Welcome to the Ability Shop!

Chapter 122 The Enemy Behind the Scenes
……

"vomit……"

Mo Shuyun knelt to the side, unable to hold back his vomiting. His face was covered in blood and flesh splattered by the demon, ruining his image as a refined young master once again. Even worse, half of his clothes were stained red, meaning that until they returned to Chang'an, the prodigy disciple would have to endure the constant stench emanating from him.

"Is he a demon or a human?" Malena covered her nose as she approached Zhang Zhi, who was paralyzed on the ground, and carefully examined him.

The latter was undoubtedly dead. His skin remained intact, but his internal organs were shattered into a pile of mud, with a large amount of blood seeping from his mouth and nose. His arched back was also decaying rapidly. In less than half a minute, his original appearance was no longer recognizable, as if a tumor composed of internal organs and intestines had appeared on the back of the cultivator.

“Of course it’s a demon,” Chen Xuan said seriously. “However, this demon looks very special. It seems that after parasitizing, it can act in the form of its host.”

If we consider the tiger demons of the Central Plains mountains and the crab demons of the deep sea as one type of demon, and the Azure Dragon and the Dark Demon as another, then this deformed monster can be considered a third type of demon.

The first two types, no matter how astonishing in number or how exceptionally powerful, can ultimately be identified at a glance. But this type can conceal its demonic identity and blend into the crowd, making it far more dangerous.

Of course it's dangerous... Others might not know, but Chen Xuan knows it better than anyone else—because this thing most likely comes from another world and is a pure invasive species!
He said to Malena, "Go and call all the people from the Immortal Alliance in, and have them record what's going on here."

After the witch left, Chen Xuan walked to the cracked wall again. Now it was clear that the bricks and stones were obviously laid later, and the surface was slightly tilted, no longer on the same plane as the surrounding stone walls.

He summoned the blunt-tipped Thousand Thought Swords and used them to repeatedly strike the walls, treating them like pickaxes. When the Grand Historian and the others returned to the original hall on the first floor, the wall could no longer bear the weight and collapsed in several pieces.

Behind the wall was a downward passage, from which a cold, damp wind blew out.

"Sect Leader Chen, are you all alright?" Hongli was still somewhat shaken. He had thought it was just an ordinary investigation, but he never expected it to result in a death.

"It's not a big problem. But Qingge Sect is definitely in big trouble." Chen Xuan looked at everyone, "Find some torches and come with me down to take a look. I'll scout ahead."

Although some of the ordinary officials of the Immortal Alliance were afraid, none of them backed down. After all, their duty was to witness and record, and no matter what happened here, they had to report truthfully to the higher-ups of the Immortal Alliance.

Unable to find a torch, Hongli did find a few burning firewood in the side courtyard. Wrapping them in cloth and sprinkling them with vegetable oil would sustain them for a while.

At this moment, Mo Shuyun also came over and consciously walked at the back of the group.

Although he was still feeling nauseous.

The passage was unexpectedly long and spiraled downwards. As the air grew colder, Chen Xuan could also faintly hear the sound of water.

It can be seen that this was originally a natural cave, surrounded by damp rocks, and Qinggemen only laid stone slabs under his feet.

“It feels like a hidden escape route,” Malena muttered to herself. “There are many such secret passages in the lord’s castle.”

Chen Xuan was unimpressed. Why would a small sect of just over twenty people need to keep a back door?

He preferred to believe that it was a waste disposal channel, connected to an underground river that could easily flush away all household garbage.

Sure enough, once they reached the bottom, the cave opened up considerably. However, there were no other exits. The first thing they saw was a low, open space of about twenty square meters. Outside the open space, a rushing river flowed between the rock strata, and the sound of water and dampness came from there.

When the flickering firelight entered the area and illuminated the surrounding ground, everyone couldn't help but gasp in unison!

"This... how is this possible?" The historian was pale-faced, almost unable to believe his eyes.

What they were standing on was not solid rock, but some kind of soft muscle tissue!
He trembled as he raised the torch and shone it overhead, only to be even more horrified by what he saw.

The tangled shadows above weren't vines at all; they were clearly segments of intestines as thick as an arm! Hanging from the rocks, they intertwined to form a ceiling of flesh and blood. Even more horrifying, these intestines were alive, slowly wriggling; heaven knows what they were digesting inside. "Ugh..." The officials of the Immortal Alliance felt nauseous.

“Evil is spreading here, may God protect us…” Malena, who never prayed to God, was also a little flustered at this moment. She couldn’t help but lean towards Chen Xuan and make the sign of the cross.

"What on earth is going on with this wretched place?" Mo Shuyun asked incredulously. "Have we been under some kind of mind-altering spell?"

"No, what you see is real." Chen Xuan's face was ashen... Although these intestines and muscles looked like living things, the Heavenly Cloud Technique could not sense any qi in them. In other words, they could not be considered life at all, but were more like disgusting decorations.

These lifeless flesh and blood are eroding the rocks, rivers, moss, fish, and shrimp of this place, and then taking their place. In appearance, they are quite similar to the forbidden technique "Disintegration and Remelting" that he had previously acquired.

The source of the flesh and blood was a small altar.

It was right next to the cave entrance, and its style was almost identical to what Chen Xuan had seen in the abandoned factory. It consisted of two candlesticks and a sacrificial basin, the only difference being that it did not support the bookshelf.

The extremely ominous premonition came true. Now he was certain of one thing: there was an intrusion point near Chang'an City that connected to that world, and someone had already entered the Immortal Alliance world through this point.

But why Qingge Sect?
What does this have to do with Master Ajiu?
"What is this thing? Why is there a huge pile of skeletons next to it?" Mo Shuyun also noticed the altar and walked over in surprise, saying, "Could these people be for eating intestines?"

Upon hearing that the intestines were going to eat people, the historian's face turned even paler.

“It’s not that they’re eating people… but the situation is probably worse.” Chen Xuan squatted down, rummaged through the pile of bones for a while, and then took out a palm-sized stone slab and tossed it to the other person. “Look at this.”

Mo Shuyun caught it hastily, wiped it in the firelight, and then her eyes widened in surprise. "This is... a jade token from the Immortal Alliance! It even has a name on it: Zhang Fuqin..."

Hongli and the others were shocked. "She is an elder of the Qingge Sect. She joined the sect at its inception!"

"Do you know this person?" Chen Xuan pressed.

“No…we don’t know him, but we checked Qingge Sect’s records before we came, and this person is on the Immortal Alliance’s register of cultivators.” Hongli frowned. “But that’s impossible! If a legitimate cultivator dies, the sect is required to report it to the Immortal Alliance and have him removed from the register. Qingge Sect has no record of any disciple deaths since its founding!”

"Judging from the condition of these bones, she has probably been dead for quite some time." Mo Shuyun also realized that this matter was beyond the scope of the investigation team's capabilities.

“She’s not the only one.” Chen Xuan pulled out a few more jade tablets from the pile of bones and tossed them to Mo Shuyun.

As the names were announced one by one, Hongli confirmed that all the jade tablets belonged to the Qingge Sect cultivators.

For a moment, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, their eyes filled with undisguised fear.

what does this mean?
Right here in Chang'an, right at the foot of the Immortal Alliance, a legitimate sect was quietly wiped out, and no one noticed for so long!?
No… it’s normal not to notice. Chen Xuan’s mind raced. Each sect has its own territory, and as long as you don’t cross it, no one will care what another sect is doing. Whether it’s meditating and cultivating or slaying demons, it’s not unusual for them to disappear into the mountains for a year or two.

The key question is, what were the intruders trying to achieve by going to such lengths to replace Qingge Sect? Was it merely for killing and sacrifice? If so, they should have abandoned this empty shell long ago…

The good news is that this pile of bones is clearly very old. If Ji Yanshu was captured and killed here, it's unlikely that there wouldn't be any trace of fresh blood. Moreover, the wall is sealed off without any opening mechanism, indicating that these cultivators were killed a long time ago.

The bad news is that if Ji Yanshu really falls into the hands of cultists from another world, his fate will likely be even worse.

"We must inform the Immortal Alliance of this matter as soon as possible!" Chen Xuan said decisively. Since they couldn't find the person here, there was no need to waste any more time. "Let's return to Chang'an City immediately!"

(End of this chapter)