Chapter 488: Gouge Out One Eye
Above the capital of the Heavenly Pool Kingdom, Chen Yindu, Creation Little Five, and the others activated Universal Heavenly Descent. The Grand Sacrificial Officer performed the Dao Sacrificial Rite, Feng Ruotong unleashed his Immortal Sword Technique, and the rest—such as the Celestial Way Walkers from Despair Slope and the Calamities of the Divine Capital—each brought forth their strongest methods, colliding with the divine light shot from the Fog Moon’s nine-layered pupils.
Among them, the Grand Sacrificial Officer’s Dao Sacrificial Rite was the most brutal. The Dao Sacrificial Rite is a combat method handed down from the Great Shang era, and in the present world, he alone masters it. Though not an immortal, his Dao Sacrificial Rite makes him capable of contending with Feng Ruotong.
Feng Ruotong’s Immortal Sword Technique was the most varied. When he wielded immortal swordsmanship, a sword stroke could spread into sword-array diagrams that resembled vast realms, colliding with the Fog Moon and attempting to erase its strange patterns.
But the most dominant force was the combined Universal Heavenly Descent cast by Chen Yindu and the others. Chen Yindu had spent his life recovering lost talismans; long ago he had restored twelve hundred talismans of the Luo Heaven Sacrificial Rite and reconstructed twelve hundred small celestial courts. Later, while restoring two thousand four hundred talismans of the Grand Cosmic Sacrificial Rite, he encountered unexpected complications and was delayed. During that time, Creation Little Five—who had been subdued by him—restored the celestial court formations from the Grand Cosmic Sacrificial Rite. After father and son reconciled, they discovered the Universal Sacrificial Rite left over from the Great Shang era on Despair Slope. Though different from later versions, this more primitive rite greatly aided them. They soon reconstructed three thousand six hundred talismans and manifested the grand spectacle of the Great Celestial Court.
What they were now unleashing was the divine ability formed after perfecting the Universal Sacrificial Rite: Universal Heavenly Descent. This divine ability gathered the divine power of three thousand six hundred deities of the Great Celestial Court. Its unleashed force even surpassed Feng Ruotong and the Grand Sacrificial Officer.
What they did not expect was how ferocious the Fog Moon’s attack was. It triggered Heaven Thunder, fused yin and yang, destroyed Chen Shi’s skeletal body in a single blow, and still managed to directly take on their attacks!
Within the Fog Moon the nine heavens rotated and power erupted, surging outward. In a single instant, the Calamities brought by the Grand Sacrificial Officer had their Dao methods broken, blood spurted from their mouths, and they were flung backwards through the air, their fate unknown.
The Dao methods of the seven Celestial Way Walkers Feng Ruotong brought were also immediately shattered. The seven staggered, hurriedly summoning their immortal swords to resist the Fog Moon’s divine light. Those seven Immortal Swords, together with the Vermilion Sparrow sword in Zhong Wuwang’s hand and two other immortal swords, are known as the Ten Immortal Swords of Despair Slope, famed for tremendous power.
Feng Ruotong and the others had been hunting the Grand Sacrificial Officer for so long, always holding the advantage precisely because of the power of those seven immortal swords.
However, when the seven immortal swords collided with the Fog Moon’s divine light, the sword glimmers were heavily damaged. The seven Celestial Way Walkers’ faces changed dramatically—this marked the beginning of the swords’ ruin. In the next moment, all seven bodies convulsed, they lost control of their swords, and were pulverized and flung away!
Feng Ruotong, the Grand Sacrificial Officer, Chen Yindu, and the others widened their eyes and pushed their cultivation to the limit, doing everything they could to resist the Fog Moon’s divine light. Yet they felt the power coming from the Fog Moon grow ever stronger.
Just as it seemed they would not be able to hold on, a blood-red light surged up like a long rainbow rising from below, cleaving through the Fog Moon’s overlapping divine light with a sharp slice!
Everyone gasped: that long rainbow was the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade!
The Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade stretched for a thousand zhang. Rising from below, Chen Shi’s skeletal body wielded the blade, cleaving through the overwhelming divine light like cutting waves through water.
Slash!
The Fog Moon’s monstrous eye light was split apart. Blade radiance and blade qi rose from below to above, cutting through layer after layer of the Fog Moon’s ocular panes and severing its strange patterns. In an instant, the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade plowed through the Fog Moon from beneath.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Within the Fog Moon, the mountain ridges acted like veins. Now those ridges were severed, veins ruptured, and malign energy burst forth, pouring into the sky in a violent gush.
Strange patterns that had been cut attempted to reconnect, but the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade’s force exploded further, drawing blood qi from the Fog Moon. Where before the rupture the Fog Moon had spewed out corrupt energy, it now spewed forth rolling blood plasma!
“What a powerful strike, it almost split the moon!” everyone’s hearts trembled.
Chen Shi’s skeletal body had passed through Tribulation Crossing and his strength had skyrocketed, yet he should not have possessed such terrifying power. Still, this single strike revealed a ruthlessness beyond expectations.
At that moment, the canyon cleft in the Fog Moon by Chen Shi’s strike shook and alarmingly tried to close. The severed strange textures began to reconnect, and the blood plasma gushing from the canyon dwindled.
Feng Ruotong shouted angrily, “Strike while he’s weak, finish him off!”
With that, he charged into the Fog Moon first, summoning his immortal sword and slashing at the surrounding patterns to sever the textures trying to reweave themselves.
The Grand Sacrificial Officer, Chen Yindu, and the others also arrived atop the Fog Moon, wantonly destroying and severing great-path patterns wherever they could. The seven Celestial Way Walkers under Feng Ruotong, grievously wounded, dragged themselves over and summoned their immortal swords to slash on all sides. The dozen or so Calamities following the Grand Sacrificial Officer revealed their true Calamity forms and rampaged destructively.
Creation Little Five remained much calmer, persistently maintaining sun-and-moon purgation to prevent the group from being corrupted by the malevolent energy leaking from the Fog Moon.
The Fog Moon tried to counterattack repeatedly, but before its textures could cohere, the group tore them apart again.
Krah!
The great canyon Chen Shi’s blade left quaked and split further to both sides, growing deeper. Blood qi surged like a tide and streamed outward toward the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade.
Skeletal Chen Shi, blade in hand, felt the frenzy of incoming power. Even the Blood Lake Sutra could not fully refine all that blood qi at once; the excess had to be temporarily stored in the Blood Sea Hell. With this strike severing and devouring the Fog Moon’s power, his cultivation rose rapidly—so fast that it even outpaced the speed at which Immortal Light and immortal qi refine the Primordial Spirit after Tribulation Crossing.
One slash outweighed ten years of bitter cultivation!
The Blood Sea Hell behind him continued to expand: three thousand li, three thousand one hundred li, three thousand two hundred li… soon reaching four thousand li!
“If he refines this Fog Moon, he might expand the Blood Sea Hell to five thousand li!” someone said.
Feng Ruotong and the others severed more textures on the Fog Moon, causing its canyon to fissure more widely and deeply.
At last, with a thunderous, earth-shattering roar, the Fog Moon split cleanly in two!
From the two halves, blood qi flowed out continuously, forming a scarlet torrent that surged toward the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade. The two moon halves kept collapsing inward like a sun-dried orange losing moisture. Before their eyes, the Fog Moon quickly shriveled into two puckered masses.
Blood qi kept leaking from the Fog Moon. Seeing this, Chen Yindu advanced immediately. A talisman flew from his fingertip and transformed into countless tiny insects that crawled along the blood qi to trace the source and find the master’s location!
The blood qi in the Fog Moon had already been devoured by the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade. That blood qi continued to flow because the Fog Moon’s owner had been wounded by the demonic blade—their vital qi and blood had been turned into blood qi pouring out. So following that blood qi should lead to the Fog Moon’s owner.
At that moment, a cold snort came from the sky and all those tiny insects were shattered by a shockwave, gone without a trace.
“Still dare to snort?”
Feng Ruotong leaped down onto the withered Fog Moon, craned his head to look into the void, and sneered, “No matter what kind of evil spirit you are, when you meet me, Celestial Way Immortal Feng Ruotong, don’t think you can misbehave! You’ve brought disaster to the world and killed countless ghost clan members. This time I’ll gouge out one of your eyes; next time I’ll take your life!”
He waved his hand and sword qi shot along the blood qi, trying to find the Fog Moon’s master as well.
“Senior Feng speaks well!” the Celestial Way Walkers behind Feng Ruotong praised in unison. One of them said, “Our Despair Slope upholds heaven’s order. This vile spirit disturbs the world, harms the living, and disrupts Tribulation Crossing. Don’t you know Despair Slope enforces the Celestial Way?”
“We are Celestial Way Walkers, acting on heaven’s behalf! This evil spirit altered heaven’s way to harm one who crosses tribulation. Gouging out one eye is mercy for it!”
“Cut it into a thousand pieces!” they cried.
“Feng Ruotong’s a fool, ruining my fun!” someone snarled.
Inside Despair Slope’s True God Dao Field, within Tianyuan Palace, the Celestial Venerable suddenly raised a hand to his brow. From between his fingers a line of black blood seeped out, staining his white sleeve crimson.
The infiltrating force of the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade was eroding him. Even he could not suppress it for the moment. The blade’s malign toxin had reached his eye, and was showing signs of invading his true body.
He was about to go to Eternal Immortal Pavilion to find the Yin Yang Qi Bottle and pull out the blade’s toxin, when slender sword qi burst from the eye socket wound in his brow—the sword qi from Feng Ruotong, which had traced his leaking blood qi here!
The sword qi flew out from his hollow eye and immediately shattered with a sharp clap, broken by the Celestial Venerable’s aura.
“Feng Ruotong, you’re bold!” the Celestial Venerable laughed through fury, gritting his teeth.
Feng Ruotong used to be to his liking, but this time he’d gone too far—striking his eye with such force. The seven Celestial Way Walkers with Feng Ruotong likewise hated him enough to gouge out his eyes.
The Celestial Venerable wiped the blood from his brow, cloaked himself in divine radiance to obscure his features, and went to the Eternal Immortal Pavilion.
The Eternal Immortal Pavilion stores magical treasures. Many of its relics were immortal-grade artifacts—some from the Great Shang era, some from the Ming Dynasty, and others brought from different worlds. The Celestial Venerable went straight to the Yin Yang Qi Bottle. This vessel contains yin and yang qi; the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade’s toxin is a yin-yang toxin. Though vicious, it stays within the bounds of yin-yang, so the Yin Yang Qi Bottle can extract the blade’s poison. Last time Zhong Wuwang was cut by the blade, he relied on this treasure to remove its poison.
The Celestial Venerable took the vessel and walked out of the pavilion as Zhong Wuwang arrived. The two were momentarily startled upon seeing each other.
Zhong Wuwang hurriedly saluted, “Disciple pays respects to the Celestial Venerable.”
“Rise,” the Celestial Venerable replied with a gentle expression. “Wuwang, what brings you here?”
Zhong Wuwang said, “I have come to return the Vermilion Sparrow sword. My Vermilion Sparrow sword had its tip severed by the madman Chen Shi’s Blood-Transforming Divine Blade. I’ve been uneasy these past few days.”
The Celestial Venerable smiled, “I see. The Vermilion Sparrow sword is your Senior Yan’s treasure. Return it to the pavilion and when your Senior Yan has time, have him repair it.”
Zhong Wuwang bowed and thanked him. “Celestial Venerable, I heard someone crossed tribulation, causing quite a commotion. This person…”
The Celestial Venerable said, “That person is Chen Shi’s skeletal body. He cultivates the old method and crossed tribulation using the old method.”
Zhong Wuwang felt a chill, “He crossed tribulation?”
The Celestial Venerable continued, “You walk the path of the new method, which differs from the old. If you cross tribulation via the new method, you will accomplish what ordinary people cannot, with attainment far beyond his. But I observed Chen Shi’s tribulation—he used a skeletal body, not his true body. I suspect he intends to cross tribulation with the new method as well. You need to double your efforts.”
Zhong Wuwang acknowledged this and watched the Celestial Venerable depart.
He entered the Eternal Immortal Pavilion, returned the Vermilion Sparrow sword, and examined the treasures again. He thought, “The Celestial Venerable’s divine abilities are vast. He rarely uses artifacts—when he comes to the pavilion at a time like this, it’s not aimless. He must have taken something. What did he take? The Yin Yang Qi Bottle is missing!”
Zhong Wuwang’s eyes flickered. Last time the Yin Yang Qi Bottle had been used was when he was cut by Chen Shi and had to use the bottle to absorb the Yin-Yang toxin of the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade.
“Did the Celestial Venerable go retrieve it because he was wounded by the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade?” Zhong Wuwang’s expression turned strange. Even if Chen Shi’s skeletal body achieved Dao Unification and became an immortal, it seemed unlikely he could wound the Celestial Venerable!
So if the Celestial Venerable took the Yin Yang Qi Bottle, what else could be the reason?
“The Celestial Venerable cloaked his face with divine radiance and didn’t reveal his true appearance. Could he actually have been cut by Chen Shi?” Zhong Wuwang felt both shocked and terrified. He left the pavilion and went straight to Li Dao Spring, quietly collecting many jugs of spring water. He thought, “I promised Chen Shi I would use Li Dao Spring’s water to treat that Great Shang immortal bone—cannot break my word. Also, I can ask him how he crossed tribulation to become an immortal!”
In Tianyuan Palace, the Celestial Venerable used the Yin Yang Qi Bottle and after a long time finally extracted the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade’s toxin.
Chen Shi’s strike had broken his vertical brow eye. That vertical eye was the god-eye he had refined over countless years, containing the nine-layered heavens and a nine-tiered celestial eye with tremendous power. He had never imagined it could be shattered by a skeletal body.
“Chen Shi’s strength could never break my nine-layered celestial eye alone, so someone must have aided him. Few in this world could help him wound me,” the Celestial Venerable mused, voice low. “Could Wu Qi have revived? Impossible. Then the one assisting him to wound me must be a manifestation of the Empress of Earth. That daughterly manifestation truly has descended. However, this is not the Earth Immortal Realm—even if a manifestation of the Empress of Earth has come, it won’t stir up much of a ripple here!”