Starting as pearl divers, they have endless jobs.

Chapter 263 Resentment Transforms into a Pillar, Soaring Straight to the Dipper

The convoy continued its journey, and on the third day, the outline of a city finally appeared in the distance.

This is a city of considerable size, with tall walls that appear even more majestic than Pingyang City.

"Brother Chen, Yong'an City is just ahead, the closest major city to Pingyang!" Hou En exclaimed, his spirits lifting. "Finally, we can find a place to rest!"

However, Chen Ye felt no joy whatsoever.

In his perception, the interior of this magnificent city was utterly desolate.

It has absolutely no popularity.

Sure enough, as the carriage drew closer, everyone noticed something was wrong.

The city walls were deserted; there wasn't a single soldier guarding the city.

The city gates were wide open, like the gaping maw of a giant beast ready to devour its prey, deep and terrifying.

"What's going on? Why is the city gate open? And there aren't even any guards?" Qian Yi asked in confusion.

Hou En also felt a chill run down his spine, "Could it be that in this city... too...?"

He dared not say any more.

The carriage stopped in front of the city gate.

Chen Ye opened his eyes, lifted the carriage curtain, and calmly looked at the dead city before him.

"Hou En, Qian Yi, you two take a team in and take a look."

"Yes!"

Although the two were apprehensive, they dared not disobey Chen Ye's orders in the slightest.

They selected twenty daring elite soldiers from the Beijing garrison, drew their long swords, and cautiously entered the city gate.

A moment later, Hou En ran out, his face pale.

"Brother Chen! Inside... inside are dead people!"

Chen Ye remained completely calm and stepped off the carriage.

"Let's go in and take a look!"

Bai Yingluo and Xia Lingshuang followed closely behind.

Upon entering the city gate, an overwhelming stench of blood and decay assaulted the senses, making one feel nauseous.

The streets of the city were littered with corpses, including ragged vagrants and well-dressed wealthy people. They lay on the ground in various contorted positions, their faces frozen with the terror and despair of their impending death.

The shops on both sides of the street had their doors wide open, and the inside had been ransacked, clearly indicating that they had experienced a terrible catastrophe.

The sky was filled with flocks of crows, their hoarse, unpleasant cries echoing as they brazenly pecked at the carcass.

"Ugh..." Qian Yi couldn't hold back any longer and leaned against the wall, retching violently.

Although the elite soldiers of the Beijing garrison who followed them in were all battle-hardened veterans, at this moment they were all pale-faced, and their hands holding their swords were covered in cold sweat.

Chen Ye's expression remained unchanged. He walked along the long street littered with corpses, his gaze sweeping over each body before his brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

Because the way these people died was very strange.

Most of them had no obvious wounds, so they didn't seem to have died from swords or knives; they seemed more like they were scared to death.

"Chen Lang, look over there!" Bai Yingluo suddenly pointed to the end of the street, her voice carrying a hint of solemnity.

Following her gaze, everyone saw a huge square in the center of the city, where even more crows had gathered, a dark mass that almost completely blocked out the sky.

At the same time, a bloody smell ten times stronger than elsewhere was coming from that direction.

"Let's go take a look." Chen Ye strode towards the square.

The closer one got to the square, the stronger the stench of blood and corpses became, and a chilling resentment began to permeate the air.

When they rounded the last building and saw the scene in the square, even Chen Ye, with his calm demeanor, couldn't help but slightly narrow his pupils.

But the square was piled high with corpses.

Thousands of corpses, regardless of age or gender, were decapitated.

Their headless bodies all maintained the same posture—kneeling on both knees with their upper bodies bent forward, as if they were worshipping something.

In the center of these corpses, the severed heads were piled up into a mound of heads, densely packed and countless.

Pairs of empty eyes stared intently at the gray sky, as if silently accusing this heinous crime.

The blood had long since dried up, staining the entire square a dark red.

Countless flies and maggots wriggled in the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, emitting a chilling buzzing sound.

"Ugh... Ugh..."

Even Hou En couldn't hold back this time. He leaned against a stone pillar and vomited violently, feeling like he was about to throw up his bile.

The elite soldiers of the Beijing garrison following behind were all pale-faced, their legs were weak, and some could barely hold their swords.

“The devil…this was done by the devil…” a young soldier muttered to himself, his eyes unfocused, clearly on the verge of collapse.

Despite his immense discomfort, Qian Yi drew his knife and stood protectively in front of Chen Ye, saying in a trembling voice, "Brother Chen, this...this place is too eerie, let's leave quickly!"

Bai Yingluo's face also turned somewhat pale.

She considered herself a witch who manipulated people's hearts and regarded the lives of mortals as worthless, but the sight of thousands of people being slaughtered like livestock for an evil sacrifice still sent a chill down her spine.

This is no longer just evil; it is the ultimate desecration of life.

However, Chen Ye seemed not to hear Qian Yi's words, nor did he feel the suffocating and terrifying atmosphere around him.

He walked slowly into the square, came to the mound of skulls, and then looked at the headless corpses kneeling on the ground.

Their arrangement appears chaotic, but when viewed from above, it is clearly a huge and complex array pattern.

“Using living souls as a catalyst, resentment as fuel, and fear as fire… What a grand scheme.” Chen Ye raised his head and said calmly, then turned his gaze to Xia Ling Shuang, who had remained silent.

"Xia Lingshuang, you should recognize this, right?"

From the moment she entered the square, Xia Lingshuang's expression remained unchanged until she heard Chen Ye's words. Only then did she raise her head, and her icy gaze instantly melted, replaced by absolute obedience and respect.

"This is the Blood Soul Sacrifice Array of the Wrathful Soul Sect, a basic array used to quickly collect living souls and resentment."

Bai Yingluo's eyes sharpened instantly, and she stared intently at Xia Lingshuang, sneering, "A basic formation? A formation set up with thousands of lives is considered only basic in your Lihun Sect's eyes? What exactly are you lunatics trying to do?"

Xia Lingshuang didn't even bother to look at her, but looked at Chen Ye and continued to explain: "This formation itself is not very powerful. Its main function is to act as a catalyst to gather fear and resentment, providing nourishment for larger-scale formations in the future."

"And brother, this is just the beginning." Xia Lingshuang's voice remained calm, but the content sent chills down one's spine.

"Their real target is the millions of souls throughout South River County."

Xia Ling Shuang spoke these sect secrets so fluently and naturally, without any psychological pressure whatsoever.

After all, for Xia Ling Shuang now, the special envoy of the Wrathful Soul Sect is not as important as her brother Chen Ye.

This astonishing news caused Chen Ye to fall into deep thought, and after a moment he asked, "So what is the internal situation of the Wrathful Soul Sect?"

Without any hesitation, Xia Lingshuang immediately replied, "Brother, the Wrathful Soul Sect, like other demonic sects, is structured like a pyramid."

"The number of truly high-ranking officials is very small."

"As for the disciples at the bottom, most of them are cannon fodder, and they can't even be considered human. They can be turned into ghosts at any time and used to drive them."

Chen Ye continued, "So, as a holy envoy, what is your status?"

"Second only to the sect leader." Xia Lingshuang's answer was concise and clear.

"metropolitan."

Chen Ye repeated the word.

"So what kind of person is he? What is his cultivation level? What does he look like?"

Unexpectedly, Xia Lingshuang shook her head. "Brother, although I am a Holy Envoy and have had quite a few interactions with him, I have never seen his true face." "Because he usually exists in the form of a soul, his appearance is ever-changing, so even if you could see it clearly, it would be meaningless."

This answer surprised Chen Ye. He usually existed in spirit form, so wasn't this a real old ghost?

"And what about cultivation level?"

"It's hard to say, since different sects and schools have different standards for judging their rankings, and there is no universally accepted standard."

"However, his research on the soul has reached a very profound level."

At this point, a hint of lingering fear appeared in Xia Lingshuang's eyes for the first time. "I personally witnessed him piecing together a completely new soul with independent consciousness from several incomplete souls."

Upon hearing this, even Chen Ye's eyelids twitched.

Piecing together souls?

Bai Yingluo gasped in shock. Her main cultivation technique, the Nine Netherworld Manual, also involved the soul, but at most it could only bewitch and disturb, which was still somewhat inadequate compared to this creative method.

"At the same time, he was the mastermind behind this major disaster in Nanhe County," Xia Lingshuang continued.

"I suspect he is probably in the county town right now, personally overseeing the grand formation."

"Once enough resentment and living souls have accumulated, he will activate the final grand formation to refine the entire Nanhe County."

After hearing Xia Lingshuang's words, Chen Ye's heart was also clouded with unease.

He had anticipated that the Li Hun Sect's plan would be crazy, but he never expected it to be this crazy.

What made him feel even more urgent was that the mysterious sect leader of the Wrathful Soul Sect, an old ghost who could piece together remnant souls into independent consciousness, was likely personally overseeing all of this in the county town.

That will be an unprecedentedly powerful opponent.

So he had to speed things up.

Chen Ye's gaze shifted from the mound of skulls to the headless corpses kneeling and worshipping around the square.

"Give me the order."

"Sprinkle oil throughout the city, and before sunset, I will turn Yong'an into a sea of ​​fire."

"Yes!"

Without the slightest hesitation, everyone immediately began to carry out this cold-blooded order.

Meanwhile, in Yunzhou City, hundreds of miles away.

The Confucian Academy and the Observatory.

This platform, standing a hundred feet tall, is the tallest building in the entire Yunzhou City. It was forged from meteorite iron from outer space and is engraved with densely packed star trails.

A woman dressed in a moon-white scholar's robe, with a cool and aloof demeanor, stood with her hands behind her back on the top of the platform, gazing up at the sky.

It was Jing Zhaoning, a great Confucian scholar from the academy who had recently awakened from seclusion.

Her brows were furrowed at that moment.

Three days ago, Jing Zhaoning, who was observing the night sky, discovered that the star Mars, which represents calamity and slaughter, was shining brightly, and its light was pointing directly towards Nanhe County.

Today, she saw a black and red pillar of energy, formed from endless resentment and death energy, rise into the sky from the direction of Nanhe County. Its ferocity even dyed half of the sky black.

"The resentment transformed into a pillar, soaring straight to the heavens... How many lives were slaughtered to create such a terrifying karmic burden?"

Jing Zhaoning murmured to herself, her cool eyes filled with worry and solemnity.

What exactly happened in Nanhe County?
At this moment, she couldn't help but think of the young man who had been sent by the Empress to provide disaster relief in Nanhe County.

Chen Ye.

That libertine, burdened with the entanglements of love, yet possessing a steadfast Daoist heart, capable of even shaking his own mind.

With his methods and temperament, could he really handle such a massive catastrophe?
A hint of doubt flashed through Jing Zhaoning's mind. It seemed that the disaster in Nanhe County was far more serious than the court had anticipated.

"It's time to make a trip."

Jing Zhao and Guan Ning took a deep breath, a resolute glint in their eyes.

As a great Confucian scholar, she upheld the belief of establishing a moral compass for heaven and earth and securing a destiny for the people. Naturally, she could not sit idly by and watch such a tragedy unfold.

Just as she was about to leave, a deep voice sounded behind her.

"Junior sister, please calm down."

Jing Zhaoning turned around and saw a well-built man who had appeared behind her at some point.

It was her senior brother, Master Yan.

"Senior brother, what brings you here?"

Master Yan walked to her side, glanced up at the ominous celestial phenomenon, and sighed: "If I still can't sense such a commotion, then all the Confucian classics I've studied over the past few decades have truly gone to waste."

"Senior brother, so you mean...?" Jing Zhaoning's brows furrowed even more.

A glint of light flashed in Master Yan's eyes. "I'm here to remind you that this trip to Nanhe County is extremely dangerous. What you've seen may only be the tip of the iceberg."

"What do you mean by that?" Jing Zhaoning asked, puzzled.

Just then, Master Yan took out an ancient tortoise shell from his bosom and handed it to Jing Zhaoning.

"This is the result of my calculation using the I Ching. Take a look for yourself."

Jing Zhaoning took the tortoise shell and saw that it was covered with fine cracks. These cracks intertwined to form a hexagram.

The moment she saw the hexagram, even with her calm demeanor, her heart couldn't help but tremble.

"This is... a situation with no chance of survival?!"
-
At sunset, the setting sun was like blood.

Inside Yong'an City, hundreds of elite soldiers from the Beijing Garrison walked expressionlessly through the deserted streets, pouring buckets of kerosene onto houses, shops, and the corpses of the dead.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of kerosene, which mixed with the strong stench of blood and decay, creating an even more bizarre and unpleasant odor.

As the last ray of sunlight disappeared below the horizon, Chen Ye's calm voice came from outside the city.

"ignition."

At a command, the soldiers, who were already prepared, simultaneously threw out their torches.

boom--!
Fire dragons instantly raged throughout the city, with dry wooden buildings and oil-soaked corpses becoming the best fuel.

In the blink of an eye, the entire city of Yong'an was transformed into a massive sea of ​​fire.

The raging flames shot into the sky, turning the night sky a fiery red.

The mournful wind howled through the city, like the wails of countless souls in the fire.

The crowd outside the city watched this scene in silence, their faces illuminated by the flickering firelight.

The chilling resentment and deathly aura sizzled under the burning flames, gradually thinning out like melting ice and snow.

Chen Ye stood beside the carriage, his expression indifferent.

In his view, the thick, dark red column of air above the city was dissipating at a visible speed.

The fire burned for a full night.

The fire was not extinguished until the early morning of the following day.

The once magnificent Yong'an City has now been completely reduced to ruins, with only crumbling walls still emitting wisps of smoke.

The air was filled with a smell that was a mixture of burning and ashes.

Although it smelled terrible, the suffocating resentment and deathly aura had completely disappeared.

"Departure."

Chen Ye didn't look at it again and turned to board the carriage.

The convoy slowly started again, bypassed the ruins, and continued eastward.

(End of this chapter)