txolops Chapter 80 Mang Mountain
Chapter 80 Mang Mountain
The Nine Provinces of the World
Yuzhou
Beiman Mountains
This place is where the most yin and evil energy in the world converges. It is shrouded in gloomy clouds all year round, never seeing the sun. Only endless gray-white mist surges and shrouds the continuous mountains.
Phosphorescent lights flickered like stars in the mountains, and the wailing of crows sounded like ghosts. In the deep mountains and secluded valleys, countless ancient graves and tombs could be vaguely seen, with broken tombstones and exposed bones.
As the eerie wind swept through, it stirred up a sky full of ashes from paper money and the stench of decaying corpses, accompanied by incessant wailing sounds, as if ten thousand ghosts were crying out, sending chills down one's spine.
However, this ghostly underworld is actually the ancestral home of the Mangshan Daoist Sect, one of the three great Daoist sects in the world!
The Mangshan lineage is ancient and profound. Throughout history, many members of the sect have achieved the status of Yang Shen (a type of immortal) and ascended to the Heavenly Court to join the ranks of immortals. There are also powerful individuals who have cultivated themselves to hold important positions in the Underworld.
Legend has it that some patriarchs achieved great feats, attained the primordial spirit, or ascended to the position of a celestial ruler in the heavenly court, or descended to the earth as a great deity in the netherworld, possessing immense power and might.
Moreover, the core of its lineage lies in the 【Great Dao Immortal Career】—the position of 【Empress Lingyuan of the Earth, who inherits the laws of Heaven, embodies great virtue and glorifies the world】!
The position of Houtu (Earth) symbolizes the way of Kunyu (Earth) which carries all things with its virtue, the power of Shetu (Earth) which governs the foundation of human civilization, and the authority of Yourang (Netherworld) which governs the final resting place of countless living beings after death.
The earth, which carries all things, the soil, which nourishes the people, and the land, which is where things are stored and preserved, together constitute the earth.
What the Mangshan Daoist sect inherits is this last and most mysterious [Yourang] primordial spirit position!
Therefore, Mount Mang can be ranked alongside Mount Shu and Mount Kunlun in Tianshan as one of the three supreme Taoist sects that stand tall in the Central Plains and overlook the life and death of hundreds of millions of living beings!
Just as Fang Chen's bloodline awakened.
Deep in the Mangshan Mountains, at the confluence of the most yin earth veins, a middle-aged Taoist priest also suddenly opened his eyes.
His eyes seemed to hold the scenes of the underworld, and his voice was deep and guttural, like a chilling wind from the netherworld.
"The secrets of heaven have changed! And... they've directly pointed to the very foundation of my Daoist Netherworld?!"
This person is none other than the current leader of Mangshan Sect—the [True Lord of the Netherworld's Salvation].
Its soul has long since transformed from yin to yang, refined all the celestial and terrestrial elements, achieving perfect form and spirit, with its Dao embryo already formed, and its cultivation reaching the state of perfect Yang spirit. It only awaits the return of its primordial spirit to its rightful place, at which point it can shed its mortal corpse and attain the immortality of the primordial spirit!
At this moment, his mind raced, and he suddenly stretched out his left hand, making hand seals with his five fingers, outlining mysterious trajectories in the void, and began to deduce the secrets of heaven.
In an instant, the surrounding gloomy scenery changed drastically.
The sound of water, plaintive and mournful, arose out of nowhere, and the outline of an illusory river appeared before my eyes.
The river water was murky and yellowish, silent yet exuding a chilling aura that eroded the soul. Its flow varied in three stages, and the distorted reflections of people struggling and sinking were varied... This was the phantom of the River of Three Crossings in the underworld.
The waters of the Sanzu River flow and nourish the mysterious Three Lives Stone, reflecting the past and future, past lives and present lives. It is the supreme [celestial treasure] used by the Mangshan lineage to deduce the secrets of heaven!
At this moment, the Netherworld Crossing Calamity True Lord, with each stroke of his brush and each hand seal, unleashed a supreme heavenly secret technique.
In an instant, the river reflected light and shadow, revealing a diverse scene of countless lives: commoners tilling the fields, scholars rushing to take the imperial examinations, powerful figures plotting in secret, as well as entanglements of love and hate, birth, aging, sickness and death, and the rise and fall of dynasties...
Countless images flashed by, their causes and effects intertwined, gradually converging, seemingly anchoring at some unseen point...
But at the very last moment, the scene on the river suddenly froze!
As if some unseen force had suddenly descended from an unknown place, the billions of lights and shadows in the river shattered like glass, and all traces of heavenly secrets were brutally erased in an instant, leaving only a blank and lifeless void.
"Click—"
With a crisp sound, not only the countless scenes of deduction, but even the illusory figure on the banks of the Sanzu River shattered and vanished in an instant, turning into specks of ghostly light and disappearing into nothingness!
"This is... a powerful being has intervened, forcibly concealing the secrets of heaven?!" The expression of the Netherworld Crossing Calamity True Monarch suddenly hardened.
With his perfected Yang Shen cultivation, and aided by the Three Paths River water, a rare treasure from the Mangshan sect, even if a great calamity were to come and the secrets of heaven were in chaos, he would not be unable to deduce even the slightest trace of it.
"Is it because the calamity is approaching, causing the heavenly secrets to spontaneously become chaotic... or have immortal beings who have already attained the Nascent Soul stage personally intervened to cover up the related causes and effects?"
Upon thinking of this, the face of the Netherworld Calamity-Crossing True Lord became even more gloomy.
In today's world, all powerful forces with some foundation know that the time for a major upheaval in human society and a great calamity for heaven and earth is approaching, and they are all secretly making preparations and seeking ways to survive.
As the head of the Mangshan Sect, his knowledge of secrets naturally goes deeper.
He naturally knew that all those talk about human backlash, calamities of heaven and earth, and disasters for all living beings... no matter how grand and righteous they sounded, in the end, they were nothing more than the immortals and saints of the upper realm and the underworld emperors fighting for power and profit!
After all, the resources and available positions in the world are predetermined. If one doesn't instigate several dynastic changes and bloodshed, how can one create vacant positions to place one's own people?
Even if the scheme fails, for those beings, it's merely a matter of reincarnation. They'll continue as ghosts and gods of the underworld and celestial officials of the heavens, their immortality unchanged. It's simply a change of game board, a fresh start.
The wealthy observe the overall situation of the world, while cultivators eliminate the scourge of evil. As for the blood of countless ordinary people and the mountains of corpses during the great calamity of heaven and earth... they are merely the most insignificant footnote in the glorious annals of history!
In this calamity, as the leader of one of the three major Daoist sects in the world, the Netherworld Crossing Calamity True Lord not only has the right to know, but also the qualification to enter the competition, which can be said to give him an advantage.
only……
At this thought, a shadow suddenly fell over his heart.
The leaders of Mangshan in succession were either descendants of Yama, a king of the underworld, or a deity of a certain palace or department in the heavenly court.
He alone did not rely on his bloodline or ancestral blessings, but rather on his own methods and cultivation to gradually ascend to the position of sect leader.
Is this because the patriarchs of the upper realms recognized his talent and courage and entrusted him with important responsibilities... or is there some other meaning behind it?
My thoughts came to an abrupt end at this point.
It cannot be pondered deeply, cannot be spoken of, and even... dares not think about it in detail.
After a moment of silence, the Netherworld Calamity-Crossing True Lord's eyes gleamed, and he raised his hand again to form a hand seal.
"Since this matter concerns the very foundation of Mangshan, no matter who is involved behind the scenes, we must not allow the evil forces of the demonic path to discover it first and ruin our sect!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a surge of powerful magic erupted, not to investigate, but to further disrupt and confuse the related secrets of heaven.
Meanwhile, throughout the nine provinces of the world, most of the True Lords, High Masters, and even those hidden beings who had sensed something were doing the same thing... stirring up the waters completely.
If those at the top are vying for power, don't those at the bottom also want to seize the opportunity and rise to a higher position?
You should know that there are always plenty of people in this world who want to go further!
However, just as the Netherworld Calamity-Crossing True Lord finished casting his spell and relaxed slightly, the surrounding dark scene changed drastically once again.
Pavilions and towers, palaces and towers stretching as far as the eye can see, and a vast dragon aura is faintly visible. This place is clearly Luoyang, the capital of the Great Wei Dynasty!
The True Lord of the Netherworld's Salvation looked grim.
Mangshan has always supported the Great Wei, and several of its Yangshen elders are stationed in Luoyang, receiving the protection of the dynasty's dragon aura.
The use of such an emergency communication technique at this moment must indicate an earth-shattering event!
Sure enough, before the light and shadow had fully stabilized, several figures appeared, all of them elders of the sect, each with a solemn expression. The leader of them even urgently reported:
"Sect Leader, the dragon energy of humanity has suddenly changed, in Yuzhou..."
Before the words were finished, the transmission light and shadow suddenly twisted and collapsed, like thousands of pieces of glass shattering, scattering fireflies everywhere.
"Hmm?" The Netherworld Salvation True Lord frowned, about to cast a spell, when his heart suddenly skipped a beat.
He appeared on the summit of Mangshan in an instant, and his expression changed drastically as he looked up.
Above Yuzhou, the sky had transformed into a murky, stagnant dark red, like an endless, thick scab of blood, or a sky-covering, parched cloud, staining the heavens with its saturation. It was as if the entire world had been submerged in this viscous blood!
"This is……"
The pupils of the True Lord of the Netherworld's Salvation suddenly contracted.
With his knowledge, he naturally knew that such extraordinary celestial phenomena were not ordinary, but rather something extraordinary—
An unparalleled demon has descended upon the world!
……
Fangjiatianzhuang
In the secret room
A pair of eyes suddenly opened, the confusion vanished, and clarity returned.
But then, a deep shadow of gloom and doubt resurfaced in his eyes. A low, soliloquy echoed through the deathly silent chamber:
"Why, why... does this body, which belongs to another, contain the essence of Fengdu, the underworld—"
"A descendant of Yama, the King of Hell?!"