Chapter Twenty-Six: The Skull

Dao Sansheng still refused to give up. He continued to rouse the flames in his dantian, trying again and again. After more than a hundred attempts, it finally occurred to him that Fat Chirp had passed him a fire control technique—perhaps it was worth a try. Dao Sansheng recited the incantation, and a wisp of flame danced at his fingertip. He directed the flame toward the orb on the table, and the instant the fire licked its surface, the orb melted. From within tumbled a cluster of green fire; as soon as it touched the tabletop, a wide swath of the wood blackened.

Dao Sansheng hurriedly wrapped the ghostly fire with his spiritual energy. The moment the ghost fire met the spiritual force, his sea of consciousness was thrown into turmoil. Where once there had been a placid, clear pool, now a furious gale raged; the limpid pond had become pitch dark. Amidst that darkness, a white skull hovered, glowing eerily with a green light.

The wailing of ghosts and wolves echoed through the sea of consciousness. Dao Sansheng, who had only just ended his meditation, now lay thrashing on the ground in wild agony, smashing his head against the floor until blood flowed and chaos reigned in the room.

The flame on Dao Sansheng’s hand, once a pure white, now glimmered with a hint of green. The two flames rolled and tangled ceaselessly across his palm, the green fire—seemingly directed by some will—suppressing the white. Yet the white flame, a legacy of the Ice Phoenix clan, though overborne, remained stubbornly unyielding.

Dao Sansheng’s consciousness was growing ever more blurred. The green skull within his mind was devouring his very spirit. He felt his awareness dimming, his thoughts slowing, his body becoming weightless, as if he were dissolving, drifting away.

At that moment, the jade token—long absent—appeared. Over the sea of consciousness, three golden characters shone: The Trifold Life Mantra. The dazzling brilliance carved out a sanctuary from the skull’s dominion, preserving the last wisp of Dao Sansheng’s spirit.

Just now, the skull had been strutting in dominance, but with its territory suddenly seized, it grew restless. Below, the black waters of the pond churned violently, battering at the haven the jade token had established.

Dao Sansheng’s mind cleared slightly, though he was still overwhelmed with exhaustion. It all seemed a dream, yet it was reality—he felt the warm golden sunlight bathing him, enveloping him in comfort and joy.

Seeing its previous tactics fail, the skull opened its jaws and spewed clouds of green smoke, laced with ghostly fire, spraying them at the sanctuary.

The cold, fetid ghost fire struck the barrier with a sizzling hiss. The protected space shrank bit by bit as the corrosive energy gnawed away at it, turning the lost fragments to nourishment for the skull, making its green glow burn ever brighter.

Yield to me, yield to me now. I have slumbered thirty thousand years, and now I am spirit-born at last. Young man, I can teach you advanced techniques, the highest arts of alchemy and medicine. Serve me, and anything can be yours…

This wisp of ghost fire had indeed gained sentience, and such ghost fires are usually born in corpses. Clearly, this one had arisen from the remains of a high-level cultivator.

The sanctuary carved out by the jade token was rapidly shrinking. Soon, even Dao Sansheng’s last thread of spirit would be lost. At that critical moment, the jade token flared with golden light, and the Trifold Life Mantra began to resound.

From the One comes the Two, from Two the Three, from Three all things are born. All things return to Three, Three returns to Two, Two returns to One, One returns to all things, myriad ways, every way can be traversed…

Each word of the mantra transformed into a golden note, ringing in the skull’s mind. The skull went mad, desperately searching for an escape, but this was Dao Sansheng’s sea of consciousness—where could it flee? It stumbled and reeled.

The territory under the skull’s control began to falter, retreating layer by layer. The black mist it had conjured was drawn back, first from the air, then from the pool below, until even the pond tossed and boiled, the darkness sucked away.

Gradually, the waters became clear once more, growing ever more transparent, until at last, the entire sea of consciousness was restored to its former state.

The green mist atop the skull dissipated, and the spirit it had devoured from Dao Sansheng was spat out in slender threads.

Those strands of spirit flew straight to the wisp protected beneath the jade token. They tangled and fused, growing larger and clearer, until they took on the very shape of Dao Sansheng, distinct and whole.

The jade token vanished, the skull shrank back to a corner, motionless. The flames on Dao Sansheng’s hand had merged—the white fire had consumed the green, and the combined flame returned to his dantian, which was now utterly changed. The fire now occupied seventy percent of its space.

The ice crouched in a corner, beside the newly refined spiritual energy, which was now ten times stronger than before. Dao Sansheng remained asleep.

Though he lay flat on the ground, no longer meditating, the Trifold Life Mantra continued to circulate on its own. The spiritual energy coursed through his meridians along the mantra’s path. Before one full cycle completed, it surged into as-yet unopened meridians.

Bang—a breakthrough, smooth as flowing water. Yet the mantra did not stop, pushing into the next meridian, easily opening it as well. The momentum showed no sign of abating; there was still much spiritual power in reserve, and it looked as though two more meridians might be cleared. As the energy rushed toward the next channel—

A stabbing, searing pain halted the flow. A surge of flame burst from the dantian, racing along the mantra’s route, scorching every meridian it passed. A cold current then rushed up, but as soon as the flame glanced back, it suppressed the chill.

At this point, Dao Sansheng awoke in agony. The piercing pain made him grit his teeth, sweat beading on his brow and dripping onto the floor.

Feeling something was wrong, Dao Sansheng instantly sat cross-legged and silently recited the Trifold Life Mantra. The technique gathered the flames from his meridians back into the dantian, but the fire remained restless. He could barely keep it under control, so he summoned the ice on the other side of his dantian. Empowered by the influx of spiritual energy, the ice’s aura surged, suppressing the fire. Yet this was not a permanent solution; he would need another way. Dao Sansheng continued channeling spiritual energy into the ice, gradually calming the flame.

An hour later, the turmoil within the dantian subsided. Examining his scorched meridians, Dao Sansheng found that in the instant of burning, they had absorbed vast amounts of scattered spiritual power and were now nearly healed.

He checked his internal state—everything seemed satisfactory. Then he recalled his sea of consciousness, where that thing had nearly devoured his spirit, and ventured within once more.

His sea of consciousness was as it had been before. There, he saw a wisp of spirit identical to himself. He searched for a long while but could not locate the jade token—it was well hidden. The skull, however, he spotted immediately.

The skull cowered in a corner, its green glow now gone, nothing but bare, white bone. Dao Sansheng cautiously prodded it with his spirit; it feigned death, utterly unresponsive, as if it were merely a prop, so natural and still.

He tried again, wrapping his spirit around the skull, inspecting every inch, but found no vulnerability. Yet he recalled—there is no problem that violence cannot solve. “You dare to play dead? Just wait! I will unleash the violence of a new era upon you, until you can neither live nor die.”