Just a Useful Pawn in the Stain Sect

Chapter 643: Chapter 638: Celestial Mansion Riot

At this moment, Heaven and Earth trembled!

Below the Celestial Mansion’s Ninth Layer, the earth shattered, rivers flowed in reverse, and a face—impossibly clear and bizarre to the extreme—materialized in the sky above.

It was a face with no features.

All one could see was a sheet of skin, yet a boundless spiritual perception roared from within it, transforming into a voice only Perfected Lords could hear as it echoed out:

"Return!"

RUMBLE!

The voice spread throughout the Celestial Mansion, inside and out, almost instantly reaching the Celestial Mansion’s Eighth Layer. In that moment, several towering figures that reached from the earth to the sky materialized.

They were the four remaining Mid-stage Immortal Monarchs of the Celestial Mansion. The face of their leader, Du Xuan Immortal Monarch, was etched with visible terror. "This is... Si Chou is reviving? How is that possible! The Immortal Venerable is personally guarding Si Chou’s Spirit Platform and suppressing the Master of Dao’s divine will. How could Si Chou possibly revive?"

The next second, a flash of blood-red light erupted.

Mingtang Immortal Monarch, who was responsible for suppressing the Spiritual Mechanism Hall, was the first to explode. The entire Spiritual Mechanism Hall swiftly turned illusory, merging into the Celestial Mansion and into that face.

"This is bad!"

Seeing this, Du Xuan Immortal Monarch’s expression grew even more horrified. At almost the same time, the first organ finally appeared on the face that looked down upon Heaven and Earth: a nose.

"WHOOSH...!"

Now with a nose, the face finally seemed to gain the power to interfere with the Celestial Mansion. It then did only one thing: it took a deep breath.

In an instant, throughout the entire Celestial Mansion, from the lowest first layer up to the eighth, all the Spiritual Qi—along with the corresponding ore veins, Artifacts, Qi Pills... everything rooted in Spiritual Qi—began to shatter madly, transforming into a boundless tide that surged toward the face!

It was reclaiming the Spiritual Qi of the Celestial Mansion!

The nose is the gateway of qi. This is how the Spiritual Mechanism Hall got its name. Therefore, the very Spiritual Qi that had sustained the Celestial Mansion for countless years was itself a product of Si Chou’s exhalation.

It was just that before, Si Chou had only been exhaling, not inhaling.

Now, however, it had recovered a sliver of life force and began to inhale in earnest, taking back the Spiritual Qi it had once spread throughout the Celestial Mansion to mend its own deficiencies!

At this moment, wails of anguish shook the Celestial Mansion!

Meanwhile, Lü Yang, who had witnessed this scene, was also deeply shaken.

How vast was the Celestial Mansion?

In terms of sheer size, it far surpassed the Seven Luminaries Heaven and the Ten Thousand Martial Realm he had once visited, nearly rivaling the Immortal Pivot itself. Yet now, it trembled under Si Chou’s will!

And this wasn’t even a living Master of Dao!

A half-dead Si Chou, with just a single breath, was on the verge of wiping out the Celestial Mansion. Only those at the Foundation Establishment and Golden Core realms could barely survive.

With the Spiritual Qi gone, cultivation would be extinguished!

Cultivators below the Foundation Establishment realm couldn’t even hold on to their cultivation. They could only watch helplessly as the mana they had painstakingly refined drained away, vanishing in an instant!

As for mortals, they couldn’t even keep their lives. They aged and withered on the spot, all their life force devoured by the manifested face of Si Chou.

But just then, a voice rang out.

"Insolence!"

From the Celestial Mansion’s Ninth Layer, the high-hanging bright moon finally reacted. Within the pristine moonlight, a cool and elegant figure that towered over the world manifested.

She stood on the Ninth Layer, her long black hair fluttering in the wind, like an inviolable goddess descending to the mortal world.

More importantly, at this moment, she actually stood superior to the manifested face of Si Chou. As she rebuked it, a beam of moonlight shone down.

Bathed in the moonlight, great swaths of earth appeared on the face. Under the cover of this soil, the originally illusory face began to manifest real flesh and blood, only for it to then shatter and wither inch by inch. What came into view was a vast, seemingly endless graveyard.

Taiyin Moist Earth!

The Supreme Venerable’s Taiyin Fruit Position, which separated Yin and Yang and buried all things. It even contained a hint of the Netherworld’s aspect, instantly suppressing Si Chou’s actions.

But soon, Si Chou moved again.

"You want to bury me alive?"

A tremendous spiritual perception howled between Heaven and Earth, filled with intense resentment and fury. The face then flipped over to stare directly at the cool, elegant figure on the Ninth Layer.

"Using my own thing to bury me alive?"

"You beast! A cuckoo in my nest!"

The next second, another Mid-stage Immortal Monarch exploded in a splash of blood-red light. It was Immortal Monarch Yan Xiu, who had been suppressing the Preaching Land. Clearly, he too had failed to hold it back.

The Preaching Land merged into Heaven and Earth.

Following that, a mouth appeared on Si Chou’s face. Its lips were red and its teeth were white. As they opened and closed, a resonant Daoist hymn boomed and echoed throughout the Celestial Mansion:

"Get out!"

As the words fell, an indescribable dispelling force was truly generated, shaking off all the great swaths of earth covering the face. Even the boundless graveyard was forcefully driven back. It was obvious that Si Chou was reclaiming its own Mighty Power, step by step!

Seeing this, Taiyin Immortal Venerable frowned slightly.

Then, she looked at Lü Yang inside the Heaven and Earth Immortal Journey, her vermilion lips parting slightly. "Little Junior Brother... you’ve really brought your Senior Sister a great deal of trouble."

"Senior Sister, your little brother is innocent."

Lü Yang spread his hands, a pitiful look on his face. "That Master of Dao is the one who schemed against me. It’s all so baffling. I don’t know anything."

Hearing this, Taiyin Immortal Venerable’s elegant brows furrowed, and she let out a soft snort.

’Doesn’t know anything?’

’Only a ghost would believe you!’

’Ancestral Master... I thought this Little Junior Brother you found for me was already quite capable, but it turns out he’s even more capable than I imagined.’

’I thought he was just some little imp I could easily control.’

’I never expected him to be so tough, and so skilled.’

’The key isn’t this face, but the catalyst he created with the Void Certificate...’

Taiyin Immortal Venerable knew the records in the Path Opening Map by heart. An Attainment Position created using the map’s method was, in essence, merely a lure.

A lure used to draw out the true Great Dao!

With that Void Attainment Position, Si Chou could draw its true Great Dao out from the Sea of Suffering and then gradually revive!

According to her original plan, while Lü Yang was creating the Void Certificate, he would also be corrupted by her Fruit of Money Position. This would allow her to control the resulting Void Attainment Position. That way, she could use him to substitute the Void Attainment Position with her Fruit of Money Position, allowing her to seize control of the Great Dao she had coveted for so long!

But now, it was all ruined.

The only saving grace was that the Ninth Layer—the Master of Dao’s Spirit Platform built by the Bhagavat in ages past—was still under her control. So, there was still a chance to salvage the situation.

’Dealing with it in the Current World is meaningless.’

Taiyin Immortal Venerable’s expression was indifferent, her thoughts still calm.

’To suppress this anomaly, the best way is for my true self to go to the Sea of Suffering and stop that Void Attainment Position from drawing out the Master of Dao’s Great Dao.’

’But if my true self goes, who will guard the Ninth Layer?’

The Celestial Mansion’s Ninth Layer was the most crucial of all, for it was not formed from Si Chou’s corpse. Instead, it was a seal created by the Bhagavat himself!

With no one to reinforce the seal, Si Chou would wake up even faster!

’Leave it to the other four Mid-stage Immortal Monarchs?’

Taiyin Immortal Venerable considered it for a moment before abandoning the idea. In this situation, who knew if Du Xuan Immortal Monarch and the others would still stand on her side?

After all, clinging to a Master of Dao’s thigh was a much more appealing prospect than clinging to hers.

And so, after thinking it over, there was surprisingly only one reliable person available.

"...Heh."

The next second, Taiyin Immortal Venerable suddenly smiled, her expression holding a trace of approval. "Not bad, not bad at all... It seems you truly are a junior brother of my Stain Sect!"

That’s right, she had settled on Lü Yang!

Although the Lü Yang of this life had no real connection to the Stain Sect—he had merely received a favor from the Saint Sect Ancestral Master and wasn’t a Holy Sect Disciple in the strictest sense.

Taiyin Immortal Venerable had thought so before as well.

But now, she had changed her mind.

’Fishing in troubled waters, brazenly audacious, utterly shameless... He’s someone who gets things done. If he isn’t a Holy Sect Disciple from my Stain Sect, then he must be a Sword Species from the Sword Pavilion. He’s got a few tricks up his sleeve!’

With that, she looked at Lü Yang again.

"Little Junior Brother... Your Senior Sister is about to go to the Sea of Suffering to suppress Si Chou. You will come to the Ninth Layer and stand guard in my place. If you’re lucky, a great opportunity will be yours!"