I Only Want to Lie Flat But Am Forced to Cultivate Immortality-Chapter 929 - 447: The Root of Chaos (Part 2)

The tallest tree in the forest is sure to be toppled by the wind.

Xu Qing knew this truth well; he had to gauge the situation carefully, using action, discretion, and concealment to ensure the three sects survived the calamities.

During this period, all strategies against the calamities could only be executed in the shadows under the guise of ’Xu Xuan’.

When Xu Xuan acts, the blame falls on Xu Xuan.

Apart from contingency strategies, Xu Qing had to silence the Kitchen God for another reason, which was to shift the blame for the San Tu River hitting the upper realms, causing the sky to be torn apart and the heavenly path to open, onto Kong Ren and the General.

The General and Kong Ren were, after all, part of the Nine Netherworlds Dharma Master’s retinue. As long as his variables remained unknown to the masses, the Celestial Emperor and the Upper Realm Gods and Buddhas would inevitably focus on the Dharma Master.

At that time, even if the two sides didn’t engage in direct confrontation, it’s likely they would be embroiled in constant friction due to mistrust.

Only by muddying these waters could he swim in them and seize opportunities.

In a short time, Xu Qing had already planned his routes of advance and retreat.

The disaster caused by Kong Ren was unintentional, but it was also an opportunity!

Seeing Xu Qing put away his mighty axe, the Kitchen God finally breathed a sigh of relief; but in the next moment, he saw that Lady Bao Sheng had suddenly taken out a celestial stone for repairing the heavens.

"..."

The Kitchen God’s eyelid twitched; since when did a Goddess disciple wield both a mighty axe and a mighty stone?

Rumble!

A series of deafening clashes echoed, and in the void above, Xu Qing, like an unfeeling blacksmith casting fireworks, smashed ancient stone after ancient stone in tribute to the prehistoric era.

The Kitchen God, furious, spewed out the God of Kitchens Flame, and when he withstood the stone twice, the Kitchen God began to shed something resembling the ash of charred wood, and even the kitchen fire he spewed turned into wisps of blue smoke.

"I will curse you; I will begin the curse with the head of the five offerings gods, offer up this body, and curse you to die a miserable death, forever unable to escape the cycle of reincarnation!"

Hearing this, Xu Qing chuckled, even restraining the stone that was about to fall from his hand.

"Well, go ahead and curse! But I’m pressed for time, so you’d better hurry!"

Humiliated repeatedly, the Kitchen God immediately recited the curse of the five offering gods, and as the curse fell, his massive body seemed to be consumed, swiftly deflating like a punctured balloon.

The grievously wounded Kitchen God let out a manic laugh, yet in the next moment, his laughter was completely wiped away.

The Xu Qing before him, who was supposedly afflicted by a malignant curse, showed no ill effects; instead, he appeared even more spirited, and the five-colored divine glow of the stone in his hand shone even brighter!

The Kitchen God’s expression shifted from madness to astonishment, then to irrepressible fear, for the disciple of the Goddess before him had already become his persistent nightmare!

"Impossible! Even as a disciple of the Goddess, you should not be immune to the Wishing Power of the five offerings gods..."

What answered the Kitchen God was the crushing weight of the heavenly stone!

With the stone put away, Xu Qing looked at the deformed, crumpled Kitchen God, utterly devoid of resistance, and said:

"You are the evil-corpse of the method; your Wishing Power is malevolent, not righteous. How can it possibly affect me?"

The Kitchen God looked at Xu Qing, his mouth askew and eyes disoriented, a shock beyond words overtaking his heart.

"You, you are a demonic heretic..."

A terror more frightful than midnight phantoms enveloped the Kitchen God’s heart. Xu Qing chuckled softly, extending a corpse hand into the Kitchen God’s body, and said: "A demon? Even if the righteous five offerings god of your method-corpse came, it could not curse me! In terms of merit, how could you even dare to think it?"

The kitchen fire in the Kitchen God’s eyes suddenly contracted. The Xu Qing so near to him had already become something far more terrifying than a specter in human guise in the eyes of mortals.

"What exactly are you..."

Opening the Sutra of Salvation, Xu Qing leaned close and said in a deep, masculine voice, "Take a guess."

"..."

The Kitchen God died with eyes wide open.

If one were to talk about the most irksome people in this world, it would be those who always say ’we’ll see’, and another kind would be those who stop speaking halfway.

Xu Qing took up both kinds.

After conducting the exorcism of the Kitchen God, Xu Qing saw the Kitchen God deities worshiped in countless households, as well as the dark side of malevolent wishes and evil thoughts beyond virtuous wishes.

There was one who sold umbrellas worshiping the Kitchen God, hoping for rain every day; one in a childless household hoping for the premature death of a neighbor’s child; or a street vendor who sold fabrics ridiculed by a cloth shopkeeper, turning to pray for the Kitchen God to burn down the cloth shop, rendering the fine cloth remnants ashes, to provide for them as beggars...

These malevolent thoughts, not belonging to righteous wishes, were not devoid of examples of being fulfilled by the Kitchen God, but more often than not, they piled up like a mountain, collectively manifesting into the evil corpse of the Kitchen God, poisoning the mortal world.

After viewing the Kitchen God’s flickering imagery, Xu Qing did not hastily count his gains, but instead, based on the memory of the other party, dragged out all the strange creatures under the Kitchen God’s jurisdiction within the scope jointly enveloped by the Bewilderment of the Heaven and the Grand Law of the Yellow Heaven.

The Grain-eating Bird, Grass and Wood Soldiers, Hearth Spirits, Soot Bugs...

The Grain-eating Bird, born from consuming the essence of offerings, served as the Kitchen God’s scouts and were companion birds at every place of worship to the Kitchen God.

The Grass and Wood Soldiers were formed when some spirited plants, cut down and burnt in hearths, developed into smaller Wood Charm creatures.

The Hearth Spirit was a cluster of fire clouds that could absorb fiery essence, while the Soot Bug, developed from soot and smoke impregnated with the quintessence of various grains, appeared like smokeless sea urchins, imperceptible to ordinary human eyes.

Only those with unique constitutions or children with unsealed fontanelles occasionally glimpse them.

Under normal circumstances, the spirits and soldiers under the rightful reign of the Kitchen God of the five offerings were harmless beings, even capable of enhancing the prosperity of a household.

Yet the spirits and soldiers under the direction of this method-corpse Kitchen God had sharp mouths and fangs, eager to take a bite out of Xu Qing’s hand.

With a mindset of eradicating evil to the root, Xu Qing eradicated the Grain-eating Birds and the scattered grey spirits completely.

After doing all this, Zombie Xu was nevertheless uneasy, plowing the ground once, and after exercising Divine Techniques to Burn Mountains and Boil Seas, and Commanding Clouds and Rain, Xu Qing took off his shoes, employing the Shoe Throwing Inquiry Technique to locate any remnants of grey spirits.

Seeing the shoe tip facing up, spinning left and right, he finally relaxed.

...

Inside the bronze coffin, having handled all his affairs, Xu Qing made his way toward the Zhuoshui Dojo while reviewing the gains of this endeavor.

Aside from the Huan Dou Authority of Chaos obtained earlier, Xu Qing also acquired a Disordered Authority from the criminal god San Miao.

The former, ’Chaos,’ when deployed, could confuse and mislead, clouding minds and inverting good and evil, creating illusions of befuddlement, inducing mutual suspicion and slaughter among others.

The latter, ’Disorder,’ when deployed, could disturb the cosmic order, causing imbalance between yin and yang in a region, such as rivers flowing backward, women growing beards, or men becoming beardless.

Also, a place devoid of terrestrial heft or celestial clarity, with people floating in the void, unable to ground themselves.

These authorities are ’fragments of law’ spread from the dawn of creation.

Through the imagery of the two criminal gods, Xu Qing saw the origins of this kind of divine law technique, with all the primordial divine techniques possessed by the four criminal gods, including the General, sharing a name—Chaos.

Chaos signifies disorder, signifies chaos, and symbolizes military slaughter.

Even the highly destructive deity-breaking divine technique possessed by Kong Ren is a form of Chaos Divine Technique.

This kind of divine technique is inscrutable, obtainable only through seizing.

Xu Qing, situated in a neutral good camp, likely won’t utilize such divine techniques, but is eager to possess more of these abilities.

It’s like the difference between having a knife and not having one.

The chaotic powers, all being heavy implements of slaughter, serve as a deterrent to other forces and assuredly safeguard one’s security.

Xu Qing understood this truth better than anyone.

Suppressing the strange emotions within his heart, Xu Qing again looked over the rewards from the Kitchen God.

A peculiar fire seed, a karmic red lotus, and a cultivation technique controlling the myriad tribulations’ karmic fire.

Both are heavenly-grade rewards.

Xu Qing gazed at the cluster of red lotus fire seeds floating before him, already stirred to unspeakable excitement in his heart.

This fire seed was born of karma, gathering the power of worldly tribulations, beyond what even the Gods and Buddhas could refine.

The celestial immortals dread karma like predation by tigers and leopards, so how would they dare contemplate refining a karmic fire seed?

But Xu Qing was the complete opposite; having transcended millions of corpses, he was already imbued with myriad karmas. Each karma carried its own tribulation, and he had weathered countless tribulations; not only can he claim the karmic fire seed, but he can also master the technique to control the myriad tribulations’ karmic fire!

The only concern Xu Qing had was the future path in choosing the Drought Fiend Fruit of the Dao.

"Treasures of Heaven and Earth are always serendipitous, especially the fire element treasures? Immortals and gods fear karma because their virtue is insufficient, their worldly tribulations not yet complete, but now with virtue and conduct, what’s stopping me from mastering it?"