Stealthily cultivating in the chaotic world of demons and martial artists
Chapter 988 - 844: Yuan Jun

Chapter 988: Chapter 844: Yuan Jun

The paths of Immortals and Ghost Immortals seem to make it difficult to progress further after ascending to True Immortals.

However, for many cultivators, the ability to ascend and become an Immortal, to live forever without aging or the troubles of a lifespan, is probably the ultimate pursuit of their lives.

Even though it’s difficult to advance, it seems to be of little consequence.

When compared, although Immortals progress faster and have stronger magic power than Ghost Immortals, the trials of Dao transformation and losing oneself are also extremely perilous.

In contrast, aside from their weaker magic power and difficulty in straying too far from Yin Vein lands, ghost cultivators have few drawbacks.

"These years, as I roamed the mortal world, I thought about many things..."

Fairy Yunxi, however, made a respectful bow, "I wish to dedicate myself to the God Path, with unswerving determination!"

"Very good."

Since it was the other party’s choice, Fang Xi had nothing much to say.

Immediately, a flash of golden light summoned the incarnation of the ’East Imperial Profound Real Infinite Evergreen Emperor’ on the divine path. The figure asked with gravity, "Dost thou hold firm to this oath?"

Fairy Yunxi’s eyes were filled with shock.

Seeing this Lord of the God Path, she felt as if she were in the presence of the Heavenly Path itself!

Her every word and deed now were as if under the testimony of heaven and earth; even she did not dare to violate it. She thus curtseyed with great solemnity, "I shall uphold it!"

"Good. Since that is the case, you shall be enrolled as ’Lady Yunxi, Illuminating Spirit, Sacred Protector of the Four Seasons’!"

Fang Xi’s divine incarnation raised a hand, and a God Path talisman immediately flew forth, turning into a streak of five-color radiance, entering Fairy Yunxi’s forehead.

Fairy Yunxi’s ghostly form instantly transformed to yang, wrapped in the Five-Color Radiance.

After the brilliance had dissipated, in its place stood a noble and gracefully adorned female deity.

Her skin was fair with a flush of red, dressed in azure silk robes, a feng-embroidered collar, and red gowns; she wore double white jade pendants and had a crown of red hairpins studded with jade, radiating grandeur and unmatched beauty.

’Lady’ is a term of reverence for women within the divine path, and at its highest level, it can be comparable to the rank of ’Heavenly Duke’.

What Fang Xi conferred was naturally of the highest order, ’Heavenly Duke’.

Thus, Fairy Yunxi was as if lifted to the heavens in one step. She broke through the initial stages of Returning to Emptiness, bypassing the middle and latter stages, reaching the pinnacle of Returning to Emptiness!

The circle of faith and fervor around her was continually refined into divine power, essentially providing her an inexhaustible source of magic power.

Heaven and earth sensed this, yet no calamity was assigned.

The divine path is the way of upholding heaven and observing the actions of the heavens... As it does not go against heaven, naturally there is no Heavenly Thunder Tribulation.

Of course, although there is no Heavenly Tribulation, there is Human Tribulation!

The trials of Dao transformation and losing oneself are ever-present influences, and with the responsibilities of a divine position, it is incomparable to the carefree life of an Immortal.

"I greet the Lord,"

Fairy Yunxi bowed deeply, appearing to understand many things through her divine position.

"After you return, go into seclusion to transform your divine power and then continue to protect the people of this land. An appointment to ’Yuan Jun’ should occur within a hundred years!" Fang Xi seemed to be admonishing her while also making a promise.

Yuan Jun is the rank of a female Heavenly Lord, comparable to Integration itself!

Fairy Yunxi listened, her heart filled with excitement.

After all, with her innate abilities, if she hadn’t used Ghost Cultivation Secret Skills to weaken the Heavenly Tribulation, she might not have even been able to advance to the stage of Returning to Emptiness.

As for Integration?

It was simply unfathomable.

Yet, after switching to the divine path, she found it within easy reach.

The gap between them was like the difference between heaven and earth!

The advantage of the divine path is this: with someone above to recommend you, promotion happens very rapidly!

Given the vastness of the Earth Immortal Spiritual Realm and the base numbers of the human race, should Fairy Yunxi encounter the right opportunity in the future, she might well have a chance at Mahayana!

In the divine path, above the female deity rank of ’Yuan Jun’, there are the ’Heavenly Concubine’, ’Heavenly Queen’...

However, Fang Xi had no intention of promoting the divine path in the Earth Immortal Spiritual Realm.

After all, his foundation was still in the Immortal Path.

Besides... if the divine path were to flourish, the world would sense this and innate gods would be born, and he, as an ’aspiring Heavenly Emperor’, would inevitably fall into the same dilemma as that Heavenly Emperor.

Promising Fairy Yunxi the title of ’Yuan Jun’ was only to ensure that Penglai Fairy Pavilion had a combatant of Integration strength besides himself so that he wouldn’t return to find the Pavilion eradicated...

...

The news of Fairy Yunxi converting to the divine path and ascending in one step caused an uproar within Penglai Fairy Pavilion.

For cultivators, whether they take the Ghost Path or the divine path, as long as they can break through barriers and extend their lifespan, it’s worth a trial.

Even Liu Xu, who was initially hesitant, and Lady Baolian, who wished she could stick to Fang Xi’s side, were tempted.

Unfortunately, not only did Fairy Yunxi go into seclusion, but Fang Xi also chose to close off.

His choice was naturally to aid his heterodox incarnation in absorbing the original essence of the ’Carefree Sky Demon King’s’ Demon Skills, to break through the Integration Realm!

Of course, before that, the Carefree Sky Demon King’s memories were also a vast treasure trove.

In the Earth Immortal Spiritual Realm,

Beneath the Dragon Pattern Wall,

A proud white jade mountain stood, with the nine characters ’Facing battle, all formations march forward’ inscribed upon it. Surrounding it were chains composed of the Mother Qi of All Woods.

Fang Xi stood before the jade mountain, looking at the ’Carefree Sky Demon King’ inside that seemed to be frozen.

In his eyes, green and yellow alternated, and rays of light poured into the mountain, aiming to reach the eyes of the Carefree Sky Demon King.

A moment later.

Helplessly, he opened his eyes again, "No... This demon truly deserves to be at the peak of Integration, its Sea of Consciousness is exceptionally sturdy, filled with layers of prohibitions and traps..."

Those on the Demon Path are experts in soul searching, and as a cultivator at the peak of Integration, they naturally have many means to counter it.

They had even laid many countermeasures in advance.

If it were not for Fang Xi’s strong Divine Consciousness and his realization that something was amiss, preventing him from forcefully delving deeper, he might have actually suffered a setback.

However, looking at this mountain of jade, a smile emerged on the corners of Fang Xi’s mouth.

The harder it is, the more precious the memories are.

Moreover, as a practitioner of the ’Self-Transforming Heavenly Sovereign Commanding Ten Thousand Spirits True Demon Skill,’ he was very familiar with most of the Carefree Sky Demon King’s methods.

After pondering for a moment, he already had several countermeasures in mind.

"Actually, it’s best to use the simplest method... first transform into a heterodox incarnation and employ Demon Skills, continuously extracting its Demon Path origin..."

"As the cultivation of the heterodox incarnation grows stronger, the Divine Consciousness and Magic Power of the Carefree Sky Demon King will naturally weaken... In addition, combine this with Divine Skills of the Immortal Path..."

"When its Magic Power falls to the middle or even the early stage of Integration, breaking through the Sea of Consciousness will naturally be much easier..."

Fang Xi calculated secretly, his eyes lighting up.

Then, an incarnation of the Immortal Path dressed in the regal robes of a godly lord arrived, and divine power spilled out, arranging a dais in the Void.

At the center of the dais, there was surprisingly a Fortune Worm resembling an eight-clawed spider!

—Void Transmute Darkish Plough’s Head, Seven Star Dais!

—Disaster Dispelling Calamity Resolving Fortune Dark Light!

Seeing the Five-Color Radiance converge and form into a giant black ploughshare that rolled over the top of the Carefree Sky Demon King’s head, extinguishing what little fortune he had left like a flickering candle in the wind, Fang Xi slightly nodded.

’This Carefree Sky Demon King really is a child of fortune for the Demon Clan... Even though I have captured and sealed him in the Earth Immortal Spiritual Realm, he still had a glimmer of vitality that never ceased...’

’But now, he is powerless to return to the heavens... Even as I refine his cultivation and search his soul, I could inadvertently gain quite a bit of assistance through some fortunate errors.’

He looked at the Carefree Sky Demon King and suddenly his hand flashed with silver light.

The heterodox incarnation appeared, gazing at the Carefree Sky Demon King with a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, "With this demon here, even if there is some loss during the absorption, I can at least cultivate to the peak of the middle stage of Integration, and might even break through to the later stages..."

"Although my true self has already reached the middle stage of Integration, a sudden surge in cultivation is not good news."

"It’s better to assimilate slowly and aim to break through the great realm of Integration first..."

Fang Xi looked at his heterodox incarnation, feeling very pleased in his heart.

Recently, the expansion speed of his Earth Immortal Spiritual Realm has been getting faster and faster, and it’s very possible that within a mere two to three hundred years, he could make a rush for the later stages of Integration.

The Demon Skills of the Carefree Sky Demon King are also quite substantial and must be dealt with slowly.

If plans remained unchanged, the heterodox incarnation should also attempt to break through the late stages of Integration at that time.

In this way, the cultivations of the true self, the heterodox incarnation, and the Divine Path incarnation would be very close, forming a somewhat fragile balance.

’Then my ’Jiuqu Yellow River Three Flowers Immortal Array’ truly has hope...’

The heterodox incarnation looked solemn and silently circulated his cultivation technique.

The Self-Transforming Heavenly Sovereign’s True Demon Art of Controlling All Spirits was fully unleashed, and a God Demon body materialized behind him.

This was the ’Transformative God Demon Body,’ adept at all kinds of changes and capable of mimicking all things in the world, known as ’Item Transforming’!

At this moment, this ’Transformative God Demon Body’ stepped into the mountain of jade, and a layer of six-path Demon Flames ignited around it, slowly burning the ’Carefree Sky Demon King’ within like a candle wick.

Fang Xi focused and observed for a moment, but then he shook his head.

Although he had already subdued the ’Carefree Sky Demon King,’ his opponent’s aura was refined to perfection, and his Demon Skills were as solid as an iron plate.

The heterodox incarnation was merely at full completion of Returning to Emptiness, and even with all its might, it was as futile as an ant shaking a tree.

Fortunately, time was completely on his side, and with persistent effort over days and months, he would be able to achieve results like the persistent old man of the mountain-moving tale.

"The Divine Path incarnation must always be by the side to assist... Otherwise, there would indeed be some trouble," Fang Xi murmured, being extremely careful in face of an existence at the level of the Six Kings of the Demon Clan.

...

As battles turn, so do the stars.

Time flows gently.

In the blink of an eye, a hundred years had passed.

On this day.

Somewhere in the Earth Immortal Realm.

A Heavenly Thunder Chain transformed into golden and silver colored Heaven Tribulation, thundering down mightily.

The target was a middle stage Integration Demon Shadow!

This Demon Shadow, upon seeing the Heaven Tribulation, was not only fearless but also showed a hint of eagerness to try.

With a wave of his hand, Demon Banners and Demon Blades appeared... all of them treasured items of the seventh order.

Endless Demon Light surged to the skies, dissolving the thunderbolts one by one.

After the eighteenth strike of thunder disappeared, everything returned to calmness as if after the rain, the sky had cleared.

"Middle stage of Integration," mumbled the heterodox incarnation in a very calm voice, vanishing in a flash of silver light.

Several days later, cultivators attracted by the Heaven Tribulation arrived cautiously to investigate the place, but they could not find even the slightest trace of the person who had crossed the tribulation...

Deep within the Earth Immortal Spiritual Realm.

Fang Xi looked at the ’Carefree Sky Demon King,’ whose vitality had diminished significantly, and his expression suddenly stirred, "The soul searching... has finally succeeded!"