Chapter 556: The Xuan Bird Devours Heavenly Providence
During his imprisonment, Han Yi had attempted to escape.
The monsters, however, seemed to regard him with extreme importance, maintaining a seamless, unbroken watch. They didn’t give him a single opportunity.
Faced with the ever-vigilant, ferocious glares of his monstrous guards, Han Yi could only swallow hard and abandon his plans for flight.
Fortunately, the conditions of his prison were tolerable. The monsters delivered food and drink punctually each day, so the confinement was not truly unbearable.
More than ten days passed before the monsters bound Han Yi tightly again and carried him back to the pyre pillar.
My life ends here. Had I known, a swift death at that cultivator's hands would have been preferable.
Just as this despair settled over him, another anomaly occurred.
Thunder rolled across the heavens. A torrential downpour followed without warning, instantly dousing the carefully built pyre before the flames could truly take hold.
This development left not only the monsters in a state of utter terror, but stunned Han Yi himself.
Then, as though struck by a sudden realization, he fell into a stupor so deep he didn't even notice when he was carried back to his cell.
The wait for the third sacrificial attempt was exceptionally long. Some internal conflict seemed to have erupted within the tribe. Even from inside his prison, Han Yi could faintly hear fierce arguments outside.
A full thirty-odd days later, they finally brought him out again.
This day had clearly been chosen with great care. The sky was exceptionally clear, the sun bright and unobstructed. Every monster's face was set with solemn focus. None of the boisterous energy of the previous two rituals remained.
Yet within Han Yi's heart, there was only calm. He was not afraid. If anything, he was anticipating something.
The monsters chanted a mysterious hymn in unison, dancing with abandon. Amidst the song and movement, Han Yi was carried closer and closer to the great fire.
At that moment, an unnatural gale swept across the land without warning. It scattered the dancers into disarray and blew apart the carefully stacked wood at the center. Flying embers caught on the village structures and set them ablaze.
Han Yi, lying to the side, was miraculously left completely unscathed.
He threw his head back and laughed.
The panicked monsters stole fearful glances at the figure who stood untouched amidst the flames.
From that day forward, Han Yi's standing in the village changed entirely. He was not imprisoned again. Instead, he was given the most comfortable dwelling in the settlement, and his daily provisions were the finest the village had to offer. The monsters no longer glared at him with hostility. Instead, they bowed their heads and averted their eyes, not daring to meet his gaze.
The treatment was excellent, but Han Yi was a proper Qi Refinement cultivator. This near-primitive way of living was utterly unacceptable to him.
The thought of escape crossed his mind, but after consideration, he let it go. This realm was entirely unlike the cultivation world, and it held no trace of spiritual qi. Here, he was no different from a common mortal without the strength to wring a chicken's neck.
Within the monster village, he was at least relatively safe. Fleeing recklessly into the unknown might only bring new dangers and throw his life away for nothing.
So Han Yi decided to stay, for now. He began learning the monsters' language and attempting to communicate with them.
Gradually, as time passed, he came to understand his situation.
The village was called Zhu, and it sat within an endless wilderness. Across this wild expanse, creatures like these—part human, part beast—were everywhere.
The fewer human traits a monster possessed, the more powerful it was. A village like Zhu, whose inhabitants had human bodies and beastly faces, was considered among the weakest. Deep in the wilderness, it was said, fully bestial sovereigns possessed the strength to split mountains and divert rivers.
A being like Han Yi, entirely human in form, was viewed as a "heretic"—an existence that offended the deity in the heavens. He was to have been burned alive as a sacrifice, offered up to appease divine wrath.
Yet three ceremonies in a row had been interrupted by celestial phenomena. The monsters of Zhu Village had come to realize that this heretic was no ordinary being, and had been forced to abandon their plans.
At the altar in the village center, Han Yi saw the statue of the deity the monsters revered: a magnificent, proud, and extraordinary bird. As the villagers knelt before it, something stirred in his chest, and confirmed the suspicion he had carried since his first day here. The deity bore a striking resemblance to the Heaven's Will Xuan Bird described in the Heavenly Providence Scripture, the very scripture he cultivated.
There is no spiritual qi here, and I cannot cultivate. But the Xuan Bird Feather within my dantian, the one I prepared for my Foundation Establishment, seems to have come home. It feels as though it is constantly drawing in some nameless energy drifting through the air, undergoing a transformation.
A peculiar light entered Han Yi's eyes.
According to the Heavenly Providence Scripture, if one cultivated the divine abilities of the Xuan Bird lineage to their ultimate end, one could achieve "heaven's providence is my providence; my fate is heaven's fate." Heaven and self would become one, indistinguishable from each other.
In the Xuanhuang World, reaching such a state was nearly impossible. Not even the lord of all demonic beasts could manage it, let alone a Xuan Bird.
A compromise had therefore been devised: find a minor world to serve as one's personal Dao Field. After all, merging with the heavenly providence of a minor world was far more achievable. Once accomplished, within that world, the Xuan Bird would become an existence akin to the Heavenly Dao itself, able to reshape mountains and rivers with a single thought.
What the Xuan Bird Feather is absorbing must be the scattered, drifting heavenly providence of this world.
This providence should belong to the Xuan Bird that refined the world. An outsider like me shouldn't be able to absorb it, not even with the Heavenly Providence Scripture and a Xuan Bird Feather. There is only one explanation for why this is happening.
A spark of excitement ignited in his eyes.
The Xuan Bird that once fused with this world's heavenly providence has perished. And its fall did not take place long ago. The original Heavenly Dao of this world has not yet recovered. The heavenly providence is shattered and scattered, like unclaimed treasure strewn across the ground.
The path of providence is profound and mysterious. Ordinary cultivators cannot perceive it at all. Even if they vaguely sense it, it is useless to them.
But I am different. For me, this place is a complete treasure trove. A subconscious will to survive can stir the drifting providence, enough to summon wind and rain. If I could gather all the heavenly providence of this world and absorb it entirely...
Greed and ambition flickered across Han Yi's face.
Truly, great calamity avoided brings great fortune.
He gazed out over this vast, unknown world, and a surge of boldness swelled in his chest.
Once I have consolidated the heavenly providence of this world and returned to the Xuanhuang World, I will be like a dragon soaring through the heavens. Unstoppable.
Imagining what was to come, a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth that he made no effort to suppress.