Heaven and earth were dusky yellow.
The three provinces of the Xia Lands grew indistinct beneath windblown sand. The mountain-like corpse of Xi Sheep merged into the earth, becoming a great desert,
with all the strange sights of the Rotting Sea.
Yet within "nurturing earth," another countenance swelled and changed, dazzling with colors and encircled by stars. Primordial, ancient intent manifested with it, filling the sky with virulent poison and plague.
"The countenance of Heavenly Poison."
Xu Fayan's mind was utterly clear. Drawing upon the great authority of earth-nurturing proliferation, he continuously gathered all the history, cause and effect, and authority of origin poison into nurturing earth.
The path of origin poison was incomplete, and its offices scarcely manifested in the present age. Only three remained.
First was [Wisdomlessness]: heaven and earth were benighted, and no wisdom manifested. It could no longer be invoked at all. Second was [Heavenly Pestilence]: it governed plague without and poisonous evil within. This authority seemed borrowed, with another source. Third was [Incomplete Change]: it governed the transformations of living beings throughout past and present, fitting "nurturing earth" exceedingly well.
Night Slaughter had been fully unleashed, destroying his Xi Sheep countenance and Great Wilderness Divine Kingdom, and nearly destroying the foundation of his existence. Now he could only use that Origin Insect to sense "origin poison," temporarily borrowing this countenance of Heavenly Poison.
What was a countenance?
Paths such as dharma forms and dharma bodies mostly relied upon manifestations of a Dao lineage's imagery, differing only in outward manifestation and inward concealment. But a count-
enance was half formed from a True Lord's own divine status, derived from his own Dao fruit, like different possibilities.
His temporary command of this countenance owed not only to nurturing earth's mysteries, but also to the extraordinary compatibility between