Chapter Fifty-Eight: Sacrificial Burial

Boom!

A violent explosion erupted.

Half of the divine statue’s body was left tattered and ruined, great plumes of incense vapor pouring from its form, only to turn to ash the moment they touched the world outside.

Gods subsist on vapor.

Before awakening, it had survived countless ages solely by feeding on the spiritual strength of cultivators who contemplated its Dao resonance.

Just as the Thunder Ancestor maintained a Yang aspect through Xu Zhong and the others, this deity gathered incense vapor from those who pondered its Dao, sustaining itself through faith.

It had refined itself into a god of incense.

The wooden sword had slashed it once, piercing its brow, and the ceaseless flow of incense vapor now streamed from this wound.

It had blocked one strike, but the wooden sword threatened another.

The statue, unable to tend to its wounds, fled in haste, dragging vast clouds of incense vapor down from the sixth floor of the Jade Tower.

Xu Zhong gripped the wooden sword, cold sweat pouring down his face.

A moment ago, he had been certain of his death.

“When it was purging my inner demons, did it also leave a part of itself inside me?”

Xu Zhong stared at the wooden sword.

A faint crack sounded.

The sword shattered, its surface webbed with fine fractures, then weathered to sand and slipped from his fingertips.

Xu Zhong collapsed to the ground, as did the other cultivators behind him.

Yet compared to Xu Zhong, they were even more emaciated.

The deity’s single breath had devoured nearly all their essence.

Now, each of them looked gaunt and skeletal, clinging desperately to life.

With the god’s departure, they hurriedly took out elixirs and swallowed them.

Essence began to regenerate within them, restoring a trace of their vitality.

“I, Xi Yi, survive by feeding on vapor to retain a spark of spirit, barely clinging to life. But it is merely a rootless wood—how could it have survived a million years?” The divine form of Xi Yi reemerged from who knows where.

Invisible to the eye, inaudible to the ear, unfathomable to the hand—these are the names for the subtle, the rarefied, the elusive. Since these three cannot be probed, they merge as one.

Xi Yi’s name itself means unity.

Xi Yi, the subtle and the rare, correspond to essence, energy, and spirit.

The entire cultivation of the Unity Realm is the harmonizing of essence, energy, spirit, and magical power.

When essence, energy, and spirit become one, it is called Samadhi.

When magical power becomes one, it is called the Golden Core.

Only by forging the fire of Samadhi can one refine the skull, open the hidden Mud Pill Palace, and distinguish truth from falsehood.

Yet it had fed on incense and lost its unity.

Its body was riddled with wounds.

Yet it wore a smile.

Xu Zhong saw the wound between its brows cycle through life and death, constantly eroding its divine soul and immortal radiance.

It reached out its hand.

Essence rose ceaselessly from the cultivators, gathering in its palm, condensing into a single seed.

It pressed this seed between its brows.

At once, a divine tree sprouted from the brow, dulling the sword’s radiance.

“Too weak, far too weak!” The divine tree was cleaved by the sword’s light and dispersed in an instant. “Your vitality is insufficient.”

“I need more people, more life force.” Its brow bled, its hunger insatiable.

“Hungry…”

It was not content, and, dragging Xu Zhong along, stumbled toward the fifth floor of the Jade Tower.

Demonic thoughts churned atop Xu Zhong’s mirror-like heart, leaping into mind-monkeys and intention-horses.

Mind-monkeys, restless and unbound, leapt and shrieked—his every unruly thought.

Intention-horses galloped through his heart’s mirror, driving forth every emotion in tumult.

“See the heart clearly, know one’s true nature!” Xu Zhong gathered his consciousness, manifesting upon the heart’s mirror, striving to capture the mind-monkey and tether the intention-horse.

But at that moment, demonic voices echoed in his Mud Pill Palace.

They filled his mind with noxious fumes.

Thus, the root of inner demons was planted within his mind.

Yet as soon as it appeared, Xi Yi suppressed it at once.

“You’re absorbing my demonic thoughts?” Xu Zhong opened his eyes to look at Xi Yi.

“Your demonic thoughts are pure and potent—perfect for my healing.” Xi Yi did not hide it. “Yet the force of your inner demon is too strong, so I must suppress it. If it ever gains full control, both you and I will become its food.”

“Like you, I do not wish for it to take over your body.”

Xu Zhong fell silent. He looked back for a final time at the sixth floor of the Jade Tower. There, aside from himself, not a single living soul remained.

Be they human or otherwise, all had perished at Xi Yi’s hand.

Only he survived, as a morsel for the god.

“You are not merely my nourishment!” Xi Yi seemed to read the thoughts in Xu Zhong’s heart.

“You are more like a key.”

With a gesture, Xi Yi revealed the Jade Towers before their eyes.

All of them had six floors, and every statue atop each tower turned its gaze toward Xu Zhong.

“You see, my old friends are all waiting—hoping you will awaken them.” Xi Yi smoothed the illusion, and together they crossed into the fifth floor.

Yet as they entered, the shed remains of all the divine beasts and birds within suddenly sprang to life.

At the instant Xi Yi set foot on the fifth floor, they all charged at him in unison.

“Nothing but dried bones,” Xi Yi declared, sending forth waves of azure light from his form, coalescing and scattering, gathering and dispersing, ever-changing.

“To retain but a wisp of divine essence—does that make you your true selves?”

Xi Yi’s voice carried a demonic undertone.

The azure light morphed into a dragon, twisting through the ranks of divine beasts and birds, spewing blue fire.

The blue flames ignited the air, turning the entire sky into a sea of azure fire.

Within those flames, the divine beasts and birds had no chance to resist; they were refined into relics one after another.

Each relic was wreathed in divine aura, cloaked in layers of sacred light, containing spells and brimming with vitality.

With a flick of his sleeve, Xi Yi gathered up the relics, popping one into his mouth every so often like a candy.

The cultivators on the fifth floor had already sensed something was amiss, but like the sixth floor before, the space was tightly sealed.

Soon, tens of thousands of cultivators on the fifth floor were refined into a single seed.

This seed pulsed with overflowing vitality, its azure light swirling, fragrant incense drifting for miles.

Xi Yi stowed away the seed and began his spell.

From his Mud Pill Palace flew the fires of the sun and moon, mingling and merging, forming a crucible. Into this, he cast the seed.

Instantly, the seed’s vitality blazed, fueling the crucible’s flames.

“In my current state, I cannot face thousands of divine weapons. So, I must smelt them all.”

Stepping forward, he brought Xu Zhong into the fourth floor.

Here, countless divine weapons unleashed their might.

Unlike the peachwood and bone, these weapons had been stored here for a million years, accumulating power. Now, all that pent-up force erupted at once.

Xu Zhong felt an overwhelming surge of metal energy tearing sky and earth, consolidating into a terrifying divine light that slashed at Xi Yi.

This divine light was even more formidable than the peachwood’s power.

Yet Xi Yi simply raised his crucible.

Within, the fires of sun and moon transformed into two true dragons, binding the divine light and dragging it toward the crucible.

Light and fire wrestled.

Meanwhile, Xi Yi performed the spell of Heaven and Earth, burning his own flesh to pin down the divine light.

The divine light pierced his palm, snaking up his arm, splitting at the neck, and spreading up and down.

Thump. Thump. Thump!

Heavy sounds echoed.

His flesh withered and died, replaced by stone, as endless incense vapor billowed out, turning to smoky haze and forming a rolling fog.

Meanwhile, the sword light between his brows flared, striking at his soul.

“Argh!” Xi Yi spat blood in great gulps.

The sword’s radiance pierced his Mud Pill Palace, opening the Celestial Gate and Jade Pillow points, splitting his soul in two.

Yet he did not die.

With a furious roar, he stuffed the surge of metal energy into the crucible.

Immediately, the sun and moon fire set the crucible ablaze, refining the metal force completely.

Xi Yi, blood dripping, floated down before Xu Zhong.

He looked utterly wretched.

It seemed an opportunity.

A thought stirred in Xu Zhong.

But Xi Yi stood again.

The few remaining points of flesh on his body twisted into vortices, sucking up all the cultivators’ vitality.

Xu Zhong reined in his thoughts.

The refined seed was swallowed in a single gulp.

The wounds on his body slowly healed, stone replaced by new flesh, and he revived once more.

“You missed your chance to kill me,” Xi Yi said, not sparing Xu Zhong a glance.

Then he put away the crucible.

Xu Zhong realized the crucible had become true.

He looked around.

The entire fourth floor was devoid of magical treasures.

“He’s melted every treasure and forged them into this crucible.”

The sun and moon fires withdrew into his Mud Pill Palace.

“I know I can’t kill you.”

“How will you know unless you try?” Xi Yi’s smile was enigmatic.

“Someone like you would never tolerate a threat. You’ll only kill me when I’m weaker than you. If you keep me alive, it means you have a way to deal with me.”

Xi Yi chuckled. “You’re quite clever.”

Flesh covered the statue’s surface once more, though the wound between his brows remained ghastly.

The sword’s radiance endured, immutable.

After a brief respite on the fourth floor, Xi Yi raised the crucible grandly and strode to the third floor.

There, spells imprinted in the void instantly assailed Xi Yi.

But the crucible outside his body blocked them all.

Under the bombardment of countless spells, Xi Yi strolled leisurely, harvesting vitality from the cultivators in swathes.

Another seed.

This too was cast into the Mud Pill Palace.

The Jade Pillow point began to heal.

He reached out, plucked the spell imprints from the void, and refined them into a single spell. Then, he stepped into the second floor.

From countless laws in the second floor, banners emerged, forming a vast array.

But before the array could take shape, Xi Yi broke it with his spell.

As the formation collapsed, he tossed another seed into his Mud Pill Palace.

The Celestial Gate point healed.

Xu Zhong could no longer see the sword’s radiance.

“So close, just one step away!” He clenched his fists.

One step, and he could have grasped that sword technique.

“You’re still too green,” Xi Yi said with a glance.

Then entered the first floor.

The scriptures within turned their pages of their own accord.

From them emerged sacred mountains, heavenly rivers, and divine beings.

Xi Yi plunged into this realm, beset from all sides by the divine figures.

He unleashed another spell.

The first floor fell as well.

Another seed was placed in the Mud Pill Palace.

And so Xi Yi, with Xu Zhong in tow, exited the Unity Tower.

“Have you still not realized?” Xi Yi asked, standing outside the tower and turning to Xu Zhong.

“Realized what?” Xu Zhong was thoroughly confused.

“Turn the Jade Tower upside down—doesn’t it look like a coffin?” Xi Yi looked at him.

“In truth, these twelve Jade Towers are twelve coffins, sealing away twelve failures.”

“What you have seen—scriptures, spells, treasures, Dao resonance—they are all burial goods for the Dao.”

Xu Zhong’s heart skipped a beat, and Xi Yi went on, “But these burial goods eventually usurped the tomb, suppressing the true owner.”

“Until one day, a grave robber dug a tunnel, entered the coffin, saw all these treasures, and took a little at a time, finally awakening the tomb’s master.”

Xu Zhong turned to him, sensing a hidden meaning.

“In truth, the entire Jade Capital is a tomb. It was never meant to see the light of day—a grave robber dug it open and awakened us.”

“So, what do you intend?” Xu Zhong asked.

“I meant to proceed step by step, awakening my old friends first. But I didn’t expect this group of intruders to be so keen and troublesome.” Xi Yi gazed into the distance.

The moment he left the Unity Tower, he was noticed.

Those words were not for Xu Zhong, but for another, watching from afar.

“And now, I shall awaken the entire Jade Capital.”

As he spoke, the whole city of Tianyong began to tremble.

In the void, faint images of other cities appeared.

Beneath Xu Zhong, an altar rose, lifting him ever higher.

He had become the sacrifice to awaken all of Jade Capital.