Chapter 708: Scattering Ashes is a Very Ceremonial Thing

The sky was shrouded in a layer of blood-red mist.

In the narrow area of the Shijue Zhen ruins, the ground had been melted into a copper mirror, and the Tian Dao force that upheld the earth had temporarily receded.

The Bodhi Shu was left with only a bare trunk, and the Qibao Miaoshu based on it had been completely destroyed, leaving only residual spiritual power.

On the trunk, the Lushen Qiang was somewhat bent, its tip piercing a piece of ruined, rotting flesh. Zhunti's corpse now looked utterly terrifying, evoking an instinctive revulsion at first glance.

This was a revulsion that came from the depths of all living beings.

Li Changshou frowned as he stepped forward, the flames on his forehead fading, and his feet suddenly gave way, causing him to collapse to the ground.

Zhao Gongming, who had been standing at the top of the trunk, quickly jumped down and ran a few steps toward Li Changshou, only to stagger and fall weakly himself.

Then, the two of them looked at each other—one sitting, one lying—and burst into laughter with their heads thrown back.

What joyful laughter it was!

What hearty laughter it was!

It seemed as though this laughter was the only sound echoing through the heavens and earth.

On the Chan Jiao side, most immortals wore expressions of utter despair, for their opponent...

Had slain a saint.

On the Jie Jiao side, many female immortals had tears streaming down their faces, while a few male immortals clenched their fists and waved them wildly, each filled with boundless heroism but unsure how to express it.

High in the sky, Jiyin Daoist's aura trembled violently, yet his eyes seemed unfocused, staring at the withered tree on the ground.

But at this moment, his face showed more astonishment than grief.

He was merely stunned that a saint could truly die...

The ancient myth of the Six Saints' immortality was now a thing of the past.

The foundational order of Tian Dao and the Six Saints had been formally replaced by Tian Dao and the Tian Court!

They were merely more powerful "great beings," stripped of their most mysterious and exalted veil.

A few flashes of light appeared in the air as Yuan Shi Tianzun emerged above the Chan Jiao immortals, his expression calm as he gazed at Zhunti's corpse.

Tong Tian Jiaozhu appeared above the Jie Jiao immortals, unable to hold back his laughter as he sheathed the Qingping Jian and the Zhuxian Four Swords, his figure swaying unsteadily in the air.

The Tai Qing Saint frowned at his third junior brother, and Tong Tian Jiaozhu's laughter abruptly stopped. He quickly straightened up, bowed to the Tai Qing Saint, and said:

"Senior brother."

The Tai Qing Saint nodded slowly and said gently, "Be mindful."

"Ah, alright," Tong Tian Jiaozhu replied with a smile, then fastened the Qingping Jian to his waist, crossed his arms, and looked toward Zhunti's corpse.

The Twenty-Four Zhutian had now transformed into twenty-four illusory stars, waiting to be sent to the Tian Court by Zhao Gongming.

After laughing for a while in front of the Bodhi Shu's remains, Li Changshou was the first to recover. He took out two Jiuzhuan Jindan pills, handed them over, and helped Zhao Gongming to his feet.

Li Changshou looked up at Jiyin in the air and asked, "Old bro, do you still have any strength left?"

"Yes!"

Zhao Gongming perked up, gritted his teeth as he glared at Jiyin, and said, "Let's take him on!"

"Well," Li Changshou transmitted via voice, "the little Lushen Qiang is half-destroyed. Even if I burn my primordial spirit, I still can't quite match him. We might not..."

"Break through his defenses."

Zhao Gongming instantly dropped his fierce expression and stared hatefully at Jiyin, transmitting back, "Then what do we do? You were just so bold, saying we'd kill the two saints."

"We can interpret it as the second saint of the Western Teach."

Li Changshou transmitted lightly, "No rush. Let's scare him first. We can't let Zhunti's death go to waste—we need to maximize the intimidation effect."

As he spoke, Li Changshou flicked a flash of green light from his sleeve, transforming it into a large green-furred dog.

Diting.

He had rushed here upon discovering Jin Ling's entry into the calamity, but was delayed by a few gray-robed elders, so Diting had ended up in his sleeve and brought along.

This was perfect—it could also serve as a vivid lesson for Diting, teaching him to keep his mouth shut when he shouldn't speak.

Diting sensed the scattered saintly aura around him and was truly stunned.

Just moments ago in Li Changshou's sleeve, he hadn't felt a thing, only a bit of jostling. Now, suddenly thrown out, he was met with waves of gazes.

The tree nearby... the innate spiritual root, Bodhi Shu!

And the person on the tree.

Diting's legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground, his expression incredibly rich.

The Sixth Saint was always criticized as the weakest, and he had been beaten twice by the Tai Qing Saint before, but that didn't mean they could just kill him, right?

What had happened to the world?

It looked like Zhao Gongming, who didn't back down from a fight, and the Xing Jun adult had teamed up to kill him.

What was going on?

Had the Xing Jun adult failed to hook Maitreya and turned around to slaughter Maitreya's master to vent his frustration at Maitreya not showing up?

His master was in trouble—who could handle this!

Then Diting saw Li Changshou and Zhao Gongming, both covered in blood, changing clothes as they approached the saint's corpse. These two slayers of a saint were muttering...

Zhao Gongming asked, "Can we refine something good from this saint's corpse?"

"It's probably about the same as a Zhun Sheng's corpse," Li Changshou said. "His Dao has returned to the sea of Dao principles, and his aura is gone. His primordial spirit was evaporated by the Twenty-Four Zhutian force.

Saint's blood is a good thing, but his is too impure. It might not be useful for refining pills."

Afterward, the two tacitly looked up at Jiyin Daoist.

High in the sky, Jiyin Daoist was restrained by the Tai Qing Saint's incarnation of One Qi Transforms Three Purities and wasn't struggling. Instead, he closed his eyes.

He seemed quite confident and not panicked at all.

At most, he might just shake a bit.

Zhao Gongming pondered for a moment: "Do saints... not have storage treasures?"

Diting was nearly driven mad.

Was this the right focus?

"They probably do," Li Changshou said, extending two streams of immortal power. Zhunti's corpse split in two, and a few ruined treasures fell out—all items that could no longer be used.

Li Changshou looked disappointed, while Zhao Gongming's eyes lit up. He wrapped the treasures in immortal power and turned to call out:

"Saint's treasure fragments—Zhunti Saint memorial edition! Any fellow disciples want to collect them?"

The Jie Jiao immortals roared in response, and if not for the barrier, they would have rushed forward to snatch them.

Zhao Gongming smiled calmly: "The highest bidder gets them!"

The Jie Jiao immortals became even more excited.

Li Changshou: ...

This was probably what made him the God of Wealth.

After fiddling with the corpse for a while, they found nothing particularly valuable—just some materials for refining tools.

"What about disposing of the body?" Zhao Gongming asked.

"Of course, burn it. We don't want to study how saints turn into corpses," Li Changshou said with a smile, then began a rather "retro" procedure.

From his sleeve flew out paper figures that rolled onto the ground and transformed into elderly men and women.

Six elderly men sat around the saint's corpse and began reciting scriptures: Daoist "Du Ren Jing," Daoist "Song Hun Jing," Western Teach "Wang Sheng Zhu," and so on.

The scene suddenly became lively.

Four middle-aged paper figures stood at the four cardinal positions around the corpse, synchronously raising four suonas of different tones. They puffed their cheeks and played a cheerful, soaring melody.

More paper figures turned into elderly women and young women, weeping beside them and burning paper offerings in a fire basin.

Li Changshou summoned a flame in his palm.

This flame was a pure white-gray, and as soon as it appeared, it distorted the surrounding space. A chill spread through the hearts of all beings present.

Li Changshou gently pushed his hand, and the flame attached to the already ruined corpse. The body quickly withered, but something inside seemed to support it, so it didn't burn completely after a while.

Zhao Gongming was about to speak—perhaps to borrow the Zhuxian Four Swords from his master—when Li Changshou casually flicked his right hand, releasing five different true flames that landed on the remains.

Soon, the saint's corpse turned into a layer of charred black on the ground and two bowl-sized golden spheres.

Li Changshou murmured to himself, summoned the bent little Lushen Qiang, and smashed it down on the spheres. The heat-resistant orbs shattered into powder with little effort.

Finally, when the saint's corpse was reduced to a mix of black and gray dust, Li Changshou sacrificed dozens of Shehun Zhu, waving them nearby to complete the final step.

He raised his hand, and his sleeve stirred up a gentle breeze, scattering the ashes under the bare Bodhi Shu.

Ah, what relief.

Li Changshou closed his eyes, feeling a sense of elevation wash over him in that instant.

He had waited far too long for this scattering of ashes.

The Great Desolation needed these ashes from the saint to fill the resentment of many living beings!

Coincidentally, the great calamity force had receded by a quarter.

If they could kill three saints, the Feng Shen calamity might not even be necessary, as the power of living beings would steadily drop below the freezing point.

But alas, they couldn't kill more, and there were no more to kill.

With the Tian Court and Tian Dao reinforced by the Twenty-Four Zhutian, and the Nine Heavens merged into Thirty-Three Heavens later, part of the calamity force could also be offset.

Thus, the Chan and Jie sects no longer needed complete annihilation—one side wiped out would suffice to fill the great calamity.

Where had Zhunti's Hongmong Zqi gone?

Li Changshou hadn't deliberately searched for it. During the Twenty-Four Zhutian's assault on Zhunti, he had observed carefully.

The Hongmong Zqi had been fused into the saint's Dao fruit by great merit. For a saint like Zhunti, who relied heavily on merit for enlightenment, the Hongmong Zqi was inseparable and had evaporated with him.

"Diting," Li Changshou said, "help sense if there's any sign of life from this Bodhi Shu."

Diting nodded quickly, then shook his head, not daring to speak, and mechanically carried out the Xing Jun's orders, his whole beast in a daze.

Li Changshou said warmly:

"Go back and tell your master it's not that I don't give him face. I killed his uncle because his uncle went too far.

We in Ren Jiao uphold quietude and inaction. If not driven to our limits, we don't like fighting others. As a Tian Court civil official, I don't enjoy killing.

I hope your master and I can still share tea, discuss the Dao, and be close friends."

Diting was almost in tears.

You've already killed a Western saint—don't drag his master into this mess with the Western Teach!

Then, Li Changshou threw balls of true fire at the Bodhi Shu's remains and rode a cloud into the air, taking Zhao Gongming with him.

Jiyin looked ashen, opening his eyes and staring at Li Changshou with a complex gaze.

Beside him, Tong Tian Jiaozhu suddenly spoke, the saint declaring loudly:

"Zhunti lost his virtue and harmed living beings. Now he has been executed by my senior brothers' disciple Changgeng and my disciple Zhao Gongming. Jiyin Daoist, do you have any dissatisfaction?"

Jiyin turned to Tong Tian Jiaozhu, gave a bitter laugh, and sighed:

"The Great Desolation has endless ages, yet we end up binding ourselves.

My junior brother was slain by non-saints. His skills were inferior, and his Dao unworthy of sainthood, so I have nothing to say."

Tong Tian Jiaozhu said, "In that case, why not make a vow in front of us three senior brothers, promising never to seek revenge for this?"

Jiyin fell silent for a moment, then said:

"If I seek revenge for today's events, may I be slain by the Sanqing Daoists."

The Tai Qing Saint looked at Li Changshou and said slowly, "Kill..."

Li Changshou's heart tightened, not expecting his teacher's killing intent to be even stronger than his own.

Although killing Jiyin now might make Tian Dao the biggest winner and disrupt his later plans, as a disciple, he couldn't disobey his teacher's order.

It seemed he'd have to reveal a couple of his last dozen trump cards!

"...Huh?"

Li Changshou, who was about to step forward, quickly stopped and bowed, saying loudly:

"Teacher, Second Uncle, Third Uncle, and Senior Jiyin.

Today, your disciple slew the saint Zhunti because he indiscriminately killed living beings, disregarded the Tian Court, disregarded Tian Dao, and disregarded the Dao sect!

Zhunti lost his virtue, a fact known throughout the Three Realms. Relying on his superior power, he repeatedly went back on his word and trampled the prestige of saints. Now, the word 'saint' has become a joke among living beings—he is utterly unforgivable!

Senior Jiyin, though you indulged Zhunti, as fellow saints, it's hard to interfere with each other, and your disciple understands that.

As for whether Senior Jiyin will seek revenge on your disciple and Gongming bro because of your junior brother's death..."

Li Changshou paused, looked up at Jiyin, and smiled:

"From today on, Gongming bro will complete the Tian Court and serve as a key minister, not participating in the Feng Shen calamity.

Your disciple fears nothing."

"Good."

The Tai Qing Saint showed a slight smile, his three incarnations casually adjusting to make Jiyin face his gaunt features directly.

With just a look, Jiyin understood the Tai Qing Saint's words.

A pure threat.

Jiyin closed his eyes and said nothing. The Tai Qing Saint dispelled his One Qi Transforms Three Purities technique, casually pointed at Li Changshou, and a jade talisman formed in his palm, along with a surge of insights in his spiritual platform.

Divine ability: One Qi Transforms Three Purities.

The install-free version!

This open transmission was also a deterrence to Jiyin, maximizing the effect of Li Changshou and Zhao Gongming's joint slaying of a saint.

Once the Tai Qing Saint withdrew his technique, Jiyin sighed softly and dissipated into mist.

On the Chan Jiao side, Yuan Shi Tianzun said to the Tai Qing Saint, "Senior brother, I'll take my leave."

The Tai Qing Saint nodded in acknowledgment. Yuan Shi Tianzun flicked his sleeve, taking all the Chan Jiao disciples except Yang Jian with him, and vanished in an instant.

Streaks of light soared up as the Jie Jiao immortals rushed toward this spot.

Li Changshou frowned slightly and exchanged a glance with Zhao Gongming, who immediately understood.

The Hunlun Zhong flew to Zhao Gongming's side, and Jin Ling Shengmu emerged from it.

The bell rang again, sending out faint gray ripples that blocked the Jie Jiao immortals a hundred zhang away.

Zhao Gongming pulled the still pale-faced Jin Ling Shengmu closer, channeling streams of spiritual power to her. The couple looked at each other, then knelt toward Tong Tian Jiaozhu behind the Jie Jiao immortals.

Tong Tian stood with his hands behind his back, gazing up at the sky.

Zhao Gongming and Jin Ling Shengmu kowtowed three times. Jin Ling kept her head down, her face full of guilt, while Zhao Gongming chuckled and said loudly:

"Master! Your disciples and Jin Ling have survived the calamity!

The child in Jin Ling's womb is fine. You'll get to hold your grandchild in a few years! We're heading to the Feng Shen Terrace to rest and recover!"

As he spoke, Zhao Gongming's eyes reddened, and he kowtowed again:

"Your disciple Zhao Gongming thanks you for your grace!

From ancient times, you took me as your disciple, taught me the Dao, and gave me supreme spiritual treasures. I could never repay you at your knee, and now I can't serve you anymore.

You always say you don't look old and tell us not to call you master so formally, but today, I want to call you master.

Master, your disciple Zhao Gongming bows to you.

Your disciple is going to the Feng Shen Terrace and can no longer look after my fellow disciples in the sect or share your burdens.

Your disciple..."

Tong Tian Jiaozhu chuckled lightly and said casually, "Alright, go on. Look at Jin Ling—she's not as fussy as you. Be more like a man."

But Jin Ling looked up at Tong Tian Jiaozhu, the great Jie Jiao figure who had battled half of the Twelve Golden Immortals, and now she cried like rain on pear blossoms, choking out:

"Your disciple... doesn't know what to say..."

Many Jie Jiao immortals laughed and cried.

Yunxiao stepped forward and said softly, "Brother, take care on your path."

"Mm!" Zhao Gongming nodded vigorously, bowed to Yunxiao, and said, "Remember to listen to Changgeng and not cause him trouble.

And you two... hey, where's the fourth sister?"

Qiongxiao wiped the corner of her eye and whispered, "She's at home guarding things."

"Ah! Ha ha ha!"

Zhao Gongming laughed a couple of times and said warmly, "We'll gather again after the great calamity. Having three sworn sisters is the greatest fortune of my life, Zhao Gongming!

Of course, forming a Dao couple with my wife is my greatest blessing."

Jin Ling gave a light reproachful glance, and the Jie Jiao immortals burst into laughter.

Even the Tai Qing Saint, who had already vanished, managed a slight smile in the Tai Qing Temple.

However, the Tai Qing Saint was extraordinary. His gaze had already turned to the outer Xuandu City.

The first batch of Tai Qing Spirit Pills had come out of the furnace in the Doushu Gong.

Great events were on the horizon.

In the Shijue Zhen ruins, Yang Jian stood beside the fairy corpse that had been sealed into the earth, sighing softly.

Seeing the large group of Jie Jiao immortals approaching, Yang Jian bowed slightly and left without further ado.

Thus, half an hour later.

"It's my fault... it's all my fault..."

On the Feng Shen Terrace, in a dim corner at the edge, the girl in the short skirt hugged her knees and curled up, sobbing continuously.

"I harmed Senior Sister Jin Ling; I dragged everyone into the calamity.

Why didn't I die earlier? Why..."

"Jin Guang, Senior Sister Jin Guang?"

A familiar voice came from the side. The girl trembled, looked up at the source of the call, and her pupils shrank.

Senior Brother Zhao, Senior Sister Jin Ling, all the brothers...

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's my fault; I should have... I'm sorry..."

Zhao Gongming laughed heartily: "Ha ha ha, silly girl!

Come here and pinch your senior brother and sister. We're safe and sound, alive and well!

Why did you rush to take your own life back then? See, we've turned disaster into blessing!"

Qin Wan smiled: "Little sister, come quickly. Our Senior Brother Gongming and Junior Brother Changgeng just killed Zhunti the saint!"

The Ten Tianjun chimed in:

"What saint? Just Zhunti Daoist!"

"Then we're still making a profit."

"Yeah, we indirectly helped take down a saint—a bit of emotional buildup, at least."

"Worth it, worth it."

Jin Ling Shengmu had already stepped forward, helping up Jin Guang, whose Dao body had been restored by Tian Dao, and gently embraced her, soothing her slowly.

"Senior sister is fine; my body is intact, and the child is safe."

"Senior sister!"

Jin Guang couldn't hold back any longer and burst into tears in her arms.

Zhao Gongming and Qin Wan exchanged glances and smiled lightly. Once Jin Guang had cried herself out, Zhao Gongming was about to suggest finding a place for tea and chat when Bai Jian hurried over.

"Lord Gongming! Lord Gongming!"

Zhao Gongming stood with his hands behind his back and said unhappily, "Marshal Bai Jian, please don't keep calling me lord!

I'm only tenth in the Tian Dao sequence now, and I don't have an official title yet. Calling me that makes it seem like I'm throwing my weight around here, which would be a bad influence, right?

Ahem, what is it?"

Bai Jian said quickly: "The Jade Emperor and Queen Mother have sent ten tables of immortal banquets and a hundred jars of immortal wine; they've been delivered to the main hall up front."

"Let's go!"

Zhao Gongming waved his hand: "Invite the Chan Jiao people who came here too! We can't promote unity in the outside world, but once we're in the heavens, we'll all be colleagues.

Today, we don't stop until we're drunk!"