Ah Lian was in her astral form. Although in a certain sense, that meant that she was immortalized and she somehow felt rather regretful. She could not leave too far away from the lotus lantern and also, her daughter disliked being near her after she lost her physical body. Owing to the radiation of heat from her, her daughter, Fuhao was scorched by her during the day and left with burnt marks.

　　Although her daughter did not mention it, she was still heartbroken.

　　Shen Lian was willing to build her another physical frame and Ah Lian was more than willing to accept the offer.

　　After Shen Lian told her, he returned to Mount Mei to Qing Xuan Cave. He still could not get attuned to the stifling scent of incense. After all, this was his first attempt at dwelling with the creation and it would be almost impossible to succeed upon his first try.

　　However, he was still eager to try. Although he had never truly set foot in the state of Taiyi, if he were to succeed, he would embody the characteristics of a Taiyi.

　　It was foretold that Nüwa created mankind with water and clay in accordance with her own appearance. She sculpted the clay figurines, endowed them with spirituality – this was the birth of humans.

　　Legends were difficult to attest to, but it shed light on the key to creation. Clay belonged to the element of earth, which was the product of fusion with other four elements, metal, wood, water and fire, thus it encompassed the Five Elements. This also explained the reason of life encompassing all of the five elements inherently. Since water shared similarities to morality, utilizing water to moderate the formation of clay would naturally bestow mankind with the sense of morality in which thousands of other living things lack.

　　Therefore, amidst the ancient forms of worship, both the God of Earth and God of Water were highly respected by a large proportion of the human population.

　　Various tribes of the Eastern Barbarians provided Shen Lian numerous Spirit Fountains. The Boyi tribe even offered their Wine Spring. Thus, there was sufficient water element, not to mention Shen Lian also had one Spirit Fountain in Mount Jieyang that was usable.

　　With regards to the earth element, Shen Lian was reluctant to seek help from others and decided to adopt the True Samadhi Fire to formulate it.

　　The previous deadly hit on Feng had created stone rubbles, which was the best ingredient to be used.

　　Given that Feng was someone with years of cultivation, his spiritual energy would naturally be channeled into the rubble after his demise. Shen Lian extracted the essence from the stones and was able to create spiritual beings of the earth element.

　　As Shen Lian had experienced life and death, he did not worry over such matters. He did whatever that came to his mind, utilized the True Samadhi Fire, and extracted the essence rapidly. He then applied a small flame to it for it to simmer over a span of three days. He finally attained one bowl of yellow colored sand, where each of them was filled with spiritual elements.

　　According to legend, it was mentioned that Buddha once formulated a bowl of Gold-steel sand, to represent its firm and stern nature. Though Shen Lian felt that his own formulation of yellow sand shared similarities to the works of Buddhas, he was certain that the sand would be indestructible, not even affected by the power of divinity. Hence the spiritual body that it creates will definitely be extraordinary.

　　In the following days, he used water from the Soul Fountain to homogenize the yellow sand and sculpted a human figure thereafter. Nevertheless, it seems that a crucial factor was missed out in the process because no matter how careful Shen Lian paid attention to each detail, without fail, the mud-made figurine exploded towards the very last moment when the holy will was channeled into it.

　　Shen Lian exhausted all the ingredients he had. There were not many viable methods. Even after he switched several ingredients, the same result recurred.

　　Until one day, he stopped trying.

　　Shen Lian suddenly had thought in mind. He utilized the Eight Trigrams for prediction and realized that there was an impending, deadly fate in Mount Meng. This was an omen on the war between the Dongyi Coalition from Yunyang and the Xia Army. It was a war that would have affected the world. Yunyang cannot bear to lose, neither could Emperor Xia afford a loss.

　　Shen Lian had waited for this moment for a long time. Therefore, he immediately transformed into a puddle of clear water, slit through the sky and briskly arrived at the position where the two troops crossed fire.

　　However, the speed of Dongyi Coalition failing had far exceeded Shen Lian’s expectations, since Yunyang was courageous enough to spearhead a conflict with Emperor Xia. Apart from the support by the demon lord, it was expected that he should have in hand, other trump cards.

　　Nonetheless, the truth was, when Shen Lian arrived, Yunyang had lost miserably, saved by the demon lord, and was nowhere to be found.

　　In the midst of chaos, Shen Lian sensed the will to kill which was produced throughout the warring of the two armies, as Yunyang was defeated too quickly, the will to kill was weaker than Shen Lian originally predicted.

　　Nevertheless, for the creation of the killing sword, the collective will was sufficient, but this meant that there can be no failures during the process.

　　Shen Lian was in fact not troubled and was rather leisured and relaxed, analyzing the reason behind why Yunyang was defeated so tragically. After spending some time over this deliberation, he finally had a rough idea of what had happened.

　　When he figured out the situation, he did not leave urgently. In fact, he stayed out of sight, erased his tracks, and observed the Xia Camp from a distance. There was an astounding aura of some treasure that heightened Shen Lian’s awareness. He managed to examine the origin of it.

　　As the Xia Camp had an extra treasure of the fire element in their possession, specifically, a lamp. It was termed as the Lamp of Yin and Yang, life and death. This lamp can radiate two versions of light, one red and one white. The red directed the death while the white directed the living.

　　If one was exposed to the red light, one’s spirit would be severely damaged instantaneously and could even cause a complete destruction of the spirit, that even the almighty Buddhas were unable to escape such a fatal fate.

　　The white light, however, was the complete opposite of it. No matter how fatal one was wounded, as long as they live, they could be reborn when exposed to the white light and healed into their original healthy form.

　　This light was originally an irreplaceable treasure of a historic celestial. Ensuing his demise, the treasure was left in the cave which he used to reside in. Yunyang inherited much from his forefathers and clearly understood the mysterious secrets of this treasure. It was not long before the deity’s cave was unearthed. He had long planned to acquire the valuable lamp and used it to defeat Emperor Xia.

　　Unfortunately, despite Yunyang’s deliberate plots, he failed to estimate the advanced abilities of Guan Longzi in the Xia Camp. He used Lianshan to predict Yunyang’s plan and followed Yunyang secretly. As the treasure was unearthed, he swiftly seized the lamp in hand before Yunyang did.

　　As Yunyang’s scheme was disrupted, he immediately returned to his league, where Emperor Xia challenged him unexpectedly and arrived furious as if thunders struck through the empyreal, leading the army and ignited a war. Guan Longzi returned speedily, used the Lamp of Life and Death to entrap the demon lord, thereby preventing counterattacks from Yunyang’s coalition.

　　By then, Yunyang was already in a state of tumult and was not a capable opponent to Emperor Xia. Owing to the demon lord’s harsh acceptance of the flash of deadly light from the lamp, Yunyang had a close escape from the soldiers of Emperor Xia. Regrettably, the situation could no longer be salvaged.

　　This was also the very first time Shen Lian witnessed Guan Longzi’s profound mastery. His achievements in the fields of fate prediction had perhaps surpassed that of Shen Lian’s.

　　If he did not leave the Xia Camp that very day, he might have been deceived, given that the power of the lamp was able to ensnare the demon lord. Such power would also be able to affect Shen Lian as well.

　　Even though he and Guan Longzi were good friends, but when it comes down to hostile battles, Shen Lian believed that he would not have any mercy, yet Shen Lian found difficulty in living alongside Emperor Xia.

　　This was because since the High Priest had passed, there were no possibilities of reconciliation between the two.

　　However, Shen Lian’s furtive observations over Xia Camp did not alarm Emperor Xia and Guan Longzi. This had led to confusion and there must have been certain changes. This was also the reason that kept Shen Lian distancing himself from them.

　　In fact, he hoped to meet Guan Longzi once more. He was extremely wise whereby his intellect can be compared to the depths of the sea, with that he clearly understood the reason for Shen Lian’s failures in creating a physical body.

　　With the regard to the state of Taiyi, he admittedly lacked much understanding of it. Although, through life experiences, such deficiency can be offset. His confidence of setting foot into the Taiyi state was also rather strong, but Shen Lian wished to enter the state earlier and this was the only method available. Only then can he further develop his ambition without any worries.

　　…….

　　Currently, in the Xia Camp, numerous tribes of Dongyi had ordered representatives to send their greetings to Emperor Xia, but Guan Longzi, a major contributor to the successful defeat of the Dongyi Coalition was imprisoned in a part of the camp.

　　Those who pleaded mercy for Guan Longzi were all executed, the number of generals who sacrificed themselves amidst the battle against Yunyang’s army was not even comparable to the number of generals who died upon their begging of mercy for Guan Longzi.