Wet viviparity

Chapter 921 Xuanming, Kicked Out of the Game
"Don't worry about this."

Thousand Hands hurriedly said to the old ox, "Hurry up and open the spirit path!"

Hearing Qian Shou'er speak like that, the old ox's face turned red with anger, but in the end he could only swallow his anger. After all, that was the rule here. Qian Shou'er had successfully knocked on the altar of Liuliyuan, so he had to obey him.

"There's no use in being anxious. To open the Spirit Path, you need to open the Wood Annual Rings inside the altar."

Although you know about the Zhou Tian Palace, you probably only have a superficial understanding of the inner workings of these hidden palaces, unaware that there are still many obstacles within. Only Yuan Cong, the trusted confidant of Crown Prince Gunlong, could have known the correct solution within the altar.

That's what the old ox said.

Thousand Hands could tell that the old ox wasn't lying to him, so he used his primordial spirit to communicate with the two pupil gods and asked, "Do you know about this?"

"When was this 'wood growth ring' added?"

"Big Pupil said, extremely annoyed."

Thousand Hands immediately repeated this sentence to Old Yellow Ox, who replied, "Everyone knows that this was set up by the Three-Headed God before he left, supposedly to guard against some surviving traitors under the command of Crown Prince Gunlong. If they are true confidants, they will know the solution at a glance."

"Thousand Hands, let us possess your true form."

"No."

Thousand Hands refused without even thinking.

"Rest assured, we will not pry into the secrets of your primordial spirit."

"That won't work either. No one but my grandfather can have their spirit enter my body."

"That wooden room is related to the young saint's path to enlightenment. Once he is fortunate enough to enter it, he can glimpse the future prospects of his various true methods and save himself hundreds of years of arduous exploration in the cultivation of methods."

Our two spirits are attached to you so that we can use your eyes to see and thus decipher the altar, without revealing ourselves.

"So you wanted to borrow my eyes."

Thousand Hands breathed a sigh of relief and immediately raised his hands and clasped them together in front of him.

When the two palms opened again, each palm had an eye open; this was the Lotus Hand Clasping Palm that Thousand Hands had practiced.

"Bear with it." The two pupils immediately jumped from Qian Shou'er's eyes into his palms, replacing the original pupils. Blood immediately oozed from those two palms, dripping down the fine lines of his palms.

At the battleground, despite facing the Zen master and Zhu Tao, Ji Ming showed no sign of panic.

This alone made Zhu Tao, Ling Xuzi's opponent in the contest, secretly applaud him. Ling Xuzi's composure in the face of danger was truly admirable. Ling Xuzi had gained such fame in just under a hundred years; he must have some real skill.

The ball of cold light that Ji Ming exhaled blocked the Bingding Puhua Yang Thunder that shot out from within the Five Virtues Divine Smoke. The fire dust and ice mist stirred into steam covering tens of acres, obscuring the Liuli Courtyard within this star.

"Zen Master, have you come up with a good idea?"

While dealing with Zhu Tao, Ji Ming also kept the Zen Master Caihu calm.

The reason he remained calm was that he knew that Zen Master Caihu was already in a precarious situation and had no choice but to stand by and watch.

He said loudly, “We have no great enmity. If you continue to use underhanded tactics against me to force me to submit, I fear that the treasure of Buddhist destiny will be extremely difficult for you to obtain again.”

I know the Zen Master has cultivated for over a thousand years, and his magical powers are immense. Why then would he so easily become enraged and resort to such unorthodox methods? Is it perhaps because he fears I will monopolize the precious Buddhist treasure and refuse to relinquish it even in death? But the Zen Master should know that I am the leader of the Daoist sect, the appointed successor to the True Lord. How could I possibly leave behind such a Buddhist artifact, only to invite controversy? Instead of taking advantage of the fact that a grave mistake has not yet been made and my mind is not completely clouded, does the Zen Master intend to salvage any remaining goodwill? Do you really think that after I expose your scheme, you can force me with violence? Do you really think I cannot summon my sect's Patriarch Ganxiong, or even Patriarchs Bai and Yuan?"

Upon hearing Ji Ming's words, the expression on the face of Zen Master Caihu, in his otherworldly form, became uncertain, appearing quite vacant.

Seeing this, Zhu Tao intensified his attack, sitting back inside the lotus bud and causing it to burst open in a blazing inferno. In an instant, the entire Liuli Courtyard was "infected" by the heat and light, bursting forth with dazzling flames.

Within the dazzling heat, the ball of cold light expanded, revealing a burly, feathered body with a broad back and thick waist. Its wings spread wide behind it, its slender neck was like a long tube, and it had a human head with a topknot. Its bird claws crouched in mid-air, each grasping a snake.

"Xuanming Star General!"

Zhu Tao spoke in the golden lotus.

“No, Lingxuzi has already taken control of both inside and outside Taiping Mountain. Given his style and his unparalleled emphasis on cultivation, he will surely make the divine generals he cultivates absorb the incense and fire accumulated by Taiping Mountain for tens of thousands of years day and night, until the incense and fire golden bodies of the divine generals are refined to a divine level and there is no way to advance further.”

In an instant, Zhu Tao deduced the state of the divine general before him. Just as he was about to make a move, he saw Ling Xuzi's primordial spirit transform into a gust of wind, blowing from in front of the Zen master all the way to the Xuanming Star General.

“Zen Master, do you really believe what he says? Don’t you know that this is just a delaying tactic?”

Seeing that the Zen Master Caihu was not making any move, Zhu Tao tried to pull him back to his side.

"Guilty, sinful."

Zen Master Caihu was also helpless. He never expected that his intentions had been calculated by Lingxuzi long ago, and that the calculations were so accurate that they were exactly the same.

He was genuinely afraid that if he pushed Ling Xuzi too hard, Ling Xuzi would summon his ancestor.

Before Lingxuzi exposed him, he believed he was upholding the righteous cause of standing up for the various sects, and even the patriarchs of Taiping Mountain couldn't control him. But now things are different. Some things have been seen through, and he's completely at a disadvantage.

If we continue according to the original plan, we will help the various sects win the first round, and then in the next round, they will only be able to threaten Lingxuzi.

Instead of the original plan, he pretended to be cooperating with the various sects to deliberately target him, but in reality, he figured out the sects' plans and went with the flow so that he could help him in times of crisis, thus showing great favor to Lingxuzi.

He had another option: to believe Ling Xuzi's words and give up, or even turn against Zhu Tao to try and salvage the situation. In that case, whether Ling Xuzi could ease tensions with him and grant his wish would depend entirely on Ling Xuzi's decision.

However, just as Zhu Tao said, most of Ling Xuzi's words were just delaying tactics.

A ruthless and ambitious man like Ling Xuzi, with his strong will, would never easily reconcile with someone who had been tricked like that.

"Let's observe for now."

Zen Master Caihu sighed helplessly in the dark.

He is now caught between a rock and a hard place, unable to move forward or backward, seemingly still in the game, but in reality, he was kicked out the moment Ling Xuzi exposed his true intentions.

If he chooses violence and coercion, bullying the weak and lacking any moral foundation, then even greater violence awaits him on Taiping Mountain.

When the infant Ji Ming transformed into a gust of wind and blew into the body of the Xuanming Star General, the entire body of the divine general shattered into a large patch of ice shards and frost, cooling down half of the melted, radiating intense heat and light in the Glazed Courtyard.

The two red snakes that were under the feet of the divine bird were rolling and slithering in the ice and frost, circling around a figure. The figure gradually approached in the ice and frost. It was a figure with silver eyebrows and silver hair. It was the figure of the primordial spirit infant attached to the golden body of the Xuanming Divine General.

The mystical arts are always unpredictable. When one's cultivation reaches the level of Ji Ming, one will discover that there is still much potential waiting to be discovered.

(End of this chapter)