With a new Fate Star secured, Shang Xi finally had a new chance at ascension.
Without hesitation, he began guiding his Sword Casket, seeking to link it with the stars provided by the Star Dou Kuishan Sect.
With his deep foundation, condensing Immortal Spirit Qi posed no difficulty.
Once that qi resonated with a Fate Star, the moment of his enlightenment and breakthrough would arrive.
Above the heavens, the seven stars gathered by Star Dou Kuishan shone brilliantly, forming a formation in the Northern Dipper position.
Though hidden by array barriers, they were dazzlingly conspicuous once revealed.
The four great fiends on the battlefield, save for Ling Ling, noticed them instantly.
They raised their heads, and as one, unleashed their power toward the stars.
To the demons, preventing the Pure Yang Master's ascension was the highest priority.
The Drought Demoness, Huodou, Suanni, and Liefeng each hurled immense waves of power, locking onto a Fate Star and blasting it apart.
In that very first strike, four of the seven stars shattered.
Beside Jing Qian, Master Douzong froze, his expression collapsing into disbelief.
He had come with noble intent to turn the tide of battle and offer the Pure Yang Master a great favor.
But he had gravely underestimated the situation.
In his eagerness, he had acted too soon, exposing Kuishan's greatest secret, their hidden stars, and turning the battle decisively against their side.
This entire calamity had begun with Shang Xi's ascension.
Now every thread of fate is intertwined;
If his breakthrough failed, the consequences for the Yingfutu Realm would be catastrophic.
At that moment, Shang Xi suddenly stood.
Turning to Jing Qian, he said in a deep voice:
"Chixiao, can you send me up there?
I must guard the Fate Star myself."
Jing Qian's face grew solemn, his Three-Life Eye flaring to its fullest as he began calculating.
Before today, such a feat, transporting someone across five hundred million li, would have been impossible.
But ever since he had devoured the Blood Pool Cavern and allowed his Void Realm to evolve, everything had changed.
"Master," Jing Qian said,
"Let's give it a try!"
He stepped beside Shang Xi, placing a hand on his teacher's shoulder.
Then he closed his eyes and drew upon every ounce of spatial power within him.
All of his 20,000 Blue-Blood Life Essences were devoured by his Sumeru Life Pattern, and a pure, overwhelming aura of the Great Dao surged outward, enveloping Shang Xi completely.
A moment later, the aged Pure Yang Master, who had never left his realm in all his life, was hurled by his disciple's power across five hundred million li, landing directly before one of the surviving Fate Stars.
There was no time to adjust, no time to breathe.
The instant he arrived, Shang Xi raised his sword and struck!
The Great Wei Sword roared like thunder and dragon-song, cleaving through a ferocious beam of demonic power in one decisive stroke.
Two nearby Fate Stars exploded almost simultaneously under the demons' attacks, their light scattering like shattered glass.
It was unimaginably close; had Shang Xi been a heartbeat later, the last remaining star would have been destroyed as well.
But he had made it in time.
He had guarded his sole remaining chance of ascension.
As for poor Star Dou Kuishan Sect, their painstaking accumulation of ten thousand years, seven Main Stars in total, had been obliterated in an instant, returning them to nothing.
Now, of the seven, six were gone.
Only one remained, the single star Shang Xi now stood upon, blade in hand.
Yet that made him the sole target.
The four demon lords no longer hesitated; their killing intent united, and torrents of destructive power converged upon Shang Xi from all directions.
To them, it mattered little whether they slew him or the star; either way, his ascension would fail.
But every time their magic struck, a sword light split the darkness.
No matter how fierce the attack,
Shang Xi's twin blades shattered each one.
He stood alone, one man, two swords resisting the combined onslaught of four second-rank demon lords, and yet not yielding an inch.
For the first time in millennia, the radiance of the Pure Yang Master shone fully upon the world.
Within the Yingfutu Realm, cultivators above the Fifth Rank, Earth Fiend Realm, could pierce the veil of the realm and witness him with their own eyes.
To see a Fifth-Rank cultivator facing four Second-Rank great fiends without faltering was to overturn everything they believed possible.
The legacy of the Dao heirs, long hidden for three thousand years, had finally resurfaced in brilliance.
Those who had only heard the old tales, generations removed from the age of heroes, now saw one with their own eyes.
From this day forth, the name of Shang Xi, the Pure Yang Master, would be engraved into the hearts of all cultivators of this generation, a legend reborn, his sword-light forever blazing across the heavens.
...
In the Su Residence at Northern Pass, under the rule of the Divine Dynasty, Su Min'er sat beside her ancestor.
Through his power, she too could peer beyond the realm, watching the battle raging high above the heavens.
Strictly speaking, this was not merely a battle between cultivators; it was a war that could decide the life and death of every being in the world.
So Min'er's expression was solemn; she did not speak a word.
Beside her, Old General Su Zhao, noticing how tense his young granddaughter was, chuckled softly and tried to reassure her.
"Min'er, don't be afraid.
Even if the Ying Clan falls, I can still get you out of danger."
"And if the Yingfutu Realm truly collapses,
I'll take you back to our ancestral homeland,
restore our true bloodline, and change your destiny."
Behind them stood two small, peculiar creatures: a palm-sized white dog, perfectly healed from its injuries, and the tiny one-foot-tall horse it liked to ride.
The little horse leaned close and whispered,
"Where's the donkey?"
The dog snorted.
"Ran off ages ago.
That beast likes to act tough, but the moment it saw real cultivators fighting, it nearly died of fright."
...
Outside the Pure Yang Cavern, Jing Qian was sprawled on the ground, utterly exhausted and pale, his breath weak and uneven.
That one long-distance teleportation had drained every drop of his power.
His life force was completely spent, and he was now focusing all his strength on recovering.
Then, a white beam of light streaked down from the sky. The Old White Ox had arrived, panting heavily.
It had been hiding peacefully at Northern Pass, but never could it have imagined that Shang Xi and Jing Qian would stir up such an earth-shaking spectacle.
Though Shang Xi was still holding off the enemy's relentless assault, it was clear his strength would not last forever.
Against four Second-Rank Great Fiends, even a single mistake could mean irreversible disaster.
The ox no longer thought of hiding.
Its eyes burned with determination as it spoke:
"Young Master Chixiao, can you send me up there, too?
I'll stake my life on one blow if I can cripple even one of those Second-Rank demons; it'll be worth it.
Master Shang Xi cannot keep this up forever.
The drain on his mana is beyond what any man can bear.
There must be a way to break this deadlock.
I've lived long enough;
If my death can take a fiend down with me, then so be it."
Jing Qian shook his head.
"No, Old Ox.
It hasn't come to that yet, and even if it had, I couldn't sustain another teleportation.
My mana is far too depleted."
Indeed, his foundation was still shallow.
Those 20,000 Blue-Blood Life Essences he had spent earlier were not something that could be replenished in a short time.
But the ox refused to back down.
"Mana recovery isn't a problem!"
"I've saved up a stash of Sword Lotus Roots; they're all yours."
"After the second one, they don't increase cultivation much, but they're excellent for restoring mana!"
With that, the old ox reached into his bag and pulled out a dozen sections of pure white lotus root, each one gleaming faintly like carved jade.
Jing Qian blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected the ox to have such treasures.
Without hesitation, he accepted them all.
He broke off one piece and swallowed it whole.
Within seconds, an immense surge of vital energy erupted from within him, filling his meridians and transforming into pure Life Essence.
In just a few breaths, his mana was completely restored and his total capacity even expanded by a thousand units, though still far below the first root's miraculous effect.
But instead of sending the ox to his death,
Jing Qian took three more Sword Lotus Roots, and with a flash of power, teleported them straight into Shang Xi's hands.
Then, without a word, he vanished from sight.
...
Up in the heavens, Shang Xi's twin swords had already cut through thirty-four waves of demonic energy.
His strength was nearly gone until, miraculously, the lotus roots appeared before him.
He recognized them instantly and, without hesitation,
swallowed one whole.
A wave of pure mana erupted within him, his power surging back to its peak.
He steadied his breath, and his resolve solidified once more.
Now fully restored, he continued his duel against the four great fiends.
The Pure Yang Master stood as an unshakable wall, guarding his single remaining Main Star, cutting down every beam of destructive magic that came his way.
His mind was still as water, no fear, no distraction, only his will to ascend and his unwavering intent to slay the four demons before him.
Deep within the Sea of Primordial Qi, his Xiwei Sword Casket pressed ever onward, breaking through layer after layer of dense energy.
Each layer it pierced refined the sword, imbuing it with a new attribute of pure vitality.
Unlike ordinary refinement, this tempering was additive, not subtractive. With every level conquered, the embryonic Immortal Spirit Qi grew richer and stronger.
Normally, a single strand of Immortal Spirit Qi had to pass through ten layers to form completely.
The more layers crossed, the greater its depth and power, a foundation that could shape one's entire path through the Third and even Second Ranks.
And Shang Xi's opportunity was extraordinary.
His sword casket was infused with the divine essence of Wu Zhiqi, the Celestial River Flood Immortal Spirit Qi itself.
When the casket plunged into the Sea of Qi, that divine essence ignited, propelling it forward like a comet, breaking through forty-two layers in a single surge.
For high-tier cultivators, such as Immortal Qi, the finest catalyst imaginable was a gift beyond price.
Even in the greatest sects, a prodigy lucky enough to receive one strand from a senior might gain a few extra layers' worth of progress.
But no senior in the heavens would ever pour their entire life's accumulation into another as Wu Zhiqi had done for Shang Xi.
Those forty-two free layers catapulted his cultivation to a realm unseen before. His Immortal Spirit Qi now shone with unmatched brilliance.
When the sword casket finally began relying on its own strength, it surged forward unstoppably, cutting through one barrier after another
Until, at last, within the boundless Sea of Qi,
it had broken through one hundred and seven layers in total.
And thus, in the blazing heart of heaven,
Shang Xi's Immortal Spirit Qi was born pure, boundless, and radiant as the dawn.
The Yin–Yang Chaotic Immortal Spirit Qi that Shang Xi finally forged far surpassed the Pure Yang Sect's own secret Pure Yang Sword-Lotus Spirit Qi, reaching an entirely new realm of power.
Though all Immortal Spirit Qi shares the same essence, there are levels of quality, and those levels are determined by how many layers of the Sea of Primordial Qi the spirit has passed through.
If it passes fewer than ten layers, it is only a false spirit, unformed and incomplete.
Between ten and a hundred layers, it is called Lesser Immortal Spirit Qi, the ordinary mark of a typical Star-Seizer cultivator.
But once it surpasses one hundred layers, it becomes Golden Immortal Spirit Qi, exactly what Shang Xi had just achieved with his Yin–Yang Chaotic Immortal Qi.
Golden Immortal Spirit Qi is the foundation for advancement to the Third Rank, Heaven-Mender, and even toward the Second Rank.
If it were to rise still further, piercing a thousand layers, it would transform into True Immortal Essence, or Xian Qi, a realm so rare that even the Flood Demon Wu Zhiqi's famed Celestial River Spirit Qi had never reached it.
After three thousand years of tempering, Shang Xi had passed through one hundred and seven layers, condensing seven full streams of Golden Immortal Spirit Qi, the absolute limit of his body and soul, a flawless foundation for his Dao.
His Xiwei Sword Casket, now carrying those seven strands of Yin–Yang Chaotic Immortal Qi,
burst free from the Sea of Primordial Qi and descended onto his Main Star.
In that instant, Shang Xi felt the resonance.
With a single gesture, his life-bound sword casket merged into his spiritual sea, and the Immortal Qi flooded into his body.
Power exploded through him.
In that moment, he had completed ninety percent of his ascension to Star-Seizer.
All that remained was for the star beneath his feet to fully awaken
and harmonize with the Immortal Qi within his soul.
In at most a quarter of an hour, his breakthrough would be complete.
He exhaled softly.
"Haaah…"
A long, steady breath escaped him. The Curse of Burning Fiends that had tormented him for three millennia was finally gone.
The Immortal Qi poured through him like gentle spring rain,
soothing the cracked desert of his body with infinite vitality.
In the blink of an eye, the aged and withered elder transformed into a youth again, rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed, radiant as dawn, even more handsome than Jing Qian himself.
His eyes regained their luster, and his wounded Dao-heart, long scarred by suffering, was wholly restored.
At this moment, Shang Xi stood as the true heir of the Dao, a complete embodiment of its essence.
Then came a deep, thunderous boom, a heartbeat echoing from the Main Star, resonating through his sea of consciousness.
The final synchronization had begun.
His aura continued to surge,
his sword grew sharper,
and with every swing, even Second-Rank demonic spells shattered like glass.
The entire war was about to turn.
Now was the last window for the demons to stop Shang Xi's ascension.
If they failed, at least one of them would never return alive.
Amid her duel with the Human Emperor Yingkun, the Drought Demoness glanced skyward and sneered.
"Ling Ling, if you keep slacking off, you'll be throwing away your own future!"
"Elder Sister won't play with you anymore.
Let me show you what a perfectly forged Corpse-Mountain can do!"
She raised one finger, and a gray, stunted mountain appeared high above the heavens, its slopes crawling with countless bizarre undead.
There were Hair Corpses and Iron Corpses of the lower grades,
Golden Corpses and Flying Corpses of the middle, and even two upper-grade monsters, a pair of Yakshas, and one Corpse God crowning its peak.
At once, four streams of strange, deathly power flowed down from the Corpse Mountain, enveloping the Drought Demoness, Huodou, Liefeng, and Suanni.
It was the primal force of the zombie lineage itself, granting each fiend an undying, immortal body.
The four great demons suddenly abandoned all thought of defense, letting the enemies' spells crash into them unchecked as they counterattacked in a frenzy, their wounds closing instantly under the Corpse Mountain's blessing.
With this new power, the tide of battle turned again.
The Yingfutu Realm's champions, already weaker overall, found themselves being pushed into a desperate retreat.
The Human Emperor Yingkun and the Kitchen God, in particular, whose Second-Rank strength was sustained only by borrowed power, were beaten back step by step.
Then
A blinding sword-light split the heavens five hundred million li above, and in an instant, it decapitated the demon Huodou.
Even with the Corpse Mountain's blessing, the beast staggered dazed for several breaths before it could regenerate long enough for the Kitchen God to gasp a breath of relief.
No question had struck the blow.
Shang Xi had finally joined the battle.
Fueled by his sevenfold Golden Immortal Spirit Qi, his sword power surged beyond imagination.
That single slash suppressed the aura of all ten Second-Rank powers on the field, and in that instant, he became the brightest star of the war.
And this was only the beginning.
From the first sword onward, countless streaks of sword-light fell like rain, each strike carrying the might of a Second-Rank master.
All four great demons were forced onto the defensive, and if not for the Corpse Mountain's support, the battle would have ended then and there.
The Main Star beneath Shang Xi pulsed like a heart, its core drawing upon the energy of the 107th layer of the Sea of Qi, pouring endless power into him.
He transformed that boundless vitality into Yin–Yang Chaos Immortal Qi, releasing it in wave after wave of devastating sword strikes that rained across the entire battlefield.
At that moment, Shang Xi was like a living war-fortress, a one-man artillery array that, though still only Fourth Rank, Star-Seizer, managed to suppress four Second-Rank demon lords simultaneously.
He was every inch a Pure Yang swordsman, yet his style differed utterly from Jing Qian's.
Where Jing Qian's sword was the invisible flight of the outer heavens, one silent strike that killed unseen
Shang Xi's was the roaring blaze of the sun itself, a storm of divine radiance that no darkness could withstand.
Shang Xi's way of the sword was pure, direct, and utterly unrestrained, a path of overwhelming force.
He stood tall, blade in hand, one man barring the heavens themselves.
After suppressing his battle lust for three thousand years, he was finally unleashing it without restraint.
For him, there was no greater joy than this moment to stand alone against the world, to meet the universe's fiercest blows head-on.
But then
A small, delicate figure suddenly appeared behind him.
Soft arms slipped around his neck.
Warm breath brushed his ear, and a pair of teeth bit lightly at his earlobe.
Threads of crimson energy slithered from the Great Wei Sword, winding themselves over Shang Xi's body, binding him in place.
It was Ling Ling.
She had somehow broken through impossibility itself, appearing silently at his back.
Her voice was gentle, even tender:
"Brother Shang Xi, I was destined to be your final tribulation."
"Please, help me take back the Corpse Mountain.
I beg you, just this once."
For a moment, his sword aura faltered.
Under the enchantment of the blood-threads, his body moved on its own, and the countless streams of sword-light turned, crashing downward toward the Corpse Mountain.
The undead upon the mountain never stood a chance.
Under that rain of divine blades, they were shredded to ash in an instant.
Even those that tried to regenerate were annihilated again by the lingering waves of sword energy.
Seeing her chance, Ling Ling released him and tried to dart toward the mountain, but to her shock, the man she thought was fully ensnared suddenly caught her small hand and pulled her back.
Shang Xi looked at her, calm yet resolute, and pressed the Great Wei Sword into her palms.
"Ling Ling," he said softly,
"Walk the Dao beside me.
I've broken through the barrier and remade my path
I'll not shame you any longer."
The words had barely left his lips when the blood-threads coiled around the sword, turned, and wrapped around Ling Ling herself.
Before she could react, they tightened, binding her whole body, and the sword in her grasp pulsed with blinding light.
Sword and night-fiend fused.
"Shang Xi! You tricked me again!"
Her cry was half-sob, half-scream, and then the light consumed her completely.
When it faded, the Mother Yaksha was gone.
In her place remained a single divine treasure, a sheath of impossible craftsmanship, radiating the aura of both blade and demon:
Spiritual Artifact – Yaksha Sword Sheath "Ling Ling"
Grade: Second Rank
Bearer Requirement: Master of the Great Wei Sword
Having just ascended to Star-Seizer,
Shang Xi immediately gained a supreme weapon.
With the Yaksha Sheath amplifying his sword, each strike now carried unstoppable might.
The four remaining great demons, even with the Corpse Mountain's blessing, could no longer reverse their defeat.
The Suanni roared furiously:
"A-Huo! What are you waiting for?
Summon the Temple Master now!"
The Drought Demoness grit her silver teeth and at last played her final card.
The Corpse Mountain split open.
From within yawned a cavern, and in it lay a faceless corpse.
As wind rushed through, the corpse stirred, and a new face formed, handsome, alive, intelligent.
The corpse had become a vessel.
The true lord of the Demon Sea of Gu Lin, a being of Third Rank, Heaven-Mender cultivation
Gu Lin himself had awoken.
He had left this body long ago, infusing it with his blood and sealing within it a fragment of his own Immortal Essence.
Now, that essence flared.
Without a word, Gu Lin rose from the mountain and threw three devastating punches.
The first punch struck the Kitchen God, shattering the sacred fire that sustained him.
Blood exploded from the man's pores, his strength crashing back to Third Rank as he fell from the sky.
The second punch slammed into the Heaven-Gang Tower, instantly killing its weakest guardian and dragging the artifact down from Second Rank.
The third punch hurtled straight toward Shang Xi, aimed to crush the greatest threat on the battlefield.
But Shang Xi did not yield an inch.
The Great Wei Sword and the Two Forms Annihilation Sword wove in his hands like twin dragons.
Ten strikes flashed in an instant, each layered atop the other, and the immense power of Gu Lin's fist was dispersed, ground away to nothing.
Then Shang Xi counter-attacked, sword-light surging like a tidal wave toward Gu Lin's avatar.
The three punches had already torn that avatar half apart, and though Corpse Mountain's power regenerated it, the damage was severe.
Still, bolstered by that mountain,
Gu Lin revived once more, iron fists blazing, meeting Shang Xi's sword head-on.
Though only of the Third Rank,
Gu Lin bore a High-Grade Title, a cultivator who had single-handedly subdued the entire Demon Sea, remaking one of the Northern Heavens' Seven Celestial Seas into his own Demon Sea of Gu Lin.
His strength was terrifying, equal in stature to the Dao-line heirs themselves, a monster who could stand beside the Pure Yang Master.
Now, sustained by the Corpse Mountain, his distant avatar fought Shang Xi to a standstill.
But elsewhere on the battlefield, everything was collapsing.
With the Heaven-Gang Tower and Kitchen God's Palace both crippled, the battle had narrowed to:
Drought Demoness, Huodou, Liefeng, and Suanni against the Ghost Emperor of Wuchang, the Fisherman, and Ying Kun.
Four against three, and the balance of victory was tipping at last toward the Demon Sea of Gu Lin.
But the true turning point was still brewing.
...
The Corpse Mountain itself was an artifact of terrifying power,
a divine construct that manipulated flesh and blood.
Even though the undead had been annihilated,
its presence alone made the demons nearly immortal.
Every powerhouse capable of threatening it
was locked in combat elsewhere.
No one noticed
when a slender, trembling figure approached the mountain's base.
It was Mo Pin'er,
who had been wandering the void these past days.
Her arms quivered as she flew closer,
and in her embrace, the Flesh Worm Spirit Construct shivered violently,
too terrified even to lift its head.
For such a creature,
The aura radiating from the Corpse Mountain
was suffocating beyond measure.
Yet under some mysterious compulsion,
Mo Pin'er forced herself forward.
Tears welled in her eyes as she whispered:
"Buggy… I'm sorry.
I have to ask this of you.
Don't worry, I'll bring you back someday."
The worm whimpered miserably:
"Young Master, just stop already…
I've had enough of these near-death errands.
Let me die in peace this time."
"No can do," Pin'er replied.
"If you die, who'll take the hits for me next time?"
By then, she was already in position.
Without hesitation,
She hurled the Flesh Worm from her arms.
The great white creature flew like a cannon shell, slamming into the peak of the Corpse Mountain, and just before impact,
It exploded.
Its body burst apart into quivering chunks of meat,
each piece radiating the power of Sumeru Space,
carving bright fissures through the sky.
A massive spatial wormhole opened,
enveloping the entire Corpse Mountain in its glow.
Then the portal folded in on itself
And both worm and mountain vanished completely.
The divine artifact was gone.
And with it, the demonic immortality it bestowed
collapsed instantly.
The battle shifted in an instant.
Gu Lin's avatar, stripped of the mountain's support,
disintegrated on the spot
And Shang Xi stood victorious without another strike.
Without pause,
He turned his sword downward,
and unleashed a blazing cut
straight at the Drought Demoness Huo Huo below.
-support me in Patreon for more chapter, 55+ chapters in there
patreon.com/LordoftheReader