First Layer, an unnamed town:
Wang Quan recited the People-Crossing Scripture, cleansing one evil entity after another.
But once he had cleansed fifty, the evil entities here stopped weakening and began growing stronger instead.
A single palace maiden could no longer pin an evil entity down. It took two.
When he had cleansed sixty, the remaining evil entities suddenly burst apart, turning into billowing black smoke that tangled together and formed a gigantic tornado.
The tornado of black smoke spun, and a vortex appeared in the ground.
Then an evil entity with three heads and a hundred arms crawled out.
The instant Wang Quan saw it, his first thought was to leave the First Layer.
Yet when he willed it, this layer did not reject him.
He willed it again, reaching out to his physical body, intending to return.
A wisp of blue smoke crossed through space and appeared around him.
If he wished, his Yin Spirit could return in an instant.
But just then, the three-headed, hundred-armed evil entity growled, "Don't go. Save me!"
Wang Quan said, "Huh?"
What was going on?
An evil entity asking for help?
Boom!
The three-headed, hundred-armed evil entity knelt on the ground, pounding the earth madly. "Save me!"
Something stirred in Wang Quan's heart, and he recited the People-Crossing Scripture again.
Only this time, he chose this strange evil entity as his target.
Bili bili!
Jili gulu!
He finished reciting a hundred lines of the People-Crossing Scripture.
The next second, a hundred strands of Dharma Power vanished into thin air.
Then the hundred-armed evil entity let out a wail. A pair of arms disappeared, leaving him with ninety-eight.
He wailed, "Keep reciting! Save me!"
"Please!"
This was the first time Wang Quan had encountered an evil entity like this, and he became even more engrossed in his recitation.
Bili bili!
Jili gulu!
As Wang Quan continued reciting, the hundred-armed general had fewer and fewer arms.
At first, each recitation of the scripture removed one pair of arms.
But after two or three recitations, each removed two pairs, then three, then four...
As pair after pair of limbs disappeared, the twisted hundred-armed general gradually began to look somewhat human.
The First-Turn Outer Elixir released medicinal aura, which took on a tongue-like form and replenished Wang Quan's Dharma Power.
As time passed, the space of the First Layer began to shake.
By now, the hundred-armed general had only three heads and six arms left.
When Wang Quan recited the scripture again, the Three-Headed, Six-Armed General no longer lost arms. Instead, his body began shrinking.
He bowed to Wang Quan again in gratitude. "Thank you, benefactor, for saving me from the sea of suffering!"
Wang Quan recited the People-Crossing Scripture once more, and the Three-Headed, Six-Armed General shrank to the size of a child.
"Were you human before?"
The Three-Headed, Six-Armed General sighed. "I was the general of the Great Yan Empire's ninth border pass. Later, I fought an enemy nation and unfortunately died in battle."
"Then they buried me here, along with the many troops under my command."
"When I awoke, I discovered that my troops, the ordinary people I once protected, and I had all become strange things."
"I still retained a little reason."
"But they had only their memories of the past, with no independent awareness."
"All they knew was how to eat people."
"Now that you've saved me today, they too have turned to dust and smoke along with me!"
Understanding dawned on Wang Quan. "So that's what happened!"
The Three-Headed, Six-Armed General bowed to Wang Quan in gratitude again, then finally said, "You saved me, benefactor, and I have no way to repay you. Let me teach you the Unorthodox Art I learned in the past!"
As he spoke, he wrote over a hundred Dao characters in midair.
Wang Quan stared at them, dumbfounded.
The content recorded in these Dao characters was exceedingly strange.
It was unlike any spell or Fundamental Method he knew.
"This spell..."
At that moment, the Three-Headed, Six-Armed General pleaded, "Please continue reciting the scripture, benefactor. Let me disappear."
"I don't want to remain imprisoned here in a muddled haze anymore."
With no time to ponder the so-called Unorthodox Art the general had taught him, Wang Quan continued reciting the People-Crossing Scripture.
Bili bili!
Jili gulu!
Once...
Three times...
Five times...
The Three-Headed, Six-Armed General became an infant, then dissipated little by little.
The next second, as the general disappeared, Wang Quan felt the space around him shudder. Then he appeared in the hall.
At that moment:
He saw that the hall was packed with Yin Spirit cultivators.
There were even over a hundred cultivators who had come in their physical bodies.
Now, everyone was staring at him in astonishment.
Wang Quan looked down and discovered that his body was shrouded in hazy purple qi.
"What's happened to me?"
Before he could figure it out, the hall split open with a crack, like a flower bud blooming.
Walls bearing Daoist Scriptures spread out in every direction, becoming the ground.
The next second, everyone saw illusory towers rise from the earth, one after another.
"This is the Dormitory Complex corresponding to the Lower Court!"
A Yin Spirit exclaimed excitedly, "The Great Tomb has disappeared!"
"The Drowning Dao Lower Court's outpost has finally gained another building. The Lower Court is safer now!"
The many Yin Spirits rose into the air, circling in excitement.
With a thought, Wang Quan sent his Yin Spirit into the air as well to watch the buildings take shape.
Yet as soon as he rose, he discovered that the many Yin Spirits and cultivators in their physical bodies were staring fixedly at him.
Then he noticed strands of purple qi trailing down from his body.
Like tongues of flame, the purple qi descended into some of the Yin Spirits and cultivators in their physical bodies.
Some received tongues of flame as thick as great beams; others received ones as slender as toothpicks.
Another two-thirds of the tongues of flame shot away through the air, flying off to who knew where.
Everyone was bewildered.
Even the cultivators in their physical bodies did not understand.
"What is this stuff?"
Their excitement gave way to alarm, and they hurriedly questioned Wang Quan.
Wang Quan shook his head. "After I delivered that Grand General and he disappeared, these things appeared on me."
"Perhaps this is the Grand General's gift?"
"Or the Great Tomb's gift?"
"Or... a gift from this Second-Layer World?"
He tossed out guesses at random.
At that, the group of cultivators in their physical bodies burst into laughter. "So the legends are true!"
"As long as you can cleanse an anomalous site in the Second-Layer World and allow the corresponding building in the present world to be fully reflected here, you'll receive benefits."
"This purple qi-like stuff is the benefit."
"Once your Yin Spirits return to your physical bodies, you'll understand naturally."
Aside from Wang Quan, these cultivators in their physical bodies were the group that had received the most purple qi.
Amid their delight, their gazes toward Wang Quan were filled with envy and jealousy.
The purple qi on Wang Quan's body was three or four times more abundant than that of the person who had received the most among them.
And the one with the most purple qi among them had already labored in the Great Tomb for over fifty years.
Yet Wang Quan was a newcomer. How many days had he been in the Great Tomb?
His gains were already three or four times greater than the benefits they had earned through forty or fifty years of struggle.
It truly left them green with envy, jealousy, and resentment!
"If only I'd had the luck to comprehend the People-Crossing Scripture."
"I've mastered twenty thousand scrolls of Daoist Scriptures. Why haven't I comprehended the People-Crossing Scripture either?"
Something stirred in Wang Quan's heart, and he thought to himself, Because you haven't mastered the [First-Rank Dao Seal]!
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