Ascension Day

Xu Ying was stunned.

Da Zhong let out a DANG, then twitched. The sound was dull and muted.

Xu Ying’s heart skipped a beat. The girl in the coffin had told him to whip the sky, and he had assumed it was a simple matter of cracking it a few times, perhaps as a ritual to send off a god. After all, there were similar folk customs. When plagues broke out, people would beat gongs and drums and set boats on fire, hoping to scare away the Plague God.

What he never expected was that the whip would suddenly swell to an immense size and lash out at the vast, boundless Plague God in the sky!

The crack of the whip was accompanied by a howling gale. The wind fanned the flames on the Tower Ship, causing them to rage even more fiercely and engulf the entire hull!

Amidst the howling gale, the burning Tower Ship lifted off the river and into the air!

He had noticed the ship before, but only now could he make out its details.

The Tower Ship had vermilion sides and a golden hull, its walls adorned with ancient divine murals.

The murals on its sides depicted a Phoenix carrying wood, building a nest, setting it alight, and achieving rebirth from the flames.

The image at the prow was of the Vermilion Bird, surrounded by a great fire.

The image at the stern was of Zhurong, a ferocious and ugly god standing in the center of a sea of fire.

As the Tower Ship rode the gale into the sky, it grew larger and larger, the blaze upon it raging ever more fiercely!

The Tower Ship continued to grow, rising higher on the wind as its raging fire seemed to set the very heavens ablaze.

Suddenly, the Phoenixes on the ship’s walls took flight, the Vermilion Bird beat its wings, and Zhurong commanded the fire. The great blaze from the ship billowed out, burning the sky a solid crimson!

In the sky, the Plague God’s tentacles sizzled as they burned, glistening with oil. The enormous, writhing appendages twisted and trembled in the flames.

The corner of Xu Ying’s eye twitched. He wasn’t just whipping the Plague God—he was roasting it alive.

’The girl in the coffin told me to strike until I have no strength left. Should I keep going?’

At this thought, Xu Ying steeled his resolve. He yanked the long whip back and thought, ’The Divine Spirits say I’ve violated the Celestial Rules, and the Officials say I’ve broken the law. There’s no path for me in the Mortal World or the Underworld! Whipping a Celestial God today just means I have no path in the Celestial Realm, either! What do I have to fear?’

The young man drew back the whip, a heroic passion surging through him. He swung it toward the Plague God in the sky. "If this can end the great plague, what’s the harm in flogging a god? Plague God, allow me to send you on your way!"

He forcefully retracted the whip. The lash, which had been a mile or two long, shrank with incredible speed until it was only thirty or forty feet in length. But as he swung it out again, the long whip once more became immensely thick. Countless Dragon Sinews writhed within it, the vibrations making his arm go numb!

"CRACK!"

Thunder and lightning raged in the sky. The whip was even thicker and longer than before. The Dragon Sinews within it leaped and writhed, imbuing it with supreme might as it lashed viciously against the Plague God’s tentacles, sending flesh and blood flying everywhere!

Chunks of flesh the size of small mountains rained down from the sky. The Celestial God’s blood cascaded like a waterfall, becoming a torrential downpour of blood that dyed the heavens and the earth red!

This country was called Zhu Du. A plague had broken out, leaving nine out of ten homes empty. Corpses littered the land, with no one to collect them.

Throughout Zu Du Country, thousands of Nuo Masters looked up at the sky, their faces filled with horror.

They saw a ship of fire sailing through the gales in the sky, its flames blazing furiously. Around it, Abnormal Phenomena in the form of Divine Demons like the Vermilion Bird, Zhurong, and the Phoenix appeared, fanning the flames even higher!

The sky itself was being ignited by the strange flames from the fiery ship, sizzling and burning out of thin air!

Suddenly, a fiery whip several miles long lashed out. It looked like countless dragon-serpents linked head to tail. It struck the sky, which seemed to crack open as enormous fragments plummeted down!

From the cracks torn in the sky, blood poured down like a waterfall!

The Nuo Masters of Zu Du Country were filled with shock and disbelief. A bleeding sky was the stuff of legends, recorded in Ancient Texts or passed down in oral tales, but this was the first time any of them had witnessed it firsthand!

They could not see the Plague God in the sky, only the ship of fire and the flaming whip. This was the cause of the Abnormal Phenomenon they witnessed: the sky itself being ignited, shattered, and made to bleed.

But Zu Du Country was a great nation, after all, and it had no shortage of powerful experts and reclusive masters who could perceive the Abnormal Phenomenon in the sky. Yet, the more they could see, the more horrified they became.

The long whip lashed out again and again, striking the Plague God viciously. It filled the sky with wild bolts of lightning and made the Plague God convulse uncontrollably!

The Pure Yang Anomalous Fire that filled the sky roasted the Plague God until it dripped with oil and contorted in agony. Combined with the relentless flogging, its tentacles began to retract, squeezing back into the Heavenly Dao World.

In the sky, the Plague God’s boundless body was actually, slowly, shrinking.

This once-unbeatable Celestial God was about to be driven back into the Heavenly Dao World by a burning ship and a flaming whip!

The girl from the coffin stood quietly on a hilltop not far from the Naihe River. Her clothes swayed gently in the wind, giving her the appearance of a Fairy about to take flight.

The girl had a gentle and serene demeanor, but as she glanced at the sky, her heart was anything but calm.

Finally, the fiery ship took to the air, and a great fire ignited the heavens. Then, the long whip rose from the earth like a soaring dragon and lashed out at the Plague God!

A faint smile touched the girl’s lips.

However, after that first lash, all went still. A second strike was slow to come.

The light in the girl’s eyes dimmed. She whispered, "I can’t blame him. Anyone would find it hard to continue after witnessing such a terrifying scene..."

She had barely finished the thought when a second lash shot toward the sky. The Divine Whip, wreathed in raging Pure Yang Anomalous Fire, once again struck the Plague God viciously, tearing its tentacles open and sending flesh and blood flying!

The Divine Whip stirred a gale that fanned the Tower Ship’s flames, spreading the conflagration across the sky and roasting the Plague God’s innumerable tentacles until they sizzled!

The girl smiled and said softly, "To defy the world and still dare to become a Qi Refiner, in an age where Qi Refining has all but vanished... He’s just like me. Audacious to a fault!"

Her eyes sparkled as she gazed at the sky, whispering, "Summoning a Plague God requires a heavy price. If it were me, I would never allow someone to simply send it back to the Heavenly Dao World. I would definitely intervene and eliminate the person responsible! I’m curious to see just who you are!"

Her gaze flickered. ’These people let the Plague God slaughter indiscriminately, diverted the Naihe River, besieged Little Stone Mountain, and rescued me from the bottom of a well. Then, they simply vanished without a trace.’

She knew there had to be a conspiracy at play!

’We Qi Refiners pursue Cultivation by defying the heavens. If we dare to oppose heaven itself, how could we possibly be used by petty schemers like you?’

As she stared at the sky, her eyes suddenly lit up. She saw a figure flying rapidly beneath the sea of fire, heading straight for the place where the fiery whip originated!

That was precisely where Xu Ying was swinging the whip!

"Found you!"

Behind the girl, the Black Coffin shot into the sky, its Chains unfurling as it flew straight toward that figure!

"Stay right where you are!"

Beneath the sea of fire, a flash of light more brilliant than the sun erupted!

Xu Ying was still swinging the long whip, which grew ever longer and more powerful, lashing the sky until blood rained down. As for the Tower Ship, it had become a raging inferno that set the Plague God’s various limbs ablaze!

The Plague God’s tentacles were steadily retracting into the Heavenly Dao World and were just about to disappear completely. At that very moment, the sky split open. An incomparably massive tentacle descended from above, aiming to crush the ground where the whip originated—the very spot where Xu Ying stood!

The tentacle was like a colossal finger, as if the Plague God had flown into a true rage and intended to crush the person who dared to flog and burn It on the spot!

The flames had crept up the long whip in Xu Ying’s hand and were about to reach the handle. His heart was already pounding in his chest, but when he saw the tentacle descending with his Celestial Eye, he didn’t hesitate. He instantly dropped the flaming whip, turned tail, and ran, yelling, "Lord Zhong, run!"

Da Zhong was injured and not moving quickly enough. Xu Ying immediately doubled back, grabbed the Bell by its loop, and took off at a frantic pace!

Above them, space continuously shattered. The pressure from the Plague God’s tentacle caused rolling Thunder Fire to pour out of the fragmented space, streaming in all directions.

"BOOM!"

An incomparably terrifying shockwave erupted, kicking up a hurricane that uprooted everything from the ground—trees, houses, and boulders alike—and flung them into the air!

Caught in the hurricane, a Big Copper Bell was sent tumbling and rolling, crashing into trees and boulders as it flew off to some unknown destination.

Inside that Copper Bell, a young man braced his arms and legs against the Bell Wall to keep himself from being tossed around.

————

"Our silver hoes fall on the Five Ridges, / Our iron arms shake the Three Rivers. / Oh, God of Plague, where are you bound? / Paper boats and bright candles light up the sky." — Excerpt from Chairman Mao’s "Farewell to the God of Plague." May the country be prosperous and its people live in peace. May the Plague God leave and never return~