Chapter 213 Divine Acupoint

Jiang Chaosheng found himself in a void-like world, similar to a dream.

He was standing on a surface like clear, still water, surrounded on all sides by darkness.

Jiang Chaosheng lowered his head, his pupils contracting.

He saw… himself.

He saw himself back in the basement, sitting cross-legged before the Taboo Sculpture.

The Taboo Sculpture’s eyes burned with white flames, emitting an overwhelming energy that was forcing the eye on his own forehead to close.

A thought crossed Jiang Chaosheng’s mind.

His perspective suddenly zoomed out. He saw Antique Shop Zero in the early morning and even saw two stray cats run past the entrance.

Another thought crossed Jiang Chaosheng’s mind.

His perspective zoomed out again, and he saw the silent Anxiang Street.

His perspective zoomed out yet again…

He saw the entirety of South Sea City!

It was as if a television show was playing on the surface of the water beneath his feet.

Jiang Chaosheng tried to control this “television show,” constantly switching perspectives until he finally settled on a small village.

It was five in the morning. A funeral procession was carrying a coffin toward the top of a mountain.

There was a custom in the South Sea region that if the deceased was under fifty, the funeral had to be held before sunrise.

He saw a young man at the very front of the procession, scattering joss paper as he cried out:

“Dad, I haven’t even made it big yet! I hadn’t even brought you from the village to the city… How could you just leave?!”

Jiang Chaosheng felt a hint of surprise.

He couldn’t actually hear the young man’s voice, yet he knew exactly what he was saying and the emotion behind his words.

Suddenly, a mocking voice rang out:

“A father gives his son real gold and silver, but a son gives his father joss paper. Heh heh heh, give him this paper money and you can buy away your guilt. You humans… you’re the easiest to deceive because you even deceive yourselves.”

Jiang Chaosheng felt the world become filled with a soft, purple light.

He looked up and narrowed his eyes, a hint of killing intent swirling in his pupils.

Before Jiang Chaosheng was a massive purple eyeball, as vast as half a world:

“What lies beneath your feet is the Human World as seen through my eye. Of course, the Human World in my eye is incomparably real and pure—even more real than what you humans see for yourselves.”

A sinister laugh, filled with Enchantment and deception, echoed continuously through the space.

“Hee hee hee… Don’t look at me like that. Chaosheng, do you have any idea what great fortune you’ve obtained! This eye… even the Last Human Emperor coveted it. But you? You actually managed to fuse me into your body. How interesting. You’ve accomplished what the Last Human Emperor couldn’t, even on his deathbed.”

Jiang Chaosheng stopped looking at it. Instead, he straightened his trench coat and sat down on the surface of the water.

The water’s surface rippled with his movement.

The Left Eye of Deceit and Treachery was clearly taken aback, the massive purple eyeball filled with confusion:

“Aren’t you curious about any of this?”

Jiang Chaosheng said, his head bowed:

“Ever since I witnessed your methods of Enchantment and deception, I’ve decided I will only say three sentences to you. The first is: I won’t believe so much as a punctuation mark that comes out of your mouth, so be quiet. The second is: I’m done talking.”

The Left Eye of Deceit and Treachery waited for a long time but didn’t hear a third sentence. It blinked its huge eye:

“What’s the third sentence?”

Jiang Chaosheng closed his eyes and said nothing.

The Left Eye of Deceit and Treachery had a realization.

‘So, the “three sentences” included his opening line, “Ever since I witnessed your methods of Enchantment and deception…”‘

The Left Eye of Deceit and Treachery twitched.

“You… you’re actually quite the comedian, huh. Ha, haha…”

Jiang Chaosheng remained silent.

He was waiting for the Taboo Sculpture to erase the consciousness of the Left Eye of Deceit and Treachery.

The Left Eye of Deceit and Treachery said:

“If you won’t talk, I’ll talk by myself. Do you know why the Last Human Emperor wanted to fuse with this eye?”

The Left Eye of Deceit and Treachery answered its own question:

“Because he wanted to open a Divine Acupoint! Mortals have nine apertures. They’re only good for making noise, listening to rumors, smelling filth, seeing dirt, and, well, shitting, pissing… heh heh heh… and doing *that* thing. But if you open the tenth aperture, heh heh heh, now that’s a different story! That’s how you can pursue the great path of Truth. This tenth aperture is called the Spiritual Aperture. Back in the day, there were quite a few mortals and beasts in your Human World who had opened their Spiritual Apertures. Oh? Aren’t you curious where they all ended up?”

Jiang Chaosheng remained silent, his eyes closed.

He had heard about that war from Niu Lang, so naturally, he already knew the answer.

Seeing that Jiang Chaosheng wasn’t taking the bait, the Left Eye of Deceit and Treachery continued, revealing a secret from another era:

“That Last Human Emperor… he was truly something else. Divine Acupointers have absolute suppressing power over those with Spiritual Apertures, yet he, with the body of a mere mortal, sent all the Divine Buddhas of the heavens scurrying away with their heads in their hands. If he’d had more time for Cultivation, his Spiritual Aperture would have definitely developed into a Divine Acupoint. Too bad he ran out of time, heh heh heh heh… And so, I came into the picture. Don’t you want to know why his fusion attempt failed?”

Jiang Chaosheng, eyes still closed, said:

“He said you’re the one who got him killed.”

Jiang Chaosheng wasn’t a humorous person, nor did he make jokes.

Therefore, *this* was the third sentence.

The Left Eye of Deceit and Treachery trembled violently.

“You’ve met him? Impossible! You’re lying! How could you have met him?! He’s already dead!”

The Left Eye of Deceit and Treachery suddenly thought of something:

“You… you saw him in that dream?!”

The Left Eye of Deceit and Treachery was filled with fury, disbelief, and malice:

“What in the world are you two monsters! Could it be… you’re plotting against me?! Could it be you predicted you would enter this dreamscape and specifically arranged to meet here?!”

Jiang Chaosheng opened his eyes and glanced down at the surface of the water.

His perspective had already pulled back to the basement of Antique Shop Zero.

He saw the eye on his own forehead slowly closing as he sat cross-legged before the Taboo Sculpture.

The voice of the Left Eye of Deceit and Treachery continued to emanate:

“The Last Human Emperor… the unpredictable king… You share his attributes. I absolutely cannot let you live, no matter the cost.”

Its voice became utterly calm and cold, devoid of any trace of Enchantment.

The entire space began to tremble violently.

Jiang Chaosheng didn’t quite understand why meeting the Last Human Emperor in a dream would cause this monster, which loved and excelled at scheming, to fly into a brute-like rage.

Just then, the Taboo Sculpture slowly raised its White Jade Skull head and looked up from below the water’s surface.

A hint of surprise appeared in Jiang Chaosheng’s eyes.

‘It… it can see this space?’

One of the Taboo Sculpture’s White Jade Skull hands suddenly twitched.

This was the first time Jiang Chaosheng had seen any part of the Taboo Sculpture move besides its head.

The next second, the White Jade Skull hand shot up, breaking through the barrier between the illusory and the real. A giant White Jade Skull hand appeared behind the Left Eye of Deceit and Treachery.

Five white jade phalanges, like works of art, fiercely grabbed the massive purple eyeball floating before Jiang Chaosheng and abruptly crushed it downward!

…

When Jiang Chaosheng opened his eyes again, his perspective had returned to Antique Shop Zero.

He raised his head and looked at the Taboo Sculpture.

The White Jade Skull was frozen in an upward-reaching posture.

The white flames in its empty eye sockets flickered erratically, as if they were about to go out.

The White Jade Skull’s mouth slowly opened:

“Do… not… rely… on the Divine Acupoint… Do not… trust… Deceit and Treachery…”

The next second, the white flames in the White Jade Skull’s eyes went out.

Jiang Chaosheng noticed that the White Jade Skull’s body, once crystal clear, had now dimmed somewhat.

He furrowed his brow and murmured:

“Deceit and Treachery… What in the world is that?”

No information about the Left Eye of Deceit and Treachery appeared in Jiang Chaosheng’s mind.

Therefore, this Taboo Item wasn’t considered contained.

Instead…

It was now permanently fused with him.

Jiang Chaosheng closed his eyes, sensing the Left Eye of Deceit and Treachery within his body.

It seemed there was now a switch inside him.

However, this switch was bound by a chain of golden light.

The aura of that golden chain felt just like the aura the Taboo Sculpture had used to suppress Daji’s rampage.

‘Could this… be Human Emperor Qi?’

But he knew that if he wanted to, he could undo the golden chain and flip the switch.

Jiang Chaosheng recalled the scene of him walking back to Antique Shop Zero.

He had used that eye to summon wind and rain.

The commotion had been far greater than when the Old Dragon King and Daji had performed their Cloud Formation and Rainfall.

Tonight, Jiang Chaosheng had finally come to understand what the Spiritual Concentration Divine Art, the Spiritual Aperture, and the Divine Acupoint truly were.

To use a computer as an analogy:

If one’s Cultivation of the Spiritual Concentration Divine Art was perfected, reaching a sufficiently hardcore level, it was like having the latest model graphics card.

The Spiritual Aperture was like the monitor of an old CRT desktop.

And the Divine Acupoint was like a newly developed high-end monitor.

Obviously, no matter how well one cultivated their Spiritual Power, without a powerful enough “monitor,” the graphics card couldn’t even produce a basic “HD effect.”

Jiang Chaosheng decided not to dwell on the eye any longer.

Not using it wouldn’t affect him.

But having it was like having a cheat code in a fight.

It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

‘Well… it’s probably not a bad thing. Probably.’