Chapter 188 - Double Pupils, Four Eyes, and the Plant of Immortality

The iron chains snapped taut, flinging Xu Ying, Heavenly Venerable Wu, Li Xiaoke, and the Emperor of the Underworld Court into the air.

The five-colored qi had already withdrawn from heaven and earth, flowing back into the crater of Five-Color Immortal Mountain as if time were reversing. Now it gushed out anew.

Countless strange patterns raced along the chains. A metallic twang rang out, and Xu Ying looked down to see the luminous patterns on one link snapping apart!

“Watch out!”

He barely had time to shout before the chain broke. The severed length whipped upward, sweeping across the emperor’s immortal corpse.

The corpse’s lower half burst into a cloud of bloody mist. Bone fragments shot in every direction, one punching straight through Xu Ying’s shoulder blade.

Xu Ying let out a muffled groan.

A grand Dao sound resounded from within the jade coffin, as though a great emperor who commanded Dao Arts and the laws of the Dao was chanting. Thick iron chains snapped in succession!

Finally, the jade coffin broke free of its final chain. Enormous immortal Dao runes still surrounded it, blazing with light as they suppressed the Dao sound from within.

The jade coffin spun with a howl, whipping its broken chains around to lash the immortal Dao runes and shatter them.

Six immortal Dao runes hovered above, below, in front, behind, and to either side of the coffin, their power astonishing. When Li Xiaoke and the emperor had joined forces against just one of them, a single strike had left them gravely wounded.

Yet the jade coffin swept its chains around and destroyed the other five immortal Dao runes with ease. Xu Ying could barely follow the dazzling display.

If I ask the being imprisoned in that coffin for help, could he break the immortal Dao runes sealing and suppressing me?

Eagerness surged through Xu Ying.

Every rune and mark on the five-colored stone lining the volcano’s inner walls blazed at full brilliance. Xu Ying, Heavenly Venerable Wu, and the others reeled beneath their suppressive power. Strange sounds filled their ears, their divine sense plunged into chaos, and their strength deserted them. They began to plummet.

The jade coffin whirled, dragging its chains across the runes on the volcano’s inner walls. Wherever the chains struck, the runes went dark, stripped of all their power!

The pressure on Xu Ying eased dramatically, and his divine sense cleared. Planting his feet against the void, he drove himself upward with all his strength!

Seeing him charge upward, Heavenly Venerable Wu hurried after him. Under the influence of the five-colored primordial qi, his flesh had returned to life. Although his bodily functions had recovered, his Martial Dao Primordial Spirit had already begun to disintegrate when he died.

The five-colored primordial qi had not restored his Martial Dao Primordial Spirit. He remained dazed and muddled, dimly recalling only fragments of his past.

The dry bones at the foot of the mountain, by contrast, had been dead for far too long. Their flesh had wasted away until only their skeletons remained, and their Primordial Spirits had long since scattered.

Revived by the five-colored primordial qi, the ghosts and resentful thoughts drifting between heaven and earth possessed them, turning them into monsters that only knew devouring and slaughter.

That was what set Heavenly Venerable Wu apart from them.

He caught up with Xu Ying, but the jade coffin rose faster and faster. Even though Xu Ying had become a formidable martial expert, he could no longer keep pace. “Heavenly Venerable Wu! Do you see that purple medicinal plant on the coffin lid? Grab it!”

The jade coffin broke free of Five-Color Immortal Mountain’s seal and flew into the sky. Heavenly Venerable Wu looked toward it and shook his head, as if to say he couldn’t catch it.

Xu Ying was about to reply when Heavenly Venerable Wu seized him and charged upward. In a little over ten strides, he reached his top speed. Then, with a forceful shout, he hurled Xu Ying toward the jade coffin!

Flying through the air, Xu Ying was just about to slam into the coffin when he twisted like a fish and pressed a hand lightly against its side, bleeding off his momentum. Sliding along its surface, he reached the lid.

He grabbed the purple immortal herb. Elated, he pulled hard, only to find the plant rooted deep in a crack in the jade coffin.

Peering inside, he faintly made out an imposing figure wearing an imperial crown and robes. Even lying in a coffin, the man possessed an unmistakable majesty. A round halo shone behind his head, cradling a vast, floating world.

The roots of the purple immortal herb had burrowed into the great emperor’s eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, worming their way through his features and into him!

This herb of immortality is another seal!

Understanding struck Xu Ying. The herb had been planted on the jade coffin with malicious intent. Someone was using this rare and wondrous plant's abilities to drain the power of the man inside!

The flesh and cultivation of the great emperor inside the coffin nourished the immortal herb!

Someone suppressed on such a massive scale ought to be like me. He can’t be a bad person... right? Saving him is the same as saving myself!

Xu Ying consoled himself with that thought, gritted his teeth, and plucked a leaf from the purple immortal plant. It had only seven leaves in total. His hands flew, stripping it bare in moments.

The purple immortal plant convulsed in agony. It pulled up its roots, stood upright like a person, and lashed them at Xu Ying!

One strike split his skin and laid open his flesh. He retreated, dodging the purple plant’s attacks.

Then he saw the man in the coffin open his eyes.

Xu Ying froze. Four eyes—two stacked on each side—shone brightly, filling the jade coffin with brilliant light.

Oblivious to the disaster looming over it, the purple immortal plant continued its furious assault on Xu Ying. His keen eyes caught the reflections of rapidly approaching figures in the coffin lid, and his heart lurched.

Those immortal corpses!

With no time to spare, he rolled over and slid off the lid. The instant he slipped off, the coffin lid blasted into the air, flinging the now-bald purple plant away.

“Serves you right!”

Xu Ying burst out laughing. He was about to dive downward when a root whistled through the air and coiled around his neck. The purple immortal plant drew the root in, hauling itself toward him.

As it drew near, Xu Ying drove his fist into the junction between its stem and roots. The blow bent the plant nearly in half and sent it flying backward.

He drew back his fist, but the plant swung right back toward him on the root still wrapped around his neck. It raised a tightly bundled mass of roots and hammered him in the lower abdomen.

The punch doubled Xu Ying over like a cooked shrimp and sent him flying backward, his belly twisting with pain.

“You little wretch! I’m Demon King Xu! You think I’m afraid of a blade of grass?”

Gritting his teeth against the pain, he stirred his vital energy. By now, the man in the coffin had broken through most of the seal on Five-Color Immortal Mountain, restoring most of Xu Ying’s cultivation and strength. Why would he fear a mere immortal herb?

Right there in midair, he unleashed his ultimate martial Dao technique, trading punches and kicks with the plant in a furious brawl!

The purple immortal herb fought without a shred of shame. It wound more roots around him and grappled with him at close quarters. Dozens of Xu Ying’s punches struck home, leaving its body soft and swollen, but he took more than a dozen heavy blows to the pit of his chest in return. The blows nearly knocked his eyes out of their sockets.

The purple immortal herb also went straight for his lower body, pounding his lower abdomen and leaving him struggling to defend himself.

Man and herb tumbled downward, exchanging blows as they fell.

Then, a pulse of unimaginable terror erupted. Accompanied by the deep hum of the Great Dao of heaven and earth, it sent countless jackdaws soaring through the underworld. Countless ghosts prostrated themselves, and the ghost gods on the Five-Color Immortal Mountain dropped to their knees!

An overwhelming majesty swept through heaven and earth, cowing the boundless underworld and the ancient battlefield.

The purple immortal herb lost its nerve. Curled into a ball, it hung trembling from Xu Ying’s neck. Even so, it tightened its grip on his throat, trying to strangle the fellow who had plucked it bald.

Xu Ying, of course, didn’t fear it. He seized the herb’s head and pummeled it with his fist. The purple immortal herb thrust out roots to gouge his eyes and tear at his mouth, while another bundle of roots formed a fist and smashed into his crotch.

Man and herb tumbled toward the Five-Color Immortal Mountain.

Amid the struggle, Xu Ying glanced upward. The man in the coffin had already flown out to meet the multitude of immortal corpses arrayed at different heights across the sky.

Those immortal corpses formed the fourth layer of the seal, the most powerful seal that could be established in the mortal world.

Together, they formed an immortal grand formation that sealed off the mountain and brought its full power to bear on the jade coffin. Now that the man had escaped, the formation’s full might focused on him and unleashed itself with a roar.

Xu Ying heard a Dao sound of unfathomable profundity. Blood poured from his eyes and streamed from his ears. His brain felt as though it were boiling.

Mortals could neither comprehend nor endure this sound. It was subtler than the Eight Sounds of Primordial Nurturing and laden with more mysteries than the sound of the Heavenly Dao. It assailed thought and consciousness!

The sound of the Heavenly Dao drove the mind insane. The sound of the immortal Dao drove one’s Great Dao into disarray!

On the mountain, the ghost gods the emperor had brought froze when they heard it. Then their golden divine bodies crumbled, and their Primordial Spirits disintegrated into clouds of dust.

Clink!

One after another, they shattered.

“Don’t listen to that sound!” shouted a disciple of Mount Jiulong.

He had barely spoken when his Golden Core burst, and he exploded with it, turning into clouds of bloody mist before scattering.

Artifacts imbued with Dao Arts floated into the air. Their Dao avatar imprints burst in succession, and the artifacts themselves fell apart, losing all their spirituality!

Li Xiaoke and the underworld emperor also fled for their lives, dragging their gravely wounded bodies along.

Immortal Dao runes had injured both, but the emperor had suffered far worse. A severed iron chain had destroyed the lower half of his body. Now he raced down the mountain on his hands, which proved even nimbler than his legs.

Their own Dao avatars and radiant vestiges had become death warrants. Their mystical power boiled within them, and the grotto-heavens Li Xiaoke had transplanted after slaughtering those Exorcist Immortals threatened to erupt like volcanoes. Even after mustering their mystical power and cultivation, they could not withstand the sound.

Waves of power surged through Xu Ying, filling him with alarm.

If I keep listening, I’m afraid I will burst!

The towering man from the coffin raised a hand. The jade coffin flew up, and the sky collapsed with a thunderous crash. The immortal corpses floating in carefully arranged formation plummeted into the jade coffin, along with the great immortal array they had laid out. The lid flew over and sealed the coffin, silencing the immortal Dao pouring from the array.

Xu Ying breathed a sigh of relief, then promptly resumed grappling with the purple immortal herb. “It’s you or me!”

A large hand settled over the jade coffin and gave it a light pat. The countless immortal corpses inside decayed, swiftly crumbling into skeletons.

The man from the coffin looked up at the firmament. Beyond it, another world shimmered in and out of sight. From the Five-Color Immortal Mountain, one could look beyond the heavens and glimpse a tiny corner of the Immortal Realm.

Now, beyond the heavens, an equally tall and imposing figure stood facing the man from the coffin across the vast distance.

He was the sixth seal.

One stood in the mortal world, the other in the Immortal Realm, their gazes meeting across the boundary between worlds. The man from the coffin lifted the jade coffin in one hand, strode forward two steps, and hurled it with tremendous force!

Whoosh!

The jade coffin tore through the air, becoming a streak of light. It instantly smashed through the barrier between the two worlds and hurtled into the Immortal Realm, straight toward the towering figure!

The figure in the Immortal Realm raised a hand and stopped the jade coffin. He swayed as the coffin exploded, scattering the immortals’ skeletons across the ground.

Clearly, he was still the weaker of the two.

Xu Ying crashed onto the mountain. Man and herb tumbled together, rolling over countless times before both sprang to their feet. He rained down punches, intent on pounding the purple immortal herb to a pulp, but the herb coiled around his body, grappling at close quarters.

As they fought, Heavenly Venerable Wu dropped from the sky and landed before them with a thud, watching them curiously.

The man and the herb froze, both finding the situation rather awkward.

The purple immortal herb keenly sensed that the white-haired old man was nowhere near as frail as he appeared. It promptly wound itself around Xu Ying and hid behind him.

It pressed its roots against Xu Ying’s neck in an unspoken warning. If the old man tried anything, it would slit its hostage’s throat!

Xu Ying had no time to waste. He hurried forward, took out the leaves he had plucked from the herb of immortality, and smiled.

“Heavenly Venerable Wu, hurry and take this!”

The purple immortal herb lunged to snatch them back. Xu Ying raised a hand to fend it off, and the two began fighting again.

Just then, a presence that subdued heaven and earth descended upon them. The purple immortal herb shuddered and hastily burrowed into Xu Ying’s ethereal void to hide.

Xu Ying looked up to see the man from the coffin slowly descending, his double pupils giving him the appearance of having four eyes.

The double-pupiled man regarded him with a conflicted expression. At last, he said, “Thank you for your help, fellow Daoist.”

Xu Ying returned his salute with a smile. “I can hardly take credit. I only meant to seize the herb of immortality to cure my friend's mortal affliction. I never expected to free you in the process.”

“A mortal affliction? You call death a disease?”

The double-pupiled man paused, then murmured, “Of course. That disease does not affect you... This immortal herb is indeed an herb of immortality, but it cannot truly make a person deathless. You will discover its drawbacks. One leaf will be enough for your friend. Taking more will do him no good.”

He rose lightly into the air and vanished into the distance.

Xu Ying chased after him for two steps, but the man was already gone. He said in frustration, “If I’d known, I would have taken the credit! At least I could have asked for a few immortal artifacts!”

He handed Heavenly Venerable Wu a leaf from the herb of immortality and watched the old man anxiously, urging him to take it at once.

“If that’s not enough, I have a few more! Oh, and there’s a whole herb, too. Just grab it and chew. That’s bound to be enough!”

How could the purple immortal herb let that pass? Barely had Xu Ying finished speaking when countless tiny roots sprouted from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, waving like tentacles. Even Heavenly Venerable Wu jumped in fright.