Ascension Day

"Wa-wa... Watered down? How absurd!"

Meng Po was furious. She bellowed, "How could I possibly water down my soup? Even Immortals become dazed and forget their past and present lives after drinking my soup. It’s obvious you just gave him too much, and he’s starting to feel the effects."

As she said this, she suddenly realized her mistake and hastily added, "Please don’t take offense, Honored Emissary. It’s just... there’s absolutely no reason my soup would be watered down."

The man held the bowl of Meng Po’s Soup under a Cyan Paper Umbrella. He drifted away, gradually disappearing into the hazy mist.

In the Broken Temple World, Xu Ying suddenly leaped from the bell, landing on the Immortal Mountain below. The young man sped through the forest, evading the four searching Stone Dragons in the sky. Da Zhong followed close behind, trailing him to the nearest altar.

Beside the altar stood a Divine Statue. Though it was shattered into several pieces, you could still make out its once-commanding posture. It must have been magnificent and martial, radiating an intimidating aura without any hint of anger.

What was strange was that the Divine Statue was still wreathed in a dense Incense Smoke Qi, even richer than that of the City God of Xue Ling Mansion!

’The Divine Spirit is dead, but its Incense Smoke Qi hasn’t dispersed. How strange.’ Xu Ying was puzzled.

It was common knowledge that a Divine Spirit’s Incense Smoke Qi dissipated after its death.

Xu Ying walked closer to examine it. A clamor of voices reached his ears—the lingering echoes of mortal prayers left within the Incense Smoke Qi.

Mortals prayed to the Divine Spirit for favorable weather, for blessings upon their descendants, for lasting peace and stability, or for many children and bountiful harvests. These thoughts, similar to the Contemplation practiced by Qi Refiners and Nuo Masters, combined with the Incense Smoke Qi to form Magical Power.

A Divine Spirit’s Magical Power was determined by two factors. First, the number of years it had received offerings; the longer the period, the stronger the power. Second, the number of its worshippers; the more worshippers, the stronger the power.

Xu Ying inspected the statue’s fractures. The breaks were irregular, suggesting they were caused by weathering and falls over a long period. However, the area at the top of the skull didn’t look like it was damaged by the elements.

The top of this Divine Statue’s skull was broken open, revealing a hollow interior. Judging from the fracture marks, the damage seemed to have come from within, forcing the top of the skull to burst outward!

’The Divine Spirit’s head is hollow! But why?’ Xu Ying wondered in surprise.

’There’s no reason for a Divine Spirit’s head to be hollow. They don’t need brains. All they need is for their Ghost Soul to inhabit the Divine Statue!’

Xu Ying leaned halfway into the statue’s head and discovered some peculiar patterns on the inner wall of the skull. They looked like writing, but not quite. It was too dark inside to see them clearly.

Xu Ying pulled himself out and said to Da Zhong, "Lord Zhong, shrink down a bit."

Da Zhong shrank until it was about two feet tall.

Xu Ying grabbed the bell’s loop, leaned back into the statue’s head, and gave the bell a good shake. Da Zhong took the hint. Strange patterns appeared on its surface, emitting a faint glow.

By this light, Xu Ying was able to clearly see the patterns and text on the inner wall of the statue’s head.

He found that he couldn’t recognize any of the characters.

Da Zhong recognized them. "It’s a ritual text for Summoning the Soul," it said, "written in the script used by Ancient Qi Refiners to create Talismans! This kind of text is used to gather lonely, wandering Ghost Souls. However, the text inside the skull isn’t from the Righteous Dao. It’s more like an Evil Technique for soul summoning, used for refining Ghost Souls into Magical Treasures or Spirit Pills. A few of the characters are even written incorrectly, which means it wasn’t an Ancient Qi Refiner who wrote it."

’An ancient Evil Technique?’

Xu Ying pulled himself out, holding the bell. He asked, bewildered, "If this is the Immortal Realm, why are there Divine Spirits? And why would there be a ritual text for Summoning the Soul?"

’Divine Spirits need Incense and Candlelight from mortals. Surely no one in the Immortal Realm worships Divine Spirits, right?’

’Besides, what’s the point of summoning ghosts and souls in the Immortal Realm? Are there even Ghost Souls here?’

’In that case, is the one preaching in the great temple really an Immortal?’ Xu Ying tilted his head up, gazing at the grand temple in the sky, which was encircled by five Immortal Mountains.

Suddenly, he froze. He stared at the other Immortal Mountains and exclaimed, "Lord Zhong, look at the layout of these five Immortal Mountains! Doesn’t it resemble the positions of the Five Viscera in the Mysterious Domain?"

Hearing this, Da Zhong laughed involuntarily. "The Mysterious Domain? The positions of the Five Viscera? How is that possible? This is supposed to be the Immortal Realm. There was just an Immortal preaching in that temple..."

It trailed off. Compared to the idea of the Immortal Realm and a preaching Immortal, the Mysterious Domain seemed far more plausible. After all, not even its master, back in its own era, had ever seen the Immortal Realm, let alone a real Immortal.

Its chime rang out, using the echoes from the mountains to survey the surrounding geography. It was only then that it realized Xu Ying was right. This place truly did resemble the Mysterious Domain.

In the Mysterious Domain, the Five Viscera hung like inverted mountains in the sky. Similarly, these five Immortal Mountains also had their bases facing upward and their peaks pointing down. The five Immortal Mountains had originally been buried underground in this orientation. Even after ascending into the sky to orbit the temple, their overall posture had not changed.

The five Immortal Mountains were staggered at different heights, arranged in the order of the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, and kidneys. Their shapes also resembled those of the Five Viscera.

More importantly, the massive boulders that had fallen from these five Immortal Mountains had hair-like substances caught in their crevices. If these were truly Immortal Mountains, they absolutely shouldn’t have something like that.

These five Immortal Mountains looked more like they were petrified and had been invaded by some external evil, causing them to mold and fester!

After the bell’s chime, Xu Ying hastily took Da Zhong and slipped away.

Not long after they left, two Stone Dragons arrived together, treading on clouds of smoke. Unable to find Xu Ying, they both frowned.

"If only we’d brought a few Earth Gods with us," one of the Stone Dragons sighed.

Xu Ying was leading Da Zhong toward a second Divine Statue when someone in the sky suddenly cried out. Xu Ying quickly looked up and saw Divine Spirits from the Yin Court clashing with the Governor’s Officials. The two factions were locked in a fierce battle on the floating boulders, their various Divine Powers colliding in a chaotic melee that seemed to darken the very sky.

The cry came from one of the Officials who had inherited the Zhou Family’s legacy. He was heavily wounded and immediately tried to activate his Mud Ball Secret Treasury, mobilizing its Activity to heal his injuries. But unexpectedly, the Activity within him suddenly began to flow out of his control, absorbed by the massive boulder beneath his feet!