Chapter 90: Golden Threads vs. Red Golden Threads

High above on the mountain, the wind and clouds changed dramatically, a spectacle that was naturally clear as day to those midway up the slope. The inhabitants of the immortal mountain made no great effort to conceal these shifting heavens, done intentionally to project their might. Consequently, though those midway up could not fully grasp the true magnitude of this terrifying power, they could vividly imagine the ferocious intensity of the battle raging at the summit.

The wrinkled old man raised his head to the sky, in no hurry to attack the somewhat grotesque, large bug standing before him.

A smile played on his lips, radiating the calm assurance of one who already had the entire situation in hand. Looking at Jia Jia, whose expression was equally detached, he asked, "With such a fierce battle raging on the mountain, aren't you worried about the safety of your partner? Must you insist on blocking me here?"

Jia Jia withdrew its gaze from the sea of red clouds in the sky, curling its lips in disdain. "My master's strength is beyond your comprehension. I only need to stall you here for a moment. No matter what myriad schemes you have laid out on the mountain, they will all be shattered one by one by my master."

"Master?" The old man who had emerged from the welcoming pavilion was, of course, the Heaven-Reaching Immortal. He felt a trace of startled doubt. Although he had long been imprisoned within the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, he was a man of background and knew far more than ordinary people.

In his impression, divine beasts were the very embodiment of unyielding arrogance. This temperament had nothing to do with strength; it was a sense of superiority inherited directly through their bloodline. Yet, the appearance of the large bug before him did not seem like a joke, nor was there any reason for it to lie.

Someone capable of taming a divine beast? For the first time, a dark premonition stirred within the Heaven-Reaching Immortal. This unease was strong enough to make even a cultivator like him—who possessed far greater strength than Jia Jia—harbor a sudden urge to flee.

Yet, the mere thought of the soul-seizure technique he practiced reminded him that while it granted endless life and, utilizing the methods taught by his own master, allowed him to stand completely unafraid even before ordinary supreme beings, this very reliance on harvesting the vital Qi and blood of others had severed his path to ever ascending to the realm of a supreme being.

At this moment, both this divine beast and the figure glimpsed through his divination arts could undoubtedly assist him in advancing to a supreme being, and perhaps even grant him a sliver of a chance at reaching the legendary divine beings.

At this thought, the trace of unease in the Heaven-Reaching Immortal's heart was instantly scorched away by a blazing greed.

"I have never heard of a spineless divine beast like you actually acknowledging a master. If you are willing to turn over a new leaf and see the light, I will spare your life today. Think carefully; do not throw away your glorious youth just to become a resentful ghost," the Heaven-Reaching Immortal urged persuasively.

In truth, he felt that a single body for soul-seizure was already sufficient. Having two would merely be a precaution, but keeping a second vessel imprisoned and docile for a millennium would be a troublesome ordeal. Eradicating its soul while preserving its physical form for a thousand years was no small task. Calculating it this way, having a divine beast serve as a mount was far more practical. Even if he ultimately failed to make a breakthrough, he would still retain a spare vessel.

"Brainless idiot!" Jia Jia's expression turned mocking.

As a member of the royal bloodline among fierce beasts, it was naturally immensely proud. In its ancestral memories, even beings of imperial might were faced without a shred of fear during the peak of their tribe's power. If not for the faint scent of that woman lingering within Chen Hongxu's aura, no matter how formidable Chen Hongxu might be, it would have fought to the death at worst—submission was simply out of the question.

"Courting death!" The Heaven-Reaching Immortal finally lost his patience. Although preserving a physical vessel for a thousand years was troublesome, dragging things out any longer might genuinely ruin the arrangements on the mountain.

Gold light flashed within the Heaven-Reaching Immortal's eyes as he flicked his wrist, casting a black iron ring he wore.

The moment the ring left his hand, it began to expand rapidly. In the blink of an eye, a dark, crude-looking iron ring was suspended directly above the Heaven-Reaching Immortal's head.

Realizing that stalling was no longer an option, Jia Jia knew it was time to deploy its true skills. A lotus flower flickered faintly between its brows. From the very center of the lotus, which seemed poised to burst forth from its flesh, red threads emerged and crawled across Jia Jia's face. They crisscrossed with distinct geometric precision, forming a pattern akin to a carved mask that entirely covered its features.

"Playing God and conjuring ghosts," the Heaven-Reaching Immortal sneered, failing to recognize Jia Jia's technique. He twitched his neck slightly, and the iron ring hovering above his head swelled by another fraction. Then, a bizarre phenomenon occurred instantly: the iron ring, which had been continuously shedding black Qi, suddenly began to emit wisps of golden light. These radiant wisps quickly coalesced into solid runes—precisely nine of them when counted closely.

Jia Jia's pupils constricted. Although it had long since known that this old bastard possessed the Golden-Thread Runes, it had not expected a complete set. However—

With a cold laugh, Jia Jia let out a long roar, and the red threads covering its forehead instantly burst apart. Fifty or sixty red runes materialized out of thin air, floating around its body in a shimmering haze.

Gazing at the red runes surrounding Jia Jia, the Heaven-Reaching Immortal laughed derisively. "Ignorant fool! Though I know not what power these red runes of yours possess, the Golden-Thread Runes are universally acknowledged by countless supreme realms as the most formidable art in existence. Did you truly believe you could counter them simply with numbers?"

Jia Jia could not be bothered to explain. All of these runes had been imparted to it by Chen Hongxu. Because a servant contract bound them, Chen Hongxu harbored no fear of betrayal and had concealed nothing, passing down his own profound understandings entirely.

If not for the fact that these runes were far too abstruse—forcing it to mechanically copy them like a gourd drawn from a model—it could have completely obliterated this old bastard on the spot with just these fifty or sixty runes.

Precisely because its comprehension was incomplete, its runes differed slightly in appearance from the genuine Golden-Thread Runes. But what of it? The runes it commanded were still the real, authentic article. Just as a tiger, no matter how small, could never be mistaken for a mere cat.

By this time, the runes surrounding the Heaven-Reaching Immortal had embedded themselves directly into his flesh, glowing with a brilliant golden light as if forcefully branded into his skin.

On its side, Jia Jia dared not delay any longer. With a flick of its consciousness, the hovering runes instantly assembled themselves into an ethereal stairway. Jia Jia felt its own mind and spirit tethered to the steps by an invisible thread.

This stairway differed somewhat from the one Chen Hongxu commanded; it was suffused with churning red vapors, evoking the gruesome imagery of a mountain of blades and a sea of blood.

The moment the stairway formed, Jia Jia's body shrank down to a tiny scale in an instant. Without wasting another breath, it cast a provocative glance back at the Heaven-Reaching Immortal and scampered up the steps.

The Heaven-Reaching Immortal's gaze sharpened. Though he desperately wished to abandon this divine beast immediately and head up the mountain to deal with the young man, an instinctual sensation gripped him—as if an invisible thread was tugging at his soul, warning him of catastrophic disaster if he failed to resolve this stairway first.

Having long relied on divination arts to catch glimpses of preordained opportunities, the Heaven-Reaching Immortal trusted his intuition implicitly. Thus, with a single shift in thought, he gave chase after Jia Jia. After all, with the Golden-Thread Runes currently empowering his physique, a surge of heroic pride bloomed within him, whispering that the entire world lay beneath his feet.

Meanwhile, the battle at the peak of the mountain had reached its fever pitch. Hampered by a horde of opponents whose minds had clearly been washed into fanatical zealotry, Chen Hongxu had unleashed every technique at his disposal. Yet, the Golden-Thread Runes—a supreme weapon he had originally intended to reserve for the Heaven-Reaching Immortal—were brought out ahead of time, driven by his concern for Jia Jia's actions below.

A grand and magnificent stairway, accompanied by a colossal stone gate piercing straight into the clouds, materialized once more before the eyes of the world. With an expressionless face, Chen Hongxu gazed down at the people of the immortal mountain as they gasped for breath beneath the crushing pressure of his fingertip, and began stepping upward, rank by rank...