Ascension Day

The people inside the temple hurriedly began circulating their copies of the *Daozhen Xuanji Detailed Explanation*. Feeling their connection to the grand temple weakening, they rushed for the exit.

Behind them, the White-robed Nuo Immortal attacked.

A woman looked back and saw the White-robed Nuo Immortal with its back to her. Its back split open to either side, transforming into an impossibly large mouth.

The woman screamed, and in the next moment, the White-robed Nuo Immortal swallowed her whole!

There was a moment of squirming within the White-robed Nuo Immortal’s skin. The next time its back opened, it spat out a skeleton and lunged for another person. It was weightless, drifting like the wind, flitting about the grand temple. Every time it caught someone, its back would open up to swallow them.

But quite a few people still managed to escape the temple. Xu Ying, carrying Yuan Qi, took a mighty leap and landed on a massive boulder. Yuan Qi was about to jump to the next boulder when Xu Ying stopped him, shouting, "Don’t move!"

He abruptly channeled his Sword Qi, splitting the massive boulder in two with a single strike.

The half of the boulder they were on could not support their weight and began to slowly sink, as if it were a stone falling into water.

The people rushing up from behind saw this and followed his example, jumping onto boulders and splitting them in two. However, there were too many people on their stone fragment, and it immediately plummeted, accelerating as it fell.

On that rock, a group of people clung to each other, screaming in terror.

Yuan Qi slithered to the edge of the boulder and looked down. "Falling at this speed," he said, "they most likely won’t survive."

The others became much more careful, not daring to cut off too large a piece of their boulders at once.

Suddenly, the grand temple rumbled and shook. It was as if it had grown countless legs as it uprooted itself from the ground and lunged toward those who had escaped.

The White-robed Nuo Immortal’s voice rang out, full of laughter. "I must have been muddled with anger! I actually forgot that while I can’t leave the temple gates to capture you, I can make the temple chase you. That little sword-wielding brat and you, Lying Snake, where have you gone?"

The temple gate, like a heaven-devouring maw, gave chase.

"Merge with me, become me, and I shall grant you the highest glory and eternal life!"

Xu Ying looked up and saw people falling from the sky, one after another. The fall was so great they wouldn’t hit the ground for a while, their screams echoing endlessly.

In the air, some people walked on the void, while others trod on clouds of qi. The majority, unable to fly, copied the others, jumping onto massive boulders and using their weight to make them plummet.

However, enormous Divine Spirits leaped from the edges of the Immortal Mountains to intercept them. The Divine Spirits came in all shapes and sizes, treading on Fragrant Clouds as they moved in for the kill. There were even massive boulders that had transformed into flesh and blood, waving tentacle-like blood vessels to snatch people from the air.

In a short time, the death toll was immense.

"Ying, that thing on your back... is it a Magical Treasure of a Nuo Master?" Yuan Qi asked suddenly, having spotted the mask on Xu Ying’s back.

Xu Ying was both surprised and delighted. He hurriedly took the Inconstancy Mask off his back and said with a laugh, "Xiaoqi, you really are knowledgeable. This is a mask I got by accident. One of the Officials from Yongzhou Prefecture put it on and transformed into a Wuchang Ghost. It was very strange."

Yuan Qi said, "I’ve read in books that to refine Magical Treasures, Nuo Masters often capture powerful beings like Demon Gods or a Ghost God, cut off their faces, and then refine the essence of these powerful beings into the mask. Once it is refined, whoever wears the mask can transform into the shape the powerful being had in life, possessing its corresponding skills. This mask of yours is most likely the face of a Wuchang Ghost."

Xu Ying was startled and almost threw the mask down, but he thought for a moment and stopped himself.

The boulder beneath their feet was still plummeting. Suddenly, lightning flashed and thunder roared in the sky. Xu Ying looked up to see that it was Governor of Yongzhou Zhou Heng and Magistrate Ling, who were joining forces to attack the grand temple!

A radiant light burst forth from behind Zhou Heng’s head, revealing a Sea of Chaos. Within the Sea of Chaos was an impossibly deep Grotto Heaven, its exterior displaying a spiral pattern that spun as it extended into the dark Void.

Within that Grotto Heaven was a second one, its external structure formed by churning, spinning clouds of qi as it continued to delve deeper into the Sea of Chaos.

Inside the second Grotto Heaven was a third, which plunged even deeper into the Sea of Chaos. It was an astonishing sight.

Xu Ying stared intently and saw, floating behind the head of the portly Governor of Yongzhou, five nested Grotto Heavens, each one a Celestial Heaven!

’Fishing for the Mud Pill in the Sea of Chaos! This Governor of Yongzhou is a true expert! He has already opened the Fifth Layer of the Mud Ball Secret Treasury!’

Xu Ying was overcome with envy. The unburnt Ancient Book in the Qinyan Cave Stone Chamber said that to open the Mud Ball Secret Treasury, one needed the aid of a Grand Nuo. They would have to bombard the Mud Pill’s Chaos Egg with their most powerful strike, blasting a Grotto Heaven into the Chaos, and from that Grotto Heaven, fish out the Mud Ball Activity!

Before, Xu Ying had never fully understood how to "fish" for Mud Ball Activity, but seeing Governor of Yongzhou Zhou Heng battle the White-robed Nuo Immortal, he finally understood.

’The mind is a Sea of Chaos, containing endless Energy,’ he thought. ’A Grotto Heaven is like a deep well that plunges into the chaos of the brain. Just like drawing water from a well, it continuously draws out the Energy from the Sea of Chaos.’

The Cultivation Power of Magistrate Ling Youdao of the Yongzhou Ghost Mansion, who had joined forces with Inspector Zhou Heng, was also incredibly astonishing. This Magistrate of the Ghost Mansion wielded a Judge’s Pen and a Life and Death Book, his Divine Power unparalleled. Countless large, golden characters flew out of the book and bombarded the grand temple.

He was a Magistrate of the Yin Court and enjoyed the Incense and Candlelight of Yongzhou Prefecture. Not only did the common folk worship him, but even the Deities of Yongzhou’s mountains, rivers, villages, and towns had to worship him!

He had been operating in Yongzhou for an extremely long time, and his Incense Smoke Qi was incomparably dense, far surpassing even that of the Stone Statue Divine Spirits in the five Immortal Mountains!

Yet even with these two great experts joining forces, they were in a precarious position before the grand temple.

That grand temple was the Hidden Land of the White-robed Nuo Immortal. It was constructed from countless Dao Images that formed the temple, the waterfalls, the grass, and the trees. Every piece of scenery was a Divine Power of terrifying might!