Chapter 466: Of Human Make

Xiao Nanfeng ultimately sighed. "Very well. As you suggest, let's make my golden crows cursed effigies."

"That's the spirit!" Madam Rouge smiled. "I'm doing this to help you out."

Xiao Nanfeng rolled his eyes. If this experiment were a failure, he would lose his ten golden crows and be forced to start anew.

Well, it was better to believe Madam Rouge really had his best interests at heart. He wouldn't want someone to shoot down his golden crows, after all.

Better to restart now than later, if someone were to kill his crows.

"Right, what's the relationship between you and the Peach Buddha?" Xiao Nanfeng asked curiously.

"Him? He was my subordinate in the past. After I sacrificed countless parcels of fortune, opportunity, and treasure, I managed to retrieve a cursed object from the world away. After attuning to it, I and my closest subordinates took on the form of cursed effigies. He was among that batch, and possesses some of my cursed spiritual power."

"But isn't your cursed spiritual avatar a mirror? How did he become a peach tree?"

"A peach tree cursed spiritual avatar? There's no such thing."

"Oh?" Xiao Nanfeng replied curiously.

"It's not as though I've seen all cursed effigies before, but all those that I have are of human make."

"Of human make?"

"For instance, the ones you've seen: mirror, rope, candle, blade, book, and even the shadow that the Divine Emperor became. All cursed effigies are artificial, and none are born of nature. Nature gives rise to spirits; humans give rise to cursed effigies."

"What about Senior Black Lotus?"

"That must be a disguise. Many cursed effigies hide their true form. At least based on what I've seen, there are no exceptions to this rule."

"Truly? How does it all work? What's the world away like?"

"I don't know. Many peerless cultivators in the annals of history have tried to explore this unknown world, but none have succeeded."

"In other words, is the Peach Buddha's original form a mirror?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.

Madam Rouge shook his head. "A painting, one with a peach tree drawn on it."

Xiao Nanfeng's eyes widened. "Isn't your cursed spiritual avatar a mirror? How did it become a painting?"

"Who told you that I only retrieved a single cursed object from the world away?" Madam Rouge smiled.

"What? You mean you performed two sacrifices to the world away?"Xiao Nanfeng was astonished.

"I was able to rule for a single era. Why not two? I exchanged all my possessions for a mirror and a scroll on which a peach grove was painted. I quite like the scroll, but it's a little bloodthirsty. The resulting cursed effigies were particularly fierce and savage, but I suppose that served me well in expanding my borders."

"You ruled over two eras? That's impressive," Xiao Nanfeng praised.

"Hardly. Each time, I lost against the heavens and was forced to regenerate. Now that I've returned for a third time, I'm going to challenge the heavens once more." Madam Rouge glared stubbornly at the skies.

"You're starting to develop your own kingdom, too?" Xiao Nanfeng seemed a little taken aback.

"That's right. I recently freed all my subordinates from my hidden realm, and I possess ten empires in the west. I intend to unite them all as a divine empire shortly."

"Empress Rouge...?" Xiao Nanfeng murmured.

"Indeed, before long, you'll have to address me as Empress. Why don't you fold your Dazheng Empire into my domain, too? I'll make you a prince of my empire. How about that?" Madam Rouge smiled.

"No, thank you," Xiao Nanfeng refused immediately. "I'd like to challenge my limits myself."

"Oh? Do you think it's easy to establish a divine empire? You'll be struggling in the future. Shouldn't you be glad that I'm giving you some advice?" Madam Rouge gave Xiao Nanfeng a proud look.

"Let's talk about that later. Can we focus on getting me out, first? Speaking to you while I'm tied up almost makes me feel like I've been kidnapped."

"You can't leave just yet. I already told you, I'm going to help you forge the Records of Life and Death into your ten golden crows, and we'll need to take advantage of the energy that the heavens have left here. As the warden of the Netherworld Palace, you have access to that energy."

"But even the Netherworld Pope was only able to manipulate a small portion of it!"

"That's enough. Your position vests you with authority from the heavens, and the remainder of that energy is only being restricted from your access by natural law. I can help you shatter those laws and grant you full access to it."

"Oh?" Xiao Nanfeng seemed a lot more excited.

"Use your candleflame ability to bring me into this blood crystal so I can help you."

Xiao Nanfeng nodded. "Very well!"

The candle flames connected the inside of the crystal to the outside. A bright-red portal appeared before Madam Rouge.

"What an impressive ability," Madam Rouge praised.

She stepped into the crystal. Within moments, the blood-colored pinpricks of light swarmed around her as though they had discovered an invader.

Madam Rouge suddenly turned transparent—no, her whole body became reflective like a mirror. She reflected the blood-colored pinpricks of light, which instantly stopped attacking her.

"Are these pinpricks of light that easy to trick?" Xiao Nanfeng exclaimed.

"Of course not. They're from the heavens themselves. My cursed spiritual avatar is rather unique, however, so I was able to handle this situation relatively easily. Alright. Let's see what's going on, then."

Xiao Nanfeng nodded.

He and Madam Rouge began observing the patterns of light in the crystal intently, meditating on their effects on their surroundings.

Ten days later, within a forest, Blue Lantern scattered a group of pebbles around him. They floated away and evoked a formation that surrounded the vicinity.

"Blue Lantern, we're back!" Ye Dafu and his lackeys called out, flying back from afar.

The swelling all over their bodies had subsided over the past ten days, and their auras had grown even more impressive. Clearly, they had benefited greatly from the recent fighting.

"What have you found?" Blue Lantern asked.

"The Netherworld Pope and Peach Buddha are both wily old foxes. We couldn't find out anything specific—we only have a vague impression of how things are going," Ye Dafu replied.

"Oh?"

"The Netherworld Pope chased after the Peach Buddha for three whole days, but the Peach Buddha ultimately managed to escape in the end. The Netherworld Pope claimed the Yanluo Court in the capital of Yin, and both of them are now in secluded cultivation."

"The Peach Buddha has twelve pages of the Earthly Branches and a Yanluo Court, while the Netherworld Pope has eight Yanluo Courts?" Blue Lantern frowned.

"The Netherworld Pope is still missing two Yanluo Courts to finish gathering the pages of the ten Heavenly Stems. He'll be weaker than the Peach Buddha for the time being, won't he?" Ye Dafu asked curiously.

"Not quite. I think the Netherworld Pope's more likely to win," Blue Lantern replied.

"Let's not worry about them for the moment. It's been ten days without any news of His Majesty. What are we to do now? We can't find any information. Have you been able to make contact with him?"

"Haven't I been trying?"

"All you do is scatter pebbles all over the forest! How can that count?"

Blue Lantern shook his head. "I'm not playing around. I'm sketching out the contours of the Formation of the Complete Heavens. If His Majesty can observe us from the sky, he'll surely realize where we are."

Just then, blood-colored clouds gathered high overhead as a terrifying aura emanated from them. A Heaven's Hand descended and landed before the cultivators.

"This is..." Ye Dafu, alarmed, took a step back.

Xiao Nanfeng's voice spoke from around them, "Blue Lantern, I saw the formation that you established. All of you, climb on."

Blue Lantern nodded with a smile.

Ye Dafu and the others were shocked by the unexpected scene, but they quickly smiled in relief and climbed on themselves.

Heaven's Hand rose up into the air and into the blood-colored sea of clouds. It brought the cultivators toward the giant crystal in which Xiao Nanfeng was now encased. Madam Rouge was still in her reflective form, and the cultivators didn't catch sight of her at all.

"We greet Your Majesty!" The cultivators bowed.

"Good to see all of you well." Xiao Nanfeng smiled.

"Your Majesty, the Netherworld Pope said that it took him a few years to be able to control these Heaven's Hands. How could you have done so in just ten days or so?!" Blue Lantern exclaimed.

"Why else? His Majesty is far more powerful than the Netherworld Pope!" Ye Dafu jumped in immediately.

Blue Lantern: ...

Xiao Nanfeng didn't explain. He asked, "Ye Dafu, have all of you grown stronger again?"

"I'm at the peak of Earth Immortal, and I'm just a step away from Heaven Immortal. My crew is a bit weaker, but not by much."

"Good. I've sent for all of you to help you advance your cultivation."

"Oh?" The cultivators' eyes lit up.

"I'll have these Heaven's Hands attack you and train your resilience. Would that do?"

"Of course! We asked the Netherworld Pope if he could do so, but he said he couldn't. Apparently, these Heaven's Hands can only kill cursed effigies, not ordinary cultivators. They're bound by natural law."

"Just because he can't do it doesn't mean that I can't. Prepare yourselves."

"Understood!" Ye Dafu and the others cried out in excitement.

Blue Lantern's eyes widened in astonishment. He simply couldn't understand how Xiao Nanfeng had managed something that the Netherworld Pope hadn't been able to achieve in a hundred thousand years—and in just ten days at that. What he didn't know was that Xiao Nanfeng and Madam Rouge had been breaking the restrictions on natural law. With those restrictions gone, the rest was straightforward.