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The city gates were engraved with the name “Locust Tree Kingdom.”
Yuan Heng couldn’t help but laugh. “Master, look! It’s just a city, yet it fancies itself a nation. Isn’t that like calling a snail shell a temple?”
Su Yi casually said, “The city is an illusion. This place is only a corner of an ancient ruin. In the distant past, a nation might well have stood here.”
Yuan Heng was stunned, but Su Yi had already put his hands behind his back, and he was headed into the city.
The streets were lively, with pedestrians shuttling to and fro. Colorful lanterns hung in the air; it was the very picture of hustle and bustle.
When Su Yi and his companions entered, they attracted numerous gazes. The ghosts’ eyes carried surprise, curiosity, and playfulness.
As if they’d discovered three misfits.
Su Yi didn’t care in the least; it was as if he didn’t even notice. However, Yuan Heng and Bai Wenqing both felt a bit out of sorts.
The figures shuttling around them all seemed like living, breathing people, but when examined through the senses of a cultivator, all were strange, contorted, hideous ghosts, and all of them emanated dense, imposing Yin qi.
A gray, venerable elder carried his own broken head as he leisurely strolled through the city streets.
A woman in palace garb floated through the air. Only her upper half remained, but her face was covered in blood and her eye sockets were hollow. Nonetheless, she was nothing but smiles.
Little children scurried joyfully up and down the streets, but from time to time, their limbs popped off. Whenever this happened, they’d reach down and reattach their arms and legs…
Just watching made Yuan Heng and Bai Wenqing shudder in disgust.
It was obvious that these apparitions didn’t amount to much. They were Yin souls, the lowest class of ghost. They posed no threat at all, but they were repulsive and off-putting.
“Young lord, want to play? A group of women called coquettishly from a brothel.
Su Yi didn’t even glance at them.
There was nothing for it; in the flesh-and-blood eyes of a mortal man, every last one of these women was as beautiful as an immortal fairy.
However, in the eyes of a cultivator, they were hideously monstrous and distorted. Their attempts to stroke their hair coquettishly were vile enough to make a man vomit a meal he’d eaten several days ago.
After taking a casual stroll through the market, Su Yi discovered no treasures or trinkets worthy of note, and he couldn’t help but feel his interest wane.
Ghost markets really were no place for humans.
Just as Su Yi planned to leave, he couldn’t help but glance up at the sky. The surging dark clouds and dense, baleful mists were obviously out of the ordinary.
Don’t tell me there are other secrets hidden here? Something suddenly occurred to Su Yi, and his eyes shone with inscrutable profound light. He swept his gaze across the market, looking it up and down.
Suddenly, the entire prosperous, bustling city reflected in his field of vision underwent an earth-shaking transformation.
The city was now a moonlit, overgrown ruin piled high with dried-out bones. Flecks of phosphorescent flame darted about, emanating unearthly green luster.
A lively procession of ghosts wandered through the ruins, like the legendary night parade of one hundred ghosts.
This was the true appearance of the Locust Tree Kingdom.
Su Yi discerned all this when he first arrived, but he discovered nothing strange enough to warrant his attention.
However, as he silently circulated a secret technique, he noticed the obscure energy of a formation deep within the ruins. It was silent and unmoving, and its power didn’t fluctuate in the slightest.
It was hard to detect even with his divine sense.
“A killing formation?” Su Yi arched his brow. The power of the formation had yet to circulate, but it couldn’t elude Su Yi’s keen perception. He instantly realized that this was a killing formation, and an extremely powerful one at that!
If circulated, it was enough to kill Origin Dao cultivators with ease, regardless of realm.
If it caught them off guard, it could even trap a Spiritual Manifestation cultivator!
It was then that a peal of laughter rang out. “What a joy it is when friends visit from afar!”
Su Yi deactivated his Dharma Eyes, and the bustling market scene reappeared before him.
He then saw a bronze palanquin approach from further down the crowded streets. As it drew near, the various apparitions hurriedly got out of the way.
Before long, the palanquin stopped in front of Su Yi, and a beautiful older woman in palace garb emerged. Her makeup was perfect.
“My name is Mo Xihua. Greetings, Fellow Daoists. My fellow Daoists call me Madam Xihua.” The beautiful woman spoke with a charming smile and bowed to Su Yi and his companions.
She was a true ghost cultivator, with Gathering Stars Realm cultivation. The city was packed with ghosts, but she stood out, like a crane among chickens.
Yuan Heng and Bai Wenqing couldn’t help but tense up. Based on her aura, Madam Xihua was no weaker than Cloudsky Divine Palace’s Zhang Yuntao!
“Is this your cultivation ground?” Su Yi asked casually.
Madam Xihua smiled and nodded. “A long time ago, I began cultivating here. It’s rare for three of my fellow Daoists to visit, and I’m delighted to see you. Might I be so bold as to invite you to my residence for a chat?”
Yuan Heng and Bai Wenqing’s gazes both turned toward Su Yi.
They originally assumed that he’d refuse. Who’d have thought he’d nod instead? “Sure.”
Madam Xihua said joyfully, “Right this way please, Fellow Daoists.”
She led the way ahead, and before long, the group arrived at city limits, beside a hundred-foot black wall.
Su Yi’s eyes narrowed. This place was within range of the killing formation he sensed earlier!
Bzz~
Madam Xihua raised her hand and waved. The black wall flashed with spiritual light, and a door appeared.
“This way, please.” Madam Xihua was the first to enter.
Su Yi nodded, and he and his companions followed her inside.
Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.
Past the gates, it was like another world: this was an ancient Daoist temple, with verdant pines and cypresses. The grass was lush, and the atmosphere was quiet and refined.
It really seemed like a tiny pure land, a place far removed from the red dust of the mortal world.
Yuan Heng and Bai Wenqing couldn’t help but feel surprised. They would never have guessed that they’d encounter such a tranquil place hidden in a city overrun with ghosts.
Before long, under Madam Xihua’s leadership, the entire group entered the Daoist temple’s central hall.
A painting hung from the wall. There was an altar table in front of it, but the only offering was a single bronze lamp that cast dim, mottled light.
The painting depicted a blood-colored river, with a black lotus platform floating on the water.
A man in long black robes and a feather headdress sat cross-legged on the floating lotus platform, but only the lean outline of his back was visible.
A vast, surging river of blood and a floating black lotus platform. The man in black had turned his back against the masses, but although only his back was visible, he emanated an air of lofty solitude, as if he sat alone within the nine heavens.
Su Yi noticed the strange painting as soon as he entered the main hall. “What’s the story behind that painting?”
Madam Xihua looked solemn and respectful. “Thirty thousand years ago, that man was the palace master of the Deathbringer’s Netherworld Palace, the top holy land in the eyes of the world’s ghost cultivators. That is a painting of his excellency, the Netherworld Asura Emperor!”
Su Yi instantly looked enlightened. Back in Yin Mountain City, in the Little Ghost City Fengdu, Ling Yunhe had told him about the Deathbringer’s Netherworld Palace. He knew that the world’s ghost cultivators saw it as their holy land.
The painting depicted the Deathbringer’s Netherworld Palace’s first palace master, the Netherworld Asura Emperor. It wasn’t strange that it would appear in Madam Xihua’s territory, nor was it strange that she’d make offerings to it.
“Fellow Daoists, please, sit down.” Madam Xihua smiled and gestured for them to take their seats.
However, Su Yi merely shook his head. “No need. Let’s talk business.”
“Business?” Madam Xiahua froze, as if confused.
Su Yi snapped his fingers and said leisurely, “Since you insist on playing dumb, I’ll speak openly. This killing formation of yours can’t do anything to me. On the contrary; if you try anything, you’ll die beyond a shadow of a doubt.”
This declaration made Yuan Heng and Bai Wenqing’s hearts shook, and both were instantly on guard. Their gazes landed on Madam Xihua.
Her pupils suddenly constricted, and she said, “So, Fellow Daoist, you knew all along.””
She twirled a strand of long, black hair flowing past her ears, then flashed him a charming smile. “However, I’m afraid you and your friends are already beetles in a jar or birds in a cage. I truly cannot imagine how you think you can escape given the circumstances.”
Su Yi said flatly, “If you could imagine it, you would never have dared lead us here with ill intentions in the first place.”
“That so?” Her beautiful eyes darted about, and she said charmingly, “How about… you show me?”
It was clear that Madam Xihua, the Gathering Stars Realm ghost cultivator, didn’t take Su Yi’s warning to heart at all.
Su Yi smiled, but he couldn’t be bothered to explain anymore.
With a wave of his sleeves, the air surged with clear, misty light.
However, before it reached her, Madam Xihua disappeared without a trace, as if she were nothing but light and shadow.
Only her voice remained. She sighed, as if in pity, the sound reverberating throughout the hall. “You three, don’t blame me for my heartlessness. It’s… It’s not my fault you were stupid enough to throw yourselves right into a trap.”
Before her voice finished echoing, the solitary lamp atop the altar table silently went out, instantly plunging the entire hall into darkness.
The scenery before them shifted. Su Yi and company now found themselves in a dark, imposing vision of purgatory. They were surrounded on all sides in murky gray darkness.
Rumble!
A surging river of blood swept toward them.
Immediately afterward, thunder and lightning boomed overhead, and a massive storm was upon them.
Mountains of piled white bones emerged from the crimson river’s depths, then bore down on Su Yi and his companions.
At the same time, blood-colored lightning came crashing down, and spears formed of raging gales blanketed heaven and earth. Sword qi fell from the sky like a sudden downpour…
In the blink of an eye, all manner of terrifying destructive power beset them on all sides. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.
Yuan Heng and Bai Wenqing’s entire bodies went rigid. They felt as if they’d been plunged into an icy abyss.
What a terrifying killing formation!
The sheer extent of its power was so stifling that they found it hard to breathe. They felt stifled and helpless.
When he saw this, Su Yi couldn’t help but nod to himself.
The formation’s power was just about what he expected. It could easily kill cultivators of the Three Realms of the Origin Dao, and if it caught them off guard, it could trap or kill Spiritual Manifestation cultivators too.
Alas, Su Yi had long since prepared, so it was all for naught.
He couldn’t even be bothered to break the formation with his own power.
Whoosh!
As Su Yi flicked his fingers, a snow-white, jade-like, mysterious talisman shot forth. It revolved in the air, then suddenly emanated unyielding, radiant Dao Light. It swept throughout heaven and earth and spread in all directions.
The Formation-Breaking Talisman!
It was similar to the Golden Lantern Dazzling Sun Talisman that he had unleashed near Broken Dragon Cliff in that it, too, was made from the rare spirit jades he had obtained from the Zuo Family. Its power was enormous; it was of the Spirit Dao level.
If not for the sheer power of his soul, which was enough to contend with Spirit Dao cultivators, Su Yi couldn’t possibly have refined a Spirit Dao-level talisman like this.
He still had three comparable Spirit Dao talismans on him. He’d made all of them recently, and each had its own unique applications.
The task at hand was breaking through a formation; naturally, he needed the Formation-Breaking Talisman!