Thud, thud, thud, thud... The copper coins pierced the surrounding swarm and embedded themselves in the enormous beetle!
Cui Jiuyang bit the tip of his tongue and sprayed blood onto the talisman paper, then used his finger as a brush to inscribe a charm.
"Boy, in your next life, stay out of the Divine Land!"
The talisman flew out and stuck to the beetle's forehead.
The copper coins and talisman shone in concert. With a sudden boom, thunder exploded inside the shrine!
A crackling ball of lightning appeared where the beetle had been!
The copper coins formed the Lightning-Attracting Light-Gathering Formation.
The talisman unleashed Mysterious Thunder.
By combining a formation with a Thunder Technique, this strike far exceeded the power of a First Extremity technique and utterly annihilated Togo's final move.
Togo fell weightlessly to the ground. The insects had long since eaten him hollow, leaving nothing but an empty shell.
Meng Da, Meng Er, and the other spectators brightened with delight. Only Old Man Xiang kept calculating on his fingers faster and faster, his expression even uglier than before.
Seeing that Togo was dead, Abe knew all was lost. She would never leave the Jidu Shrine alive today. She stopped concealing herself and emerged from the streaks of yellow light.
Standing inside the shrine, she first sneered, then broke into shrill, crazed laughter. "Chinamen, impressive tricks. But do you think the Abe family's Onmyoji are only capable of this? Today, we die together!"
She summoned her Shikigami, the Demon Horned Imperial Guard, and struck her palm against his chest.
The Demon Horned Imperial Guard disintegrated from head to toe into a cloud of black mist.
Abe chanted, "Golden Palace, Azure Wood, Mysterious Water, Departing Fire, Sovereign Earth-bind the qi of the five elements and command the ghosts of Nine Yin Mountain."
She drained every drop of vital blood from her body to unleash a desperate Yin-Yang technique!
"Great Five Elements: Ghost Veil!"
Japanese Onmyoji already possessed a cultivation method that united the five elements. Otherwise, they would never have dreamed of controlling the water god of the Ji River.
The qi of the five elements merged with the ghostly mist left by the Demon Horned Imperial Guard, giving birth to a sinister beam of evil light that shot straight toward Cui Jiuyang and Ninth Lady.
Cui Jiuyang had just cast the technique that defeated Togo, leaving his spiritual power exhausted.
Before turning into mist, the Demon Horned Imperial Guard had struck Ninth Lady with such a heavy blade blow that her limbs were still numb. She had no strength to dodge.
The evil light was about to strike them.
Everyone else cried out in alarm as a black-robed figure with a head of silver hair suddenly stepped in front of the two.
Before Abe unleashed that evil light, Old Man Xiang had divined the danger and run toward the center of the battle.
He arrived just in time to shield them.
The evil light pierced straight through his chest, exactly where his heart should have been!
A gaping hole opened in his chest, yet Old Man Xiang did not die. Instead, his eyes flashed like lightning as he fixed Abe with a vicious grin.
Chapter 46: Heart Removal
Seeing that the old man had not died, Abe drew the evil light back to circle in front of her, confusion spreading across her face.
Old Man Xiang grinned, his expression full of scorn. "Hahahaha! How could your tiny scrap of land comprehend the wonders of our Chinese arts?"
"The evil light pierced your heart, yet you live?"
Old Man Xiang pulled his wound open. Blood gushed over his hands and stained his clothes red. "Take a look. Is there a heart here?"
His question rang out with such force that it seemed to carry the faint echo of clashing metal!
Take a look. Is there a heart here?!!!
Behind him, Cui Jiuyang closed his eyes in anguish, unable to bear watching. His earlier suspicion had been right.
To avenge his son, Old Man Xiang had used a secret art that only someone with extraordinary willpower could endure.
Heart-Removal Divination!
Anyone who performed this secret art had to cut out their own heart with a sharp blade and swear a great vow. From then on, they would endure the agony of having their heart gouged out every moment of every day, in exchange for more revelations from heaven in their divinations.
The moment their vow was fulfilled, their soul would scatter forever, never to enter reincarnation.
Great-Grandfather had recorded Heart-Removal Divination in the Record of All Under Heaven.
"Make this body the divination board and the heart's blood the counting rods. The deeper the agony, the clearer the signs, until all the changes of the heavens are laid bare and the Purple Star hangs inverted. If the practitioner cannot endure the pain of heart removal, the body dies at once and the soul disperses. All previous efforts are wasted, and everything comes to nothing. None but those of extraordinary will may use it."
If his guess was right, Old Man Xiang had cut out his own heart the very night he carried Mynah's body home!
For all these days, he had endured unimaginable agony without a moment's respite!
That alone revealed how fiercely he loved his son, how unyielding his nature was, and how deeply his hatred ran!
Even now, his fingers never stopped calculating. To him, how could the pain of removing his heart compare to the agony of losing his son?
His resolve to burn himself down to the very last moment if that was what it took to avenge this mortal hatred made even the deranged Abe feel a flicker of fear.
A blazing skeleton, his killing intent had reached such heights!
Old Man Xiang's eyes stretched so wide their corners tore. He laughed wildly, his face filled with exultation. "Hahahahaha! I've worked out this divination! Certain death! Certain death! Death... beyond all doubt!!!"
Each of those three declarations rose louder than the last, the final one a teeth-grinding roar!
Everyone present was moved, heat surging uncontrollably through their chests.
Fuck, an old man has gone this far. Am I really going to stay down just because I'm exhausted?
Fuck those two Jap bastards!
Gritting his teeth, Cui Jiuyang braced a hand against the ground and stood. Forming a hand seal, he cursed, "The Yin-Yang Way's five-element methods are nothing but scraps passed down from the Central Plains, yet you dare call them the Great Five Elements?"
He steeled himself. "Today, I'll show you the original!"
He squeezed and squeezed with everything he had, forcing the last trace of spiritual power in his body into his hands!
He used the copper coins in his hand as metal, talisman paper as wood, condensed mist as water, flame arts as fire, and pinched ash as earth. The qi of the five elements flowed in reverse and condensed, then erupted.
"Five Elements Evil-Breaking Technique!"
Five-colored light burst from Cui Jiuyang's hands. His spiritual power was already depleted, and forcing the Reverse Five Elements into motion with a technique beyond his level made him violently cough up a mouthful of blood.
The evil light before Abe was completely erased by Cui Jiuyang's five-colored radiance, leaving her frozen in place.
Unable to hold himself up any longer, Cui Jiuyang dropped to one knee. Fighting through his internal injuries, he rasped, "Behead her!"
Ninth Lady's sword flashed like lightning. Abe's head flew high into the air, then hit the ground with a thud, flinging out several trails of blood.
With his enemy dead before his eyes, Old Man Xiang threw back his head and laughed three times, then crashed to the ground and breathed his last.
With a thump, Abe's headless corpse, which had remained standing, lost the strength in its legs and fell to its knees, kneeling directly before Old Man Xiang's body.
The shrine fell utterly silent.
Ninth Lady propped herself up with her sword, barely managing not to collapse.
Seeing that their enemies were all dead, Cui Jiuyang simply lay down on the ground. With his spiritual power drained dry, his entire body felt as though it had been put through an oil press. Every inch of him hurt.
Meng Er brought some men over and carried Old Man Xiang's body back among their companions. He straightened the old man's clothes, then took off his own coat and covered Old Man Xiang's face.
On the blue-black altar before the divine statue, the Demon Core spun more and more slowly until it stopped.
Abe, who had been offering the Demon Core in sacrifice, was dead. Naturally, her sacrificial ritual had failed.
The radiance from the divine statue began to merge and resonate with Ninth Lady's two streams of pure sacrificial qi. The blue motes inside the shrine began gathering around her as though curious.
The Turtle Chancellor murmured, "The investiture ceremony for the Chief Sacrificer!"
Lying on the ground, Cui Jiuyang looked up at Ninth Lady. From his angle, she seemed like a goddess descended from heaven, suffused with sanctity.
A deep blue halo rose around Ninth Lady, expanding steadily until it illuminated the dome of the Jidu Shrine.
Only then could everyone see the murals covering the dome: the Hundred Clans of the Ji River swimming and playing, the water god descending to perform miracles, people fishing on the Ji River to make their living. The scenes were many and varied.
As everyone gazed in fascination, countless curtains of water suddenly descended from the murals.
The Hundred Clans of the Ji River within the paintings seemed to come alive, transforming into translucent spirits that began to move.
The spirits swam down through the curtains of water-a clam maiden holding a lotus leaf, a Silver-Scaled Eel Guard bearing a long, slender Tang saber, a Pearl-Weeping Merman carrying a water-parting sword... Each spirit circled Ninth Lady and bowed.
The Turtle Chancellor hurried forward, knelt before the divine statue, and called out, "Your servant, Chancellor of the Jishui Water Palace, receives the decree of the Qingyuan Water God!"
An orb of light fell from the divine statue into the Turtle Chancellor's hands.
His court robes abruptly took on the pattern of a thousand layers of waves, and the orb in his hands transformed into a green jade talisman.
Ninth Lady approached the statue and gently knelt.
With a solemn expression, the Turtle Chancellor pressed the jade talisman against her brow.
The instant the green jade talisman touched Ninth Lady's brow, living water surged from the three channels holding the Ji River's clear spring water, and the waves lifted her into the air.
The Turtle Chancellor's expression grew serene as water, his face seemingly touched by divine radiance. In a loud voice, half chanting and half singing, he proclaimed, his words echoing in every direction, "Inherit the sacred lineage of the Qingyuan Water God of the Ji River, and establish the rightful spirit-communing rites of the Hundred Clans of the Ji River.
"Jiu Yizhi, inheritor of the Ji River Hundred Ghosts, bears the mysteries of the Ji River, her soul bound to the hidden secrets of the Nuo Mask.
"Witness her resolve to tread the waves and leap the Dragon Gate, her art of beating drums to subdue a wicked flood dragon; witness her blood soaking the Iron Rhino while her divine radiance remained undimmed, her soul entrusted to the Nuo Mask as the ancient lineage shone anew.
"She truly embodies the 'Moonlit Clear Source' aspect recorded in the Ritual Canon, and is well suited to the duties of the Water Palace's Chief Sacrificer.
"You are hereby commanded to bear the Green Jade Chi-Dragon-Patterened Talisman and govern the Ji River's channels of three concealments and three manifestations.
"Let the Ancient River Course be your ribbon of office, the enduring Ji River your seal, and the spirits of the Hundred Clans your witnesses.
"Listen reverently to the words of the water, and do not fail the divine lord's charge; guard the clear source with care, and never forget the oath of the black dragon weeping pearls.
"Now that you have dedicated yourself to the Water Palace, you shall make the azure waves surge through the Central Plains once more, and divine radiance shine again upon Ji Province!
"May the Ji River never run dry, and may its sacred rites flourish forever!"
One hundred and eight Nuo Masks flew and danced of their own accord, casting streaks of divine radiance throughout the Jidu Shrine.
A small seal made of Water Jade emerged from the altar and fastened itself to Ninth Lady's waist.
Ninth Lady blinked, feeling that a wealth of knowledge about the Qingyuan Water God, the Ji River, its Hundred Clans, the Water Palace, and the Jidu Shrine had appeared within her mind.
But there was no time to examine it all closely.
The Malevolent Flood Dragon was still outside.
Before you continue