Mount Taiyin.
It was a small mountain several dozen li from Cloud City.
It stood no more than a hundred zhang tall, with an Ancient Temple built upon its summit.
Over the years, whenever the proper time came, believers from the surrounding villages would bring offerings such as chickens and ducks and follow the mountain path upward to worship the Buddha.
All they sought was peace of mind.
This had continued for more than ten years, and the villagers had gradually grown accustomed to it.
Yet roughly half a month ago, the monks on Mount Taiyin suddenly announced that they were closing the temple gates and would no longer receive villagers coming to make offerings.
Because it happened so abruptly, several devout villagers went up the mountain that very day to ask why. After that, however, no one ever saw them come back down.
It was not until three days later that someone found their corpses in an earthen ditch at the foot of the mountain.
It was said that the scene had been too ghastly to bear. Not only had wild dogs gnawed their internal organs clean away, but their heads had vanished without a trace.
Had it not been for their clothes, no one might have been able to identify them.
Such a gruesome sight naturally stirred public outrage.
In a world like this, the people had always been fierce by nature.
Thus, gathered by the families of the murdered villagers, a mighty crowd of more than a hundred people charged straight into the temple.
Yet when they smashed open the temple gates, they discovered that there was not a single person inside. The monks seemed to have vanished into thin air.
Seeing this, the furious villagers could only wreak havoc through the temple before returning home in frustration.
However, that very night, every villager once again heard waves of chanting drifting from the temple atop the mountain.
But when they gathered their courage and went up the mountain again at noon the next day, they discovered in horror that it was still completely empty, and all the objects damaged the day before had been restored.
That frightened everyone badly. Then, no one knew who shouted, "Ghosts!" and the crowd immediately fled headlong down the mountain, leaving hoes, sickles, and the like scattered everywhere.
After that, rumors began spreading through the surrounding villages that Evil Spirits had occupied the Ancient Temple and devoured all the monks.
The rumors grew ever more intense, until the villagers at the foot of the mountain panicked and began fleeing in all directions.
It was only after large numbers of refugees fled near Cloud City that the matter finally caught the Demon Suppression Division's attention.
At first, however, the Demon Suppression Division did not take it too seriously, believing it to be an ordinary minor Evil Spirit incident.
In the end, they merely dispatched several Eight-Star Demon Subduers to deal with it.
Yet several days passed, and not a single message came back from the Demon Suppression Envoys they had sent out.
Thus, to investigate the situation, they sent a Seven-Star Demon Suppression Envoy to lead a team there as reinforcements. The outcome was easy to imagine—the entire group vanished soundlessly as well.
Only then did the Demon Suppression Division finally take the matter seriously.
After winding around and around, the mission ultimately landed on Qin Wei's head.
That was how this operation came to be.
At that moment, more than a dozen flames suddenly appeared at the foot of the pitch-black Mount Taiyin.
The firelight drove away the darkness, revealing Ling Yun's group.
After leaving Cloud City, they had sprinted dozens of li and finally arrived here.
Ling Yun stood in the middle of the group and raised his head toward the mountaintop.
At that moment, Mount Taiyin's summit was shrouded in an inexplicable mist.
They could only vaguely make out a massive black shadow within it, which was presumably where the temple stood.
Looking at the shadow within the fog, Ling Yun could not help narrowing his eyes. For some reason, he felt uneasy.
"Rest where you are for a quarter of an hour!"
Qin Wei glanced around before deciding to let them rest and regroup.
The weaker Demon Suppression Envoys immediately felt as though they had been granted amnesty. One after another, they sat cross-legged where they stood, closed their eyes, and began regulating their breaths.
Before long, a peculiar fluctuation began emanating from their bodies.
Ling Yun watched curiously from the side, finding it rather novel.
Unlike the power of qi and blood produced by martial artists themselves, the Demon Suppression Envoys' power mainly came from something in the air called Spiritual Energy.
Though Spiritual Energy was almost everywhere, there were places where it was scarce and places where it was abundant.
Therefore, the Demon Suppression Division generally chose to establish itself in places where Spiritual Energy was most abundant.
As for which was superior, qi and blood or Spiritual Energy, the debate had never ceased since the two first appeared. Yet even now, no conclusion had been reached.
However, judging solely by short-term benefits, Spiritual Energy was clearly far superior to the power of qi and blood.
After all, while martial artists had to painstakingly temper their bodies to condense even a thread of qi and blood, Demon Suppression Envoys only needed to sit comfortably and could easily absorb vast amounts of Spiritual Energy from the air.
Setting power aside for the moment, the two were clearly not on the same level in terms of efficiency.
Just then, several Demon Suppression Envoys approached Qin Wei with solemn expressions, bent close to his ear, and whispered something. His face immediately darkened.
After hesitating for a moment, he walked toward Ling Yun.
Seeing Qin Wei's ugly expression, Ling Yun did not even need to ask to know something had happened.
"The situation is troublesome. The team we previously arranged to keep watch nearby can no longer be contacted!"
Sure enough, the moment Qin Wei opened his mouth, he delivered bad news.
"What do you plan to do now?" Ling Yun fell silent for a moment before tossing the question back to him.
Qin Wei truly lived up to his reputation as the brute among Demon Suppression Envoys. Murderous intent surged in his eyes as he spat out one icy word.
"Kill!"
Ling Yun sighed inwardly. He had never expected this guy to come up with any good plan anyway.
The night was hazy.
A bleak wind whistled.
Ling Yun followed in the middle of the group and instinctively looked upward.
Under the dim moonlight, the temple hidden in the mist resembled a ferocious giant beast, waiting for them to throw themselves into its net.
They hurried onward.
In less than half an hour, the group had reached the mountaintop.
The first thing that came into view was an ancient temple.
Before the temple lay a vast platform.
Perhaps because no one had cleaned it for a long time, the platform was piled with dead branches and withered grass, deep enough to sink half a chi with every step.
Several unknown Buddhist statues lay toppled around them, likewise buried beneath the dead branches, with only pairs of hollow eyes exposed, as if secretly watching them.
However, even the weakest among them was an Eight-Star Demon Subduer, so naturally none were frightened by the sight before them.
Qin Wei folded his arms across his chest and looked at the tightly shut vermilion temple gates. He snorted through his nose and strode forward.
The people behind him exchanged glances, then hurriedly followed after him.
Yet just as Qin Wei prepared to blast the temple gates open with one punch, the entire heavy door slowly opened from within amid a creaking sound!
A bald young novice monk emerged from behind the door carrying a lantern, only to come face-to-face with more than a dozen pairs of blood-red eyes.
"Ah!!!!"
Before you continue