Golden Qi Opens an Aperture

"Let the heart reflect the great sun, let the mind guard the zenith. With each inhalation, draw in heavenly light like threads, passing through the crown gate, sinking into the Crimson Palace, and refining the essence of the golden crow within the dantian. With each exhalation, expel turbid filth like smoke, scattering it to the eight extremities, returning it to the Great Void, until body and soul shine clear as glazed crystal..."

Within the resplendent palace cavern, Xu Yan silently recited the Dao text for breathing and cultivation.

His steps were steady as he paced through the hall, his arms circling around his body like swimming dragons, his black robe snapping in the wind.

In a daze, Xu Yan seemed to hear crashing waves striking the shore beside his ears. His sinews and veins were trembling.

His third Formless spirit aperture, the Phoenix Pool Aperture, was also faintly humming within his body.

Every breath he drew and released followed a precise rhythm, like a divine being beating a drum. Within the empty hall, it stirred up an unceasing, muffled rumble.

Gradually, golden qi gathered from every direction!

That surge of heaven-and-earth spiritual power was nearly twice as great as that of his previous aperture-opening art, leaving Xu Yan slightly stunned.

Strands of Taihao golden qi, like a golden river, continuously poured into Xu Yan's Formless Phoenix Pool spirit aperture, washing away the turbid qi.

Luo Yujing narrowed his eyes and whispered to Yan Qing beside him, "Once Fourteenth Junior Brother opens this aperture, the depth and density of his spiritual power will already be no weaker than that of someone with thirty innate apertures."

Yan Qing raised his brows thoughtfully. "For the first time since Great Yin was founded, a Formless one has opened apertures through cultivation. If Little Fourteenth can enter the martial rankings in the Dragon Gate Examination, won't those rotten Confucian scholars in the imperial capital's inner cabinet have their jaws drop?"

"The research of the masters of our clan has finally borne a little fruit." Luo Yujing stroked his chin.

The Shangyin Xun Clan's founding ancestor had been the first to translate the three Primordial Script characters for "Formless Aperture." Generation after generation had also studied the special constitution of the Formless, yet it had never been valued by Great Yin's literary circles.

Xu Yan was not the first Formless person to enter Shangyin Academy.

Over the past several centuries, quite a few Daoists born Formless had come seeking the instruction of the Xun Clan's masters.

The Nine-Palace Dragon Lock locks qi within the nine great apertures. Only then can one control the spiritual power within one's body as freely as one wishes. Yet one must also shatter the other twenty-seven apertures and temper the flesh to the utmost limit of the human path. One wrong step, and the Dao path is utterly destroyed. Difficult... Luo Yujing thought.

The two murmured quietly to one another.

Time trickled away. Within the magnificent ancient hall, golden qi roared and flowed like mighty rivers.

Within Xu Yan's Phoenix Pool spirit aperture, the turbid qi was gradually cleansed away.

After swallowing like a whale and drawing breath like a dragon for half a month, Xu Yan's breathing gradually slowed.

The Formless Phoenix Pool spirit aperture shone above his head like a golden sun, bursting with brilliant radiance.

The golden qi within that spirit aperture was ancient and heavy, yet incomparably sharp, as though it could tear open the air itself, sending chills through the beholder.

Boom!

In an instant, the golden spirit aperture shook violently. Xu Yan abruptly opened his eyes, golden light glimmering in his pupils.

The Formless Phoenix Pool spirit aperture had opened.

Within that golden spirit aperture, a face without eyes, mouth, or nose seemed to drift past, faintly visible and terrifying beyond words.

"Hm?"

This time, Xu Yan noticed it. His brows furrowed.

Luo Yujing and Yan Qing saw it as well. Their expressions froze as they exchanged a glance.

Shangyin's studies regarding the Formless contained no record of such an anomaly. Since the founding of the nation, no one had ever opened a Formless aperture. And records from ancient times concerning the aperture-opening of great predecessors such as the Formless True Person and the Nine-Aperture True Lord had long since been lost.

"All living beings possess form. Only the Formless have neither desire nor want. Could this anomaly be reflecting the state of mind of the cultivator?" Luo Yujing asked.

"No one can help him on this path." Yan Qing said gravely.

Xu Yan's Daoist robe snapped wildly in the golden qi. He immediately withdrew the art, and the spirit aperture returned to his body.

Then he sat cross-legged on the ground, calmed his mind, and pondered with a deeply furrowed brow.

Just as he was thinking, a sudden rumbling sound came from outside, like thunder rolling across the heavens.

The commotion was immense, as though the sky itself were about to collapse.

"What's going on?!" Yan Qing raised his brows.

"It sounds like... the Emperor Bell?"

Boom!

A tremendous crash descended directly from the high heavens.

The resplendent ancient hall violently trembled and swayed as if it were about to collapse, dust and shattered stones flying everywhere.

Xu Yan felt the Human-Serpent Evolution Pattern on his chest glow with faint, scorching heat.

Has it set its sights on me? Xu Yan thought irritably.

Crack—

The beams and pillars above the palace shattered, and a gaping hole was torn open.

The mountain-sized Taihao Emperor Bell came crashing down once more.

"What's happening? Why has the Emperor Bell come back?!" Yan Qing's eyes widened.

"Who is controlling it? Could its artifact spirit have yet to perish?" Luo Yujing's gaze trembled violently.

The two senior brothers reacted swiftly, immediately grabbing Xu Yan by the arms.

Whoosh!

As though shrinking the earth into inches, they vanished from where they stood and sped into the distance.

The Taihao Emperor Bell swayed its enormous bell body with repeated dong, dong, dong sounds.

It emitted an ancient roar, shattering everything that blocked its path.

Even the earth was overturned, as though nothing in this world could serve as an obstacle before it.

Wherever the bell's thunderous toll passed, ancient trees with thick, weathered trunks were snapped apart, while small mountains in its way were leveled to the ground. The disturbance was terrifyingly immense.

And the bell was even faster than before!

Yan Qing and Luo Yujing each gripped one of Xu Yan's arms as they flew forward at top speed.

"Has this Emperor Bell gone mad? Why is it fixated on us?" Luo Yujing panted. Being chased by a Demon King earlier had not been enough; now an ancient artifact had set its sights on them as well.

"Could it be because of the Secret Solar Inheritance?" Yan Qing said.

The Emperor Bell was incomparably swift. In less than half an incense stick's time, it caught up to the three of them.

The dark, mountain-like Taihao Emperor Bell bore down upon them with surging golden qi!

Blinding golden radiance erupted from its mouth, like a searing sun that left people dizzy and disoriented.

"What rotten luck!" Luo Yujing covered his pale face. His eyes felt as though they were being pierced by unbearable pain. With his half-human, half-demon body, the Emperor Bell's suppression was far more potent against him than against humans. He felt as though his flesh itself were about to be shattered.

Just as it was about to fall.

Xu Yan frowned and lowered his head to look at his chest. The light of the Human-Serpent Evolution Pattern grew ever stronger, as though it were answering the Emperor Bell from afar.

In that instant.

A peculiar tide of dharma power erupted. The space within a hundred zhang in every direction seemed to freeze in a single moment.

Scattered leaves stopped in midair, and the dust from crumbling hills along the way quietly stilled as well.

It was as though time itself had stopped flowing.

In the span of a single breath, the Taihao Emperor Bell transformed into a streak of startled-hong light and flew into the Human-Serpent Evolution Pattern on Xu Yan's chest.

By the time they reacted, Luo Yujing and Yan Qing looked up in shock and discovered that the Taihao Emperor Bell had vanished.

"Where is the Emperor Bell?" Yan Qing looked around in bewilderment, utterly confused.

"Damn it, this is truly haunted!" Luo Yujing said in astonishment, then added, "Forget it. Let's get out of here first!"