Having attained Core Formation, performing the Great Divination Art was now entirely within Lang Jiuchuan’s grasp. Even when probing the heavenly mysteries, she could withstand the karmic backlash.
She calmed her breath and focused her mind, gradually condensing the power of her Core Formation into her palm. Gently closing her eyes, she connected her entire consciousness to the heavenly mysteries that lay hidden in the unseen.
Until all was silence and void, she suddenly struck the table with her palm. The tortoise shells and copper coins resting on the table flew up, hovering and floating above her palm. As she formed hand seals and pressed her fingers together, the tortoise shells and coins collided with increasing force, producing clear and mysterious ringing sounds. Invisible ripples spread out one after another in all directions.
Lang Jiuchuan did not open her eyes — she used only her divine sense to observe, swiftly deducing the threads of karma and destiny connected to Tantai Wuji.
Feng Ya said nothing. He simply stood beside her, suppressing his own aura until it was nearly nonexistent, and used the power of his borrowed body to link with Lang Jiuchuan’s divine sense, so that she might see more clearly.
A moment later, Lang Jiuchuan withdrew from her divination and opened her eyes. A flash of clarity and gravity passed through her narrowed gaze.
“How does it look?”
She pressed her fingers together and said in a low, measured voice: “The fourth day of the fourth month, at three quarters past the Hour of the Rat — a year of yin, a month of yin, a day of yin, a time of yin. The Heavenly Dog devours the moon. At the apex of yin darkness — that is the heavenly timing he has chosen.”
Feng Ya’s expression darkened slightly. “Does that not fall precisely during the yin month of Qingming? By that time, people throughout the realm will be performing ancestral rites and roadside offerings for wandering spirits. Not only will the Ghost Gate swing wide open and ten thousand ghosts emerge, but the energy of dark resentment and malevolent force will be at its most intense. If he strikes then, he will certainly convert all that yin energy into demonic energy, eroding the life force of the living and condensing it further into the power of death and the demonic, forming the core of his demon realm.”
A fully yin month, coinciding with the Heavenly Dog devouring the moon — the very moment when the righteous energy of heaven and earth is at its most feeble. It was indeed the most favorable auspicious timing available to him.
“Regardless of whether he has fully entered the demonic path or not, this has always been the auspicious time he chose long in advance.” Lang Jiuchuan continued: “The principle states that when extreme yin reaches its peak, yang is born. When the full yin reaches its ultimate height and righteous energy is sparked in that single instant, he will use that moment to forcibly ascend to the Realm of Infinite Heaven.”
Feng Ya pressed coldly: “His scheme is indeed thorough. Then — where is the auspicious location?”
Lang Jiuchuan shook her head. “The heavenly mysteries are obscured, and there is dark energy shrouding the heavens, making it impossible to determine precisely. But it will certainly be a place where death energy is at its most extreme — and a place with the deepest karmic connection to him.”
Something flashed through Feng Ya’s mind with great speed. When he tried to grasp it, that fleeting thought slipped through his fingers and could not be caught.
Lang Jiuchuan was also deep in thought. The imperial mausoleum was the auspicious ground where he had nourished his original body’s divine soul. It seemed that when he had fallen a thousand years ago, it was in that very place — after all, attempting a realm breakthrough atop the Dragon Ridge could also draw upon the rich dragon energy there. If he failed, the dragon energy could shelter his shattered divine soul and physical body, allowing them to recover and heal.
He had calculated for this as well.
He had schemed for a thousand years toward this end.
But if he was once again ascending to the Realm of Infinite Heaven — where would he choose for the location this time?
Feng Ya searched through the treasury of the Hall of Heaven’s Reach and retrieved a map of Great Dan’s mountains and territories. With a flick of his hand, that vividly rendered map of rivers and mountains unfurled before them like a painting of a thousand miles, a faint shimmer of spiritual energy emanating from within.
Lang Jiuchuan said: “You still have such a treasure?”
“No idea who left it behind. It’s quite ancient — there’s likely some discrepancy from the present-day borders.” Feng Ya studied the map with his arms folded across his chest. “If he wishes to gather the core of the demon realm, he will certainly need a place where death energy has concentrated — the most intensely concentrated — not simply choosing some location at random. This map of the realm should reveal to us where that place is.”
Lang Jiuchuan nodded in agreement.
Her mind raced through the possibilities, placing herself in Tantai Wuji’s perspective. Her sharp gaze swept across the map of rivers and mountains. “He has a blood-soul lamp — ancient and ominous. It must have been nurtured in a place of extreme ferocity and malevolence. A blood-colored soul lamp — it must have been steeped in blood. In all under heaven, nowhere has more dead than plague burial grounds, or battlefields…”
Lang Jiuchuan’s voice paused. Her gaze landed on a particular spot. She asked: “Today in the court — did you hear any other news? Such as anyone planning a rebellion?”
Feng Ya said: “The one who knew Tantai Wuji best was that eunuch with the surname Lü — and he was already killed by him. There are some orders that were issued to suppress displaced peoples through bloody means, but those likely aren’t enough to constitute a place of extreme malevolence. As for rebellion — there’s been some stirring along the southern and northern borders. With word of the emperor’s death having traveled there, I expect those powerful generals and vassal kings will make their move.”
With no one holding the throne, military commanders and vassal kings in control of armies would naturally seize this kind of opportunity. Fortune favors the bold — whoever moved first and captured the most cities would command the most troops.
“Here.” Lang Jiuchuan pointed to a spot on the map. “Every time a dynasty changed, nomadic tribes from the grasslands would pour through this pass. This has always been a crucial chokepoint that the people of the central plains had to defend. It has been a battlefield for thousands of years — and the same was true for the thousands of years before that. Calling it an ancient battlefield where the most deaths have occurred would be no exaggeration.”
And how many people had died on that stretch of land over the past thousand years alone was beyond counting. All that was known was that the very soil there had turned red — and no matter how many years passed, no matter how much wind and sand eroded it, that soil remained red in color.
Whether that was the natural color of the sand, or whether blood had permanently stained the earth — that was hard to say.
“Beacon Fire Pass?”
“It’s called Eight Trigrams City now.” Lang Jiuchuan fixed her gaze on that location. “Fuqi and his three thousand soldiers of the Fu Family army were all imprisoned there at Beacon Fire Pass, their heroic souls burned without cease for two hundred years, feeding and reinforcing the fortune of the Tantai clan. And the construction of this Eight Trigrams City was planned by the Tantai clan’s founding patriarch, Tantai Jing. Gong Tinglan and I went through the historical records — at that time, Tantai Jing must have been following the guidance of the most gifted member of the clan, namely Tantai Wuji, to build it.”
“Perhaps the city was built by Tantai Wuji himself.” Feng Ya narrowed his eyes. “The Taiji and the Eight Trigrams — extreme yin gives birth to yang. Whether yin or yang, both are greatly beneficial to him.”
“Precisely. Eight Trigrams City was built according to the pattern of the Eight Trigrams diagram — it was itself a massive formation from the very beginning. That Soul-Anchoring Pillar was the formation’s eye. From the very start, he had been preparing for his ascension to the Realm of Infinite Heaven.” Lang Jiuchuan abruptly asked Feng Ya: “What of the imperial seal?”
Feng Ya’s brow arched. He led her into the Void Realm and retrieved the imperial seal — the one that had been dug out by Jiangche and handed to Lang Jiuchuan, then later sent to the Hall of Heaven’s Reach for safekeeping.
Holding the Azure Dragon Imperial Seal again, Lang Jiuchuan’s heart was stirred with complex emotions. Back then, she had not had time to do anything about that stone pillar — it was Jiangche who had cleaned up and excavated it, an unintentional discovery. She had not expected that its purpose might be far greater than they had imagined — not merely a propitious object used to anchor a formation.
She sensed the rich violet-gold auspicious energy that had been accumulated through countless dynasties, and swept her hand across it. A flash of golden light emanated from the imperial seal — a column of light shot straight toward the heavens, and within that column of light, the faint image of a staircase appeared.
Lang Jiuchuan and Feng Ya exchanged a glance, and without any prior discussion, both spoke at the same moment: “The Heavenly Staircase.”
Using the violet-gold human emperor’s dragon energy as a staircase, using the righteous energy born from extreme yin to assault the Heavenly Gate, entering the Infinite, and becoming the supreme ruler.
Lang Jiuchuan was silent for a long moment. “With a mind like that — if he had cultivated sincerely for a thousand years, how could he have failed to achieve Core Formation? How could he have sunk to this?”
Though she was reluctant to admit it, Tantai Wuji was indeed a formidable opponent. He had simply walked down the wrong path.