"The Sect Master overpraises me." Jian Huaishuang’s gaze remained steady.
The White Jade Sword Sect had once been his entire past and his lifelong nightmare, but after meeting that lord, all past events had ceased to matter.
He had long been able to face them with composure.
Perform good deeds, and ask not of the future.
Mo Yuan suppressed his smile and slowly rose from his legal seat. His legs were hindered, yet every step he took was steady and forceful.
He looked at Jian Huaishuang, then gestured toward Jiang Ziang beside him. "Fellow daoist, today you and I are travelers on the same path."
"Lead the way."
Mo Yuan spoke indifferently, a flicker of pity passing through his eyes.
At Mo Yuan’s command, several elders stepped forward. They sat cross-legged on the ground and formed hand seals.
Streaks of black malevolent qi erupted from the clay jars in their hands, quickly condensing in the air into dozens of hideous natal malevolent ghosts, their bodies entwined with chains.
With the assistance of these dozens of natal malevolent ghosts and the inner disciples, they formed a black torrent. They struck out with a great array, temporarily pushing back the copper poison spreading from beneath the Soul-Suppressing Tower.
A line of knocking ghosts and countless corpse guards also received their orders, charging toward the Soul-Suppressing Tower without hesitation.
The corpse guards stood on the outside, using their cadaverous bodies to form a wall of flesh to isolate the toxins. The knocking ghosts remained on the inside, releasing the souls of the devoured resentful spirits to absorb any copper poison that leaked through, cooperating to the best of their ability.
The ominous bronze color on the ground was parted like the sea before Moses, opening a path of normal-colored earth.
As the copper poison was temporarily forced back, the heavy stone doors of the Soul-Suppressing Tower slowly swung open to both sides, revealing a bottomless darkness within.
The group immediately set off.
The interior of the tower was not empty; instead, it consisted of spiraling upward staircases. On either side of the stairs were pitch-black stone walls, carved with reliefs of distorted, struggling human figures.
Jian Huaishuang stepped inside, each footfall carrying a hint of caution.
Even he could clearly feel a restrictive force within the Soul-Suppressing Tower, a place he had only ever seen in ancient records. It caused the qi in his body to flow with a slight sluggishness.
Mo Yuan stood at the very front of the group, his gaze deep as he watched everyone, as if seeing off a group of soldiers heading to a battlefield.
Several elders and inner disciples followed behind Jiang Ziang. Holding their clay jars with malevolent qi protecting their bodies, they were clearly accustomed to the environment within the tower.
"Sect Master, if I may be so bold, what exactly is suppressed beneath this tower?" Jian Huaishuang couldn't help but ask.
He had almost no experience with ghost-control techniques or arrays, and the scale and aura of this Soul-Suppressing Tower far exceeded anything he had ever seen or heard.
Jiang Ziang stopped and turned to look at Jian Huaishuang. As Mo Yuan’s disciple, he answered on his master’s behalf with a nod of approval.
"Fellow Daoist Jian, suppressed here is a great fiend from five hundred years ago.
"This great fiend is named the Locust Mother. She controls the power of famine and feeds upon all things.
"Five hundred years ago, the water sources of Kushi County dried up, crops would not grow, people were plunged into misery, and the fields were littered with the corpses of the starved. All of it was due to this fiend's influence."
He paused, a trace of grief and indignation in his voice.
"At that time, the first Sect Master, Mo Tianji, stepped forward in the hour of peril. He established the Corpse Soul Sect here and used supreme divine abilities to suppress the Locust Mother at the bottom of this tower.
"Since then, the disciples of my Corpse Soul Sect have guarded this tower for generations to ensure the great fiend never rises again."
After hearing this, Jian Huaishuang frowned slightly, a flash of confusion in his eyes.
"Since she is a great fiend, then that senior, the first Sect Master Mo Tianji, must have possessed unfathomable cultivation to suppress such an evil entity," Jian Huaishuang mused.
"But now that five hundred years have passed, Kushi County has somehow ended up in this state again. Water sources are cut off, the people's livelihoods are ruined, and the copper poison spreads without end.
"Could it be that senior has also fallen?"
Doubts lingered in his heart.
A span of five hundred years was not an unreachable lifespan for a top-tier powerhouse capable of suppressing a great fiend.
Unless they encountered some irresistible force, it shouldn't have reached the point where Kushi County was once again cast into a dead end.
Furthermore, if even the great fiend could be suppressed, how could mere remnants of the fiend’s leaking copper poison be allowed to spread so wildly, eroding this land?
"As an elite of the immortal sects, do you truly not know?" Mo Yuan’s tone carried a hint of disbelief.
Jian Huaishuang became even more confused.
He wasn't a local of Kushi County. Was there something he was supposed to know?
Mo Yuan looked at the genuine bewilderment on Jian Huaishuang’s face and remained silent for a moment before finally letting out a bitter laugh.
"It seems the protection the immortal sects provide you juniors is far deeper than I imagined."
He didn't answer directly, but instead asked another question. "Fellow daoist, you should know the divisions of the cultivation realms, yes?"
"Naturally." Jian Huaishuang nodded. This was common knowledge in the cultivation world.
"The first stage is the Qi Induction stage. It involves drawing spiritual energy into the body to perceive cultivation. From then on, a mortal enters the path of cultivation."
"The second stage is the Bone Coiling stage. Spiritual energy entwines with the bones, strengthening the physical body. The physique becomes robust, strength is doubled, and common blades and swords can hardly cause harm."
"The third stage is the Inner Demon stage. This stage focuses on the mind. A seeker of the Dao must not be led astray by inner demons.
"Mental demons arise and illusions proliferate. The slightest lapse can lead to losing one's nature and falling into the fiendish path. Only with a firm heart of the Dao can one pierce through falsehood and remain unperturbed."
He paused, recalling the jade slips he had once memorized, and continued.
"The fourth stage is the Core Shattering stage. In this realm, the cultivator shatters their dantian to undergo a complete transformation. Their lifespan is greatly increased, and they can fly for thousands of miles on a sword."
"The fifth stage is the Essence Devouring stage. One can devour the essence of heaven and earth to nourish and strengthen oneself. Divine sense grows immensely, and one no longer fears the delusions of demons or fiends."
He recited the cultivation realms he had memorized, his description of each stage precise and accurate.
Mo Yuan simply gave a soft "mm" after listening, his face devoid of extra expression.
"Fellow Daoist Jian, then do you know what the sixth stage is?"
Jian Huaishuang’s heart stirred.
He respectfully cupped his fists and asked, "I would ask the Sect Master for guidance."
Mo Yuan let out a self-deprecating laugh. His smile carried deep exhaustion and a hint of fated sorrow.
"The sixth stage... the sixth stage is called..."
His voice suddenly became exceptionally raspy.
"The Eerification stage."
The Eerification stage...
Jian Huaishuang silently chewed on the term in his mind.
Why was it called that?
What did it mean to be eerified?
Did it mean that like turning into an eerie entity, one gained immense power upon reaching the sixth stage, capable of moving mountains, filling seas, and destroying cities and pools without effort?
Jian Huaishuang wanted to ask more.
But Mo Yuan said no more. He seemed unwilling to explain further regarding this 'Eerification stage,' as if it were a taboo.
Sometimes, the more one knows, the more desperate one becomes.
He turned around and signaled the group to continue forward.
The team followed the stairs downward, finally arriving at an open space within the tower.
This was not the bottom of the tower, but a massive circular platform. In the center of the platform stood a stone furnace about two zhang tall. Plumes of black smoke drifted continuously from the furnace's mouth, emitting a pungent, scorched smell.
The walls of the furnace were covered in complex talismans, and one could vaguely see flames burning fiercely inside.
Arranged around the circular platform were over a dozen blood-stained stone tables. Lying upon them were over a dozen inner disciples of the Corpse Soul Sect, their faces pale and their breath faint.
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