Chapter 336: Nine-Nine Primordial Spirit

As the blood fell, several loaches instantly transformed from fallen dragons into demonic dragons, bloodthirsty and crazed, disrupting the Spirit Machine.

Xu Jia did not care, shooting an arrow that struck the straw effigy.

Yet that straw effigy grew sentience, twisting about and emitting a demonic sound: "Thus have I heard, in years past Poxun attained the Dao beneath the Bodhi tree, manifesting the supreme, profound, and subtle Dharma, turning upside down the dreams of all sentient beings, confusing the Five Poisons and Three Ignorances, this is called compassionate liberation, and thus the Sutra of the Formless Kalpa was spoken... All who hear my sutra shall be freed from the Eight Sufferings, avoid sinking into ruin, distance themselves from hatred, be free of right and wrong, and all actions shall be unrestrained, following one's heart and nature, attaining the Three-fold Bodhi Great Freedom, with the Great Freedom Heart Mantra: A-di-suo-mo-tuo-fo-ye..."

The emergence of this demonic sound sought to corrupt the Daochang, turning the established Pure Land Dharma Realm into a Mo Jie, causing all living beings in the Dharma Realm to go mad.

But the Six Ding and Six Jia were there to protect; the Jia-Chen Dragon God held a Ruyi, the Jia-Xu held a blade in both hands, the Jia-Zi shook a bell... the Ding-Mao held a Gourd, the Ding-You held a Pure Bottle...

Combined, they formed the Twelve Yuan Chen Earthly Branches Great Array, which served to set the timing, stabilize the dimensions, and isolate the Dharma Realm.

The locust-wood arrow landed on the straw effigy, piercing about three inches, when suddenly a wind arose and blew it off course; originally aimed at the head, it struck the left shoulder instead, and the straw effigy felt pain and began to roar.

On the other side, aboard the demonic ship, the Longevity Sect's Wanshou Emperor felt his left shoulder go numb, the aching unbearable, and he immediately severed the shoulder and arm, growing a new one, yet the new one remained unbearably sore; this was the Primordial Spirit being nailed, not the physical body.

He was suddenly astonished, though not panicked; however, other evil cultivators of the Longevity Sect felt it was eerie—before even reaching him, they had been given such a warning, truly a display of vast Divine Ability.

"I cultivate the Blood God Great Method and have already refined ninety-nine Primordial Spirits; how could his Nightmare Technique know of my ability to change into a hundred demonic gods?"

Having said this, his form shifted, and he changed into another Primordial Spirit; this one was a Sword Immortal template he had killed in another world, at the Golden Core realm—in that world, those who cultivated to Nascent Soul and an undying body were Earth Immortals, those who cultivated a Pure Yang Primordial Spirit were God Immortals, and those who had escaped calamities were Heavenly Immortals.

Whenever he killed someone, he could refine their body and Primordial Spirit to become his avatar to walk the world, putting them on and taking them off like clothing.

One could see this Sword Immortal surrounded by flames, with seven flying flame knives circling him, looking like a wandering monk with a face full of Evil Qi.

After the transformation, he was indeed unharmed, and he could not help but laugh: "Untainted by Cause and Effect, not within the calculations!"

Although the various demons had seen such powerful Divine Ability and Daoism before, they could not help but praise: "Your Majesty's Divine Ability is boundless; any calamity or disaster can be resolved one by one."

Yet the next moment, the demon felt something was wrong again; the left arm suddenly burst apart, for this Primordial Spirit vessel was not as strong as his true demonic body and could not withstand the Curse Power.

Xu Jia's Nail-Head Seven Arrows had some measure of True Transmission, and he was utilizing his own official credentials, connecting to the Youming Difu; although it was only a Youming Difu governing five hundred small worlds, the worlds this demon had traveled through were also under its jurisdiction—this was not a curse of Cause and Effect, but of fate.

His fate in this realm had been anchored.

What Xu Jia relied upon was not his own energy, but the Heavenly Court and the underworld's Heavenly Net for the Three Realms and Six Paths, from which those not yet removed from the Death Registry could not escape.

"The reach of the Life and Death Registry, the hearts of the masses cannot escape, and the same is true for a thousand worlds."

In the Desire Realm Six Heavens, even if one cultivates to a Heavenly Immortal, one cannot escape death; only by ascending to the Form Realm can one extend their life and attain the Dao, yet longevity in the Form Realm also comes with a price, as one still cannot escape the Three Disasters and Eight Difficulties; only upon entering the Formless Realm, being formless and quality-less, can one truly be considered to have a lifespan equal to heaven and earth, yet even then, waiting for the collapse of heaven and earth, one cannot escape the calamity of the Five Decays of Heaven and Man.

Only by transcending the Three Realms and entering the Three Pure Ones Realm and the Great Luo Heaven can one be unborn and undying.

If one does not enter the Three Pure Ones Realm and Great Luo Heaven, one must at least cultivate to the Taiyi Righteous Fruit.

When Xu Jia was in the underworld, he learned much; for instance, the underworld's highest leader, the Earth Official Emperor, and the supreme leader, Houtu Niangniang, one was a Taiyi Righteous Fruit and the other a Great Luo Heavenly Venerate; as for someone like Fengdu Dadi or the Yin Son of Heaven, they had not attained this merit, let alone the chief official of the Xiaodifu who managed five hundred small worlds in the Desire Realm, who only held a Fifth Rank position, at the level of a Form Realm Heavenly Immortal. Within the three heavens of the Desire Realm, Form Realm, and Formless Realm, the relationship between superior and inferior is, to put it nicely, that of Small Thousand Worlds, Medium Thousand Worlds, and Great Thousand Worlds. To put it less nicely, it is like the village, the county, and the province, while the Great Luo Heaven is the central government.

This Longevity Sect Wanshou Emperor could run rampant in the village and even have connections in the county, but Xu Jia's connections were stronger; having reported him to the central government, there was naturally an invisible hand to net him.

Xu Jia shot the second arrow; as it was shot, the Yarrow on the straw effigy snapped and turned black, and beneath the Paper Boat nearby, the fallen loaches in the black water basin began to kill each other, turning into bloody messes.

This made the storms on the sea even more treacherous.

"What kind of skill is it to harm people from the shadows!"

A blood-colored light flew out from the reflection; it was the blade light of the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade.

But before it could get close, it was evaporated by golden light and flames, turning into blood mist.

The blood mist dyed the clouds in the sky, creating blood clouds, and from the clouds flew many skeletons, thousands gathering together to form a larger skeleton, which charged down: "You base wench, how dare you claim to be of the righteous path while using such underhanded methods."

It emitted a demonic sound, polluting the native commoners, yet Bi Fang and Zhu Yan'er led the essence of the southern Volcano, using Samadhi True Fire to envelop and protect Xu Jia's Six Ding, performing the Six Ding Divine Fire.

Samadhi and Six Ding, both civil and martial, burned everything; those skeletons looked terrifying, but their essence was merely formed from the spirit of white bones, modified from the "He Mountain Method" of another world. It was underhanded.

Thus, the second arrow did not miss, striking the head of the Yarrow straw effigy.

Instantly, the Longevity Sect Wanshou Emperor felt his head spin, unable to find ease, confused and disoriented, not knowing north from south, feeling only that the myriad demonic sounds were not bewitching outsiders, but instead attacking his inner Primordial Spirit; all the various Heavenly Demons he had once subdued, and the various Yin Demons and Secret Demons he had refined, all sensed that his Primordial Spirit had lost its defense and all wanted to perform Possession, to devour him, and to return the past enslavement a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand times over.

Yet he did have some backing after all, and having obtained the legacy of the Great Heng Dynasty, a bit of heavenly mandate turned into purple light, suffusing his skull; it was the protection of the Purple Star fate.

This immediately obstructed the demons' Possession and also fed back some backlash to Xu Jia.

"He actually still has heavenly mandate!" Xu Jia's nostrils bled, and the blood that hit the ground turned into Rubies and blood agate.

"It is a pity that I do not have the Three Sovereigns Ten Thousand People Umbrella with me; otherwise, with such protection, the backlash could be reduced, and the power of the curse could be enhanced."

Xu Jia did not stop, continuing to draw his bow and shoot, regardless of how the straw effigy rioted or went mad, or how the demon shown in the basin acted with such cruelty, or how the fallen dragons stirring up the wind and water at the bottom of the water began to die suddenly, floating on the surface.

Although the weather where the demon king was began to calm, the air pressure was extremely low, frighteningly so, as Xu Jia used his position as Four Seas Monarch to temporarily wield the authority of the Four Seas to suppress him.

Vaguely, dragon-shaped cloud Qi swayed in the firmament, lightning flashed, but the true spirit was not seen.

The demon said: "I cannot sit here and wait for death; this little beast's Nail-Head Seven Arrows technique still has five arrows left. If I let him finish, even if I am undying, my Daoist Practice will dissipate. Once my Daoist Practice dissipates, the various demons will surely wreak havoc. Fighting him from afar is useless; he is fully prepared and intends to take a lifetime of Merit to kill me by force. I do not know what kind of technique this is, that it makes even my Transformation Primordial Spirit unable to change and avoid the Cause and Effect. Forget the demonic soldiers for now; we shall flee together, destroy his Dharma Altar, cut the Soul Banner, and capture him; only then can the curse be broken."

(End of chapter)