Chapter 12: My Fellow Taoist, Please Wait.
The Wuji Apricot Flag was the highest grade Primordial Spiritual Treasure with ten thousands of golden lotuses. This gave it the ability to ward off all evil and invincible defenses, making it indestructible. But now the flag had no master. With no one to use it, it could only depend on itself by absorbing the Heavenly Spiritual Air, which would not last long.
Moreover, being in the midst of the Blood River Formation, the Heavenly Spiritual Air was cut off. With only the boundless Evil Blood Aura and the lack of the Heavenly Spiritual Air, reviving the Wuji Apricot Flag was hopeless. Once the golden lotus had been wiped clean, the Blood God Doppelganger immediately inserted an original spirit and started refining the treasure. From then on, the Wuji Apricot Flag belonged to Minghe.
The Blood God Doppelganger began to remove the formation by taking back the Clones of Blood God, when finishing the first step to convert the flag. In a rush to prepare for his return to Blood Sea, he then handed the Wuji Apricot Flag to Minghe. After all, this flag was a treasure. It was not safe to leave with an avatar and the flag was only in the first step of conversion. It still needed Minghe to personally convert it in the next step to be able to serve its purpose.
After a few steps, the Blood God Doppelganger heard a cry behind him. "Fellow Taoist, please hold on a moment!" The Blood God Doppelganger could not help but shiver, knowing that anyone who had read the Investiture of the Gods or novels about Untainted Land knew about this phrase. The lethality of this phrase was shocking, and the Blood God Doppelganger could not help but be afraid.
Only two people regularly used this phrase. The first was the famous Sage of the Heavenly Way, Zhunti, who Minghe knew was the most shameless sage. He often used this phrase to hold up fellow Taoists saying how they were fated to meet, basically lying and cheating to get what he wanted. Anyway, no good could come out of meeting Zhunti.
The second one was Shen Gongbao, who heavily relied on this phrase to help Emperor Zhou of the Shang Dynasty reel in dozens of powerful cultivators and disciples of the Clan of Severity. In the end, all of them were killed and ended up on the list of Investiture of the Gods.
Upon hearing these words, the Blood God Doppelganger could not help but think of those two. Anything could happen and if it was meant to be, it would be. Hearing this phrase right after laying his hands on the treasure, the Blood God Doppelganger simply thought it was hilarious.
He turned around and saw a middle-aged Taoist walking over, the Blood God Doppelganger sighed in relief. He thought about, even if Zhunti was born, Zhunti would have to follow Jieyin to the west to train. And as for Shen Gongbao? He was someone who would only appear during the war of the investiture gods, and he was not even born yet. The Blood God Doppelganger blamed himself for being too paranoid.
When the Taoist caught up to him, he arched his hands and bowed. "I, Ancestor of Heaven and Earth, have seen my fellow Taoist. Just recently there was a luminous bright light with lots of golden lotus around here. I’m not sure if you, my fellow Taoist know what happened?" The Blood God Doppelganger listened and thought to himself. If he had known earlier, he should have set a Blood River Formation before unsealing the Wuji Apricot Flag, and now trouble had befallen on his doorstep.
The Ancestor of Heaven and Earth? The Blood God Doppelganger had not heard of such a person before, and there was no mention of such character in the myth of Untainted Land either. However, armed with a cultivation realm of Zenith Heaven Golden Immortality Late Stage, the Blood God Doppelganger did not dare to be careless. He replied politely, "Oh, so it’s the Heaven and Earth fellow Taoist. I’m merely passing by and did not see any extraordinary happenings. I still have other urgent matters and will be on my way."
Just as the Blood God Doppelganger was leaving, the Ancestor of Heaven and Earth blocked his way with an unpleasant expression. "Fellow Taoist you’re lying. You were the only one here, so how could you not know what happened here? Unless you’re afraid that I would steal from you? Harrumph!" His tone was not as polite as before. It was no wonder as in the eyes of the Ancestor of Heaven and Earth, though the Blood God Doppelganger was at Primordial Unity Golden Immortality peak, it was nothing to be afraid of.
The Blood God Doppelganger felt that the situation could not be settled peacefully now. He could only stubbornly insist. "I did see some abnormality but when I rushed to the site, I saw a yellow light heading towards the west. I was going to chase after it, and if you will, you could even catch up to it."
The Ancestor of Heaven and Earth said coldly. "Harrumph! You think you, with such low realm, can cheat me. Release your Original Spirit immediately and let me check. If what you said is true, then I’ll allow you to go. But if you dare lie... humph!" The Ancestor of Heaven and Earth released his Zenith Heaven Golden Immortality Late Stage imposing it towards the Blood God Doppelganger.
But he was surprised to see that the Blood God Doppelganger did not seem to be affected by the pressure. Without any change in his facial expression, this seemed to be slapping the Ancestor of Heaven and Earth in the face. He originally wanted to force the Blood God Doppelganger to hand over the treasure but unexpectedly, the Blood God Doppelganger was not affected by the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortality pressure at all.
Then again, although the Blood God Doppelganger only had Primordial Unity Golden Immortality peak realm, the forty-nine Blood God Doppelgangers had been created by Minghe by splitting his Original Spirit. Even though at that time Minghe’s supernatural power had only been at the Primordial Unity Golden Immortality peak level, his Original Spirit realm was already within the realm of Zenith Heaven Golden Immortality. Now, Minghe was at the Peak of the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortality realm. With only mere Zenith Heaven Golden Immortality late stage, there was no way the Blood God Doppelganger could be affected.
The Blood God Doppelganger saw that the Ancestor of Heaven and Earth was beginning to have murderous intent, he quickly converted into a blood cloud to run away. Naturally, the Ancestor of Heaven and Earth did not let the Blood God Doppelganger have that chance. He brought out a ruler and waved it against the Blood God Doppelganger. A gust of Heaven and Earth breath, division of Yin and Yang, was shot towards the Blood God Doppelganger.
The Blood God Doppelganger saw the ruler and not dare to belittle him, he instantly brought out the Wuji Apricot Flag. The Wuji Apricot Flag stood atop the head of the Blood God Doppelganger, scattering ten thousands of golden lotuses, and stood guard on both sides. The gust of Heaven and Earth dispersed once the flag appeared, but Blood God Doppelganger did not dare to underestimate the ruler of the Ancestor of Heaven and Earth as it was most likely the famed Ruler of Heaven and Earth.
The Ruler of Heaven and Earth was a Top Grade Primordial Spiritual Treasure containing a breadth of Heaven and Earth. The world’s Yin and Yang and heaven and earth formed into one to represent the Yin and Yang of the world. It would be used by the Dipankara Taoist in the future, who would then use it to launch a surprise attack on Zhao Gongming of the Clan of Severity and cause severe injuries to him. The ruler and the Sea-protection Pearl were reliant on each other, so the Dipankara Taoist used the ruler to make twenty-four Sea-protection Pearls evolve to form the twenty-four heavenly soldiers.
Blocking an attack from the Ancestor of Heaven and Earth, the Blood God Doppelganger attacked back by waving the sword in his hand. The sword had been refined by Minghe in the image of the Yuantu and Abi sword, combined with an abundance of evil blood aura from Blood Sea. Although it was only a Highest Grade Post-Celestial Spiritual Treasure, its attack power could not be dismissed. It was on par with the Primordial Spiritual Treasure and each of the forty-nine Blood God Doppelgangers were armed with one.
The Blood God Doppelganger moved seemingly like a dance that diffused blood air as the sword struck out. The Rain of Blood, was the first stance of the technique "Boundless Sword Incantation" that Minghe had created. It may have simply looked like blood air was diffusing, but yet it hid a vast menace intent. Blood aura was false, whereas the sword’s aura was real. Moreover, the sword’s aura was tainted with an evil spirit. To be injured by the sword aura was no simple matter.
When the blood aura attacked, the Ancestor of Heaven and Earth was not fazed. A map glowing with green light rose from him and absorbed all the blood sword’s aura into it. The sword of the Blood God Doppelganger, filled with menace intent, was resisted just like that.
The Map of Heaven and Earth, which was a Highest Grade Primordial Spiritual Treasure, contained the world of Heaven and Earth and could contain anything. The world in the map did not lose to the holy grounds of Untainted Land when facing an enemy. The ability to move the power of Heaven and Earth, and to absorb thousands of attacks into the map ultimately belonged to Lao Zi of Three Pure Ones.
Seeing the appearance of the Map of Heaven and Earth, the Blood God Doppelganger felt the urge to vomit blood. The man was an Ancestor of Heaven and Earth and all his magic weapons had something to do with Heaven and Earth. Was there a need to be so extraordinary? However, Minghe’s magic weapon did not lose to that of the Ancestor of Heaven and Earth.
After blocking an attack from the Blood God Doppelganger, the Map of Heaven and Earth kept itself above the head of the ancestor. The Ancestor of Heaven and Earth could see the Wuji Apricot Flag above the head of the Blood God Doppelganger. His eyes flashed with a glint of cunningness. "Kid, this must be the treasure you just got! Not bad at all, but this isn’t something you can handle. If you hand over this treasure, I’ll let you go. How about it?"
The Blood God Doppelganger heard and could tolerate him no longer. "No way! The treasure is right here. Come and get it!" The Ancestor of Heaven and Earth boiled with rage after seeing how the Blood God Doppelganger acted. Menace intent rose up. Bringing forth the Ruler of Heaven and Earth, the Ancestor of Heaven and Earth used all the force he had, including the power from the Map of Heaven and Earth.
The attack landed on the Wuji Apricot Flag’s shield. Suddenly, half of the Golden Lotus disappeared. The Golden Light Defense trembled upon the attack. Pu! The Blood God Doppelganger spat out fresh blood. It was obvious that he was injured and though the defense was not broken through, the Wuji Apricot Flag was only in its preliminary refinement, so part of the attack still landed directly on the Blood God Doppelganger.