Chapter Ninety-Six: Divination

The sword drank greedily of the blood essence in the blood pool of hell. As that heavy, miasmic power thinned and dwindled, its might naturally began to weaken.

Cui Yun noticed at once and inwardly cried out in alarm. Without the blood essence, how could the sacrifice proceed?

His thoughts raced. It seemed he had let a wolf into his home. There was no time to lose; he had to offer the blood pool as a sacrifice first, then use the power gained thereby to deal with Ge Qian. He regretted underestimating his opponent and allowing him to seize the initiative.

At once he produced three crimson pills, each as large as an ox’s eye. Taking up a strange posture, he held the pills aloft and murmured an incantation under his breath.

The entire blood pool immediately boiled like a cauldron of rolling water. It churned violently before spewing up a pillar of blood, which the altar devoured greedily.

Ge Qian sensed danger and thought, with a sinking heart, that Cui Yun was going all in on the sacrifice. With a shift of will, the sword returned at once.

By then the muscles in Cui Yun’s face had twisted into a hideous snarl, like a fiend descending upon the world. The chant in his mouth was sharp and piercing; anyone who heard it would feel their spirit reel, begin to doubt fate itself, and even feel the urge to take their own life.

The three life-prolonging pills were wrapped in blood mist. Gray matter from the blood pool was drawn toward them and plunged inside. The altar quivered with excitement, and the entire space began to tremble.

Cui Yun suddenly dropped to his knees upon the altar and gazed up at the sky. With reverent devotion he said, “Great and almighty God of Fate, grant to your most loyal and humble servant the mark of destiny. I shall dedicate my whole life to you, in this life and the next!”

As soon as he spoke, he slashed open his own chest. Blood gushed out in torrents, splattering across the altar.

As though the altar had resonated with it, an immense and uncanny force, vast beyond sight and belonging to some unknown plane, was transmitted from the heavens and descended.

The hair on Ge Qian’s body stood on end. No, he could not allow that unknown power to come down. If it did, he would surely perish here.

At that thought, he drew upon all the magic in his body. The six vortices in his dantian spun madly as he formed hand seals and cast his spell. He unleashed the Great Drain, yet it only reduced the altar’s power by one-thousandth. A mere drop in the bucket.

Then Cloud to Road opened a breach through one-third of the defensive radiance. With a thunderous roar, the Lord of the Six Paths doubled in size. Eighty-nine sword energies condensed into the Sword of Heaven, the Sword of Humanity, the Sword of Asura, the Sword of Animals, the Sword of Hell, and the Sword of Hungry Ghosts—six colossal blades, each a hundred feet long, seized by six great hands.

All six swords swung at once and slashed down hard.

Six peerless sword lights struck the same point without the slightest delay. With a sharp crack, a hole the size of a bowl finally appeared in the radiance.

Ge Qian’s mind flashed. He used Replace the Beam with Rotten Timber, and the three life-prolonging pills were swapped out for a massive Fire Python Talisman. At that very moment, the altar’s radiance repaired the breach.

Everything was completed in an instant. Several powerful arts worked together seamlessly, complementing one another perfectly, and the life-prolonging pills were finally taken away.

From the altar, a fire python twenty feet long surged forth, blazing with scorching heat as it lunged at Cui Yun.

Cui Yun was almost mad with fury. Seeing the pills replaced, his blood surged to his head. He formed hand seals and cast his spell, shouting, “Seal of Fate’s Hand!”

A gray giant hand appeared, runes flowing over its surface. With a single slap, it smashed the fire python to pieces.

At that moment, the mighty force in the air lost its target. Without the life-prolonging pills as a vessel to draw it down, the power went berserk in an instant. The whole space shook violently, as though it might collapse at any second.

“Lowly ants! You dare deceive my power. Die!” an enraged roar echoed from above.

The altar shattered. Space split apart, and the surrounding spatial force pressed in from all sides.

Cui Yun wailed in heartbreaking fury. “No! God of Fate, I am your most faithful servant. I would never blaspheme your divine might! It was him—Ge Qian—he stole your offering. You must grant him the harshest punishment!”

No one paid his rage any heed. Ge Qian’s thoughts moved again. Red Plum turned into a wisp of resentful energy and returned to the demonic gourd. He shook the beast pouch and took the little white fox inside. Then the Lord of the Six Paths shrank and entered his body. Eighty-nine sword energies formed a shield before him, and with a slap he sent the demonic gourd expanding to two zhang wide, placing it in front of the shield.

The demonic gourd had unknown origins, yet it possessed immense power. Perhaps it could save his life.

Ge Qian had still underestimated the crushing force of the collapsing space. Even after all these measures, and despite cultivating the Calamity Body Art, the bones throughout his body were actually snapping one by one.

Cui Yun was instantly crushed into a cloud of blood mist. A storage pouch slipped down and fell before Ge Qian. Enduring the searing pain with all his will, Ge Qian still seized the pouch in his hand.

As the broken altar flickered with a rune and was about to vanish into the void, Ge Qian suddenly felt a stab of pain in his dantian. A one-inch sapling disappeared from within it and appeared strangely above the rune. Its greedy roots plunged straight into the rune, twisting and blurring it until it vanished without a trace. In the next instant the sapling returned to Ge Qian’s dantian. It trembled once, and a layer of emerald-green membrane appeared over Ge Qian’s entire body, then with a boom it vanished into the void without a trace.

At the very instant the space shattered, deep within the inner cave dwelling of Heavenly Star Peak, a beautiful and otherworldly woman at the late Infant Transformation stage was seated in meditation, cultivating. Mist swirled above her head, and fine wisps of terrestrial evil energy entered her body.

Suddenly, the ground trembled slightly. She opened her eyes at once, frowning. Her skin was as flawless as polished jade, her face could shame flowers and moonlight alike, and her lovely star-bright eyes flickered with confusion.

She murmured to herself, “What is going on? I feel so unsettled. Could something serious have happened? It seems it is time to divine the matter.”

The woman took out a jade pendant of green hue, formed hand seals, and cast strange incantations. While she muttered under her breath, patterns of text began to flow across the pendant.

The worry on her face deepened. At last, with resolve, she pointed at the pendant. A faint glow flashed. She picked it up, closed her eyes tightly, pressed it to her forehead, and kept moving the fingers of her other hand as though calculating something.

She saw Heavenly Star Peak being uprooted by a man in black and moved away wholesale. Then a figure with three heads and six arms barred the road ahead. At that moment, the image suddenly shattered, and an invisible force struck back at her.

She could not suppress a mouthful of blood, and the jade pendant in her hand split cleanly in two with a crack.

Her lovely face had gone utterly bloodless. She brushed the hair from her forehead with slender, jade-like fingers and said, “Judging by the omen, the Heavenly Star Sect will suffer a great calamity. Yet there is one thread of hope—the great being with three heads and six arms. Who could he be? It seems he has some deep connection to the Heavenly Star Sect.

“The Heavenly Star Sect has stood for tens of thousands of years. It has known glory and decline, and now it is finally approaching its end. Fortune or disaster, one cannot escape what is fated. At present, we can only seize that single thread of life in order to avert this calamity.”

When she finished speaking, she sighed helplessly, picked up the broken halves of the jade pendant, and carefully put them away. Then she donned a red robe, as brilliant and beautiful as the evening glow.

She left the cave dwelling, stepped into the air, and slowly descended before a grand and imposing residence.

“Junior Sister has come. Please, come in,” said a gentle voice.

As the words fell, the dwelling’s restrictions opened and the stone gate swung wide.

The woman did not pause. With a flicker, she drifted inside.

Within was a world of its own: pavilions, rockeries, clear springs, and green trees.

Rich spiritual energy spread as a thin mist through the hall. Seated within was a handsome young man with a jade-like face, a high nose, large eyes, and a cool, stern countenance.

The woman sat directly opposite him and said, “Senior Brother, what must come is finally here. We cannot avoid it.”