Chen Shi stepped out of the immortal hall holding the True Martial Exorcising Sword, then suddenly said, “Wuyu, can you not report this to Despair Slope for now? I want to first go to Tai Hua Qing Palace and have them escort the Daoist Tianzhen home.”
Wen Wuyu’s mission this time was to investigate the birth of an immortal. Now that the truth had been discovered, she would certainly report it to Despair Slope.
If Despair Slope came to handle it, the Daoist Tianzhen’s corpse might not be safe.
Wen Wuyu smiled, “You’re holding the True Martial Exorcising Sword. You could chop me dead with one strike, why plead with me?”
Chen Shi shook his head, “Didn’t you say when we were little I was your only friend? I have no memories from before my rebirth, but if I regain those memories, I don’t want to regret killing a friend for the rest of my life.”
Wen Wuyu paused for a moment, then smiled, “Fine, I won’t report it to Despair Slope for now. But the Little Taoist will certainly go aberrant, he won’t hold on long.”
Chen Shi exhaled a breath, “Thanks.”
Wen Wuyu stared at the True Martial Exorcising Sword in his hand, “And this sword is too fiendish. Its sword qi is the same radiant light scattered through the cracked mountains. Touch it lightly and half your body will be devoured. It’s better I take it back to Despair Slope to seal it.”
Chen Shi shook his head, “I promised him I would return this sword to Tai Hua Qing Palace.”
Wen Wuyu hesitated briefly and surprisingly didn’t press the issue, thinking, “Despair Slope isn’t short of things like this anyway.”
Chen Shi asked, “Is Daoist Tianzhen an immortal?”
Wen Wuyu shook her head, “No. An immortal wouldn’t die. He should have been undergoing a tribulation, at the peak of Ascension, and something went wrong when he was merging with heaven and earth. He began to go aberrant, and the True King found out and ordered him executed.”
Chen Shi guessed, “He was only the stoking boy for Patriarch Zhenyang, no one knew how high his cultivation truly was, probably not even he. When he started to go aberrant, to avoid harming the world he sealed himself in the underworld. I think the True King may have killed the wrong man.”
Wen Wuyu looked meaningful and said softly, “Who would bet he wouldn’t go aberrant? Those who practiced the True King era’s old methods often couldn’t avoid aberration.”
Chen Shi fell silent.
He himself followed the old methods, and he had strongly felt aberration brewing within him.
Wen Wuyu glanced at him, then shifted the topic, “Did Daoist Tianzhen know he was dead?”
Xiang Kun beside them said, “I don’t think he knew. In the Realm of Emptiness he was fine, joking with us.”
The Right Consort shook her head, “He should have known. After he was struck by that sword, he should have sensed he couldn’t survive.”
“If he was dead, why would he want to go home?” Gou Xi said decisively. “So he must still be alive.”
Crimson Sovereign shook his head, “After being cut so by that fiendish sword, how could he be alive? He’s only pretending.”
They argued with no conclusion.
Chen Shi placed the True Martial Exorcising Sword on the miniature shrine of the second small temple and offered an incense stick, “I think the moment he was struck he knew he was dead, but fearing that he would go aberrant after death, he sealed himself inside the mountain and locked himself in. He chose to suppress himself to prevent posthumous aberration from harming nearby ghost tribes. But somehow, the mountain that sealed him suddenly split…”
He looked around, flames dancing in his eyes, “I remember all of Tai Hua Qing Palace’s most important techniques. If he sealed himself inside this mountain, he must have used the Golden Bell Sealing Technique. That sealing draws power from heaven and earth constantly, making the seal ever stronger, impossible to break from within.”
Wen Wuyu followed him and asked puzzled, “You mean some external force broke the Golden Bell seal?”
Chen Shi stopped at the threshold of the immortal hall, surveyed the surroundings, shifted his footing slightly, “If I were the Little Taoist, I’d bring the immortal hall here and stand in this spot to cast the sealing to hide from pursuers and the sword hunting me. Wuyu, is the position right?”
Wen Wuyu raised a mirror and scanned the area. In its surface a thumb-sized girl controlled light to measure distances between the mirror and the surrounding mountains.
The mirror rotated with Chen Shi as the center, and Wen Wuyu quickly gauged the distances between Chen Shi and the cliff walls, “Move forward one cun to the left.”
Chen Shi moved a cun, faced forward, and suddenly activated the Golden Bell Sealing Technique. With a humming sound, countless golden talismans spun out from his body and flew outward, forming a gigantic golden bell!
The golden bell expanded, its coverage increasing, passing through those aurora-like sword qi and connecting with the mountain mass.
When the golden bell touched the mountain surface, identical talisman patterns emerged on the rock.
Those talisman patterns collectively formed a complete golden bell!
Chen Shi’s Golden Bell formation overlapped perfectly with the Golden Bell the Daoist Tianzhen had cast before death; every talisman matched without the slightest deviation!
It seemed Daoist Tianzhen had cast the Golden Bell seal here, locking himself and the immortal hall within, fighting the aberration with all he had.
Xiang Kun and the others stared, dazzled and incredulous.
The Right Consort nudged Xiang Kun and whispered, “Your Highness, do you have such means?”
Xiang Kun shook his head, a little sad, “So he is the ruler, and I am merely the crown prince…”
Using his own Golden Bell formation, Chen Shi activated all the talismans across the mountain, scanned with his gaze, and soon found something, “There!”
Wen Wuyu looked where he pointed, seeing talisman patterns missing at the edge of a cliff. Where they should have overlapped with Chen Shi’s Golden Bell talismans, corresponding talismans were not activated.
There was only a tiny cluster of flame still burning.
“Strange, what kind of flame is that? It managed to burn through a half-immortal’s seal!”
Chen Shi tried to summon the True Martial Exorcising Sword. The immortal sword flew out and approached the flame, trying to pick it up on the blade tip. Suddenly the flame roared and leapt toward him!
Chen Shi hastily countered with the sword and barely held the flame back!
The instant the flame touched the sword it exploded with a boom, and that single burst split into countless flaming blossoms scattering in all directions!
Chen Shi’s expression changed, he retreated and shouted, “Into the immortal hall!”
Everyone rushed into the hall. Outside came an incredibly violent explosion; immortal fire that incinerated everything howled across, a sound like a hundred dragons and ten thousand bulls roaring together, deafening. The immortal hall was instantly turned red with flame!
Prince Lou Che and Lou Tianyi and the others were lying in wait at the mountain foot, ready to ambush Chen Shi and the rest. After all, Chen Shi and Xiang Kun were the ruler and a former crown prince of Heavenly Pool; killing them here would be a great feat!
At the moment the immortal fire erupted into thousands of explosions, Lou Tianyi’s face changed. Without a word he manifested a true form a thousand zhang tall, grabbed Prince Lou Che, and flew away with beating wings!
Other Yu Kingdom experts were horrified and fled for their lives!
Boom—
The terrifying wave of fire burst from this mountain at the center, flames spreading across a hundred-li in an instant!
When Lou Tianyi’s wings beat, thunder crashed, carrying Prince Lou Che a hundred-li away. The crushing force battered him; bones fractured and his organs nearly shattered!
His bloodline had awakened to the sixth level, already rare among the young generation, but Lou Tianyi’s flight speed was unimaginably fast and still left him grievously wounded!
Lou Tianyi crashed out of control onto a peak a hundred li away, rolled, then rose with wings spread, coming to a stop and looking back to see the immortal fire like a gigantic torch lighting ten thousand li of Yin Mountain!
This was a power he could not comprehend, leaving him stunned.
Of all those seeking immortals this time, only he and Prince Lou Che survived. Dozens of Yu Kingdom elites whose bloodlines had awakened to eight layers had not one escape the immortal fire’s range; all perished in the blaze!
Inside the immortal hall, as the immortal fire’s power threatened to invade the treasure hall, Daoist Tianzhen’s corpse released an invisible force that held the fire at bay, and the fire never touched those inside.
When the flame’s power finally dissipated, everyone remained motionless.
Crimson Sovereign lifted his foot to step outside but was grabbed by Chen Shi, who shook his head, “Don’t go. The hall is still too hot.”
Crimson Sovereign laughed, “I am of the Fire Qiao ghost clan, I’m not afraid of heat.”
He stepped across the threshold, but the instant his sole hit the ground he let out a piercing scream, recoiled, his footpad scorched away a layer of skin.
Even his clan’s innate divine ability couldn’t withstand the afterheat of the immortal fire!
Crimson Sovereign sat on the ground in tears.
Everyone waited quietly. Two little yakshas flanked Chen Shi, incense burning in their hands.
The hall cooled slowly. Chen Shi, bored, brought the two little yakshas into his small temple and had them offer incense to Stone Ji Your Ladyship.
Stone Ji Your Ladyship felt pleased, thinking, “The envoy treats me well. Next time I’ll resist a little longer before fleeing to repay his kindness.”
“Who will test whether it’s still hot outside?” the Right Consort rolled her eyes and said, “Witch Yan, throw one of your ghost dolls out and see if it gets scalded.”
Witch Yan and her ghost dolls glared fiercely at her.
Chen Shi said, “I’m a skeleton, I’m not afraid of heat.”
He stepped out to test the temperature. After a moment he said, “You can come out now.”
They all stepped out cautiously. Although their soles still felt warm, by drawing on their innate patterns they could endure it.
Chen Shi checked the sky and noticed it had grown slightly brighter, as night was drawing near.
The underworld’s sky was gray and hazy. At night it actually became brighter because the mortal world’s yin energy strengthened, thinning the barrier between the two realms so some moonlight from the living world faintly leaked in. During the day the barrier thickened and no light passed through.
Chen Shi reined in his gaze and unintentionally asked, “Prince, how long has your father been dead?”
“One month.” Crown Prince Xiang Kun said.
Chen Shi said, “Don’t always want to take revenge on me. I didn’t kill your father. I can treat you as a prince.”
Xiang Kun snorted, “So he does want to be my dad!”
Wen Wuyu suddenly said, “A month ago was a Fog Moon Night, right? I know how your father and the others died! Let’s hurry downhill!”
Chen Shi suddenly realized, his face changing, he ran down and shouted, “When the Fog Moon appears, dead immortals and gods can be resurrected! Daoist Tianzhen will come back to life!”
Everyone followed after him.
Xiang Kun said, “If Daoist Tianzhen comes back to life, isn’t that a good thing?”
Wen Wuyu snapped, “If it were, your father wouldn’t have died!”
Xiang Kun’s eyes widened and he shuddered.
On the night his father Xiang Fu died, it was indeed a Fog Moon Night. The Xiang Fang Clan elites who followed Xiang Fu all perished. Xiang Fu returned only half his body as if struck by the True Martial Exorcising Sword. Xiang Fu had been very powerful; he had persisted in returning to Heavenly Pool and couldn’t hold on, the sword wound erupting and killing him unnaturally!
They hurried down the mountain to find the sky had brightened even more, light appearing everywhere in the space though its source could not be seen.
They rushed onward. Chen Shi shouted, “Find a tree taller than the mountain ridge! Hide up in the trees. If you stay above the fog you won’t be afflicted!”
At that moment the sky suddenly brightened, and a huge moon abruptly appeared, hanging low as if perched atop the mountain, reachable by hand.
This moon was four to five times larger than the moon Chen Shi had seen in the mortal world, and six to seven times larger than the Ancestor Land moon. Within the moon were multiple concentric eye-like pupils, layer upon layer, as many as nine rings.
Suddenly thick mists poured down from the moon and crashed into the valleys of Yin Mountain with a heavy sound.
Soon the dense fog spread down from mountain to mountain like a flood blotting out the sky, surging toward them.
“Hurry!”
Everyone revealed their true forms and sprinted with all their might. Some ran by sheer physical power, some used awakened innate abilities to step upon Yin winds and ran fast.
The sound of rushing water came from behind, the distance between them and the fog closing rapidly!
Chen Shi glanced back and saw huge masses of flesh and blood churning in the mist, much like the scenes they had seen in Daoist Tianzhen’s Realm of Emptiness!
They fled desperately. Chen Shi shouted, “Run! Keep running! Tianzhen’s Realm of Emptiness has a limit!”
Wen Wuyu whispered, “There is a limit, indeed—several thousand li.”
Upon hearing this, Chen Shi felt despair.
At that moment he felt a familiar power summoning him: Granny Sha was using a soul-calling technique, trying to draw his Primordial Spirit back into his body!
Chen Shi gritted his teeth and resisted the soul-call, struggling forward with the others.
“I am the ruler of the nation, how can I abandon my people and flee alone?”
Whoosh—
The fog attacked like a great wind and drowned them in its embrace!
Without hesitation Chen Shi summoned the True Martial Exorcising Sword. Sword light swirled around them in a protective ring. Everyone was surrounded by chilling radiance as the great strips of flesh-and-blood tendrils falling from the sky slammed against the sword-light, being repelled and driven away!
In the mortal world Granny Sha gave a soft exclamation, her face strange as she looked up, “A force is stopping me from calling Little Ten back!”
Chen Tang asked with concern, “Is there any way?”
Granny Sha sneered, “In soul arts I have never feared anyone! I’ll go to the underworld and borrow the laws of heaven and earth to contend with this thing. I’ll wrest Little Ten’s Primordial Spirit back!”
