Slaying Demons: Starting with Upgrading my Calligraphy-Chapter 531 - 464: Execution Ground!
"This is the eighth layer..."
Bypassing the Punishment Hall of the seventh layer, following the vast and heavy steps, Qi Xiu arrived at the eighth layer of this Punishment Hall.
"The execution ground, huh..." Qi Xiu squinted slightly.
The space of the eighth layer before his eyes was barren, an expanse of dried-up land. Vaguely, cold gusts of wind echoed through the void, carrying with them chilling screams.
The Punishment Hall is a place for sentencing the crimes of Karmic Dragons.
The judgement is made on the seventh layer.
Those with lighter sentences are cast into the Dragon Prison.
Those with heavier sentences are brought directly to the eighth layer to be beheaded!
"This layer isn’t easy to pass either."
Feeling the overpowering cold of this layer, so palpable it seemed like it could drip, Qi Xiu didn’t need to think to know that part of the Karmic Dragon remnants must linger here.
Back in the Dragon Prison, he had thoroughly tasted the essence of these Karmic Dragon remnants.
Meeting them again now, despite not being who he once was and having become a True Monarch of the Dao Body.
He was still unsure of how to face these remnants charged with endless resentment.
After all, these Karmic Dragons were once Primordial Spirit level beings, though their bodies and souls were shattered on the Dragon Execution Platform.
Yet even so, they couldn’t be underestimated.
Looking at the pale and barren land before him, Qi Xiu lightly tapped his hand, a trace of divine light gleaming in his eyes.
This execution ground might not be entirely detrimental for me.
With keen senses and adept at insight.
Through the Observing Qi Skill, Qi Xiu vaguely noticed the Karmic Dragon remnants meandering about this execution ground.
But these remnants were inherently different from those in the Dragon Prison.
The remnants in the Dragon Prison were slain by prison guards after endless years of imprisonment.
Whereas, those in this Punishment Hall were killed on the Dragon Execution Platform by the Dragon Lock Great Blade, with their bodies and souls utterly shattered.
Hence, the Karmic Dragon remnants in this execution ground were not as powerful as those in the Dragon Prison.
In this way, the crisis turned into an opportunity to exploit.
"Having achieved the Dao, though only at the first level of Dao Embodiment, with the synergy of my magical treasures, Cloud Seal Talismans, and the Talisman Array Tao,
even veteran True Monarchs of three or four levels of Dao Embodiment might not be my match.
But compared to these old True Monarchs, my sole inadequacy lies in the Divine Soul Realm."
The deficiency in the Divine Soul Realm has already started to affect my mastery and usage of Dao Body Realm techniques.
Qi Xiu was acutely aware of his shortcomings.
Though he cultivated the supreme soul skill of the Hell Dao, [Yama’s Golden Chapter], this True Scripture Volume was exceptionally esoteric, and his proficiency progressed extremely slowly.
Furthermore, soul cultivation differs from physical cultivation, requiring utmost caution and precision, for even the slightest slip-up leads to endless ruin.
Hence, his Divine Soul Realm advancement is severely lagging compared to his overall cultivation.
"This execution ground is filled with fragments of Karmic Dragon souls, which others find intolerable due to the True Dragon Mark in the soul fragments.
Daring to refine them results in a backlash, causing soul disintegration and dispersion.
But I am different, although I lack the True Dragon bloodline, my soul indeed harbors the True Dragon Mark.
If I can refine the fragments of True Dragon remnants in this execution ground, my Divine Soul Realm is bound to ascend."
Quickening the rotation speed of the Golden Cry Jade Beads, the thought stirred Qi Xiu’s heart.
"I should first see if there’s a path to the ninth layer."
Although he already had ideas in mind, Qi Xiu didn’t rush to act, his purpose on this journey being clear - targeting the item above the ninth layer of the Punishment Hall.
It was his sole chance to slay Lord Wei.
Lord Wei is currently suppressed in the seventh layer’s Punishment Hall, but no one knows how long the suppression will last.
It might be a day, a year, or perhaps the suppression might dissipate in the next moment.
So, for Qi Xiu with his long-held plans, he wouldn’t alter his opportunity or stir up trouble unless forced by circumstances.
With one hand behind him, a flash of purple in his eyes, Qi Xiu stepped into this execution ground that had buried countless Karmic Dragons.
Entering the execution ground, the penetrating cold wind seemed to infiltrate one’s bones, bitingly cold, as if to bury all creatures stepping into this place.
Constantly vigilant, Qi Xiu scoured with all his sight, using the Observing Qi Skill in this vast region to find the passage to the ninth layer.
However, the eighth layer’s execution ground differed entirely from the previous seven layers.
Its vastness surpassed the sum of the previous seven layers, stretching endlessly, boundlessly, with only a pale, barren expanse in sight, devoid of anything else.
In this burial ground teeming with Karmic Dragon remnants, carelessly extending one’s divine sense was akin to opening a gate for the remnants to invade the Ancestral Aperture between the brows, so Qi Xiu couldn’t scan the surroundings with his divine sense.
"Only the old method will do."
Slowly raising a Daoist Incantation, from his brow, purple-gray streams continuously flowed out, transforming into devoted figures kneeling before him.
In mere moments, tens of thousands of indistinct figures appeared before him.
These were precisely the Tenacity Retention remaining from original remnants within Qi Xiu’s brow.
Transmitting his intent to find a path to the ninth layer to the Tenacity Retention, Qi Xiu waved his sleeve, and countless Tenacity Retention surged forward like a meteor shower rising from the ground, spreading in all directions.
With Tenacity Retention searching for the path to the ninth layer, Qi Xiu was not idle either. His purple eyes scanned slowly, soon locking onto a direction.
Turning into a fleeting shadow, Qi Xiu proceeded in the indicated direction, slowly releasing wisps of [spirit] aura.
At the moment this aura dissipated,
suddenly, cold wind swirled around, black winds soared, and from the depths of the fierce winds, a massive, hideous dragon head flew toward him, blood dripping from its lips and teeth.
This dragon head had fierce, brutal eyes, and where the dragon horn should have been, there were now two horrific cavities.
Before Karmic Dragons were slain, the dragon horn symbolizing the True Dragon Clan was first removed.
So even if their remnants returned to the world, they couldn’t reincarnate into the True Dragon Clan again.
It was an eternal banishment from the clan.
In a certain sense, the Karmic Dragons slain on the Dragon Execution Platform by the Dragon Lock Great Blade were no longer true members of the Dragon Clan.
The fierce Karmic Dragon remnants were terrifying.
But after countless ages, even this Punishment Hall that had judged many Karmic Dragons became dilapidated, let alone these fragments representing a tiny fraction of the original souls.
In just one encounter, the attacking Karmic Dragon remnants were suppressed by Qi Xiu’s single-handed Yama’s Law Seal, compressed into a black-gold glazed pearl resting in his palm.
"Though they lack the True Dragon Body, they’re ultimately once fragments of a Primordial Spirit Realm soul.
If I refine these fragments, my Divine Soul Realm will certainly advance significantly."
With a slight shift in his gaze, Qi Xiu first glanced at his right hand. The original fearsome wound had healed over halfway, allowing him to barely use the [Command Talisman] again.
Primordial Spirit level soul fragments aren’t something casually consumed.
Even he had to be confident and prepared to dare the attempt.
Pressing his lips together, after a moment of steadiness, Qi Xiu lifted the Glazed Pearl and slowly opened his mouth, swallowing it whole.
...
