In the sprawling, star-studded Spirit Realm, a pitch-black full moon shone above the river of stars. Blending seamlessly into the darkness, it was invisible, undetectable, and beyond perception. Seated cross-legged within the black moon was a cloaked figure, beneath whose hood wisps of starlight flickered faintly.
Through deduction after deduction and one stargazing session after another, he seemed to have found the future he desired. At his fingertip, he condensed a wisp of soul power, which wrapped around a soul fragment carrying certain knowledge and memories.
With a flick of his finger,
this soul power transformed into a beam of light and vanished into the depths of the "river of stars."
Then, the starlight beneath the cloak receded, and he turned his gaze toward a distant dungeon infinitely far away. Majestic lunar power surged like a tidal wave toward that particular stellar mote.
Yet each time it was on the verge of engulfing it, a clear, pristine sunlight would dispel it, repeating in an endless cycle.
...
"It looks like our only option is a head-on clash! The anomaly of the Southern Courtyard strikes whenever the black smoke rises, but how are we supposed to fight an enemy inside it?" Demon Eye Heavenly King frowned.
Xiahou Aotian added, "What's even trickier is that the decapitating anomaly prioritizes sentient foes. Puppets won't take the blade for us, and if we're decapitated, our spirits will be sealed. Even if the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter revives us, we'll lose the ability to act."
Commandery Princess Yinyao raised her little loudspeaker. "Perhaps the anomaly's attack isn't as formidable as we think. Both yin corpses controlled by Yuanshi Tianzun were merely Transcendent."
Fu Qingyang shook his head slightly. "That Elder Xuanzhen died in the pavilion. To be an elder of Shushan, he was most likely a Dominator."
In other words, even a Dominator couldn't block it.
After pondering for a few seconds, the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter said, "Swordsmen have weak defenses. Just because Elder Xuanzhen couldn't withstand the attack doesn't mean we can't."
As they discussed, everyone brought out their defensive items.
Zhang Yuanqing summoned the Purplish-Gold Set and activated its armor mode, while also taking out the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon and the Artisan's Ring, switching the dragon into shield mode.
Finally, he drew the Form and Spirit Annihilation Blade and held it in his right hand.
He had originally considered using the Heaven-Swallowing Beast for defense, but its side effect was too severe. Once activated, it couldn't be stopped until fully fed. With the enemy still unknown and the black smoke attacking at ten-minute intervals, if the Heaven-Swallowing Beast wasn't fed energy during those ten minutes, it would backfire on its master.
Thus, he held off on using it.
Besides him, the flashiest was undoubtedly Xiahou Aotian. After advancing to Dominator, the kid had taken out a loan from his clan for materials that would take a hundred years to repay, crafting multiple Dominator-grade items.
Though none were of particularly high quality...
The Palace Master of Halting Slaughter, Fu Qingyang, and Demon Eye Heavenly King each had only one Dominator-grade defensive item. Among them, the Palace Master had the highest quality—after all, she had "My Demigod Brother."
As for Commandery Princess Yinyao, she had no defensive gear at all. As a Dominator-grade yin creature, mere decapitation couldn't kill her. Her main role was to improve everyone's survival rate.
Xiahou Aotian looked around and said, "Aside from Yuanshi Tianzun, you guys only have one defensive item each? You're too poor!"
Demon Eye Heavenly King scoffed, "My physical body is tougher than any of your junk. You'd better worry about yourself."
Xiahou Aotian sneered. "The protagonist has a luck halo. I return those exact words to you—worry about yourself."
The Palace Master of Halting Slaughter said indifferently, "With me here, your lives won't be in danger. What you need to do is locate the enemy in the black smoke and eliminate it."
Fuck, stop raising death flags! Every one of you looks like an old general on an opera stage, and I'm the only one taking real precautions! Zhang Yuanqing grumbled internally.
"Yuanshi, what are your thoughts?" Fu Qingyang looked at the only Day Wanderer on the field.
Zhang Yuanqing thought for a moment and said, "The black smoke has a concealment effect, so detecting the enemy with skills is impossible. But concealment has a flaw: the moment it attacks, it will definitely reveal itself. Therefore, using yin corpses and Xiahou Aotian's drones for a carpet search is the most effective method."
Fu Qingyang nodded and added, "I calculated the time between when you and Xiahou Aotian heard the footsteps and when the attack landed. Once the footsteps sound, the attack strikes within thirty seconds, after which the black smoke recedes. We must locate the enemy within thirty seconds and focus our fire to kill it."
Before Yuanshi Tianzun could summon his yin corpse army, Fu Qingyang continued, "I have a better way to locate the enemy."
With that, Fu Qingyang retrieved a crown woven from fresh flowers and placed it upon his head.
Instantly, his demeanor took on an air of vivid allure and coquettish grace, his facial features turning more androgynous, resembling an operatic diva of ancient times.
This crown was named "Forest Queen," a low-grade Dominator realm item from the Scholar clan, the Liu family, which Fu Qingyang had purchased at great expense.
The three major Scholar clans steadily provided a small number of Dominator-grade items to official organizations each year. A portion went into the Five Elements Alliance's guild warehouse, while another was offered as a perk, sold at a discount to elders within the organization.
Fu Qingyang had been in power for some time now, and his wealth had grown substantially.
"Forest Queen" could cause surrounding vegetation to grow wildly and flowers to burst into bloom, transforming the area into a home ground suited to his combat. Because it was a low-grade item, Fu Qingyang usually treated it as auxiliary equipment and rarely used it; after all, low-grade Dominator items were of little use to him.
Notably, the price of the Forest Queen was that it made the user more beautiful and enchanting, attracting surrounding males.
Fu Qingyang, now looking like an operatic star, waved a hand gently. Clumps of weeds and fresh flowers sprouted from the floor of Yaoguang Hall.
Stepping over the threshold of Yaoguang Hall, wherever his gaze fell, blossoms and lush grass broke through the ground and flourished. In an instant, the area resembled a primeval forest, blanketed with verdant vegetation.
As a mountain breeze blew, dandelion seeds and spores of other plants drifted in profusion, filling the sky.
All of these plants served as Fu Qingyang's eyes and ears. As long as the enemy wasn't a spirit body, whenever it stepped on or disturbed any plant, the plant would transmit the information to the crown, allowing him to swiftly pinpoint the foe.
Zhang Yuanqing, Xiahou Aotian, and Demon Eye Heavenly King stared at him blankly.
How did the boss suddenly become so pretty? Has he been cross-dressing as a man this whole time?
This punk Fu Qingyang suddenly looks way more pleasing to the eye than Yuanshi!
That crown of his has the effect of attracting males. If it were me, I'd change the drawback to attracting all living beings in the vicinity—now that would be exhilarating...
As Fu Qingyang turned back to look at them, the three quickly snapped back to their senses.
This slight charm wasn't enough to entrance them completely.
Scanning their faces, Fu Qingyang's expression cooled. "Time is almost up. Prepare to engage the enemy."
The moment his voice fell, deep black smoke billowed in from all directions.
Xiahou Aotian grabbed a massive, two-meter-long white feather fan and swung it toward the black smoke.
Whoosh—
Gales raged, and the black smoke roiled violently, but showed no signs of dispersing. Instead, large swaths of the plants Fu Qingyang had cultivated were uprooted and swept into the sky.
"Don't waste your energy. That's yin energy, not actual smoke," Zhang Yuanqing called out to stop him.
Fu Qingyang activated the crown's ability, prompting vegetation to regrow in the empty clearing created by the gale.
Unaffected in the slightest, the black smoke surged forward, engulfing the five of them.
Vision darkened rapidly until it vanished entirely. Even Zhang Yuanqing's "Night Vision" couldn't pierce the darkness.
About a minute later, everyone heard rhythmic, measured footsteps.
Thud, thud-thud, thud-thud-thud...
Zhang Yuanqing braced himself, tightening his grip on the short blade in his hand, waiting only for Fu Qingyang's command.
However, thirty seconds quickly passed. The footsteps vanished, and the black smoke receded like an ebbing tide.
Zhang Yuanqing immediately looked around and saw Commandery Princess Yinyao, Demon Eye Heavenly King, Xiahou Aotian, and Fu Qingyang... while the headless corpse of the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter lay quietly on the grass. Pale gold blood gushed into the vegetation, causing the greenery there to grow rampantly.
Her head had fallen amidst the grass, eyes closed, beautiful and serene.
Zhang Yuanqing's pupils contracted violently, and his heart jerked with terror. Throwing caution to the wind, he lunged toward the Palace Master and scooped up her beautiful head.
In the next second, his panicked expression relaxed.
Inside her head, faint soul fluctuations lingered, sealed by a mysterious force and forced into a deep slumber.
Her spirit body was intact, not a dead person's remnant soul.
Fu Qingyang, Xiahou Aotian, and Demon Eye Heavenly King also changed color. Fu Qingyang approached the body, bent down, and took her pulse.
"She still has a pulse. An Arbiter of Fate does not die easily. Her blood is equivalent to Life Source Fluid; as long as her soul is intact, her physical body can heal."
Zhang Yuanqing said in a heavy voice, "But her spirit body has fallen into a slumber and cannot revive on its own. Once her body's spiritual energy drains completely and loses its spirituality, she'll truly be dead."
Xiahou Aotian picked up the mirror guard next to the corpse. It had been sheared cleanly in two by a sharp blade. Frowning deeply, he said, "This item was decent quality, yet it still couldn't stop the decapitating slash. This is bad... We aren't Arbiters of Fate. One strike and we're dead, and without the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter to resurrect us..."
The worst-case scenario had unfolded.
The "death" of the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter reduced the team's margin for error to zero.
From this moment on, someone would die every ten minutes. With their souls sealed, it wouldn't even be possible to ask Yuanshi to refine them into spirit servants.
Demon Eye Heavenly King clicked his tongue, his expression unusually grim. "That woman was planting flags just a moment ago. Now look at her—dead!"
"Now is not the time to snark." Zhang Yuanqing carefully set down the head and looked at Fu Qingyang. "Boss, didn't you sense the enemy?"
Fu Qingyang shook his head. "The plants gave me no feedback—neither from the ground nor from the air."
"Could the enemy be a wraith?" Xiahou Aotian analyzed.
"Impossible!" Zhang Yuanqing immediately rejected the idea. "Wraiths can only be detected if they cause physical disturbances, such as knocking over tables and chairs. But footsteps originate from oneself; a wraith cannot have footsteps."
Xiahou Aotian argued, "Then if the enemy has a physical form, how could the plants fail to catch it?"
"Keep arguing. We have eight minutes left," Demon Eye Heavenly King said with a faint smile, touching the athletic headband on his forehead.
Zhang Yuanqing had an idea. "Daode Tianzun, can your vertical eye see through the black smoke to target the enemy?"
Demon Eye Heavenly King looked at him and retorted calmly, "When have you ever seen me use it for reconnaissance? The core of the Eye of Bewitchment is 'bewitchment'—bewitching souls and bewitching spiritual energy to sow chaos. Of course, if you insist on treating it like a telescope, the vertical eye does see further than my other two."
Xiahou Aotian said, "Great, you've successfully wasted a minute of everyone's time. Now we only have seven minutes."
"So while I was talking, you completely gave up on using your brain?"
"Great, you just wasted another ten seconds."
Zhang Yuanqing couldn't take it anymore. "Shut the fuck up, both of you! Are you running a dungeon or performing a cross-talk routine? Were your ancestors both from Tianjin?"
Xiahou Aotian and Demon Eye Heavenly King stopped bickering.
Zhang Yuanqing said, "I think our line of thinking was flawed. The black smoke has a concealment property that interferes with all five senses and six faculties. Trying to defeat the enemy in such an environment within a mere thirty seconds is nearly impossible. After all, the enemy is also at the Dominator level."
Fu Qingyang nodded. "Indeed. The correct way to clear this is to survive the assault of the black smoke, and then use the ten-minute intervals to find the true enemy and join forces to defeat it."
So where was the enemy?
Zhang Yuanqing swept his gaze across the area and said, "This area only has Yaoguang Hall and the pavilions. That strange entity is either in the pavilions or inside the hall. Yet we've searched both places and found nothing. Boss, where do you think it is?"
After pondering for a few seconds, Fu Qingyang said, "If forced to choose between the two, it must be in the hall."
"Why?" Xiahou Aotian asked.
Fu Qingyang said calmly, "The disciples of Shushan were hiding in the pavilion. If there were something terrifying inside the pavilion, would they have taken refuge there?"
As a Scout, his insight was the sharpest among them.
"But we already searched Yaoguang Hall. Aside from a statue, there was nothing," Demon Eye Heavenly King said, shrugging. "And a statue is an inanimate object without item information."
Zhang Yuanqing's eyes flashed. "Let's search it again."
The three men and one corpse returned to the hall, scrutinizing every single detail inside, not letting a single fixture go unexamined, touching them one by one.
Candlesticks, altar tables, jade plates, and pillars were all mundane objects. Xiahou Aotian even climbed onto the pedestal, touching the divine statue along with the sword and gourd in her hands.
Every single one was a mundane object.
At that moment, Zhang Yuanqing's gaze fell upon the towering pedestal. The floor of the hall was covered in vegetation, and even the pillars were overgrown with moss.
Only the stone pedestal beneath the statue's feet was completely barren, with not a blade of grass growing upon it.
When the black smoke descended, the vegetation hadn't been trampled, which was why Fu Qingyang hadn't been able to locate the enemy.
In the entire area, the only spots untouched by vegetation were the pedestal and the roof. Meanwhile, dandelions and spores floated through the air; had the enemy been on the roof, it would still have brushed against the plants.
At that time, there were no dandelions or spores inside the hall...
A flash of inspiration struck Zhang Yuanqing's mind, and he cried out, "It's her! It's this statue!"
The moment the words left his mouth, on the rigid, lifeless face of the female sculpture, the eyes rolled with a wet squelch, staring fixedly down at Xiahou Aotian beneath the pedestal.
Chapter 896