"And, although they are dead now, they will soon be resurrected!"
"However, the resurrected common people will no longer be subjects of the Great Ming!"
Tian Fengyu watched Ji Xiang walk towards him. The distance between them was less than twenty paces, yet he was not panicked at all. Instead, he beckoned, "You are not a young Taoist priest of Mount Wudang, and perhaps you have no ties to this Great Ming!
"Whether you are possessing a body or returning a soul to a borrowed corpse, these are minor Taoist divine abilities, not worthy of the grand hall! Listen to my words, why don't you come to my side? I will help you reshape your physical body, restore your original soul cultivation, and even allow you to advance further!"
Ji Xiang said coldly, "Reshaping the physical body, the Taoist sect also has righteous methods, and does not need your evil arts. You are now merely a straw target, waiting to die. Do you still have the courage to recruit me?"
"Cultivating the spirit but not the life, a soul in eternal damnation can hardly enter sainthood!"
The process of 'Bing Jie' (兵解, a method of self-destruction for Taoist practitioners to ascend) was irreversible. The moment Tian Fengyu's soul emerged, Ji Xiang would use his divine ability of 'Shattering the Void' to shatter his soul!
It was a pity that his own physical body's strength was insufficient. The ascension realm divine abilities he used were all weakened. With the nominal strength of a Golden Core, 'Shattering the Void' might not kill this soul, but it would definitely cause him damage, especially since he was also in a damaged state.
Moreover, Ji Xiang now wanted to know the origin and cause of all these events. It was better to feign weakness, converse with the opponent, uncover the truth, and then act!
Tian Fengyu chuckled falsely, staring at Ji Xiang:
"You are waiting for my soul to emerge after I die from Bing Jie?"
"Good, since I can't run anyway, let me say something! Evil arts? These are not evil arts! These are also righteous methods, just that these righteous methods have not yet been thoroughly recorded in the human world."
"Have you ever heard of the 'Wan Shou Dao Zang' (万寿道藏, Ten Thousand Longevity Taoist Canon)?"
Ji Xiang found it familiar and recalled, "This Taoist canon was lost a long time ago."
Tian Fengyu smiled, chewing the black blood in his mouth. The black blood flowing from him was increasing:
"It was indeed lost during the Jingkang period, but we are still alive, so this Taoist canon has also been completed, underground."
Ji Xiang asked, "Your paper figures and soldiers are wearing Song Dynasty armor, and what you are now calling the Wan Shou Dao Zang is also from the Song Dynasty. Who... are you?"
Tian Fengyu smiled, "I was originally just a minor immortal official in the Wan Shou Palace. But the Holy Ancestor favored me, and the Jade Emperor decreed that I be refined into a manifestation of the Holy Ancestor. From then on, the former immortal official no longer existed. Now, my surname is Zhao!"
"If you want to know, I will tell you!"
Tian Fengyu sensed his Yin world body getting closer and about to appear in the Yang world. At this moment, to delay more time, he threw out significant news to attract Ji Xiang's attention:
"After death, the underworld guides the soul. The seven souls are mindless things and naturally disperse. The three souls are captured. Some people can be guided to reincarnation, while others return to heaven and earth as a spirit. To put it simply, life and death are merely the gathering and scattering of qi."
"But we are different. We died with our form and spirit intact, and survived in a very distant and deep place. You can call it lingering on, but we had already anticipated this day, after all, the Jin Dynasty was strong, and the Mongols were also strong."
"It was Zhenzong who first thought of this. Then, the emperors of the subsequent dynasties were all incompetent. It was not until the era of Gaozong..."
"We knew that we might not be able to defend the Great Song's territory while alive. So, we placed our hopes on the Jin people dying out, or the Mongols dying out. After they all died, we would resurrect from underground and once again take charge of this land.
"We couldn't defeat them, but we could wait. If we couldn't wait while alive, we would wait after death. Now is the time. The Great Ming is also nearing its end, and your dynasty's lifespan is about to expire... It should have been this way."
Tian Fengyu said this, and his tone became strange, "But not long ago, the dynasty's fate seemed to have continued. Although I don't know where the problem lies, it doesn't matter..."
Ji Xiang asked, "Is Lord Fire one of your people?"
Tian Fengyu shook his head, "She cannot be entirely considered one of us. She doesn't know of our existence at all. She thought all her encounters in the Inner Mountains and Rivers were divine blessings, but in fact, we actively gave them to her."
"Including the Taiyin Tribulation Fire, we refined it and sent it to her. It's a pity that with such a powerful item, she didn't know how to use it and was killed by the Heavenly Officials of the Forbidden City. Truly, when I heard about this from your mouth, I wanted to laugh."
"Women cannot achieve great things, as expected! But fortunately, she at least used the Taiyin Tribulation Fire, burning a large hole in the national prestige of your Shuntian Prefecture. This allowed our form and spirit to come into the world through the formation in the Dongyue Temple. Because the national prestige had a gap, there were loopholes to exploit when it was operating."
Ji Xiang nodded, "So that's how it is. Alright, you can die now."
Tian Fengyu chuckled, "Bing Jie means to die! Since you are so eager to compete with my soul, how can I not satisfy you! Do you think I don't know you are trying to trick me? But I deliberately told you!"
"Because I am also waiting. If I don't pique your curiosity, I fear I won't be able to escape from your hands!"
As Tian Fengyu finished speaking, a Great Majestic Divine Talisman had been placed on him at some unknown time!
Ji Xiang channeled his spiritual power, and the Great Majestic Divine Talisman erupted with immense light!
Boom! Bones, organs, blood, and sinews, everything with a physical form, was instantly shattered by the Great Majestic Divine Talisman!
Black mist condensed and soared into the sky, and a semi-illusory soul appeared prominently within the black mist!
"Haha, I have escaped!"
"You think you can just leave? It's not that easy!"
Ji Xiang made his move, activating his ascension realm divine ability!
With the 'Great Dao' as his starting move, he grasped the air! As the power of 'Shattering the Void' appeared around the soul, Tian Fengyu's smile immediately vanished!
"You... this is!"
He felt his form and spirit being fixed by an astonishing force, and then his incomplete soul body actually began to disintegrate!
This was the divine ability of the ascension realm, 'Shattering the Void'!
Tian Fengyu was greatly alarmed, "You are not a soul realm expert possessing a mortal body, you, you are from the ascension realm!"
"You are not a cultivator from the Outer Mountains and Rivers!"
Ji Xiang thought about it and felt that what he said was not wrong.
Having descended from the Great Fuli Earth, he was indeed not a cultivator from the Outer Mountains and Rivers!
His soul shattered and largely collapsed. Ji Xiang did not manage to kill Tian Fengyu with a single move, which was within Ji Xiang's expectations. After all, it was still somewhat difficult for a Golden Core to kill a soul in one move.
The inability of a Golden Core to instantly kill a soul was due to insufficient cultivation.
The ascension divine ability was also a weakened version. If it were the true ascension divine ability, with this grasp, even a soul expert would be instantly annihilated!
"Let me see what exactly you are."
Ji Xiang activated his divine ability again. If he couldn't kill him with one move, he would do it twice, thrice!
"Heh heh... Hahaha!"
Tian Fengyu's soul was grasped by the second divine ability, but instead of being alarmed, he laughed. His soul began to shatter and could no longer maintain its complete form. But at this moment, the ground shook, and the "physical body" that had shed all its black blood suddenly changed!
Its clothing and attire all changed, its height and appearance also transformed, and even the head that had been separated from the body now grew back!
Hum! This physical body stood up straight from the ground!
Ji Xiang watched all this and unleashed the third divine ability of 'Shattering the Void'. Tian Fengyu's shattered soul was completely pulverized, leaving no trace!
The Northern Emperor Heavenly Peng Ruler no longer needed to point forward, because the physical body before him suddenly opened its eyes!
Within the Inner Scenery Divine Tablet, guidance was given for the current situation!
[Thirty-six Heavenly Transformations - Resurrection: Ability to resurrect the dead and restore flesh and bones, allowing decayed shells to be reborn and replaced, and to restore things that have already died and dissipated, including souls, back to their physical forms!]
"Heh heh, your skills are truly astonishing. I was truly blind to let such an exiled immortal from the ascension realm appear before me! If I hadn't cast a spell in advance, using supreme dharma to restore my soul from the void realm, I wouldn't have been able to come to the mortal world in my soul form even if I hadn't died just now!"
"Good, a master of the ascension realm, I have never killed anyone from the ascension realm in my life!"
The person before him wore a Tongtian Crown, with twenty-four beams and a golden Boshan hairpin. His black imperial robe was woven with cloud and dragon patterns in red and gold threads, clearly possessing the aura of an emperor!
The Inner Scenery Divine Tablet provided the name!
[Sī Mìng Zhēn Jūn: Song Holy Ancestor Zhao Xuanlang (Manifestation)!]