Chapter 12: Primordial Unity

Under the skillful application of Chen Yang’s superior swordsmanship, the divine blade cut through all resistance. Even the rock layers, tempered by the earth’s magma and as tough as refined steel, were pierced effortlessly. In the time it takes for a cup of tea, he had breached the earth’s veins.

A torrent of heat surged from the newly opened fissure, driving the chill from the valley outward. Following the wave of heat, a pillar of fire soared skyward. Chen Yang uttered a soft command, his hands flashing with spiritual light as he unleashed a series of restrictions. An invisible hand pressed the pillar of fire down, reshaping it into nine blossoms of fire, each placed according to the nine palaces’ positions.

Within the nine palaces, the heat rolled, countless flames gathered and contained. Outside, the cold surged back. In that moment, the valley assumed a pattern of embracing yang while bearing yin.

Precious metals flew from his sleeves, mixed in precise proportions. Amidst roaring flames, the metals began to blend, forming a primordial unity. The earth fire’s power was inexhaustible; with its aid, in just three days, the pill furnace took shape.

It was forged in fire and tempered in cold. Thus, water and fire, yin and yang, intertwined, and gradually, a mixed aura of yin and yang arose within the furnace.

......

Royal City.

The Four Seas Merchant Guild of Great Li.

Xu Fatty and his companions had been placed under house arrest, all their magical artifacts and talismans confiscated.

The Four Seas Merchant Guild was no mere local power. It was an alliance of more than a dozen Nascent Soul families, one of the largest guilds in Baohua Continent, its influence stretching across a hundred nations.

For them, losing a shop’s goods was hardly more than a drop in the ocean. Robberies were rare, but with tens of millions of cultivators in Baohua Continent, it was not unusual for a few reckless souls to strike each year. The guild’s operations were vast; such incidents were not surprising.

If Xu Fatty merely reported the robbery, the guild might not even investigate. At most, he’d be scolded and the matter would pass.

......

Xu Fatty, however, had risen from the bottom and knew little of the inner workings. His loyalty to the guild was strong, and he reported every detail.

Had he stopped there, Taishang Demon Sect would simply be blacklisted: no business, at least officially. But if someone came under a new identity, the guild wouldn’t know. The Four Seas Guild, for all its power, was above all a business; it prized harmony and profit, and would not alienate local powers over minor matters.

That would have been the end of it.

But the trouble lay in Xu Fatty’s insistence on mediating, fearing a conflict between the guild and Chen Yang, the Demon Lord. His good intentions only served to annoy the guild.

To rob from us and then seek business? We refuse to deal with you, yet you send someone to negotiate? Is this a slap in the face?

Such insolence could not be tolerated. Without further ado, all involved, including the now ‘traitorous’ Xu Fatty, were detained.

Despite their anger, the Four Seas Guild was a business first. Its local managers, though formidable, were not overly powerful. In all twenty-seven counties of Great Li, only one Golden Core cultivator and seven or eight Purple Mansion practitioners were present—not enough to confront the Taishang Demon Sect directly.

They reported the matter to their superiors, who took it seriously. Robbery by mere cultivators was one thing, but here the robber had replaced the local sect, becoming the dominant force. Without a response, others might follow suit, treating the guild as a patch of ripe grass.

A few days later, seven or eight figures emerged from the Royal City’s teleportation array.

The leader was a young man, twenty-eight or twenty-nine, cultivation at the Purple Mansion stage. His followers were all Golden Core cultivators, two of them at the late stage.

“Greetings, young master.”

The guild’s local manager had received advance notice and waited outside the array with utmost respect.

The young man was Nangong Yan, the heir of the Nascent Soul Nangong family, gifted with a rare variant wind spiritual root. At just over forty, he had reached the Purple Mansion stage and was favored by the Nangong patriarch with high status in the Four Seas Guild.

......

Chen Yang was unaware that Xu Fatty’s good intentions had caused trouble. After more than half a month of tempering, the mixed yin-yang aura within the pill furnace had finally matured, transforming into a primordial energy beyond the five elements, untouched by the world’s myriad forces.

With this, the pill furnace was complete. As it was used for more pill and treasure forging, the primordial energy within would only grow more mysterious.

He stowed the furnace and looked at the nine blossoms of fire, pondering. He thought:

“It would be a pity to disperse them. Better to place a restriction here, let them absorb fire and grow. Perhaps one day they will prove useful.”

Having achieved the realm of the Primordial Spirit and scattered immortality, those with profound knowledge could sense foreknowledge. Combined with advanced divination, one could vaguely perceive the workings of fate, glimpsing possible futures.

Though he no longer possessed his former powers, the essence of his Primordial Spirit remained. Foreknowledge was gone, and he could not divine or observe the future, but his spiritual intuition persisted.

As when he comprehended the Nine Heavens Mysterious Scripture, suddenly seized by inspiration.

Such inspirations were not always prophetic—after all, even fate allows for variables and changes. Nothing is absolute, nor fixed eternally.

Chen Yang understood this well. Now, prompted by intuition, he casually made preparations; whether they would be useful, no one could say.

After setting restrictions on the nine blossoms to absorb fire and cultivate their foundation, Chen Yang transformed into a streak of blood light and returned to the Taishang Demon Sect.

In these days, the sect’s over two thousand disciples had mostly begun practicing the Divine Power Demon Method. With this augmentation, the power Chen Yang could draw had risen tenfold since the day he slew Elder Luo.

He asked about Xu Fatty; hearing there was still no news, he frowned slightly.

At that very moment, Nangong Yan and his party, escorting Xu Fatty and the others, entered the territory of Zhangze County.

“This Taishang Demon Sect is truly formidable; this Demon Lord is exceptional. In only a few months, he has become master of an entire county—remarkable, and yet a pity.”