Chapter 1 The Floating Dust

Zuo Shoushen was guiding the path for Prince Liejie, and that was certainly true. It was also Ji Xiang's instruction. Various changes had occurred within Yingtian Prefecture, and the death of the White Lotus Earth Immortal meant the other side would certainly take action.

Ji Xiang's gaze fell to the ground, where floating dust scattered with the wind, unable to control their own actions. Even staying still was impossible. This was the essence of the mortal world. Ordinary people found it difficult to resist forces far exceeding their own, whether it was money, power, or magic. They were helpless, like dust swept this way and that by the wind.

"I've been asking everywhere about the location of the White Lotus main altar. The White Lotus leaders of the other branches weren't lying. It wasn't that they didn't dare to lie to me, but that they believed even if I found the main altar, I wouldn't come out alive."

"Is that so? The one coming is a handsome god, different from the Fire Lord. His form of existence is the same as Lady Yinping's. It's not a cultivator replacing the position of a folk god, but a god's true form condensed by the incense of an ancient soul from the past."

"He contacted me before the Dengxian Assembly, wanting to do what? It's nothing more than recruitment, right? If I pretended to agree, what method would he have to distinguish the truth from the falsehood in my actions?"

"I'm afraid they'd invite me to their headquarters, then use formations to control me. That's really a headache."

"If I don't see him, won't my gods placed in Yingtian be found and discovered by them?"

"If I meet him and kill him directly, the commotion would be too great. If I start a war now, their numbers are still too large. Under the influence of such a vast vow power, I'm not sure I can win."

Ji Xiang was planning to have the other side suffer from the backlash of the vow power, being disturbed by double the demonic tribulation, but if he fought head-on now, with such a large base of cultivators and the blessing of a massive amount of vow power, even with the Tai Xu Precious Light, his chances of winning were still low. After all, vow power possessed all sorts of incredible might, depending on how the user manipulated it.

So, the final result would be nothing more than escaping with the Golden Escape technique, or directly entering the Great Fuli Earth.

"Then, I'll release an avatar and play with you."

It wasn't that Ji Xiang wanted to split off an incarnation. After all, he hadn't reached the Yuanshen realm and didn't have the ability to refine a Yang God incarnation. However, he had previously obtained the essence of living beings, one of which was the ability to refine the Taying Gu (Shadow Stepping Gu), which he hadn't had the chance to use before.

After all, separating one's shadow, what changes would occur was really uncertain.

Shen Chong was worried behind him. Tie Futou's (Iron Turban) words had made him very uneasy. He decided to go to the pleasure boat to take a look. So, he handed the young girl Shen Yixiu to Ji Xiang and bowed:

"Real Person, now the scholars of the country may be facing a threat to their lives. I am the Xue Zheng (Academic Director) of the Southern Imperial College. Although I am an unranked ninth-grade official, I am still a member of the imperial court. Now that Prince Lu is going to do some terrible things, I cannot allow my students to be in danger."

"I will go to the pleasure boat now and have them leave that place of danger. They must not go to Prince Lu's residence, otherwise their nine generations may be implicated."

Following this king possessed by a demon to rebel, not to mention whether it would be successful or not, they might not even survive tonight. After all, listening to the words of that iron-headed demon, it was like he was going to do something very terrible to them.

What Shen Xue Zheng could think of was only digging out hearts and eating livers. Anyway, it was a dangerous matter related to life.

"Don't rush."

"The Dengxian Assembly is tomorrow night. Going now will expose your identity. Didn't you hear what that demon said?"

Ji Xiang turned his head: "As the Xue Zheng of the Southern Imperial College, you are already in Prince Lu's palm. I know you want to say some great righteousness to show your own fearlessness, but if you go now, it will make my arrangements come to naught."

"So, at least before fulfilling your own righteousness, do not disturb my plan. If it succeeds, your students will be able to survive intact."

"Why is it called the Dengxian Assembly? That is naturally because someone is going to ascend to immortality, or at least there is a major event related to it. So, before the good show begins, maintaining the vow power is crucial. Your students will certainly not die."

Shen Chong thought carefully.

Ji Xiang, on the other hand, endowed a god with form in the temple before him, then casually picked up an old pot placed aside by the temple host.

"This pilgrim, this thing is not...."

The temple host wanted to tell Ji Xiang that the pot could not be given to him, but he didn't expect Ji Xiang to casually take out a gold ingot.

The temple host was stunned.

Ji Xiang placed the gold in his hand, then took the pot. The temple host touched his head and muttered strangely: "This pot of mine is just an old object bought from the street, how... how is it worth this much money!"

But that being said, naturally he wouldn't reveal that he had gotten a bargain. The temple host immediately hid the gold ingot, pretending that nothing had happened, and continued to receive other pilgrims.

At this time, it was already late at night.

Liu Zimin also asked from behind: "Senior, if you want to buy these mundane items, just tell me. Why give the temple host so much gold!"

He had just seen that the color of the gold was extremely pure, and he cried out in his heart that he had lost a lot of money. He also thought that perhaps the person in front of him only knew how to cultivate and didn't understand the prices of things in the mortal world. In fact, this was normal.

"Is that an illusion?"

The little girl Shen suddenly asked: "I read in books that some immortals buy things, are very generous, and the gold they give is actually stones or leaves."

"No, those are gold, I robbed them from the White Lotus. They are very rich."

"And this pot, although it is a mundane object, has divine energy because it has been in the temple for a long time, enjoying incense."

Ji Xiang looked at the three of them. Liu Zimin didn't understand: "Could it be that this thing can be considered a magic weapon?"

"Things have spirits. If they have spirits, they will give birth to goblins."

Ji Xiang raised the pot:

"When I was on duty in the Forbidden City, I once encountered a goblin nurtured by incense that had accumulated for many years. This is the 'Mei' among the Chi Mei Wang Liang (demons and monsters)."

"'Mei' are the spirits of old objects. In Japan, they are called Tsukumogami."

Demonic energy surged, pouring into the pot and refining it, while the incense energy inside churned and bubbled, emitting strands of vow power like that of a human. It just didn't have consciousness yet. These vow powers were all the good thoughts that people had prayed for over the years, which had been stained and accumulated.

"If this pot is used well, and refined by immortals for many years, it can eventually hold the sun, moon, and stars. During the Han Dynasty, there was an old man who sold medicine on the street, often hanging a pot on his cane, as big as a five-sheng vessel, transforming into heaven and earth, with the sun and moon inside, like the world. He stayed inside at night and called himself 'Pot Heaven'."

"The origin of various spiritual instruments, Zhen instruments, and immortal instruments mostly comes from this, transcending the mundane. They cannot be compared to the magic weapons and treasures used by mortals."

Then, a quarter of the essence of living beings was separated and injected into it.

Illusions appeared around Ji Xiang, isolating those mortals, and the shadows under his feet split into nine. The ninth shadow gradually stood upright, grabbing the handle of the pot.

The pot and the shadow merged into one, and were quickly refined into one entity in the demonic energy and good thoughts.

Taying Gu (Shadow Stepping Gu), complete!

The Inner Vision Divine Tablet, at the moment the second Ji Xiang appeared, words emerged.

[Outside Body Incarnation Technique: Using the Taying Gu to separate your own shadow, creating an outside body incarnation! The strength of the outside body incarnation is slightly weaker than your own strength. When damaged, the outside body incarnation will dissipate, and the shadow god will return to the main body.]

[The shadow of the outside body incarnation will appear slightly fainter than that of an ordinary person.]

[Shadow God (Right Emperor): One of the Nine Shadow Gods, becoming a controllable object with the help of the Taying Gu. Each of the Nine Shadow Gods has one or two special abilities, which are nine types of derivations of the human body's own power.]

[The symbol of armor and soldiers, the Right Emperor is in charge. Whenever soldiers are mobilized to wear armor and use troops of fifty people or more, the King's symbol must be used.]

[Can summon fifty shadow soldiers. The shadow soldiers can imitate anyone, including magical aura, but this is just an illusion and does not have real combat ability. However, as long as there is enough shadow, the number of shadow soldiers can always be maintained at fifty.]

[Special: If you have spells such as driving gods and generals, and also have the identity of a God Lord, then after refining the Right Emperor into an outside body incarnation, you can increase the upper limit of the rank of gods that can be mobilized, driven, and detained by summoning god spells, driving god spells, and detaining god spells by one level.]

..........

Prince Liejie chased Ji Xiang for a long time without success. He came to a new temple, where there was also Ji Xiang's aura. When he asked the temple host, the latter said that there was indeed a Taoist in black who had stayed here, but he didn't dare to say that he had received a gold ingot from the Taoist in black!

Wealth should not be revealed, even if this young man looked richly dressed. But letting him know that he had a gold ingot, what good would that do? What if he wanted to snatch the gold ingot to humiliate himself, wouldn't that be terrible?

The temple host didn't tell the truth, and Prince Liejie couldn't see it. He only cared about Ji Xiang's whereabouts. After getting directions from the temple host, he continued for not too long before he saw Ji Xiang's profile.

In the second half of the night, the noise had gradually subsided. It was now the third watch of the night. After all, people still needed to sleep. The real lively time for the Dengxian Assembly was tonight, and they had to conserve their energy. And Yingtian Prefecture after dawn today would definitely not be as prosperous as in the past.

"Senior, please stop."

Prince Liejie stopped Ji Xiang. Under the night sky of the third watch, the streets were brightly lit, but there were fewer people, which seemed a little sparse. Among such sparse crowds, at least one-third were active demons.

The appearance of such a handsome person as Prince Liejie here, of course, attracted the attention of some women or men who had not yet returned.

But seeing the clothes on his body, they knew that his status was noble. No matter how good-looking he was, they didn't dare to stay longer. As for the Taoist in black confronting Prince Liejie, those passers-by couldn't help but think in their hearts that they had never seen a Taoist wearing black clothes. He didn't look like a good person at all.

So, they added three or five kinds of grievances and love affairs between men to their brains, and hurriedly left the area where several people were confronting each other.

"You, are you the Arctic Real Person from the Forbidden City?"

"I am Liejie Taizi (Prince Liejie). This is my Shinto name, not a real prince."

Prince Liejie finally saw Ji Xiang, so he immediately began to persuade him.

Prince Lu had the Celestial Essence in his hands, and sincerely invited Ji Xiang to join.

The treatment was very high. Prince Liejie even said that Prince Lu said that if Ji Xiang joined his camp, he could get the unique position of being second only to one person.

"That's a joke."

Ji Xiang replied: "Prince Lu hasn't succeeded in rebelling yet, so he dares to call himself 'one person'?"

Prince Liejie smiled: "As long as you restore your strength and join forces with the prince, two flying ascension realms, Zhang Tianshi (Celestial Master Zhang) alone cannot stop you."

"It only takes a moment for the battle to end, and the Forbidden City will change owners. Even if we take a step back and can't get the Forbidden City, this is the Forbidden City of Yingtian, and perhaps we can add an extra dragon chair."

"There will always be half of the country, and the dynasty will also be divided into two. You will naturally have a share of luck."

"Do you know that there are four Celestial Heart realms in this world, trying to influence us ordinary people."

"What the prince is doing is not a simple rebellion. Emperor Wanli has no ambition and has not been in the court for many years. Not to mention cultivators, he doesn't even care about mortals. Since he doesn't care, instead of watching the dynasty fall into the hands of Li Shanhe (Inside Mountains and Rivers), why don't we unite...."

Prince Liejie tried his best to persuade him.

Ji Xiang said: "The righteousness is well grasped, but I don't want to help him. You see, isn't it the same if I help Zhang Tianshi? Two against one, the battle ends in an instant, without any difference."

"Celestial Essence is just the aura of mountains, rivers, trees, and grass, the liquid of starlight, at most the Emperor's Moon Dew. Do you have the Sun's Radiance?"

Prince Liejie laughed immediately when he heard this:

"You guessed it right, the final reward for the Dengxian Assembly is the Sun's Radiance!"

"The Celestial Essence has five grades, the aura of mountains and rivers, the liquid of stars, the moon's dew, the sun's radiance, and the essence of heaven and earth. The Sun's Radiance is the second highest, second only to the essence of heaven and earth. This is something that takes one hundred and twenty years to condense a drop!"

"To be honest with you."

"You, do you know the golden bronze immortal dew plate of Emperor Wu of Han!"

"There are two sets of these dew plates, one is the Boliang Plate, and the other is the Jianzhang Plate. One of them, the destroyed Boliang Plate, has a quarter of the fragments in the hands of my prince!"

"The prince wants to see you. I think you should go and see him."

"Especially those three beside you."

Ji Xiang said lightly: "The three people beside me, are you talking about these three who have escaped the influence of your vows?"

"What, do you still want to take them away from me?"

Prince Liejie didn't want to be an enemy of Ji Xiang and said respectfully:

"I can guarantee to you that the Celestial Essence is real. Are you really not considering it?"

"They are just two mortals and a small cultivator. Do they have any relatives with you?"

Ji Xiang: "What if I say yes?"

Prince Liejie took a deep breath: "Then I'll report it to the prince and that's it."

Ji Xiang: "What if I want to leave?"

Prince Liejie smiled: "Then I will never stop you."

Ji Xiang nodded: "Then, it seems that I should go and meet him."

So Ji Xiang went ahead, Liejie led the way, and the other three followed behind. The shadows were a little faint under the illumination of the lanterns.