Ascension Day

The great stone sprouted hair. Upon contact with the man’s Secret Treasury Activity, its hairs flew about wildly. SSSSS! Countless strands pierced the official’s body, then began to writhe as if slurping water.

The official felt the Activity in his Secret Treasury rapidly draining away. Terrified, he opened his mouth and let out a bloodcurdling scream. As he screamed, his entire body shriveled until he was nothing but a dry skeleton.

He had been a seven-foot-tall man, but as a skeleton, he was shrunken and small, only two or three feet high. Even the Activity within his bones had been sucked completely dry.

After the official’s death, the great stone took on the color of flesh and blood. It was bright red and slick with gore. Countless hairs, like tentacles, danced in the air and seized several officials and Divine Spirits who couldn’t dodge in time. With a sickening squelch, the hairs plunged into their bodies!

The Divine Spirits were one thing. After all, Divine Spirits who attain godhood through worship do not have bodies of flesh and blood; only gods from the Demon Race do. However, the officials and guards were all human. They were either disciples or scions of the Zhou Family and had opened their Mud Ball Secret Treasury, so the Activity within them was astonishing.

Their own Activity drained away at an incredible rate. In an instant, another four or five people were sucked dry!

Everyone locked in combat froze, stunned by the sight.

As the great stone devoured the Activity of these few people, its ’hairs’ regained their elasticity. They were, in fact, blood vessels of varying thickness, extending out from the fleshy mass.

The blood vessels, all of different lengths, whipped about until they latched onto another great stone, transferring some of the Activity to it.

This second great stone instantly came alive, its own hairs writhing as it grabbed a fighting Demon God and began to ’feed’.

Xu Ying looked up to a scene of utter chaos. ’Great stones’ soared through the sky, their hairs whipping about, snatching people from all directions. Once caught in their embrace, victims were sucked dry.

Some were so desperate they leaped, trying to reach the Immortal Mountain. But their jumps fell short, and they plummeted from the sky with a scream.

’This Immortal Realm... it’s cursed!’ Xu Ying’s heart pounded as he watched the carnage.

Da Zhong said worriedly, "A lot of people have already gone into the great temple to hear the Immortal’s teachings. I think Yuan Qi went there too."

Xu Ying frowned slightly. He arrived at a second altar, this one mostly intact. It was situated at the junction of two mountain paths, on a perfectly level platform that jutted out from the cliff face.

A Divine Statue stood beside the altar. Its four arms rested on the altar’s edge, and its head was bowed, gazing at the center as if something there had captivated it.

The Divine Statue had four arms, a green, fanged face, and wore a crown of fire. Wings sprouted from its back, and a Cyan Dragon was coiled around its body.

The stone of its body had turned gold, and it glittered so brightly it seemed to have been forged entirely from the precious metal.

’This Divine Spirit has refined a Golden Body. It’s even more powerful than the City God!’

Xu Ying was shaken to his core. He had seen Lingling’s City God, Xue Ling Mansion, fight Zhou Yihang. When the City God used his Magical Power, his Shen Kan had floated in the air amidst the chanting of thousands, filling Xu Ying with a sense of immense shock and pressure!

But the pressure emanating from this Divine Stone Statue was even stronger!

Its Cultivation was likely even more profound than Xue Ling Mansion’s, and its Golden Body was clearly superior!

Even from a distance, he could hear the chanting of a multitude emanating from it, the sound fading in and out.

As Xu Ying moved closer to investigate, a dragon’s cry suddenly echoed from the sky. A forty-to-fifty-foot-long Stone Dragon, treading on cyan clouds, came sprinting through the air. It landed with a roar between Xu Ying and the altar!

When the Stone Dragon landed, its body, wreathed in Incense Smoke Qi, began to change. It underwent a Dragon Transformation, becoming a man with a dragon’s head. He stood over ten feet tall, and a faint golden sheen appeared on his skin.

A faint, almost imperceptible sound of reading emanated from his body—the thoughts of the masses—but it was far weaker than that of the Divine Stone Statue.

"Xu Ying. I am Shi Longzi of the Confucius Temple. By order of the City God, I am here to take you back!"

The Dragon God, Shi Longzi, condensed Incense Smoke Qi into a Flying Sword that floated before him. He said impassively, "You’d best not resist. The City God has given orders that I can kill you and take your soul back."

Xu Ying was about to speak when two more dragon cries rang out. Two more Stone Dragons descended from the sky, transforming into tall, slender, dragon-headed men. One positioned himself behind Xu Ying to the left, the other to the right.

These two Dragon Gods also performed the technique of Gathering Qi into a Sword. Without a word, they formed a triangular encirclement with Shi Longzi.

Xu Ying glanced up. A fourth Stone Dragon circled above on cyan clouds, cutting off his route of escape into the sky.

Xu Ying recognized these four. They were the Stone Dragons carved into the stone pillars of the Ningyuan Confucius Temple. The temple had several massive stone pillars, dozens of feet tall, each with a dragon coiled around it. Scholars would go there to burn incense, praying for academic success. This was why the Incense Smoke Qi on the Stone Dragons carried the sound of reading.

Xu Ying had been to the Confucius Temple himself, but he was hardly the scholarly type, so he had never burned incense to them.

"When I killed Zhou Yihang and Zhou Yang, it was with my Swordsmanship."

Xu Ying performed the technique of Gathering Qi into a Sword, and strands of Sword Qi swirled around him. He said calmly, "All four of you have done no evil and hold a fine reputation among scholars. Don’t force my hand."

The four Stone Dragons were inwardly alarmed. Zhou Yang’s Cultivation Power had been comparable to their own. If Xu Ying could kill Zhou Yang, then in terms of raw power, he could certainly kill any one of them.

But Xu Ying had also killed Zhou Yihang, which meant he was on the same level as the City God himself!

The City God, who had refined a Golden Body and enjoyed five hundred years of Incense and Candlelight, possessed transcendent Magical Power!

Even if the four of them joined forces, victory was not certain!

Xu Ying, however, was secretly anxious. His Cultivation had not yet recovered. Previously, Da Zhong had needed to siphon off his Primordial Qi to maintain flight, causing his Cultivation to decrease rather than increase.

’If the four dragons attack,’ he thought, ’I’ll be in deep trouble.’

Suddenly, Shi Longzi fell to his knees with a THUD. A bizarre smile spread across his face as he began kowtowing incessantly toward the four-armed Divine Statue, muttering strange words of prayer.

The expressions of the two Stone Dragons behind Xu Ying changed drastically. "Xu Ying!" they shouted in unison. "What did you do to our fourth brother?"

Xu Ying discreetly gathered his Primordial Qi and shook his head. "I didn’t do anything!"

One of the Stone Dragons, keeping a wary eye on Xu Ying, cautiously edged over to Shi Longzi’s side. "Fourth brother, what’s wrong?" he called out. "Who ambushed you—"

He was about to pull Shi Longzi to his feet when a strange smile also appeared on his face. He dropped to his knees with a THUD and began kowtowing frantically toward the four-armed Divine Statue, chanting the exact same prayer as Shi Longzi.

"Ying, there’s something wrong with this Divine Statue and the altar!" Da Zhong whispered.

Xu Ying’s blood ran cold.

’A Divine Spirit is defined by its ability to gather faith and Incense Smoke Qi to gain Divine Powers,’ Xu Ying thought. ’Shi Longzi from the Confucius Temple has enjoyed four hundred years of flourishing Incense and Candlelight; his Incense Smoke Qi is powerful. How could he suddenly start worshiping another deity and become a follower of a statue with no soul in it?’

The two Stone Dragons knelt there, their chanting growing faster and faster, the smiles on their faces twisting into grotesque shapes. Suddenly, with a double BANG, the heads of both Shi Longzi and the other Stone Dragon exploded from the inside out!

Xu Ying hastily activated his Celestial Eye, focusing his Divine Sense like a lens. He saw the Divine Souls of the two Stone Dragons fly out from their shattered heads and soar toward the altar held in the four-armed Divine Statue’s embrace!

The altar was high, blocking his normal line of sight. But with his Celestial Eye, everything on it was perfectly clear!

The center of the altar resembled a furnace. A single bead floated in its core, slowly rotating.

When the two Stone Dragons’ Divine Souls reached the center of the altar, they suddenly shattered and dissipated. All that remained was a tiny spark of Undying Primordial Spirit, which flew into the bead.

"Ying, even if there is an Immortal in this Mysterious Domain, it must be an Evil Sword Immortal!"

Da Zhong cried out, "He’s using the Undying Primordial Spirit from Human Souls to refine a Ten Thousand Spirits Pill and repair his own Primordial Spirit!"