Chapter 146: Nowhere to Retreat

Hum!

The golden stone gateway trembled slightly.

Suddenly, a chime of a bell echoed. The sound was not loud, but it felt like a heavy hammer striking down, causing everyone’s entire body to vibrate and their eardrums to hum. Following that, dizziness overwhelmed them, and they tumbled down from the golden stone gateway onto the ground.

Worse still, some cultivators had their internal energy hubs directly shattered by this single chime, losing their cultivation base entirely and plunging to their deaths on the spot.

Xu Zhong, who was deep within the flesh-and-blood marsh, was faring no better.

As the entire folded reincarnation grotto-heaven fully unfolded, certain indescribable and peculiar creatures began to emerge throughout the flesh-and-blood marsh.

They were formed from the evolution of flesh and blood.

With crimson horns, azure skin, ghostly faces, ox tails, and tiger paws, wielding blood-colored sabers in their hands, they looked exceedingly bizarre.

The moment they appeared, they charged straight toward Xu Zhong.

"Those are blood puppets!" The King of Inner Demons cried out in warning.

At the same time, he churned his demonic Qi, transforming it into sabers, spears, swords, halberds, dragons, phoenixes, and Qilin, rushing forth to slaughter those blood puppets.

"What are blood puppets?" Xu Zhong asked while expelling a mouthful of the True Fire of Samadhi.

The blood puppets that got slightly too close to him were instantly refined into pills.

"They are demons and monsters born from within blood," Yun Yong said, his head sheltered beneath a surging long river transformed from a zither string. "I have often heard that the creation of heaven and earth is infinite, and the transformations of beings are likewise infinite. When a Qi practitioner cultivates to the ultimate realm, a single strand of hair or a single drop of blood can create life, tracing back to the origin of the Creator."

"When the living use blood and hair to create life, they are called human puppets, and human puppets possess their own consciousness. Creations born from the hair and blood of the dead, however, are called blood puppets. Blood puppets lack consciousness and only understand slaughter. This is because blood puppets can only steal the souls and immortal spiritual lights of others through continuous killing, refining them into their own immortal spiritual lights."

His eyes shone brightly as he recounted these tales.

"I have heard that the Ancestor of the Styx River was created from a single drop of blood of a certain Qi practitioner in ancient times."

Xu Zhong had once met the Ancestor of the Styx River in Tianyong City, but that entity had been killed by the Black Mountain Old Demon.

"My elder sister once told a story about how, many years ago, she met a Qi practitioner who turned all of his hair and blood into human puppets, sending those human puppets to wander the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands to accumulate experience and foundation. When the time was right, he would go and harvest those human puppets."

"Before he went to harvest them, some of those human puppets had even attained the Inner Scenery realm, yet they did not know they were mere puppets, dedicating centuries of cultivation to make wedding garments for someone else." At this point, Yun Yong clicked his tongue continuously. "In the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, I have only ever seen people harvesting other people's leeks, never someone harvesting their own leeks."

The more Xu Zhong listened, the more alarmed he became.

He thrust out a lightning seal with his hand, blasting forth bolts of lightning that shattered the approaching human puppets into powder.

"Then what about these blood puppets?" Xu Zhong asked. "After they attain mastery in Daoist arts, who will harvest them? Or rather, whom are they preparing to harvest?"

"Who knows?" Yun Yong shook his head, evidently unaware of any further inside information.

"Watch out!" Tang Yuan darted out from behind, his internal Qi and blood surging violently, golden divine light erupting in his palm.

With a single punch, he blasted forward.

The golden divine light shattered all the blood puppets within a radius of dozens of zhang.

Dozens of blood puppets were thus annihilated beneath his fist.

"Do not get distracted." Shiyue followed closely behind Tang Yuan, stepping out.

Floating around her were twelve array flags, which were already her last remaining possessions.

When dealing with the Vine Dragon's soul earlier, she had lost over three hundred array flags, a loss that had pained her heart for a long time.

The astrolabe in her hand flickered continuously, reflecting star maps rippling like water waves in her eyes. These star maps shifted constantly, resembling the turning wheel of destiny.

"It seems we are beginning to approach some special treasure," Shiyue deduced the present situation based on the astrological charts, glimpsing a brief future through them. "And the closer we get to that treasure, the stronger the surrounding blood puppets become."

Xu Zhong and the others knew this well enough without Shiyue having to spell it out.

"Could that perhaps be the Creator's heart you mentioned earlier?" An inexplicable unease arose in Tang Yuan's heart.

The blood bodhi tree within his body had already taken root, transforming into a blood dragon that pierced straight through.

At this moment, he was only a step away from the True Conservation realm, lacking only the harmonization of Yin and Yang.

Boom!

A bell chime rang out.

It sent ripples reverberating across the flesh-and-blood marsh.

Stunned by the bell, they were momentarily dazed and entranced, their physical bodies and souls simultaneously numbed.

They were still relatively fine, but the King of Inner Demons, who had been following closely behind Xu Zhong, had his physical body blasted to pieces and his soul severely injured. He hurriedly retreated and dodged rapidly, terrified of being affected by the bell once again.

"Celestial Venerable, this subordinate can only guide you up to this point. The path ahead is one you must explore alone." The King of Inner Demons wore a look of reluctance.

In his eyes, Xu Zhong was the physical manifestation of the Heavenly Dao and demonic principles.

Having obtained a physical body and descended back to the mortal realm, his sole purpose was to restore the glory of the demon race from the First and Second God Wars.

If he could continue following Xu Zhong, he might secure the status of a founding subject when rewards were distributed based on merit.

It was a pity that whatever lay ahead emitted a power that was supremely Yang, fiercely righteous, and supremely holy and pure—a power capable of refining and destroying him entirely.

Xu Zhong nodded, and the King of Inner Demons consequently fled back into the distance.

Dong!

Another chime of the bell sounded.

This time, because they had drawn slightly closer, the soundwaves transformed into divine light, churning the surrounding Qi and blood into a state of extreme violence. It tore at everyone's fleshly bodies, while wisps of dragon-shaped Qi and blood burrowed into their skin and muscles, attempting to refine them into human puppets.

"Gulp!"

Xu Zhong closed his mouth, a sound rumbling from his abdomen.

This sound was the Sound of Thunder, carrying a sweeping force of tribulation that materialized the thunder sound into streaks of lightning.

Cracking and popping sounds echoed endlessly.

All kinds of electrical currents surged within the flesh-and-blood marsh.

Boom!

Right at that moment, a massive blood puppet stepped over the crowd and raised its fist directly toward Xu Zhong.

The Qi and blood power in the surrounding area was vaporized by that single punch over a span of hundreds of square feet.

Caught off guard, Xu Zhong's physical body was forced to take the blow head-on.

Puff!

He spat a mouthful of blood and stumbled backward.

The Profound Origin True Water Shield collapsed by three inches.

Seizing the opportunity, that blood puppet pressed forward.

"Explode!"

Xu Zhong roared in anger.

In an instant, the blood he had spat out transformed into the True Fire of Samadhi, engulfing and igniting the blood puppet, turning it into rolling pills that scattered across the ground.

"Sword, rise!"

The Cloud-Swallowing Sword flew out first, followed by seven hundred and twenty flying swords erupting forth, forming the Jade Pool Sword Array above his head.

Sword light flashed, sword intent surged, and it exhaled thousands of miles of sword Qi.

Xu Zhong felt lingering fear, and the others were in much the same state, all having fallen victim to the shameless sneak attack of the blood puppets.

"Whoosh!"

The long sword danced in the air, and the waters of the Jade Pool poured down for a hundred miles, entangling and strangling the blood puppets besieging Shiyue, before sweeping downward to shatter the blood puppets before Yun Yong.

"We have already reached the True Conservation realm!"

After Xu Zhong spoke these words, the four of them fell into silence.

They did not know whether they should continue downward.

Dong!

A third heartbeat sounded, its vibration collapsing the flesh-and-blood marsh, causing clouds and mists to churn, thunder to roll, and divine light to surge within this reincarnation grotto-heaven.

Moreover, incomprehensible and unfathomable runes manifested between heaven and earth, archaic, natural, and indestructible.

These runes pointed toward weapons, Yin and Yang, as well as life and death.

In an instant, purple light burst from the runes, materializing their meanings.

Suddenly, all kinds of weapons, divine light, and the forces of life-and-death tribulations appeared before Xu Zhong and the others.

Xu Zhong's expression shifted as he casually tossed out the Four Symbols Divine Banners to guard the four cardinal directions.

Seeing this, Shiyue incited the twelve array flags within her astrolabe, transforming them into the Twelve Pillar Deity Array.

Yun Yong threw out a Profound Underworld Divine Fire Shield, and Tang Yuan produced the Vajra Ring.

The rune that struck Xu Zhong first was the character for "Saber."

Tribulation was like a saber, but at this moment, the roles reversed, and the saber was like tribulation.

With a single slash, Xu Zhong's Four Symbols Divine Banners were dimmed instantly, sent flying into the void before he managed to recall them with great difficulty.

The saber rune faded.

Immediately following it was the rune for "Tribulation."

Tribulation: strip away the character for strength, and what remains is tribulation.

Though the tribulation rune displayed no overt majesty, it invisibly stripped away the spiritual Qi threads connecting the Twelve Pillar Deity Array, rendering the twelve array flags completely useless.

Following tribulation was the character for "Water."

What descended was the Numinous Water Divine Light.

The Profound Underworld Divine Fire Shield had been forged using Yang fire, whereas Numinous Water was Yin water.

As the Yin water poured over the Yang fire, the Profound Underworld Divine Fire Shield instantly lost its luster and dropped to the ground.

By contrast, Tang Yuan's Vajra Ring was immensely powerful, radiating ten thousand丈 of light that pierced the void and dimmed the incoming runes one by one.

It was indestructible; the weapon runes were easily shattered upon impact, while the divine lights and divine beasts evolved from the Yin runes were swallowed up entirely.

They quickly suppressed those runes. Tang Yuan reached out, retrieved the Vajra Ring, and slipped it onto his left wrist like a bracelet.

Everyone kept their eyes straight, only stealing sideways glances at the Vajra Ring.

The ring appeared polished, utterly ordinary, and worthless.

It was hard to imagine the divine might it had just displayed.

This third heartbeat thus passed.

At the very edge, they were already able to catch a full glimpse of the Creator-level heart.

It was situated right in the center of the flesh-and-blood marsh, surrounded everywhere by red Qi and blood power.

This Qi and blood power condensed into long bridges leading toward the heart. Upon each bridge, nine heavenly dragons guarded the exit, glaring tiger-eyed at every Qi practitioner who dared to force their way in.

Beyond the heavenly dragons and the bridges, purple lightning pierced the void everywhere, purple light soaring into the sky and swallowing all other colors.

Furthermore, a fragrance drifted from an unknown source, refreshing the mind and boosting one's cultivation.

As for the heart itself, it had transformed into an unimaginably huge divine mountain.

The divine mountain had paths extending in all directions, interconnecting the entire flesh-and-blood marsh.

"What terrifying pressure!" Yun Yong's heart pounded relentlessly; his heartbeat was changing its rhythm, beating in synchronization with that heart, causing the Qi and blood within his body to churn and constantly replace themselves.

He hurriedly guarded his primordial spirit to protect himself.

Yet beneath that oppressive might, this was simply his physical body's spontaneous reaction.

"Our retreat is cut off!" Shiyue suddenly spoke up.

Only then did the others hurriedly turn to look back.

Behind them was a void; looking back, they could only see their own backs.

When they hurriedly turned around again, what met their eyes was the divine mountain.

Thus, Tang Yuan and Yun Yong stood back-to-back.

Those facing the divine mountain saw the divine mountain, while those backing against the divine mountain saw the person facing the divine mountain, along with Xu Zhong, Shiyue, and a glimpse of their own hair trailing behind.

"Could it be that we can only move forward and never retreat?" Yun Yong slowly spoke.

"Whether the space behind us has truly collapsed is uncertain, but the further forward we walk, the fewer paths of retreat remain," Shiyue took over the conversation.

"Then we can only walk this single path to the dark end." Tang Yuan sighed.

At that moment, other Qi practitioners were also arriving one after another beneath this divine mountain.

The atmosphere grew slightly scorching, and the intent to kill grew ever heavier.

The impending storm had already dyed the entire sky crimson.