Food Immortal Master

"It's right here in my belly," he answered.

"What do you plan to do now?"

"Either find 'Endowed Fortune' to control it, or wait for the Immortal Platform to deal with it."

"'Endowed Fortune'?" Xing Zhi asked.

"A technique Senior Brother Zhu told me about-"

"I know," Xing Zhi interrupted. "That won't work. It can't command a dantian seed."

Pei Ye paused. "You know about it?"

"He... sided with outsiders and got his information from the Immortal Platform. Mine came from Dragon Lord Dongting. Six hundred years ago, one of our predecessors practiced 'Endowed Fortune,' and a few scraps of their account still survive." Xing Zhi's face was pale, her voice level.

"This extraordinary scripture isn't a more ingenious way to command a dantian seed. It's a divine art that lets a person grow one," Xing Zhi said. "In ancient times, it was called the 'Dantian Seed Immortal Method,' though no one knows what 'immortal' meant here."

"That predecessor also gave it another name, the 'Cicada Book,' because it takes over a decade to nurture the seed before finally astounding the world with a single cry. Put simply, it's an extraordinary art that offers a way out of certain doom to those who have lost their dantian seeds for any number of reasons."

Pei Ye listened in a daze.

"It suits you very well, but not right now," the woman concluded.

"Then this thing can only be dealt with by waiting for the Immortal Platform?"

Xing Zhi reached toward his abdomen. "May I take a look?"

Pei Ye nodded.

Gentle spiritual energy seeped in, but the moment it touched the little sprout, Xing Zhi recoiled as though shocked. "It... is it a living creature?"

Pei Ye frowned. "Of course... it devours corpses. Wasn't the 'Dragon Tongue' like that before-"

"No!" Xing Zhi interrupted. "I mean... does it have a consciousness of its own?"

"Of course n-" Pei Ye suddenly stopped, frozen in place.

There was no evidence that it did not.

He had merely followed conventional reasoning, assuming it was a "weapon" or "tool" the Torchworld Cult had painstakingly created. Though it possessed some traits of something "alive," ultimately it still needed someone to control it. He had assumed his inability to do so was merely because he had not mastered the proper method.

After all, dantian seeds and meridian trees worked that way. They were simply parts of the human body. Strange as they might be, he had never heard of them developing a Spirit.

"I... don't know." The possibility sent a chill through Pei Ye as well. He was about to ask more when a gale suddenly rose among the trees.

Within that gale, a colossal, sinister shadow swept through the forest. Despite its enormous bulk, it moved like a phantom, reaching them in an instant. The soldiers only a few paces away remained utterly unaware.

Qiongqi. It had finally found them.

Black Chi reacted fastest, springing upward. Its slender body flashed past to meet its old nemesis.

From Qiongqi's side, a kind of "solidification" spread outward; from Black Chi's, Dark Blue flames bloomed like countless stars.

Tiger frost and chi flame-how many times had these two powers clashed?

Now Qiongqi had lost that seed. Just as Black Chi had said, it was no longer so terrifying.

The advantage became apparent from the outset. Frost melted rapidly beneath the heat, and the slender, black-jade chi hurtled into Qiongqi's body like a roaring wind, flame blossoms swirling around it.

This time, Qiongqi no longer possessed the ability to turn flesh to water.

Trees toppled, rocks split, and Profound Qi surged. With its innate arts and its sharp claws and fangs, Black Chi now utterly overwhelmed this Demon Calamity.

But this was not the end, because Qiongqi had not come alone.

Two purple-robed figures appeared at once, lunging toward Black Chi as Qiongqi held it in combat.

Pei Ye's hair stood on end. Hadn't Zhu Gaoyang gone to stop them? How had those two arrived so quickly?

Chapter 59: Slaying the Chi

Pei Ye snapped fully alert.

This was a prepared ambush with a clear target: Black Chi. He did not know how they had arranged it, but the facts were right before his eyes.

In an instant, a horrifying wound opened across Black Chi's body.

The blade cut into that body, hard as glazed glass, and sliced along its spine toward its tail. Jade-carved scales shattered one after another before the edge. Crimson blood gushed out like a waterfall, leaving that sleek, exquisite body torn and mangled.

A sharp, grating shriek also came from within the chi's body-the sound of the blade's tip scraping along its spine.

Pei Ye's heart clenched viciously, blood squeezed from its chambers and surging into his head. Before he could think, his body had already drawn his sword and charged.

But the next instant, a violent explosion erupted among the trees, and an expanding wave of heat hurled him bodily away.

[Bing Fire]. This devastating art struck at the same time as the blade, exploding against Black Chi's body.

Without Zhu Gaoyang's protection now, even the shock waves shook Pei Ye from head to foot. It felt as though a massive hammer had struck him head-on, wrenching his bones and tendons out of place.

As for how mangled Black Chi must be at the center, Pei Ye could neither see nor bear to imagine.

Pei Ye hit the ground and immediately forced himself upright. Gasping, he pressed a hand to his chest and abdomen, gritted his teeth, and raised his head to look urgently ahead.

But trees stood charred black, earth and stone flew through the air, and everything was shrouded in smoke and dust.

Within that cloud, Black Chi remained as calm as ever despite the sudden reversal.

Feeling the agony coursing through its body, it did not look back at all, instead committing even more firmly to the attack before it.

Even with a great, bloody chunk bitten from beneath its neck, it persisted and tore away half of Qiongqi's wing.

Then terrifying heat erupted behind it. As that scorching temperature closed upon its body, even its scales seemed to shrink and melt.

Yet the chi curled its head back around its neck, its Jade Eyes looking calmly behind it, and the heat pressing against its body immediately became as docile as sheep.

At the same time, its body continued sweeping forward with the momentum of its assault on Qiongqi. It let the blade slice through its flesh, raised its head, and surged into the sky.

To Pei Ye, those two breaths felt unbearably long. At last, he saw a whirlpool churn at the edge of the dust cloud and a familiar, slender black shadow shoot out with a roar. Only then did his body relax in relief.

The blade wound was horrifying, cutting through more than half of Black Chi's body and exposing bone. Yet there were no signs of scorching on its flesh. Pei Ye guessed this was due to its authority over [Chi Flame].

The helpless position Jing Ziwang had faced against Qiongqi that day played out again, only now the roles were reversed: the Torchworld Cult was the side left standing on the ground.

Though Black Chi was grievously wounded, who could claim they could capture this equally miraculous Immortal Hunter in the sky?

Yet Black Chi proved even more aggressive than Qiongqi had been that day. It had barely reached the sky before it abruptly turned its head back.

Where its gaze fell, the heat it had just suppressed suddenly detonated.

Black Chi's guidance and control of that heat was clearly far superior to the Purple-Robed Man's. The terror of [Bing Fire] lay in the violent concentration of its explosion and its fierce temperature, but its use was simple. Like the Thunderfire Pellets used by martial artists, it was thrown at a fixed point and treated everyone within its range alike, regardless of who they were.

But under Black Chi's control, that heat clung like maggots to bone, subtle and nimble, moving entirely at its will. It could cool to harmless temperatures while passing through trees without leaving a trace, then erupt an instant later, blazing for several yards.

It could gather into one mass or divide into dozens of clusters, circling enemies like bees swarming honey.

To Black Chi, flame had always been an obedient servant.

Thus the Purple-Robed Man failed to notice those deadly little things closing in. When Black Chi's Jade Eyes turned toward him, it was suddenly as though dozens of Thunderfire Beads had exploded against his body. Though he hastily summoned his true qi to protect himself, his body, already struck by Zhu Gaoyang's [Dragonlight Pierces the Dipper], could no longer withstand the assault.

That seemingly invulnerable body was blasted full of gaps. He swayed, then sat cross-legged on the ground, unable to move for the moment.

When they had discussed Zhu Gaoyang that day, Black Chi's claim that "it's not as though I stand no chance" had not been empty bravado, but the result of serious consideration.

Though Qiongqi had been terrifyingly powerful with the divine seed within it, how could Black Chi, which had contended with that power for so long, be judged by the standards of an ordinary Immortal Hunter? The two had merely been gods battling each other.

When [Bing Fire], intended as the killing blow, failed and was instead turned into a counterattack by Black Chi, the situation began sliding out of control.

Watching this, Pei Ye felt puzzled again. Their ambush was so perfectly synchronized, their location so precise, so why were they utterly in the dark about Black Chi?

If they had no time to investigate, how had they known exactly when and where Black Chi would appear?

It was like... a task assigned at the last moment?

Before he could think further, Black Chi attacked again. Chi flame bore straight down on the seated purple-robed figure, determined to finish him off.

The saber-wielding purple-robed figure immediately flashed over. His left arm traced a semicircle, seemingly slowly but actually fast, and dense Profound Qi condensed along that arc into the shape of a stream of water.

That stream seemed extraordinarily heavy, faintly pressing the space around it inward. The flame blossoms filling the air were drawn into it, forming a magnificent current of fire before being extinguished one by one.

But Black Chi did not even look that way. The instant the chi flame left its body, it swooped toward Qiongqi, now alone on the other side.

Qiongqi was a Demon Calamity with ferocity it could barely restrain. Faced with a grievously wounded Black Chi, how could it retreat? It beat its wings and lunged upward. In the blink of an eye, the two beasts exchanged a pass, and Black Chi once again pinned Qiongqi to the ground.

Pei Ye exhaled. He had never expected Black Chi to hold the initiative so firmly against three opponents. The anguish that had gripped him when he first saw the three attack together finally eased.

Just then, however, alarm suddenly stirred in his heart. Pei Ye whipped his head around and saw the Purple-Robed Man who had neutralized the chi flame turning toward him, a demon mask gazing eerily his way.

He had not chosen to help Qiongqi, because Black Chi could disengage and fly away at any moment. Pei Ye, its pact partner, had nowhere to flee.

In fact, this was another question that had lingered in Pei Ye's mind from the start. They had been hunting me all along, so why had they all rushed Black Chi this time and forgotten the host carrying the divine seed?

Pei Ye immediately moved to leap backward, but a thought flashed through his mind, and he sprang toward Black Chi instead.

After all, there was no way he could match the Purple-Robed Man's speed. Going toward Black Chi would make it easier for the chi to rescue him. It was a perfectly reasonable thought.

Black Chi's mind was linked with his, and it had already abandoned Qiongqi and lunged toward him.

In the blink of an eye, the Purple-Robed Man stood before Pei Ye. Icy cold from the blade pressed against him, and his heart tightened. Yet the man abruptly turned his blade, slashing back at Black Chi as it hurtled in behind him.

Black Chi treated that blade as though it did not exist. A twist of its body evaded most of the saber qi, and it let the remaining force carve another horrifying wound into its flesh, charging straight toward Pei Ye.

Chapter 60: Immortal Lord

Black Chi's cool, decisive judgment was laid bare.

It did not intend to take Pei Ye into the sky and thereby seize complete control of the battle.

Instead, it meant to take him away from this place outright.

This had never been a necessary battle for them. They only needed to buy enough time for reinforcements to arrive.

Moreover, after several exchanges, though Black Chi seemed to hold the initiative, it had not actually killed a single enemy, while the wounds on its own body were steadily and unmistakably multiplying.

Relying on its tough body, Black Chi charged through. In perfect accord, Pei Ye reached out, caught its long mane, and swung himself onto its back.

Chi flame surged behind them to block the Purple-Robed Man. Black Chi planted its foreclaws against a thick tree trunk and raised its head, ready to soar into the clouds.

Then it felt its body seize up.

Bone-piercing cold erupted from its neck and spread through nearly half its body. Its claws and muscles immediately lost all sensation, and its body fell midway through its leap.

Black Chi twisted its neck to look back. Its large, clear Jade Eyes turned toward Pei Ye. The youth riding on its back met its gaze calmly, his eyes crimson-gold as fire.

Jade Eyes met golden ones, and pain rose in Black Chi's gaze. Behind it, the Purple-Robed Man had passed through the chi flame, and his blade had sliced its body open.