Chapter 79 Near Death
Zhong Yue’s body was beginning to approach its limit as it was on the verge of crumbling from the excessively tyrannical beast god essence in his body, which had now completely transformed into the Xiang Dragon!
The psyche in his psyche ocean could be said as fully depleted, if his psyche was completely drained, all of his prowess would be stripped off from him!
Both options lying in front of him were equally daunting – one was to be assimilated into a Xiang Dragon, while the other was the complete loss of his prowess!
Xin Huo was indeed experienced; from just a glance, he was able to discern the danger faced by Zhong Yue. He realized that he was too impatient, wanting Zhong Yue to directly charge to the stage of ‘Rebirth’, but Xin Huo did not foresee that Zhong Yue’s psyche was not strong enough to support him.
“Xin Huo, if I visualize the Sui Sovereign and Flame Palace wholly, will I be able to refine the beast god essence at a higher rate right?”
Zhong Yue groaned, the Sui Sovereign in his psyche ocean started to grow more authentic, minute details of its form started to come into form, totem carvings emerged on the dragon scales; and a Heavenly Emperor’s palace had arisen from the ground. It kept getting higher and the air around turned stagnant amidst its majestic aura!
Before this, he could never maintain such meticulous visualizations of the Sui Sovereign and the Flame Palace whilst preserving the subtle nuances of both at the same time. Hence, he had only visualized the Sui Sovereign all this while, but now, he intended to visualize the both of them with the highest degree of detail possible so as to greatly expedite the refinement of the beast god essence!
Xin Huo inhaled a breath of cold air, witnessing the emergence of the quartz slabs, jade blocks, stone pillars, and all the structures and elements of the Heavenly Emperor’s palace coming to life. The palace continued its construction higher and taller, its edifice grew grander and more majestic. Xin Huo mumbled in shock, “This brat is risking everything! The strain and burden on his brain will be enormous if he visualizes the Sui Sovereign and Flame Palace at the same time while maintaining this level of detail, I wonder if his brain will just burst and explode, his brain juice will splattered all across the ground….”
Visualizing the Sui Sovereign and Flame Palace at the same time, adding more detail into them as they grew more genuine and true to life, it was true that by doing so, he could refine the beast god essence at a higher rate, but at the same time, the load on his brain would be immense!
Xin Huo had no expectations that Zhong Yue could have done it, visualizing two saintly figures while at the same time having the abstruse information from the Great Sun Golden Crow disrupting him. With all these distractions, the concentration needed would be far too intense!
Xin Huo flew out of Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean and stared anxiously at his head.
“Burst!” The little flame yelled out in fear and terror.
“Thankfully, it didn’t….”
Xin Huo gazed fixedly at Zhong Yue, rivulets of sweat rushed out from the latter’s forehead, but his whole body was dead cold. All of the energy in his body was directed towards his brain to support him in maintaining the simultaneous visualizations of the Sui Sovereign and Flame Palace.
All of the beast god essence was also centralized in his brain and was getting refined continuously.
Xin Huo could see the veins bulging out on his head and his face turned crimson red, Xin Huo then mumbled again, “This must be it … I think he is going to burst … EXPLODE!”
Zhong Yue gritted his teeth, his face was red reminiscent of the incandescence of burning iron.
“I suppose he is now at his limit?”
Xin Huo leaped onto Zhong Yue’s head, and the little flame gently stomped his feet, yelling, “BANG!”
Zhong Yue purged his mind of all distractions, focusing his senses on visualizing the Sui Sovereign and the Flame Palace. As the beast god essence billowed over, the two saintly figures would smite and refine the essence into his psyche. It would then be refined by the Great Sun Golden Crow into the golden liquid that would flow into his soul.
He was walking on a tightrope between two cliffs – one small mistake and his life would be forfeit!
It was at this moment that the fourth patch of fire cloud condensed, the radiant rays illuminated his whole psyche ocean.
As he could now refine the beast god essence at a higher rate, the psyche was not pouring down like rain anymore, but instead, they were like cascading waterfalls!
Now, I suppose I should be able to advance to the third form?
Zhong Yue was a little worried, if the Great Sun Golden Crow advances into the third form, it would certainly be refining his psyche at a greater speed!
No, not now, I need more time! I need to accumulate more psyche before that, if I act recklessly by advancing into the third form, my psyche prowess will be drained up in an instant and all my hard work would be in vain!
Zhong Yue sat stock-still, not moving an inch at all. Xin Huo waited and waited, but Zhong Yue’s head was still intact, he heaved a breath of relief and entered Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean, he saw that Zhong Yue had already visualized the Flame Palace and Sui Sovereign, Zhong Yue’s psyche was regenerating and the once nearly drained psyche ocean was once again flooded full.
He did it!
Xin Huo praised in his heart, he cast his gaze up to the four cumuliform clouds in the air that were like a crimson canvass that covered the whole psyche ocean. It was only a step away from the “five clouds overlaying the ocean”, but there were no signs of Zhong Yue advancing the Great Sun Golden Crow into the third form yet.
Brat Yue is way more sedate than I am, he is trying to gather more psyche and when he deems that he has accumulated enough psyche, that’ll be when he advances to the last form!
Time slipped past, but Zhong Yue remained like a statue, he was gathering his psyche, biding his time for the right moment to erupt it.
Ten days past ... his psyche was once again at its peak.
But he waited for another two days; he pushed his psyche to the brim of its limit, and finally, Zhong Yue reached out to the Great Sun Golden Crow; the miniature sun quivered, and the three-legged golden crow slowly walked out from the sun.
Xin Huo’s heart palpitated heavily, he gazed at it; whatever was going to happen next, was imperative to Zhong Yue’s advancement to a Rebirth Qi Practitioner. If he succeeded, he would be able to shed of the worldliness within him and coalesce his spirit and soul into one!
And if he failed, all of his psyche and prowess would be leached away!
The energy in the sun flowed into the three-legged golden crow. As it strode forward, the golden liquid covered its whole body, and it tardily turned into a three-legged celestial being with the wings behind it and the legs of a crow, its lustrously aureate feathers shimmered brightly.
The third form of the Great Sun Golden Crow, the blazing heat enveloped it and as it made its appearance, it brought the psyche ocean to a simmer, evaporating the psyche and lowered the water line rapidly!
Within the ebullient psyche ocean, refined golden liquids were drawn into his soul, at the same time, the three-legged celestial being paced towards Zhong Yue’s soul. Surrounded by the psyche-formed golden liquid, the spirit and soul started to merge together!
In the air, the emergence of the fifth fire cloud was evident, slowly but steadily, his psyche ocean was overlaid by a stratum of clouds.
Concurrently, his psyche ocean was nearly drained and his psyche was on the verge of depletion!
In mid-air, the beast god inner core was still releasing bursts of beast god essence that was incessantly transmuted into his psyche, but even so, his body was still getting all dried up and shrunk down. It was caused by the depletion of his psyche, his psyche ocean was in urgent need of energy and hence, his muscles and blood were burned, and the energy in his body was siphoned away!
At this rate, his body would die of hunger before anything else!
Xin Huo flew out of Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean and gazed at him, Zhong Yue was still visualizing, his body took the form of the Xiang Dragon, the once strong and muscular body had withered up and the dragon scales fell off from his body, its muscles shrunk down and the outline of bones could be seen against the shriveled skin.
Moments later, Zhong Yue became wizened and haggard, he sat there and his heart pumped slower and weaker, to a point that it was barely noticeable.
After a long time, his skin creased and his face withered, his muscles were completely atrophied and his skin was stretched tautly across the bones, even the blood veins beneath had seemingly stopped its rhythmic pulsing, as did the beating of his heart.
Time passed and the macabre air of death wreathed around his body.
“Brat Yue?” Xin Huo called for him, but there was no reply.
The little flame panicked, he quickly lunged into Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean and cast his gaze at the coalescing soul and spirit, it was still ongoing!
He quickly flew out again and entered Zhong Yue’s heart chamber, his heart was starting to die off!
Oh no! If he doesn’t do it now, he will never make it!
A few seconds slipped past, Xin Huo suddenly noticed that the heart before his eyes was slowly yet undoubtedly expanding, after which it then gently contracted a little, and the blood was set into motion again, pumping out to the edges of his body as his previously deathly form was gradually being resuscitated back to life.
Xin Huo heaved a breath of relief and flew out of the heart chamber. The sounds of blood flowing could be heard from beneath his skin, gradually getting louder and clearer. At first, it sounded like a gentle stream of water meanderingly trickling down, from which it turned into sound of the flowing river, and soon, his heart began to beat thunderously and resounded like a crashing waterfall!
Wherever the blood flowed to, his skins would bulged up, the deficit energy and drained vigor in the muscles were replenished; his muscles and skin eventually followed suit and finally regained its usual luster!
His body was like a bone-dry and arid land getting baptized by the billowing waves of blood, replenished by the immense energy. And soon, his body was reverted back to its original state.
“You did it!” A wave of excitement engulfed Xin Huo and he exclaimed in joy.
Zhong Yue slowly opened his eyes that were sparkling with merriment, he succeed at the precipice of death, his spirit and soul coalesced as one ... and he was reborn!
In his body, the beast god essence was still flowing out unceasingly into his body where he refined the essence and turned it into energy that satiated his vacuous reserves of strength The replenishment of his power pushed his prowess back to its peak.
“This was, my fault … I’ve wrongly calculated the prowess of your psyche, tossing you into a near death experience.”
Xin Huo apologized and said, “Thankfully, you remained unwavering in the face of death even when I had lost faith. And that’s why you could become a Rebirth Qi Practitioner in just tens of days. Now, show me your atman, let me have a look.”
Zhong Yue shifted his thoughts and revealed his atman in front of Xin Huo.
Xin Huo lowered his sight and stared blankly at the little peanut before his eyes, he shouted out in shocked, “This is your atman, the Yuan Shen you’ve got after coalescing your soul with the spirit? How is it even smaller than me?”
The little flame was only an inch tall and yet, Zhong Yue’s Yuan Shen was two heads shorter than Xin Huo, he was terribly small.
“My psyche was not strong enough, it’s a blessing that I could even survive.”
Zhong Yue laughed and said, “Fortunately, I’ve succeed. As long as I continue strengthening my psyche, my atman will also grow stronger. Furthermore, I still have to look into the totem of the Great Sun Golden Crow, only then, can I fully utilize the power of my spirit.”
He was less than an inch tall, but the aura he possessed was fierce and dreadful; a human-bodied celestial being with the head and legs of a crow, surrounded by flames and burning fire.
If one did not look at him, but instead just felt the aura he emanated, he would be mistaken as an ancient beast filled with brutality and atrocity – ferocious and barbarous.
The sun spirit of the Great Sun Golden Crow, the totem in it is incredibly strong and powerful, it is not something I can fully understand in a short period of time, it’s best if I head back for now.
Zhong Yue gazed at Xin Huo, he asked measuredly, “Xin Huo, you won’t tell me that you didn’t prepare a teleportation portal to go back right?”
“A teleportation portal to head back...?”
Xin Huo was startled, his face was filled with shock and he yelled, “Aiya, I’ve totally forgotten about it … Haha, I’m just joking, I’m way too smart and brilliant to ever make such a low-level error. I’ve prepared a teleportation portal, we will harvest the energy from the sun and teleport back to the moon….”
“Back to the moon?”
Zhong Yue stiffened up his face, he said, “If that godly statue in the moon is awakened….”
Xin Huo realized it too, and he said tardily, “I’ve never thought about this. But our luck ... we should not be that unlucky right?”