Immortal Fate Laid Before Him

The ground trembled faintly.

Dou Sangu stared fixedly at the long-rotted, bone-exposed corpse, his face filled with disbelief.

Though the corpse already gave off a nauseating stench of rot, a great many Black Rat Dao Children refused to leave its side, endlessly calling, "Senior Brother."

His gaze inadvertently fell upon the verdant bamboo beside the corpse.

"Urgh."

Dou Sangu began to tremble. The sensation from his innate divine ability flickered in and out, yet it still brought with it the peril of impending death. He did not dare imagine what kind of existence he was facing!!

"Dou Sangu, you seem to know something?"

Yan Jing's threat was utterly undisguised. "Speak, or I'll tear you apart!"

With a flick of his wings, the gale rushing at him alone left Dou Sangu unable to move. Yet all of the latter's attention remained firmly fixed on the corpse.

Rumble...

The ground caved in, and rainwater pooled in the low-lying areas gurgled as it poured backward into the fissure.

Following Dou Sangu's gaze, Yan Jing looked at the corpse. At first, he took it for the remains of an ordinary mortal. It had decayed beyond recognition, its features already terribly blurred.

The next instant—

His pupils abruptly widened, and a chill crawled up his spine.

The corpse's outline and the proportions of its limbs gave him an intensely familiar feeling. He had clearly seen it before. It seemed to be... Wish-Fulfillment Abbey!!!

Yan Jing had naturally entered Wish-Fulfillment Abbey's main hall before, using the statues to determine which Immortal Ascension Sect disciples were present.

He had found it strange at the time. The statue worshipped in the center of the main hall should have been Three Incense Lady, yet for some reason, it had been replaced by another person who had not yet taken shape.

The features were blurred, but the outline could vaguely be identified as male.

Now, comparing it to the corpse in the corner of the courtyard, the startling resemblance practically leaped out.

BOOM!!

With a thunderous crash, a dark pit appeared in the ground.

Because it lay in the corner of the courtyard, the corpse remained unaffected. The Black Rat Dao Children gathered around it all cheered and leaped toward the pit, their cries growing ever more urgent.

Croak!!

Yan Jing soon saw the true form of the colossal creature: a giant frog a full four meters tall.

Frog Immortal Lord shook his head, and raindrops hanging in midair burst apart one after another.

While Yan Jing stood stunned, Dou Sangu had already scrambled and rolled into the coffin shop. Frog Immortal Lord's entire body emerged from the ground, nearly level with the shop's eaves.

What was impossible to comprehend was that Frog Immortal Lord wore a strangely styled Daoist robe.

Its front hung open. His skin was like rock carved with crisscrossing gullies, while his back was completely bare, covered in an uneven layer of scales as though he carried a miniature mountain on his back.

Frog Immortal Lord opened his vertical pupils and examined Yan Jing, carrying an unquestionable pressure.

Dou Sangu had thought Yan Jing would rely on his cultivation to fight head-on. Who would have thought that the instant he saw Frog Immortal Lord, his first reaction would be to turn around, flap his wings, and flee?

Grayish-brown feathered wings beat through the night sky, stirring up a wild gale. He was just about to burst out of the rear courtyard.

Croak!

Frog Immortal Lord opened his jaws. His mouth stretched to an utterly unnatural extent, and the depths of his throat seemed connected to a bottomless abyss. An unimaginable suction force suddenly erupted, forming a vortex of air.

Yan Jing's body immediately stalled. No matter how fiercely he beat his feathered wings, he could not rise into the air and fly away. Instead, the vortex dragged him down toward the ground.

"Fellow Daoist, I came here for the rat demon. I have no intention of becoming your enemy!"

Yan Jing was both shocked and enraged. Resisting the suction with all his might, he shouted urgently, "We have no quarrel between us. There's no need for us to fight to the death. How about this—I can help you earn a place on the golden list in the provincial examination."

"If your concern is Young Master Ling, I'll explain things on that end myself!!"

He spoke several sentences, only to discover that Frog Immortal Lord's sole response was always, "Croak."

Frog Immortal Lord looked somewhat irritated. This green-headed fly was simply too annoying.

A ridiculous thought suddenly arose in Yan Jing's heart. The demon beast before him had most likely never undergone the Children's Examination to gain intelligence. Otherwise, the transverse bone in its throat should have been refined away—how could it fail to utter even a single complete sentence of human speech?

In the blink of an eye, he steadied himself and stopped trying to force his way through. Borrowing the vortex's force, he flipped nimbly through the air and avoided Frog Immortal Lord's massive swinging palm.

After several probing exchanges amid twists and turns, none of his methods could break through Frog Immortal Lord's hide.

Yan Jing grew increasingly puzzled. The giant frog had almost no experience in combat; otherwise, he should have been defeated long ago.

Every movement it made was no different from an ordinary toad's, as though it had only begun cultivating not long ago.

Croak.

Frog Immortal Lord's reaction indirectly confirmed his guess. Its mouth began opening and closing with belated awareness, causing the suction enveloping Yan Jing to tighten and loosen by turns.

The airflow tore Yan Jing into disarray, sending him tumbling up and down in miserable fashion.

No, if this continued, he would inevitably grow more and more passive!

Venom flashed in Yan Jing's eyes, but it was not directed at Frog Immortal Lord, nor even at Dou Sangu. It was directed at Ling Jian, who had watched him sink into the mire without lifting a hand to save him.

"Go."

He opened his mouth and spat out a pure white feather, glimmering with the unique spiritual radiance of a magical artifact.

The feather tore through the air with a shrill whistle, stabbing straight at Frog Immortal Lord.

Frog Immortal Lord glanced at the corpse from the corner of his eye and deliberately turned his vulnerable belly toward the feather.

Pfft!

The feather sank more than halfway into his flesh before the wound clamped down on it tightly.

Seizing the fleeting opportunity, Yan Jing beat his wings with all his might and finally broke free of the vortex's restraints.

"Sure enough, I can't possibly die in a place like this. I still have to earn a place on the Golden List and take the metropolitan examination..."

Ribbit.

Frog Immortal Lord lowered his head to glance at the wound, then looked thoughtfully in the direction Yan Jing had fled.

Ribbit!

His narrow tongue shot forth like an arrow, instantly stretching over a hundred meters.

Yan Jing's eyes went wide as the tongue pierced straight through his chest.

Before he could even make a sound, immense force dragged him flying backward into the coffin shop.

Yan Jing's face was filled with despair. He continuously cursed Ling Jian—if Ling Jian had not feared offending the Prefect and refused to come here, why would he have died so rashly?

"None of you will die well either. Every last one of you will be buried with me."

Yan Jing let out a soundless laugh and used his remaining strength to take out a communication talisman. Yet he did not merely contact Ling Jian; every Demon Cultivator nearby taking part in the provincial examination received the thought.

"Blessed Life Coffin Shop has a true disciple of Three Incense Lady. Obtain them, and you can refine superior Transformation Pills!"

Yan Jing noticed that flesh buds had already begun sprouting from various parts of the corpse. Whatever the existence behind this was, he could surely drag those sons of officials and nobles down into the grave with him.

Frog Immortal Lord swallowed Yan Jing whole. With a roll of his throat, the backyard returned to tranquility.

He carefully removed the feather and swallowed the magical artifact as well.

As for the wound, he paid it no heed.

Not only was Frog Immortal Lord thick-skinned and tough-fleshed, he also possessed the Metamorphosis Immortal Art, second only to Ren Qing's. The wound had never been serious to begin with; once a layer of dead skin grew over it, it healed instantly.

He did not linger aboveground, silently burrowing back into the cave dwelling at the bottom of the well.

After staring blankly for a moment, the Black Rat Dao Children began filling in the pit.

Dou Sangu returned to the backyard. Watching the groups of Black Rat Dao Children muttering the words "work" over and over, he found it utterly absurd. Could there truly be an immortal behind all this?

But how could an immortal keep company with monsters? Just what was that person's origin?

He knew that now was the best time to escape, yet he also realized that an opportunity lay before him.

Or rather, an immortal opportunity lay before him.