Chapter 1237: The Thought of Devouring Heaven's Luck
Chapter 1237: The Thought of Devouring Heaven's Luck
"Mere words are not enough. What proof do you have?"
Even though Xu Ke sensed a familiar aura from him, the sealed Malice of Xuanhuang on his back was far too significant. Entrusting it to the wrong person would unleash an unimaginable catastrophe.
This was precisely why Xu Ke had borne the burden of sealing it alone for so many years.
He had never found anyone who was both capable enough and worthy of his trust.
When Li Ping saw Xu Ke's caution, saw him refuse his offer...
He showed no anger, his laughter simply echoing through the hall.
"I do not need to prove myself to you. Rather, you need to see the truth for yourself!"
As Li Ping spoke, the roof of the throne hall—and indeed, the very sky of the Great Qi small world—seemed to tear asunder.
He saw an endless darkness, where pinpricks of golden light materialized from nowhere, stirring invisible waves in the Gloomy Sea of Darkness.
Across a boundless ocean, golden chains crisscrossed to form a colossal net. Within this golden web, sharp, resentful wails echoed—the sound of a consciousness being slowly ground into oblivion. At the very center of the light, the faceless Sage Emperor stood poised in the void, his presence chilling and immense.
In another scene, a desolate province, the raw power of heaven and earth converged upon the faceless Sage Emperor. Beside him, an inky-black figure shimmered, half-present. They faced an empty space, yet the sight filled Xu Ke with a profound and instinctual unease.
...
Every one of these fleeting visions pointed to an undeniable truth: the faceless Sage Emperor before him was intimately connected to the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm.
The increasingly violent struggles from the coffin on his back, as if the entity within was desperate to reunite with its source, served only to confirm his judgment.
And yet, for reasons he couldn't quite grasp, Xu Ke remained hesitant.
"Could it be," Xu Ke thought with a jolt of alarm, "that I've been in its presence for so long I've unknowingly fallen under its influence?"
The faceless Sage Emperor's aura was so overwhelmingly righteous that Xu Ke, standing in opposition, found himself involuntarily questioning his own judgment.
"The Malice of Xuanhuang has been sealed for too long. Its power has grown beyond the control of any ordinary cultivator. It and the current Heavenly Dao of Xuanhuang are two parts of a whole. Should it suddenly be returned, even the Heavenly Dao itself would suffer an extreme and unpredictable transformation."
"Only by my hand can it first be suppressed, its malice slowly scoured away, before its essence can be safely returned to the heavens. And in this process, I will likely require your aid," Sage Emperor Li Ping continued after a brief stalemate.
His words elicited two starkly different reactions.
A look of profound relief and joy washed over Xu Ke's face.
Meanwhile, the coffin on his back, after a brief, tense silence, began to shudder more violently than ever.
Li Ping could almost see the pale figure within, its gaze now a hundred times more venomous than before.
"Come with me."
Instead of pressing Xu Ke to surrender the Malice of Xuanhuang, Li Ping led him to a specific point high above the Great Qi small world.
"Do you feel the difference here?"
"The fluctuations from the Malice... they're suppressed. I can barely feel them. And it's not just the Malice—it's this small world, and even the Heavenly Dao itself..." Astonishment flickered in Xu Ke's eyes.
"This is the core of the Heaven and Earth Myriad Spirits Array," Li Ping explained, his tone even. "This formation seals the heavens and sunders the earth. Forget a world's consciousness—it could even hold off the descent of a True Immortal for a time."
In his own memories, the formation could indeed hinder a True Immortal's descent.
Xu Ke, despite his long life, had never witnessed the true power of such a being, and so he had no reason to doubt Li Ping's claim.
"With this array, even if it were released directly, it would be unable to escape."
Xu Ke had some knowledge of formations himself.
The more he studied it, the more his awe grew.
The Heaven and Earth Myriad Spirits Array was just as Li Ping described: infinitely profound.
"If I'd had such an array all those years ago," Xu Ke mused, a sense of dazed wonder cutting through his astonishment, "I wouldn't have needed to spend millennia as its warden."
After showing him the array, Li Ping led Xu Ke to see Master Yin.
The scene resembled a school, filled with children studying intently. Their innocent faces transported Xu Ke's mind back a thousand years, to a small, ruined temple in Ningyuan City. For a moment, the past and present seemed to merge, leaving Xu Ke momentarily stunned.
Master Yin's reaction, however, was startling.
In the middle of teaching the children, he suddenly froze.
After a brief pause, he shot to his feet, his gaze fixed on the coffin behind Xu Ke.
His body began to tremble, and then, shockingly, it split open, revealing another self hidden within.
All four of his eyes burned with an unprecedented greed.
Xu Ke frowned, deeply unsettled by the predatory gleam in those eyes.
But what disturbed him more was the reaction of the Malice of Xuanhuang in the coffin.
It was strange.
The entity within had fallen silent. The ceaseless curses and seductive whispers that had plagued Xu Ke's mind vanished.
But this was different from its silence within the Heaven and Earth Myriad Spirits Array; the Malice itself wasn't being suppressed by any external force.
Instead, it seemed to have been frightened into submission, silencing itself.
A moment later, it began to pound on the coffin lid again, as if reasserting its presence.
To Xu Ke, however, it felt more like an empty bluff.
Li Ping stepped between Master Yin and the coffin, and only then did the two entities return to a semblance of normalcy.
Master Yin's split form merged back together. He grinned. "Well, well. To think a part of the magnificent Heavenly Dao of Xuanhuang could be brought so low."
"If my brothers found out, they'd be absolutely ecstatic."
"I've devoured plenty of lesser Remnant Realm Ghosts," Master Yin continued, smacking his lips. "But an intact piece of a world's consciousness? I've never tasted that before. I wonder what it's like."
Xu Ke's blood ran cold at his words.
Then, Li Ping's voice entered his mind, explaining Master Yin's origins.
"A Remnant Realm Ghost, a survivor of a world devoured by Xuanhuang, who holds Mr. Bai in high esteem?"
Xu Ke's initial skepticism vanished the moment he saw the white rib bone Master Yin treasured. All doubt was swept from his mind.
It was an ordinary-looking rib, no different from a mortal's.
But Xu Ke knew in a single glance that it belonged to Mr. Bai.
An image of Mr. Bai's smiling face surfaced in his mind, only to shatter in the next instant.
Leaving only the image of the white bone.
A wave of grief washed over Xu Ke.
Upon learning of Xu Ke's special connection to Mr. Bai, Master Yin's menacing aura subsided, replaced by a calmer demeanor.
Though his eyes still darted toward the decaying coffin from time to time.
"With Daoist Yin present," Li Ping remarked calmly, "should it somehow escape its restraints, it would simply end up as his next meal."
His emotions settling, Xu Ke finally accepted the faceless Sage Emperor's identity and his plan.
As the obsession that had gripped his heart for so long finally loosened its hold, Xu Ke felt a lightness he hadn't experienced in ages.
"I have persevered for so long," Xu Ke thought. "Now, it is time to let the Xuanhuang Realm take over."
"What, are you interested in it as well?" Master Yin asked, looking at Li Ping with some surprise.
Li Ping briefly recounted the events in Luoyan Province. "It has been of great help to me," he concluded.
Master Yin shrugged. "Then I won't compete with you for it. Even if I ate it, it would only satisfy a momentary craving before passing right through me."
Li Ping remained silent, offering no response.
"That silver needle..." Master Yin suddenly projected an image for Li Ping.
"Does it look like this?"
Li Ping nodded. "You've seen it?"
"I think I remember something, but it was a very long time ago," Master Yin said, his eyes narrowed in recollection.
"Ah, that's it. A long time ago, I saw it in this place. Though it wasn't really me at the time, but a lingering memory from a piece I devoured. The details are hazy. If you're interested, you could try searching there. You might find something."
Master Yin sent the location to Li Ping via a mental message.
It seemed that as a Remnant Realm Ghost, he still retained a faint connection to his original self. The location Master Yin conveyed was, astonishingly, the precise coordinates of the current Xuanhuang Realm.
"I understand. We will deal with the current matter first," Li Ping said, speaking with frank honesty. "With my current power, even if I were to find something, I doubt I could investigate it thoroughly."
"The Xuanhuang Realm is certainly crawling with monsters of every stripe," Master Yin grunted.
Li Ping then turned to Xu Ke. "Daoist Yin and I have been planning to gather Mr. Bai's scattered remains and give them a proper burial. Once this is over, you may help us, if you wish."
Xu Ke agreed without a moment's hesitation, his voice trembling slightly. "Yes... yes."
With the warden successfully persuaded, all that remained was to release and absorb the Malice of Xuanhuang.
Though supremely confident, Li Ping took no chances.
He made thorough preparations.
The next day, a proclamation spread throughout the entire Sacred Dynasty.
In seven days, the Supreme Sage Emperor would bestow his grace.
All who prayed sincerely within those seven days would receive the Sage Emperor's reward.
The more sincere the heart, the more generous the reward.
Praying to the Sage Emperor was already a required practice for the citizens of the Great Qi; now that the Sage Emperor had explicitly promised a reward, how could they dare be negligent?
Thus, within a mere half-day of the decree's issuance, Li Ping felt the fortune of the Great Qi dynasty condensing as never before.
Even the power of fortune formed by the Heavenly Emperor Qi Canon within his body showed faint signs of transforming from purple to gold.
"This method is only effective for a short time; it cannot be sustained."
"If I fail to deliver on my promise, I will suffer a backlash. Even a drop in my cultivation realm is not out of the question."
Li Ping felt his power climbing toward its zenith, yet his mind remained perfectly calm.
The golden Source Power was drawn out, and the wills of the masses were united as one.
The Heaven and Earth Myriad Spirits Array began to slowly revolve.
It severed all connections to the outside world.
At this moment, not only was it impossible to observe the Great Qi small world from the Xuanhuang Realm, but even Daoist Baihua, who was just a short distance away in the Five Elements Great Cave-Heaven, suddenly lost her connection to it.
If Li Ping had not informed her in advance, she might have thought the Great Qi had suffered some terrible calamity.
The process of devouring the Malice of Xuanhuang had to be shielded from the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao outside.
Otherwise, something unpredictable might occur.
Seven days passed in a flash.
After seven days of brewing and preparation, Li Ping's state had reached its absolute peak.
Within the core of the Myriad Spirits Array, Master Yin, Xu Ke, and Yi Shu stood in a triangular formation.
Li Ping himself sat suspended in the air at their center.
As a part of the Taiyan Transformation Dao Stone, Yi Shu had naturally sensed the unusual changes occurring in the Great Qi small world.
He had taken the initiative to inquire about it.
Li Ping, having nothing to hide, directly informed him of his plan to devour the Malice of Xuanhuang.
After a moment of stunned silence, Yi Shu immediately offered to help.
He even suggested that the Taiyan Sect and the Great Qi Sacred Dynasty could deepen their cooperation in the future.
After a moment of contemplation, Li Ping agreed to Yi Shu's request.
His request for their presence was mostly for show.
Within the Heaven and Earth Myriad Spirits Array, everything was under his control.
If Yi Shu behaved himself, all would be well. If he made any suspicious moves, Li Ping could refine him with a single thought.
And devour him along with the Malice of Xuanhuang.
"Array, activate!"
Li Ping's cold voice rang out.
The three cultivators in the formation felt the sky instantly dissolve into a chaotic expanse.
Purple stars flickered intermittently within it.
It was as if they had entered an endless void, departing from the real world.
A shiver went through all three of them.
Li Ping then pointed a finger at the decaying wooden coffin placed beside him.
There was no violent shattering sound.
The wooden layers simply dissipated like a wisp of black smoke.
A figure materialized from the blur, appearing in the formation before Li Ping.
Unlike the venomous visage Li Ping had seen before...
The entity before him now was indistinguishable from the Mr. Bai in his memories.
It smiled faintly and asked, "Are you going to eat me?"
There was no hatred in its eyes, only relief and acceptance.
"Mr. Bai?!" Xu Ke was the first to cry out in shock.
It was not that Xu Ke lacked composure, but that this figure was far too similar to Mr. Bai.
Li Ping remained unmoved, nodding faintly. "Correct."
"To merge with me is a worthy death for you."
That simple sentence caused the calm expression on the face of the Xuanhuang Malice to freeze abruptly.
"What do you think you are?!"
The Malice of Xuanhuang could no longer maintain its disguise, shrieking in a frenzy.
It suddenly transformed into a cloud of black qi and lunged at Li Ping.
But an infinite distance seemed to separate it from Li Ping.
No matter how hard it struggled, it could not get any closer.
"Noisy."
"Once you merge with me, you will know what I am."
Li Ping glanced at the Malice of Xuanhuang.
An immense, radiant power descended from the heavens.
It instantly bound the black smoke formed by the Malice.
"Will of all living spirits, the Great Millstone of Heaven and Earth!"
Li Ping chanted softly, and a swirling, purple-gold vortex slowly formed above them all.
(End of this chapter)
Comments