High up in the sky, six Body Integration powerhouses clashed, each displaying extraordinary divine abilities. The cultivators below watched in dazzling bewilderment. Even Lu Yang and his four companions observed without blinking, for battles between Body Integration cultivators were exceedingly rare to behold.
Only one person had no heart to watch the clash between Body Integration cultivators, glaring instead with gnashing teeth at the ancient cultivator couple.
"Curse those damned ancient cultivators! You show up everywhere!" Inside the barbecue shop, Vice Cult Master Shi wished he could fly up and join the fray himself to give that couple a sound thrashing, or better yet, slaughter them and refine them into corpse puppets to vent his rage.
Regardless of the battle's outcome, the yamen would thoroughly search this entire area afterward. For safety's sake, the Qingzhou Grand Gathering was bound to end prematurely.
The Qingzhou Grand Gathering was meant to last eight days, yet here it was ending after merely two.
He had come to Qingzhou to conduct field research—to see whether there was a market for a barbecue shop here, what kinds of grilled skewers the people of Qingzhou liked best, and how to tailor their preparations to local tastes.
It turned out the barbecue shop was immensely popular with the people of Qingzhou, showing broad prospects.
He had also planned to use the Qingzhou Grand Gathering to make a name for the barbecue shop and break open the Qingzhou market.
Now, it had all gone up in smoke.
"Ancient cultivators, is that it? Don't let me catch you!"
In terms of cultivation and combat power, he was far superior to the three sect vice leaders. Had he joined the battle, it would have been a one-sided landslide victory.
Unfortunately, his special identity barred him from participating.
If his true identity were exposed, he would be a dead man.
...
"Stealing Heaven to Substitute the Sun!" The male cultivator formed hand seals. Dark clouds rolled across the sky, blotting out the sun and plunging the world into pitch-black darkness where one could not even see their fingers before their eyes. Chilling sounds of grinding teeth echoed in the darkness, as if a colossal beast were gnawing on bones.
"Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts!" another voice bellowed. It was the female cultivator. Boundless black mist billowed from her, clumping together as it hung in the air and gradually condensing into various forms of ghosts.
Chang ghosts, seductive ghosts, blade ghosts, headless ghosts, corpse-possessing ghosts...
A hundred ghosts drifted in eerie silence, thick with the stench of death, advancing like an army of the undead descending to overrun the mortal realm.
Had the boundary's rules not blocked them, the deadly miasma of these hundred ghosts would have reduced the entire mountain to a barren wasteland where no one survived.
Even knowing they were safe below, the faint-hearted shook at the knees in terror, desperate to flee the scene.
"Listen to me, don't be afraid. With the provincial governor here, these are just petty parlor tricks that can't take the stage," the Body Integration cultivator maintaining the rules said to Lu Yang and the other four.
Through brief conversation, they learned his name was Xia Qun, an early Body Integration cultivator.
"Besides, the provincial governor possesses the power of national destiny. Dealing with this bunch of ancient Body Integration hicks who haven't seen the world is more than easy for him. Who knows when I'll ever become a provincial governor myself."
"No need to stand on ceremony with me. In fact, I have quite an affinity with your Five Great Immortal Sects; you could consider me half a senior brother to you."
"Did Lord Xia join an immortal sect?" Lan Ting asked, puzzled.
"Well, no, but I took the entrance exams of your immortal sects back then. The questions were brutally hard, you know? I was weeded out in the very first round. I came within an inch of becoming your senior brother, so calling myself half a senior brother isn't pushing it, right?"
Lan Ting: "..."
"I originally wanted to give Dao Seeking Sect a shot too. On the way there, I casually took the imperial examination—and hey, I passed! That's how I ended up drifting into officialdom." Xia Qun was remarkably talkative, quickly dispelling all tension among Lu Yang and the others.
"Demonic heretics indeed!" The provincial governor held up the official seal in his palm. Boundless power poured ceaselessly into his body, his aura surging higher and higher until the ancient cultivator couple's eyelids twitched; his strength was already infinitely approaching the Tribulation Transcendence stage.
A faint shimmer of light radiated from the governor's body, like the morning dawn piercing through the dark of night. That ray of light abruptly swelled, dispersing the black night and sweeping away the deadly miasma clinging to the hundred ghosts. Yet the ghosts remained, brandishing weapons in an ostentatious display of might.
Behind the male cultivator loomed a grotesque phantom, towering like a mountain. Brandishing a bone club, it looked capable of plucking down the sun, moon, and stars.
"Attack!" the female cultivator commanded. The army of a hundred ghosts surged forward with immense momentum, lunging toward the governor's side.
"Leave these to me! Twelve-Storeyed Pavilion!" Vice Dao Master Zhang stepped to the front, a strange hum vibrating from his nasal cavity.
A golden pavilion materialized above the ghosts, exuding boundless aura. The hundred ghosts wailed in agony, and half the ghostly host perished on the spot.
"As expected of Chonglou Abbey, which handles ghost outbreaks all the time. The Twelve-Storeyed Pavilion is as effective against ghosts as ever," Vice Dean Hong teased as he flipped open *Sayings of the Sage*. Words came alive from the pages one after another, hurtling toward the remaining ghost army.
"Confucian methods—summoning words as soldiers. Alas, a rough fellow like me could never learn it," Vice Sect Master Mi remarked enviously, watching Vice Dean Hong fight with mere flicks of his fingers.
"Can't learn it, then so be it!" Vice Sect Master Mi roared. Falling into a frenzy, his gaze turned dazed and vacant as he shed his sanity, leaping forward like an ape to crash down upon the female cultivator.
The female cultivator raised her fist to meet Vice Sect Master Mi's blow. To her astonishment, this middle Body Integration cultivator matched her peak Body Integration cultivation in sheer strength.
"It seems he exchanged his sanity for power," the female cultivator remarked, herself no amateur. With a brief exchange of blows, she discerned the method he employed.
"Nothing to fear!" Combat was never a matter of strength alone.
"What if you add the two of us?" Having eliminated the ghosts, Vice Dao Master Zhang and Vice Dean Hong rushed over to besiege the female cultivator.
On the other side of the battlefield, the provincial governor summoned a Mountain-Moving Sage, who hurled a mountain straight at the male cultivator's phantom. The phantom met the mountain with its bone club. Yet because the mountain was formed from national destiny, it instantly detonated upon impact, sending a blast of air soaring skyward and scattering the dark clouds overhead.
The governor then summoned an Axe-Wielding Sage. The sage swung a massive axe, hacking straight down toward the male cultivator. His expression changing drastically, the male cultivator yanked the phantom over to absorb the strike. Black blood immediately poured from the phantom's chest.
"Hah, practicing Phantasm of Heaven and Earth into such a hideous monstrosity is quite a feat in itself," the Immortal Fairy scoffed, thoroughly derisive of the male cultivator's method.
"Or is it that form reflects the heart, and he actually fancies looking like that?"
"Who will win?" Lu Yang asked secretly.
"Naturally Great Xia's side. Great Xia's overall combat strength is a cut above theirs, plus they have the aid of national destiny. National destiny can both defend and attack; what do ancient cultivators have to win with?"
"Is that so?" Lu Yang mused, feeling that something still seemed off.
"You forced my hand!" Enraged, the male cultivator retrieved a pair of golden scissors from his robes. The scissors transformed into two golden dragons that soared into the sky with resonant roars, disrupting the fluctuations of spiritual energy across the battlefield.
The emergence of the golden dragons was like tossing a stone into a placid lake, sending ripples spreading across the entire body of water.
The spiritual energy throughout the entire Qingzhou region trembled.
"A dharma treasure refined by a Tribulation Transcendence cultivator!" The provincial governor had seen such treasures in the Imperial City; a Body Integration cultivator had to pay an immense price to drive one.
"Fortunately, my wife and I sacrificed an entire city of people before going into slumber. Otherwise, driving the Golden Dragon Scissors would truly have been difficult."
"Go!" The male cultivator had the two golden dragons coil around the phantom's arms, lunging straight for the governor.
The provincial governor channeled the power of national destiny. The national destiny formed a great sword as long as a river, one side inscribed with the multitude of people and the other with mountains and rivers.
"A projection of the Taishang Sword! The provincial governor is going all out!" Xia Qun cried out in alarm. "Using a projection of the Taishang Sword means the provincial governor won't be able to engage in bed matters for three months."
"Let me tell you, invoking the Taishang Sword's phantom comes at a terrible price, but its effect is absolutely rock-solid. Unless a Tribulation Transcendence cultivator shows up, the governor can hack both these ancient cultivators to death with it."
The projection of the Taishang Sword collided with the golden-dragon-clad phantom. The brilliant light that erupted made it impossible for anyone present to keep their eyes open.
"Who won?" No one could tell which side had prevailed.
As the smoke cleared, the projection of the Taishang Sword had shattered. The golden dragons vanished, the Golden Dragon Scissors snapped in two, and the phantom was severed at the waist, black blood gushing ceaselessly. The male cultivator suffered severe injuries to his vitality, coughing up mouthfuls of blood.
In contrast, the provincial governor looked radiant and full of spirit, as if no clash had ever occurred.
"The provincial governor won!" The cultivators below cheered. Vice Sect Master Mi and the others also breathed a sigh of relief; had the governor lost, stopping these two ancient cultivators would have been exceptionally difficult.
*Clap—clap—clap—*
A rhythmic clapping echoed out. The sound was thin, yet it suppressed all other noise. When the third clap sounded, the entire venue fell as silent as a graveyard.
A red-robed figure appeared in the center of the battlefield, strolling across empty air. When one probed with divine sense, there was not a shred of spiritual energy within his body, as though he were a mere mortal.
Yet how could a mortal possibly appear here?
A smirk curled on the red-robed figure's lips as he spoke slowly: "I have long heard of Great Xia's extraordinary national destiny. Seeing it today, it is indeed remarkable—capable of protecting all people, elevating cultivation and combat power, and even condensing into a phantom of a sharp sword."
"Though I cannot recognize what sword this is, for a mere phantom to sever a Tribulation Transcendence-grade treasure, the original body must surely surpass the Tribulation Transcendence stage."
"It seems this battle I took such pains to arrange was not in vain. A fruitful harvest indeed."
The provincial governor's expression turned grave as if facing a formidable foe. "You arranged it?"
He had found it strange all along: the secret realm had been thoroughly inspected and deemed safe, with no slumbering ancient cultivators inside, so where had these two come from?
Now he understood. There was someone pulling the strings behind the two ancient cultivators.
Below, Meng Jingzhou grew anxious: "The provincial governor's expression looks terrible. That person is a Tribulation Transcendence cultivator."
If a Tribulation Transcendence powerhouse went on a slaughtering spree here, who could stop him?
"What do we do?" Meng Jingzhou sent a divine sense transmission to Lu Yang.
"Don't worry, he won't be able to stir up any waves," Lu Yang replied, perfectly calm and composed.
"Where did you get that confidence?"
Meng Jingzhou turned his head in surprise.
Only then did he see an icy, exquisitely beautiful woman standing right beside Lu Yang.
Xia Qun stood nearby, not daring to utter a sound.
"Eldest Senior Sister?!"
Lu Yang had long sensed that someone was plotting behind this affair. For safety's sake, he had summoned Eldest Senior Sister in advance.
Chapter 366