Purple-extreme lightning burst from the vertical pupil that split open on Ye Wuchen's brow, and tribulation clouds churned like boiling water above Taiyi Pavilion's Forbidden Land.
Lu Qingyang, stepping on a lotus platform conjured from the qingmu spirit pearl, nine 'Nine Nether Profound Ice Talismanic Incantations' from his sleeve transformed into ice Dragons circling his body, sneered, "Ye Daoyou, why are you so eager to trigger the Soul Transformation Lightning Tribulation? Could it be that you're afraid Mr. Lu will expose the filthy business of your Taiyi Pavilion using Cultivator's essence blood to water the Ascension Platform?"
"Noisy!" Twelve bronze chimes flew from Ye Wuchen's sleeve, and their ringing sound actually shook the hundred-mile cloud sea into shattered glass.
Lu Qingyang's ear canals bled, and the Treasure Seeking Rat in the qingmu spirit pearl space suddenly transformed into the appearance of a Pang Daoshi, holding the 'Taotie Devouring Heaven Pot' he had pilfered from the Pavilion Master's treasury and vigorously sucking—the chime waves were drawn into his mouth like a long whale drinking water, and the Pang Daoshi's belly instantly swelled to transparency.
Su Li's plain gauze cloud dress fluttered in the gale, and she formed a hand seal to summon seventy-two 'Heavenly Star Soul-Stabilizing Needles,' the talismans at the end of the needles forming the Zhou Tian Star Array.
"Daoist Lu, don't forget the agreement in the Nether Abyss three years ago!" She raised her hand and slapped the array diagram into the earth's pulse, and a colossal sound of chains breaking suddenly came from beneath Taiyi Pavilion, as nine imprisoned Dragon souls soared into the sky.
"So all the Dragon souls from Burial Dragon Abyss were refined by you into a mountain-guarding array!" Lu Qingyang's pupils contracted sharply, and the qingmu spirit pearl, sensing the Dragon souls' resentment, spontaneously conjured a phantom of the Jianmu.
The branches of the ancient divine tree pierced through the clouds, and Ye Wuchen's Purple Firmament Divine Lightning striking the trunk instead nourished the qingmu spirit pearl space—the dragon blood grass in that medicinal field grew wildly, instantly bearing nine vermillion fruits shaped like infants.
Ye Wuchen's crane cloak was torn to shreds by the Jianmu branches, revealing his back densely covered with Possession Talismanic Incantations.
"Why do you think this Lord could reach Soul Transformation in a hundred days?" He sneered, tearing off a piece of skin to reveal a thousand squirming human faces beneath, "The essence and spirit of thirty-six generations of Taiyi Pavilion Masters are all here!"
The human faces chanted in unison, and the Dragon souls trapped by the Star Array suddenly changed direction, carrying the underground yin fire and rushing towards Lu Qingyang.
The Pang Daoshi, spitting bubbles that flickered with lightning, shouted, "Three steps in the Kan position, use Profound Yin Heavy Water! Five steps in the Xun position, scatter Golden Crow Fire Feathers!" Lu Qingyang, however, pressed the qingmu spirit pearl into his heart with a backhand, and greenish-gold roots burst from the pores all over his body—the Jianmu's roots plunged into the Void Realm, actually drawing the Spiritual Qi from a thousand-mile radius into a vortex.
Seeing this, Su Li gritted her teeth and sacrificed her Lifebound Treasure, the 'Reincarnation Mirror,' whose light reflected Ye Wuchen's original appearance: a sweeping handyman who had knelt beneath the Ascension Platform for three hundred years.
"So you are the one who hates Taiyi Pavilion the most." Lu Qingyang laughed, coughing up blood, as half a Dragon horn he had obtained from Burial Dragon Abyss appeared in his palm.
He inserted the Dragon horn into the Jianmu trunk nurtured by the qingmu spirit pearl, and the Dragon souls immediately formed an array as if seeing their progenitor.
Ye Wuchen's Possession Talismanic Incantations suddenly backfired, the human faces on his back began to tear at each other, and each mouth spat out True Fire of different attributes.
Cracks appeared on Taiyi Pavilion's Ascension Platform during the melee, and Lu Qingyang seized the opportunity to throw out the 'Five Elements Annihilation Shuttle' he had nurtured for twenty years.
As the Magic Treasure pierced through the mountain-guarding array, he sent a message to the Treasure Seeking Rat, who was stealing texts: "The third beam in the Qianyuan Hall!" Upon hearing this, the Pang Daoshi threw out a large handful of Transformation Pills, and the Elders guarding the texts instantly turned into a ground full of noisy toads.
Su Li's Reincarnation Mirror finally revealed the core of the Ascension Platform—a replica of the qingmu spirit pearl immersed in a pool of blood.
Lu Qingyang sensed the tremor of his Lifebound qingmu spirit pearl, and the Jianmu roots plunged violently into the blood pool.
The moment the replica qingmu spirit pearl shattered, all the Cultivators in the Eastern Desolation heard the Heavenly Dao wail, and the Realm shackles that had bound them for thousands of years loosened by a hair's breadth.
"So-called Ascension... actually means extracting Human Immortal fate to mend the Heavenly Dao's incompleteness!" Lu Qingyang's seven orifices spouted green fire, and the vermillion fruits in the qingmu spirit pearl space automatically flew into his mouth.
The immense medicinal power propelled him to Nascent Soul Great Perfection, but the phantom that appeared behind him was not a Nascent Soul, but a blurry human figure holding a medicinal hoe—precisely his appearance when he was a medicinal farmer during the Qi Condensation Realm.
Ye Wuchen, in the throes of the backlash, transformed into a burning fire-man, roaring as he crashed into the remains of the Ascension Platform.
In the earth-shattering explosion, Lu Qingyang dragged Su Li and leaped into the Void Realm rift torn open by the Jianmu, catching a final glimpse of half a bronze fragment flying out of Ye Wuchen's Primordial Spirit—it fit perfectly into the gap on his qingmu spirit pearl.
Three months later, at the bottom of Burial Dragon Abyss.
The Pang Daoshi, chewing Dragon scale candy, grumbled, "Taiyi Pavilion has thirty-six Secret Realm treasuries, why did you choose this godforsaken place for your secluded cultivation?"
Lu Qingyang caressed the mended qingmu spirit pearl, gazing at the boiling Dragon blood pool at the bottom of the abyss with a faint smile: "The 'Taiyi Heaven-Snatching Art' that Ye Wuchen passed to me before his death is quite ingenious; what if we use the Dragon blood here..."
Su Li's sword sheath suddenly slapped the back of his head, and the woman, with a cold face, tossed him a Jade Slip: "News has come from Central Continent that seven Nascent Soul old monsters found a stone tablet at the Ascension Platform ruins, on which is carved 'Where Qingchen sought the Dao, the qingmu spirit pearl shines for eternal life'—Daoist Lu, shouldn't you explain this gatha that appeared in a dilapidated temple in the Eastern Desolation five hundred years ago?"