Chapter 190: Purification

After taking the third-grade supreme Fire Reversion Pill, not only was the absorption speed fast, but it also left no pill toxins in the body. Tong Yao felt his depleted dantian quickly filling with spiritual energy, and with a flicker in his eyes, he looked at Hua Changxi and probed, "Daoist Hua... could you be a successor of the Alchemy Saint Hall?"

The five great sacred lands of the Central Continent actually had connections behind the scenes.

A cultivator's energy is ultimately limited; spending a great deal of time on cultivation naturally leaves little time to learn other skills.

Alchemy, artifact refinement, talismans, and formations—as indispensable auxiliary skills for cultivators—even learning just one is an extremely energy-consuming matter. To make up for deficiencies, cultivators must inevitably exchange what they have with each other.

The resurgence of spiritual energy actually began very early on—exactly how early, even Master himself didn't know, only inferring that it started before the founding of the Great Jin Dynasty.

However, at the beginning, the degree of spiritual energy resurgence was very low. The density of spiritual energy in the ruins and secret realms could at most nourish the physical body, not even allowing one to draw qi into the body.

Only later, as time passed, did the degree of spiritual energy resurgence gradually increase.

During this period, a batch of cultivators appeared one after another. To meet the needs of mutual exchange and sharing among cultivators, nine ghost markets spontaneously gathered and formed on the outskirts of the nine major passes guarding the Demon Prison.

In ancient times, the places where cultivators exchanged and shared resources were actually in the bustling marketplaces scattered across the mortal world.

Nowadays, setting the markets in the Nine Nether was mainly because the cultivators who first embarked on the path of cultivation did not want more people to know about the spiritual energy resurgence, nor did they want the already scarce cultivation resources to be divided among even more people. They all tacitly kept the matter of spiritual energy resurgence hidden.

Setting the markets in the Nine Nether, requiring tokens to enter and exit the ghost markets, was undoubtedly the best way to control the leakage of information.

Before the earth-shattering battle at Five Finger Mountain in Qingzhou broke out, the matter of spiritual energy resurgence was well concealed by all factions—both the imperial court and the powerful aristocratic families were secretly building up their own strength.

It wasn't until the incident at Five Finger Mountain that the resurgence of spiritual energy could no longer be hidden, and that was precisely the period when the full-scale resurgence of spiritual energy began.

Even now, Tong Yao felt that the timing of the incident at Five Finger Mountain was too coincidental. If not for that war between Buddha and demon, today's cultivators would not only be eighty to ninety percent fewer in number, but most of them might only be hired thugs living off the imperial court and the powerful aristocratic families.

In his view, that wouldn't be a good thing at all.

The five great sacred lands—the Central Sacred Land being the heart of the Demon Prison array, and the other four sacred lands serving as array eyes—were naturally aligned as one camp. Before the resurgence of spiritual energy was exposed, the five sacred lands had little contact, but after the incident at Five Finger Mountain in Qingzhou, they secretly established connections.

For instance, he himself knew disciples of the Talisman Saint Pavilion and the Array Saint Sect. The last time he went to Kunmen Pass, it was at the invitation of the Talisman Saint Pavilion's successor, Monk Jing Liao, to help and broaden his horizons.

As for the Alchemy Saint Hall, because its ruins had been occupied by the imperial court and turned into the Medical Affairs Bureau, most of the alchemists there were backed by the imperial court and aristocratic families, so he had little contact with them.

Daoist Hua casually gave him a third-grade supreme pill, and even several bottles at that. Such superb alchemy skills and generous spending made him suspect that she had a connection to the Alchemy Saint Hall.

Hua Changxi fell silent for a moment upon hearing Tong Yao's question.

Saying she was a successor of the Alchemy Saint Hall—she didn't seem to have inherited much from it.

Saying she wasn't—yet she had taken ten wooden tokens and unlocked nine Medical Halls, and the Divine Farmer Cauldron in her sea of consciousness also seemed to have some connection to the Alchemy Saint Hall.

As for the Alchemy Saint Hall, she actually didn't have much sense of belonging to it. The only reason she stayed in the Medical Affairs Bureau was to put her medical skills to good use and to have a social identity to stand on in the world.

Now that she knew the Alchemy Saint Hall had to bear the responsibility of guarding the Demon Prison, deep down she didn't want to be too deeply entangled with it.

After thinking for a while, Hua Changxi said vaguely, "I... am a physician, serving in the Medical Affairs Bureau."

The current Medical Affairs Bureau could not be equated with the Alchemy Saint Hall. Hearing Hua Changxi's answer, Tong Yao couldn't tell for a moment whether she was a successor of the Alchemy Saint Hall or not, but he didn't ask further.

Feeling that his spiritual power had recovered enough to repair the damaged humanoid stone sculpture, he took out the boundary stone powder he carried with him and began to focus on refining and repairing it.

Hua Changxi watched Tong Yao, who was adeptly repairing on the spot with skillful refinement techniques, and mentally labeled him as "worth befriending." Then she began to investigate this array eye center built from boundary stones.

"Hm?"

Because she had mastered the law of burning and tearing space with flames, Hua Changxi was quite sensitive to spatial fluctuations. When she probed the edge of the boundary stone platform to the true north, she perceived that the spatial barrier there was somewhat weak.

Her mind stirred, and she condensed a wisp of Great Sun Divine Flame, burning away at the weak point in space.

Soon, a brilliant red light shone in.

The Great Sun Divine Flame had burned a hole in space, and the red light came through that hole.

Through the hole, Hua Changxi saw the thick trunk and lush branches and leaves of the Fusang Tree.

It actually connected to the Divine Wood Space here!

"Daoist Hua, what are you doing?"

Just as Hua Changxi was surprised that the array eye center connected to the Divine Wood Space, she heard Tong Yao's startled exclamation behind her. Turning around, she saw Tong Yao rushing over hastily, but he stopped after only two steps.

Tong Yao stared incredulously at the white-gold flame in Hua Changxi's hand. Feeling the searing heat emanating from the flame, he dared not approach further: "This is... this is..."

Hua Changxi: "This is the Great Sun Divine Flame." As she spoke, she quickly put away the flame.

Tong Yao's face showed both shock and disbelief: "How did you obtain the Great Sun Divine Flame?"

[]

This matter, Xia Yang and Xia Xue both knew, so Hua Changxi didn’t hide it: “It was fused using the seven-colored strange fire from the Tang Valley.”

Tong Yao’s expression grew even more shocked: “How is that possible? I’ve also subdued five types of strange fire and tried to fuse them together, but even two kinds are hard to merge. How did you fuse seven?”

Hua Changxi’s eyes flickered. Without the Floating Light Sword, she certainly wouldn’t have known how to fuse seven types of strange fire either: “As for that, I can’t say.”

Seeing she was unwilling to elaborate, Tong Yao felt a bit regretful. Remembering they were still not familiar, he didn’t press further, but walked doubtfully toward the spatial rift burned by the fire: “I knew the Great Sun Divine Flame was terrifyingly powerful, but I didn’t expect it could burn through the spatial boundary.”

Hearing these puzzled words, Hua Changxi remained silent, naturally not revealing that she had already grasped the law power of flames burning through space.

Because the spatial rift connected the Boundary Stone Platform and the Divine Tree space, the fire spiritual energy density on the Boundary Stone Platform side instantly surged dozens of times over, and some of the Divine Tree’s oppressive might seeped through, immediately stabilizing several human-shaped stone statues that had been shaken by the demonic energy.

Both Hua Changxi and Tong Yao sensed this.

“Should I burn the rift a little larger?”

“Thank you, Fellow Daoist Hua.”

Afterward, Tong Yao busied himself repairing the damaged human-shaped stone statues, while Hua Changxi held up the Great Sun Divine Flame to burn open the spatial rift.

By the time Tong Yao had repaired the human-shaped stone statues and blocked the cracks where demonic energy was leaking, the spatial rift had expanded from the size of a fist to a doorway large enough for one person to pass through freely.

“Thank you, Fellow Daoist!”

Looking at the man-high doorway connecting to the Divine Tree space, Tong Yao thanked Hua Changxi once again.

With the oppressive might seeping over from the Divine Tree, the area around the array center became more stable.

Hua Changxi clearly sensed the suppressive effect of the Divine Tree’s might here. She glanced at the Divine Hammer at the center, pondered for a moment, then looked at Tong Yao, intending to do him a favor: “Do you want to take the Divine Hammer?”

Tong Yao’s heart leaped as he looked at the Divine Hammer at the center of the Boundary Stone Platform.

If he got the Divine Hammer, both his strength and artifact-refining skill would improve drastically—moreover, the one who obtains the Divine Hammer becomes the Sect Leader of the Artifact Saint Palace.

Tong Yao struggled to suppress the burning desire in his heart: “...The array center still needs the Divine Hammer to suppress it; now is not the time to take it away.”

Upon hearing this, Hua Changxi almost blurted out that she could continue burning the spatial rift. If the rift were larger, the Divine Tree’s oppressive might seeping over would be even stronger. With the Divine Tree’s suppression, the Divine Hammer’s role would be less critical.

But the words reached her lips, and she swallowed them back.

Almost in a flash, she suddenly understood something.

Forcing a sale is no bargain. Even if she wanted to befriend Tong Yao, she should keep the initiative in her own hands.

Right now, she wanted to do Tong Yao a favor, but she had handed the decision to him. If she ever needed Tong Yao’s help in the future, even if he was very likely to agree, she would still have put herself in a passive position.

The Divine Hammer was the supreme treasure of the Artifact Saint Palace; she didn’t believe Tong Yao had no thoughts about it. As long as he wanted it, there would come a day he needed her.

With this carrot dangling, she would have more initiative in their future dealings.

She had made a big mistake in her cooperation with Old You and the others back then, and as a result, she had been passive in all the subsequent events.

She couldn’t make that mistake again.

Hua Changxi closed her mouth and stopped mentioning the Divine Hammer.

Although the cracks leaking demonic energy had been blocked, the demonic energy that had already spread out lingered in the Tang Valley.

“Demonic energy can even disturb one’s mind!”

Hua Changxi discovered that near areas dense with demonic energy, the black perception pattern on the back of her hand would surface.

The appearance of the black perception pattern indicated that the black flame was growing, and the growth of the black flame meant she was being affected by the demonic energy, triggering some negative emotions in her heart.

Tong Yao, having calmed his thoughts stirred by the Divine Hammer, explained: “It’s not demonic energy, but the demonic energy mixed within. Demonic energy is spawned by dead great yao and fierce beasts. Because of the heavy grudges and bloodthirst, it easily influences people’s emotions.”

Hua Changxi: “Demonic energy?”

Tong Yao nodded: “What spreads out from the Demon Yao Prison is not just yao energy, but also violent demonic energy.”

Hua Changxi: “So that’s how it is. How do we get rid of this demonic energy?”

Tong Yao shook his head: “Demonic energy cannot be removed; it can only be purified!”

Hua Changxi: “How do we purify it?”

Tong Yao: “Some regions in the Netherworld grow celestial treasures with purifying power. But for cultivators nowadays, in the Netherworld, our range of activity is limited to the Nine Barriers area. Beyond that, it’s quite dangerous. There’s no way to remove the demonic energy in the Tang Valley in the short term.”

“By the way, do you know about Taisu Palace?”

Hua Changxi nodded: "I know." Wasn't Shiniang a disciple of Taisu Temple?

Tong Yao: "It's said that among the personally taught disciples of the Taisu Temple's sect leader, after someone's bloodline returned to its ancestral origin, they obtained the purification divine ability of the Pure World Green Lotus. That person can purify demonic aura."

Upon hearing this, Hua Changxi's heart leaped. For no reason, she thought of Hua Shiniang.

She and Shiniang were twins. She had obtained the Fire Lotus divine ability, and Shiniang had obtained the Green Lotus divine ability... That seemed quite plausible.

"Do you know that person's name?"

Tong Yao shook his head: "Taisu Temple has protected that person very well and hasn't announced it publicly." He paused, "Besides the purification divine ability of the Pure World Green Lotus, the Yang Flame of the White Jade Lotus Petal can also purify demonic aura. However, the Yang Flame can only purify demonic qi."

Hearing this, Hua Changxi kept Hua Shiniang's matter in mind. She quickly took out the White Jade Lotus Petal she had obtained earlier: "How do I ignite the Yang Flame?"

Tong Yao looked at the White Jade Lotus Petal in Hua Changxi's hand with surprise. He didn't ask how she obtained it, only shook his head and said: "I also don't know how to ignite the White Flame. I've heard that only people of purest innocence and utmost goodness can ignite it."

Hua Changxi frowned: "Purity and goodness? That means an absolutely good person. Is there such a person?"

Tong Yao: "Yes, there is. Among the people I know, there is someone who can ignite the Yang Flame. If you wish to make their acquaintance, Fellow Daoist Hua, I can introduce you in the future."

Hua Changxi was indeed in a hurry to resolve the matter of the Black Flame, so she didn't stand on ceremony: "Alright, then many thanks to Fellow Daoist Tong."

It was not good to stay long on the boundary stone platform where demonic aura was dispersing. Tong Yao walked towards Xiayang and Xiaxue, asking Hua Changxi to help support Xiaxue: "Fellow Daoist Hua, let's leave this place."

Hua Changxi: "How do we leave?"

Tong Yao, supporting Xiayang, walked to the spatial door. With his right hand, he used spiritual power to draw a rune in mid-air. Soon, a light array inscribed with complex runes appeared on the ground.

Hua Changxi's expression brightened: "A teleportation array!"