In an instant, Wei Yuan's hairs stood on end. Knowing at once that something had targeted him, he snapped to full alert.
What seemed like a gentle breeze brushed past him, yet Wei Yuan felt nothing. Suddenly, an "awoo" erupted behind him—the yowling screech of a bristling cat.
Turning to look, Wei Yuan saw a massive white tiger materialize out of thin air, swiping a paw toward empty space. Beneath its claws, something flashed and vanished, causing the lightning-fast strike to hit nothing but air.
This white tiger was Perfected Chuhe's spirit pet, which shifted into combat form in moments of crisis. Yet now, an extra slash had appeared on its shoulder; no one knew when it had suffered the injury.
Perfected Chuhe crawled out from beneath the tiger, disheveled and deathly pale. Just then, that sneak attack had come without the slightest warning; had the white tiger not reacted with astonishing speed, the old Daoist would likely be missing an arm or a leg by now.
Without needing any alarm, the cultivators of the Palace of Grand Beginning spread out immediately, forming mutually supporting angles to watch every direction.
A warning flared in Wei Yuan's mind once more. Without time to think, three curved cauldron plates appeared in his hands. Fitted together, they formed a neat cylinder that enclosed Wei Yuan completely.
Over a dozen streaks of black qi tore through the air and pelted the barrel-like cauldron, ringing out with clanging metallic chimes! All the black qi struck a fraction of a second too late, deflected by Wei Yuan's protective cauldrons and ricocheting wildly in all directions, throwing the Palace of Grand Beginning cultivators into total chaos.
The old Daoist Chuhe shrieked as a blade slashed across his buttocks.
Seeing Wei Yuan shielded so thoroughly, the shadow rapidly soared upward, preparing to shoot inward through the gap above.
Yet the moment it reached its position, it saw Wei Yuan pull out another cauldron plate and slap it on top, capping the opening. Now, not a single chink remained.
For a moment, the shadow seemed at a loss. Then, flying into a rage, it unleashed a broad swath of blade-like black qi, sweeping in all the cultivators below.
Amid the clattering din, Wei Yuan's turtle shell deflected every incoming blade qi with impenetrable toughness.
Old Daoist Chuhe wailed again as two more cuts struck his shins—one of which was ricocheted off Wei Yuan.
Hidden inside his turtle shell, Wei Yuan cast an art, dragging several fire meteors out from the void and slamming them violently into the ground around him. Amid the rumbling explosions, waves of fire surged outward, sweeping clean everything in the vicinity.
The white tiger burst out of the raging flames with the old Daoist clenched in its jaws; half of the Daoist's eyebrows were already singed away.
Under the bombardment of meteors, the shadow let out a shrill cry, seemingly pained.
Just then, the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda manifested out of thin air, pinning the shadow in place. Then, a slender ray of light flashed across the void, sweeping through the shadow.
"Well done!" Yu Zhizhuo cheered with a pumped fist. Seeing that familiar sword light always delighted him.
Zhang Sheng silently put away Zhanxu and drew Parting Sorrow.
Bisected, the shadow fled swiftly. Mid-flight, the two halves merged back into one, as if it had never been harmed at all.
Suddenly, two screams rang out from the perimeter; from the sound of it, they came from two Dao Foundation cultivators who had followed them into the grotto-heaven.
Having lost the sensation of being locked onto, Wei Yuan opened his turtle shell and dashed toward where the screams had originated. A three-man group had originally been posted here on watch; now, only one remained, standing dazed on the spot, petrified with horror.
Two long trails of blood snaked across the ground, winding all the way into the palace complex. Evidently, after being attacked, the two cultivators had been dragged into the depths of the palaces by the shadow monster.
Wei Yuan gave the surviving cultivator a hard shake and demanded, "Did you see what that thing looks like?"
"N-no! It seemed invisible—only two claws showed, and with a single stroke it ripped both of them open..." The cultivator trembled like a sieve.
"Regroup with the others," Wei Yuan instructed, then took off along the bloodstains. The trail stretched all the way to the main gate of a certain palace hall, where it turned inside.
Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli were already there; only when they saw Wei Yuan catch up did they step through the gate.
The shadow monster was terrifyingly fast. Barely a breath had elapsed from the screams to the cultivators' arrival, yet it had already dragged two people into a palace a hundred zhang away, without Wei Yuan even catching a glimpse of a silhouette.
Beyond the palace gate lay a vast courtyard, only slightly inferior to the royal courts of feudal princes. Out in the mundane world, this single hall alone would smack of exceeding imperial regulations.
Stepping into the courtyard, Wei Yuan felt his surroundings grow gloomy, cold, and damp, while the sky turned distinctly dim. The blood trail split in two, leading into the left and right side halls respectively.
Two monsters?
Wei Yuan did not act rashly. Instead, he scanned and inspected the courtyard with his divine sense for hidden mechanisms or traps, while Ji Liuli set up a formation on the spot and Zhang Sheng stood guard nearby.
In the blink of an eye, Ji Liuli's formation was complete. A dazzling ray of golden light rose from within, piercing the gloom that shrouded the palace and allowing the light of heaven to shine upon it once more.
"I have dispelled the yin energy here. Still, stay vigilant. The yin qi here was excessively thick, yet there are no vengeful souls. It's rather strange."
The three consulted briefly and decided not to split up, choosing to search the left side hall first, then the right.
The left side hall was pitch-black and gloomy. Something seemed to have been enshrined here originally, but it had been violently destroyed, leaving behind utter ruin.
Wei Yuan suddenly kicked a length of wood, which produced an odd sound. Picking it up to examine, he found that the broken piece was smeared with a generous coat of slime.
A drop of slime fell from overhead, landing right on the broken piece of wood.
In a flash, a shadow plummeted from the roof of the hall, pouncing straight down at the three below!
Instantly, the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda manifested. The shadow's movements abruptly slowed by thirty percent; where it had previously been undetectable, it could finally be tracked. With twin swords in hand, Zhang Sheng exchanged hundreds of blows with the shadow in a heartbeat, taking a hit from it and returning three sword strikes in kind.
It all happened in the spark of a flint. Zhang Sheng stumbled backward, blood trailing from the corner of his mouth, while a few splotches of shadow splashed into the air as the monster vanished with a screech.
Whistling through the air, over a dozen flying swords swept across where the monster had just been, but they were a beat too late and struck nothing.
"What kind of monster is that?" Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli asked simultaneously, only to realize neither had caught a clear look.
Sword in hand, Zhang Sheng saw a patch of slime clinging to the blade. Touching it lightly with a finger, wisps of light smoke instantly rose from his fingertip, charring a small spot black.
"Be careful. This monster's bodily fluids can corrode dharma bodies." Light flowed along Zhang Sheng's immortal sword, annihilating all the slime.
Wei Yuan said, "We cannot split up."
The other cultivators from the Palace of Grand Beginning had surrounded the palace hall, intending to intercept the monster once Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli flushed it out. But this beast possessed formidable strength, and more terrifying still was its speed, which ranked at the very pinnacle even among Dharma Idols. If everyone remained dispersed, disaster would strike.
Wei Yuan immediately transmitted orders to the cultivators endowed with karmic luck, who passed his words along to the rest.
Just then, the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda emerged on its own. A patch of shadow charged beneath the pagoda, its speed visibly slowing. Rather than retreating, Zhang Sheng advanced, unleashing rapid strikes with his twin swords while his fourth immortal sword descended slowly. As long as he caught its aura, the immortal sword would automatically sever the adversary's origin soul.
At the same time, Wei Yuan raised his firearm, stepped forward, and thrusted with Counter-Slay—only to strike empty air.
Suppressing the churning Dao power within him, Wei Yuan fired another shot. Amid a resounding roar, a spray of lead pellets erupted from the muzzle, missing once more.
Yet this time, Wei Yuan saw it with crystal clarity: right when the muzzle flashed with fire, the monster had still been in front of the barrel. But as the flash flared and the lead pellets left the bore, the space ahead was already void—the monster had shifted away.
And this was even under Eldest Senior Sister's Demon-Suppressing Pagoda. Without the pagoda, Wei Yuan probably wouldn't even be able to discern the creature's traces.
Zhang Sheng let out a muffled groan as he took another hit, once again returning three sword strikes. A trickle of blood also dripped from his nose, clearly indicating no light injury. How heavily wounded the monster was, however, no one could tell.
Outside the palace hall, two screams suddenly rang out—stragglers who hadn't had time to assemble yet.
It had just clashed with Zhang Sheng here, yet in the blink of an eye, it had ambushed and killed other cultivators hundreds of zhang away?
Wei Yuan felt a chill run down his spine; he had never witnessed such speed! Furthermore, the beast had bizarre traits—without understanding its origins and nature, one couldn't even lock onto it with divine sense.
Before Wei Yuan could devise a countermeasure, a clammy, icy sensation crept over him once more. He immediately realized he had been targeted again.
Wei Yuan's consciousness suddenly turned crystal-clear. Propelled by an external force, it rose continually, leaping beyond the surrounding mist. Looking down from above this time, he saw everything vividly: strands of nearly invisible threads reached out from the gloom, reaching toward his physical self below to entangle him.
An epiphany struck Wei Yuan: once ensnared by these threads, he would be locked onto by the beast, followed by a tempest of lethal strikes. Such an assault was something Wei Yuan couldn't possibly parry; he could only pray his physical body could withstand it.
Right then, however, several streaks of pale red sword qi appeared around Wei Yuan. Slashing like lightning, they severed every thread reaching toward him.
Refusing to give up, the monster sent forth even more threads, weaving toward Wei Yuan from all directions. More pale red sword qi joined in, until seven streaks flew out in unison, severing all the threads. Around Wei Yuan, it was as if black snow were falling, with severed threads drifting down incessantly.
This was combat at the level of the origin soul. Not having achieved a Dharma Idol yet, Wei Yuan normally would never have been able to perceive it. Yet right now, for reasons unknown, his origin soul's status seemed to have been elevated dramatically, allowing him to overlook the entire spectacle from above.
This invisible battle was fiercely intense, yet had his origin soul's tier not been elevated, Wei Yuan's only perception would have been: the monster tried to lock onto me, but failed.
*It seems the celestial laurel tree is of some use after all...* Wei Yuan praised inwardly.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, Wei Yuan saw a peculiar, glimmering thread reach out from the void, pointing right at him. Yet despite how prominent this thread was, the celestial laurel tree seemed completely oblivious, continuing to battle the ordinary threads around it.
Wei Yuan grew anxious, but in his peculiar origin soul state, he couldn't move or do anything at all. He could only watch as that thread settled upon him and sank into his sea of consciousness.
In that instant, Wei Yuan suddenly remembered: this was a thread of karma! His teacher had demonstrated it back during the consolidated primary course.
Yet this was truly a method of a True Monarch. Back then, True Monarch Yanshi himself had personally stepped forward to demonstrate it, waving a hand to transform the classroom into an endless, shadowy void where countless brilliant, resplendent threads of karma crisscrossed, with endless tangles especially between classmates.
Wei Yuan had still been young at the time; faced with such a marvel, he could do nothing but gasp in wide-eyed wonder.
Seeing the thread of karma fall upon him, Wei Yuan felt both shocked and furious. Did this monster want to tie some evil affinity with him? Didn't it know that he could incur a Karma Great Curse at any moment?
The thread of karma descended into his sea of consciousness, but then suddenly veered off course, wrapping around the bodhi tree that had only recently sprouted. Rustling its branches and leaves, the bodhi tree reeled the thread in and steadily absorbed it.
The thread of karma grew tauter and tauter until the monster seemed unable to bear the burden. Finally, the thread snapped, completely absorbed by the Red Lotus Bodhi.
Wei Yuan finally understood: this was a secret struggle at the level of a Scenery Command True Monarch. And what had enabled him to glimpse all of this was that bodhi tree before the Buddha.
*Piercing delusions—so this is what it means.*
Chapter 278