Chapter 87 Part 2

Zhang Sizhe and Senior Sister Le Qingping had gone to an abandoned ruin-filled place. Le Qingping had used a secret art to shake him off and flee alone, but when they reunited at Jiuxia Mountain, Zhang Sizhe had angrily denounced the Silent Night Palace cultivators as despicable, using him as a stepping stone.<br><br>

So the question was, according to Senior Sister Le’s words back then, that place allowed entry but not exit—how had Zhang Sizhe escaped alive?<br><br>

The answer lay before him.<br><br>

Zhang Sizhe was a Nine Spirits Sect cultivator.<br><br>

Shen He drew in a sharp, cold breath. His Xie Shizun had a grudge against Nine Spirits Sect!<br><br>

He immediately looked up to warn Xie Linlang, but a flash of cold light appeared before him. Instinctively, he shrank back, and a chilling gleam grazed past his head.<br><br>

Bang!<br><br>

Wen Jingyan staggered backward, collapsing before the Great Xia Cauldron.<br><br>

He spat up blood in great gulps, his body shaking uncontrollably. Blood spread from him in winding streams, but whenever he tried to form a node, Xie Linlang would interrupt it from afar with the Seven Stars Sword.<br><br>

Even when Wen Jingyan brought out his Protective Artifact, Xie Linlang had exchanged a large batch of Runes from Le Qingping beforehand.<br><br>

Now, Xie Linlang generously tore several Nascent Soul-level Runes, directly exploding Wen Jingyan’s artifact and forcing him into a desperate corner.<br><br>

Blood flowed from Wen Jingyan’s forehead down his cheek, turning his vision blood-red.<br><br>

“Senior Brother Xie, I didn’t want it to come to this. We shouldn’t have ended up like this…”<br><br>

He knew his master had become Sect Leader over Shen You Zhenren, souring their disciple relationship, but Wen Jingyan had thought he and Xie Linlang would not reach this point.<br><br>

After all, Shen You Zhenren had already fallen, Pei Ji was dead, and Xie Linlang was from Zhongxia with no conflicting interests.<br><br>

Xie Linlang wore black robes, the tassels at his collar trembling slightly with the surging Demonic Qi, his black hair flying like lightning, resembling a Black Crane about to take flight.<br><br>

He sneered, “Why does it sound like it’s all my fault? Self-inflicted doom—Shen Wei brought it on himself by not cultivating Merits. What does that have to do with me or Red Senior Sister? If he had mended ties with my Shizun back then, or sworn to pass the Sect Leader position to Senior Brother Pei when he took it, would we be here today?”<br><br>

“He’s the one who sought death—who’s to blame?”<br><br>

Xie Linlang said disdainfully, “And don’t pretend you’re so innocent. Wen Jingyan, you’ve wasted materials all these years trying to reverse yin and yang, defy life and death. If you weren’t the Sect Leader’s direct disciple, who could afford your extravagance?”<br><br>

Wen Jingyan glared fixedly at Xie Linlang. “Only you have no right to say that to me!”<br><br>

“No—only I have the right to say that to you!”<br><br>

Xie Linlang raised his voice. “You want to resurrect your family killed by evil cultivators; I researched reversing life and death to find my senior brother. Our original intentions were the same, but I spent spirit stones from selling my own refined Pills. Even now, Jiuxia Mountain could invite so many sects thanks to the Mustard Seed Realm I left behind!”<br><br>

“You’re saying I’ve consumed so many sect resources and achieved nothing?”<br><br>

Wen Jingyan laughed miserably. “Fine, fine, fine. Senior Brother Xie, today let you see my array dao. Is your pill dao superior, or is my array dao?”<br><br>

With these words, terrifying spiritual power fluctuations surged from Wen Jingyan’s body.<br><br>

Xie Linlang’s gaze passed over Wen Jingyan, straight to Shen He hiding behind the Great Xia Cauldron. “Get back!”<br><br>

Shen He gritted his teeth and turned to run, shouting loudly as he fled, “Zhang Sizhe is extracting a demon snake’s bloodline inside! He—he’s a Nine Spirits Sect cultivator!!”<br><br>

Xie Linlang’s expression changed slightly. Nine Spirits Sect still had surviving cultivators? Why were they here? And why was he Shen He’s blood kin?<br><br>

But for now, Xie Linlang could not afford to dwell on it. Yellow light emanated from Wen Jingyan’s body.<br><br>

This yellow was neither the warm golden yellow nor the blazing bright yellow, but a dusk-like, inauspicious grayish yellow.<br><br>

Using his remnant divine soul as the Array Nexus, his body as the material to power the array, and his last spiritual power as startup energy, Wen Jingyan’s consciousness gradually faded. He murmured, “I am Boxia, after all…”<br><br>

Heaven and earth—<br><br>

Jiuxia heroic spirits, open the mysterious gates; later generations, ponder the old halls.<br><br>

Paulownia leaves yellow and fallen to dust; array stars hang, lunar glory flows—we and thou together illuminate.<br><br>

In a daze, after reciting the incantation, Wen Jingyan felt his divine soul float lightly upward. He seemed to enter a realm of glory, where past Jiuxia Mountain ancestors appeared one by one, then faded away.<br><br>

In the end, only a silhouette remained.<br><br>

Wen Jingyan’s eyes widened uncontrollably—that was his Shizun, the Shizun who had stood before him as a child, battling evil cultivators.<br><br>

Wen Jingyan chased after without hesitation.<br><br>

Rumble—<br><br>

A violent explosion rang out, cracks of pitch black appearing in the entire space. Golden vertical lines emerged on the Great Xia Cauldron’s exterior. The Boxia cultivator sacrificed himself, reversing life and death; time seemed to flow backward on the Great Xia Cauldron.<br><br>

In a trance, the Great Xia Cauldron—at its ancient peak, nurtured by the strongest Merit qi—descended into the era tens of thousands of years later.<br><br>

Xie Linlang grunted, his knees buckling as he half-kneeled on the ground.<br><br>

If he had not once been a Zhongxia cultivator, he probably would have slammed to the ground like Shen He, prostrated by the immense power.<br><br>

Xie Linlang forcibly suppressed his churning blood qi and barely lifted his eyes. He saw ancient, bizarre beast reliefs emerge on the pitch-black surface of the Great Xia Cauldron—sacrifices thrown into it during the Great Xia era.<br><br>

But immediately after, the Great Xia Cauldron emitted a low, muffled hum.<br><br>

Hum—<br><br>

A massive “Spirit” character slowly rose from the Great Xia Cauldron, followed by more spiritual qi condensing before it, combining and dispersing repeatedly, ultimately forming a “Derive” character.<br><br>

Derive Spirit.