Mortal: Starting with the Seven Mysterious Sects, I proved my Dao through sacrifice.

The wind in Jingu Plain, which was initially biting and carrying the smell of blood, turned into a sob that carried despair.

The sky was completely shrouded by the "Ten Thousand Souls Covering the Sky Array," jointly unleashed by the six demonic sects, obscuring all light. This array was no ordinary defensive or offensive formation; rather, it used countless living souls as a conduit and the protective fortune of the six demonic sects as its foundation, forcibly distorting the laws of this realm. Within the array, demonic energy, like viscous ink, continuously eroded the protective spiritual light of the seven sects' cultivators, silently devouring their life force and Dao heart.

"Retreat! Retreat now! The Moon Concealment Sect's defenses have collapsed!"

"Where are the people from Tianque Fortress?! They've run away again!"

The piercing screams, the explosive crackling of shattered magical artifacts, and the triumphant laughter of the demonic cultivators intertwined to form a final lament for the end of the world. Murong Fan was covered in blood, his silver armor riddled with wounds of varying depths, some so deep they revealed bone, others still bearing the corrosive residue of demonic energy. He gritted his teeth, his gaze sweeping across the battlefield like a hawk's, each breath carrying the rusty, bloody stench of battle.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

Murong Fan was filled with overwhelming anger and a sense of powerlessness. His pride in his wisdom, the seven-faction alliance he had painstakingly assembled, and the "Governor's Mansion" that he thought could turn the tide all seemed so laughable in the face of this absolute disparity in strength and the long-planned demonic formation.

He was not reconciled.

From the moment he resolved to launch the eastern expedition, he vowed to achieve victory. This was not only a promise he made to the cultivators of the seven sects, but also a vow he made to his beloved Nangong Wan. But now, Wan'er's whereabouts are unknown, and the allied forces of the seven sects are about to be annihilated. Are all his efforts going to be in vain?

"No! I'm not reconciled! I will never admit defeat!"

Murong Fan bit his tongue hard, forcing himself to calm down through the sharp pain. He couldn't die, much less fall here. He still had the "Altar of All Things," his last trump card.

Taking advantage of the chaos and smoke of the battlefield, he moved like a ghost, rushing backward into a hidden valley that had been prepared beforehand. This was his last escape route, his final gamble.

In the valley, Murong Fan sat cross-legged, his consciousness instantly sinking into the depths of his mind. There, an ancient and obscure altar, exuding a faint aura of chaos, floated silently. Countless profound runes flowed across the altar, seemingly containing the ultimate truths of the universe's birth and death. The altar was his greatest reliance since his transmigration, and also his trump card that had allowed him to sweep through everything in his path.

"Altar, assess me! What needs to be sacrificed to reverse this inevitable death?" Murong Fan shouted in his heart, his voice trembling slightly.

The altar trembled slightly, and a line of cold information surfaced in his mind, like a death sentence:

[Host detected facing certain death. To summon a powerful being from another realm to decisively defeat you, you must sacrifice: your fortune for the next hundred years, a Great Sun Tathagata talisman, and an ancient Buddha relic. Confirm sacrifice?]

"A century of fortune? A Great Sun Tathagata talisman and an ancient Buddha relic?" Murong Fan's eye twitched violently.

The Great Sun Tathagata Response Talisman was obtained when he offered it as a sacrifice to the storage bag of a high-ranking Buddhist monk. It is said to be able to sense the location of powerful Buddhist figures and is a life-saving divine object. As for the ancient Buddha relic, he obtained it after a near-death experience from an ancient ruin. It contains pure Buddhist vow power, which has a natural restraining effect on demonic cultivators and is a key aid for him in breaking through to the late Nascent Soul stage.

As for the fortune of the next hundred years... Fortune is an ethereal thing, yet it truly exists. It determines a person's opportunities, blessings, and even life and death. Sacrificing a hundred years of fortune means that he will be plagued by bad luck for the next hundred years, lose all opportunities, and may even encounter various unexpected disasters.

"This deal is such a bad loss!" Murong Fan's heart was bleeding.

Fortunately, Murong Fan wasn't a miser. He quickly realized, "Luck is such an ephemeral thing; how can it compare to the strength and life I hold in my own hands? As long as I become strong enough in the future, even with the worst luck, I can defy fate! A mere hundred years of bad luck can turn the tide of this battle, severely damage the demonic path, and completely reverse the tide of battle. This deal is incredibly profitable!"

Gazing at the seven sects' cultivators about to be slaughtered in the distance, and at the overwhelming Ten Thousand Souls Sky-Covering Array that blotted out the sky, a ruthless glint flashed in Murong Fan's eyes: "I'll fight to the death! As long as I'm alive, I can always fight again. What use are my luck, the Great Sun Tathagata's talisman, and an ancient Buddha relic if I die here today!"

"Offer a sacrifice! Bring over the Bitter Zen Master of the Great Jin Dynasty!"

In the blink of an eye, the Great Sun Tathagata talisman and an ancient Buddha relic in his storage bag vanished, transforming into two streams of light that disappeared into the altar. At the same time, an invisible force of fortune was forcibly extracted from his body, as if something important had left him forever.

"boom--!"

The originally dark and blood-red sky was instantly torn apart by a blinding golden beam of light. That beam of light did not come from heaven and earth, but from the altar in Murong Fan's mind. It traversed the endless void and forcibly locked onto the Great Jin Thunder Sound Sect.

"boom--!"

The originally dark and blood-red sky was instantly torn apart by a blinding golden beam of light. That beam of light did not come from heaven and earth, but from the altar in Murong Fan's mind. It traversed the endless void and forcibly locked onto the Great Jin Thunder Sound Sect.

"Amitabha." A grand and compassionate Buddhist chant seemed to resonate deep within everyone's soul. The voice was devoid of any worldly concerns, yet it contained a majesty that commanded the submission of all things.

In the blink of an eye, a phantom image of a Vajra pestle, hundreds of feet tall, slowly emerged from the golden pillar of light. The pestle was entirely golden, covered with countless Buddhist scriptures, each scripture seemingly containing supreme power to subdue demons.

"Not good! He's going to destroy the foundation of my sect!" The old demon of Hehuan's expression changed drastically, and he instantly understood the true target of this cross-realm attack. This demon-subduing pestle contains the original laws of the Buddhist cultivators of the Great Jin Dynasty, which is the absolute nemesis of their "Ten Thousand Souls Covering the Sky Formation" that is refined by sacrificing thousands of living souls.

"Hold on!" the Old Demon of Hehuan roared, his hands forming a seal, and countless demonic energies surged out from the formation, transforming into a huge black shield, attempting to resist the oppressive force of the Demon-Subduing Pestle.

But in the face of absolute, overwhelming laws, all resistance is futile.

"Great Mighty Heavenly Dragon, Great Luo Dharma Mantra, Prajna Buddhas, Prajna Paramita Emptiness!"

Without pausing, the illusory image of the Vajra Pestle, carrying a terrifying pressure capable of crushing the void, slammed directly into the Sky-Covering Array of Ten Thousand Souls.

Then, rumble—!

With a deafening roar, the borrowed demon-subduing pestle slammed heavily onto the battlefield. There was no carnage as expected, only pure, overwhelming force of law. The Myriad Souls Covering the Sky Formation, which had driven the seven sects to despair, didn't even have time to utter a cry before being instantly shattered into a sky full of black karmic flames under the onslaught of Buddhist light!

With the Ten Thousand Souls Covering the Sky Formation broken, the backlash followed. The cultivators of the six demonic sects, whose cultivation was almost at its peak, all coughed up blood, their strength, which had been enhanced by the formation, instantly plummeting to rock bottom. Even more terrifying was that the boundless karmic fire, like maggots clinging to their bones, continuously eroded their souls.

"Ah! My divine consciousness!"

"No! What the hell is this?!" Countless demonic cultivators screamed in agony. Some went berserk on the spot, while others were burned to ashes by karmic fire.

Just then, the illusory image of the Vajra Pestle seemed to sense Murong Fan's intense killing intent towards the Six Demonic Sects, and in an instant, a wisp of Buddhist light uncontrollably swept towards the Old Demon of the Joyous Union. However, just as it was about to touch his Nascent Soul, the hundred-foot-tall illusory image suddenly stopped, as if it had crashed into an invisible barrier between heaven and earth!

"The laws of the human realm... forbid the wanton killing of others."

A faint sigh echoed from the void. Ultimately, Ku Chan's will could not overcome the limitations of the Heavenly Dao. The next second, the illusory image of the Vajra Pestle shattered rapidly, dissipating into specks of starlight.

Although Ku Chan did not directly kill anyone, this earth-shattering blow completely shattered the morale of the six demonic sects. Without the protection of the great formation and suffering the backlash of karmic fire, the demonic alliance instantly collapsed into a rout.

"Kill! Counterattack and take revenge!"

"Kill all the evil thieves!"

"Give me back my junior sister's life!"

……

The morale of the seven-faction allied forces, which had been on the verge of despair, was ignited at this moment. They saw hope, they saw the possibility of victory. Countless cultivators roared with deafening fury, turned around, and charged towards the fleeing demonic cultivators.

In the valley, Murong Fan collapsed to the ground, utterly exhausted. He clearly felt that in that instant, the altar, in its attempt to forcibly obliterate the Nascent Soul cultivator, had almost triggered a backlash from the laws of heaven and earth. If Ku Chan hadn't stopped in time, he, the summoner, would probably have been cleaved into ashes by the Heavenly Dao first.

"That was close..." Murong Fan wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, a relieved smile playing on his lips. "However, the overall situation is settled. This deal was still worthwhile!"

Just then, the altar of all things in his mind suddenly emitted a soft light, and a warm current of energy flowed slowly through his limbs and bones.

Murong Fan's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly looked inside the altar. He saw a line of information appear on the altar:

[Sacrifice complete, reversal of the deadly situation successful. Given the extremely high quality of the century's worth of fortune sacrificed by the host, an additional reward: fifty years' worth of fortune replenished to the host.]

"Fifty years of fortune?" Murong Fan was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed.

Although he sacrificed a century's worth of fortune, the altar rewarded him with fifty years more. In other words, he only lost fifty years of fortune in exchange for this astonishing reversal. Moreover, these fifty years of fortune were an extra reward from the altar, so their quality must be extremely high, and they might even make up for his previous losses.

"Haha! Heaven hasn't forsaken me!"

Murong Fan laughed loudly, his laughter filled with the joy and triumph of surviving a calamity.

However, he was unaware that this seemingly perfect ending had sown the seeds of a huge hidden danger. Although the old monster Ku Chan was forcibly summoned by the altar, he did not act without reason. At the moment of his arrival, a causal thread that only cultivators at the late Nascent Soul stage or above could sense had quietly connected with Murong Fan.

Murong Fan's smile vanished instantly. He then realized that there's no such thing as a free lunch. The Old Monster Ku Chan's intervention came with conditions. And those conditions were unlikely to be simple.

"Cause and effect..." Murong Fan murmured to himself, a hint of solemnity flashing in his eyes. He didn't know what the old monster Ku Chan meant by "settling the cause and effect," but he knew that he owed a huge favor. And this favor would have to be repaid sooner or later.

"Forget it, let's not worry about that anymore. Let's just take it one step at a time." Murong Fan took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the unease in his heart. His top priority now was to reorganize the Seven Factions Alliance, continue to wipe out the remaining forces of the Six Demonic Sects, and then go find Nangong Wan.

As for the "cause and effect" of the old monster Ku Chan, we can only talk about it later. He stood up, and in a flash, he disappeared from the spot.

On Jingu Plain, cheers from the seven allied forces resounded through the sky. They had won, won this seemingly certain death war.

Murong Fan, a young man once doubted by many and abandoned by Nangong Wan, wrote a legend with his wisdom and courage. However, behind this legend lies the blood and sacrifice of countless people, and Murong Fan's own destiny and future.

The path to immortality is never smooth sailing, and Murong Fan knew that the real challenges had only just begun.

The "cause and effect" of the old monster Ku Chan, the "contract of forming an infant" of Nangong Wan... will all become huge tests on his future path.

But he was fearless.

Because he possesses the "Altar of All Things," a heart that fights for all living beings, and a determination to confront the entire world for Nangong Wan.

"Wan'er, wait for me," Murong Fan said silently in his heart. "I will find you, no matter the cost."

In this world, cause and effect are inherently about gains and losses. As the demonic cultivators retreated to their lair, Murong Fan naturally reaped countless spoils of war.

The wind blew across Jingu Plain, carrying the stench of blood, but also the scent of hope. Murong Fan's figure faded into the distance, disappearing into the vast night. But his legend continued.