CHAPTER 351: THE DAOIST ROBE ELDER! THE WOMAN IN WHITE! PURE PRAYER POWER! OVERWHELMING FENGDU?!

Even the Night-Wandering Spirit, appearing as an underworld ghost official, could not withstand the overwhelming divine power of Li Yanchu’s three pseudo-mythical fire-based artifacts. With unstoppable force, Li Yanchu slew the Night-Wandering Spirit, then executed supreme footwork to leave the area.

Immediately, strange and terrifying sounds began echoing throughout Fengdu. The dense, thriving yin trees seemed to transform into countless ghostly hands, emerging from the blackened world while making eerie, rustling noises.

Then, Li Yanchu activated the Art of Pursuit. He needed to locate Fang Qinglan in the shortest possible time, and then find a way to leave Fengdu!

The louder these horrifying entities became, the more dangerous Fengdu grew. He had no intention of finding Fang Qinglan only to discover that she had already become a mindless corpse or a vengeful spirit!

Fengdu, erupting with yin qi, now resembled a hellish realm filled with ghosts. Dark, shadowy figures appeared among the dead trees, their eyes filled with malice and cunning. The rustling of the trees made them appear as terrifying beasts, selecting prey to devour.

Seeing this, Li Yanchu frowned. The number of strange entities in Fengdu was overwhelming!

He immediately unleashed the Southern Ember Sword. A streak of fire flashed, and the cursed tree was instantly engulfed in purifying flames. Countless resentful spirits were burned to ashes!

With a flick of his hand, the Eight Trigrams Mirror emitted a white divine light.

Boom!

A spirit within the cursed tree was struck directly. It twisted and warped, revealing a blood-soaked, terrifying human face, its eyes full of malice.

Then, there was another flash of divine light from the Eight Trigrams Mirror, and the grotesque face was instantly shattered into nothingness.

“I, Daoist Wangquan, have come to visit Fengdu today. Anyone who blocks my path shall die!” Li Yanchu’s voice boomed like thunder.

Empowered by his profound qi, his words echoed across heaven and earth. The next moment, roars and ghostly howls rang endlessly through the air.

“How arrogant!”

“Impudent brat!”

“How dare you!”

Chaos erupted in Fengdu as one terrifying entity after another began to awaken, flooding the skies with ghost qi!

***

Within an ancient city in Fengdu, the massive city lay empty with black mist hanging over the streets, looking ominous and terrifying. Not a single ghost was in sight, yet the city exuded an eerie, deathly silence that made one’s scalp tingle.

At the center of the ancient city stood a gigantic altar, about the size of a football field, with its ground etched with ancient, malevolent runes. On the altar rested a single eyeball, which seemed cold and sinister, seeming devoid of any human emotion.

A gloomy elderly Daoist in a robe with his face covered in age spots stood with hands behind his back, gazing coldly at the white orb in the center of the altar.

“The incense and prayer power are so concentrated... let’s see how long you can endure!” His expression was dark, his eyes glinting with greed.

The orb radiated a magnificent, sacred aura, which was a condensation of prayer power from incense, to protect the primordial spirit. Even if the old Daoist activated the dark array on the altar, he could only chip away at the light formed from the pure prayer power, bit by bit.

Inside the orb was a woman in white sitting cross-legged with an ordinary iron sword laid horizontally before her. Her features were delicate, her aura cold and aloof, beautiful to the point that no one dared approach.

Just by sitting there, she could captivate most men, unnerving their hearts and minds. Her icy, detached presence was like snow atop a glacier.

She slightly opened her eyes, gazing at the light of the prayer power, which was slowly being weakened, and let out a soft sigh.

“The Immortal Lotus has not yet emerged, but instead has been trapped here by this Nine Yin[1] Daoist. Could this... be the will of Heaven?!”

A faint aura of death emanated from her. It was a powerful ghostly entity in Fengdu, using a curse technique that followed the very words of its command to attack her primordial spirit. It was this curse that had continuously weakened her primordial spirit. Even now, when she recalled that sinister ghostly creature, a murderous aura still radiated from her.

Suddenly, flames shot high into the sky in Fengdu, and a tremendous explosion rang out like thunder enraged. A surge of thick qi and blood ascended, accompanied by overwhelmingly fierce divine fire.

The old Daoist in the robe furrowed his brow slightly. In Fengdu, most ghostly entities existed as soul bodies, though some, like the terrifying female corpse, were corpse-spirits and magical constructs. But all of them, after cultivating for years and absorbing yin qi, had become formidable yin-spirit fiends of their era.

There had never been a person with such profound qi and blood.

“He entered the Dao through martial arts?! This qi and blood... so dense and powerful... Could it be that such a grandmaster of martial arts exists in the mortal realm?!”

The gloomy old Daoist in the robe was slightly moved. Upon hearing the revival sounds of those ancient, terrifying beings, his brow furrowed deeply. He had trapped this woman in white within the ancient city of Fengdu with the intent to refine her, to seize the pure prayer power she possessed.

He never expected that a mortal martial artist would shatter Fengdu’s calm, and in doing so, awaken the terrifying legends of the ancient city. The yin-spirits and reanimated dead outside would surge into the city, and the situation would become uncontrollable.

“Damn it! Where did this martial artist come from, daring to wreak havoc in Fengdu without knowing his place?!”

He surged his power, accelerating the operation of the altar. As he refined the woman in white, the age spots on his face became more prominent, his wrinkles deepened, and he looked like a man at the end of his days on the verge of death.

The surrounding yin qi erupted, accompanied by earth-shattering sounds, as if the world itself were no longer under his control.

Until he heard that thunderous, icy command, “I, Daoist Wangquan, have come to visit Fengdu today. Anyone who blocks my path shall die!”

Hearing this, the old Daoist in the robe took a deep breath.

Good heavens! What audacity!

Even a third-realm master wouldn’t dare claim they could sweep through all of Fengdu.

This place gathered the resentful energy and yin qi of countless dead, spawning untold terrifying entities. Yet someone had the nerve to boast that they would completely suppress all of Fengdu!?

“Who exactly is this Daoist Wangquan?!”

A sharp gleam shot from the old Daoist’s murky eyes, piercing and relentless. He was not a native ghost of this place, but came from the mortal realm. He entered Fengdu in the twilight of his years, and had continuously devoured soul-bound spirits to strengthen himself.

He had now reached a unique half-ghost, half-corpse state. Even without fully attaining the third realm, he had already touched the limits of the barrier, with half a foot seemingly stepping beyond it. He was stronger than he had been at his peak.

He shook his head, a sudden sense of foreboding rising in his heart. His gaze drifted to the distance with a thoughtful look as he pondered...

On the altar, the sinister eyeball suddenly blinked once, coldly staring at the old Daoist. The instant he turned his head toward it, it returned to being a lifeless object.

***

Elsewhere, after Li Yanchu slew the Night-Wandering Spirit and passed the cursed tree, he deliberately unleashed the full force of his thick, potent qi and blood like a roaring, blazing furnace. Even ten li away, the spirits of the dead could feel the sheer power of a martial artist at his peak.

Without needing to strike, he could obliterate ordinary evil spirits and even vengeful ghosts. Countless terrifying presences turned their gaze toward him, yet he reined in his aura!

Daoist Arts: Sun Veil & Illusory Form!

These two techniques divert an opponent’s attention, creating the perfect opportunity for deception.

He continued soaring through Fengdu, so fast that he left a ghostly afterimage in the air. Since the waters here were so treacherous, he thought it best to first toss a stone in and observe the reaction.

Silently concealing himself, he advanced swiftly toward Fang Qinglan’s location.

1. "九阴" is a Chinese term denoting a profoundly remote or hidden realm. Its core meaning originally refers to a geographically secluded or obscure place, and it later extended metaphorically to the realm of the underworld. The term first appeared in classical texts during the Three Kingdoms period, in Ge Xuan’s preface to the Dao De Jing: “祸灭九阴，福生十方” (“Disaster destroys the Nine Yin, fortune arises in all directions”). In the Tang dynasty, Liu Zongyuan’s Tian Dui strengthened its spatial connotation as an extremely northern region: “九阴极冥，厥朔以炳” (“The Nine Yin is utterly dark, yet its beginning shines”). During the Ming dynasty, Shen Jing’s Shuang Zhu Ji: Yu Zhong Yuan Hen provides the literary usage “深秋赴九阴” (“In late autumn, journeying to the Nine Yin”), illustrating the term’s continued application in literary contexts. ☜