Chapter Fifty-Seven: Peachwood Repels Evil

The idol came to life.

Around it surged an overwhelming vitality and blood energy. At this moment, it seemed to be in a unique phase—its flesh like a great furnace, drawing in torrents of life force and blood, until on its surface, veins and meridians rose, forming a dark crimson net.

As its awakening intensified, the idol began to breathe.

With each breath, flames erupted from all over its body, and waves of scorching heat assaulted everyone present. In an instant, Xu Zhong felt himself dehydrated, the moisture in his body evaporating away.

Instinctively, he backed away from the idol, as did everyone else.

They felt the pressure.

Those cultivators near the edge of the sixth floor were startled to find the passageways sealed. They were trapped.

“How has it come to life?” Xu Zhong wondered.

“Don’t you understand yet?” Another version of himself appeared within his mind—a manifestation of his heart demon.

Had the appearance of the idol shaken his spirit?

He looked inward, focusing his mind, steadying his heart.

“We awakened it!”

Xu Zhong’s pupils contracted sharply.

The one awakened was the demonic aspect among the two forms.

It was its heart demon revived.

A god feeds on essence and lives long—absorbing its own heart demon’s energy, it awakened its demonic form.

“So just now, it was imitating me because it absorbed my demonic thoughts.”

Demons are born from the heart and grow stronger with will. Xu Zhong’s own demon thoughts were distilled and potent, enough to rouse the idol’s inner demon.

Before the demonic aspect awoke, the idol’s every move was driven by Xu Zhong’s own will.

But now, after absorbing the energies of Lei Kui and Xu Qiao, it had awakened its own will.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Its heartbeat thundered, flames pouring forth, coalescing into a crimson haze. Meanwhile, the idol’s colors grew ever more strange, and within the red glow, plague spirits clung, baring their claws at Xu Zhong and the others.

Faint dragon roars echoed from within its body. Its blood no longer flowed, but its vessels became separate spaces, each drop of blood twisting into countless small dragons writhing within, their might steadily condensing.

“Those little dragons—they’re all life force.”

The Azure Dragon rules the east, governs wood, and embodies vitality.

It was now fully alive, with millennia of flowing years in its veins, strands of primordial qi wafting from its form.

“Hungry…”

It opened its mouth slightly, exhaling the incense qi.

That incense qi transformed into an azure dragon, dancing through clouds and wind, sweeping over the crowd.

In an instant, one cultivator after another was drained of all blood and life energy, collapsing as desiccated corpses.

“It’s not fire that it breathes,” Xiang Dongliu gripped his sword case. His sword formation rose; constellations fell and formed a protective array around those near him.

“It’s death energy!” Xu Zhong and Xiang Dongliu spoke in unison.

What killed it before was a Vermilion Bird.

Xu Zhong’s mind stirred; he sensed the seven mansions of the Vermilion Bird.

Changes rippled across him. The Well, Ghost, Willow, Star, Spread Net, Wings, and Chariot—these seven mansions stirred within him.

Around the red haze exhaled by the idol, ripples appeared, coalescing into the form of a divine Vermilion Bird.

This was its resonance.

In a flash, the Vermilion Bird spread its wings.

Xu Zhong felt his will drain, his mana depleted, all flowing into the Vermilion Bird’s Dao resonance.

As if from nothing, every wisp of flame became a Vermilion Bird, each one fanning its wings.

Wind rose within the sixth floor of the Jade Tower.

“Where are you looking?” someone shouted.

The ground split open, magma flooding the sixth floor’s space, lifting up a giant tree.

The great tree was withered and decayed; a Vermilion Bird’s feather drifted down from above.

It absorbed the divine resonance, transforming into a true Vermilion Bird.

Its cry pierced the air, summoning heavenly fire.

Heavenly fire rained down, igniting as soon as it touched the earth. The flames spread with the wind, growing ever fiercer, linking into a sea of fire.

Blazing flames fell, then surged upward with immense force, utterly consuming the incense dragon in fire.

The Azure Dragon perished.

But the idol was reborn.

“Vermilion Bird, you cannot suppress me.” It smiled arrogantly.

Then inhaled deeply.

Xiang Dongliu’s sword formation lost its effect; most of the cultivators he protected were turned to desiccated corpses in an instant—this fate repeated everywhere.

The Vermilion Bird whipped up even greater winds, stoking the flames higher.

Xu Zhong heard two mingling voices in the ether—one from the idol, one from the sacred tree.

His expression changed. He broke into a run, shouting, “This is Vermilion Bird divine fire—far stronger even than true solar fire! Run! Head for the tree!”

In the distance, the tree let its branches droop; strange true flames burst from its cracks, gentler and warmer than the Vermilion Bird’s fire.

The blaze surged in waves, like a stormy sea, threatening to engulf the idol.

“Move!” Xiang Dongliu’s face changed. The Vermilion Bird was mindless, bent only on destroying the idol, caring nothing for the other cultivators.

Even a stray splash of those flames could ignite a cultivator’s blood, vitality, even their very souls.

Xiang Dongliu, his sword formation spent, sheathed his swords and took to his wine gourd, ferrying several cultivators toward the sacred tree.

They moved swiftly, soon passing Xu Zhong.

Xiang Dongliu had no intention of staying behind for Xu Zhong—carrying these few was his limit.

“Vermilion Bird’s seven mansions, descend upon me!” Xu Zhong transformed.

Flames coalesced into two wings sprouting from his ribs. With a sweep, he flew faster, quickly catching up to Xiang Dongliu and the others.

As he fled, he glanced back.

The idol shimmered with the Azure Dragon’s seven mansions.

Xu Zhong studied the idol’s Azure Dragon aspect—he wished, even now, to seize its resonance.

“There’s still some of my will left in it,” Xu Zhong thought. “When it casts spells, my body responds faintly.”

Thus, he understood the nature of the Vermilion Bird’s divine fire.

Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise—among the Four Symbols, Xu Zhong had gained three. Only the White Tiger’s seven mansions eluded him.

The idol, having absorbed enough life force and blood, struck out violently.

All the apertures on its body blazed with starlight, dazzling and fierce, each containing the force of a star.

It swung its fist, resonating through its entire being.

Every muscle, every fiber, erupted with limitless power.

With a single punch, it shattered the cascading waves of fire.

From its pores, endless flames burst forth, transforming into Vermilion Birds.

Xu Zhong realized these were the idol’s fire altars expelling all death energy from its body.

With every wisp expelled, it grew stronger.

And as the Vermilion Bird absorbed the divine fire, it too grew stronger.

Their power did not diminish each other but grew together.

The Vermilion Bird conjured ever greater waves of flame, spinning into vortexes—eighteen blazing suns appeared in the sky.

All eighteen suns crashed down upon the idol, setting the entire sixth floor of the Jade Tower ablaze.

The heavens burned, the earth burned—everything burned without end.

Even space itself began to collapse.

On the sixth floor of the Jade Tower, only one thing stood unchanging.

As Xu Zhong approached, an overwhelming aura struck him down, sending him tumbling.

Pain!

A strange agony spread from his mind outward.

Xu Zhong summoned the Yellow Dragon’s seven mansions, his soul transforming into a Yellow Dragon.

But it was useless.

The marrow-deep pain remained.

“That’s peachwood,” Xiang Dongliu said, gazing at Xu Zhong. “You harbor evil within—you’re subdued by the peachwood.”

He had even raised his thirty-six swords, prepared to slay Xu Zhong the moment he transformed into a demon.

“See your nature clearly!” Xu Zhong suppressed his inner demon.

But the pain did not lessen.

“It’s not my heart demon,” a spark of realization struck him. “It’s the idol’s demonic nature.”

He closed his eyes.

The Black Tortoise’s seven mansions surged, letting him invert life and death.

The idol’s will, finding no anchor, fled his body.

As the heart demon emerged, a ray of radiance shot from a crack in the peachwood, blasting the demon apart in an instant.

The whole sacred tree erupted with greater radiance.

That radiance took the shape of a sword.

The sword brimmed with holy, luminous power—enough to cleanse all evil.

A single ray fell, entered Xu Zhong’s brow, and ignited his heart demon.

In an instant, he felt no trace of the demon.

The sword seemed omnipresent, suspended above both the idol and the Vermilion Bird, then it struck.

“It summoned me here, using my will to lock onto the idol and slay it,” Xu Zhong realized as he gazed at the peachwood.

The once decayed tree now surged with unparalleled vitality, sprouting peach leaves like blades.

The cracks remained, but now nectar flowed from them. Just a sip brought an intoxicating sense of transcendence.

“Peachwood, like people, can it shine one last time before death?” Xu Zhong saw this was but a final blaze.

Its present vitality was born from self-immolation.

Beneath the verdant surface, within, burned a fire named death.

Crack! Crack!

A strange sound rang out.

Through the sea of fire, Xu Zhong saw the sword shatter half the idol’s body.

The flesh above rotted away, and what was cut off returned to stone.

The idol coughed blood, which turned into incense qi, laced with sandalwood.

The Vermilion Bird was also struck by the peachwood blade.

Already formless, the Vermilion Bird scattered to nothing.

The sky cleared.

Only a single Vermilion Bird feather remained, burning with divine fire, transforming into a massive fireball that crashed into the idol.

Struck by sword and divine fire, the idol was gravely wounded.

Howling, it surged toward Xu Zhong and the others.

Now, it needed more blood and life to restore its will, or it would collapse and be suppressed once more, becoming stone again.

“Don’t be afraid. If the peachwood can cut it down once, it can do so again,” Xiang Dongliu said softly.

But as soon as he spoke, the peachwood shattered, scattering splinters through the air. Pure wood energy spread, only to be devoured in one gulp by the idol, its wounds healing rapidly.

“Hungry…” it repeated.

Then it inhaled greedily toward those beneath the peachwood.

Vital energy, like a river, was sucked up endlessly.

Xu Zhong felt an itch at his brow, then a crack opened—a fragment of a wooden sword poked out.

The idol’s eyes widened in rage, pointing at Xu Zhong, “You dare plot against me!”

The wood sword flew from Xu Zhong’s brow, slashing toward the idol.