Day of Ascension

Chapter 34 - To Go with the Natural Order is Mortal, To Go Against is Immortal

“Evil Sword Immortal? Using Eternal True Spirit to refine a Myriad-Spirit Pill?”

Xu Ying’s head buzzed. He looked up and saw the four-armed statue leaning over and staring at the pearl. The god was dead as well. Only an empty shell remained, devoid of soul.

His head hadn’t actually burst open. Light flickered within; it was the same soul-summoning incantation Xu Ying had seen earlier.

The text lit up, clearly active.

Dazhong cried out, “The statue’s incense qi ensnared the two stone dragons. It made them chant the soul-summoning incantation! They chanted themselves to death! Afterward, the spirit pearl drew their souls in and shattered them, preserving only their Eternal True Spirit!”

Such methods were truly evil. Etched into the statue’s head was a soul-summoning incantation, and overwhelmingly powerful incense qi coiled around it. Once activated, the chant drew in beings with souls to the vicinity. The incense qi would then ensnare them, turning them into fanatics.

After falling into blind devotion, the victims would kowtow to the statue and chant the soul-summoning incantation involuntarily. As they chanted, their heads would burst open, and their souls would emerge from their bodies.

That wasn't all. Once their souls emerged after chanting themselves to death, the text on the altar would shatter them. The soul would scatter, and their spirit disintegrate, leaving only a speck of Eternal True Spirit behind that would become a part of the Myriad-Spirit Pill.

Dazhong explained, “The soul is seven parts spirit and three parts soul. The Eternal True Spirit is the foundation of every soul, yet it does not exist within them. It is extremely small. Only a speck remains after the soul is shattered.

“To refine a Myriad-Spirit Pill, one needs at least ten thousand ordinary souls. Virtuous cultivators during the ancient era often hunted malevolent ghosts and evil spirits that harmed the world to create one.”

Evidently, the master of the altar wasn’t killing evil ghosts. Instead, they were luring people here, harvesting their souls, and shattering them to obtain specks of Eternal True Spirit.

This was absolutely the work of those on the evil path!

Looking up at the temple floating between the five immortal mountains, Xu Ying murmured, “Yuanqi is still inside the temple...”

Dazhong sighed. “He died such a tragic death.”

“Yuanqi should still be alive, right?”

“Just treat him as dead. We can’t save him anyway.”

Xu Ying fell silent. Earlier, while riding the bell through the sky, he had seen countless altars scattered across the immortal mountain like stars in the forest.

If Dazhong was right, and the evil Sword Immortal was really trying to make Myriad-Spirit Pills, then how many people would he need to kill to make so many pills?

Puzzled, Dazhong murmured, “Strange. The soul-summoning incantation I saw earlier seemed flawed. That Sword Immortal must have been a formidable character among ancient Qi Cultivators to create so many pills on such a scale. So, why did they make so many mistakes while inscribing something as simple as a soul-summoning incantation?”

Xu Ying was slightly taken aback. There was indeed something strange about this matter.

Could an immortal make such low-level mistakes?

Suddenly, a strange fragrance wafted from the altar. It was the scent of a Myriad-Spirit Pill reaching completion.

It was a wondrous scent. Unlike ordinary scents, which stimulated only the nose, this aroma also stimulated the soul. A single whiff made one’s soul feel ravenous, creating an overwhelming urge to rush forward and swallow it immediately.

Two out of the four divine dragons of the Confucian Temple were still alive. Sustained by incense, they had no real physical form. Their incense qi carried the desires of the people, making them spiritual entities. The aroma was even more irresistible for them.

Moments earlier, the stone dragons had still been drowning in grief over their fallen brothers. Now, they lunged toward the altar and shouted, “This pill elixir is mine!”

As the stone dragon behind Xu Ying charged forward, his true form appeared. Treading on clouds, his incense qi transformed into flying swords and slashed toward the other stone dragon in the air.

Having the high ground, the other stone dragon sent a rain of flying swords crashing down. Flying swords tore through the air with a swish and struck them, sending sparks flying everywhere.

The stone dragons clashed fiercely in the air, disregarding their brotherhood. All they wanted was to eliminate the other and obtain the Myriad-Spirit Pill.

Soon, one pinned the other down and crashed onto the altar with a thunderous boom. He immediately reached for the pill at the center of the altar.

“I have a feeling that I’ll become immortal once I consume this!”

Boom!

His head exploded. His soul rose into the air, incorporeal and floating aimlessly. With another loud boom, the head of the stone dragon he had pinned down also exploded. Their souls drifted in the air, still clashing fiercely and shouting, “The pill is mine!”

Yet, their souls didn’t fly toward the Myriad-Spirit Pill. Instead, they were drawn into the soul-summoning incantation inside the head of the four-armed statue and flew there.

On the altar, the stone dragons stiffened and stood motionless. Several fragments fell from their shattered heads, producing crisp clatters.

Xu Ying stood still, watching in shock as the scene unfolded. In mere moments, his four formidable enemies had all perished.

“The Myriad-Spirit Pill is truly bizarre.”

Xu Ying approached cautiously. “Master Zhong, what benefits does the pill provide?”

“I’ve heard that it can heal damaged Primordial Spirits and compensate for deficiencies in the soul. I haven’t heard of any other benefits,” Dazhong answered. After a momentary pause, he continued, “By my era, the Qi Cultivators were already in decline. Many things had been lost with time. Even my master, despite his peerless talent, couldn’t know everything, much less me.”

He sounded somewhat melancholic. His peerlessly talented master vanished from the world after suppressing the demoness. For three thousand years, Dazhong had never received any news of him.

As Xu Ying approached the altar, the people’s prayers disrupted his divine sense. Chants rang in his ears, filling him with the urge to kneel before the four-armed statue and become its believer.

“If I hadn’t refined my divine sense, I would have died here like the four dragons!”

Xu Ying steadied his divine sense. No matter how powerful the chants became, they could not shake his divine sense.

The benefits of years spent practicing the Grand-Unity Guiding Method were apparent here. Even though the incense qi of the four-armed god was so thick, it could not suppress his divine sense.

Xu Ying arrived at the feet of the statue. Looking up, he saw the statue enveloped in thick incense smoke, radiating golden light. This god has been cultivating for over five hundred years! He might have even been at it for eight hundred or even a thousand years!

Temples that had enjoyed five hundred years of uninterrupted incense offering could certainly still be found across the Divine Land. However, grand temples with eight hundred years, or even a thousand years of incense accumulation, were exceedingly rare.

Earlier, he had caught a brief glimpse from the sky, yet he had already seen dozens of altars. Each one had a statue, amounting to dozens of gods. That didn’t even include the regions of this immortal mountain he hadn’t seen or the other four immortal mountains.

So, where did all these gods come from?

With a light jump, Xu Ying leaped onto the altar.

Instantly, the chants of the people exploded in his ears like thunder. Xu Ying’s head swelled, nearly exploding!

Clang!

A bell chime rang out and echoed around him, shielding his mind from the external influences.

Xu Ying’s swollen head returned to normal, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Stepping onto the altar, he picked the Myriad-Spirit Pill floating on it and asked, “Can ordinary people consume the elixir too?”

Dazhong replied, “I’m not sure. Ah Ying, I keep feeling something’s amiss. We’d best leave this place as soon as possible.”

Xu Ying also felt like he had overlooked something. Tilting his head back, he swallowed the Myriad-Spirit Pill. Before he had time even to taste it, the fingers of the four-armed statue’s hands gripping the edges of the altar twitched slightly.

He immediately realized what he had overlooked.

The four-armed statue had absorbed the two stone dragons’ souls!

He hurriedly jumped into the air. With a loud clap, two basket-sized hands slammed together. Xu Ying barely escaped from between the palms before they closed shut.

Originally, the four-armed statue had no divine soul, but it gained one after absorbing the two gods’ souls!

Still in midair, Xu Ying saw the two other hands of the god swinging his way like they were swatting flies. With no foothold, he had no way to change direction.

Using the tip of his foot, Xu Ying kicked off Dazhong and launched himself even higher, narrowly avoiding the strike.

Dazhong plummeted. Just as he was about to curse Xu Ying for abandoning his friend, he saw Xu Ying planting both feet heavily on the four-armed god’s face. Upside down in midair, Xu Ying shot forward like an arrow and dove straight toward the altar.

He landed on the altar just as Dazhong came crashing down. Xu Ying grabbed the bell’s loop and charged out of the altar.

This series of movements was clean and sharp, dazzling the four-armed god. His four hands flailed wildly, but he couldn’t reach Xu Ying in time. The young man escaped the altar along with Dazhong.

Xu Ying channeled the Elephant-Bull Demon Fist, manifesting an elephant king’s divine avatar behind him. His feet became as strong as a ten-thousand-jin divine elephant, with each step carrying him seven to eight zhang away. When he exerted strength in his feet, boulders shattered, and the earth cracked as he raced forward.

Behind him, the four-armed god roared furiously. Using two hands, it lifted the massive altar and spun it in a full circle.

Whoosh!

With a thunderous roar, the altar hurtled toward Xu Ying, accelerating past the speed of sound in an instant!

Glancing back, Xu Ying nearly lost his soul from fright. He sprinted desperately, only to hear an explosive crash behind him.

The huge altar had smashed into the ground behind him, and the resulting shockwave threw both him and the bell into the air alongside countless exploding boulders.

The impact made his insides churn violently. His divine avatar also became unstable and limp, its vital energy scattering like dust.

The youth crashed to the ground, tumbling. Still, he quickly sprang up to his feet and continued sprinting forward.

Behind, the four-armed god bent his knee and launched himself after Xu Ying, causing the wind to howl.

Dazhong cried out hoarsely, “Ah Ying, go faster! Faster! That bastard is catching up!”

As Xu Ying sped forward, whistles sounded from behind. Several seventeen- to eighteen-chi-long swords with terrifying sword qi tore through the air, aiming for him. Wherever they passed, the trees collapsed one after another, and boulders split open without a sound.

Xu Ying narrowly dodged one sword. It scraped across the ground behind him, ripping through everything in its path and carving a deep trench into the earth.

The god’s flying swords were bloodcurdling. Xu Ying had never seen such powerful swordsmanship before.

Seeing that the flying swords were about to trap him while the god rapidly closed the distance, Xu Ying spun around mid-run and condensed his qi into a sword. A streak of sword qi shot through the air like a rainbow and slashed down toward the four-armed god!

Caught unprepared, the four-armed god immediately raised two arms to defend himself while channeling his incense qi at the same time. Yet, the sword qi of Xu Ying’s Realm Breaker was incredibly thick, having once slain an expert of Zhou Yihang’s level. Its power surged violently upon striking his arms, nearly severing them.

The four-armed god’s forward momentum immediately halted. He retreated rapidly to avoid the sword light.

His incense qi instantly transformed into several smoke-blue shields, protecting his front and back. During the brief delay, Xu Ying seized the opportunity and vanished without a trace.

The four-armed god flew into a rage. Clouds swirled beneath his feet and lifted him higher into the air as he searched everywhere for Xu Ying, though he failed to find him. Furious, he vented his rage on others, slaughtering the officials of Yongzhou and the gods under Controller General Ling’s command mercilessly.

After the god left, the ground bulged slightly. Xu Ying emerged from the earth. He hadn’t truly escaped; he had simply dug a hole and buried himself while the four-armed god was retreating, avoiding the disaster.

“That god is too strong!”

Xu Ying breathed a sigh of relief. Looking up, he saw the floating boulders in the sky come alive and go on a killing spree. The four-armed god also slaughtered Zhou Heng and Ling Youdao’s subordinates, causing devastating casualties in the blink of an eye.

Xu Ying activated his Third Eye to take a closer look. He saw that after their deaths, their souls drifted down toward the five immortal mountains.

Dazhong exclaimed, “With so many people dead, and all of them experts, I’m afraid their souls will mature quite a few Myriad-Spirit Pills!”

Frowning, Xu Ying added, “It’ll also awaken many statues!”

The survivors who had narrowly avoided disaster rushed down and took refuge in the immortal mountains.

Feeling a deep sense of unease, Xu Ying whispered, “Master Zhong, we need to hurry to the grand temple as quickly as possible and rescue Yuanqi.”

Dazhong said, “Yuanqi met such a tragic end. Ah Ying, let’s leave. We’ll erect a golden statue of him once we’re outside and place it in a village for the people to worship. His corpse shouldn’t have started to rot yet.”

***

In the grand temple floating between the five immortal mountains, the glow of treasures surged to the sky, and a mist of immortal light filled the air. Anyone who entered the temple would feel refreshed, and their cultivation would slowly rise with every breath.

Yuanqi coiled excitedly before the temple’s main hall, surrounded by Exorcists, demons, gods, and even several villagers from the vicinity.

Whether human, demon, ghost, or god, everyone sat before the hall, quietly listening.

The majestic, immortal hall radiated a blinding light. A sun floated above the hall, illuminating the dilapidated temple and making the area bright as day.

Before the hall sat an immortal clad in white robes, with white eyebrows and a beard that swayed gently despite the lack of wind. He had an otherworldly aura that inspired awe and reverence in anyone who laid eyes upon him.

His immortal light was like flying swords circling him endlessly with their tips pointing outward.

The immortal said, “Long ago, someone received my Dao teachings and studied the Celestial Pivot at the very beginning of their cultivation. When his true essence flowed in the natural order, he felt at ease; when the flow reversed, he felt discomfort.

“Thus, he chose to follow the natural order. Yet after several years, he made no progress, while his fellow disciples improved at astonishing speed. In the end, he came before me and asked: if following the natural order is correct, why could he not progress as they did?” The immortal smiled. “To follow the natural order is to remain mortal. To defy the natural order is to become immortal. That is the Dao of cultivation.”

The crowd below erupted into a commotion, murmuring in awe.

The white-robed immortal added, “All who have entered my immortal realm share fate with me. Today, I shall impart an immortal art to you: the Comprehensive Daoist Truth of the Celestial Pivot. How much you can gain from this depends on your fortune.”

He closed his eyes and began chanting the true scripture. Those below the hall memorized and contemplated its meaning hurriedly. Indeed, it was an indescribably brilliant true scripture. Someone immediately began practicing it with all their effort.

As they tried the cultivation technique, their primordial qi circulated in accordance with the celestial pivot.

Just as the immortal master had said, the flow felt smooth and harmonious when aligned with the natural order, yet agonizing and obstructed when forced into reverse.