True Baleful Intent, Concealing Both Body and Name

"All right. Why do you frighten the little ones every year?"

As Fang Shu and the others' hearts trembled, the statue between the two human-bodied, ghost-faced figures atop the altar inside the temple slowly opened its eyes. Its horns were rugged like coral, and its face was that of a deer.

As it spoke and breathed, the breath from its mouth shone in five colors. Compared with the other statues around it, it possessed several traces of immortal air.

After the deer-headed immortal spoke, the other immortals in the temple muttered a few words and stopped mocking them.

It sized up Fang Shu and the others, then called out, "I am Deer Cart, humbly serving as the temple's chief steward. Today, you nine have risen above the outer disciples. Your virtue is commendable, and you have rendered merit and service to this temple. You may be promoted to the inner sect."

As soon as those words fell, the five-colored mist curling from Immortal Deer Cart's nose and mouth shot forth, transforming into nine strands of five-colored thread that drilled into the waist tokens of Fang Shu and the other nine.

Their tokens buzzed and trembled, their colors immediately changing into an ancient, simple fivefold hue. The three raised characters "Five Viscera Temple" also emerged upon them.

"From this day onward, you are introductory disciples of this temple. When walking abroad, you may fly this temple's banner, save the world and its people, subdue demons, and vanquish devils."

After Immortal Deer Cart finished speaking in a stiff, formal manner, it slowly closed its eyes.

Once it closed its eyes, the two statues beside it, one resembling an ox-headed figure and the other a goat-headed figure, spoke in turn:

"This is the baleful-nurturing method passed down directly by this temple. Once you