Heavenly Born Protection, Rebirth Extremely Blissful

Tonight was unusually oppressive.

The night sky was shrouded in darkness. There was no crescent moon, nor the slightest glimmer of starlight—only an inky blackness, as if the entire sky had been pasted shut by something.

The streets at night were deserted as well. At a glance, every alley seemed silent and profound, making it somewhat difficult to breathe.

But just then.

A series of footsteps rang out. They were not orderly, but they were steady and forceful.

"On the righteous road of the sunlit pass, Netherworld Ghosts, disperse!"

Someone shouted.

As the footsteps drew closer, it became clear that it was a patrol wearing the outer armor of the Five Cities Garrison. There were ten of them in total, a small squad.

At the head was the patrolman Wu Peng. His vital energy and blood surged, intertwining with those of the nine guards behind him and dispersing quite a bit of the yin energy and oppression in the darkness.

"On the righteous road of the sunlit pass, Netherworld Ghosts, disperse!"

Another long chant rang out.

Night patrols by the Five Cities Garrison were a daily duty. Their purpose was to use the blood vitality gathered by martial artists to disperse the yin energy that might gather at night and prevent the appearance of Netherworld Ghosts and other strange beings as much as possible.

Of course.

The most important reason was that the streets Wu Peng and the others patrolled were where the Xuanguo Estate stood. If this had been the outskirts of the Capital, they might have already gone drinking at a brothel together.

They naturally did not dare abandon their posts while guarding the streets around the Xuanguo Estate. Although the chances of Netherworld Ghosts appearing were low, if one did appear, these patrolmen would inevitably bear some responsibility.

The group continued their patrol.

Their expressions were all quite relaxed.

Although the Capital was not safe at night, that was only relative to ordinary people. They were, after all, patrolmen of the Five Cities Garrison, and all of them were martial artists. Even the weakest among them was Eighth Rank.

Even if they truly encountered a ghostly entity, as long as it was not too powerful, the vigorous blood vitality gathered by the group would be enough to force the Netherworld Ghost back—or even make it unable to withstand the pressure and scatter on the spot.

As for anything else, attacking the Five Cities Garrison was the grave crime of rebellion. No matter what petty gang or underworld rat lurked beneath the night, they would all give them a wide berth.

Besides, this was outside the streets of the Xuanguo Estate.

No gang or force in the vicinity dared reach its hand here. The area was naturally even safer. The only trouble was that they had to patrol every day until the first crow of dawn.

"Brother Wu, going out for drinks tomorrow?"

Someone walking behind Wu Peng grinned and asked.

No one answered.

Seeing that Wu Peng ignored him, he gave an awkward laugh, then looked at the man beside him. "Old Liu, let me tell you, yesterday I met a young lady at the brothel. She was truly smooth as jade. Too bad she was a little expensive..."

Old Liu glanced at him. "What good stock could a brothel girl be? Be careful she doesn't drain all the blood vitality from your body."

The man curled his lips. "Why so much nonsense? Coming tomorrow or not?"

Old Liu flatly refused. "No. When I left tonight, I told my wife that no matter what happened tomorrow, I'd accompany her to spend the day strolling around West Cassia Street... Hmm, I'm going to relieve myself. You all continue. Don't wait for me. I'll catch up soon."

"What do you mean, accompany your wife? Old Liu, I think something down there isn't working right. You started leaking as soon as you left."

The people beside him could not help laughing.

Old Liu did not get angry. He merely walked away and drawled lazily, "I think you're asking for a beating, boy. When I get back, I'll spar thirty rounds with you."

Soon.

He vanished into the darkness.

"On the righteous road of the sunlit pass, Netherworld Ghosts, disperse."

Wu Peng's voice rang out in the pitch-black streets and alleys.

There was no emotion in his voice, only a cold, numb feeling.

The group continued forward.

Soon.

The street ahead came to an end. Beyond it stood a stretch of towering courtyard walls. Everyone knew what place it was—the grounds of the Xuanguo Estate, broad in area and magnificent in bearing.

"The Duke's residence... No matter how many times I see it, it's still so imposing."

Someone sighed.

"Jealous? Go find yourself a brick and see whether you can be reborn into it in your next life."

The person beside him laughed.

However, as they drew near the Xuanguo Estate, everyone lowered their voices considerably.

Even Wu Peng, who had occasionally called out, "On the righteous road of the sunlit pass, Netherworld Ghosts, disperse," now sounded much more oppressed and subdued, the words growing almost indistinct.

"Why hasn't Old Liu come over yet?"

As several of them chatted and laughed, one of them asked in puzzlement.

Although the night was pitch-black, Eighth Rank martial artists could still see clearly. Even if he had wet his pants, he should not have taken this long to catch up.

As soon as those words fell, the others also found it strange. They fell silent one after another, each pricking up their ears to listen for movement in the distance.

Dead silence.

They heard no footsteps approaching from that direction.

"...righteous road, Netherworld Ghosts..."

Amid the dead silence, Wu Peng's numb, indistinct voice rang out again.

But this time, it made everyone present inexplicably shudder. Someone looked at Wu Peng ahead and said, "Brother Wu, stop calling for now. Old Liu is missing."

However.

After the words fell, there was no response at all.

Wu Peng kept his head lowered and continued walking on his own, while his low, slow voice went on. This time, it was even more numb and indistinct than before.

The men exchanged glances.

One of them could not bear it any longer. He walked forward until he reached Wu Peng's back and reached out to pat him on the shoulder. But immediately afterward, he heard Wu Peng's numb muttering again.

The muttering sounded like, "On the righteous road of the sunlit pass, Netherworld Ghosts, disperse," but the longer he listened, the more it changed, becoming two other phrases.

"Heavenly Born... Protection... Rebirth... Extremely Blissful..."

The voice was numb and heavy, yet it seemed to explode beside his ears like thunder. His scalp went numb in an instant. Not only did the hand he had extended stop in midair, but his entire body staggered backward.

He stared at Wu Peng's back in horror.

"Br-Brother Wu?"

He forced the words out.

He felt as if his entire body had stiffened where he stood. It was as though the pitch-black sky had collapsed completely, pressing down upon him and leaving him unable to breathe.

The blood vitality within him surged madly. He struggled to move even a single finger, but could not make any movement at all. He only felt a force twist his head. Unable to resist, it slowly turned backward, accompanied by a series of cracking sounds, until it was forcibly twisted behind him!

"Hh... hh..."

He struggled with all his might. His arm jerked upward as he pressed down on his own head, trying to turn it back, but it was already futile. His entire skull turned a blood-red color, and his eyes became deep crimson. All he could do was make "hh, hh" sounds.

At the final moment before his consciousness collapsed.

He saw the road behind him littered with patrolmen lying in disarray. Every one of them had both hands clutching their heads, and every head had been twisted completely backward, folding against the body.

His consciousness sank utterly into darkness.

His hands lost their strength and drooped. His entire body collapsed helplessly onto the ground.

Ahead.

Wu Peng, who had been muttering numb words, slowly stopped walking. He turned his head to look behind him, gazed at the corpses covering the ground, lowered his head, and murmured, "Rebirth Extremely Blissful..."

As the words fell.

A series of footsteps rang out.

From the darkness in the distance, more than twenty figures slowly emerged. All of them wore white robes. Each step fell without a sound, appearing incomparably eerie and terrifying in the night.

"I... greet... all the envoys..."

Wu Peng knelt and prostrated himself, slowly kowtowing with his hands pressed together.

The many white-robed figures who had appeared did not pay him any attention. They merely looked toward the Xuanguo Estate ahead.

The white-robed man standing at the very back slowly took out a stack of small flags and said, "Remember this well. At most, we have a quarter of an hour. After a quarter of an hour, the Directorate of Celestial Observation will certainly discover that the Spirit Vein in this region of the Xuanguo Estate has been severed. We must withdraw then."

Another white-robed man said calmly, "That's enough. As long as we can completely seal it off during this quarter of an hour and prevent any message from getting out, it will be fine."

The white-robed man who had taken out the small flags distributed them one by one and said calmly, "With that person's formation flags severing the Spirit Vein and sealing the terrain, isolating inside from outside, not even a mosquito will be able to fly out within a quarter of an hour. However, the Xuanguo Estate has a Martial Dao Fourth Rank. We cannot let him break out."

"Flame Fist Zhao Li? Under normal circumstances, I'd like to test his boxing skills, but time is pressing and we cannot let this delay the greater matter. We should deal with him quickly."

"He's only one man. He won't be able to stir up any waves."

"Nothing can go wrong."

"Heh, back then, the first Xuanguo Duke of this Xuanguo Estate suppressed countless demons and monsters with his Grandmaster cultivation. What glory that was. Yet now, a mere Fourth Rank is enough for someone to sit atop the Attendant platform."

"The rise and fall of the mortal world follows the decrees of Heaven. Without a True Person to protect them, they naturally cannot transcend Heaven's mandate. Now that they can offer a portion of their destiny to a True Person, it can be considered their good fortune."

The white-robed men each took one of the small flags. Their expressions were either calm or mocking. Then, with a flicker, they all vanished, leaving behind only one white-robed man and Wu Peng prostrated nearby.