"He's more diligent than before!" Yuan Tiangang thought to himself.
On the Bridge of the River Nai, the worried old man shuffled into the line of ghosts, his expression more pained than ever.
After an unknowable stretch of time, his turn finally came.
Old Meng Po saw who it was and her hand trembled again.
"Elder, I need ten bowls. Strong brew."
The worried old man's brow remained furrowed. "I want the first steep—none of that second or third batch."
Old Meng Po couldn't help but protest: "Didn't you already come yesterday? Why again today? And where is your umbrella?"
The old man sighed, ignoring the question about the umbrella. "Last time your tea was watered down—it couldn't handle him. This time is different. Ten bowls of the first steep, and the seal will hold."
Old Meng Po laughed in exasperation. "My tea has no 'first' or 'second' steep—it's all the same potency! They call it the Soul-Bewildering Brew for a reason! Drink my tea and every memory is washed clean from your primordial spirit—back to the confusion before birth, emptier than an infant's! There is absolutely no way someone could drink it and still remember anything!"
The old man said: "Words are useless. He drank your tea and became more alert—even excited."
Old Meng Po's anger flared: "Impossible! If I can't bewilder his soul, you can smash my reputation to pieces!"
The old man repeated: "Ten bowls. Strong brew."
Old Meng Po gritted her teeth, staring at him. After a long moment, she relented: "Ten bowls—are you feeding an elephant? Even if I pour ten bowls, he has to drink them. And what about my tea bowls from last time? Where are they?"
The old man lined up ten tea bowls in the air, one after another. "Ten bowls. I have a way to make him drink."
Old Meng Po poured reluctantly. "And if it still doesn't hold—what then?"
The old man was silent for a moment. "Then I can only report it. The target has broken free. Await orders from above."
Old Meng Po shuddered and said nothing more.
After a time, the old man slowly crossed the Bridge of the River Nai and vanished into the vast darkness.
* * *
Wuwang Mountain, Qinyan Cave. The Mud-Pellet Palace.
The Great Bell was irritated. When its bell tone had struck, it was supposed to knock Xu Ying's soul out of his body, leaving the flesh behind. Instead, the bell had knocked the body out while the soul remained in place.
The cause: someone had consumed far too many Myriad Spirit Pills. The Indestructible Primordial Spirit had flooded his soul, making it unbearably solid.
Xu Ying looked down at his hands. A milky-white luminescence emanated from his palms—jade bones and ice flesh, no longer the body of flesh and blood.
He looked at his physical body. Light blazed from it, inches of radiant glow streaming outward from within!
"Am I... my soul?"
He suddenly noticed a burning heat on his left shoulder. Turning, he saw a flame flickering there, glowing with a quiet, steady light.
He looked at his right shoulder. Another flame.
He tilted his head back. A third flame hovered above his crown, burning even brighter.
The Great Bell explained: "Those are the Three Yang Fires of the human body. When fused into one, they become the Samadhi True Fire—the supreme yang that can incinerate all things."
"But..."
Xu Ying pointed at the Ox Demons. "Why are their Yang Fires different?"
The Ox Demons stared at his soul and shrank back, trembling, as though terrified of him.
Xu Ying could see their souls now.
They had primordial spirits too, roughly the same size as their bodies—but lacking any of his radiance.
They also carried three Yang Fires. Though the flames looked vigorous, the slightest breeze set them flickering, ready to gutter out at any moment. Not a thing like his own fires, which held steady against any wind.
The Great Bell murmured: "So that's it. No wonder these Ox Demons submitted to you. Your soul is too powerful—they couldn't hurt you with the Soul-Striking Whip, but it hurt them. If you used that whip on someone else, its power would be three or four times greater. Your soul cultivation now likely surpasses that of City Gods and Underworld Prefects—you're approaching the rank of Ghost King! These Ox Demons must have mistaken you for a Ghost King—that's why they pledged loyalty!"
"Ghost King?"
Xu Ying blinked. Wasn't he supposed to be Great Demon King Xu? How had he become Great Ghost King Xu instead?
"Your Three Yang Fires were refined by Pure Yang Anomalous Fire, which is why they're so pure and windproof. But their intensity didn't come from the anomalous fire—you consumed far too many Myriad Spirit Pills!"
The Great Bell's tone grew cold: "Your soul is nearly solid, composed almost entirely of Indestructible Primordial Spirit. Your three souls and seven spirits pale in comparison to your physical body. These Three Yang Fires are burning your vital essence on one side and your spiritual energy on the other. Vital essence comes from the body; spiritual energy comes from the soul. In other words, these fires are burning you like a candle! You must begin cultivating soul and body as soon as possible, or these three flames will consume you entirely!"
Xu Ying's heart skipped. The severity of his situation sank in.
Without Ghost King-level cultivation, yet possessing a Ghost King-level soul—this was anything but good.
It was like earning two copper coins a day but spending four. He'd go bankrupt in no time.
The Great Bell pressed on: "You've just entered the Gate-Knocking stage—the Mysterious Pass of the Tailbone has opened, the gateway to Qi refinement, the grand path of the Heavenly River. At this level, you comprehend life and death, understand yin and yang. You use the waters of the Heavenly River to nourish your organs and strengthen your body. Simultaneously, you must scale the inner Heavenly Mountain, pressing onward to the next realm. To comprehend life and death and understand yin and yang means you can now begin adjusting and cultivating your own soul."
Its bell tone rang once, sending Xu Ying's soul crashing back into his body. It spoke with earnest care: "Did you think I pushed you to cultivate only so I could steal your vital essence and blood? Not entirely. My goal is to make you diligent—to raise your power—so that I can steal even more!"
It delivered this lesson with the gravity of a mentor. "Rest early tonight. Tomorrow morning, you cultivate at dawn."
Xu Ying produced a Myriad Spirit Pill and tossed it to Yuan Qi. "I saved one for you."
Yuan Qi was equal parts delighted and frightened. He whispered: "Bell Master, if I take this, will my soul burn like Ah Ying's?"
The Great Bell said: "No. After you take it, your soul will become stronger than these Ox Demons'."
Yuan Qi hastily swallowed the pill.
Xu Ying was exhausted from the day. He ate some wild game, then sank into deep sleep.
* * *
Past midnight, several Ox Demons had transformed into yellow oxen and dozed on the floor of the Mud-Pellet Palace. Suddenly, the mountain wall behind the palace cracked open, and a skeleton walked through the stone.
The Ox Demons had barely seen it before they collapsed unconscious.
The skeleton drifted silently into the Mud-Pellet Palace and into Xu Ying's chamber.
The Great Bell hovered overhead. Sensing a disturbance, it was about to ring and wake Xu Ying—when its own consciousness blurred, its spirit sense scattered, and it fell into unconsciousness.
The Great Bell dropped from the air, nearly crushing Xu Ying beneath it. The skeleton raised a withered hand, and the Bell drifted gently to the side.
The skeleton leaned forward, extending one bony finger toward the point between Xu Ying's brows. At that instant, a surge of anomalous fire erupted from Xu Ying's forehead—flames blazed, sweeping toward the skeleton, filling the room with light!
"Qing Bi—will you oppose me too?" The skeleton recoiled, dissolving into a wisp of cyan smoke and vanishing.
The Pure Yang Anomalous Fire withdrew in an instant. The room went dark. The flame that had surged from Xu Ying's body shrank back within him and disappeared.
The Great Bell clattered to the floor and jolted awake, groggy: "Strange—how did I fall asleep? Wasn't I hovering above Ah Ying, suppressing his Three Yang True Fire?"
It worried that the True Fire burned too fiercely, which would cause his soul and body to wither prematurely—so it had been suppressing the three flames on his shoulders while he slept.
Xu Ying stirred, found nothing amiss, and drifted back to sleep.
* * *
The next morning, before dawn, the Great Bell was already clanging—rattling Xu Ying's eyes with sparks of light. It was more diligent than he was: flying to his room for a few rings, then crashing into Yuan Qi's chamber with a deafening clamor, demanding they rise for morning practice.
Even the Ox Demons were woken, yawning sleepily.
To wash his face, Xu Ying leaped into the water and swam all the way out of the Qinyan Cave. He stretched, put on his clothes, and began the day's cultivation. In the distance, several female spirits watched with shy glances.
The young man radiated a strong, masculine scent—attractive to the spirits, perhaps, but cultivation was far more interesting.
Yuan Qi and the Ox Demons emerged from the cave to begin their own practice.
Yuan Qi was mulling over the Dragon Snake Hibernation Art, asking Xu Ying how to cultivate it. Xu Ying activated the Primordial Unity Guiding Art while simultaneously deciphering the scripture: "'Hibernation' refers to the first spring thunder—yang energy surging upward, all things stirring to life. This technique cultivates the pure yang qi of the dragon and snake, transforming the physical body."
He explained and demonstrated, practicing the technique himself as he taught. When he finished, he had performed one full cycle.
Yuan Qi grasped seven or eight parts of the technique immediately and was deeply impressed. "Ah Ying isn't as patient as the white-robed Nuo Immortal, but he's an excellent teacher. I understand everything he says."
Xu Ying moved on to the True Cultivation of the Ba Snake: "The Ba Snake technique focuses on transformations of size and contains a metamorphic method—truly remarkable. You can practice it alongside the Dragon Snake Hibernation Art."
Again, he taught while practicing, completing one full cycle of both technique and explanation. Teaching while practicing allowed him to verify his own understanding.
The Great Bell, performing breathing exercises nearby, watched Xu Ying explain two techniques with flawless clarity—digesting each after a single reading. Its mind reeled.
"This boy isn't just a simple snake catcher. How could an ordinary catcher explain Qi-Refining techniques so thoroughly after seeing them only once?"
Both the Dragon Snake Hibernation Art and the True Cultivation of the Ba Snake were Qi-Refining techniques, though more suited to Yuan Qi's physiology. Qi-Refining techniques were far more abstruse than Nuo shamanic arts. While not impossible to decipher, they certainly shouldn't fall into place as effortlessly as they did for Xu Ying.
"So I've stumbled upon a treasure?" the Great Bell thought, excitement building. "I truly am favored by fate—my luck is extraordinary!"
As Xu Ying finished his explanation, a sudden impulse surged within him. A passage of profound scripture surfaced in his mind—the continuation of the Primordial Unity Guiding Art, far more abstruse than either the Dragon Snake Hibernation Art or the Ba Snake technique. Yet he understood its meaning naturally, as though it had always been there.
He moved his consciousness, channeling vital energy through the heart method of the Primordial Unity Guiding Art. His spirit sense entered the Domain of the Ineffable, where wind and clouds shifted—white clouds turning dark as dogs, sunlight racing through the sky, as if sun and moon were shuttling through the ages.
Outside, Yuan Qi and the Ox Demons looked up at the sky.
Above them, the half-acre field of light had grown even brighter. Sunlight poured toward it like a storm, streaming down onto the luminous field. Within the field, young sprouts swayed as though alive, drinking the sunlight and growing.
The process appeared slow, but in truth the sprouts shot up in the space of a few breaths.
Then the sprouts bore their heads, flowered, and quickly produced heavy, golden seeds.
"Bell Master, have you ever seen cultivation like this?" Yuan Qi whispered.
The Great Bell was at a loss. "Never."
Before it could finish, the sprouts in the light field ripened. Golden seeds flew outward—a shower of light descending upon Xu Ying, falling into his body.
Yuan Qi tried to catch a single golden seed. It struck him and dissolved into dense vital energy, flooding him with powerful yang qi.
"Like rice seeds—but pure yang rice seeds!" he exclaimed.
"Rice seeds... Dao seeds..."
The Great Bell murmured, then cried out: "I understand now—they're not rice seeds! They're Dao seeds! Sowing the Dao in a field of Light, planting lotus in fire—this is a technique that points directly to the Great Dao! But... but..."
Its mind reeled. A technique that pointed directly to the Great Dao—its own master had never obtained one. How had a snake catcher from a remote backwater like Xu Ying acquired such a thing?
It had witnessed the light field and sprouts appear during cultivation, and watched the Dao seeds enter Xu Ying's body. But when Xu Ying had learned such a strange technique, it had no idea.
"With his cultivation speed, my injuries should heal even faster!" The Great Bell set aside its confusion, consumed by joy.
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