Chapter 446: Innocent and Pure
Chen Yindu led everyone through the swarming demons, calamities, and catastrophes. Although some demon gods emitted restless low growls, with the Grand Sacrificial Officer present, none dared act wantonly.
Not long after, they left the Divine Capital.
The moment they stepped out, they looked back and could no longer see the Divine Capital.
That gorgeous demonic city seemed to vanish the instant they left.
Only Chen Yindu knew the Divine Capital hid within the void; its root might be tucked into a mustard-seed space, or within a demonic flower, or perhaps concealed on the body of some ghostly creature.
The Divine Capital was also a target the Despair Slope wanted eradicated, so it had to remain hidden.
"Little Ten guessed the Ghost Hand's Master might be my parents."
Blue Goat said regretfully, "Too bad we couldn't see this person."
Chen Yindu said, "I met the Ghost Hand's Master before, he probably isn't your parents. We aren't safe yet, the Grand Sacrificial Officer hasn't acted."
At that moment, slow zither music drifted over. Following the sound, everyone saw beneath a nearby ancient pine tree a crane strolling and circling the tree. Incense curled upward. A child offered incense, another child was brewing tea.
There was also an elderly man with graying hair, sitting cross-legged, gently stroking a scorched zither.
He played slowly, the notes lingering.
This place was clearly the underworld, full of demonic energy and extreme danger—so perilous that even gods and ghosts avoided such ferocious ground—yet the old man, the children, the crane, and the ancient pine all carried an unmistakable immortal aura that made people click their tongues in wonder.
Chen Yindu said, "Wait here for me."
Du Yiran, Sha Qiutong, and the others stopped and waited quietly.
Chen Yindu approached. The old man wore a crossed-collar robe with the right lapel overlapping, an upper and lower garment tied at the waist with a belt; the clothes reached mid-thigh. The collar was embroidered with thunder patterns, and a simple dragon motif rested on his shoulder. He wore a tall crown with phoenix feathers and moon-shell ornaments. A jade pendant hung at his waist, and his feet were shod in black upturned wooden clogs.
His attire was exquisitely antique.
Chen Yindu sat down before the old man. Just then, a child finished boiling water and poured tea, placing a white jade cup before the two of them.
The tea poured into the cup, striking the cup wall with a pleasant, tinkling sound.
Chen Yindu looked at the tea and said, "The title Grand Sacrificial Officer is an official post from the Great Zhou era, right? Yet you dress in merchant-noble fashion; it's somewhat incongruous."
The old man set the scorched zither aside and smiled, "Friend Chen, you are mistaken. When Great Zhou destroyed the merchants and inherited the merchant system, many official posts were preserved. In merchant times, the sacrificial officer was a shaman and ritualist; later generations called them scholars, officials who officiated the heavens. When princes and nobles offered sacrifices to Heaven, the one who presided at the final sacrifice was the Grand Sacrificial Officer."
Chen Yindu said, "I've examined prehistoric relics, so I know something of the merchants. The sacrificial officer should be an elder of the royal family. So you are royalty?"
The Grand Sacrificial Officer smiled, "Friend Chen is perceptive. If the True King had been as clever as you, he wouldn't have died on Despair Slope. You must have met the ghost clans, right? Those ghost clans are also descendants of merchants. Many merchants held divine offices: the official responsible for fire rites was called Zhurong, the one for water rites was Gonggong, the wood official was Jumang, the metal official was Rushou, and so on. Each carried the pattern of their respective Great Way; those patterns represented the offices they held."
Chen Yindu said, "I did study them, but I never considered it deeply. Now that you point it out, I'm thrilled."
Although he said he was thrilled, his expression showed no joy. Instead, Cang Songzi, Tu Ying, and Yan Shichong behind him radiated exuberance, shouldering his excitement so he remained perfectly composed, betraying no flaw.
"Gonggong's water rites imply water-based immortal arts; Jumang's wood rites imply wood-based immortal arts."
The Grand Sacrificial Officer sipped his tea, measured and unhurried. "Different divine powers hold different Great Way patterns. When wielding divine authority, those patterns transform merchants into varied forms. That is the origin of the term 'divine appearance.' After the cataclysm, the people of Great Shang were invaded by corrupting energy, lived long in the underworld, and gradually transformed into divine appearances, becoming inhuman."
Chen Yindu said, "Merchants used corrupted methods to avoid extinction, but they couldn't return to being humans."
The Grand Sacrificial Officer sighed, his expression dim. "That's why I didn't assimilate with them. Once they became the ghost clans, they were no longer merchants but another race. True people of Great Shang are preserved in the Divine Capital. Those ghost clans are merely a library pavilion preserving our Great Shang civilization."
He was silent for a moment, then asked, "You just said you would use the Cangcuo Seven-Killing Demon Melody to disturb everyone's Dao Heart in the Divine Capital. Is that true or false?"
Chen Yindu said, "Whether you are evil or righteous, your flaws are glaring. Even the Grand Sacrificial Officer cannot make Dao Hearts steady and immovable. If I use the Cangcuo Seven-Killing Demon Melody to disrupt your Dao Hearts while arranging a formation that gathers corrupting energy, the Divine Capital could accumulate boundless corruption in a short time. In an instant, except for you, everyone would have their Dao Hearts devoured by demonic nature. The Divine Capital would fall in a snap."
The Grand Sacrificial Officer said, "Show me."
Chen Yindu sat opposite him and did nothing.
But Tu Ying had already activated the Cangcuo Seven-Killing Demon Melody. The grand boundary behind his head unfurled; invisible strings seemed to surround them. As he plucked with his fingertips, a surge of rhythm rose, and demonic energy thickened, tugging at the deepest malice in people's hearts.
Tu Ying plucked the seven strings in succession; each demonic note rose higher and sharper. The killing aura snapped like a blade, even snapping the white crane's neck and shattering the scorched zither's strings.
"The zither's tune stirs the crane's heart, strings tremble and souls dance; vibrations pluck out temptations that arise on their own."
The Grand Sacrificial Officer's few strands of white hair floated and trembled seven times with the melody, and he praised, "With the Seven-Killing Demon Melody, the Divine Capital would fall, like the Upper Realm being broken. So it was the True King who had great insight; he saw our flaws before you did."
Chen Yindu asked, "Little Ten said the same?"
The Grand Sacrificial Officer nodded, "When the True King came to the underworld, demonic nature was heavy. He even cultivated demon paths amid the underworld, drawing the attention of demon seeds that tried to devour him. He saw the flaws and instead devoured several demons, refining their seeds and greatly advancing his cultivation."
Chen Yindu replied coldly, "Little Ten refined demon seeds, but to make you old foxes swear him as Demon Emperor is to overrated him. Grand Sacrificial Officer, what are your intentions? Speak plainly."
The Grand Sacrificial Officer said, "The True King believed that since the world's corruption is irreversible, he might as well follow fate and actively become corrupt; from then on, humanity becomes demons. All live in demonic states. He has a method to thoroughly corrupt Heaven and Earth."
Chen Yindu raised an eyebrow, "A child could not possibly devise a method to corrupt Heaven and Earth."
The Grand Sacrificial Officer said, "He did."
Chen Yindu asked, "May I see?"
The Grand Sacrificial Officer pushed a sheet of paper forward.
Chen Yindu looked down. The handwriting on the paper was indeed Chen Shi's.
Chen Shi had written a cultivation method on the paper, a demonic method using corrupting energy. The content seemed absurd: using corrupting energy to establish a foundation, using it for meditation and Dao insight.
Yet the more Chen Yindu read, the more alarmed he became.
Because the method actually worked.
According to it, ordinary people's bodies could be invaded by corrupting energy and treat the corruption as righteous qi: first build a corrupt foundation, then refine corrupt techniques, cultivate a corrupt Golden Core, refine a corrupt Nascent Soul, cultivate a corrupt Primordial Spirit, and the Primordial Spirit demonizes and becomes a Dao Field!
However, this method halted abruptly upon reaching the Spirit Refining realm.
"An incomplete manuscript?" Chen Yindu frowned.
The Grand Sacrificial Officer said, "It's incomplete because King Yama tricked and abducted the Empress Dowager, plotted against the True King, captured His Majesty, and imprisoned him in the Immortal Capital. Later, you took His Majesty away. Otherwise, what you see wouldn't be a fragment."
Chen Yindu said calmly, "A single demonic cultivation method alone isn't enough to corrupt the entire world and make the Western Ox New Continent go evil."
The Grand Sacrificial Officer smiled, "The True King said he has a method to corrupt a True God."
At those words, even Chen Yindu, who had shifted all his negative emotions onto Creation Little Five, felt his spine prickle.
Corrupt a True God?!
Could Chen Shi really come up with something like that?
He seemed more like a spirit of evil than Creation Little Five!
The Grand Sacrificial Officer said, "He tried to create a demonic path to communicate with a True God and receive divine blessing. If the True God bestowed a Divine Embryo, he would demonize that Divine Embryo using his demonic method. By utilizing Divine Descent and Emptiness Refining, when the Divine Embryo returned to the True God, the True God would be corrupted."
Chen Yindu's eyes fell on the paper; he read that demonic method again carefully and said, "Why didn't he teach you this method?"
The Grand Sacrificial Officer laughed, "I already said: while he was perfecting it, he was abducted by you..."
Chen Yindu shook his head, "With the power of King Yama, could he abduct my daughter-in-law right under your noses?"
The Grand Sacrificial Officer was slightly taken aback.
Chen Yindu continued, "King Yama is indeed powerful, but not powerful enough to sweep the entire Divine Capital. If Little Ten wanted to rescue his mother's soul, he could have told you a word, and you would lead the Divine Capital's experts to rescue her easily. Why did he go alone and walk into a trap?"
The Grand Sacrificial Officer frowned.
Chen Yindu said, "Someone as clever as him wouldn't make such a basic mistake. Grand Sacrificial Officer, is it possible my daughter-in-law, Wu Qingyu, used this to escape you? That Little Ten went alone to rescue her—could that show he never trusted you, and thus plotted with his mother to slip away from your surveillance?"
The Grand Sacrificial Officer smiled, "That's merely your conjecture."
Chen Yindu pushed the paper back and said calmly, "Not conjecture. If he truly trusted you, he wouldn't have left you a fragment. Completing the missing four stages in this method—the Shrine, the Divine Embryo, Divine Descent, and Emptiness Refining—isn't that difficult."
The Grand Sacrificial Officer raised an eyebrow.
Chen Yindu said, "If he found a method to corrupt a True God, he could have completed the technique long ago. But he didn't trust you, so he chose to escape with his mother at an opportune moment."
The Grand Sacrificial Officer laughed, "He is like us. He is also a demon."
Chen Yindu shook his head, "Then you are mistaken. When I rescued him, the first thing he did was seal his own memories."
He stared at the Grand Sacrificial Officer and said, "Do you think I sealed his memories? I knew nothing of his past; how could I have sealed him the moment I rescued him?"
The Grand Sacrificial Officer frowned deeply.
Chen Yindu sipped his tea, set down his cup, stood, and stepped back three paces. He bowed to the Grand Sacrificial Officer, then retreated several more steps before turning to join Du Yiran, Sha Qiutong, and the others.
"While his resolve wavers, we go," he whispered.
They hurried away.
After a long while, Granny Sha broke the silence, "Old Chen, did Little Ten really seal his own memory the instant you rescued him?"
Chen Yindu did not answer. He separated his mind from Creation Little Five.
Once separated from Creation Little Five, the oppressive terror that had clung to him vanished, replaced by more human warmth, and the others secretly breathed easier.
Blue Goat smiled, "Little Ten surely sealed himself. He couldn't bear to destroy a True God and corrupt all beings."
Chen Yindu shook his head, "Little Ten's memories were sealed by me. When I rescued him, the first thing he said was..."
He imitated the young Chen Shi's innocent tone, "Grandpa, I have found a method to destroy the True God. Let's the two of us destroy this world and create a new era."