On the Path to the Great Dao

"Chen Yindu, you are also undergoing demonic transformation. You will become the finest of Cataclysms." Jing Yushu smiled as he walked down from the tea house, his voice carrying over.

Chen Yindu watched Jing Yushu depart into the distance and murmured, "If everyone turns into evil spirits, what will the evil spirits eat? Evil spirits don't engage in production—they only know how to hunt. If they can't eat humans or other living beings, they'll start killing each other. Little Ten, what kind of bewitching soup did you feed these fellows? But then again..."

His gaze sharpened. "You're all so powerful, existing as half-immortals and true immortals. Back then, why would you let Little Ten, a ghost without a physical body, become your emperor?"

Especially the master of the Cyan Ghost Hand—that one was overwhelmingly mighty. Even Chen Yindu didn't know how strong he truly was.

When the yin and yang realms merged into one, the Ghost Hand's Master had captured him with a single move!

Such a powerful being had willingly revered Chen Shi as emperor. In Chen Yindu's view, there had to be some hidden reason behind it.

"I wonder if Little Ten's seal is still holding firm." He felt a twinge of worry.

Tingzhou, Gu County.

Mountains stretched across the underworld. A formidable ghost god dwelled among the peaks, looking up as Little Duan Immortal flew into his territory with Chen Shi in tow.

This ghost god was a thousand zhang tall, with multiple arms. He called himself the Many-Armed Ghost King, lord of these lands, controlling many mountain peaks and commanding a host of ghostly minions. In normal times, if any cultivator dared fly over his head, he'd knock them down and devour them. But this time was different—he sensed that the woman was extremely dangerous. If he made a move, he might end up dead himself.

The Many-Armed Ghost King decided to pretend he hadn't seen them, hoping the pair would also fail to notice him and fly on past.

To his surprise, they landed instead.

The Ghost King's heart lurched. The woman's gaze swept over him. "Don't say a word. Act like before—pretend you didn't see us. Understood?"

The Many-Armed Ghost King nodded frantically.

Among the mountains lay a ghost clan village—an ox-head village. At its entrance stood an ox-head gate tower.

Chen Shi and Little Duan Immortal hid inside the village. Little ox-head children ran everywhere. In one ox-headed ghost's household alone, there were seven or eight little ox-heads, mooing and butting heads with their horns, making quite a ruckus.

Once they grew a bit bigger, they could serve the Many-Armed Ghost King—building him palaces, trimming plants, offering incense, catching ghosts and monsters, and attending to his daily needs.

If too many hands were available, their parents would forge a steel pitchfork at a volcanic crater, pack them a small bundle, and kick them out the door to fend for themselves. After all, they couldn't afford to keep feeding them.

Little Duan Immortal and Chen Shi hid in this village, occasionally glancing nervously at the sky.

After a moment, three formidable figures flew overhead. One of them—a Confucian scholar—glanced down, paused, and used ghost language to question the Many-Armed Ghost King. Only after a few moments did he leave.

Little Duan Immortal breathed a sigh of relief.

"Finally safe."

Only then did she realize she was still holding Chen Shi's hand. Her cheeks flushed slightly. She quickly let go, got up, slipped into Chen Shi's small temple, and placed the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade on the miniature shrine.

"It's better not to use this immortal artifact unless absolutely necessary. Too sinister."

She hesitated for a moment, then—imitating Chen Shi—lit a stick of incense for the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade.

When she came out of the temple, she saw that Chen Shi had already gotten along famously with the village's little ox-head children.

Chen Shi knocked them all down with one punch each—bloody noses and swollen faces littering the ground.

It had started when Chen Shi transformed into a little ox-head and began butting heads with them. One headbutt knocked one unconscious; another headbutt knocked another out cold. The little ox-heads, indignant, tried to fight him, only to get beaten up instead.

"Fourteen years old and still this childish."

Little Duan Immortal snorted. But then she remembered how Chen Shi had once butted heads with Little Duan and ended up knocked unconscious by her, and a smile crept onto her face.

"This man never grew up... But the one who knocked him out was me, so the other me must not have grown up either."

Just as she thought this, she recalled another memory from Little Duan's mind—Chen Shi butting heads with another person named Wen Wuyu after they'd both transformed into little ox-heads. She snorted again.

Chen Shi had beaten every little ox-head into submission. He felt a swell of pride, sweeping away the gloom of being controlled by the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade.

"Can we leave now?" he asked Little Duan Immortal.

Little Duan Immortal pushed aside her distracting thoughts. "Not yet. Those three are still searching for you everywhere. Wait a few days, and it'll be safer to go out."

Her gaze flickered. "Once we're out, what are your plans?"

Chen Shi blinked and laughed. "I'm going back to find Black Pot and the Xiucai, of course. Continue the deification project. No need to test me, Immortal—I'm fine now. As long as I don't hold that blade, there won't be any problems."

Little Duan Immortal let out a breath. "I was being overly suspicious. Do you still intend to kill me and marry another?"

Chen Shi said seriously, "I was under the demonic blade's control back then, so I said those reckless things. I apologize to you."

Little Duan Immortal's eyes held a hint of laughter. She dodged aside, not letting him bow to her.

They settled into this little ox-head village, choosing an abandoned house. The little ox-heads Chen Shi had beaten into submission came running over, cleaned the run-down place spotless, and attended to their meals and daily needs with great thoughtfulness, treating them like wealthy masters.

Chen Shi sat in a rocking chair while two little ox-heads gently rocked it.

Little Duan Immortal sat in a rocking chair beside him, also served by little ox-heads.

Chen Shi said, puzzled, "Back then, after I died, I walked through the underworld. Did I really subdue a huge batch of Demons, Calamities, and Catastrophes and make them revere me as emperor? They're so powerful—how did I manage to subdue them? I feel like something's off about it."

He'd been dead for ten years, wandering the underworld for that same duration.

A ghost without a physical body faces immense difficulty in cultivation. First, they must resolve the problem of having no form, or else the hells would drag them into the hands of underworld officers.

The underworld official power of the Western Ox New Continent didn't cover the entire underworld, making it an extremely dangerous place for ghosts. All kinds of ghost monsters and ghost gods might prey on wandering souls, or use them to plant treasures like Soul-Returning Lotuses.

Surviving as a ghost was incredibly hard. During those ten years, Chen Shi hadn't just survived—he'd subdued a large group of Demons, Calamities, and Catastrophes. Even Chen Shi found it absurd.

Little Duan Immortal was puzzled about something else. "Why did your grandfather seal away those memories?"

Chen Shi guessed, "Maybe Grandpa thought those memories were too painful for me, so he sealed them away. Or maybe he thought I was too..."

He hesitated. "Too dangerous."

Little Duan Immortal turned sideways. "Aren't you curious about that period of your life?"

"Not curious."

Chen Shi paused, then admitted honestly, "I am curious. I really want to know what happened back then, how I ended up running around with Daocheng and the others."

He gazed at the sky, light flickering in his eyes, and smiled. "I'm curious how I survived back then, how I got to know Daocheng and those other half-immortals and immortals who'd undergone demonic transformation, how I connected them with the survivors of prehistoric Great Shang and resolved their grudges. And I'm even more curious—how did I get them to revere me as emperor?"

He turned around, facing Little Duan Immortal directly. "You're an immortal. Do me a favor—unseal Grandpa's lock on my memories, let me remember the past, and then seal me up again. Deal?"

Their eyes met. Little Duan Immortal felt his breath wash over her, her heart inexplicably beating a little faster. She turned away, looked up at the sky, and said flatly, "No deal. I think your grandfather had his reasons for sealing you... Don't look down my collar. Look again, and I'll kill you."

Chen Shi reluctantly withdrew his gaze. Suddenly he leaped up from the rocking chair and shouted, "Time to cultivate! I'm going to work on the Three Corpses and earn the right to look openly!"

Brimming with enthusiasm, he activated the Sixth New Talisman in the courtyard. Inside and outside his body, two layers of Dao Fields formed—yin and yang alternating, the sun and moon revolving.

Little Duan Immortal watched his cultivation process closely. She saw his yin-yang energies silently expand the Dao Field, spreading out from the small yard to cover the entire ox-head ghost village, then extending further outward.

In mere moments, his Dao Field had enveloped the surrounding mountains.

Around a dozen villages lay nearby, all ghost clan villages with different races—besides ox-heads, there were also yakshas and asuras.

Chen Shi's yin and yang energies transformed into a sun and moon that cycled through the mountains, sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset, over and over again.

"His cultivation stirs up too much commotion, affecting heaven and earth around him. It's bound to attract the attention of Ru Emperor's Son and the others!"

Just as Little Duan Immortal was about to wake Chen Shi, she glanced beside her and froze.

The little ox-heads who had been rocking their chairs—their horns were slowly retracting into their heads. Their hooves were gradually turning into human hands, their ox noses into human noses, their ears into human ears.

One little ox-head was a mischievous sort, so his mother had put a nose ring on him to tug when he didn't behave. Now this little guy had taken on the form of a human child, but the nose ring still hung from his nose.

They stared blankly at their own hands, then looked at each other's faces, utterly bewildered by what was happening.

Little Duan Immortal was stunned too. She sat up from her rocking chair, pulled over one of the children, and examined him closely.

Faint patterns appeared on the child's skin—the patterns of shamanic ritual markings. Very faint, but definitely from the Great Shang era.

Her body trembled. She released this child and checked the other little ox-heads.

They too had turned into human children, their bodies covered in faint shamanic ritual markings.

Little Duan Immortal felt dizzy. She steadied herself and walked out of the yard onto the village street.

On the street stood many confused adult ox-headed ghosts. Originally over a zhang tall—some with more awakened bloodlines reaching several zhang—they had now all transformed into humans!

They looked around, crying out in panic, but the words coming from their mouths were no longer garbled ghost language but human speech!

Little Duan Immortal examined them one by one. These people wore only coarse cloth shorts or grass-woven clothes, with much of their skin exposed. Their skin too bore the shamanic ritual markings of the Great Shang era!

This type of shamanic ritual marking, during the Great Shang period, was controlled by the Herding People. Confucian masters would use sacrificial rites to implant these markings into the bloodlines of the Herding People, passing them down through generations.

The markings on these ox-headed people proved they were descendants of Great Shang's Herding People!

Her body swayed. Her heart pounded violently, her mouth went dry, and a dizzying sensation washed over her.

She didn't know whether it was happiness shaking her Dao Heart or grief shattering it, but suddenly tears burst from her eyes.

"I thought you were all dead..."

She stood there stiffly, letting the scalding tears roll down her cheeks, choking out, "I thought only I remained of Great Shang, only those who had undergone demonic transformation... But you're still alive. Great Shang's people are still alive!"

Just in a different form.

Suddenly she remembered something. She flew up and went to another nearby village—a horse-face village. The villagers had also turned into human forms, standing around in confusion.

They too had shamanic ritual markings!

Little Duan Immortal flew to other villages, checking one after another. Every village was the same!

Her heart suddenly filled with immense joy. Great Shang had always been there.

She wasn't alone.

When the catastrophe struck, all the immortals of the Great Shang era had either turned demonic or sealed themselves away, with no time to save anyone. The remaining people of Great Shang had faced the darkness alone, facing the demonic transformation. They struggled to survive in suffering, using the shamanic ritual markings in their bloodlines to gain the power to fight the harsh environment and evil spirits and demonic beasts!

They too were affected by demonic energy, gradually changing—from humans, slowly taking on forms similar to their shamanic ritual markings.

Finally, they perfectly merged with the demonic energy, becoming ox-heads, horse-faces, herding ghosts.

They became ghost clans.

But what power had turned them back into human forms?

Little Duan Immortal's heart trembled as she thought of Chen Shi's Dao Field.

Chen Shi was activating the Sixth New Talisman, cultivating the Yin-Yang Variation, trying to refine the Three Corpses Gods. This had triggered this strange transformation.

That wish to look down her collar had driven his rapid progress.

Little Duan Immortal's face flushed. She walked back toward the ox-head village, thinking, "Maybe he can find a path... a way to restore heaven and earth to their original state..."

Suddenly, her expression turned cold. She stopped.

A young Daoist caught her eye.

Daocheng!

This half-immortal was extremely skilled—able to survive a heavy blow from her. An absolute top-tier expert!

If Daocheng was nearby, then Ru Emperor's Son Song Yi and the other monk should also be around!

Little Duan Immortal quickly looked around. Sure enough, she saw Ru Emperor's Son Song Yi standing at the village entrance, examining the markings on one of the ox-headed men, his body trembling slightly with excitement.

And the monk stood in mid-air, staring blankly at his own hands.

"Is this His Majesty's Dao Field?"

Daocheng stared mesmerized at his own hands, murmuring, "I suddenly feel alive again... Like a living human being."

The monk wept in silence.

Within Chen Shi's Dao Field, their demonic transformations were gradually reversing, shifting from Cataclysms back toward human.

"We haven't seen His Majesty."

Song Yi walked over. "And we haven't seen the Heavenly Maiden either. Let's go."

Daocheng whispered, "Just a little longer... I haven't felt alive in such a long time."

The three of them stood in Chen Shi's Dao Field for a long while, then silently turned and walked out of this strange domain.

The moment they stepped beyond its boundaries, they transformed back into Cataclysms, demonic energy and evil nature flooding their bodies. But the three of them walked away without looking back.