The blue-green ghostly face twisted and writhed within the gray mist, its eyes shining blood-red. Cold sweat silently broke across Xia Yunzhao’s back. There was nothing ambiguous about this sight. Anyone would be frightened.
A dry, powerful hand closed around his wrist. Xia Yunzhao turned and saw Shang Shuangze, and his heart immediately settled. “I’m fine.”
Shang Shuangze did not release him. Standing beside him, he stared ahead. “Something is wrong with these ghost faces.”
Xia Yunzhao thought, How could anything about them possibly be right?
Shang Shuangze continued, “They look familiar.”
Xia Yunzhao froze. Familiar… Then he immediately remembered. “Ghost-Face Lantern Mushrooms!”
These ghost faces looked exactly like Ghost-Face Lantern Mushrooms! The difference was that one lay flat on the ground while the other stood upright, pasted against the gray mist like an image, and once they started moving, they looked even more bizarre and terrifying.
Beside them, Wei Ling suddenly pointed. “Look over there!”
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze turned and saw a Ghost-Face Lantern Mushroom growing in the corner. It twitched, then smoke suddenly burst from the hollow where its mouth should have been and formed a ghostly face. The face was blue-green, its eyes blood-red, identical to the mushroom itself, and extremely conspicuous inside the gray mist. Once the ghost face emerged, the Ghost-Face Lantern Mushroom on the ground immediately withered and turned into ash, as though all its essence had been absorbed, while the floating face seemed to have become a spirit on the spot and drifted unsteadily forward through the mist.
“So that’s where these ghost faces come from,” Xia Yunzhao murmured. “No wonder there have been so many Ghost-Face Lantern Mushrooms recently…”
While the four were still shocked by the discovery, sounds of fighting suddenly came from nearby. They exchanged glances and hurried toward the noise together.
A cultivator wearing Si family robes was kicked to the ground, and before he could stand, a sword came chopping toward his head. The person trying to kill him was another Si family cultivator! Both men wore savage expressions and had blood-red eyes!
Looking around, every member of the Si family had fallen into a chaotic battle, techniques of every color flying wildly as though they were mortal enemies!
Xia Yunzhao and the others did not know what to do when a surge of spiritual power suddenly rushed past them. They turned and saw Si Kongzhuo, who had just arrived, wave a hand with an iron expression. Vast spiritual power fixed every member of the Si family in place, yet even restrained, they had not regained their senses and continued struggling desperately.
Xia Yunzhao hurriedly shouted, “Senior Si, their minds have been bewitched by the mist! Clearheart Pills can cure it!”
Si Kongzhuo nodded once, acknowledging the favor, then threw out a bottle of pills. Spiritual power crushed the bottle and delivered one pill into each Si family cultivator’s mouth.
Once the pills entered their mouths, the bewildered cultivators regained clarity and walked over dejectedly to bow one after another. “Young Master.”
Si Kongzhuo frowned. “Something is wrong with those ghost faces. They are trying to drive the cultivators on Liancui Mountain toward a particular place.”
Xia Yunzhao froze, wondering how ghost faces could drive people, and then heard a wave of shrieking and wailing as though an entire crowd had seen actual ghosts. He immediately infused spiritual energy into his eyes and looked into the distance. Good heavens, apparently these Si family cultivators who had been trying to slaughter one another were already doing comparatively well.
Cultivators with weaker cultivation had seemingly fallen into illusions. They screamed wildly at the ghost faces around them, crawling on hands and knees with tears and mucus streaming down their faces, completely devoid of reason and looking as though they had even forgotten they were cultivators. The ghost faces herded them in one direction like chickens and ducks, deliberately driving them toward the same place.
More and more cultivators were being driven over, and everywhere was chaos with screams sounding from all directions.
No one had been injured yet, but hearing one’s own kind scream with such despair was enough to chill the heart.
There were far too many people. Even if Xia Yunzhao took out every Clearheart Pill he possessed, he could not save them all.
He frowned. “Where are they trying to send everyone?”
At that moment, Si Kongzhuo approached and looked straight at Shang Shuangze. “Something about this Heart-Illusion stage is strange. Since we did not succumb, we should investigate what plot lies behind it.”
His interpreter had just taken a Clearheart Pill and still looked dispirited, so his translation ability had deteriorated enormously. “What our young master means is… he wants to go look.”
Even without Si Kongzhuo saying anything, Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze intended to investigate. Everyone else had come from elsewhere and could simply leave when the Mist-Barrier Period ended, but the two of them lived nearby, so naturally they needed to understand what was happening.
The group immediately agreed and followed the pitiful cultivators being driven forward while screaming their lungs out.
Along the way, more and more cultivators joined the procession, converging like streams into a river while the sound of crying and shrieking shook the sky.
Unable to endure it, Wei Ling covered her ears. “Have these ghost faces turned into spirits? Do they feed on screams or something?”
Xia Yunzhao had been feeling heavyhearted, but curiosity immediately stirred. “There are spirit plants that feed on screams?”
“Of course!” Wei Ling nodded. “My mother has a Daoist friend who is a Level-Three plant cultivator. She says there are all kinds of strange spirit plants in the world. Feeding on sound isn’t even particularly rare. Some even feed on human emotions…”
Xia Yunzhao thought, Learned something new. Next time I visit Qingmu, I’ll ask him properly… No sooner had he thought of Qingmu than vines suddenly burst from within the crowd of terrified, wailing cultivators, accompanied by a familiar voice complaining, “What the hell are these things?!”
Xia Yunzhao instinctively looked over and widened his eyes. “Qingmu?! You didn’t open the shop today?”
Amid a crowd of cultivators crawling and tumbling in terror, the clearheaded Qingmu stood out dramatically. Hearing Xia Yunzhao, he turned and moved closer. “I heard mutated spirit plants had been appearing all over the mountain lately, so I came looking. Who knew I’d arrive right as the Heart-Illusion stage started and run into all these ghost faces? What are you doing?”
Xia Yunzhao explained what they knew, and Qingmu cheerfully decided to join them and see who was behind all this.
The wailing army walked for a long time before finally reaching a hollow surrounded by uneven hills. The ghost faces herded the cultivators still trapped in illusions into the hollow, then dissipated, and the few clearheaded people exchanged looks, knowing they had arrived.
They cautiously followed behind the crowd but did not enter, instead observing from the entrance.
Once the last member of the wailing army entered the hollow, bloody light suddenly flared inside as red lines emerged across the ground and mountain walls.
Xia Yunzhao did not need anyone to tell him what that meant: a formation!
The cultivators who had been trapped in terrifying illusions suddenly regained clarity, but they could not move, and seeing their surroundings, they froze in shock. “Where is this?”
“No! My cultivation seems to be draining away…”
“Mine too! My spiritual energy is disappearing incredibly quickly! Help!”
Xia Yunzhao sucked in a breath. “Blood Refining Scripture?!”
Si Kongzhuo froze. “You know the Blood Refining Scripture?”
Xia Yunzhao froze too. “You know it too?”
Qingmu looked from one to the other thoughtfully.
Only Wei Ling looked baffled. “What Blood Refining Scripture are you two talking about? I’ve never heard of it. Am I really that ignorant?”
Si Kongzhuo stared at Xia Yunzhao and said stiffly, “The Blood Refining Scripture has another name that is more widely known: the Bloodthirsty Divine Art.”
Wei Ling sucked in a breath. “So it’s…”
This time Xia Yunzhao was confused. “What’s the Bloodthirsty Divine Art?”
Wei Ling said gravely, “It’s a demonic cultivation method that can devour other people’s flesh, blood, and cultivation. A thousand years ago, the master of Liuyun Market practiced this demonic art and harmed countless fellow cultivators, and in the end he actually went insane enough to try refining the entire market into one enormous Bloodthirsty Formation so he could devour the flesh, blood, and cultivation of everyone inside in one go! Fortunately, the seniors of that era were prepared and joined forces early, which was how they killed him.”
Wei Ling murmured, “Wasn’t the Bloodthirsty Divine Art supposed to have been destroyed? How could it still exist…”
Si Kongzhuo said, “Some incomplete fragments survived, and recently someone apparently dug them out from a secret realm. That one-eyed cultivator practiced this evil art and killed more than ten people. I did not expect members of the Fang family to cultivate it as well.”
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze looked at one another. Xia Yunzhao was intelligent, and in an instant every preceding event fell into place: no wonder the Fang family had destroyed all the spirit herbs that cleared the mind and calmed the soul, and no wonder they had been so quiet recently! It had all been for their final plan. They intended to take advantage of the Heart-Illusion stage, when cultivators’ minds were unstable, and lure everyone into the formation they had prepared in advance, just like the master of Liuyun Market a thousand years ago, then devour everyone’s cultivation, flesh, and blood!
While the group exchanged information, laughter suddenly sounded from inside the hollow. A figure appeared in the distance, leaving only an afterimage behind, and in the blink of an eye he stood atop a boulder in the center of the hollow.
He looked like a middle-aged scholar, with a neat beard beneath his chin and the clean, austere appearance of an upright gentleman, yet the gaze he cast over the immobilized cultivators below was vicious and bloodthirsty, his smile carrying the satisfaction of someone looking upon a harvest. “Wonderful. My many years of planning were not wasted…”
Xia Yunzhao narrowed his eyes. He could not see through the man’s cultivation!
Beside him, Qingmu whispered, “That’s Fang Wenyuan, current head of the Fang family. I heard he’s at mid-Foundation Establishment!”
Mid-Foundation Establishment… The half-dead old cultivator Xia Yunzhao had encountered earlier did not count, while the one-eyed cultivator and the evil monk Hu Sha had both only been early Foundation Establishment.
Xia Yunzhao looked at Shang Shuangze and found him also watching Fang Wenyuan, his expression not relaxed.
After thinking, Xia Yunzhao whispered, “We’re outside the formation. Can’t we just destroy it?”
“I’m afraid not,” Wei Ling answered. “My mother has a Daoist friend who is a formation master, so I know a little. This formation follows the terrain, and those patterns are only triggers. Unless we can flatten every patterned mountain wall in an instant, attacking them won’t help.”
Xia Yunzhao scratched his head. “That’s ridiculously underhanded…”
The group murmured together when Fang Wenyuan’s gaze suddenly snapped toward them. He muttered, “There are still a few little insects…”
“Not good! He found us!”
Several stone doors abruptly opened in the surrounding mountain walls, and countless figures surged from within. Several of them moved so quickly that no one could follow their movements and, like ghosts, suddenly appeared behind the group and reached out to grab them!
Qingmu dodged sideways and simply ran into the middle of the Si family group. He opened his palm, revealing a small white flower, and the Si cultivators, who were still somewhat dazed, instantly felt their minds clear and their spiritual energy circulate faster.
Qingmu shouted, “Block them!”
The Si family cultivators did not need to be told twice and immediately stepped forward.
Wei Tu moved in front of Wei Ling and was raked across the chest by a dark figure, making him grimace as he waved for Wei Ling to run.
Shang Shuangze instinctively pulled Xia Yunzhao behind himself. Mingyun shot from its sheath and chopped violently into the dark figure, nearly splitting the person in half, yet the thing continued moving!
Its half-severed head dangling to one side, it continued charging toward Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze!
Watching this, Xia Yunzhao felt sick. “I finally understand why Zhong Kai and the others looked like they’d seen wild beasts… These things aren’t human at all!”
The lightning-fast shadows looked human, but not a trace of human expression remained on their faces, while their eyes resembled glass marbles completely devoid of life. Rather than people, they looked like monsters wearing human faces!
They had no awareness, no pain, no fear, and even losing their heads would not stop them!
Worse, they possessed enormous strength and astonishing speed, with every single monster having combat power comparable to Foundation Establishment!
Shang Shuangze stood in front of Xia Yunzhao and swung Mingyun again, this time practically chopping the figure into dumpling filling.
Xia Yunzhao took a deep breath, resisting the blood stench rushing toward him, then looked back into the hollow, where blood had already blossomed all over the ground!
The figures emerging from the mountains were not only those monsters. Those were merely a small number of them, and all had gone after Xia Yunzhao’s group. The remaining figures were Human Plagues.
Their faces were swollen like huge steamed buns soaked in water, grotesquely bloated like corpses dragged from a river after days of decomposition, and a foul odor rolled from their bodies!
Their combat strength naturally could not compare with the humanoid monsters, but the tragedy was that the cultivators trapped inside the formation could not move!
The Human Plagues rushed toward the immobilized cultivators like flies toward blood, laughing strangely as they tore open veins with their teeth and fingernails, letting blood flow across the ground so the formation could send the victims’ vital blood toward Fang Wenyuan.
Xia Yunzhao gritted his teeth. That animal!
Fang Wenyuan sneered, apparently convinced nobody present could overturn his plan, and swept his venomous gaze around as he continued, “Fang Yanya, stop hiding like a turtle! You won’t escape today! Once I devour your cultivation, the Blood Refining Scripture will reach completion, and then with this blood formation I’ll ascend to Golden Core!”
Qingmu, hiding among the Si family cultivators, exclaimed, “Fang Yanya? Isn’t that the Fang family ancestor?!”
Xia Yunzhao, protected behind Shang Shuangze, exclaimed too. “The Fang family ancestor really is named Fang Yanya?!”
Qingmu stared at him. “Of course! Plenty of cultivators in Qingxi City know that. Did you two just arrive here?”
Xia Yunzhao gritted his teeth and cursed inwardly. Du Yan, you useless bastard! You’ve lived in Qingxi City this long and didn’t even know something this basic! Have you spent the whole time drinking?!
After cursing him, Xia Yunzhao’s thoughts shifted. Fang Yanya really was the Fang family ancestor, which also meant he was Du Qianshan’s enemy…
Fang Wenyuan received no response, and his expression darkened as spiritual power surged around him. His voice became bone-chillingly cold. “Great-Grandfather, the road to heaven lies before your grandson. Don’t you want to give me a hand… Get out here!”
Surging spiritual power formed a gigantic claw and swept upward through the air.
Xia Yunzhao suddenly felt something inside his Hundred-Compartment Pouch shoot outward, trying to transform into a streak of light and fly away. Instinctively, he grabbed it, and when he looked down, he discovered it was the identity token he had taken from the old cultivator. Wait, could it be…
Fang Wenyuan’s vicious gaze immediately locked onto the token, then Xia Yunzhao. “Disguise technique? No. You aren’t Fang Yanya! Where is he?”
Xia Yunzhao instinctively answered, “Uh… I think I killed him…”
“Impossible!” The gigantic spiritual claw abruptly turned toward Xia Yunzhao. “Liar! Die!”
Clang!
The enormous claw struck a white spirit sword. White robes and black hair, Shang Shuangze stood before Xia Yunzhao with sword in hand. Whether the enemy was Fang Wenyuan or Fang Wenjin, nobody was touching even one hair on Xia Yunzhao while Shang Shuangze stood there.
Elio’s Notes: Xia is making a name joke here. The 远 (yuan) in Fang Wenyuan’s name can mean “far,” and he jokingly swaps it for 近 (jin), “near.”
Shang Shuangze’s sword technique shifted, cold brilliance erupted from Mingyun, and one strike shattered the enormous claw.
Fang Wenyuan’s expression sharpened, and only now did he properly examine the group. “When did an expert like you arrive in my Qingxi City… Since you’re here, don’t leave.”
Spiritual power gathered once more, transforming from a palm into a claw that pressed violently downward. The cultivators trapped beneath it instantly fell silent as blood seeped from under the palm…
Fang Wenyuan shook his sleeves, and a magical treasure on his body shattered, exposing his true cultivation: peak Foundation Establishment!
The blood formation beneath him began spinning rapidly, fresh vital blood streaming continuously into Fang Wenyuan’s body as his cultivation surged and rapidly approached Golden Core!
Fang Wenyuan laughed wildly. “So what if Fang Yanya isn’t here? I can reach Golden Core anyway!”
Then he looked darkly at Xia Yunzhao. “But that family-head token cannot remain in your hands…”
Xia Yunzhao instantly felt suffocating pressure. Fang Wenyuan’s gaze resembled a sticky spiderweb pinning his whole body in place, and the next instant Fang Wenyuan was already before him, his palm descending toward Xia Yunzhao’s crown!
A white figure appeared before Xia Yunzhao once again, and their palms met as enormous spiritual power exploded outward!
The blast sent violent wind tearing through the hollow, flinging many cultivators away when they lost their footing!
Xia Yunzhao desperately tried to maintain his balance, but at that exact moment, the identity token in his palm began struggling again, trying to fly in another direction. Xia Yunzhao was dragged sideways, and a hidden opening silently appeared in the mountain wall, sending Xiao Xia tumbling straight inside!
The entrance silently closed again.
Inside was a steep slope, and carried by his momentum, Xia Yunzhao could not regain his footing and rolled all the way down, even sending Xiao Qing flying from his robes.
Only when he slammed into something did he finally stop, dizzy and disoriented. “Hiss… That hurt. Xiao Qing, are you okay?”
Xiao Qing bounced vigorously. It was not afraid of falling, and if it hit a rock, who knew which one would break first.
Xia Yunzhao scooped Xiao Qing up and, without even checking what he had crashed into, ran back toward the entrance.
It had already sealed shut. He clawed at it for ages without opening anything, then eventually gathered spiritual energy and slammed Hundred-Form Palm into the wall!
The heavy stone wall did not budge.
It had fused with the entire mountain, so unless he blasted apart the mountainside itself, there was no opening that door.
Xia Yunzhao could only sigh. “This time I was dragged in right in front of Shang Shuangze. He shouldn’t panic too badly, right?”
Xiao Qing rubbed against him in consolation.
“Forget it. Let’s head down and look for another way out.” Xia Yunzhao returned to where he had fallen and took out a handful of Glow Moss for light, only to discover that the object he had crashed into was another stone door with a keyhole.
Xia Yunzhao frowned. Where would he get a key? Was he going to be trapped between two stone doors?
But the more carefully he examined the keyhole, the more familiar it looked, and after a while he began rummaging through his Hundred-Compartment Pouch.
He wore the Hundred-Compartment Pouch close to his body, keeping necessities and valuable items inside while leaving resources he had no immediate use for in the cave dwelling. There was, however, one category of item he always carried: gifts from other people.
Whether it was the jade pendant Brother Xing had given him, the colored cord Grandmother had given him, or the fishing rod everyone from the camp had gifted him, expensive or worthless, he treasured all of them inside a separate compartment.
Ms. Xia had taught him since childhood: anyone who betrayed another person’s sincerity deserved to swallow ten thousand needles.
Xiao Xia searched through the gifts until he finally found something matching the keyhole, a strangely shaped jade pendant. Chang Haiping had given it to him after she and the others killed an evil cultivator while rescuing Yang Manman. That cultivator had left behind a letter, a map, and this strange old jade pendant.
Xia Yunzhao held the jade pendant beside the keyhole and compared them. Sure enough, the strange pendant he had never understood was actually the key.
He inserted it, and with a click, the door opened.
Xia Yunzhao pressed a hand against his chest to signal Xiao Qing not to make a sound, then cautiously walked inside.
There was no sound beyond the door, but there was light, with lamps burning along both stone walls. Xia Yunzhao had no idea what sort of oil they used, but the odor was deeply unpleasant, a mix of bloodiness and stench that resembled the smell of a dead rat.
Xia Yunzhao passed through a short corridor and found two branching paths ahead, one left and one right.
Hmm… Guess?
Guess what? Xia Yunzhao took out the map. Look at how considerate the Fang family was, they had even prepared one for him.
*
Outside, many people saw Xia Yunzhao being dragged into the mountain, and Qingmu instinctively shouted, “Dodge!”
Xia Yunzhao could not hear him, so naturally he could not dodge.
Fang Wenyuan suddenly sneered. “Lucky him.” He looked venomously toward Shang Shuangze. “That is my Fang family’s secret chamber, filled with traps. A mere Qi Refining cultivator who enters is certain to die. I wonder whether he’ll even leave behind an intact corpse?”
The wind stopped.
Every sound stopped, and even the mist ceased moving.
Mingyun began to tremble.
Shang Shuangze raised his eyes and swept his sword once. Thousands upon thousands of sword shadows appeared with that single movement!
Fang Wenyuan’s expression changed. “Fuli Annihilation Sword… You! You’re Bai…”
Boom!
Before he could finish, countless rays of sword light poured down like a celestial river falling from the nine heavens, swallowing both his unfinished words and his figure completely.
*
Following the map, Xia Yunzhao avoided traps all the way and moved from one location to another.
He discovered that this place was practically a second Fang residence. Aside from being built underground, it had everything a normal residence would have: places for cultivation, places for lessons, even places to sit and drink tea.
The farther he walked, the more confused he became. Why had the Fang family built such a place beneath Liancui Mountain, and why was there nobody here?
The situation outside had also been strange. He had already wondered why Fang Wenyuan, the head of such a large family, had personally taken action without bringing anyone else. Had the rest of the Fang family remained at the main residence in Qingxi City?
Suddenly his expression changed as a thick smell of blood struck him! It was almost as strong as the blood formation outside. How many people had died for the smell to become this intense?
A door stood ahead. According to the map, after the cultivation rooms he had just passed, this should be the main hall. Why would there be such a heavy blood smell here… Had the Fang family captured other people to torture?
He pushed open the door, and almost the moment a gap appeared, the thick layer of blood already pooled behind it eagerly surged outward and instantly dyed the steps red.
Xia Yunzhao instinctively looked inside, then immediately turned his eyes away from the unbearable sight.
Countless corpses lay stacked layer upon layer throughout the enormous main hall. There were so many that their limbs had become tangled together, making them look at first glance like bizarre many-limbed monsters.
Every corpse wore Fang family clothing, not the clothes of guards but garments reserved for actual Fang clan members, cultivators who bore the Fang surname.
These were Fang Wenyuan’s blood relatives.
Beneath the flood of blood on the floor lay the same blood formation as outside. To advance the Blood Refining Scripture, Fang Wenyuan had not only intended to drain his great-grandfather’s cultivation, he had killed every one of his own blood relatives too.
Xia Yunzhao drew a deep breath and finally understood what the words “evil cultivation method” truly meant.