Daoist Competition

A few days later, news of the two sects being ambushed midway reached Han Yuan Sect.

Inside the Cave Mansion, Zhang Yan put down the talismanic script and said to the Zhongtai Disciple who had come to deliver the message opposite him, "Many thanks to Sect Leader Qiao for sending someone to inform me of this matter. After you return, please help convey my greetings."

That Disciple said, "The message has been delivered; this lowly one will take his leave at once." He bent his body in a bow, then turned and left the Cave Mansion.

Zhang Yan pondered briefly and said, "Within Fengxiang Sword Sect, only Sect Leader Chen Yuan and two Sword Masters managed to escape, while Kuxin Sect suffered even more grievous losses; Sect Leader He Yizhu alone escaped with his life. After this incident, the strength of these two sects has been greatly diminished; for the next hundred years they will likely have no power to look north again."

Jing You said with a smile, "Master, though that demon killed a dozen people, it still did not get the Star Pearl back; it has busied itself all for nothing."

Zhang Yan lightly shook his head and said, "I fear that is not so."

He reached into his sleeve, took out a Nine Yellow Star Bead, placed it on the desk, and used his Mana to suppress it, then said, "Jing You, you too entered the Dao with a demon body, and you once served at True Master He’s side. Can you recognize what this object is?"

Jing You stared intently for a few moments, then after quite a while he slapped his forehead, pointed at it, and said, "Now that Master has brought it up, this little one vaguely recalls something. If we Demon Cultivators wish to achieve Ascension and become Dao, and have no Xuanmen Qi Dao transmitted down, then we can only cultivate nine Lifebound Primordial Pearls before we can avoid Heaven’s descending calamity. Judging from the appearance of this object, it is extremely similar to a Nine Yellow Star Bead. Yet any Demon Cultivator who can cultivate to such a level of Daoist Cultivation is invariably of the line of Ancient Sky Demons."

By the time he spoke the last words, an unconscious trace of reverence had crept into his voice.

Ancient Sky Demons were Demon Cultivators capable of contending with Cave Heaven True Masters; they could not be compared with a little demon such as himself.

Zhang Yan’s eyes gleamed with a sharp light as he said, "After that day’s incident, some Zhongtai Disciples went to investigate, yet they did not find even a single corpse of the two sects’ Cultivators; there were only some damaged vestment robes and Dharma Treasures. It appears they were drained of Essence Blood and flesh and bone, much like Elder Lin. I had already harbored suspicions before; hearing what you say now, this object is in all likelihood that Lifebound Primordial Pearl."

Jing You was startled and said, "Could it be that this demon is absorbing Essence Blood to allow its demon body to break free?"

Lifebound Primordial Pearls not only can ward off calamity and escape tribulation, they also serve as repositories for Essence Blood. They can devour others’ Essence Blood and make it their own; the more Pearls there are, the faster the Refining.

What is even more worrisome is that, for any Heavenly Demon Essence Blood, so long as a single drop remains and the Divine Soul is not lost, even if the shell of the body is utterly destroyed, it can be Reforged anew. All the more so given that a Heavenly Demon’s body will not necessarily decay like an ordinary demon.

Zhang Yan gazed outside the Cave Mansion, his eyes deep and unfathomable, as though they probed into some far-off place, and said, "In a letter the other day, fellow Daoist Zhang mentioned that the Sealing is on the verge of being broken. Whether this is so or not, we will know when the time comes."

Jing You was aware of this demon’s origins, and could not help swallowing a mouthful of saliva as he said, "Master, that is an Ancient monstrous calamity Sealed by the Ancestor master; I fear it will be hard to deal with. Why not send a letter to the sect and invite the various True Masters to come and subdue it?"

Zhang Yan smiled and said, "If we were to alarm the Mountain Gate over this matter, it would be a case of losing much for little. In a short while, take my decree; for the next few days, all Disciples are to attend to their respective duties and must not come and go without authorization. Should anything change outside, there is no need to panic; I have my own arrangements."

East Victory South Continent, Gantang Temple.

After Guo Monarch had successfully intercepted and slain the Cultivators of the two sects, he did not go seek Zhang Yan for fighting, but instead rode the wind and drove the clouds, and after more than twenty days, returned here once more.

By this time Chen Yuan had long since withdrawn his Disciples. When he departed, he not only slaughtered all the Gantang Academy Disciples, but also destroyed all the Earth Vein Spirit Mechanisms in the surroundings, so that within a hundred li the vegetation withered, rivers and springs dried up. Looking around now, it was a scene heavy with Death Qi, resembling a ghostly abyss.

Guo Monarch, however, paid it no mind. He lifted his head to stare at the sky and said inwardly, "In another seven days, this Monarch will be able to break free. So long as I recover the Primordial Pearl and then find some place to cultivate in seclusion for a thousand years, my Primordial Qi will be fully restored. I seem to recall that Old Daoist once passing down a Daoist Inheritance—when that time comes I shall surely go to his Mountain Gate to kill, to vent my hatred for this ten-thousand-year Sealing."

Ten thousand years ago, when Great cultivators one after another Sealed several of the world’s Evil Monsters, he heard of this and, knowing he was counted among them, began to prepare a fallback. First, he prepared a treasure in which to entrust his Divine Soul; then he sent out his own Lifebound Primordial Pearl, to await a future day.

After he was Sealed, this Pearl was later inadvertently obtained by Gui Ling Sect, and they regarded it as their sect-guarding treasure.

As for the fact that each time the Primordial Pearl was used it required the Cultivator’s Essence Blood to nourish it, that was nothing more than a Dharma Restriction Guo Monarch had laid down in advance, so that he could borrow that sect’s hand to nourish himself, allowing the Essence Blood within the Primordial Pearl to be perpetually full and not dissipate with the passing of time.

Yet even someone such as Taiheng Ancestor—one of that level—if he did not break free of the Sealing for a long period, his Essence Blood would still dry up and his Divine Soul gradually fade. Even though Guo Monarch had a treasure to protect his soul, after being Sealed for ten thousand years, in the end only a single wisp of remnant soul remained. If Fengxiang Sword Sect had not discovered this Sealing, assumed there to be an Ancient Oddity buried within, and ordered Gantang Temple to refine the Prohibition, he too would have been hard-pressed to escape annihilation.