Normal Art Style? It Was Clearly Even More Bizarre

Ren Qing sat before the desk, absently toying with a writing brush.

"My Dao heart is hard to calm. It seems this poor Daoist's cultivation is still too shallow."

The commotion in Wish-Fulfillment Abbey's main hall was escalating. Even if Song Baizhou did not die, he would have to shed a layer of skin, yet Ren Qing felt not the slightest joy in his heart.

"The Great Me Court... isn't me a homophone for yao?"

"Great demon."

Ren Qing murmured to himself. If it were merely an isolated case, that would be one thing. What he feared was that the imperial court had already been occupied by demons, ghosts, and monsters. The danger of this world would then be unimaginable.

"Boundless Heavenly Worthy, where the hell have you sent me? Is this still the immortal realm?"

The more Ren Qing thought about it, the more his scalp tingled. As a righteous immortal of the Daoist sect, he was in a Lion Camel Ridge crawling with demons and monsters, without a single fellow cultivator around him—only bizarre heterodox paths everywhere. He was risking his life as an undercover agent.

He had the illusion of being in the film Infernal Affairs, just one rooftop away from having Tony Leung point a gun at his head.

"If the Prefect truly is a Mountain Lord, one can only imagine how many tiger ghosts he has."

Water Mouth City fell under the jurisdiction of Three Rivers Prefecture. Though the prefecture was situated in a remote region, it governed more than a dozen towns and cities of varying sizes, with all affairs decided by the Prefect.

Ren Qing even suspected that every single yamen runner within Three Rivers Prefecture was a tiger ghost.

Had Ren Shanshi not mentioned it before? Those yamen runners had all died once before taking office, so their souls had most likely long since become tiger ghosts. They were merely suppressed by the Prefect, unable to burst from their bodies at once.

Ren Qing suddenly felt that people like Song Baizhou possessed nothing more than petty cleverness.

It was the cultivators hiding in the shadows and waiting for their chance who had truly realized the danger of the Immortality Ascension Assembly.

Ren Qing steadied his Dao heart. When faced with uncertainty, he needed to be even more decisive. His arrangements in Wish-Fulfillment Abbey could not be dragged out for careful deliberation; he had to act resolutely instead.

Once he missed the chance for rebirth through corpse liberation, who knew how much time would be wasted.

The candle flame on the desk swayed softly, and the shadows on the wall flickered between light and dark.

Ren Qing rose and left the coffin shop, heading straight for Wish-Fulfillment Abbey.

Wish-Fulfillment Abbey had already fallen into deathly silence, its main hall doors hanging wide open.

The tiger ghost crawled out on all fours, looking somewhat bedraggled. Its mouth was still constantly chewing something, but it did not linger, quickly vanishing into the darkness.

Compared to it, Song Baizhou's state could no longer be described with the word miserable.

The altar inside the hall had collapsed. Broken beams lay nearby. The immortal statue was mangled beyond recognition, with nearly half its body shattered, while yellow mud covered the ground.

Squeak, squeak, squeak.

More than a dozen Black Rat Dao Children crawled out through a hole in the corner of the wall.

They stood upright, gathering the immortal statue's remains and carrying them underground.

No one noticed that a heap of candles had been piled against the wall. The melted wax flowed together, forming a human face that silently surveyed the main hall.

"Song Baizhou has completely lost all hope of becoming immortal. His body and soul are gravely wounded, and he is not far from death."

His gaze fell upon the busy Black Rat Dao Children, wariness surfacing in his eyes. "Just who is this person, to act with such utter recklessness?"

Those black rats wore Daoist robes, and every movement they made carried an indescribable orderliness.

They felt far too... normal.

He had heard of immortal ascension methods involving harvesting children and mutilating bodies. All of them had been exceedingly strange and unfathomable.

"It has nothing to do with me."

The human face fell silent for a long while, its features gradually dissolving into the wax.

Whoosh.

The temperature abruptly soared.

Brilliant rosy light spilled in through the window and covered the wall, reducing the wooden boards to ashes.

"Damn it!"

The face twisted grotesquely and let out a howl. In an instant, the wax began to evaporate violently, and the pain that struck him felt as though it could tear his soul apart.

Before he could respond, nothing remained of the wax but wisps of green smoke curling upward.

At the same time, in an alley just beyond the abbey wall, a middle-aged man bent over and dry-heaved. His clothes were soaked through with wax, and blood streamed endlessly from his eyes.

"I nearly injured my soul. Why does this not feel like Three Incense Lady's lineage?"

The middle-aged Daoist had not run far before stopping with a grim expression.

On top of the wall at the end of the alley perched a sparrow.

The middle-aged man's heart clenched. The sparrow was likewise wearing a Daoist robe, its black-bean eyes staring straight at him, with a Yellow Mud Eye between its brows.

"Who exactly are you?!"

He could not help crying out. The true immortal behind Water Mouth City's Immortality Ascension Assembly was Three Incense Lady.

Three Incense Lady possessed thirty-six types of lineages, generally all connected to red-and-white rituals. Yet the techniques displayed by the other party seemed to have nothing to do with them at all.

There was not even a trace of the Immortal Ascension Sect to be seen.

The middle-aged man was extremely wary, yet he saw the two Black Rat Dao Children extend their claws and swiftly scratch across the rough wall, leaving behind a line of crooked writing.

"How should I address you?"

The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment before finally answering.

"Daoist Beisu."

He retreated several steps, keeping his distance from the mice and sparrows, his palms already slick with cold sweat.

The Black Rat Dao Children did not stop moving their claws, carving another line of words.

"How many people are at the Immortal Ascension Assembly?"

"I'm not sure." Daoist Beisu hesitated before continuing, "If those who recently entered the sect aren't counted, there should be eleven or twelve people close to ascending to immortality."

Ren Qing was somewhat surprised. These unorthodox cultivators had hidden themselves remarkably well, one after another.

"When will the Mountain Lord arrive?"

"In about ten days. Once the yamen runners are all dead, it means the Prefect has entered within ten li."

Daoist Beisu gritted his teeth and said, "I don't know what your purpose is, but obstructing fellow practitioners from ascending to immortality will only make the Immortal Ascension Assembly harder and harder to bring to an end."

Ren Qing ignored Daoist Beisu's warning and had the Black Rat Dao Children continue carving.

"How are immortals classified?"

Disbelief tinged Daoist Beisu's voice. "I only know of Yin Immortals, True Immortals, and Mysterious Immortals."

The moment he finished speaking, the Black Rat Dao Children had already rubbed away every trace of the writing.

Then, together with the Sparrow Dao Children, they scattered in all directions. In the blink of an eye, Daoist Beisu was the only one left in the alley.

Daoist Beisu stood frozen in place, but a stormy sea had already risen in his heart.

First Zhou Can, then Song Baizhou—would disaster befall him when he ascended to immortality as well?

And he did not even understand the Immortal Ascension Sect?

Still, one thing was certain: this person had not ascended to immortality either.

"Could it be... he was deliberately muddying the waters?!!"

Daoist Beisu suddenly slapped his forehead. In a flash of inspiration, his earlier confusion seemed to have found an answer.

"How could he not be from the Immortal Ascension Sect? But whoever stands behind him is definitely not the Three Incense Lady."

Fear filled his brow. "This man's techniques are absolutely not as simple as they appear. The mice and sparrows were most likely reconstructed from the flesh and bones of mortals."

Daoist Beisu suddenly understood. The existence behind them had to be an evil immortal.

A chill instantly shot up his spine and straight into the crown of his head. Thinking of the Yellow Mud Eye between the Sparrow Dao Child's brows, he feared that this person had targeted Song Baizhou in order to obtain yellow mud to refine a magical artifact. His disposition was utterly vicious.

And that dazzling streak of rosy light—it could actually injure the divine consciousness.

That likely meant it had been refined from a vast number of mortal souls, which was why it brimmed with stray thoughts. Even throughout the Immortal Ascension Sect, few people were so utterly unscrupulous.

Hiss.

Daoist Beisu had not fled far before he felt increasingly creeped out, his breathing growing heavy.

It was as if a gaze in the darkness had been coveting him all along.

"Even if I have to delay my ascension, I cannot fall into this man's hands. A cultivator with methods so frenzied and inhuman would make it impossible to live, impossible to die."

Bang.

Daoist Beisu exploded into molten wax and forcibly fled.