On Osaka Castle, a sword light slashed down, cleaving the ancient city in two!
Mountains collapsed and the city crumbled. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was nearly killed by this sword, but Xu Fu rescued him just in time. After the entire Osaka Castle collapsed, only the foundations remained. Waves of Buddhist light surged from the ruins, and Xu Fu chanted Buddhist scriptures!
The predecessor of Osaka Castle was the Ishiyama Hongan-ji, established by the Pure Land Sect of Buddhism in Japan. How could a place built with temples and monasteries not have a grand formation protecting it? However, after the demolition of Ishiyama Hongan-ji, the formation was hidden underground. The Toyotomi clan, led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, occupied Osaka Castle and its surroundings, making it considered safer than Kyoto, where the Emperor resided.
After all, many daimyo knew that Emperor Jinmu, who had gradually manifested and even appeared openly in Japan over the past century, was currently in Osaka, not Kyoto.
This rendered the current Emperor a mere figurehead. Emperor Go-Yōzei's younger brother, Prince Tomohito, was also adopted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. This relationship made Toyotomi Hideyoshi the true power holder of this era, whether openly or secretly. The Emperor was merely a decoration.
However, at this moment, Xu Fu was somewhat fortunate that the useless current Emperor still resided in Kyoto and not here. Otherwise, with that mortal body, he would not have survived this sword strike!
In short, no matter how incompetent the Emperor was, he was ultimately a symbol of the nation. And for Xu Fu, he was an important medium for completing the divine kingdom. If he were killed by Ji Xiang's sword, it would truly be an injustice.
The second sword swung forward!
Another sword light descended. At this moment, the Buddhist formation was activated, and the vast Buddhist dharma formed a heavenly curtain, dispersing the power of this strike in all directions!
Yet, even so, it caused the earth to rumble violently!
Around Osaka Castle were many castle towns, with a population of over a hundred thousand people! The terrified cries and fleeing sounds filled the sky. Many looked up in horror at the colossal Heavenly Venerate statue appearing in the sky, and the auspicious cloud of merit!
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was still shaken. He was naturally familiar with the two swords just now, but he had never imagined that a sword would attack him in such a manner!
"Indeed, this sword should never have been released! At the time, considering the need to quickly conquer Korea, I allowed Yagyū Munenori to take this divine sword. This divine sword, passed down from ancient times, capable of cleaving mountains and seas with a single strike, is even more terrifying than the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi!"
Hideyoshi was filled with regret!
Xu Fu looked towards the celestial gate!
The power of calamity on Ōkuninushi was transformed and stripped away by the Heavenly Dao Heavenly Venerate, disappearing as a large amount of merit. This led to the collapse of the鬼神 (ghost-god) itself. After all, calamity was the supreme authority that Ōkuninushi possessed since his ancient consecration, with the ability to kill half the population of the entire country in a single month. This made him an unparalleled calamity god in any human kingdom!
However, the four Heavenly Venerates had slept in the depths of the Yellow Springs for too long. If not for Ji Xiang's arrival, they would have completely dissipated in another hundred years, leaving no trace of their power. Now, having regained and nurtured their strength, the divine tablet of the Heavenly Dao Heavenly Venerate would not let go of such a treasure as great calamity delivered to its doorstep!
Within the inner realm, the divine tablet of the Heavenly Dao Heavenly Venerate grew brighter and brighter!
The auspicious cloud of merit descended, engulfing Ji Xiang in a sea of clouds. Toyotomi Hideyoshi saw that Ji Xiang had not launched a third strike after his two sword attacks and was about to retaliate for the two swords, but Xu Fu grabbed him.
"Merit originates from the power of the Heavenly Dao, the response of the world's yin and yang, good and evil, to cultivators. If you step forward now, your power will draw the auspicious cloud of merit to attack you, and then the attention of the Heavenly Dao will follow!"
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was confused: "We Japanese, what Heavenly Dao do we speak of!"
Xu Fu sneered: "The so-called Heavenly Dao refers to the highest form of invisible power in the world. Thus, its name is unknown, and it is forcefully named Dao. You can call it whatever you wish. This power sustains the world, and on different lands, it has different names. Since ancient times, whether in the East or West, South or North, all nations under heaven have spoken of destiny."
"Even those Western countries are the same. The so-called resurgence and decline are manifestations of the rise and fall of a nation's fortune, and the bringer of all this is what we call the Heavenly Dao."
"You are now sustained by the offerings of all people, including the dead. Their resentment, their lives, their souls, their wishes – all have their respective destinations, becoming the source of power for the ghost-god path. How much karma do you carry, and do you deserve to be stained with merit?"
"I am not worthy. Therefore, if you go up, you will die. The path of ghost-gods is inherently taboo to merit. All our techniques are related to poison and harm, and the power of merit is the greatest counter to poison and harm!"
"However, there are still things that can be done."
Xu Fu extended his hand at this moment!
The entire sky trembled!
"Although this vast cloud of merit cannot be used by me, it can be accumulated and used elsewhere. For example... after refining it, I can equip my soldiers with the golden light of merit, which is the true way to kill without incurring karma!"
"Even the retribution of heaven would have nowhere to fall! Those who wear the light of merit kill as permitted by the Heavenly Dao."
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was extremely surprised: "It can be used like this?"
Xu Fu chuckled: "In my Qin Dynasty, there was no concept of merit. The power descending from the Heavenly Dao would follow the changes in human hearts and appear in the world in different forms. In my time, the Hundred Schools of Thought were still flourishing, such as the Heavenly Rites of Confucianism, the Heavenly Ghosts of Mohism, the Heavenly Fortune of Taoism..."
"From then until now, two thousand years have passed. This outer world can touch the Heavenly Dao. The phenomena I have studied are far more numerous than those of the inner world! Now merit cannot be used in this way, but once I refine it, it can be used like this!"
With that, he revealed his "determination to win" over Ji Xiang!
"Furthermore, the target we wanted to lure has now truly set foot on our homeland. If he comes uninvited, isn't that a good thing!"
"There is no need to send large armies to Korea anymore."
"Kill him here, and everything will be settled. Although the Ming Dynasty has increased its military strength, and our country has lost many immortals and great generals, once this heavenly demon dies, we can at least reclaim half of the remaining Korean land."
"And this heavenly demon has set foot on my land; he will never return alive!"
The heavens and earth trembled and fluctuated continuously, the sea of clouds churned, and the mountains and rivers boiled! All things and phenomena in this world came alive at this moment!
Breaths converged into wind and thunder, and the flow of rivers transformed into billions of clouds circulating the world!
"Circulating Qi, deep then stored, stored then extended, extended then descended, descended then settled, settled then firm, firm then sprouted, sprouted then grew, grew then retreated, retreated then heaven."
"The Heavenly Cycles revolve above; the Earthly Cycles revolve below. Harmony brings life; rebellion brings death."
At the same time.
The auspicious clouds disappeared, all swallowed by Ji Xiang. The divine tablet in his inner realm shone with golden light, and Ji Xiang felt that the pain generated by his Sun Refinement was becoming insignificant.
Merit could lead to becoming an immortal, and achieving immortality through elixirs resulted in an elixir-form immortal. However... no elixir-form immortal had ever condensed such a vast amount of merit before becoming an immortal!
"Hmm? The celestial phenomena... are shaking."
Ji Xiang held his sword and looked up at the sky.
The Qi of this world began to gather and boil, and even the national prestige of all of Japan was in motion. The sound was louder than the thunder of great drums, as powerful and vast as a storm and a tsunami.
This was the might of a Pseudo-Immortal.
If you do not step into his territory, he is powerless against you. But if you actively step into his territory, he can do whatever he pleases!
"He did not use the power of the ghost-god path, knowing that I had uprooted the ghost-god path in the Yellow Springs?"
"Or is he wary of the demon-subduing power of the Jade Purity Hidden Scripture?"
"However, no matter which point it is, the choice made at this moment is extremely correct. And this Qi that covers the entire sky, permeates the entire land, and churns in the entire rivers and seas... this should be the method of the Qin Dynasty Qi cultivators, right?"
The people of the Qin Dynasty did not follow the paths of later generations. They did not cultivate the path of Golden Elixir and Earthly Immortals, but directly mastered the fundamental Qi between heaven and earth. However, this required extremely high talent.
This was why Qi cultivators were rare and Golden Elixir Earthly Immortals were numerous. The so-called path of cultivation is only a path when many people walk it. The cultivation methods of later generations were constantly refined, allowing more people with slightly less talent or no talent to walk it. Those with lesser talent would become powerful, and those with high talent would become even stronger.
However, the ancient methods were too powerful and obscure, and thus were lost through successive generations. This was a normal phenomenon.
Later generations had higher talent than their predecessors, which allowed them to open up cultivation paths for more people. But the methods of their predecessors were simpler and more violent than those of later generations.
There were no techniques. All changes did not require spells, scriptures, divine incantations, or talismans!
Only by relying on "Qi"!
Ji Xiang saw the sky tilting towards him!
He laughed heartily!
On his body, the phantom forms of the Four Saints of the North Pole, the Four Heavenly Venerates, and the Ten Directions Divine Kings appeared one after another!
Their momentum was vast and magnificent, spanning the six directions and suppressing the eight wildernesses, boundless and endless!
Xu Fu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were stunned when they saw the auspicious clouds dissipate and Ji Xiang soar into the sky, revealing the images of several celestial gods on his body.
"What are those things? A person can only have the image of one celestial god. On him, there appear..."
"It's been strange from the beginning!"
Before Toyotomi Hideyoshi could finish his question, Xu Fu's pupils contracted. He interrupted himself, speaking with a tone of disbelief, yet also like a guess:
"The divine position that this heavenly demon possesses should be that of Marshal Tian Peng."
"But then it became this Heavenly Dao Heavenly Venerate. I thought he had abandoned the divine position of Marshal Tian Peng and re-accepted the Heavenly Venerate position. This Heavenly Venerate position fell into the Yellow Springs, and even I didn't know its location. This heavenly demon's Qi entered the Yellow Springs Kingdom and took the Heavenly Venerate divine tablet, but now that I think about it, it seems wrong."
"The Heavenly Venerate power that killed the Yellow Springs Jinja God was not that of the Heavenly Dao Heavenly Venerate!"
Xu Fu's gaze was fixed on Ji Xiang.
The image of the Heavenly Venerate on Ji Xiang's body still had a youthful face, but his attire was the dharma robe worn by a Heavenly Venerate. However, due to its glorious, Frankenstein-like appearance, Xu Fu did not understand it at first glance. Now he had discovered the problem.
This was not the robe of one Heavenly Venerate!
This was the image of four Heavenly Venerates!
And the Heavenly Venerate who killed the Yellow Springs Jinja God was the most prominent one in Ji Xiang's transformed image!
"It is... the Heavenly Venerate of Vast Crossing and Salvation!"
"How can one person possess four Heavenly Venerate divine tablets? Could it be that heavenly demons have a different physique from us mortals?"
Xu Fu could only think this way at this moment.
Perhaps, things from heaven naturally possessed extraordinary and unique qualities.
"But it won't work either. These four Heavenly Venerates probably have no power left. I don't believe that in my territory, this strike that overturns the heavens and earth, with all the Qi in the world at my disposal, we Qin people are not comparable to you Golden Elixir cultivators!"
"Even if you achieve true immortality now, you will not be able to leave your life in my territory. Even a flying immortal whose blood has been refined into green Qi and has reached the extreme of the immortal path would not dare to say they could withstand this blow!"
"My techniques have not regressed compared to the Tang Dynasty! The population of the world has grown, and thousands of years have accumulated. A thousand years ago, I used this technique to repel a flying immortal! A thousand years later, I cannot even subdue a heavenly demon! How is this possible!"
"Holding up the sky with one hand!"
Ji Xiang stood in the sky at this moment!
The entire sky's dark clouds pressed down on that palm like the ocean. A single person stood beneath the vast, dark sea of clouds stretching for tens of thousands of miles, and that dim sky could not descend any further!
"To hold up the sky, one person alone cannot do it. I certainly cannot block the technique that repels flying immortals."
"It is not me who blocked this strike."
Ji Xiang looked down at Xu Fu from above, then slightly raised his chin, signaling Xu Fu to look higher into the sky.
Only then did Xu Fu see that in the dark clouds, a giant celestial gate had appeared at some point. The celestial gate was directly facing Ji Xiang's palm, making it appear as if Ji Xiang was holding up the sky.
But that celestial gate was by no means his doing!
"Did you see? Then look clearly."
"For the next move, I dare not casually invite it. Your threat as a Pseudo-Immortal is too great, so there is no other way."
Ji Xiang's expression suddenly turned as dark as the deep sea, and the celestial gate slowly opened!
Then, it suddenly expanded, becoming a thousand miles wide, enveloping the entire Osaka Castle.
Something was about to emerge.
Xu Fu looked at the celestial gate, then saw a gap open in the gate. Ji Xiang soared up, abandoning his effort to hold up the sky, and entered the celestial gate.
But the dark clouds of the Wanli sky did not thunder down. Instead, they began to separate.
"This... is... what happened?"
Toyotomi Hideyoshi watched the dark clouds spanning ten thousand miles, which had not yet unleashed their power, being held up by the heavenly demon, and now began to dissipate. Two distinct energies could be clearly seen separating, abandoning each other.
The clear Qi rose to become heaven, and the turbid Qi descended to become earth.
Within the celestial gate, which was a thousand miles wide, a white jade hand appeared.
Xu Fu's face instantly turned to extreme terror!
"Primordial Heavenly Venerate!"