Walking alone with a sword, slaying ghosts and gods

Chapter 610 Ten Thousand Soul Lamps Cast Cold Shadows, Phosphorescent Flames Ignite at the Nine Skull Mountain Gate (Seeking Donations and Subscriptions!)

Although they received strong support from Xiji Zen Temple and obtained the method to break the Ten Thousand Souls Suppressing Prison Formation from Layman Miaoyin.

However, considering the dire consequences of failure, after returning to his sect from the Western Regions, Lu Cheng used the Five Elements Flying Sword and the Boundless Blood Sea Flying Sword as his avatars to travel in a divided manner.

They went to Yuqing and Shangqing sects respectively, hoping that the three sects of Taoism could work together to suppress the potential danger of this calamity to the minimum.

The "Male and Female Dragon and Tiger Refining Demon Sword Scripture" originally contained the three realms of man and sword merging, man and sword separating, and man, sword and god. Now, Lu Cheng has almost cultivated this sword scripture to its peak, and the two flying swords, Five Elements and Blood Sea, have also been refined to an extremely exquisite degree, so they can be used as external avatars.

Jade Purity Heavenly Palace, Cloud Terrace.

After listening to Lu Cheng's Five Elements Incarnation and the jade slip rubbing presented, the Jade Purity Sect Master, Ziwei Daojun, remained silent for a long time.

Below the cloud platform, the Supreme Elders of the Jade Purity Sect also had different expressions.

"Sect Leader Lu, this matter involves far-reaching implications and is of great importance," said Daoist Ziwei slowly, his voice carrying a hint of hesitation and detachment.

"Although the Myriad Manifestations Sect has made mistakes, its suppression of the Netherworld Eyes has contributed to the stability of the Earthly Immortal Realm. Furthermore, the nine Netherworld Eyes are so interconnected that even a small change could have far-reaching consequences, potentially leading to calamity and self-destruction, which our Three Pure Ones Sect cannot easily bear. Moreover, rashly launching a military campaign could easily cause internal turmoil within the human race, giving foreign races an opportunity to exploit. In my opinion, we should focus on persuasion and punishment, ordering them to cease their transactions, hand over the ringleaders, and compensate the victims for their losses. It is not advisable to resort to large-scale warfare."

The tactful refusal reveals a consideration for self-preservation.

Although Lu Cheng was rejected, he could understand it. This was a wise move to govern the country. Although there would be benefits to be gained from destroying the Myriad Manifestations Palace, if the Myriad Manifestations Palace really detonated the Netherworld Eye, the price to be paid would be so great that even the Three Pure Ones Dao Sect would find it difficult to bear. Moreover, Lu Cheng had not revealed all his trump cards, so it was natural for Daoist Ziwei to have concerns.

It would be better not to do this, but the benefits of doing it seem insufficient to justify the risks taken.

Shangqing Sect, Biyou Dao Palace.

After hearing Lu Cheng's blood-sea transformation into a petition, the Shangqing Sect Master Yuan Chen Daojun frowned deeply.

"Master Lu, the Wanxiang Senluo Palace's act of selling human souls has incurred the wrath of Heaven and the resentment of the people. However, the Wanhun Senluo Prison Suppression Array is extremely dangerous, and the nine Netherworld Eyes are like swords hanging overhead. Although we Shangqing cultivators are not afraid of battle, we have to consider the lives of our disciples and the catastrophic calamity that may be triggered. Moreover..." He changed the subject.

"Our sect has recently discovered unusual activity in an ancient 'Return to the Void' secret realm in the East Sea, suspected to contain traces of an ancient and ferocious race. We must exert all our strength to guard against it, as it is difficult to spare enough forces to launch a distant expedition to the Netherworld. In this battle, we may not be able to provide full assistance, and at most we can send one or two disciples to provide support and bolster our morale."

The reasons seem sufficient, but they are actually excuses.

Lu Cheng remained silent. The three religions shared a common origin, yet they were not of one mind. Yuqing weighed the pros and cons, seeking advantage and avoiding harm; Shangqing also had its own considerations, and ultimately, they could not walk together.

Inside the Taiqing Hall, Lu Cheng withdrew the two sword lights and flew back, showing no surprise in his eyes.

His act of transforming into a messenger was merely a casual move; it would be beneficial regardless of success or failure. If successful, the Three Pure Ones and the Daoist sects could form an alliance to suppress the Netherworld; if unsuccessful, it could quell any criticism from these two factions afterward.

In any case, even if it's just the Taiqing Sect's own combat strength, Lu Cheng is 70-80% confident that he can accomplish this.

Moreover, the Xiji Zen Temple now has additional resources.

The Nine Netherworld Prison, a place of darkness and rebirth.

Zhao Qi was the lowest-ranking outer disciple of the Myriad Manifestations Hall, responsible for guarding the "Yinzhu Pavilion," an old side hall that stored the soul lamps and short-term corpses of low- and mid-ranking disciples from previous generations.

The Myriad Manifestations Palace is located nine levels below the earth, and the sect's deliberate feng shui arrangement makes the place eerily gloomy, permeated with a smell of stale lamp oil mixed with a faint corpse odor all year round, making it a place rarely visited by people.

Although there's not much profit to be made, this job is easy and stress-free, with a stable income regardless of drought or flood. For a diligent cultivator, it's a place to focus on quiet cultivation.

However, in recent years, the sect's atmosphere has changed, and fewer and fewer cultivators are willing to endure hardship and devote themselves to cultivation here. Even those who initially arrived with some ambition are mostly dragged into the corrupt current by their fellow disciples.

Women who gamble, drink, and play cards lose all their ambition.

That night, they continued their revelry of cards and drinks until half the night was over, just past midnight.

A chilling wind swirled in through the cracks in the palace doors, causing the hundreds of eerily burning soul lamps to flicker violently, casting distorted and swaying ghostly shadows on the mottled walls.

Zhao Qi wrapped his thin Taoist robe tighter around himself and huddled on a wooden stool in the corner, his eyelids growing heavier and heavier.

"Don't sleep, don't sleep. That bastard Chen might come to check up on me. If I fall asleep, he'll probably fine me half a month's salary."

In his daze, Zhao Qi seemed to hear a faint rustling sound, like... someone was wandering around in the hall?

"How could that be? Stealing a corpse from my place..."

Zhao Qi suddenly woke up with a start and quickly looked up:

The reason for their presence here is that corpses could indeed be stolen and used to cultivate various magical arts.

Concentrating, one could see a blurry figure hunched over deep within the array of soul lamps, groping around on the shelf where the jade slips of recently deceased disciples were stored.

The figure was wearing the gray robes of an outer disciple, but his movements were stiff.

"Who, who's there?" Zhao Qi moved to chase after him and asked with all his might, his voice echoing in the empty hall.

The figure paused, then slowly turned around.

Zhao Qi's heart instantly felt as if it had been gripped by a ghostly claw:
That was indeed a familiar face; it was his fellow student, Senior Brother Liu, who had entered the sect in the same batch.

But at this moment, Senior Brother Liu's face was like a cheap paper mask, deathly pale and devoid of any color. His features were still there, but lifeless. Only his eyes were empty, with two eerie green flames, identical to those of the sect's soul lamps, flickering within them. His body, under the dim yellow light, appeared somewhat transparent, its edges slightly shimmering.

“Zhao…Seven…” The paper-doll-like “Senior Brother Liu” made a rough, grinding sound in his throat, and a strange arc appeared at the corner of his mouth:

"Help me...find...my light...it's off...I need to...turn it back on..."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Qi was terrified. This Senior Brother Liu had just died in an accident while mining in the Blood Refining Cave a few days ago, and his soul lamp had already been extinguished.

What the hell is this thing in front of me?!
He instinctively stepped back, bumping into the wooden frame behind him, causing several jade slips to fall to the ground with a clatter.

"Senior Brother Liu" turned his empty green eyes toward the fallen jade slip and walked over stiffly.

Zhao Qi was horrified to discover that as Senior Brother Liu approached, the shadow cast by the soul lamp beneath his feet began to twist and writhe uncontrollably, as if something was trying to crawl out of the shadow.

"Ah!!" Zhao Qi could no longer bear it and let out a shrill scream, tumbling and crawling towards the palace gate.

Just as he opened the heavy palace door and fled, he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye that the flames of the hundreds of soul lamps in the Yinzhu Pavilion suddenly surged, and in the flames, blurry faces of pain, numbness, or resentment seemed to emerge, emitting silent shrieks at him.

The figure of "Senior Brother Liu" had already silently blended into the flickering, ghostly light and disappeared without a trace.

From that night on, Zhao Qi went mad, only able to curl up in a corner and repeatedly mutter, "Light...light the light...the shadow...is alive..."

The sect ruled that his cultivation had been damaged, and gave his family a sum of money to settle the matter.

Li Mo was a disciple of the inner sect's enforcement team, with a late-stage Golden Core cultivation. That night, it was his turn to lead three junior brothers to patrol the outer perimeter of the forbidden area, "Ten Thousand Bones Forest."

The Forest of Ten Thousand Bones is where the sect deals with traitors, serious criminals, and some "special experimental subjects." It is filled with white bones and the Yin energy is so thick that it cannot be dispelled. Ordinary disciples avoid it like the plague.

Tonight, the night is as dark as ink, so dark that you can hardly see your hand in front of your face.

Only the soul-guiding lamp in his hand emitted a pale light, barely illuminating a space of about ten feet in front of him. The light struggled to penetrate the thick black mist that seemed to be formed from resentment.

Beneath their feet lay soft bone meal, accumulated over countless years, which rustled painfully underfoot. The surroundings were eerily silent, save for the heavy breathing and heartbeats of the four of them. "Senior Brother Li... I feel... there seem to be... many more people following us?" one of the junior brothers said, his voice trembling.

"Don't turn around. We are disciples of the Myriad Manifestations Palace. We are the ancestors of the art of summoning spirits and ghosts. What are you afraid of?"

The light from the soul-guiding lamp in his hand was too weak; just a few steps behind him lay a deep darkness, and he could see nothing at all.

However, Li Mo's cultivation level was relatively high and his spiritual sense was sharp. He did indeed feel an invisible, cold "gaze" coming from all directions.

It was as if countless eyes were hidden in the darkness, greedily watching their faint life force.

But Li Mo had grown up and cultivated in this Netherworld since childhood, and he knew in his heart that the more trouble he encountered today, the less he should panic or turn back.

The more panicked you are, the stronger they become. Losing your composure at this time is a sure path to death.

"Silence. Concentrate and calm your mind, circulate your inner energy." Li Mo whispered a reprimand, but his own palms were sweating.

After walking a few more moments, Li Mo couldn't help but grip the mourning staff at his waist and strain his eyes to look into the dark depths to the side.

Suddenly, a faint, dark red light appeared in the thick fog, like the single eye of a wild beast.

As Li Mo's gaze fell upon it, he discovered it was a simple altar constructed from countless skulls. At the top of the altar stood a tattered banner burning with eerie green phosphorescent light. Beneath the banner, a figure knelt in submission.

The man, dressed in the purplish-black robes of a core disciple of the Myriad Manifestations Palace, stood with his back to them, his body trembling slightly. Around the altar, in the dim light of the soul-guiding lamps, he was a shadowy figure.

Countless blurry, strangely shaped ghostly figures—some were rotting corpses missing limbs, others were fleeting spirits, and still others were twisted, coiled skeletal beasts… They were densely packed, kneeling on the ground like pilgrims, silently worshipping the tattered banner and the trembling figure on the altar. Their numbers were far more than a hundred; they were probably tens of thousands!
The whole scene was eerie and deathly silent, yet filled with an indescribable fervor and malevolence.

"That's...that's Senior Brother Zhou?!" A sharp-eyed junior brother recognized the figure of the core disciple, his voice trembling with tears: "How could he be there? What...what are those things?"

The Earthly Immortal Realm is rich in spiritual energy. A cultivator at the Purple Mansion level may have only cultivated for a little over a hundred years, and their mental fortitude may actually be weaker than that of a mortal cultivator. In addition, the current situation is truly bizarre.

Just then, "Senior Brother Zhou," who was kneeling on the altar, suddenly stiffened, stopped trembling, and slowly turned his head around in an inhuman, twisted posture.

What a face it was!
His facial features were still there, but his skin was a deathly bluish-gray. His eyes were just two empty holes filled with black blood. His mouth stretched to his ears, revealing sharp, white teeth, and a hissing sound came from his throat.

"Ghost cultivators... sect... has become... ghost... domain..." Empty eye sockets "looked" at Li Mo and the other three, and a few indistinct syllables came out of the inhuman mouth:

"There are more ghosts than people!"

"Go!" Li Mo was terrified and didn't care what the other person was saying. Without hesitation, he slammed the Soul-Guiding Lamp towards the altar, activated all his protective magic artifacts, and transformed into a streak of rainbow light. He ignored his terrified junior brothers and turned to flee back the way he came.

Behind them, the moment the Soul-Guiding Lamp shattered, its pale light suddenly expanded, illuminating an even larger area. Tens of thousands of ghostly figures, like a startled black tide, abruptly raised their heads of various shapes, their countless eyes, flashing with eerie green, pale white, and scarlet light, all staring intently at the four fleeing people.

The next moment, the deathly silence was broken, and all the ghosts fell silent!

The sharp, mournful, venomous, and greedy howls of the ghosts surged in from all directions like a tangible tsunami, instantly engulfing the four people in icy yin energy.

Only Li Mo, relying on his own cultivation and proper response, managed to barely protect his heart meridian. Covered in frost and filled with deep-seated fear, he stumbled and crawled out of the boundary of the Ten Thousand Bones Forest.

As for the three junior brothers at the Purple Mansion Realm... their screams and auras were instantly swallowed up by the terrifying tide of ghostly howls, leaving no trace.

Li Mo fled back to his sect, only managing to utter a few broken words to the elder on duty: "Ten Thousand Bones Forest... Ghost... Senior Brother Zhou... Hundred Ghosts Pay Homage..." before he completely fainted due to the severe damage to his soul from the Yin Sha and the extreme fear.

Several days later, although he was revived, his foundation had collapsed, all his cultivation had been lost, and he was completely ruined.

Three hundred years is but a fleeting moment for Mahayana cultivators.

Under the governance of Lucheng, the Taiqing Sect achieved remarkable success, effectively managed resources, and flourished ever more.

Lu Cheng Daoist's cultivation has become increasingly unfathomable. His Daoist transformation and ascension techniques have improved daily, and his Mahayana Heavenly Power has been continuously absorbing the essence of the Lesser Thousand Worlds within the Purple-Gold Red Gourd, becoming increasingly powerful and pure. However, now that he is the head of the Taiqing Sect, Lu Cheng has fewer and fewer opportunities to take action. He himself seems to have refrained from killing and being impatient, shifting from punishment to forgiveness, and increasingly displaying the demeanor of a great master of a righteous sect.

As the year of Guihai approached, the Taiqing Sect conveyed a request to visit the Wanxiang Senluo Palace.

Everything was conducted in accordance with etiquette and protocol, resembling a very normal sect visit. As two of the nine sects of the human race, they were exchanging ideas and deepening their friendship.

In the cultivation world, when a sect leader goes out, there are always some means of transportation to signify his status, especially for formal visits.

These magical artifacts, often resembling magical treasures, have very distinctive markings and ingenious designs. From afar, they exude the majesty of a sect leader. These items are collectively known as "Sect Cloud Carriages."

The Taiqing Sect has existed for tens of thousands of years, so naturally it possesses this type of magical treasure:

At the central cloud platform of the sect, auspicious clouds billowed, and a Taixu Azure Netherworld Chariot stood suspended in mid-air.

The carriage was formed from spiritual jade and clouds, with curtains hanging low, revealing flowing mystical patterns. Hanging on the carriage walls were various tokens such as the Dharma Seal of the Master, the Dao Sword with Dragon Pattern, and the Jade Whisk of Purification, their precious light contained yet not revealed, exuding a solemn and majestic aura.

Seven steps outside the carriage, thirty-six jade cloud platforms are arranged according to the constellations of the heavens, staggered and surrounding, their energy interconnected like a net.

Further outwards, 108 levels of spirit jade steps unfold according to the number of earthly evils, with runes appearing and disappearing on the steps, echoing the star platform to form an array.

As the wind swept by, the cloud-like steps rippled like cotton. Yet, at the slightest touch of external force, the array patterns immediately responded. In an instant, a clear light spread, and talismans manifested from the void, forming an invisible barrier that protected the entire cloud array flawlessly.

Although Lu Cheng did not mobilize the entire sect for this trip, thirty-six true disciples stood solemnly atop the cloud formation.

Surprisingly, all the wives, concubines, and disciples—including Xiao Yuhong, Xiao Yuxue, Lin Qinghan, Xue Yuzhen, Yun Ling'er, Miao Chuyun, Zhang Zhaodi, Youming, Shisheng, and other disciples—were among them.

This lineup is a proper way to make a visit.

If the Myriad Souls Suppressing Prison Formation is activated after arriving at the Myriad Manifestations Palace, all the Taiqing cultivators present will have to be thrown into it, and the consequences will be unpredictable.

Of course, if the Myriad Manifestations Palace were to act in this way, it would be cutting itself off from the human race, and all cultivators in the world would unite to attack it.

Within a few days, the Azure Void Chariot arrived outside the gate of the Myriad Manifestations Palace.

The scene before my eyes was shocking:
A vast, boundless black mountain range stretched out, barren of vegetation, with only thick, ink-like, malevolent energy condensing into clouds that lingered year-round, turning the sky a somber, leaden gray.

Countless twisted and tormented phantoms of the dead floated and shrieked in the deathly clouds.

A gate made of nine hideous giant skulls stands at the entrance to Bone Mountain, with eerie green phosphorescent flames burning in the eye sockets of the skulls.

Behind the mountain gate, countless ghostly palaces and towers could be vaguely seen, their shapes twisted and bizarre, as if they had been moved directly from the Netherworld.

"What a magnificent Hall of Ten Thousand Souls, what a ghostly kingdom! This one of the nine sects of the human race is probably now filled with more ghosts than humans!" Daoist Mingque's eyebrows and beard bristled, his eyes filled with both anger and solemnity.

He wields the Taiyi Dividing Light Immortal Sword, possesses the Spirit Eye Sword Eye Divine Power, and, having made some prior guesses, has already discerned some of its aura even before entering the area.

Lu Cheng remained calm, as if the scene before him was merely an ordinary sight. His disciple Shi Sheng stepped forward upon receiving the order and announced loudly, "Lu Cheng, the sect leader of the Taiqing Sect, along with Elder Ming Que, his wives and disciples, have come to pay their respects to the Azure Water Heavenly Lord of the Myriad Manifestations Palace."

The voice was clear and melodious, containing abundant Dao power. It pierced through layers of resentful ghostly howls and clearly entered the depths of the White Bone Mountain Gate, like a drop of cold water being poured into boiling oil.

Rumble!
The White Bone Mountain Gate trembled violently, and the nine gigantic skulls opened their mouths, emitting deafening ghostly howls that formed visible, ghastly green sound waves that crashed out, as if the gates of hell had been opened.

(End of this chapter)