He’s definitely not human!”

Xu Ying remained calm, methodically hacking at the heavenly demon’s forehead with his ax as though victory were inevitable. The heavenly demon, on the other hand, was fighting for his life.

The heavenly demon roared in fury as his body suddenly swelled, his frame growing larger and more imposing. Xu Ying formed a strange hand seal with his left hand. Hidden within the tiny seal was a towering bronze mountain.

He struck with the seal. The attack compressed the heavenly demon’s massive body instantly. Bones cracked and snapped as his frame shrank, while chunks of flesh burst from his body in every direction.

The scattered flesh wriggled and crawled on the ground before each taking the form of a feather-robed youth. Their limbs bent at impossible angles as they lunged at Xu Ying.

Bang!

The immortal corpse exploded into countless fragments, revealing the Heavenly Demon’s true form: a mass of writhing black qi that howled as it rushed toward Xu Ying.

Xu Ying brought both hands together loosely in front of his chest, and another Dao avatar in the form of a furnace appeared. The flames blazing within were neither the True Fire of Samadhi nor any ordinary divine flame.

It was as if he were holding three thousand suns in his arms. A blinding radiance erupted, refining everything that was rushing at him into ash!

The black qi forced its way through the overwhelming light. Though it was continuously burned away, it never diminished. It reached Xu Ying and shot straight for his glabella.

Just before it touched him, Xu Ying casually reached out and caught the writhing mass in his hand.

The black qi crashed and struggled in his palm, but Xu Ying’s five fingers became an inescapable prison that sealed off heaven and earth.

In despair, the black qi released an ancient consciousness, demanding to know Xu Ying’s identity.

Xu Ying’s expression remained cold. He gave no reply and simply clenched his fist. Flames burst forth in his palm, refining that mass of black qi into ash.

Crack!

Lightning still crashed down from the sky. The vortex of dark clouds, spanning ten thousand li, was still raging wildly, continuously pouring power into Xu Ying. With every passing moment, the Dao avatar behind him grew more solid.

Bei Chenzi trembled. A primal terror rose from the depths of his soul. The lightning was still empowering Xu Ying, which meant the heavenly demon had never been his true target.

If not the heavenly demon, then who?

Bei Chenzi’s finger twitched. A wisp of true fire silently ignited at his fingertip as he tried to relight the incense. The instant the flame neared it, Xu Ying suddenly unleashed a palm strike. The true fire vanished.

Bei Chenzi suffered a heavy blow. His chest caved in, several ribs broke, and he spat out a mouthful of blood as he was sent flying backward.

He slammed into the broken stump of the bronze divine tree, shattering it with a deafening crash before crashing to the ground and tumbling to a stop.

Nearly every bone in his body had been broken. Cracks spread through his Primordial Spirit, his ethereal void, and even his grotto heavens.

Bei Chenzi was covered in blood. He let out an angry shout, and a hazy chessboard of azure qi descended from the sky, landing on the mountaintop. His Primordial Spirit appeared behind him as he shouted at the top of his lungs and thrust out a finger.

Boom!

A colossal finger, as massive as a mountain peak, burst from the chessboard. Laden with overwhelming power, it distorted space itself as it pointed at Xu Ying.

“I won’t let you get free!” Bei Chenzi cried out, blood streaming from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

Xu Ying didn’t even look at it. He casually swung the ax, and the blow severed the finger extending from the chessboard.

Bei Chenzi cried out in agony as one of his own fingers snapped off with a crack.

Xu Ying continued swinging the ax with one hand. The ax flashed repeatedly as it hacked at the hazy azure qi chessboard. Bei Chenzi screamed repeatedly, his hands trembling. One by one, all ten fingers were hacked off.

He collapsed to his knees with a heavy thud. Behind him, his Primordial Spirit also dropped to its knees, both arms trembling uncontrollably. Its ten fingers had likewise been severed.

That Azure Qi Chessboard Formation was the divine ability he had spent two millennia perfecting. Within this divine ability, he could amplify his attacks, while the ever-changing arrangement of the chessboard produced endless variations that even gods and ghosts could never predict.

Yet when Xu Ying forced his way into his divine ability, every transformation seemed transparent to him. He even wielded the divine ability with greater finesse than its creator.

This sight drove Bei Chenzi into despair.

Xu Ying flicked his wrist; a streak of light flashed from the ax and plunged into the azure qi chessboard. It passed through the formation before erupting from its surface and shooting straight for Bei Chenzi’s throat.

That single ax strike shattered the Divine Ability he had been proud of his entire life, then turned it against him. Bei Chenzi fell into utter despair. He no longer had the will to resist.

Right before the ax strike could kill him, a streak of red light shot across the battlefield. It snatched up both Bei Chenzi and his Primordial Spirit, rolling them dozens of feet away.

Bei Chenzi, still shaken, looked over in shock. It was the red-robed woman and her Primordial Spirit. They had arrived at the last possible moment and pulled him from death’s door.

“We received the message you sent with the yellow robe and came as fast as we could. Fortunately, we weren’t too late!” The red-robed woman looked up, staring hard at Xu Ying.

Blood kept pouring from Bei Chenzi’s mouth as he coughed. “Be careful. He’s not human. He’s a monster...”

Xu Ying quickly turned his head and saw the frowning old man appear on the altar, holding another talisman paper and pasting it onto the shrine. In his other hand, a Pure Yang Spirit Flame ignited the incense stick!

“How dare you?”

Xu Ying flew into a rage. The lightning mark between his brows crackled violently as arcs of lightning danced wildly around it. He bent his fingers and flicked them repeatedly.

The frowning old man bellowed, and a silver mirror appeared in front of him. With a sharp chime, it split into countless mirrors that spread through the air, sealing every inch of space and reflecting all incoming divine abilities.

The next instant, tiny finger-sized holes appeared across every mirror. Then every mirror shattered and fell to the ground.

“Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!”

Ten bloody holes were blasted through the old man, and the force hurled him from the altar.

Xu Ying’s mind became clouded. Knowing something was wrong, he immediately rushed toward the altar and reached out for the incense stick, trying to extinguish the incense.

“I want Heaven to never seal me away again! What I’m owed, every last bit of it, will all be paid back!”

The red-robed woman flew over and wrapped her arms around his waist.

Wisps of incense smoke drifted toward the two talisman papers in the shrine, and the strange writing on the talisman papers gradually lit up.

“You can forget it!”

Xu Ying was furious beyond measure. With two sharp cracks, both of the woman’s arms snapped, and the force flung her away. Her chest caved in as ribs shattered one after another.

She swept a leg toward Xu Ying, trying to trip him. With two more sharp cracks, both her legs were broken!

She collapsed to her knees, eyes wide with fury and helplessness, as Xu Ying strode onto the altar.

“No!”

The frowning old man lunged over and blocked the shrine. Xu Ying thrust out a hand. The old man looked down to find his chest torn open, his still-beating heart gripped in Xu Ying’s hand.

The frowning old man was overcome with despair. “It’s over...”

However, Xu Ying did not squeeze down. The frowning old man looked up and saw Xu Ying standing blankly, his grip slowly loosening.

In his eyes, the memories of his long life gradually dimmed. Layer upon layer, they were buried beneath the seal until every memory lay hidden under dust.

The light faded from his eyes, leaving only blankness.

The frowning old man turned back and saw that the incense flame was now burning steadily. Wisps of incense smoke continuously drifted into the two talisman papers, and the seal on them grew increasingly brighter.

The seal had stabilized.

“Where am I? Who am I?”

Xu Ying squatted down, clutching his head with both hands, pitiful and helpless.

“My head hurts so much!”

The frowning old man endured the pain and carefully mended the cracked ribs, protecting his heart.

Still kneeling, the red-robed woman silently set the bones in her shattered legs and bound them with two crutches. She then directed her Primordial Spirit to retrieve her severed arms.

Bei Chenzi’s white hair was stained red by his own blood. He crawled forward inch by inch until he reached the edge of the altar.

The three exchanged glances. In each other’s eyes, they saw misery, lingering fear, and the relief of surviving the catastrophe.

“Henceforth, we can have many more peaceful years.”

None of them noticed the lightning mark between Xu Ying’s brows. It was gradually dimming, slowly disappearing.