Chapter 555: Above the Moon

The skeletal Chen Shi had just arrived at the Xinxiang Imperial Capital when he saw countless flesh tentacles dancing through the sky, striking downward. It was the Celestial Venerable mobilizing the primal insects in the underworld, trying to slaughter him.

"Whoosh!"

The skeletal Chen Shi moved with agile grace, weaving up and down as he flew through the encirclement of tentacles, then sprinted along the surface of one flesh tentacle. Behind him came popping sounds as thinner tentacles burst forth from the larger one, like earthworms covered in bristling hairs, flailing as they curled toward him.

The skeletal Chen Shi dodged repeatedly, channeling the Blood Lake Sutra. Though he held no blade, he executed the sword techniques of the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade, severing any tentacle that came near.

On that enormous tentacle, the flesh writhed and squirmed as humanoid figures grew out from the meat. At first they had no limbs, then gradually four limbs sprouted; at first they had no facial features, then gradually a face emerged.

Each and every one of those humanoid figures bore the face of the Celestial Venerable.

They detached from the primal insects, moving with incredible speed and agility, pursuing Chen Shi from all directions.

The skeletal Chen Shi had already cultivated to the level of immortal Primordial Spirit and immortal flesh, only lacking Dao Unification. He encountered the first Celestial Venerable, and the two sprinted across the tentacle at breakneck speed, exchanging two or three moves before that Celestial Venerable lost half his head, tumbling and rolling as he plummeted downward.

The other Celestial Venerables surged forward like leaping fleas.

The skeletal Chen Shi fought and retreated, often only clashing for a single exchange before slipping away.

Those Celestial Venerables were born from the flesh of primal insects, their strength extremely formidable, nearly at the level of half-immortals. If he were blocked and surrounded by them, death would be all but certain.

Seeing more and more flesh-formed Celestial Venerables gathering, the skeletal Chen Shi leaped into the air, offering up the Yin Yang Qi Bottle. With a whoosh, the world within the bottle spilled out as radiant light, covering a thousand Celestial Venerables.

He pressed his palm against the bottle's base, then lifted the jade vessel. That world immediately carried those Celestial Venerables aloft, drawing them into the bottle.

The skeletal Chen Shi gave the jade bottle a shake. The thousand Celestial Venerables within were refined, and the sound of sloshing water came from inside.

Countless tentacles wove before him, crisscrossing as if an invisible giant were using the tentacles as threads, spinning a web of flesh.

The skeletal Chen Shi offered up the jade bottle. Water and fire surged out, burning in every direction. The flesh tentacles sizzled and hissed but were never burned through.

He tried to find another path, but above, below, left, and right, all were blocked by tentacles turned into nets, trapping him within.

Suddenly, with a thunderous boom, the net was breached. Wu Qi slaughtered his way inside.

The skeletal Chen Shi seized the opportunity, channeling the Yin Yang Qi Bottle. The world within the bottle spilled out, enveloping those severed flesh tentacles. With a sudden lift, he raised them up, pulling them toward the bottle.

One after another, the flesh tentacles sacrificed their severed ends to escape, abandoning the parts caught in the bottle's world as they retreated.

The skeletal Chen Shi breathed a sigh of relief, tossing the Yin Yang Qi Bottle to Wu Qi, speaking rapidly: "Wu Qi, Xun Jiangmu has taken the alias of the Celestial Venerable. He is right now in the underworld, besieging the Empress of Earth. Take this Yin Yang Qi Bottle and hurry to assist her!"

Wu Qi said, "Thank you."

The skeletal Chen Shi was about to say more, but Wu Qi took a single step and entered the underworld.

"Wu Qi still can't match the Celestial Venerable. The Celestial Venerable hasn't even used his full strength yet. I can only hope Wu Qi will exhaust more of his power."

The skeletal Chen Shi was about to return to the underworld when he casually glanced at the imperial garden of the palace. The crape myrtle tree and the Purple Heaven Vine had both vanished without a trace!

On the ground, only a massive pit remained!

"This is..." His heart raced with alarm. "Has Wu Qi discovered something? Then this favor..."

At this moment, above Wu Qi's head, Xu Wu Yue Heng Heaven floated. Behind this Dao Realm heaven gate was planted a crape myrtle tree. The Purple Heaven Vine climbed along the tree, and on the old vine, yet another Wu Qi had grown, swaying on the tendril.

Wu Qi offered up the Yin Yang Qi Bottle and charged at the Celestial Venerable.

The Celestial Venerable saw him return in full force and was already beyond surprise. The two clashed for barely ten exchanges before Wu Qi was once again buried at the Celestial Venerable's hands.

The Celestial Venerable was about to seize the Yin Yang Qi Bottle when suddenly another Wu Qi flew out from Xu Wu Yue Heng Heaven, channeling the Yin Yang Qi Bottle. He nearly pulled the Celestial Venerable into the bottle.

The Celestial Venerable was both shocked and enraged: "What kind of evil art has Wu Qi cultivated? No matter how I kill him, he won't stay dead! Has his Immortal Art of Immortality already surpassed the Eight-Nine Mystic Arts of the Earth Immortal Realm?"

He hurriedly commanded the primal insects to block the bottle's mouth, barely managing to escape.

This fierce battle between the two was even more intense than before. The Celestial Venerable was shaken to the core, thinking to himself: "Wu Qi dies and revives, over and over. Is there no end to him? If this continues, he'll eventually exhaust me to death!"

Above the imperial garden, flames danced in the skeletal Chen Shi's eye sockets: "Wu Qi doesn't know that his resurrections are limited. I must warn him!"

He was about to slip into the underworld when he saw above the grey clouds of flesh, enormous eyeballs emerging, rolling around. Beams of divine light and demonic light shone down from above, searching for his whereabouts.

He quickly concealed his presence, thinking: "The Celestial Venerable still has strength in reserve."

The Celestial Venerable's control over the primal insects was truly beyond comprehension. The strange eyes in the sky swept in all directions, when suddenly the sound of clanging bells came through. The eyes immediately turned toward the source of the sound, and flesh tentacles descended from the sky, apparently attacking someone!

The skeletal Chen Shi looked up. Thousands of tentacles hung from the sky, whipping through the air, all striking at the same location.

"Who is the Celestial Venerable attacking?"

Just as the thought crossed his mind, another tremendous clang rang out. Chen Yindu had transformed into a thousand-zhang giant, bare-chested, carrying an enormous furnace on his back, charging recklessly into the distance.

Creation Little Five stood atop the furnace, meeting the descending tentacles head-on, shielding Chen Yindu from their attacks.

"Boom!"

The Recreate Heaven-and-Earth Furnace opened, flames shooting straight into the clouds, burning a hole through the bloody sky.

Chen Yindu leaped into the air, heading straight for the opening.

The skeletal Chen Shi looked up, watching as Chen Yindu and Creation Little Five disappeared into the hole. He thought: "Grandpa and Fifth Uncle are going to find the Celestial Venerable's Dao Unification site. Only by destroying his Dao Unification site can they break his Grand Veiled Heaven Dao Realm."

Chen Yindu and Creation Little Five burst through the bloody clouds and were immediately deeply shaken by what they saw.

Above the Western Ox New Continent, flesh stretched endlessly, like an ocean of meat floating between space and the continent.

When the flesh writhed, it looked like rolling waves, evoking an absurd, incomprehensible sense of dread.

And within this ocean, massive pillars of flesh extended straight upward into space, connecting to the blood-covered moon beyond the heavens.

Straining their eyes, the two could faintly see that even the blood moon had thick pillars of flesh reaching into space, leading who knew where, but presumably connecting to other stars or worlds!

Within the ocean of flesh, giant eyeballs suddenly rose from the surface, each connected to a flesh tentacle at its rear. They rolled around, focusing their gaze on the two.

Heavy dragon roars came from the ocean. Tentacles flew out, rapidly reassembling mid-air into dragon forms, twisting and coiling as they gave chase!

More and more blood dragons appeared. Creation Little Five fought with all his strength, but whenever the blood dragons were wounded, they dove back into the blood sea below and emerged completely healed, continuing their assault. They simply could not be killed.

Creation Little Five let out a fierce cry, and from the Recreate Heaven-and-Earth Furnace, a Dao Realm rose.

This Dao Realm was not the small world of a Celestial Immortal's Dao Unification.

When a Celestial Immortal achieves Dao Unification, the site becomes its own world, merely touching the Great Dao in all places without yet reaching accomplishment. But when one cultivates to the next realm, the True Immortal Realm, the Great Dao within their Dao Realm forms such wonders as the pure winds, the heavenly constant, the Netherworld Capital's path of life and death, the Gate of Calamity, and other Great Dao phenomena.

Such an immortal's Dao Realm is called Tai Huang Huang Zeng Heaven.

At this moment, the Dao Realm rising from the Recreate Heaven-and-Earth Furnace possessed the pure winds, the heavenly constant, the Gate of Calamity, and other Great Dao phenomena. This was Creation Little Five's Dao Realm.

During the battle at Despair Slope, he had slipped into the Recreate Heaven-and-Earth Furnace, witnessed the furnace refining heavenly soldiers, and seized the fortune of five hundred heavenly soldiers, elevating his cultivation to the True Immortal Realm. However, he had no place to achieve Dao Unification then, so he could only do so within the cauldron, which was how he attained his current cultivation.

But even a True Immortal found it difficult to hold out against the attacks of the primal insects.

At this moment, Chen Yindu suddenly stopped, hurling the Recreate Heaven-and-Earth Furnace from his back into the air. Together, Chen Yindu and Creation Little Five offered up the immortal furnace. The magnificent Dao patterns on its walls blazed brilliantly, coming alive like living creatures. With a whoosh, they swept all the pursuing blood dragons into the furnace.

From within came the pitter-patter of sounds, like pearls falling onto a jade platter. Chen Yindu hefted the Recreate Heaven-and-Earth Furnace onto his back once more and charged forward.

Creation Little Five leaned out from the furnace opening, peering inside. The blood dragons that had been collected moments ago had already transformed into blood medicinal pills.

He opened the furnace lid, grabbed one, and stuffed it into his mouth. A rich, mellow surge of blood qi washed through him. The wounds he had suffered quickly healed, and the cultivation he had lost was replenished.

"As expected of a creation divine artifact. Truly remarkable."

He took another blood medicinal pill and sent it to Chen Yindu's lips.

Chen Yindu swallowed the pill, leaped into the air, and landed on one of the enormous flesh pillars. He sprinted upward along it.

He quickly broke through the hundred-li altitude, arriving beyond the heavens. The Celestial True God's incomparably majestic figure seemed close enough to reach out and touch.

Creation Little Five's eyes widened as he stared at this enormous Primordial Spirit of the Shang King. Feeling the blazing heat radiating from the spirit's eyes, he couldn't help but marvel at the powerful vitality of this immortal's Primordial Spirit.

"How did the Shang King merge his Primordial Spirit with the Celestial Way, offering himself up as the sacrifice for heaven?"

Even with Creation Little Five's remarkable intellect, he couldn't fathom the methods of the Shang King from that era.

"Was it worth sacrificing himself like that to save the world?"

He blinked, unable to understand.

As a Gold Immortal, if he had wanted to flee, even the Celestial Venerable of that time probably couldn't have stopped him. But the Shang King chose not to flee. Instead, he made himself an offering to the Celestial Way, extending the life of the Western Ox New Continent for sixteen thousand years.

Creation Little Five could not comprehend this spirit.

In his view, without Chen Yindu, Chen Tang, and Chen Shi, the lives or deaths of everyone else had nothing to do with him. No matter how many of them died, it wouldn't matter to him.

It was only because Chen Yindu and Chen Shi remained that he chose to stay as well. Otherwise, he could have crossed the Dark Sea alone, with no need to fight the Celestial Venerable to the death.

"I consider them family, so I stay to help them."

Creation Little Five blinked, thinking: "They consider everyone else family, so they fight desperately to stop the Celestial Venerable. The Shang King must have sacrificed himself for the same reason... Familial affection is so troublesome. It limits what we can achieve."

Chen Yindu sprinted with all his might, passing by the Celestial True God. The flesh pillar brushed past the eight heavens behind the True God's head, connecting to the moon beyond the sky.

The demonic energy beyond the heavens was incredibly dense, but both of them had comprehended the Yin-Yang Dao Field Chen Shi had imparted, more than enough to protect themselves.

Finally, Chen Yindu landed on the moon.

The moon had already been covered by primal insects, except for one place that remained untouched: the spot where the Celestial Venerable's past life, Xun Jiangmu, had died.

They landed precisely at the place of Xun Jiangmu's death.

"Dao Unification requires a place untouched by pollution, where one can align with heaven and earth, verifying that one's comprehended Great Dao has no deviation from the heavenly Dao. The Celestial Venerable seized the Shang citizens' bodies and later achieved Dao Unification. He would certainly need to find a place untainted by demonic energy. The entire Western Ox New Continent is polluted, so he couldn't achieve Dao Unification there. But he could have the primal insects yield a space on the moon for his unification."

Chen Yindu carried the Recreate Heaven-and-Earth Furnace on his back, his eyes gleaming as he took out his compass to determine the moon's coordinates, speaking rapidly: "Through my calculations, although the moon appears perfectly round, it is actually missing a substantial piece. The moon's actual weight does not match its apparent size. So where has that space gone? Has someone hidden it?"

He channeled his blood qi, forming threads of sword energy that crisscrossed the air, marking lines of latitude and longitude. Speaking as much to Creation Little Five as to himself: "During the battle at Despair Slope, I captured a trace of anomalous fluctuation from the Celestial Venerable's Dao Realm that matched fluctuations on the moon. So I guessed his Dao Unification site was on the moon. To precisely calculate where his site was hidden, I pushed my mathematical calculations down to the 'wei' decimal place. When I calculated on the ground, I had to multiply the margin of error by six hundred thousand times. In other words..."

He observed the lines of latitude and longitude, stepped forward, and drew a straight line on the ground with his foot, saying: "The Celestial Venerable's Dao Unification site is no more than one 'wei' away from the position where I drew this line."

Hearing this, Creation Little Five stood atop the Recreate Heaven-and-Earth Furnace and struck forward with his palm.

"Hum!"

The moon shook violently. A curtain of light suddenly appeared, exactly at the position where Chen Yindu had drawn his line!

Behind that curtain of light lay a vast Dao Realm!

Within the Dao Realm, yin and yang qi formed an enormous taiji diagram. An immortal palace sat atop the diagram, and behind it was a magnificent canopy made of countless ornate feathers. Thirty-two immortal boys stood in the palace, draped in brocade robes and green garments, holding golden banners in one hand and the Book of Life and Death in the other.

This was the Great Dao manifestation of Grand Veiled Heaven!

Chen Yindu took a heavy step forward, carrying the Recreate Heaven-and-Earth Furnace on his back, and walked into this Dao Realm.

"Boom!"

The furnace lid flew off. Countless Creation Little Fives swarmed out like a cloud of mosquitoes, flying in every direction, devouring the various Dao manifestations within the realm.

"Today, I will shatter his Dao Realm and knock his cultivation down!"