Food Immortal Master

The situation outside had been settled, but within Pei Ye's abdomen, Little Chi suddenly began swimming upward, leaping into the realm of his mind.

Pei Ye abruptly snapped awake.

Then, to his horror, he "saw" himself standing on the chi's head. Frost spread from beneath his feet, climbing over the long mane, the forehead, and the eyes.

Black Chi lay with its head drooping against the ground, barely alive and powerless to resist. Starting at the tail, the Purple-Robed Man carved away its magnificent flesh, exposing white bone.

Pei Ye raised his hand, intending to draw his sword and slash at the Purple-Robed Man, but his body seemed disconnected, utterly unresponsive.

"Open your eyes." Black Chi's calm voice sounded beside his ear.

Pei Ye opened his eyes.

He looked around blankly. This place was even harder to comprehend: a clear lake lay around him, with dense shadows of trees and the chirping of birds.

"This is the realm of your mind. Something is influencing you."

Pei Ye straightened up. Memories he had never consciously registered, yet which had been recorded deep within his mind, suddenly surged forth.

Zhu Gaoyang's foolish suggestion, the hand with which he had seized Zhu Gaoyang by the throat, his disregard for the pursuers behind him while chatting with Xing Zhi just now...

Those memories left him drenched in cold sweat.

When did it begin...? Pei Ye retraced his memories. Suddenly, the image of Little Sprout breaking out of its seed surfaced.

Right here.

It really does possess Spirit intelligence, and it can influence me without my noticing—even replace me!

"Any influence on the mind will be projected into its realm," Black Chi said, its voice growing a little quieter.

So it's hiding somewhere in this realm?

Pei Ye surveyed his surroundings. The lake was clear, with what seemed like a dragon's shadow in its depths; the woods were tall and dense, as though a tiger crouched in their darkness. He frowned and was about to inspect them one by one when Black Chi said, "Neither."

"What?" Pei Ye froze for a moment.

"It's... above."

Pei Ye raised his head, and the vast sight stunned him.

Frost stained the clouds and sky. A shadow stretching farther than the eye could see was slowly descending, blotting out the entire sky-or rather, it was the new sky.

Before it, Pei Ye and Black Chi were no more than dust.

It was not skulking in some corner of Pei Ye's mind. With an irresistible presence, it overshadowed his entire mental world, reducing it to a grain of rice.

"What... is this?" Pei Ye murmured.

Is this the kind of crushing weight those transformed people's minds suffered?

"No." Here, Black Chi could clearly sense his thoughts. "Frost Wraiths digest the original human brain, then generate a simple, efficient control center, utterly annihilating the mind. But your brain hasn't been infected at all."

"Then what is this?"

"A consciousness."

"What?"

Black Chi looked at him in silence.

Unease permeated the air. A horrifying possibility suddenly occurred to Pei Ye. He jerked his head around and stared straight at Black Chi.

This seed isn't the ultimate weapon the Torchworld Cult is relying on to turn its fortunes around, but the very deity they worship?!

The nature of the entire affair had changed.

Black Chi did not deny it, merely saying, "Let me build you a shelter, with Quail Head as its core."

As soon as those words fell, Pei Ye sensed something stir in his mind. Turning around, he saw a small wooden cabin behind him. He walked inside, and Black Chi coiled its slender body around the cabin from outside.

The shadow cast by the sky was kept at bay.

Pei Ye stared blankly through the window at the immense shadow overhead. When he closed his eyes, he could once again perceive the outside world through his body's senses-though his body remained beyond his control.

Everything was answered in that moment.

The Purple-Robed Man was no longer in a hurry to capture him because he had already become a tiny insect beneath their revered god's claws.

They had swarmed Black Chi to kill it because it was food their revered god had chosen.

At the time, He had only just awakened and had not yet accumulated enough power. Unsure whether He could kill Black Chi alone, He had lain low for the moment to avoid frightening it away.

But why hadn't He consumed Zhu Gaoyang? Zhu Gaoyang had clearly been utterly powerless to resist.

"Once He eats me, He won't need to go out of His way to 'hunt for food' anymore." Black Chi interrupted Pei Ye's thoughts, its voice growing increasingly ethereal, as though it might vanish at any moment. "Once awakened, His power will grow at an unimaginable rate-from one to two, from two to four... After eating me, He'll leap from four to a hundred. And after that..."

Black Chi did not need to finish for Pei Ye to understand.

Ever since awakening, He had concealed every trace of Himself. He had used the corpses there to go from one to two, then absorbed the world's Heaven and Earth Profound Qi to go from two to four, before setting His sights directly on Black Chi.

In little more than two hours, He had seized such tremendous power, on the verge of growing from a parasite into an enemy too terrible to behold.

"What's happening to you now?" Pei Ye asked worriedly, watching Black Chi's fading body.

"Remember? I said I saw 'everything.'" Black Chi looked at him.

Pei Ye remembered. That had been while they were flying through the night sky, discussing Zhu Gaoyang.

When Zhu Gaoyang was tricked to his death, my consciousness was clouded, but Black Chi was unaffected?

It knew this consciousness existed from that moment onward?

They had descended into the world together. Just as Black Chi had not known that a sleeping Immortal Lord was gestating in Qiongqi's abdomen, the Immortal Lord had no way of knowing that Black Chi harbored a soul capable of opposing Him to some extent.

Now He has calmly accomplished His objective, but Black Chi still has a move in reserve?

"I can make no guarantees," Black Chi said solemnly.

"Then what should I do?"

"Stay alive. He's using your body now, which actually guarantees your survival. If by some chance you manage to escape Him, go home and find that cat to dissolve the contract." Black Chi's body gradually faded away.

Pei Ye reached for it desperately. "Don't-when will you..."

"This is what I truly vowed to kill, Pei Ye." Black Chi's voice was more grave and resolute than ever before. "This is not an enemy you can contend with now, nor is it a burden you should bear. You have already done wonderfully, but nothing in this world is certain. With things as they are, I can only hope you can do even better."

Chapter 61: Qitian

Black Chi vanished completely.

In the forest, the ravaged chi's body had also lost every trace of life. Dark red blood continued to pour out, its sheer volume filling the hollows around it to form a thick, smooth expanse.

He gently raised His hand. The corpse, which seemed to have stepped out of myth, broke into fragments. Dark Blue rapidly infected every tiny piece, transforming the corpse into dragon blood with a hundred times the efficiency of Dragon Tongue.

A torrent surged into his body. Pei Ye felt his cultivation realm climbing at a terrifying speed-no, human cultivation realms could not be used to classify this.

Humans distinguished their realms by the nature and quantity of the power they controlled. To Him, however, all power between heaven and earth was merely food within easy reach. He simply needed time to eat.

As all the blood on the ground was sucked dry, the Meridian Tree in his abdomen rose segment by segment, already reaching eighth growth. It was vigorous and sharp, and Pei Ye distinctly felt more terrifying authorities being unleashed.

This eighth growth could never be compared to a human cultivator's eighth growth, for it had been born with the ability of mystic command, to say nothing of the sliver of a deity's will and authority dwelling within it.

Nor did this Meridian Tree nurture true qi. What formed and flowed within it was "dragon blood."

Rather than the foundation upon which humans cultivated, it was more like an organ.

It had taken only two hours to go from breaking out of its seed to eighth growth. What if it were given another two hours? Another day?

Pei Ye could not imagine it, for the power within his body was already more terrifying than anything he had ever experienced.

And that growth had yet to end.

The two Purple-Robed Men prostrated themselves with utmost devotion, their bodies trembling with fanaticism. They crawled forward on their knees and drove daggers into their own throats.

Meanwhile, Qiongqi lay crouched to one side, folding its wings as tightly as possible and tucking its forelegs beneath its jaw, trembling with its head bowed.

Pei Ye suddenly understood Black Chi's words-"Once He eats me, He won't need to go out of His way to 'hunt for food' anymore"-because there were three ready sources of nourishment here for Him to absorb!

Black Chi itself had already approached Zhu Gaoyang's level. Now, all of it had become power at His command. If these three before him were added to that...

Pei Ye could not help gasping, his heart pounding in terror.

He saw himself raise a hand, and one Purple-Robed Man instantly dissolved into Dark Blue liquid that streamed into his palm. The enemy who had pressed relentlessly at his heels, pursuing him for over sixty miles, vanished just that easily.

Then something stirred in his abdomen. Pei Ye "looked" inside, and the already luxuriant Meridian Tree actually trembled. The branches at its top began to grow, and then it rose another segment.

How can it still grow?!

Ninth growth!

How can there be a ninth growth?!

Pei Ye stood rooted to the spot, dumbfounded. This scene defied everything he knew, but unfortunately, Black Chi was no longer beside him.

The newly expanded Meridian Tree sucked in the surrounding Profound Qi like a wind tunnel.

Although Pei Ye had never seen Zhu Gaoyang at his peak, he had no doubt that this body had now completely surpassed him.

And it was still climbing rapidly.

What frightened Pei Ye even more was that the surrounding trees were gradually turning Dark Blue, patch by patch, like scars scorched into them by blue fire, slowly spreading.

Fifty feet... eighty feet... a hundred feet. It spread like a fungal mat, and every living thing caught within it gradually dissolved into Dark Blue liquid.

No... this can't continue...

Although he did not know what Black Chi was planning, if He were allowed to possess such power, who could possibly hold Him in check?

Without sufficient power to back it up, no plan could be put into action.

Even if the Immortal Platform arrives, what could it do? Is Ming Qitian some kind of celestial immortal?

Pei Ye was frantic, yet he was the most helpless of them all.

He saw himself move his hand toward the other Purple-Robed Man.

No, what do I do?

Pei Ye thought anxiously.

Just then, a drifting white line swept past.

Like a crane, like a cloud, it plunged straight from the cold, clear night at the horizon, as though a celestial immortal had burst into a realm of ghosts.