Abyssal Mutation

Er Han's Body Refining progressed at a terrifying pace, and his foundation was terrifyingly solid as well. Old Yang even said that someone like him had practically been born to practice Body Refining.

At the first Body Refining order, one refined Blood Essence; at the second, one underwent Marrow Cleansing. There was nothing special about either stage—they were basically just matters of patient, painstaking effort. As long as one had patience and perseverance, anyone could complete them eventually, provided they could keep up with the necessary supplements. The only difference was how much time it took.

Once one reached the third order, Returning to the Apertures, talent began to show its influence.

The human body had seven hundred and twenty apertures. How could Body Refining possibly use all of them? There were fifty extraordinary apertures and one hundred and eight vital points, most of which were useless for cultivation and could not be refined recklessly. If anything went wrong, one would either die or be crippled.

Yet Er Han, this fellow with barely any education, had relied entirely on instinct to refine more than four hundred apertures. He still had not finished cultivating the Returning to the Apertures stage.

What was worse, somehow, among the one hundred and eight vital points, he had refined nine of the thirty-six fatal death apertures.

Old Yang was broad-minded and well-informed, but lately, there had truly been more and more things he had never seen before.

Seeing that Er Han was fine, Old Yang and Yu Ziqing did not dare mention it. They feared that if they told this fool how dangerous it was, he would no longer be able to maintain his current state—his mind free of distracting thoughts, with no attachments and nothing to fear.

If even the slightest hesitation arose in his heart, something might go wrong instead.

In their hearts, both Yu Ziqing and Old Yang had long since stopped treating Er Han as a third-order body cultivator. The Blood Essence surging through this fool's body was comparable to that of a demon beast, and he was far stronger than the other villagers of the same order—not merely by a little.

If not for the Joy Lantern Priest's path of Spirit Refining and his strange methods, which seemed to have a natural advantage against body cultivators, Yu Ziqing would have sent Er Han to hammer that fellow to death long ago.

After receiving his orders, Er Han changed locations once more and entered the Abyss of Despair. He poked his head out and asked again.

"My brother told me to ask what your name is. Give us your title. If we've never met before and have no grudges, we'll let you go. If you still refuse to answer, you can stay trapped here for the rest of your life."

The Joy Lantern Priest's face darkened as a vicious aura continued to surge within his heart. The Abyss of Despair had very little direct killing power. It merely kept pressing down on one's emotions, causing despair to accumulate without end. Anyone with insufficient mental endurance would have their defenses crushed sooner or later.

Aside from that, this place truly had no other lethal methods. Its only real strength lay in trapping people.

After experiencing several cycles here, the Joy Lantern Priest understood that, having chosen the path of Spirit Refining, his will was firm. This place could make him irritable at most, but it could not crush him. Yet precisely because he had chosen the path of Spirit Refining, he did not possess enough power to forcefully break open this domain.

Their specializations had collided head-on.

Seeing Er Han toss out a sentence and prepare to leave, the Joy Lantern Priest shouted in a low voice, his face grim.

"Wait."

"What? If you want to talk, then talk. If not, forget it. There's someone else here to keep Cècè company and have some fun."

"I am Lan Sheng, the Joy Lantern Priest of the White Sun Divine Cult."

Er Han ignored him and left directly.

"He says he's Lan Sheng, the Joy Lantern Priest of the White Sun Divine Cult."

"Wait a moment." Yu Ziqing tossed out those words, then had Old Yang continue. "Old Yang, keep talking."

Old Yang did not understand why Yu Ziqing wanted such detailed information. From the composition of the White Sun Evil Sacrifice to their techniques, he wanted to know everything, in as much detail as possible.

All Old Yang could do was tell Yu Ziqing everything he knew.

When he heard what Er Han had reported, Old Yang continued to add to it.

"The surname Lan is indeed uncommon, so he probably isn't lying. Back then, there truly was a branch of the White Sun Evil Sacrifice whose members bore the surname Lan. That branch claimed that its brothers and sisters were as close as one family. If this Lan Sheng is truly one of the children taken away by the White Sun Evil Sacrifice back then, then the surname makes sense.

"Given their methods of confusing people's minds, after all these years, even if those children knew they had been abducted, they would probably still regard those people as blood relatives."

Yu Ziqing recorded everything in detail. Whether Old Yang's speculation was true or false would be known after a quick experiment.

He glanced at the booklet in his hand. It was still the cookbook An Yue had given him. The records inside were even more detailed than those from the previous activation and assessment, especially the sections on techniques and Dharma Treasures. Old Yang had described their contents and characteristics in far greater detail.

Last time, Yu Ziqing had only known the name of one technique.

As expected, it had definitely reached the minimum standard for assessment.

"Er Han, come with me. Let's meet that Joy Lantern Priest."

"Yu Ziqing, what are you doing?" Old Yang hurriedly stopped him.

"Don't worry. I don't think there's any problem. I'm just going to talk to him."

Old Yang was somewhat puzzled. What are you going to talk about?

Where did you get the ability to release that Joy Lantern Priest?

No one present had the ability to rescue someone from Cècè's Abyss of Despair.

That place could only be escaped through self-rescue.

Yu Ziqing tightened his grip around the rusted sword in his arms and followed behind Er Han into the range of the Abyss of Despair. The instant he saw the Joy Lantern Priest, Yu Ziqing knew that this heretical cultivator did not even possess the most basic sincerity required of a human being.

He had even given a damn fake name.

These heretical cultivators were simply too famous. They were so famous that after seeing one of them only once, Old Yang had been able to fill in every detail aside from his name for Yu Ziqing—and those details were far more comprehensive than during the previous sword-drawing attempt.

Some of that information might have been wrong, but there was enough of it. As long as the core was correct, that was sufficient.

The only thing that could be fake was the name.

In that case, why bother with martial morality?

In an instant, Yu Ziqing's mind raced. Once he stopped, his expression turned solemn. Following Old Yang's instructions, he raised both hands high and cried out.

"The Red Sun's tribulation is spent; the White Sun shall rise."

"Qing Ziyu greets his elder brother."

The Joy Lantern Priest had never expected to see such a scene.

But before he could think further, the things engraved into his instincts—and even into his Yin God—after decades of brainwashing had already overwhelmed all his thoughts of surprise, doubt, and everything else.

His expression likewise turned solemn. He raised both hands high, fanaticism gleaming in his eyes, and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"The Red Sun's tribulation is spent; the White Sun shall rise."

"Lan Xiaosheng greets his worthy younger brother."

Yu Ziqing held the rusted sword in his hand, his eyelids drooping as he watched the rust flaking from the gaps in the blade. He smiled.

With the information Old Yang had provided beforehand, dealing with a heretical cultivator who had been so thoroughly brainwashed required only a little cleverness.

He understood all too well what such people's weakness was. The place where they were most fanatical and most steadfast was precisely their weakness.

If one dared say even the slightest bad thing about it, they would immediately lose their temper.

Likewise, no matter how much they schemed against one another in their daily lives, when confronted with the thing they worshiped most fanatically and held most firmly in their hearts, they would certainly be devout and sincere. They could not tolerate the slightest falsehood.

In an instant, the aura around Yu Ziqing erupted like an explosion, climbing exponentially. A fierce momentum burst forth and sent Er Han tumbling backward on the spot.

The Joy Lantern Priest had no idea what was happening. He did not know that because they had been so famous—and had even been hunted down by several Divine Dynasties, which had then spent more than a decade cleaning up the remnants for fear that their purge had not been thorough enough—there was already a complete database on them.

Old Yang had merely followed the clues and slightly connected them, yet he had filled in the vast majority of the puzzle.

And the one who completed the final piece was the Joy Lantern Priest himself.

He did not understand why Yu Ziqing had shown him such a greeting either, but that no longer mattered.

Even a fool could now tell that this man before him, whose aura was rapidly climbing, intended to kill him.

The white lantern in the Joy Lantern Priest's hand began spinning on its own. A huge character, "Mourning," turned toward Yu Ziqing, and blazing white radiance shone upon him, enveloping his entire body.

The Joy Lantern Priest chanted a strangely accented hymn. His voice grew louder and louder, the demonic sound turning into countless invisible, omnipresent spikes that pierced the eardrums and burrowed into the mind.

Yu Ziqing stood where he was, then suddenly raised his eyelids. Strands of lightning flickered before his eyes. It was a manifestation of mental power so immense that it had overflowed from his eyes.

Lightning was born in his eyes; a dark room gave birth to white light.

Looking now, he saw that the white radiance formed from the white lanterns was like countless thin threads, weaving together into a huge net that covered his body. The demonic sounds, meanwhile, had transformed into countless savage white-faced monsters no larger than mosquitoes and flies. They surged toward him in a blanket of darkness, burrowing into his ears, his mouth, his skin—everywhere on his body.

The bizarre melody transformed into an invisible force. Along with the Joy Lantern Priest's soul power, it churned through and infiltrated his soul.

Yu Ziqing merely stood there without doing anything. He did not feel any harm at all.

He simply did not want it to happen, and barriers that could not be crossed appeared all over his body, blocking everything from the other side. Even the white radiance only reached a fraction of an inch beyond his skin.

He needed to do nothing. As long as he wished it, as long as he spoke, it seemed to be enough.

Thus, he raised his head and shouted.

"How dare you!"

With a thought, blazing Sun energy transformed into roaring flames and set all the white radiance around him ablaze.

The purest Yang energy flames followed Yu Ziqing's will and rolled upward against the white radiance, burning away every last trace of its searing brilliance before setting the white lantern in the Joy Lantern Priest's hand alight as well.

With a sudden whoosh, the lantern turned to ash.

The net in midair and the countless mosquito-sized white-faced monsters also turned to dust with that shout, vanishing without a trace.

The Joy Lantern Priest groaned. It was as if lightning had struck him; black blood streamed from his seven orifices, his Yin God shook violently, and his consciousness nearly scattered.

A thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.

The backlash has come.

The opponent is an expert on the path of Spirit Refining—Out-of-Body?

No, far higher than Out-of-Body.

His Yin God has not even left his body, yet he can still wield flames formed from such pure Yang energy, directly reversing all his power and forcibly stuffing it back into him. Could it be that he has already cultivated a Yang God?

He had no time to think further. Above his crown, a somewhat illusory Joy Lantern Priest radiating a chill had already flown out.

With merely one shout, his Yin God had been forcibly shaken from his body.

The next moment, Yu Ziqing, who had always been holding a short sword, drew it and slashed. A point of cold light flashed, and his Yin God and physical body were cleaved in two together.

Yet at that moment, a mutation suddenly occurred.

The little stage that had been repeating endlessly seemed to have had its pause button pressed.

Cècè, whom Yu Ziqing had always treated as a cartoon figure and chattered at on his own every day, reached out and grabbed at the air. The Joy Lantern Priest's Yin God, cleaved in two, was forcibly drawn together by a powerful force, as though it were fighting over him with some unknown power.

Lightning flickered in Yu Ziqing's eyes. He clearly saw that when Cècè suddenly acted and the Joy Lantern Priest's Yin God was torn apart, individual Runes flew out of the Yin God. Those Runes took the form of a chain, one end rooted in the Joy Lantern Priest's Yin God and the other rooted in an unknown void.

The chain was struggling against the power of the Abyss of Despair, fighting over that Yin God.

Yu Ziqing did not hesitate in the slightest. Wherever his thoughts went, the short sword in his hand followed, carrying a point of cold light as it slashed down on the illusory Rune chain.

The chain suddenly shattered and dispersed, while the Yin God was squeezed into a ball by an invisible force and thrown into the pitch-black abyss beyond the cliff.

It was the final day. Whether you vote or not doesn't really matter; I'm just reminding you not to waste the opportunity. This month has only twenty-eight days, and tomorrow is the first. Remember to cast your votes. It's a new month, and the book is up for recommendation, so the numbers are quite important.