Ka!
Ka, ka!
Several cracks appeared in the void, and out stumbled three figures… in white robes?
They were called white robes because their faces were familiar to everyone present.
They were three of the dozens who had previously been sealed into paper by Zhu Yike and cast into the spatial fragments.
Yet, they didn't look like white robes at all!
For now, each of them wore blood-soaked white robes, their bodies covered in wounds. One even had an eye missing…
They looked more like red robes!
In the literal sense—red robes fresh from a bloody battle!
“Dao Qiong Cang?”
“Ah? Is that really Dao Qiong Cang?”
The two leading Tai Xu figures, upon seeing the impeccably dressed Dao Qiong Cang through the spatial cracks, first reacted with doubt.
Only then did they verify his identity through factors like Tian Ji Si Nan, Tian Ji Kui Lei, and Qing Yuan Shan.
As soon as they spoke, Dao Qiong Cang's brows furrowed.
Jin Feng, the metal-attribute Tai Xu, had held the white robe position for thirty-two years, renowned for his absolute offensive prowess, with his Tian Xuan Jin Spear making him famous.
Huang Zhao, the earth-attribute Tai Xu, had held the position for forty-six years. In his first twenty-three years, he was known for his unyielding turtle-like defense, though his battle record was somewhat mediocre compared to other white robes.
In the latter half of his career, partnering with Jin Feng, the two formed a team. Their offense and defense combined, multiplying their combat strength several times over. They could hold off a team of ten other white robes and even withstand a strike from a Ban Sheng, earning them the nickname “Jin Huang Er Zi.”
This pair was undoubtedly the strongest combination among the current white robe team.
But after being sealed into paper by Zhu Yike and thrown into the spatial fragments…
In such a short time, what could have wounded them so severely?
Even if you piled on Tai Xu by the hundreds, it probably wouldn't suffice!
Had they encountered a Ban Sheng?
If it were a Sheng, no matter how strong the Tai Xu were, how could any survive?
And if it were a Sheng, how could he not have sensed it at all, while he was here at Qing Yuan Shan, engaging in idle chatter with Xu Xiao Shou?
Dao Qiong Cang's gaze swept past the two who were hastily trying to speak, but he didn't question them. Instead, his eyes finally settled on the one-eyed Zhan Dao figure.
“Ah, heh heh…”
“Get away! Get away from me!”
This person seemed mentally unstable, breathing raggedly one moment and suddenly erupting in a shout at the air the next.
His remaining eye was filled with panic, fear, and utter chaos.
Dao Qiong Cang examined the rotting scalp on his head…
Du Liang—detailed records weren't kept, since he was just a Zhan Dao.
The only notable point was his special Ling attribute, where his Ling Yuan could form commands to forcibly manipulate all things, excelling in controlling people and corpses. He was also extremely lecherous.
The man had some basis for his reputation; he used to be quite handsome and tall. But now, his face was decayed, and his hair had fallen out, leaving only a few sparse, limp strands…
In the records and portraits, he had black hair and a striking build!
As for his cultivation, his Qi Hai was shattered, his Dao foundation collapsed—he likely didn't have long to live.
This was clearly the result of targeted attacks!
Such precise strikes on the Qi Hai couldn't have been caused by the chaotic spatial fragments; it had to be deliberate!
“Only you three left?”
Dao Qiong Cang scanned the surroundings, seeing the spatial cracks mending and restoring as before.
He waited, but no fourth white robe arrived.
Of the fifty or sixty who had entered the spatial fragments, only three returned after a brief time, and one was utterly ruined.
At this point, Dao Qiong Cang could roughly guess they had encountered something like a Ban Sheng-level anomaly.
“What happened?”
He didn't approach to agitate Du Liang but first turned to Jin Feng and Huang Zhao.
“Reporting to Dao Qiong Cang, we were sealed into a special space by that bastard and were working together to resist…”
Jin Feng suddenly flared with anger, pointing at the unconscious Zhu Yike on the ground and kicking him viciously.
Thud!
The unconscious Zhu Yike spat out a mouthful of blood, woke in pain, then tilted his head and passed out again.
“Jin Feng, stop!”
Huang Zhao quickly stepped forward to hold back his partner.
This Flower Red Bandit was already unconscious, and with the ban on his martial arts, Dao Qiong Cang must have kept him alive for a reason—they couldn't kill him now.
Jin Feng grumbled in discontent, reining in his rage a bit before saluting and continuing his report:
“Somehow, that space suddenly collapsed, and we saw… well, it should have been a person!”
Should have been?
A person?
Dao Qiong Cang nodded slightly, not interrupting, his eyes signaling for him to go on.
“We couldn't see him clearly.”
“At that time, we were all joining forces to try to break through that special space…”
Dao Qiong Cang had experienced Zhu Yike's technique before.
It was a unique, highly oppressive sealed space.
He had managed to turn into a fish with Xiao Qi and hide because he had already broken through such Jin Men techniques and could escape at any time.
But the white robes had to endure the same sealed period he had gone through in Changde Town when he attained enlightenment, making it hard for them to break free.
In such a space, if Zhu Yike hadn't been sealed outside immediately, even if those inside fought with their lives, they might not escape.
But Zhu Yike…
Dao Qiong Cang glanced at the unconscious figure on the ground—he had clearly sealed him in time.
Jin Feng and the others should have returned quickly from the spatial fragments back to Qing Yuan Shan.
And that's exactly what happened.
Except for the unexpected turn.
In his estimation, the spatial fragments could at most kill one or two Zhan Dao in extremely rare accidents.
After all, among the white robes, even the Zhan Dao were battle-hardened—who hadn't faced the dangers of spatial fragments?
Yet, only three returned…
Jin Feng took a deep breath and continued:
“It was just a brief encounter; we didn't even get a clear look at what the person looked like or if it was even a person…”
“In the spatial fragments, we were plunged into absolute darkness.”
Absolute?
Dao Qiong Cang pondered this.
The spatial fragments were dark by nature, but spiritual senses could still transmit messages.
Through spiritual senses, one could see spatial storms or spatial blades and avoid risks.
Absolute darkness meant nothing could be done at all…
Huang Zhao nodded in agreement and added, “I felt the same as Jin Feng—we couldn't see anything, not even our comrades' positions; everything was lost.”
“Yes!” Jin Feng, with his fiery temper, said this and grew angry again, wanting to kick Zhu Yike a few more times, but he was held back.
He gritted his teeth and said hatefully:
“In that instant of absolute darkness, when I woke up, most of the brothers who had been fighting alongside me were gone.”
“I broke through the darkness the fastest and immediately found Huang Zhao—he was luckily nearby, and my spiritual sense could reach him.”
“Since he was still holding his defense, I helped break the darkness for him.”
Holding defense, waiting for aid… Dao Qiong Cang nodded in understanding of their professional terms. “And then?”
Jin Feng hesitated for a moment, then said awkwardly, “We couldn't see anything—maybe he was scared off by my and Huang Zhao's fighting strength, because he disappeared.”
“What about the others?” Dao Qiong Cang asked.
Jin Feng shook his head, his eyes heavy: “When I woke up, there weren't many intact people around me. After I saved Huang Zhao, they were all…”
Dao Qiong Cang waited quietly.
“Dead.”
Jin Feng forced out the last two words.
He exploded in rage, raising his golden spear to stab at Zhu Yike's head. “I'll kill you, you son of a—”
Huang Zhao hugged him and turned him away to cool down.
“You tell me,” Dao Qiong Cang said, turning to the more composed Huang Zhao.
“I was holding my defense, waiting for aid. The darkness couldn't invade me. I thought that if Jin Feng hadn't broken through the darkness's seal, our whole team would have been wiped out.”
He paused and added, “Well, we were the team that attacked the Dao Department Chief—er, actually, we were attacking the Flower Red Bandit. Most of us were Tai Xu.”
Pointing to Du Liang, he continued: “They were the defense team, originally protecting Yu Zhi Wen, but it ended up protecting the Flower Red Bandit. Most of them were Zhan Dao.”
“We were sealed into different enclosed spaces.”
Though a bit convoluted, Dao Qiong Cang knew Huang Zhao was doing well to explain this under the circumstances of deception.
His eyes signaled for him to continue.
Huang Zhao, of course, knew what Dao Qiong Cang wanted to hear. After a moment's thought, he said:
“In the defense and wait, I felt something strange and evil…”
“More specifically, in that 'absolute darkness' Jin Feng mentioned, there were 'corrosive forces' targeting the physical body, Ling Yuan, and even lifespan.”
“Oh, right—my soul was also attacked. When he couldn't break my defense right away, he probably shifted targets to others.”
“The attacks were incredibly strong! Extremely strong! I could withstand them, but others might not.”
“The final result…”
Huang Zhao wanted to say it was as Jin Feng described—the state of their comrades after emerging from the absolute darkness.
His gaze happened to fall on Du Liang.
Du Liang seemed to have an itchy face; he scratched it, tearing off a piece of skin, and blood poured out.
Dao Qiong Cang could basically reconstruct the battle in the spatial fragments.
The white robes hadn't even seen their enemy and were all maimed or killed, so their descriptions of the fight sounded vague and ethereal.
“Du Liang?” He approached the Zhan Dao, who was scratching at his skull.
“Heh heh…”
Du Liang was still laughing wretchedly. Hearing his name, he suddenly looked up, his single eye unfocused, then quickly clutched his head:
“Ahhh!”
He let out a piercing scream.
Dao Qiong Cang activated Tian Ji Si Nan, and starlight swept over.
Great Purification Technique!
Struck by this, a rational light appeared in Du Liang's chaotic eyes. He stared blankly for a while: “Dao Qiong Cang?”
“What did you experience?”
“I…” Du Liang tried to speak, but his spiritual sense scanned his own state, realizing his Dao foundation was collapsing and his Ling Yuan was dissipating. He slumped to the ground: “I…”
“You saw him, and he let you come back to tell me something?” Dao Qiong Cang finished for him.
Jin Feng and Huang Zhao were startled.
Saw him?
How was that possible?
Du Liang was just a Zhan Dao…
But on second thought, if it weren't for that person's deliberate intervention, how could a mere Zhan Dao survive such a deadly situation and return?
Jin Feng suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
He wondered if his own survival—being the brash type—was really due to his high combat strength or breaking through the darkness quickly.
Snap out of it—at least I made it back…
He slapped his forehead, pushing the fear aside, gripped his spear, and glared viciously at Zhu Yike again.
It's all this bastard's fault!
They must have colluded inside and out!
Beside him, Du Liang's thoughts seemed led by Dao Qiong Cang's words back to those unbearable memories, his pupils dilating with fear: “He… he…”
He stammered “he” for a long time, as if resisting himself.
“Can't say it, or don't dare?” Dao Qiong Cang's eyes flashed.
Du Liang glanced down at his ruined body, feeling he had little time left.
He shook his head and said miserably: “Dao Qiong Cang, I have only one request…”
“Speak.”
“In Yu Jing City, I have three hundred and sixty-two wives. I've wronged them. Please help me dismiss them and divide the compensation equally…” Du Liang closed his eyes.
Jin Feng exploded like a porcupine upon hearing this.
“What the hell are you thinking!”
“When are we now, and you're still going on about your women in front of Dao Qiong Cang?”
“What did you see? Tell us!”
Huang Zhao quickly pulled his partner away, giving Dao Qiong Cang an apologetic look.
Dao Qiong Cang wasn't angry.
The white robes and red robes were all his initiatives; he knew how stringent the selection criteria were.
These people might be lecherous, hot-tempered, or have other flaws.
But on serious matters, they wouldn't act like this.
Du Liang's silence wasn't because his wives mattered more than what he saw or experienced—it was as Dao Qiong Cang had asked…
He didn't dare say it!
He couldn't say it!
“Do you believe him or me?” Dao Qiong Cang stated it as a fact.
Du Liang's emotions nearly unraveled, his single pupil trembling wildly as he wailed: “Dao Qiong Cang, don't ask…”
“Do you believe him or me?”
“Dao Qiong Cang!”
“The black night is fading, and the light draws near.” Dao Qiong Cang said solemnly, reciting the white robe oath. “And I will avenge you.”
Du Liang's face was streaked with bloody tears, his pupil shaking as he reached out a trembling hand: “Then… give me a wooden table.”
A wooden table?
Jin Feng and Huang Zhao were both stunned.
As an outsider, Jin Ren was also baffled.
Why suddenly a “wooden table”?
Was it the kind he was thinking of?
Dao Qiong Cang's expression shifted. From his spatial ring, he pulled out a fine rosewood tea table.
As Du Liang reached for it, Dao Qiong Cang's hand flipped, and the table vanished.
He channeled Sheng force, swiftly cutting down trees in the forest, shaping and joining them with mortise and tenon, quickly crafting a crude wooden table and placing it before Du Liang.
Jin Ren felt an inexplicable shiver.
Seeing Dao Qiong Cang treat the “wooden table” with such gravity was unsettling.
Jin Feng and Huang Zhao didn't understand but stayed silent, watching quietly.
Du Liang glanced at Dao Qiong Cang gratefully, tore a blood-soaked strip from his robe, and draped it over the table.
At this point, everyone could see that even his thighs were rotting.
“He said it to me like this…” Du Liang began, scooping a handful of yellow soil from the ground and patting it onto the cloth on the table, right in the center, packing it firmly.
The blood mixed into the small soil mound, making it gruesome.
Even more chilling was that Du Liang's fingers had mostly fallen off; together, his hands had only six mangled ones left—two on the left, four on the right, hanging limply by skin.
He picked three stones about the size of eggs, roughly equal, and placed them in front of the soil mound.
“He said to arrange them properly, keep the distances equal, because people are born equal, but rules are strict…”
Jin Feng suddenly felt unwell, shuddering.
“He said, Dao Qiong Cang, use your imagination—think of these as three wine cups, the blood as wine in the cups, brewed from beautiful dreams…”
Huang Zhao's pupils contracted, and he sharply looked behind him, but there was no one blowing cold wind.
“He said, Dao Qiong Cang, strike the snake at its seven-inch point, kill to the death. He spared my life, so I'll offer you three sticks of incense…”
Jin Ren suddenly remembered what this was!
Even in the Ran Ming ruins, he wanted to sever his connection with the Tian Ji Kui Lei's lingering regrets, not wanting to see what came next, fearing it would defile his eyes.
But Dao Qiong Cang had placed a Great Restraint Technique on him.
His spiritual sense couldn't be cut off!
A red gleam flashed in Dao Qiong Cang's eyes as he struck out suddenly, his fist slamming down to pulverize the altar before him.
“Du Liang, what are you doing? Stop!”
Jin Feng raised his spear and, realizing something was wrong, swung it violently through the air.
A boom echoed.
The air exploded.
It was too close! Dao Qiong Cang only managed to twist aside, avoiding the vital points…
Tian Ji Si Nan activated, but Great Teleportation wasn't instantaneous; he was struck by Jin Feng's violent spear and sent flying into the sky.
In that instant, Dao Qiong Cang gasped in pain.
He had awakened!
“Abnormality! Abnormality! Abnormality!...”
The voice in his mind was crystal clear, but at that moment, Dao Qiong Cang didn't know if it had been broadcasting from the start or just begun.
He examined himself: clothes soiled, hair withered, armpits sweating, body foul, discontent with his seat—the five decays of a heavenly being!
Dao Qiong Cang dared not delay. Tian Ji Si Nan spun in the air, firing two beams of light toward Du Liang and Jin Feng.
“Great Extermination Technique!”
He paused, as if remembering something, and quickly swept Tian Ji Si Nan again.
Whoosh—a third Great Extermination Technique shot toward the shocked Huang Zhao.
“Jin Feng, have you gone mad?!”
Huang Zhao was stunned when Jin Feng attacked his superior, and upon reacting, he lunged toward the altar in a desperate attempt to fix things.
Blood flowed from his eyes into his mouth as he formed hand seals:
“With my blood, I thicken all things!”
A earthy yellow glow layered over him, protecting what was in his eyes—Dao Qiong Cang, but in reality… the altar!
Sizzle.
The Great Extermination Technique instantly obliterated Jin Feng, who was still dazed after his strike, reducing him to dust with no corpse left.
But the rest was blocked by the defensively renowned Huang Zhao.
The two starlight beams condensed from Sheng force targeted the altar.
One was consumed by Huang Zhao, while the other veered slightly and struck Du Liang's head.
Without any hesitation, Du Liang's head turned to dust in an instant, even the spurting blood vaporized.
The headless Du Liang continued his actions!
Using the thumb and index finger of his left hand, he snapped the middle, ring, and little fingers of his right hand.
Snap!
He plunged the three bleeding fingers heavily into the soil mound on the altar, like offering three sticks of incense in an incense burner.
Dao Qiong Cang's skin crawled with goosebumps!
It was too slow!
By the time the Sheng force wore down Huang Zhao's defense, it would take several breaths, and who knew what twisted acts Du Liang would perform in between!
“Great Manifestation Technique!”
Dao Qiong Cang's hands shifted, and beneath Huang Zhao, a Dead Sea projection appeared.
The surging Ling Yuan around him vanished instantly, turning him into a bloodied figure kneeling before the altar, lifeless.
It was exactly in a kneeling pose, head bowed to the ground!
As if Huang Zhao were a sacrifice, offering himself willingly!
The headless, lifeless Du Liang could still move, as if he were controlling a corpse with his own abilities.
He lifted the altar, searching around. With his head gone, he couldn't find the direction, and finally placed it down heavily, pointing straight toward Gui Zhe Sheng Mountain in Yu Jing City.
Dao Qiong Cang inhaled sharply, his arm hairs standing on end.
First, he had set up a chain plot to kill with the five decays of a heavenly being; now, it was turned back on him, completing the sacrifice without giving anyone time to react!
At this moment, the Dead Sea from the Great Manifestation Technique also silenced Dao Qiong Cang's energy form of the Great Extermination Technique.
To smash the altar or change its direction, he first had to dispel the Great Manifestation Technique.
Dismissing it would take almost no time— just a thought.
But that was under normal circumstances!
Now, as Dao Qiong Cang moved to act…
Woo!
A nine-day yin wind howled.
“Don't…”
“Spare me…”
“Dao Qiong Cang, save me… no, don't save me…”
Dark clouds gathered in the sky, tearing open dozens of spatial cracks. The lingering souls of the white robes lost in the spatial fragments wailed endlessly, their pleas heart-wrenching.
Dao Qiong Cang closed his eyes heavily.
He could see it was all manipulated!
Reason told him the white robes' lives could be ignored; his own body was paramount.
From his true self in the Sheng Huan Hall atop Gui Zhe Sheng Mountain, another intervention command came…
Dao Qiong Cang waved his sleeve, his expression blank:
“The innocent shall enter reincarnation. This hall accepts your bow!”
Woo—
The spirits bowed, offering respects, and knelt in homage.
The altar formed, with stone cups of blood wine and broken fingers as incense.
A faint wind drifted from the distance, carrying eerie whispers across Qing Yuan Shan, filled with strangeness and evil, sending wild beasts fleeing in panic:
“One cup oils the person, stirring damp sleeves in toil.”
“Two cups fries the bones, dimming the sparse life of the underworld.”
“Three cups boils the soul soup, rolling filth in the spirit broom.”
“The sacrificial wine fills three cups, foul as the three corpses of the dark lord.”
The wooden table shattered, the stone cups and blood fingers burned away.
A strand of crimson light flew from Qing Yuan Shan, vanishing into the unknown, as if heading toward the sacred mountain.
(End of chapter)
[2 minutes ago] Chapter 49: Demon Sect Recruitment
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