Land of All Beings

Lu Mian merely smiled at the sight and said nothing.

He had experienced hunger far worse than theirs.

It had been the night the Starved Ghost appeared.

Affected by its corpse transformation, Lu Mian had been so hungry that he had even wanted to eat his own flesh.

Had his will not been strong enough to force himself to slap his own face, he probably would not have survived until now.

Just then, Lu Mian's own dried meat finished roasting.

He tore off the fragrant, charred meat and put it into his mouth, chewing.

Lu Mian looked a little more refined than the others as he ate, but his chewing speed was bizarre.

In barely two or three breaths, he had finished the entire strip of dried meat.

Then he clapped his hands and stood up. "All right, now that you've had your fill, it's time I sent you on your way."

"I really am too merciful. I even let you die on full stomachs."

His words silenced the entire dilapidated sitting room.

The refugees stopped gnawing on their dried meat and stared at Lu Mian with eerie eyes.

Their faces turned deathly pale, their gazes filled with hatred and malice.

"Why did we have to die while you're still alive?"

"Why?!"

The Cross-Eyed Man roared and sprang from the ground, turning into a blur as he lunged at Lu Mian.

Bang!

Lu Mian raised his right leg and drove a vicious kick into the man's chest!

Unable to dodge, the Cross-Eyed Man had his entire chest blasted apart by Lu Mian's overwhelming strength and flew backward like a rag.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

The other refugees lunged at him like vicious wolves.

Lu Mian had already drawn the Great Cleaver from his back. The muscles in his arms tightened, unleashing a surge of strength that drove the blade through a savage arc of pale light.

A cold white gleam seemed to sweep through the air.

Fierce Tiger Sweeps the Forest!

The refugees howled as Lu Mian sent every one of them flying with his slash.

"Die, all of you!"

Lu Mian's eyes brimmed with cold brutality as he swung the Great Cleaver and pressed his attack!

These refugee Weird Beings were no match for him. As his blade whistled through the air, they fell beneath it one after another.

With his blood qi as vigorous as it was now, Lu Mian did not even need Talisman Water to kill these Evil Spirits and Weird Beings that had yet to enter a realm!

Finally, only the Triangular-Eyed Man remained.

"Why?!"

"Why?!"

Seething with venomous hatred, the Triangular-Eyed Man attacked with his claws!

"There is no why!" Lu Mian's voice was ice-cold. Before the man's ghostly claws could descend, the Great Cleaver hacked savagely into his neck.

Squelch!

The Triangular-Eyed Man's head flew into the air.

Yet he was clearly the fiercest of the lot. Even after Lu Mian's blade severed his head and blood qi seared it, he still had not fully died.

But in the next instant, Lu Mian's large hand swept out and caught his head.

Subduing the Waves, Calming the Sea!

Tortoise-Snake Force could be hard or soft.

Besides, Lu Mian had already reached minor mastery in Iron Shirt.

The power of that palm strike was easy to imagine-it was like a colossal surge rising from the sea!

Bang!

The terrifyingly fierce force smashed the head into pulp, which dissolved into countless wisps of black mist.

This time, Lu Mian chose not to absorb any weird evil power.

These creatures had not looked particularly strong.

"Five kills in one night... not bad."

"I've met my target ahead of schedule."

Lu Mian took out the Evil-Sensing Talisman and looked at the five black dots that had appeared on its paper, thoroughly satisfied.

He only needed five more kills to complete this month's assignment.

Naturally, he wanted to finish the assignment in a single night, then return to Thousand Chimes Commandery City to cultivate.

He sat back down beside the fire.

Taking out his waterskin of Talisman Water, he wiped down the surface of the Great Cleaver.

Just then, he heard footsteps outside again.

"Hmm..."

He looked up.

Several figures came in through the wind and snow.

They seemed to be refugees as well-five people, four men and one woman, all dressed in ragged clothes.

But Lu Mian frowned slightly.

This group was unlike the Cross-Eyed Man's group.

They were not Evil Spirits or Weird Beings, but living people.

Having reached blood-qi perfection, Lu Mian possessed a powerful physique, and even his senses were far sharper than an ordinary person's.

When the Cross-Eyed Man's group entered, Lu Mian had noticed that they had no heartbeats, and their footsteps were clearly wrong.

Yet he detected nothing strange about this group.

No... the only strange thing was their demeanor, which felt somewhat familiar.

"Sorry to disturb you."

A short old man with a shriveled face spotted Lu Mian and apologized.

"This isn't my home. Anyone can come in to shelter from the wind and snow."

Lu Mian shook his head as he spoke.

The old man smiled and nodded.

Rather than come over to share Lu Mian's fire, the group gathered a pile of dry branches and lit their own fire in the middle of the sitting room.

Then they took out their food.

It was things like unleavened flatbread.

"Young man, are you hungry?"

"We can share some with you."

The old man spoke warmly.

"No need..."

"I've already eaten my fill."

Lu Mian raised a hand in refusal.

At that moment, he finally understood why their demeanor felt so familiar.

Seeing that Lu Mian did not look hungry, the old man said nothing more.

Lu Mian remained in his corner, seemingly resting with his eyes closed, but in truth he was observing the group.

He wanted to see what they would do next.

Before long.

The old man and his companions had all filled their stomachs.

Their expressions turned solemn. They sat cross-legged around the fire, supporting their right hands with their left while forming a strange seal with their right hands.

"Heaven has no sun or moon; earth has no mountains or rivers."

"Crimson Brightness Calamity, great void wish..."

They chanted an ancient, mysterious passage of scripture.

Lu Mian could barely make out a few words, for the cadence of the scripture was far too strange.

It sounded more like murmured gibberish, every word indistinct.

But the more indistinct it was, the less he could make out, the more Lu Mian wanted to listen.

He wanted to hear exactly what the hell these people were chanting.

As Lu Mian's mind sank deeper into the scripture, he failed to realize that he was entering a dangerous state.

His mind began to grow hazy.

He seemed to see a terrifying apocalypse.

The sun and moon vanished, and all manner of horrifying disasters ravaged the world.

Floods, earthquakes, falling meteors...

Countless people died amid screams of agony.

Even Lu Mian's mind was affected, filling with utter despair and hopelessness.

"Great Void Snake Mother, Land of All Beings..."

Suddenly, countless murmured prayers battered Lu Mian's mind.

At that moment, however, a sense of peace settled within him.

Back in the real world, Lu Mian came to his senses.

When he opened his eyes, he found the old man and his companions all staring at him.

Their gazes were eerie and unsettling.

"What is the Great Void Snake Mother... and where is the Land of All Beings?"

Lu Mian asked aloud.

At his words, their gazes immediately softened and filled with warmth.

"Come over here, young man."

"I'll explain it all to you."

The scrawny old man beckoned.

Without hesitation, Lu Mian rose, walked over to their fire, and sat down.