Autumn Sun Blood (II)

The edict stretched across the sky. The radiance of the Huangchu Imperial Edict spanned the heavens from Huainan, seen by half the world, illuminating eight million li of the Yunlan Mountain Range and changing its colors.

The majestic radiance of the Greater Yang, the Law of Huangchu—how glorious they were.

To have fallen to such use...

It was practically throwing the Greater Yang lineage's dignity to the ground...

How ironic.

The shaman-priests seemed to have ties to the Southern Frontier. The Sima Clan would stop at nothing.

The vast Blood Qi brought forth by the blood sacrifice now became auspicious clouds of interwoven gold and red, filling the sky above the Cloud-Heaven Azure Palace. The passages to thirteen ruin realms stood wide open, Spiritual Qi pouring down like waterfalls and stirring a resonance between heaven and earth.

Yet beneath this auspicious sight were the wails of thirty million innocent people from the ruin realms.

The karma had been formed; the sins of slaughter had been wrought.

At the Cloud-Heaven Azure Palace, every elder's face turned extremely grim.

The Ye Clan was pure and noble, lofty as the Azure Nether. How could it suffer such defilement?

Some were so furious their hair stood on end and their teeth nearly cracked. They longed to charge forward and wash away the shame with blood.

They could feel the authority of the Greater Yang contained within the edict forcibly tainting the Ye Clan's autumn-aspect lineage.

Lesser Yin should have been pure, tranquil, and lofty, but now it had been stained by Blood Qi, turning fierce and violent.

This was an overt scheme.

In the name of the greater good and under the pretext of opening up ruin realms, the Jin Imperial House actually intended to bind Ye Zhanqiu's Dao Path to this bloody sacrifice.

From then on, whenever the Autumn Unfolds the Clear Firmament Heaven was mentioned, it would be stained with resentment and blood. Lesser Yin would no longer be pure.

Besides, autumn belonged to Lesser Yin, which was closer to Greater Yin to begin with, yet they used the Greater Yang lineage to enfeoff his Lesser Yin!

Sima Huanyu stood with his hands behind his back, the faintest hint of a smile on his lips.

"Fellow Daoist Ye, accept the edict." His voice was calm, but carried an unquestionable authority.

The moment he finished speaking.

The Huangchu Imperial Edict slowly descended, its authority of the Greater Yang scorching the surrounding autumn chill like a blazing fire.

The plants began to wither, only to flourish unnaturally under the nourishment of the Blood Qi. Their distorted vitality symbolized the warping of the autumn-aspect lineage.

Every gaze settled on Ye Zhanqiu.

Ye Zhanshan's lips moved. He wanted to say something, but in the end, he did not dare speak.

The elders behind him were all forcibly pressed down, their Divine Abilities dimming within them. The vast radiance of the Greater Yang bent their knees and drew blood; as they nearly stared straight into the edict's light, the shame in their hearts was beyond words.

They longed to self-destruct...

Ye Jinyu was still inside Qiuran Palace. Ye Qiniang's face was pale, tears at the corners of her eyes.

She lay on the ground, biting her lip and trembling.

"Do the people of the ruin realms... deserve to die?"

The terrifying karma contained in the edict had even planted a seed of discord without her knowing it.

It actually bore some of the imagery of Huangchu Intention.

The system was issuing frantic warnings. If her father accepted it, his Dao Path would face a tremendous obstruction, and the Ye Clan's fate would become unpredictable.

But if he refused, he would be openly defying the Jin Imperial House's court and this decree empowered by three parts of the Greater Yang's authority.

Wouldn't that be going against the greater tide...

A dilemma.

In that moment of utter silence, Ye Zhanqiu suddenly laughed.

His laughter was soft, yet it reached everyone's ears clearly. It was not laughter born of extreme anger, but the composure of someone who had seen through everything.

"Fellow Daoist Huanyu, I accept this magnificent gift of yours."

He reached out, not to take the edict, but to trace a gentle line through the void.

A streak of Sword Qi condensed from autumn chill slashed out, not at the edict, but at the Blood Qi filling the sky!

"You..." Sima Huanyu's pupils contracted sharply.

But it was already too late.

Wherever the Sword Qi passed, the Blood Qi was absorbed in its entirety and fused with the autumn chill, becoming a strange golden-red hue.

That color was neither pure like the warm autumn sun nor scarlet like fresh blood, but somewhere between the two, possessing an uncanny beauty.

The light of the Huangchu Imperial Edict shone upon the golden-red autumn chill, only to be tainted in return!

"I have cultivated the Dao of Lesser Yin for a hundred years and comprehended the True Intention of autumn. I know well that the essence of autumn lies in 'gathering' and 'storing,'" Ye Zhanqiu's voice rang through heaven and earth.

"Today, the Blood Qi of these thirty million lives was spilled in my name. Since that is so, I shall gather this karma and store these sins of slaughter."

He formed seals with both hands, the autumn chill around him surging as he sought to wrest an opening from heaven and earth.

All thirty-six peaks of the Cloud-Heaven Azure Palace trembled at once. Autumn-aspect Spiritual Qi surged from the earth veins like a tide, converging above the ancestral hall.

Under Ye Zhanqiu's control, the golden-red autumn chill began to evolve and transform.

Lesser Yin Qi should have been cold and desolate, but with the Blood Qi fused into it, it now took on a strange fierceness.

It was not the scorching heat of the Greater Yang, but the warmth of the autumn sun just before it set, touched by the blood-red glow of its dying rays.

"Since Fellow Daoist Huanyu has added the Greater Yang, I shall seize this opportunity."

Brilliant light surged in Ye Zhanqiu's eyes, and his voice rang out like a great bell:

"To create an autumn-aspect Divine Ability, named Autumn Sun Blood!"

As soon as he spoke, the golden-red autumn chill filling the sky contracted with a boom, condensing into a blood-colored Greater Yang in Ye Zhanqiu's palm.

No, it was not the Greater Yang, but an autumn sunset, soaked in blood and emanating a presence both warm and chillingly murderous.

The Divine Ability had taken its initial form!

Sima Huanyu's expression finally changed. "You dare fuse the Dao of Lesser Yin with blood Sha?... Such karma... Good, very good! Ye Zhanqiu, Fellow Daoist Ye, we underestimated you."

"Karma?" Ye Zhanqiu chuckled. "Does Fellow Daoist Huanyu think I am so easily bullied?"

"I follow autumn-aspect Lesser Yin. Lesser Yin can also become demonic..."

He held up the Autumn Sun Blood and said slowly:

"The Dao has no fixed form, and Law follows no set pattern. Lesser Yin is, by nature, withdrawing and killing, while blood Sha is also a thing of slaughter. What is wrong with combining the two? Today, I accept the karma of these thirty million lives, and I transform it.

"From now on, this Autumn Sun Blood shall contain both autumn's desolation and blood's savagery. It shall be both a Divine Ability for slaughter and a method of delivering the dead."

"As for defiling my autumn aspect? Exercise karma."

Ye Zhanqiu suddenly tossed the Autumn Sun Blood in his hand into the sky.

The blood-colored autumn sun burst apart, becoming countless points of light that scattered across the entire Cloud Mist Mountain Range.

Each point of light contained the profound mysteries of Autumn Sun Blood, as well as a complete Cultivation Method that Ye Zhanqiu had derived using supreme Law Power.

"Today, I shall develop this Autumn Sun Blood to the Purple Mansion Realm, create the Late Autumn Blood Sun Scripture, and spread it throughout the world!"

As his voice fell, densely packed golden characters appeared above the Cloud-Heaven Azure Palace: the complete text of the Late Autumn Blood Sun Scripture.

From Embryonic Breathing to the Purple Mansion Realm, every step of cultivation and every application of Divine Abilities was laid out clearly, broken up into countless fragmentary scrolls and streams of light.

With the autumn aspect as its foundation and blood Sha for its use, it allowed for extremely rapid cultivation and possessed unparalleled, overwhelming power, pointing straight to the great Dao of the Purple Mansion!

"All who cultivate this scripture shall inherit the lineage of my Autumn Unfolds the Clear Firmament Heaven, and shall also inherit the karma of today's blood sacrifice of thirty million." Ye Zhanqiu looked at Sima Huanyu, a mocking smile on his face.

"Does Fellow Daoist Huanyu not wish to entangle me in this karmic debt and enmity? Very well, I shall share this wondrous art with the world.

"From now on, all who cultivate the Late Autumn Blood Sun Scripture shall be heirs to my lineage, and all shall bear the karma of the blood sacrifice of those thirty million."

"You want to use a blood sacrifice to defile my Dao Path? Then I shall incorporate that sacrifice into a Cultivation Method and let the world's cultivators cultivate it and bear the burden together!"

"You want to sow discord between the Ye Clan and the ruin realms? Then I shall spread this Cultivation Method throughout all realms, so that the cultivators of the ruin realms can cultivate my lineage as well!"

Ye Zhanqiu stood with his hands behind his back, his sleeves fluttering:

"Cultivation Methods are neither righteous nor evil; only people's hearts differ. Though the Late Autumn Blood Sun Scripture incorporates blood Sha, it also contains methods for delivering departed souls and dispelling resentment.

"Those who cultivate this scripture can use blood Sha to do good if their hearts are set on the righteous path. If their hearts are set on the Evil Dao, even the most orthodox mystic sect Cultivation Method can bring calamity upon the world."

"My conscience is clear. Why should I fear what people say? Nor have I ever feared karma."

"Fellow Daoist Sima, are you satisfied now?"