Chapter 1219: Ink Flame Fuses with Tianyang
The fire of the earth's veins, which had seemingly reached its theoretical limit, suddenly flared up once more, burning with renewed vigor.
Furious flames surged forth, erupting from the earth.
Fissures spiderwebbed across the seabed, releasing an endless torrent of churning bubbles.
What startled the Artificer, however, was not this spectacle.
It was the quiet birth of another, peculiar being, materializing before his very eyes from within the geomantic flames.
After so many years in the Xuanhuang Realm, he was no stranger to such an entity.
It possessed a name known to nearly all: a Heavenly Spirit!
As the physical embodiment of the Xuanhuang Realm's laws, any cultivator who managed to absorb it could achieve a meteoric rise, ascending directly to the Dao Integration realm.
Heavenly Spirits were exceedingly rare cultivation resources, their appearances utterly unpredictable.
"This..."
Then, to the Artificer's utter astonishment and disbelief, something even more extraordinary occurred.
The Heavenly Spirit born from the geomantic flames made no hostile move.
Instead, it silently catalyzed the flames, waiting until they shifted from orange-yellow to an inky black before willingly plunging into the Ground Fire Return to Origin Array!
It was an act of self-sacrifice, offered to grant the slumbering puppet within the array a chance for further advancement!
The black flames flickered silently, merging into the vast body of the subterranean puppet as the Ground Fire Return to Origin Array continued its ceaseless operation.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The continuous sounds of collapse and explosions emanated from deep underground.
It was the sound of impurities being smelted from the puppet's body.
"This Heavenly Spirit... not only did it refrain from attacking a cultivator, but it actually followed his will and helped this undersea puppet?"
"How is this possible?"
It was common knowledge that the conflict between the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm and the world's cultivators was irreconcilable.
Cultivators, upon seeing a Heavenly Spirit, would be overcome with an irresistible urge to devour it.
And the Heavenly Spirits, in turn, were merciless toward any cultivator who dared to appear before Them, slaying them without hesitation.
But the scene unfolding before him completely shattered the Artificer's understanding of the world.
"Even a Heavenly Spirit obeys him so readily... Don't tell me he's an incarnation of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao itself?" the Artificer thought, the idea seeming utterly preposterous.
"Heavenly Spirits are born to fulfill a celestial mandate," Li Ping explained, his tone even. "This black flame before you is called the Ink Flame. Its purpose is to assist in the creation of a Dao Integration puppet..."
He didn't voice his next thought. *The False Claiming Heavenly Geography allows me to forge the Heavenly Dao's will and create Heavenly Spirits from nothing. But that's usually the extent of it. Normally, forcing a Heavenly Spirit—a being fundamentally opposed to cultivators—to sacrifice itself for a cultivator's advancement...*
*...is a command that completely violates the Heavenly Dao's will. Under ordinary circumstances, it would be utterly impossible.*
*And yet...*
*I am an incarnation of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao. All my actions are for the good of this world!*
*The world itself will aid me!*
Li Ping could feel the subtle shift in the world's will toward him, a change that had begun ever since the You Clan, at his command, had renewed their faith in the Gloomy Sea of Darkness.
It was due to this confluence of factors that the Heavenly Spirit to manifest was the exceptionally powerful Ink Flame.
The unsettling black flame was so potent that even Li Ping felt a faint trace of danger from it.
Refined by the Ink Flame, the undersea puppet began to evolve at an unimaginable rate.
"It won't be long now before the puppet emerges."
*Its cultivation may only be at the Dao Integration realm, but in a real fight, I doubt I'd be any match for it. And all this came from a single, casual gesture from that mysterious man...* The Artificer thought, stealing another glance at Li Ping.
A sense of dread filled him, yet it was mingled with a growing anticipation for the two favors the man had promised.
*It seems he wasn't making empty boasts...*
Li Ping and the Artificer waited for the puppet to emerge.
As the Ink Flame continued to fuse with the puppet, the turmoil in the surrounding waters intensified.
Li Ping, however, had concealed the disturbance with a formation.
Otherwise, such a strange phenomenon would have undoubtedly drawn hordes of cultivators to investigate.
Half a month later.
As if a lamp sputtering its last, the geomantic fires beneath the sea floor had been completely extinguished.
Lava cooled and solidified into black crystal.
Only a thick mist, born of the residual heat, still shrouded the seabed.
The aura of the Ink Flame, the Heavenly Spirit, had vanished completely. In its place, a nascent and powerful presence began to stir on the ocean floor.
A prickle of danger made the Artificer instinctively edge closer to Li Ping.
Suddenly, the presence vanished from his senses.
The Artificer's expression changed dramatically as a layer of silver-white armor materialized to shield him.
A pitch-black figure had silently appeared beside them.
Its target, however, was not the Artificer, but Li Ping—the faceless Saint Emperor of the Great Qi!
The newly awakened Tianyang was on high alert. Sensing two powerful presences nearby, he had attacked without a moment's hesitation.
Faced with the imminent attack, Li Ping did not flinch.
He didn't even summon the power of the Source Power Essence to defend himself.
A single, quiet telepathic message was all it took to cut through Tianyang's daze and halt his rash assault.
"Tianyang, do you wish to avenge your master and senior brother?"
Tianyang's body trembled. He materialized fully, his gaze locked intensely on Li Ping.
He still had the appearance of a boy in his early teens, just as he did before his long slumber.
But his eyes betrayed his youthful form, holding a profound and ancient weariness.
As he calmed, memories from his slumber surfaced—images of Li Ping helping him absorb the Heavenly Spirit.
Realizing his newfound power was entirely due to this man's aid, the hostility in Tianyang's heart gradually dissipated.
Still, he kept his eyes fixed on Li Ping, demanding an answer to the question he had just posed.
"The one responsible for the great war that ravaged the Xuanhuang Realm, the one who caused the deaths of countless cultivators from countless sects... is still at large."
"I intend to..."
Li Ping slowly explained his plan via telepathic transmission.
Tianyang listened in silence, his aura surging with emotion as he heard the plan.
Then, he reined in his power and flew to Li Ping's side.
"We shouldn't linger here. Let's return," Li Ping declared.
He then turned to the Artificer. "Are you coming with us?"
The Artificer's gaze had been fixed on Tianyang ever since he appeared.
*Do I have a choice?* the Artificer muttered under his breath, nodding his assent.
It was only after the three of them traversed the void and arrived in the pocket dimension of the Great Qi that the Artificer was finally able to tear his gaze away from Tianyang.
At its core was the Five Elements Great Cave-Heaven.
A total of nine grotto-heavens orbited the pocket dimension of the Great Qi.
They provided the motive force, pulling it through the vast emptiness of the void.
The concentration of spiritual energy in this mysterious dimension was astonishingly, far greater than even that of the Xuanhuang Realm itself.
Moreover, it seemed to be veiled by some invisible power, preventing even the Artificer from probing its inner details with his spiritual sense.
...
Just as the Artificer found himself once again reeling in shock, an aura streaked toward them like a rainbow, making his heart leap into his throat.
Even Tianyang, who had been silent until now, grew wary.
A Longevity realm cultivator?
How could that be?
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