...
On the Ancient Yin River Dao, after Xu Qing performed salvation for the corpse of the Many-Misfortunes Ghost King, he turned back to where the Yin-Yang boundary stele was located.
He stood at the broken part of the stele, looking down below.
He saw that the Yin-Yang boundary stele, originally buried deep, was now completely exposed. Although the missing part of the stele still couldn't be found, at least the base of the stele could be seen.
"Is this a turtleback?"
In the giant pit that had endured the ghost realm, the wind of separation and unification, and the repeated onslaught of the Sky Gang Axe, a nearly twenty-mile-wide turtle shell pattern was revealed.
Xu Qing took out a turtle shell used for divination and compared them. In the exposed area before him, every five miles there was a diamond pattern, which corresponded exactly to the cracks on the turtle shell.
If the base underneath the stele really is a turtle, how large must this turtle be?
It's known that turtle shell cracks typically are made up of one central piece and four pieces on each side, totaling twelve pieces of cracks.
"Sixty miles..."
Xu Qing looked again at the thoroughly exposed stone stele beneath his feet. Even though more than half of it was broken, leaving only the base, it still stood over a hundred zhang tall.
Legend has it that a dragon gives birth to nine offspring, each with different temperaments. In ancient times, Yu the Great was taming the waters in the East Sea, which had a creature named Bixi, the sixth son of the Ancestral Dragon.
Its shape was like a turtle, but it had a dragon's head, a ferocious appearance, and teeth like jagged halberds, with the strength to carry three mountains and five peaks.
Bixi had a rebellious nature and loved to stir up waves, often carrying the mountains and peaks to roam the rivers and seas, causing the waters to overflow and devastating life.
Later, when Yu the Great inspected the Sishui and saw the black clouds overshadowing the city and the floodwaters raging, all he could see was a desolate field of mourning birds.
Yu the Great couldn't bear it and sighed at Bixi's ability to move mountains and fill seas. If he could temper its heart, it would not only save lives but also correct its evil ways and assist in water management.
After Bixi submitted, it indeed assisted Yu the Great in clearing the Nine Rivers and opening the four Du Rivers, bringing peace to the floods and assuring the safety of the people.
In recognition of its merit, Yu feared its wild nature might resurge and wreak havoc among humanity. Thus, he took stones from Mount Kunlun, carved celestial script on a monument, and placed it on Bixi's back.
This monument weighed tens of thousands of pounds. Though Bixi possessed infinite divine power, it ultimately couldn't move freely and had to remain under the monument, causing no further harm.
Xu Qing was very familiar with the monuments carried by Bixi. In the funeral trade, there were Bixi tombstones or Bixi grave guardians.
Guests from most wealthy families preferred to use this monument.
In Xu Qing's memory, he had once stood up for Xiang Fei, entrusting a dream to the former minister Yu Qian, who served under the emperor. After his death, he resided in a Bixi Yin Residence.
"Could it be that the Celestial Heart Sect is searching for the tomb of the returning deity, which is actually where this Bixi monument is located?"
Xu Qing's expression turned strange.
This monument had existed on the Yin River for a thousand years. It had once been regarded as the boundary stele separating the Yin River from the mundane world, yet who would have thought that such an obvious and noticeable stele, passed by countless ghostly cultivators daily, was actually a deity's monument.
"If this is the monument, then the tomb should be..."
Xu Qing calculated the number and distance of the turtleback cracks, and his gaze eventually fell upon the bone temple dedicated to the Demon Exorcism True Monarch.
"So that's how it is!"
Xu Qing clapped his hands in amazement.
This feng shui layout was truly ingenious!
Suddenly, Xu Qing remembered something and quickly turned his head toward the direction of the Ghost King Mausoleum.
"The Ghost King Mausoleum is seventy miles away from here, and Bixi's head..."
In just a short moment, Xu Qing figured out the details of the Yin-Yang boundary stele, and at the same time, he gained more admiration for the Many-Misfortunes Ghost King.
This old neighbor of his was also quite lucky, his mausoleum coincidentally built on the turtle's head.
No wonder the Yin energy of the Ghost King Mausoleum was so dense, and no wonder the Many-Misfortunes Ghost King could stand firm on the Yin River for a thousand years without falling.
Understanding the connection between the stele, the mausoleum, and the True Monarch's bone temple, the confusion in Xu Qing's heart was instantly resolved.
Next came his own matters.
Previously, he chased after mourning to the Baisha River, putting in a great effort to send off his old neighbor.
At the same time, he also received the Sutra of Salvation as a reward.
Xu Qing's figure disappeared from the stele, and when he appeared again, he was already at the Eight Banner Marshals' encampment.
He sat cross-legged in his personal tent styled like a burial chamber, tallying up the rewards he received from the day's funeral procession.
A ghost realm divine technique of Yin Country, ranked as a Heavenly Class inferior grade.
A mountain and river cauldron, painted with the eight scenic spots of Yin Mountain, consisting of Ghost Gate, Bridge of Helplessness, Stripping Pavilion, Nostalgia Platform, Evil Dog Village, Golden Chicken Ridge, Broken Money Mountain, and Blood Stained Pond, ranked as an Emperor Class medium grade, capable of refining all things.
A portion of emperor's fate, although it wasn't Emperor's Purple Qi, but rather a wisp of grayish mysterious energy.
In the human world, there are emperors; in the underworld, there is also an underworld emperor.
This was a wisp of the underworld emperor's fate.
Xu Qing looked at the emperor's mysterious energy and pondered for a moment. Then he integrated it into himself.
Just a wisp of the emperor's fate didn't mean he would become the underworld emperor. For him, the greatest use of this fate was that it perfectly aligned with the ghost realm divine technique of Yin Country.
With this wisp of the emperor's fate, when he used the ghost realm of Yin Country, he could command a larger ghost domain, and his influence on those entering the ghost realm would also become greater.
The emperor's mysterious energy was different from the Emperor's Purple Qi he gave to Zhu Huai'an. The latter was only an Earth Class superior grade, while the emperor's mysterious energy was a Heavenly Class grade.
Xu Qing had just merged the mysterious energy with his being, when he noticed the death omen star above his head was frantically pulsating.
The underworld emperor's fate, forbidden to the living.
At the same time, across the Yin and Yang Realms.
The Ghost Law, Eight Banner Marshals, Yin-Erosion Law King, and even the heads of the other twelve sects, the Fox Celestial cultivators, all looked up towards the sky above the Yin River.
They suddenly saw the starry river, which had never shown stars or moons, now revealing a death omen star, which lasted several breaths before fading away.
"The death omen star moves, destiny changes; whether this is good or bad remains unknown."
In the mundane human world.
Ordinary divination masters could only observe changes in the Ziwei Star, but couldn't detect changes in the death omen star. Yet those with deep cultivation outside this world, and the True Cultivators, could perceive the changes in this inherently dark and obscure star.
On this same day, the entire heavens experienced thunderous earth.
No one knew why there would be so much thunder on this day, only for later chronicles, the "Records of Calamities and Anomalies," to record:
[In the eighth year of Jingxing, in the summer of April, the celestial phenomena suddenly changed.
While the sky was cloudless for ten thousand miles and the red sun hung high, suddenly thunderbolts fell from the ninth heaven, sounding like the tearing of silk, echoing across the fields.
Their light intermingled in purple and white, like dragons and snakes leaping, visible from the capital to the frontier, from Jianghuai to Longyou, all witnessed the strange thunder on the same day, yet not a drop of rain fell.
Grand Historian said: "This signifies the heaven's axis is out of order, the yin and yang are disordered, truly a sign of the heavenly wrath against the waning virtue of the monarch."]