The Gates of Life and Death

Li Fan didn't lose control of his hand and subconsciously touch Li Wugou; he did it on purpose... well, that doesn't quite add up. Actually, he was secretly testing Li Wugou's cultivation level.

Because Li Wugou's situation was really strange, neither orthodox nor evil. You could say that she could fly by screaming like a ghost, be impervious to swords and spears, and even extend her fingers to gouge out people's eyeballs and rip off their foreheads. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed like a demonic art from an evil sect, not at all like a legitimate Cultivation Method from the Xuanmen sect.

Although the Xuanmen (Mysterious Sect) is full of arrogant, self-righteous, sanctimonious, treacherous, hypocritical, and scheming individuals, at least their orthodox Qi cultivation Cultivation Method generally focus on the breathing and cultivation of the internal organs and meridians, promoting longevity and strengthening the body. They rarely involve drastic changes in physical form, so at least outwardly they still maintain an air of otherworldly elegance. Even the most authentic manifestations, like Lingzhen Shizai and that old demon Qingyang, despite their despicable character and Profound Maiden methods, still retain a human-like physique from their authentic Xuan Nu cultivation methods. They are not like some demonic cultivators who cannot bear the light of day, who are neither human nor ghost.

But Li Wugou's situation was different. Li Fan examined Yan Qin's skull. Judging from the wound pattern, blood splatter, and scattered bone fragments, her fingers had indeed grown three feet long, just like in ghost movies! While clamping the sword, they had also pierced through her opponent's skull! Ordinary Daoist magic doesn't have this ability, does it? Could she really be a monster in disguise?

So just now, Li Fan took the opportunity to touch Li Wugou's meridians and bones, and found that the other party was indeed human. The Qi circulating in his meridians was genuine Dao Breath, pure and not evil. He was indeed a Xuanmen Dao body that had passed the tribulation of lightning, and his aptitude was indeed quite good. He was the best aptitude among the people Li Fan had met so far, probably only slightly worse than himself. He was likely to obtain the Emei inheritance, and at least be of a high grade.

Regarding the Emei lineage, the tattoo on her back is indeed an image of the Profound Maiden, which only authentic sects would worship. In this world, statues of this level possess the power to ward off evil and bring good fortune; any demonic aura would be impossible to conceal. This shows that Li Wugou is definitely not some extraterrestrial demon. Otherwise, Li Fan should have reacted upon seeing her... Of course, it's not that he didn't react, but rather that he didn't have that kind of reaction. Anyway, everyone can understand...

Therefore, Li Fan is not sure how to judge the other party's situation. Everyone has hidden opportunities, and it's not good to ask about someone's inheritance directly. He can only say that based on the current information, it's possible that Li Wugou's temperament is somewhat extreme due to some experiences, and she didn't obtain the complete Emei inheritance. Therefore, her Cultivation Method is ambiguous and there is a risk of going astray, but more likely it's just strange.

Li Fan didn't understand the Emei sect's traditions, so he couldn't offer any guidance and decided to leave it at that for now.

"Hey, what the heck! Why are you taking your clothes off again?!" Li Fan was distracted for a moment, then turned around and almost popped his eyes out.

The calamity of the Yellow Talisman in the sky hadn't passed yet, and Li Wugou had already followed the tradition of rogue cultivators by picking up equipment and looting corpses. Turning around, she actually changed clothes on the spot, stripping the pink-clad fairy naked and putting on her own fairy dress.

Well, after all, her blood-stained clothes were battle-damaged, barely covering her thighs. Li Wugou didn't like being touched inappropriately by someone. Yan Qin's head was mostly shattered, and her blue clothes were covered in blood and flesh. On the other hand, the cut from the other person's decapitation by the flying sword was clean, and even though blood had sprayed out, it wasn't too dirty, which was understandable...

What the hell! Changing clothes is one thing, but she also reached out and ripped off the fairy's face, sticking it onto her own ghost mask!

The fake face was actually smiling and laughing like a living person, with a fairly rosy complexion. It was impossible to tell that it was a real face. Perhaps the mask also contained some kind of Magic Treasure with its own illusion magic.

No matter what illusions were used on Li Fan, he could clearly see a human face pasted on Li Wugou's mask, bloody and with Li Wugou's eyeballs showing through the empty eye sockets, which was terrifying.

While using the pink-clad fairy's Golden hairpin to hold her hair back, Li Wugou explained, "Aren't we going to enter the military camp later to break the Corpse Refining Formation? Are you planning to unleash your killing spree and charge all the way into the camp? I didn't care much before, but after receiving the true teachings, I realized that breaking the precept against killing too many times, without a corresponding method to resolve it, is of little benefit to cultivation."

"This Magic Treasure of mine can use illusion magic to fake the dead, allowing me to avoid immediate danger. For three days, no one will be able to trace my origins. I can simply pretend to be a cultivator from Kongsang Mountain and infiltrate. By the way, I am now Yan Qin of Kongsang Mountain."

"Is this also part of Emei's heritage?" Li Fan frowned as he looked at the ghost mask. This thing was too evil. However, he was the one who killed the people, and Li Wugou was just making use of the trash, so he couldn't say anything. He could only guess that this was how she got her nickname "Face-Tearing Woman".

Li Wugou, however, was unwilling to elaborate. "You might as well change into some armor as well, so as not to give yourself away."

What she said made sense, but Li Fan suddenly had an idea.

He stripped the monk's robe off, put it on, trimmed his hair, held prayer beads in one hand, and clasped his hands together, saying, "Namo Acalanatha Buddha Tathagata, this humble monk is Fake, staying at Tiantai Mountain in Li Country."

When he raised his head, his face suddenly changed, becoming exactly like the dead man's head on the ground, which startled Li Wugou.

"Such a profound and mysterious method of transformation! The orthodox Xuanmen sect truly lives up to its reputation!"

Actually, this is also a method of transformation used by the Moshan Tai Su Dao. It's much easier to create a face than a demon god. When we infiltrate the military camp later, we can use the dead monk's face.

Li Fan disguised himself as a monk not only because the armor was too troublesome to put on and take off, but also because he had a hunch that the "Death Gate Dao" mentioned by Manifestation had disappeared in the north for many years and was now hidden somewhere.

Yes, Buddhism.

If Li Fan remembered correctly, and it couldn't be wrong, his first time entering the Tribulation of Slaughter was when Faji of Tiantai Mountain severed his arm with a single Sword Qi! The style of that Sword Qi back then was absolutely the same as the sneaky sword strike this monk had just delivered! To try and use Sword Qi in front of Li Fan, the legitimate direct descendant of the Beichen Sword Sect, was like showing off one's axe in front of Guan Yu! He could see at a glance that the sword energy was based on Yin and Yang, even inferior to the Qiankun Flying Dragon Sword, so how could it possibly be hidden from him!

Moreover, Puxiang, a disciple of Fa Ji, once possessed a green skull, and the golden skull that appeared to him was also a secret technique of skull crushing and head control passed down by the Death Gate Dao. The skulls concealed the Kun Gen Sword of Life and Death! So many similarities cannot be explained simply by coincidence!

Li Fan remembered that Fa Jue of Iron Buddha Temple once said that the King of Zhen Country had held several Water and Land Dharma Assemblies to serve the Buddha. As long as one paid ten million coins, one would receive a monk's certificate bestowed by Zhen Country, which would grant one a legitimate status to travel to Twelve Countries to spread the Dharma.

So if he guessed correctly, Death Gate Dao must have spent some money to buy a legitimate background from the Ruler Xiao's Country, pretended to be a righteous person, and hid in the Buddhism!

Places like Tiantai Mountain in Li Country are probably not isolated cases. Gen Country is the main base of the Death Gate Demonic Path. It is possible that this family has not only not disappeared, but is also thriving, taking advantage of the warlord infighting to develop countless remnants of the Death Gate Demonic Path!

"But what is Fak's Daoist name? Could he be someone Second Brother knows?"

"Seeing you like this, I just blurted it out. Cough cough, alright, let's go, the killing spree has begun."

So they cleaned up the mess, mainly giving it to the impoverished Li Wugou, and the yellow silk covering their heads was burned. To avoid revealing their identities with their stealth techniques, the two took to the air and flew towards the Heng Hai Army camp.

Actually, it's not a big problem. The Heng Hai Army was already quite a force, capable of sending out six Nascent Soul Stage cultivators to guard the Corpse Array. Now that all six Nascent Soul Stage are dead, there are no True Person cultivators left in the army. Although there are still many Golden Core cultivators and soldiers, they dare not stop the two Nascent Soul Stage True Persons.

Seeing the fairy in pink and the bald monk returning from afar, they naturally dared not come up to stop them, and let them swagger over the military camp's defenses, directly tracking the direction of the soaring evil aura, and arriving at the outer perimeter of the Corpse Refining Array, which was sealed in a canyon.

Looking down from the clouds, one can see that the terrain of this canyon is also problematic. The mountain shape and topography have been deliberately planned and modified, with the formation's core, which generates a large amount of evil energy, located in the middle of the canyon. Other directions are either restricted by mountains or have large armies deployed, leaving only the southwest and northeast directions exposed, with the Kun and Gen positions exposed in a straight line running through the valley.

At this moment, a massive horde of humanoid ghouls, numbering in the thousands, were drawn in by the soaring black dragon-like aura and rushed straight into the mountain from the southwest, charging directly into the formation!

These monstrous corpses piled up and fought amongst themselves, vying for the nourishment of the malevolent energy. Every now and then, a very small number of these corpses would stagger out from the northeast. Whether they had eaten their fill or something else, their killing intent had greatly diminished. Attracted by the bells and incantations, they were obediently captured by the many Golden Core cultivators in the camp's array at the Gen Gate using methods such as iron chains and talismans. They were then adorned with talismans, donned heavy armor, and linked together with iron chains, forming a square formation ready for battle. These were probably the corpse soldiers that had been refined.

Judging by its scale, there are hundreds of corpse soldiers in the camp. Given time, the thousands upon thousands of demonic corpses here could be transformed into a demonic army!

"This is the Gate of Life and Death in the Kun and Gen directions!"

Li Fan suddenly turned his head and saw Li Wugou observing while calculating with his fingers. In the midst of the evil wind, he said to Li Fan, "There are five elements of earth in the Nine Palaces. Kun is the second and Gen is the eighth. The earth elements of the two, five, and eight are interconnected. Gen is the mountain, which is both the place of death and the place of life. It governs the cessation of death and the opening of life!"

Therefore, in Qimen Dunjia, Gen is the gate of life and Kun is the gate of death; Kun is the path of man and Gen is the path of ghosts! This scale is too exaggerated! This is beyond human capability! Heng Hai town alone could not possibly achieve this!

If my calculations are correct, this place leads down to the Central Plains' dragon vein, the very essence of the Gen Country's destiny! The Kun-Gen formation... the Gen and Kun kingdoms are in utter chaos! The guardian of the immortal veins has been severed! Perhaps the Kun Country has a similar arrangement!

Someone used this world to play a game, turning people into ghosts!

Good heavens! Li Fan could only exclaim, "Good heavens!"

So this is what the Three Great Sects are like! This is the kind of intrigue and power struggle on Central Plains level!

Another surprise attack on Kun Country, another use of the Ten Ultimate Formation —and the Divine Sect's fatal move in this game is actually here!

To the south lies Dizhou, a place with no natural defenses; beyond the Gen River lies the Central Plains.

If the Xuanmen Immortal Palace is drawn too much attention to the west, what if a demonic army suddenly appears here? Whether it suddenly marches south and heads straight for the Three Realms, or crosses mountains and valleys and marches westward into the Gan Kingdom, the situation could be unimaginable!

Good grief... that cult isn't messing around with you... they attacked first because they genuinely had a chance to win!

"Second Brother, this matter has gone too far. No matter who's behind it, we can't afford to offend them." Li Wugou was indeed intelligent; she saw through the situation and made her judgment. "You said there's a cult supporting the Heng Hai Army. The fact that they can refine corpse soldiers in broad daylight means they must have the tacit approval of some sects. For example, Kongsang Mountain..."

Li Fan narrowed his eyes and nodded in agreement with her assessment.

The Kun Gen Gate of Life and Death, the Kun Gen Sword of Life and Death, the Death Gate Dao... The Divine Cult is by no means isolated or outnumbered; they have a large number of hidden supporters.

The fact that the Xuanmen was able to assassinate the Immortal Emperor proves that the power of the Twelve Countries of the Immortal Palace is by no means unshakeable. Now that the Three Realms are weakened and the Central Plains have been divided up by the various factions of the Xuanmen, other forces, even if they cannot match the power of the Xuanmen, must still fight for their own way out. It is just that the wheel of fortune turns, the Three Great Sects start a new game, and all the forces have no regrets after making their moves.

Li Fan looked at Li Wugou, "Is there a way to destroy this corpse-refining formation?"

The latter thought carefully for a moment, then shook his head helplessly, "The malevolent energy here is soaring, and the spiritual energy is still so vast. I'm afraid the earth's veins have already been opened up. Unless the immortal Immortal Palace in Kun and Gen are rebuilt, and the Investiture of the Gods of the Gods is re-established, and the Demon-Suppressing Palace is set up to guard the gates of life and death at both ends, this kind of corpse-refining method cannot be stopped at all. Moreover, it is best not to destroy this formation. These malevolent corpses have already been attracted by the malevolent energy and gathered here. If the formation is destroyed and they scatter, it will only cause unnecessary casualties."

If we absolutely must intervene, we might be able to lend Yellow Heaven Dao a hand by getting them to relocate the nearby population, temporarily cutting off the source of the fiendish corpses. However, these warlords can simply plunder more people from elsewhere to refine them. Moreover, the fiendish energy is increasing, and sooner or later it will infect the nearby population..."

Although Li Fan frowned, he had to admit that Li Wugou was right.

Destroying this magic array will allow the fiendish corpses to roam Fourth Department. Even if all the fiendish corpses are killed, the earth's veins will still be there, and someone could come and create a new batch of fiendish corpses at any time if he's not careful! He can't exactly live here as a gatekeeper, can he?

To address both the symptoms and the root cause, we must restore the rule of the kingdoms of Gen and Kun, or at least one of them, re-establish the Investiture of the Gods immortals and gods, set up the Demon-Suppressing Palace, and break the deadlock of the Gate of Life and Death.

If it were the former Three Realms, which swept across Six Combinations land and dominated the world, with so many celestial armies, divine generals, and spirit officials, setting up Demon Subduing Platform would have been a piece of cake. But now, the Gen Country has been unable to subdue local warlords for so many years, while the Kun Country has directly resisted with the full force of the Divine Cult. How can this be resolved?

And this is just the corpse soldiers from one place in the Gen Country; who knows what else might be there in other places?

Honestly, although complaining is useless, Li Fan felt he still had to say that the Xuanmen sect has been incredibly lousy these past few years.

They are clearly the strongest of the Three Great Sects in terms of overall strength at this stage, but one or two of them are either hiding in the mountains to cultivate immortality, or studying for exams in their studies, or scheming against each other and killing one another. Not one of them is doing anything productive!

Look at the Celestial Immortal Palace. Although they've been preparing for over three years and lost hundreds of thousands of people, at least they've taken some action, regardless of the outcome. But the Profound Sect is still leisurely making contacts to 'prepare for the Western Expedition to the Divine Sect's headquarters'!

He even went on an expedition to the main altar. Honestly, if Li Fan hadn't transmigrated here and been running all over the map, the Blood God of Li Country, the Beast's Child of Xun Kingdom, and the Shatentacle of the East Sea would probably have all been exposed by now! The Central Plains would have been in chaos long ago!

Well, we can't entirely blame the old men and women of the Xuanmen sect for spending all their time cultivating immortality and doing nothing else.

Ultimately, the reason why the Divine Cult was able to take action repeatedly and gain the upper hand was because of the drastic change in the times. The evil energy was becoming increasingly concentrated and more and more mutated. The Xuanmen Immortal Laws were being restrained by the evil energy system and were becoming increasingly outdated.

However, the Divine Cult's Primordial Spirit Method does not conflict much with the physical changes brought about by the evil energy, so they can use any means necessary and come up with all sorts of ingenious ideas. After all, it doesn't matter what they sacrifice, they really don't suffer any loss.

In worldly terms, the prevailing trend is on the side of the religion.

If the environment of the Taiji world is destined to change irreversibly, and humanity in this world must choose a way out, then perhaps in the end, no matter what the Xuanmen (mystical sects) do, they cannot reverse the tide of fate, and perhaps in the end, the way of the divine religion is the correct one.

But now, Li Fan still intends to fight the cult to the bitter end.

After all, at least for now, his Dao heart is still rooted in the hearts of people, so he must stand on the side of people.

Don't talk about considering the big picture; we might not even live to see a day when we can!

Anyway, from what he's seen so far, in the 'big picture' of the cult, the number of dead isn't just one or two, it's countless, way too many!

If humanity is destined to become like these undead, an ancient species ill-suited to its environment, and perish in the history of this planet.

So live as a human being until the final judgment arrives, then, as remnants of the old world, bid farewell with grace and acceptance of your inevitable destruction.

Li Fan didn't say anything, he just stared at the endless tide of corpses surging into the Gate of Life and Death from the horizon, unable to think of a solution, and let his thoughts wander.

Li Wugou stared in disbelief as a faint purple humanoid figure appeared behind Li Fan, like a projection, gradually taking shape in the glow of the setting sun.

The humanoid figure had an ethereal face, with no discernible features. Its surface was dotted with starlight, resembling a dazzling and vibrant starry Tianhe. Above its head was a purple, fiery wheel, as large as a carriage canopy, resembling a False Moon.

At this moment, from the top of the humanoid's forehead, silver branches shaped like deer antlers extended out, and one after another, three black epiphyllum flowers with dark stamens and purple petals bloomed out!

Even though Li Wugou thought she had seen all sorts of things, she was still speechless with astonishment.

"Incredibly, it's already reached the third stage of cultivation... How can a Fiend Corpse condense its Dao Heart and form a Dao Fruit...? Hiss... The Dao Child of the Profound Sect is terrifyingly powerful..."