Chapter Eighty-Six: Life in the Shrine

“Come out.”

With a sharp rebuke, Wind Call invoked a thread of luminous white qi from nowhere in the void-born world. It seized the violet-green shrine, and with a clatter sent it rolling onto the ship.

Earlier, in Lu Han’s hands, the shrine had blazed with splendor, its heavenly gates radiant and auspicious light circling around it, wondrous beyond measure. Yet now it lay as still as death, not even a trace of faint violet-green energy remaining.

“The suppression from the Black Fiend is too severe,” Wind Call said, shaking his head.

At his fingertip, divine energy condensed and spun, bright as a blade, its edge glimmering with lethal sharpness. Then, aiming at the shrine, he slashed down with a clang.

Wham!

The violet-green shrine shot up, its spirit wildly stirred as it tried to dodge. But the divine energy vanished in an instant, and when it reappeared it was already clinging tightly to the shrine, crashing with a loud impact into its front.

“Huh? It’s pretty sturdy.”

Wind Call was surprised. The shrine did not shatter into pieces; only one of its six heavenly gates broke.

“Even the heavenly gate broke in its place... Brother Wind Call, keep going. There must be something alive inside,” Clear Child said dreamily, golden flecks shining in her eyes.

“Fine.”

Wind Call’s eyes lit up. The shrine had brought calamity and turmoil, shaking the Ancient Origin Cultivation Domain and stirring countless people into a scramble for it. He wanted to see what sort of demon or ghost it concealed.

Hum hum hum...

The violet-green shrine trembled, transmitting fear. It was begging, pleading to be spared.

Wind Call’s heart stirred. “Fear? It only appears in the face of life-and-death danger. So it really isn’t a dead object. It has its own awareness.”

“Monster, show your true form!”

He shouted, flipping his five fingers over. After a brief gathering, the bright divine energy erupted like a rainbow bolt and crashed onto the shrine’s base.

The violet-green shrine lurched, two of its heavenly gates shattered, and it was knocked flying more than thirty feet, its whole body dimming as its aura clearly withered.

A moment later, the shrine emitted four strange syllables. They were not the language of the spiritual cosmos, but their meaning was easy enough to understand.

Don’t kill me.

“Oh, it can talk!”

Little Phoenix blinked with childish surprise, her black crystal eyes sparkling. She was not far from the shrine, and with curious little steps and a tilted head, she peered closer. Then she saw a tiny spirit form upon the shrine.

It was a young girl in a violet dress, tense and frightened, her face astonishingly identical to Little Phoenix’s.

“Who are you?” Little Phoenix cried out and stumbled backward, nearly falling off.

“Source of disaster.”

The young man stepped forward in one stride, overwhelming pressure rolling down from him. His white robes fluttered, his bearing transcendent, and he stood before Little Phoenix with a grave expression.

The violet-green spirit was terrified beyond words. Especially when Wind Call looked over, she hesitated, then amid a haze of light and mist her shape changed again, becoming a child in violet clothes.

“Pl-please don’t smash it...” the child stammered fearfully.

“You’re saying you didn’t do anything wrong? Then what exactly are you? Why did you take my appearance just now?” Clear Child’s eyes shone brightly as she asked three questions in a row.

She and Little Phoenix shared the same face, so when the shrine spirit transformed into Little Phoenix, it was no different from transforming into her.

A shrine like this, birthing a spirit within it, shocked everyone. They wanted to uncover its true origins.

“Don’t get too close.”

Wind Call remained alert. Though the void-born energy had not been exerted to its fullest, after two strikes he still had failed to smash the wretched shrine apart. That alone proved how tough it was.

This spirit had changed forms twice the instant it appeared, clearly with unknown intentions. No one knew what its true body really was.

Bang!

Wind Call acted decisively once more. A bright blade condensed again, this time with power far beyond the previous strike. It slammed into the shrine’s surface, and two more heavenly gates were shattered at once.

The child in violet shuddered all over, then drooped powerlessly, finally taking the form of a haggard young girl.

This should have been her true appearance.

She wore a long violet gauze dress that trailed to the ground, her face as pale as paper, smoky makeup drawn at the corners of her eyes. She looked at Wind Call in terror, then spoke another string of strange syllables. The meaning was roughly that if the last heavenly gate shattered, she would vanish completely.

“She isn’t lying. The six shrine doors are tightly linked to her life-force. Right now, she’s like a candle in the wind,” Clear Child said, as pale-gold flames flowed in her pupils and revealed the truth.

“Good. I won’t hit you anymore. Tell us your origin in detail.”

Seeing that she was no longer a threat, Wind Call leaned back in a grand armchair and idly turned two white divine beads in his hand, waiting for her answer.

The young girl in the violet dress looked pale and frightened before the group, timid to the extreme. Yet deep within her eyes there lurked an almost imperceptible streak of malice.

“I come from...”

She did not hide anything, and spoke of her origins in full.

“...”

“You’re saying you were created by a god? And that there are many, many companions like you?”

The group was stunned. The violet-dressed girl explained that she had been born in a mysterious world, with the natural form of a shrine vessel and an inborn mastery of unusual power.

Her companions were born every day. Of those she had seen alone, there were over one hundred thousand shrines.

That number was unimaginably shocking.

Just this one shrine had caused the rise of the Star Evil Lu Han, thrown the core system of the Shining Cloud Star Realm into chaos, and collapsed it entirely. If there were over one hundred thousand of them, the mere thought was terrifying.

“What kind of being is this god you speak of?” Clear Child asked solemnly. If truly one hundred thousand shrines flowed out into the world, not only the Ancient Origin Cultivation Domain, but perhaps several cultivation domains would be thrown into turmoil.

The fact that such a being could endlessly create so many strange shrines only deepened their curiosity.

At the mention of god, the violet-dressed girl could not help showing reverence and longing. She only said that she did not know much about this “god” either, only that the god was a woman of extraordinary might, capable of easily creating shrines.

“A woman... a god... it probably isn’t the Celestial Saint, is it?” Wind Call muttered, and the thought of a saint made him feel a little uneasy.

He was not afraid of cultivation lords. He had tricked too many of them; even if he could not win, he could still run. But saints were another matter, especially saints who mastered the void and spatial Dao. Meeting one would be disastrous.

In recent years, Wind Call had visited many cultivation lord divine realms, but very few saintly residences, because he feared them deeply. Merely severing karma and erasing Dao traces was already immensely difficult.

“Who would have thought there could be something this terrifying beneath it all?” the young man said worriedly. The news of one hundred thousand shrines was too shocking.

If they all appeared at once, it would be enough to drive several cultivation domains mad. The calamity level assigned by the Star Sea Sacred Court would also rise to a frightening degree, perhaps requiring several cultivation lords to intervene and quell it.

“If shrines are all like you, luring star cultivators to work for you, and if there is no restraint on you, what level could you eventually grow to?” Clear Child asked again.

The violet-dressed girl looked confused and shook her head, telling them that she herself was very weak and could only stand out by relying on powerful star cultivators.

As for the growth of shrines, there were limits. It was impossible to improve endlessly. As for her, even after absorbing enough energy essence, at most she could open all six heavenly gates.

By then, she could project six true spirits to empower a sufficiently powerful star cultivator, roughly giving them the strength of an ordinary Radiance Lord. That was already considered a very strong shrine.