Chapter 88 Part 1

Pei Jiye swiftly shuttled through the mountain’s interior.

The magma no longer erupted upward, suppressed by the power of the Chengzhou Remnant Bloodline above. The Earth Core Fire and magma burst continuously through the cracks in the middle of the mountain belly, transforming into torrential magma flows that surged and scoured toward the distance.

However, precisely because the magma ceased surging upward, much of it cooled into rock, blocking the paths below.

Pei Jiye swung the Black-Green Longsword while charging forward. Everywhere the sword edge passed eroded into toxic water, revealing the passages beneath.

Just as he plunged into the central area, the entire mountain suddenly trembled.

From the depths of the mountain belly came vibrations like the heartbeat of a living creature—thump, thump, thump…

Pei Jiye’s expression changed slightly. He abruptly halted, clutching his chest tightly.

His Nascent Soul inside actually began to vibrate as well?

No, it was not him vibrating—it was the sacred artifact, the Great Xia Cauldron!

The Great Xia Cauldron had come alive!

Ancient and distant echoes from antiquity called to the Great Xia clansmen, seeking the Great High Priest to commune with the heavens!

Someone had awakened the Great Xia Cauldron—who?

Pei Jiye could not comprehend it. Shen Wei Zhenren was finished, Wen Jingyan was half-dead, and aside from him, who else could activate the Great Xia Cauldron?

With waves of throbbing pulses, wisps of black flames began to emerge from Pei Jiye’s body.

He bent over in agony. He wanted to continue downward, but his body defied his will. A massive bone spur abruptly pierced out from his back, followed by a second, a third… Soon, half his body had transformed into a massive Black Bird Demon.

Unlike the exquisite black bird that Jin Ling Zhenren had previously seen, this Black Bird Demon was skeletal and gaunt, like a bare bone frame with thin flesh clinging tightly to the bones, resembling a shriveled corpse.

Yet his upper body still struggled to maintain human form, while his legs contracted and thinned into the shape of bird claws.

Pei Jiye gasped heavily. He tried desperately to suppress the changes within his body, but to no avail.

As the Jiye Palace Lord, bound by a contract of over ten thousand years to serve as a sacrifice on the South Sea Coast, he theoretically could not leave Silent Night Palace.

But Pei Jiye was a heaven-defying genius. He used the dormant Demon Soul within him as a disguise, and since this was Jiuxia Mountain—where he had once been a Boxia Cultivator—he could borrow Jiuxia Mountain’s merits to blur his presence, daring to appear here.

However, since he had borrowed the identity of a Boxia Cultivator, when the Great Xia Cauldron issued its summons, his aura instinctively responded ahead of him.

[…What happened to you?]

As Pei Jiye’s body twisted, expanded, and deformed between avian demon and human forms, a low, archaic voice sounded.

Pei Jiye curled into a ball in pain, lacking the strength to answer.

But in the next second, another consciousness surfaced, forcibly dragging Pei Jiye’s awareness under.

“No—don’t…”

Pei Jiye struggled against sinking into unconsciousness. He was so close to finding Xie Linlang—he had to see him!

Perhaps this will was too intense, or perhaps it stirred the demon spirit within him. In that instant, a vast, ancient power surged through Pei Jiye’s meridians, fusing with his own Demonic Qi.

In the next moment, the abnormalities on his body vanished entirely. Flesh filled the bony wings, followed by plume feathers drifting like tassels. In the blink of an eye, Pei Jiye had incarnated into a Giant Black Bird with golden vertical pupils.

Pei Jiye panted heavily, his mind blank. For a fleeting moment, his expression showed disbelief, but he quickly regained his senses. He immediately folded his wings and shot straight into the mountain belly like a charging projectile.

The Great Xia Cauldron’s summons still echoed in his mind, the bloodline resonance persisted, and his Demonic Qi boiled, murmuring ancient ravings. Yet the dizziness, nausea, and madness induced by these anomalies faded greatly.

Finally, the view ahead opened up. He arrived in a vast space that was inverted and shaking, with rock walls exploding with scattered flames.

In the center of this space floated the Great Xia Cauldron, with the two runes “Derive Spirit” hovering above it. In the distance crouched a low-rank cultivator, seemingly knocked unconscious by the surging forces.

On the ground directly before the Great Xia Cauldron, a black-haired youth stood with a single hand gripping his sword planted in the earth, barely supporting his body.

Turbulent air currents scattered outward, sending his black hair into disarray and revealing his fair, radiant features—a vermilion mark at his brow, black eyes and pale skin. He was the youth Pei Jiye had once known as Xie Yu.

Pei Jiye’s heart nearly leaped from his throat. Without thinking, he flapped his wings, attempting to dive toward Xie Linlang.

But in the instant he swooped down, a strange sensation struck his Divine Sense. The next second, he dazedly fell into a massive illusion.

A soul-searing pain from the depths of his being surged repeatedly. Pei Jiye erupted in fury: “Damn it, the Nine Spirits Sect’s Totem Secret Art again! Didn’t I already destroy the Nine Spirits Sect?!”

…

The moment the two “Derive Spirit” runes appeared, Xie Linlang’s consciousness plunged into an illusion.

He was initially bewildered but soon spotted the equally dazed Shen He. Their eyes met, and they immediately converged.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.”