A Pawn’s Passage

Killing a Zaohua-stage Heavenly Being was far easier than capturing one alive.

For Hinnyo to speak so confidently of seizing Li Tiangang, he naturally had other means.

The Buddhist monk was not skilled in close combat. Having suffered a slight setback, he resolved to reveal his true strength. Pressing his palms together, he roared, "Vairocana!"

A revolving solar disc appeared behind him. As it rotated, it resounded with the chants of countless monks reciting scriptures. At the same time, the void radiated with Buddha light, forming a colossal luminous Buddha. Its eyes opened within the crimson radiance. A fiery halo resembling the sun appeared behind its head, symbolizing the Infinite Light.

This was the Vairocana Spiritual Statue.

Just as the Primordial Daoist Ancestor had three incarnations known as the Three Pure Ones, the Buddha also had three bodies, known as the Trikaya—Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya. The Dharmakaya Buddha was Amitabha; the Sambhogakaya Buddha was Vajrasattva; and the Nirmanakaya Buddha was Vairocana.

Once the Vairocana Spiritual Statue was formed, it towered over heaven and earth. The blazing halo behind its head swelled like a scarlet sun.

Hinnyo calmly raised a hand and flipped his palm. At the same time, the mountain-sized Vairocana behind him mirrored the gesture.

Its palm blotted out the sky and sun, descending as though an entire mountain fell overhead.

Before that Buddha hand, all of Li Tiangang's sword light seemed no more than a drizzle, utterly insignificant.

Though the Spiritual Statue Realm corresponded only to the Yuxu stage, its true might depended on the user's cultivation. It was similar to how in the Flesh and Blood Realm, a Yuxu-stage Martial Arts Practitioner could only heal wounds, while a Pseudo-Immortal Martial Arts Practitioner could regrow their skull even after being beheaded.

Li Tiangang dared not meet this descending giant palm head-on. Instead, he used the Dragon Escape Technique and flashed away.

The giant hand of Vairocana struck the earth with a thunderous crash, leaving a palm print nearly 300 meters wide, its palm lines etched clear. From the shattered edges, seawater gushed forth in torrents.

No sooner than Li Tiangang reappeared did the Vairocana raise another palm, locking onto him and descending once more so that he had no path of escape.

Li Tiangang stomped heavily, shaking the ground beneath him. Countless clods of earth crawled up along his legs and spread across his body. In the blink of an eye, his frame swelled, and the soil upon him hardened into a crystalline material, as though he now wore armor of rock.

This time, Li Tiangang confronted the Buddha's descending palm head-on. His feet sank deep into the earth, dust and shards of stone cascaded from his stone armor, yet the colossal palm could not fully descend, halting just one meter above the ground.

A web of cracks spread outward in all directions beneath Li Tiangang's feet, covering precisely the breadth of the Buddha's palm. The closer to where he stood, the denser the fractures became, forming a lattice as fine as a fishing net or chessboard.

This was the ability of a Qi Refiner at the Void Refinement Realm.

At this moment, Li Tiangang borrowed the might of the earth itself to withstand the crushing palm of the Vairocana.

To describe the progression of a Qi Refiner, one should imagine the cultivator being a ship—not a flimsy boat, but a large metal warship capable of being on the rough seas. Ordinarily, this metal ship had no power of its own, drifting with the waves, advancing and retreating at their whim. Thus, most would never cross the rough seas to attain immortality.

To make the ship move, it must be powered by coal. Blood and essence were the coal, while refining essence and transforming it into qi were akin to turning the solid coal into fire. Yet fire alone could not propel the ship. It required refining qi into spirit, akin to heating water in a boiler, producing steam to drive the engines.

However, one's essence and blood were limited, like the coal a ship could carry. Even fully loaded, the ship could not sustain a voyage across the rough seas. Hence, a more efficient method was needed. Refining spirit into the void was such an optimization, like the Lune Kingdom's Arcane Council proposing the concept of internal combustion engines. Compared to steam, it conserved more energy. Thus, with the same capacity, one could journey much farther. But it was still not sufficient to cross the rough seas.

Thus, refining the void with the Dao took it further, discarding fire altogether. The blazing sun above was the true source of power. So long as the sun did not disappear, the ship would sail endlessly. With enough luck—if one could avoid storms or cloudy days—one could surely reach the far shores and attain immortality.

In practice, upon reaching the Void Refinement Realm, a Qi Refiner could borrow the strength of heaven and earth when in the sky or on the ground, or from water when in the sea. Such was the boundless power characterized by this realm.

The Daoist realm classifications were modeled upon the Qi Refiner lineage, with all other lineages benchmarked against it, including the Banished Immortal lineage. That was because the Qi Refiner lineage was the very root of Daoism.

The Holy Xuan once described the difference between Heavenly and Earthly Immortals using this analogy. The world was like a vast tree. Heavenly Immortals were winged insects, while Earthly Immortals were wingless ones. When the wingless insects spun cocoons and emerged as butterflies, they transformed into Heavenly Immortals. Hence, the two lineages shared the same root.

Yet, cocooning and transforming did not mean increased strength. Should a winged insect abandon its flight ability and wrestle on the ground with the wingless, the outcome would be uncertain. The wingless insect might very well slay the winged one.

Later, the Daoist Order created the Banished Immortal lineage, removing the cocooning process entirely. Exceptional beings were born already winged. Thus, the distinction between Earthly and Heavenly Immortals was drawn, breaking the axiom that all Heavenly Immortals must first be Earthly Immortals.

As for Godly Immortals, they were likened to web-spinning spiders. Their divine kingdoms were the webs. Should one blunder into the web, one was seldom a match for the spider. However, the greatest flaw of a web was its immobility. It could only wait for its prey, so it was highly restricted.

In truth, Earthly Immortals and Godly Immortals were the two lineages most hindered in ascension. The former was bound due to fusion with heaven and earth, while the latter was tethered to incense power from the mortal realm. Their ties to this world were too deep. However, Earthly Immortals could transform into Heavenly Immortals, breaking out of their cocoon to ascend.

Thus, Earthly Immortals could never ascend at whim. They required a ritual. In the Kunlun Paradise, a dedicated Ascension Platform was built to aid their flight to the heavens.

By contrast, the reformed Banished Immortal lineage could ascend directly, more conveniently than Ghostly Immortals, who could discard their body, or Manly Immortals, who forcibly tore the void to open a gate to the heavens.

Godly Immortals faced true difficulty. Most sought alternate routes, like True Lord Taiyin, abandoning her divine kingdom and successfully ascending. If the bond was too deep to sever, then only by amassing immense divine power could they force ascension.

Even Godly Immortals had tribulations. In their first century in the mortal world, they could descend freely without rituals. After that, they were confined to their divine kingdoms. Should they survive the first heavenly tribulation, they would regain the right to descend to the mortal realm at will for the next century. Yet, throughout history, few Godly Immortals attempted such trials. That was why it was assumed Godly Immortals would not bother with heavenly tribulations.

Hinnyo was a Brahma, which, in Daoist terms, was similar to a mixture of a Diviner and a Shaman, leaning more toward the latter.

For this reason, Hinnyo was never Li Tiangang's equal in barehanded combat. However, the moment Hinnyo summoned his Spiritual Statue, the balance tilted decisively in his favor.

Qi Xuansu had managed to stall Katsura Yoshiyuki by burning through his divine power. As the nominal leader of the Fenglin Buddhist Sect, Hinnyo had access to reserves of divine power far surpassing Qi Xuansu's.

Hinnyo merged with the Vairocana Spiritual Statue, forming a Spiritual Body and entering the Heaven-Earth Manifesting Realm.

Behind his towering Spiritual Body, the sun halo radiated Buddha light over all beings.

Hinnyo stood majestic and solemn as a Buddha. Rhythmic chants reverberated between heaven and earth. In a breath, the fleeting became eternal, the world seemed contained within a mustard seed, and the world itself seemed transformed into a Pure Land. Golden lotuses surged, and celestial blossoms scattered in endless rain.

This was the Fruition Realm.

Still, it did not stop there. Hinnyo poured out his reserves recklessly, consuming 5,000 marks of divine power in moments. The might of the Vairocana surged through him, his power brushing the threshold of a Pseudo-Immortal.

Boundless Buddha light flooded the world, spreading across the region as chants shook both sky and earth. Within that radiance, an immense red sun rose slowly. Clouds churned, winds howled, and the hues of the sky shifted in an awe-inspiring spectacle.

Hinnyo formed the Abhaya Seal. In an instant, the heavens dimmed, the true sun in the sky smothered as if by an eclipse. Then, the radiance at his back erupted, igniting the world in its glow once again, as if all light itself stemmed solely from him. This was the doctrine of Infinite Light.

True Lord Taiyang had perished beneath this very technique of the Vairocana.

Hinnyo pressed a single palm downward.

Within that palm was only brilliance, so intense it coalesced into Solar Flames. The hand descended slowly, but with it came a sea of fire that threatened to incinerate the heavens, burning into the very soul.

Li Tiangang summoned his Daozi Sword once more, hurling himself straight into the colossal palm.

Against the immense Buddha hand, he was but an ant, yet he tore through it regardless. Countless drops of solidified Solar Flames fell from the cut palm, like a meteor shower of fire.

As Li Tiangang flew through the cut in the Buddha hand, his body was engulfed in flame, and his aura waned rapidly.

From the heavens, Hinnyo's voice thundered, "Sage Li, cease your struggle and come with me. Sage Qingwei is absent from Ise, and the Saio will not save you. Aside from Great Sage Zhang, who else remains my equal?"