In Shang Xi's voice, there suddenly appeared a tenderness that had never been there before, his whole being brimming with vitality.
Ling Ling, who had always mocked and teased him, now felt a flicker of unease at this sudden change.
She wanted to haggle, to stall for terms, but Shang Xi gave her no chance.
His right hand, resting on her face, moved like lightning. His finger drove straight for her right eye.
The Great Wei Sword erupted with suppressive sword-qi, pinning Ling Ling down so completely that she couldn't resist at all.
With a single motion, Shang Xi gouged out the Mother Yaksha's eye!
"Shang Xi!"
Ling Ling shrieked, struggling with all her might. Vast power burst from her body, shaking the entire cave-heaven violently.
But the two men before her did not spare her a glance.
Holding the two eyeballs of second-rank great fiends, Shang Xi said calmly:
"Disciple, open your sea of consciousness. Let me aid you in opening your eyes!"
A surge of clarity washed through Jing Qian's heart. He instantly sat cross-legged in midair, emptied his thoughts, and welcomed the transformation that would redefine his path of cultivation.
His experience in refining spiritual constructs was already abundant, and he had long since mastered the Pure Yang Golden Eye Method.
With Shang Xi assisting, failure was not even a possibility.
The two monstrous eyes, brimming with a terrifying aura, were cleaved in half by the power of the Great Wei Sword.
The four pieces fused in pairs, forming a bizarre double pupil.
This double pupil transformed into a surge of radiant spiritual light, crashing into Jing Qian's brow and sea of consciousness.
Pain like flaying alive ripped through him; his soul itself felt as though it were being torn apart.
The once placid, silver surface of his consciousness boiled violently. Hundreds of chains woven of sword-qi descended from the void, forcing his sea into a spiraling vortex.
It was Shang Xi's Great Wei Sword, anchoring the new eye's position.
"Focus your spirit, hold it firm!"
His master's bark pierced through the agony.
Jing Qian bit through the tip of his tongue. The incantation of the Golden Eye burst from his throat, manifesting as nine golden talismans that hung above his inner sea.
At the vortex's core, the two fiendish pupils melted down. Black corpse-qi and scarlet blood-patterns writhed like living things, but were torn apart, layer by layer, by the tightening chains of sword-qi.
Then he realized the true source of his torment, his very consciousness was being dissolved and reforged. Each star of thought shattered like glass beads.
The vortex spun faster. Liquefied spirit, mingled with the essence of the demon eyes, was shaped under the golden light of the talismans.
At that moment, Jing Qian's Qingping Sword Casket shook violently. A torrent of sword-qi surged forth, pouring into the vortex.
The alien sword-qi Shang Xi had channeled in with the demon eyes was swept away.
Now, in his entire consciousness, apart from the essence of the two great fiend eyes, only his own sword-qi remained.
The time had come for the most crucial step in forging the Pure Yang Golden Eye!
To condense a true, powerful spiritual construct required more than just materials and spiritual power. Fate, destiny, and the imprint of the Dao itself were indispensable.
The materials and spiritual force were already beyond compare, thanks to Shang Xi's gifts.
What remained was the strength of his own fate and Dao-insight; only these could elevate the Golden Eye's rank and divine power.
And Jing Qian, bearer of peerless life patterns, knew he lacked nothing in this regard.
His intent shook. In his sea of consciousness, countless strands of Heavenly Mandate burst forth, their crystalline light pouring into the vortex and bathing the demonic eyes.
In response, hidden powers within the demon's eyes were awakened, fusing more and more deeply.
It was like a rehearsal for condensing his future Dharma Phase!
Counting through Jing Qian's life patterns, most of them stemmed from the inheritance of the Yanfu Path.
And it was precisely that Path's Dao-rhyme of life-and-death and reincarnation that perfectly aligned with the Ancestor Yin Spirit's Eye.
With that as the catalyst, the Pure Yang Golden Eye finally took shape.
In that instant, Jing Qian's sea of consciousness quaked violently, as though the heavens and earth were collapsing.
A complete phantom of the Six Paths of Reincarnation rose in the center of his mindscape, then suddenly merged with his newly formed Golden Eye.
His brow split open, revealing a vertical eye.
Its pupil was like polished black jade, gleaming with the profound essence of reincarnation. Behind the iris, six imprints of the Six Paths revolved, while on its surface, a pair of strange twin pupils, one black, one red, swirled together in a terrifying gaze.
At last, Jing Qian's fifth spiritual construct was fully forged:
[Spiritual Construct: Six-Path Reincarnation Three-Life Eye]
Category: Root of Self / Outer Dao Moon
Rank: Second Grade
Lifespan Burden: Seven years per day
A spiritual construct whose rank was so exalted it defied belief!
The moment the Three-Life Eye opened, countless strands of Jing Qian's life pattern surged toward it, eager to merge.
Among them, Worldly Insight was already highly compatible with a divine eye. It had no spiritual construct to bear its weight, leaving it free, an eager hound rushing in first.
It plunged into the Three-Life Eye, taking its place within the twin pupils, seizing the red iris.
At once, Jing Qian felt the power of Worldly Insight swell with indescribable amplification, extending infinitely.
With its fusion into the Three-Life Eye, his vision was reborn. Like a blind man regaining sight, he could finally see the truth.
Compelled, he cast his new divine eye outward to probe the world.
This was the Three-Life Eye's very first display of power.
His gaze pierced the barrier of the Pure Yang Cave-Heaven, reaching into the true void.
In the void, he saw the wreckage of shattered fate-stars, remnants of ancient battles.
Thirty-two radiant Main Stars, just as Shang Xi had said, each guarded tightly, their light jealously kept from outsiders.
And Jing Qian saw them all clearly.
Lifting his gaze further, his vision extended unimaginably far until a deathly pall of miasma blocked him.
It was the lingering malice of the great calamity, still hanging over the Yingfutu Realm after three thousand years.
A looming threat, the promise that the enemy might return at any moment.
But that was not his concern now. Reaching his limit, Jing Qian drew his sight back.
The Three-Life Eye then looked downward, into the underworld, casting its vision across the realm itself.
The twelve imperial continents of the Divine Dynasty, the twenty-four military provinces, even the bastions of demon and monster clans all unfolded before his eye.
Unless shielded by the strongest formations, nothing could escape his sight.
The flood of information was far beyond his current cultivation to fully process. But stored in his mindscape, it became a treasury of intelligence waiting to be unlocked.
He glimpsed Yingdu, where siblings shared wine; Kunzhou Isle, bustling with trade; the Sea of Resentful Souls, where ghastly specters rode on phoenixes.
Such familiar faces and places caught his attention, even amidst the flood.
His gaze went deeper still. Even the realm's very core could not bar him. There, he saw a massive reservoir of primal qi and within it, a vast white-bone palace, exuding billowing Yin energy that fed into the realm's heart.
It was none other than the remnant of Yanfu Ti, buried in the core after the sect's fall. A place Jing Qian had long yearned to investigate.
Now, with the Three-Life Eye's foresight, he mapped the path clearly, saving himself much labor.
Thus, a portion of his fate in Worldly Insight was perfectly anchored by the Three-Life Eye. He had accomplished a rare feat: forging a life pattern into a spiritual construct.
Though miraculous, Worldly Insight was still only a flawed life pattern, missing two of the three golden roots.
But once fused with the Three-Life Eye, there came a fleeting moment when his vision pierced even beyond the miasma shrouding the Yingfutu Realm, reaching into the infinite beyond.
There he saw it: a three-headed ghost monk, gnawing upon the sun.
For an instant, Jing Qian's seven eyes and the monk's seven eyes met. Awareness sparked between them. They were destined foes until death.
The monk's wrathful head, the Skull of the Angry Buddha, twisted with hatred, as though it would devour Jing Qian across the endless void.
But the next second, Jing Qian withdrew, vanishing from the monk's perception.
Before this day, he had been blind prey, ensnared in the schemes of this horrific Buddha without knowing it.
Now, he had seen his enemy. It was a thread of intelligence, though gained at the cost of stirring the grass and alerting the snake.
And upon the burning sun, the Angry Buddha roared:
"For this whelp to glimpse us, his fruit is ripe. It is time to harvest!"
"Move at once! Do not give him the chance to grow further and trouble us later!"
...
Inside the Pure Yang Cave-Heaven, Jing Qian slowly closed the Three-Life Eye he had just condensed.
This spiritual construct was unique. Once his divine eye shut, it would immediately fall into dormancy, and the crushing lifespan burden would vanish with it.
That granted Jing Qian a moment of reprieve. Otherwise, if he kept the eye open constantly, it would not be long before the divine eye drained him to death.
Just one opening of the eye had cost him a full day, equivalent to seven years of lifespan consumed in an instant. No ordinary cultivator could ever endure such a price.
Yet, the moment a second life pattern fused with the Three-Life Eye, the eyelid he had just closed snapped open again.
The Primordial Qi of Yin followed close on the heels of Worldly Insight, burrowing into the divine eye and anchoring itself on the Asura Path carved upon its back.
The Three-Life Eye shouldered a full five qian of this life pattern's weight. Another portion of Jing Qian's precious Life Measure was thus released.
Through this yin life pattern, the eye pierced the barriers of the Dao itself and cast its gaze into the Sea of Primordial Qi.
This was a realm beneath the very source of the Great Dao, corresponding to the Sea of Fateful Souls, where cultivators tempered their life patterns.
Here, boundless streams of primordial energy surged, and every variety of qi in existence traced back to this sea as its origin.
Each type of qi was layered, distinct from the others, forming three thousand strata of thin, translucent currents.
Through the Three-Life Eye, Jing Qian could peer directly into the stratum of Yin Qi, then trace his sight upward and downward to neighboring layers.
But beyond Yin, the other qistrata rejected him utterly, refusing to yield their secrets.
All he could do was count and observe. Yet even that glimpse revealed profound mysteries, invaluable for his future cultivation.
Thus, the entire second day of the Three-Life Eye's opening was spent in the depths of the Primordial Sea.
By the end, Jing Qian had tallied: three thousand strata of qi, each corresponding to a unique type of primordial energy in the present world.
On the third day, the Primordial Qi of Ghosts sank into the Hungry Ghost Path of the Three-Life Eye, and its gaze opened again.
That day, his sight fell upon the stratum of Ghost Qi, which, he discovered, lay just one layer away from Yin Qi.
Sensing the gap, he strained his eye to peer into the sandwiched stratum. Something in his heart whispered that this unknown qi was of vital importance to him.
Near the day's end, the hidden layer revealed itself.
It was Yang Qi.
And to Jing Qian's astonishment, as his eye penetrated its mysteries, his own mindscape spontaneously gave birth to a life pattern of Yang Qi.
No rituals, no treasure, no cultivation, this was a congenital life pattern, a natural birth.
The new life pattern fixed itself immovably upon the Human Realm Path of his Three-Life Eye, again shouldering five qian of Life Measure.
More importantly, Jing Qian had now seen through three adjacent strata of the Sea: Yin, Yang, and Ghost.
On the fourth day, the Primordial Qi of the Netherworld fell into the Hell Path, and the Three-Life Eye resumed its probing.
This time, he discovered that Nether Qi lay one layer beyond Ghost Qi, separated by yet another unknown stratum.
So far, he had mapped: Yin, Yang, Ghost, (unknown), Nether.
And in that realization came clarity: the Primordial Sea arranged itself in alternating Yin and Yang layers, aligned to the types of qi he cultivated.
Thus, the unknown between Ghost and Nether must be a Yang attribute.
With this insight, his search became efficient. Within half a day, he pierced it.
It was Diamond Qi.
Another life pattern was born within him, this one set into the Beast Path, bearing five qian of Life Measure.
Now, among the Six Paths etched upon the eye, only the Celestial Path remained vacant.
Seizing the momentum, Jing Qian drove his divine sight further.
"Boom!"
The Three-Life Eye's gaze became almost tangible, directly unraveling the mysteries of the Purple Extreme Thunder-Gang Qi.
Thus, a third Yang life pattern took shape, affixed to the Celestial Path.
At last, the Six Paths were complete.
Three Yin, Three Yang.
The engravings of reincarnation began to turn.
A whirlpool bloomed in the depths of the Sea of Primordial Qi, spanning six layers.
Vast torrents of energy were swallowed into the whirlpool and then devoured entirely by the Three-Life Eye.
In that instant, Jing Qian's spiritual construct carved out a personal core within the Primordial Sea.
With it, his authority there multiplied. His gaze swept the currents with newfound ease.
By the end of the fourth day, another secret unfolded before him.
In the depths of the Sea, a great river of burning karma wound its way through, its waves filled with shimmering life patterns.
It was none other than the Sea of Fateful Souls, which he had entered before.
And above the Sea, towering high, loomed a mountain of radiance, its peak laden with denser, loftier currents.
This was the Mountain of Immortal Qi.
Looking up from the sea, Jing Qian saw scattered stone steles upon its slopes, each carved with a name.
Every stele represented a Second-Grade Angler, one who had inscribed their life pattern upon the immortal current.
For cultivators of the Earth Fiend realm, only by burning themselves with Fiendfire could they forge Immortal Qi.
Should that Immortal Qi resonate with a fate-star in the heavens, they would step into the Star-Reaching realm.
Every fate-star's core was linked to the Sea of Primordial Qi.
Thus, when a cultivator ascended, casting their Immortal Qi upon the Mountain of Immortals, their life pattern would be inscribed there, marking their advance into the Third Grade, Heaven-Mending realm.
At this point, Jing Qian's cultivation had already stepped into the threshold of the Upper Third Grade.
But if he wished to advance further, he would need to engrave a Fate Stele upon the Mountain of Immortal Qi, built upon his own enlightenment of the Great Dao.
This Fate Stele would serve as the anchor of immortality for a Second-Grade cultivator.
As long as the stele remained intact, a Second-Grade expert could never truly die. Even if body, soul, and power were all annihilated, they could return from the Mountain of Immortal Qi.
That was why a Second-Grade powerhouse could only ever be suppressed, never slain unless another Second-Grade being destroyed their Fate Stele outright.
But the difficulty of shattering such a stele was said to rival the ordeal of creating one anew.
This was why Pure Yang Heaven, though suppressing two Second-Grade fiends, had always kept them barely alive, afraid that to kill them outright might only give them a chance to resurrect.
Only at the brink of death had Shang Xi resolved to finally tear down the Mother Yaksha's Fate Stele.
Now, with the aid of the Six-Reincarnation Three-Life Eye, Jing Qian had unveiled the hidden mysteries of Upper Third-Grade cultivation.
His vision broadened, his horizons expanded.
At last, he closed the eye that had remained open for three days straight.
Altogether, the eye had been open for four days, costing him twenty-eight years of lifespan. But the harvest was staggering.
Three powerful and perfectly compatible life patterns had crystallized, swelling his cultivation base.
Within the Three-Life Eye, boundless primordial energy was already refining itself into a higher-tier Immortal Qi.
He had, in essence, begun cultivating realms of Earth Fiend and even Star-Reaching far ahead of his time.
Yet even at this stage, the refinement of the Six-Reincarnation Three-Life Eye was not finished.
In the eye's twin pupils, a black iris still lay empty, capable of housing one more destiny.
But among his life patterns, only Tidal Surge and Sword Momentum remained unattached.
Before Tidal Surge could make its attempt, the Three-Life Eye glared once and rejected it outright.
The life pattern's rank was too low, its nature mismatched; it simply could not merge with the divine eye.
The other fitting life patterns, though compatible, had long since been claimed by his other Spiritual Construct.
At that moment, the empty pupil of the Three-Life Eye exerted its pull. Several life patterns within his sea of consciousness began to tremble, tempted to defect.
First, the Bridge of No Return stirred, struggling to break free from the dominion of the Yanfu Heaven Spiritual Construct and leap toward the Three-Life Eye.
But Yanfu Heaven itself was a lofty cornerstone of his Wheel of Reincarnation Dao, and with but a faint tremor, it suppressed the rebellious bridge back into place.
Then the Tushita Furnace flared, eager to follow Worldly Insight's example.
Yet in the illusory realm, the black cat Xili clung to the furnace's leg, weeping and wailing:
"Brother Furnace! Don't leave me, meow!"
"You can't abandon me, Brother Furnace!"
"Stay here, don't go!"
Under the cat's pitiful cries, the furnace relented, persuaded to remain.
But just then, the Entwining Karma that coiled around the Needle of Fate slipped free. Like a fishing line snapping away from its hook, it darted straight toward the Three-Life Eye's empty pupil.
The Needle of Fate, being too low-ranked and lacking true spirit, could not resist. The karma escaped its grasp and defected.
Chaos erupted in Jing Qian's sea of consciousness. The Needle of Fate flickered wildly, its spirit shattering.
Yet Jing Qian could sense it clearly: Entwining Karma was far better suited for the Three-Life Eye.
So he commanded the Tidal Surge life pattern to wrap around the Needle of Fate, pairing his weakest destiny with his weakest Spiritual Construct, a mismatched but serviceable pair.
Thus, the Three-Life Eye's pupils came to house Worldly Insight and Entwining Karma, while its back bore the six yin-yang life patterns of primordial qi.
It was now perfected.
Pure Yang Heaven truly had been the right choice!
He had only just entered the sect, yet had already gained a fortune of opportunities beyond imagination.
Without hesitation, Jing Qian opened the Three-Life Eye for the fifth time, consuming another seven years of life. His divine gaze locked upon the Pure Yang Sword Diagram.
Instantly, a torrent of sword-qi burst forth from the diagram.
The bronze longsword within rose as if alive, cleaving toward Jing Qian's sea of consciousness.
Jing Qian did not flinch. He knew this strike was the essential test for Pure Yang disciples; the sword's slash contained the unique Dao inheritance that would become his very own Pure Yang Sword Path.
Excitement welled within him.
But just as the sword's edge was about to cut into his sea of consciousness
The Sumeru Dao Tablet, buried deep within him, suddenly stirred.
It extended outward and shattered the sword-strike into dust.
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