The spiritual explosion spread with a wave that swept the air around Zhi Xuan. A bluish-orange light radiated slowly, as if fire and ice had met something that fiercely repelled them.

  "Spiritual explosion?" Grandfather Wu exclaimed, his voice filled with surprise. His robe fluttered gently.

  Uncle Chen, who was channelling Organ Transformation essence into the Altar Formation to protect the youths, froze. He felt that energy wave—it was not a destructive explosion, but a pure rejection reaction from extremely precious energy.

  "Not a destructive explosion," Uncle Chen whispered, his eyes narrowed with worry.

  "The pill... The Spirit Shaping Pill is refusing to be absorbed! Zhi Xuan, release the pill! Right now!"

  However, it was too late.

  Zhi Xuan, who was sitting cross-legged on a flat stone under the Starfruit Tree, felt a sensation far beyond physical pain. The Spirit Shaping Pill—a perfect fusion of the hot Pure Forest Ginseng and the cold Thousand Year Jade Root—had exploded into two conflicting essences at the center of his chest.

  The hot orange essence burned his meridians, attempting to destroy his Mortal Wheel. Meanwhile, the cold jade essence crept in, trying to freeze the fire before it could burn out. The battle resulted in a pure back-pressure released into the air, causing visible spiritual ripples.

  Inside, Zhi Xuan groaned. He felt his fragile essence tearing apart. His Mortal Wheel, already badly cracked, trembled violently on the verge of annihilation.

  "Zhi Xuan!" Aunt Lian shouted anxiously, trying to run towards Zhi Xuan. Grandfather Wu raised his hand and stopped Aunt Lian.

  "Don't, Lian!" Grandfather Wu's voice was sharp. "If you disturb him now, he will die! Let him bear his destiny!"

  "My son... Zhi Xuan..." Aunt Lian clasped her hands over her chest, anxiously watching the bluish-orange light radiate around Zhi Xuan.

  Grandfather Wu stepped forward and slammed his staff down. Four black jade stones, manifested as formation flags, emerged from his robe. Grandfather Wu immediately threw the flags to the four sides, creating a protective square around the Opening Stone Altar Formation, shielding the eight cultivating youths.

  "Chen, focus on the Formation! Protect the new Golden Foundations! Zhi Xuan's energy will soon attract attention from outside!" Grandfather Wu commanded.

  Uncle Chen nodded, his eyes filled with cold sweat. He knew Grandfather Wu was right—a spiritual ripple that large, even if not destructive, would attract spiritual beings from the deeper forest.

  "Liang, Bao! Keep the villagers four li away from here!"

  Liang and Bao, who had just witnessed the youths' breakthrough, immediately acted. Their expressions turned serious. Liang, with his calmer demeanor, shouted, "Everyone! This is Grandfather Wu's command! Retreat! Four li from the Altar! Now!"

  Bao, who was faster, ran towards the edge of the square. "Hurry! Head to the wheat fields outside the Village immediately! Don't look back! Protect the children!"

  The veteran hunters, including Fourteen, Jin, and Hua Ling, swiftly assisted. They did not question, they only acted, for they knew Grandfather Wu's voice was law. Fourteen, who felt Zhi Xuan's chaotic spiritual energy could make his own First Ember cultivation tremble, causing a threatening tremor.

  "Hurry! That energy is impure! It will poison the newly born Divine Wheels!" Fourteen shouted, channelling a bit of his new spiritual essence to help push the villagers.

  The villagers, fearful of the impending danger, did not hesitate. They rushed away from the square, creating a thick silence in the Formation area.

  "That boy... Can that boy survive?" Grandma Hua whispered, cupping her mouth with her wrinkled hand.

  "He is different... It is like the birth of a catastrophe and a celestial being at the same time!" muttered an old hunter, his eyes staring in awe.

  "That explosion... It feels like my heart is being forcibly pulled out!" exclaimed a farmer, trying to control his choked breath.

  On the other side, Aunt Lian, though filled with fear, retreated behind the formation flags set up by Grandfather Wu. She stood there, watching Zhi Xuan, clutching a piece of red silk cloth she had once given to Zhi Xuan when he was a baby.

  In the sky above, black clouds gathered and lightning flashed, as if something that should not exist was about to manifest, something that had once defied heaven, hunted by heaven, and now only a frightening echo of the past remained.

  The square had now changed, the atmosphere shifting from tense to suffocating. The eight youths who successfully broke through to the Divine Wheel, who were now trying to absorb the Altar's essence, suddenly flinched.

  Tang, whose aura was the most exuberant, groaned. His newly formed Golden Divine Wheel trembled, affected by the chaotic energy wave from Zhi Xuan. "What is this?" Tang whispered, his eyes wide with shock. "It feels... like a cold hand is grasping my Divine Wheel!"

  Bashan, who was always calm, opened his eyes. He was not panicking, but his expression was serious. "That energy wave... is like opposing fire and ice. It is trying to draw essence from the Formation." He channelled his essence deeper, protecting his Divine Wheel.

  Mingling, who was already staggering, now felt genuine fear. His small Divine Wheel spun wildly, almost disintegrating. "This... this is not the essence of the Fire Roaring Ape! This is colder! More malicious!" He tried to channel the essence he absorbed to calm himself, but the wave from Zhi Xuan was too strong.

  Zhuwei, who was always rigid, felt a faint crack in his rough Divine Wheel. "Structure... crumbling," Zhuwei muttered, his eyes tightly shut. He tried to rebuild his spiritual wall, but Zhi Xuan's energy wave was like an invisible hammer.

  Uncle Chen, standing on the side of the Altar, now felt his body tremble. He had to hold back the wave from damaging the Formation and hurting the youths. "Grandfather Wu! The energy is getting stronger! It is like... a bottomless well!"

  Grandfather Wu patted his waist and pulled out a hereditary heirloom passed down from every generation of village chief. The heirloom was a silvery black disc, radiating a strong spiritual aura.

  The disc floated into the air and Grandfather Wu pressed his finger together. "Star Disc, open!"

  The silvery black disc enlarged, spinning rapidly over Zhi Xuan's head, casting a light that broke the darkness of the sky. Fine, yet immensely strong, spiritual energy nets shot out from the Star Disc, forming a tight dome encircling the Starfruit Tree and Zhi Xuan. The nets did not touch Zhi Xuan, but served as a perfect spiritual separator, cutting off the interaction between Zhi Xuan's chaotic energy and the Altar.

  Grandfather Wu, left with no other choice, chose to imprison Zhi Xuan's uncontrolled spiritual essence within that energy cage, preventing it from poisoning the youths' Divine Wheels and the newly used Altar essence.

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  "Chen! The Star Disc will hold this aura of chaos, but he will be cut off from Heaven! Your focus remains on the youths!" Grandfather Wu commanded, his voice filled with urgency.

  Grandfather Wu, now facing the sky above Zhi Xuan, ignored Uncle Chen. His sharp eyes stared at the black clouds swirling in the sky. The once perfect jade moonlight was now covered, replaced by terrifying darkness.

  "This is a sign from Heaven," Grandfather Wu said, his voice resonating with cold power. "Heaven hates his presence. This is a curse that comes from the past."

  Lightning flashed again, closer this time, illuminating the black clouds that now formed a giant vortex above the Starfruit Tree. The image looked like a demon's eye opening in the night sky.

  "He cannot survive," whispered Hua Ling, one of the bow hunters, who now stood beside her husband, Jin, at the edge of the wheat field. Her face was deathly pale. "That energy... it feels like poison to spiritual essence!"

  Jin nodded, his hands trembling. "This is the aura Grandfather Wu once told us about in the legend... the ancient aura that defies Heaven!"

  Among the villagers now taking shelter, Grandma Mu, the oldest medicine maker, closed her eyes, murmuring an ancient prayer. "Cursed soul... A soul born from destruction..."

  An old farmer, who had witnessed several spiritual storms in his life, stared up in terror. "Heaven has never been this angry! This is not just an omen, this is a punishment!"

  While the Village was gripped by panic, inside the spiritual cage, Zhi Xuan was on the verge of annihilation. The explosion of the Spirit Shaping Pill had destroyed his cracked Mortal Wheel, but he did not die. Instead, the destruction triggered something much older and more terrifying within the core of his soul.

  Under the Starfruit Tree, Zhi Xuan still had his eyes closed, sitting cross-legged with his hands forming a meditation mudra. The panicked buzzing of the villagers felt distant, almost empty. Zhi Xuan felt the darkness accompany him.

  Inside his body, amidst the destruction, Zhi Xuan felt no pain. He felt a cold void. His Mortal Wheel was gone, shattered into dust that could not even be converted into golden liquid. He was a dead mortal. However, in the midst of that void, he saw it—the center of all chaos.

  In the middle of his chest, nine gates, nine chains shaped like dragons trembled irregularly. The exploding Spirit Shaping Pill had hit those chained gates.

  The gates surrounded the ash of his shattered Mortal Wheel, leaving behind evaporating black spots. For a moment of silence, Zhi Xuan opened his eyes and found himself adrift in a dark ocean, his sea of consciousness that had no sky.

  The exploding spiritual essence was not absorbed by the Mortal Wheel, but immediately sucked by the Nine Coiling Dragon Gates. The gates did not open, but rather sucked the essence through the porous cracks in the chains. The hot and cold essences, instead of merging, fought around the chains, trying to free themselves, but in vain.

  The gates surrounded the ash of his shattered Mortal Wheel, leaving behind evaporating black spots. For a moment of silence, Zhi Xuan opened his eyes and found himself adrift in a dark ocean, his sea of consciousness that had no sky.

  The Sea of Consciousness was a boundless void, shrouded in thick, cold darkness, not the darkness of the night, but a suffocating nothingness. There was no light, no sound, only a profound sense of solitude.

  Zhi Xuan, or rather his core consciousness, was the only point of light there. He looked down. Where his feet touched, the Sea of Consciousness trembled.

  At the center of that ocean, stood the terrifying Nine Coiling Dragon Gates. Nine dragon-shaped chains circled a formless core. The orange and jade energy was now trapped between those chains, producing chaotic light that pulsed, like a heart forced to beat.

  The Mortal Wheel was gone. The Divine Wheel was never formed. All that remained was an ancient structure that had absorbed the Spirit Shaping Pill and resisted destruction. The structure not only rejected heaven, but also rejected mortal cultivation.

  Zhi Xuan looked up, searching for the Heaven's Resonance that Bashan and Tang felt.

  There was none. His Sea of Consciousness had no Heaven. Only eternal darkness looming high, as if he had been cut off from the Three Thousand Worlds.

  "Where... Am I..." Zhi Xuan murmured softly, stepping his feet into the thick darkness. "Am I... Already dead?"

  In the midst of his confusion, a large vortex churned from his sea of consciousness, forming a dark spiral that shook his sea of consciousness.

  Zhi Xuan's eyes widened, his steps stumbled and slowly retreated. "W-what is this?!" his voice was filled with pure shock, the vortex was like a black hole about to explode his sea of consciousness.

  RUMBLE!

  The dark spiral vortex spun faster and faster, pulling the darkness from the Sea of Consciousness. A majestic shadow began to emerge from within the abyss, growing tall beyond everything.

  It was the Ancient Devil Monument. The Monument towered infinitely, made of pitch black stone, its surface carved with millions of blood-red pulsing runes. The Monument did not radiate a cold spiritual aura like the Jade Root, but an ancient, oppressive, and unimaginably majestic Demonic Aura.

  Its mere presence caused Zhi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness to churn, producing shockwaves that nearly shattered him. Zhi Xuan, with his fragile core consciousness, fell to his knees. He felt the Monument not only dominating his Sea of Consciousness, but also his entire destiny.

  "Devil... Monument..." Zhi Xuan could not say anything else. Every rune carved on the Monument was like a chain binding his soul.

  Suddenly, the cold, majestic, and very familiar voice returned. The woman's voice that had only been a murmur, now echoed from the Ancient Devil Monument itself, as if the Monument was her tongue.

  "Life and Death are like falling dew, everything is just like a wilting lotus..." The voice resonated, not through the ears, but through Zhi Xuan's bone marrow and soul core, causing his every cell to tremble. "The monkeys on the riverbanks keep screaming, why make heaven bleed?"

  The Monument trembled. And from one of the runes on the Monument, a faint shadow of a woman emerged. She was made of pure darkness, wearing a silk robe that flowed like a shadow. The shadow's eyes shone cold purple, staring straight into the void.

  "I am Ruo Xianxue. My hands grasp the stars, sun, and moon. In my life, I only seek one answer. Does Heaven exist?"

  The echo of the voice nearly collapsed his Sea of Consciousness, Zhi Xuan trembled and knelt before the awe that felt so ancient and sacred. The woman's figure merged back into the darkness of the runes on the Ancient Devil Monument. The runes pulsed faintly and stood firm in the center of Zhi Xuan's sea of consciousness.

  As if having vision and a glimmer of awareness, the Ancient Devil Monument emitted a melodious yet threatening echoing voice.

  "Oh? It turns out the Nine Heaven Bead brought me to this fragile mortal youth," the voice was melodious and majestic, as if the echo of countless thousands of lives reawakened.

  "Ruo Xianxue?" Zhi Xuan muttered softly, trying to rise from his knees. He raised his face and stared at the monument standing firmly before his eyes.

  "Yes. That is me." Ruo Xianxue's voice now sounded closer, as if whispering directly into Zhi Xuan's core consciousness. The Monument did not move, but the aura it emitted forced Zhi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness to tremble violently.

  "You see this Monument, don't you, mortal child?" Ruo Xianxue asked. Her voice contained a subtle mockery. "Although I do not remember what happened to the Nine Heavens in the past, I ended up here, with a fragile youth like you."

  Zhi Xuan, although afraid, felt anger rise within him.

  "Fragile youth? Your voice sounds like a little girl who got lost and forgot the way home!"

  That sudden anger exploded in the silent Sea of Consciousness. The words, though foolish and inappropriate in the presence of majesty like the Ancient Devil Monument, were the only resistance Zhi Xuan's core consciousness could muster.

  "Little girl?"

  Ruo Xianxue's voice, echoing from the Monument, showed no anger, but cold surprise, followed by bone-chilling laughter. The laughter, though melodious, carried an ancient resonance that caused Zhi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness to spin wildly.

  "You dare to insult the Sacred Devil who carved the destiny of the sky? You truly are just a mortal insect who has just lost its shell!"

  The Ancient Devil Monument trembled violently. The blood-red runes on its surface lit up, and from the Monument, a gigantic finger—made of pure shadow pulsing with demonic aura—emerged. The finger pointed directly at Zhi Xuan's core consciousness.

  "You see those nine gates, boy? Those are the Nine Heavens Demonic Soul Gates, a prison binding my fragmented soul. Your small exploding spiritual pill couldn't even scratch the chains. It only managed to activate one of the rune seals in your body."

  Zhi Xuan, seeing the giant shadow finger pointing at him, could not move. The sense of oppression was very real, as if an entire volcano was placed on his shoulders. Yet, in the midst of that terror, he remembered his promise to Aunt Lian. He had to be a protector.

  "I... I don't care who you are!" Zhi Xuan shouted, forcing himself to stand upright, though his knees trembled. He looked up at the endless Monument. "You are inside my body! You destroyed my Mortal Wheel! If you are 'Sacred', then you are a Sacred One hiding inside a mortal child's shell! You are nothing more than... a parasite!"

  The shadow finger froze, just inches from Zhi Xuan's core consciousness. Ruo Xianxue's laughter subsided, replaced by a deadly silence.

  "Parasite..." The voice trembled, now filled with cold oddity and curiosity. "You are the first mortal to dare call me that, after thousands of years I have been trapped between Heaven and Earth."

  The shadow finger touched Zhi Xuan and sent him tumbling backward, falling into his own sea of consciousness. But before he could react, red threads wrapped around him and pulled him back up.