Chapter 113: Reversal

The incense haze is faint, yet it pierces deep into the divine visage!

The outskirts of Fengyang Commandery city

Red Flower Lady Temple

Over the past few days, the area around the Red Flower Lady Temple has been bustling exceedingly, with many followers of the Red Lotus Path gathering here.

Because in a few days it will be the Red Flower Lady's birthday; each year at this time, the city's wealthy families contribute money and effort, either performing lion dances or holding sutra‑chanting assemblies, which temporarily turn this area into a temple fair, lively for a while.

At this moment, the exterior of the Red Flower Lady Temple is bustling exceedingly, while its inner depths are heavily guarded.

In the pagoda forest, many ascetics sit in meditation; yet these ascetics sit beneath the pagoda forest, eating nothing, drinking nothing, and they do not allow outsiders to enter at will.

Inside the main hall, at this time there are also many slender‑figured women wearing red‑and‑yellow silk, holding sharp weapons, guarding this place so tightly that not even water can leak through.

In the center of the main hall, at this moment a supremely beautiful figure kneels on a cushion; before her stands a small table, upon which rests a tiny statue.

Yet around the statue of the Red Flower Lady are countless scriptures, and deep between her brows lies an imperial seal talisman.

Inside the temple at this moment, twisted black‑red scriptures spread everywhere, and the surrounding courtyard is filled with rows of long banners.

This makes the sacred atmosphere inside the palace hall become extraordinarily gloomy and uncanny.

At this moment, the beautiful woman spoke calmly and unhurriedly.

"You need not shout outward; doing so will not save you, but will only implicate innocent people!"

"Do you believe he will lose his life in a moment?"

Hearing this, deep within the statue a thread of majestic divine power burst forth, trying to expand, but it activated the runes covering the statue's surroundings, which turned into chains that bound it tightly; above the seal on its head, a pure, suppressing Dao resonance unfurled.

The beautiful woman said calmly: "It's useless; after all these years of preparation, your soul has been suppressed by me, even your divine visage has been secretly replaced, and your birth‑date characters have become mine—what can you use to resist?"

"From now on, you only need to wait quietly; when the time comes we will become one, and I will let you keep a life merged into the spirit tablet of the deity, so that we will be nearly one entity—this can be considered my repayment of your kindness."

Hearing this, an angry voice came from within the divine visage.

"Although I don't know where you obtained that heretical method, you are merely a Spirit‑Communication Destiny, not a Divine Destiny; even if you steal my divine power, you cannot successfully establish a foundation, and if you force it you will surely suffer backlash."

"Then it has nothing to do with you!"

The beautiful woman's expression remained tranquil.

She gazed deeply at the statue before her; she too was a person of great perseverance. Originally she had merely obtained an ordinary Exorcising Gods Secret Method, gaining the ability to communicate with deities, but she forged her own path from it—passively drawing the Red Flower Lady's divine power at first, then gradually mastering it, drawing the divine power into her body, and now, like refining a Natal Demon God, she seeks to refine the Red Flower Lady into a Natal Deity.

Once the refinement succeeds, using this to test destiny and establish a foundation, it could be considered stealing everything from the Red Flower Lady, turning herself into a deity.

Even if she cannot achieve immortality, she might someday forge her own path and walk the way of ghosts and gods.

Now what she must do is continually draw the Red Flower Lady's source divine power into her own body, letting her Spirit‑Communication Destiny first transform into an Exorcising Gods Destiny; then she can complete the refinement, and once the Red Flower Lady is thoroughly refined, she will naturally succeed in foundation establishment.

She then turned her gaze to the three oil lamps on the table, lit them one by one, and silently recited the Maxims Mantra with her spiritual power, mobilizing the strange force on the surrounding scripture banners; under the aid of her spiritual power she slowly rose into the air, an invisible spiritual mechanism emanating from her enveloped the tiny statue and began forcibly drawing divine power from it.

That seal on the statue was obtained by the Head Abbott, who used his secular identity to seek it from a high person within the Cave Spirit Temple in the capital city; with the deity's current divine power it cannot be broken open.

Inside the divine visage.

Unlike the vision of an eight‑armed figure with a black‑gold flame wheel behind its head, the Red Flower Lady within the divine visage is merely a beautiful woman clothed in red, her body flowing with intense flames.

This deity's eyes now hold a hint of regret.

She can hardly imagine that the little girl she once saved with her own hands has become like this, and in the end she lifted a stone and smashed her own foot.

The situation before her has already spiraled out of control, and she has no better way to save herself.

In fact she is not yet a proper deity, merely a wild god born of incense worship, and she is utterly unable to resist this kind of abnormal power drain.

Moreover, the seal on her head is possessed by a deity whose divine power surpasses hers; its rank suppresses her, leaving her unable to resist.

Watching the incense‑divine power entwined around her soul gradually dissipate, the several divine functions she had painstakingly nurtured are about to collapse; her eyes grew dim, but at this very moment her expression suddenly shifted.

Not only her, but the great abbot in mid‑air also changed his countenance.

Boom—!

Deep in the void, at this moment a scarlet‑gold long rainbow seemed to tear through the sky; a surge of majestic, intense incense power instantly broke the sealed divine‑domain technique surrounding the great hall and rushed straight into the true body of the Red Flower Lady.

The Red Flower Lady had absorbed much incense before, but she had never encountered such a pure, flawless stream of incense.

This seems to have been nurtured by the Heavenly Dao.

The flawless incense entered her body, directly replenishing the Red Flower Lady; her divine power, which had been worn down to almost nothing, swelled rapidly, and in a moment it returned to its peak, even faintly breaking through a barrier, her divine form truly coalescing.

At that moment the blazing fire encircling her transformed into a true fire wheel floating behind her head.

Deep between her brows a fire‑god seal appeared.

"Has the divine office truly coalesced into form?"

Watching this, the Red Flower Lady's face showed surprise, but instantly she reacted; a surge of intense fire shot forth along the Spirit‑Communication channel, her whole body turning into a blaze that ignited the seal on the statue's forehead.

Crackle—!

And the countless dense runes surrounding the statue were all ignited; a majestic wave of red incense light flew straight into the unsuspecting beautiful woman's brow.

The beautiful woman's visage changed dramatically, and fear lingered in her eyes.

"No…"

She had originally intended to use the surrounding grand formation to weaken the Red Flower Lady's power and foundation so she could take over; now the Red Flower Lady's power has surged back completely, even higher, completely reversing the situation—how could she still suppress the Red Flower Lady's soul? Instead, aided by the formation's reversal, she lost control of her own body.

In the next moment, countless scarlet rays flowed over the beautiful woman's body, streams of incense from all directions converged into her brow, where they condensed into a scarlet mark.

……

Meanwhile, outside Fengyang Commandery, as numerous Fengyang Commandery officials stared eagerly, awaiting the arrival of the imperial envoy, several figures had already slipped into the city in disguise.

Long Peace Street

Before the residence of the Qi family, several figures gazed toward the Qi manor.

"Brother Xu, can you tell clearly whether the Qi manor's fortune has changed, and if there are signs of rebellion?"

"Or signs of a dragon's rise?"

At this moment, a figure with a stern countenance stood beside a middle‑aged gentleman resembling a wealthy landlord.