The Devil Gains the Upper Hand, Plotting for Ding Prefecture
----Outside the barrier of the Cold Crow Mountain Range, in a certain demon land
As a ray of bluish-gray light slowly seeped into the pitch-black cave abode, wisps of golden energy oozed from the blood hole in Daoist Peng's shoulder blade.
It's unclear which expert offered some explanation, but it turns out that the place where Xiang Tianxing imprinted the runes is now just a layer of white flesh. Even someone as powerful as the Master of the Star-Picking Pavilion might not be able to find his whereabouts.
At this time, the Daoist Peng that was as big as a bowl was covered with granulation tissue. It would often be torn apart again by the residual golden energy just as the spiritual energy was stimulating it to heal, and thick blood would spurt out. This happened repeatedly, and it was extremely difficult for it to return to normal.
However, the current situation is much better than it was at the beginning.
That son-in-law of the Fei Household was indeed cunning, and his use of the pupil technique was perfectly timed. If it weren't for the fact that Daoist Peng had already teetered on the brink of death countless times, he might have perished on the spot. To die so ignominiously at the hands of a junior would be a joke.
The sunlight gradually moved onto Daoist Peng's shoulder, urging him to dispel his worries and open his eyes.
At this moment, there were still several Third Tier pills on the low table in front of him. After all, he was one of the top Alchemist in the southern part of the Mountain South. As long as he could find the necessary resources, it was not difficult for him to devise a method for healing his injuries compared to ordinary people.
However, after the ministers and advisors took the elixir in turn, the person's complexion improved considerably.
But suddenly, something strange happened in his inner Dantian. In just a few breaths, his face turned ashen and he was in unspeakable pain.
Daoist Peng immediately changed his hand gestures, and then a thunderous sound seemed to rise from his abdomen.
After the sound, Daoist Peng transformed the elixir that had just entered his stomach and was not yet fully refined into qi, and slowly released it from his seven orifices, carrying with him the chronic illness in his body.
It wasn't until it coalesced into a ball of deep blue Spiritual Qi, hovering and trembling in mid-air, that the golden lines between his brows flickered in and out of focus.
Without warning, a mouthful of blood spurted from its mouth, scalding the ground covered in runes and seals. Suddenly, a large plume of white steam rose from the steam, instantly dispersing the dark blue Spiritual Qi.
The cold jade bed he sat on was indeed a Third Tier treasure. Without any prompting, a large amount of snow-white frost mist immediately rose up. However, the frost mist, which was usually ineffective in healing injuries, was completely useless this time. As soon as it appeared, it was swirled into spirals and dispersed by Daoist Peng's disordered alchemical breath.
Black blood gushed uncontrollably from the corner of Daoist Peng's mouth, and the magic seal in his hand had already shattered, with half of the flesh on his index finger being completely wiped away by the fierce impact.
Even so, the Daoist priest did not give up. Even though the white bones of his two fingers were already showing, he still forcibly broke through the black spiritual light that was binding him and pressed it back together.
When the crisp sound of finger bones touching rang out, Daoist Peng felt no pain, nor did he care that the remaining bone membrane on his fingertips had already formed lines and disappeared in large quantities. He just mumbled a bunch of curses, "Backlash, backlash, wickedness, wickedness."
As soon as the cursing subsided, Daoist Peng felt that the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, which he had been nurturing in his Dantian and was about to regain its original form, had completely lost control. It was like a mother beast that had lost her cub, recklessly crashing against the cage that imprisoned it.
At the same time, countless cries of resentment and wailing seemed to explode in his ears, forcing him to subconsciously shut off his senses. However, he was almost overwhelmed by the mournful sounds that resounded in his heart and could barely hold on.
"You think a mere remnant spirit can scare your grandfather?!"
Daoist Peng seemed to have been provoked, and in his anger, he let out a series of eerie "heh heh" laughs. Then, a huge surge of malevolent Sha Qi rose up around him, causing the golden line between his eyebrows to turn pitch black, covering his face with a "ferocious" expression.
However, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, which Daoist Peng had poured countless efforts into, was indeed a Third-Tier Supreme-Grade Law Treasure was extremely close to a spiritual treasure.
One by one, the ghosts that Daoist Peng knew very well appeared in the back of the Dantian. Some had green faces and fangs, some were affectionate, and some had a sad face. They all held weapons and had a strong fierce aura. The ghosts that were in Daoist Peng's Golden Core trembled.
"You bastards!! If I can refine you once, I can refine you twice!!"
Instead of being angry, Daoist Peng laughed. He was already extremely familiar with the spiritual restraints in his hands. Even though the sharp ghostly howls made blood flow from his seven orifices and he looked disheveled, he still had a resolute expression and showed no fear whatsoever.
The emerging ghosts felt powerful, incomparably strong chains of spiritual energy reappear around them. The spiritual light on the Ten Thousand Souls Banner dimmed, and a fierce suction force appeared, trying to pull them all back into the seal.
This change naturally terrified the students of the Ghost School, who had finally gained a chance at freedom, and they all waited for the most outstanding and robust one among them to step forward.
Unlike the other ghosts, he was bare-handed, yet he summoned and snapped the spirit-patterned chains before him. This caused the veins on the back of Daoist Peng's already convulsing hand to throb uncontrollably, and the web of his Hand Seals, to instantly break open, gushing blood. This provoked the Daoist to mutter angrily:
Chen Ye.
The ghost school formed from Chen Ye soul was located in Daoist Peng's Dantian, but it did not emit a fierce howl like the other ghost schools.
Hearing Daoist Peng call it by its original name, it showed no unusual reaction in its eyes, only muttering softly, "Chen Ye. Changsheng Changsheng Cultivation."
The obsession in those two words was frighteningly strong; even Daoist Peng, a Golden Core Peak cultivator, felt his Dao heart tremble slightly after hearing them for a while.
Heaven knows what it took for Chen Ye, since he was taken into the Ten Thousand Souls Banner by Daoist Peng nearly a hundred years ago, to grow from a True Cultivator's soul into the banner's number one ghost school.
It took the subjugation of several Golden Core Ghost Schools to accomplish this, which shows that Chen Ye Soul is indeed valuable. Even though it is almost completely meaningless, it still cannot overshadow its desire for the Dao.
Suddenly, Chen Ye stopped muttering to himself, raised his halberd, and all the ghostly officers shouted in unison at his command, summoning countless gruesome ghostly faces onto the originally calm banner.
In an instant, beams of eerie green light on the banner converged into one, and following Chen Ye's pointing finger, suddenly rushed towards Daoist Peng's golden core in his Golden Core Palace. The latter's expression changed immediately, but even though he twisted his fingers to pieces, he still couldn't regain even a fraction of control over the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.
With Chen Ye suddenly taking the lead, the group of ghost students clearly no longer knew what fear was. They fearlessly followed the beam of light and rushed towards the location of Daoist Peng's Golden Core.
Even though they were quickly burned into ghostly energy and dissipated into smoke by Danhua and then absorbed back into Chen Ye's burly body, it did not frighten them into stopping their actions.
Gradually, after being infused with the scattered, Higher Vehicle ghostly energy, Chen Ye's eyes grew brighter, and the intelligence he once possessed seemed to slowly return, which strengthened his resolve to annihilate Daoist Peng's Golden Core.
"Daoist Peng, Kang Dabao, and Daoist Black Shoes are all enemies. If it's for the sake of Changsheng, I can let them all go without a second thought!"
But just as this thought arose in his mind, and seeing that Daoist Peng's Golden Core was almost dim and lifeless, and Chen Ye seemed capable of destroying its very foundation with a mere wave of his hand, a wild laugh rang out from outside:
"You bastard! All that nurturing from your ancestor was well worth it!!"
Daoist Peng used his inner vision to detect a change in Chen Ye's eyes. Chen Ye's previous feigned distress was replaced by a look of wild joy.
Without the slightest hesitation, a jade pendant appeared in his hand, and with a breath of foul air, it crumbled into dust once more.
At that very moment, Chen Ye suddenly felt as if he had lost control of the Law Treasure behind him.
Chen Ye had just broken free from the invisible shackles that had bound him for nearly a century, but now he felt that what had been his Law Treasure had become a hindrance, binding him tightly once again and leaving him with little freedom.
"Ha, do you really think your ancestor didn't notice you secretly devouring your own kind to strengthen yourself all these years? How naive and childish! I just wanted to see if you could grow into the shape I wanted."
Chen Ye felt the countless eerie green eyes on the banner behind him instantly close, and he could no longer see any strangeness at all.
Daoist Peng's smugness was hard to conceal, and the flesh that had been torn open by his hands was slowly growing back.
He didn't care about any of that. He simply urged the Golden Core in his Niwan Palace to emit rays of mysterious light, which easily erased Chen Ye's barely recovered consciousness, which had already lost all support.
Afterwards, the smile on Daoist Peng's face deepened even more. He spent another cup of tea's time before finally putting Chen Ye and the few remaining ghosts into the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, which had already been greatly revitalized.
No wonder Daoist Peng. He had risked everything to refine the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, and it was a close call. It was only because it lacked a high-grade main soul to suppress the banner that the hidden danger could be resolved. Now that it was finally successful, he would have the power to protect himself if he faced Fei Tianqin again in the future.
"Cough cough"
Two soft coughs pulled him back from his reverie. At that moment, the joy that had arisen on his face due to his excitement gradually faded, and his original ashen complexion reappeared.
He hastily swallowed several more pills. Challenging Fei Tianqin was a matter for the future; if he didn't focus on healing his injuries now, his life would be in danger very soon!
Time flowed by silently, like water. Finally, after an unknown amount of time, a strange voice could be heard outside the cave abode:
"Fellow Daoist Peng, are you feeling better? Demon Lieutenant Feng Yun wishes to see you; please come out as soon as possible."
---- Little Ring Mountain, Chongming Sect
Xu Liuxian had not entered the gates of the Chongming Sect for quite some time.
However, his visit this time was not honorable, because the Cloud Valley Zhang Household, who had just moved from the capital, had been too arrogant and had repeatedly provoked and beaten members of the Cold Mountain Sect at the border between the two families, which forced Xu Liuxian to come and complain.
Duan Anle, who rushed to the hall to greet Xu Liuxian, had already guessed Xu Liuxian's purpose for coming, but he was quite annoyed.
Even if the Cloud Valley Zhang Household were indeed somewhat arrogant, they were still part of their master's wife's dowry, so how could they be easily criticized?
Needless to say, Xu Liuxian was even more so. The Cold Mountain Sect had only reached its current size thanks to the support of the Chongming Sect. The two families had a friendship that started from humble beginnings, so it was even more inappropriate for him not to show favoritism.
Looking back now, Cloud Horn Prefecture, a small place, could only accommodate two respectable families, Nan Niu and Bei Yue, back then. Now, however, there is a Golden Core sect and more than ten False Core sects operating here. Resources are finite, after all, so it would be strange if there weren't some disputes.
But if one disregards principles and only tries to smooth things over, where is Duan Anle's style? After saying this, he whispered to Xu Liuxian:
"Please wait a few more days, Senior Xu. My master is still traveling and has not yet returned. Once he returns, he will surely give you justice."
"Oh?" Xu Liuxian's face showed a hint of surprise, then he asked, "Where did you go, and what business did you have there? Young friend, could you tell me?"
"Of course," Duan Anle chuckled, approaching Xu Liuxian to refill his teacup with utmost respect. Afterward, he said in a low voice:
"After the last battle, Senior Cultivator Wufeng was left vacant, lacking Pill Master. His disciple Ding Prefecture, Zhou Yun, also lacked any talent for administration, so he wanted to hand over Ding Prefecture to the Office of the Duke of Qin for disposal."
"What do you mean, young friend?" Xu Liuxian lit up.
"My family is still a major sect at the Golden Core, how could we be left out of such an event?" Duan Anle laughed, then added, "Fellow Daoist Xu, why don't you start selecting the rare treasures of Ding Prefecture and see what products are a good fit for your family?"
"What's the point of fighting over this little bit of spiritual land right now?" Duan Anle said, feigning profundity. "Once we take over Ding Prefecture, my family will have a genuine Third Tier Spirit Vein and Dao of Alchemy. Would Senior Xu still hesitate then?"
"Of course, of course!" Xu Liuxian nodded repeatedly. After all, Hong County, as a county, could not afford to support a Pill Master like him, let alone compete with other respectable families for resources.
Chongming Sect Leader Kang Da, has always been generous. If he were to truly gain control of two prefectures, he might even be willing to bestow upon Little Ring Mountain as a reward.
"I wonder when Sect Leader Kang will return?"