Stirring Cause and Effect, the Plague Ghost Descends (There's Another Chapter Later)

Is the information reliable?

The white-robed monk asked softly:

"A Bodhisattva descended from the Spirit Mountain System?"

"Reliable."

The high monk, embracing two Mingfei, sat regally on a lotus-shaped platform formed by the intertwined bodies of four women.

He spoke calmly:

"Inform the Divine Walker and then you and I will go hunting ourselves?"

The white-robed monk chanted a Buddhist prayer, then remained silent for a moment before looking at the high-ranking monk who was brazenly kneading Mingfei.

The Mingfei was sobbing; the monk was very strong, and with each kneading motion, a cracking sound could be heard.

Some sharp bone spurs had even pierced through her snow-white skin, and blood was flowing down.

The senior monk laughed.

The white-robed monk, accustomed to this, stroked the brand-new Vajra Pestle, freshly crafted from the young girl's thigh bone.

Then she spoke in a melodious voice:

"Who knows what methods the Bodhisattva who has descended to earth might possess? Let's just ask Mahakala to look upon him directly; it's safer that way."

This is Mule Street.

As soon as I got out of the taxi, I was met with a barrage of ill-intentioned glances.

Ninth District, such a chaotic place, has always been like this.

Zhang Fusheng glanced at his master's wooden hut and continued:

"The Black Market is just ahead; I'll take you there."

Li Yiyi and Luo Cheng thanked them repeatedly.

"What a kind person."

The former secretly transmitted his voice:

"Before you leave, please give this Young Brother Zhang a little boost on his luck."

Luo Cheng nodded.

Zhang Fusheng was leading the way, caught the telepathic message and was greatly surprised. Could it really enhance someone's fortune?

How do these two little guys have so many special abilities?

As he turned into the alley, Zhang Fusheng suddenly stopped.

"Young Brother Zhang, what's wrong?"

Li Yiyi looked around:

"Is this the Black Market? I don't see it."

"No, it's still ahead."

Zhang Fusheng spoke calmly and continued walking, his gaze deep and unfathomable.

Just now,

He was struck by a sudden, intense feeling—someone was plotting against him.

Moreover, scheming can put you in a very passive position.

"Cause and effect."

Zhang Fusheng lowered his eyelids slightly, concealing the fine lines of starlight flowing in his eyes, as he discerned the causes and consequences of his own situation.

Every human action inevitably generates one or even countless cause-and-effect relationships.

At this moment, the karmic connections he had were countless, most of them quite ordinary, such as the few karmic connections with Lu Yao and the thousands of karmic connections with his parents.

Some causal relationships are so complex and difficult to discern or manipulate that they are impossible to unravel.

These are the causal connections between oneself and those beings whose cultivation surpasses that of oneself.

But among these countless, dense threads of cause and effect,

One of the more subtle causes and effects arose precisely when my heart stirred and my intuition gave me a warning.

I stood still in front of a small building.

"That's the entrance to the Black Market in Ninth District."

As Zhang Fusheng spoke, his hand moved strangely in the air—he was touching the newly added thread of cause and effect, trying to trace it back to its source.

The fact that they succeeded so easily suggests that the person on the other side of cause and effect has a lower level of cultivation than themselves.

A blurry figure appeared before my eyes.

Is it that Cui Qingyi?

Zhang Fusheng raised an eyebrow. What had this guy planned to achieve that would trigger his spiritual senses, even to the point of...?

He caught a glimpse of that extremely dark line of cause and effect in his field of vision.

The cause and effect of life and death.

The cause of his death lay with Cui Qingyi, but the consequence of his own death was his own doing.

Although this cause-and-effect relationship is very weak, flickering and uncertain, it means that it is not yet certain.

It was just an unusual omens—but could it really cause him to face a death crisis now?

Zhang Fusheng stopped underestimating Cui Qingyi.

"This woman cannot be allowed to live."

He paused for a moment, then pushed open the door of the cabin and led the two down the stairs to the basement, while making a phone call.

"Master, it's me. Is Old Lu with you?"

"Yes, I need to talk to him about something."

The three entered the basement, where a man in black guarding the door opened the iron gate. Behind it was a maze of underground pipes, filled with a foul stench, and bustling with people.

Chongyang's underground Black Market —truly 'underground' in the real sense.

Stepping inside, Zhang Fusheng calmly spoke into the phone:

"Old Lu, it's me."

His eyes still held a fine glimmer of light; a single phone call could conjure up hundreds of temporary causal relationships.

Monitor.

Hundreds of people were listening in on the call.

With a gentle flick of his finger, hundreds of shallow causal lines were caught by Zhang Fusheng's fingers, and then he flicked them again.

These hundreds of causes and effects were flung into the Black Market, onto another person who was making a phone call.

The 'cause' of eavesdropping still lies with those who eavesdrop, but the 'effect' of being eavesdropped on has been transferred elsewhere.

And so, the phone call that was being monitored quietly became that of a passerby.

Zhang Fusheng's face was slightly pale; this series of operations had taken a heavy toll.

Even if they are all minor, insignificant causes and effects, there are too many of them.

"Old Lu."

Zhang Fusheng said softly:

"I don't plan to keep your apprentice."

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone, then the Old Master said softly:

"I'll go Clearing the Sect?"

"No need, I can do it myself," Zhang Fusheng said calmly. "After all, he's your apprentice, so I should still inform you."

The Old Master responded in a low voice, then sighed softly.

The call ended.

At this very moment, in various parts of the vast Chongyang City, hundreds of people almost simultaneously slammed their fists on the table.

They discovered that, inexplicably, they had intercepted the wrong communications.

Whether due to operational errors, signal instability, or other reasons—the result always points to one thing.

They overheard another person's communication.

This didn't cause much of a stir, because these people didn't communicate with each other and all considered it a minor mistake.

A trivial, unlucky little mistake.

Meanwhile, the underground Black Market.

Li Yiyi and Luo Cheng looked at each other, the former covering her nose:

"How can the Chongyang Black Market be in a place like this? It stinks!"

She looked around, her gaze finally settling on a tent.

"Young Brother Zhang, Luo Cheng and I are going to post a bounty. Are you there now?"

Before she could finish speaking, Zhang Fusheng casually said:

"It's nothing, I just happened to see someone I know while I was waiting for you."

Li Yiyi and Zhang Fusheng nodded and quickly entered the tent. Zhang Fusheng stepped onto the wet, moss-covered pipes, walked to a stall, and squatted down with a smile.

"Why?"

Lin Dongxi, who was setting up a stall, stared wide-eyed:

"Junior Disciple Brother? What are you doing here??"

"That's what I wanted to ask you too."

Zhang Fusheng glanced at the trinkets displayed on her stall; they were all bone products, mostly animal bones, with a few human bones.

"Human bones obtained from the execution ground and the morgue." Lin Dongxi said in a low voice. Zhang Fusheng raised an eyebrow, protecting their conversation with their divine senses so that not a single word could be leaked.

Why are you making this thing?

"Fishing!"

Lin Dongxi said mysteriously:

"Junior Disciple Brother, have you forgotten that I know the Art of Living Corpses? I've implanted this technique into the bones of these people."

She moved closer:

"You didn't know, did you? Lately, there have been a lot of Mandala System followers hanging around here."

"The Mandala System has a particular fondness for using human bones to create Law Artifact. I'm just waiting to see if anyone will buy the human bones, then I'll turn them into living corpses and infiltrate the Mandala System!"

Zhang Fusheng was speechless.

"Why are you provoking the Mandala System? Are you afraid they won't discover that you're a Living Buddha from Lingshan?"

Lin Dongxi shrank back timidly.

"It is precisely because I am Living Buddha that Living Buddha must undergo Nine Tribulations before returning to his rightful place. I have at most endured one tribulation from that bastard Niu Dali."

"Eight tribulations remain!"

Zhang Fusheng was even more speechless:

"So you're asking for trouble? How can a self-inflicted calamity be considered a calamity?"

Lin Dongxi curled his lip:

"We have to give it a try, right? Besides, my grandmaster lives nearby, what am I afraid of? What are you doing with your hand? Did it cramp?"

She watched curiously as her Junior Disciple Brother's fingers tapped in the air.

"No, they are guiding the plague demons that were previously abandoned in the Golden City to descend upon Chongyang."

"What's a plague demon?" Lin Dongxi asked, still confused.

Zhang Fusheng's fingers tapped faster and faster, until suddenly he stopped!

He said calmly:

"This thing should be really powerful. I've infused it with the diseases of tens of millions of people. Now, let's see how it performs."

As soon as he finished speaking, his fingers stopped moving.

In a dark alley somewhere in the city,

The black-robed man's five white bone knuckles also stopped playing in sync.

The Great Teleportation Technique: Returning to the Beacon of the Way.

The beacon trembled slightly, the void tore open, and the portal swung wide.

Another tall figure in black robes emerged from among them. When the wind blew, the black robes fluttered, revealing glimpses of crimson blood beneath.

The Great Plague Demon.

It is afflicted with tens of millions of diseases and wields the power of plague; it is a great God of Plague.

When it appeared, the already dimly lit alley was filled with an even denser darkness.

A stray cat, limping, hopped over and began to hiss frantically at it in a Spinosaurus stance.

The plague demon simply crouched down and gently stroked the cat's head.

The cats' illnesses disappeared, but a plague a hundred or a thousand times greater appeared, accompanied by black gas, slowly flowing into the stray cats' bodies.

The kitten grew into a big cat, and tumors appeared, piling up rapidly.

In just a short while,

That not-so-well-behaved and cute stray cat had swelled into a fleshy monster.

A cat's shape can be vaguely seen.

The plague demon leaped up, riding a flesh-and-blood monster, and silently walked through the deep alley.

Behind them, one after another, figures in black robes emerged from the shadows.

More and more, until they were densely packed together.

Grandmaster, great master, even a primordial skeleton.

They marched in orderly steps, their robes fluttering and dancing, appearing at a glance like a rolling black tide.

The black tide moved silently toward the Cui family's manor in Chongyang.

At this very moment.

Inside the manor.

Cui Qingyi held a wine cup, leaned quietly against the window, and drank the wine in one gulp.

She tilted her long neck slightly and chuckled softly:

"So fast?"

"Have we found that most faithful follower of the Ancestor of Land Immortals?"

The servant responded respectfully.

Cui Qingyi put on her robe, swayed her hips, and slowly sat down on the sofa.

"Bring him to see me."

She looked out the window, a faint smile appearing on her face.

Sure enough, everything was under control.

Whether he is the God of Plague or the Ancestor of Land Immortals.

Cui Qingyi chuckled softly.

(The next chapter will be a little late again. I've been really busy lately, so the update schedule is a bit irregular. Once I'm done with these last couple of days, I'll add an extra chapter by the 15th or 16th at the latest.)