Archfiend

Chapter 228: Danxia Temple (47)

“Benefactor need not be excited.” Fahui gritted his teeth and said: “Maybe… this isn’t an Emperor Armament of Daoism?”

“All of us are smart people.” Xuan Chengzi sneered. Immediately, rays of spiritual light rose up from his seven apertures: “The body and Dao has united. Damn my minor measures. Fahui, you’re getting nowhere.” 

“There’s also what I said. If you want to make a move against Fellow Daoist Xu, you’ll have to walk over this poor Daoist’s corpse first!”

Fahui looked towards Xu Yangyi, his expression seemingly calm.

What was to be done? What state was he in? Not to speak of Xuan Chengzi at the side and his own present condition, he absolutely wasn’t capable of being Xu Yangyi’s opponent if he made a move. That moreover wasn’t mentioning that this was Xu Yangyi’s Animus Armament! What kind of might it possessed was unknown!

Getting out alive… and reporting all of this to the sect was the best option. The struggle of orthodoxies was vastly crueler than the massacre of the battlefield! In a broad observation of history, the three schools of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism had vied against each other for several thousand years. If one school gained supremacy, it was a wholehearted mercy not to eradicate the other two schools while leaving no chicken or dog behind.

In his time of incomparable hesitation, a ray of golden light also flew out from the place where Wei Zhongxian’s corpse was in the water!

Buzz… In the wake of this profound sound, the golden light arrived below Xu Yangyi’s feet. It soon scattered into a brilliance that filled the sky. In the blink of an eye, a giant black-white Taiji slowly revolved with Xu Yangyi as its core!

“This is…” Xu Yangyi’s gaze glimmered. He saw that he… was situated at the Taiji’s center. Yet in the eyes of the Taiji’s Yin and Yang, the Animus Armament’s upper and lower parts were likewise following the Taiji’s unhurried spinning!

At this moment, it appeared like a dragon pearl that two azure dragons revolved around at the center. In the wake of each of this Taiji diagram’s revolutions, the upper and lower parts of the Animus Armament emitted two kinds of completely different black and white radiances. It seemed to cup apart Yin and Yang. Along with each glimmer of this brilliance, four manifestations no less than several tens of meters tall solidified unhurriedly outside the Taiji diagram!

The Azure Dragon, the White tiger, the Vermilion Bird, and the Black Tortoise!

As these four manifestations vaguely appeared, the gold curtain in the sky surprisingly fell down little by little and formed golden Eight Trigrams!

“The Taiji gives birth to Yin and Yang… Yin and Yang give birth to the Four Divisions… the Four Divisions give birth to the Eight Trigrams…” Xuan Chengzi’s blood was already boiling. His pale face welled up with a red flush, and he violently coughed: “This… is the Emperor Armament’s own choice… It chose Fellow Daoist Xu…”

As far as the eye could see, the violet talismans in the sky utterly darkened. It was incapable of being compared to the nature of the golden light. The talisman formation that covered the sky was unexpectedly like a backdrop.

In all the places that the eye reached, the resplendent golden light was like the arrival of a divine kingdom. Below, the enormous Eight Trigrams rotated. The golden light and the Eight Trigrams appeared to form heaven and earth, man and all things. 

Amidst this silence, the upper and lower halves of the Animus Armament respectively dwelled in the eyes of the Yin and Yang. In the end, they released an extremely joyous and soft cry. Following a dinging noise, the two parts of the Animus Armament shot out from two opposing directions. Above Xu Yangyi’s head, a supremely holy and pure halo blossomed!

“Uniting the Dao… The Dao has been united…” Xuan Chengzi was so excited that his complexion was flushed red: “I didn’t expect… I never expected… that the ancient legends were actually true! I, Xuan Chengzi, truly witnessed this scene in a year of my life!”

From head to toe, he trembled over and over like sifting chaft. However, his gaze never relaxed over Fahui.

Fahui’s expression was ashen, but he didn’t move at all.

“This is… the harmonization of body and the Dao… The Animus Armament… really isn’t a rumor… Back then when the abbot had me take note of it, he merely skimmed over it. He probably didn’t even expect that this legend was true… Yes, yes… if it wasn’t true why would the ancient texts record this detail?”

Huuuuuuummm… In the white light, a small fine object billowed up and down. In the wake of each of its rotations… a second character emerged in the sky!

It was like smoke and mist, hazy and indistinct. It was similar to looking at flowers in a fog, but everyone could clearly see what this character was.

Scripture!

Dao Scripture!

This was the true secret concealed by the Animus Armament!

“Dao Scripture…” Xu Yangyi deeply studied the anomaly that colored the sky at the bottom of Danxia Temple. This was a secret belonging to him, accompanying him amidst the most difficult beginning of his journeyed cultivation time. Yet from the start, he didn’t understand its details, even with Daomaster Jadewave’s decryption and the deduction of humanity’s specialists. Nonetheless, everything was like looking at flowers through mist, a full moon in the water. All along, a layer of muslin stood in between. 

But now… the Animus Armament had been completed at long last! Its hidden secret was finally about to emerge before him.

Swoosh! A golden light pillar suddenly descended from the sky! Without the slightest deviation, it shrouded Xu Yangyi’s body! He didn’t even have time to return from his lamentations and was immediately enveloped within this light beam!

Boom! A golden light wave suddenly flashed from where Xu Yangyi was standing! In the wake of each inch of space that the light wave blew over, everything went static! The water’s surface… ceased to ripple. The fish underwater oddly froze in place. Everyone’s breathing and heartbeat stilled!

Just as Fahui was raised his hand to do something, his hand hung suspended in midair like so. His kasaya rustled and lifted upwards because of the qi burst from the white light-wave. Yet at this moment, the robe was strangely floating in the air. His entire person was like a statue.

Xuan Chengzi’s gaze cast a sideways glance at Fahui, His sword core revolved around his finger but now completely stopped. Even his eyes no longer circled about.

The others, Mao Ba’er, Li Zongyuan, and Quan Ningyue maintained their original states, standing in place. In this twinkling, between heaven and earth, no one could move.

The idea of “movement” had been erased… Not only was it people, but this domain’s idea of movement had been expunged! 

Presently, apart from Xu Yangyi, everyone else’s consciousness of “movement” had been wiped out. At the same time, the small box finally exhibited its true appearance in the white light! It wasn’t a box… As the two parts of the Animus Armament united as one, what emerged… was a silver-white sword!

The sword wasn’t big but rather small. It was only about half of his forearm in size, and its entire body was pitch-black. In addition, not only was it small, it was also exceptionally narrow. At most, it was only as wide as half of his finger. However, there were actually countless complex designs carved upon this narrow range!

“This… is your true form?” Xu Yangyi didn’t immediately go and take the sword. Instead, he carefully began to examine it. Even if he was totally inept regarding history, he still made out the flowery designs on the small sword. Each and every one of them were of an even more ancient script, to the extent that they was awfully distant from modern characters. The designs carried a kind of unrestrained flavor, absolutely unlike the constantly perfected feeling of the Great Ming Palace.

But most importantly… was its aura!

If said, the surface of the Animus Armament was attached with profound mystery, resentment, and an indescribable imperial prestige. In such a case, this sword was instead like an unpolished gem returned to its natural form. From among myriad feelings, there existed only three words for this initial sensation.

Murderous aura!

Bravery!

Supremely pure and honest but also concentrated to an extreme.

“This isn’t a sword…” Xu Yangyi ultimately walked forward and gently grasped the sword floating in the sky: “This is a dagger.”

As he held this sword, his eyes suddenly shook. It was because in this mere instant, endless characters frantically rushed into his mind!

“This is…” Sudden in arrival, an enormous quantity of information caused him to go dizzy. A type of vomiting feeling was born without warning. Forcibly suppressing his brain’s vertigo, he immediately began to examine these characters. Regardless, as soon as he looked, they caused his gaze to quickly burn! He studied the blade in his hand incredulously!

He closed his eyes. His heaving chest served to prove how unsettled his current mood was. In the past, he had thought that half of the Animus Armament had granted him such a great killing tool like the Eternal Alchemy Canon. Now, he had abandoned his right arm and braved the danger of his life ending and Dao vanishing by entering Danxia Temple’s bottom. What kind of item would arise from both parts of the Animus Armament uniting?

He had made many conjectures, but he absolutely hadn’t expected that this grand gift would be so generous! It was so much that it made up for the lost of his left arm, the price of his body sustaining heavy wounds!

“Immortal Foundation Pill…” After ages, he opened his eyes, took a deep breath, and tightly clenched his fists: “It can allow one at Foundation Establishment to cast an immortal platform foundation… It can be said to be the perfection of Foundation Establishment… What is an immortal platform? What is the meaning of perfect Foundation Establishment?”

This was the first thing he saw. However… the characters in his mind didn’t stop at this by any means! 

“Eternal Pill… A medicinal pill compatible with the Eternal Alchemy Canon. The Eternal Alchemy Canon doesn’t need the ingestion of medicinal pills. After Foundation Establishment, the inner body’s qi furnace is completely formed. It can withdraw the essence of spirit stones and directly absorb this qi… The cost is very great… Usually, a country nurtures an Eternal Alchemy Canon cultivator, but the higher the realm of this art, the greater the might. After Core Formation, there is even more of a transformation, enough to rise above same-realm cultivators by at least thirty percent…”

The Eternal Pill is an essential medicinal pill for a cultivator cultivating the Eternal Alchemy Canon… It can accelerate the speed of the smelting fire within the qi sea and upgrade it by a level…” Xu Yangyi sighed: “So that’s how it is… after Foundation Establishment, the furnace system is considered fully completed. It’s no surprise that I’m still cultivating via ordinary meditation right now.”

THIS was the very first thing he paid attention to, but presently, he didn’t just have these two pill formulas in his mind! On the contrary there was no less than several tens!

Each kind of effect could even be said to be a direct cure for an illness! It seemed ordinary, but to a Qi Condensation cultivator, it happened to cut above the gate of life! For example, the Spirit Drawing Pill that was capable of increasing a cultivator’s cultivation speed or the Spirit Eating pill that allowed one to concentrate on absorbing a certain kind of qi. And it was also like… the Insight Pill that could allow spiritual sense to explosively increase by 20%.

But most importantly… none of these pills… had side effects! There was a vast number of formulas like trees in a forest. He counted no less than thirty pill formulas. It didn’t look to be much but it spread open the quintessence of the Qi Condensation realm!

Oddly enough, it was only limited to the Qi Condensation realm, but if it was merely this, it still wouldn’t be enough to excite him. Although pill formulas were good, it wasn’t like he couldn’t collect them now. But… the next item was where the true stirring of his heart laid!

Divine abilities!

Altogether… there were nine divine abilities. This amount couldn’t be regarded as much, but their quality was frighteningly high! They could be said to be the abilities most worth of learning in the Qi Condensation realm!

In particular… these nine divine abilities had actually been arranged into a set by someone! At first, these nine completely different divine abilities seemed to be compiled together, but later on, there was surprisingly a connection between them. These skills truly formed a whole system!

The Nine Glorious Stars Descent! [1]

This was the system name of these nine divine abilities

“Whose doing was this?” Xu Yangyi’s gaze twinkled. To be capable of forming so many seemingly different divine abilities together, perhaps this character’s comprehension towards the word “cultivation” was already infinitely profound. Furthermore, their utilization of qi had reached the apex. He asked himself and came to a conclusion that even his master-ancestor, Ancientpine, wouldn’t be able to accomplish this as well!

At the very least… after the Nation’s Founding, during the publicly accepted End of Days, a Core Formation master was never heard to have created a divine ability. In addition, that wasn’t to mention that these divine abilities of nine almighty figures harmonized together.

The reason why Xu Yangyi affirmed it to be nine almighty figures was because the first ranked of these nine abilities… was the Heavenly Opening Six Erosions!

[1] A tricky bit about doing some names in Archfiend is that their based on actual religious/ancient concepts. The “Glorious Stars” might be actually referring to one of the old seven planets labeled in pre-modern astrology (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter Saturn), but the fact that it is “Nine” might be referring to something in Fengshui (Chinese Geomancy) known as Nine Star Qi.