The Ascension of the Fiendgod

Tie Muzhan and the Huan Beast closed in rapidly, soon arriving at the edge of the pond.

“Truly beautiful,” Tie Muzhan thought, unable to suppress his admiration as he gazed at the two enormous lotus leaves blooming under the morning sunlight. Yet, the more he looked, the more wary he became. Though he was only at the late Xiantian stage and had not reached the Unity of Man and Heaven realm, he could vaguely sense the extraordinary nature of those two layers of leaves.

“Master,” the Huan Beast said, also looking at Tie Muzhan. “What now?”

“Don’t rush. He’s right in front of us; he can’t escape. Let’s test him first,” Tie Muzhan instructed through their mental link. He reached out with a hand, using his released Xiantian elemental energy to lift a stone from the ground. With a sudden flick of his wrist, he wrapped the stone in his true energy and hurled it like a bolt of light toward the cross-legged Ji Ning.

Even a Nine-Fang Warrior would be crushed to death by that casually thrown stone.

“Whoosh!”

The instant the stone entered the range of several meters before Ji Ning, crossing into the area covered by the two layers of leaves, it stopped dead in the air! The invisible grinding force acted upon it, and with a bang, the stone was reduced to fine powder.

The Huan Beast and Tie Muzhan both tensed, exchanging uneasy glances. They were clearly perplexed by the mysterious two-layered lotus leaves.

“I refuse to believe it,” Tie Muzhan snorted coldly. A black vine whip appeared in his hand out of thin air.

“Whoosh!”

Tie Muzhan swung the whip. The black vine stretched rapidly, coiling around a nearby thick tree trunk. He gave a sudden jerk—Rumble!—and the entire tree was ripped from the soil, trailing mud and roots behind it. With another flick of the whip, the massive tree, weighing tens of thousands of jin, hurtled toward the cross-legged Ji Ning.

When the thick tree trunk smashed horizontally into the semi-transparent, two-layered lotus leaves, parts of the branches and limbs began to pulverize. However, the sheer kinetic force contained within the tree itself caused the two layers of leaves to shudder violently.

Ji Ning, who had been sitting in silent meditation, trembled. His eyes snapped open.

As his vision cleared, he saw the two enormous lotus leaves surrounding his body dissipate. A thick tree was crashing down toward him, and in the distance, Tie Muzhan and the black-robed man were watching with cold sneers.

“My breakthrough!” The moment Ji Ning saw the dissipating lotus leaves, he instantly understood what he had lost from that night of enlightenment. He realized how precious the comprehension he had just attained was. If he had not been disturbed, he might have been able to continue his insights for much longer. And yet, Tie Muzhan had ruined it all. Encounters like this—where the Dao revealed itself—were truly rare; he might not experience another for decades, even centuries.

“Damn you!”

Ji Ning punched out. With a boom, the massive tree hurtling toward him exploded, snapping cleanly in two. One half fell into the pond beside him, crushing countless lotus flowers, while the other crashed into several other trees before thudding to the ground, sending up a cloud of dust.

“Boy of the Ji Clan!” Tie Muzhan snarled. “You fled a thousand li into the mountains, but I still caught up to you. Today is the day you die!”

Ji Ning cast him an icy glance, then immediately began to activate the Taiyin and Sunstar power within him. That night of enlightenment had granted him a sliver of insight into the vast, indistinct Dao. That single sliver had resolved all his remaining doubts about how to break through to the Xiantian realm using the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens. Nothing in the world was purely absolute opposition! Just as night and day seemed opposites but were merely two different aspects of a single day.

It was like the two layers of water and fire lotus leaves that had surrounded him—they did not cancel each other out; instead, they amplified each other’s power. Why?

A lotus had a stem, and only because of that stem could the leaves revolve around it!

The ‘stem’ of the two layers of water and fire lotus leaves was Ji Ning himself!

How could the power of Taiyin and the power of Sunstar be merged?

One had to find the ‘stem’ of both the Taiyin and the Sunstar!

“Guide!”

Absolute confidence shone in Ji Ning’s eyes.

The fully activated Taiyin and Sunstar power within his body instantly flooded every part of him—from his hair and skin to his organs and even the most microscopic cells. They were everywhere! Every strand of Taiyin power began to entwine with a strand of Sunstar power, but their very natures resisted fusion.

“Sssss…” All the Taiyin and Sunstar power, like lotus leaves stirred by the wind, began to revolve around each other.

They were like two taiji fish, chasing each other in an endless dance.

One Yin, one Yang.

They chased each other relentlessly, following the faint trace of the Dao that Ji Ning had sensed earlier.

Gradually, in the very center of the chasing Taiyin and Sunstar powers, a new force began to be born!

In that instant—

From the endless void, separated by countless layers of worlds and barriers, the two supreme stars—the Sunstar and the Taiyin Star—each sent down a sliver of Sunstar True Fire and Taiyin True Water. They materialized on either side of Ji Ning, and their very presence automatically attracted the power of water and fire from the surrounding world.

*Boom!*Boom!

Out of thin air, vast flames and surging tides of water coalesced around them.

It took time to describe, yet it was instantaneous. The moment Ji Ning shattered the tree, he had triggered the internal power within him and begun his breakthrough. Tie Muzhan and his Huan Beast witnessed the infinite water and endless flame being born from nothingness, and they even felt a sense of dread. Where the water passed, everything froze into ice sculptures; where the flames passed, everything shattered and burned to ash.

At the same time, within the roiling waters, the faint shadow of a Moon Rabbit could be seen.

Within the depths of the endless flames, the shadow of a Three-Legged Golden Crow appeared.

In the very center of the Moon Rabbit and the Golden Crow sat Ji Ning.

“This… this…” Tie Muzhan’s face twisted in shock. “Could it be the legendary Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens?”

Both the Golden Crow and the Moon Rabbit appearing together!

There was no doubt—this was the legendary number-one Fiendgod Body Refining technique. Across the entire Yan Mountain region, there had been no recorded case of anyone breaking through to the Xiantian stage using this method in at least a thousand years. Although he had read about the method and knew the phenomena that accompanied a breakthrough, this was the first time he had ever witnessed it with his own eyes.

“Hmph.” Tie Muzhan waved his hand, and a series of formation banners appeared out of nowhere. He immediately began to sprint, circling around Ji Ning, who was now enveloped in endless water and fire. As he ran, he flicked his right hand, sending formation banners flying in different directions to embed themselves deep into the soil.

In mere seconds, eight formation banners were planted across a half-mile radius.

Tie Muzhan stood off in the distance.

“Master, let’s attack,” the Huan Beast urged anxiously. “He’s in the middle of his breakthrough—this is when he’s vulnerable!”

“No!” Tie Muzhan barked. “He’s cultivating the number-one Fiendgod Body Refining method, drawing upon the power of the two supreme stars—the Sunstar and the Taiyin Star. As he breaks through to the Xiantian realm, these two supreme stars pierce through layers of space to send down a sliver of Sunstar True Fire and Taiyin True Water to cleanse his mortal body and forge a true Primordial Fiendgod body.”

“Then we must disrupt it all the more!” the Huan Beast insisted.

“You’re not listening,” Tie Muzhan said through gritted teeth, staring at Ji Ning, now engulfed in endless water and flame. “He is currently surrounded by infinite icy water and boundless flames. At the core of the icy water is a sliver of Taiyin True Water! At the core of the flames is a sliver of Sunstar True Fire! Forget about you or me—even a Zifu Disciple who dares to touch that would be frozen to dust or burned to cinders in an instant! Not even a trace of their soul would remain to seek reincarnation in the Netherworld!”

“That powerful?” the Huan Beast asked in astonishment.

“Of course it is!” Tie Muzhan said grimly. “This is the majesty of the two supreme stars! Who dares to touch Sunstar True Fire and Taiyin True Water?”

“Then… we just watch?” the Huan Beast said urgently. “We just watch as this Ji Clan brat grows stronger?”

“Don’t worry!” Tie Muzhan lowered his voice. “Right now, the two supreme stars are channeling their power down to him, causing his mortal body to undergo transformation and gestate a Primordial Fiendgod body. Once he completes the breakthrough, that sliver of Taiyin True Water and Sunstar True Fire will vanish. After all, the Taiyin True Water and Sunstar True Fire aren’t his power.”

Tie Muzhan sneered: “I have already set up the Yin-Yang Dual Qi Formation. Once this Ji Clan boy finishes his breakthrough and loses the protection of the two supreme stars, I will activate the formation immediately. No matter how strong he might be, he will still be a newborn Xiantian who doesn’t even have a single magic treasure! I am already at late Xiantian, and I have the power of the formation backing me up.”

“Mm,” the Huan Beast nodded.

“This kid is truly remarkable,” Tie Muzhan could not help but praise. “The Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens—the legendary number-one Fiendgod Body Refining technique. Almost every major tribe has a copy! But no one in the Yan Mountain region has managed to break through to Xiantian using it in a thousand years. If I let him grow, he would undoubtedly become the number one figure among the Five Prefectures of the Ji Clan, perhaps even the number one in all of Yan Mountain. But no matter how strong he might be, he is only just now stepping into the Xiantian realm. Haha… the thought of killing such a monstrous genius feels exhilarating!”

…

What is Xiantian?

To be born of Heaven and Earth—that is what it means to be a true Xiantian lifeform.

For ordinary Ki Refiners, they merely transform their internal energy into Xiantian true energy, which then washes through their bones, muscles, and flesh to achieve a state of lightness and purity. This is actually the lowest form of a Xiantian body. A single sword through the heart can kill them.

For Fiendgod Body Refiners, however, they fundamentally shed their mortal form at the cellular level and obtain a body worthy of a Fiendgod. The ancient Primordial Fiendgods could have their bodies sliced into eighteen pieces, and so long as their heads remained intact, they would not die. Most Fiendgod Body Refining techniques were crude and inferior, requiring the practitioner to scar their own skin with fiendish inscriptions.

The Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens, however, drew upon the power of the two supreme stars, allowing divine patterns to appear naturally on the body.

During the breakthrough to Xiantian, the two supreme stars sent down Sunstar True Fire and Taiyin True Water… Fire and water in harmony, to forge a true Primordial Fiendgod body. The resulting Fiendgod body was no less impressive than the bodies of the true Fiendgods born at the dawn of the Primordial Era. It was for this reason that this technique was known as the number one method.

Crackle!

Ji Ning felt every single cell in his body burst apart in an instant. Then, guided by his Crimsonbright divine power and based on the Taiyin True Water and Sunstar True Fire at his core, new cells began to form. The sliver of Sunstar True Fire and Taiyin True Water sent down by the two supreme stars was completely absorbed and consumed in the process of forging his Primordial Fiendgod body.

His mortal shell was shed!

His Fiendgod body was complete!

Whoosh! The Taiyin True Water and Sunstar True Fire were utterly consumed, causing the gathered water and flames to dissipate as well, revealing Ji Ning, clad in beast-hide. Even though his life form had undergone a fundamental leap, the beast-hide on his body had not been damaged by the water or fire in the slightest. Ji Ning’s skin now radiated a captivating luster, as if he were a flawless crystal born of the heavens and the earth.

Ji Ning opened his eyes and looked at Tie Muzhan and the Huan Beast in the distance. He uttered two words:

“Time to die.”

The Taiyin and Sunstar divine patterns on his back instantly activated.

*Boom!*Boom!

A massive dragon of fire and a colossal dragon of water appeared out of thin air, born from the power of the Sunstar and Taiyin divine patterns. Containing fearsome destructive might, they surged directly toward Tie Muzhan and the Huan Beast. It was recorded in the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens that upon entering the Xiantian realm, the cultivator could command the elements of water and fire!