Chapter 63: The King of Hell Strikes Back

The Human World

A ghostly shadow floated out of the young man’s body, cackling eerily. Liang Yan snorted, and a banner flew from his palm. The banner fluttered, releasing wisps of black mist that encircled the ghost.

The ghost struggled violently within the black mist but could not break free and was eventually engulfed.

Liang Yan put away the banner, waved his hand, and shot out a burst of flame, incinerating the corpse in the cave.

Disciples cultivating in the surrounding caves were disturbed. They opened their cave doors and emerged, witnessing the entire scene. After seeing it, they bowed to Liang Yan, their eyes coldly sweeping over Qin Sang and the others before returning to their cultivation as if nothing had happened, seemingly accustomed to such occurrences.

In the empty cave, only a pile of ash remained, swirled into smoke by a cold wind and scattered into the canyon. The only trace left by the young man was the claw marks on the ground.

Liang Yan led them down seven or eight steps to a row of caves and said, “These caves are all unoccupied. Pick one you like and begin your arduous cultivation. Uncle-Master Yue will give a lecture once a month at the end of the month. If you have any questions about your cultivation, remember to ask Uncle-Master Yue on that day.”

Everyone remained silent, staring intently at the dark caves, wondering if similar scenes had occurred within them.

Liang Yan smiled upon seeing their expressions. “What, are you scared by such a small scene? If you don’t want to die, remember what I just said clearly. You must first suppress the Yama with your spiritual sense, making it completely submit, and then enter the Yin Fiend Valley to absorb Yin Fiend Qi. The Yama Banner is powerful, but you must suppress your greed and absorb soul pills according to your capacity. Absolutely do not give the Yama a chance to break free. Otherwise, it will backfire on you, and even immortals cannot save you. That junior brother just now was a lesson! Remember! Remember!”

With that, Liang Yan soared away on his flying artifact.

Qin Sang and the others exchanged glances. Having little to say to each other, they each chose a cave. As Qin Sang was about to enter his cave, he suddenly heard Tan Jie’s voice transmission in his ear, “Brother Qin, do you have any thoughts on the Yama Banner?”

Qin Sang paused, turned, and saw Tan Jie standing at the entrance of a nearby cave, looking worried.

Seeing Tan Jie’s expression, Qin Sang knew he might have been frightened by the earlier scene. Qin Sang himself had long witnessed the Yama’s terror; if not for the protection of the Jade Buddha, he would have been swallowed by the Yama as well.

However, apart from the risk of the Yama backlashing, Qin Sang had not discovered any other hidden dangers with the Yama Banner in his cultivation so far.

Thinking this, Qin Sang transmitted a reminder: “Brother Tan, Brother Liang Yan said that over a thousand disciples of the Kuangyin Sect cultivate with the Yama Banner. Its miraculous effects must have been verified long ago. However, the secret technique is too dangerous; we must be more careful in the future.”

Tan Jie nodded, said nothing more, and entered his cave, looking troubled.

After closing the cave door, Qin Sang sat on the stone bed and put on the Warm Yang Orb. Without needing spiritual power, the warmth from the orb gradually dispelled the chill from his body, but it could not dispel the coolness in Qin Sang’s heart.

Judging by his words and actions, Liang Yan’s immediate incineration of the corpse and the casual expressions of the others made Qin Sang realize that in the Kuangyin Sect, even the lives of disciples were as worthless as common mortals outside.

Perhaps only by breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage could one gain some status.

Qin Sang believed he was protected by the Jade Buddha and not afraid of the Yama’s backlash, so standing out among his fellow disciples should not be difficult. However, Qin Sang was more afraid of others noticing something unusual about him.

Although Uncle-Master Yue said self-slaughter was forbidden, what if a Foundation Establishment cultivator killed someone to seize their treasures?

The cave remained simple.

Qin Sang, who was cultivating on his futon, suddenly opened his eyes. He quietly pushed open the stone door of his cave and glimpsed a slender figure flash and disappear into the mist of the Yin Fiend Abyss. From her back, he could tell it was Senior Sister Shi Hong, who had entered the sect with him.

Qin Sang had been in the Kuangyin Sect for a month. At the end of last month, Uncle-Master Yue gave a lecture. Qin Sang asked Uncle-Master Yue about his long-standing doubts and finally understood why his bottlenecks were sometimes present and sometimes not.

It turned out that every breakthrough to a new cultivation realm was a hurdle for cultivators. If one’s talent was insufficient, it was normal to be stuck for ten or eight years without breaking through.

And at the third, sixth, and ninth layers of the Qi Refining stage, the physical body and spiritual sense would undergo subtle transformations, making the bottlenecks even stronger and the breakthrough more difficult.

These three hurdles became progressively harder to overcome. Soul pills not only accelerated cultivation but also aided breakthroughs, which was why Qin Sang had been so smooth so far.

Of course, these minor hurdles’ difficulty in breaking through could not compare to the bottlenecks of the Foundation Establishment and Core Formation stages.

Among Qi Refining cultivators, fewer than one in ten successfully broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage, and this was assuming they could successfully reach the tenth layer of Qi Refining, because not everyone had the chance to obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill.

A Foundation Establishment Pill was a spiritual medicine that helped overcome the Foundation Establishment bottleneck, increasing the chance of breakthrough.

If one had exceptional talent, such as a single spiritual root, they naturally would not need a Foundation Establishment Pill. But for most cultivators, that small increase in probability provided by a Foundation Establishment Pill was incredibly precious.

However, the current cultivation world had sparse spiritual energy and a severe lack of spiritual medicines. Those spiritual elixirs from ancient times, whose effects were no less than Foundation Establishment Pills, could no longer be refined due to the lack of spiritual medicines, and now even their formulas were lost.

This meant that even disciples of cultivation sects could not all receive a Foundation Establishment Pill.

If breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage was this difficult, successful Core Formation cultivators were even rarer. The entire Kuangyin Sect only had three Venerable Golden Core cultivators.

Cultivation was truly like a thousand armies crossing a single-plank bridge.

After learning these things, Qin Sang was dejected for several days. Even if he could luckily break through to the Foundation Establishment stage and luckily cultivate it to Great Perfection before his lifespan ran out, there was almost no hope of forming a Core.

He thought about the grand words he had spoken before the Eldest Princess and how ridiculous they now seemed.

But Qin Sang quickly cheered up. Only someone who had died once knew the terror of death and the beauty of life. He would give his all; even if he couldn’t escape death, he would die without regret.

This past month, he had refrained from entering the Yin Fiend Abyss to absorb Yin Fiend Qi. His remaining soul pills were exhausted, so he focused on cultivating incantations. He waited for a full month until Shi Hong, the first to suppress the Yama and enter the Yin Fiend Abyss, finally emerged.

Shi Hong possessed both Metal and Wood spiritual roots, making her talent unparalleled among the seven who entered the sect together, so it was not surprising that she was the first to suppress the Yama.

After waiting a while longer in his cave, Qin Sang took out his Fiend-Avoiding Hood. He activated it with spiritual energy, put it over his body, and jumped into the Yin Fiend Abyss.

The Fiend-Avoiding Hood also had the auxiliary ability to assist with flight. Combined with his flight technique, Qin Sang’s body descended slowly like a falling leaf.

The deeper into the Yin Fiend Abyss, the more fiend qi mixed with the mist, making it appear increasingly dark and cold. Eventually, it became utterly pitch black below, like clusters of black clouds surging endlessly in the abyss. Ghostly roars could be faintly heard in the howling yin wind, as if countless evil spirits in the abyss were trying to rush into the mortal world to wreak havoc.