Thick Earth Gives Birth to Metal

The massive ochre hand dispersed in midair, and the cloyingly sweet spiritual mist by Heartmoon Lake came to a complete standstill.

Liu Qingyan's body turned into yellow sand, falling with a soft rustle when the wind blew.

She perished completely, her fragrance and beauty gone.

Like dew, like lightning, a sharp pain suddenly pierced the depths of the souls of every cultivator immersed in the dreamscape.

"Ah!"

The Ritual was forcibly halted, and the Yin Force weaving the illusion came to an abrupt stop.

A fat merchant who had been hugging spirit stones at empty air had the smile on his face freeze at once.

With a miserable scream, he clutched his head and rolled across the ground.

More people were violently dragged out of the illusion by that agonizing pain. The immortal realm and beauties before their eyes collapsed in an instant.

Turbid ochre waves surged across Heartmoon Lake, and a pungent earthy stench filled the air. Flower-Washing City had been sealed off just like that.

"What the hell is going on?" "The illusion's gone—ow, my head hurts!" "This formation belongs to the Earth Spirit Sect?!"

The crowd instantly descended into chaos. Not only were there numerous Rogue Cultivators, even sect disciples wore baffled expressions.

"What happened? Was this Senior Sister's arrangement?"

Thousands of cultivators had been in the height of bliss one moment, only to be brutally interrupted the next!

That sense of loss drove them mad, and the scene exploded out of control.

"Form up, quickly! Guard your minds!"

Several sect disciples barely steadied themselves and shouted, trying to organize everyone into resistance.

Lu Chen was also jolted awake by that needle-prick pain.

All the pleasures he had enjoyed in the illusion vanished like smoke, leaving him dizzy and disoriented, as though he had been hollowed out.

"Turtle Elder, Turtle Elder! What the hell is going on?"

Receiving no response, Lu Chen roared in fury.

"It's Xu Sheng. It has to be that bastard Xu—he set every one of us up!"

As expected, there was a problem.

The instant the illusion shattered, Shen Qingzhou regained complete clarity. He had been affected only slightly.

Frowning, he raised his head and looked straight toward the very top of the viewing platform.

Xu Sheng stood there. Under the ochre glow, his bald head gave off an inhuman, eerie wickedness.

Shen Qingzhou felt the urge to retreat. He had already achieved his goal; he should not be greedy, and it was time to leave.

He secretly swept the surroundings with the method of Dao-Rhyme Revelation.

The core imagery of the grand formation was harvest, granaries, and storage. Its primary purpose was confinement, locking the essence, qi, and spirit of every living being in the city in place and preventing them from leaking out.

But a formation like this alone could never trap every cultivator here to death. So long as he found a weakness in its operation, he could escape.

Shen Qingzhou immediately set off, not daring to delay for even a moment. This concerned his life!

On the platform, Xu Sheng spread his arms, his expression fanatical as his lips moved ceaselessly, as though he were chanting an ancient sacrificial text.

"Wèi Earth is a granary; it shall receive the spirits of the five grains and nourish countless people..."

"In a bountiful year, on a bountiful day, the hour is near. Open the granary and release the grain; offer sacrifice to ghosts and gods!"

As his murmured chant continued, countless altar temples emerged beneath the entire city. When they activated together, a terrifying force spread outward.

The Plain Maiden Sect had gravely underestimated Xu Sheng's scheme. Those formations and those transactions had all been laying the groundwork for this day.

Once unleashed.

Within the city, whether they were followers of Earth Mother Palace or ordinary commoners who knew nothing at all, wisps of white vapor rose from above their heads.

This was the essence, qi, and spirit of their entire beings, stripped away in a bizarre manner.

The white vapor converged and surged toward the center of Heartmoon Lake in one overwhelming flood.

Xu Sheng's body began to swell bit by bit. It was as if he had tasted some rare delicacy, and a trace of enjoyment appeared on his face.

Very soon... he became a bloated, obese giant.

Yet his body did not stop expanding. Instead, it only grew worse and worse.

His aura kept rising. He had already been at the peak of Qi Refining; now that fullness had overflowed, he was brimming with violent power.

He was going to explode and die!

However, Xu Sheng opened his eyes, and a wave of divine consciousness far beyond Qi Refining erupted.

Foundation Establishment divine consciousness.

Such formidable soul power nearly instantly stabilized the situation and brought the force on the verge of exploding under control.

"He actually possesses the soul power of Foundation Establishment. How did he do it? He wants to establish his foundation here!"

"Madman! He's insane! He's using all the living beings in the city as provisions to force his way through the barrier!"

Every cultivator present changed expression.

"Stop him!" Lu Chen roared. He had always hated such demonic conduct most in his life.

Treating human lives as grass and dust—he deserved death!

A heavy phantom of an ochre greatsword condensed into form and cleaved down at Xu Sheng's head. "Kill!" "If this fiend is not eliminated, heaven's justice will not allow it!"

The other cultivators who had reacted also attacked one after another. For a time, sword light, talisman fire, and magical treasures all struck toward Xu Sheng.

"By the decree of the Earth Mother, protect my true body!"

The Earth Spirit Sect disciples behind Xu Sheng wore fanatical expressions of martyrdom as they charged forward without regard for their lives. The puppets refined into Dao Soldiers also poured out from the shadows, forming line after line of defense and using their own bodies to block the attacks.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Explosions of spells rang out one after another. Earth Spirit Sect disciples and Dao Soldiers fell in swaths, only for those behind them to fill the gaps. They seemed incapable of feeling pain, their eyes holding nothing but absolute loyalty.

For a time, the cultivators could not advance even an inch.

Just as the battle reached a stalemate, Xu Zhaoye appeared in the center of the battlefield at some unknown moment.

He still looked as slovenly as ever, with a wine gourd in hand, but his formerly cloudy eyes were now astonishingly bright.

He drew the longsword at his waist.

"Hummm!"

The instant the blade left its sheath, an utterly sharp and murderous aura swept across the entire field.

Kang Metal Lineage! Master of slaughter!

The next moment, a brilliant golden sword light flashed forth, fast to the extreme, sharp to the extreme.

An Earth Spirit Sect cultivator at Qi Refining, Eighth Layer, who had been casting a spell to fend off Lu Chen, froze with fanaticism still on his face. A thin bloodline appeared between his brows, and then his entire body was shredded into a cloud of blood mist by the fierce Sword Qi.

The sword light did not pause in the slightest. With a turn, it pierced straight through another disciple's heart.

Xu Zhaoye's figure darted through the Earth Spirit Sect's battle lines like lightning, unstoppable and irresistible.

In no more than a dozen breaths, the Earth Spirit Sect disciples besieging Lu Chen and the others had been beaten into a scattered mess by him alone. Their lines completely collapsed.

Qi Refining, Ninth Layer! And a Kang Metal Lineage inheritance whose combat power far surpassed those of the same realm!

Shen Qingzhou narrowed his eyes.

He had known long ago that Xu Zhaoye was no simple man, but he had not expected him to be this powerful.

"Many thanks, Senior Brother!" Lu Chen said, both shocked and admiring, hurriedly clasping his hands.

Xu Zhaoye did not even glance at him. Carrying his sword, he walked step by step toward Xu Sheng atop the platform.

The pressure of the entire field concentrated on him alone.

At this moment, Xu Sheng's Foundation Establishment seemed to have reached its most critical and most dangerous stage.

Cracks began appearing across the surface of his body, which had been stretched to its limit, while immense spiritual energy poured uncontrollably outward.

"He's going to fail..."

Turtle Elder said gravely within Lu Chen's sea of consciousness, "His Qi Seed is of too low a grade. It simply cannot withstand such an immense infusion of spiritual energy. If he forcibly establishes his foundation, there is only one outcome—his body will explode and he will die!"

Quite a few cultivators present had also seen this.

A ninth-grade Wèi Earth Qi Seed, yet he dreamed of ascending to heaven in a single step? It was simply a fool's dream.

Xu Zhaoye had already raised his sword. Golden sword radiance flickered from its edge, waiting only for the moment when Xu Sheng suffered the fiercest backlash to deal him a fatal strike.

But why would he do this?

Breaking through under everyone's watchful eyes—if he failed, was that not certain death?

Yet just as everyone thought Xu Sheng was finished, Xu Zhaoye frowned deeply, seized by a sense of foreboding.

A strange smile appeared on that bloated, distorted fat face.

"Don't you know that after harvest... comes returning to storage, offering sacrifice to ghosts and gods?"

He formed a hand seal to invoke the descent, then Xu Sheng suddenly slapped his own dantian!

Rumble!

In an instant, the grand formation covering the entire city reversed!

Not in the physical sense, but rather... every image of [Wèi Earth] had been overturned!

"What is this?"

Shen Qingzhou's pupils contracted. Flower-Washing Creek, several rivers in the city, and the underground water veins were forcibly stirred into motion, turning into black water dragons that washed over every node of the formation.

Within Shen Qingzhou's sea of consciousness, the warning from Dao Strife became incomparably intense.

He "saw" a familiar aura mixed into the stirred water veins—it was Kan Water Jade!

No, it was not merely Kan Water Jade!

There were three other types of water-element spiritual materials that he had never encountered, yet which likewise came from the constellations!

Zhen Water Lineage, Winnowing Basket Water Lineage, Wall Water Lineage, Kan Water Lineage!

Shen Qingzhou's eyes burned with desire. What he had struggled to find was now before him: water-element spiritual materials from all four constellations had gathered together!

"By decree."

The instant the formation reversed, Xu Sheng's body rapidly shriveled, and his immense vital essence flowed out of him like water.

His flesh, bones, meridians, and skin took on an ash-white hue, with the texture of a clay statue. At some unknown time, gold joss paper for burning incense began drifting down from the sky.

"No... this isn't the Wèi Earth Tradition!"

The more Shen Qingzhou watched, the stranger it became. He murmured in shock as his thoughts raced.

Water served as the medium, scouring Wèi Earth. What was washed away was the life within the earth; with the incense-and-faith divine path as a bridge, what settled was pure deathly intent!

The Five Elements transformed into one another. Earth naturally gave birth to metal.

But ordinary earth giving birth to metal produced yang metal. Now, with the power of the yin waters of four constellations, Wèi Earth stripped of all yang and vitality was transforming in another direction!

"Washing away yang harmony, allowing yin turbidity to settle... this is clearly a ritual method for transforming earth into metal?!"

"Heavenly timing... favorable terrain... even the signs of a failed Foundation Establishment—the harmony of people is all present. What a deep scheme... he wants to convert to Ghost Metal!"

After his cultivation had improved, Shen Qingzhou finally understood Xu Sheng's plot!

Ghost Metal Ram among the seven constellations of the southern Vermilion Bird governed piled corpses, sacrifices, and the boundary between yin and yang!

Everything before this had merely been surface appearances. The three-layered, nested Ritual had finally revealed its deepest face.

Xu Sheng did not merely want to establish his foundation!

He knew himself that with his ninth-grade Qi Seed, establishing the foundation of [Wèi Earth] was as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Thus, he had opened another path and chosen a different road.

He intended to use the souls of an entire city as sacrifices, transforming this flourishing city of the living completely into a...

Ghost city!