Atop the altar, Li Tan cupped his face with both hands, tears of extreme joy leaking between his fingers.

"At last, he's been fooled!"

Li Tan took a deep, long breath, propped himself up with his hands, and slowly pulled his lower body out from the midst of the golden flowers.

He stretched lazily, casually summoned a robe to drape over himself, and barefoot, stepped down from the altar one step at a time.

At this moment, Qi Xiu was tightly bound by an inexplicable force, completely unable to move.

With a face full of smiles, making no attempt to conceal his immense joy, Li Tan slowly approached Qi Xiu.

"Young friend, your heart is pure and good-natured; Li admires you truly. What a pity, though. In this ever-turning world, it's often the good who die young, while the calamitous live for a thousand years. Look at you, wanting to save billions of living beings, and now you've become a prisoner at my feet. And I, on the other hand, have regained my freedom."

Li Tan spread his arms, roaming ceaselessly, as if walking, to him, was an indescribably pleasurable act.

"Are you saying that everything you said just now was meant to deceive me?" Turning his gaze to the delighted Li Tan before him, Qi Xiu slowly spoke.

"Deceive you? I wouldn't say so. If you had not come, in at most two years, that Golden Flower Old Mother would have replaced me, turning me into a pitiful ghost, erased from existence. But this golden altar was not made by the Golden Flower Old Mother. It was made by me!"

Picking up the gold brick Qi Xiu had taken, Li Tan firmly placed it back on the altar. "When I discovered the hidden traps the Golden Flower Old Mother set in the *Ten Thousand Births Origin Sutra* and the *Deification Grand Canon,* I immediately began constructing this altar. Perhaps that Outer Realm Evil God was too arrogant, thinking that I, a mere member of the Human Race, would not have the capital to oppose her. But fate is such a tease. She forgot that I was once an elder of the Heavenly Wolf Sect. And what our sect is best at is the Soul-Sealing Skill! This Ten Directions Mysterious Gold Soul-Suppressing Altar is my final masterpiece from before I died."

Sitting down on the altar, Li Tan seemed to open the floodgates to his thoughts. "I buried myself within this Soul-Suppressing Altar. With its power, I delayed the Golden Flower Old Mother's erosion and appropriation of my soul. Beyond that, within this altar, I left another Divine Marvel: a Reincarnation Method! This Divine Marvel allows the first person who touches this altar to be temporarily suppressed, while I can then inhabit that person's physical body and soul, reincarnating in their shell. After so many years, I had lost all hope. But then, the appearance of a mysterious man thirteen years ago reignited my confidence."

Recalling the moment he had almost given up, a faint gratitude surfaced in Li Tan's eyes. If it weren't for that mysterious man's appearance, he would have given up resisting and been completely eroded by the Golden Flower Old Mother, erased from this world.

"A mysterious person? Who is this mysterious person who dared to encourage you in the face of an Outer Realm Evil God like the Golden Flower Old Mother? Or is this another of your fabrications?" Qi Xiu asked with a smile.

"This isn't a fabrication!" Qi Xiu's disrespect towards his benefactor angered Li Tan slightly, and he suddenly rose and grasped Qi Xiu by the throat. "Although Daoist Qingya isn't much to look at, but..."

"Who?" Qi Xiu's voice suddenly rose, his gaze sharpening.

"You fucking know him too?" Li Tan cursed involuntarily, unable to comprehend how this insignificant Dao-Entering Realm cultivator before him fucking knew everything and recognized everyone.

Thirteen years ago... That was precisely when I had just parted from Daoist Qingya. And at that time, I had just entered the Dao. So after parting from me, Daoist Qingya found Li Tan, who was almost crumbling, and told him to hold on and not to give up... to wait for my arrival? But how could Daoist Qingya have known that, more than a decade later, I would come here? Did he have the ability to foresee the future? Or... No, that's not right! Suddenly thinking of something, Qi Xiu's mind roared. The Observing Qi Skill! This incredibly divine Dharma Gate was one of his most formidable abilities. And as the original possessor of this Dharma Gate, Daoist Qingya's mastery over it must be ten thousandfold more formidable than his own. Could it be that this incredibly mysterious, portly Daoist had seen his Broken Mirror Calamity Sequence directly through the Observing Qi Skill? But why would he then stop Li Tan from giving up? In an instant, Qi Xiu's mind was cluttered with thoughts. Li Tan, the Golden Flower Old Mother, and now Daoist Qingya. They were all interlinked, their connections stuffing into his head like a tangled mess.

Looking at Qi Xiu's solemn expression, Li Tan snorted coldly, "I won't waste more words with you. The Golden Flower Old Mother is likely to return soon, and I need to complete my resurrection sooner and flee far away, never to see that madwoman again!"

Before the words were even finished, Li Tan controlled Qi Xiu, forcing his mouth open. Li Tan then laughed, transformed into an obscure light, and entered Qi Xiu's body.

Inside Qi Xiu's sea of consciousness, Li Tan sat down at once, his presence dignified, like a true Buddha. He bowed to Qi Xiu in thanks, "Today, with the help of your body, I am reborn. When I rebuild my great sect, I will establish for you an eternal plaque, letting countless followers worship day and night, to forever remember your great kindness."

Li Tan pressed his palms together and chuckled lightly, his words hinting that he already regarded this body as something in the palm of his hand.

Upon hearing this, Qi Xiu was about to sneer back with a few retorts, but Li Tan had already activated the method for rebirth by body-snatching.

Brilliant and dazzling golden flowers bloomed one after another beneath him, invading Qi Xiu's soul and sea of consciousness at breakneck speed. The golden flowers swayed gently, their rootlets, containing Li Tan's soul imprints, incessantly seeping downward.

Facing Li Tan's encroachment and body-snatching, Qi Xiu attempted to counterattack. But Li Tan was, after all, at the pinnacle of the Blood-Stained Realm, just one step shy of breaking through to the Dao Body Realm. He had also cultivated a Dharma Gate like the *Deification Grand Canon,* which harnessed devotional power from offerings. His soul, washed and purified by the power of belief, was considered top-notch even among Blood-Stained Realm cultivators. In addition, his many years of contending with the Golden Flower Old Mother had similarly honed his divine soul thoughts. It could be said that even the heaven-gifted prodigies from ancient great sects or ten-thousand-year-old prestigious families probably couldn't compare to Li Tan's soul at this moment.

"After suffering for so many years, Li finally gets to live freely once more." Unable to suppress a low chuckle, to Li Tan, the strength of this little cultivator's soul was simply insignificant. Compared to him, it was like the faint glow of a firefly against the grandeur of the sun. If not for fear of harming this body, he would have long since crushed his soul with a single thought, scattering it to oblivion.

As the golden flowers continued to spread, Qi Xiu's entire sea of consciousness transformed into a radiant sea of flowers. This light, far more dazzling than the sun, relentlessly baked his soul, intent on obliterating it completely.

A Broken Mirror Calamity Sequence... is it truly unsolvable? The situation before him... he seemed to have fallen into an inescapable deathtrap. Without reaching the Blood-Stained Realm, even though he had strengthened his soul with the method of integrating spirit and flesh, he was still far inferior to Li Tan, who was bolstered by the power of devotional belief. This time, it seemed he really couldn't escape his fate. Yet, facing the imminent scattering of his soul, Qi Xiu inexplicably felt no fear or unease. And this calm sense of conviction seemed to stem from the name Li Tan had mentioned: Daoist Qingya!

Observing the tranquil and composed Qi Xiu, the smile faded slightly from Li Tan's face.

Hmph! Nothing more than a forced composure.

With all his might, Li Tan spurred on the method for rebirth by body-snatching. With a single thought, countless petals burst forth from the golden flowers in the sea of consciousness, overwhelming Qi Xiu's soul. The petals emitted a sound of prayerful chanting as they rubbed against each other, exuding a sacred aura of collective faith that subdued the soul.

Just as Qi Xiu seemed about to be overtaken by Li Tan, a glimmering purple-black light suddenly erupted from the depths of Qi Xiu's soul.

"Hmph! What cur dares to covet a treasure that I have taken a liking to!"

Rumbling soundwaves swept out like a tide, bringing overwhelming ferocity as if a mountain were falling upon him. This instantly shattered the ocean of golden flowers Li Tan had painstakingly spread. He let out a miserable scream and was blown away, his body cracking open with countless wounds, as if it would fall apart at any moment.

The purple-black light transformed into a crystal barrier, and silently within the sea of consciousness, a throne made of countless skulls appeared. Upon the throne sat a stunningly beautiful woman in her twenties, with purple hair and a black dress, her shapely legs enveloped in a layer of black stockings. She rested her head in her hand with a languid expression, her captivating eyes looking down as if they contained the vision of countless worlds being annihilated.

"My dear, we meet again."

Upon hearing this slightly naive voice, Qi Xiu's soul shuddered sharply.

"You are... that Heart Demon!"

Back when he first joined the Shenxiao Sect, he was torn between the *"Nine Heavens Divine Thunder Scripture"* and his own *"The Secret of the Primordial Dragon-Tiger Scripture,"* failing to choose between them. In the end, his Dao Heart faltered, giving rise to a Heart Demon. However, fortunately, he soon came to a realization, grasping the key points, and his Dao Heart stabilized once more. As a result, the Heart Demon did not succeed.

Could it be that the Heart Demon never left that day but instead has been lurking in the depths of my soul's sea of consciousness all this time? Contemplating this possibility, Qi Xiu suddenly felt his skin crawl. Being covertly observed by a Heart Demon for over a decade... that's something anyone would find difficult to accept in an instant. But fortunately, this Heart Demon resided within him. Otherwise, he might have already lost his body to Li Tan's rebirth method, his soul scattered and obliterated.

"Teehee, I only napped for a bit, and you've grown so much. Ah, I really want to devour you right now." Gently wiping away the crystal drool at the corner of her mouth, the purple-haired Heart Demon woman looked at Qi Xiu with a sticky gaze, as if she would leave her throne to stick to him the next moment.

"The Heavenly Demon Throne? You are of the Six Desires Heaven... How could a Cultivator of Dao have your personal protection?" Struggling to his feet, Li Tan, his body cracked and almost falling apart, looked at Qi Xiu with bitter resentment. "I've persevered for so many years, and just when success was within reach, it still slipped through my fingers. Is this the decree of heaven? Such is the will of heaven!"

With a delirious and disrupted expression, the interruption of the body-snatching rebirth and the shattered hope of new life drove Li Tan completely out of control.

"If I cannot live, then none shall! Explode! Explode! Explode!"

Blood tears streamed from his eyes, and a twisted, ferocious expression contorted his face. Li Tan grimaced at Qi Xiu, tearing open the skin on his chest with both hands as the cracks all over his body lit up with blinding light.

He intended to self-destruct his soul, blowing up Qi Xiu's sea of consciousness.

To die with him!

...

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