When Chen Zhou received the transmission from the monk Ku Chan, he was arranging for Piao to head to Cangdao and Yuandao counties to clean up the sources of copper poison.
Over the last few days, Ku Chan had been sending back occasional reports, all regarding the initial outbreak sites of copper poison in the various counties of Thousand Isles County.
While the old fellow lacked great power, he certainly had a knack for networking, gathering intelligence, and manipulating people from all walks of life.
Chen Zhou knew that Ku Chan had been buying information through a group of lone cultivators, and it had indeed yielded many pleasant surprises.
Piao had already devoured a massive amount of copper poison during this time. Since the child loved to eat it, Chen Zhou simply let her eat her fill.
After all, Piao had inherited a portion of the Locust Mother’s stomach; it was like a bottomless pit that could never be overstuffed.
As the copper poison was slowly digested, Piao’s aura indeed showed signs of growth.
Chen Zhou mused that the Buddhist Sect relied on copper poison to temper their bodies and resist eerification.
Since Piao herself originated from the Locust Mother, who had been deeply modified by copper poison, she might be able to forge a complete path of eerification if she could thoroughly digest these toxins.
Connecting to the transmission, Ku Chan urgently reported the incident where the Lin family had sought medical help for human-face sores, which the Plague Rat had recognized and provided a solution for.
Chen Zhou was not particularly surprised after hearing the report.
Copper poison was rampant throughout Thousand Isles County; there was no reason Lantao City, the commandery capital, wouldn’t be infiltrated by the Buddhist Sect’s influence.
Being able to catch a small lead through the Lin family was considered a decent harvest.
He instructed Ku Chan to keep watching and gave him a few words of encouragement.
Ku Chan’s contributions lately were not small.
Particularly in terms of spreading faith, in just a few short days, he had gained hundreds of general believers and even several true believers through rumors of the Heart’s Desire Hall and the divine pills.
Chen Zhou casually rewarded him with a fourth-stage Flesh-Reconstitution Pill.
On the other end, Ku Chan immediately poured out words of endless gratitude.
He looked as if he wanted to bark like a dog on the spot to prove his loyalty.
Just as the communication ended, Chen Zhou’s brow suddenly furrowed.
He sensed that something extremely bizarre had abruptly descended upon Qudao County.
With his current wealth of evil god points, Chen Zhou had exchanged for many Ghost Domain Expansion Vouchers. Each one used increased the range of his basic ghost domain by ten percent.
Now, his ghost domain could cover more than half of Qudao County. Almost any disturbance within its borders could not escape his perception.
But the thing that had descended this time was very strange.
One moment there was no sign of it, and the next, it appeared out of thin air, as if it had been directly teleported.
Even more bizarrely, Chen Zhou could not sense its physical form. Its presence was extremely faint, as if it might dissipate at any moment.
However, the level of the aura it radiated was by no means weak.
'What kind of freakish thing is running into my home now?'
Feeling wary, Chen Zhou immediately mobilized the power of the ghost domain, wrapping it toward the source of the abnormal fluctuations.
Lady Zhi descended into the dream of a sleeping hare.
Her form was dreamlike and ethereal. Her rainbow-feathered garment flowed with a soft radiance, and her stunning face was shrouded beneath a hazy veil of light, making her look utterly unreal.
Traversing through dreams was a power bestowed upon her by the Bodhisattva, and it was also the capital that allowed her to look down upon all living beings.
As her perception spread out like spilled mercury, Lady Zhi was somewhat surprised.
'Truly a godforsaken backwater.'
In her dream-sight, the area for hundreds of miles around was a desolate wasteland with almost no sign of human habitation.
There weren't even any dream-light points from demons of significant scale, only the faint dream-murmurs of wild beasts and plants that would vanish with a single breath.
'Hmph, this certainly fits the murderous style of those skeletons from the Bone Temple.
'Wherever they pass, nothing is left alive.'
Lady Zhi sneered inwardly.
'Indeed, those fellows who don't even dare to keep their flesh and blood, leaving only withered bones, are walking the lowest of the low paths.
'They will never catch a glimpse of the true Dao in their entire lives; they are only fit to linger on their last breaths in such a spiritually barren place.'
She elegantly and lazily plucked the Dream-Weaving Shuttle from her hair, her posture like someone picking a flower.
The Dream-Weaving Shuttle shimmered with flowing colors. With the help of this natal artifact, her perception could capture the existence of dreams even more clearly.
"Hmm?" Suddenly, she let out a soft cry of surprise.
In a certain direction, a massive cluster of dense dream-light points was gathered in a single area, exceptionally active.
It was like a raging bonfire suddenly lit in the dark of night, so bright it made her feel slightly uncomfortable.
Lady Zhi’s human skin wriggled slightly, transmitting a greedy restlessness.
She could clearly smell that the place contained a vast, abundant, and fresh aura of blood-food!
'What an... unexpected harvest.'
'I didn't expect these piles of bone scraps to be so good at penning up blood-food. It saves me the trouble of searching for it myself.'
She extended the tip of her tongue and licked her lips, which were so smooth they didn't seem human. Her voice carried a hint of intoxicated raspiness.
'The high-quality blood-food in Lantao City is all cultivation resources penned up and raised by Jieyin. I haven't enjoyed a good feast in a long time.'
'Since I've stumbled upon it, I might as well treat myself!'
Lady Zhi chuckled. Her figure rippled like water and instantly vanished from the hare's dream.
She leaped continuously through the dreams of creatures along the way, strolling through the gap between reality and dreams.
In just a few breaths, she had crossed the vast distance and reached the outer perimeter of the area where the dream-light points were most dense—
the City of the Wrongfully Dead.
Floating on the plane of dreams, she looked down from above at the countless flickering dream-light points within the city.
'The quantity is quite high, and the quality is acceptable.
'Hmm, this blood-food, filled with tranquility and anticipation, is a rare delicacy. It's much tastier than fear and despair.'
At this moment, a row of Wraith Sentry Towers atop the city walls seemed to sense Lady Zhi’s formless, malicious gaze.
An eerie light flashed at the top of the towers, and several gray beams of light shot violently toward the spot where Lady Zhi was positioned.
A team of paper men patrolling the city immediately noticed the towers' abnormality.
The leader, Lin Feng, reacted quickly and shouted sternly, "Something is there! On alert!"
He immediately organized the paper men, moving toward the direction of the fluctuations to conduct a strict investigation.
Faced with the attack, Lady Zhi didn't even bother to lift an eyelid.
'I am within the Supreme Dream Realm. How could your mundane methods possibly touch even a hair on my head?'
Those few beams of wraith-light, capable of shattering the souls of ordinary cultivators, passed right through her as if she were a phantom.
They failed to create even a ripple, and didn't even disturb the halo around her body.
The paper men who rushed over were even more like headless flies, completely unable to lock onto a target, let alone attack.
Lin Feng’s brow furrowed. He could only order the team to increase their vigilance, his heart full of confusion.
'Did the towers malfunction?'
'That shouldn't be possible...'
Lady Zhi looked at the paper puppets below, who were acting as if facing a great enemy but were utterly helpless. The disdain in her eyes grew even stronger.
'A bunch of paper puppets, not even fit to carry my shoes. The Bone Temple really only has this much capability.'
However, the formless and intangible ghost domain, as vast as an abyss, had already completely enveloped the space where she was, along with the dream layer she inhabited.
It was like a cage formed by heaven and earth closing shut.
Chen Zhou sat high upon the Bone Altar, his fingertip lightly tapping the armrest of the Nine-Skull Throne.
"No physical body, not a ghost or spirit, yet capable of traversing between reality and void."
What kind of strange thing is this? Why have I never seen it before?
Chen Zhou prepared to study it a bit more.
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