Dao Cheng Gui Xian

Chapter 399 Black Dress and White Lotus, Fire Worship

North side of the main peak of Jinyan Mountain

A mountain, about a third shorter than itself, winds its way along the path.

The mountain faces the rising sun from the east, its body almost entirely hollowed out, revealing a towering, fiery red statue thousands of feet tall.

The statue wears a crown of flames, holds a torch, and gazes toward the sun.

Pavilions and towers extend into the mountain from the shoulders of the statue.

It contained various magical formations, which, although unable to prevent Li Wushou and Zi Zhen's primordial spirits from spying, were already like a forbidden area for ordinary Nascent Soul True Monarchs.

This is Jin Yan Mountain, the stronghold of the Zoroastrian sect.

At this moment, a powerful cultivator in the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm, dressed in a fiery red sacrificial robe, stood solemnly on a high platform at the foot of the eastern mountain, leading a group of Fire Worshipers dressed in red robes and displaying various flames.

The platform is ninety-nine feet high, and between the platform and the statue are three fiery red circular pools.

The circular pools are arranged in a triangular shape, with a diameter of nine zhang (approximately 33 meters). Inside, lava churns and bubbles constantly rise and fall.

It is very deep inside, extending into the earth's depths and merging into the huge lava layer to the south, clearly closely connected to the Yanyang Mountains to the south.

In the very center of the high platform stands a solemn altar. The altar is also circular, with a slight indentation in the middle, resembling a large cauldron.

At this moment, the followers of Zoroastrianism were arranged in three layers around the altar, fully alert, as if waiting for the opportune moment.

It certainly looks like a scene of worship.

They perform divine acts, yet all their followers are cultivators of immortality. Could the person worshipped by this Fire Worship Cult also be an ancient deity?

This was somewhat unexpected for Li Wushou, so he asked the Purple True Daoist:

"What exactly is this Zoroastrianism? Are they immortals or gods?"

Daoist Zizhen was not surprised by Li Wushou's question, as if he had been prepared for it, and immediately replied:
"The Zoroastrianism practices the path of immortality, but the Zoroastrian ceremony before us is indeed a divine ceremony."

All of this is also related to the history of Zoroastrianism. Although Zoroastrianism has declined at this time, it has existed for a very long time, at least five or six thousand years.

In their early years, they even claimed that Zoroastrianism was an ancient religion that coexisted with the world!

According to Zoroastrian doctrine, the person they worship is a great deity from an extremely ancient era, named 'Fire'.

The Fire Lord was originally a great immortal, said to be in charge of the 'fire element' in the world, and to gather all fires into one body.

Later, out of compassion for ordinary people who could not survive without fire, the "Fire" deity returned fire to all people, and perished in the heavens and earth.

Therefore, Zoroastrianism also refers to him as "Great Lord of Fire Virtue"!
The purpose of Zoroastrianism is to continuously worship this "Great Deity of Fire," attempting to bring this great deity to the human world.

However, this has always been the only claim of Zoroastrianism, and the existence of the "Great Lord of Fire" has not yet been confirmed.

Li Wushou nodded upon hearing this, but didn't take it too seriously.

Such boasting is not unique to Zoroastrianism; any reputable force boasts of its long and illustrious lineage, with countless stories of figures like "Great Venerable of Fire Virtue" or "Emperor of the Primordial Era."

Moreover, the idea of ​​"returning the fire to the people and destroying heaven and earth" is utter nonsense!
If there truly were a "Great Venerable of Fire Virtue" who had cultivated the fire element to such a level, then it would be impossible for him to perish by suicide.

Either one achieves immortality and transcends this world.

Either you fail to become an immortal and are beaten to death by "He" in the world!

Composing himself, Li Wushou wasn't particularly interested in the ceremony. He used his boundary power to cross the stronghold of the Fire Worship Cult and enter the Luo clan's residence on the south side of Golden Flame Peak.

Looking south towards Jin Yan Peak, Li Wushou was about to investigate the situation when he suddenly noticed ripples quietly spreading across the void to the south.

The original mountain scenery slowly dissipated with the fluctuations in the void, and a palace complex appeared before them. Then, three streams of light flew up from the palace complex and headed towards the altar of the Zoroastrian Church.

As the three streaks of light leaped to the Zoroastrian altar, the leading streak of light suddenly paused, revealing a somewhat solemn young woman in a black dress.

Behind the girl, two middle-aged men in green robes and golden crowns stopped simultaneously. The golden lotus between their brows shone brightly. They asked with some confusion:
"what happened?"

The girl in the black dress did not reply. The moment she stopped, her clothes fluttered, and a white lotus flower swayed in the wind from her sleeve.

Then he suddenly looked up and gazed in the direction of Li Wushou and Zizhen Daoist.

Master Zizhen was startled, and Li Wushou was also somewhat surprised.

He didn't think the other party had noticed him, but it was very likely that the other party had discovered Zizhen Daoist.

Although Daoist Zizhen had been concealing his aura, Li Wushou could still detect a faint trace of it.

Although Li Wushou was surprised, he did not panic. As the other person looked at him, a vortex suddenly appeared between his brows.

An inexplicable force descended, completely erasing the aura of Daoist Zizhen.

After examining it for a few moments, the girl frowned slightly, glanced at the white lotus mark on her palm that had been slightly hot but had now subsided, and muttered to herself:
"nothing."

Without further explanation, it transformed back into a stream of light and landed at the Zoroastrian altar.

The remaining two middle-aged men in green robes exchanged a glance, subtly surveyed Li Wushou's location, and then landed together on the high platform.

The Zoroastrians, who were on high alert, bowed and greeted the three as they appeared.

"Greetings, Holy Envoy!"

The girl in the black dress, holding a white lotus, remained silent. The two Azure Lotus Envoys waved their hands, and the one on the left spoke to the leading Nascent Soul cultivator:
"Cult Leader Fen, begin the fire worship!"

The fire-worshipping leader, dressed in a fiery red robe, bowed in agreement, then turned to look at the altar in the center.

After a moment of silence, the leader of the Fire Worship Cult clapped his hands, and nine followers in red robes and golden flames emerged from the left, right, and the other side of the altar.

The nine people approached the altar with solemn expressions and formed a circle around it.

Just then, the sun hung high in the sky, echoing the altar where the crowd was gathered.

The nine people surrounding the altar simultaneously drew a round knife from their sleeves and then slashed it fiercely at their own necks.

With a forceful twist, the skin on the neck was torn open, the throat was cut open, and even the cervical bone was severed.

The nine heads, their faces contorted with fanaticism, fell backward simultaneously, not completely detached from their necks because a piece of flesh remained attached, dangling over the backs of the nine people.

Blood containing a large amount of fire elemental power gushed from the necks of the nine people and flowed into the depression of the altar they were surrounding.

In no time, the depression was filled, and looking down at the altar, it resembled a blood-red sun.

Upon seeing this, the leader of the Zoroastrian cult suddenly turned around, looked up at the towering statue of the "Great Lord of Fire Virtue," stretched out his arms, and shouted in a passionate voice:

"The 113th leader of the Zoroastrian Church, Fen Ge, leads his followers in worshipping the 'Great Venerable of Fire Virtue,' wishing the fire to continue and the Great Venerable to prosper forever!"

The moment he finished drinking, a gash suddenly appeared in the palms of his hands, and the blood that spilled out instantly turned into two golden flames, burning fiercely.

Seeing this, the other followers also cut open their palms and shouted:

"May the fire element continue to flourish, and may the Great One prosper forever!"

In an instant, flames of various colors ignited in his palm, and the inscriptions around the altar lit up one by one. The pool of blood in the center of the altar suddenly shone with a dazzling blood light, illuminating the sun in the sky.

The sky darkened, as if shrouded in a layer of bloody light.

With a loud boom, the lava pool between the platform and the statue shot into the sky, resembling three long incense sticks standing between the statue.

The torch in the hands of the Fire Deity statue suddenly ignited, and the blood-red light in the sky seemed to be drawn in, transforming into a long rainbow that shone on the Fire Deity statue's brow.

A crimson sun slowly appeared between the god's eyebrows.

The blood-red light in the sky dissipated only after everything became completely clear.

But the next instant, the sun's rays became even hotter than before, and a golden halo of flame ignited at the edge of the blood-red sun.

Upon seeing this, the Zoroastrian leader on the high platform, along with his followers, suddenly knelt down and kowtowed passionately before the statue, shouting:

"Fire worship!"

As the sound grew more intense, the flames burned even more fiercely.

Until the entire blood-red sun between the god's eyebrows was ignited and transformed into a fireball, the sun suddenly flickered several times.

Li Wushou, who had mastered Yin and Yang, could clearly feel a violent and scorching power contained within the center of the statue's brow, causing the surrounding temperature to rise sharply.

The three pillars of lava suddenly shrank back into the circular pool and disappeared.

Then, the nearby Yanyang Mountains erupted in a frenzy!
The girl in the black dress and the two Azure Lotus Envoys exchanged glances, hovering in mid-air as they looked towards the Flaming Sun Mountains.

Master Zizhen also watched in astonishment. He had heard of the fire-worshiping ceremony of the Fire Worshiping Sect, but he had never known that the fire-worshiping ceremony would be connected with the earth flame of the Yanyang Mountains.

Standing in the void, Li Wushou was not surprised by this interaction.

He had already suspected that the strange phenomena in the Yanyang Mountains were likely related to the Luo clan, and he became even more convinced of this after seeing the girl in the black dress.

Because if he remembered correctly, the symbol of the Immortal Lotus Grand Venerable lineage was a white lotus!
(End of this chapter)