Abyssal Anomaly

Er Han's Body Refining progress was terrifyingly fast, and his foundation was equally terrifyingly solid. Old Yang even said that this kind of person was simply born to practice Body Refining.

Body Refining First Order Blood Essence, Second Order Marrow Cleansing, without anything special, is basically tedious work. With patience and perseverance, anyone can complete it with enough supplements, just taking different amounts of time.

When it came to Third Order Acupoint Opening, talent began to play a role.

There are seven hundred and twenty acupoints in the human body. Body Refining doesn't use all of them. There are fifty mysterious acupoints and one hundred and eight vital points that are generally not used and cannot be refined casually. Doing so could lead to death or crippling.

But Er Han, lacking culture, relied entirely on instinct and managed to refine over four hundred acupoints, and he hadn't even finished the cultivation stage of Acupoint Opening.

What's more, by some fluke, he had refined nine of the thirty-six fatal death acupoints among the one hundred and eight vital points.

Old Yang, with his vast experience, found that the things he hadn't seen were indeed increasing lately.

Seeing that Er Han was fine, Old Yang and Yu Ziqing didn't dare to say anything, fearing that if they told this simpleton about the danger, he might not be able to maintain his current state of a clear mind, free from worries, and fearless.

If there was even a hint of hesitation in his mind, something might go wrong.

In their hearts, both Yu Ziqing and Old Yang no longer regarded Er Han as a mere Third Order Body Cultivator. The Blood Essence power surging through this simpleton's body was comparable to a demonic beast, and he was far stronger than the other villagers of the same rank.

If it weren't for the Joy Lantern Priest, who walked the path of Spirit Refining and had peculiar methods that seemed to counter Body Cultivators, Yu Ziqing would have long ago ordered Er Han to crush that fellow.

Er Han, having received the order, changed his location and entered the Abyss of Despair again, poking his head out to ask once more.

"My brother asked me to ask your name. State your name, and if we haven't met before and have no grudges, I'll let you go. If you don't respond, you can wait to be trapped here forever."

The Joy Lantern Priest's face was grim, and a violent aura surged within him. The Abyss of Despair had very little direct destructive power; it only continuously oppressed one's state of mind. Despair would accumulate, and those with insufficient psychological resilience would eventually have their mental defenses crushed.

But apart from that, there were truly no fatal methods in this place. Its only strength lay in trapping people.

After experiencing several cycles here, the Joy Lantern Priest understood that his chosen path of Spirit Refining meant his will was firm. This place could at most make him irritable, but it couldn't break him. However, precisely because of his path of Spirit Refining, he lacked the power to violently break through this domain.

Their specializations clashed.

Seeing Er Han about to leave after dropping a sentence, the Joy Lantern Priest, with a stern face, shouted.

"Wait."

"What? Speak if you want to speak, otherwise forget it. It just so happens that someone else is here to keep Cècè entertained."

"I am Lan Sheng, the Joy Lantern Priest of the White Sun Divine Cult."

Er Han ignored him and left directly.

"He said he's Lan Sheng, the Joy Lantern Priest of the White Sun Divine Cult."

"Wait a moment." Yu Ziqing said, then instructed Old Yang, "Old Yang, continue."

Old Yang didn't understand why Yu Ziqing wanted such detailed information, wanting to know everything from the composition of the White Sun Evil Sacrifice to their methods, as detailed as possible.

He could only tell Yu Ziqing what he knew.

Hearing what Er Han reported back, Old Yang continued to supplement.

"Having the surname Lan is indeed uncommon. It shouldn't be fake. There was indeed a branch of the White Sun Evil Sacrifice with the surname Lan back then, and their branch advocated for brotherhood and sisterhood, treating each other like family. If this Lan Sheng is indeed one of the children taken away by the White Sun Evil Sacrifice back then, this surname would be normal.

Given their methods of manipulating people's minds, after so many years, even if the children knew they were abducted, they would likely still consider those people as blood relatives."

Yu Ziqing recorded it in detail. Whether Old Yang's deductions were true or false would be known after a brief experiment.

He glanced at the booklet in his hand, still using the cookbook An Yue had given him. The records were even more detailed than the last time the judgment was triggered, especially regarding cultivation methods and magic treasures. Old Yang's descriptions were more thorough, detailing many aspects and characteristics.

Last time, Yu Ziqing had only known the name of a cultivation method.

If nothing unexpected happened, it had definitely met the minimum judgment standard.

"Er Han, you'll come with me to meet that Joy Lantern Priest."

"Yu Ziqing, what are you doing?" Old Yang quickly stopped him.

"Don't worry, I don't think there's any problem. I'm just going to talk to him."

Old Yang was a bit puzzled. Talk about what?

Where did you get the ability to let that Joy Lantern Priest out?

No one present had the ability to rescue anyone from Cècè's Abyss of Despair.

That place could only be escaped by oneself.

Yu Ziqing tightened the rusted sword in his embrace and followed behind Er Han, stepping into the range of the Abyss of Despair. The moment he saw the Joy Lantern Priest, Yu Ziqing knew that this heretical path cultivator lacked even the most basic sincerity in being a person.

Even the name he reported was fake.

These heretical path cultivators were too infamous. They were so infamous that after just one meeting, Old Yang could provide Yu Ziqing with all the details except the name, and much more detailed than the last time he drew his sword.

There might be errors in that information, but there was enough of it, and as long as the core was correct, it was enough.

The only thing that could be fake was the name.

In that case, why bother with any chivalrous code?

In an instant, Yu Ziqing's mind raced. After stopping, he put on a solemn expression and, following Old Yang's instructions, raised both hands and shouted.

"The red sun's tribulation ends, the white sun shall rise."

"Qing Ziyu greets elder brother."

The Joy Lantern Priest absolutely did not expect such a scene.

But before he could think further, the conditioning ingrained in his instincts, even into his Yin God, a decades-long brainwashing, had already overwhelmed all his other thoughts, such as surprise and doubt.

He also put on a solemn expression, raised his hands high, his eyes filled with fervor, and shouted loudly.

"When the red sun's calamity ends, the white sun shall rise."

"Lan Xiaosheng greets you, sworn brother."

Yu Ziqing held the rusted sword, his eyelids drooping, and watched as the rust on the sword's seams silently flaked off and dissipated. He smiled.

With the information provided by Old Yang beforehand, a little cleverness was enough to deal with this kind of heavily brainwashed heretical path.

He understood perfectly what the weakness of such people was; their most fervent and resolute points were precisely their weaknesses.

If you dared to say even a little bit of something bad, they would get agitated.

Similarly, no matter how much they schemed against each other in their daily lives, when facing what they were most fervent about, what they held most firmly in their hearts, they would certainly be pious, sincere, and intolerant of any falsehood.

In an instant, Yu Ziqing's aura, like an explosion, surged exponentially. A fierce momentum erupted, sending Er Han flying backward on the spot.

The Joy Lantern Priest was bewildered. He didn't know that because they were too famous, they had been targeted by several divine dynasties. In the end, fearing that the cleansing wasn't thorough enough, they had spent more than ten years cleaning up, and their information had long since been compiled into a comprehensive database.

Old Yang had merely provided a slight connection, and the vast majority of the puzzle pieces were now complete.

And the one who completed the last piece of the puzzle was the Joy Lantern Priest himself.

He didn't understand why Yu Ziqing was greeting him like this, but it no longer mattered.

Even if he were foolish now, he understood that the person in front of him, whose aura was rapidly ascending, intended to kill him.

The white lantern in his hand rotated automatically, and a large character "Funeral" was aimed at Yu Ziqing. Blinding white radiance shone towards Yu Ziqing, enveloping him entirely in its light.

The Joy Lantern Priest chanted in a strangely modulated tone. His voice grew louder and louder, his demonic chanting transforming into insidious spikes that pierced eardrums and burrowed into people's minds.

Yu Ziqing stood in place, suddenly lifting his eyelids. Streaks of electric light flickered before his eyes, a manifestation of his immense mental power overflowing from his eyes.

His eyes produced illusory electricity, and darkness gave birth to white light.

At this moment, it could be seen that the surrounding white radiance, transformed from the white lanterns, resembled fine threads weaving into a vast net that enveloped him. The demonic chanting, meanwhile, had transformed into countless ferocious white-faced monsters, the size of gnats, swarming towards him, attempting to burrow into his ears, mouth, skin, and every part of his body.

The peculiar intonations transformed into an invisible force that, along with the Joy Lantern Priest's divine soul power, churned and permeated his divine soul.

Yu Ziqing simply stood there, doing nothing. He didn't feel any harm.

He simply didn't want to be covered in insurmountable barriers that blocked everything the opponent threw at him. Even the white radiance only reached a fraction of an inch beyond his skin.

He didn't need to do anything; merely thinking or speaking seemed to be enough.

Therefore, he raised his head and let out a great roar.

"Presumptuous!"

With a mere thought, the scorching Yang energy transformed into blazing flames, igniting the surrounding white radiance.

The purest Yang energy flames, following Yu Ziqing's will, surged back along the white radiance, burning away all the blinding white light, and then igniting the white lantern in the Joy Lantern Priest's hand.

With a sudden whoosh, the lantern turned to ash.

The net in mid-air, along with countless white-faced monsters as fine as gnats, simultaneously turned to dust with that single shout, vanishing without a trace.

The Joy Lantern Priest let out a muffled groan, as if struck by lightning. Black blood flowed from his seven orifices, his Yin God trembled, and his consciousness was almost shattered.

A thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.

It backfired.

The opponent is an expert of the Spirit Refining path, Out-of-Body?

No, far more than Out-of-Body.

Without his Yin God leaving his body, yet simultaneously manifesting flames of such pure Yang energy, causing all his power to surge back and be forced down his throat, could it be that he had already cultivated a Yang spirit?

He no longer had time to ponder. Above his fontanelle, a somewhat illusory and chilling Joy Lantern Priest flew out.

With just a single shout, his Yin God was forcibly shaken out of his body.

The next moment, Yu Ziqing, holding a short sword, drew his blade and slashed. A point of cold light flashed, and his Yin God and physical body were simultaneously cut in two.

However, at this moment, a sudden change occurred.

The small theater that had been looping seemed to have been paused.

Cece, whom Yu Ziqing had treated as a little animated figure and to whom he had chattered to himself daily, reached out and grabbed the air. The Yin God of the Joy Lantern Priest, cut in two, was forcibly gathered by a force, as if competing with an unknown power.

Yu Ziqing's eyes flashed with electric light, and he clearly saw that as Cece suddenly made a move and the Joy Lantern Priest's Yin God was torn apart, runes flew out from within it. These runes materialized into chains, rooted in the Joy Lantern Priest's Yin God, with the other end rooted in the unknown void.

The chains were contending with the power of the Abyss of Despair, fighting over this Yin God.

Yu Ziqing did not hesitate. With a thought, the short sword in his hand, carrying a point of cold light, slashed at the illusory rune chain.

The chain suddenly shattered and dissipated, and the Yin God was then squeezed into a ball by an invisible force and thrown into the dark abyss behind the cliff.

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