Rise of Humanity

Chapter 108 - Twin Spirit-Sun and Moon

In Swords Gate, there was not even a single word about having two spirits, it was indeed the case that it was common knowledge that a Qi Practitioner could only acquire a spirit, and yet as of now, Xin Huo was asking him to reach out to the moon spirit and acquire himself a twin spirit of the sun and the moon. This was bordering on blasphemous to the core tenets that had long underpinned the cultivation world since time immemorial!

“Of course you can acquire the twin spirits!”

Xin Huo answered, “In the ancient times, there were many celestials who had twin spirits, but twin spirits are notoriously hard to control, with a propensity for deranging the souls of their owner. Among which, the sun and moon twin spirit is one of the most stable twin spirits, you’ve manifested the spirit of Great Sun Golden Crow, and now with the spirit of the Star Moon Jade Toad, you can practice the Sun-Moon Twin Spirit. Solitary Yang cannot burgeon into something more, while neither would Yin thrive on its own. With the dragon and tiger complementing one another, you can achieve twice the result with half the effort in your cultivations!”

“Xin Huo, what do you mean by deranging their master?” Zhong Yue could feel the moon spirit in senses, his heart stiffened up as he heard the words and he quickly asked.

“Deranging their master, it’s because of the intrinsically paradoxical nature of the twin spirits’ powers, the discord between them would disrupt your soul as they contend for the dominance of the soul. Your soul becomes eventually become a ravaged battlefield from the war between the two spirits. In the ancient times, most of the celestials died because of this; but don’t you worry. Between the sun and moon, the moon itself emits no light, rather, it reflects the rays from the sun while the sun itself is too strong, it requires the moon to balance its overly abundant Yang Qi. The codependence of the Sun-Moon Twin Spirits would ensure your safety!”

Zhong Yue hesitated for a moment, he was not too convinced. From Zhong Yue’s past experience, Xin Huo was not a very reliable figure to trust in, especially when he was reassuring you that things that would not take a turn for the worse…

Whatever, this is the only chance I have to reach out to the moon spirit. Opportunity is fleeting, here this moment and gone the next. I must manifest the moon spirit no matter what!

Zhong Yue reached out his senses whole-heartedly, Xiao Chuqing’s psyche ocean was still crumbling and was at the brink of completely disintegrating into oblivion. But just right at the moment where her psyche ocean vanished into thin air, the bright moon quivered and rushed out of Xiao Chuqing’s psyche ocean, flashing into Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean like a lightning bolt!

Krongg——

Xiao Chuqing’s psyche ocean vanished along with the psyche Zhong Yue that was remaining in her psyche ocean when he was trying to reach out to the moon spirit, causing him to let out a muffled groan of pain!

Xin Huo said, “Only the Qi Practitioners that are strong and formidable enough can defend from the destruction of their psyche ocean during their deaths, protecting their spirits and souls. With only the spirits, they would turn into the totems just like those the various tribes and clans have in the Great Wilderness. Tens of thousands of years of worship have strengthened them to an unimaginable degree, but they have no souls. And if you can save both your spirit and soul, then you would become a heavenly soul. So long as the heavenly soul doesn’t vanish, there would still remain a chance for resurrection.”

Zhong Yue gazed at his psyche ocean, above in the air of the psyche ocean hung two celestial stars - the moon and the sun. The sun spirit nourished the moon spirit, causing the moon spirit to reflect a brighter luminescence; conversely, the presence of the moon balanced the indomitable heat of the sun. There was no sign of them deranging him.

“Some said that that the Yin and Yang curbed one another … that’s purely nonsense. Yin and Yang form a synergy, mutually burgeoning and thriving on one another. The sun spirit nourishes the moon spirit, and the moon shines ever so brighter with the sun’s light, growing stronger and stronger…”

Xin Huo explained like an expert, he smiled and said, “As the moon spirit gets stronger, it will balance the Yin and Yang in your body, and give back to its master’s soul, and as the master’s soul grows stronger, so does the sun spirit. This is the aforementioned burgeoning - all of these have their own role in forming a virtuous cycle.”

Zhong Yue carefully reached out his senses and realized that Xin Huo was right, the sun and moon did not stymie each other but rather, formed a mutual synergy with each other from which they would thrive into something greater than the sum of their parts The great sun shone on the bright moon, the bright moon emitted a soft yet intense glow like mercury on the ground, seeping into every part of his body and psyche ocean, nourishing his body, psyche ocean and ultimately … soul. In turn, his soul strengthened the great sun spirit, this mutualism continued recurrently and would continue to accrue benefits in every aspect.”

“Without the sun, the plants die, without the moon, reproduction stops.”

Xin Huo continued saying, “The view of Yin and Yang curbing each other is a wrong interpretation of water and fire; the water and fire are of the five elements, not the Yin Yang. Yin and Yang had never once restrained each other, they only beget one another, no one had ever found any examples of Yin and Yang restraining one other. The fourth Heavenly Monarch of Fuxi Celestial Race, Tai Hao, crowned as the East Sovereign and venerated as Tai Yi, had a Sun-Moon Twin Spirit.”

A hologram shot out from Xin Huo’s eyes, a black and white mixed pattern appeared, a sun and a moon revolves around the dragon-headed and snake-bodied Heavenly Monarch, he said, “This is the 【Rising Sun and Falling Moon Tai Yi Art】, while some called it the 【Tai Chi Art】, it speaks of the cycle of the Yin and Yang, the pathway of the Sun-Moon Twin Spirit.”

Zhong Yue looked at the 【Rising Sun and Falling Moon Tai Yi Art】, he felt that the art itself encompassed all the insights within the Yin and Yang, the intersection of the sun and moon, was where the Heavenly Monarch Tai Wu’s body was at, this should be another type of abstrusely profound visualization technique.

“Xin Huo, why will the twin spirits cause chaos to their masters?” He thought of the crux and quickly asked about it.

Xin Huo shook his head in reply, “The twin spirit deranging the master only occurs when the Yin and Yang go out of balance, but with me here, you can calm your heart. All you need to do now is absorb the moon spirit and coalesce it your soul, and achieve the balance between the Yin and Yang!”

Zhong Yue was not reassured at all. Empirically, Xin Huo had proven himself to be an extremely unreliable person, if he were to place all his hopes onto Xin Huo, he would have probably died a few times already.

But soon, he realized the potential benefits that could be reaped from the consummating with the Sun-Moon Twin Spirit, the sun spirit and moon spirit engender one another, and thrive together. This synergy would in turn have a perpetual strengthening and nourishing effect on his psyche, physique, and soul.

My sun spirit is the Great Sun Golden Crow whereas the moon spirit is the Star Moon Jade Toad, could the disparity between these two forms have an adverse effect on my soul like Xin Huo had said happened to countless other Qi Practitioners? This is not the time to think about this, I’d better clean off the traces of this battle!

Zhong Yue dashed forward, he gathered Xiao Chuqing’s remains and with a shift of thought, a conflagration erupted and burned vigorously to turn Xiao Chuqing’s corpse into ashes.

Battle traces mustn’t be left behind, or otherwise, they can easily trace the skills and arts I practice, it would invariably lead to the discovery of my identity!

Zhong Yue moved around the battlefield, he removed every vestige of the battle that had occurred here, being careful to not leave a single mark behind.

Xiao Chuqing is of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race, the nose of a dog is their forte, this is not enough, my odor might still be lingering in the air.

Zhong Yue thoughts shifted and he suddenly bolted into the air. In midair, a pair of marvelous and fantastical looking wings spread out from his back, and as he flew away, a flurry of gigantic fireballs rained down from the sky and like surrounding wasteland into a blazing inferno. Meanwhile, Zhong Yue had already long disappeared into the horizon.

In the savanna, flames burned like devils leaving from hell and smokes and dusts billowed up into the air, The fire set a few hundred miles of land alight only to be stymied by a huge river. It continued to burn for a few days time before waning away only to leave a desolate and charred wasteland.

“My dear daughter, is dead…”

West Barren - layer after layer, the temples of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race stood high and aloft. Humongous statues towered in front of the archaic holy temples, some were three-headed Coiling Ao while the others were three-headed celestial beings, and there were the others with peculiar appearances.

In the largest celestial palace, the countenance of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race’s grand elder turned heavy as he watched the soul lamp extinguish before him. “My lovely daughter was killed by a petty human … the one who escaped from the moon.”

The soul lamp was a lamp whose flame was linked with one’s soul, as long as the person’s soul lives, the soul lamp would continue to burn. The Xiao Mang Celestial Race did not have many celestials; the important disciples would all have their own soul lamp; namely for the purposes of ascertaining their living status and also for determining the position of their death if the worst case scenario were to occur.

And now, Xiao Chuqing’s soul lamp was extinguished, denoting the dispersal of her soul. She had died at the hands of others!

“Although Chuqing is not a pure-blood, but she was the daughter I loved most.”

Tears dripped down from the grand elder’s cheek and he mumbled, “She devoured her mother the moment she was born … such a gifted celestial is very uncommon nowadays. And yet, she was killed, slain by the human that escaped from the moon … Xiao Lingxian, bring this soul lamp and find the place where your little sister died. I don’t care if you have to pierce through the heavens or drill your way down to the hell. You will find this wretched human!”

A brawny celestial man with three heads nodded and accepted the task. He gripped a long spear by its shaft and stepped forward. The three heads sounded out as one, “Grand elder, what do I do if I find out who that person is?”

“Bring them to the temple, I must torment that person myself! Also, find your sister’s remains and bring her back to bury her in the temple.”

“Understood!”

Xiao Lingxian reached out and drew the soul lamp into his hand, he stomped on the ground and a patch of cloud emerged beneath his feet. He proceeded to ride away with the cloud.

“My daughter, rest in peace, I will catch that human and bury him together with you,” the grand elder choked in anguish.

Tens of days passed, and Xiao Lingxian, guided by the soul lamp, had arrived at the site of Xiao Chuqing’s death. He glanced around to be met with a wasteland of a few hundred miles charred black. Not only that, he could not find Xiao Chuqing’s remains, not even the slightest vestige of her scent lingered.

Xiao Lingxian’s face changed drastically, and all of a sudden, he removed a piece of magical mirror and manipulated it. He chanted in deference, “May the spirit mirror reveal your excellency and elucidate the path to little sister Chuqing’s spirit!”

The magical mirror spun slowly in midair, but no radiance was emitted in response.

Cold sweat burst out of Xiao Lingxian’s face, “Even Chuqing’s spirit was destroyed! Who is this person that is so callous and ruthless? Even wiping off the last clue to trace their identity!”

He raised his head and looked around, he was in the middle of the Savanna Wasteland and in front of him was the East Barren, the place that the monster race inhabited, and behind him was the Great Wilderness, the territory of humanity. His eyes flashed with a cold light, “Little sister Chuqing was sent over to the human’s Swords Gate by the celestial envoy in charge of the monster race; and yet, she was killed right here in this desolate wasteland where she would never have come without a solid reason, she was tracking behind someone! Who is it, the celestial envoy in charge of the humans or the person that escaped from the moon?”

His body hovered in the air, his appearance started to morph. The Xiang Mang Celestial’s Coiling Ao countenance morphed into a human’s, and two of the three heads sunk into his chest with only the middle head remaining. With the spear in his hand, he flew over towards the Great Wilderness.

“First to the humans and condemn them, then get in touch with the human celestial envoy, and find out who killed my little sister!”

Swords Gate was currently in an illusion of peace and calm. But little did they know that all of it would soon be shattered by the chaos and disorder that would accompany Xiao Xianling’s arrival!

Xiao Chuqing of Swords Gate, the Moon Innate Spirit Body holder, a human-celestial half-blood disciple, was now dead. It had only been a month’s time since her arrival at Swords Gate and she was stealthily killed. As of now, the sudden arrival of a cultivation expert of the Xiang Mang Celestial Race would harbinger a commotion, the degree of which could be easily foretold!

An uproar rose within the Swords Gate, although Xiao Chuqing was one of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race, but her bloodline was still tainted with half the blood of her human mother. In addition, Xiao Chuqing was a figure that enjoyed a high level of prestige among the disciples - her death was a heavy blow to her staunch supporters.

While on the other side, ‘Shui Qingyan’s’ heart thumped in shock, she immediately stood up and looked for the celestial envoy. She thought in her self, Xiao Chuqing … was killed by the Zhong Shan Clan member! This Zhong Shan Clan member can kill her, the rate of his advancement is disconcertingly quick!

A storm was now inconspicuously broiling beneath the illusion of peace., Meanwhile, Zhong Yue was tens of thousands of miles away from the center of the storm, he had arrived at the Falcon Ridge of the Gu Xia City and was now safe within the refuge of his monastery.