Temple
The 'Blood Spider,' controlled by the Spider Mother behind it, let out a piercing shriek. It kicked hard against the void, its entire body diving toward Fang Lin like a blood-colored meteor.
Its abdomen swelled like a drum, and a mass of thick, black-red venom sprayed from its mouthparts. In midair, the venom turned into a shower of blood, each drop wrapped in the power of a killing curse as it descended in a dense curtain over the 'Cooking Radiance Kindling King Body.'
Fang Lin simply turned his right palm over, and a ball of kindling fire sprang into existence above it. The flame was small, but it burned with extraordinary density, hundreds upon hundreds of fire patterns faintly visible flowing within it.
The kindling fire left his palm and abruptly expanded in midair, becoming an orange-red wheel of flame.
The spinning wheel swept up every drop of the blood rain filling the sky. The venom evaporated completely in the fire without so much as a wisp of smoke.
Seeing the fire wheel fly toward it, the Blood Spider thrust out the eight legs beneath its abdomen. The tip of each leg gleamed with a blood-colored metallic sheen, and together they forcibly tore the wheel apart.
The scattered sparks landed on the spider's legs, leaving scorched black pits.
The Blood Spider's abdomen contracted sharply, and it spat out an enormous web. Every strand was formed from Blood Sha curse power, black and red intertwined, with countless curse sigils studding the web as it fell like a net covering the sky and earth.
Fang Lin gave a cold snort. The kindling fire surrounding the Cooking Radiance Kindling King Body abruptly surged, orange-red flames soaring into the sky and wrapping his entire body like a god of fire.
He looked up at the cursed web descending over him, the flames filling the sky reflected in his pupils, and slammed both fists upward. A pillar of fire shot into the sky from between his fists, thick as an ancient tree and fierce as an eruption of subterranean fire, striking the very center of the cursed web. The pillar of fire and the cursed web held against each other for no more than a breath. In that single breath, firelight and bloodlight shone against one another, illuminating the entire snowy night nearby as brightly as day.
Then the cursed web began to crack apart from the center. Its blood-colored threads turned to ash inch by inch in the kindling fire, while the curse sigils drifted down like scraps of paper, evaporating into nothing before they reached the ground.
The Blood Spider shuddered violently. With the cursed web broken, the backlash caused its presence to plummet.
Seeing this, the 'Cooking Radiance Kindling King Body' took a single step and appeared several zhang away. The Dharma body grasped at the void with its left hand, forming a saber of pure kindling fire in its palm. Fire patterns coiled around the blade like dragons and serpents, and it gave off a low hum.
He swung his arm and slashed, the fire saber tracing an orange-red arc as it chopped down after the Blood Spider's back. The Blood Spider spun around, a flicker of terror passing through its compound eyes, then spat a mass of dense bloodlight from its mouth to meet the blade.
Firelight and bloodlight crashed together in midair with a thunderous boom like muffled thunder. A ring of force several zhang wide exploded across the snow, blasting away all the accumulated snow and loose stones.
The fire saber pierced the Blood Spider's abdomen, pinning it dead to the snow. Its Blood Sha Qi was continuously devoured by the Cooking Radiance Kindling Fire, and it let out a mournful howl of pain.
The 'Blood Progeny' formed from the swarm of dead spiders then slowly dispersed into smoke and vanished amid the raging flames.
A cry of grief rang out through the mountain forest beneath the blood-colored night. It was the scream of the Spider Mother's divine sense as it suffered a grievous blow; the dispersal of the 'Blood Progeny' had also plunged the Spider Mother hiding behind it into unprecedented weakness.
The Blood Incantation Technique was inscrutable to gods and ghosts. Once it failed, the caster would suffer backlash. The power of the bloodline ran through the entire clan, so when the 'Blood Progeny' was burned away, how could the Spider Mother, the source of that bloodline, escape unharmed?
Any power that surpassed one's own came at a price!
Fang Lin staggered and fell to one knee. The 'Cooking Radiance Kindling King Body' came apart, but the flowing patterns of kindling fire remained imprinted on his bronze-colored body. He too had suffered the agony of being burned by the kindling fire.
Jiang Wangxuan floated down to the ground. In the spell battle just now, his most correct choice should have been a righteous two-against-one, but this was Fang Lin's battle to seek the Dao, so he naturally could not very well interfere.
Jiang Wangxuan bent slightly and lifted one side of Fang Lin, who was nearly sprawled on the ground, onto his shoulder. Then he strolled into the temple before them.
Perhaps the Spider Mother had merely seen the unexpected event on Jinping Mountain that night and then noticed the two of them climbing the mountain through the snowy night. Thus, it had struck to kill, binding its entire clan together for a decisive battle as soon as they met, rather than pulling the Calabash Brothers rescuing Grandpa routine again.
But the temple before them ought to have something unusual about it as well.
The temple was not large, only a few dozen square meters, and had fallen into disrepair over the years. Snowflakes drifted in through cracks in the walls and gaps in the wood, and a cold wind swept the remaining Blood Sha Qi into a spiral inside the temple.
Jiang Wangxuan waved his hand to drive away the chill inside. Fang Lin wriggled off Jiang Wangxuan's shoulder onto the icy floor and casually lit a fire to warm himself.
"Brother Jiang, that fight tonight felt incredible. It was my first time using the 'Cooking Radiance Kindling King Body.' If I returned to Jixia now, I could surely achieve Foundation Establishment in one stroke."
Fang Lin lay on the floor, looking up at the dilapidated wooden beams. "When we exchanged blows just now, I confirmed that although the Spider Mother cultivates [Punishment Sacrifice], it still has designs on True Person Shouhui!"
"Is it after that 'Radiant Wish' too?"
Jiang Wangxuan looked through the broken window at the brilliant light above the mountain peak. "That 'Radiant Wish' will probably disperse after sunrise!"
"True Person Shouhui cultivated Cold Qi. The only thing that could have made the Spider Mother lay plans on Jinping Mountain for so long is the inheritance of the incense-offering path that the True Person obtained in the Golden Incense Temple secret realm."
"That 'Radiant Wish' really came out at the wrong time."
Fang Lin looked at Jiang Wangxuan with some resentment. He had thought the brilliance inside the thumb ring was merely a remnant thought, but once the ring fell into Jiang Wangxuan's hands, it had gone and made a huge splash.
Jiang Wangxuan turned away guiltily, while the big fat fish shouted from the Rising Yang Mansion, "You had a chest and wouldn't open it. See? We pulled a big red!"
"But this battle did make me understand why the internet True Lord Miaoshu has been vigorously promoting all these years has met with such great resistance."
After resting on the ground for a while, Fang Lin got up and took a pill. "To the Three Witches Dao Lineage, the internet is practically an 'immortal artifact' for those who cultivate the curse-killing branch. Birth dates, appearances, and private information are all exposed to the public."
"Anyone with the intent need only search for information online and collect blood from your relatives, and they can use a Law Technique like the 'Blood Slaughter Incantation' to lock onto you."
Jiang Wangxuan followed that line of thought, and a chill ran down his spine. In that case, the talk in his previous life about following the network cable to **** was no longer just a tired joke.
The control any attainment position exercised over its corresponding domain was at a sovereign level. With the 'internet' giving it a boost, a Dao lineage like the Three Witches, which could kill with inscrutable curses across any distance, was just a pig in the path of a gale-it would be hard not to take flight.
What was more, under the constraints of the Clear Ring Convention, the influence of attainment positions over heaven, earth, and reality was nowhere near as terrifying as it had been in the recent past, but that mighty power had ultimately been transferred to cultivators.
Every Dao lineage attainment position connected to the 'human path' had been noticeably strengthened over the past thousand years. What a major version update!
The Spider Mother they had encountered tonight was a case in point. Its cultivation was estimated to be at Qi Refinement Perfection as well, yet it could manipulate the bloodline power of an entire clan.
Most likely, the Spider Mother's cultivation method was greatly favored by [Punishment Sacrifice], allowing it to fight the two of them, both at Qi Refinement Perfection, until they could barely catch their breath.
If he had not possessed supreme Dao wisdom, he would definitely have come to grief tonight.
"Brother Fang, you should think carefully about what to do next tonight. If I were you, stopping here would be the best choice! You've expended a great deal, and if you go any farther, you could be in danger of death."
Fang Lin laughed aloud at this. "Brother Jiang, surely you jest. Never mind that my Dao is right before my eyes; the karma between us and the Spider Mother must naturally be settled."
Jiang Wangxuan sighed but continued to persuade him. "The Spider Mother has lost much of its bloodline power, and its divine sense has suffered a grievous blow as well. But it has occupied this place for many years and must still have a few contingencies to fall back on. I once heard that seeking the Dao lies in striving, but not striving is also the greatest striving."
"Dao, Dharma, and immortal fortune lie within a single thought. Since you have already gained the fruit, why seek perfection? Even the bright moon waxes and wanes, appears and disappears. Such is the path of cultivation!"
Hearing this, Fang Lin sat cross-legged. At such a critical juncture, Jiang Wangxuan could actually speak such words of the Dao to persuade him. That was truly great wisdom.
However, Brother Jiang did not know where his true immortal fortune lay. Before coming, he had already divined the fortune of this journey into the mountains, and only after receiving an auspicious result had he entered the mountains on this snowy night with peace of mind.
How could a chosen one like him possibly fall here?
"The contingency of the Spider Mother's that you're worried about, Brother Jiang, seems to me to be right here, in this very Dao ground where True Person Shouhui cultivated the incense-offering path!"
As time passed, the pill was slowly absorbed, and Fang Lin's Qi sea gradually filled again. "I've been investigating True Person Shouhui for the past few years, and this temple has confirmed one of my ideas."
Jiang Wangxuan's interest was piqued. He naturally knew less about that 'Cicada Immortal' than Fang Lin did.
"The moment I first saw this temple tonight, I knew what was going on! This temple was built more than two hundred years ago, and by then True Person Shouhui had long since passed away!"
"So this temple was naturally rebuilt by later generations, and the location they chose was also in this remote place. That shows a group of people were plotting over True Person Shouhui's Dao ground here as far back as more than two hundred years ago!"
More than two hundred years ago, the Three Witches Dao Lineage-Jiang Wangxuan understood. "More than three hundred years ago, during the 'Southern Fire Rebellion,' demonic disciples established a demonic sect in the great marsh south of Luzhou to seize Blood Qi, but it was swiftly eradicated by the Thunder Palace."
"That's right. This history is recorded in Jixia as well. Looking at it now, this Spider Mother may have escaped the great marsh with the remnants of the demonic sect and hidden on Jinping Mountain."
Fang Lin circled the small temple again and again. "As for those remnants of the demonic sect, they were naturally struck by the Spider Mother's backlash. But they built this temple, and this black wooden tablet matches the records in my family!"
"What they worshipped wasn't the Cicada Immortal, but this tablet!"
He said quietly, "Brother Jiang, did that 'Cicada Immortal' really cultivate the incense-offering path for himself?"
As his words fell, a pool of fire fell to the ground and plunged straight into the frozen earth, melting a passage through the rock below. Muffled rumbling sounded incessantly beneath the temple, and the ground shook in waves. As earth and stone split apart, an enormous pit finally appeared.
No, it should not have been called a pit, but a rotten tree pit!