Chapter 88: The Path of Patrolling Heaven on Behalf of the Emperor, The Method of the External Avatar

The Witch-Ghost Secret Realm was empty.

Everyone had been killed cleanly by Patriarch Tingyou during his attempt at夺舍, and as the Golden Core sword qi descended, Patriarch Tingyou himself was shattered into dust by that same sword qi.

At this moment, only Lu Yang remained in the Witch-Ghost Secret Realm.

However, the Golden Core sword qi did not strike down; instead, it returned to hover above the Secret Realm, continuing to lie in wait, inhaling and exhaling the essence of heaven and earth, seeming as though it would never dissipate.

Yet Lu Yang's expression showed not the slightest relaxation; on the contrary, it had become grave to the extreme, for he clearly felt that a karmic thread within himself had already been locked onto by the sword qi. In other words, once the sword qi erupted, even if separated by thousands of miles, it could still slice off his head with a single strike!

"Is it because I took the inheritance of the Witch-Ghost Path?"

Lu Yang glanced at the soul thoughts of Patriarch Tingyou that he had gathered; if he abandoned these thoughts, perhaps he could escape the karmic entanglement of the sword qi.

"But... I insist on keeping them!"

A Foundation Establishment soul, and moreover the soul thoughts of a former giant of the Demonic Path, the master of an entire sect—this was something the soul of the Yun family patriarch from his previous life could not compare to.

After all, the soul of the Yun family patriarch had been whitewashed by Daoist Yinshan.

But the soul of Patriarch Tingyou contained a full thousand years of his life experience, including divine abilities, cultivation methods, and even various secrets regarding Foundation Establishment!

"This karma, I accept it!"

With a thought, Lu Yang immediately mounted a beam of escaping light and vanished from the spot, then casually constructed a cave dwelling nearby and directly began closed-door cultivation.

Several days later.

Inside the cave dwelling, Lu Yang opened his eyes; before him lay the thoughts of Patriarch Tingyou, though by now he had completely refined and absorbed all of them.

During this process, he had also gained a deeper understanding of Patriarch Tingyou.

"This person truly deserves to be called a genius of heaven."

Lu Yang sighed, then picked up one of the thoughts; unlike the others, this one shimmered with brilliant light and possessed far more spirituality.

This was because what was recorded within this thought was not Patriarch Tingyou's memories, but his last testament.

As the saying goes, a cunning rabbit has three burrows; although Patriarch Tingyou was confident his attempt at夺舍 would absolutely not fail, he had still prepared a backup plan and made preparations in case something went wrong.

This last testament was his backup plan; within it, he explicitly stated that he would preserve the inheritance of the Witch-Ghost Path in its most complete form within his soul thoughts, and if he died while Lu Yang survived, this inheritance would be given to Lu Yang, thereby continuing the lineage of the Witch-Ghost Path.

Of course, there were conditions.

To obtain this inheritance, Lu Yang must establish a karmic tie with the Witch-Ghost Path, rebuild the mountain gates of the Witch-Ghost Path in the future, and cultivate a Foundation Establishment expert for the Witch-Ghost Path.

Otherwise, the soul thoughts would self-destruct.

Just as Patriarch Tingyou had stated earlier, his lifelong pursuit was to continue the Witch-Ghost Path; he absolutely could not allow the Witch-Ghost Path to perish at the hands of him, its sect master.

Therefore, regardless of life or death, he had considered everything.

He had even explicitly stated within the thoughts that as long as Lu Yang accepted the inheritance, he had a method to enable Lu Yang to rapidly possess the combat power of the Foundation Establishment realm within a short time!

How could Lu Yang refuse this?

"I'll take the benefits first; anyway, even if the karma of the Witch-Ghost Path is heavy, that is a matter for this lifetime, and what does it have to do with me in the next life..."

Patriarch Tingyou, the last sect master of the Witch-Ghost Path.

He was also the most talented person in the history of the Witch-Ghost Path; he successfully reached Foundation Establishment at a young age, and afterward, in only over two hundred years, he combined "Shang Zhang," "Kun Dun," "Chong Guang," and "Chi Fen Ruo" with the numbers of the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha, Yin and Yang, achieving the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment and seeking the position of "Wall Earth."

Alas, heaven envied genius.

Just at that moment, a True Person from the Yushujiange had advanced one step ahead and proved the fruit position of "Wall Earth," instantly cutting off Patriarch Tingyou's path of cultivation.

How could Patriarch Tingyou, how could the Witch-Ghost Path, accept this?

However, Patriarch Tingyou truly lived up to his heavenly talent; he actually managed to painstakingly research another path, creating the method of the 【Yanmodian】.

Eight Foundation Establishment Great Perfection experts transformed into the Black and White Impermanence, the Civil and Military Judges, Ox-Head and Horse-Face, and the Day and Night Wandering Gods; finally, presided over by him, they could falsely hold the Golden Position and temporarily manifest the Golden Core fruit... something that sounded like a tale from the Arabian Nights, yet with the help of a third-party force, Patriarch Tingyou successfully achieved it.

But it was precisely this achievement that brought catastrophic disaster upon the Witch-Ghost Path.

That Golden Core True Person who had proven "Wall Earth" sat within the Yushujiange and, from tens of thousands of miles away, slashed out a single sword strike, declaring the complete extermination of the entire Witch-Ghost Path.

"..."

The more Lu Yang read, the more alarmed he became; finally, he abruptly closed the memory thought, daring not to read further, daring not to continue thinking deeply about it, and decisively chose to stop right there.

Because he could clearly feel that the clearer his understanding became of the ins and outs of the Witch-Ghost Path's extermination a thousand years ago, the clearer a karmic thread on his body became; one end of this karmic thread was connected to him, while the other end plunged into the great karmic net, deep as an abyss, with no end in sight...

Damn it, that True Person from a thousand years ago is still alive!

Lu Yang was one hundred percent certain that the other end of the karmic thread was that True Person! The moment he learned the details of the affair, that True Person would also become aware of him!

"This is too damn outrageous; what a broken place, what a broken place..."

After a long while, Lu Yang slowly calmed his mind, daring not to pursue the troublesome matters of a thousand years ago any further, and turned instead to study the inheritance left behind by Patriarch Tingyou.

Among it, besides divine abilities such as the "Nine Heavens All-Register Secret Demonic Yin Thunder," the most crucial part was the 【Xuanming Lord of the Netherworld Soul-Seizing Position】 that Patriarch Tingyou had once employed; the foundation of the Witch-Ghost Path was not as deep as that of the Chusheng Sect, and the entire sect possessed only this one divine ability, yet Patriarch Tingyou had deduced it to its utmost limit.

After finishing his review, Lu Yang's expression became increasingly filled with awe:

"No wonder he said in his last testament that he could help me obtain Foundation Establishment combat power..."

Regarding the Xuanming Lord of the Netherworld Soul-Seizing Position, if nine Foundation Establishment Great Perfection experts cultivated this divine ability together and formed the 【Yanmodian】, they could, with Foundation Establishment bodies, falsely hold the Golden Position.

Of course, nine Foundation Establishment Great Perfection experts could no longer be found.

But if one lowered the requirements slightly, having nine Qi Refining Great Perfection experts cultivate this divine ability together, supplemented by a massive infusion of fortune and destiny, they could actually falsely hold the Foundation Establishment position!

The eight elders of the Tingyou Sect were exactly like this; Patriarch Tingyou passed down this lineage so that people could cultivate alongside him, and the value of the existence of the eight red-robed Witch-Ghosts was to form the 【Yanmodian】 together with him; Patriarch Tingyou had originally intended to immediately employ this method upon escaping his predicament to achieve Foundation Establishment.

Unfortunately, heaven did not grant his wish.

Of course, although this divine ability was shocking to the world, it was not without drawbacks, precisely because the foundation of this divine ability was built upon the Witch-Ghost Secret Realm.

"The so-called falsely holding Foundation Establishment is actually not a true breakthrough to Foundation Establishment."

"Rather, it involves transforming a region into an existence of the same rank as the 'Foundation Establishment realm,' then governing that region, thereby displaying the might of Foundation Establishment."

This was not the path of refining the form to ascend.

"This is actually the concept of the 'Path of Patrolling Heaven on Behalf of the Emperor'..."

Lu Yang quickly recalled that when Patriarch Tingyou had perfected this divine ability back then, he had received help from a third-party force and borrowed from their lineage.

Its name was—the Tianwu Dao Court.

Located in Jiangdong!

"Chen Chen Xinan told me that the lineages in Jiangdong are completely different; cultivators of the 'Path of Patrolling Heaven on Behalf of the Emperor' do not ascend, but instead transform the existing environment."

"In the land of Jiangdong, the Dao Court governs the world, named Tianwu, commanding the hundred races, establishing twelve value positions each performing its duties, shepherding the people in all directions; therefore, under the Dao Court, one does not cultivate magic power nor learn divine abilities; those who are bestowed official titles naturally generate magic power and are granted divine abilities by heaven; those who hold value positions are equivalent to True Persons, and those who ascend the great throne hold a position comparable to True Monarchs..."

Thinking of this, Lu Yang's brows furrowed deeper and deeper.

Different paths do not allow for joint planning; he was already a cultivator of the path of refining the form to ascend, so even if he wanted to switch to the path of patrolling heaven on behalf of the emperor, it would be impossible.

"So if I use this divine ability to reach Foundation Establishment, my future path will be cut off."

Within Jiangdong, there might still be room for advancement above Foundation Establishment, but the 【Yanmodian】 was merely Patriarch Tingyou's imitation, so naturally, there was no path for further progress.

This was only one of the side effects.

Another side effect was that since one relies on a specific region to achieve Foundation Establishment, one is also trapped within it; once the earth pulse is damaged, one's realm will fall.

"This method is not suitable for me... but there is no lack of clever solutions."

Patriarch Tingyou had considered things quite thoroughly; anticipating that Lu Yang would be unwilling to cut off his own path of cultivation, he had specially prepared an alternative plan for him.

"The Great Avatar Universal Gathering Divine Method!"

Lu Yang's gaze burned brightly; the effect of this secret method was very simple: it involved refining a living person into one's own Dharma-protecting deity, thereby enabling one to borrow that living person's merit and fortune, and even retain their thoughts, while turning them into one's puppet, yet without generating any karmic tie with them.

"The avatar refined using this secret method is perfect for cultivating the 【Xuanming Lord of the Netherworld Soul-Seizing Position】!"

"Incidentally, I can also pass the karmic burden of the Witch-Ghost Path inheritance onto him."

"Even the nine Qi Refining Great Perfection experts required for cultivation have been arranged by Patriarch Tingyou: eight red-robed ghosts plus myself; truly, everything is ready..."

All that was lacking was the final step: a massive infusion of fortune and destiny.

Thinking of this, a bold idea suddenly arose in Lu Yang's heart:

"... u Suzhen!"

If she could surpass and kill Xiao Shiye, seizing the fortune and destiny of that colorful merit fish for herself, perhaps it could satisfy the requirements for constructing the 【Yanmodian】.

Even she herself could be used to refine into a Dharma-protecting deity!

(End of Chapter)