On the battlefield, whether it was the First Emperor Ying Zheng struggling to hold on, Xu Fu, whose breathing had grown ragged, or the Shark People and Alchemists still launching frenzied attacks, the power flowing around them all seemed to be sucked away by an invisible giant pump. Before their very eyes, it dimmed and dwindled.
Only Chen Jin remained active in the entire Heaven and Earth Furnace. With [Swallow Sun and Moon] still running wildly, he was devouring the power of the spirit mushrooms.
Faced with such a formidable foe, he wasn't afraid, but he felt a faint unease deep down.
In the distant sky, the leaden clouds were torn to shreds.
Countless Black Birds wreathed in ghostly blue flames converged from every corner of Great Qin's territory, like a rain of meteors flying in reverse!
There were so many of them that they blotted out the sky. In that moment, the empire's entire "Law Eye" turned into flames of revenge, setting the sky above Langya Terrace ablaze.
The firmament became a sea of ghostly blue fire!
Standing at the heart of the formation, the First Emperor Ying Zheng issued a decree from beneath his crown, his voice shaking the four fields:
"Black Birds, heed my command! Aid this righteous hero and purge the land of evil!"
Before his voice had even faded, the Black Birds wheeling across the sky let out a unified shriek. They changed course and became torrents of blue, surging toward Chen Jin in a frenzy.
"Gah—!"
Chen Jin felt the pores all over his body forced open in an instant. A vast, violent force poured into him without warning.
His strength soared wildly. His muscles swelled, his meridians bulged, and an unprecedented sense of fullness swept through his body.
The power came too fast, too fiercely!
Xu Fu, who had been watching coldly, let out a long cry.
"Since Your Majesty is willing to pay such a price, I'll hold nothing back either. I'll use this foreign immortal mechanism as a fuse!"
His hands moved rapidly through seals before his chest. As his fingers flew, afterimages traced out one ancient immortal sigil after another.
The sigils silently sank into the void, reaching out to a lofty presence hidden in the unseen.
"Penglai, Fangzhang, Yingzhou... I bow my head and beseech you now! Grant us the primordial breath of pure spirit, and help this righteous hero break through this cage!"
As he prostrated himself and knocked his head to the ground, milky-white sea mist rose from the heart of the waves, a hundred li beyond Langya Terrace.
The mist seemed imbued with a spiritual aura. It wound over the crests of the waves, shrouding the sea and sky in a hazy veil.
In an instant, a mirage appeared in the void. Palaces and jade towers were faintly visible in the mist, while the silhouettes of three immortal mountains emerged among the rolling clouds, their eaves beaded with dew and their peaks shrouded in blue haze.
The immortal mountains seemed to answer the call. A faint, clear light flowed out of the phantom images and trickled down over Chen Jin like running water.
The power of the Black Birds was pure yang and unyielding, while that of the immortal mountains was pure yin and yielding. One represented the way of humanity, the other the way of the immortals.
Xu Fu had forcibly drawn forth the immortal mountains' projections, and clearly paid a heavy price. His Corpse-Dissection Immortal Body shuddered violently, and he suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood infused with immortal energy. His aura immediately weakened.
"Yanfu Walker, please take note! You have temporarily received the blessings of the Great Qin Water-Virtue Heaven-Monitoring Mystic Bird and the Ancient Mystic Rhyme of the Three Immortal Peaks. While these blessings last, you will be directly promoted to Walker of the Six Ministries and gain the authority to enact laws within Great Qin's territory."
Good! Now there was a chance!
As he tried to control this sudden, immense power and drive [Swallow Sun and Moon] to its limits, to digest the boiling energy within him and the spirit-mushroom power outside his body, something happened—
The [Sun Savior] and [Moon Savior] in his hands, which Jiang Yan had repaired, suddenly lit up from within without warning!
The left spear, [Sun Savior], blazed like the scorching midday sun!
The right spear, [Moon Savior], shone cold and clear, like the moon over a secluded valley!
"Vmm—BOOM!!!"
The two spears exploded in his palms, transforming into a sun and a moon.
Chen Jin finally understood the source of his unease:
The Eight Divine Lords still lacked the power representing the Lord of Sun and the Lord of Moon.
The Sun and Moon Radiance burst forth at point-blank range.
Chen Jin didn't even feel the pain. He only saw most of his body, from his hands to his shoulders, melt like snow, instantly vaporizing and vanishing without a trace.
High in the sky, Jiang Yan's phantom looked down indifferently, his tone edged with mockery:
"You've made an enemy of me, yet you still dare to use weapons I modified with my own hands. Heavenly Human... Heh. Are you really so stupid?"
At last, Heaven, Earth, Sun, Moon, Yin, Yang, War, and the Four Seasons... Every "great ingredient" and "catalyst" required for the alchemy had been forcibly gathered!
Jiang Yan's voice rang out from afar, as if patiently imparting a lesson:
"Today, I'll teach you the meaning of Zhuangzi's 'Theft of the Coffer' once more: 'When sages do not die, great robbers never cease.' Next time you meet someone of great virtue and prestige, you'd better be more wary. The so-called sages may well be great robbers, fattening you up in a cage before harvesting you."
He casually swept his sleeve and reached into the void with his fingertips, drawing out a brilliant mass of light.
[Swallow Sun and Moon], which had been frantically devouring the spirit-mushroom power inside Chen Jin, abruptly stopped. In that instant, Chen Jin forgot how to use the technique.
Jiang Yan had "stolen" [Swallow Sun and Moon] from him from afar!
"You have lost the skill: Swallow Sun and Moon."
"Your Daoist Arts proficiency has been forcibly reduced by 50%."
"You have lost the skill: Heroic Achievement."
"Your Mechanism Art proficiency has been forcibly reduced by 70%."
Of everything he had gained from Jiang Yan, all that remained was Shennong Technique proficiency at 96% and [Bountiful Harvest]. Presumably, those were also necessary conditions for the alchemy. The Lord of the Four Seasons had been chosen because of them.
Having lost [Swallow Sun and Moon], his only means of channeling energy, Chen Jin could no longer restrain the vast life force of the spirit mushrooms he had been refining, nor the violent power of the Black Birds that had just poured into him. The energies burst loose within him like primeval beasts breaking free of their reins.
"Gurgle... splurt..."
His body made a sickening series of sounds.
Beneath his skin, flesh swelled wildly like rising dough. His bones groaned under the pressure.
In the blink of an eye, Chen Jin had lost all semblance of a human shape. He became a pale mound of flesh that continued to writhe and grow, exuding a rich medicinal fragrance and chaotic energy.
Only his head still retained something like its original shape, embedded at the top of the enormous mass.
"Thud! Thud! Thud!"
The mechanized giant Eleven, thoroughly corrupted by the Lord of War's baleful aura and transformed into a weapon of slaughter, strode toward him, shaking the earth with every step.
Its massive metal fists pounded Chen Jin's mound of flesh like a pile driver, again and again, with heavy, mechanical blows.
Each blow sent chunks of flesh flying, only for even more frenzied buds of flesh to quickly grow and fill the gaps, as if it were "tempering" a humanoid pill embryo.
Jiang Yan's voice rang coldly through the world. Every sentence lashed Chen Jin's heart like a whip:
"You were too naïve. I left in the middle of a lesson, and in that enormous Library Pavilion, with your pitiful degree of insight, the only text you happened to be able to study was the Secret Record of Taiyin Eclipse? Such a coincidence, and yet while cultivating it, did not the slightest doubt ever cross your mind?"
"You shut yourself away to study the Nongjia School's Shennong Technique, but your progress was slow. You sat in silence amid the Four Seasons' qi, then in an instant, you reached the point where you could use [Bountiful Harvest]. If the Four Seasons' qi truly had such miraculous effects, the Nongjia School should have been at the head of the court, serving as Great Qin's state preceptor!"
"The imprisoned Lord of the Four Seasons warned you at the last moment, telling you to leave this place of trouble at once. But you insisted on relying on your status as a Heavenly Human and charging straight into the heart of this most perilous maelstrom... Did you really think that being a Heavenly Human meant you could act without fear or restraint?"