Xu Ying stood at the prow, gazing at both banks. The mountains along the Nether River trembled continuously as the Nether invasion pressed into the mortal realm—new peaks and rivers from the other world surged forth, crushing the existing landscape. The spectacle was terrifying!
The tower-ship sped across the water, accelerating rapidly. Mountains on both banks blurred past. Xu Ying's heart sank: "This ship will cover a hundred li before long!"
The farthest he had ever traveled was a hundred li. Now aboard, he felt uneasy: "If she doesn't send me back, will I even recognize the way? I've also heard that some people sell children..."
In his mind, the bell sneered: "This fool is being sold and doesn't even know it! The fox-woman must have ulterior motives—wonder what she sees in Xu Ying."
Unaware of the bell's thoughts, Xu Ying asked the girl in the coffin: "What is Cunxiang?"
The bell seethed: "You little brat—asking my enemy instead of me! If you had asked me, would I not have answered? Wait—he did ask, and I forgot to tell him, only explaining how to look inward. Careless! The fox-woman beat me to it."
The girl stood at the prow, her figure lithe and graceful: "You don't know what Cunxiang is? Of course—the Qi-refiner lineage has declined to the point where even this knowledge has been lost. Even by my generation, many things had been forgotten. The great evil's influence was truly vast."
She paused: "Cunxiang is establishing an image from nothingness to stabilize the spirit sense. By this, I mean using your spirit sense to envision a Great Dao image within emptiness—this subdues the heart-monkey and tames the intention-horse. In Cunxiang, you must create something from nothing, refine the false into the true, and from this cultivate divine arts and powers. Only then can you attain the Dao."
Xu Ying's heart stirred: "The cultivation method of Cunxiang sounds similar to the Hidden Vision."
The girl looked puzzled: "What Hidden Vision?"
Xu Ying produced the scroll of Mud-Pellet Hidden-Vision Qi-Refining Art: "This Nuo shaman technique says that the Hidden Vision is a Great Dao image, but one refined using the power of the Mud-Pellet Secret Treasury. The Hidden Vision also creates something from nothing, refines the false into the true, and can be used to cultivate divine arts or powers!"
He unrolled the scroll. A lock of hair fell across the open page. Xu Ying looked up—the girl had appeared beside him at some point and was leaning over to examine the Mud-Pellet Hidden-Vision Qi-Refining Art.
Her hair fell across his shoulder.
Her skin was pale as snow, her neck slender and elegant against her black hair, making her complexion appear even more luminous. She did not look like a corpse imprisoned for millennia.
What surprised Xu Ying was that the girl bore no scent of death—instead, a faint, pleasant fragrance emanated from her, making him want to breathe it in.
This was the closest Xu Ying had ever been to her. His heart raced as he slowly turned the pages, letting her see clearly.
The girl was utterly absorbed. Xu Ying stole glances at her profile, finding it even lovelier than her frontal view—her lashes fluttered occasionally, eyes bright as gems, nose delicate and refined, lips pink and inviting as cherries.
Xu Ying felt his heartbeat quicken and hastily looked away: "Not only is this female ghost polite, she is also beautiful."
He was, after all, a youth of fourteen or fifteen. Encountering a beautiful member of the opposite sex naturally stirred his heart—though this particular beauty happened to be a ghost or possibly a zombie.
In Xu Ying's mind, the bell sneered silently: "This brat doesn't know Cunxiang, and the moment he sees a pretty girl his heart goes racing—his focus is terrible. He's probably already named their children!"
Despite its thoughts, the bell was worried the girl might discover it. It quietly covered the chaotic egg with its bell-mouth, thinking: "If I cover the Mud-Pellet Secret Treasury, the fox-woman will think I'm just a chaotic egg and won't notice me."
The girl quickly finished reviewing the Mud-Pellet Hidden-Vision Qi-Refining Art and closed the scroll. After a moment of thought: "It is indeed rather crude. The Hidden Vision in this book is an incomplete method—practicing it will lead one astray, consuming one's life force at great cost. Stop cultivating it."
"Consuming life force?" Xu Ying's heart jolted.
The Mud-Pellet Hidden-Vision Qi-Refining Art was a technique the Zhou family had given to its retainers. If it contained such a flaw, how could the Zhou family not know?
"The flaw in the book cannot have been left by the Mud-Pellet Palace's master. Then it must be intentional—the Zhou family deliberately taught this defective technique to their own retainers!"
Cold sweat beaded on Xu Ying's forehead. The Zhou family used these retainers as expendable soldiers, then employed this technique to drain their life force. Their scheme was truly malicious!
"In this way, the Zhou family's Nuo sorcery would never spread. Even if it leaked, what would be passed on was a life-shortening technique. The Zhou family used this method to maintain their position!" he thought.
The girl continued: "Although the Hidden Vision in this book is dangerously flawed, the concept itself is brilliant—no inferior to Qi-refiner techniques. Judging from this crude method, the Hidden Vision might serve not only for cultivating divine arts, but also as a method of latent transformation."
She frowned slightly, puzzled: "Have Qi-refiner techniques truly been rendered obsolete? I do not believe that Hidden Vision Latent Transformation could surpass Qi-refiner cultivation. What caused the extinction of the Qi-refiners?"
She had been imprisoned for thousands of years and found everything unfamiliar.
Xu Ying asked: "Miss, what is Hidden Vision Latent Transformation?"
The girl said: "Judging from this technique, the purpose of a Nuo shaman cultivating the Hidden Vision is to create a small celestial realm within their own body, ultimately transforming and concealing themselves within it to achieve immortality. But this technique is too rudimentary—it does not explain how to perform the transformation."
Xu Ying's eyes lit up. Creating a small celestial realm within one's body, transforming and concealing oneself to become immortal and undying?
Was that not a immortal?
The Mud-Pellet Palace master's legacy sounded less terrible than he had thought.
"Then how does one cultivate the Hidden Vision?" Xu Ying asked, suppressing his excitement.
The girl looked slightly displeased: "We are fellow cultivators. Your lineage is no weaker than mine. Why seek to learn the Hidden Vision Latent Transformation?"
Xu Ying was stunned. It took him a long moment to recover: "My lineage is that powerful? Wait—what lineage? The Primordial Unity Guiding Art?"
He was confused. The Primordial Unity Guiding Art contained only the Qi-gathering guidance technique, with no follow-up methods.
The tower-ship sailed westward. In the deep hours of night, its speed gradually slowed. Xu Ying had lost track of how far they had traveled along the Nether River—at least two or three thousand li, surely.
"Is this Huaihua or Tongren? No—Huaihua is just west of Yongzhou, and Tongren is only a few hundred li from there."
He had no idea where they were. He was a village boy whose farthest knowledge extended only to the prefectures near Yongzhou.
Xu Ying looked ahead. Here the Nether River split into countless tributaries, branching out like the veins of a leaf, flowing into the surrounding darkness.
Along these tributaries' banks, ghost-fires flickered. From a distance, ghost-fires dotted the landscape for a hundred li in every direction, scattered like stars—a veritable ghostly domain!
Legend held that the Nether River guided ghosts into the Nether realm, sparing them the torment of wind and sun.
When a person first died, their soul separated from the body and became a ghost. The slightest breeze could tear it apart; even mortal yang-energy could assault it.
Only within the Nether realm could ghosts find safety.
Xu Ying peered into the distance, but the late hour obscured his view. He could see only an endless sea of ghost-fires.
"Why are there so many ghost-fires here?" he murmured.
The tower-ship slowed, entering the main channel of the Nether River's countless tributaries. Ghost-fires glowed dimly on both banks, and the outlines of villages and towns could be glimpsed.
But due to the hour, no human presence was visible.
The girl opened the upright black coffin, reached inside, and after a moment drew out a whip nearly thirty feet long. She handed it to Xu Ying: "Stay on the ship. When the ship stops, set it ablaze. After the ship burns, take this whip and strike the sky—keep striking until you have no strength left."
Xu Ying examined the whip. It was an ordinary-looking thing, woven from fine hemp cord, with a tuft of golden-yellow hair at the tip—fur from some unknown animal's tail.
"And this will send the deity away?" Xu Ying asked, perplexed.
The girl smiled, her eyes curving like crescent moons: "Naturally."
Xu Ying exhaled with relief: "Leave it to me. You can rest easy."
The girl, however, was not at ease: "This ship was refined by me three thousand years ago. Ordinary fire cannot ignite it. Let me give you a flame."
Behind her, the Primordial Spirit extended its right hand. Thumb and ring finger touched, and a tiny flame appeared at the fingertip, drifting before Xu Ying.
Xu Ying did not know how to receive it, but the Primordial Spirit's hand reached into his Domain of the Ineffable, thumb and ring finger separating. The flame floated serenely in the air.
"This is a Pure Yang Anomalous Fire I discovered—a fire born of heaven and earth. It can aid your cultivation."
The girl disembarked and drifted away, her clear voice carrying from the distance: "You need only channel your spirit sense into the flame to control its advance and retreat. After setting the ship ablaze, refine this fire. Use the true yang within it to temper your body and soul—it will help you achieve a Pure Yang physique."
Her form vanished into the darkness, her voice fading: "Wait half an hour, then set the fire, crack the whip, and you may leave on your own. This place is dangerous—do not linger. Once my business is settled, I will find you and return you to Wuwang Mountain!"
Xu Ying watched her go, feeling a warm glow suffusing his body. The Pure Yang Anomalous Fire in his Domain of the Ineffable radiated yang-energy, producing effects remarkably similar to lightning tempering or solar tempering—it could refine the physical body!
More astonishing still, as his vital energy passed through the flame, it grew increasingly pure!
"Even vital energy can be tempered!"
Xu Ying marveled, then tested tempering his spirit sense. To his joy, his spirit sense too was strengthened, becoming more resilient and pure!
"If I can use this fire to temper my body, spirit sense, and vital energy, my power will surely surge!" Xu Ying stood at the prow, facing the Nether wind, brimming with confidence.
The great bell flew out from behind his head: "A-Ying, what will you name your children?"
Xu Ying blinked: "Children? What children?"
The bell sneered: "You and the fox-woman were being so intimate—did you not think about having children with her?"
Xu Ying's face flushed crimson: "How could I? And how are children even made?"
"Just use your—hold on!" The bell caught itself and fell silent.
At that moment, Xu Ying saw a haggard, ragged man on the left bank, leaning on a wooden stick, struggling out of the jungle.
Behind the man, the foliage shook. More people emerged—old men and women in tattered clothes, also using sticks to support themselves.
More and more people poured from the jungle—men, women, old and young, families together, supporting each other, yet all silent.
By the ghost-fire's glow, Xu Ying could see that where their clothes had torn open, gruesome festering sores festered, attracting swarms of buzzing flies.
Xu Ying followed their direction of origin. A vast stream of refugees stretched like a black dragon for several li.
"They are..." Xu Ying murmured.
The bell's voice grew grave: "They are plague victims. Stricken with pestilence."
Xu Ying looked toward the distant source of the ghost-fires. The plague victims must have come from there.
"Where they came from, there were probably floods, war, or famine," the bell said in a low voice. "I have hung suspended on Stone Mountain for three thousand years. I have seen such things many times."
Hanging in Stone Mountain's desolate temple for millennia, it had witnessed countless floods, wars, and famines—bodies piling up with no one to bury them. Whenever that happened, pestilence followed.
The tower-ship continued its unhurried advance. More plague victims appeared along both banks of the Nether River—in mountain villages and towns alike.
The plague victims trudged onward along the riverbank, heading toward an unknown destination.
One after another, they fell. Their bodies twitched a few times, then stilled forever.
But the others continued as if they hadn't noticed, walking mechanically, their eyes vacant—as if they were walking corpses.
"A-Ying, this must be where the Nether River changed its course."
The bell spoke solemnly: "Someone, to rescue the fox-woman, slaughtered indiscriminately and unleashed this plague. A-Ying, the fox-woman's request for your help is certainly not well-intentioned—she has her own agenda!"
Xu Ying still stood at the prow, staring at the plague victims.
He had cultivated the Celestial Eye. Looking at the world through it, everything was different.
In the sky, massive flesh-colored tentacles floated, descending silently.
These tentacles were extraordinarily dexterous—as if reaching from deep within another space, their origins invisible.
They approached the plague victims, splitting into countless finer filaments thatinserted the sores on the wretched people's bodies, slowly writhing, sucking.
Xu Ying looked toward the distance. Ghost-fires blanketed the land, and above them, countless tentacles emerged from another space, plunging downward into the darkness below.
Flesh-colored tentacles came from another world, crisscrossing, filling the dim sky, obscuring the night stars. They split into even more tentacles, bulging, shrinking, bulging again, sucking the life force from the plague victims.
The sight was eerily real—and eerily unreal.
This was what his Celestial Eye revealed!
Xu Ying moved his gaze with difficulty. His throat bobbed: "Heavens..."
Wherever he looked, the dim sky was completely covered in writhing red flesh, stretching to the horizon.
An inconceivable creature blanketed the sky, lowering countless flesh-colored tentacles toward the people of the western lands.