'Strange...my legs...where are my...legs?' Xinzi's vision blurred, his sense of touch vanished, and his legs gave out, throwing him face-first into the ground. The 588 Diabolic Shards in his right hand tumbled down, scattering by his side as his muscles shook in violent spasms.
At first, blood only dripped from his eyes, nose, and mouth, but right afterward, all his pores joined the chat, bleeding to no end. Xinzi broke into a coughing fit, puking jets of blood with each cough. Strangely, he couldn't feel the cough, couldn't feel the pain. The blurry world sucked him in, and his consciousness vacillated.
"Abbot!" Alarmed, Tusha raced towards Xinzi, Xue Yuanshao followed after a momentary delay. Zi Feng and the six Mini Overlords descended upon the scene, but before any could lay hands on him, a tide of dark and divine energies poured out of his body, pushing them all back.
"Woof! Woof!" The Mini Overlords refused to balk and opened their foxy mouths, activating the Swallowing Skill. The conflicting energies poured into their bellies, splitting to feed their Monster Cores and cultivation. Alas, the more they tried to drain, the stronger the forces became.
Zi Feng stretched her hands out, releasing a stream of soothing violet energies that poured into Xinzi's body. More divine-dark energies rolled out of Xinzi. The seven Inverse Dao Seals flashed once more, using this opportunity to make a resurgence.
Zi Feng and the Mini Overlords refused to retreat. The clash between the two slammed Xinzi's body left and right. His brain registered the pain, and his eyes flashed once more.
'Ouch! Xin Zhong, spread the Servant Sutra throughout Burning Spear Supercity—fast!' Regaining a sliver of consciousness, Xinzi contacted White-Winged Demon Brigade that, by now, had subjugated Burning Spear Supercity, and captured all Demon Slayers. However, without Xinzi's orders, they didn't dare to spread the Servant Sutra that they'd mesmerized the eight million cultivator citizens with.
"At once!" As the commander of this brigade, Xin Zhong carried the executive power, and without delay, spread the troops across Burning Spear Supercity. Each soldier of the 3,000-man brigade spread their hands out. Monastic zeal and celestial grace intertwined in their auras. White runic texts poured out of their mouths, gracing the citizens of this cultivation supercity with the consuming mnemonics of the Servant Sutra.
'White-Winged Demons, release the Dao Chants!' As Xinzi's trembling hands scrambled to gather the 588 Diabolic Shards, his next order reached the 57,000 White-Winged Demons on the scene, and they sat crossed-legged, forming circles that pushed Zi Feng and the Mini Overlords out of the way.
"Aummmmm..." Splendid rays akin to divine light surged out of the 57,000 man-army, coiling up the cave's walls and forming a dome of spiraling divine that blinded Tusha and co. Mystical Dao Chants filled the room, runic symbols surging out of the White-Winged Demons' mouths and fusing with Xinzi's flesh.
All over Xinzi's herculean frame, radiant Dao Runes flashed, shifting between red and white as strength returned to his body.
'Bloodstone Golems...fuel my Blood Energy!' The Bloodstone Golems now joined the fray, and as if summoned by its master's struggles, so did the Blood Beast. Alongside the golems, the Blood Beast poured its Blood Energy into Xinzi, interrupting the bleeding and stimulating our monk's Blood Energy.
His vigor renewed, Xinzi dragged himself off the ground. The roar of a tyrannical beast boomed from his chest. And in an eruption of white-gold flames, a wingless dragon formed around him, with three horns and a white-gold sun hovering above its head.
"That was close." Xinzi's muscles and Blood Energy bulked up, and he cracked his neck, sitting crossed-legged with his hands joining in a succession of mudras.
By relying on the Foundation Building breakthrough, seven-colored Qi Ocean and Five Elements Transmutative Technique, Xinzi not only refined an Inverse Dao Seal but suppressed the rest and pacified his conflicting energies. The Dao Cleansing Pool in the Evernight Palace helped as well, guaranteeing that Xinzi wouldn't have to worry about the Inverse Dao Seals for the time being, and could safely refine them. However, a slight miscalculation derailed the plan: breakthroughs.
Xinzi's Heartshifter Demon Heart evolved into Bloodshifter. His breakthrough into the second level of the Reincarnation of Mahasura also gave him the Vetala Heart. Now equipped with three Demon Hearts, Xinzi's Evil Qi was on a continuous rise. The creation of the Thousand Soul Immolation Flag, the cultivation of the Devil Root Refining Sutra, each White-Winged Demon creation, all these generated hefty quantities of Evil Qi, Evil Qi that now rose to rival the Heaven-Trampling Dao Bones' Divine Power.
By unlocking the Tyrannical Solar Dragon Physique, a Divine Constitution mastered only by Yanglong, and the top talents of the Taiyang clan in Heaven, Xinzi not only sublimated his fleshly body but added mammoth quantities of Divine Power to the already precarious balance. The Evil Qi rebelled at last, causing the relapse. And with our monk's body in utter disarray, the Great Desolation World's Heavenly Dao tried to use the opportunity to reactivate the Inverse Dao Seal and bring Xinzi down for his transgressions.
A pity that our monk had no shortage of safety nets.
'The Heaven-Trampling Dao Bones and Qi Ocean can keep my Divine Power in check. But I need something to keep the Evil Qi on its best behavior as well. A Pulse...yes, we already have something to suppress the heavens. Why not develop a tool to suppress Hell as well?' Xinzi's thoughts trailed off, his mudra forming speed shot up, and in his mind, the plans for Zi Yao's Evil Blood Tree appeared. Xinzi's knowledge added to the mix, shifting the plans to form a prototype of what he needed.
Tusha, Xue Yuanshao, Zi Feng and the Mini Overlords all cast out their Spiritual Senses, watching in shock as Xinzi opened his mouth, consuming Diabolic Shards—one after the other!
"Abbot, have you gone insane?" Tusha couldn't believe her eyes. Each Diabolic Shards contained enough Evil Qi to make a Demon Noble go wild from greed. When had they turned into snacks that one could chug down on the fly?!
Was Xinzi trying to make himself explode?
Naturally not. The Shards descended towards his Void Spiritual Root, entering the internal world where his Qi Ocean and Inner Spiritual Cave lay. One after the other, the Shards fused with Xinzi's Void Spiritual Root, fueling it with transformative tides of diabolic energies.
All these sessions of dual cultivation had provided Xinzi with more energy than he needed to break through to Pulse Condensation. Beast, Elemental, War or Mysterious, it didn't matter. From low to peerless grade Xinzi could condense any pulse that he desired.
None matched his ambitions. But now, Xinzi realized what his Dao Foundation required.
Evil Qi was corruptive enough. Even with Zi Feng's Good Fortune Sacred Body to help the cause, he couldn't afford to let random relapses hurl him into an early grave. The time to put an end to these untimely attacks had...come.
Xinzi's Bloodshifter Heart devoured the stored Evil Blood Tree, only leaving the root, which fused with Xinzi's Void Spiritual Root as mell. The Metamorphic Flames in his dantian operated like a furnace, shaping the ingredients and energy supply into a brand new tree root.
Illusory purple leaves grew across Xinzi's skin, roots of the same hue underneath him, and a group of vines and branches lacing his body. Xinzi's eyes opened wide. At his back, a dark-purple redwood appeared, piercing through the ceiling, and rising all the way to the sky.
Akin to a spectral apparition, the redwood didn't damage the walls. Better, size aside, it didn't seem to carry any energy fluctuation. Yet, Xue Yuanshao, who looked at it from a Devil's perspective, shivered uncontrollably.
His legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees, holding his shoulder while terror left its mark all over his grimacing face.
The White-Winged Demons didn't fare better, kowtowing to admit mistakes they had yet to commit.
Diabolic Shards formed as new White-Winged Demons appeared in Burning Spear Supercity, enabling more shards—666 in total, to settle in Xinzi's Void Spiritual Root, feeding this limitless tree.
His eyes opened wide. The tree took a sangria shade and congealed into physical form, breaking the ceiling above.
Statues of wrathful monks lay trapped between vines, shrouded by the seven-colored rays of Xinzi's Transmutative Technique.
And though built from the sacrifices of 666 Diabolic Shards, not one bit of Evil Qi leaked from this tree. On the contrary, it seemed like the nemesis of the infernal, singlehandedly able to suppress demonkind, and perhaps...Hell itself.
"Hell Suppressing Immortal Tree," Xinzi baptized his pulse, officially breaking through to the Pulse Condensation Realm.
