Bai Xiaochi provided a thorough tour and explanation of all the functions of the fan. During the process, Bai Xiaochun personally visited the mountain in the image on the fan face, atop which was a towering pagoda, filled with the aura of the Dao Essence of Life and Death.
It was a nine-story pagoda, the top floor of which actually contained that Dao Essence of Life and Death. Unfortunately, Bai Xiaochun’s cultivation base wasn’t high enough to permit him to enter that level. He could only reach as high as the fourth.
Even in that fourth floor, though, his progress when practicing cultivation vastly surpassed other locations on the fan, or in the Eternal Immortal Domains. When he sat cross-legged in meditation for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, his entire body filled with burning heat. As it turned out, thanks to the stimulation of the Dao Essence of Life and Death, his cultivation base power increased as much in that short period of time as it normally would in an entire month.
“This is a holy land of cultivation!” he exclaimed.
Off to the side, Bai Xiaochi obsequiously said, “Milord, once you’ve reached the late Celestial Realm, you’ll be able to enter the fifth floor. Once you’re an archaean, you’ll be able to enter the top floor, and contact the Dao Essence of Life and Death directly. At that point, your cultivation will go even faster!”
Excited by the prospect, Bai Xiaochun did some more cultivation, until his cultivation base and battle prowess were far stronger than before. Finally, he left.
After taking a walk around the fan, he once again tried to use the power of his cultivation base to take control of the images in the fan face, and the divine abilities they could unleash.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t budge the mountain, or the river. However, the requirements to use the boat didn’t seem as high, and after some work, he manage to get it to tremble slightly. Even the two men playing Go inside of it twitched.
Although he couldn’t fully summon in outside of the fan face, he was still pleased with the progress he had made. It felt wonderful to be the true owner of the damaged fan. Even better were all of the treasures and medicinal pills he had access to now. A mere thought on his part caused numerous such items to fly out of the fan and into his hand.
At this point, he thought back to some of the strange things he had encountered in the various levels, such as the Dark Concocters, or the level filled with souls. Blurring into motion, he headed into the level that contained the Dark Concocters.
As soon as he appeared, the Dark Concocters sensed his presence, and looked up to see a figure that had haunted their nightmares ever since they first met him. Immediately, screams began to rise into the air.
“Heavens! It’s him! The arch-nemesis of the Dark Concocters!!”
“Impossible! How could he have come back!? Didn’t we banish him already?!”
When Bai Xiaochun saw the Dark Concocters trembling in terror, he threw his head back and laughed uproariously. There was no way he would simply let such natural-born medicine concocters off the hook. Using his authority and powers with the fan, he very easily forced them to submit….
The Dark Concocters agreed to his demands. Scowling on the verge of tears, they began to concoct medicine in exactly the way he demanded….
Next, he went to the level filled with souls, and quickly cleared it out. Long ago, Bai Xiaochi had claimed that he couldn’t take those souls. Bai Xiaochun had then taken that to mean that he would just have to acquire them on his own.
Bai Xiaochi stood off to the side, watching Bai Xiaochun plundering the fan with seeming ease. Although his spirit automaton’s heart dripped with figurative blood, he didn't let even a hint of that show on his face. He simply looked on.
Clearing his throat, Bai Xiaochun said, “Don’t look at me like that. It's a big waste to leave these souls sitting here doing nothing. There’s no way I’m going to let them feed on any more of the spiritual energy powering the fan!”
Looking like the picture of righteousness, he sat down cross-legged and began to practice more cultivation using the medicinal pills he had just acquired.
Half a month went by. Having just become the new owner of the fan, Bai Xiaochun was in extremely high spirits, and was enthralled with the various functions and abilities of the fan. Most of his time was spent either practicing cultivation, or doing research into twenty-three-colored flame.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have a huge stockpile of souls anymore. But he had enough to work with temporarily. He eventually reached the point of being confident enough to do some tests. Although there were no successes, the failures gave him plenty of new insights, and he was gaining confidence in an imminent success.
As Bai Xiaochun was immersed in his activities on the damaged fan, something happened in Vile-Emperor City that was profoundly shocking to all cultivators from the Heavenspan Realm.
Earlier, everything had been calm. The Vile-Prince had kept very low-key, and hadn’t seemed interested in Bai Xiaochun at all. The Vile-Emperor was in secluded meditation.
But the truth was that… the Vile-Prince had been working on a huge plan targeting… the River-Defying Sect!
Patriarch Spirit Stream and his allies had slowly been recruiting more and more cultivators to their cause, and even though Big Fatty Zhang was doing his best to keep it all a secret, their presence was finally made known!
Before, the Vile-Prince hadn’t been confident enough to make a move on them. But now, his patience had reached an end. Furthermore, even after refining the Arch-Emperor into a new arm for himself, he was still unable to perform spirit enhancements. The Vile-Prince was going crazy in his thirst for spirit enhancement blood. And therefore, he had spent the last few months secretly surrounding the River-Defying Sect.
If the sect had been located in the Saint-Emperor Dynasty, he wouldn’t have dared to make a move. But since it was in the Vile-Emperor Dynasty, things were much simpler. Even still, he knew that when he made his move, he had to strike like lightning.
He arranged for some celestials to help him, which ensured that the River-Defying Sect forces were powerless to resist him. When he finally made his move, they couldn’t even fight back! They were instantly captured!!
The news shook the entire Vile-Emperor Dynasty. And what was even more astonishing was the subsequent announcement made by the Vile-Prince that he was setting up a massive spell formation in one of the plains outside of Vile-Emperor City!
Trapped within the spell formation were all of the cultivators from the River-Defying Sect, as well as other Heavenspan Realm cultivators who had been imprisoned earlier. There were tens of thousands in total.
All of them were sealed, and incapable of escaping the spell formation which, once fully activated, would extract their blood. The Vile-Prince himself wouldn’t oversee the operation, but rather, Celestial Deadfall and Reverend Devourer!
It was shocking news, especially to the Heavenspan cultivators scattered in the Saint-Emperor Dynasty. All of them were immediately enraged!
“Vile-Prince!!” Song Que had just been preparing to go meet up with the River-Defying Sect, and was relatively close to Vile-Emperor City. When he heard about what was happening, his eyes began to burn with madness and killing intent, and he instantly powered up his cultivation base.
He had been a lone wolf for years now, and had slaughtered countless enemies. Because of that, and because of the cultivation resources he had acquired over the years, his cultivation base had long since broken through to the late Deva Realm!
However, because of his murderous aura, he was confident that he could actually fight a demigod!
Years of enlightenment regarding the Dao of slaughter and killing made him seem like a razor-sharp sword dripping with blood. Without any hesitation, he began to speed in the direction of Vile-Emperor City.
It was at that exact same moment that, back on the damaged fan, Bai Xiaochun finally conjured a twenty-three-colored flame. Feeling very pleased with himself, he left the fan and returned to his private chamber in the embassy in Vile-Emperor City. As soon as he materialized, he noticed that his transmission jade slip was vibrating loudly.
Because of how far away the damaged fan was, he couldn’t receive transmitted messages. But now, all of the messages came in, and when he saw them, his face flickered dramatically. Heart pounding with a sense of profound unease, he sent his divine sense into the jade slip.
Virtually all of the messages were from Big Fatty Zhang!!