On the Path to the Great Dao

The immortal sword in Zhong Wuwang’s hand came from the Eternal Immortal Pavilion of Despair Slope, called Vermilion Sparrow. It was one of the ten immortal swords stored at Despair Slope.

All ten of those immortal swords were forged by Celestial Way Immortals from Despair Slope.

The Vermilion Sparrow sword’s power was immense. Every time it collided with the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade, a streak of fiery light would leap out from the Vermilion Sparrow’s blade, taking the form of the divine bird Vermilion Sparrow and burning everything in its path.

As he executed his sword techniques, sparks of immortal fire danced, and wherever the swordlight passed the immortal fire did not vanish but hovered in place, quietly burning.

As Zhong Wuwang employed more and more moves, the Vermilion Sparrow flames spread throughout the air, increasing until it seemed like tens of thousands of vermilion birds floating in the sky, forcing opponents to watch their surroundings during battle, because touching the immortal fire would set them ablaze.

This immortal fire was Vermilion Sparrow Fire, containing peculiar cosmic rules. When it attached to a human body, it would assimilate the person.

To onlookers it seemed a mere touch would reduce someone to ash, but in truth the victim was assimilated into Vermilion Sparrow Fire.

Chen Shi ignored the Vermilion Sparrow flames. Wherever his long blade struck, even immortal fire had to be cleaved.

Holding the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade and backed by the Blood Lake Sutra, he effectively commanded a blood-sea hell thousands of miles wide; in cultivation he was on par with Zhong Wuwang.

The blade arts contained within the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade were loud and domineering, unstoppable — even if faced with a mountain or an ocean, it would split them apart. Gods who obstructed it would be slain, demons who blocked it would be cut down.

Zhong Wuwang urged the Vermilion Sparrow sword on and repeatedly struck the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade. Clang after clang, the blades met hundreds of times in an instant. Suddenly Zhong Wuwang saw a streak of red light fly off, and his heart jumped — a notch had been cut into the Vermilion Sparrow sword’s edge.

Among the ten immortal swords in the Eternal Immortal Pavilion, the Vermilion Sparrow was already top tier. He had not expected a clash with the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade to nick it.

If they collided a few more times, the Vermilion Sparrow sword might be severed completely!

“Such an immortal artifact, even Despair Slope doesn’t have many like it!” Zhong Wuwang inwardly marveled. “This treasure is a relic from the Divine Continent? Truly formidable!”

Chen Shi brought his blade down. Immediately a vast blood ocean rose in front of Zhong Wuwang, waves towering up to the clouds and pressing down toward him!

“Watch me burn your blood sea dry!”

Zhong Wuwang let out a long roar, met the surging blood sea with his sword and stabbed forward. Swordlight flashed as innumerable Vermilion Sparrow flames roared in from all directions and smashed into the blood-sea waves.

Chen Shi strode forward, holding his blade with both hands and cleaved, splitting the sea of fire.

He ran like mad through the fire and aimed straight for Zhong Wuwang, his long blade flashing up, down, left and right, while the blood sea behind him crashed down like an overwhelming sky.

Zhong Wuwang snorted and met him with the Vermilion Sparrow sword.

Clang!

Their blade and sword collided. Suddenly the Vermilion Sparrow gave a mournful cry. Zhong Wuwang felt his Vermilion Sparrow sword abruptly become lighter, and the sword tip had been chopped off!

“What a fast blade!”

As Zhong Wuwang lifted his hand, the Vermilion Sparrow sword vanished. Chen Shi’s blade light had already arrived before him. At this life-or-death moment, Zhong Wuwang’s Primordial Spirit, Realm of Emptiness domain, Innate Dao Embryo, and physical body fused together and were refined into one.

Zhong Wuwang raised his right hand and pointed his index finger forward. At the same time, many strange markings surfaced across his arm and fingertip — clearly shamanic ritual markings.

With a chime, his fingertip touched the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade. The power of the shamanic ritual markings erupted, astonishingly halting the blade’s momentum, and his fingertip remained completely unharmed.

This finger technique was called Celestial Immortal Finger, an absolute art he had comprehended from a prehistoric relic.

“Chen Shi, today I will do as you wish and break your blood-sea Dao Field!” Zhong Wuwang stepped forward and shifted to another immortal technique. This one was a secret of Despair Slope, not transmitted openly, named Recreate Heaven and Earth, Spring-Returning Art.

The origin of this art was peculiar. Despair Slope possessed a great instrument, an immortal treasure called the Recreate Heaven-and-Earth Furnace. The device was hundreds of zhang tall and wide, and its furnace walls were carved with mountains and rivers unlike the geography of the Western Ox New Continent; the source locale was unknown. It seemed the geographic carvings contained wondrous techniques.

Inside the Recreate Heaven-and-Earth Furnace was a complicated structure. Legend said a sea monster once attacked the Western Ox New Continent and landed while carrying this furnace on its back. Wherever it passed, the sea monster surged like a tide, and from within the furnace creatures poured out and charged in all directions.

That monster was slain, and the furnace passed through many hands before falling into Despair Slope’s custody.

Even Despair Slope’s immortals did not know the furnace’s true origin, but they discovered a miracle: it could create life.

They used the Recreate Heaven-and-Earth Furnace to produce Heaven’s Listeners. Each time the furnace was opened, thousands of Heaven’s Listeners could be forged. The top tier among them were Heaven's Listener Venerated Lords; next were Heaven's Listener Venerated Kings; then Heaven's Listener Exalted, Heaven's Listener Officers, and the defective outputs were Heaven's Listener Apostles.

The Recreate Heaven-and-Earth, Spring-Returning Art was the immortal technique Despair Slope derived from that furnace. Zhong Wuwang had learned this art originally intending to repair his earlobe after defeating Chen Shi. When he saw Chen Shi’s blood-sea hell in Liuzhou, he suddenly realized this art might be the key to breaking the Blood Lake Sutra!

Zhong Wuwang activated Recreate Heaven-and-Earth, Spring-Returning Art. Immediately, within the blood-sea hell, ghosts who had died beneath the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade suddenly found flesh rapidly regrowing in their bodies!

In Chen Shi’s blood-sea hell, the greatest portion of those ghost gods were from the Yan Family. Between the battle in the Eighteen Hells and the battle at Liuzhou, countless Yan Family deities had died by his hand!

Now these ghosts sprouted flesh and regenerated bodies!

Chen Shi instantly sensed this: the ghost gods in his blood-sea hell were becoming harder and harder to control!

Those ghost gods were imprisoned in his blood-sea hell and served him, providing major strength to his magic. If they broke free of the blood-sea’s control, Chen Shi would be in grave danger!

“Effective!” Zhong Wuwang rejoiced inwardly.

Just as these ghost gods were about to shake off Chen Shi’s control, a great sun and a bright moon rose from the blood sea. The sun orbited the moon, yin and yang reversed, and in the next moment the flesh on those ghosts rapidly peeled away and turned into fresh blood, dropping back into the blood sea.

In a moment Chen Shi’s aura received a significant boost!

“A dual Dao Field?”

Zhong Wuwang’s heart jolted. He reflexively launched the first move designed to break yin-yang Dao Fields, Blazing Star Offends the Southern Dipper!

But as he unleashed the move, he suddenly remembered Yan Shaoxuan had already used this attack in front of Chen Shi!

This technique could scramble Chen Shi’s Heavenly Cycle star patterns and star rivers with uncanny effect; not only could it break Chen Shi’s yin-yang Dao Field, it could also disrupt other people’s Dao Fields or even large Realms.

Yet as Zhong Wuwang executed it, before the celestial patterns within Chen Shi’s Dao Field could be disturbed, the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade had already come to his throat!

Zhong Wuwang’s hair stood on end. He quickly employed Celestial Immortal Finger again and collided fingertips with the blade, stopping the strike.

Clang!

The Blood-Transforming Divine Blade rebounded. Zhong Wuwang hurriedly glanced at his finger and breathed a sigh of relief, then muttered in surprise, “This finger technique is so strong!”

“Er Niu, how many blades can your broken finger stop?” Chen Shi, mad with fury, hacked at him relentlessly. Zhong Wuwang remained composed, consistently using Celestial Immortal Finger to counter the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade, blocking the surging blade lights, and when he could not block he dodged aside.

Yang Bi stood at a distance, peering anxiously. With his intellect he could see flaws in the two men’s moves, but the weaknesses flashed by so quickly there was no time to catch them.

His cultivation remained at Refining Spirit, far below Chen Shi and Zhong Wuwang.

Zhong Wuwang’s realm had already reached the pinnacle of the Great Ascension Realm. Only Chen Shi’s four major disciples in this world had cultivated to such heights; others had not reached that achievement.

One more step forward and he would be the Western Ox New Continent’s first New Method immortal!

Although Chen Shi was also at the Refining Spirit Realm, the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade plus the Blood Lake Sutra allowed him to stand at the peak of the Great Ascension Realm. Compared with Zhong Wuwang he had less esoteric power, but his combat effectiveness was formidable.

“Zhong Wuwang’s immortal finger technique has a problem.”

Yang Bi’s perceptive gaze immediately detected something odd. Zhong Wuwang’s Celestial Immortal Finger had been trained only in two fingers; the rest of his body showed no refinement. If it were a complete technique, it would certainly refine across the entire body.

Only being trained to the wrist suggested Zhong Wuwang had not obtained the true transmission.

“He learned this finger art from a hand bone containing two finger bones. The original owner of that hand bone must have been unimaginably powerful!” Yang Bi moved slightly, struck by emotion. Using the shamanic ritual markings carved on the hand bone to resist the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade, he had never been injured. What was the origin of that hand bone’s owner?

Why were only the hand bones left?

“Except for the two hands, the rest of Zhong Wuwang’s body is a dead zone; one touch from the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade and it dies. But the original owner of the hand bone was terrifying! If he had refined the complete shamanic ritual markings, even an Immortal might not be able to kill him!”

Yang Bi marveled and tried to memorize the myriad cosmic patterns that surfaced in the Celestial Immortal Finger. But Zhong Wuwang’s movements were too fast, and the shamanic ritual markings on his fingers shifted as they changed, making them difficult to discern.

“Remember as much as you can.”

Yang Bi’s eyes flickered as he thought, Chen Shi must be memorizing too. If he exchanged what he recorded with Chen Shi’s, they might together uncover part of this immortal art’s mysteries.

Chen Shi was also oddly surprised. The Celestial Immortal Finger was unbelievably strong; matched against the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade, it did not fall behind. If Zhong Wuwang switched to Despair Slope techniques or employed an immortal artifact, they still could not contend with the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade.

Zhong Wuwang was both astonished and delighted and could not help laughing aloud.

After the Great Shang’s fall, the yin and yang realms of the Western Ox New Continent contained many prehistoric relics — some immortal treasures, large structures, and strange contrivances. Many at Despair Slope had tried to decode the shamanic ritual markings on the relics, and Zhong Wuwang had achieved the greatest understanding among them.

Once he had found a damaged hand bone.

The relic was prehistoric, but only the index and middle finger still bore intact shamanic ritual markings; the other bones had no markings.

Zhong Wuwang had derived a finger technique from those ritual markings. This was the first time he used it in combat, and he had not expected such great power.

Earlier he had worried Chen Shi might unravel the shamanic ritual markings, but now his worries eased.

“I’ll go back and search where I found that mutilated hand bone. Maybe I’ll find more bone fragments!”

Chen Shi still could not bring him down. Suddenly Zhong Wuwang sheathed his sword, descended from the air and landed in the Yang family’s living room where the flying roof had been blown off, sitting down by the tea table and smiling, “No more fighting! Er Niu, I’ll mark your life for now and claim it another time! Why are you just standing there? Come down and have tea.”

Zhong Wuwang frowned slightly inwardly, thinking, “This man’s temper is unpredictable. I can’t tell whether he truly wishes to cut me down, or wants to turn swords into jade and brocade.”

He walked down from the air and took a seat at the tea table. Yang Bi landed as well and, seeing his wife brewing tea, hurried over and whispered, “Let me— they are all vicious men…”

Xiao Fang smiled and gently pushed his hand away, whispering, “I’ll do it. They radiate murderous intent and masculine dominance. I’ll brew the tea; at least it might dispel some of their killing aura.”

Yang Bi had no choice but to let her.

The three of them sat at the tea table as Xiao Fang stepped forward to pour tea. Her red sleeves added fragrance while her fair hands adjusted the brew with calm elegance, which indeed diluted Chen Shi and Zhong Wuwang’s murderous qi. Both men’s faces softened considerably.

Chen Shi’s gaze fixated on Zhong Wuwang’s two fingers and he smiled, “Er Niu, you’ve refined two very fine fingers. Could you demonstrate again and let me see?”

Zhong Wuwang did not take the bait. He lifted his teacup and smiled, “There will be plenty of opportunities in the future.”

This living room had no roof — a perfect match for the proverb “having empty walls and no roof.”

Chen Shi looked at Yang Bi. Yang Bi understood and said, “Earlier Brother Zhong said he found something about the True King in Despair Slope and some matters concerning the Celestial Venerable. Could you speak in detail?”

Zhong Wuwang mused briefly and said, “The True King was the first to obtain an Innate Dao Embryo.”

Chen Shi said, “My grandpa told me of this. The True King died in battle at Despair Slope and was offered in sacrifice by the Celestial Venerable, which is why the sun shone again.”

Zhong Wuwang said, “Chen Yindu and the others disguised themselves as Celestial Way Apostles to enter Despair Slope; I encountered them. But they left hastily and did not read all the books in the Academy of Inquiry. They did not do so, but I did.”

Chen Shi’s mind stirred, “You found more records about the True King?”

Zhong Wuwang shook his head. “What I found were studies on the Innate Dao Embryo.”

He looked at the two men and said solemnly, “The scroll I found was written by a Celestial Way Immortal and recorded their research on the True King’s Innate Dao Embryo. That immortal wrote that the True King’s Innate Dao Embryo resembled the Celestial True God in appearance exactly.”

Chen Shi and Yang Bi were each startled. Yang Bi turned to Chen Shi and asked, “You are the Child Prodigy. Does your Innate Dao Embryo also look exactly like the Celestial True God?”

Chen Shi pursed his lips and said, “My Innate Dao Embryo is within him.”

Yang Bi looked at Zhong Wuwang. Zhong Wuwang said, “I had never seen the Celestial True God’s face clearly, because his visage was always shrouded behind the sun and moon and hard to make out. But not long ago, Chen Yindu offered the sun and moon of the Upper Realm’s gods, relighting the Celestial True God’s eyes. At that moment I saw the Celestial True God’s face clearly, and it was identical to the Innate Dao Embryo’s face.”

He paused, then said, “The immortal who wrote the book proposed a conjecture: the Innate Dao Embryo might very well be the Celestial True God’s self-rescue!”

Chen Shi and Yang Bi both froze. “Self-rescue?”

Zhong Wuwang nodded lightly. “The Celestial True God sensed his own impending death, so he would bestow his essence as a god-embryo to an outstanding person. That god-embryo is the Innate Dao Embryo, and the recipient would grow ever stronger. In the end, the Celestial True God would reclaim the Innate Dao Embryo to prolong his own life.”

Chen Shi considered briefly and said, “Is the Celestial True God’s purpose in granting the Innate Dao Embryo to cultivate someone to eventually become a new True God who would steward the Western Ox New Continent for him?”

Zhong Wuwang laughed heartily, “Chen Shi, your demonic nature runs deep, yet you still have such naive thoughts!”

Yang Bi respectfully straightened and said, “Such innate purity explains why he received the Innate Dao Embryo. The Celestial True God did not choose wrongly. If I were the Celestial True God, I too would select the True King or Chen Shi, rather than you, sir.”