Chapter 541 - 324: The Activated Ascension Platform, Mr. Qi’s Resurrection Ritual, Saint Qi Xingyan

"PFFT!"

The Chess Saint spat out a mouthful of blood, his aura instantly weakening.

However, seeing Lu Mingyuan safely enter the cave, he breathed a sigh of relief.

At some point, a woman in a purple dress rose slowly from the depths of the sea. Exuding a terrifying aura, she violently struck out with her palm toward the Snake Consort.

"Who are you?"

The Snake Consort summoned her Lifebound Treasure Mirror, striking the purple-clad woman between the eyes and sending her flying.

Just as she recalled her Lifebound Treasure Mirror, an immense, sinisterly cold force struck her from behind. The impact sent a series of cracks through her bones as her body was flung forward.

She had actually underestimated her opponent.

"This aura... it doesn’t feel like it belongs to the Human Race," the Snake Consort said gravely as she tried to recover her Momentum.

She threw a palm strike, intending to obliterate the purple-clad woman.

But unexpectedly, the woman’s chest erupted in a brilliant light, which transformed into a purple spider lily.

"That’s a Sacred Object of the Ancient Human Race, the Three-leaf Nine-Life Flower!"

"How is that possible? The Ancient Human Race was wiped out tens of thousands of years ago!"

The Snake Consort was not just surprised to see this; she was utterly shocked.

’Could it be that this woman in purple is an expert from tens of thousands of years ago?’

’She is definitely not from this era!’

’This is too bizarre. An ancient corpse that was sealed in ice has actually come back to life!’

Seeing that even the Snake Consort had been bested, the Cultivators below were all dumbfounded.

They had never imagined that this woman in purple, who had appeared out of nowhere, would be so powerful.

However, what none of them knew was that the entire Feisheng Ancient City was already teeming with resurrected Ice Corpses just like her.

...

Inside the mountain cave, the Seven-Colored Divine Mist swirled.

Lu Mingyuan entered the cave smoothly. Before him, a massive millstone-like object hovered in the center of a great hall. It resembled a Sun Crown, surrounded by countless divine statues.

Below it was a wide altar covered in a variety of intricate symbols, filled with an ancient and profound aura.

The Ascension Platform before him had clearly been activated.

Lu Mingyuan walked forward, one step at a time.

He hadn’t expected that the Ascension Platform, which had endured for countless ages, would actually appear before his very eyes.

Lu Mingyuan retrieved a coffin from his Acupoints.

Inside lay the body of Qi Xingyan.

Although his body was incomplete and his Divine Soul had been lost, there was still a chance to bring him back from the dead.

Seeing Qi Xingyan in the Jade Coffin, now little more than a skeleton, Lu Mingyuan’s heart couldn’t help but tremble violently, even though he had prepared himself for this.

Not a single part of Qi Xingyan’s body was intact.

But this was the Flesh Body of one of the Saints and Sages, after all. Even though Confucian Cultivators were not known for their physical prowess, his body had not decayed in such a short time.

On the surface, Qi Xingyan’s Divine Soul was completely annihilated.

But a small fragment of his Divine Soul remained preserved within the Ritual Saint Jade Hairpin. This was the key to reversing life and death.

However, even returning this fragment to his body was far from enough to resurrect Qi Xingyan. A much more powerful Divine Soul had to be re-formed.

"Rest assured, Mr. Qi. I will make you even more powerful than you were before."

Lu Mingyuan murmured, then took the Jade Coffin and placed it in the center of the Ascension Platform.

Reviving Mr. Qi required two steps.

The first step was to use the National Fortune as a sacrifice to re-gather his scattered soul.

The second step was to activate the Divine Power of the Ascension Platform to forge a new Saint’s body capable of housing the Divine Soul.

Summoning a soul was extremely complex and had to be done as soon as possible. The longer the delay, the greater the difficulty, to the point where all hope would be lost.

This was because once a Divine Soul scatters into the world, it is gradually assimilated by the Celestial Dao over time. Eventually, not even a single trace can be re-gathered.

Qi Xingyan, at least, still had a wisp of his Divine Soul remaining. Using that as a foundation would make it relatively easier to re-gather the scattered parts.

"SHLICK."

Lu Mingyuan sliced open his wrist, releasing a large amount of his Life Essence Blood.

Using his blood as a medium, he followed the instructions in the Ancient Books to quickly inscribe numerous profound Secret Patterns, forming a strange Summoning Array.

Setting up a Summoning Array didn’t necessarily require sacrificial offerings; many other materials could be used as substitutes and prepared in advance.

But time was of the essence, and Lu Mingyuan didn’t want to waste a single moment.

His blood was the best sacrifice of all.

He had Cultivated his Flesh Body to be harder than any Magical Treasure, making his blood just as precious. Otherwise, the Snake Consort would not have been so insistent on seizing his body earlier.

For Mr. Qi’s sake, he didn’t mind expending some of his Life Essence Blood.

"Search heaven and earth; gather the spirit and congeal the soul."

With a solemn expression, Lu Mingyuan’s hands slowly formed a series of strange Seal Techniques.

"BUZZ."

The Summoning Array inscribed on the ground instantly erupted with a brilliant, bloody light that shot toward the sky.

In that moment, the void trembled, and a special, ethereal channel faintly appeared. It was impossibly dark inside, its destination unknown.

But the channel was highly unstable, shifting erratically as if it could collapse at any moment.

The process of summoning a soul involved using one’s Spiritual Power, or Divine Thought, to capture the scattered wisps of a soul adrift in the world, bring them back, and then re-form them.

Of course, this was no easy task. Reversing life and death defied the laws of the world’s operation and would thus incur the backlash of the Celestial Dao.

The more powerful the person being resurrected, the stronger the backlash from the soul summoning.

When Qi Xingyan died, he was already one of the Saints and Sages, his Cultivation and strength immense. Even an Immortal might not have succeeded, even if they paid with their life.

This was why Lu Mingyuan had planned to gather the Destiny of the Seven Kingdoms to resurrect Qi Xingyan.

For now, he had only collected the Celestial Destiny and Fortune of the prodigies of the Seven Kingdoms, as well as that of the Golden Crow Country. He didn’t know if it would be enough.

After all, that Emperor from the Middle Ages had sacrificed the National Fortune of an entire Empire!

Lu Mingyuan planned to use a portion of Great Yan’s National Fortune. After all, he did not want to see Mr. Qi’s strength diminished in any way.

’If I’m going to resurrect him, it has to be a Qi Xingyan at the peak of his power!’

’Or even stronger!’

Outside the cave, the sky suddenly changed color. The lightning enveloping the blood-red mountain grew even more violent, and countless massive spatial rifts appeared in the Grotto Heaven, as if the entire world was about to shatter.

Inside the mountain, Qi Xingyan’s body was enveloped in crimson blood, and the life force it radiated grew stronger and stronger, as if he might awaken at any moment.

"Come back to life!"

"BOOM."

Thunderbolts suddenly tore through the sky, shattering the void.

A vast, abyssal Saint’s aura emanated from the snowy mountain peak, spreading rapidly in all directions.

Those who had landed on the island looked toward the source of the commotion, all of them perplexed.

Yun Qinghe and the other Great Yan Cultivators looked toward the cave, their faces lighting up with joy.

"Could it be... he succeeded?"

...