Chapter Sixty-Six: The Great Calamity of the Transcender

“The seasons are disordered, the five elements obscure—I shall establish the twenty-four solar terms as the axis of their rotation, aligning the world in harmony. This is the great vow of my Dao’s fruition.”

Within the palace, the drought goddess was explaining the supreme principles to several Daoist cultivators when, suddenly, twenty-four beams of treasure-light soared skyward. Thunder rumbled in the clouds, fierce winds arose, and a crystalline radiance hovered over the place where Ji Feichen was secluded.

“A heavenly vow?” murmured the goddess. Within the vows of Dao-fruition, there are ranks. The highest is to set a vow in accord with heaven, earth, and the hearts of all beings. When such a vow is fulfilled, not only does one receive the merit of staying true to the Dao, but even the heavens bestow hidden blessings upon them.

When the drought goddess made her vow, she opened up a land of flourishing life in the northern wastes, aligning herself with heaven’s will and the wishes of all living things. Thus she accumulated immense merit; lowly earth immortals dared not slay her but could only suppress her.

Ji Feichen’s current vow was much the same. He wished to regulate the four seasons and the five elements for Xuan Zheng Continent, establishing the twenty-four solar terms. These terms correspond to the cycles of weather and climate, forming the foundation of agriculture and the well-being of the people.

The moment his vow was declared, heaven itself was shaken. Countless clouds of colorful light and golden blossoms dissolved the thunderheads above, and Ji Feichen’s misfortunes and tribulations were thus diminished.

Ji Feichen was now condensing his Dragon Pearl. The pearl, the size of a fist, circled in the air alongside the twenty-four Jade Tide Pearls. Threads of rosy light from the heavens intertwined with the Dragon Pearl, forging a special chain of causality. At the same time, the world naturally bestowed upon Ji Feichen an innate divine power: "Summoning Clouds and Spreading Rain."

Henceforth, wherever he might be beneath the sky, a wave of his hand would summon wind and clouds, thunder and rain—no need for incantations or magical implements. A mere thought, and wind and rain would obey. This was a divine power granted by heaven to help him fulfill his vow.

“How interesting,” Ji Feichen mused, his consciousness merging with the Dragon Pearl and soaring into the sky, linking with the boundless will of heaven. At this moment, he felt as if, “I am no longer merely myself, but united with the entirety of the Dao of Heaven.”

His vision cleared; the vastness of the world lay open before him. Countless threads of heavenly principle swept past, flying into the distant, immense Dao-fruits of earth immortals.

He beheld, in this unfathomable space, countless immortal and demonic Dao-fruits suspended in the void. Some radiated pure Dao energy, others brimmed with sinister magic; some were imbued with the Supreme Principle of Nonaction, others with the tangled desires of the six realms. The nearest Dao-fruit to Ji Feichen was a flame-clad god seated in meditation within a sphere of scarlet sunlight. Magnificent and merciful, an aura of sacred majesty radiated from the deity’s form. Blazing flames roared unceasingly, and the harmonics of the Dao crystallized into fire dragons flanking the god.

“The Dao-fruit of the Drought Goddess? Lady Chen? Then these Dao-fruits must belong to the human and earth immortals of Xuan Zheng Continent.” Ji Feichen understood within: “When I likened Dao-fruits to communication towers, I wasn’t mistaken. In truth, a Dao-fruit is a bridge between oneself and the heavenly Dao. The Mortal Shedding stage is to temper the flesh to better channel the power of heaven and earth. The Human Immortal stage regards the Dao-fruit as a bridge between man and heaven, embodying the unity of heaven and humanity.”

But the Dao of Heaven is lofty—why should it merge with you? If one simply thrusts their consciousness into the heavenly Dao, it would be swallowed by its vastness. Thus, only at the Celestial Immortal stage is true union with the Dao of Heaven possible.

In ancient times, cultivators breathed and refined primordial energy; but even at the Human or Earth Immortal stage, they remained individuals, never truly one with the world, never indestructible through countless calamities. Only upon reaching the Celestial Immortal stage could they truly connect their Dao-fruit to the Dao of Heaven, achieve unity, and thus transcend all disaster and doom.

Yet after countless years of research, the Xuan and Yuan sects discovered a shortcut: the vow of Dao-fruition. By making such a vow, cultivators at the Human Immortal stage could connect with the heavenly Dao in advance, simulating unity with it. Their Dao-fruit embedded within heaven, constantly absorbing the spiritual resonance of the Dao for cultivation, thus speeding their progress.

A Dao-fruit of radiant water light entwined with a chain, a hidden dragon sleeping within, merging into the heavenly Dao.

Suddenly, bolts of lightning lashed out from the darkness, striking Ji Feichen’s Dao-fruit; the entire space rejected his presence.

“Disaster!” Ji Feichen was startled, then quickly realized the reason. He was an outsider, having crossed from Earth and possessed the body of a man from Xuan Zheng Continent. His soul was not native, and this difference was revealed instantly.

It is said there are “three souls and seven spirits.” Besides the life soul and seven spirits within the body, the heavenly soul hovers above in the azure void, and the earth soul is buried deep in the underworld. When a cultivator’s Dao-fruit merges with the Dao of Heaven, it is their heavenly soul that serves as the beacon—what Ji Feichen called the “signal tower.”

All the Dao-fruits Ji Feichen now saw were the heavenly souls of cultivators hidden within the firmament.

But Ji Feichen was not of this world—how could he have a heavenly soul here? The instant he tried to establish his Dao-fruit, the problem was exposed. Like an illegal structure, the space began to crush his Dao-fruit, intent on erasing him utterly.

Outside, the drought goddess gazed up at the sky. The thunderclouds, which had just receded, now thickened anew, more ominous than before.

“How strange,” she wondered. “Given this young man’s foundation and his vow, he ought to break through to Human Immortal with ease. Has something gone awry within him?” Who could have imagined that Ji Feichen lacked the heavenly soul of this realm?

Even cultivators from distant lands could sense their own heavenly souls. The goddess never imagined that Ji Feichen would falter at this step.

Just then, from another direction, a white halo soared, and a golden scroll flapped in the wind, dispersing a swath of thunderclouds.

Tushan and Ji Feichen, neck and neck, commenced their own vows of Dao-fruition.

“The demon race is scattered, its destiny divided. By the Myriad Demons Golden Register, I restore the Demon Dao and teach the arts of cultivation to all demons!” Tushan pointed, and the golden register trembled in the air. Phantoms of myriad beasts flickered in and out of sight, gathering the destinies of all demonkind into itself.

“The demon race is oppressed, oft persecuted by cultivators. I shall create the Demon Realm to shelter all beings—any bird, beast, plant, or stone that claims the title of demon may find sanctuary there.”

As the second vow was formed, a white fox spirit flew from behind Tushan. Beneath the Golden Register, a phantom world arose. It was a realm Tushan forged with the Path of Formlessness; as his power grew, this illusion would become a true Demon Realm—a haven for all demons under heaven.

Upon this vow’s utterance, the Dao of Heaven responded, bestowing a divine power that rendered the Demon Realm an extension of Tushan’s will. Henceforth, in battle, the Demon Realm could be invoked as a divine art, allowing Tushan to embody the myriad Demon Paths.

With a breath of relief, Tushan declared a third vow: “I observe the laws of heaven, uphold virtue, and shall restrain the demon race from bringing calamity to the world, focusing solely on cultivation to achieve Dao-fruition. If I ever, for personal gain, drag all demons into war, I shall never attain the Great Dao in this life!”

Tushan anchored his vow upon the demon race, intending to revitalize it by his own strength. As the three vows took shape, the Dao responded, and rays of divine light elevated Tushan’s cultivation step by step. The entire Demon Sacred Land trembled; a pillar of heavenly light shot into Tushan’s brow, granting him inheritance of the sacred ground. Countless demon kings and immortals manifested as phantoms around the Golden Register, worshipping it, further refining its power.

“With the demon race rising, immortals and demons alike will seek to suppress us. I must hide myself and build my strength.” Tushan refined the Celestial Fox Inner Pill, growing an extra tail, and began to assimilate the ancestral “Elixir of Immortality” within. This miraculous medicine overflowed with spiritual power, causing Tushan’s cultivation to soar and his Human Immortal realm to stabilize.

Radiant with spirit, Tushan swept the Golden Register, cloaking his own Dao-fruit and concealing it from the gaze of high immortals.

The drought goddess, standing nearby, wore a complicated expression. “The rise of the demon race will bring unrest to the world.” Silently, she sent her primordial spirit into the Dao of Heaven and saw the Taiji Diagram within the Dao-realm begin to change.

Her spirit stood in the void, beneath her feet the rivers and mountains of Xuan Zheng Continent playing out in miniature. Overhead rose the Taiji Diagram—the Clear and Turbid Xuan Yuan Taiji. The clear half represented the immortals, the turbid half the demons. This diagram governed all paths, gathering the destinies of the great sects of immortals and demons. Beyond the diagram swirled the fates of numerous independent high cultivators, appearing as rainbows, auspicious clouds, or pillars of energy—belonging neither to one side nor the other.

The goddess’s own fortune was likewise: a ribbon of red mist floating outside the Taiji Diagram, neither aligning with the Daoist sects nor the demonic ones.

There were others, like Master Peng and Windward Miles, regarded as Daoists but not loyal to the Three Palaces, nor practicing orthodox celestial arts. Their destinies, too, floated independently, like the drought goddess’s.

Beneath the Taiji Diagram, a golden dragon was suppressed. This dragon was the destiny of the Great Hong Imperial Dynasty, upon which countless commoners depended for their livelihood. Though the human world’s destiny was as resplendent as a rainbow, it was forcibly suppressed by the powers of both immortals and demons.

Now, more and more wisps of pale white energy gathered outside the Taiji Diagram, only to suddenly vanish, beyond the reach of divination.

“The Great Hong Dynasty, the rise of the demon race, and us wandering immortals—the Celestial and Demonic Taiji is growing ever more unstable.” The goddess felt within her heart the premonition of great change. If the orthodox Xuan and Yuan sects could suppress these external threats, they would grow stronger yet; but if they could not…

Her gaze fell upon a strand of watery light outside the Taiji Diagram. This light emerged from the shadow-fish side of the diagram, its end entwined with the Underworld Sect’s River of the Dead. Amidst the vast underworld river, a single droplet of water-light was detaching, caught between emergence and restraint.

“That must be Ji Feichen’s fate. The water-light is pure, reflecting his own nature—innocent, unsullied by the world. It is wholly at odds with the turbid Underworld River.”

Ji Feichen’s fate was bound to the Underworld Sect. Now that he was ascending by the ancient methods of the Qi-refiners, this connection would naturally be severed. Yet within the water-light, threads of blood coiled, troubling Ji Feichen and forcing upon him the greatest choice of his life.

Heaven itself rejected him; the transmigrant was like a rootless duckweed, exposed to the wrath of the heavens.

Yet, the Underworld Sect’s blood oath tugged at him, calling Ji Feichen’s body back, tempting him to rejoin the demonic path. Should Ji Feichen acknowledge this blood oath, he could borrow the power of the demonic Dao to counteract heaven’s rejection.

Demonhood, after all, is to defy the heavens; by binding his fate to the demonic sect, he could twist heaven’s backlash aside. The price, however, was to be forever bound to the fortune of the demonic path.

But if not the demonic path, what other fortune could he draw on to survive the heavens’ wrath?