In the blink of an eye, a human transformed into a serpent!

“HISS!!!” a world-shaking roar followed! Hiddenscent’s bloody maw snapped wide open! Just as the Zhao Clan’s white barriers formed, they immediately shattered layer after layer! The entire several-hundred-meter length of the serpent’s body was like an azure ray, dragging through heaven and earth! From the peak of the Kindling Mulberry Wall, she pierced straight through and shot right out from the bottom!

However, she wasn’t done!

Her body seemed to be equipped with a spring. As she was about to reach the ground, she turned back again and ruthlessly rushed into the Kindling Mulberry Wall!

Daomaster Ancientpine’s gaze burst with light. As he was about to advance, Daomaster Titanspirit clamped down on him, however.

“The Zhao Clan… is finished.” Titanspirit’s face was heavy like water, and he said coldly, “There’s no way to save them, don’t waste your effort. If you want to succeed, there’ll always be sacrifices.”

Crash! The giant serpent vanished into the dark clouds. As her roar traveled through the firmament, the scales on her body reflected the moon’s splendor. She transformed into an azure phantasm and punched through such a large structure as the Kindling Mulberry wall. All that was heard were miserable screams echoing through the sky and the sound of breaking. In less than five seconds… the Zhao Clan’s stronghold had become an utter wreck, brutalized and devastated.

Thud… The Crimson Rakshasa powerlessly fell onto her seat.

This was a demon…

A true Greater Demon!

Like a spiraling azure dragon! The Zhao Clan, such an illustrious clan… was actually no match!

In the next second, an eye-piercing white light went off in the sky!

CRASH!!! Between heaven and earth, a fierce tremor quaked! The earth groaned as it trembled!

The source of this phenomenon was the Kindling Mulberry Wall’s rupture of qi as it exploded! The world was bathed in snow-white!

“Hiiisss!” the azure serpent unleashed a piercing roar. The clouds in the sky were swept away in the wake of her cry. And following this howl, the figure of a half-nude supreme beauty stretched out from the serpent’s mouth.

The Daomaster Hiddenscent of days past was now Xiaoqing’s incarnation. At this instant, the upper half of her body was human. Her fair skin was like jade, suffused with an alluring luster under the moon’s glow. Yet her lower-half was joined together with the serpent’s tongue, ending straight inside the great maw.

“How relaxing, indeed…” Her fingernails had already grew out by ten centimeters. From between her lovely red lips, a forked tongue flitted out and gently licked. Her slitted pupils narrowed in satisfaction. “This is freedom… liberty…”

Her eyes faintly swept over Titanspirit and Ancientpine in the air. “A pity… I was actually discovered by you two… How did you find out? The Azure Lotus Immortal Art? Because of this word, how many Dao Masters were investigating This Palace afterwards? How unfortunate… neither I did expect that someone would actually be able to leave Danxia Temple… but also remember the name of Azure Lotus Demonic Art…”

Afterwards, her gazed nailed straight into Xu Yangyi who was leaning against a wall. In the black cloud, her massive head reflected a devil’s phantasm. She spat out human speech, screaming into the heavens, “Bai Suzhen… you lowly slut…”

“I want you dead!!!”

Swoosh!!! In the next second, an azure manifestation blotted out the world! In the sky above Nanzhou City, an azure dragon wreaked havoc! Hiddenscent darted straight to Xu Yangyi!

“Fuck!” Xu Yangyi’s eyes were reddened. He hadn’t predicted at all that Xiaoqing’s incarnation would actually look for him first!

Bai Suzhen!

All because of Bai Suzhen’s demon heart! She directly sensed that Xu Yangyi had Bai Suzhen’s scent on his person. But oddly enough, the Demonheart Seed Magik hidden under the Four Cardinals Heavenly Isolation Array hadn’t been found!

Fast!

Fast as lightning!

In the sky, the immense shadow of a serpent stretched out like black string running through the world! A scarlet maw was aimed right at Xu Yangyi! Even if she had yet to come, terrible wind pressure, like an invisible palm, slammed him into a qi wall.

Swish! At this moment, at the bottom of Danxia Temple, Xiaoqing stood up without warning.

At the other side, Fahai, who was playing on his cell phone, shot her an icy look.

Wherever the two were, they were not far from each other. The dazzling chain tied the odd pair of bedfellows together with no room for excuse. Even if they wanted to separate they couldn’t.

“My incarnation?” Xiaoqing’s eyes grew tranquil in an instant. “Yet I do not remember ever having this incarnation.”

Having been trapped here, she once pondered to herself and wasted several centuries of longevity. She simply dared not brave the risk. After another short passage of time, her gaze chilled, and a finger gently waved. A part of her spiritual sense indistinctly scattered forth.

Her heart was fervent. Her spiritual sense almost reached the surface in a twinkling. The first thing she did was call upon this incarnation, but icy frost spilled out from her eyes after several seconds passed.

This incarnation… she was actually unable to control it!

Or perhaps it could be said… that she was not in control. It wasn’t that this incarnation couldn’t feel her, but someone else was controlling it! She was merely a thread of spiritual sense, unable to wrest away the right of control!

“Very good…” Her gaze was like a blade, as if she could penetrate everything. “I truly did not expect that someone would actually hold designs over me… Yet I fear neither did you expect that someone was surprisingly able to leave Danxia Temple, yes? The seal has loosened, and my spiritual sense can split into a hair to enter and leave Danxia Temple. This debt, I shall remember it.”

With a cold snort, she relinquished the avatar’s control. A discovered avatar was unworthy of her great strength. She did a light scan of the surrounding region, and her gaze stirred. “This… is that cunning junior…”

Just as her spiritual sense was about to shift away, it abruptly circled back.

“No… it cannot be!” Her thread of spiritual sense wordlessly approached Xu Yangyi. In her eyes, she shockingly discovered an orb of flashing light in Xu Yangyi’s qi sea that even made her cautious!

Everyone else was fundamentally unable to see it. Only with a realm such as hers could she set her eyes on it.

“Godseal Spark!!!” In Danxia Temple’s depths, Xiaoqing coldly gasped. For the first time, a grave tinge appeared on her face. She couldn’t help but cry out in a hushed voice.

“Godseal Spark?” Upon hearing this word, Fahai’s head snapped up, and he stared intently at Xiaoqing. “Senior said… someone has been planted with a Godseal Spark?”

Xiaoqing eyed him indifferently. She hesitated for brief spell and finally said, “The sly little Qi Condensation boy who came in last time.”

“We didn’t discover it?” Fahai’s expression was also solemn. “From the great deadlands… have the sealed seniors come out? They shouldn’t have… The next one is 1,400 years away… There’s still at least 300 or 400 years of time.”

“To be planted with a Godseal Spark, one must be a demon without a doubt… Moreover, one’s demon form has to be extremely powerful… even…” Xiaoqing mumbled to herself for two seconds and said softly, “comparable to my demon form, at the same level of a Kun Peng. Such a legendary Archdemon… not to even speak of the present, even in the past they could only be counted on a single hand. This… Someone is forcing him to demonize… He himself probably isn’t aware of his true identity.”

Fahai said lowly, “On the contrary, Junior does care quite a bit what kind of demon this junior ultimately is. To actually be planted with a Godseal Spark handed down from the Records of Godseal upon him… I fear that his ancestors are not simple. Since ancient times, there have been a few cultivators surnamed Xu…”

Silence. After a few seconds, Xiaoqing and Fahai muttered simultaneously, “Xu Fu?” [1]

“No, Xu Fu did not have a demon form. I have seen him, and he was completely and thoroughly a human.” Xiaoqing paused as she looked up thoughtfully. “This is getting more and more interesting… The calculation is another 1,400 years… and our time of escape is at most 300… Hehehe, there’s actually still an undestroyed Godseal Spark around. The modern Chinese government is like the past one, adept at keeping the masses ignorant…”

“Urgh.” A mouthful of blood jetted out from Xu Yangyi’s mouth. There was no difference between that enormous wind pressure and slamming into a mountain wall. His eyes were red, and his spiritual force desperately mobilized all around, yet he couldn’t move a fraction of a hair!

“Good fiend,” Ancientpine laughed coldly, his feet hovering in the air. In the next second, he was already in front of the snake’s head, like a demon.

Inside the bloody maw, the hissing Hiddenscent’s bare upper-body was good-looking as before. Her cascade of ebony hair blew in the night wind, oddly floating around her. As Ancientpine unpredictably emerged in before her, she fell into a daze. In the next moment, however, her mouth opened wide by half a meter as if she had no jawbones! She unleashed a world-shaking roar in Ancientpine’s face!

“ROAARR!!!”

The clouds in the sky all scattered! In the wake of her howl, black spider web-like cracks surprisingly appeared!

With a single roar… space seemed unable to support her majestic spiritual force!

One man and one snake, respectively less than two meters tall and over hundreds of meter in size, stood opposite of each other high in the air. The black clouds above flooded the heavens, and the rubble below covered the earth. It was silent but there was sound, forming a heart-palpitating image.

“Scram.” Hiddenscent’s scarlet forked tongue licked her purple fingernails, and she giggled delicately, “Otherwise… don’t blame me for being ruthless.”

Before her voice even fell, her pupils suddenly dilated.

In the churning black sea of clouds everywhere, shadows formed, floated, and exploded with boundless qi. Ten, a hundred, a thousand! Ten thousand! Blades, spears, swords, halberds. Hatchets, battle-axes, hooks, and tridents. The weapons nearly materialized in a flash and aimed at Hiddenscent in concert.

Without any wasted words, Ancientpine used action to answer Hiddenscent.

“Ten Thousand Shadows Heavenly Punishment.”

BOOM!!! A terrible black tide erupted in the world! Free of the wind, clouds moved, as if they were unable to withstand the power of one move! All the stones on the ground clattered as they shook!

Swoosh! Similar to a curtain of rain, a black screen swiftly formed in the sky. Ten thousand shadow weapons slammed down with a crash! It was like an infinite asura hell!

“Fellow Daoist Titanspirit!” Ancientpine shouted. At some unknown time, Titanspirit’s figure had already appeared on the serpent’s head.

The seemingly coarse Daomaster Titanspirit was now solemn like a jewel. Behind him, a golden Dharma wheel surprisingly appeared.

And at the same time… the entire night sky brightened.

Not the change of night to day, but instead countless golden manifestations were floating around Hiddenscent, completely encircling her tremendous serpent body! All together, they illuminated the entire sky!

There were arhats, bodhisattvas, and guides of samsara. All of them wore smiles and were amiable. However, all the manifestations were clasping an ancient mirror in their hands.

“Buddha’s Mirror Intersects Light, Six Roots Form The Wise Sun.” [2]

Swoosh swoosh swoosh! As he formed a Buddhist seal, a ray of light shot out from one mirror. In the next second, the light reached a second mirror and then went to a third… In a spark of flint, a matter of moments, the Buddhist light transformed into hundreds. They amazingly formed a cage of Buddhist light, firmly trapping Hiddescent within!

Light and shadow interweaved, converging into a heart-swelling overture!

“Pearl True Realm, Ten Stages Give Rise To Mystic Clouds.” [3]

1. Xu Fu was a Qin dynasty court sorcerer (3rd century BCE). He was ordered by Qin Shi Huang Di, the first emperor of China, to search for the elixir of immortality. His first expedition failed, and when he sailed off for this second expedition with 3,000 people he never returned. There is a theory that Xu Fu landed in Japan and enriched the ancient Japanese people.

2. Apparently this is something written by the sixth Qing emperor, Qianlong (1711-1799 CE). More Buddhist theory. The six roots are considered the six sensory organs. Main take-away from this verse is that our senses perceive the world and give us wisdom that goes high into the sky like the sun.

3. Pearls are a symbol of Buddha because they are nice and clear without blemish. Buddhists believe that the mind and heart should be like this. True realm is more stuff about, well, truth. The ten stages are part of a bodhisattva’s process to become a Buddha.