39: Chapter 39 A glance from the devil

"These are the Materials your department requested. Please check them, Director."

Clone Two delivered the Materials for the Heavenly Demon Ritual into Shen Yi's hands.

Of course, this was merely a superficial show for the benefit of the Cen Family and the Construction and Maintenance Department monitoring this place.

Shen Yi filtered out a pile of Heaven And Earth Treasures from the Materials Shen Moyan needed, stored them in a storage ring, and secretly transferred them to the original Shen Moyan inside the Academy.

"The Heavenly Demon Ritual..."

In the Academy, the furnishings within the Immortal Cave had been completely cleared out.

Using peach wood that had been rotting for a thousand years dipped in incense ash carrying thoughts of death, Shen Moyan drew eerie formation patterns on the floor of the Immortal Cave.

An abandoned infant, its resentment condensed into Yin water, stood at the center as the formation's eye.

Before the great battle arrived, Shen Moyan had to complete the Heavenly Demon Ritual. As long as he entered the Dao and reached the entry level of the Heavenly Demon Transformation Art, he could be brought back through Rebirth even after death.

"The Heavenly Demon Ritual consists of three formation eyes, which are the three steps: Resentment Guidance, Living Sacrifice, and Bestowal."

For the Resentment Guidance, Shen Moyan used the abandoned infant.

A newborn life entering the world with resentment toward it—such resentment was enough to draw the gaze of a Heavenly Demon.

The Living Sacrifice required a fresh life, preferably an existence that was about to be born but hadn't yet.

Shen Moyan had prepared a bird egg, the egg of a Small Bird.

He placed the bird egg in a nest and set it upon the formation eye for the Living Sacrifice.

He himself stood upon the formation eye for the Bestowal.

Shen Moyan took a deep breath, pressed his fingers together, and recited:

"The Dao dwells in the void; the Sixth Heaven of the Desire Realm, the Heaven of Controlling Others' Emanations, casts its gaze upon the ten directions. Where the gaze falls, there is the Dao."

"Abandoning the wall and bearing the infant, removing resentment for new life."

The first formation eye where the infant lay lit up. The resentment instantly dissipated, sucked away entirely by an unspeakable existence. Loud wailing echoed throughout the Immortal Cave, but Shen Moyan had already taken soundproofing measures.

"An intact egg from a fallen nest, rotting grass turning into fireflies."

The rotting grass forming the bird's nest turned into scattered specks of firefly light and vanished. Simultaneously, the bird egg emitted a faint cracking sound, as if something inside was about to break through the shell.

"Dead ashes reigniting, withered wood meeting spring."

As he spoke, the rotting peach wood stuck in the formation patterns sprouted fresh green branches. The incense ash on the patterns reignited, manifesting eerie purple flames that reflected in Shen Moyan's calm, emotionless eyes.

Everything in the ritual appeared so peaceful, as if all things were coming back to life.

Shen Moyan stopped speaking and simply opened his arms silently. According to Ni Gaoyuan's memory, what happened next was no longer within his control.

Within the ritual, the fresh green leaves of the peach wood lifted the crying infant, and the scattered firefly light enveloped him.

A moment later, the infant of flesh and blood actually turned into a pile of white bones, which then rapidly vanished. Like the incense ash on the formation patterns, they turned into a vortex, becoming nourishment absorbed by the bird egg.

This was remarkably similar to the process of Condensing Dharma Body, though the vortex was even more mesmerizing. Shen Moyan stared at the bird egg, suddenly becoming entranced as his consciousness began to sink.

The next moment, a crack split open on the Small Bird's egg.

Thump—

At this very moment, throughout the entire Langya Province, all Cultivators stopped what they were doing in confusion as a soft sound reached their ears.

That sound came from the distant shore, like the heartbeat of some dead thing in a graveyard... "What was that noise?"

Xu Mingxuan suddenly clutched his chest, put away the blueprints beside him, and looked around guiltily like a thief.

Could I have been discovered?

"That scared me to death. How bizarre."

After repeatedly confirming that no one outside the boat was paying attention to him, Xu Mingxuan let out a long sigh... Millions of miles away from Kongsang Prefecture, at the Langya Province Demon Suppression Department.

Beside a dim candle flame, a man reviewing dossiers suddenly looked up. His white hair fluttered without wind, and his narrow eyes were filled with chilling Killing Intent.

"Another filthy thing has entered the Mountain and Sea. Is it a Heavenly Demon casting its thought?"

...Langya Province, Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.

"The plan has changed. Move up the operation."

In the deep, dark mountains, thousands of crimson eyes suddenly lit up... "Wait, something's wrong!"

Standing in the Bestowal formation eye, Shen Moyan bit the tip of his tongue and hurriedly circulated the Scripture of Severing All Manifestations to dispel the feeling of being submerged.

"It's luring me!"

Shen Moyan realized belatedly, feeling as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

In the previous Soul Search, this part of the process was completely absent from Ni Gaoyuan's memory!

The memory of Ni Gaoyuan performing the ritual was flawed! His past memories had been reshaped by some kind of existence!

Shen Moyan had blindly trusted the information he obtained and had fallen into the same predicament as Ni Gaoyuan.

Looking at the bird egg, Shen Moyan's pupils trembled uncontrollably.

A small piece of the cracked eggshell fell away on its own, revealing a pitch-black, profound eye.

Shen Moyan swore he had never seen such an eerie gaze.

It was actually huddled inside the eggshell, using the fledgling's Physical Body to stare at Shen Moyan through the crack in the shell.

Day turned to night as the gaze fell; heaven and earth seemed to sink.

One glance, just one glance, made Shen Moyan—who was still circulating the Scripture of Severing All Manifestations—feel the absolute disparity in the dimensions of their lives.

It didn't intentionally lure Shen Moyan; the mere fluctuations it naturally emitted nearly caused the strong-willed Shen Moyan to fall into oblivion.

Three seconds later, inside the broken eggshell, the eye slowly closed.

It had left.

[Prompt: Heavenly Demon Transformation Art has reached entry level]

The sound of Bookmarks shuffling reached his ears.

Only then did Shen Moyan recover from the shock.

He tried touching his body; all his parts were still there.

Shen Moyan collapsed to the ground, drenched in sweat.

Looking at the Heavenly Demon Transformation Art on the Bookmarks, he could now understand many of the steps in the technique.

It was as if an administrator had granted him permissions, allowing Shen Moyan to access techniques related to the [Heavenly Demon].

It was truly inconceivable. With just a simple glance from It, a Cultivation Technique had reached the entry level.

Shen Moyan sat blankly in the Immortal Cave as the memory from just now receded like a tide, and his mind began to lose the image of that glimpse.

"Forgetting? Is It clearing away the Karma?"

Shen Moyan thought that this was for the best; he didn't want to have anything more to do with such an existence.

[Otherworld Visitor: Can accelerate adaptation to new things, grants photographic memory, and allows for the assimilation and integration of all knowledge.]

But the memory of that glance was like a ghost ship washed up by the tide and left on the shore—looming and indistinct, making it impossible for Shen Moyan to forget.

The achievement [Otherworld Visitor] allowed Shen Moyan to remember that glance forever.

Shen Moyan looked at the bird egg warily, fearing the other party would realize he still remembered that moment.

But after a quarter of an hour of confrontation, the bird egg showed no reaction. Only then did Shen Moyan feel safe enough to throw the egg out of the Immortal Cave... "What was that sound just now?"

Jiang Qingshui, who was about to head to the Construction and Maintenance Department to check the accounts, stopped in his tracks and looked up at the sky.

"It was like a heartbeat from a corpse beneath the Nine Serenities... No, that's not the right description," Jiang Qingshui recalled carefully.

"It was like some great expert landing on the tip of a tree branch, causing the branch to emit a sound of being overburdened. But just as it was about to snap, that person quietly departed, floating away like a cloud, leaving the branch as it was..."

After a long silence, Jiang Qingshui snapped back to his senses.

"Never mind, serious business comes first."