Chapter 32 Qingqiang Sacrifice: Sacrifice to Heaven

[Those who seek longevity must serve the Heavenly Ghosts.]

[In ancient times, people sacrificed to the heavens and the ghosts, hoping to obtain longevity. The objects of their sacrifices were not heavenly gods but Heavenly Ghosts. When Taoism originated, it also worshipped the various Heavenly Ghosts. At that time, the Three Heavens Technique had not yet risen, and the Qi of the Six Heavens had not yet dissipated. Beyond the Nine Qi, there were another Nine Qi. The world was chaotic, and beliefs were numerous.]

[If one wants to invite ghosts and gods, they must cater to the will of the Heavenly Ghosts through "human affairs" in the human world, satisfying the needs of these "ghosts and gods." The Heavenly Ghosts are the concrete embodiment of the will of Heaven and the will of the people. They are beings that appear through the mutual resonance between humans and Heaven, playing the roles of "immortals" and "heavenly gods" in the present world.]

[The names of the Heavenly Ghosts represent the rituals to summon them. After the rise of the Three Heavens Technique, the Heavenly Ghosts of various heavens faded into obscurity, no longer existing, only remaining in the classics, transformed into the ghost officers of the various gods of the Five Mountains.]

The Heavenly Ghosts were a type of sacrifice that was quite popular from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Han Dynasty. The theory of ghosts and gods has existed since ancient times, and the boundary between gods and ghosts was not clear at that time.

"So, these are the Heavenly Ghosts that were worshipped before Taoism took shape. In that case, the rituals to worship them, and even control them, should be the Qingqiang Sacrifice!"

"Now someone has opened the residence of the Heavenly Ghosts, which means the Qingqiang Sacrifice has begun. However, there is no one to preside over the Qingqiang Sacrifice, so the uncontrolled Heavenly Ghosts are rampaging everywhere. Is that so?"

"Using the Three Great Emperors to suppress them... indeed, in the origin of Taoism, the Three Great Emperors are the worship of the Three Primaries of Heaven, Earth, and Water. They are also primitive deities transformed from witch ghosts into righteous gods, existing between ghosts and gods and righteous gods. Furthermore, in the continuous sacrifices that followed, they were promoted to become personified Taoist Great Emperors, further attributed with the identities of the Three Kings of Yao, Shun, and Yu."

Ji Xiang recalled Yuan Huang's warning.

The Qingqiang Sacrifice has been opened, and the ancient evil god is about to appear. It devours all spirits to grow and is closely related to the origin of Taoism. However, Yuqing cultivators must not touch it, and it is clearly stated that it is a certain *thing*.

The Six Heavens Ancient Ghosts were also fabricated by him. Confucianism's supernatural powers cannot be used here. Seeing Qian and stopping, Lesser Excess indicates only a small matter can be done.

What the Demon Heavenly Master wanted Ji Xiang to find was Zhang Xiu's Qingcheng Spiritual Book.

Ji Xiang frowned deeply.

Eliminating these Heavenly Ghosts is one thing, obtaining the Spiritual Book is another. And if the magnitude of the disturbance caused is used to distinguish between major and minor matters, clearly taking the book is minor, and eliminating the ghosts is major. In other words, he has to watch these Heavenly Ghosts rampage and cannot eliminate them. Is that what Yuan Huang meant?

"There must be a win-win solution."

Letting these Heavenly Ghosts run amok is definitely not acceptable. As long as one escapes, it will cause great chaos. Even ancient immortals like the Donghua Fairy could not resist the bewitching power of the Heavenly Ghosts. Wouldn't those cultivators outside who haven't reached the level of immortals be eaten by them at will, like chives?

Moreover, these Heavenly Ghosts are not the most important things.

"Wearing green robes."

With a thought, Ji Xiang changed into green robes. The Donghua Fairy also used transformation techniques to change into green robes, chanting thunderous incantations and遁 (dun - escaping) into the gray fog.

Thunderous sounds cleared the way. It could be felt that there were many prying eyes around, coming from very distant locations, yet seemingly always nearby, containing deep malice. At the same time, the blank divine tablet constantly manifested the names of these Heavenly Ghosts.

[The Hengwu Heavenly Ghost.] [The Fanfu Heavenly Ghost.] [The Wuzhu Heavenly Ghost.]

The three Heavenly Ghosts closest to them were only watching their actions due to the roaring thunder. Green robes and thunderous sounds were the means by which the ancient Qiang people controlled the Heavenly Ghosts.

The deeper they went, the more blurred the scenery of the heavens and the earth became. In the end, even things close at hand could only be seen in outline. This was no longer the influence of the fog, but rather the heavens and the earth being changed by the Heavenly Ghosts, becoming their sacrificial grounds.

"If we don't find that stone tablet, we can't stop the Qingqiang Sacrifice. However, the start of the stone tablet sacrifice should have been intentional. In the future vision, I saw a Tianxin expert (Celestial Heart realm expert) overflowing with golden light. He blocked my窥视 (kui shi - peeking) into the future, and the Demon Heavenly Master also mentioned the existence of this person. What permeates his body is the aura of righteousness."

"A Tianxin expert of Confucianism? But you asked Yuan Huang, didn't he say that things here are related to the origin of Taoism?" The Donghua Fairy's face was still pale, and she couldn't quickly recover her essence in this sacrificial ground.

"..." Ji Xiang didn't respond, but he had a guess in his heart.

Yuan Huang mentioned the Six Heavens Ancient Ghosts, saying they were just things imagined by that evil object. But the Six Heavens Ancient Ghosts are derived from the Six Heavens Emperors of Confucianism. Since they are derived, they must have a source.

[Transform bones, shed the mortal body.]

"What? What do you mean?"

Ji Xiang was immediately stunned, because at this moment, his blank divine tablet suddenly projected four words. The activity of this thing had indeed increased, but these sudden four-word prompts still left Ji Xiang confused.

However, a strange feeling began to grow in his heart.

脱胎 (tuo tai - shedding the mortal body).

换骨 (huan gu - changing bones).

The Taoist meaning is to shed the mortal body and transform into a sacred body.

Upon shedding the mortal body, the form shines, like sunlight shining on dust through a bright window.

Combining the current situation and the guesses in his heart...

"Could it be that the evil object was not originally a Taoist object, but a Confucian object? When Taoism was still in its early stages, before it had become a religion, a certain great cultivator used the influence of this evil object to accidentally achieve a state of shedding the mortal body and transforming bones, thus opening up a brand new path. This person is..."

"Zhang Daoling?"

After all, the founder of Taoism is Ancestral Heavenly Master Zhang Daoling, the leader of all heavenly masters. However, before he formally established the religion, there were still others in the world who inherited the ideas of pre-Qin Taoism and opened up paths for cultivation. Just as there were ascetics in the world before Sakyamuni became a Buddha.

There are always similar people opening similar paths. And the Three Heavens Technique also began to rise from Ancestral Heavenly Master, and the Heavenly Ghosts also declined at this time.

The Zhuangzi School, the Huang-Lao Taoist School, and the Immortality Seekers.

"But Yuqing cultivators are a unique term for cultivators under Yuan Shi Tianzun. If this evil object is something from ancient Confucianism, then why is it connected to Yuqing cultivators..."

As Ji Xiang pondered, the Donghua Fairy's voice suddenly came:

"Look here! Everything in this world has been plundered by the Heavenly Ghosts, whether living or dead, mountains, rivers, trees, and grass, the essence of the sun and moon, all living things, only outlines remain."

"It's not that we can't see things clearly, but that this place is no longer the human world!"

The Donghua's shout pulled Ji Xiang back from his thoughts. He reached out to a stone in front of him, and although he touched the form, he couldn't see its specific appearance, and it had no weight at all, as if he was holding a cloud of air.

"Woo woo—"

The sounds of the Heavenly Ghosts began to approach. The surrounding thunderous sounds seemed to be gradually weakening in effect as the heavens and earth changed.

"Although ancient methods are strong, don't underestimate the methods of today's world. The Dharma is advancing, and the years are changing."

Ji Xiang frowned, and demonic energy began to surge from his body. In this sacrificial world, he circulated the Heavenly Slaughtering Dao Shout. The surrounding sounds of the Heavenly Ghosts were frightened and quickly retreated. The Demon King roared, the heavens issued killing intent. The Heavenly Ghosts of the previous era and the Heavenly Demons of later generations clashed, and the Heavenly Demon's momentum slightly prevailed, bringing it to a halt.

But this is limited. There are many Heavenly Ghosts, but Ji Xiang cannot invite more Demon Kings to deal with them. Fighting a group of ghosts with one demon is bound to fail.

"How can we find the Spiritual Book like this? The imperial court's army is also nowhere to be seen. But those people should all be dead."

"Oh right, what about the rebel leader of Bozhou? He opened the Qingqiang Sacrifice, right? Has he been completely devoured by the Heavenly Ghosts?"

The Donghua Fairy asked casually.

"Yang Yinglong..."

Ji Xiang spoke, but as soon as these three words came out, the surrounding Heavenly Ghosts began to stir.

"Woo woo, hahaha..."

Weird cries and laughter, in the world of mountains and rivers that only had outlines, the blurred ghost faces of those Heavenly Ghosts appeared, surrounding the two and began to rise and fall, accompanied by black hands and feet, like some kind of terrifying mural coming to life. Gradually, after a while, Ji Xiang realized that they seemed to be performing some kind of ritual.

"Not good!"

A great sense of crisis arose in his heart, and at this time...

Dong—dong—dong—

Huge footsteps appeared in the distance, accompanied by a large number of frightened roars!

"Someone else is shouting that name, it, it's coming again!"

"Is it reinforcements sent by the imperial court? We shouldn't be here, run!"

Some banners quickly appeared in Ji Xiang's vision, and a large number of Caotou Gods (low-level deities) and monsters were frantically fleeing in terror. When they saw Ji Xiang, they immediately looked like drowning people seeing a life-saving straw, shouting loudly for help:

"It's the Dao Lord! Dao Lord, save us!"

Ji Xiang quickly遁 (dun - escaped) forward, grabbed a Caotou God and asked, "You've been trapped here for over a month? Where is Yang Yinglong?"

The Caotou God was extremely frightened, only pointing behind him: "He's coming! He's coming!"

"The dead people are all hanging in the sky. This is not the human world anymore. We saw that stele, that... it's not the ghost-faced stele the imperial court said."

"Not the ghost-faced stele?" Ji Xiang was immediately stunned. The Caotou God panicked and said, "We didn't touch that stele. The stele is in front of Mount Wawu! But, but that guy still died. We caught him at first!"

Ji Xiang's heart immediately skipped a beat.

Not the ghost-faced stele. Yang Yinglong didn't open the Qingqiang Sacrifice, but he still died. Then it must have been the Confucian Tianxin expert who opened the ghost-faced stele!

However, he previously guessed that he should need to use someone else's hand. He himself shouldn't be able to take action on the things here, so what's going on?

There are other people here?!

The future seen in the future vision is different. However, if the future is unchangeable, and such a change is now occurring, there is only one possibility...

The future he saw at the time was wrong to begin with!

It wasn't Yang Yinglong who opened the ghost-faced stele in the first place!

"The future was seen incorrectly! It was blinded!?"

Just as Ji Xiang was astonished.

In the world of mountains and rivers that only had outlines, an extremely huge black shadow appeared. It stood with its head touching the sky and its feet on the earth, its face was blurred, and only a pair of huge eyes shimmering with white light were particularly clear.

With its appearance, a little light also appeared in the sky, but there were no clouds or fog. The sky was also empty, and some rays of light appeared. Then, drifting down from the empty sky, like swaying willow branches, were densely packed things, all of which were hanged corpses.

Words also appeared on the blank divine tablet.

[Qingqiang Sacrifice, First Sacrifice: Sacrifice to Heaven.]

[Ten Thousand Zhang Heavenly Ghost: The Central Emperor, the master of the six directions and all the ghosts in the world! Once chased by Nüqing!]