The human-face sores were merely scars grown upon the rotten flesh of the hundred corpse patchwork; they could not think, they could not communicate, and they did not even know who they were.
However, after calling Net Purity's name several times, Duke Wu's face suddenly shifted its tone.
"Net Purity... Net Purity... Net Purity..."
"The Royal Capital... lineage... still lives..."
Net Purity was startled. A thousand years had passed—did some of his old subordinates still remain?
He lunged in front of the giant hundred corpse patchwork and shouted at the human face of Duke Wu.
"What did you say? Who is still alive? How many people are left?"
But Duke Wu's voice was intermittent, ignoring Net Purity's cries as he continued to narrate to himself.
"The seeds... are not dead... they are not yet extinct..."
"Hide them... hide them beneath the Eternal Scars..."
"Eternal Scars? Where is that place?"
Anxious and desperate, Net Purity was about to ask more when he saw the elderly face beginning to shrink bit by bit. The skin became parched and shriveled, and the features grew blurred.
It was still moving, still speaking.
"Net Purity... Net Purity... I do not blame you..."
"Live... on..."
Then, Duke Wu's face withered completely, leaving only a small patch of shriveled skin stuck to the rotting flesh of the hundred corpse patchwork.
A wisp of green light drifted out from the withered human-face sore. The color was faint and the texture light, resembling a trail of green smoke slowly dissipating in the air.
The surrounding temperature plummeted. Wherever the green smoke passed, large swaths of human-face sores instantly melted into a pool of foul-smelling black water, and the whispering obsessions vanished.
Net Purity stared blankly, not yet realizing what it was.
A voice suddenly rang out.
"I have certainly overheard some remarkable news."
The voice was light and soft, carrying a hint of a smile as if engaged in casual conversation.
"The Eternal Scars? I have stayed in this dull Tianchi Province for so many years, yet this is the first time I have heard that term."
"I did not expect that old man Duke Wu, who was so tight-lipped in life, would harbor such a secret within a tiny sliver of obsession after death."
The moment Net Purity heard that voice, it was as if he had been struck by lightning. His body began to tremble with extreme fury.
The green light slowly condensed into a human figure. He had the appearance of a middle-aged scholar wearing a green robe, holding a roll of bamboo slips. His face was gentle and refined, with a faint smile at the corners of his mouth.
He stood there as if he had just stepped out of his study to attend a tea party.
Net Purity's eyes instantly turned blood-red as he forced two words through his gritted teeth.
"Wan—Xiu—!"
He lunged forward like a madman, his hands clawing frantically at the green smoke, trying to tear it apart, trying to devour it.
"It is you—! It is you—!"
Net Purity's voice had changed pitch, sounding like both a sob and a roar.
"You refined my subordinates into these things—! It was you—!"
The green smoke was scattered by his grasp only to reconsolidate, scattered again only to reconsolidate once more.
Wan Xiu's figure loomed indistinctly within the mist, the smile on his face never wavering.
"It is you, True Lord of Purity and Filth. Long time no see."
"A thousand years, and you are still so impulsive."
A light chuckle drifted from the green smoke, like a gentle breeze against the face, yet it carried a bone-chilling coldness.
Net Purity lunged and clawed like a madman, but the green smoke was not physical. Every time his hands passed through the mist, they caught nothing but air.
"Come out! Get out here!" Net Purity roared. "If you have the guts, come out and face me in a real fight!"
Plague Rat quickly stepped forward to support him. "Old man, calm down!"
Net Purity pushed him away, still trying to lunge forward.
Chen Zhou's voice suddenly rang out.
"Net Purity."
There were only two words, but Net Purity's movements froze.
He turned his head to look at Chen Zhou. There were no tears in his eyes, and no expression could be seen on his paper face, but his trembling body betrayed his current emotions.
"My Lord... it is him... it is him..."
He could not speak a complete sentence.
Chen Zhou nodded. "I know."
He looked toward Wan Xiu, who stood within the smoke, smiling back at him.
Chen Zhou's Ghost Domain had actually expanded the moment Wan Xiu appeared.
Defiled earth spread silently, and the grayish-white death qi shrouded the surrounding area of a hundred feet.
He activated the ability of the Domain of Defiled Earth, which could forcibly imprison souls and prohibit soul escape, reincarnation, or possession.
He wanted to keep this sliver of divine sense here.
However, when the Ghost Domain swept through the green smoke, there was nothing.
Chen Zhou frowned slightly. Wan Xiu was not here; the thing before him could not even be considered a sliver of divine sense. It was a soulless object.
Wan Xiu seemed to sense something as he looked at Chen Zhou, his smile deepening.
"Fellow Daoist, there is no need to trouble yourself."
He shook the bamboo slips in his hand.
"Even if you sealed the entire province, you could not keep me here."
"Heh, I understood many years ago that birth is a coincidence, while death is an inevitability."
"All things are born from heaven and earth, and eventually, all must return to the origin. Things like divine sense are merely transformed from the greed of cultivators. If one lets them go, one finds freedom."
As Wan Xiu spoke, he flipped open the bamboo slips in his hand as if reciting a passage from the sages.
"Look at this Tianchi Province. It was once noisy and prosperous, but now it has returned to silence. All things are nurturing a peaceful return within their decay. Is this not the best final rest?"
"What I have done is merely following the orders of Lord Qing Lu to help them finish this final stretch of the journey."
"Pain is only temporary. When they have completely erased their individual obsessions and become a part of this earth, that will be eternal peace."
"Does Fellow Daoist think what I say is correct?"
Chen Zhou raised his hand, and a bone spear thrust out from his palm, stabbing directly into the giant hundred corpse patchwork on the ground.
"I have met many people who like to moralize, but someone as shameless as you is truly rare."
The bone spear pierced the rotting flesh, stirred around a few times, and then fished out an object.
It was a stone.
An ordinary-looking stone, the size of a palm, grayish and dull, with its surface covered in cracks.
A first-stage recording stone.
Wan Xiu acted deliberately surprised. "Ah, you discovered it so quickly?"
He smiled very gently.
"It is a recording stone, a very common one. A first-stage item that can be bought at any marketplace."
"I simply left a wisp of an image and a few words inside it, then stuffed it into the belly of this hundred corpse patchwork."
"When someone breaks it, or when it rots away on its own, my image will come out and say a few words."
He looked at Chen Zhou and blinked.
"Simple, right?"
Chen Zhou remained silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed.
"You cautious dog."
"You do not show your true body, and you are not even willing to release a sliver of divine sense."
"You just used a first-stage recording stone to deliver a message?"
Wan Xiu laughed as well.
"Fellow Daoist must be joking."
"Caution is the foundation of survival."
"Since Fellow Daoist could see through this little trick of projecting images through objects at a glance, your strength is clearly extraordinary."
"As a masterpiece of Lord Qing Lu, I prefer to use the smallest price to exchange for the greatest result."
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