Wrath of the Witch Race

Chapter 27: Wrath of the Witch Race

The darkness was thick and viscous, like oil that would not dissolve.

When Taiyi woke, the first thing he felt was not pain, but heaviness. His body seemed to have been cast into stone, every inch of flesh and every bone filled with lead, too heavy to lift. Ice crystals and blood scabs crusted over his eyelids, sticking them together. It took great effort just to pry open a narrow slit.

Before him was a blurry, murky darkness.

He was still in that narrow, scorching branch tunnel of the earth vein, thick with the smell of sulfur. His body was curled up and wedged into a hollow in the rock wall. Behind him, rough, burning-hot stone pressed against his wounds, bringing a faint sting that reminded him he was still alive.

His left arm was completely ruined, hanging limply at his side. The bones inside had shattered into powder. The slightest movement sent a piercing pain through him—not pain in his arm, but pain in his mind, deep within his soul. His right arm could still move, but every motion came with a sluggish grinding sensation, like rusted gears being forced to turn.

Pain.

Every part of him, inside and out, hurt. Yet this pain was different from the all-consuming agony of near death. It had become deeper and more lingering, like soreness and dull throbbing seeping from his marrow. His meridians were completely empty, not a drop of mana remaining. Only several utterly different "embers" flowed slowly within him, clashing—the lingering warmth of True Sun Fire, the residual savagery of Blood Fiend Power, the murkiness of earth-vein baleful energy that had invaded him, and the bone-clinging chill left behind by Xuan Ming's law of ice.

Those forces slowly collided, tore at one another, and annihilated each other within his damaged meridians and organs. Every tiny confrontation brought another wave of pain, yet they also seemed to be preventing him from completely collapsing in the most brutal way possible.

He was not dead.

Taiyi made a rasping sound in his throat. He wanted to spit, but only coughed up bloody foam mixed with dark-red fragments of his organs. His mouth was filled with the stench of blood, sulfur, and earth.

The effects of the Witch Blood Powder had probably passed. The warm current that had mimicked Witch Race blood energy and concealed his aura had long vanished. Yet he could feel that the suffocating scan of Xuan Ming's icy rain law outside seemed... farther away? Or perhaps it had become blurred?

No, Xuan Ming had not given up.

The branch tunnel he occupied was simply too deep, too complicated in structure. Moreover, the ancient earth-vein baleful energy and chaotic turbid qi surrounding it were so dense they were nearly tangible, forming a natural, heavy layer of "energy sludge." It offered little defense against physical threats, but it had an extremely strong effect of interference, distortion, and weakening against detection methods that relied on "order" and "clarity," such as divine-sense scans and law-based perception.

It was like searching for one particular grain of sand in a basin of muddy water. The muddier the water, the harder it was to find.

No matter how exquisite and vast Xuan Ming's Law of Rain was, piercing through layers of dense, chaotic "energy sludge" and precisely locating his nearly imperceptible aura would require enormous focus and time. She clearly had not done so immediately—perhaps she had returned to Pangu Hall to report first, or perhaps she was expanding the search area.

In short, he had temporarily gained a moment to catch his breath.

But the danger was far from over. The chaotic conflict inside his body was slowly yet constantly consuming the life force that was already near exhaustion. Without guidance and control, he would sooner or later collapse completely from within and become a wisp of chaotic energy in the depths of this earth vein.

What now?

Taiyi laboriously turned his muddled, throbbing head and surveyed his surroundings. The branch tunnel was narrow, only enough for one person to curl up in. Both ends vanished into thick darkness and rolling turbid qi, their destinations unknown. There was no obvious exit, nor was there any safe space.

He had to deal with the mess inside his body immediately.

His consciousness sank into his sea of awareness.

The Chaos Bell still lay silent in its depths, its luster dim, like a dust-covered stubborn stone. He could not count on it anytime soon.

Within his dantian, the three lotus flowers—gold-red, dark red, and ash-black—were still on the verge of collapse. His mana was exhausted, and the source of True Sun Fire was as weak as a candle in the wind.

Only the imprint of the Heaven-Opening Axe Imprint remained searingly branded into the depths of his consciousness, radiating an unyielding, tyrannical "will."

The Heaven-Opening Axe Imprint...

Taiyi's murky gaze focused slightly. He recalled what he had sensed from that imprint in the desperate situation earlier—not merely the instinct to "cleave" or a will of "conflict."

At its core was the supreme governing will that forcibly "created" within absolute chaos, compelling utterly opposing forces—clarity and turbidity—to coexist and form a new order!

Weren't the chaotic, conflicting forces inside him like a miniature "chaos" on the verge of collapse?

The lingering embers of True Sun Fire were yang, clear, and orderly. The earth-vein baleful energy and residual Blood Fiend Power were yin, turbid, and chaotic. The remnants of Xuan Ming's ice were extreme yin, the coldness of order...

They clashed and annihilated one another because they lacked a powerful "will" to forcibly draw boundaries, establish balance, and compel them into a state where they could at least coexist, however twisted and painful that coexistence might be.

Just as after the Heaven-Opening Axe Imprint cleaved apart chaos, that supreme will forcibly "pressed" the clear and turbid qi into their respective places, forming the first order.

Could he... imitate that?

Could he use the imprint in his sea of awareness itself—or at least the fragment of the concept of "creation and governance" he had comprehended—to guide and sort out these chaotic forces within him?

The thought was extraordinarily dangerous. The will contained within the Heaven-Opening Axe Imprint stood at far too high a level. One mistake, and instead of guiding the conflict, it might treat his fragile soul and body as "chaos" and cleave them apart as well.

But if he did not try, he would die anyway. If he let these forces continue their savage collisions, he would not hold out for long.

He would gamble.

Taiyi used his still-functional right hand to clutch the scorching rock beneath him, his fingertips turning white from the force. He closed his eyes, no longer looking at the darkness outside, and gathered every remaining shred of his feeble consciousness into strands as fine as silk, carefully reaching out to "touch" the searing axe imprint.

Not to activate it, nor to resonate with it.

It was a "request to observe," an attempt to bring the frequency of his consciousness infinitely close to the aspect of the Creation Will concerning "governing conflict" and "establishing order."

Once, he failed. His consciousness struck an invisible iron wall, and the backlash sent agony through his sea of awareness.

Twice, he failed. The imprint did not budge, its scorching sensation only reminding him of his insignificance and presumption.

Three times, four times...

Just as Taiyi's consciousness was about to completely scatter, on the verge of being swallowed by agony and weakness, perhaps because his will to survive was pure and intense enough, or perhaps because the conflict between the forces inside him had reached a critical point near collapse, the axe imprint actually... stirred, ever so slightly.

It was not a tremor, but a deeper "ripple," like the surface of water wrinkling beneath a faint breeze.

An indescribable "feeling" traveled back along that ripple.

It was not a specific method, nor a route for circulating power.

It was a... perspective.

A vast sensation, as though he stood at the beginning of creation, overlooking the separation of clarity and turbidity, the first settling of yin and yang, and all things being forced beneath a supreme will to return to their proper places and perform their respective duties!

Under this "perspective," the several chaotic, conflicting forces within him were no longer an indistinguishable tangle.

The lingering embers of True Sun Fire were a blazing yet weak core, like a fireseed about to go out. It needed protection, but also restraint—not allowed to extinguish completely, yet not allowed to burn him uncontrollably.

The earth-vein baleful energy and residual Blood Fiend Power were violent, murky "impurities," full of destructive power, yet they also contained a primitive, coarse "strength." They could not be allowed to run wild, but neither could they simply be expelled. Their violence had to be guided and transformed into some form of "pressure" or "support."

The remnants of Xuan Ming's ice were a cold, stubborn "foreign force," like ice thorns embedded in his flesh and bones, constantly releasing chill and eroding his vitality. They needed to be isolated, slowly worn away, or... used to "cool" certain overly restless parts.

How?

The "perspective" of the axe imprint gave no answer, but it granted Taiyi an unprecedented "precision of perception" and "instinct for control."

He no longer tried to use his weak mana to forcibly suppress or guide any one force—that was simply impossible.

Instead, he began using his remaining consciousness like the nimblest fingers, carrying out exceedingly subtle "guidance" and "interference" at the borders and weak points where the forces collided.

When the lingering embers of True Sun Fire were about to be completely drowned by the baleful energy, he used his consciousness to "stir" a thread of the icy remnant's cold qi, like a drizzle falling at the edge of a flame. It both restrained the flame from fading too quickly and disrupted the rhythm of the baleful energy's corrosion.

When the earth-vein baleful energy became too violent and tried to burst through his already fragile meridian walls, he guided a trace of the warmth of True Sun Fire and the savage "will" of Blood Fiend Power to form a tiny, temporary "countercurrent vortex" at a critical point, letting the raging baleful energy consume part of itself within.

There was no method, no system. He relied purely on the instinct granted by that "creation perspective," walking a tightrope and dancing on a blade's edge. Every subtle act of guidance consumed the mental strength he had nearly exhausted, bringing even more intense stabs of pain to his soul.

But the effect... was actually there.

The purely destructive clashes between the forces began to undergo extremely subtle "changes." They were still fighting and consuming one another, but their conflict was no longer so disorderly. The rate at which they depleted each other seemed to have... slowed by the slightest fraction?

More importantly, during this forced, agonizing process of "guidance" and "interference," Taiyi's perception and control over his own power, especially his understanding of "conflict" and "balance," were slowly growing in a cruel but efficient manner.

Like raw iron repeatedly hammered and tempered. It was painful, but it removed impurities and made the metal tougher.

His wounds did not worsen further. Wrapped brutally in chaotic energy, his broken bones maintained a fragile stability. His mana had not recovered, but the rate at which his life force drained seemed to have been barely curbed.

He was still alive. And in an unprecedented way, he was "digesting" the "gift" brought by this escape from death—not only his insight into the Heaven-Opening Axe Imprint, but also the "resilience" of a body forced to adapt to the conflict of multiple foreign powers.

And while Taiyi curled up deep within the earth vein, laboriously sorting himself out at the edge of life and death, deepening his comprehension—

At the summit of Buzhou Mountain, outside Pangu Hall.

The atmosphere was oppressive, like the dead stillness before a storm.

Twelve towering figures radiating terrifying auras stood in the plaza. Their forms differed, yet all carried barely concealed fury and... a faint trace of imperceptible suspicion.

Di Jiang, the Ancestral Witch of Space, had the form of a yellow sack, red as cinnabar fire, with six legs and four wings, featureless and muddled. He had no eyes, yet every Ancestral Witch could sense the suppressed rage spreading from him like a volcano about to erupt, making the surrounding space faintly distort and hum.

His "gaze"—or rather, his perception—was nailed to the tightly shut stone doors of Pangu Hall, to the eight glaring characters deeply embedded in the stone wall—

"Eastern Emperor Taiyi was here."

Each character was like a red-hot brand, searing the hearts of every Ancestral Witch and scorching the dignity the Witch Race had inherited for countless ages!

"East—ern—Em—per—or—Tai—yi!"

Di Jiang's voice seemed to be squeezed out from the deepest abyss, carrying the grating echo of metal scraping together. Every syllable made the ground of the plaza tremble.

"Good... what a Demon Emperor! What a feathered beast!" His voice abruptly rose, like countless bolts of thunder exploding within heavy clouds. "You dare set foot in Father God's sacred hall! You dare... defile this holy relic with such a filthy body! And leave behind such... such arrogant words!!"

The final words were nearly roared out. Invisible spatial ripples suddenly spread outward, shaking dust from several distant stone pillars.

All the Ancestral Witches looked grave, fury burning in their eyes. Pangu Hall was the source of their bloodline, the absolute sacred ground of their spirits. Such desecration was no different from throwing their dignity and faith onto the ground and trampling them beneath one's feet!

Di Jiang suddenly turned toward Xuan Ming, who had just returned from the earth veins and still radiated lingering rain-bane chill. Invisible pressure descended upon her like a mountain.

"Xuan Ming! You arrived first! Where is that wretch?! Did you capture and kill him, rip out his soul and refine his spirit, and offer him as sacrifice to Father God?!"

Xuan Ming's expression was as cold as ten thousand years of dark ice. Tiny ice crystals clung to her deep-blue hemp robe, yet she did not move in the slightest beneath Di Jiang's pressure. She slowly shook her head. Her voice was calm, but carried a decisive chill. "I failed. He fled deep into the earth veins, and his trail vanished."

"He escaped?!" Before Di Jiang could speak again, Zhu Rong, the Ancestral Witch of Fire, whose beast-headed, human-bodied form burned with raging flames, strode forward. The black stone beneath his feet instantly heated to red and softened, hissing as it did. "Xuan Ming! You are the Ancestral Witch of Rain, master of law, capable of sealing off a thousand miles! Yet you let a severely wounded Grand Unity Golden Immortal on the brink of death slip away right beneath your eyes?!"

The suspicion and dissatisfaction in his words were completely undisguised.

Xuan Ming turned her icy eyes toward Zhu Rong. The temperature of the surrounding air plummeted. The ground between them instantly became half scorched black and smoking, half covered in white frost.

"Zhu Rong," Xuan Ming said, her voice even colder than her eyes, "if you think this matter is so easy, go into the earth veins and investigate it yourself. See whether that 'severely wounded, dying' Eastern Emperor Taiyi is truly as easy to handle as you imagine."

"You!" The flames around Zhu Rong surged, and scorching waves of heat rolled outward.

"Enough!" Di Jiang cut him off sharply, using the power of space to forcibly separate the opposing auras of the two. Though he was furious as well, he retained a shred of reason as their leader. "Xuan Ming, tell us in detail! How did he escape? What was unusual about him?"

Xuan Ming withdrew her gaze from Zhu Rong and looked toward Di Jiang. After a brief pause, she said, "First, his perception of and response to my Law of Rain differed from the ordinary. He did not resist it head-on. Instead... he seemed able to detect tiny 'stagnations' and 'gaps' within the circulation of my law, then use clever force to draw upon and magnify them, creating brief openings to contend with me and flee."

"He could detect gaps in a law?" Houtu, the Ancestral Witch of Earth, with a human body and serpent tail, seven hands behind her back, two hands before her chest, and soaring serpents in her grasp, spoke softly. Her gentle voice carried a trace of inquiry. "At the Grand Unity realm, one gains some comprehension of laws. But to accurately seize and exploit such minute details in the operation of an Ancestral Witch-level law... I have never heard of such a thing."

"What a joke!" On the other side, Gonggong, the Ancestral Witch of Water, with the head of a python, a human body, two black dragons beneath his feet, and black scales over his body, gave a deep sneer. His scarlet eyes were full of contempt. "Xuan Ming, could it be that you have spent too long in the north and neglected cultivation? Perhaps even your control over laws has developed flaws, allowing a wounded little insect to exploit them, and now you have come here with mysterious excuses?"

Those words struck at the heart of the matter. Several Ancestral Witches frowned, but most did not speak to refute him. Clearly, many shared similar doubts. After all, for a Grand Unity Golden Immortal—even if he was Eastern Emperor Taiyi—to accomplish this was truly beyond reason.

Xuan Ming's expression turned even colder. Fine crystals of ice and snow began to condense and drift around her from thin air. "Gonggong, whether I gave my all is not for you to judge. If you do not believe what I sensed, go into the depths of the earth veins and find him yourself. I only fear..." She paused, her voice freezing. "You will not even catch his shadow before you stumble and fall."

"Impudent!" Black water surged around Gonggong, and baleful qi rose.

"Both of you, stop!" Di Jiang roared again, his powerful spatial fluctuations suppressing their restless auras. His mind was in turmoil, fury and humiliation intertwined. Though he found the details Xuan Ming described astonishing, he cared more about the outcome. "Continue! What else was strange?"

Xuan Ming took a deep breath, suppressing the chill in her heart before continuing. "Second, and this is what perplexes me most. When I locked onto his hiding place for the last time and intended to use a flood of law power to crush him completely, the lingering traces of Earth Fire within that earth-vein hollow unexpectedly resonated with some... unusually savage and ancient 'will' on his body. It actively clashed fiercely with my law of ice, creating considerable law turbulence and a collapse of the rock layers. He used that opening to flee deeper, then disappeared."

"Earth Fire resonated? An unusual will?" This time, even Ru Shou, the Ancestral Witch of Metal, who had remained silent all along, with a human face, tiger body, golden scales, and a snake through his left ear, showed surprise.

"Hahahaha!" Zhu Rong, however, seemed to have heard the greatest joke in the world. Throwing back his head, he laughed wildly, his voice shaking the surrounding lands. "Sister Xuan Ming! Either that Chaos Bell sound damaged your mind, or you have frozen yourself stupid in those northern lakes! Lingering Earth Fire? What could that tiny bit possibly do? And some unusual will? Eastern Emperor Taiyi is nothing more than a bird hatched from the Sun Star. What 'ancient will' could he possibly possess? Did you get scared out of your wits and start talking nonsense to give yourself a way out?!"

"Zhu Rong! You!" Cold light erupted from Xuan Ming's eyes. The temperature around her plunged to the edge of absolute zero, and even the air seemed about to freeze and shatter!

"Enough!" Di Jiang's furious shout exploded like thunder, forcibly suppressing the conflict on the verge of erupting. He too found the latter half of Xuan Ming's words somewhat unbelievable, even suspecting that they were excuses for her failure. But at this moment, the towering fury over the desecration of Pangu Hall consumed most of his thoughts.

"No matter what trick Eastern Emperor Taiyi used, no matter what strange thing he possesses!" Di Jiang's voice was decisive and beyond question. "To desecrate Father God's sacred hall is to become an enemy of our bloodline, an enemy of the entire Witch Race! This grudge must be washed away in blood!"

He swept his gaze over the Ancestral Witches and issued his orders one word at a time.

"Pass down my command! Every branch of the Witch Race is to go on full alert from this day forward and enter a state of war! The matter of Pangu Hall is to be sealed for now. No word may spread outside, lest it shake morale and give the Demon Race an opening!"

"But!" His tone shifted, murder intent blazing. "Within our ranks, spare no cost in searching for Eastern Emperor Taiyi's whereabouts! Xuan Ming, you will remain chiefly responsible for this matter. Mobilize every force you can and dig into the depths of the earth veins! I want to see him alive, or see his corpse dead! All other branches are to assist her while closely monitoring the movements of the Demon Race's Heavenly Court, guarding against them using this opportunity to cause trouble!"

"Brother," Houtu suddenly spoke again. Her voice remained gentle, but it carried a steady strength. "Some aspects of what Sister Xuan Ming described are difficult to understand, but Eastern Emperor Taiyi was indeed capable of infiltrating the sacred hall, leaving those words behind, and escaping. He truly possesses extraordinary abilities. The methods he used may perhaps... not be those familiar to us from the Demon Race. While pursuing him, should we also pay attention to investigating their origin?"

Di Jiang "looked" toward Houtu and fell silent for a moment. He knew Houtu had a steady temperament and thought matters through carefully. Her words had to carry deeper meaning. But fury burned through him now, and he only wanted to drag that desecrator out and tear him to pieces as soon as possible.

"What Sister Houtu says is not without reason." Di Jiang barely suppressed his impatience. "If anything unusual is found during the pursuit, it must indeed be noted. But the priority now remains finding him! Dismissed!"

With that, he beat his four wings, and his figure merged into space, disappearing. Clearly, he was eager to enter Pangu Hall and inspect the situation within.

The other Ancestral Witches departed one after another. Before leaving, Zhu Rong threw Xuan Ming a mocking, disbelieving look. With a cold snort, he turned into a streak of fire and vanished. Gonggong also wore a gloomy expression. After glancing at Xuan Ming, he merged into black water and disappeared.

Only Houtu, as she passed Xuan Ming's side before departing, paused almost imperceptibly.

A thread of divine sense, faint beyond measure and carrying the heavy, gentle power of earth, quietly entered Xuan Ming's ear.

"Sister, that 'unusual will' you sensed... did its nature bear a faint resemblance to certain... ancient echoes sleeping within the source of our bloodline in Father God's hall?"

Xuan Ming's icy body suddenly trembled. She abruptly turned to look at Houtu.

But Houtu had already returned to her usual calm dignity. She merely gave Xuan Ming a slight nod, her eyes carrying a hint of meaning and warning. Then she turned away, her figure slowly sinking into the earth beneath her feet before disappearing.

In the empty plaza, the cold wind blew fiercely, leaving Xuan Ming standing alone.

She raised her head and looked toward the massive, desolate body of Buzhou Mountain. Her cold gaze seemed to pierce through endless layers of rock, seeking the figure hidden deep within the chaos of the earth veins—the figure that had made her feel, for the first time, that matters were slipping beyond her control.

"Eastern Emperor Taiyi..." she murmured. The killing intent in her voice had not diminished in the slightest, but for the first time, it carried an indescribable trace of inquiry and gravity.

"What... exactly happened to you?"

The cold wind howled, sweeping up dust and scattering her whisper across the towering summit.

Deep within the earth veins, in that narrow, scorching branch tunnel, Taiyi knew nothing of the storm he had caused or the undercurrents among the Ancestral Witches. His eyes remained shut, and all his consciousness was immersed in the clumsy, dangerous "guidance" of the chaotic forces within him. Relying on the precious "macro perspective" and "instinct for control" granted by the Heaven-Opening Axe Imprint, he struggled upon the line between life and death while laboriously digesting the painful yet profound "gains" brought by this mad adventure.

Healing, comprehending, growing stronger...

Then, at some point, facing once more that cold killing intent which had never truly gone away.