The Programmer Cultivator

The group exchanged glances. After a long moment, Guan Shouxin made up his mind. ”Let’s do it,” he said. ”We’ll slice off half and leave with it. That still counts as saving him, right?”

”Besides, with things as they are, Qu Wenbai is already done for. If we don’t take half and just try to retreat, it’s not even clear we could escape. And even if we did, there’d be problems with the Celestial Heart Sacrifice’s operation.”

Guann Zhenzhen nodded as well. ”Yes, that works. Besides, with the Nine Lives Evil Soul Path Old Ghost Qu cultivates, he shouldn’t be able to die. Saving half of him still counts as a rescue. At least we’re not just leaving him behind.”

The group nodded, all agreeing with Guann Zhenzhen’s conclusion that he wouldn’t die. But... whether you could call that ’living’ was another question. After all, not being able to die wasn’t the same as being alive.

The Nine Lives Extreme Evil Soul Path made one incredibly resilient. In fact, Qu Wenbai’s Life Soul and Life Body had already transcended the traditional meaning of a physical form; when he turned into black mist, he *was* the black mist.

But if his Main Body and Life Soul were to be brutally ripped in two... this so-called ’rescue’ was even more vicious than the attacks from Zhang Deming and the others below!

The four, having come to a decision, used their united force to drive the Celestial Heart Altar, which hadn’t yet come to a complete stop. The Celestial Heart Altar paused for an instant as Spiritual Light surged forth.

Qu Wenbai had been desperately enduring the torture of Elder Huang and Pu Hua’s joint assault, trying to wait them out until their Spiritual Power was depleted. When he felt the altar’s power, he froze completely.

The distorted black mist began to writhe, showing signs of coalescing into a human form.

But he had only just started to transform, the lower half of his body not even having appeared yet, when the altar latched onto him. It brutally ripped away the lower half of the distorted ball of mist, yanking it into the altar itself.

”AHH... Guann Zhenzhen, after all I did to help you...”

Qu Wenbai let out a piercing scream, his words cut short. As the black mist was ripped in two, the upper body he had just managed to condense immediately disintegrated again, collapsing into a small, unconsciously writhing cloud of black mist.

The entire mass of black mist seemed to have lost consciousness, becoming senseless. Elder Huang clearly sensed that the power of the Spirit Species had been left behind in this half, and now there was little power of resistance within the mist.

’Hmm, it probably still has the power to resist, but the will to do so is gone.’

’When he was ripped in half, his consciousness was on the brink of collapse. The Qu Wenbai of this moment was likely just two halves of a person in a vegetative state!’

After sensing the black mist’s condition, Elder Huang froze for a moment. He stopped frantically channeling the Spirit Species to annihilate this half-mass of mist that was neither body nor soul.

Before Elder Huang and Pu Hua could pursue the other four, the other half of the black mist was dragged into the altar, and the other four were pulled in after it.

The miniature Celestial Heart Altar shuddered once more and began to rotate again.

But because the black mist had lost its consciousness and was also missing half of itself, they found it difficult to even maintain the altar’s normal operation, let alone re-form the Puppet.

If it weren’t for Duan Yuanbing’s peculiar state providing considerable help, they would have found it truly difficult to continue with the Celestial Heart Sacrifice.

The altar abandoned its seal on the surrounding area and began to rotate slowly.

Pu Hua’s expression flickered upon seeing this. While he had no way of taking down the Celestial Heart Altar in its current state—after all, its surface defenses couldn’t be broken in a short time—he still had ways to keep them from leaving.

”I wish: Po Kong is forbidden in this place!”

”I wish: for a Heaven and Earth Net to trap immortals and devils!”

As he declared his wishes, Pu Hua waved his hand and cast out a golden, fishnet-like net. A giant version of it enveloped the entire area of the wrecked Cyan Feather Green Ship, blocking the Celestial Heart Altar’s escape.

Moreover, as the Celestial Heart Altar retracted its Sealing, many people in the area clearly felt numerous gazes turning toward them. Some followed the Dao Marks, while others followed Pu Hua’s guidance.

”Begin the sacrifice!” The moment Guan Shouxin felt the gazes upon them and realized the altar hadn’t escaped as planned, he commanded without hesitation.

The four paused for a beat. They all knew the urgency of the situation. Without a moment’s hesitation, they began.

The miniature altar rapidly expanded, growing to the size of a city—just as it had been when Zhang Deming first saw it. However, it also became transparent.

At the five corners of the altar, above the five pools, the five participants each projected a colossal phantom. The phantoms stood with their feet in the pools, resembling scholars with one hand behind their backs and the other holding an object, gazing up at the heavens as they stood.

With the appearance of the five phantoms, an ancient voice emerged from the Celestial Heart Altar. It was a voice that seemed to have traversed a river of time spanning tens of thousands of years, drifting out from a bygone era.

”To secure the Celestial Heart above and bear the will of the people below—this shall bring prosperity. A Heaven without a Heart, an Immortal Dao with a Heart—they must be purged;

The Azure Heaven is dead, the Celestial Heart must rise! Today, the Hongmeng has a Dao but no Heart, respecting not the eternal Dao of old! I hereby swear: I will extinguish all Dao Spirits, destroy the malformed Dao Net, and for the sake of all life under heaven, I will establish the Celestial Heart, raise the Celestial Dao, create the Celestial Laws, forge the Celestial Court, and merge my body with the Dao!”

The voice was vast and desolate, filled with endless sorrow yet also an ultimate yearning.

As the voice rang out, the entire altar shuddered. The liquid in the pools began to deplete rapidly. In a peculiar manner, guided by the voice, Karma was channeled and dissipated into the space between Heaven and Earth.

The Hongmeng Realm, which had been pristine for innumerable years, suddenly became a little murky, tainted by a hint of an aura of slaughter and tribulation.

Ever since the ancient Celestial Dao was destroyed, there had been no more great tribulations, no more killing calamities among the Immortals, and thus no aura of such slaughter. Although only a minuscule amount was generated this time, this was the beginning of it all.

After the voice faded and the liquid in the altar’s five pools disappeared, the altar didn’t stop. Instead, its operations shifted, and it entered the second phase.