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Floating Immortal Ridge.
The night was dark and heavy.
There was a temple to the Mountain God built halfway up the mountain. Its temple statue was a benevolent-looking man holding a jade bottle in his outstretched palm.
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There was a table in front of the statue laden with burning incense and candles. Their flickering lights reflected on the statue, giving it an additional, mottled sheen.
A hunched, balding elder in worn Daoist robes sat cross-legged on a prayer mat in front of the table.
He was obviously dressed like a Daoist, yet he held a string of black prayer beads and sat cross-legged like a Buddhist monk.
If Cao Ping were here, he’d recognize the man at a glance. This was the acolyte responsible for the temple’s incense, the Firewood Daoist.
There was a courtyard outside the temple. It was full of pine and cypress trees, creating a luxurious, verdant canopy that rustled in the night winds.
Suddenly, a figure walked into the courtyard, and the rustling of the trees came to an abrupt halt.
It was a youth in blood-colored robes. His complexion was ghastly pale, and his eyes were bright red. Ghostly mists emanated from him, and he had a string of fist-sized skulls hanging from his neck. He traversed the darkness in complete silence.
The youth walked up to the temple, then fell to his knees and said respectfully, “Patriarch, we’ve already gathered thirty-six virgin boys and thirty-five virgin girls in accordance with your orders. Only the last girl is missing. Then, we can activate the ‘Blood Transformation Netherworld Soul Formation’ and offer them to the divine monarch.”
“Oh?” said the Firewood Daoist. His voice was raspy and low. “Which one of the girls is missing?”
The blood-robed youth trembled from head to toe and said hurriedly, “It’s most likely Cao An from Grassy Creek Village. I sent Dark Water to fetch her, and I trust that before long….”
Before he could finish his sentence—
Crack!
A clear sound rang out, and one of the Firewood Daoist’s prayer beads burst cracked, then crumbled into gray powder and dispersed.
The Firewood Daoist’s turbid eyes were suddenly sharp and sinister, with a cold, bloodthirsty glint.
“Dark Water is dead.” The Firewood Daoist suddenly gazed at the kneeling youth in blood-colored robes and said coldly, “Of the twelve ghost servants I’ve gathered, Dark Water had the greatest hope of stepping into the Origin Dao and becoming a true ghost cultivator. He was a good seedling, but now…. He’s dead….”
The youth in blood-colored robes trembled. “Patriarch, please, calm your fury. I’ll visit Grassy Creek Village myself and…”
The Firewood Daoist cut him off. “No need. We’re only missing a single offering. It doesn’t matter. If we miss the night when yin qi is the densest, everything I’ve done will be for nothing.”
He paused, then took a deep breath and said, “Go prepare the offerings. In ten minutes, I’ll personally circulate the ‘Blood Transformation Netherworld Soul Formation.’"
“Yes, sir!” The youth rose, then rushed deeper into the courtyard. He stopped before an ancient well, then jumped inside.
The Firewood Daoist rose from his prayer mat, then turned and looked at the statue holding the jade bottle. A faint jeer rose on his lips.
“In the eyes of the mundane, you are the Mountain God, and incense burns in your honor day and night. However, in my eyes, you’re nothing but a mud statue. Those vulgar mortals even believe that burning incense and sacrificing in your honor will earn them your protection. What a pathetic joke!”
The Firewood Daoist shook his head.
……
The night was dark and heavy.
Su Yi and Yuan Heng approached the Mountain God’s Temple from afar.
“Master, the yin qi has wrought havoc on this place, and it's swathed it in dense, ghostly mists. How is this a temple to the Mountain God? This is obviously just a hideout for apparitions,” said Yuan Heng in a low voice.
“This is indeed a Mountain God’s temple, except that it's long since been taken over by an old ghost, one with a cultivation.” As Su Yi spoke, he glanced at the sides of the grand courtyard gates.
It was dark out, with neither moon nor stars, but with his divine sense, Su Yi could still see the couplet pasted across the doorway.
The paper was damaged, and the ink was faded, but he could still dimly discern the message:
“Reciprocation and retribution are both part of the karmic cycle. Sometimes it comes early, sometimes it happens late, but how can you avoid fate?”
“Fame and vanity are nothing but a theater, and everyone’s an actor, whether they’re on or off the stage.”
After reading this, Su Yi silently shook his head. Those lines obviously weren’t the work of a cultivator.
To the people of the mundane world, the karmic retribution described here was indeed comforting, and it encouraged good behavior.
But he feared that few cultivators believed in good and karma.
However, Su Yi was certain that the power of karma did indeed exist; it just didn’t have anything to do with “rewarding benevolence” or “punishing evil.”
As he pondered, Su Yi placed his hands behind his back and walked through the darkness and into the temple, as if out for a leisurely stroll.
Yuan Heng followed him.
Whoosh~
The towering pines and cypresses rustled their leaves, and the unsettling sound of unearthly whispers emanated from the dense canopy.
“Oh? We actually have living guests this late at night?”
“This is the Ghost Festival! Have they come to light incense? Hahaha, interesting! Interesting!”
“Oh, sweetie, look at your soft skin and tender flesh! Want to play with me?”
A slender, delicate figure suddenly shot out of the canopy and arrived before Su Yi.
She was fair and pretty, and she looked about sixteen. She was dressed like the daughter of a wealthy family, and she held lotus-leaf fan. Her beautiful eyes stared at Su Yi, blazing with heat and entirely unashamed. She even deliberately squeezed the ample twin mounds on her chest, making them look even fuller.
Before Su Yi could respond, Yuan Heng bellowed, “Audacious fiend! Don’t you know what you are? How dare you parade yourself in front of my master? You really don’t know the meaning of the word ‘death!’”
Boom!
Yuan Heng’s palm slammed down. He was as majestic and forceful as a god.
The lady ghost was dumbstruck, but before she could dodge, his palm shattered her skull, and her entire body burst into green smoke and dispersed.
The courtyard fell silent as the voices in the canopy abruptly stopped whispering.
Su Yi glanced at Yuan Heng. “Going forward, try and keep a lower profile. What will we do if you scare our target and he slips away before we arrive?”
Yuan Heng was instantly frantic. “Master, please, rest assured. I won’t be so impulsive going forward.”
Su Yi nodded. “I’ll leave the ghosts in the courtyard to you.”
With that, he proceeded into the Mountain God’s temple.
Before entering the temple, his divine sense picked up on the aura of a ghost cultivator standing inside.
“Who would have thought I’d encounter a fellow Daoist here, in the remote mountain wilderness? This is rare indeed!” The aged Firewood Daoist gripped his prayer beads and examined the slowly approaching Su Yi.
Su Yi looked the Firewood Daoist up and town. “Are you the one who gave away the Gathering Yin Jade?”
His attitude made the Firewood Daoist furrow his brow. “It seems there’s been a misunderstanding. If I offended you, allow me to apologize. Fellow Daoist, I hope you can be generous with your forgiveness; fighting won’t do either of us any good.”
As he spoke, he bowed slightly and clasped his fists, making himself seem humble.
Su Yi couldn’t help but laugh dryly. “Who the hell do you think you are? Are you worthy of calling me your ‘Fellow Daoist’?”
The Firewood Daoist’s eyes flashed, and he slowly rose. A cold, intimidating aura gradually spread out around him.
His turbid eyes flashed with bloodthirsty light as he stared at the gateway where Su Yi was standing. He said coldly, “I repay all kindnesses tenfold. Friend, are you sure you can’t give this old man face? This is all just a misunderstanding, so let’s bury the hatchet, shall we?”
Su Yi laughed. “How much is your face worth? How about I burn an equivalent amount in paper money after you’re dead?”
“Hah?” The Firewood Daoist laughed, then waved his sleeve. A streak of blood-colored light shot forth.
Boom!
The statue behind him collapsed. Almost simultaneously, a bone saber swathed in gray mists shot out of it.
Clang!
The Firewood Daoist reached, and the bone saber fell into his hand.
The bone knife was only about two feet long. It was pure, snowy white, and its blade was as thin as a cicada’s wing. The instant he gripped it, the Firewood Daoist raised it and swung.
A streak of gray saber qi shot forth, like sinister lightning. It struck with even greater force than a human Grain Avoidance cultivator.
However, in Su Yi’s eyes, such petty skills were unworthy of his notice.
Bang!
Su Yi stretched and flicked his fingers, and the saber qi snapped and broke, one inch at a time.
Within the temple, the Firewood Daoist’s pupils constricted.
“Tell me, why are you using Gathering Yin Jade to hurt people? It seems to me that a ghost cultivator who’s already stepped into the Origin Dao has no need to engage in such sinister and malicious acts.”
The Firewood Daoist laughed coldly but didn’t answer. He suddenly shifted.
Rumble~
Ghostly mists filled the air, and his body expanded until it was thirty feet tall, breaking through the temple’s ceiling and leaving a hole in the roof. Tiles and fragments of stone fell like rain.
In the blink of an eye, the Firewood Daoist’s decrepit frame had expanded until he was as grand and majestic as a mountain. His rock-hard muscles bulged, and his eyes were bright red. Baleful energy surged into the night sky.
Clang!
As he exerted his strength, gray saber light materialized before the two-foot bone saber, forming a new blade.
The Firewood Daoist suddenly took a step forward and slashed at Su Yi.
Boom!
Bloody light surged, filling the skies. Gray, misty saber qi poured down like a waterfall and intermingled, forming a terrifying scene straight out of purgatory.
The saber was more than twice as strong as before!
Any other Grain Avoidance cultivator most likely wouldn’t have dared clash with such sharp light head-on.
However, Su Yi’s eyes shone with cold ridicule. “You overestimate yourself!”
His sleeves billowed as he raised a single hand, clenched his fist, and punched the air.
It was a casual, understated attack, but when the glittering blue fist imprint flew forth, it bore down like a primordial divine mountain.
Bang!
The vision of purgatory filling the sky and the saber qi both crumbled beneath the force of this fist, sweeping out and scattering like a rain of light.
Boom!
The power of the fist imprint didn’t decrease in the slightest. It slammed directly into the Firewood Daoist. The low sound of shattering bone emanated from his thirty-foot frame, and he deflated like a punctured rubber ball.
The fist continued through him, slamming into the ground with an audible boom.
The Firewood Daoist’s body broke. His skin and flesh were torn open, and blood and gore flew from the point of impact.
Immediately afterward, the aftershock spread to the temple itself. The building collapsed into a pile of rubble.
It was just one punch, yet it suppressed this mighty Grain Avoidance Realm ghost cultivator!
Yuan Heng was standing in the courtyard. He’d originally planned to intervene, but when he saw this, his eyes widened.
The ghosts hiding amongst the shadows of the trees quivered in terror and fell as silent as cicadas in winter.
A punch like that seemed like the work of a celestial immortal. It was terrifying beyond limit!