Cultivation through Skin Making

Chapter 787: 274. The Gates of the Netherworld, Saints Covertly Compete (6.4K words – Please Subscribe)

“Hoo…”

Song Yan exhaled lightly.

He looked down again at the array embryo, which should have had many lines drawn on it by him, but it was completely empty.

“Dad?” Yuzhuang Po Xu looked at him with concern.

Song Yan said, “Was I just in a daze?”

Yuzhuang Po Xu nodded.

Song Yan handed over the blank array embryo, saying, “Yuzhuang, there’s something wrong with this talisman character, Dad can’t draw it.”

Yuzhuang Po Xu said, “Then let me do it.”

With that, she began to meticulously carve and draw on the array embryo.

Song Yan took the opportunity to glance again at the panel; the section marked [Realm Spirit] was still a question mark, along with three lines of information, the second of which read: [This Realm Spirit is indeed your Realm Spirit].

He glanced again at the little white tiger slumbering in his Lifebound Realm, recalling how it had extended its paw to help him avert disaster earlier.

Yuzhuang Po Xu drew quickly, and soon the array embryo was filled with strange array patterns. She held up the array embryo and said, “Dad, then what?”

Song Yan glanced at the array embryo, feeling that the array patterns were distorted and blinding, giving him an uncomfortable dizziness, like eating spoiled leftovers and then spinning in place three hundred times.

He withdrew his gaze and, while absorbing a steady stream of Celestial Demon Obsession with the “Great Freedom Realm,” said to Yuzhuang Po Xu, “You’ve already mastered the same array knowledge as I have.”

The moment he finished speaking, it took effect.

The small white hand hovered in the sky, collecting payment.

Suddenly, Song Yan’s pupils narrowed slightly.

Because this time, he noticed something unusual.

Not an anomaly with the Wa Saint, but with himself.

As the “words became reality,” he could feel a fleeting sense of coldness being added to his Divine Soul, like a thread of ice dropped into warm water, but… the coldness vanished almost immediately.

Earlier, he had felt this coldness as well, but it was so faint that he naturally assumed it “automatically dissolved.”

But after the recent drawing of the array, he suddenly realized: some cold sensations cannot dissolve automatically.

He cast “words become reality,” and allowed the “Divine Forms Demon Body” to substitute death, seemingly hiring the Wa Saint to work for him unrestrictedly, but he had been paying a genuine price all along.

If such cold sensations were not resolved, but accumulated over time, the outcome would be unimaginable, which is the true cost of “misusing Holy Power.”

The net of heaven is vast and wide, but none can escape.

Saints cannot be trifled with.

So, if he wasn’t resolving it himself, then who was?

Song Yan had initially felt the “cold sensation” when absorbing a Ghost Cultivator’s breakthrough to the Profound Yellow Three Realms, but since when… had this “cold sensation” been immunized?

Suddenly, Song Yan had a realization: it turns out the powerful one wasn’t him, but the Realm Spirit White Tiger within his Divine Soul.

’Thanks.’

He said silently.

The little white tiger, with an aloof expression, showed no emotion, instead twisting its body and laying its sideways face between its two furry paws, while its body twisted and turned, nudging Song Yan’s Lifebound Realm so that the talisman characters shifted around, aside from the “Freedom” of Lifebound, the rest representing “Wa” and “Burial” were significantly lightened.

“Hey.” Song Yan called out again.

The little white tiger buried its face completely between its paws.

Song Yan was astonished, thinking silently: ’Is it disgusted with me?’

But in a moment, he was relieved.

If his guess was correct, the origin of the little white tiger is immense.

Probably a great power from the Nine Heavens, having no other way, seized the opportunity of his breakthrough to the Profound Yellow Three Realms, hitching a ride on the “Realm Spirit Six Paths of Light,” and ended up in his Divine Soul, reluctantly becoming his Realm Spirit, a mere ant.

Many thoughts flashed, and Yuzhuang’s eyes brightened, saying, “Dad, I understand now!”

With that, she turned and ran to the side to create the large array.

Months later, Yuzhuang completed a set of large arrays.

The array had nine flags.

Song Yan held the array, with a secret thought: ’Use this large array for cultivation.’

A brief line of information promptly surfaced: [You cannot open the Netherworld Gate].

“Dad, I wonder what this array can be used for.” Yuzhuang was also full of anticipation, feeling a strong affinity with the array.

Song Yan withdrew his fingers, saying, “This array is to open the Netherworld Gate.”

Yuzhuang Po Xu exclaimed with delight, “Is my home behind the door?”

Song Yan said, “I don’t know.”

Then, he added, “Determine if you can open it yourself.”

Yuzhuang Po Xu held the array, perceived for a long time, and said, “Very warm, Yuzhuang decides to open it.”

…

A moment later…

“Open!”

“Open!”

The array flags were distributed everywhere, but no matter how the young Yuzhuang shouted, she couldn’t activate the large array.

She lowered her head, somewhat dejected.

Song Yan calmly encouraged her, “Since you have the direction, continue cultivating, and try again after breaking through the Profound Yellow Realm.”

With that, he looked at Yuzhuang Po Xu, gently stroking her head, and said word by word, “Elevate… a hundred years of cultivation.”

…

…

Five thousand years went by in a flash.

On the Five Elements Heaven-Stealing Ship…

The eyes of the Coiling Dragon, serving as the ship’s body, suddenly opened a slit, and that slit slowly widened, exposing the stark white pupils within. The dragon’s mouth, cold as frost-covered black iron, slowly opened, emitting an indisputable voice: “Return to headquarters…”

With those words, Ling Qianyi and Song Yan’s Outer Body Incarnations immediately responded respectfully.

“Yes!”

The dragon’s eyes finally closed slowly.

Emperor’s Heart World, by the Sea of Suffering…

This world had utterly perished, the exposed ruins and Profound Yellow Material just as Song Yan had once seen in the void.