A 300-square-meter hall came into view, with blood-red flags hanging on the four walls, each embroidered with a distorted Holy Cult emblem.
A huge sacrificial array was carved into the ground, with dark red liquid flowing through the patterns, slowly writhing as if it were alive.
At the innermost part of the hall, a long obsidian table lay across the room, covered with exquisite silver cutlery and crystal glasses. However, the dishes on the table did not contain ordinary delicacies, but rather some kind of bright red meat, with an eerie fluorescent sheen on its surface.
The leader was dressed entirely in black, obscuring his face and making it impossible to see his features.
On either side of the table, four figures dressed in white robes with silver patterns were raising their cups to drink.
Their hoods were pulled up to above their noses, revealing pale, chapped lips with dark red wine stains at the corners of their mouths.
"The Holy Spirit lives forever..." A voice hoarse from the left raised a goblet, the liquid inside as thick as blood. "Offer my flesh and blood to the Holy Emperor, in exchange for the immortality of my religion!"
"The Holy Spirit lives forever!" the others quickly echoed, tilting their heads back and drinking it all in one gulp. As their Adam's apples bobbed, the wine dripped down their chins, leaving a dark stain on their silver-patterned white robes.
Toji, who had sneaked in, frowned and hid in a corner.
"I never expected to stumble upon the stronghold of the Holy Spirit Cult."
He felt his luck had improved a lot recently.
Since acquiring the attribute of the Auspicious Beast, everything he does has gone incredibly smoothly, as if even the heavens are on his side.
Even Toji never expected that upon entering Mingdu, he would encounter the Holy Spirit Cult.
As I pondered, I heard their whispers again:
May the Holy Emperor live ten thousand years, and may the Holy Maiden's celestial beauty remain forever!
"... He's gone mad."
Toji peeked out again and began to judge their cultivation levels based on the Soul Power fluctuations emanating from them.
"The one sitting at the head of the table should be an elder. To become an elder, Soul Saint cultivation level is essential, which means there is only one Soul Saint present."
"The others are all basic members of the Holy Spirit Cult, and their cultivation levels should be around Soul Emperor."
"Four Soul Emperor, one Soul Saint..." Toji calculated their overall combat strength. "If we were to engage in a direct confrontation with them, as long as the Soul Saint couldn't unleash his Martial Soul Avatar, there would be basically no suspense. But if he did unleash his Martial Soul Avatar, it would take some effort to deal with him."
"Assassination would be difficult to carry out in this environment and terrain."
Toji he looked towards the hall again.
Evil Soul Master are even more troublesome than beings of the same level...
The next second, Toji's pupils contracted slightly. He noticed that, as the candlelight flickered, one of the Evil Soul Master on the table suddenly stopped chewing.
His nostrils twitched slightly, as if he had caught a whiff of something unusual.
"Um?"
A thin man with an unusually sharp nose.
He frowned and let out a low groan.
"What's wrong?"
A tattooed Evil Soul Master standing nearby asked impatiently.
"It smells like a living person." The sharp-nosed Evil Soul Master slowly stood up, his eyes narrowed to slits, like a venomous snake that had caught the scent of prey. "It smells very good... and it has a strong, rich aroma of Qi and Blood. If I were to take a bite, it would be very nourishing."
Upon hearing this, Toji was greatly shocked and immediately hid even more tightly, holding his breath.
That bastard, his Martial Soul ability allows him to smell his own scent?
That's true. If ordinary people had abundant Qi and Blood, they would definitely not miss out on these inhuman creatures.
"Huh?" Another Evil Soul Master scoffed. "Are you fucking drunk? Besides us, where else are we supposed to be alive?"
"No, something's not right..." The sharp-nosed Evil Soul Master stared intently at the shadows in the hall, his voice low and alert, "Someone's come in."
In an instant, the other four Evil Soul Master all stopped what they were doing, their eyes suddenly turning cold.
They still trusted his intuition, after all, it was the opponent's Martial Soul advantage.
So the other four Evil Soul Master slowly stood up and each Martial Soul Possession. Just as Toji had calculated, there were four Soul Emperor and one Soul Saint.
A chilling Soul Power surged within each of the Evil Soul Master, ready to unleash their Soul Skill at any moment to deal with any unexpected situation.
"Search!"
The tattooed Evil Soul Master let out a low shout.
The five Evil Soul Master immediately dispersed, each releasing their senses to search every corner of the hall.
Their gaze swept over the stone pillars, the shadows, even the ceiling, but...
Nothing was gained.
"Damn it, there's nobody here!" The leading Seven-Ring Soul Sage Evil Soul Master kicked over a chair in a fit of rage. "Have you gone mad from absorbing souls lately?"
"Exactly, what a waste of my time!" another man grumbled as he sat back down at the table, picked up his glass, and gulped down a mouthful of wine.
The sharp-nosed Evil Soul Master's face was grim. He clearly smelled that aura, but why couldn't he find it?
Or is it just my imagination?
"Tsk, forget it, keep eating." The tattooed Evil Soul Master waved his hand impatiently. "Don't be so jumpy."
The sharp-nosed Evil Soul Master hesitated for a moment, but ultimately sat back down.
The moment he sat down, he heard a rustling sound outside.
This made the sharp-nosed Evil Soul Master even more alert as he looked in the direction from which the commotion came!
"What's wrong now?!" the tattooed Evil Soul Master sitting next to him couldn't help but ask.
"I heard some noise over there, you must have heard it too, right?" The sharp-nosed Evil Soul Master pointed towards the entrance of the passage.
"So what if we heard it? It's probably just some small insects or animals that got in," the Tattooed Evil Soul Master scoffed. "Or maybe it's just some noise from the Holy Servants outside. Don't make such a fuss, it's annoying us."
"We just conducted such a thorough search, if a living person had actually walked in, wouldn't we have noticed?"
"But..."
The seventh-ring Evil Soul Master, seated at the head of the table, spoke again:
"That's bullshit! Go check the situation yourself. Don't bother us. It's perfectly safe here. What living person would just wander into our place?"
The sharp-nosed Evil Soul Master lowered his head in grievance, but ultimately could not restrain himself and stood up from his seat again, going alone to check the situation at the entrance of the passage.
After a thorough inspection, the sharp-nosed Evil Soul Master found nothing amiss and finally lowered his guard.
"So, nothing's come of it?" The tattooed Evil Soul Master immediately retorted sarcastically when he saw that he hadn't gotten anything. "Sometimes having too good a sense of smell isn't a good thing, right?"
The sharp-nosed Evil Soul Master was stunned for a moment, just as he was about to answer.
"Whoosh!"
A flash of silver light streaked across his neck like lightning!
Before he could even react, he felt a chill in his throat and his vision suddenly spun.
Thump!
His head slammed onto the ground, rolled twice, and his eyes were still wide open, as if he couldn't believe he was dead.
The headless body froze for a second, then collapsed onto the table with a thud, gushing blood that splattered onto the food, leaving it with a raw, bloody sauce.
This happened so fast that almost none of the Evil Soul Master present could react.