I Cheated While Cultivating

Chapter 366: Chapter 86: The Dream-Weaving Dao Seed, Crafting Reality!

Thirteen Celestial Men stood suspended in the air, different Taoist Formulas and principles causing a multitude of otherworldly phenomena that reflected off of each other dazzlingly.

For a moment, it seemed as if thirteen different worlds had descended, compressing the void and suppressing all principles and rules except for those thirteen great paths.

Many ordinary Martial Artists felt as if they were witnessing the endpoints of thirteen different paths of cultivation all at once. Even just by looking up, they could sense the loftiness and power of these great paths.

Compared to these, the paths they were practicing seemed so insignificant that they weren’t even worth mentioning.

If it weren’t for the fact that these principles were only displaying naturally occurring phenomena and hadn’t truly revealed their Great Power, these Martial Artists might have been tempted to abandon their current Martial Arts in favor of studying the essence of these Celestial ways.

In fact, Martial Artists of the Lower Third Rank who beheld the display of Celestial phenomena typically had such reactions.

This was a thorough suppression of their realm.

It wasn’t a matter of aura or strength but simply standing there could lead those of lower levels to self-doubt and ultimately fall into self-destruction.

This showed that the capabilities of a Celestial Man had truly transcended the mundane, reaching an incredibly profound realm.

Of course, Cui Qingyang had long been prepared for such a scenario.

The moment the Celestial phenomena appeared, he threw a purple silk handkerchief embroidered with gold patterns into the sky, which instantly expanded countless times over, covering the entire County City of Fengzhou.

Then, everyone within the city found that their vision seemed to be filtered through a purple and gold barrier, and the previously mystical Celestial phenomena seemed less mysterious, only the lights remained brilliant and very beautiful.

This was a Celestial Artifact, capable of effectively isolating the influence of Celestial phenomena, preventing ordinary people from being overwhelmed by the impact of witnessing Celestial Power in action.

Meanwhile, the faces of the few members from Plague Emperor Sect were gloomy.

Especially the Celestial Man standing beside Yu Zheng.

His name was Jiang Wuyi, a middle-aged man in his forties with a pair of small moustaches, narrow eyes, dressed in a nine-colored robe, extremely luxurious.

This Jiang Wuyi was the most powerful Celestial Man in the Plague Emperor Sect, stronger than the current sect master, with nearly two thousand years of cultivation, having survived three Celestial Calamities with the fourth impending, ready to strike at any moment.

As for surviving the fourth Celestial Calamity, Jiang Wuyi had no confidence.

His only hope now was for the “God of Plagues from All Heavens,” whom Plague Emperor Sect served, to resurrect and protect him through the calamity.

But this Divine Monarch had long been slain by many Divine First Rank beings, with numerous Tao Lords constantly monitoring the resurrection progress. In such circumstances, reviving seemed like an impossible dream.

It was an almost impossible task.

The Plague Emperor Sect had all but given up hope on this.

But just a while ago, a mysterious figure suddenly visited the Plague Emperor Sect—an unfathomable Great Power, even Jiang Wuyi could not see through him.

This mysterious person brought a message—

An extremely high-level Evil God was attempting to descend and incarnate in this world, and this Evil God was a superior deity to the “God of Plagues from All Heavens,” capable of aiding in its resurrection. The Plague Emperor Sect needed to cooperate in conducting a ritual.

Moreover, this mysterious person demonstrated a highly advanced mastery of the Plague Path Divine Skills, which seemed even stronger than the Divine Power of the “God of Plagues from All Heavens” as recorded in the Plague Emperor Sect’s texts.

This had greatly excited everyone in the Plague Emperor Sect, especially Jiang Wuyi.

For him, this meant hope of surviving his fourth Celestial Man calamity and the hope to continue living.

“A bunch of damned creatures, meddling in everything!!” Jiang Wuyi roared in rage. He had become utterly depraved and bellowed, “Stop hindering me. Within County City of Fengzhou, fifty million commoners are infected with the plague that I’ve unleashed!

“With just one command from me, the plague will erupt, and they will all die, not one will be spared! You all claim to be righteous, but are you willing to ignore the lives of these fifty million people?”

Just as the words left his mouth, he saw a Celestial Man in the sky raise her hand, her fingertips conjuring a green willow twig. With a light flick of her wrist, heavenly rain descended, nourishing every living being in County City of Fengzhou.

In an instant, a purple-black mist emerged from the beings, and the plague was instantaneously dissipated without a trace, eradicating Jiang Wuyi’s leverage.

“Do not resist in vain any longer; your time is up.”

The Celestial Woman spoke indifferently.

She was a woman wearing a purple star robe, pure as ice and jade, extremely dignified, with a mask on her face bearing the image of a queen.

Her star position was “Gou Chen.”

In the thirty-nine star officials of the Ziwei sect, the position of the “Gou Chen” Star Official is none other than the legitimate consort to the Ziwei Emperor, of exceedingly high status.

When Zhou Heng joined the Zhou Tian Boundary Officer, the “Gou Chen” star position was still vacant; but now, a Celestial Star Official had appeared, which meant she had only recently joined the organization.

While the “Gou Chen” Star Official acted, the “Ziwei Zuoyuan” and “Ziwei Youyuan” at her sides also made their moves.

The two clasped their hands together, channelling Taoist power, as a purple-golden light spontaneously emerged, then suddenly expanded, rapidly forming a gigantic light screen that enveloped the entire County City of Fengzhou.

Within and without the light screen, the laws and rhythm of the Tao were severed, and even the sea of heavenly and earthly primordial energy was isolated. Even the layers of strong winds high above were cut through by the light screen, stopping only when they reached the boundary of the Xuanhuang barrier surrounding this world.

This was a Heavenly Third-Rank Taoist formula called “Ziwei Heavenly Forbiddance.”

It could forcibly segment a designated area, temporarily creating an independent world, so that even an Evil God’s descent would be confined within the bounds of the “Ziwei Heavenly Forbiddance.”

The other Celestial People also took action, although the majority of their power was focused on resisting two enormous hands that seemed to stretch down from an immeasurable height above.

This was the manifestation of an Evil God!

Even though it was only an extremely minute fraction of the Evil God’s Power, it was fundamentally beyond the realm of Celestial Man, and it required several Celestial People to fully exert themselves in resistance.

However, there was one person who still had not taken action.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

That person was Yan Shouyi, who seemed to be observing the circumstances around him, his gaze intense and his face carrying a hint of confusion. His fingers continuously flickered as though calculating something.

“What is Senior Brother doing?” Upon seeing the situation above and Yan Shouyi’s actions, Zhou Heng couldn’t help but feel puzzled, “Could it be that he has discovered traces of other Celestial People besides the Plague Emperor Sect?”

“No, I’m afraid that’s not it.” He Mengqiu was right by Zhou Heng’s side, her face showing realization and shock as she fixated her gaze on the two purple-black giant hands in the sky as if trying to see through them, “He must have found some kind of discrepancy.”

“Discrepancy?” Zhou Heng looked at He Mengqiu, puzzled, “Isn’t it the traces of a great power secretly aiding the Plague Emperor Sect? Senior He, have you guessed something? Did you feel any signs of your Senior Brother taking action?”

Initially, he was somewhat puzzled, but as he spoke, he guessed at He Mengqiu’s implication.

“Yes, indeed, but…” He Mengqiu nodded gently, then suddenly turned to look at Zhou Heng with an extremely serious expression, and said in a heavy tone, “Are you, truly certain that the one who is about to descend is Emperor Jiulong, the Plague Emperor?”

“What?” Zhou Heng was taken aback upon hearing this, then frowned and said, “That’s the information I got from the followers of Emperor Jiulong, the Plague Emperor… No, that’s not right, there might be something else!”

He was suddenly startled, quickly realizing a flaw in his previous assumptions.

Although he was already aware that the information obtained from the memory fragments of those two fanatical followers might not be complete, he still regarded the descent and embodiment of the Nine Dragons Plague Emperor as the basis for everything.

Even when considering other possibilities, he only concluded that it might not just be the Plague Emperor Sect that wanted the Nine Dragons Plague Emperor to descend.

It seemed like he had subconsciously taken the “descent and embodiment of the Nine Dragons Plague Emperor” for granted.

At this moment, Zhou Heng suddenly felt a chilling sensation, shivering as his hands and feet turned icy cold, he realized something else.

After he had learned of the Nine Dragons Plague Emperor’s intention to descend, he immediately reported it to the Celestial Men, and all of them agreed to help.

On the surface, it seemed there was no problem.

After all, the descent of an Evil God was a major event related to the safety of the entire world, and it was only natural for many Celestial Men to come together decisively when they heard the news.

But why… not a single one of them had shown even the slightest doubt, nor had they sought to verify the authenticity of the news.

“It seems that as soon as I spoke, they all believed…” Zhou Heng’s frown deepened, the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong from the beginning.

Yan Shouyi believing him was fine, but it was not normal for the Zhou Tian Boundary Officers.

True, he held the title of a Star Officer from the Ziwei Emperor, and he had made many contributions to the organization recently, but after all, he was still a “newcomer” who had joined for less than a year, with a Cultivation of only Secret Six Rank.

How could a “newcomer” like him, with only his word and not a shred of evidence, so quickly convince a full seven Celestial Men without question?

It just didn’t sit right.

“If someone told me such a thing, I probably wouldn’t believe it right away either…” Zhou Heng felt a coldness spread throughout him, “But such a thing actually happened so smoothly!”

At this moment, he suddenly felt as if there were an invisible giant hand manipulating everything from behind the scenes…

No, it would be more accurate to say that it was all orchestrated!

As if he and all the Celestial Men had subconsciously overlooked certain things and, under the guise of apparently logical reasoning, things had developed to this point.

This situation felt familiar to Zhou Heng.

It was like an enhanced version of the “prophecy” authority he’d used before, which included not only himself and all the Celestial Men but possibly also the Plague Emperor Sect!

“Prophecy: To make a prediction about a certain event and declare that it will certainly occur, the more logical the description of the prophecy, the higher the chance of it coming true.”

It was too similar!

At this thought, Zhou Heng immediately turned to He Mengqiu, “Senior He, can a Dao Seed refined through the Path of Dreams have something like a Great Divine Power that prophecies reality?”

“Yes, it seems you’ve realized,” He Mengqiu nodded with a wry smile, “I was also deceived before. It wasn’t until I saw the behavior of Sect Master Yan just now that I realized.

“It seems that my elder brother’s ‘Dream Weaving Dao Seed’ is infinitely close to Divine First Rank, capable of manipulating reality to a certain extent like weaving dreams, and we… are all just his pawns!

“We must quickly warn everyone that there’s something wrong with this so-called Evil God’s descent ceremony, and its ultimate purpose is probably not to bring the incarnation of the Nine Dragons Plague Emperor!”

“Indeed, that’s what we should do!” Zhou Heng nodded.

Although he was now filled with rage, desiring to expose the person who treated him like a pawn, informing the many Celestial Men who were resisting the “incarnation of the Nine Dragons Plague Emperor” ought to be the top priority.

But at this very moment, Jiang Wuyi of the Plague Emperor Sect, driven to desperation, actually manifested his Celestial Primordial Spirit outright, transforming into a giant purple-black Evil God over ten meters tall, intending to destroy the entire County City of Fengzhou.

Zhou Heng was the first to face the brunt of it, directly facing the first wave of Jiang Wuyi’s attack.

“Do not be presumptuous!” Yan Shouyi made his move.

By merely pressing his palm downward, the space around Jiang Wuyi suddenly collapsed, and a bright Pure Yang golden light exploded within the ferocious Primordial Spirit, instantly shattering the Celestial Primordial Spirit to pieces.

In an instant, Yan Shouyi defeated Jiang Wuyi, just like an adult dealing with a baby, effortlessly, it hardly seemed like a battle between equals.

However, the Celestial Primordial Spirit is nearly indestructible; even after being shattered by Yan Shouyi, Jiang Wuyi was still alive and even had the strength left to reassemble his Primordial Spirit.

After reassembling his Primordial Spirit, the first thing he did was to turn into escaping light and flee.

Yan Shouyi was too powerful, extinguishing any thought of resistance from Jiang Wuyi.

Summoning the descent of the Nine Dragons Plague Emperor to aid in the resurrection of the Celestial Divine Monarch was important, as it related to whether he could survive his fourth tribulation, but if he died now, everything would be in vain.

Preserving his life was more important, the best strategy was to flee!

But as the escaping light Jiang Wuyi turned into flew only a short distance, it crashed into the Ziwei Heavenly Forbiddance, unable to advance further.

The County City of Fengzhou and the outside had become like two different worlds.

Leaving the County City of Fengzhou was as difficult as descending across realms!

“Heh, how pathetic, Jiang Wuyi.”

Just then, a mocking voice suddenly sounded, its source unplaceable, yet seemingly omnipresent.

Jiang Wuyi recognized the owner of the voice.

It was precisely that mysterious person who had shown the Plague Emperor Sect the position of the Nine Dragons Plague Emperor’s Divine Power and told them to hold the ceremony to summon the Great Emperor’s descent.

“Save me!” Jiang Wuyi cried out.

“Sure!” The voice responded.

Immediately after, a sphere of light composed of countless dreamy and illusory shapes appeared out of thin air, enveloping Jiang Wuyi and deflecting Yan Shouyi’s subsequent attack.

“Indeed, there’s a hidden mastermind!” Yan Shouyi spoke in a stern tone.

“Interesting, a mere Celestial Man has managed to detect the traces of my dream weaving,” the voice from within the sphere of light spoke while the sphere violently shook, instantly grinding the enclosed Jiang Wuyi into pure energy.

“Unfortunately, it’s too late for you. Having followed the story I wove to this point, there’s no turning back now, and the final outcome is bound to be realized.

“Sacrifice!

“Descend!

“Maha Jia Ye!

“Aid my ascension to the Dao!”