The Pu Clan grand array activated.
Within the mountain city, the heavenly phenona shifted dramatically in an instant—dawn glow one mont, evening gloom the next, a myriad of shifting atmospheres.
The gathered guests paid it no mind, assuming it was rely so festive diversion arranged by the Pu Clan.
A few who felt a flicker of unease found themselves utterly unable to escape the enveloping range of the Purple Mansion array.
The banquet continued without pause, stretching from day into night.
A sliver of moonlight descended.
Li Rulong raised his head and beheld the crescent moon hanging like a hook.
Its clear, cold radiance poured down, stirring the demonic power within his body into restless motion.
“[Bi Moon]… intercalation…”
Li Rulong murmured under his breath, lost in thought.
“Young friend, are you feeling so confusion?”
At that mont, an aged voice sounded beside him—it was none other than Pu Shanjun!
The old birthday celebrant star held his wine cup aloft. At so point he had arrived before Li Rulong’s table, seemingly intending to offer a toast?
Li Rulong’s scales instantly bristled. His cultivation, which had only recently broken through to the mid stage of Dao Foundation, offered him not the slightest sense of security!
“Hehe… no need to worry. Your sole purpose in coming here today is to let this old man take a good look at you—nothing more.”
Pu Shanjun’s three long whiskers fluttered as he transmitted reassuringly.
“Take a look?”
Li Rulong’s expression turned wooden as countless thoughts flooded his mind.
“If not for this old man choosing you back then, how could you have galloped across Ba Commandery unchecked?”
Pu Shanjun raised his wine cup. The other cultivators hurriedly stood, cradling their own cups in both hands in respect. Only Li Rulong remained seated in a daze, standing out glaringly.
“The Intercalation thod is, after all, a technique of the demon race. This old man harbored so hesitation, and so I silently permitted you to try it first.”
Pu Shanjun’s transmission continued. A smile graced his face, yet his eyes held not a trace of warmth. “What the demon race truly wishes to win over is a Purple Mansion cultivator. What weight does a re Dao Foundation carry? Only a Purple Mansion can alter the grand currents of the world in this near-ancient era when True Lords remain in seclusion!”
“Back then, if this old man had not deliberately slackened and allowed himself to be drawn away, how could a single San Ji have possibly saved you? This old man even specially exterminated the Tianshui Luo Clan to clean up any loose ends for you all.”
“And now, having observed you with my divine abilities, I see that even after transforming into half-demon, your heart and nature remain unchanged. That puts this old man sowhat at ease.”
Every word struck like an arrow straight into Li Rulong’s heart.
He had once believed that choosing the Intercalation thod was his own desperate struggle in the depths of despair! Though painful, it had been entirely his decision!
Yet today, that truth was cruelly torn apart.
Even his desperate struggle had been soone else’s design and push! He was nothing more than a probing chess piece!
Even after leaping out of one chessboard, he had rely landed on another!
The more he had once mocked Pu Shanjun, the more he now felt like a complete clown.
“What do you intend to do?”
Having already cast life and death aside, Li Rulong’s mind grew strangely calm.
“Nothing at all—rely to look at you.”
Pu Shanjun ended the transmission and suddenly spoke aloud, his voice thundering across the entire venue: “In this old man’s life, there are three great regrets!”
“First regret: that we live not in ancient antiquity, and I was never able to witness a True Lord walking freely across heaven and earth in all their splendor!”
The entire hall fell deathly silent.
Xu Hei set down his chopsticks and looked up in bewildernt.
On such a joyous occasion, why was the birthday celebrant star speaking of hatred and regret?
Yet Pu Shanjun did not pause. His great sleeves billowed as he strode to the center of the gathering place. “Second regret: that I wasted so many years, reaching only early Purple Mansion at four hundred years of age, forever unable to glimpse the realm of a Great Immortal!”
Many cultivators present already sensed sothing amiss. Several Dao Foundation great cultivators furtively took out spiritual talismans, their faces filled with growing panic.
Pu Shanjun’s face flushed red, his voice growing louder still: “Third regret: that Cloud Grazing Cliff severed my path back when I was still at Dao Foundation!”
“This old man rose to fa in youth and road Ancient Shu freely during Dao Foundation. Yet a single lingering ember tribulation fire was planted upon from the cliff above. From Purple Mansion onward, my cultivation has been forever stuck, unable to advance even an inch—becoming a laughingstock among my peers! In my youth at Dao Foundation, I dared not hate. Now, old and facing death, how can I not hate?!”
The assembled cultivators trembled in terror, the hall plunged into dead silence.
Cloud Grazing Cliff was the heaven of Ancient Shu!
Even a Purple Mansion Spiritual Master who dared utter such words would likely perish on the spot!
“Old Ancestor… Old Ancestor!”
At that mont, an elderly cultivator with snow-white beard and hair knelt on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly. His voice cracked like a cuckoo weeping blood: “For the sake of our entire Pu Clan, old and young, we beseech you to take back those words.”
“The Pu Clan? A Purple Mansion immortal clan?”
A mocking smile curved at the corner of Pu Shanjun’s mouth. “Born because of , dying for my sake—How does that sound?”
In an instant, the entire venue blazed with fire trees and silver flowers. Strands of lingering ember tribulation fire rained down.
The circle of Dao Foundation cultivators seated around the main table did not even have ti to utter a sound before they turned to ash and drifted to the ground.
The remaining cultivators who witnessed this scene felt ice flood their limbs.
A sudden chill wind rose, carrying scenes of moonlit cold pools, frost, rain, and snow.
“The Intercalation thod.”
“This old monster conquered Ba Commandery, gathered all its Dao Foundation forces, and held this grand birthday banquet… all rely to obtain more vassals and subordinates.”
“What a ruthless mass sacrifice?”
Among everyone present, perhaps only Li Rulong truly understood Pu Shanjun’s intent: “So vicious! After this, in both commanderies, I fear there will scarcely be any Qi Ingestion cultivators left.”
For a Purple Mansion to perform such a ritual, the consumption was clearly far beyond what he himself had once endured.
Dao Foundation great cultivators—the more the better.
Those who had once seed so exalted were now nothing more than expendable materials.
“Old… Old Ancestor?”
Pu Lingzhu stared blankly as she watched the Pu Clan patriarch turn to ashes.
“Lingzhu—”
Pu Shanjun stepped forward and affectionately stroked Pu Lingzhu’s cheek. “This old man has always cherished you like a precious pearl—hence your na, Lingzhu.”
Li Rulong witnessed the scene and felt a sharp pang in his heart. He quickly turned his head away, unable to bear watching any longer.
“Hm?”
“There’s demonic qi?”
From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a wretched-looking, short-statured dwarf elder scrambling desperately through a dog hole to escape.
“Useful? Once the Purple Mansion grand array activates, no one inside this mountain city can get away.”
Li Rulong inwardly sneered, yet his gaze lingered on the dog hole with a trace of suspicion.
From that spot, he sensed a faint trace of demonic aura.
“Gonna die, gonna die, gonna die—”
Pu Shanjun had suddenly struck with lethal force, slaughtering all the Dao Foundation cultivators present. Xu Hei was so terrified his soul nearly fled his body.
Fortunately, he had vaguely guessed sothing might happen and moved faster than the other Qi Ingestion cultivators at his table. Relying on his agility and small fra, he dove straight into a nearby dog hole.
The mont he crawled out the other side, he ca face-to-face with an old fox holding a chicken leg in its mouth.
Man and fox stared at each other in stunned silence. The chicken leg slipped from the fox’s jaws and fell to the ground.
“So that’s it… In ancient antiquity, the demon race’s Great Sage Bi Moon Crow ‘devoured tal and consud fire.’ What he devoured was [Kang tal], and what he consud was [Wei Fire]—”
Li Rulong suddenly understood, feeling as though his own [Bi Moon] Dao attainnt had advanced another step.
At that mont, accompanied by Pu Lingzhu’s agonized scream, the woman’s entire body was engulfed by the ember tribulation fire. Yet instead of turning to ash, she seed to beco a carrier for the fla, transforming into a jade-like wax statue.
The innate crescent moonlight suddenly blazed with brilliance.
“Fire born of the moon, demon born of man—”
Pu Shanjun murmured softly. Faint fur began to sprout across his body, and strange patterns erged on his forehead.
“The might of [Bi Moon], the intercalation ritual… it can even convert an already ford divine ability?”
Li Rulong’s heart jolted at the sight.
Pu Shanjun cultivated [Tail Fire], and his Dao Foundation “Fla-Gorging Bridge” had long since been sublimated into a divine ability.
Yet now, he sensed the other party’s divine ability undergoing a bizarre transformation, one that even gave him a strange sense of familiarity.
It was a divine level ability of —[Tempering the Soft and Hard]!
This ability excelled at transforming material properties, especially those of the tal and fire elents!
Pu Shanjun reached out and plunged his hand into the wax statue that had once been Pu Lingzhu. In an instant, the original ember tribulation fire underwent a dramatic change, threads of silver weaving through it.
The surrounding purple-mansion-grade “branch fire” phenona that had filled the air dissipated, replaced by strands of strange silver fire intertwined with moonlight.
This old monster had laid preparations on Pu Lingzhu long ago. By borrowing the lingering power of the intercalation ritual, he had converted the ember tribulation fire he had swallowed and refined into a kind of Taiyin spirit fire?
‘As expected, the Intercalation thod I received was heavily censored and incomplete.’
Li Rulong’s heart sank even further at the realization.
“A hidden glow burns in silence, its light not leaking outward. Gathered inward, it seems like emptiness; its flas resemble the radiance of the moon, concealed behind veils of cloud—this is the Mysterious Yin Silver Fla!”
Pu Shanjun threw his head back and laughed wildly. After his demonic transformation, his aura surged once more. “I have succeeded!”
“Purple Mansion… mid stage?”
“This old monster actually used the conversion of the Ember Tribulation Fire to cultivate a second divine ability and break through to mid-stage Purple Mansion?”
Li Rulong was genuinely startled.
Dao Foundation cultivators focused on refining a single foundation and sublimating it into a divine ability, allowing them to break through to Purple Mansion and beco early-stage Purple Mansion cultivators.
An early Purple Mansion cultivator possessed one divine ability. Refining a second granted them the status of a mid-stage Purple Mansion with two divine abilities!
Pu Shanjun had always been a heaven-defying genius, only delayed for many years by the cliff’s interference. Now that he had broken free in a single stroke, he soared like a dragon through the nine heavens!
“No… this old monster must have colluded with the demon race long ago and obtained the [Bi Moon] lineage’s cultivation thod.”
Li Rulong’s heart trembled as he saw a surge of demonic qi erupt, shattering straight through the Purple Mansion grand array.
Outside Pu Clan Mountain City, the area had sohow already beco a Purple Mansion battlefield. Countless profound and heaven-shaking phenona filled the sky.
Fierce gales and torrential rain, blazing flas that scorched the heavens.
Amid the churning clouds and mist, the enormous silhouettes of mountain-sized great demons occasionally appeared.
“Pu Shanjun!”
Suddenly, a woman’s furious shout rang out. “You truly betrayed us! Was it you who secretly acted in Yanbo Blessed Land and caused the death of Daoist Teng from the Black Gu Sect?”
When the blessed land had last opened, the death of a Purple Mansion cultivator had already drawn the attention of the cliff.
Looking back now, it was surely this inner traitor, Pu Shanjun, who had pulled the strings and trapped that Teng-surnad Purple Mansion cultivator to death!
This must have been the proof of allegiance Pu Shanjun offered to the demon race after verifying the feasibility of the Intercalation thod!
“So what if it was?”
Pu Shanjun laughed long and loud. In an instant, all the light and splendor of heaven and earth converged and vanished, plunging everything into pitch-black darkness where one could not even see their own fingers.
It was precisely his divine ability—[All Radiance Fully Restrained]!
In the darkness ca only a single pained cry from the female Purple Mansion cultivator: “Mid-stage Purple Mansion—you’ve actually advanced to mid-stage Purple Mansion?”
“Indeed. If I had defected earlier, this old man might even have had a chance in this lifeti to reaching the path of Golden Core!”
Pu Shanjun spoke through gritted teeth, then roared: “Demon Kings, if we’re going to act, we must go all the way! If we leave behind another one or two Purple Mansion cultivators today, Ancient Shu will be emptied!”
“Hahaha, exactly what we desire!”
The mountain-sized Demon King silhouettes laughed thunderously, their voices like rolling lightning.
In the distance.
A streak of cyan demonic qi transford into auspicious clouds and swiftly fled, dropping a certain dwarf elder along the way.
Atop the cyan cloud, Qingling gazed at the old fox with a half-smile. “Anzhuzi, rare to see you show a shred of kindness.”
“I’m also afraid that if that fellow died here, the Dao Foundation behind him would co looking for trouble. That’s a master from the Esoteric Domain, after all—they have a tradition of taking our demonfolk as Dharma Protector playthings.”
“Hmph, cowardly as a rat.”
Qing Ling comnted with disdain, then fell into thought. “This ti, even the best outco for those Purple Palace cultivators of Ancient Shu will leave them gravely weakened. With the generations on the cliff lacking proper succession, they’ll struggle to maintain control over Ancient Shu. This will be the perfect opportunity for the Esoteric monks to cross eastward and the barbarian demons to move south.”
The old fox shrank his head further. “For our demon race to gain more territory is naturally a good thing… but what about the attitude of that one on [Shi Earth]?”
“These are no longer the days of ancient antiquity. Since recent ancient tis, True Lords have not appeared. Those who can truly determine the grand trends of the world… are only the Purple Mansion cultivators.”
Qing Ling sighed softly, her voice filled with lancholy.
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