At those words, Ruan Meizhen was the first to blanch.
Her family and relatives were still in Heavenly Shield City, so she was naturally frantic with worry. Even Lian Jingze's lips trembled. "What... what exactly is happening?"
Cui Pinyuan, a rogue cultivator, knitted his brows tightly. He worried only about their present predicament, not whether the hundreds of thousands of mortals in Heavenly Shield City lived or died.
Chen Jian felt the same. "There are enormous numbers of demon spirits, far more than those gathered in Tamu Town."
Through the yin ghost's eyes, he saw demon spirits of various ranks lurking around all four gates of Heavenly Shield City, devouring any mortal who dared leave.
The shrieks of demon spirits rang endlessly through the streets and houses.
Many cultivators from Heavenly Shield City, along with reinforcements who had hurried over from nearby, were locked in fierce battles against demon spirits throughout the city. The fighting was far more intense and brutal than in Tamu Town.
Mortals were dying, but cultivators were the finest nourishment in the demon spirits' eyes, so most of the spirits were feeding on cultivators.
The towering Demon Mountain where Teng Kun held his ground rumbled without cease. Clear tremors of energy came from within, showing that Teng Kun was not idle either.
He was likely Heavenly Shield City's strongest combatant. Eliminating him was the demon spirits' foremost objective, so naturally, he faced the greatest pressure.
Zhao Changfeng's relaxed state of mind shattered in an instant.
He had thought that after escaping Tamu Town, everything would be smooth sailing. Who could have imagined Heavenly Shield City was even worse?
Hundreds of thousands of mortals currently lived in Heavenly Shield City, and it was territory under the Crippled Demon Sect's jurisdiction. Every disciple of the sect had a duty they could not shirk.
The Demon Mountain had not ceased its activity for even a moment. Teng Kun had failed to notice them, and clearly knew just how dangerous Heavenly Shield City had become.
What should they do?
Charge into Heavenly Shield City and join forces with everyone to resist the increasingly fierce demon spirit tide, or quietly return to the sect's headquarters?
The situation was impossibly thorny, and Zhao Changfeng's mind immediately fell into turmoil.
"When third-rank demon spirits appeared in large numbers, I knew something was wrong. I never expected..."
Chen Jian rubbed his temples, privately regretting ever coming to the Sola Desert. He sighed. "Senior Teng is a great cultivator of the Six Tribulations Realm. The demon spirits surrounding him must be fifth-rank!"
"Fifth-rank demon spirits actually crossed the world membrane! Either something has gone terribly wrong with it, or powerful cultivators among us carried the demon spirits out within their own flesh and blood!"
"Song Zejun!"
"Zhou Jin!"
When he mentioned those two names, Chen Jian became genuinely furious, and even Zhao Changfeng was caught in that anger.
His gaze at Zhao Changfeng carried a bone-eroding chill, like the Earth Yin Cold Spring deep underground.
From their conversations along the way, Zhao Changfeng already knew how difficult it was for high-rank demon spirits to cross the world membrane. Without bodies of flesh and blood, demon spirits composed purely of energy could scarcely pass through it into the realms of the ordered region, even at a terribly painful cost.
Either some earth-shaking change had occurred in the world membrane, or high-realm human cultivators had willingly carried them within their flesh and blood.
Song Zejun and his wife were great cultivators of the Three Calamities Realm, and they were clearly colluding with demon spirits. Who else could it have been?
"It has nothing to do with me."
Sensing Chen Jian's anger, Zhao Changfeng immediately sat down where he stood. "Give me a moment to think this through!"
He immersed his mind in the original owner's memories, recalling every conversation between the couple, every subtle expression on their faces, and all their behavior.
Zhao Changfeng feared overlooking even the smallest detail.
He too sensed that something was terribly wrong. He kept feeling there was something he had failed to understand, and that the entire affair was riddled with peculiarities.
Song Zejun and his wife could escape by feigning death, yet they had given the Soul-Pacifying Bead to Song Ziyan, pinning their hopes on her and expecting her to act when Teng Kun entered the world membrane.
Yet fragments of both their souls clearly existed inside the Soul-Pacifying Bead. Why had they entrusted those soul fragments to it?
Now that they had appeared again, with their own souls still inhabiting their bodies, why had they not combined the fragments in the bead with the souls that had escaped, returning to their bodies with complete souls?
Scene after remembered scene flashed through Zhao Changfeng's mind as he painstakingly sorted through them.
Soon, he noticed clues he had previously overlooked.
The original owner had been far too dull, the most simple and honest of all the disciples. When facing him, Song Zejun and his wife had not bothered to conceal much of their expressions or behavior.
In front of Ning Luo, their eldest disciple Lv Yang, their daughter Song Ziyan, Lin Xingyan, and the others, the couple had looked worried all day long, as though they constantly feared Teng Kun's arrival with the Demon Mountain.
But whenever those people were absent, and the original owner served the couple their meals and other necessities instead, much of the worry between their brows would dissipate.
Considering the couple's recent behavior, Zhao Changfeng became certain they had been acting even in front of their own daughter, feigning anxiety over the impending arrival of the Demon Mountain.
Since they were neither anxious nor desperate, they must have laid their plans before taking action, devising the entire scheme well in advance.
Zhao Changfeng even suspected they had been waiting for Teng Kun and the Demon Mountain to arrive. They might have spread the news themselves.
Why had Teng Kun come?
The Soul-Pacifying Bead!
Knowing something had gone wrong with the world membrane, Teng Kun should have rushed there immediately. He had delayed only because he heard the Soul-Pacifying Bead was in the couple's possession.
The couple escaped by feigning death, and nearly all their disciples died. What had been the ultimate result?
Teng Kun obtained the Soul-Pacifying Bead!
"The Soul-Pacifying Bead!"
A shock thundered through Zhao Changfeng, leaving his scalp tingling.
Drawing on all those clues, his recent understanding of the couple, and the tightly interlocking events of the demon spirit tide unfolding now, he suspected something was wrong with that Soul-Pacifying Bead!
Spread word that they possessed the Soul-Pacifying Bead, lure Teng Kun into coming to seize it, then have Song Ziyan swallow it.
Song Ziyan could never escape. All the disciples would inevitably be abducted into the Demon Mountain.
With Teng Kun's methods, there was an extremely high chance he would dig out the Soul-Pacifying Bead, even before he entered the world membrane!
Based on the methods the couple had displayed, Zhao Changfeng privately reasoned that if they were determined to put the Soul-Pacifying Bead in Teng Kun's hands, they naturally had countless ways to do so-and to leave Teng Kun utterly convinced.
Sacrificing their daughter Song Ziyan and expending both soul fragments served only to win Teng Kun's trust and keep him from suspecting anything.
The Soul-Pacifying Bead probably did genuinely pacify the soul. But at some critical moment, it should be able to unleash an unexpected effect, killing Teng Kun after he had repeatedly used it to suppress his inner demons.
"If that really is the case, their plotting is vicious and far-reaching indeed. Teng Kun will never escape."
His own conjecture frightened Zhao Changfeng into a cold sweat.
He silently pondered a little longer, then, finding it highly likely, could not help asking, "Suppose Song Zejun and his wife, along with even higher-rank demon spirits, are actually targeting my master, Teng Kun. If my master dies at their hands, what can the high-rank demon spirits gain?"
Cui Pinyuan and Ruan Meizhen blanched.
Neither had even dared consider such a possibility in depth, and both looked at him with very strange expressions.
Chen Jian reacted swiftly. "A high-rank demon spirit could devour Senior Teng's Six Tribulations Realm primordial spirit, successfully advance to the next rank, and move about the Lingyao Realm under his identity."
After a pause, he too asked in horror, "Zhao Changfeng, what are you suspecting?"
"High-rank demon spirits are fundamentally different from low-rank ones. Their intelligence is no less than ours. Rumor has it that in another realm, a high-rank demon spirit successfully possessed the body of a great human cultivator. Concealing its identity, it slowly devoured every demonic cultivator in the entire sect, nearly unleashing a calamity that would have engulfed the heavens!"
Chen Jian's expression changed drastically.
Zhao Changfeng's heart trembled. "I suspect that is exactly what Song Zejun and his wife, and those high-rank demon spirits besieging my master, are plotting!"
Chen Jian cried urgently, "What evidence do you have?!"
Zhao Changfeng immediately explained the basis of his deductions and the couple's various deliberate actions, detailing them one by one.
When he finished, Zhao Changfeng added, "I'm not completely certain, but I think it's extremely likely! If the high-rank demon spirits really pull this off, Heavenly Shield City's destruction will be the least of our worries. I'm afraid..."
For the first time, Chen Jian lost his composure, becoming as fearful and uneasy as Zhao Changfeng. "The Demon Mountain is above Heavenly Shield City, too far from my yin ghost, and there's a distance limit on its communication with me. I can risk trying to pass on a message, but we have to enter Heavenly Shield City!"
The stakes were enormous. If things truly were as Zhao Changfeng predicted, the consequences were unimaginable.
But if he could deliver the message and help Teng Kun survive this calamity, then report it to the Ghost-Controlling Sect afterward, Chen Jian would earn tremendous merit!
Chen Jian, who had always acted timidly and had been the first to suggest fleeing when things turned bad in Tamu Town, actually wanted to take a gamble this time.
"Follow me into Heavenly Shield City!"
Chen Jian shook the Yin Ghost Spirit-Seizing Banner and was the first to charge toward Heavenly Shield City.
Once he moved, Cui Pinyuan, who had pinned all his hopes on him, had no choice but to follow, willing or not.
"We both have our demon tokens on us. If Master thinks to check, he can tell where we are..."
Ruan Meizhen reminded him softly.
"Move!"
Without another word, Zhao Changfeng shouldered his wooden chest, picked up his demon saber, and immediately followed.
Heavenly Shield City was already a scene of utter devastation. Mortals desperate to escape crowded around the gates, but all lay collapsed in different places, their faces contorted.
The demon spirits' piercing shrieks resounded through every corner of the city.
Weeping, metallic whistles of power erupting from artifacts, the crash of stone and wooden objects smashed during flight, people's bizarre cries of despair before death... sounds rose from every district.
The instant the four charged inside, they plunged into a battlefield of slaughter.
Ruan Meizhen and Cui Pinyuan each used secret arts to reveal the demon spirits. Zhao Changfeng swung his saber and killed, harvesting more demon cores and replenishing the willpower within him.
"We're still too far away! Keep going!"
Relying on his connection with the yin ghost, Chen Jian clutched the banner and charged desperately forward. "When I concentrate on directing the yin ghost to deliver the message, you must keep me safe!"
"All right!"
The three agreed in unison.
They knew whether Chen Jian could deliver the message would determine Heavenly Shield City's survival, as well as everyone's lives. Even when they saw mortals and other demonic cultivators trapped amid demon spirits along the way, they ignored them.
In a narrow alley.
A man and a woman stood side by side, calmly blocking the four's path.
The man wore a gentle smile, while the woman was poised and elegant.
They were none other than Song Zejun and his wife.
Zhao Changfeng's scalp instantly tingled. Helplessness welled up in him, and bitterness inevitably showed on his face.
Ruan Meizhen and Cui Pinyuan were likewise chilled to the bone. They knew they had encountered the most terrifying people possible, and their chances of surviving this venture had likely become slim.
"Leave these two to me. You only need to fend off the demon spirits!"
Chen Jian snorted coldly.
His paper-thin lips instantly turned a ghastly white, and he seemed to transform into a vicious yin ghost in the blink of an eye.
Whoosh!
The Yin Ghost Spirit-Seizing Banner stirred up a ring of eerie flowing light. Yin ghosts streamed endlessly out of it, merging in an instant into a one-eyed evil ghost.
An icy, sinister, hellish aura spread, turning the surrounding several miles into a haunted domain.
Burial mounds appeared from nowhere, drifting around the Yin Ghost Spirit-Seizing Banner and continually overlapping and merging.
"You!"
At that moment, Ruan Meizhen and Cui Pinyuan looked at Chen Jian as though they were truly looking at a sinister evil ghost.
"The Three Calamities Realm, and not merely its early stage. Impressive."
Song Zejun's smile vanished, and his expression grew unusually grave.
Zhao Changfeng froze for a moment, then could not stop himself from cursing. "Chen Jian, you motherfucker!"