510: Fengdu

However, when Xu Qing filled his cup and took a sip, his brows furrowed imperceptibly. The liquor, as it had been all those years ago, was still somewhat rough and spicy, lacking a sweet aftertaste, even carrying a hint of bitterness.

"Uncle, is it not good?" Xu Xie asked indistinctly, gnawing on a chicken leg.

Xu Qing swirled his wine glass, his gaze passing through the window lattice to the distant horizon.

In a daze, he seemed to hear his father's laughing scolding from back then: "You little brat, how old are you to be stealing wine!"

His mother's warm hand hurriedly stuffing him with candied fruit to cover the alcohol taste, and Xu Yuan's comical look, sticking out his tongue from the spice yet unable to resist sneaking another sip... "It's not that it's not good," he said.

He tilted his head back, draining the wine in his cup. "It's just that this taste reminds Uncle of too many things."

A commotion suddenly erupted downstairs.

The waiter excitedly shouted: "Honored guests arriving!"

"Quickly invite the shopkeeper! The elegant seat that Emperor Xu once used is still reserved!"

Xu Qing swept his Divine Sense across the area and couldn't help but smile wryly.

It turned out to be a group of Cultivators who had come specifically to sit in the so-called "Emperor's exclusive seat."

The shopkeeper was holding a yellowed ledger, pointing to a page and saying: "Gentlemen, please see, this page records the menu of the Xu Family's banquet for various clans in Yongchang's 327th year, and at the end, there's even the young Emperor's personal signature..."

Xu Qing couldn't help but smile wryly. The menu of the Xu Family's banquet for various clans might have been preserved, but Xu Yuan certainly wouldn't have left any signature.

Otherwise, with his current cultivation, if he had left a signature, this place would have automatically transformed into a supreme treasure, enough to make this small tavern a hegemon in its own right... Xu Xie sat cross-legged on an Innate Five Elements Stone, surrounded by five-colored auspicious light.

The Five Elements Origin powers of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth flowed like Dragons at his fingertips, yet they remained stubbornly difficult to fuse.

"Uncle, I've circulated the Five Elements True Explanation for three hundred and sixty great cycles, but these Five Elements powers are still acting independently..."

Xu Xie's small face was scrunched up, and white mist steamed from the top of his head.

Xu Qing stood with his hands behind his back above the sea of clouds, and hearing this, he chuckled softly: "The Five Elements generate and overcome each other. If you force their Fusion, you'll fall into a lower path."

He flicked his sleeve, and five streams of extremely pure Innate Origin appeared—

The Sharp Metal Qi condensed into a White Tiger, roaring to the sky;

The Ancient Wood Essence transformed into an Azure Dragon, coiling through the Nine Heavens;

The Profound Water Spirit became a Black Tortoise, arriving on the waves;

The Blazing Fire Essence gathered into a Vermilion Bird, flapping its wings to incinerate the heavens;

The Houtu Breath formed a Qilin, guarding the four directions.

"Watch closely," he said.

Xu Qing's five fingers slightly curled, and the five great Innate Divine Beasts suddenly interlocked head to tail, forming a five-colored disc.

The disc spun faster and faster, and finally, in an explosion of extreme brilliance, a wisp of black and white interwoven Chaos Qi burst forth!

"This is..." Xu Xie's eyes widened.

"The Five Elements, when reversed, can return to Yin and Yang," he said.

Xu Qing lightly tapped his fingertip, and that wisp of Chaos Qi split into two, transforming into Yin and Yang twin fish swimming in the Void Realm, "You should feel the changes within."

Xu Xie held his breath and focused, his Divine Sense cautiously touching the Yin and Yang twin fish.

In an instant, he seemed to see a trace of resilience emerging from the 肅殺 ( 肅殺) of metal; prosperity and decay hidden within the vitality of wood; rigidity contained within the ultimate softness of water; warmth within the explosiveness of fire; and rising and falling within the profound weight of earth.

"So that's how it is!" Xu Xie suddenly had an epiphany, and the Five Elements Qi within his body spontaneously circulated.

The white metal Qi of his lungs sank, the green wood Essence of his liver rose, the profound water Spirit of his kidneys rotated left, the 赤火 ( 赤火) Essence of his heart rotated right, and the yellow earth breath of his spleen harmonized in the center... Xu Qing's eyes flashed with approval, and he flicked out a stream of Hongmeng Purple Energy: "If not now, when will you awaken?"

"Boom—"

The five-colored light around Xu Xie's body surged, then suddenly collapsed at its peak.

When the light dissipated, he was already holding a hazy black and white Qi in his palm, which, though not as pure as what Xu Qing had created, already had the rudimentary form of Yin and Yang!

"Uncle! I succeeded!"

Xu Xie excitedly jumped up, but the Yin and Yang Qi in his hand suddenly lost balance and dissipated with a puff.

Xu Qing laughed heartily: "Understanding is one thing; control is another."

He ruffled the little fellow's head, "For the next three months, you must circulate the Five Elements one hundred thousand times daily until Yin and Yang generate naturally and do not disperse."

As the sun set, the figures of an old man and a young boy stretched long.

Xu Xie walked, gesticulating the changes of the Five Elements, then suddenly looked up and asked: "Uncle, when I master this, will I be able to smash stars with one punch like Daddy?"

"Smash stars?"

Xu Qing chuckled. Is that all this boy's ambition amounts to?

He picked him up by the back of his collar and walked towards the training room, "First, restore all those Jade Slips in your room that were shattered by the Five Elements Qi."

The evening breeze carried Xu Xie's wails, startling the spiritual sparrows on the mountain.

—

Netherworld, the sky is eternally dark.

Heavy tribulation clouds hung like a lead curtain, and blood-colored lightning surged within the clouds, illuminating the endless slaughter below.

The armies of the eight great Ghost Realms clashed like a tide, skeletal chariots rolled over the shattered Netherworld, soul fire arrows obscured the sun, and the shrill wails of ghosts caused the Yellow Springs to flow backward.

A black-robed figure appeared silently at the edge of the battlefield.

The King of Hell stood with his hands behind his back, his eyes beneath the twelve-stringed crown as deep as an abyss.

Where he stood, the boiling Netherworld Evil Qi automatically calmed, and the warring ghost soldiers unconsciously avoided this area, not out of reverence, but because they simply couldn't perceive his existence.

"Except for the Five Turbidities, Hoping Home, and that Reincarnation..."

In a low murmur, the King of Hell looked into the distance.

The Reincarnation Ghost Realm, which should have been open, was now completely enveloped in Chaos mist.

"The other Ghost Realms are in complete Chaos!"

In the past, his cultivation was too low, so he hadn't noticed, but now, the wandering souls on the battlefield, which should have entered Reincarnation, were being forcibly held back by some power, turning into ghost soldiers to continue fighting.

"Boom!"

Suddenly, a saber light, spanning the battlefield, split a million ghost soldiers.

The one who struck was a Rakshasa Ghost Emperor with three heads and six arms, his aura having reached the Half-Step Dao Ancestor Realm.

"Rakshasa old ghost! Today, I will devour your soul fire!"

A sharp shriek responded to him. From the dark clouds on the other side, a sky-covering swarm of bat ghosts flew out, each bat's eyes flickering with eerie green flames.

The aftershocks of the two Ghost Emperors' battle directly flipped the Netherworld for a radius of ten million li three times over.

The King of Hell watched with cold eyes.

"Reincarnation is sealed, Karma is in disarray..."

The King of Hell ignored the battle below and stepped across billions of li, arriving at Fengdu Ghost City.

He stood above Fengdu Ghost City, the Xuan Jade bead curtain hanging from his twelve-stringed crown gently swaying, obscuring his deep, abyssal gaze.

The entire Ghost City was deathly silent, thousands of fierce ghosts prostrated in terror, and even the drifting 冥火 ( 冥火) solidified.

His gaze pierced through layers of ghost mist, falling into the deepest part of Fengdu—there, a pair of six-colored pupils slowly opened.

"Buzz—"

The Void Realm trembled.

The moment the two gazes met, the spatial-temporal Law of the Netherworld violently twisted.

The outline of Fengdu Ghost City swayed like a reflection in water, and countless buildings folded and stretched between reality and illusion.

The King of Hell's black robe moved without wind, and billions of 冥纹 ( 冥纹) spread out beneath his feet, while the six-colored pupils in the other's eyes turned into a surging tide.

Time and space were infinitely compressed.

With a single step, the King of Hell and the owner of that gaze were in a Chaos space.

Gray mist surged all around, earth, water, fire, and wind were unsettled, as if returning to before the creation of the heavens.

"Long time no see," he said.

The King of Hell's voice rippled through the Chaos.

Opposite him, a black-robed man with an imperial crown gradually became clear, seated on a throne, each section of which was carved with ancient Netherworld script.

There were no greetings, no probes.

In this stripped-away spacetime, only the most primordial authorities clashed.

The Netherworld Dao unfolded behind the King of Hell, while behind the other's throne, a six-colored disc phantom that swallowed Chaos also emerged...

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