Yun Tingfeng turned his head suddenly, eyes scowling with anger. He softly asked Little Zi, who came slowly but gracefully, “Why was the information so aberrant?”
Little Zi clapped her palms which were as white as jade. “Ah, my responsibility was to meet my little lover and kill people. It was Hongxiu and Shadow Kill who were supposed to acquire the information. Besides, Luo Shengyi and Jiang Zhiwei were famous martial pros on Ranking List of Young Masters. Do I need to tell you how powerful they are? You deemed yourselves too high. You only arrange two people to go for Jiang Zhiwei. Is it my liability?”
Yun Tingfeng’s face twitched several times. Looking at Little Zi, whose white dress immaculate as that of a girl who just finished a shower, he gradually subdued his anger, and tittered, “How could I blame you? Without you, we might have none of our enemies killed. We should be grateful to you.”
After two battles two Enlightened Masters Pro were dead, easily as brushing strokes on canvas. How could he ignore this little beauty?
One of her preys could be regarded as a novice of Enlightenment level, who was weak in close grapples, but the other one was obviously a veteran with outstanding bladesmanship. Even if using sneak-attacked him, he was unsure whether he could make it or not. The fact was that Little Zi was really formidable!
“Childe Yun is really erudite. Ah, wrong, I mean knowledgeable. Oh, wrong again, I mean discerning, which really makes me relieved.” Little Zi said like a goblin. She was clearly bantering with him.
Su Yuanying sunk his face. With an icy tone, he said, “Who are you on actually?”
Since he practiced Evil Eye at Mid-brows, his sight was quite distinct. Since he saw all of her extraordinary performance, he had vaguely felt she was not as mediocre as she claimed to be, and Yu Longzi might not be her real name.
“I am Little Zi. Has Childe Su been pierced at the brain? Your memory was not as good as before.” Little Zi giggled, “Plus, one thing I have to remind Childe Su. ‘No more than one out of ten thousand Nether Spirits may ascend to heaven.’ Besides you are a Nether Spirit usurping others’ souls.”
The once pale face of Su Yuanying flushed. He looked at Little Zi in wonder, “What… What are you talking about?”
How did she know? How could she know?
“So much vile Qi, evil Qi. I do not want to smell it, but it always finds the way into my nostrils. Such things I have seen too many times.” Little Zi said smiling.
Yun Tingfeng gazed at Little Zi attentively, feeling her mysterious distinction. Where did she see such things so many times? Where was she from?
The Terrestrial Venerable close by was totally confused. He wondered what was Ranking List of Young Masters and Nether Spirits. But given the failure of this siege, his power was much weaker than these strange guys. His Eminence emphasized several times in his letter that he should pay homage to them and form allies with them. So he had to forgo these inappropriate questions.
Just then, a shrill bird chirp came from the air. A strange bird of rotten flesh and messy black feathers fell on the shoulder of the Terrestrial Venerable.
Dense Devil Qi surrounded the strange bird, whose foot bound with a scroll of note.
The Terrestrial Venerable took down the note and read it. In a voice as if from an urn he said to others, “Here is an order of His Eminence. He wants to meet us.”
…
“Ink Pupil dead. 50 Karma points awarded each.”
The voice of Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms resounded in the ears of everyone. Zhang Yuanshan had already brought Fu Zhenzhen to the shabby temple. Everyone was confused and wondered why the death of Ink Pupil should be counted as their deed.
Jiang Zhiwei paused and said eventually, “I think I know the reason. Ink Pupil had died as a surrogate for the guy who had a vertical eye at mid-brows.”
“Surrogating death or body-usurping is not a rare stuff, but often only the strong above the Exterior level could master. The skill of the guy with mid-brow vertical eyes is really weird.” Luo Shengyi said gravely as he was caressing the serene face of Xia Dandan lying in front of him, “What I had not expected was that they could instigate meteorological anomalies and created heavy sandstorm to yield such loss of us.”
He was never one who shirked liability. For this feigned besiegement was his idea, he did not blame others for the death of Xia Dandan.
“I think they also underestimated our strength. If they concentrate their force onto only one or two of us, I am afraid none of us could manage. The fault of shortsightedness is common to everyone.” Zhang Yuanshan said seriously. As the thing was over, incrimination and contrition were of no use. It is important to learn from the past and never belittle your enemies again.
Thinking of the psycho girl Gu Xiaosang, Meng Qi grinned and said, “Fortunately after this battle, we had fathomed the overall potentials of our enemies, and may not commit this miscalculation again. But of Gu Xiaosang, we should not only pay attention to her Ajati Finger, for nobody knew how many more supreme skills she had learned from Advent of Ajati Matriarch.”
The one who really died needed no attention, but the guy who had a mid-brows vertical eye was clearly practicing along the pathway of will-attack and momentum-gaining from the outer world. The guy with thick brows and untied hair could be practicing North Underworld Super Force or Internal Force Absorption Skill, for his inner force was profound and dense, his each fist and palm strike was immensely powerful, nevertheless according to the description of Luo Shengyi, when he was exercising Seven Wounding Strikes, Big Ghost Fist or other skills, his moves were more delicate and mutable instead of hard and straightforward.
“Yes, we must be careful. It’s just we know not how the guy with a mid-brow vertical eye gains momentum from the outer world and why he could revive. Without knowing the answer we may be deceived by him again.” Luo Shengyi said. He deemed that he was more experienced in World of Samsara, but his Kung Fu approaches and knowledge of bizarre skills were not much compared to some of these direct heir of famous sects. After all the entries on Exchange List were too dazzling. No one had enough time and patience to peruse thoroughly.
Meng Qi was just a nominal heir of a famous sect, and he worked mainly on his Kung Fu and had not studied this field yet, so he also looked upon Jiang Zhiwei and Zhang Yuanshan.
Jiang Zhiwei puckered her lips and said, “I think I know what it might be. It should be a branch of Immortal Path, ‘Evil Spirit Cultivation’.”
“Evil Spirit Cultivation?” Zhang Yuanshan’s expression became grim.
Meng Qi’s lips twitched in the corner. He looked to Luo Shengyi, Qi Zhengyan, and Fu Zhenzhen unconsciously and found them also with curious looks. What is Evil Spirit Cultivation?
“I’ve only heard of ‘Big Spirit Jumping’…” Meng Qi mumbled.
Jiang Zhiwei knew they were waiting for her illustration, “Normally on Immortal Path, one should desert his body and forge an Immortal Flesh with Incense Force, and then perceive the principles of Heavenly Path step by step. After mastering some principles, one could infuse himself into the heaven and claim the Immortal Seat. However, Incense Force is tricky. I’ve never heard of anyone who escaped death with Immortal Seat.
“And besides normal Immortal Path, there is also Inborn Spirit, and also cultivated Evil Spirit emulating the Inborn Spirit.
“The practitioner cultivates a small natural Evil Spirit through some arcane and brutal ways, and then he deserts his body and sacrifices it as the Incense Stove breeding the Evil Spirit. His soul turns to a Nether Spirit, dwelling in the body as a parasite. With many kinds of feeding such as life-devouring, blood-drinking, and other rituals, the Evil Spirit will grow into an Evil Avatar, and his body would possess some distinctive features, such as the mid-brows vertical eye. Afterwards, he can use these specialties and Evil Avatar to communicate with Heaven and Earth and drive the momentum of things in the world. The stronger his Evil Avatar, the stronger his power.
“Yet Evil Avatar could easily cause counter-devour. So it must be checked by different methods, such as using more than one Incense Stoves. For his own body will be eroded after years, it needs also be replaced frequently. As long as the Evil Avatar continues assimilation, the body will remain above Enlightenment level. Even so, out of one hundred Evil Spirit Cultivators, eighty would die of the counter-devour of Evil Avatar, and nineteen would be annihilated by Heaven’s Punishment as the Evil Avatar becomes strong to some extent. Only very few of them could cultivate Evil Avatar until claiming Immortal Seat and unified himself with the Avatar.”
Meng Qi, Luo Shengyi, and others were fascinated by the narrative. There are indeed numerous unimaginable ways of practice. “Three thousand Righteous Paths and eight hundred branches” are all endless for you to explore!
Zhang Yuanshan complemented, “Therefore even if the guy with the mid-brows vertical eye is killed and his Nether Spirit annihilated, the Evil Avatar within his body will be released and rampage about, radiating intent of kill and trying to destroy everything nearby.
“Although Evil Spirit Cultivation is easily taken and improved at first as long as one could forbear pain and forgo conscience, it has too many risks thereafter. Few have succeeded and the failure wreaks egregious havoc, therefore after medieval times, this approach was gradually abandoned. It is said that only Luo Denomination, Unrelenting Tower, and Changsheng Denomination among the Nine Evil Paths still possess the scripts and someone even practices it.” Jiang Zhiwei stroked the bronze scabbard of her Sword of the Sun-Penetrating Rainbow, “This approach of practice is indeed typical, so the elder of my sect told us about it. Otherwise, I would not know either.”
Meng Qi was ruminating, “With the help of Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms, Evil Spirit Cultivation would be even easier to taken in the beginning and improved after. I reckon that he had exchanged for the seed of the Evil Spirit or even the authentic Evil Avatar.”
Things in this field were too many so he did not bother to read.
Reminded by this topic, Zhang Yuanshan suddenly patted the Winged-python Sword by his waist, “Given the hint of Evil Spirit Cultivation, I kind of understand what the Secrecy-reaching and Trance-entering of this world are.”
“What are they?” Meng Qi was very interested in Secrecy-reaching which could gain momentum and blend. If he could master this, his Moves of Wind-god’s Legs would be more practical, and he would be able to gain momentum from the wind and fly thousands of leagues.
Zhang Yuanshan sighed, “But they may be even wretched than Evil Spirit Cultivation, for the power of Evil Spirit Cultivation originates from within and controllable by oneself.
“Secrecy-reaching of Devil Cult probably borrows the Devil Qi infiltrated into one’s body. The Qi passes on the will of the Devil Lord, so it can help communicate with heaven and earth and drive the momentum of the universe. Different amounts of Devil Qi could yield different specialties, but Devil Qi could erode one’s soul and body, and the purest Devil Qi could be only possessed by the Venerable or Cult Lord, therefore normal practitioners of Secrecy-reaching must be recognized by the leadership in order to aggrandize their strength, during which period they will be deprived of sanity and humanity and become zealous for killers and mere puppets of Devil Qi.”
“Such a mechanism… ” Meng Qi was disappointed. According to the fight against them, Zhang Yuanshan’s speculation was not far from the truth. “No wonder the goal of the four sects is to seal the Devil Tomb. Hehe, if the Devil Qi leak out, before long they will face an army of enemies of the Secrecy-reaching level. But what about the Secrecy-reaching of the four sects?”
They can’t be also manipulating the Devil Qi!
“Devil Cult depends on the remained Will of Devil Lord, and the sects must be leaning on the Awareness of the four Sealing Weapons.” Jiang Zhiwei said plainly, “Therefore the four weapons are at least Precious Weapons, which could communicate with heaven and earth.”
Precious Weapons! Normally the possessions of experts of the Exterior level! Everybody became excited implicitly, except Jiang Zhiwei.
Weapons of this level were already forged by the Immortals, worthy of thousands of Karma points. There should be no more than a hundred of such weapons even in Shaolin.
“Wind Cloud Blade, Tai Hua Sword, Star-picking Hand, Morningmoon Spinner… Considering the performance of Heightslord Gu, Awareness of Wind Cloud Blade might have been truly applied.” Luo Shengyi recalled the night when Gu Kongshan instigated a violent gust and dissipated all the poisonous creatures.
“No wonder when Windcloud Heights marched, they piously escorted a casket. It was where Wind Cloud Blade was stored…” Meng Qi was disillusioned all of a sudden.
