"By decree, deliver these souls; swiftly, swiftly grant them rebirth. By decree, deliver these souls; swiftly, swiftly grant them rebirth..."
Across the Chang Kong Sea, the officiants at the grand offering altars chanted incantations and scriptures, bringing the vast incense-burning ceremony to a close one after another.
Yet the incense essence still drifted everywhere, and far-reaching changes were quietly taking place.
Time gradually passed. As night fell, darkness settled over heaven and earth.
On an unnamed island in the southern seas, the sea breeze blew gently through a dilapidated fishing village, carrying an inexplicable presence.
Under the moonlight, waist-high weeds filled the ruined farmhouse courtyards. The sparse leafy shadows of nearby trees swayed gently in the evening breeze.
White bones lay scattered through the abandoned courtyards, and ghostfire drifted about, as though telling of endless loneliness.
Ever since two unorthodox cultivators of the demonic path had attacked more than ten years ago and slaughtered every mortal on the island in one fell swoop, no living person had set foot here.
Such tragedies were commonplace throughout the East Sea. The righteous path lacked the strength to address them individually and could only prioritize the larger towns and cities.
Yet amid these crumbling walls, light suddenly shimmered, and an uncanny radiance enveloped everything.
All the ruin and desolation vanished, replaced by the fishing village as it had once been.
Then figures appeared one after another, seemingly floating on the wind as they followed the inexplicable fragrance to a corner at the village entrance.
Any living person who wandered here by accident would have been terrified out of their wits by the sight, for these figures were all hideous, semitransparent ghostly silhouettes.
Some had charred bodies, some bled from all seven orifices, some lacked limbs, and others had been flayed or had their