Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"As for the 'Thunder Method' we cultivate, during the Qi Training Stage, we must achieve 'Opening the Meridians,' and during the Foundation Establishment Stage, we need 'Bone Strengthening.' Meridians can be opened with internal energy, becoming innate meridians. However, 'Bone Strengthening' requires opportunity, because the bones are still the same innate bones. Only by combining the inner and outer elements can we cultivate an indestructible foundation. The spiritual energy in the world is too thin, and so far, only a few have been able to successfully establish a foundation. It was only thanks to the Immortal Root Radish that the court fed us since childhood that I was able to enter the Qi Training Stage so quickly, because my meridians have been clear since childhood. And this person in front of me is already stronger than my master. Not only has she broken through the Foundation Establishment Stage, but she has also become three times stronger in her dark transformation!"

"What should I do?"

"How about a fortune telling first?"

Shangluo looked up into the air and said, "Hey, Apollonia, can you tell me your fortune?"

[You can, but you may not get the results you want. I've said before, if you don't have the ability to change the outcome, it's best to use divination with caution. Because divination can sometimes be indistinguishable from a curse.]

"Then I'll do some divination." He took out the small box from his arms and opened the lid.

"Huh? Why has it changed again?" He saw that the box inside was not the hexagram he had drawn before, but had turned into a tarot-like playing card, just like at the beginning.

Because divination requires stillness, can you be still now? Anything could appear in this box, but it must be the one that suits you best. Right now, the most suitable tarot deck for you should be this one. I have a bad feeling. Draw, and I'll be watching. When I watch, the winds of fate will blow.

The temperature around us was dropping, and traces of frost were creeping along the ground, across the carpet and sofa, and towards the base of the wall.

"Hey, do you have any number? Can you tell me the fortune now?"

"Got it, got it." His hands were a little trembling, but he was still able to hold the card box steadily. He lifted half of the stack of cards with his fingers and casually twisted them out, picking up two cards.

There was no time to hesitate. He simply flipped the corner of the card: King!

The second card also had a faint pattern on it, which seemed to be a Joker. However, it was still a bit difficult to open the cards with one hand. He had to use force to separate the two cards to see what was underneath.

But just as he tried to flip the second card, a chill shot up from his chest. He shuddered involuntarily, and his right hand, still holding the cards, trembled violently, sending the entire card box flying. The cards scattered through the air, and the ground, where they fell, was covered in frost. Only the King remained in his hand.

"Your Majesty, what do you mean?"

[This probably means you've drawn a joker. It's over.]

"Hey, hey, hey, didn't I just draw two kings?"

If you choose divination, then everything that happens during divination is a sign of fate. Just like when Zhuge Liang's Seven Star Lantern was knocked over by Wei Yan, that had little to do with Wei Yan. Even if Wei Yan were tied up, Ma Yan and Liu Yan would still intervene. This is the ruthlessness of fate.

“Can you modify it?”

No. Not even the gods can change fate. Odin couldn't do it, and he died during Ragnarok. Kronos couldn't do it, and he would eventually die at the hands of the Son of God. Even Zeus couldn't do it. This was the fate of the Olympians—Apollo, Athena, and Dionysus all had the potential to replace Zeus. But the story of the Olympians has ended, and we don't know what happened next.

"Okay." He looked at Wen Yuan beside him, and the cold air had spread to his feet.

"The result is not good." He showed his cards to Wen Yuan.

"You drew the joker card? So you're using the turtle to tell fortunes?"

"Almost, but very accurate. It seems we can't escape. What should we do?"

"That's really accurate. I can't handle the strength of the Foundation Establishment Stage. I'm only in the Qi Training Stage."

"what?"

"But don't worry, humans are not animals. Humans don't have claws or fangs, but they can defeat wild beasts with sticks. Humans don't have thick skin and scales, but they can arm themselves with armor. Humans are the most intelligent creatures on earth, and humans have fire! If I'm not mistaken, your pill will be ready. But it's still a little short. Wait a moment while I add some fuel to the fire. I should bring it. Hey, where's my stuff? It should be here! Wait a moment while I look for it. I'll definitely bring it. It's what my father left me, and I'll never leave it behind."

As he spoke, the black air was getting closer and closer.

"Hey, hey, hey! Do you have any idea? What do you want?"

"I'm carrying the killing weapon bestowed upon my father by the Daoist Patriarch himself, and left to me by him! Don't worry, I'll find it soon!" He'd already begun tossing out the unimportant items, his small bag akin to a four-dimensional pocket, a jangling mess of random things.

Suddenly, a chill came over me, and the black fog was right in front of me.

"run"

"what?"

"Run!" He grabbed Shangluo's arm and ran out, "This thing is no joke! Let me find it while I run!"

He pushed the door open with his shoulder, grabbed Shangluo's arm and pushed him out, then reached back and closed the door.

There were quite a few bald men guarding the door, and they were all stunned when they saw the two of them rushing out.

"Run! What are you guys still looking at!" Wen Yuan didn't even stop. Anyone who tried to reach out to intercept him was slammed into him and rushed away. Shang Luo was dragged so hard that his feet were almost off the ground, running out like a fly.

"Hey, how do we get out of this place? I was blindfolded when I was brought in."

"Stairs! Take the stairs!" Shangluo pointed to the front right, "We came down the stairs!"

Before he could finish his words, there was a loud bang behind him.

"Don't look back!" Wen Yuan shouted from the front, "Have you seen Tom and Jerry? I used Tom's speed trick! Just keep your head down and keep going forward. As long as you don't look back, you won't be caught! As long as you don't lower your head, you won't fall off the cliff!"

"But my face is facing backwards! I can already see it! There is a black aura chasing after me!"

"Fuck, I forgot!" Wen Yuan cursed, and he wanted to punch himself. "I should have carried you and ran away! My master said so! So why did she chase us? Didn't she give all the pills to her? What else do we have on us?"

[And me.] Apollonia's voice was surprisingly calm. [Throw me out, she's chasing me.]

"You're going to be okay?"

[No, she just wants to take me back. Throw me out.]

"This isn't just his own problem; it concerns Wen Yuan's life as well." He repeated Apollonia's words to Wen Yuan.

"So it's in your pocket? What's that? A weapon spirit? At first we thought it was from the demonic side, but it doesn't look like it. It's a weapon spirit, right?"

"Yes, it can be considered as a weapon spirit."

"My goodness, you have so many good things on you. How come there are treasures everywhere? Is that weapon spirit your friend? She must be your friend!"

"Yes." Shangluo answered without hesitation, "But how did you know?"

"Because the spirit of the weapon is deceiving you! That Phaethon has gone mad and doesn't recognize anyone. When he sees a spirit, he'll rush over and bite like a shark smelling blood. If you throw her out, she's dead! I smell blood, and everyone behind her died on the stairs!"

Wen Yuan saw the emergency exit marked in green: "Is that the staircase? Great, we can get out! It doesn't matter if the door is closed, watch me knock it open!"

Chapter 41 Left Zero Right Fire! Daozu Help Me!

There was a loud "bang" like a bell ringing, and Wen Yuan leaned against the door with her shoulders folded.

The door was an iron door and it didn't move at all.

"It's easy to understand the will of heaven, but it's hard to defy it. Human strength still can't defeat steel. Ah, it hurts."

"Can you still walk? How about I carry you instead?"

"Not for now." He touched his shoulder. "It's dislocated, but luckily it's not broken. As expected, even if I've been eating immortal root radishes since I was a child, even if I maintain my body in the state of an innate Taoist body, I'll still hurt bones. The innate meridians allow spiritual energy to flow unimpeded, but innate bones are still bones. Only by being reborn can the innate Taoist body truly be forged into a Taoist foundation. But being reborn is not an easy task."

The smell of blood was getting closer and closer, and visible coldness had appeared at the end of the corridor.

"By the way, how did you get out last time?" He suddenly turned around and asked Shangluo, "My master said that when he broke into the door last time, he thought he would have to clear it out before he could find you. He didn't expect you to be standing behind the door, as if waiting there. Was that also the result of your calculations? Including the gun?"

"That gun wasn't it. How could I possibly shoot myself in the head with such an ambiguous result? I just wanted to scare him. I knew the gun would jam. But waiting at the door was definitely a revelation."

"That weapon spirit?"

"Ah."

"That's really accurate." He answered, touching his shoulder, probing the shoulder blade with his fingers a few times, and then twisting the dislocated arm back with a "click".

"Ouch!" he cried out in pain. "I think I've broken some bones. It takes a hundred days to heal. What's going to happen to my race?"

"Are you still thinking about the race?"

"It's nothing, I told you it's nothing, don't worry. At most you'll be stuck here for a few days waiting for rescue. At worst, you can take a fasting pill."

[According to the divination, your chances of being rescued are zero.] Apollonia's voice was calmer than usual:

So, hand me over. Your life is limited, you only have one. But my life is infinite.

"She still wants us to hand her over." Shangluo looked up and said, "She said her life is infinite."

"Nonsense." Wen Yuan was still adjusting her arm. "And even though I'm not a Buddhist, I know that if you don't give up your ego, you can't regenerate. The spirit of the weapon can certainly live again, but after the consciousness is cut off, will it still be her who comes back to life? So don't put too much faith in fate. What's the saying? 'Intercepting a ray of heaven' refers to those who cultivate immortality. So let me do it. Well, I found it."

As if he had touched something, he closed the bag and said, "Leave it to me. I'll stop her here, and you go and retrieve the spear."

"Are you sure? How come you didn't find it just now, but suddenly found it now?"

"Oh, don't ask so many questions. Anyway, this thing is very expensive, you have to let me be mentally prepared. Anyway, you run first, go around and get the spear back, and leave it to me here - I'm making it clear, don't leave!"

"Am I the kind of person who would abandon my friends and run away?"

"That's not what I meant. What I meant was that it's not her who's gone astray, but the Dansha. In other words, your Dan is being 'tempered' in the furnace. Your foundation lies within that, and you must return no matter what. I can certainly suppress the Dansha's eruption, but even after suppressing it, I still need to break the formation. Go and get that spear back. I think we should fight back in kind, that's the common sense of breaking the formation."

"But, she's here for the weapon spirit, right?"

"The reason why it's called Dan Dansha is because Dansha only has instincts and will only chase light. As long as the light on my side is stronger, it won't chase you."

This kid is quite capable! He actually figured out that phlogiston sources can obscure each other, with the stronger suppressing the weaker. Just like the glow of rotten grass, how can it compare to the bright moon in the sky? Actually, if you could just find a chance to take her under the sun, the sun's phlogiston would completely suppress my phlogiston traces, and she wouldn't be able to find me at all.] Apollonia also considered it:

If he could create a stronger phlogiston source than mine, then Phaethon wouldn't be able to find me either. This was Densha's doing, not hers. Helios didn't teach her anything about coldness.

"The spirit of the weapon said it's feasible." Shangluo conveyed Apollonia's judgment, "But you have to go big."

"No problem." He patted the small bag on his waist. "It can be any size you want. Don't worry."

The black gas continued to spread through the corridor. Following the traces of phlogiston, a massive black shadow moved through the black gas. Its outline had been hidden by the black gas, with only a pair of red eyes flickering in the darkness.

The black shadow's pace was slow, but every step it took caused the black energy to continue spreading forward.

"No." Phaethon looked at the light above his head, "It's not this light."

After the figure passed, the light above his head went out silently.

Stopping under another lamp, Phaethon looked up again:

“No, not this light.”

"Is this what you're looking for?" Wen Yuan suddenly appeared in front of them, but Phaethon remained unmoved. She was only interested in light, not the lives of mortals.

Suddenly, a pair of red eyes looked over, looking behind Wen Yuan—where Shangluo was running. In her eyes, there was a faint blue light that could penetrate all darkness.

"Light!"

The black shadow suddenly took a step forward, stepped over Wen Yuan's head, and stepped behind him.

"Phaethon, is that your name?"

Hearing her name, the black shadow stopped. She turned around and looked at Wen Yuan who was speaking.

"You want spiritual energy, right? Then look at this!"

Wen Yuan took out a badge from her waist bag. There was no spiritual energy fluctuation on the badge.

Similar to Lu Huaiyang's waist badge, it was also in the shape of a Jinyiwei waist badge, a jade plaque. The name was written in the center of the jade plaque, but it wasn't Wen Yuan's name. Instead, it was two characters, mostly worn away: Wen Yan. On the other side, the characters "Yun Tuan" were written in seal script.

"Father, I'm sorry I can't inherit your brand, but one day, I will have my own brand."

He held the waist badge in his right hand, pointed the Thunder Sword Technique forward with his left hand, and chanted:

"The Jade Purity begins to turn green, the true talisman announces the alliance, pushes the two energies, and merges into one to become the truth. Five thunders, five thunders, quickly meet Huang Ning! The mist changes, and the roar is as fast as lightning."

After reciting the spell, he pinched his right hand fiercely, and the jade token shattered into powder. A brilliant thunder emerged from the shattered jade token. The thunder was drawn from his right hand and directed directly to the Thunder Sword Technique in his left hand:

"Left is zero, right is fire! Daozu, help me! Thunder and lightning, launch!"

Chapter 42 Path

The thunder pierced through the corridor and struck the wall behind Shangluo. Shangluo, who was running away, turned back in surprise - this was the first time he had seen such obvious power being released.

Whether it was Apollonia's divination or Helios's oath, these powers were not released externally. Even if one consumed the Foundation Establishment Pill, became demonized, vomited blood, or was pierced by the Spear of the Apollo, they would not actually have a significant impact on the outside world. Even if "phlogiston" did not exist, even if there was no divination, the event could still happen, but the probability of it happening was much lower.

Even when the Spear of Apollo used its oath to restore those who had been testing the drug, this power tended to be "inward," restoring things to their original state. Without a pact with Helios, this power obviously had no effect on them. The only exception was the Spear's weight, which truly belied its appearance and could crush someone to death.

Only when Phaethon entered a demonic state did he bring about visible changes in his surroundings, as the temperature dropped. This drop in temperature had nothing to do with the "contractor," but objectively affected everyone around him.

The lightning bolt just now completely surpassed all the mysterious powers he had seen before. Even now, the enormous power made every pore of his body stand up.

[How powerful! A cultivator at the Spiritual Qi Training Stage can actually wield this level of power! Truly worthy of the Path of Origin.] Even at the second stage of Helios' Path of Entropy, it's difficult to display enough power to shake objective reality.]

"The Origin Path? What is that?"

The Origin Path is what's commonly known as "Taoism." It explores the invisible, nameless, inaction-free Tai Chi, the path to the origin. One of the powers of the Origin Path is to channel phlogiston, infusing it into objects and sublimating them. If that object is a person, it's cultivation; if it's a tool, it can create spiritual objects. What Wen Yuan just used must have been a high-level spiritual object—but something so advanced clearly couldn't be just a bomb; it was a truly precious object. I can sense the threads of fate woven into it.

"No wonder he said we only have one chance. If I succeed this time, I'll thank him later. Where is the spear? Can you feel it?"

It's not far ahead. If you circle around, you'll find yourself back in the office. It's pitch black, though; all the light has been absorbed by Phaethon. I can see it clearly, though, because I don't need to use my eyes. Be careful not to step on anything on the ground.

"Are all the people she brought dead?"

The light has been sucked away, those who are doomed. A tiny bit of light still remains within the spear, untapped. That's because Phaethon, the Oathbreaker, can't touch the Spear of Apollo, the symbol of the oath. Huh? Wait, there's more than one point of light! I thought I was seeing the Spear of Apollo, but the light is still moving! It's moving!