"Turn back and find the shore? Hahahaha!"
Li Mingyuan seemed to have heard the funniest joke under heaven. His wild laughter shook the ghostly energy in the sky into churning waves.
"You bald donkey certainly know how to dress up your words!"
"In my eyes, these mortals are nothing but resources for cultivation. How are they any different from weeds in the mountains or livestock in the woods? It is only right and proper that I take what I need!"
The young monk Wuxiang gently shook his head. The trace of sorrow in his eyes gradually faded, replaced by a gleam of golden fury.
"Benefactor, you have slaughtered one city after another. You have sunk too deeply into evil!"
Bathed in golden light, the young monk Wuxiang gently shook his head and said no more.
Behind him, a thousand-foot-tall Vajra Dharma Image rose from the ground, with three heads, six arms, and eyes wide with wrath!
Sacred, majestic, and brimming with destructive power!
"Cheap tricks!"
Li Mingyuan spoke with disdain, but alarm bells were already ringing in his heart.
He violently shook the third-tier Ten Thousand Soul Banner in his hand.
"Ghost King, come forth!"
A Ghost King whose aura had reached the early Golden Core stage roared as it burst from the banner. Its enormous spectral body became a black shadow that lunged straight at Wuxiang.
Meanwhile.
Thousands of miles from Anyang Market, seven miles beneath the earth.
Inside a cramped cave abode excavated only recently, Zhao Hao emerged from his breath-concealment state.
Ten days had passed.
He assumed that the earlier disturbance should have long since died down.
What he did not know was that erasing the Soul-Chasing Seal and fleeing in the opposite direction to mislead his pursuer had thoroughly enraged a Golden Core powerhouse, unleashing a bloody storm across the Northern Lands as the man slaughtered several cities in succession.
Out of habit, he glanced at his system panel.
The next instant, his entire body froze.
[Status: Entangled by Causal Karma]
A line of blood-red text had abruptly appeared in the status field, exuding an ominous air.
Causality? Karma?
Zhao Hao's mind buzzed.
He was clearly hiding deep underground, cut off from the world. How could something so mysterious have attached itself to him out of nowhere?
The only possibility... was that Ten Thousand Soul Hall disciple I killed ten days ago!
I cleaned up everything, even used the system to destroy the Soul-Chasing Seal. How could this still happen?
Why would killing a Demonic Sect disciple saddle me with this?
A chill shot from the soles of Zhao Hao's feet straight to the crown of his head.
This feeling of having no control was more terrifying than any enemy he could see!
Above Anyang Market.
Facing the Golden Core Ghost King's overwhelming ferocity, Wuxiang merely formed a simple hand seal before his chest with one hand.
"Om mani padme hum!"
He chanted the mantra, and the thousand-foot Vajra Dharma Image behind him simultaneously raised an arm and struck out with its palm!
At the center of that enormous golden palm, a radiant Buddhist swastika seal appeared out of thin air, blasting out golden light!
Sssizzle—
The once-imperious Ghost King took the Buddhist seal squarely on the head and let out a scream of utter agony!
Its almost-solid spectral body dissolved in great swaths beneath the Buddhist light, like snow beneath a splash of hot oil. Billowing black smoke rose, and more than half its ferocious aura vanished in an instant!
"What?!" The savage grin froze on Li Mingyuan's face.
He had spent over a hundred years painstakingly refining this Ghost King from tens of thousands of living souls. Ordinary early Golden Core cultivators could only endure its beating helplessly!
Yet it could not withstand even a single move from this monk?
"The Great Sun Vajra Sutra?! You're no ordinary monk—you're the Buddhist scion of the Thousand Buddha Temple?!"
Li Mingyuan finally recognized the origin of his opponent's cultivation technique. All his confidence in facing an early-stage cultivator as a Golden Core middle-stage cultivator vanished.
This technique naturally suppressed a pure ghost cultivator like him!
No need to fight to the bitter end. Run!
That was the only thought left in Li Mingyuan's mind. He feinted, transformed into a streak of black vapor, and prepared to use a secret art to flee far away.
"Benefactor, why not return to the temple with me and discuss the Dao?"
Wuxiang had already seen through his intentions. He abruptly pressed his palms together.
The Vajra Dharma Image behind him made the same motion.
A minor divine ability, [Vajra Demon-Subduing Seal], thundered forth!
A golden palm imprint larger than a mountain instantly sealed off all space within a ten-mile radius. Leaving nowhere to dodge, it pressed down upon Li Mingyuan's head!
"A minor divine ability? You really are the Buddhist scion!!!"
The breath of death rushed toward him, and boundless madness surfaced in Li Mingyuan's eyes.
"Explode for me!"
At that critical moment, he roared and detonated the Golden Core Ghost King that the Buddhist light had grievously wounded!
Boom—
Terrifying energy comparable to a Golden Core cultivator's self-detonation exploded beneath the enormous golden palm imprint!
The Ghost King's soul was obliterated on the spot. Li Mingyuan was also struck hard by the divine ability's shock waves. He spat out a great mouthful of blood, his aura instantly weakening to its lowest ebb.
Wuxiang was about to drive his Dharma Image into one more strike and kill this fiend once and for all.
But just then, Li Mingyuan shot Wuxiang a venomous look, and a flash of grim resolve crossed his face.
He hurled the third-tier Magic Treasure, the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, which had already lost its principal Golden Core soul, straight at Anyang Market below!
The spiritual energy fluctuating across the banner was wildly unstable. He was actually going to detonate the Magic Treasure!
Wuxiang's palm strike toward Li Mingyuan faltered slightly, its power dropping a notch.
That brief hesitation was all it took!
Li Mingyuan mustered his last scrap of strength and barely blocked the blow.
But his already grievously wounded body could bear no more. With a thunderous burst, it broke apart inch by inch and exploded into a cloud of bloody mist!
At that very moment, a dimly glowing Golden Core shot out of the bloody mist with a Storage Bag in tow. It became a barely perceptible streak of blood and vanished into the horizon in an instant.
Wuxiang frowned at the sight. His Dharma Image extended its enormous hand and grabbed directly for the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, which was about to explode.
Boom!
The force of the Magic Treasure's self-detonation shattered even the Dharma Image's enormous palm, but Anyang Market was saved in the end.
Looking in the direction where the streak of blood had disappeared, Wuxiang sighed softly.
In a remote mountain range thousands of miles from Anyang Market.
A young cultivator who appeared to be only in his twenties, with a cultivation level of the ninth layer of Qi Refining, was racing through the woods.
Suddenly, a streak of blood shot into his body. He abruptly stiffened as an utterly icy will brutally invaded his sea of consciousness!
"No..."
The young cultivator's consciousness had only enough time to let out a mournful cry before it was completely devoured.
He toppled rigidly to the ground, convulsing violently.
A moment later, he slowly climbed to his feet.
Yet that young face now bore towering hatred and venom utterly at odds with his age and identity.
"Urgh!"
Li Mingyuan spat out a mouthful of blood. Feeling this pitifully weak Qi Refining body and the Golden Core whose spiritual radiance had dimmed from his forced escape, he could not suppress his hatred!
He ground his teeth and spoke one word at a time, his voice as hoarse as an evil ghost returned from hell.
"You bastard Zhao!!!"
"You bald donkey from the Thousand Buddha Temple!!!"
"Just you wait!!!"