Chapter Eighty-Six: Lotus Body Forging, Blood Curse Devouring the Flesh

At last, when Tiancheng came to his senses, he saw Ji Feichen smiling with delight as he looked at the Ninefold Jasper Tree in his hands.

They already knew? Tiancheng regretted it bitterly. His one chance to escape had just slipped away. If he had only endured a little longer, perhaps the thing would already have been his.

Tu Shan asked, “Shall we lift the blood curse now?”

“Not yet. There is no need to rush,” Ji Feichen said, suppressing his joy. “We still do not know how to use this thing. Let us find someone to test it first, then decide.”

Hearing that the blood curse could be undone, the great stone in Ji Feichen’s heart finally fell away, and he suddenly felt light all over. From this day on, he would no longer need to fear being controlled by the blood curse, nor suffer the torment of the blood-mite curse’s backlash every day.

Then Ji Feichen smiled at Tiancheng. “Senior Brother, thank you for telling us. As for that little scheme of yours, this junior brother is broad-minded. For now, I will let it pass.”

Next, Tu Shan and Ji Feichen used lotus root to shape human bodies, then used translucent jelly as skin. At last they scattered lotus leaves, and the two of them stood at opposite ends, chanting the spell.

The innate secret incantation they used was a lineage-exclusive method of the alchemists. All living beings possessed an innate primordial breath within their bodies as the root of life; only the alchemist line truly understood the marvelous transformation between creation and mystery. As for the rest of the immortals and demons, only once they reached the Earthly Immortal realm could they fathom such profundities.

A surging tide of primordial energy came roaring in, reversing yin and yang, uniting heaven, earth, and man, forming the four symbols and fixing the five elements. The powers of water and fire, dragon and tiger, the hidden mysteries of ninefold refinement of the innate, all gathered as layers of golden radiance enveloped the lotus arrangement on the ground.

Half an hour later, Tu Shan reached out and seized the formation. “Body complete!”

The Demon Dragon Halberd transformed into a spine, piercing through the entire frame as the body’s central axis. It passed through the five palaces of the chest and entered the sea of qi and dantian, gradually forming the fleshly body of a seven-foot-tall man.

Seeing this, Ji Feichen, who stood at the head, raised a hand and pointed. “Soul, come!”

A burst of dark radiance surged from the Demon Dragon Halberd, passing through the twelve storied chambers and flowing through the five features and seven apertures. A soul, faint as a dream, flew into the ancestral aperture between the brows. At last, the demon soul settled within the niwan palace, where it fused with the fleshly body.

After becoming an immortal, this was the advantage one possessed: as long as one’s dao fruit remained and the soul did not disperse, one could seize another’s body and be reborn.

Now that Tiancheng had been revived in a lotus fleshly body, the demon soul and the body were wholly united. But along with that came dense, blood-red patterns sinking into the flesh.

With Tiancheng’s resurrection, the blood-mite curse once again surged from the demon soul’s dao fruit into the lotus-root body, and even the mother insect at the main altar of the Netherworld Sect was roused as well.

After the gu worm let out a shriek, the human immortals guarding nearby said, “A dead disciple has come back to life. It seems to be someone from the Black Vein.”

“How strange. This person looks somewhat familiar... Go and fetch Blackflow.” Another gave the order, then carefully watched the gu mother.

...

“Aah—”

Just after Tiancheng was revived, before he could even move his body, he suddenly seemed to suffer a grievous blow and curled up on the ground, trembling.

“The blood curse is acting up?” Ji Feichen was startled. Seeing Tiancheng’s frenzied expression, as the other end of the curse was activated, he clawed at his just-restored flesh, reopening it in streaks of blood.

After a while, laughter drifted from somewhere unknown. “Is that you, my disciple Tiancheng?”

Ji Feichen raised an eyebrow and silently signaled Tu Shan. The youth in white withdrew without a word, leaving only the two brothers alone.

“It is this disciple,” Tiancheng said, terror-stricken. He had only just been revived and had not expected Blackflow to find him so quickly.

“You died in the Immortal Mansion of Spiritual Mist, and now you have been restored to life?” Blackflow’s gaze was cold. Standing before the mother insect, he activated the blood-mite curse through the air, and punishment far harsher than before crashed repeatedly into Tiancheng’s flesh.

Blackflow’s tone was almost kindly intimate, as if truly concerned for Tiancheng. “Recasting a fleshly body is a great taboo of our sect. You would not be unaware of that, would you?”

Tiancheng screamed and howled. Blood had already begun to stipple the ground.

At last, he turned pleading eyes toward Ji Feichen.

Ji Feichen sighed, stepped forward, and pressed a hand against Tiancheng’s body, using the blood-mite curse within him to speak to the other end. “This disciple, Ji Feichen, pays respects to my honored master.”

“Oh? I had not expected you to be there as well.” Blackflow searched at the mother insect, and the mother insect spat out another pearl-like bead. With a light touch, he caused the blood-mite curse in Ji Feichen’s body to begin piercing the heart meridians and roaming through the viscera.

“Hmph—”

Ji Feichen’s expression turned icy. He sat cross-legged and silently practiced breathing and circulation with the Diagram of the Dao City, resisting the threat of the blood-mite curse within him. The one advantage he had over Tiancheng was that he had not cultivated his dao fruit through the demonic oath of the sect, and thus the blood-mite curse did not suppress him as severely.

Still, Ji Feichen’s fleshly body had been polluted by the curse for many years, and it could not be dispelled easily. Thus, when the curse flared, it felt like ten thousand ants gnawing at him; he did not dare make the slightest movement.

“Since the disciple is in the immortal mansion, I presume it was you who helped him recast his body?” Blackflow had caught his chance and naturally would not let Ji Feichen go.

Ji Feichen heard the malice in those words and immediately sent his primordial spirit fleeing into the Tower of Nine Heavens, Black Gold, and Dragon Deity. At that moment, the blood-mite curse on his body erupted completely, with thousands of spiders and myriad worms swarming through his meridians. Blackflow used a far harsher hand against him than he had against Tiancheng.

The Yuan Dao Demon Sect valued cultivation of the fleshly body highly. If the body were damaged, it would certainly affect one’s magical power and even one’s path of cultivation. Ji Feichen gritted his teeth and endured, his voice trembling, yet his words carried a trace of threat. “Master is by no means alone beside the mother insect. Are you not afraid of delaying our patriarch’s great matter and being settled with afterward?”

Blackflow’s eyes turned cold, but there were indeed others beside him, and all of them were looking toward the mother insect, clearly paying close attention to the matters inside the immortal mansion.

Fearing Ji Feichen might speak too much, Blackflow suspended the punishment. “What did you obtain in the immortal mansion?”

“The people of the Blood Sea are here,” Ji Feichen said, relating the matter. Blackflow and the others changed expression, and someone immediately rushed off to notify the sect master and the various grand elders.

During this period when the Netherworld Sect was preparing to assault the holy land, if the Blood Sea gained one more heaven-reaching expert, it would be enough to bring the sect’s entire plan crashing down.

“Also, Uncle Blackpool is guarding the entrance. He has sent Junior Brother Lingfeng into the immortal mansion to search for spirit herbs. Should this disciple move to intercept him?”

As Ji Feichen said this, the implication in his words made Blackflow understand.

If I help him find spirit herbs, and something goes wrong, damaging the patriarch’s grand design, can you bear the consequences?

“Intercept? To intercept a fellow disciple? What a fine disciple you have, Brother!” A certain immortal in yellow robes questioned him, shooting Blackflow a glare, then touched the spirit bead to transmit, “Help Brother Blackpool obtain the spirit herbs he seeks; this is the sect master’s command. If you defy it, once the blood-mite curse flares, it will gnaw you to death from within!”

Blackflow’s cheeks twitched. He said in a low voice, “Indeed. When did I ever say for you to act against fellow disciples? Do not make assumptions and spend your days sowing discord among us brothers. Your uncle is cultivating the great Dao; this is a great joy for our sect. You must do everything in your power to help him attain the Dao.”

In secret, they fought and schemed against one another, but who would dare openly tear away that final veil?

Blackflow was wary, and the others no longer permitted him to take action against the two of them.

“Brother Blackflow, for the next few days do not go near the mother insect. We will speak again after this matter is concluded.”

“You want to seize the life pearls of those two?” Blackflow stood where he was, demonic power rising gradually around him. “The disciples of each vein are to be managed by their own elders. You want to bypass me?”

The man from the Yellow Vein was about to speak, but someone beside him stopped him. That man wore a pleasant expression and smiled. “The iron law of the sect is something we naturally would not dare violate. But to prevent Brother from taking any improper action, when you punish disciples, please do not leave the view of others.”

“Hmph!” Blackflow finally ordered Ji Feichen and Tiancheng, “Recasting a fleshly body is a great taboo of our sect. Tiancheng, when you return, go to Cold Mountain to receive your punishment: three thousand lashes, and one day of flesh-devouring by the blood-mite curse. Fellow juniors, is my handling of this matter fair?”

Recasting the fleshly body could allow one to escape the blood-mite curse, and therefore it was a grave taboo of the Netherworld Sect. Even if the matter were urgent, punishment would still be required afterward, in order to cut off the root of any imitation by others.

The power of the blood-mite curse gradually faded. Tiancheng climbed to his feet. “Junior Brother.” His voice was hoarse as he staggered upright. “When the time comes to kill that old thief, count me in.”

“Kill? I’m more afraid you’ll kill me, Senior Brother.”

“Could it be that Junior Brother still does not trust me?” Tiancheng grew anxious and wanted to swear another poisonous oath to win Ji Feichen’s trust.

“It is not that I do not trust Senior Brother. It is that, with the blood-mite curse in his hands, how can you resist our teacher? No matter how resolute one’s character, how many days can one endure under the blood-mite curse? If we strike at him, he need only activate the demonic spell—who among us could live?”

“Of course, I understand that. As long as we keep him from chanting the spell, that will do. But he hides within the mountain gate year-round, and there is also a body-double avatar concealed in the shadows. How are the two of us supposed to guard against that?”

Tiancheng was left dumbstruck and fell silent.

If resisting the blood curse were so easy, then over the past several thousand years almost no one would ever have truly escaped the control of the demon sect. Under the crushing pressure of the demonic path, they had not even dared to think of resistance.

The demonic sects crushed and ground everything beneath them. Unless you could stand alone against the entire demonic path, how could you ever escape?

“So, you mean we should give up?” Tiancheng sat on the ground. “For now, endure it and wait until we become Earthly Immortals within the Yuan Dao?”

“Give up? Why should we give up? Others may be willing to bow their heads and remain obediently within the demon sect, but I am not willing to spend my life as someone else’s tool.” Ji Feichen sneered. “Even if there are rules between heaven and earth, those rules should be set by me—not by meekly following the demonic laws laid down by others.”

“Become Earthly Immortals in the demon sect? Senior Brother, have you forgotten the origin of those demon dragons in Dragon Pool behind Nine Yin Mountain?”

“Earthly Immortal puppets?” Tiancheng fell silent again.

Within the Netherworld Sect, the Black Vein had only one Earthly Immortal: Hall Master Cangming. Yet his battle power was enough to match several orthodox Earthly Immortals. His greatest advantage lay in his protecting demon dragons.

Those were the fruits of refining numerous predecessors who had cultivated the Black Fiend Demon Dragon Scripture into Earthly Immortal magical treasures. Each demon dragon was comparable to an Earthly Immortal and, like a magical artifact, was driven by the Hall Master of Cangming. Their intelligence had been completely erased, leaving only loyalty to the hall master’s will.

The Netherworld Sect had only seven Earthly Immortals, yet it dared challenge the supreme status of the boundless Blood Sea; the inhuman methods employed by its various branches were indispensable to that ambition.

A demonic sect builds its power by using ten thousand people to sustain itself, not by finding itself a patriarch.

The grand promise painted by the Netherworld Sect seemed beautiful: once one became an Earthly Immortal, one would become a magnate of the demon sect and seize control. But had anyone asked the original masters whether they agreed? While greedily swallowing all the benefits for themselves, who would be foolish enough to divide half of them away?

Blackpool was about to be promoted to Earthly Immortal. But everyone understood: the day of his promotion would be the day of his death.

“The patriarch is about to step down. Once he leaves and the new hall master takes power, if he has the demon dragon magical treasures remade, can the two of us escape then?” Ji Feichen coaxed him patiently, placing the future threat before their eyes. “Even if we attach ourselves to the sect master’s line, do you think the sect master will help us for nothing?”

“Then what do you say we should do?” Tiancheng’s spirit was utterly dispirited. Under the threat of the demon sect, he had no power to resist at all.

“Of course we should flee the demon sect.” Ji Feichen held the Ninefold Jasper Tree in his hand. “With this treasure in hand, if you and I can break the blood curse, would that not mean boundless skies and seas for us to roam?”

“Flee the Yuan Dao?” Tiancheng shook his head repeatedly. “Junior Brother, you must understand that the destruction of Spirit Mist Sect was inseparable from this very thing. If we try to flee the Yuan Dao, we will inevitably face a siege from the Ten Sects. That simply will not do.”

Tiancheng had long since had his backbone broken by the demon sect. Raised within it from childhood, he feared the vast power of the Ten Demon Sects and had no heart for resistance. What he sought was merely to one day become an Earthly Immortal and obediently stand among the demon sect’s magnates. As for whether the new master of Cangming Hall would spare him then—he would worry about that when the time came. Perhaps the new hall master would have a better temper?

Then Tiancheng added, “Of course, lifting the blood oath and avoiding the blood-mite curse’s backlash is possible.”

Seeing his cowardly nature and his unwillingness to even raise the idea of resisting the demon sect, Ji Feichen could not press him further for now. In his heart he thought, I refuse to believe there is no one in the demon sect who thinks as I do. Now that the Ninefold Jasper Tree is in hand, as long as I can break the demon sect’s blood oath, I can gather a group of like-minded allies and unite them in resistance against the sect’s present system.

Ji Feichen’s character could never tolerate having his life decided by another’s whim.

At present, Hall Master Cangming would not move against him. But once he ascended, the next hall master would take over and immediately gain control of several demon dragons. By then, if that person decided the demon dragons were not enough and wanted Tiancheng and Ji Feichen themselves as magical treasures too, or if he required more cultivators as blood offerings to elevate the Earthly Immortal-grade demon dragon treasures to the Heavenly Immortal level...

Too dangerous. Remaining within the demon sect always carried the sense that one’s life might not last till morning.

Having failed to persuade Tiancheng, Ji Feichen could only let the matter rest for now. The two of them parted temporarily from Tu Shan and went to join Zheng Qiong and Lingfeng.

When they met their fellow disciples, Ji Feichen took out the Moon Lotus and Sun Lotus. Zheng Qiong and Lingfeng had also found quite a few spirit objects by now; of the heavenly materials and earthly treasures arranged by Blackpool, only three remained unfound.

Lingfeng said, “I know the location of a Fire Cloud Spirit Mushroom, but there are orthodox cultivators guarding it, and it is not easy to approach. We will need the help of you, senior brothers.”

“As it should be.”

And so the group went off to trouble the orthodox cultivators. Meanwhile, in secret, Ji Feichen sent word to Tu Shan, telling him to make preparations early.

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Tomorrow I will be going on sale. Thinking about what the results will be after that, I feel uneasy and anxious. Every time I go on sale, it feels like waiting for a lottery draw—so nerve-racking.

As for going on sale, let me also say a word about chapter length. On Qidian, subscriptions are calculated at one Qidian coin for every two hundred characters. In other words, a chapter of two thousand characters costs ten Qidian coins, while a chapter of three thousand characters costs fifteen. A three-thousand-character chapter may seem more expensive, but in fact its cost-performance is the same as a two-thousand-character chapter. After all, it contains a thousand more characters, making the content fuller.

However, Qidian also has a bonus-coin discount. If bonus coins are mixed into those ten Qidian coins, they do not count toward the author’s subscription income.

Therefore, when the release burst comes tomorrow, I will first update with a two-thousand-character chapter, and then with a three-thousand-character chapter. Depending on the subscription results, I will decide in the future whether stable updates should follow one pattern or the other.

If there is only one update per day, and all readers are using mixed bonus-coin subscriptions, then that would amount to zero paid subscriptions per day, would it not?

This is one difficulty the author faces. For now, I ask everyone for your understanding.