This is Your Great Venerable? Not Pure Enough!

"Disciple requests the protection of the Merciful Great Venerable of Salvation from Suffering Above and Below Heaven and Earth... Disciple requests the Merciful Great Venerable of Salvation from Suffering Above and Below Heaven and Earth... Disciple requests..." Xuan Shizi, having hidden in the underground secret chamber, sat cross-legged with his eyes closed in the center of the room.

Before him was an altar he had set up during their previous fight.

The altar was adorned with various bizarre and exotic items, objects that would make one feel physically ill just by looking at them.

Xuan Shizi clutched the heavy bronze statue to his chest.

He repeated a single sentence as if driven mad.

But as he made this gesture, the candlelight within the entire underground secret chamber began to flicker erratically.

Strange noises echoed from an unknown source, reverberating throughout the secret chamber.

His expression was one of devout reverence, yet one could still discern a trace of resentment mixed within.

And a potent killing intent could also be seen!!

"It's coming, it's coming... The Great Venerable... He is coming!"

Suddenly!

Xuan Shizi's eyes snapped open. The whites of his eyes had been replaced by black, both eyeballs a deep, dark abyss that reflected no light.

"He is coming..."

"Coming..."

Xuan Shizi continued to mutter in that delirious, strange tone like a neurotic, his body beginning to tremble violently, like a patient suffering from an epileptic seizure.

Large amounts of foam spewed from his mouth, trickling down his chin to his neck, soaking the front of his clothes.

The black pupils in his eyes darted up and down erratically, and a foul stench emanated from his crotch.

A strange aura enveloped him, causing his robes to flutter as if in a wind.

His sparse, graying hair whipped about wildly.

The bizarre sounds from somewhere within the secret chamber grew louder and louder, until they became deafening!

Xuan Shizi's ears began to bleed!

But at this very moment...

BANG!!!!!

A thunderous roar erupted!

It shattered the rhythm of everything within the secret chamber. The relatively thick stone door was covered in fine cracks.

The cracks widened.

And spread rapidly!

With a "crack,"

The stone door collapsed!

A cloud of dust billowed and swirled within the secret chamber. Fan Wu's tall, robust figure tore through the dust, his Demon-Slaying Sword already drawn from its sheath.

The Demon-Slaying Sword exuded a unique aura, lending the cold, dim chamber a different kind of atmosphere.

As soon as Fan Wu stepped into the secret chamber.

He saw Xuan Shizi sitting cross-legged, clutching the statue.

"Hmm?"

[Evil Dao Xuan Shizi (Possessed by Great Venerable's Evil Power)--Vitality: 562--Strength: 9--Skills: Ghost Nurturing Soul Cultivation Art, Paper Figure Magic, Secret Art of the Merciful Great Venerable of Salvation from Suffering Above and Below Heaven and Earth Manifesting, Star Constellation Sword Art]

Fan Wu was astonished to find that Xuan Shizi's status information had undergone a drastic change.

His [Vitality] attribute had soared to a staggering 562.

His [Strength] attribute had also reached 9.

Moreover, next to Xuan Shizi's name was a pair of parentheses, containing words that Fan Wu couldn't possibly not recognize... coupled with one of Xuan Shizi's skills.

Fan Wu's eyes narrowed, a guess forming: "Like, some sort of ancestor possession?"

Although he didn't know Taoist magic, he had watched plenty of supernatural movies in his past life.

Xuan Shizi's current state was indeed very similar to the ancestor possession seen in movies.

"Audacious cur!"

Suddenly.

Xuan Shizi, who had been sitting in meditation, rose abruptly with a movement that defied the natural structure of the human body.

He spat out words of reprimand, which echoed with layers of reverberation: "How dare you not kneel before the arrival of the Merciful Great Venerable of Salvation from Suffering Above and Below Heaven and Earth?!"

As Xuan Shizi's voice fell, the skin on his left arm split open like fleshy petals, and a mass of tumors rapidly grew and piled up on his left arm.

In the blink of an eye, it formed into a massive tentacle.

The tentacle was covered in disgusting, foul pus.

A demonic aura, slightly different from that of a ghost, rapidly spread throughout the secret chamber!

"Why aren't you kneeling down yet?!"

A grotesque face, identical to the statue Xuan Shizi was holding, sprouted from the giant tentacle made of piled-up tumors.

That face also began to speak, repeating Xuan Shizi's last words.

"Why aren't you kneeling down yet?!"

Another face grew.

"Why aren't you kneeling down yet?!"

A third.

A fourth.

In an instant, the entire tentacle was covered in those grotesque faces, so unsettling they made one feel physically ill. Each face repeated the same sentence Xuan Shizi had spoken, causing the walls of the secret chamber to tremble slightly.

The layered voices, like a form of mental pollution, poured into Fan Wu's ears, making him feel a tiny bit uncomfortable.

He didn't find Xuan Shizi, possessed by some "Great Venerable," scary.

He just found the guy noisy.

That was all.

"All flash, no substance."

"System."

"Allocate points!"

The single Free Attribute Point obtained from killing the group of wandering spirits outside was added by Fan Wu to his [Strength] attribute.

His [Strength] attribute went from 9...

...directly to 10!

When his [Strength] attribute reached double digits, Fan Wu felt his entire body transform, as if he were shedding the category of "normal human."

The layered demonic sounds, which had been so bothersome, now had no effect on him.

[Name: Fan Wu]
[Vitality: 89+]
[Strength: 10+]
[Skill: None]
[Free Attribute Points: 0]

Fan Wu gripped the Demon-Slaying Sword in one hand and advanced step by step towards Xuan Shizi.

As he got closer, the layered demonic sounds...

became more frantic!!

"Those who disrespect the Great Venerable--"

"--Die!!!"

The ear-piercing demonic sounds abruptly stopped, and the giant tentacle, formed from piled-up tumors, slammed down fiercely towards Fan Wu!

Fan Wu's expression remained unchanged.

He raised his sword and slashed!

The moment the Demon-Slaying Sword's blade touched the tumorous tentacle, Fan Wu felt no resistance, as if he were cutting through air.

A large chunk of tumors was sliced off the tentacle, and foul-smelling gas hissed from the severed end.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!!"

Intense pain shot through the tumorous tentacle and into Xuan Shizi, causing him to let out a hoarse scream.

Fan Wu took a quick step forward, his eyes flashing with brilliance, and without hesitation, brought his sword down again!

This strike severed the entire tentacle at its base. The grotesque faces on the tentacle either showed anger, pain, or malice.

However, without exception, every single eye on those monstrous faces...

was staring at Fan Wu!

Xuan Shizi continued to wail hoarsely. The intense pain seemed to grant his sanity a sliver of control.

A hint of white appeared in his ink-black eyes.

His eyes regained a human-like spark.

As he looked at Fan Wu, his ancient, bark-like face was filled with disbelief.

Xuan Shizi exclaimed loudly, his voice brimming with incredulity: "I... I invoked the Great Venerable to possess me and kill the enemy, yet it was still useless? Impossible! Impossible! I once used this secret art to kill someone from the Imperial Astronomy Bureau!"

"How can a mere mountain hermit from the Dragon-Imprisoning Monastery be stronger than someone from the Imperial Astronomy Bureau? You scoundrel! You must have used some strange, evil technique! Yes! It must be so!!"

by an Evil Dao practitioner, who said they used a bizarre evil method...

Well, well!

Fan Wu stepped on a fleshy, tumorous tentacle, directly caving in a grotesque face on the appendage. He spoke, "If this is the Great Venerable you mentioned, then its purity... is too low."

With a slight grind of his heel, the face beneath his foot exploded!

This made Xuan Shizi's eyes widen. "You, you actually dare to step on the Great Venerable's face!!!"

But the next moment.

He couldn't utter another word.

Because he saw the killing intent flashing in Fan Wu's eyes!

The approaching sense of death jolted Xuan Shizi back to his senses!