Wet viviparity

Chapter 736 The Performer, the Ladder to Immortality
In the western suburbs, the sunny weather suddenly turned cold and a light rain began to fall.

Black Owl sat atop the majestic image of the Teng Snake, having flown all the way here. Just as he was about to head to Miaoyin Nunnery outside the western city, he suddenly saw a high stage built in front of a City God Temple, with performers shouting and gesturing on it. He was immediately drawn to it, temporarily forgetting his mission.

Colorful banners hung down beside the stage, fluttering in the wind, while the crowd below was bustling and noisy.

Amidst the bustling crowd, Black Owl changed his appearance, donning a dark blue Taoist robe and casually draping a whisk over his arm, before following the flow of people, eager to observe the wonders of the marketplace.

On the stage, there was a man, dressed in rags, with messy hair like straw, short and stocky, but with eyes that flashed like lightning. He walked around the stage with a grin, taking small, quick steps, hands on his hips, looking like a rooster, which was extremely comical.

As Black Owl squeezed forward, he heard the short man on the stage say, "I know the seventy-two transformations of the Earthly Fiends, and I can reverse Yin and Yang and the Five Elements, and arrange the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams. Whatever you gentlemen want me to transform into, I can transform into."

Upon hearing this, the people around him started to jeer.

One minute they're calling for me to turn into an insect, the next they're calling for me to turn into a dragon, and then they're calling for me to turn into a god or fairy, chattering away incessantly.

As Hei Xiao was engrossed in watching, he suddenly felt the short performer on stage glance at him, with a glint of gold in his eyes. This single glance was enough to alert Ji Ming, who was far away on the Immortal Mountain, and he immediately focused his attention on Hei Xiao.

In an instant, Black Owl's expression shifted slightly, extremely subtly.

Ji Ming focused his mind on his second primordial spirit, without trying to investigate the performer or immediately observe whether any methods had been used against his second primordial spirit.

Although no discord was found in the second primordial spirit, the fact that this body was originally going to visit the Tibetan monks at Miaoyin Temple but was inexplicably drawn here is itself a big problem.

"It's most likely that Old Golden Rooster is behind this."

Ji Ming thought to himself.

On the stage, the performer took a dry twig, placed it in his palm, and muttered incantations in a voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz.

Before long, the withered branch in my palm trembled slightly, like a cicada just waking up, sprouting a few tender buds, then quickly unfurling leaves and buds, and suddenly the rouge-colored peach blossoms bloomed—the branches were covered in red clouds reflecting the snow, and a strange fragrance wafted through the air, quietly spreading into the crowd.

The audience erupted in cheers and applause.

The performer, beaming with satisfaction at his magic trick, suddenly pulled out a short blade from his robes, its cold gleam blinding.

Before anyone could react, the blade flashed like lightning and was already aimed at their necks.

In an instant, the head rolled off, and amidst the burst of blood, the crowd below screamed and tried to scatter, but the headless body remained standing, hot blood gushing from its cavity, turning into a misty red fog, like rising clouds, suspended in mid-air.

"Humph!"

Black Owl snorted coldly and unleashed his primordial spirit.

In the City God Temple behind, in an inconspicuous side hall.

The statue of a human-faced bird with claws controlling two snakes, enshrined in this hall, suddenly trembled, and then with a "bang," it turned into dust and scattered. A cold current rippled through the dust, and a snow eagle flew out from it.

Black Hawk spread its wings and landed on the stage. Just as the head landed, it swooped down and snatched the head away with its claws.

"I've wasted my mere Xuanming Star Constellation statue. If it can make you, old golden rooster, lose face here, then it's well worth it."

Ji Ming was pretty much certain that this performer was actually Old Golden Rooster in disguise. The other party must have come secretly to his second primordial spirit body to investigate the truth. So he didn't mind tripping Old Golden Rooster up a bit, letting the other party know that he was also keeping an eye on this place.

On the stage, the blue aura around the severed neck of the performer resembled a snake, winding and coiling, clearly a trace of the orthodox teachings of the Xuanmen sect.

Its method is exquisite and profound, far surpassing the realm of unorthodox and misleading techniques. It subtly connects Yin and Yang, allowing the body and spirit to temporarily separate without dispersing. The severed head was snatched away by the snow eagle, but the headless performer showed no panic. He raised his whisk with his left hand and made a hand seal with his right, and the snow eagle returned the head. The head opened and closed its lips, its voice shaking the surrounding wilderness, saying, "Jade Liquid, Peaches of Immortality, if you wish to obtain these treasures, may I ask where the Immortal Ladder is?"

Ji Ming was shocked; Xue Ying was actually a transformation of his Xuanming Star Constellation image.

This kind of statue is made using the profound methods in the Lingguang Shenjiang chapter of the Taiyi Jiabu Zhenfa. After it is made, it needs to be invited into various temples and monasteries and nurtured by the incense and prayers of mortals.

Then, the incense must be purified by the Taoist priests in the Crane Temple through chanting incantations before it can be made into pure and immaculate crystal incense, which can then be supplied to Ji Ming's Xuanming Star General to refine the general's golden body.

Of course, besides accumulating incense offerings, these statues can also be used for magical duels.

No matter which statue it is, as long as Ji Ming activates the incense inside the statue and blesses it, it can be given some of the mystique of a divine general. It would be no problem to use it to subdue a demon in the third stage of Foundation Establishment.

Ji Ming never expected that the snow eagle transformed from his statue would be easily subdued and defeated by the performer in an instant.

He looked again with focused attention, and deep within the red mist formed from the gushing blood, a small, exquisite, emerald-green figure sat cross-legged, as if carved from jade, with a solemn and dignified appearance—this was clearly the appearance of the Taoist "Primordial Spirit Embryo Spirit".

Upon seeing this astral spirit, Ji Ming began to doubt his earlier judgment.

Then he thought to himself that the old golden rooster had all sorts of divine abilities, so what was so strange about it that he had a fifth-realm incarnation? He was really making a fuss over nothing.

Just as he was about to examine the fetal spirit within the blood mist, he saw the head suddenly grin at the audience below, its gaze sharp as needles, staring directly at him.

In the blink of an eye, the blood mist in mid-air surged back into his neck, and his head and body snapped back together perfectly, unharmed, with only a red line remaining on his neck. The crowd below the stage watched with rapt attention, throwing copper coins at the stage like rain.

As the artist bowed deeply, the peach blossoms on the branch withered and fell in an instant as his sleeves rolled up.

Just as he was about to speak on the stage, a monk in the crowd stepped forward and cursed, "You charlatan! You dare to boast about taking heavenly treasures? Today, I happen to be passing by and I must expose your tricks."

On the stage, Ji Ming took a closer look at the monk in his second primordial spirit body. Wasn't this Jueguang, a disciple of the Taiping Mountain monks? He hadn't seen his junior brother for quite some years.

"hey-hey!"

The performer laughed a few times and asked, "Anyone who doubts my skills can step forward, and I'll show you what I'm capable of."

A few more daring busybodies squeezed out from the crowd, including some who seemed to be quite skilled. It was clear they hadn't just come to join the fun by chance, which made Ji Ming even more curious.

"it is good."

The artist took out a withered vine, weighed it in his hand, and said with a smile, "Those with money, please support me financially; those without money, please support me with your presence."

Having said that, he shook the withered vine, and the vine, like a living snake raising its head, suddenly pierced into the depths of the rain clouds.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to taste the finest nectar and the most exquisite peaches of immortality, then follow this humble Taoist to heaven!"

The withered vine grew taller and taller in the wind, twisting and turning, until it transformed into a ladder of vines reaching the heavens, disappearing into the depths of the leaden-gray clouds, its beginning and end nowhere to be seen.

Taiyi Qingmu Immortal Mountain, in the northeast, is called Magnetic Peak.

Ji Ming did some calculations, then unleashed a divine aura that swept out from the peak, directly towards a golden branch nest atop the three-thousand-mile-long divine tree. "Great Immortal, why do you break the agreement we made in our duel?"

(End of this chapter)