Xu Ying's spirit sense drifted upon the Heavenly River, unaware of the profound shock his sowing of Dao in a Field of Light had caused. He cultivated naturally, without artifice or deliberate intent.
Sowing the Dao in a Field of Light—Dao Seeds entering the body—caused his cultivation to surge with every passing moment.
He gazed upward, beholding the vast Heavenly River threading through the mountains. Those distant peaks loomed like celestial blessed lands, their forms shadowy and impossibly high. The nearer ranges were clear, but those beyond grew hazy and remote.
He had entered the Gate-Knocking stage and was penetrating the Mysterious Pass of the Tailbone for the first time, peering into the Domain of the Ineffable beyond.
These layered Heavenly Mountains resembled a human spine when viewed from below—range upon range, each shaped like half a lotus blossom. Each mountain was a separate Heaven, corresponding to a vertebra of his spine.
The Heavenly River pierced through the center of each Heaven. His spirit sense, washed by the river's currents, refined itself with a speed far beyond anything before.
In that liminal space, he comprehended countless truths. Where his cultivation had once been murky and unconscious, he now felt the workings of yin and yang, the harmony of his five viscera and six bowels.
He could sense his soul with perfect clarity—its form mirroring his physical body, intricate and wondrous. This was what it meant to comprehend life and death.
A realization dawned: "To ascend to the next realm, one must climb Heaven step by step. The path of ascension depends on one's own accumulation. There are no shortcuts."
* * *
When the morning sun climbed high, Xu Ying, Yuan Qi, the Great Bell, and the several Ox Demons all ceased their Qi-gathering in unison.
The Ox Demons transformed into black cattle and wandered to the meadow to graze, lazily swishing their tails to drive away flies. They had originally been ox demons—pure-blooded demon kings—who had been appointed as ghost gods of the Underworld. But upon returning to the living world, they reverted to their bovine forms, complete with the instinct to graze.
Demon servants from the mountain below brought morning food for Great Demon King Xu and Great Ox Demon King Qi. After eating their fill, Xu Ying and Yuan Qi turned to contemplating life.
Xu Ying felt his vital essence richer than ever, yet he still lacked a proper martial art. The *True Cultivation of the Ba Snake* and the *Dragon Snake Hibernation Art* both contained martial techniques—diagrams of the Ba Snake and Dragon Snake's Dao forms—but they were clearly more suited to demon cultivators like Yuan Qi.
Moreover, the Dao forms depicted in those scriptures represented only the understanding of their authors, inherently limited. Even with extraordinary comprehension, one could never surpass the scripture's creator.
Xu Ying practiced both techniques anyway, perfecting the Eight Strikes of the Ba Snake and the Six Strikes of the Dragon Snake Hibernation. He shook his head. "The potential is limited."
Yuan Qi, watching from behind, was secretly delighted. "Ah Ying is finally stumped! As Great Ox Demon King, once I master these techniques, I'll surpass him in power!"
Xu Ying turned his back. Vital essence erupted from his body, forming a field of mist several acres wide. Within the mist, the massive head of a white serpent slowly emerged—horns and scales unmistakable, its body vast enough to swallow an elephant god in a single bite.
The Ba Snake glided from the mist, its body stretching longer and longer, coiling around Xu Ying in unhurried circles—layer upon layer, vivid as if it had slithered straight from the scripture itself.
Xu Ying's five fingers spread wide, his tiger's mouth mimicking the Ba Snake's maw. He struck with his palm. The Ba Snake behind him surged forward with its jaws gaping, the ferocity so immense that the demon servants below trembled violently.
He swung his arm, and the massive serpent body swept through the air like a rolling mountain, sending gales howling through the valley.
The power far surpassed the Elephant-Force Ox-Demon Fist.
The Ox-Demon Fist lacked Dao forms. The Elephant King's Divine Body possessed strange visions but no foundation. But the *True Cultivation of the Ba Snake* contained the diagram of the Ba Snake's Dao form, which could be contemplated.
What Xu Ying now wielded—the Eight Strikes of the Ba Snake—drew upon that diagram, and only after grasping the Dao form did the technique achieve such power.
Yet even this was far from enough.
The Eight Strikes of the Ba Snake offered no qualitative leap over the Ox-Demon Fist and could not compare to the Zhou family's Thirty-Six Celestial Hidden Vision Art.
Yuan Qi watched with envy, frantically flipping through the scripture to check how far Xu Ying had progressed.
The Great Bell, lazily basking in sunlight, spoke: "Stop flipping. He's already reached the ninth level. To go further, he would need to observe a true Ba Snake to increase the technique's power."
Yuan Qi was stunned. The Great Bell meant that Xu Ying had fully comprehended the Ba Snake's Dao form—everything the scripture could teach, he had mastered.
To advance further required observing an actual Ba Snake and grasping the essence of its Dao form.
"But Ah Ying barely practiced a few times—how did he already push this martial art to its peak?" he wondered.
The Great Bell said: "Don't be discouraged. The advantage he has over you is that he grew a brain. The advantage you have over him is equally remarkable—you are a true snake, and he is not. Once you master the Nine Strikes of the Ba Snake at the ninth level, your power will certainly surpass his."
Yuan Qi was greatly encouraged and immediately intensified his practice.
The Great Bell glanced at Yuan Qi's enormous body—over ten zhang long—and thought: "Stealing only Ah Ying's vital essence is too slow. If I steal from the snake as well, it should be much faster. This serpent is growing larger and larger—his vital essence must be extraordinary."
* * *
On the other side, Xu Ying practiced the martial techniques of the *Dragon Snake Hibernation Art*. His body rose and fell, a dragon-snake weaving through the air with terrifying force. The dragon-snake followed each move, surging and diving, scattering sand and stone.
As he refined the Six Strikes of the Dragon Snake, he substituted the serpent with the Ba Snake, fusing both martial arts into one—the result was even more powerful.
Yet when he recalled Zhou Zheng's transformation techniques, he frowned. His improved version of the Dragon Snake Six Strikes still fell far short of the Thirty-Six Celestial Hidden Vision Art.
"The white-robed Nuo Immortal Chen Mianzhu was a Nuo shaman—why did he possess Qi-Refining techniques?"
Xu Ying pondered. The Five-Mountain Temple of the Temple World had clearly drawn upon the Qi-Refiners' Domain of the Ineffable, suggesting Chen Mianzhu had dabbled in Qi-Refinement arts.
"And why do the Zhou family and the Underworld Court keep pursuing me?"
The Zhou family and the Underworld Court had spared no expense in hunting him. Since Xu Ying had slain the Jiang family deity, six or seven hundred of their cultivators and ghost gods had fallen.
"I'm just an ordinary person—was it worth losing so many experts for me?"
He paused, then answered his own question with certainty: "Yes."
"If it weren't worth it, they wouldn't keep sending forces. They even dispatched the Governor and the Judicial Adjutant this time—they are determined to capture me. That means I possess something of immense value. So what is it?"
The youth considered. The only remarkable thing about him was his "demon arts"—the Qi-Refining techniques.
"In other words, it is my mastery of Qi-Refinement arts that interests them."
His eyes flickered. "The Underworld Court and the Zhou family want me for my comprehension of Qi-Refinement. But why would they be so fixated on a cultivation system that was abandoned long ago? Unless..."
His eyes blazed, and he shouted: "Bell Master! Bell Master!"
The Great Bell flew over. Xu Ying said: "Bell Master, I want to test your aim. Can you shatter this stone?"
He picked up a rock and hurled it.
The Great Bell flew up and rang once. The stone remained unharmed, but Yuan Qi, some distance away, tumbled head over heels down the mountain. The great serpent howled: "Broken Bell! You ambushed me again!"
The Great Bell was abashed: "Since my injury, my aim hasn't been very good. Ah Ying, you called me just to hit a stone? Is there anything else?"
"No." Xu Ying quickly shook his head.
The Great Bell flew away.
Xu Ying thought: "Bell Master isn't reliable. If I let him open my Mud-Pellet Repository and he misses..."
He shuddered at the thought.
He had summoned the Great Bell because he wanted to open his own Mud-Pellet Repository—to verify whether Qi-Refinement and Nuo shamanic arts were complementary.
Though the Great Bell was unreliable, his conviction only grew stronger.
"Better to rely on oneself than on heaven or earth. Since Bell Master isn't reliable, I'll open the Mud-Pellet Repository myself!"
* * *
Xu Ying entered the Domain of the Ineffable, his spirit sense ascending until he reached the sword intent he had comprehended—what appeared from afar as a simple strand of floating sword qi, but up close revealed itself as a beam of rainbow light stretching to astonishing lengths.
This was the sword art's Dao form!
He carried the sword intent upward, through his five viscera, soaring past the Twelve Towers, crossing the Jade Pool, traversing the Divine Bridge, passing the sun and moon, until he reached the ocean of chaotic energy within his mind.
He floated before the chaos egg—the Mud-Pellet of Chaos—and gathered his focus.
A moment of hesitation: "Once the Mud-Pellet Repository is opened, it can never be sealed again. If the two cultivation systems prove incompatible, it may obstruct all future advancement."
There was no turning back from this step.
He considered his circumstances: a snake catcher who ate one meal without knowing where the next would come from, hunted by both the living and the dead, with no haven even in the Celestial Dao world. Why worry so much?
He laughed aloud, his chest swelling with boldness, and drove his sword intent straight at the Mud-Pellet of Chaos!
The sword pierced the Mud-Pellet. He met resistance—but the sword qi surged, growing stronger against opposition, cutting through all obstacles. A rainbow beam of sword qi bored clean through the chaos egg.
The Sea of Chaos convulsed. The sword intent carried a grotto-heaven into the ocean, churning the chaos. A surge of boundless vitality poured from the grotto-heaven into Xu Ying's limbs and bones.
He felt icy currents flowing through his body—the vitality of the physical form, awakened by his hand.
The Mud-Pellet Repository—opened!
Xu Ying laughed, his heart soaring.
* * *
In the distance, several black cattle grazed in the fields. When tired, they lay on their sides, chewing cud while watching Yuan Qi and the Great Bell spar.
"Broken Bell! Ambushing me is hardly proper conduct for a bell!"
"I said it was an accident!"
"And you stole my vital essence—don't think I didn't notice!"
"I haven't even stolen your vital essence yet! You're slandering me! I'll smash you, you stinking serpent!"
"Mercy!"
* * *
After opening the grotto-heaven, Xu Ying discovered it responded to his will like a limb of his body. He could feel it, command it, even shift its position at will.
"If someone else had opened the Mud-Pellet Repository for me, I might never have achieved such intimate control."
He felt fortunate. If the Great Bell had done it, his grotto-heaven might have been beyond his own command.
Then a thought struck him: the ancient text in the Mud-Pellet Palace stone chamber had stated that others must open the repository for you. If someone else did it, wouldn't they control your grotto-heaven?
He turned the idea over, sensing something wrong.
"Though it makes sense for Nuo shamans—they're ordinary people before opening their repositories, so they need powerful helpers. Unlike me."
Xu Ying saw Yuan Qi retreating into the Qinyan Cave to heal with its mysterious energy. A thought flashed through his mind, and he froze in place.
"Yes! Yes!" he exclaimed.
"I followed the mysterious energy of the Qinyan Cave, used dragon-seeking to locate my Mud-Pellet Repository—which means the cave's mysterious energy only activates the Mud-Pellet Repository's vitality. But why can it also heal Yuan Qi? Could it be..."
His heart pounded. Could the Six Hidden Repositories of the human body exist not only in humans—but in demons as well?