A magnificent carriage rolled out from outside Lingling city, escorted by guards. The carriage was splendid, with a golden roof topped by a golden phoenix, and golden bells hanging from four corner eaves.
Its body was lacquered red with gold detailing, the shafts as thick as a foot. Four guards sat beneath the carriage, eyes alert. Pulling it were two demon kings in ox-headed human form, nearly two zhang tall, their sinewy frames radiating terrifying strength. As they walked, demonic wind swirled and smoke puffed from their nostrils.
They had traveled only a few li from the city when the carriage halted. A guard bowed: "Governor, starving refugees from Lingling are blocking the road with a petition."
Inside sat the Governor of Yongzhou, named Zhou Heng—a corpulent man in his thirties or forties with two long whiskers drooping from his lips.
Governor Zhou Heng lifted the carriage curtain and looked out. Before him, over ten li of gaunt, starving refugees knelt along the road, all crying out "Righteous Official!" like ducks greeting their master.
"What petition do they have?" Zhou Heng asked. "I am an honest and upright official. Unless it's excessive, I'll grant it."
A guard went to inquire and returned: "They say they can't afford the taxes, can't afford to eat. The Nether River is causing havoc, new territory encroaches on farmland, ghosts run rampant—they ask that this year's taxes be waived."
"Scoundrels!"
Zhou Heng flew into a rage, veins bulging on his forehead. He slammed the table and roared: "A pack of scoundrels indeed! They're farmers—their job is to grow grain, and they have the nerve to say they can't eat? It's nothing but an excuse to avoid paying taxes! The Nether River invasion, ghosts running rampant—do ghosts eat grain? The shamelessness!"
He stood, sneering: "And if they have no money, why not rent out their properties in the busy districts? Or put their horse-drawn carriages to work for hire? These old farmers sit on properties in the market center and own horses, yet they kneel before an official begging for food—the nerve!"
Growing angrier, he thundered: "Today they dare block my road to waive taxes; tomorrow they'll dare demand I give them money! Pass my order—if they block my path again, confiscate everything! Their homes will become state property!"
The guard rushed out and ordered the other guards to disperse the crowd. Moments later, the ten li of refugees had fled without a trace.
Zhou Heng laughed: "I simply cannot abide the sight of poor people. Much cleaner now. These scoundrels scattered the moment they heard about confiscation—clearly they have money at home. If they truly had none, why run so fast?"
"Brilliant reasoning, my lord!" the guards exclaimed in admiration.
The convoy resumed, charging forward in clouds of dust, heading straight for Shuikou Temple.
At Shuikou Temple, Zhou Yihang's laughter boomed, loud enough to make Xu Ying's blood and qi stir: "Send me on my way?"
Many other shamans who had come to explore the new territory were also knocked off balance. Some grew dizzy, stumbled, and fell from the immortal mountain, their screams trailing into the distance.
Zhou Yihang ignored them. His laughter hadn't faded when the old man hunched forward, then straightened—his body surging to over a zhang in height as he activated the Vajra Indestructible Body, golden light radiating from every inch of his skin.
His Vajra Indestructible Body had been cultivated to the four-armed stage, far surpassing Zhou Yang's. Zhou Yang had barely dabbled in the technique, but Zhou Yihang had fully mastered it!
He employed the Eastern Monarch Leveling-the-Heavens Seal, fire flowing beneath his palms.
His mastery of the technique far exceeded his son Zhou Yang's. Xu Ying had once witnessed him exchange a single blow with City God Xue Lingfu—just one strike, and he had wounded Xue's golden body!
At that time, Zhou Yihang's body and soul had been integrated as one, impressing Xu Ying deeply and giving him an impression of invincibility.
Now, seeing Zhou Yihang deploy the Vajra Indestructible Body and Eastern Monarch Seal again, Xu Ying felt differently: "He doesn't seem as strong as I remembered."
He employed the Celestial Eye taught by the coffin girl, observing Zhou Yihang's physical body and the techniques of the Eastern Monarch Seal—even his Hidden Vision was visible in perfect clarity!
Within Zhou Yihang, a four-armed Vajra deity was fused with him as one. This four-armed Vajra was his Hidden Vision—formed through Cunxiang using the power of the Mud-Pellet Secret Storehouse.
Under the Celestial Eye's gaze, Xu Ying could perceive Zhou Yihang's weaknesses.
Zhou Yihang stepped forward, his four palms striking in succession. His palm force was accompanied by swirling cloud-fire, fluttering like banners, fluid in motion yet concealing tremendous power.
He was like a four-armed sun god, driving cloud-fire before him!
This was the Cloud Banner Serpentine technique of the Eastern Monarch Leveling-the-Heavens Seal.
In an instant, Xu Ying elevated the Elephant-Force Ox-Demon Fist to its peak. Behind him, pure yang primordial energy coalesced into the Elephant-King Divine Form. His fist struck, thunder roaring, aimed directly at the flaw in his opponent's technique!
Simultaneously, Yuan Qi struck with his tailtip—the White Elephant Swinging Trunk. His massive body whipped around, like a pillar holding up the heavens sweeping in with devastating force!
"BOOM!" "BOOM!"
Dull, explosive impacts resounded. Xu Ying collided with Zhou Yihang, and the Elephant-King Divine Form behind him was battered backward, blood and qi scattering like dust in a gale!
The Elephant-King Divine Form was composed of blood and qi—primordial energy and atomized blood mist. When the blood and qi scattered like dust, it signaled the divine form's collapse.
Xu Ying grunted, his limbs and bones trembling, blood and qi churning like boiling water as he stumbled back several steps.
Yuan Qi's cultivation was even lower than Xu Ying's. His Elephant-King Divine Form shattered completely!
The great serpent's bones rattled, the dragon mane behind his head swaying like waves. He nearly had his body shaken apart by the force of Zhou Yihang's strike!
Zhou Yihang's blood and qi flow was disrupted by Xu Ying's interference, momentarily halting the Cloud Banner Serpentine. He quelled the turbulence with a single effort.
Xu Ying instantly understood why his Elephant-King Divine Form had been broken: "His martial arts are far more advanced than ours! His technique contains a Hidden Vision, matching the four-armed deity's manifestation when he strikes! But Yuan Qi and I—the Elephant-Force Ox-Demon Fist we practice has no Hidden Vision to support it!"
The Hidden Vision was the image of the Great Dao. When martial techniques paired with corresponding Hidden Visions, they could produce extraordinary power. For example, the Elephant-Force Ox-Demon Fist, if paired with an Elephant Spirit Hidden Vision, could elevate the technique to a far higher level.
Without a comparable technique, even if Xu Ying could identify his opponent's weakness, injuring him would be nearly impossible.
"But though I lack a Hidden Vision, I have just comprehended an image of the Great Dao!"
Xu Ying retreated several steps, then suddenly stopped and shrugged. A stream of sword energy erupted from behind him, slashing toward Zhou Yihang!
This strike came like a rainbow from beyond the heavens—sudden, impossible to anticipate. The sword energy and intent invaded Zhou Yihang's consciousness!
Without thinking, Zhou Yihang clapped his hands together, trapping the sword energy between his palms, while his other two palms continued toward Xu Ying.
When his hands clamped onto the sword energy, its power surged explosively. Forgetting to strike Xu Ying, he brought his remaining two palms together—all four hands straining to contain the single blade!
Xu Ying charged forward, exploiting his open center. A finger jabbed into Zhou Yihang's chest, and sword energy erupted!
*Pfft!*
A thread of sword energy pierced the Vajra Indestructible Body, like a steel nail driven into his heart!
Fortunately, the sword energy from Xu Ying's fingertip was far weaker than the image of the Great Dao. It penetrated only three inches before the Indestructible Body halted it.
But in the next instant, Xu Ying's ten fingers flew like rain on pear blossoms, each fingertip striking acupuncture points across Zhou Yihang's body!
Yuan Qi, still recovering his scattered blood and qi, watched in horror—his bones felt like turning to jelly.
What Xu Ying was employing was the Bone-Dismemberment technique of snake catchers. This was exactly how he had once dismantled Yuan Qi's entire skeletal structure to capture him.
In Zhou Yihang's perception, each of Xu Ying's strikes was like a steel nail driven into his body, severing his blood and qi channels.
Terror gripped him: "What technique is this? How can he see my energy pathways?"
With his blood flow cut off, his four arms weakened. The sword energy overhead broke through his four-palm clamp, pressed down his arms, and slashed into the crown of his head!
This was precisely the image of the Great Dao that Xu Ying had comprehended before the temple gate!
The great fissure contained the sword energy and intent of a peerless swordsman. Though Xu Ying had never witnessed such a master in action, he had distilled the essence of that rainbow strike from the residual sword intent.
This strike grew stronger against resistance. If the path before it was empty, it would lack such devastating power.
To unleash its full might, something had to block it.
It was precisely the obstruction of a Nether mountain that had pushed the swordsman's intent to grow stronger against opposition, cleaving through the mountain and, at the moment the mountain's root was severed, reaching a limit never before achieved—surpassing himself!
Xu Ying's battle with Zhou Yihang followed the same principle. The sword energy encountered Zhou Yihang's four-armed barrier, and its power surged, overwhelming his strength and cutting into his skull!
Simultaneously, Yuan Qi struck again—his tailtip breaking the sound barrier, every ounce of blood and qi channeled into his most devastating blow. With a sharp crack, it lashed across Zhou Yihang's body!
*CRACK!*
The old man's robes exploded. His Vajra Indestructible Body was beaten bloody, and the sword energy cut deep into his skull, reaching all the way to his brow!
Zhou Yihang's mind was damaged. His eyes grew cloudy, consciousness dimming into a daze.
Xu Ying pressed harder, trying to cut deeper—but the sword energy could advance no further, meeting enormous resistance.
Then he felt the sword energy in his hand tremble violently, splitting the skin between his thumb and forefinger. He released his grip and retreated.
The sword energy embedded in Zhou Yihang's skull detonated with a crack. The sword energy nails Xu Ying had driven into his body exploded one after another.
Xu Ying's heart sank. He had bested Zhou Yihang in technique, but the gap in cultivation was too vast. Even with superior technique, he couldn't kill him.
Xu Ying let out a long howl and activated the Primordial Unity Guiding Art.
The Great Bell sensed his intent and cried: "A-Ying, Gate-Knocking requires a Great Medicine to assist! Without sufficient blood and qi, you cannot force the gate open! Don't be reckless!"
Before it finished speaking, the sky suddenly brightened. Countless particles of light from the sun swarmed toward them from this temple world—their density more than ten times that of the outside!
In an instant, the particles formed a half-acre light field, its brightness also more than ten times greater!
Beneath the light field, Xu Ying's blood and qi surged violently. The Great Bell was alarmed—it was as though Xu Ying had consumed a Gate-Knocking Great Medicine, his blood and qi surging like a tidal wave, crashing toward the black iron gate within his Domain of the Ineffable!
"The solar essence here is so dense—over ten times the outside. Could this truly be the Immortal Realm?" the Great Bell wondered.
When solar essence reached such concentration, a Gate-Knocking Great Medicine was no longer necessary.
"A-Ying, Gate-Knocking is primarily about 'knocking'—seeking the Mysterious Pass, comprehending the primordial root of heaven and earth, to open the gate," the Great Bell explained rapidly. "There's a verse to prove it: 'The primordial qi knocks at the pass's origin; deep within lies the great medicine. Inverting heaven and earth creates the Tai hexagram; cycling through Li and Kan establishes the root.' What you're doing is not a proper Qi-refiner's breakthrough method... Eh?"
Inside Xu Ying's body, blood and qi roared like a flood. Under his violent assault, the black iron gate trembled and shook, its two doors creaking as they swung apart!
He hadn't bothered to comprehend the Tai hexagram or cycle through Li and Kan. He simply forced the Tail-Vertebra Mysterious Pass open with brute power!
The pass showed signs of yielding!
The Great Bell was stunned. From within Xu Ying's body came rolling peals of thunder. Clusters of brilliance—roughly an inch long—bloomed outward from his form.
One could even see within him a great dragon of radiance, like a dragon drawing water, charging from top to bottom toward the lowest point of his spine—the Tail-Vertebra—assaulting the Mysterious Pass!
That Mysterious Pass was located at the base of the human spine, called the Tail-Vertebra!
Once opened, it would illuminate life and death, reveal yin and yang, open the Heavenly River, receive celestial dew, and ignite the internal mountains of the body!
Each mountain was a heaven—henceforth, cultivation would have a clear path!
The Great Bell was shaken: "If I hadn't stolen fifty percent of his blood and qi to heal myself, he would have blasted this pass wide open in one go! This is my fault. I must make amends."
It activated its own breathing technique, inhaling and exhaling, growing larger and smaller. The half-acre light field in the sky expanded to a full acre!
Xu Ying's blood and qi surged explosively. With a thunderous boom, pure yang primordial energy finally shattered the black iron Mysterious Pass!
The Heavenly River surged forth, rushing eastward!
Within the Domain of the Ineffable, waters cascaded from the nine heavens, breaking through the pass and flooding the domain, flowing across the lower continent, threading through mountains, forming waterfalls on high ground and lakes on plains—making the Domain of the Ineffable suddenly vibrant and vivid!
Xu Ying felt his five viscera and six bowels nourished by the Heavenly River, primordial energy flourishing. The previous limits of his cultivation vanished entirely!
His power was ascending rapidly—his blood and qi far denser and purer than before!
With this strengthening tide of blood and qi, the rainbow-like sword energy in his Domain of the Ineffable grew ever clearer.
Xu Ying halted his retreat, looked up at the healing Zhou Yihang, and regarded him like a pig or dog awaiting slaughter, eager to fight: "Old Bell, let me face him at full strength."
The Great Bell hesitated, then said: "Be careful."
Xu Ying immediately felt his blood and qi still rising. This was the first time since meeting the Great Bell that his power had returned to its true peak!
Then a voice drifted from afar: "Yihang, why so disheveled?"
A fifth immortal mountain rose slowly in the distance. At its base sat Governor Zhou Heng's carriage, its curtains drawn back, windows removed. Zhou Heng sat within, corpulent and smiling: "So this is the demonic Xu Ying? The one who can decipher demon arts?"
Many onlookers had been watching the battle. At these words, they turned to Xu Ying with strange expressions.
Zhou Yihang's heart tightened when he saw Governor Zhou Heng. Fearing the governor might stop him from killing Xu Ying to avenge Zhou Yang, he roared and charged, pushing the Vajra Indestructible Body and Eastern Monarch Seal to their absolute limit!
He would end this now—kill Xu Ying and offer his head to Zhou Yang!
Then, a blindingly bright sword light flashed across the sky, erasing all shadows from the surrounding trees!
The sword energy cleaved the sky with a piercing shriek, vanished in a flash, and disappeared without a trace!
In the nearby forest, countless leaves hung suspended in midair—
Then simultaneously split in half, as though an invisible sword had cleaved each one perfectly down the middle!
Every single leaf—perfectly bisected, not a millimeter off!
The leaves danced in the wind and fell to earth.
A cool breeze stirred. The spectators felt a bone-piercing chill, as though an incomparably sharp sword was aimed at them, ready to pierce their skin!
Beside someone's face, strands of hair lifted by the wind silently parted down the center, as if an invisible sword had cut them.
A youth stood amid the drifting leaves. Before him, Zhou Yihang's god-like body split down the middle, its two halves slowly toppling in opposite directions!