Taoist Master Xuanhuang

Qianwu City.

The silent moonlight was stained with blood, a misty crimson that shone through the faint light onto the mottled earth.

Like the stifling heat of midsummer, every breath felt thick and unbearable. The oppressive atmosphere, mixed with the viscous air, even carried a faint, metallic scent of blood.
"Hehe..." The terrifying laughter sounded like a ghost playing tricks; the sound came suddenly rather than gradually.

It suddenly appeared beside my ear, and then vanished without a trace in an instant.

"Crack, crack..." The eerie sound, like bones being compressed by a tremendous force, makes one tremble all over upon hearing it.

As the night deepened, the thick crimson color intensified, and the entire vast city, viewed from the sky, appeared as if draped in a thin veil of blood.

The moonlight shone through the thin gauze, and began to become distorted.

The thick air seemed to come alive, with grotesque and terrifying bodies and faces appearing and disappearing, as if trying to break free from the air's constraints and move from nothingness into reality.

The sound of "hehe...ring ring ring..." kept ringing.

Upon closer inspection, these sounds can be identified as originating from the thick, crimson air.

It's like a city that has been massacred; the blood and spirits of the dead don't sink into the ground and disappear, but are frozen in the air.

It was a place where countless amounts of blood and energy had gathered, like a world of demons, with a terrifying aura that followed like a shadow.

Even staying at home can feel oppressive and unbearable.

The aura of fear emanating from the living beings constantly evaporated and filtered, passing through the thick, crimson moisture, and gathering on the thin veil covering the entire city.

The veil had become a giant net, absorbing the fear of the creatures, which slowly disappeared into its center.

"Father, I don't want you to leave!"

In the dilapidated and simple thatched hut, the clothes worn by the family of four were rough and patched, and it was impossible to tell what color they were.

That's right, colors are useless now, just like the creatures of Qianwu City at this moment, who have lost all sense of color.

Only through murky eyes could one see the deep crimson.

"Don't worry, Daddy's alright. Daddy will be back soon."

The man gently stroked his daughter's delicate face.

"Looking pale and sickly" is not an adjective but a true description here.

The family consists of four people: the father, his thin wife, his thin daughter, and his very thin young son.

The youngest son looked too young to understand what his father was doing. He looked at his sister and mother with innocent eyes, not understanding what this moment of separation meant.

My daughter looks about eight or nine years old and already has a basic understanding of the world.

All she knew was that every time her father went out, it was a life-or-death struggle. During the day, in her naive understanding, she heard or saw many of her playmates' parents, who never returned.

It disappeared in the previous night, or the night before that.

"Woo!"

The wife tried to hold back her tears, but was eventually overwhelmed by immense fear and also worried about her husband.

Qianwu City is a city from another region.

The core city of a small world integrated into the Blue Star has become like entering hell since merging into the main world, with a cruel living environment that is even more difficult to compare with hell.

[A Silent Battle Royale Game!]

It's a game that appeared after being integrated into the main world.

Yes, a cruel game.

The people of Qianwu City had no idea what this was, and they had no prior knowledge of what a survival game was.

I can understand the individual games, but I don't understand the combination of silent battle royale games.

later……

They get it.

Once a year... until once a month, the crimson color began to cover Qianwu City, replacing the normal moonlight.

A sense of oppression and a thick, oppressive atmosphere begins to permeate the air, causing an inexplicable fear. Eerie sounds, laughter, crying, or all sorts of chilling noises may suddenly appear.

Sometimes it appears right next to your ear.

Creatures that are already terrified and dare not even breathe loudly are suddenly startled and can't help but make sounds, whether loud or soft.

Even if you manage to hold back and become bolder through training, some people even cut off their tongues to become mute, but if your heartbeat gets loud, there will still be a crisis.

Once a sound exceeds a certain frequency, those laughs, cries, or all sorts of chilling sounds will materialize.

Then came various blood-red, monstrous forms that devoured the person who made the sound.

Some monsters have only one big mouth full of sharp teeth, and they eat up the people who make noise, one bite at a time.

The sound of chewing, the sound of bones being chewed and crushed, becomes a new, chilling sound, which then blends into the thick, crimson air.

Then the process repeated, taking away one person after another from the game.

The game is open to all ages and genders. Each family is a unit, and every night under the crimson moonlight, one person from each family must step out into this silent battle royale game with the city as its map.

It's not that no one wants to escape or avoid entering the battle royale.

Unfortunately, the entire family that doesn't participate dies the next day; it's like a strange, unsettling rule.

Although Qianwu City is not a core domain, the alien realm is still covered by the minor heavenly Dao of the three supreme gods.

The eeriness is gone; the environment has been compressed to the point where there is no longer a place to survive.

But the eerie game continues here as always: Silent Battle Royale.

This family of four, thanks to the father's bravery, has gone from an annual battle royale to a daily silent battle royale recently, yet they've still managed to stay together. You could say they've done a pretty good job.

The saying "the city is covered in white, and every household is haunted by the dead" is no joke. It's truly remarkable that so far, one family has managed to avoid any losses.

The husband saved his wife, daughter, and son. He didn't want to, but he had no choice.

If I don't go myself, am I supposed to send my wife, daughter, or son?

Damn rules, if you don't go, your whole family dies, there's no way to escape.

The people of Qianwu City have tried countless methods to escape, and many have tried to leave, but unfortunately, they all died at the very gates of Qianwu City.

He had witnessed firsthand how, once a person stepped out of the territory of Qianwu City, their entire body would begin to turn into blood, instantly becoming a pool of blood before being swallowed up by the demonic earth.

There was no escape route, neither in the sky nor on the ground.

Lifeless, with no chance of escape.

It used to happen once a year, then once a month, and recently it's become so brutal that it's practically killing people every day.

The man knew that countless lives would be lost every night.

There are so many funerals that no one holds them anymore. If a son or daughter holds a funeral for their father or mother today, the father or daughter might die by nightfall. Is there any point in doing so?

Qianwu City, together with the counties, towns, and villages under its jurisdiction, was originally the essence of a city, a huge gathering place for a billion people.

Now, not even one in a thousand, or even one in ten thousand, remains.

The man had heard that the counties, villages, and towns below Qianwu City would be driven into Qianwu City by an invisible force.

I heard that the counties, villages and towns below are deserted, and the entire area under the jurisdiction of Qianwu City and the residents of Qianwu City are in grave danger.

"Damn this world, what's wrong with it?"

The man held his trembling wife and child, not understanding why this was happening.

Looking back now, I realize that this kind of situation happened when I was a child, but what's scary is that these childhood memories only came back to me recently.

It's as if they were forgotten or sealed away before. When they think back to their parents, they either die of illness or accident in their previous memories, or they die in the Battle Royale.

His limited intelligence made it difficult for him to understand why. Even with his pitiful understanding, he couldn't fathom why it was happening so frequently—was it an attempt to exterminate them all?

After wiping them all out, aren't the demons behind all this afraid of having no one left to use?

Crazy, crazy.

……

"It'll be soon, it'll be soon. After sacrificing the entire Qianwu City, my brother and I will make up for the gap between ourselves and cultivators. Even if we're still not as well-rounded as true cultivators, how much cultivation do true cultivators have anyway? Haha..."

The mastermind behind it all is an inconspicuous, dilapidated temple in Qianwu City.

This is a realm, a miniature realm, with only three sacred miniature realms.

There were only three sacred beings conceived: three siblings, the eldest brother, the second sister, and the youngest brother.

Born out of the fear of blood among living beings, they call themselves the Three Crimson Saints.

Even compared to smaller realms, the crimson realm where the three siblings resided was weak and insignificant.

In Qianwu City, the three siblings were the masters who controlled all fear.

Once placed outside, it becomes a tiny deity who doesn't dare to speak loudly.

However, this does not affect their ability to dominate ordinary living beings.

“The three lords’ influence on the Heavenly Dao is getting stronger and stronger. It’s not that we’re killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. We’re just forced to do this by the three lords. If we let it go, these barbarians from other lands, despite their inferior talent compared to humans from Blue Star, will also begin to cultivate and comprehend the Dao under the immense pressure. We have no choice!” said the second sister of the Crimson Three Saints.

"Yes, blame the three of you. We had no choice!" the third brother chimed in.

"We originally planned to take it slow, because killing the goose that lays the golden eggs is not advisable; sustainable development is the key. Alas! The world is changing so fast; we have no choice!"

The eldest brother said.

All three said they had no choice but to do so, and tried their best to exclude their own factors, saying that it was a complicated situation.

There is indeed pressure, after all, this is within the territory of Xia Kingdom, and even a remote place is under the jurisdiction of the Lesser Heavenly Dao of the three Great Gods.

Everyone knows the function of the Lesser Heavenly Dao: it replaced the distorted Heavenly Dao, signifying that the most important link in extraordinary cultivation has been opened.

Blue Star is a place rich in spiritual energy. In the past, such a place could not be cultivated because the Heavenly Dao was distorted, and the extraordinary would be out of control.

However, this drawback has been eliminated after the three great gods covered the small heavenly path.

To enter the Tao through skill, to learn from the heavens and earth, or to practice cultivation methods, or even to have the Tao passed down from the most primitive ancient times—any of these are acceptable.

Once a being begins cultivation, their ability to alter the memories of other beings will be broken.

The illusion that stepping out of the city would result in being turned into blood would also be shattered. Once all of this is shattered, the plans of the three miniature realm saints who cannot leave the realm will be ruined.

We must never allow the beings of Qianwu City to embark on the path of cultivation.

They are not from top-tier realms. Top-tier realms possess powerful abilities that allow a fourth-tier True King's avatar to travel, something they cannot do.

The means by which the entire city is maintained is still a symbiotic anomaly born in their realm, a blood-red anomaly.

It was only through the use of strange abilities by the three siblings that they were able to orchestrate everything that was happening, even though they were unable to leave the boundary.

Their previous plans were all achieved through bizarre means.

This is why the rules of Silent Battle Royale are so similar to bizarre rules.

Similarly, this is why, even after the Lesser Heavenly Dao covered the area, the cultivators' fortunes were prosperous, and why strange phenomena still existed—they protected these strange phenomena within the realm.

Everything was for this moment.

With the heavens and earth unsealed, they, as fourth-order True Kings, were finally able to leave the realm.

In order to achieve their goals, the Silent Battle Royale began to occur frequently, appearing every day, aiming to quickly sacrifice all the living beings in the city to achieve their objectives.

They believe that sacrificing a billion lives to achieve their own goals is worthwhile.

The three siblings are not Lao Ai and the Fairy Goddess; they lack their talent and aptitude and cannot create any profound martial arts techniques. They can only compensate for the lack of quality with quantity.

They compensate for their lack of holiness by sacrificing countless living beings.

If so many people were given to Lao Ai and the Fairy Goddess, two highly talented and holy beings, they would surely develop even greater abilities.

Unfortunately, the three of them were terrible, and they only made up for it with sheer numbers.

Sometimes one can't help but sigh that the helplessness of a fool is more cruel than that of a highly talented demon.

The billion lives were merely a compensation for the three's shortcomings. Lao Ai and the Fairy Goddess, at most, harmed less than a million lives, yet they still created even stronger abilities.

In their mouths, it became "having no other choice".

"Clang clang clang!"

In Qianwu City, the midnight bells began to ring.

The sound came from the void, clear yet sinister, reaching the ears of all living beings.

"Let's begin...hehe..."

"Crack, click..."

"Woooo..."

"what……"

A series of piercing sounds began to surround the city, like a surround sound system, spreading throughout Qianwu City.

One door after another opened, and from each household emerged a figure, male or female, young or old, walking fearfully but resolutely into the thick, crimson night.

…………

"Master Wan, this is the only entrance to Tianzhan Canyon. There used to be a secret realm here, but it was completely shattered not long ago and merged into the main world... The dense karma is emanating from this entrance. I believe that the previous secret realm must have hindered the detection of karma, otherwise I would have discovered it long ago. There would never be such dense karma that went unnoticed..."

The spiritual master explained, his forehead covered in sweat.

Suddenly, a condensed karmic force was detected by the Suppression Department, although it was not a big deal.

After all, there are many such karmic debts.

The problem is that it occurred within the territory under my jurisdiction.

If this happened in someone else's territory, the spiritual master wouldn't be so anxious.

His appearance on the territory he was supposed to be guarding was his problem, his dereliction of duty.

He tried his best to explain that it wasn't that he hadn't done his duty, but that he really hadn't noticed it. Who would have thought that it would only be detected after the secret realm had shattered?

"Hmph!" said Master Wan.

Gui Shengwan, the hall master who wanted to do something, let out a cold snort.

Explanations are useless. No matter how many reasons you have, dereliction of duty is dereliction of duty.

Even if it's a completely undeserved disaster or just bad luck, it's still your problem.

The Department of Suppressing Evil doesn't listen to the reasons; it only looks at the responsibility.

There are plenty of reasons and excuses to give, but does that mean we have to find excuses to shirk responsibility whenever a problem arises?

"Stop talking nonsense, let's go in and see for ourselves first. Whether it's your fault or not, we need to see how bad things have gotten. Let's go!"

Master Wan wouldn't listen to his explanation, and he felt wronged, but he himself felt wronged too.

He bears all the responsibility within Guangxi Province, and of course, he also gets all the credit.

"Yes!"

The local manager was sweating profusely, looking distressed and very frustrated.

...(End of chapter)