Chapter 1169: Human Sacrifice as an Anchor to Fall the Dao Fruit, Great Secret of Investiture Hidden in Witch Path

Cui Dan woke up and hurriedly asked: "Daoist Xia, the evil art of driving in living piles originated from the witch-path sacrifices of the Heavenly Xia and Heavenly Shang. Now that such evil arts have been mixed with related techniques of the Immortal Path and Demon Path, the original source no longer exists. Do you know the principle behind the human sacrifice of living piles at that time?"

Xia Yu, who was using the dog Gu to bite the Heavenly Human Corpse that had leaked its corpse qi and was feeling weak, was stunned.

In his eyes, the shadow of a red dog resembling a "Huodou" (fire-dog) was darting back and forth.

But in reality, only dog barking was heard, and no dog shadow was seen.

Instead, the Heavenly Human Corpse was bitten until corpse feathers flew everywhere; that is, the zombie skin was incomparably tough.

Although it appeared with a dog-chewed tooth mark from time to time, the Heavenly Human Corpse was only temporarily dragged down and was not truly injured.

The Goddess Wa created the six domestic animals, each with its own duty.

The ox has the ability to plow, the horse has the responsibility of carrying burdens, the chicken has the bitterness of calling the sun, the sheep has the use of taking food, the pig has the suspicion of eating filth, and the dog has the duty of guarding.

These six are also the six phases of the Yuan Chen, and there are strange methods for them when used in the Immortal Path.

Not to mention the "Man-Horse Unity" of the Martial Path, the blessing of blood qi, and even the "Golden Rooster Breaking Dawn" exorcism technique.

Just this dog Gu being cast, relying on the dog's natural ability to drive away evil and break demons, and its natural restraint against zombies, actually made the Heavenly Human Corpse feel very difficult to deal with for a time.

It was more useful than the several First-Rank Golden Pills present.

Xia Yu seized the opportunity created by the dog Gu, lowered his head, and pondered, various witch-path classics flashing through his mind.

"My Heavenly Xia God Dynasty indeed had the custom of using human sacrifice to feast ghosts and gods when building palaces and divine temples."

"But it was nothing more than creating earth-bound ghosts to drive away snakes and insects, and to guard the buildings! Or using human pillars and human piles to deter ghosts and gods who wanted to sneak in..."

"No!"

Cui Dan said sternly: "This is the principle mixed with Demon Path spells; it is a spell for driving demons of the Demon Path. The Witch Path values humans the most; the ones qualified to enjoy human sacrifice are definitely not some small ghosts or small gods!"

"Daoist Xia, you need to use the principles of the Witch Path to think carefully..."

"The relationship between the Witch Path and ghosts and gods is very complex. It is the principle of survival and development when the human path is declining, which is completely different from the Immortal Path and Demon Path that we learn after the human path becomes vast!"

Hearing this, Xia Yu's body trembled, and he suddenly said: "The witch sacrifice of Heavenly Xia is indeed different from the living piles of today!"

"The great witches of Heavenly Xia indeed killed people for sacrifice when building altars and temples, but those human sacrifices were not qualified to be buried at the feet of the temples and altars! Or rather, even if they were buried, they were not the main piles. The ones truly capable of being buried alive were those with extremely noble bloodlines, or even descendants of the Five Emperors!"

A flash of realization flashed in his eyes: "Driving in living piles, today it is sacrificing to gods, but in Heavenly Xia and Heavenly Shang, it was 'Investiture of the Gods'!"

A flash of thunder light appeared in Pei Erke's eyes, striking the Heavenly Human Corpse.

While leaving scorched marks on its purple corpse skin, the sound of thunder also interrupted Xia Yu's realization at this moment.

But the sound of thunder could interrupt Xia Yu's realization, but it could not shake the black lotus blooming in Cui Dan's eyes and his amazing wisdom!

"Investiture of the Gods!"

"Investiture of the Gods... Humans have spiritual emotions. Their wisdom, courage, benevolence, and integrity are a kind of spiritual qi, and their greed, fear, despair, hatred, viciousness, and cunning are also a kind of spiritual qi, and they are extremely precious spiritual qi with an extremely high essence."

"How high is its essence? A dignified innate god is a god transformed from laws. If an innate god obtained cunning from humans and learned to sneak attack, and launched a vicious attack on a peer who had no defense, what would be the result?"

"Just a wisp of cunning qi could make a god's strength undergo a earth-shaking change."

"The high level of human spiritual qi can be imagined."

"In ancient times, when innate gods first faced humans, their struggles were extremely 'simple.' It wasn't that the gods were stupid—of course, they were indeed stupid because their spiritual qi of wisdom was insufficient—but fundamentally, they weren't human enough."

"At that time, gods, if they had a realm, the more they were like humans, the more powerful they were."

"Sowing discord, killing three heroes with two peaches—for gods who had just begun to possess humanity, a few words or a few provocations could trigger a divine war, possibly harming dozens of gods."

"Perhaps just a bet or a scheme that seems ridiculous now could become a God King and be called 'Wisdom'!"

"Therefore, humans are the most precious sacrificial offerings..."

"Even later, when human spiritual qi was already overflowing and could be enjoyed by any innate god, and even when humanity was overflowing to the point of becoming demons, it was still proving one thing."

"Gods are shaped by humans; they are the result of humans influencing the laws of the Great Dao..."

"Investiture of the Gods, Investiture of the Gods... it wouldn't really be what I think, right! Witch-path human sacrifice is, in a sense, a means of Investiture of the Gods. It takes the fear and despair of slaves and Qiang people before death as sacrificial offerings to offer to ghosts and gods, making those demon gods transformed from Nine Heavens laws fearful and afraid, thus retreating."

"They offer the courage, tenacity, and wisdom of noble people who are willing to sacrifice themselves to ghosts and gods, thereby polluting them."

"Then, through sacrifice, they consolidate and let those ghosts and gods transform into those noble people who were sacrificed. It is using humans to possess ghosts and gods!"

"The Witch Path and the ancient Divine Path have been mixed for so long. Could it be that they have already understood some secrets of the birth of innate gods, and were able to condense and shape the Great Dao laws and primitive will of some mountains and rivers through sacrificial methods?"

"Finally, using noble people of the Heavenly Xia bloodline, who have the Five Emperors' Dao rules flowing in their blood, as human piles to drive into them, possessing the embryos of those innate gods and transforming them into gods?"

"If this is really the case, no wonder the Witch Path gradually declined after the Heavenly Shang!"

"Because of the War of Investiture of the Gods, because a magic treasure completely broke this path of cultivation of the Witch Path—the Investiture of the Gods List! The Investiture of the Gods List monopolized the path of pardoning ghosts and gods and monopolized the Divine Path!"

"Wait, the War of Investiture of the Gods..."

Cui Dan recalled the extremely secret legends recorded in the family's "Heavenly Expansion Five Virtues Profound Scripture."

"It is said that the Five Sacred Mountain Gods, the Five Sacred Mountain Emperors, were transformed from the five feudal lords of the Heavenly Shang God Dynasty during the War of Investiture of the Gods. Their names were Chong Heihu, Huang Feihu, Jiang Xiong, Wen Pin, and Cui Ying. My Cui clan even specifically mentioned that Cui Ying was also an ancestor of the Cui clan, but there is no sacrifice for him in the family, and it doesn't even mention that the current Northern Sacred Mountain Emperor is our Cui clan ancestor!"

"Because he was replaced!"

A thought surged in Cui Dan's heart: "Because when the First Emperor performed the Fengshan sacrifice, the five Five Sacred Mountain Emperors were all..."

"No!"

"The Taishan Emperor is different. The Taishan Emperor would never be easily replaced. He is the Lord of the Qi land and the Lord of the Eastern Divine System. His status is so high that he is only below the Jade Emperor. How could he be..."

"The Taishan Emperor is different!"

"The War of Investiture of the Gods has too many chaotic places!"

"Clearly, gods were pardoned, clearly the Jade Emperor ascended to heaven as the Heavenly Emperor, but the names of the gods were hidden and not passed down. How could those innate great gods be easily replaced by a group of famous ministers and generals at the end of the Heavenly Shang? Even if they could be replaced, what about the Dao Fruits?"

"It is recognized in the Earth Immortal Realm that it was not until the time of the Hundred Schools of Thought that Dao Lords appeared on a large scale in the human path!"

"A total of one hundred Dao Lords ascended to heaven, flourishing for a time..."

"What about the gods before that?"

"The important star lords are all Dao Lords, the Five Sacred Mountains and Four Rivers are all Dao Lords... If the Heavenly Shang had so many Dao Lords, it would have long ago..."

"If the War of Investiture of the Gods was also a sacrifice, if the Investiture of the Gods List was also a kind of human pile..."

Cui Dan shuddered.

"If those Dao Fruits were originally there, but their will was erased, lacking humanity, if human piles protected by the Primordial Spirit Great Dao were driven into the Dao Fruits, and the Divine Path was bound by the Investiture of the Gods List, forcibly giving them humanity, in this way—wouldn't a framework of the Heavenly Court be built?"

"Why did the Heavenly Xia and Heavenly Shang, after overthrowing the previous dynasty in the Earth Immortal Realm, so easily and logically occupy the Heavenly Court?"

"Why was Shang Tang's ascension to heaven a 'Di' sacrifice?"

"If the previous Heavenly Emperors were just possessing the old heaven! If the replacement of the Heavenly Emperor was just a human occupying a position, and there was no such deep combination as the current Jade Emperor. Wouldn't everything be logical?"

"No... it's not that simple. The secrets of the ancient Witch Path are too many!"

"The Investiture of the Gods List!"

"Only the Investiture of the Gods List can unlock this secret. The gods of ancient times, the Divine Path must be completely different from now. The Supreme Dao Ancestor opened the Primordial Spirit Great Dao, protecting humanity from being worn away by time, but just by relying on the Primordial Spirit Great Dao, can it really protect humanity from being worn away by the Divine Path?"

"That is, after all, the Divine Path! It is the virtue of the Heavenly Emperor!"

"The current Dao Fruit path is the result of self-will distorting the Great Dao. The humanity of the current Dao Lords will not be worn away at all. Even if they hold the Great Dao for hundreds of millions of years, they, like Xu Fu and the Black Emperor, have love, hate, and grievances. But did the Heavenly Court really have so many Dao Lords from the beginning?"

"Every Dao Lord is the essence of the human path."

"They are all strange flowers bred by an era..."

"Before these Dao Lords were born, as the supreme divine court that ruled the cosmos, how did the Heavenly Court hold so many Heavenly and Earthly Great Daos?"

"Innate gods are transformed from Great Dao laws. If they are the Great Daos that constitute and maintain the basic existence of the cosmos, they are held by those great powers who experienced the Supreme Anti-Heaven, and even cut down Dao Fruits to refine into magic treasures, replacing them to operate the universe!"

"But what about those small laws?"

"Except for the Great Dao promoted by practitioners following the birth of the human path, there are always some Great Daos that exist naturally, born innately. These Great Daos should exist in the form of Heavenly and Earthly positions, but now, these Heavenly and Earthly positions have all been refined into Dao Fruits!"

"Does this mean that besides self-will distorting the Great Dao, there is another way to refine Dao Fruits?"

"Self-will distorting the Great Dao, this should be the path that was perfected during the Hundred Schools of Thought period!"

"The Immortal Path was not perfect at the beginning; it was only after the two great developments of the Hundred Schools and the Immortal Qin that the Dao Lord path was completely perfected."

"That's why so many Dao Lords were born in one breath during those two times!"

At this moment, the wisdom turning in Cui Dan's brain seemed to be Brother Qian Chen thinking.

"Driving in living piles... no, human sacrifice, should be a mystery of using humans as anchors to fall the Great Dao, or it can be called the 'Falling Dao' art!"

"Dao Fruits, besides being perfected by individual will, slowly twisting the Great Dao, from Dao seeds, slowly blooming, bearing fruit."

"It seems there is another path: using sacrificial methods to directly pull a Dao Fruit out of the Great Dao!"

"But this kind of Dao Fruit needs an 'anchor point.' After all, the acquired Dao Fruit resists the assimilation of the Great Dao with extreme self-will of the Primordial Spirit. Those Dao Fruits that do not come from the sublimation of individual will need some anchor points to resist the assimilation of the Great Dao, to resist Dao-reversal!"

"And, that kind of Dao Fruit can never be perfected. Without a center, without self, how can it be perfected?"

Brother Qian Chen carried Xu Fu's head, walking little by little on the Black Emperor's sacrificial altar, looking at the sea of blood here.

"In this way, Xuanzhen Taiyi is indeed the destined Demon Ancestor of Destruction. Heavenly restraint against the Heavenly Court!"

"Its final Dao-reversal can be called the natural enemy of all innate Dao Fruits. As long as the anchor point is cut off, those Dao Fruits will irreversibly return to the Great Dao, unless the original anchor point has completely condensed a center with its own will, and completely refined the Dao Fruit with self!"

"But..."

"This is ten times, a hundred times harder than walking the path of acquired Dao Fruits?"

"The ancient Witch Path created the method of anchoring Dao Fruits, pulling Dao Fruits out of the Great Dao with chains, and then driving human piles into them as foundations, building sacrificial altars and divine temples on top, creating anchor points through various methods, stabilizing Dao Fruits, and shaping gods!"

"And because they were incomparably familiar with the anchor points of Dao Fruits, after the Heavenly Shang replaced the Heavenly Xia, they quickly inherited the Heavenly Court."

"At that time, the Divine Path's attacks relied more on the human path. I estimate it wasn't a battle of supernatural powers and magic at all."

"Instead, the Primordial Dao Ancestor finally used an Investiture of the Gods List to fix the achievements of the entire Witch Path era."

"Truly opening up a new Divine Path."

"Anchor point..."

"The secret of pulling Dao Fruits down from the Great Dao and anchoring them."

"The Emperor's Dao Fruit, could it be that the alchemists integrated all the wisdom of the Witch Path era, created it, and pulled the Great Dao of the Five Emperors of the old heaven down to the present, melting and anchoring it?"

"It seems it's not that simple. Anchoring the Five Emperors' Great Dao should be an achievement that the Heavenly Xia and Heavenly Shang already had; it is the Emperor's Dao."

"Anchoring the Five Sovereigns' Great Dao, ugh! Ying Zheng must have colluded with the Dragon Emperor."

"Only the Dragon Emperor's Ancestral Great Dao, the bloodline path, could pull down the Great Dao of the ancient Five Sovereigns!"

"But how exactly to anchor the Five Emperors' Great Dao?"

"The ancient Witch Path experienced three large-scale purges of the Heavenly Shang, the Hundred Schools, and the Immortal Qin. There isn't much left! That is, I have some connections in the Demon Path, so I obtained many scriptures and classics of the Witch-Demon Great Dao. Could it be that I have to borrow the Western Kunlun Mirror to travel and observe?"

"No, the Investiture of the Gods List absolutely refuses to let me see it. This concerns its fundamental secret. I fear even the Primordial Dao Ancestor doesn't want it to leak out."

"It seems I have to start from the Immortal Qin side!"

"Being able to create the Emperor's Fengshan Great Sacrifice, the Immortal Qin's mastery of the ancient Witch Path, I fear, has even stripped off the bottom of the Investiture of the Gods List to see it clearly! As long as I pass through the Emperor's Fengshan Great Sacrifice, the wisdom of an era of the Witch Path can be obtained..."

Brother Qian Chen's thoughts turned around these earth-shattering secrets, and he casually passed on some of the wisdom.

Cui Dan instantly saw through the true flaw of the Heavenly Human Corpse.

He shouted at Xia Yu:

"It is an anchor point!"

"Xu Fu used it as a pile and drove it into the Five Sacred Mountains."

"Since driving in living piles is to build something on top, the pile is like a nail that sets the foundation, needing to pull what is on top through chains!"

Xia Yu, who had used up most of his witch Gu and was being beaten by the Heavenly Human Corpse, still found time to retort: "You are wrong!"

"If it were a human pile, it would clearly be for support; how could it be for anchoring? This is the Five Sacred Mountains, not a ship! The anchor point is for pulling, the human pile is for support!"

"Using this word is wrong..."

Cui Dan was speechless, but he quickly reacted: "Because the main function of the Five Sacred Mountains is to pull the Emperor's Dao Fruit, so it needs both support and pulling!"

"The True Form Map of the Five Sacred Mountains, and even the five sacred mountains composed of Primordial God Stone refined from the Creation Dao Fruit, are the support."

"And the pulling comes from the human piles within it, the ten thousand heavenly soldiers and generals driven into it!"

Xia Yu suddenly realized: "You mean..."

"It hasn't broken free from the shackles, but is still in the sacrificial ritual. As long as you find that chain, you can re-bind it."

"But how to find that chain?"

Xia Yu turned the Pearl of Wisdom in his heart and suddenly thought: "It's human qi! It is so thirsty for human qi, thirsty for human wish-power, but it is not a god, so it must be because that wish-power is related to the chain on its body. It is driven by the thirst for human qi."

"After all, Heavenly Humans are not humans, and it is difficult to completely replace human sacrifice human piles!"

After saying this, Xia Yu triggered the curses buried in the wish-power. Because of this trance, he was killed by the Heavenly Human Corpse in front of him. With just one claw, the Sun-Moon Golden Pupils distorted the void, creating heavy barriers to cover his figure in front of Xia Yu, but they were shattered.

Just as Xia Yu was desperately using his Double Pupils, the black hole of the sun eclipse and moon deficiency was desperately trying to suck the Heavenly Human Corpse, he roared: "No, those curses entered its body and seemed to be covered by something; there was no way to find where they flowed!"

"I can feel it is a law branded on the corpse skin."

"Must cut through its skin..." ===== CHAPTER 1170 =====

"I can feel that it is a type of law branded upon the corpse skin."

"We must slash through its skin..."