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The moment the black-robed elder’s eerie green eyes focused on Su Yi, a strange and sinister soul imprint slammed into Su Yi’s sea of consciousness.
“A mere Origin Palace cultivator dares use a soul art to ambush me?” Su Yi’s gaze was unfathomable.
Boom!
As the power of his divine sense circulated, the soul imprint burst like paper mache.
Splurt!
The black-robed elder coughed up blood, and his soul was in agony. He visibly lost his composure.
This is bad! He turned to flee, only for Su Yi to appear in front of him, seemingly out of nowhere. He stretched out his hand and grabbed the man in black by the throat, holding him aloft as if he were a chicken.
This development left Ge Qian, Yuan Heng, and Bai Wenqing stunned.
“I don’t seem to know you,” said Su Yi. “Why did you attack me?”
The black-robed elder before him was in the mid-stage Origin Palace Realm, and the aura emanating from him was sinister and vicious. He most likely practiced a demonic legacy.
However, Su Yi didn’t recognize him at all.
The man in black struggled like mad, but it was to no avail.
However, when he heard Su Yi’s question, he seemed to calm down. “Fellow Daoist, it seems this was all just a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?” Su Yi arched his brows, a faint smile on his face.
The man in black said at top speed, “That’s right. Earlier, I was just testing the waters. I wanted to see how capable you were…”
He’d only just said this when Su Yi exerted strength through the fingers wrapped around his neck. It hurt so much that everything went dark, and he almost lost consciousness.
“Quick, stay your hand!” shrieked the black-robed elder. “I’m Deacon Lu Zheng of the Celestial Prison Demon Court. If you kill me, disaster will surely befall you!”
The Celestial Prison Demon Court!
When they heard this, Yuan Wutong, Mu Cangtu, and the others’ expressions changed. This terrifying faction from another world had long since swept through the Great Zhou, rising to the top!
“Indeed, it’s just as I thought.” Su Yi looked enlightened. He’d long since realized that the black-robed old man practiced a demonic inheritance, and he’d guessed that he was most likely connected to the Celestial Prison Demon Court.
“You know, so why haven’t you let go of me?” barked the man who called himself Lu Zheng.
“It seems you won’t cooperate unless I use a few additional methods. Fine, then. I’ll just search your soul directly.” As Su Yi spoke, his divine sense shot forth like the tip of a sword, penetrating Lu Zheng’s sea of consciousness.
Lu Zheng’s soul was in agony, and he couldn’t help but cry out.
However, mere moments later, Su Yi withdrew his divine sense and exclaimed, “If you’re from the Celestial Prison Demon Court, why did they put a Soul Restriction inside you?”
A Soul Restriction was an extremely tyrannical secret art. When those affected had their souls searched, the Soul Restriction would explode, destroying their soul completely!
That was why Su Yi immediately withdrew his divine sense.
Lu Zheng’s face was pallid; Su Yi’s methods had terrified him. His expression shifted, and he said, “That’s no secret, and there’s no reason I can’t tell you. Every expert of the Celestial Prison Demon Court who’s entered the Azure Continent has a similar seal in their souls. This is to prevent enemies from searching our souls and discovering our sect’s legacies and core secrets.”
Su Yi nodded.
Such methods were common in demonic sects.
Even top ancient Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian orthodoxies would give their disciples soul-protecting treasures. That way, on the off chance someone tried to search their souls, they could defend themselves and neutralize the threat.
“I’ll give you a choice. If you answer my questions, I’ll let you die quickly. Otherwise, I’ll let you experience the true meaning of the phrase ‘a life worse than death,’” Su Yi said calmly.
Even if he couldn’t search the old man’s soul, he still had methods of prying the answers he wanted out of him.
“What do you want to know, Fellow Daoist?” Lu Zheng asked.
“Why did you ambush me tonight?” asked Su Yi.
Lu Zheng looked conflicted. “You ruined my plans! I was unwilling to accept it; I naturally wanted an explanation.”
Su Yi was stunned, but then, he seemed to understand. “You were controlling the beast tide that encircled the city for the past three days?”
“That’s right.” Lu Zheng nodded.
“What did you do that for?”
Lu Zheng fell silent, and his expression shifted erratically. “That involves secrets of the Celestial Prison Demon Court. Even if you kill me, don’t even think about getting any answers out of me!”
“Oh?” said Su Yi. He reached out, grabbed Lu Zheng’s Soul-Beckoning Banner, and examined it. The bloody, baleful energy inside it was almost tangible, and the stench of blood stung his nostrils, making him want to retch.”
“You’re gathering bloodmeal,” said Su Yi. His brow furrowed with disgust. “You want to use the blood essence of the masses as nourishment to refine a demonic treasure, or perhaps, to refine ‘Blood Spirits.’ Am I right?”
Lu Zheng stiffened, and his eyes widened in obvious surprise.
“Throughout the Great Zhou, yao run rampant, and beacon fires fill the skies. There’s obviously something out of the ordinary going on. After all, if the beasts are frenzied, they’ve got to be frenzied for a reason,” said Su Yi. “Now it seems certain that your Celestial Prison Demon Court is causing the beast tides from behind the scenes.”
Lu Zheng’s forehead broke out in a cold sweat, and he stared at the blue-robed young man before him in disbelief, his lips quivering. He seemed to want to say something, but in the end, he held back.
Su Yi’s gaze was distant and inscrutable as he stared at Lu Zheng. “If I’m not mistaken, you’re doing this to train an army of Blood Spirits to help you expand your territory further into the Azure Continent.”
When he heard this, Lu Zheng couldn’t help but cry out in alarm, “How did you know?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized he’d slipped up, and his expression became incomparably unsightly.
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Su Yi’s gaze was utterly disdainful. “Only second-rate Demonist orthodoxies would employ such petty, vicious, insidious little tricks. You might be able to trick the world’s ordinary martial artists, but how could you possibly fool me?”
He paused, then continued, “Your forces crossed over half a month ago. If it’s as I expect, your numbers are limited. Otherwise, there’d be no need to employ such debased, despicable means to raise an army of blood spirits to expand your strength.
“The Azure Continent is still under the effects of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness, which was yet to dissipate. Even if stronger otherworlders crossed over, they’d be Spiritual Incarnation Realm cultivators at best, and even that’s pushing it.
“In summary, the Celestial Prison Demon Court experts who’ve come thus far are merely your vanguard.”
“You… You…” Lu Zheng’s scalp went numb, and he was too shocked to even speak clearly.
When he saw Lu Zheng’s unstable mental state, Su Yi asked out of nowhere, “Where is Chu Xiu?”
“Elder Chu…” Lu Zheng said, then promptly shut his mouth. “Don’t even think about trying to worm answers out of me!”
Su Yi said thoughtfully, “So, he’s an elder of your Celestial Prison Demon Court? It seems he really did flee the Great Xia and come to the Great Zhou.”
Lu Zheng’s face was ashen. He gnashed his teeth and said nothing.
When Su Yi saw this, he laughed. “Then let’s chat about something unrelated. Lately, there have been rumors that the Great Zhou’s imperial family and Hidden Dragon Sword Sect have capitulated. Is that true?”
Lu Zheng hesitated, but in the end, he nodded.
“The Celestial Prison Demon Court isn’t the only one of the Xuandu Continent’s factions to cross over, is it?” asked Su Yi.
“You know about the Xuandu Continent?” Lu Zheng exclaimed.
“Of course,” said Su Yi. “Your Elder Chu once invited me to pledge myself to your cause, and he promised me benefits as grand as the heaven themselves. Alas, after I refused, his shame seems to have transformed into anger. He’s returned to the Great Zhou to seek revenge against those connected to me.”
Lu Zheng was visibly flabbergasted; it was as if he’d been struck by lightning. “You… You… You’re Su Yi!?”
Su Yi laughed. “Even you know my name? It seems your Elder Chu really has come to the Great Zhou. Did he order you people to keep an eye on those connected to me?”
Only then did Lu Zheng realize that Su Yi’s earlier words were just another trap!
He glowered resentfully. Isn’t this guy… a bit too crafty?
“Let me tell you, don’t even think about getting any more answers out of me!” Lu Zheng said emphatically.
“Oh?” laughed Su Yi. “That’s fine. I’ve already learned what I wanted to know.”
As this light, airy declaration drifted through the air…
Crunch!
He broke Lu Zheng’s neck, and the old man’s head hung limply from his shoulders.
Astonishment and bewilderment were written all over his face. It seemed he dared not believe that Su Yi, who’d seemed so peaceable moments prior, would strike a killing blow out of nowhere!
When death came for him, he wasn’t the least bit prepared…
Off in the distance, Yuan Heng, Ge Qian, and Bai Wenqing saw this, but they were used to it, and they remained calm.
However, Yuan Wutong, Mu Cangtu, and the others were dumbstruck.
They were Martial Dao Grandmasters. Even the strongest of them, Mu Cangtu, had just barely brushed up against the threshold of the Xiantian Martial Ancestor level.
Lu Zheng was a member of the Celestial Prison Demon Court who’d long since entered the Origin Dao, an Earthly Immortal. When they saw Su Yi grab him by the throat as he might a chicken, then kill him with ease, they were understandably shaken.
When he saw their reaction, Yuan Heng couldn’t help but sigh to himself. The Great Zhou really is just too far behind. No wonder the Great Xia sees it as a tiny little backwater.
In the Great Xia, no one would be surprised to see Master kill a mere Origin Palace demonic cultivator. If anything, they’d accuse him of bullying the weak…
After all, he’s been able to kill advanced cultivators of the Spiritual Manifestation Realm for a while now.
I’m just glad I had the opportunity to leave the Great Zhou with him and see just how big this world is. Furthermore, with Master’s guidance, my cultivation base has undergone repeated transformations. He’s the reason I’ve reached my current attainments in the Grand Dao.
Had I never met him, I’m afraid I would have remained in the Great Zhou forever, trapped, unable to cross the threshold of the Grain Avoidance Realm, or even to take on human form…
Before meeting Su Yi, he’d been stuck for a long time. The process of undergoing metamorphosis had stumped him for hundreds of years!
It had only been a few short months since he’d started following Su Yi, but he was already a true yao cultivator of the Gathering Stars Realm! And he even cultivated the Xuanwu Overlord Seal, a peerless legacy!
Kcch!
It was then that Su Yi ignited a wisp of flame at the tip of his finger. It instantly incinerated Lu Zheng’s corpse, leaving only ash behind.
Su Yi then examined what he'd taken from the demonic cultivator: a Soul-Beckoning Banner, a blood-colored short halberd, a pile of spirit stones and spiritual medicines, and assorted other items.
Finally, Su Yi’s gaze landed on a black talisman.