Big Dipper Demon Sealing

Zhou Qing bit his finger and walked over to the golden silkworm, tapping its gold-foil-like shell. "Good heavens, it actually rivals Prime Gold of Taiyi. My god, it's already this formidable before evolving to four wings—just how powerful will it be with six wings?" Zhou Qing used his blood to draw a symbol on the golden silkworm's head. At once, a sensation of flesh and blood being linked flowed into his body.

"Hehe, this move combined with Ancient Witchcraft is truly marvelous. I can feel it so quickly. Right! Why does this Refining Compendium of mine seem like such a hodgepodge? It has everything—ancient secrets, all kinds of magic treasures, formations, heavenly treasures and earthly materials, all recorded in crystal-clear detail—yet there is no cultivation method. Could this book be incomplete? Is there an upper volume or a lower volume? It seems our sect was no simple one in the past. What a pity that old ghost Ling Yun was muddleheaded and never explained things clearly. Then again, he might not have known himself." Zhou Qing shook his head and cast aside his wild thoughts.

"One birthed two; Taiji birthed the Two Elements; yin and yang divided, bloodlines passed on. By the law, swiftly execute! Go!" A bead of blood the size of a soybean burst from Zhou Qing's bitten finger. Green light flowed within the blood; Zhou Qing had used a secret art to attach a fragment of his divine sense to it. I've cultivated the Soaring Sword Qi Art for so long that even my blood has turned green! Zhou Qing thought. What a pity that my flying sword was snapped in two by that 'big guy' over there. Looks like I'll have to refine it anew. I wasn't satisfied with that Azure Lock Sword anyway, so this works out well. As he spoke, Zhou Qing glanced at the Blood-Devouring Divine Saber embedded in the ground. That 'big guy' is fierce enough, but it's hard to control. One careless moment, and it'll suck me dry into a desiccated corpse. If I used it as my Second Primordial Spirit, then... Zhou Qing let his imagination run wild.

With a flick of his hand, the soybean-sized drop of blood sank into the Six-Winged Golden Silkworm's body. That faint fragment of divine sense swiftly made a circuit through the silkworm's body. Within the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Zhou Qing had thoroughly grasped the Six-Winged Golden Silkworm's bodily structure and characteristics. Then, his divine sense stopped in the silkworm's brain and slowly nurtured itself, growing stronger.

Left! Right! Attack! A mass of golden light the size of a dou flew back and forth through the sky. Its two fan-sized wings whipped up sandstorms within a radius of ten zhang, frightening away countless nocturnal rattlesnakes and venomous scorpions that had come out to hunt for food. As Zhou Qing shouted the command to attack, the golden silkworm opened its mouth and spat out a golden, arrow-shaped beam over a foot long. Pfft! It plunged into the ground, and Zhou Qing hurried over to inspect it. Good heavens—the hole had bored to an unknown depth, black as pitch. The sand within a foot-wide radius around its mouth had melted. When the cold wind blew, the molten grains solidified into crystalline chunks, limpid and translucent like the finest red jade.

"So the golden silkworm is fire-aspected. No wonder it likes devouring souls. Only such powerful true fire qi can refine yin souls and transform them into its own power!" Zhou Qing sent all his consciousness into the golden silkworm's body. "Wow! Flying through the air feels incredible!" At that moment, the golden silkworm was Zhou Qing. Looking at his own insect-like body, even Zhou Qing found it unbelievable. "The wonders of creation truly lie beyond the comprehension of ordinary people like us. This Second Primordial Spirit is simply too marvelous—it's like having two bodies, two identical selves. Haha, this golden silkworm body is incredibly powerful, though it is a little ugly. I must cultivate diligently and attain human form as soon as possible. Then it will truly be a Second Primordial Spirit."

At his command, the Six-Winged Golden Silkworm shrank back to a little over an inch long and flew into Zhou Qing's mouth. Zhou Qing closed his eyes and looked inward, seeing the Six-Winged Golden Silkworm settled within his Dantian. Threads of spiritual power flowed from his Spiritual Platform through his meridians into his Dantian, perfectly merging with his own True Essence before melting into the golden silkworm. The silkworm's head also grew increasingly indistinct, faintly taking on the appearance of Zhou Qing's face.

Zhou Qing had long since committed the cultivation method for the Second Primordial Spirit to heart, so he was not surprised in the slightest. Cultivating a Second Primordial Spirit requires a tremendous amount of spiritual power! Hehe, yin souls are precisely condensations of spiritual power. If this golden silkworm absorbs a great number of yin souls, then combines that with Liao Xiaojin's Nine Li Sacred Blood, I'm confident I can cultivate a Second Primordial Spirit within a month. A Second Primordial Spirit in one month—I'm probably the only one from ancient times to the present who can do that. Haha! Zhou Qing thought proudly.

"Looks like it's time to deal with this big fellow." Zhou Qing muttered to himself as he looked at the Nether Blood-Devouring Divine Saber surrounded by his Big Dipper Demon Sealing Formation. "You 'big guy,' do me a favor and stop being naughty, all right? I only need a tiny bit—a tiny bit of the yin souls you've absorbed will be enough!" As though it had understood Zhou Qing's words, the Nether Blood-Devouring Divine Saber suddenly trembled, releasing piercing shrieks like a night owl suddenly screeching in the darkness. Goosebumps rose all over Zhou Qing's body.

"Could this saber have developed its own consciousness? Impossible! Since ancient times, I've never even heard of a magic treasure possessing its own consciousness! Not even the supreme magic treasures from the ancient Investiture of the Gods War had such a thing! Though you also came from that era, you still cannot compare to treasures like the God-Striking Whip, Heaven-Turning Seal, Primal Chaos Golden Dou, Ocean-Stabilizing Pearl, Earth Center E-Ji Banner, and the like, can you? Even they possessed no consciousness. How could you possibly have one?" Zhou Qing voiced his doubts.

Upon hearing Zhou Qing's voice, the saber trembled even more violently, and the seven large stones around it shook along with it. The four eyes of the two-headed wolf on the hilt blazed with green light so solid it seemed tangible. Icy currents poured from the blade, sending the surrounding sand flying. Zhou Qing's expression finally changed. He hurriedly pulled out the bottle containing Liao Xiaojin's blood, dipped his fingers in it, and rapidly drew seven profound talismans upon the seven dou-sized stones. The talismans flashed with golden light and vanished, while invisible golden radiance faintly shot toward the Ninth Heaven. Suddenly, the seven stars of the Big Dipper shone brilliantly overhead. Faint starlight fell upon the seven stones. With a hum, the seven stones reflected the power of the Big Dipper's celestial stars, firing seven gleaming rays toward the Nether Blood-Devouring Divine Saber embedded in the direction of the North Star.

The seven dazzling rays clashed head-on with the Nether Blood-Devouring Divine Saber's green light. An invisible pressure and a barely perceptible force field surged outward. Thud! Thud! Thud! Zhou Qing was forced back three steps, but he was not surprised. If the Nether Blood-Devouring Divine Saber were so easy to handle, it would not be an ancient fiendish object. Taking advantage of the fact that its main body seemed to have been sealed by someone, then wounded by heavenly lightning, Zhou Qing used the Big Dipper Demon Sealing Formation passed down by the Xuantian Big Dipper Zhenwu Great Emperor to draw upon the Big Dipper's unique divine power of dispelling evil. He intended to suppress the fiendish soul within the saber in one stroke, then study the secret of the Twelve Divine Demon Annihilation Formation said to be one of the three great ancient fiendish formations, on par with the Immortal Slaughtering Sword Formation and the Two Elements Dust Formation.

The Nether Blood-Devouring Divine Saber had been forged by a great figure of the demonic path during the ancient Investiture of the Gods War. That demonic master gathered Nine Heavens Mysterious Iron, Shoushan Red Copper, and eighty-one rare materials from heaven and earth, spending more than three hundred years forging the blade. Still dissatisfied, he used heaven-reaching means to forcibly imprint the ancient fiendish Twelve Divine Demon Annihilation Formation into the blade, creating this peerless demonic weapon. During the Investiture of the Gods War, this demonic weapon had shone brilliantly, slaughtering an unknown number of demons, immortals, and devils. Had it not ultimately been defeated by the Seven Treasures Mystical Tree Staff, who knew how much more blood and how many more souls it would have drunk? The Refining Compendium did not record the Twelve Divine Demon Annihilation Formation in much detail, only mentioning it briefly. It did not even contain methods for setting up the Immortal Slaughtering Sword Formation or the Two Elements Dust Formation. Though Zhou Qing could not be called a master of formations, he had achieved a modest level of skill and had always yearned for these legendary three great fiendish formations. Now that he had the chance to glimpse the whole leopard through a single spot, how could he restrain himself? It was like a devout worshipper suddenly seeing Tathagata, a lecherous ghost who had gone without women for a thousand years suddenly seeing a beauty, or a starving ghost suddenly seeing roast chicken.

Magic treasures were originally dead objects. No matter how powerful a treasure was, once it lost human control, it posed no danger. Yet the Blood-Devouring Divine Saber was an exception. After gathering for countless years, the vengeful souls and malignant spirits absorbed by the Twelve Divine Demon Annihilation Formation within the blade had become so numerous that even the saber itself could no longer contain them. Gradually, they had formed a trace of consciousness, capable of controlling a few of the saber's most basic functions. Zhou Qing had seen precisely this point. He intended to use the Big Dipper Demon Sealing Formation to suppress that trace of consciousness, uncover the mysteries of the Twelve Divine Demon Annihilation Formation within the saber, then use the formation's power to scatter that consciousness. His golden silkworm Second Primordial Spirit could then absorb the spiritual energy of the remaining souls, allowing the silkworm to condense a true body and achieve supreme mystic arts.

Sweat covered Zhou Qing's forehead as he formed hand seals. With every gesture, the starlight of Big Dipper Tian Shu, Big Dipper Tian Quan, Big Dipper Tian Xuan, Big Dipper Tian Ji, Big Dipper Yu Heng, Big Dipper Kai Yang, and Big Dipper Yao Guang grew more brilliant. The seven crystalline pillars of light also thickened, gradually pressing down the Nether Blood-Devouring Divine Saber's green glow. "Damn it! Why does this consume so much cultivation power? If I hadn't cultivated the Soaring Sword Qi Art and greatly increased my power, how could I have maintained this formation for so long? Although this formation is not as powerful as the Four Aspects Absolute Killing Formation, its unique divine might to shatter evil is proving immensely useful now!" The green light continued to dim, yet it remained extraordinarily tenacious. The final thread of green radiance stubbornly blocked the starlight's assault. Zhou Qing suddenly exerted force several times, yet could not break through. Then his mind abruptly sank into an incomparably subtle and profound state. Everything around him seemed to freeze for an instant. He bit the tip of his tongue and—Pfft!—spat out a mouthful of blood. Zhou Qing had finally brought out the skill he kept at the bottom of his chest. That mouthful of blood, carrying the natal qi he had painstakingly cultivated for five years, crashed into the starlight. Boom! The green radiance shattered into pieces, and Zhou Qing's natal essence blood joined the seven rays of starlight in striking the saber's body with savage force.

The blade let out a pained wail. It had already been gravely wounded by heavenly lightning, and the trace of consciousness formed from the vengeful souls and malignant spirits had not existed long enough. Most of its spiritual power was tightly bound by the Twelve Divine Demon Annihilation Formation, allowing it to control only a few basic functions of the blade itself. Otherwise, even if Zhou Qing had been ten times or a hundred times stronger, he could never have broken through the green light's defenses. The instant the starlight struck the saber's body, a fragment of Zhou Qing's consciousness swiftly found the Twelve Divine Demon Annihilation Formation that the demonic master had imprinted upon the two-headed wolf on the hilt. Countless profound symbols and formation diagrams flooded into Zhou Qing's mind. Despite his exceptional composure, Zhou Qing was genuinely frightened into breaking out in a cold sweat. What luck! If the Blood-Devouring Divine Saber's body had not been wounded by the Seven Treasures Mystical Tree Staff, and if the Twelve Divine Demon Annihilation Formation had not been tightly suppressing a mass of pure Vast Righteous Qi left within the blade by the Seven Treasures Mystical Tree Staff, leaving it no time to deal with me, this fragment of my consciousness might have lost even its main body and been drained clean by the Twelve Divine Demon Annihilation Formation. Then I truly would have been doomed beyond all salvation for eternity. So that's why those vengeful souls and malignant spirits have their divine consciousness erased the moment they enter the Twelve Divine Demon Annihilation Formation, turning into the most basic spiritual energy—how could they have formed a consciousness of their own? So that was it! Hehe! Now that I've grasped the formation's basic functions, I may not be able to completely control it, but it is enough to destroy that consciousness and extract the remaining spiritual energy. Given time, once I fully comprehend how this formation operates, with human control over the Twelve Divine Demon Annihilation Formation, driving out the energy left in the blade by the Seven Treasures Mystical Tree Staff will not be difficult. Then I can refine this Nether Blood-Devouring Divine Saber into my own magic treasure. Wouldn't that make me invincible beneath heaven? Zhou Qing marveled at the sheer abundance of his luck. It was as if a spark had landed and the fire had caught at once.

"Big Dipper Demon Sealing, withdraw!" Since he had found the solution, and the remaining trace of consciousness among the vengeful souls and malignant spirits outside had also been scattered by him and sunk into the Twelve Divine Demon Annihilation Formation, there was no need to maintain the Big Dipper Demon Sealing Formation. Zhou Qing stepped forward and gripped the hilt. Relying on the tiny bit of understanding he had just gained of the Twelve Divine Demon Annihilation Formation, he circulated his True Essence and instantly activated the formation's soul-refining function. The formation was wondrous beyond compare. Though ninety-nine percent of its power had to suppress the pure Vast Righteous Qi left in the blade by the Seven Treasures Mystical Tree Staff, refining the trace of consciousness produced by those vengeful souls and malignant spirits was effortless. Zhou Qing sensed streams of pure spiritual energy, invisible to the naked eye, escaping from the saber. He immediately summoned his golden silkworm Primordial Spirit. It took the time of an incense stick for it to absorb everything.

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! After the Six-Winged Golden Silkworm absorbed that immense spiritual energy, its head began to split apart. The shell, thin as gold foil yet nearly as hard as Prime Gold of Taiyi, sank piece by piece into its body. Zhou Qing's face gradually grew from its head, until at last the head had completely transformed into one identical to Zhou Qing's. Witnessing such an eerie sight, Zhou Qing was not alarmed at all—only delighted. "Haha! It's enough that the head has formed!" Zhou Qing sent only a fragment of consciousness into the golden silkworm's head. When it merged with the fragment he had left behind, he discovered that the consciousness he had planted in the silkworm's brain to slowly nurture had grown by more than a hundredfold. It was even several times stronger than the consciousness of his own main body. Once it completely condenses a true body, this Second Primordial Spirit's dao arts and formations may well be ten times stronger than those of my own Primordial Spirit. I must cultivate diligently as well. I cannot abandon my cultivation simply because my Second Primordial Spirit is powerful. After all, if I wish to achieve the immortal path in the future, I must still rely on my main body. Looking down at his human-headed, insect-bodied form, Zhou Qing felt even more that it was neither fish nor fowl. He raised his head toward the sky. The morning star had appeared. Dawn was coming!

In one night, Zhou Qing felt that his gains had truly been immense. Setting aside the formation of his Second Original Spirit, even his simple comprehension of the Twelve Divine Demon Annihilation Formation had benefited him enormously. Many things he had previously only half understood regarding the use and arrangement of talismans had suddenly become clear, raising his understanding of formations by an entire level. Though his own cultivation had made no progress, and the matter that troubled Zhou Qing most remained unresolved, his combat strength had now increased severalfold at the very least. It was like an ordinary person suddenly obtaining a machine gun. "Sigh! Once my Second Primordial Spirit fully condenses a true body, it should probably be at the initial Spirit Transformation stage! Then I can use Samadhi True Fire to refine the Azure Lock Sword and Violet Firmament Sword into an excellent flying sword for cultivating the Soaring Sword Qi Art! Now that my flying sword has been destroyed, trouble would be hard to handle if I ran into it. Though I can use my Second Primordial Spirit to fight enemies, it would be bad if I accidentally injured my main body. My body isn't as hard as the golden silkworm's!"