Chapter 151

Martial arts fighting was interesting after all.

Not long after the martial arts fighting started, the atmosphere on the square began to become enthusiastic again. The explosion of various magic arts, the breathing and shouting of Qi adjustment, and the cheering and shouting all merged into one.

Martial arts fighting had no restrictions. Five Elements, Gang and Sha, sword arts, talisman arts, thunder arts, etc., the colorful magic light made people dazzled.

As for why Cheng Xinzhan, who shone brightly in the praying for clear weather and rain rule, didn't go down, people guessed that it might be because he exhausted his magic power by performing the altar method just now. After all, doing such a rain-making job was definitely not easy.

Some people guessed that Cheng Xinzhan was afraid of showing his cowardice. Perhaps he wasn't very good at fighting, so in order to avoid damaging his reputation, he simply didn't go down.

There was also a part of people who had good eyesight and "saw" the words Cheng Xinzhan explained to his master by reading his lips.

These people didn't necessarily agree that Cheng Xinzhan would definitely be in the top three if he went down, but in general, they felt a little more relaxed in their hearts. There would be plenty of opportunities to fight with Cheng Yifu in the future, but getting into the top three today meant being able to observe the Tian Shi Seal, which was an opportunity that could be met but not sought.

Everyone brought out their housekeeping skills, making this martial arts fight unique.

It wasn't until the sun set that the martial arts fight was finished.

Cheng Xinzhan enjoyed it like fine wine; this martial arts fight really benefited him a lot.

The Little Tian Shi announced the rankings of the martial arts fighting.

Second realm field:

First place, Long Hu Mountain Tian Shi Mansion Daoist;

Second place, Xishan Wanshou Palace Jingming Sect Daoist;

Third place, Lushan Sword Sect sword hero.

Cheng Xinzhan had a deep impression. The Long Hu Mountain Daoist in first place was indeed overwhelming the heroes. Gang and Sha were all out, and the dragon and tiger shapes were like reality. First place was well-deserved.

Daoist Brother Zheng Miaoji must have had a grudge against him, as he specifically named him to come up when defending the ring, but he lost by a single move. Otherwise, given Daoist Brother Zheng's strength, entering the top three would have been no problem at all.

The performance of the Jingming Sect Daoist in second place was amazing. Holding a whisk and controlling a flying sword, his water arts were superb, and ordinary people couldn't get close to him. The flying sword was agile and sharp, invincible.

The third place was an old acquaintance, Lan Yuqing. His double-handed magic swords were even more tricky, making people tired of dealing with them.

First realm field:

First place, Long Hu Mountain Tian Shi Mansion Daoist;

Second place, Sanqing Mountain Wanfa Sect Daoist.

Third place, Bingfeng Mountain Shenxiao Sect Daoist;

The first place in this first realm was also an acquaintance of Cheng Xinzhan, exactly Liang Zhenjing.

However, Cheng Xinzhan could see that Liang Zhenjing's face didn't look good. As for the reason, he could probably guess some. When they first met, their age and cultivation were about the same, but Liang Zhenjing was still in the first realm now.

If one said Liang Zhenjing's aptitude was not enough, Cheng Xinzhan wouldn't believe it.

He had dealt with Liang Zhenjing many times. They fought over thunder many times early on, fought in Bai Yu Capital in the middle, and later when the West Kunlun rotation battle happened, he also came.

This person cared a lot about face and was his master's closed-door disciple, spoiled since childhood. His personality was somewhat arrogant because his master was that kind of person, and most of the Tian Shi Mansion were that kind of person.

However, Cheng Xinzhan felt that this person's essence was not bad, especially in West Kunlun. When Cheng Xinzhan changed his appearance and walked under a false name in the second half of the year, he repeatedly ran into him saving people in danger, and he didn't ask for rewards or fame. He was a very unrestrained person, or rather, this was a person who was easily lonely and self-admiring.

His talisman arts were very powerful, which Cheng Xinzhan admired very much. His talent was naturally extremely high, otherwise he wouldn't have been accepted as a closed-door disciple by a famous elder of Long Hu Mountain, and the Little Tian Shi had to bring him along when he went out.

Such a person practicing in Long Hu Mountain, with resource support and a dharma register, shouldn't still be in the first realm.

From the fact that he was pulling a stinky face, it could be seen that he should have been instructed to suppress his cultivation to participate in the Fa Hui, just to fight for first place.

And Cheng Xinzhan guessed that the second-realm one should also be suppressing his cultivation. Looking at his Gang and Sha condensing into reality, he estimated that he could have formed a core long ago.

The second place was his own family. Cheng Xinzhan was not very familiar with him, only knowing that he was a new disciple of White Tiger Mountain, very young, and had high talent. He used sword arrays and array diagrams.

Cheng Xinzhan looked very inspired. His Five Elements magic sword was also in preparation, and he could also form a sword array when the time came.

The third place was a Shenxiao Sect Daoist, also an acquaintance, the younger sister of the Meng brother and sister. He didn't expect the talent of these two brothers and sisters to be so high, and the thunder art was amazing.

In both martial arts fighting fields, Long Hu Mountain ranked first. This could also be understood. As the host, suppressing cultivation to participate and win a name was very normal. After all, new disciples were accepted today, so they couldn't lose face in front of the new disciples.

And contrary to this, Gezao Mountain didn't have any, which was also very normal, because the focus of the Lingbao Sect of Gezao Mountain was on fasting and salvation, and martial arts fighting was not their strength.

By this point, the first day of the Fa Hui ended.

At night, naturally, there was endless feasting and drinking.

During the feasting.

Lan Yuqing carried a wine glass and sat down beside Cheng Xinzhan, with quite a bit of complaint in his words.

"Fellow Daoist Cheng, you promised to compete with me when we met last night. Why didn't you go down today?"

Cheng Xinzhan toasted him with a glass of wine and smiled,

"Fellow Daoist, don't blame me. Today I really didn't have the strength. There will naturally be plenty of opportunities in the future."

Lan Yuqing wanted to say something else, but at this time Cheng Xinzhan started another topic,

"Fellow Daoist, when we were discussing swords at White Jade Capital last time, your 【X】-shaped sword Qi was truly difficult for me to parry. I saw it again during the martial tournament just now. How did you come up with it? Once your magic power grows deeper, couldn't you weave sword Qi into a net?"

Lan Yuqing laughed loudly upon hearing this, "It's like this..."

Thus, the two chatted happily. Later, Zheng Miaoji, several from Toujian Mountain, including those from Mingyue Mountain, all came to this table to discuss sword dao.

The few talked from magic swords to body swords and flying swords. Cheng Xinzhan could say a few words about everything, and always had strange and wonderful ideas, making a group of people admire him endlessly.

————

The second day.

The Great Cultivators of Golden Core of each family were invited to a mystical realm separately. According to several Golden Cores of Sanqing Mountain, they went to discuss the Dao.

Discussing the essentials of elixir washing and the method of avoiding tribulation.

This was another level of topic compared to Gang, Sha, and supernatural powers.

The leaders of the fourth realm of each family also gathered in another mystical realm and started to discuss the resource allocation problem of Yu Zhang for the next three sixty-year cycles.

The performance of the first and second-realm disciples yesterday was also their bargaining chip for resource allocation.

As for some sects without the fourth realm, such as Jin Xiangzong, they would unite the forces of the entire Poyang Lake and recommend one to participate in the resource allocation meeting. But for this kind, they could only pick up the leftovers after the big ones were finished.

At this time, several big sect ancestral courts not only had to fight for themselves but also had to fight for the small branches of the same sect.

To tell the truth, only this meeting was the real Long Hu Fa Hui, and everything else was just a side dish.

The big shots were not there, so the first and second realms could stroll around Long Hu Mountain under the company of the host. There was no such opportunity on weekdays.

And in the envious eyes of the crowd, the top three of yesterday's pill refining, praying for clear weather and rain, and martial arts fighting were personally taken to the Tian Shi Mansion by the Little Tian Shi.

The Tian Shi Mansion was located on a handsome peak on the east side of Immortal Tripod Mountain.

The mansion was built against the mountain, and the momentum was majestic.

The mansion gate was tightly closed, and a straight plaque "Si Han Tian Shi Mansion" was hung directly above it, indicating that this mansion was built in the Han Dynasty and had been passed down for eight thousand years.

A couplet was hung on the two pillars in the front center, which was:

Immortal guest on the Qilin Hall, Prime Minister's family in Long Hu Mountain.

The first line of this couplet refers to the Ancestral Tian Shi being a descendant of the Marquis of Liu, a founding minister of the Western Han. As for the Marquis of Liu, legend says he was a friend of the ancient true immortal Chi Songzi and a disciple of the divine man Huang Shi Gong of Xiapi. After helping to establish the Western Han, he ascended to the heavens to serve the Dao Ancestor in the Great Clarity Heaven; he is a figure who could not be more of a god.

The lower line says that after the Ancestral Tian Shi opened the Long Hu Mountain dharma lineage, he received cumulative titles from the Eastern Han, the two Jins, and even the contemporary era.

The Little Tian Shi led several people in from the side door.

This was natural.

These few juniors were not qualified to let the Tian Shi Mansion open the big door.

After entering the Tian Shi Mansion, the east side was the Xuantan Hall, offering sacrifices to the Zhao Gongming deity, and the west had the Dharma Register Bureau and the Lifting Office. The former was the place to keep dharma registers, and the latter was the place to govern the teaching.

Everyone walked inside, and along the way, various magnificent halls and forbidden magic lights were dazzling. The further they walked, the more everyone didn't know the direction. Everywhere was magic light, everywhere was spiritual prohibition. Finally, even what they stepped on was not land. Everyone seemed to be walking on a virtual world corridor bridge woven by magic light.

Until the brilliance in front of them changed suddenly, everyone suddenly stepped on solid ground and stopped in front of a courtyard.

There was a plaque on the courtyard gate, written,

The place where the Tian Shi stores the seal and sword.

Everyone stood still in front of the courtyard gate. The courtyard gate was tightly closed, but it was not locked.

The Little Tian Shi took a step forward and bowed,

"Aunt Bao, following Father's dharma decree, I brought the talents of each family to observe the seal. Please open the door."

Once everyone heard this, they knew that such an important place must be guarded, but listening to the Little Tian Shi's meaning, this guardian seemed to be a woman.

Creak—

The courtyard gate opened.

Everyone stepped in.

In the courtyard, there were two halls facing left and right. The hall on the left was written with the two characters "Feng Yin", and the hall on the right was written with the two characters "Feng Jian".

And in the middle of the two halls, that is, the position facing the courtyard gate after it was opened, stood a wooden building.

Under the wooden building, a person was standing at this time.

A beauty.

This woman's appearance was extremely beautiful, and her figure was not too thin if one was missing, and not too fat if one was added.

The beauty had a high-combed bun, which was a married woman's attire. As for the age of this woman, there was the innocence of sixteen, the youth of twenty, and the grace of thirty, which made it difficult for people to distinguish

The woman had golden hairpins and emerald tassels in her hair, rings of fresh flowers on her neck and hands, wore robes of clouds and mist, and was draped in a scarf of flowing, luminous silk. Her seductive charm was innate, possessing both an air of wealth and the demeanor of an immortal.

Among the women Cheng Xinzhan had seen, Xiao Shiniang was already a peerless beauty, but compared to this woman, she still appeared slightly immature.

The woman smiled and nodded at the crowd, possessing the beauty of flowers put to shame and the radiance of the bright moon.

Fortunately, the few who came today were all talents of their respective clans. Seeing such peerless beauty, although they were momentarily distracted, they all quickly lowered their heads, not losing their composure.

And the Little Tian Shi who led the way never once raised his head to look directly at the woman from beginning to end.

The woman walked toward the Seal-Offering Hall on the left, and the Little Tian Shi led the group to follow.

The Auntie Bao mentioned by the Little Tian Shi performed several hand seals in front of the hall. The Seal-Offering Hall emitted a spiritual light that soared to the heavens, and then the hall doors opened.

"One person at a time, two quarter-hours per person. How much you can comprehend depends entirely on your own fortune."

Small.

Everyone nodded, feeling somewhat excited in their hearts. This was a spiritual treasure ten thousand years old; if one speaks of magic seals under the heavens, this one is a divine object that can never be bypassed!

Once everyone had agreed, they entered according to the order and rankings of yesterday's demonstration.

The first to enter was the Daoist from Longhu Mountain. The piety and feigned calm excitement on his face were visible to anyone with a discerning eye.

He walked inside.

The Seal-Offering Hall seemed capable of isolating all sounds and magical light. Since that Daoist entered, the crowd never heard any movement again.

It was not until two quarter-hours later that the man did not come out.

The Little Tian Shi took out a bell without surprise, shook it, and it emitted a crisp sound.

"It is very normal for him to be immersed in the spiritual essence of the treasure and forget the time."

The sound of the bell was not loud, but it could steadily transmit into the hall.

Before long, everyone saw him walk out.

The first feeling of the crowd was that what walked toward them was not a person, but a mountain.

His body was entangled with layers of magical light and spiritual rhyme that had yet to dissipate.

Everyone was very astonished; in just two quarter-hours, it seemed he had comprehended many things.

And he wore a smile on his face, seemingly having obtained great satisfaction.

He stood to one side, and the next to enter was Fang Weimin. Two quarter-hours later, the Little Tian Shi shook the bell and called Fang Weimin out as well.

And Fang Weimin's body was emitting red firelight, like a fire deity.

It seems that what each person comprehended was different.

Cheng Xinzhan was the fourth to enter.

He stepped over the hall threshold and first walked into a long corridor. The corridor was painted with murals on the left and right. The first mural on the left depicted a valley, and in the valley, a Daoist with an ancient and strange appearance sat on a stone, holding a seal in his hand, stamping it onto a talisman. Opposite him was a long line of commoners, each holding a bowl in their hands.

Cheng Xinzhan looked carefully; this should be the past event of the Ancestral Tian Shi distributing talisman water to commoners to dispel disasters and cure illnesses.

And on the mural on the other side, it depicted the same Daoist sitting cross-legged on a high peak. The Daoist was forming hand seals, and beneath the mountain, there was a large seal. This seal looked like a small mountain, and beneath the seal, many evil ghosts were struggling to escape.

This should depict the story of the Ancestral Tian Shi suppressing the demons.

He continued to walk forward. The corridor was very long, and there were many murals, but every painting had a seal. This seal was sometimes large or small, sometimes plain or emitting soaring magical light, but they were all of the same style.

This was the "Yang Bin Shi Du Gong Seal."

At the end of the corridor was a door. The door was a pair of opening leaves, and on the left and right doors hung door god statues carved from wooden plaques. They were two warriors in helmets and armor, holding Daoist weapons, their eyes like fire bells, staring down the person approaching.

No mistakes, no omissions, no hair, no content, just look!

At this moment, the door was open, and Cheng Xinzhan stepped inside.

This was a very large and empty room without windows. The only door led to the deep corridor, and no sunlight shone in, but this room was bright.

Because in the middle of the back wall of this room, an object was emitting infinite bright light.

Two ritual tables were placed here, with a taller one pressed against the hall wall and a shorter one in front of it.

An incense burner was placed on the low table, and at this moment, green smoke was curling up.

There was only one object on the high table, which was a seal, and it was this seal that was emitting the bright light.

And behind the table where the magic seal was enshrined, a portrait hung on the hall wall, depicting a Daoist holding a seal with his palm. The Daoist's ritual robe had coiled dragons and crouching tigers; it was exactly the appearance of the Ancestral Tian Shi. The seal in the painting was exactly the same as the seal on the corridor murals and the seal enshrined on the ritual table.

The true form of the magic seal on the ritual table was square, seven-tenths of an inch thick, three and a half inches long and wide, white as ice and snow, and the seal knob was a crouching Ying dragon.

Cheng Xinzhan knew why this Seal-Offering Hall was so empty; because once your gaze fell upon this seal, you could never move it away again, and no matter how many things you placed, it would be useless.

His gaze was tightly hooked by the magic seal.

He took the first step.

He took a step, but watched helplessly as the magic seal suddenly soared into the air, transforming into a mountain and pressing down toward him.

He circulated his Golden Core pupils, but he still could not distinguish whether this was real or an illusory realm.

He seemed to be tightly locked by a mysterious force; he wanted to avoid it but could not, he wanted to hide but could not.

But he knew that he had not broken in randomly, and Longhu Mountain would not kill a disciple of Sanqing Mountain in their own Daoist grounds.

So he put life and death aside, focusing his entire being on experiencing this seal pressing down on his head. This seal left one with nowhere to escape; this seal was like Mount Tai pressing down on the top.

The large seal fell, and his vision went pitch black, as if he had fallen into a bottomless black lake; his physical body, his thoughts, everything turned into void.

The last thought before his consciousness disappeared was,

Is Longhu Mountain really going to kill me?

He did not know how much time had passed, perhaps only a breath, when his thoughts returned.

He was like someone surfacing after drowning, gasping for air.

At this moment, only breathing made him feel that he was still alive.

He had already experienced extreme pain during the True Malevolence Cave-Breaching, but this was the first time he had felt the sensation of returning from the dead.

In the previous thought, he truly felt that he was going to die.

However, he immediately regained his composure, leveled his breathing, and began to recall that seal.

He suddenly had a deeper understanding of the 【Suppress】 character mantra.

He had previously used the 【Suppress】 mantra as the 【Fix】 mantra, which was wrong. 【Suppress】 is 【Suppress】; it can make people sink into darkness forever, it can make people's bodies shatter into pieces, it can make people suffer eternal damnation.

And it was not just making people feel like they had been bumped.

Further, he had an epiphany regarding the 【Extinguish】 mantra he had been pondering in his heart. When he was in the Miao Border, he had started with the 【Burn】 mantra and created the 【Burn-Extinguish】 mantra, but simplifying 【Burn-Extinguish】 into the 【Extinguish】 mantra had troubled him for a long time.

Now he had gained some insight, because he had personally experienced what 【Extinguish】 was.

【Extinguish】 is void; turning all tangible and intangible things into void is 【Extinguish】.

He took another step forward.

Infinite flames erupted from the magic seal again, sweeping toward him. His consciousness was scorched into void by the flames, and he woke up once again.

Then it was a roaring giant dragon tearing him to pieces...

Then it was thunderous power causing his spirit and form to be completely extinguished...

He did not know how many times he had hovered between life and death, but every time he regained consciousness, he did not dare to delay, immediately taking another step. Time was limited, and he only wanted to comprehend more things.

This time, the magic seal pressed toward him again, transforming into ten thousand zhang of golden light, seemingly wanting to pierce through every inch of his flesh and blood and grind away his three souls and seven spirits.

He fell into the silent darkness once again.

In the darkness, he had no perception; he did not know if it was ten thousand years or an instant, but since his consciousness had been extinguished and revived so many times and the Little Tian Shi had not yet shaken the bell to remind him, each time must have been very short.

For some reason, he who could not feel the passage of time felt that this time was exceptionally long.

"Woof!"

In the dark, he seemed to hear the sound of a dog barking.

Strange, when consciousness had turned into void, how could he still hear sounds?

And it was a dog's bark; was it Deng Ge'er?

Wasn't Deng Ge'er left behind in Sanqing Mountain?

Strange, does Longhu Mountain also keep dogs?

No, why was this dog's bark so familiar to him?

"Awoo!"

Huh, why was there a tiger's roar as well?

It did not quite sound like a tiger's roar, but it was also extremely familiar.

In the state of void, Cheng Xinzhan's thoughts seemed to be frozen, turning very, very slowly. He struggled to ponder these two sounds.

"Wah!"

He did not know how much more time passed, but he heard a third sound.

This sound was very strange; he rarely heard it in daily life.

But it was still very familiar, as if he had only heard it not long ago.

"It's 'Fu Shi'!"

The dog's bark and the tiger's roar had not been able to make him remember.

But the last sound, like the crying of an infant, made him remember instantly.

This kind of sound made one's heart palpitate just hearing it, like the cry for help from the most helpless infant.

He remembered; this was the sound of "Fu Shi" among the seven spirits.

He simultaneously possessed the "Secret Decree of the Long Life Fetal Origin Manifesting Spirit" and the "Great Yi Golden Flower Principle," two supreme methods for cultivating the soul, one yin and one yang. He tempered the seven spirits with the Pure Yang method and nourished the spirituality of the seven spirits with the Original Yin.

Not long ago, he had refined the true form of "Fu Shi"—Nine Infants.

The cry of the Nine Infants was like the wailing of an infant.

And when "Fu Shi" cried, it meant that the time of life and death had arrived.

The previous dog's bark and tiger's roar were also clear now; they were the warnings issued by "Corpse Dog" and "Swallowing Thief."

Why?

Had something invaded the Purple Palace?

Why had the seven spirits not issued warnings the previous few times, only this time?

The dog's bark, tiger's roar, and child's cry made him irritable. Once his intent became agitated, he discovered that his consciousness was returning bit by bit, and a little light appeared in the void darkness.

Cheng Xinzhan knew that this was the Pure Yang light emitted by the Fetal Light soul after he practiced the Pure Yang method.

Where the light was, that was the Purple Palace.

His will to survive grew violently, struggling hard in the darkness, swimming toward the light.

It was just that his speed of advancement was so slow, slow to the point that he felt the cries of the seven spirits growing smaller and the light of the three souls gradually dimming.

His will to survive struggled crazily; he knew that once the seven spirits lost their voices and the three souls had no light, he would never be able to escape this void darkness.

But in this void, the more he struggled, the faster his consciousness dissipated.

At this time, he suddenly thought that the "Great Yi Golden Flower Principle" says intent is earth, and spirit is fire.

Between life and death, he instantly understood the key point.

Intent fixes spirit, spirit moves.

Thus, he stabilized his consciousness, which grew weaker the more he struggled, and meditated on the stillness of the earth.

At the same time, he used intent to summon the spirit.

Spirit is the soul; although it could not protect itself, spirit communicates with the heart.

The intent to survive stabilized, spreading to every corner of this body.

Intent communicates with spirit, spirit communicates with the heart.

Thus, within the heart mansion, inside the Palace of Light.

The Mao Mansion suddenly opened its eyes. The blood river in the heart mansion transformed into a surging sea of fire in an instant. Infinite Bing fire, Ding fire, and the three-flavored human fire all rushed out of the heart mansion, burning to every corner of the Inner Landscape Realm, illuminating the entire Inner Landscape Realm.

And when the sea of fire burned into the Purple Palace and merged with the three souls, it transformed into Pure Yang Divine Fire!

In the void darkness, the intent-earth stood firm, resisting the erosion of the boundless void.

But just at this moment, the equally boundless Pure Yang Divine Fire surged into the realm of void!

Sweeping away the darkness!

It was exactly:

When divine fire and intent-earth meet, my life is determined by me, not by him.

All of Cheng Xinzhan's thoughts were awakened in an instant, clear and thorough, with no more chaos or sluggishness. His intent stepped on the divine fire, instantly crossing out of the darkness and descending upon the Purple Palace.

And all of this, from the first dog's bark to the intent returning to the Purple Palace, was but an instant.

At this moment, intent returned to the Purple Palace, and he instantly understood why the three souls were uneasy and why the seven spirits issued warnings.

Because within the Purple Palace at this moment, an illusory magic seal was slowly falling, and the place it was falling upon was precisely the trembling You Jing soul.

At this moment, "Swallowing Thief" among the seven spirits transformed into the form of Lu Wu, biting the seal knob with its mouth, not letting the large seal fall.

"Fu Shi" and "Corpse Dog" cried out anxiously, but could not help.

The life soul "Fetal Light" erupted with brilliant Pure Yang light at this moment, wanting to flip the magic seal over.

But this seemed to be of no avail; the large seal still fell slowly.

Just because that magic seal was not mundane; the magic seal was square, white as ice and snow, with a crouching Ying dragon as the knob.

It was precisely that treasure of the Tian Shi, the number one seal under the heavens, the "Yang Bin Shi Du Gong Seal"!

However, at this moment, when Cheng Xinzhan went to look at the inscription on the bottom of the seal, he discovered that it was not the six characters "Yang Bin Shi Du Gong Seal." Beneath that illusory magic seal, there were clearly these six characters:

Dao Heart Stamped Heavenly Edict Seal!

(End of chapter)