The moment Shen Yi called out the golden dharma form, the balance in the room had already shifted.
Even at only seven feet tall, even short of a complete Spirit-Transformation realm.
He was still the only “functioning” golden-body cultivator the War Temple currently had.
Until the Ancestor’s injuries healed.
Saying Shen Yi was the helmsman of the War Temple’s rotting little skiff was not an overstatement.
That was the source of Zhu Jue’s surprise.
The moment the junior brother revealed his true cultivation, it meant he had formally decided to step forward and take responsibility.
For a Spirit-Transformation cultivator, before their realm had fully stabilized, the most important thing was always to protect themselves.
Everything else could be tolerated and set aside for a time.
Including the lives of those Mixed Origin Grandmasters.
“…”
With that thought, Zhu Jue looked over at the young man beside him, something like deep feeling rising in his eyes.
Prodigious talent beyond what anyone could imagine — and alongside it, this much sense of responsibility.
The junior brother hadn’t merely lived up to Xiao Wu’s trust. He was considerably more reliable than anyone had anticipated.
Though.
Xiao Wu’s instinct had been to tell the junior brother to put the golden body away — a gesture that was clearly an attempt not to accept the offer, hoping the junior brother would keep cultivating until he became a genuine titan capable of overawing the world in all four directions.
“Go on back. I’d like a moment to myself.”
Wu Dao’an looked somewhat adrift, urging Shen Yi out of the War Temple.
Perhaps it was because Zhu Jue had shown his golden light first, giving him something of a cushion, that when the golden dharma form appeared afterward he’d somehow remained conscious.
Now that he thought about it clearly, what he felt in his chest was less wonder than outright terror.
Every last person in the War Temple, including himself, eating through vast reserves of accumulated faith, spending age after age — what exactly had any of them accomplished?
If they’d handed all of this to Shen Yi a hundred years earlier.
The War Temple might be building its grand hall on the Thousand Demon Den’s grave by now.
Shen Yi and Zhu Jue exchanged a glance at the old man standing there in a daze, both shook their heads, picked up the wooden boxes from the floor, and left the hall together.
No one brought up the deaths of those two Mixed Origin Grandmasters again.
Without sufficient strength to do anything about it, whatever was said would be empty noise.
“Hah.”
Once the War Temple held only Wu Dao’an.
He slowly walked to the foot of the Ancestor’s altar and looked up at the wild-eyed, vacant face staring down at him, hesitated for a moment, then used his sleeve to wipe down the offering platforms on either side, and made an attempt at climbing up to the left one to sit cross-legged.
Gave it a brief try — decided the platform was cold and hard and really didn’t have much going for it.
He opened his mouth in a soundless laugh.
Shen Yi wasn’t yet enough to truly change anything right now, but he’d given Wu Dao’an something he hadn’t had in a long time.
Hope.
Given enough time, Great Qian could finally stop depending on the immortal sects to hold the Nine Provinces together.
The Mixed Origin Grandmasters who grew up here would no longer need to go and serve as Xuanguang Cave’s pathfinding hunting dogs, as though they were somehow born lesser than everyone else.
The War Temple, Jia section.
Shen Yi said goodbye to Senior Brother Zhu. The man was at a critical juncture of his own breakthrough right now and had no further need of anyone’s help.
He walked back to the courtyard alone.
Shut the door out of habit.
Shen Yi sat back on the edge of the bed, closed his eyes, and went over the path infant remains he’d just seen.
One of them was nearly indistinguishable from Perfected Master Changqing’s — the other was somewhat less developed, with only a single spiritual root at the heart.
Upper-tier Mixed Origin and mid-tier Mixed Origin?
Either one of them could have dealt with Qingzhou’s demon crisis without breaking a sweat, and yet they’d fallen without so much as a whisper.
It seemed the world outside was more dangerous than he’d imagined.
He’d need to prepare thoroughly before leaving Great Qian.
Shen Yi opened his eyes and stopped begrudging the demon lifespan.
He condensed a Demon Origin without hesitation.
【Remaining Demon Lifespan: 14,312 years】
The instant his mind touched the Origin, a great mass of strangely-shaped demon resentments flickered into view.
Shen Yi quickly located the white dragon, torn apart into scattered fragments.
In the next instant, the demon soul began to condense.
A familiar wailing started echoing through his mind — though this time, it had become a dragon’s cry.
As time passed.
A vastly shrunken white dragon phantom gradually solidified, about three zhang in length, its coiled body hanging suspended in the room.
Its eyes were full of reverence. “The White Dragon greets its Master!”
“Write down everything you know about cultivator cave estates, demons and cultivators, and any rare natural materials.” Shen Yi had no intention of making small talk.
“In response, Master — the White Dragon has spent nearly a thousand years in solitary habit, and made only one acquaintance: a Qingqiu fox demon, already slain by my Master. As for rare natural materials, there was one Silver Moon Cold Lotus — stolen by a shameless woman thief…”
Right, so.
Two demon souls condensed.
A recluse woman. A recluse dragon.
Shen Yi waved a wordless hand and put it directly into the panel.
【Mixed Origin (Rare): White Dragon Demon King】
No wonder it could match an extreme-tier Mixed Origin Grandmaster — ten thousand years of lifespan versus Lady Qinghua’s twenty thousand. Worth every bit.
Shen Yi’s mood improved slightly. He drew out the Custodian’s golden booklet and placed it in his palm.
Then he drew on demon lifespan and poured it into the Arhat Golden Body Method.
According to his thinking, if wandering wills could be suppressed into Qinghua’s soul, other demon souls should work as well.
A golden body that size — surely it could hold two demons.
But then the panel’s prompts made Shen Yi’s brow slowly furrow.
【Year 1 — You resume digesting accumulated faith, refining it into golden light. The mass of wandering wills surges into your mind once more. A flash of memory brings back the old torment, and you instinctively call on both Qinghua and the White Dragon, hoping to repeat what worked before】
【Year 10 — With Qinghua’s help, the two of you attempt to forcibly suppress the wandering wills into the White Dragon’s soul. Progress is poor. Last time, Lady Qinghua merged with the divine spirit, but the White Dragon has no connection to either divine spirit or golden body — the two of you puzzle over how to actually put it inside the golden form】
【Year 36 — You suggest simply emulating the Immortal-Demon Nine Transformations — subdue the White Dragon and confine it within the golden body. Qinghua thinks on this, and begins attempting to reshape the golden body into something like a great prison】
【Year 890 — That line of thinking gradually becomes action. The Arhat Golden Dharma Form undergoes a transformation】
【Year 1,700 — Lady Qinghua forcibly confines the White Dragon within it. You follow close behind, resume digesting accumulated faith, and suppress the wandering wills into the White Dragon’s body】
Wait — so a perfectly sound Golden Body method had just… become a demon technique?
Shen Yi stared at the panel with an odd expression.
As though confirming his suspicion, two more prompts surfaced at once.
【Acquired: Spirit-Transformation (Rare) · Golden Body Prison Dharma Form】
【The golden body becomes an endless demon prison — suppressing all the demons under heaven within itself】
The derivation grew rapidly smoother. Demon lifespan vanished like flowing water. The white mist filling the sky thinned at a rate visible to the naked eye.
【Golden Body Prison Dharma Form: Entry Level】
A breakthrough in the method — but the movement didn’t stop.
Not until seven-tenths of a fifth of all Great Qian’s accumulated faith had been devoured.
And every last year of the remaining demon lifespan had been spent clean.
Shen Yi sat in silence for a moment, then stepped straight out the door, called up the Red Cloud, and swept across the open sky.
Just a moment ago, the entry on the panel that had read “White Dragon” had disappeared.
(End of Chapter 250)