This foul stench was an intangible thing, far more difficult to deal with than physical black insects.
At least ten full days had passed, and the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals had still failed to produce a viable solution.
Some living beings simply could not endure this rancid odor, howling in agony as their bodies burst apart—contributing their own share of misery to this extreme environment.
In such a vicious cycle, the stench across the Xuanhuang Realm showed not the slightest sign of improvement over all those days.
All cultivators hid inside cities with defensive arrays fully active, daring not to step outside. Looking out at the eerie, bizarre colors of the air beyond, their faces were clouded with deep worry.
***
Meanwhile, Li Fan received an interrogation from Dharma Transmitter Zhou.
"Fellow Daoist, just what are you doing?"
"Didn't we agree on faking the apocalypse? How did you end up turning the Xuanhuang Realm into such a foul, chaotic cesspool?"
Zhou seemed to be in a very foul mood.
Li Fan replied placidly, "Have no fear. This is merely a stalling tactic. In three months at most, this anomalous spiritual energy will gradually dilute and return to normal along with the natural circulation of heaven and earth's spiritual energy."
"I know that, but this smell is too repulsive. I feel it will leave an indelible psychological scar on our Xuanhuang Realm cultivators."
"It does not matter. Soon, they will no longer care about such trivial matters," Li Fan said with a faint smile.
"Oh? Has the second phase of the plan begun?" Zhou was quickly drawn back to serious business.
"Let us simply watch and wait."
The voices of their communication gradually faded into silence.
***
Just as Li Fan anticipated, even if nothing was done, the stench would naturally dissipate within three months.
Rather than racking their brains to research ways to eliminate this foul odor without any guarantee of success, it was better to simply wait patiently.
This was the decision reached by the Alliance after comprehensive consideration.
Naturally, in order to thoroughly resolve this inexplicable catastrophe, regions across the Alliance did not slacken their patrols. Day and night, Soul Formation cultivators were dispatched to gather data on environmental shifts. Only when they saw everything steadily improving—and observed the concentration of spiritual energy recovering far faster than expected—did the Alliance slowly put its worries to rest.
Yet, in dark corners known to no one as of yet, vast numbers of new Dao-One Worms were rapidly multiplying using the corpses of the fallen black insects.
This breed of Dao-One Worm did not devour spiritual energy.
Instead, it exhaled spiritual energy outward.
The swift revival of spiritual energy in the Xuanhuang Realm was naturally all their doing.
Under Li Fan's deliberate manipulation, they concealed themselves within various subterranean spiritual veins, seamlessly blending the spiritual energy they released with the natural spiritual energy generated by the workings of heaven and earth, rendering it impossible to distinguish.
The transformation unfolded silently and gradually in this manner.
Three months later, all trace of the foul odor had vanished. Cultivators who had been cooped up for so long flocked outdoors one after another, breathing deeply of the fresh, sweet spiritual energy.
"I never thought the natural spiritual energy of heaven and earth could be so wonderful!"
"Haha, out of destruction comes rebirth! Seeing this catastrophe has enlightened me; I am not far from a breakthrough!"
"On such a fine day, one should travel with good friends!"
***
The Alliance did not curb the cultivators' relaxation.
On the surface, the insect calamity had passed completely.
Consequently, the Alliance directed its primary attention toward investigating the origin of the swarm.
As the ground zero where the incident had erupted, Shilin Province had handled the situation poorly and allowed the disaster to spread. Nearly half of its official cultivators were stripped of their posts. Several scapegoats even had their cultivation bases shattered and were cast into the Nether Prison.
Such severe punishment was exceedingly rare.
Meanwhile, Golden Sword Immortal Venerable, who had mysteriously vanished during the insect calamity, became the chief suspect.
Evidently, an insect calamity could not threaten the life of a Dao Integration cultivator. Thus, Golden Sword Immortal Venerable's complete disappearance—neither seen alive nor found as a corpse—appeared especially suspicious.
As the first Dao Integration cultivator to encounter the insect calamity, had he reported the situation to the Alliance in a timely manner, it would never have spiraled to such an uncontrollable degree.
The Alliance had suffered grievous losses in this catastrophe. Someone had to step forward and shoulder the blame. And the missing Golden Sword Immortal Venerable became the unanimous target of condemnation.
"Only his death can appease public outrage!"
Some cultivators spoke in extraordinarily harsh and vitriolic tones.
Yet he was, after all, a Dao Integration Immortal Venerable; every single one represented tremendous wealth to the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and could not be lightly executed. Therefore, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals ultimately issued a wanted notice, ordering Golden Sword Immortal Venerable to surrender himself promptly in exchange for leniency, rather than issuing an extermination order.
When the news broke, shock rippled through the Alliance. All at once, Golden Sword Immortal Venerable was treated as the instigator of the insect calamity, the target of ten thousand pointing fingers. Everyone wished they could feast on his flesh.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Inexplicably, a surge of hostility and malice welled up within the cultivators' hearts.
At the time, however, cultivators simply attributed it to their fury toward the person who had brought about the insect disaster.
Until half a month later, when an appalling tragedy struck.
In Tianchen Province, a horrifying catastrophe befell the You family. Overnight, all one hundred-odd members of the clan were wiped out, slaughtered down to the last person.
After an investigation, people discovered to their utter shock that the perpetrator of this bloody massacre was none other than the You family's eldest son, You Chisong!
Through some unknown opportunity, despite records showing him to be merely in the Nascent Soul realm, he had managed to silently slaughter even the Soul Formation cultivators of his family. Moreover, he had even concealed the event from the perception of the Heavenly Dao.
It was not until three days later, when the concealment failed and the omens of fallen cultivators erupted in unison, that the outside world learned of this calamity.
For such a terrifying and bloody assault to occur in the peaceful Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals—and with the perpetrator being a member of the very same family—drew the utmost attention of the Alliance, which launched an immediate investigation.
All manner of gossip regarding the You family spread like wildfire among the populace.
As the eldest son, he had rendered distinguished service to the development and prosperity of his clan. Yet, due to a lack of talent, he had been forced to surrender an about-to-be-born change of heaven and earth that he had discovered to someone else.
In a fit of boundless rage, he had butchered his entire family!
***
The massacre of the You family became the hottest topic of discussion among ordinary cultivators.
Slaughtering one's own kin was undeniably an inhuman atrocity, and it ought to have met with one-sided condemnation.
Yet, for some reason, discordant voices began to crop up among the people.
"If you ask me, he killed them well!"
"Indeed. Ruining someone's path of cultivation is no different from murdering their parents! What kin? The day they stole his about-to-be-born change of heaven and earth, they ceased to be his family!"
"If it were me, I would have done the exact same thing!"
"Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!"
***
At first, such voices were merely a minority.
Yet somehow, as discussions grew increasingly heated, more and more people began to voice their support.
The two viewpoints stood in absolute opposition, utterly unable to coexist. Locked in sharp contention, friction was inevitable.
However, such debates occurred from time to time, so the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals did not pay it much heed at first.
Yet no one could have anticipated that once the first bloody clash took place, it would trigger a chain reaction, and large-scale, bloody battles began erupting one after another across every corner of the Alliance.
Chapter 1067