Chapter 59: Soul Transformation Tribulation · Karma Ember
The Spiritual Qi of the earth veins coiled like dragons and snakes in the hundred-zhang ice cave. Lu Qingyang sat cross-legged on a profound ice jade platform, the Soul Transformation true intent surrounding him condensed into a Qinglian phantom. The eight hundred Karma lines he severed three days ago surged deep within his Sea of Consciousness, each strand connected to a past of blood mist and steam — Black Heart Tiger’s half-melted skull from the corrosive bone powder, the Enforcement Elder of Taiyi Pavilion’s Divine Soul annihilated in the Nether Abyss, Su Li’s scorching blood drops splashing on his clothes when she shattered her Golden Core…
“Daoist Lu, this Soul Transformation Tribulation is proving to be quite unpleasant.” Pang Daoshi, squatting at the entrance of the ice cave, gnawed on a roasted spirit pheasant leg, grease spreading across the front of his Daoist robe like a star map. “Others close their eyes and chant scriptures when severing Karma, but you insist on keeping your eyes open and watching those filthy things.”
The Qinglian suddenly contracted into a Sword Qi, and Lu Qingyang raised his hand to gather the snowflakes falling outside the cave. The ice crystals in his palm transformed into a bronze wine cup, its bottom reflecting the newly sprouted white hairs at his temples: “Is Ye Wuchen’s Nascent Soul still sealed in the Soul-Nourishing Wood?”
“Three more Restrictions were broken yesterday.” Pang Daoshi flicked a chicken bone into the ice wall, and a sweet, bloody Dragon blood seeped from the cracks. “That fellow cursed you as an ungrateful wolf cub, saying that Taiyi Pavilion’s Dragon-Slaying Platform has already prepared a hundred thousand catties of profound iron…”
Before he finished speaking, a hundred-zhang chasm suddenly split open in the thousand-mile sea of clouds outside the cave. Nine crimson-gold chains dragged a bronze war chariot, crushing across the sky. The mirage pearls embedded in the chariot’s shaft illuminated every detail of the snowy plains. Lu Qingyang squinted at the seven-petal lotus bronze bell hanging from the war chariot’s eaves, and the sour taste of accidentally swallowing a rotten bone flower at the age of seven rose in his throat.
“They arrived quite quickly.” He used two fingers to stroke the Qingfu Sword, which had been nurtured at his waist for seven hundred years. The Dragon lines on the sword’s spine was identical to the inverse scale of the Three-Headed Flood Dragon from the dark river back then. “Please, Fellow Daoist, send the Soul-Nourishing Wood to Burial Dragon Abyss.”
Pang Daoshi formed a hand Seal and summoned a turtle shell Earth-Escaping Talisman. The moment the talisman paper burned out, the bronze war chariot had already descended with ten directions of Restrictions. An elderly man in black robes stepped out from behind the chariot’s curtain, holding a measuring heaven ruler. The markings on the ruler were precisely the cultivation route of Taiyi Pavilion’s Zhenpai Cultivation Technique, the “Seven Tribulations Rebirth Art.”
“The qingmu spirit pearl should be returned to its rightful owner.” The measuring heaven ruler pointed at Lu Qingyang’s glabella, its shadow splitting into three thousand Great Dao. “What your master stole, what you snatched, must eventually be returned.”
Lu Qingyang suddenly chuckled, his sword tip prying up a piece of ten-thousand-year profound ice. In the mirage light refracted by the ice crystal, the Soul-Devouring Nail secretly hidden in the Elder’s sleeve was clearly reflected: “When did the Enforcement Elder change professions to become a storyteller? Wasn’t it to seize half of the ‘Azure Emperor Longevity Art’ that your esteemed pavilion’s thirty-two Nascent Soul Cultivators raided Medicine King Valley that year?”
The measuring heaven ruler crashed down, and the ice cave collapsed into an abyss under the pressure of the Immortal Artifact. Lu Qingyang, stepping on a Qinglian, dodged the Soul-Devouring Nail and threw the bronze wine cup back. The Nether Ghost Fire imprisoned in the cup surged with the Immortal Artifact’s Spiritual Qi, burning the thousand-mile snowy plains into a crimson sea of fire. The Elder formed a hand Seal to summon his Natal Dharma Idol, but the three-headed, six-armed Rakshasa phantom wailed and disintegrated upon touching the Ghost Fire.
“Soul-Devouring Nail paired with Rebirth Art, how marvelous!” Lu Qingyang spun around, severing the chains that wrapped around his ankles, the Qingfu Sword roaring like a Dragon. “But alas, Elder, you forgot that a Soul Transformation Cultivator’s Karma lines…” The Sword Qi suddenly split into tens of thousands, each Sword Qi connected to the lingering obsessions of the souls he had slain in the past, “are best at devouring their master.”
The measuring heaven ruler suddenly trembled and flew out of his hand. The Elder was startled to find countless blood-colored threads appearing in his Sea of Consciousness. Those innocent souls he had refined into artifact spirits broke free from their confinement, instead pouring the spiritual power of the “Seven Tribulations Rebirth Art” back into his Meridians. Lu Qingyang seized the opportunity, pressing two fingers to his glabella. The phantom of the qingmu spirit pearl manifested behind him as a towering Jianmu, its branches piercing the Elder’s Nascent Soul. At that moment, the Dragon-Slaying Platform, forged from a hundred thousand catties of profound iron, plummeted from the clouds.
The roots of the Jianmu pierced into the profound iron, the sound of it devouring the immortal material like countless evil spirits gnawing on white bones. Lu Qingyang walked towards the sea of clouds, stepping on the shattered remains of the bronze war chariot. Behind him came Pang Daoshi’s strange cry, transmitted over a thousand miles: “Hey, Lu! A little girl popped out of the Soul-Nourishing Wood, clamoring for ‘Green Pond Floating Snow’!”
At the bottom of Burial Dragon Abyss, Ye Wuchen’s Nascent Soul floated above a pool of blood. Su Li’s Reincarnation body held a celadon tea cup, her fingertips tracing the character “Lu” secretly carved at the bottom of the cup, then suddenly splashed the hot tea onto the struggling Dragon soul in the pool: “Since he used my previous life’s Golden Core to help you achieve Soul Transformation, he should return half of my life soul in this life.”
The bronze box sealed at the bottom of the pool opened in response, revealing half a scroll of the “Azure Emperor Longevity Art.” Ye Wuchen’s Nascent Soul suddenly opened its blood-red eyes, roaring as it lunged towards the cinnabar mark on the girl’s glabella — that position was exactly the same as Taiyi Pavilion’s Soul-Chasing Mark from back then.
Three days later, Lu Qingyang stood on the ruins of Medicine King Valley, gazing at the starlight flowing between the branches of the Jianmu. Pang Daoshi squatted beside the scorched Pill Furnace, picking out Spirit Stones, then suddenly looked up to the east: “I heard Taiyi Pavilion sent another veiled female Elder, riding a Nine Phoenix carriage towards the Nether Abyss.”
“It’s Su Li’s Biyou Clone.” Lu Qingyang flicked his finger, shattering the Karma line that tried to entwine his wrist. In the wisp of green smoke rising from the end of the line, the scene of a shattered Golden Core appeared. “When she shattered her Golden Core back then, she left a wisp of her Clone in the Soul-Nourishing Wood.”
Pang Daoshi mumbled, counting on his greasy fingers: “Soul Transformation Tribulation, Karma lines, Reincarnation body… You strategists have truly twisted hearts.” He suddenly jumped up and pointed at the sky, “Look quickly! Is that the phantom of the medicinal field where the qingmu spirit pearl first manifested?”
Lu Qingyang’s pupils contracted sharply. In the acre-sized medicinal field appearing between the clouds, dragon blood grass and Netherworld flowers intertwined into a Taiji pattern. As the phantom of an hourglass inverted, a white-haired Daoist’s phantom appeared to be divining heavenly secrets — his features were clearly those of the Old Drunkard who had sat in meditation for three hundred years.
“There are no good people on the path to longevity…” Lu Qingyang caressed the cracks in the bronze wine cup. The reflection in the cup suddenly changed to the scene of him falling off a cliff as a youth. In the gills of the blood Ganoderma lucidum back then, half of Taiyi Pavilion’s Soul-Chasing Mark had already been hidden.
The Jianmu’s roots suddenly grew three thousand zhang, and a roar of breaking chains came from deep within the earth veins. Lu Qingyang looked at the eight hundred and first Karma line appearing in his palm, its end disappearing into the slowly rising Immortal Palace at the edge of the sea of clouds.
“It’s time to go to the Dragon-Slaying Platform for a drink.” He laughed, strumming his sword, startling the sleeping Candle Dragon deep within the cold pool. Amidst the Dragon’s roar, a certain female Elder who was setting up a Formation in the Nether Abyss suddenly frowned, and a dimple, identical to Su Li’s, appeared at the corner of her lips beneath her veil.
