Archfiend

Chapter 225: Danxia Temple (44)

Xu Yangyi’s spiritual sense continued to weaken bit by bit. Before his eyes was a total expanse of darkness. Simply uncontrollable, blood gushed out from his seven apertures. From the beginning he fell into the lotus sea, his blood resembled the flow of spring water. In the water, a blood-red thread was formed!

I’m going to die… His first thought was how close he was to approaching the netherworld. All of a sudden, the front of him flashed and actually brightened. He saw everything he had experienced in life… With extreme speed, his life projected before his eyes like a carousel lantern of paper horses.

He saw his parents… He saw that giant crow… he also saw his entry into Heavens Law… and even Su Lianyue… He looked upon many, many things. The world seemed to turn sluggish in this instant, causing him to enjoy this moment as much as he desired.

Are my memories flashing through my eyes…? He suddenly wanted to laugh. This life, eh… I accomplished nothing… But just as his mouth opened, all that rushed into his mouth was ice-cold seawater. 

“Glub… Glub…” A series of air bubbles floated up. In the water, he sank deeper and deeper. At this time, a faint azure light suddenly radiated underwater. It wasn’t large, but it quickly wrapped him up. At the same time, Xu Yangyi floated back up with an extreme speed! 

He couldn’t see and hear, but he could feel! His spiritual sense became clear and bright in an instant! It was like pressing the resurrection button in a video game! Furthermore, he couldn’t see that below the water… countless chains were locking down a tremendous shadow. At this very moment, the shadow opened its eyes… 

“Azure Lotus Demonic Art… Lotus Reincarnation…” A woman’s voice drifted up from underwater. “This Palace… can only lend you a hand… After all… for this day… I have waited too long… too long...”

“3,600 years… have gone by just like that… Never mind it… Two… The last two…” 

“Junior… you mustn’t disappoint me…”

No one could see, but at the very bottom of Danxia Temple, there was a shadow no less than 5,000 meters long! It was locked down by five chains, and these five chains were shockingly black, white, violet, azure, and red in color! But now… among these five chains, three had already dimmed. All that remained was the final azure and red chains! However, on top of each of the previous black, white, and violet chains, there were faintly discernible Dharma Wheels slowly rotating and seemingly restoring them!

Xu Yangyi was none the wiser to all of this, yet his eyes snapped open. His first reaction was to fiercely charge above!

Splash! His head surfaced out of the water, and he shouted, “Chasing Skylark!”

Swoosh! The Chasing Skylark in the air was at first painfully sluggish, but in this moment it was just like a newborn. Without delay, the puppet rushed down!

He grabbed onto the Chasing Skylark’s claw and flipped onto its back. Over yonder where his gaze reached, Fahui and Greenwall’s Two Swords were looking at him with immense shock.

He didn’t died! He actually didn’t die!

They knew how powerful the protective items of the Dao Sect and Buddhist Monastery were. Didn’t they see that Sister Nine and Yi Old Five were both without voice now? The cultivation world’s apex clans were unknown to life or death, but they could still persevere! However, even though this person didn’t have a protective talisman as powerful as theirs, he surprisingly hadn’t died!

They clearly felt how strong that strike was from moments ago! If… spiritual-sense attacks were now spoken of among sect-protector secret arts, the strike just now… could no longer be called an attack. It was a pure extermination of spiritual sense!

Those hit by it were resigned to death!

“Fellow Daoist Xu… Fellow Daoist Xu!” Zhao Wuye was also stunned, but in the next second he was unexpectedly crying tears of joy. “Awesome! Awesome! You didn’t die! You didn’t die!!!”

“Cut the crap!” Xu Yangyi gritted his teeth and said, “Speak! What was the divine ability anomaly just now?”

Zhao Wuye’s lips were quivering. “Azure netherflame… as big as a wheel! Fellow Daoist Xu, its azure netherflame! I wasn’t wrong! I was right! I guessed right! Hahahaha!!!”

Zhao Wuye somewhat lost his mind due to great joy and sorrow. First he had cried tears of joy, and now he went so far as to cackle in madness.

Xu Yangyi took a deep breath. “There’s no time! Give me an exact answer!”

“Alright!” Zhao Wuye clenched his teeth and said, “In the world, there are three great unsolved riddles. The first is India’s Mound of the Dead. The second is the Tunguska Explosion. The Third… is the Tianqi Explosion!” [1]

The Tianqi Explosion?

Xu Yangyi’s eyes quickly glimmered. Tianqi… Heavenly Opening! How many secrets were concealed in these two words?

“The Tianqi Explosion’s first omen was the Demonchariot Pheasant halts on the stargazer altar! It was Wei Zhongxian’s first move!”

“The second omen was fluttering snow of May! This was his second move!”

“The third move was the warping and weaving of clouds, a transformation from white to purple. This was his third move. As for the fourth move…” The more Zhao Wuye spoke, the more excited he became. “The azure nether ghostflame, large as a wheel. This… is his fourth move!”

“I can deduce that his fifth move will be an explosion in itself! In the entire world’s countless years, this is an unsolved riddle!!! Its might… is enough to raze everything to the ground!”

Yet suddenly, Xu Yangyi’s gaze flickered.

Five moves? Not six? If that wasn’t the case then… did Wei Zhongxian, who was split into six parts, have one more move? No… why had the eunuch chosen such a strange method? Why would the eternally unsolved Tianqi Explosion unfold at the bottom of Danxia Temple?

Or could it be said… that Wei Zhongxian was choosing something? Or… he wanted to make people see something? Something within… the never-emerged sixth move?

Zhao Wuye spoke succinctly and quickly enough, but at this instant Wei Zhongxian’s mouth opened again. “Devour…”

The fifth move… The last move… Not waiting for Zhao Wuye to finish speaking, it had already descended!

The arrival of the Tianqi Explosion’s true manifestation! This… was the last move! There was no time for careful consideration!

Xu Yangyi gnashed his teeth, and his reddened eyes swept through everyone. He controlled his voice and enunciated each of his words. “Give me time.”

These three words were incredibly heavy, but there was now someone whose contemplations didn’t even exceed a tenth of a second!

“JUNIOR BROTHER!!!” a pained roar echoed. Xuan Chengzi looked on in shock as Ling Xiaozi stepped forward and charged out! All of Ling Xiaozi’s bodily qi was madly raging!

Qi detonation!!!

From this moment onwards, the world would no longer have Ling Xiaozi. His spiritual sense, qi sea, skin, flesh, and bones would all utterly disappear! There wasn’t anyone that could’ve expected that by just these three words, Ling Xiaozi had actually chosen to detonate his qi sea!

“Swordless Anatta.” Ling Xiaozi spat these two words out of his mouth. He turned his head and glanced deeply at Xuan Chengzi, and his mouth stirred. There was no sound, but Xuan Chengzi saw it all too clearly.

Two words.

Live on.

It was incredibly simple but immensely heavy. It was as light as the touch of lips. Heavy like a cultivator with boundless prospects detonating the qi sea.

“Amitabha…” Fahui was also profoundly shocked. The eyes of the present him were deep set. He was almost unlike a human, but he still shakily raised his hands up and pressed them together. With all of his body’s remaining power, he faced Ling Xiaozi’s figure and recited a chant.

This sword had already transcended the idea of sects. Fahui paid respects to a true cultivator.

BOOM!!! A ball of fiery qi exploded in front of Wei Zhongxian’s body! It was unknown whether there was an effect, but Wei Zhongxian’s second word was left unsaid!

Xu Yangyi deeply cupped his hands and said somewhat hoarsely to Zhao Wuye, “Continue!”

Zhao Wuye was likewise shocked, but he further understood that time was life at this moment and quickly barked out, “This is a dead soul’s reincarnation technique… This technique has already vanished for almost a thousand years! Because it was too ruthless and its requirements too unique, it was abandoned by the cultivation world.”

“A person who chose this art had to born in a Yin year, month, day, time, and have a Yin engraving. If a woman, she had to be imprisoned underground on her birthday. If a man… it was only after castration and dismemberment. In fact, Wei Zhongxian’s nature is still a corpse puppet, but not an ordinary one. A normal corpse puppet can use a cultivator’s divine abilities from when they were alive. But as for this corpse puppet, it can be forcibly outfitted with any divine ability! And… when it suffers intense qi, it’ll automatically produce a counterattack!” [2]

So that’s how it was!

Xu Yangyi’s gaze flashed. It was no wonder that Wei Zhongxian had died and resurrected, no surprise that his divine abilities were simply unlike that of the Qi Condensation Realm!

“In particular…” Zhao Wuye shivered. “The function of this kind of corpse puppet is normally used for suppressing and sealing. Therefore, its attached divine abilities would be abnormally powerful!” 

Xu Yangyi’s thoughts swiftly revolved. Sealing? Suppressing?

What… was Wei Zhongxian suppressing? Perhaps the “me” in “save me”... was something else?

There wasn’t enough time to keep on thinking. He had to treasure the time that Ling Xiaozi had used his life to exchange for!

“However, a corpse puppet of a dead soul reincarnated has already surpassed an ordinary corpse puppet! There has to be a control nexus! Do you remember when Ye Old Four died…”

“You’re talking about that thing inside his mouth?” Xu Yangyi’s mind suddenly shone. In other words, the Animus Armament’s lower-half was controlling Wei Zhongxian?

“That’s the greatest possibility!” Zhao Wuye clenched his teeth and said, “If this doesn’t work, we’ll be waiting to die!!!”

Before Zhao Wuye’s voice even fell, Xu Yangyi had already charged forward! All matters seemed to form a circle. In this place, a full stop was drawn. 

Animus Armament… Emperor Armament… The course of events stemmed from it as before! He’d come because of it and would now also usher in a conclusion because of it! The item he wanted to seize was the object hindering him!

That which was sown was that which was reaped. Karmic retribution was never straightforward.

Wei Zhongxian’s voice was quite slow. For these two words, he needed roughly five seconds to say them out loud. Yet Xu Yangyi’s opportunity was only these five seconds!

Because of Devour Soul moments ago, he didn’t have any confidence in surviving the next Erosion! The next Erosion would be the strongest move! The Tianqi Explosion, one of the world’s Three Great Eternal Riddles. By the hand of a Foundation Establishment Senior and through the divine ability of a mighty figure whose whereabouts were unknown, it would manifest again at the bottom of Danxia Temple! Such might… simply dared not be imagined!

In a spark of flint, Xu Yangyi used his fastest speed to calculate the distance.

Eight seconds!

Charging in front of Wei Zhongxian still required eight seconds! Without a spare word, all of his spiritual force frantically poured into the Chasing Skylark. The puppet almost transformed into a streak of azure light! It arced forth like electricity!

In this instant… no one who was still alive could utter a word. Their gazes tightly fixed onto Xu Yangyi’s figure.

Wei Zhongxian’s flying head! This mouth which had devoured Ye Old Four had to be pried open and the Animus Armament seized! Otherwise, all things would perish!

Fahui firmly pursed his lips. For the first time, he stopped chanting sutras. His palm was covered entirely with cold sweat. Xuan Chengzi and Quan Ningyue were gritting their teeth hard. The young-looking girl had already crossed both of her hands like she was praying in front of her chest, her lips trembling.

On a lotus leaf, Sister Nine could only keep her eyes open by a crack. She forcibly braced herself without losing consciousness. She lay down in a pool of blood, her blood-filled eyes locked on Xu Yangyi.

At this very moment, between heaven and earth, only he existed!

1. All real places/events. India’s Mound of the Dead is also known as Mohenjo-daro. The Tianqi in Tianqi Explosion (also known as Wanggongchang Explosion) is the same characters as “Heavenly Opening”. It occurred during the reign of Emperor Tianqi. More information can be found on wikipedia about these places/events.

2. Only thing I really want to take note of here is “Yin engraving”. This is a somewhat complicated topic to discuss. The idea of Yin year/month/day is cosmological, etc, but the Yin engraving has to do with carving a name/characters. If the characters are inwards, it is a Yin engraving. If it is outwards, it is a Yang engraving.