“I heard you’ve been running all over the peak lately, doing whatever is most arduous. Are you planning to take the path of body-refining to help you break through your stagnant cultivation?” Jiang Xiaohua came to check on Yun Mu every few days, and after a routine pulse-taking, couldn’t help asking.
Yun Mu’s eyes lit up. Although other expressions were still hard to read on his face, he looked much more vibrant overall. “Indeed, Senior Brother cannot be fooled. I am indeed preparing for body-refining, but this body of mine is ultimately too frail. Achieving the expected results won’t be that easy.”
“Regardless, your health is paramount. Proper exercise and strengthening your physique can’t hurt. Looking at your pulse today, it’s much steadier, and your spiritual soul is nourishing nicely; everything is moving in a good direction,” Jiang Xiaohua continued. “However, I’ve come this time for another matter. The sect received a confidential letter sent by Qiandai Terrace of the Immortal Cultivation Alliance yesterday. It is said that strange occurrences have been frequent in Ping’an Town recently, suspected to be the work of a powerful ghost entity, and multiple cultivators have already been trapped there.”
He paused and continued, “The grand grand competition of the various immortal sects is approaching shortly, and the sect also hopes that the disciples can gain more practical experience. Each peak will select capable disciples to follow along—first, to uncover the truth and rid the people of a scourge, and second, to let them accumulate experience through real combat. Have Sui Yu, Meng Lan, Ling Guang, and the others go as well. It’s just that we haven’t chosen an elder to lead the group yet. If you hadn’t been injured and your cultivation realm hadn’t dropped, you would have been the most suitable candidate.”
“Let me go!” Yun Mu replied upon hearing this. “My spiritual power is only stagnant; it hasn’t reached the point where I have no power to fight back. Besides, I’ve gained quite a few insights from body-refining recently, so perhaps I’ll encounter some fortuitous opportunity.”
Ping’an Town… The name of this town didn’t sound like a very peaceful place at all, but going out for activities was still much better than cooped up in the sect every day feeling anxious and jittery around the little dark lotus.
The setting sun was like blood, staining the three characters “Ping’an Town” on the town entrance archway a scarlet red.
This place was rather far from Luoxuan Sect, and after the group traveled by flying swords, it took nearly two days of effort to arrive.
Yun Mu sniffed the air. A faint chill and a sense of decay lingered in the atmosphere, resembling cotton wads soaked in stagnant water for a long time, mixed with a metallic rust smell.
The town’s streets appeared exceptionally desolate and bleak. The few local residents they occasionally encountered all wore dazed expressions and vacant eyes, as if they had lost their souls.
“M-Master, why does this town look so terrifying?” Ling Guang shrank his neck and asked, tugging on Sui Yu’s sleeve.
Shen Xingshuang showed a look of utter disgust. “If your courage is that small, why come out for practical training? Why don’t you just go back to the sect and sleep?”
“The upper beam is crooked, and the lower beam is awry!” Gu Renran chimed in right after her, whispering, “If the grand immortal competition weren’t right around the corner and the Master and Sect Master hadn’t given strict orders, who would want to follow this person from Qianyun Peak on a training trip? I’m afraid that by the time it’s over, we won’t even die at the hands of monsters and ghosts, but get killed by someone first!”
Liyue followed behind the two of them. Hearing this, she frowned and pushed them both. “Hold your tongues.”
People were sparse on the street, and dark green moss grew in the cracks of the bluestone slabs. The windows on both sides of the street were tightly shut, and the wooden boards of a few scattered shops were half-open, with thick layers of dust covering the counters upon a glance.
Every now and then, two or three figures flashed past, each with a deathly pale complexion and dark circles under their eyes, looking just like ghosts.
“This big brother,” Jiang Yuandao stopped a man carrying a vegetable pole on his shoulder, “What has happened in the town recently? Why is it so desolate? Could it be haunted?”
The man slowly raised his head, his pupils dilated to the point that only a ring of gray rimmed the edges: “Ghosts? No, it’s a god… It’s a god…”
He muttered to himself, about to walk away.
Shi Menglan snapped her fingers, condensing a cluster of flames at her fingertips. The scorching heat source closed in on the man’s face: “Speak clearly.”
The man suddenly screamed, his voice sounding like fingernails scraping across a bronze gong: “The god is in the temple! It requires tens of thousands of living souls for sustenance, and it will bless us with eternal peace… safe and sound…”
Before his words finished fading, black blood oozed from his eye sockets, and he collapsed stiffly onto the ground.
Yun Mu squatted down and probed with spiritual energy. This man’s three souls and seven魄 had actually left behind only a single wisp of remnant soul flickering between his brows.
“Let’s go. The aura in that direction is very unusual, and it’s most likely the temple he mentioned. Let’s go check it out.”
Yun Mu gripped the Siyu Sword tighter. The moment his divine sense spread out, his whole body turned cold. Inside that abandoned temple in the center of the town, the resentment was as thick as a dark fog, blocking even the moonlight from filtering through.
The temple doors were ajar, and the wind leaking through the gaps carried the stench of rotting flesh, along with the faint, lingering sound of an infant crying.
The moment he pushed the door open, the chill crept up his neck and drilled into his spine.
Yun Mu gazed at the divine statue on the offering table, his breathing suddenly stalling—
Half of the statue’s face was a compassionate Buddha, while the other half melted into pus and blood, revealing the stark white bones beneath. What was even more bizarre was that the cracks between the blue bricks at the foot of the statue were crawling with dark red patterns, looking like tree roots soaked through with blood.
“Everyone be careful,” Yun Mu turned back to instruct, only to see Sui Yu staring fixedly at the ground, his eyelashes casting shadows beneath his eyes.
The youth gently touched the patterns in the brick cracks with his fingertips, and when he turned his head, a dark glint flashed in his eyes: “Master, these patterns…”
“Go inside first,” Yun Mu interrupted him, the Siyu Sword humming as it unsheathed.
He could sense that something in the depths of the temple was staring right at them. That entity was wrapped within the resentment like a lump of writhing dark shadow, and the dark red patterns beneath their feet were gradually emitting a faint glow in rhythm with their footsteps.
Yun Mu followed the spiritual radiance emitted by the Siyu Sword to the back of the divine statue, only to find a stone tablet erected there, with a dark gold banner stuck right into the tablet.
“A Soul-Devouring Banner?!”
Sui Yu followed closely behind Yun Mu. Having lived an extra lifetime, his experience and knowledge were far broader, and he instantly recognized the origin of this banner, his face sinking on the spot.
Why would there be a Soul-Devouring Banner here?
Such an evil item used the grievances of tens of thousands of living souls as a catalyst, capable of gathering and nourishing an extremely powerful ghost king. Once successfully refined, a hundred-li radius would transform into a ghost domain, reducing all living creatures to ashes.
In his past life, he had not experienced this particular ordeal with Yun Mu, so many matters remained outside his expectations.
“You’re saying… this is a Soul-Devouring Banner?”
Yun Mu uncertainly looked toward Sui Yu, and upon receiving an affirmative response, he began to feel his scalp tingle. In the original host’s memory, this item was an exceptionally terrifying evil treasure.
[Tuzi, this plot is wrong! There’s no such thing as the Ping’an Town Soul-Devouring Banner in the original novel! Could it be because of me that the plot has gone off the rails again?] Alarm bells rang loudly in Yun Mu’s mind.
[‘Mumu, don’t worry. The system is detecting the current variance between the plot and the original novel… The plot has experienced an unknown deviation, and we are currently connecting to the main system backend for data verification and correction plan evaluation…’] The system’s mechanical prompt sounded right on cue.
His pupils abruptly constricted to pinpricks: “Not good! The patterns on this stone tablet and the array aura on the blue bricks someone is refining a Soul-Devouring Banner! Let’s get out of here quickly! Otherwise, we’ll all fall here as sacrificial offerings!”
Yun Mu grabbed Sui Yu and turned to flee, but behind them came a “rumbling” sound. The temple doors closed automatically, and a powerful suction force pulled from the stone tablet, violently tugging at their souls.