The Dao heart severely regressed, and within moments it would shatter, bringing not just a decline in cultivation, but also a fall in realm and disposition. This was a severe punishment for an immortal!
A banished immortal, a cultivator struck down from the immortal realm into the mortal realm due to the regression and subsequent shattering of their Dao heart, was known by this title!
Not good!
Chen Taichu mobilized all his strength. The thoughts in his mind could no longer coalesce, making it impossible for him to use his divine sense to ponder the scriptures that stabilized the heart. He could only recite them aloud, his voice booming across the Phoenix Mountain territory.
But at this moment, Ji Xiang performed an action that made Chen Taichu's eyes widen in fury!
That power, from the unseen depths, which had fiercely interrupted all his incantations, struck again!
Ji Xiang merely brandished his firearm.
Heavenly Retribution!
"Gag!"
Chen Taichu's recited scriptures were forcibly interrupted. His slightly stabilized divine sense immediately shattered more violently, causing smoke to billow from his seven orifices. Ji Xiang observed this.
"Green energy... though not much."
Ji Xiang's expression also turned solemn.
Peak of the Ascension Realm?
It didn't quite seem like it. In terms of strength, it didn't feel like it. Compared to the feeling Yuan Miao Great Sage gave him, this was much weaker... but at least it had touched that level.
He wasn't yet worthy of being called a flying immortal, but he was indeed much stronger than this residual immortal like himself.
If he hadn't used遁术 (dùn shù - escape technique) to arrive here and immediately unleashed Heavenly Retribution to interrupt his spell, causing him to suffer a backlash, he would likely be the one being chased now.
The strategy provided in the Inner Scenery Divine Tablet was indeed useful.
Ji Xiang mused.
Immortals of this level, when casting spells, could quickly switch to other incantations if their current one was sealed. Moreover, even without using incantations, the immortal before him was a true immortal with a physical body, unlike those he had encountered before who had to rely on possession or descending in spirit and form as inferior true immortals.
Even if this person didn't use magic power, his physical body alone might be something his small frame couldn't contend with. While he wouldn't be instantly turned into a bloody mist, it would merely mean enduring a few more punches.
Therefore, Ji Xiang felt even more strongly at this moment...
It was a very wise choice to go looking for trouble in Dingjia City back then!
Although he temporarily lost his spirit and form, he gained the abilities of two immortal artifacts. This Heavenly Retribution could forcibly interrupt others' spellcasting, and even had a great effect on immortals. It was truly effective!
Naturally, Chen Taichu, who was affected, was desperately trying to prevent his condition from worsening. He glared at Ji Xiang and roared:
"You residual immortal, I swear I will tear you to shreds!"
"You've ruined our good deeds multiple times, why are you everywhere!"
Ji Xiang chuckled: "Why are you so foolish? You should ask the immortal officials of the Longevity Palace why I appeared here."
"I remember it clearly."
Chen Taichu froze.
Then he began to curse vehemently!
He remembered.
After failing to seize power in the Forbidden City, the immortal officials of the Longevity Palace, in revenge against this residual immortal, had placed a curse on him, essentially marking him, making it easier for the many ghost immortals of the Longevity Palace to trouble him.
Furthermore, this curse included a clause that wherever Ji Xiang went, various killings would occur, making him a downgraded version of a lone star of disaster.
However, this matter, due to the failure of the encirclement and suppression in Gusu Ghost City, and the need to seize the Dharma Realm of the Yin Mountain Sect, they had not troubled him further.
But...
But!
"No, no!"
Chen Taichu's eyes were bloodshot. His Dao heart was shattering, and Ji Xiang was staring at him. If he used his mental scriptures, Ji Xiang would immediately interrupt him. This was driving him mad!
If he had sinned, Heaven should have struck him down with lightning!
Not let such an annoying fellow torment him!
"You, you were marked by the Longevity Palace, but, however... but..."
"Why, why didn't I receive their news before? Are they betraying me, or did they not find you?"
"You residual immortal, aren't you allied with the Shangqing Sect, attacking the Biyou Palace Dharma teachings?"
Chen Taichu couldn't understand why this marked Ji Xiang was hiding here, seemingly for some time, yet the immortal officials of the Longevity Palace were like blind men, not relaying any information to him?
"Huh? Is that so?"
Ji Xiang was also slightly surprised.
Although back in the Forbidden City, Old Zhang had plastered the Jade Emperor's divine seat onto the ceiling to block the Longevity Palace's detailed positioning, a vague mark still existed, allowing them to roughly know his direction and where he was staying.
But he hadn't expected these immortal officials to be unable to track his location during the time he lost his spirit and form!
"Could it be because my spirit and form were lost?"
Ji Xiang pondered this inwardly, feeling a sense of sudden enlightenment.
Spirit and form were the manifestations of a being in the world.
Guan Zhong of the pre-Qin era spoke of it, mentioning: "When a person is born, Heaven produces their essence, and Earth produces their form, combining these to make a person."
Xunzi of the pre-Qin era also said: "Form complete, spirit is born."
Without the existence of spirit and form, the physical body is merely a shell. Even if the soul attaches to it, it is difficult to control this body, as it cannot be determined whether this body is human or some other animal.
However, when a soul attaches to a physical body for a long time, the appearance of that physical body will gradually become the same as the appearance of the soul.
And incense gods who lose their spirit and form cannot manifest before their believers, lacking the medium for divine manifestation.
Mortals have the art of inviting gods, and when a god possesses a mortal, the mortal gains the image of the god and can also wield a portion of the god's power.
Therefore, if the spirit and form are not unified with the physical body, even with powerful strength, it cannot be fully utilized. In the end, spirit and form are the appearances through which all things manifest in the world.
Ji Xiang's own "Middle Volume Jade Book," from Yuan Huang, was a genuine immortal dao scripture. Its inherent power was to create tangible bodies for formless things.
If cultivated to a profound level, it could even turn stones into the form of fish, but these fish would still be stones, lacking souls, merely changing their external appearance.
"No wonder they say transformation techniques are superior methods for avoiding various calamities."
"Transformation techniques are about changing one's external appearance to make it difficult for calamities to find me!"
"In Shuntian Prefecture, when Nurhaci came to the capital to pay tribute, the Void Constant Art he used was a transformation spell. I vaguely recall that the Blank Divine Tablet indicated he could use this spell to escape the pursuit of calamities, while using the 'Great Emperor Nine Yin Scripture' could nullify transformation spells below the middle grade."
"So, if that's the case, this mark from the Longevity Palace is actually a sign of calamity, and by changing my spirit and form with transformation techniques, I can escape their mark."
Ji Xiang suddenly understood.
Of course, he had only obtained a portion of the "Middle Volume Jade Book" and had not fully learned it. He couldn't change a fixed spirit and form, only shape an external appearance for formless things like incense and vital energy.
The most powerful transformation spell, Ji Xiang thought, was a clue to a divine ability he obtained when he acquired the essence of all beings in Gusu Ghost City, which was "Fetal Transformation and Form Alteration"!
"The Refining Form Ghosts of the underworld are failed products of cultivating Fetal Transformation and Form Alteration. They failed to cultivate this divine ability, lost their own spirit and form, but gained the eerie ability to seize the spirit and form of others for their own use."
Ji Xiang now understood many things.
He had even found a clever way to avoid the Longevity Palace's mark.
However, with Chen Taichu's furious roar, the opponent's Dao heart completely shattered.
Under Ji Xiang's watchful gaze, he couldn't use his mental scriptures, and his thoughts couldn't gather in one place.
The thoughts of an Ascension Realm cultivator were equivalent to the wishes of ten thousand people.
If the wishes of ten thousand people were gathered, it would be an extremely powerful force.
But if they were scattered, each thought having its own idea.
They were like a rabble, like moths flying into a flame that would make the flame burn brighter, but if scattered, they would only become countless moth dust.
Crack!
The Dao heart shattered. Although it sounded like an illusion, Chen Taichu seemed to truly hear the sound of glass breaking.
A heart as clear as glass, though a metaphor, was how immortals often envisioned themselves.
The shattering of a Dao heart at the immortal level meant his realm had completely regressed, no longer being a loose Taiyi.
Centuries of arduous cultivation were lost in an instant!
Stronger than Pure Yang, but weaker than the realm of the Immortals, and with no more Ascension Realm cultivation!
At the same time, countless mortal wishes poured in, like threads, like iron chains, tightly entangling him!
"Banished immortal, I have become a banished immortal! There is no way to return to heaven!"
"Is this... a crime stipulated by heavenly law!"
At this moment, Chen Taichu suddenly looked at the sky, not at Ji Xiang.
He seemed to see something that should not exist appearing.
And the mortal wishes on his body were from those he had benefited, his thirteen hundred good deeds. Even though the thirteen hundred people he had benefited had long since disappeared with the passage of time, their wishes existed in the mountains and rivers, and some even had temples erected for him, with memorial tablets.
For him now, these were iron chains binding him tightly. If he couldn't break free from these wishes, he could never return to heaven!
Because the thirteen hundred good deeds of the past were established by his past Dao heart. Now that his Dao heart had shattered, it was like spilled water that could not be recovered. To re-condense his Dao heart, he would have to perform thirteen hundred good deeds again. But unlike normal cultivators, banished immortals who fell due to a shattered Dao heart, while redoing thirteen hundred good deeds, their spirit and form would gradually be assimilated by the mortal world's red dust.
They would become weaker and weaker. Most banished immortals couldn't endure until the end and would lose their existence in the mortal world.
"So... it's like this, it's like this."
Chen Taichu looked somewhat terrified.
Although Ji Xiang didn't know what he saw or understood.
This didn't stop Ji Xiang from engaging in his own posturing.
Sometimes, to elicit information, one didn't need to show weakness, but rather to appear as if they knew more than the other person!
"Interesting. It seems you've understood, and you know why I appeared here."
"With your petty Longevity Palace, can you interfere with the will of heaven and earth?"
Ji Xiang casually spoke some nonsense to highlight that his arrival was in accordance with the will of heaven and earth.
Unexpectedly, Chen Taichu said:
"Heavenly rules, heavenly laws... can be circumvented but not avoided."
"Your appearance here, this was indeed a warning from the outer world to me!"
"My actions, creating these man-made trial demons, have touched the inverse scales of the Great Dao. I don't know who it was, who set these heavenly rules. I don't know who brought you to this world."
"But I broke the rules of the trial. I thought I had mastered the means to invert heaven and earth, but I never expected that my initial actions were already going against heaven."
"I did not circumvent the heavenly rules, so I have also encountered calamity."
"So... damn it! So in the outer world, immortals can also enter tribulation! Why is this happening? Shouldn't the tribulation of the Ascension Realm be the final tribulation? Why do immortals still have the tribulation of Dao heart regression!"
"You... are not an immortal!"
Chen Taichu pointed at Ji Xiang. At this moment, blood was inexplicably seeping from his mouth.
Ji Xiang was greatly surprised.
Chen Taichu, however, was burning with rage: "You are also a proxy for someone else."
"The one who formulated the heavenly laws must be above the Heavenly Heart Realm."
"Fortunately, I was originally a loose Taiyi, only half a step away from the peak of Ascension. Even though I have now fallen to a banished immortal, I still retain some ability to peek into heavenly secrets... Whose proxy are you from the Hunyuan?"
"You Jade Purity Heavenly Demon King!"
What you sow, you shall reap. This was a Buddhist saying, but retribution and other matters were indeed caused by the cycle of cause and effect. In the unseen depths, actions corresponded to calamities and arose.
This was also one of the sources of tribulation.
Chen Taichu felt extremely wronged.
Ji Xiang's mouth was agape, and he cooperatively continued his pretense:
"You... actually know I cultivate demonic arts."
But where did this title "Jade Purity Heavenly Demon King" come from?
Chen Taichu seemed to have seen something extraordinary.
Heavenly laws, heavenly rules, did they truly exist like legal documents in the outer world?
At this moment, Chen Taichu spoke again:
"I thought that above the Five Heavens and Eight Emperor Demon Kings, there was only the Northern Emperor Demon Annihilator King. I didn't expect there to be a Demon King of Jade Purity Heaven like you. I haven't heard your name among the Twelve Jade Purity Cultivators."
"Some Heavenly Emperors have hidden names. If you can correctly state their hidden names, you can wield their divine power."
"You... are you also a hidden one after the Twelve Jade Purity Cultivators?"
"But you, this Demon King, cultivate trial magic, thus posing a great danger. Because you will no longer undergo tribulations, your very existence will bring great calamities to others. I am just the first to enter tribulation, but there are more than just me in this world who want to contend for the Great Dao."
"Therefore, when the era of descending immortals arrives, all immortals in the world will regard you as a mortal enemy and hunt you down, because as long as you are not dead, they will always have calamities to face! When that era arrives, and you fully reveal your Heavenly Demon techniques..."
"You will be jointly killed by the Four Heavenly Hearts!"
"Your arrival in Qiantang this time is a tribulation, but the one who is destined to face it is me!"
"It's a pity that the Heavenly Fortune Pill seems impossible to refine. The era of descending immortals will have to be postponed."
"Heh heh, you want to be this Trial Demon King... but that depends on whether you can live to see the new era!"
"A great change unseen for two thousand years is about to come!"
From his words, Ji Xiang obtained important information.
As expected, in order to seek the power of the Great Dao.
The inner world was attempting to merge with the outer world!
At that time, this place would become a true immortal dao world!
There would be no room for mortals to survive!