Chapter 138: Accomplishment

The peak pillar stood like a halberd thrust into the sky, its radiance shaking ripples of mist and rosy clouds, casting a bright and lucid glow.

Ding Wei’s lips twitched slightly as his expression turned solemn.

This young cultivator turned his body sideways, his gaze glued firmly to the stone pillar. He seemed as though he wanted to say something, but the words died on his lips, suddenly withheld.

The cultivation method of the "Yin-Eroding Red Water" had remained in the Five Clouds Wilderness for nearly sixty years, yet not a single living being had been able to acquire it. The immense risks involved went without saying.

And that was not even speaking of ultimate success.

Even for those who merely managed to approach within fifty sanctuaries of the stone pillar, if one were to count them all up carefully, their number would never exceed the fingers of two hands.

Every single one of them had been an exceptionally gifted talent of the nether ghost path, a rare genius unseen in a hundred or even a decade!

Overestimating themselves, driven by an unyielding spirit that refused to lag behind others, they had rushed eagerly to the stone pillar to study the scriptures. Filled with hope, they believed themselves capable of mastering this true water of heaven and earth and claiming the fortune for their own protection.

Yet the end of those cultivators was invariably to be slain by sword qi, their divine souls utterly destroyed in a tragic death, leaving behind only the sighs of renown from the outside world.

Witnessing the current spectacle of the stone pillar unleashing its thunderous, echoing roar, Ding Wei felt a mixture of shock and inexplicable emotion, a stray sentiment of cherishing talent rising within his heart.

He was the second son of Ding Xian, the master of the Five Clouds Wilderness.

Naturally, a certain degree of friendship existed between Ding Xian and that True Monarch Qiao of the Central-Yi Sword Sect.

Otherwise, True Monarch Qiao would not have cleansed and scoured the ten-thousand-mile ghost kingdom of the Great Yellow-膿 Deity after slaying him, renaming the domain into the Golden Drum Cave before taking up residence within.

And it was precisely because of this that he bestowed the prime territory of the Five Clouds Wilderness upon Ding Xian, allowing him to become the master of the Daoist temple while concurrently acting as the custodian of the "Yin-Eroding Red Water."

Because of this reason, compared to ordinary scenery cultivators like Song Rupu, Ding Wei possessed a much deeper understanding of the inner secrets of the stone pillar.

In his view,

being able to approach within fifty sanctuaries of the stone pillar was already a one-in-ten-thousand talent, exceedingly difficult to achieve.

If he did not perish halfway, his future achievements would surely not fall short of his father's!

And if he were to successfully acquire the heritage of the "Yin-Eroding Red Water"...

Ding Wei secretly frowned, his expression quite complex. At last, he let out a long, melancholy sigh in his heart.

At this moment, Song Rupu, having been questioned, hurriedly recounted the origins of Chen Heng one by one.

After listening, Ding Wei’s gaze flickered uncertainly, revealing a thoughtful expression.

A mortal body?

Was he not of the same lineage as True Monarch Qiao?

Only, it remained unknown what sort of mysterious sect this Xuanzhen Sect truly was...

Just as Ding Wei’s thoughts were spinning like lightning,

inside the stone pillar, shrouded by the five-colored smoke gauze, Chen Heng’s progress grew increasingly smooth, and his pace gradually accelerated.

It did not even require three breaths.

Often, as soon as new golden text characters emerged upon the stone pillar, after a single glance, he would swing his sleeve and step forward.

Although the scriptures recorded in his mind would be worn away and inevitably forgotten,

barely holding on for a few breaths left nothing behind but emptiness.

Yet since a mark had already been carved within the True Realm of One, even if the writing in the mundane world temporarily vanished in form, it mattered little.

...

"The immortal’s staff and brain, crossing heads and joining feet, making the lock as without a key, the vessel as without a handle."

...

"The form of the water character, portraying objects with characters, interpreting *hai*, interpreting water..."

...

"The gate, can be opened and can be closed. Just like the winter season, heaven and earth close and store like the closing of a gate, with passages barred; as if meeting the spring season, all things sprout like the opening of a gate, with comings and goings completely unobstructed. Extending this principle..."

...

Unawares,

only a final sanctuary remained between Chen Heng and the stone pillar.

With just a swing of his sleeve and an outstretched hand, taking a few more steps forward, he would be able to touch it in person.

A faint smile appeared on his face. Enduring the continuous, needle-like sharp pain in his mind, he reached into his sleeve for the last time, grasped the golden cicada, and sank his mind deep into it.

At this moment,

on the ground of the True Realm of One, two full passages of scripture had been neatly written, densely packed with nearly a thousand characters, clustered together like swarms of insects and ants.

"Two passages of scripture, which is true and which is false? Which one is truly genuine?"

He exhaled a long breath, lowered his head to look at the ground, and fell into slight contemplation.

The golden light characters appearing on the stone pillar were not limited to the cultivation method of the "Yin-Eroding Red Water" alone; other scriptures were mixed in among them to confuse the reader, posing a severe test of the cultivator's mastery of mysterious principles and Daoist doctrines.

Although Chen Heng had separated two distinct passages of scripture with opposing attributes,

if he were to choose one between them and pick out the genuine "Yin-Eroding Red Water," he could not do so hastily. It would take at least six or seven days.

During this period, he would still need to consult countless Daoist books and cite classical precedents to be truly certain of hitting the mark.

...

Yet at present, he had only three breaths of time.

Although under the rule of "one day in the mundane world, ten days in the Daoist realm," the time Chen Heng possessed was incomparably more abundant than that of other living beings who came to view the scriptures,

this abundance was not without limit either...

"It seems I have no choice but to test the method in person and see if this can distinguish the true from the false."

Hesitating no longer, Chen Heng first sat cross-legged on the ground, assuming a posture of "five centers facing the sky." Selecting the first scripture passage, following the guidance, his embryonic breathing stirred abruptly and he set his vital energy into motion.

Yet after a long while, his body did not react in the slightest. All his acupuncture points and meridians remained dormant and motionless, offering no response.

Although surprised, such a situation did not allow Chen Heng any further deep investigation.

"Let us try the second passage..."

While pondering, he stopped the spell, readjusted his mind and breathing into perfect harmony, and then silently began to circulate the second passage of the spell.

The very instant—

the second passage of the spell had just begun to circulate when a sharp pain struck his heart, and his entire body instantly grew numb.

First the top of his head, then his brows and eyes, his arms, his chest and abdomen, and finally spreading to his feet.

At this moment, even though Chen Heng had already closed his fingers to halt the circulation of the spell, it was like the bursting of the Heavenly River—a surging momentum completely uncontrollable and impossible to resist.

At first it was merely an abnormality of the skin, but soon, that bizarre numbness also penetrated his visceral organs.

His body swayed slightly, and piece after piece of flesh peeled away from his skeleton like paper. Purplish-red organs and blood tumbled down heavily, shattering upon impact into foul-smelling, putrid pus that was unbearable to the nose.

By now, where Chen Heng had been sitting cross-legged, nothing remained except a pale, ghastly skeleton.

That skeleton trembled as it bent its body, struggling to crawl up from the ground. After staggering forward only a few steps, it collapsed with a crash, turning into a puddle of bone powder that drifted away with the wind.

"So the second scripture passage was meant for self-dissolution and freeing the corpse? Yet looking at its mysterious terminology, it bore quite a few similarities to the first passage. True Monarch Qiao truly went to great lengths to create confusion..."

Light and shadow shifted.

Chen Heng’s mind-form was reborn once more within the True Realm of One.

He smiled faintly, silently recited the first passage of the spell one more time, and then returned his mind to the mundane world.

Stepping forward to cross the final sanctuary of distance...

A massive suction force came from the stone pillar, forcing him to sweep up his wide sleeves, clap his palms together, and land squarely within it.

With a resounding *boom*!

The entire Five Clouds Wilderness seemed to shudder.

Mountains resounded and rivers churned!

Five vast, thousand-foot-tall astral clouds illuminating the void rolled violently, as if heaven and earth were about to collapse, emitting countless thunderous peals of lightning and releasing infinite, boundless five-colored radiance!

Simultaneously, a clear intent was transmitted from the stone pillar, urging Chen Heng to recite the spell aloud in its entirety.

He tentatively stepped back, but his palm remained firmly glued to the stone pillar, not moving even a fraction...

"It seems that even if I were to sever this arm, I still cannot break free from the stone pillar."

Silently observing the situation, Chen Heng chuckled inwardly:

"It appears that reciting the full scripture of the "Yin-Eroding Red Water" is the final step of this heritage test?"

He paused, his lips moving as he articulated the entire first passage of the spell, reciting it clearly and cleanly, word by word.

With the True Realm of One in hand, there was no fear of missing even a single word.

And among the two passages recorded on the ground of the Daoist realm, the second one was undoubtedly a method for self-dissolution and corpse-freeing, proven through personal testing.

Between the two choices,

the remaining one naturally needed no further elaboration!

As the final passage was recited aloud,

before Chen Heng’s gaze,

bloody light suddenly bloomed across the surface of the stone pillar, as if something continuously leaping was hidden within, about to break through its seal!

And the next moment—

That stone pillar, which seemed capable of piercing the sky, abruptly shattered!

A torrent of scarlet blood rushed out from within the stone pillar, layer upon layer, with the momentum of raging waves striking the shore. In a single sweep, it wrapped Chen Heng tightly within it.

"..."

In this fleeting instant!

Before Chen Heng, swept into the river of blood, could make any move, the hundred-foot ground beneath his feet instantly and violently collapsed, revealing a bottomless, gloomy void!

With a *splash*,

the river of blood plunged into the void with Chen Heng, and vanished from sight!

Not far away,

Ding Wei, who was still conversing with Song Rupu, witnessed this sudden scene. His heart leapt with fright and he froze in shock for a long moment before hurriedly steering his nether wind to flee far away as if running for his life.

The hundreds of ghost generals guarding Ding Wei’s carriage were also struck dumb with astonishment.

...

"This... this..."

Only after retreating a full ten miles did their courage return slightly, and they looked back in alarm.

They saw that in the gloomy void where the blood river had vanished, a halo of light had risen at some unknown time, transforming into a restriction that tightly and securely sealed the cave mouth.

The two ghosts looked at each other in dismay, neither knowing what to say.

Song Rupu shivered all over, his entire body trembling with a bitter expression on his face as he said:

"Second Young Master, why did this stone pillar suddenly shatter? With your profound family learning and vast knowledge, what sort of procedure is this? Is this matter of viewing the scriptures considered a success or a failure?"

Ding Wei frowned, forced a bitter smile, and said:

"If viewing the scriptures had gone awry, that Brother Chen would long ago have been slain on the spot by sword qi. As for now... it should be considered a success, right?"

The two ghosts exchanged glances once more into a dead silence.

Amidst their mutual suspense and uncertainty, a majestic sound suddenly echoed across heaven and earth, and bloody light flared brilliantly!

Within the fragmented blocks of the thousand-foot stone pillar,

a blurred, thin human figure seemed to break free from some kind of restraint as the pillar shattered and the river of blood appeared, rising leisurely into the air.

Beside it lingered towering, stern demonic qi and dense, ferocious Daoist soldiers, appearing and disappearing indistinctly. The scene was terrifying, resembling a great demon from the depths of the Nine Nethers breaking through nether barriers to descend upon the mortal world!

Mountains shook and a thousand peaks resounded.

The echoes lingered for a long time, deafening to all the ghosts!

Yet that human figure, standing like the sun descending upon the dust with formidable momentum, did not make any earth-shattering moves after manifesting in the world.

He merely looked toward the west, chanted a few melancholy verses, and his body dissipated like mountain mist, completely dissolving and freeing his corpse.

"Three cups of carefree wine at sunset, eight natural poems when the idle person rests; tomorrow clouds will pass beyond green mountains, looking back one hears only the sorrow of apes and cranes...
Qiao Yubi, many thanks for preserving my heritage. I have lost a move to you, inferior in skill, and I harbor no grievances or regrets! Once I am reincarnated, I shall come to settle this score with you!"

The rocks and vegetation of the entire Five Clouds Wilderness rumbled and shook, resounding through the vast sky!

For a moment,

all the ghosts were terrified and at a complete loss.

Hundreds of miles away,

atop a desolate and cold peak, a fair-skinned, beardless Ding Xian sat quietly with his eyes closed, three brilliant golden lotus flowers suspended above his head, their flames flickering and flowing.

Suddenly,

the master of the Five Clouds Wilderness felt a stir in his heart, taking flight on the clouds ahead of the others. Gazing into the distance, he happened to catch sight of the figure disappearing.

Immediately followed by the roaring echo and blazing bloody light, even with his ghost-path cultivation, half of his body was left completely numb and his heart panic-stricken.

"Could this be... that Old Ancestor Yinxing mentioned by True Monarch Qiao? Has someone retrieved the heritage of the 'Yin-Eroding Red Water' and thereby released the last remaining divine will he left within the stone pillar? But is this old demon truly dead, or did he fake his death to escape..."

Catching sight of the fractured stone pillar and the deep void sealed by the halo of light, Ding Xian’s heart sank.

After some thought, he realized that with his cultivation, he was still incapable of handling this matter alone. If any mistake occurred, his meager physique would hardly be able to bear the consequences.

Therefore, he pinched a spell, withdrew the three golden lotus flowers hovering above his head, and transformed them into a brilliant yellow light that wrapped around his body, streaking away through the air.

After a short quarter of an hour, Ding Xian suddenly stopped his cloud and descended before a towering, spiritual peak.

He raised his head to look, first prostrating himself on the ground to kowtow three times with utmost courtesy and propriety.

Only then did he ascend the steps step by step, rather than transforming into a beam of light to fly straight to the summit, not daring to show the slightest negligence.

At the peak of that spiritual peak stood a simple Daoist temple with red eaves and red tiles, devoid of any luxurious decorations, nor any abbots or boy attendants dwelling within.

Only a solemn divine statue was enshrined in the main hall, roughly a zhang tall and exceptionally towering.

Though the eyes of the statue lacked pupils and were simply blank voids, they still gave off an aura so sharp and piercing that it seemed capable of cleaving anything in two! It inspired awe in all who looked upon it.

As Ding Xian devoutly climbed the mountain steps step by step,

the solemn divine statue suddenly stirred, its eyes instantly blazing with brilliant light that pressed the very light of day into dimness, daring not to contend for radiance!

"This is..."

Ding Xian was first startled, then overjoyed.

Yet before he could make any further movement, an indifferent voice suddenly sounded in his ears:

"Ding Xian, that old monster Yinxing has already gone to be reincarnated; what he uttered just now was merely the rambling words of one at death's door. You need not worry."

"So that's how it is! True Monarch's divine powers are indeed vast!" Ding Xian halted his steps upon hearing this, lowered his head, and spoke with utmost respect:

"However, as for the one who took the heritage of the 'Yin-Eroding Red Water'—he—"

"His name is Chen Heng, a native of Dongmi Prefecture. His biological father is that demon Chen Yuxun, an adversary of mine for many years."

The indifferent voice interrupted Ding Xian's unfinished words, carrying no discernible emotion within its tone:

"Once Chen Heng masters the 'Yin-Eroding Red Water', command him to come to the Golden Drum Cave to see me."