Confession

In the Fire Cloud Cave beneath Skyfire Peak.

The temperature inside was enough to melt ordinary iron ingots. Waves of heat surged, and the air rippled violently, making it difficult to see anyone more than ten feet away. A river of lava flowed slowly by, with human-head-sized bubbles constantly bursting on its surface, spitting out countless sparks. A strong, scorching scent could make one dizzy. The ground and cave walls glowed red. The ground rocks were somewhat soft; ordinary boots would immediately smoke and turn to ash upon touching them.

In this environment, only Lin Xiao and Daoist Master Yizhen felt quite comfortable. The surging heat flowing into their bodies only made them feel better, not uncomfortable at all. However, Yi Xing, Yi Xin, Yi Yi, and the others could only rely on their magic treasures to protect themselves. The high temperature in the Fire Cloud Cave was difficult even for cultivators at the Nascent Soul Stage to endure.

An anvil forged from Flowing Flame Iron floated on the lava river. The high temperature of the river water had turned the anvil red-hot. Immortal Miao, whose body was more than half crippled, was tightly bound to the anvil by seventy-two strands of Heart-Locking Bone-Piercing Silk. The red-hot anvil made his flesh sizzle and crackle. Even though Immortal Miao's body had been tempered over two thousand years of arduous cultivation and was extremely tough, with his cultivation completely destroyed, he was still being burned until his skin and flesh peeled open. A scent of scorched flesh wafted through the Fire Cloud Cave.

Yi Xing stood on the riverbank, quietly watching Immortal Miao several feet away. He asked calmly, "Fellow Daoist Miao, you were once a great figure of the demonic path, a remarkable person. Tell us what you know, and we will let you dissipate your form. Our Origin Sect is not one to torment people with cruel methods. If you tell us, you can be reincarnated and avoid much suffering."

Immortal Miao struggled to lift his head and looked at Daoist Yi Xing, chuckling sinisterly. "What is this little suffering? Back then, I refined my body with Earth Core Yin Wind, and the suffering I endured was more than ten times this! Heh heh, you want me to reveal what you wish to know? That's a dream!" Immortal Miao laughed up at the sky. "Just wait. Wait for the day your Origin Sect is destroyed. Heh heh, then I will be able to escape this predicament! Hmph, hmph, by then, I will use your Origin Sect's female disciples to slowly recover my cultivation! This will be your retribution!"

Yi Xing's expression turned extremely grim. As the Sect Master of the Origin Sect, to have someone openly declare its impending destruction right before him was quite infuriating. However, as the Sect Master, he could not afford to lose his temper. Daoist Yi Xing merely turned his head and nodded at a black-bearded old Daoist with a pale green complexion. "Junior Brother Yi Zhi, proceed!"

Old Daoist Yi Zhi smiled slightly and slowly took out a jade box about a foot square from his sleeve. A thin layer of clouds surged beneath his feet, and he slowly floated towards Immortal Miao. He floated to the anvil, slowly placed the jade box on it, and reached out to open the lid. A hazy black mist rose from the jade box. Inside were hundreds of strangely shaped, extremely fine needles of gold, silver, jade, and iron, as well as various exquisitely crafted small knives and saws.

Immortal Miao thrashed his crippled body violently, roaring in shock and anger. "Your Origin Sect actually dares to torture me? You, you!" Immortal Miao was so enraged that his 'three corpses and seven spirits' leaped out, and veins bulged high on his face.

"Fellow Daoist Miao, this is also unavoidable," Daoist Yi Xing said coldly, looking at Immortal Miao. "Earlier, we tried to extract a confession using the Soul Shaking Technique, but your mastery of the Bewitching Soul Technique is three points stronger than Senior Uncle Xuan Luo's. Your Nascent Soul is stable and unaffected by external forces. We had no choice but to resort to these underhanded methods." Immortal Miao was a notorious lecherous thief in the cultivation world, specializing in kidnapping female cultivators. He was skilled in the Bewitching Soul Technique, and his control over his Nascent Soul was far superior to that of ordinary cultivators.

Lin Xiao, standing behind Daoist Yi Xing, clenched his fists tightly. He stared grimly at Immortal Miao and said coldly, "Senior Yi Xing, for such a demonic scoundrel, why speak of righteousness or mercy? Just use the most vicious methods to extract a confession." When Immortal Miao had been shouting earlier, Lin Xiao had heard the name "Blood God Ancestor" from his mouth. Knowing that Immortal Miao was an accomplice of the Blood God Ancestor, Lin Xiao's inner rage flared up. He wished he could dismember Immortal Miao and scatter his soul, thinking that would be truly satisfying. Lin Xiao felt no pity for Old Daoist Yi Zhi using a little torture on Immortal Miao.

Daoist Yi Xing glanced at Lin Xiao and suddenly shouted, "Little friend Lin Xiao, calm your mind! You're about to fall into qi deviation again!"

Daoist Yi Xing's shout was like the striking of a morning bell and evening drum, jolting the increasingly agitated Lin Xiao back to clarity. Lin Xiao gasped for breath, staggered back a few steps, and felt a sweet, metallic taste welling up in his mouth. He had almost vomited blood due to the extreme emotional turmoil. Lin Xiao quickly calmed his mind, suppressed the restless true essence within his body, and forcefully shook his head, pushing away the faces of Yao'er, Dan Fusheng, Danxia, and others that had suddenly appeared in his mind.

Spitting out a mouthful of bloody phlegm, Lin Xiao looked grimly at the writhing, struggling, and roaring Immortal Miao. He said darkly, "Senior Yi Xing, this fiend claimed he once forged his body with Earth Core Yin Wind, and the pain was ten times worse than being burned by a red-hot Flowing Flame Iron anvil! I imagine it will be difficult for Senior Yi Zhi to make him feel unbearable pain."

Yi Xing looked at Lin Xiao and frowned. "That is indeed a problem. Does little friend Lin Xiao have any brilliant plan?"

Gently biting his lip, Lin Xiao quickly flipped through the records in the Great Luo Pill Scripture and sneered, "Please ask Senior Yi Yi to fetch three taels of 'Machine-Chasing Vine,' two taels of 'Butterfly-Bewitching Grass,' three 'Heart-Rot Flowers,' three 'Intestine-Breaking Flowers,' and seven stalks of 'Dancing God Grass' from the medicine storehouse. Also, bring three common external wound 'Anesthetic Agents'."

"What is this?" Daoist Yi Yi looked at Lin Xiao in astonishment. As the steward of the Origin Sect, Daoist Yi Yi had a wide range of knowledge and some understanding of the pill dao. He knew that 'Anesthetic Agent' was used to anesthetize the injured. As for the other five types of medicinal herbs, they had no apparent connection to each other. What did Lin Xiao want these herbs for?

Gently biting his lower lip, Lin Xiao smiled sinisterly. "Anesthetic Agent can make people fall asleep and unaware of physical pain. However, when mixed with the other five rare herbs, the Anesthetic Agent can be transformed into a rare spiritual medicine called Spirit Shocking Powder. This agent can amplify a person's senses by more than a hundred times. It has a particularly miraculous effect on cultivators with strong Nascent Souls and keen spiritual senses, amplifying their physical senses by a thousand times! The stronger a cultivator's cultivation, the more potent the effect of Spirit Shocking Powder."

The ability to amplify a cultivator's physical senses by a thousand times? Yi Xing, Yi Xin, and Yi Yi's faces twitched simultaneously, while Daoist Yi Zhi's eyes gleamed with fanaticism.

A thousandfold increase in physical sensation meant that a light prick with a needle would feel like a fierce stab to the heart for the person who consumed the Spirit Shocking Powder. Coupled with Daoist Yi Zhi's special techniques, the resulting pain could possibly cause a cultivator's Nascent Soul to collapse directly.

Lin Xiao continued, "Furthermore, the medicinal properties of the Machine-Chasing Vine, when refined with the Dancing God Grass, can penetrate directly to the Nascent Soul, causing physical pain to directly attack the cultivator's Nascent Soul."

Yi Xing, Yi Xin, and Yi Yi simultaneously drew in a sharp breath. Daoist Yi Zhi muttered to himself, "Marvelous, such a spiritual medicine is truly marvelous!"

Yi Yi quickly ordered his disciples to retrieve the medicinal herbs Lin Xiao required. Lin Xiao casually mixed the herbs and simmered them in a furnace for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. He produced a pot of pitch-black, viscous, glue-like strange medicinal liquid that emitted a peculiar foul odor. He handed it to Daoist Yi Zhi to force-feed into Immortal Miao.

The struggling Immortal Miao could only be forced to swallow the medicinal liquid. After a short while, Immortal Miao, whose body was being sizzled by the red-hot anvil, let out earth-shattering screams. The original burning pain was nothing difficult for him to bear, but now, after consuming the Spirit Shocking Powder prepared by Lin Xiao, his ability to withstand pain immediately collapsed.

Daoist Yi Zhi, with glowing eyes, let out a triumphant laugh. His hands moved like the wind, and dozens of fine needles of various qualities were instantly inserted into Immortal Miao's body. Strands of peculiar true essence immediately flowed into Immortal Miao's body through the needles, causing his internal organs, meridians, and acupoints to convulse and twist violently.

Waves of intense pain, amplified over a thousand times by the Spirit Shocking Powder, crashed into Immortal Miao's sea of consciousness like ferocious thunderbolts.

Immortal Miao's Nascent Soul was like a pebble under a giant divine hammer, shattered to pieces. The dual pain of spirit and body caused Immortal Miao to open his mouth wide and let out a silent roar.

Finally, Immortal Miao blurted out, "I confess! I'll tell you everything!"

As expected of a great figure of the demonic path, he had no spirit of self-sacrifice. When Immortal Miao realized that the Spirit Shocking Powder truly threatened his survival, he immediately confessed everything about the Blood God Ancestor and even Jiang Zizai. This included classified information such as how many demonic cultivators the Blood God Ancestor had recruited and their current base of operations.

Yi Xing continuously questioned Immortal Miao. Finally, he confirmed that Immortal Miao had revealed everything he knew. Yi Xing nodded at Daoist Yi Zhi and said in a deep voice, "Junior Brother Yi Zhi, send fellow Daoist Miao to reincarnation. In your next life, fellow Daoist Miao, I hope you will be a good person."

Before Immortal Miao could speak, Daoist Yi Zhi flicked his finger, and a thin blade lightly severed Immortal Miao's temple. A pink light shot out from the opening, lingering reluctantly around Immortal Miao's physical body for a few circles before heading towards the cave ceiling.

Lin Xiao, who had been standing behind Daoist Yi Xing, suddenly let out a sharp cry. He formed a thunder seal with his hands and roared, "Supreme Clarity Demon Subduing Triple Shock!"

Boom, boom, boom! Three consecutive purple lightning bolts, as thick as bowls, suddenly descended from the cave ceiling, striking the pink light. Immortal Miao's true spirit was struck by this triple lightning fire and instantly turned to dust. He was utterly annihilated, leaving no trace behind.

Yi Xing and the others looked at Lin Xiao in astonishment. Lin Xiao said with a bitter smile, "This junior is not a member of the Origin Sect, so I am naturally not bound by the Sect Master's promise. This Immortal Miao is an accomplice of the fiend who destroyed my Great Luo Pill Dao, so naturally, he cannot live!"

Yi Xing spread his hands and shrugged, saying nothing.

Yi Xin sighed lightly and shook her head. "Alas, Immortal Miao, this is your retribution. Hmm, but the Blood God Ancestor is powerful now. How should we deal with him?"

Yi Xing pondered for a moment and said decisively, "I will petition the elders to ring the 'Mysterious Origin Green Bell'."

Lin Xiao did not know what the Mysterious Origin Green Bell was, but he saw the expressions of Yi Xin, Yi Yi, and Yi Zhi instantly turn extremely serious, and he knew it was something very important.

Something that could make several elders of the Origin Sect so solemn made Lin Xiao look forward to it.

"Blood God Ancestor, you and your band of demonic disciples, are you the enemy of all righteous paths in the cultivation world?"

Lin Xiao trembled slightly with nervousness.

In the core area of the Origin Sect's mountain gate, nestled within a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains.

Lin Xiao saw the elders of the Origin Sect's Xuan Generation for the first time. There were Xuan Yuan and Xuan Heng, a dual-cultivating Dao companion pair, who looked like sixteen or seventeen-year-old youths with remarkably similar delicate features. They were Yi Xing and Yi Xin's master and mistress. There was also Xuan Luo, who looked like a seven or eight-year-old child but had a pair of jade-white hands nearly a foot long. His tender face was rosy, but his forehead was furrowed, and he had a pair of upturned eyebrows and three wisps of yellow beard hanging from his chin, looking utterly bizarre. He was the one who had ambushed Immortal Miao from behind.

The other fifteen elders of the Xuan Generation did not have such peculiar appearances. They all possessed the demeanor of immortal cultivators, with white hair and white beards, exuding the aura of profound masters.

When breaking through from the Nascent Soul Stage to the Void Realm, the physical body undergoes a tremendous transformation as one's comprehension of the rules of heaven and earth deepens. Each person's physical transformation varies according to their individual insights. Xuan Yuan and Xuan Heng, cultivating together, shared a common Dao heart, hence their appearances became almost identical. Xuan Luo's personality had become increasingly childlike and unconventional, leading to his peculiar physique. The mysteries of the Void Realm were still beyond Lin Xiao's comprehension.

Therefore, Lin Xiao gazed from afar at these three senior experts who had just stepped into the Void Realm, as well as the fifteen elders of the Xuan Generation who had reached the perfected stage of the Nascent Soul Stage, with immense reverence. To achieve such terrifying cultivation in the current era of increasingly scarce spiritual energy, even with the advantageous natural environment of Qi Yuan Star, where the spiritual energy was still much more abundant than elsewhere, the perseverance and dedication of these Xuan Generation elders on their cultivation path were still remarkable.

"Actually, Elder Xuan Yuan and the others are not the only Void Realm experts in our Origin Sect." Daoist Yidan, who had been pestering Lin Xiao these past few days, saw Lin Xiao lost in thought looking at Xuan Yuan and quickly said to him solicitously, "Our Origin Sect has two more elders of the Qing Generation who entered the Void Realm five hundred years ago. However, they have been busy with another group of senior experts on an extremely important matter, so the news of their entry into the Void Realm five hundred years ago was unknown to the cultivation world."

"Entered the Void Realm five hundred years ago?" Lin Xiao was startled and quickly looked at Daoist Yidan. "Doesn't that mean their cultivation is now unfathomably profound?"

Daoist Yidan chuckled, looking at Lin Xiao with flattery, his right fingers rubbing together rapidly. He muttered in a low voice, "I heard that fellow Daoist Lin Xiao refined some kind of miraculous medicine, Spirit Shocking Powder, yesterday? Heh heh!"

Lin Xiao gave Daoist Yidan a helpless look and nodded. "Spirit Shocking Powder is nothing remarkable. It's just that the deeds of those two seniors..."

Daoist Yidan's eyes shone as he spoke quickly, "Bring me the prescription first, and everything else can be discussed."

Lin Xiao's mouth twitched. He lowered his voice and told Daoist Yidan the prescription for Spirit Shocking Powder. Daoist Yidan turned and hurried away without delay. Lin Xiao couldn't stop him; Daoist Yidan had already run quite far. Lin Xiao heard Daoist Yidan's faint voice drifting back, "I don't know much about those two old ancestors. In short, once the Mysterious Origin Green Bell rings, they will return to the Origin Sect within a few days. You can inquire about it yourself then."