Chapter 1135: Across The Mortal World (II)

Eastern Sea.

Jagged black reefs jutted skyward as waves crashed and surged without white foam, but inky darkness. The sea's surface reflected no light. Here, at the far eastern edge of the Eastern Sea, the spiritual energy had grown thin, and even the great void had grown calm.

The seawater beneath the surface was pitch black. A few spirit fish swam past now and then, but nothing else could be seen. In the depths of that vast, shadowy world, a young man in azure robes and a golden tassel at his waist sat cross-legged with eyes tightly shut.

Before him stretched an enormous formation, its surface woven with emerald-green patterns. It resembled a vast agate dome pressing down upon the ocean floor. Coral and reef had accumulated over tens of thousands of years beneath it. Though it was so hard that even a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator could scarcely move them, it had been cleanly sliced through like tofu and was now strewn unevenly across the seabed.

After some time, the young man slowly opened his eyes. His pupils were a pale cyan, and currents of Pristine Water coiled around him, their purity wholly at odds with the murky sea. They gathered into a faintly glowing turquoise halo.

"Fellow Daoist! How is my formation?"

His cheerful voice rippled completely unhindered through the dark waters, carrying straight into the sealed formation. In the next instant, the surrounding seawater began to boil violently, and a thunderous roar echoed back, "Chi Buzi! Have you lost your mind? When have I ever wronged you?!"

Chi Buzi rose from the reef and stepped leisurely through the water, smiling as he spoke, "It is precisely because you never wronged me that I could trap you here, isn't it? It has only been two years of refining, and I have yet to even make a move. Why are you so impatient, my friend? Besides, this place is Shiqi, the domain of the True Monarch of Transcendent Creation. I revere that venerable senior deeply, so rest assured, I would never take your life here."

At those words, the creature trapped within the formation was so furious that it fell silent for three full breaths. Chi Buzi knew full well how stifled the creature must be. He had laid his trap step by step, wielding four divine abilities of a late Purple Mansion Realm cultivator to deceive a weaker foe. He had scattered traces of a lost relic, feigned seclusion nearby, and simply waited for the creature to take the bait.

After all, it was a Purple Mansion Realm cultivator's seclusion ground. Even when the demonic creature had glimpsed the formation from within the great void, it thought little of it. But the moment it drew near, it was deceived by Chi Buzi's Chougui Hidden Form and failed to realize that the actual formation was far larger than what its spiritual sense had perceived.

Even so, that demonic creature had questioned him from afar across the waters, remaining well beyond the reach of his formation. Chi Buzi had endured two patient years of feigned exchanges before she finally wandered close enough to the formation to fall victim to his divine abilities.

Once the creature entered the formation, Chi Buzi suppressed her with a spirit artifact and strengthened the formation each day with his divine abilities. He waited in silence for two full years, so still and unyielding that the creature had nearly begun to suspect the formation itself was faulty. She nearly thought that even Chi Buzi might have been deceived.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Now that the truth was revealed, she was so enraged she nearly spat blood. Her voice was unexpectedly clear and feminine as it rang out furiously, "Chi Buzi! Even beasts like me know our parents, yet you, rootless and clanless, watched the Azure Pond Sect fall into others' hands and did nothing! You faithless scoundrel, not a word from your mouth can be trusted! I only regret believing you, not knowing you were a madman without cause or kin!"

Chi Buzi only laughed. "Beasts like you do not understand. Sects rely on secret teachings and use inner and outer doctrines to bind and deceive. Families depend on blood ties, and wield names as tools of tyranny. One is tainted by the other, leaving both corrupt. How could I, who walk with divine abilities, stoop to the filth of the mortal dust? And yet you, a beast, cling to your so-called parents; what a laughable thing to boast of."

Though she too was a Purple Mansion Realm being, how could she match wits with Chi Buzi, who had studied the classics since youth? His words struck her speechless, and she could only retort, "I may be a beast, but you are a demon. Why should I not say it?"

Chi Buzi ignored her and began walking into the formation, each footfall stirring the sea. The black water gradually turned azure, separating into murky and clear layers that rose upward until the transformation reached the surface. Rain began to fall in a torrential sheet.

The Purple Mansion Realm demonic creature panicked as Chi Buzi, walking on Pristine Water, entered the formation. Having only recently broken through to that realm, she knew that once the great void was sealed, she stood no chance against him.

She cried out, "Chi Buzi, I was at least initiated beneath the Tongxin Tree! Even the luan-birds know my name, think carefully before you act!"

Chi Buzi responded with an easy smile. "You're precisely the one I chose! And what if they know your name? You only performed a single bow beneath that tree. Who would care about that now?"

In that instant, the great formation erupted with roaring power. Waves of Pristine Water divine abilities surged as intense Lesser Yin radiance swept through the formation, transforming into countless white, floating shards of ice. Cold, oppressive currents tried to rise, but were relentlessly crushed beneath the weight of the Pristine Water.

The creature took the form of a stunningly beautiful young maiden, clad only in a translucent veil of azure silk. Yet when the Pristine Water crashed down upon her, she could no longer maintain her disguise. Her true body emerged, that of a spirit sparrow with blue and white feathers shimmering faintly in the dim light.

Chi Buzi had not spared her human guise so much as a glance, as if it might sully his eyes. But now, seeing her true form, his gaze lit up with interest.

He could not help but look her over and exclaim with a sigh, "Excellent, another winged beast indeed! The old texts say: 'Lesser Yin gives rise to feathers, Bright Yang gives rise to shells.' Most think the latter false, but the former... that, I see now, is nearly the truth!"

The spirit sparrow could not understand why this man would harm her for no reason. When he started rambling about ancient texts, she gnashed her teeth in fury and cursed, "Foolish being..."

The two clashed within the formation, their battle churning the surrounding waters. The sea above flickered between light and shadow, while rain poured endlessly for half a month. A few passing cultivators even paused upon the surface, gazing down in wonder.

The Pristine Water still flows without end. Could there be a treasure hidden below?

The strength of those cultivators was far too meager to reach the depths, so they found nothing. Meanwhile, deep below, the Purple Mansion Realm demonic creature had fought to her limit and her feathers were nearly all shorn away. She forced herself against the crushing pressure of Pristine Water, struggling toward the edge of the formation.

Without hesitation, the creature lowered her head and hurled herself at the formation with all her remaining strength. A deafening boom followed and her head exploded into a mist of pale-white essence as dense as blood, splattering across the formation.

The unleashed energy shook the formation. But after withstanding half a month of assaults, that final desperate impact caused it to waver at last. For a fleeting instant, a crack in the great void appeared, and in that moment, the creature vanished into thin air.

Chi Buzi, however, remained calm. With a flick of his hand, the formation shrank rapidly and flew into his sleeve. Blessed with a Body Divine Ability and empowered by his spirit artifact, he was certain the creature could not escape him. Even at her peak, she would not have been his match, much less now when she was gravely wounded.

He murmured softly to himself, "A talkative little creature; she said she couldn't die within Shiqi, and she truly fled elsewhere!"

Chi Buzi tore through the great void and sped after her. Yet the vast emptiness showed no trace of her passage. He did not bother glancing around as he extended his hand.

He hooked his little finger, touching thumb to forefinger and began to recite, "Whence come purity and murkiness? When frost, heat, and chill appear within the radiant pond, the mark of Lesser Yin is revealed."

His eyes lit up. He stepped through the great void once more, and caught sight of the fleeing spirit sparrow. She darted swiftly through the void, faster than most could hope to follow, yet still slower than him. Halfway through her escape, she was forced to break out of the void and return to the mortal realm.

The moment the sparrow burst from the void, she emerged above the sea, appearing right before the group of cultivators still gathered there. A dozen of them stood watch, believing some treasure was about to surface. Wounded and furious, the Purple Mansion Realm creature dove at them in a frenzy, devouring several ancestors and temple masters in a single breath before flying off without so much as a glance back.