Black-Scaled was dumbfounded.
He had to go?
Wasn't that like throwing a meat bun at a dog—a one-way trip with no return? That Bone Temple Master had killed three envoys in a row; he was clearly a madman!
"Ex... Exalted Saint, this subordinate's strength is meager. I fear..." Black-Scaled was just about to beg for mercy.
"Take this."
The Toad Saint opened his mouth and spat something out.
It was a worm that looked like an earthworm, grayish-white all over and without eyes, yet it emitted a faint death qi and a nauseatingly sweet fragrance.
As it wriggled on the floor, the ground it touched instantly turned into black liquid.
Watching this worm, the eyes of the Thousand-Tangle Fairy beside him instantly erupted with a light of jealousy.
She recognized this thing!
It was a corpse god gu!
As a poison vine tree—a plant demon cultivator—she was most sensitive to this kind of death qi and flesh-and-blood energy.
This was a treasure the Toad Saint had only refined after his breakthrough. It was said that as long as one consumed it, they would gain the blessing of a portion of death qi, and their strength would skyrocket!
She had always wanted one, for which she had preened and posed before the Toad Saint many times, even sacrificing countless young girls, but the Toad Saint had never relented.
And now, he had actually given one to a useless snake?
The Thousand-Tangle Fairy bit her red lips, her nails sinking deep into her palms, maddened by envy.
"Eat it," the Toad Saint commanded.
Looking at the disgusting worm, Black-Scaled did not dare to disobey. He closed his eyes and swallowed it in one gulp.
Gulp.
The worm entered his belly.
In the next moment, Black-Scaled let out a shrill scream.
"Aaaaah—!"
His body began to swell violently, his scales burst open, and black tumors grew wildly from the wounds as death qi erupted from within him.
In just a few breaths, he rose from the early-phase of the first transformation of eerification to the peak of the first transformation, even showing faint signs of breaking through to the second transformation!
When Black-Scaled stood back up, he had turned into a monster three zhang tall, his entire body covered in half-severed earthworms and tumors.
But as he felt the surging power within his body, a look of wild joy appeared on his face.
"Thank you for the treasure, Exalted Saint! Thank you, Exalted Saint!" Black-Scaled knelt on the ground and kowtowed frantically.
"Go," the Toad Saint waved his hand as if shooing a fly. "Do not keep the guest waiting."
"As you command!"
With his confidence soaring, Black-Scaled turned into a gust of black wind and charged out of the hall.
"Exalted Saint..." The Azure-Scaled Jiao Lord watched his brother's change, his eyes full of greed. "This..."
"You want one too?" The Toad Saint glanced at him.
"This subordinate... this subordinate is willing to shed his last drop of blood for the Exalted Saint!" Azure-Scaled immediately knelt to show his loyalty.
The Toad Saint spat out another, even larger gu worm.
Overjoyed, Azure-Scaled swallowed it.
Accompanied by the sound of flesh growing wildly, the Azure-Scaled Jiao Lord's aura climbed steadily, actually breaking through his shackles on the spot and stepping into the second transformation of eerification!
He felt the brand-new power of fused death qi and demon qi within him, trembling with excitement.
"Thank you, Exalted Saint! This subordinate will surely..."
"Disperse." The Toad Saint seemed somewhat weary as he waved them away. "At tomorrow's assembly, I want to see that Bone Temple Master."
"Yes!"
The demons dispersed.
Thousand-Tangle was extremely dissatisfied with the master of the Bone Temple, her heart harboring a faint killing intent. To think he dared to disrespect the Toad Saint at such a grand gathering, even forcing the Exalted Saint to use such treasures to boost his subordinates' strength.
Outside the hall, although the Azure-Scaled Jiao Lord's strength had greatly increased, he still felt uneasy about his brother. After all, he was going to face an unknown madman.
His eyes flickered as he cupped his hands to Thousand-Tangle and Poison-Wing. "Everyone, I have some private matters to attend to. I shall take my leave first."
After saying that, his figure blurred as he transformed into a streak of green light, stealthily following behind Black-Scaled.
The Poison-Wing Eagle King watched this scene, gave a cold snort, and quickly left with his sister. He needed to hurry back and check on the human-livestock.
He took one last look into the Black Bone Hall, where the Toad Saint's massive body was completely shrouded in a faint death qi.
The death qi was like a gray mist, swirling and lingering.
Zen Master Wu Hai took a deep breath of the gray mist, a look of intoxication on his face.
Outside the Dead Man’s Forest in Qudao County, Thousand Isles County.
A team with an extremely eerie atmosphere was arriving in a grand manner.
The one leading them was a skeleton as white as jade, grandly displaying his fleshless visage. Around his neck hung a string of massive human bone prayer beads, and he held a bone staff.
This was the true successor of the Bone Temple, Zen Master Wu Hai.
Behind Zen Master Wu Hai followed dozens of disciples who were also gaunt, some even already semi-skeletonized.
This group of people were all legitimate Bone Temple cultivators.
"Master, is it here?"
A young novice monk looked at the mist ahead that never dissipated, feeling somewhat hesitant. "This place... looks so gloomy. It doesn't look like it has a spiritual vein."
"Foolish child."
Zen Master Wu Hai stopped in his tracks, took a deep breath of the air wafting out of the mist, and trembled with intoxication. "Smell it, smell it quickly!"
"What pure death qi! What rich corpse fragrance!"
"This is the scent of our ancestors!"
Upon hearing this, a disciple took a deep breath. Immediately, the flesh on his arms that had not yet fallen off was assimilated by the death qi, turning into bone and crumbling away.
Wu Hai's upper and lower jaws clattered with excitement.
"Look! Just look at that!"
"This is the ancestor's dharma. Smell more of it, and you will soon be completely ossified!"
Wu Hai lamented; he hadn't expected that in his lifetime, he would still see such profound Great Vehicle Buddhism.
His branch actually hadn't fared well in Gloomlight Province. Because their cultivation technique was too extreme—requiring them to turn themselves into skeletons and follow the path of slaughter, killing both humans and demons, leaving no survivors wherever they went—they were neither tolerated by the righteous path nor liked by many demons.
Some time ago, they heard that the situation in Thousand Isles County had changed, and their old rival, Sukhavati, had actually been wiped out! The new power that replaced it actually went by the name of the Bone Temple!
Wu Hai was stunned at the time. One must know that the Bone Temple's lineage was passed down to a single person per generation. Aside from his branch, who else could there be? Unless... it was that legendary Buddhist powerhouse who had long since ascended or had been in secluded cultivation for many years!
Thus, he brought all his belongings and moved the entire sect overnight, rushing over with excitement to acknowledge his ancestry.
"Come, follow your master into the city to have an audience with the ancestor!"
With a wave of his hand, Zen Master Wu Hai led his disciples and dove headfirst into the Cloud Sea Resplendence array.
If it were anyone else, even a fifth-stage cultivator, they would lose their way upon entering this array. But Wu Hai and his group were different; they cultivated the path of bones and their sensitivity to death qi was sharper than a dog's nose.
Following the direction of the densest death qi, they proceeded without hindrance and actually managed to find their way to the gates of the City of the Wrongfully Dead.
When the towering city walls, built almost entirely of white bones, appeared before them...
Thud!
Zen Master Wu Hai's knees went weak, and he knelt directly.
It was too authentic! It was too genuine!
This was the earthly Buddha-land they of the Bone Temple had always dreamed of! In comparison, the few bone halls in their own sect were practically latrines!
"The Holy City... it really is the Holy City!"
He looked at the grim white bones on the walls and the bone-styled buildings within the city, his eyes filling with tears of joy.
"How many years has it been? Our Bone Temple has finally made something of itself!"
"Look at this grandeur, look at this style! It's ten thousand times stronger than that hypocritical Hall of a Thousand Dreams of Sukhavati!"
The disciples behind him were also dazzled, each kneeling on the ground and kowtowing frantically, as if on a pilgrimage.
Kowtowing all the way, Zen Master Wu Hai led his disciples in a five-point prostration, moving toward the city gate.
On the city tower.
A squad of Sword Sect paper people was in charge of the guard. The paper person captain, Lin Feng, looked down at the group of skeletons wriggling on the ground, slightly raising his long sword.
"Who goes there? To trespass into the City of the Wrongfully Dead is to seek death."
This icy killing intent didn't frighten Wu Hai; instead, it made him even more excited.
"Good! What magnificent killing intent!"
Wu Hai praised and quickly scrambled up to salute. "This humble monk is the thirty-sixth generation successor of the Bone Temple, Wu Hai."
"Today, I have specifically led my disciples to acknowledge our ancestry and request an audience with the Great Ancestor!"
"Acknowledge your ancestry?"
Lin Feng was stunned.
Could they really be the lord's fellow sect members?
This was a major matter, and the paper person captain did not dare to be negligent.
"I shall report this immediately. You wait here; do not behave rashly."
"Yes, yes, this junior understands!"
Zen Master Wu Hai was now as well-behaved as a newly initiated novice, kneeling on the ground and not even daring to lift his head.
Inside the City Lord's Mansion.
Hong Ling sat at her desk, handling the official documents sent up from the various counties of Thousand Isles County.
Today, she was dressed in red as bright as fire, the youthfulness in her brows replaced by the aura of a manager.
Lin Feng drifted in and knelt on one knee.
"Lady Hong Ling, a group of monks has arrived outside the city, claiming to be successors of the Bone Temple. The leader is called Zen Master Wu Hai, and he says he has come to... acknowledge his ancestry."
"The Bone Temple?"
The cinnabar brush in Hong Ling's hand paused slightly.
Her eyes flickered, and her Linglong Heart instantly figured out the connection.
Back then, in order to perform a 'sting operation,' the God had deliberately used the name of the Bone Temple to lure Sukhavati into the trap. Now that Sukhavati was destroyed, she hadn't expected this fake name to actually attract the real deal.
"The real Bone Temple, hm..."
Hong Ling put down her pen, the corners of her mouth curling into a playful arc.
Since these fellow sect members had delivered themselves to the door, there was no reason to turn them away. While the God was away, she would have to play out this scene.
And she had to play it beautifully, to make the other party believe it without a shadow of a doubt.
"Let them in,"
Hong Ling stood up and straightened her sleeves, saying indifferently, "Tell them that I, the Patrol Envoy, shall receive them on behalf of the God."
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