Chapter 103: Stealing the Beams and Replacing the Pillars
Lu Yang was quite reassured regarding Zhao Xuhe.
“Senior Brother Zhao possesses the merit of three lifetimes and has very robust destiny. Previously, he attempted to charge at Foundation Establishment once even without my help. Now, with my assistance, his odds of success should be even higher.”
It was just a matter of time.
Lu Yang withdrew his gaze, turned around, and returned to his Cave Abode. He then summoned the Protector God Su Nü and, using the stature of Foundation Establishment, began to re-cultivate the Corpse Liberation Method and the Silkworm Secret.
Just like that, time passed until a moonless and windy night ten days later.
“Junior Brother Lu, are you in?”
Liu Xin had come to visit.
Lu Yang answered and opened the Cave Abode, grinning at Liu Xin: “You’re here! I’ve been waiting for you for a long time, Senior Brother. It must have been hard for you to deliver this from so far away in the middle of the night.”
Liu Xin was stunned: “…Deliver what?”
Because he had done this in the life before last, Lu Yang’s movements were incredibly practiced. Before Liu Xin’s voice could even fade, Lu Yang directly reached out with a large hand formed of True Qi.
Liu Xin, who was originally full of ambition and prepared to refine this newly entered disciple to break through to the Late Stage of Qi Refining, didn’t even have time to react. He was grabbed by Lu Yang’s True Qi hand and instantly refined into flying ash, leaving only a Myriad Spirits Banner that clattered to the ground.
Seeing this scene, Lu Yang felt a bit emotional.
Today, Senior Brother Liu, who once made him harbor hatred yet feel helpless, had become a stable supply point that he visited almost every lifetime.
After all, the Primordial Chaos One-Qi Divine Talisman was simply too useful.
“Speaking of blinding karma, I almost forgot… The Ancestor of the Yun Family, that reincarnated Foundation Establishment cultivator, seems to have an even more powerful Heavenly Secret Supreme Treasure in his hands!”
In his previous life, he had died too early and didn’t wait for it.
But this life was different. Lu Yang planned to replicate the cultivation path of the life before last and carefully craft the persona of a “rooted in red, seedling in black” disciple within the Saint Sect.
“The Ancestor of the Yun Family going to the Refining Arts Secret Realm cannot be purely to target me; there is an eighty percent chance he has designs on the Secret Realm itself. That Heavenly Secret Supreme Treasure in his hand can even deceive a Golden Core Perfected Lord. If I enter ahead of time to lie in ambush and obtain this treasure, it will definitely be of great benefit to my future cultivation.”
Moreover, he hadn’t forgotten.
Back then, the Ancestor of the Yun Family had plotted against him in the Secret Realm. If his skills hadn’t been a cut above, not only would his cultivation have fallen short of success, but he himself would have died in there.
If this revenge is not exacted, my Dao Heart will be unstable!
Thinking of this, Lu Yang silently drew a circle around the Ancestor of the Yun Family in the little notebook of grudges in his heart, listing him as one of the key targets for this life.
Inside the Cave Abode, Lu Yang sat upright on a meditation cushion.
Placed before him was Liu Xin’s Myriad Spirits Banner. Its color was pure white, looking worlds apart from the black-to-purple Myriad Spirits Banner in Lu Yang’s Dantian.
In the next second, Lu Yang urged his spiritual power.
Liu Xin’s Myriad Spirits Banner swayed slightly, and Chen Xin’an immediately walked out of the banner. First, he looked around, then looked at Lu Yang with a face full of astonishment.
Immediately afterward, Lu Yang urged his own Myriad Spirits Banner. Soon, the Banner Spirit Chen Xin’an also walked out of the banner, looking at the original body Chen Xin’an in mutual dismay.
“Who are you!”
“You are me?”
The two spoke the same words almost simultaneously. The difference was that the original body Chen Xin’an was more shocked, while the Banner Spirit Chen Xin’an seemed more like he was imitating the former.
Since he intended to have the Banner Spirit Chen Xin’an execute an undercover mission, Lu Yang naturally had to ensure his loyalty. Therefore, he had processed the Banner Spirit Chen Xin’an with extra care, leaving behind a large number of restrictions just like with Su Nü, ensuring the other party could not betray him and could be reduced to ashes with a single thought.
“Do it.”
In the next second, Lu Yang waved his large hand. The Banner Spirit Chen Xin’an immediately accepted the order without any soft-heartedness, pointing a finger directly forward and piercing through the soul of the original body.
Until the moment of his death, the original body Chen Xin’an was still in a daze.
Who killed me?
And who did I kill?
Carrying deep doubts, the soul abruptly dissipated, while the karma was inherited by the Banner Spirit Chen Xin’an, adding a touch of spirituality to his expression.
“From today on, you are the real Chen Xin’an!”
Looking at the respectful face of the Banner Spirit Chen Xin’an, Lu Yang nodded with satisfaction. He then struck the Primordial Chaos One-Qi Divine Talisman into its body.
The Divine Talisman contained a strand of his divine sense. Under the protection of the Divine Talisman, he would not be discovered by a Foundation Establishment Perfected One. This made it convenient for him to monitor the Peak Master of Heaven-Mending Peak through the Banner Spirit Chen Xin’an, allowing him to take over its body if necessary, while also helping the Banner Spirit Chen Xin’an conceal its own karma.
After doing all this, Lu Yang sent him away.
As for the second Myriad Spirits Banner, Lu Yang destroyed it and refined it into his own Myriad Spirits Banner to expand the Grotto-Heaven inside the banner.
At the summit of Heaven-Mending Peak, inside a tea pavilion.
The mood of the Peak Master of Heaven-Mending Peak at this moment could not be called good. After all, the legacy of Coiled Dragon, which he had viewed as already in the bag, had suddenly flown away like a cooked duck.
“It is a pity. Although that legacy concerns Jiangxi and cannot be learned lightly, I specially created a Six Paths Phoenix Nirvana Art for Qian’er to cultivate, which could have perfectly refined it. As a result, now that the cultivation method is gone, Qian’er has lost a great opportunity. I don’t know when she will be able to charge for the position of Foundation Establishment…”
Thinking of this, the Peak Master of Heaven-Mending Peak let out another sigh.
“If only my son were still here…”
Chen Xin’an, the biological son of the Peak Master of Heaven-Mending Peak, was also his proudest disciple. At a young age, he had nearly mastered a Great Divine Ability, lacking only the final step to perfection.
Given time, once he broke through to the Great Perfection of Qi Refining, cultivated the Rank 3 Heaven-Mending True Qi, and mastered the Great Divine Ability, the Peak Master could find him a Foundation Establishment Treasure to assist him, and he would immediately have a thirty percent hope of charging into Foundation Establishment! And if he were willing to wait for the Great War between the Righteous and Demonic paths sixty years later, he could even increase it by another ten percent!
My son Xin’an had the aptitude for Foundation Establishment!
But alas, Heaven is jealous of heroic geniuses. An expedition for treasure caused him to go missing. No matter how he calculated the karma, he couldn’t find him; he could only vaguely sense that he had not yet completely died.
“Sigh…”
The Peak Master of Heaven-Mending Peak sighed again. Suddenly, a fluctuation of karma emerged. He abruptly raised his head and subconsciously circulated his Divine Sense to look at the great web of karma.
“This is… Xin’an’s karma!?”
In the next second, the Peak Master of Heaven-Mending Peak abruptly stood up. His immense Divine Sense followed the great web of karma to trace the source, finally landing on a Cave Abode on Heaven-Mending Peak.
He saw that within the empty Cave Abode, a weak soul was floating in the air, on the verge of dissipating.
Its consciousness was already nearing its end. It wouldn’t be strange if its soul scattered and spirit dispersed in the very next second. Only a remnant thought remained, echoing constantly as if in a deathbed struggle:
“Father… forgive me…”
Boom!
The Peak Master of Heaven-Mending Peak instantly traversed the void and entered the Cave Abode. His majestic spiritual power forcibly fixed the dissipating soul in place, forcefully gathering it back together!
Behind the Peak Master of Heaven-Mending Peak, a phantom image of a mermaid emerged.
[Red Rú Scale]!
This Earthly Fiend belonged to the position of [Tuntan] and possessed the wonders of Gui water.
Although Gui water is in a “Dead State” within [Tuntan], [Tuntan] conceals Geng metal, which can regenerate Gui water. Therefore, the imagery within it is “Finding Life within Death.”
The reason the Peak Master of Heaven-Mending Peak in the previous life believed that even if Chen Xin’an’s soul had truly scattered, he had the confidence to gather it back as long as it happened before his eyes, was based on the wonder of this Earthly Fiend. No matter how fatal the injury, the [Red Rú Scale] could turn danger into safety.
The higher the Dao conduct and the stronger the spiritual power, the better the effect.
And with the Peak Master of Heaven-Mending Peak’s cultivation at the Middle Stage of Foundation Establishment, using the [Red Rú Scale] on Chen Xin’an’s Qi Refining soul made bringing the dead back to life a trivial matter!
Translation Notes:
The Relationship between Stems, Branches, Spirits, and Fiends
In this novel’s cultivation system, the powers required for the “Dao Path” are categorized using Daoist numerology.
Heavenly Stems (天干) & Heavenly Spirits (天罡): The powers derived from the Heavenly Stems are referred to as Heavenly Spirits (Tiāngāng). These represent the 36 superior, celestial energies.
Earthly Branches (地支) & Earthly Fiends (地煞): The powers derived from the Earthly Branches are referred to as Earthly Fiends (Dìshà). These represent the 72 terrestrial, often baleful or fierce energies.
In the text, the [Red Rú Scale] is identified as an Earthly Fiend (the specific power/energy) that belongs to the Earthly Branch position of [Tuntan] (the astrological category).
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