Curse Backlash

Curses were a form of karmic manifestation. Normally, when an ordinary person cast a curse, the prerequisite was that they had to pay a corresponding price. For instance, the Bachelor Curse Fist that Meng Jingzhou had taught himself required the price of never expending his primal yang before achieving immortality. Having grasped the rudimentary Karma Dao fruit, the Imperial Preceptor naturally had no need to pay any price. The Seven Calamities and Eight Sufferings was a concept established by Buddhism, encompassing all the hardships and afflictions of the mortal world. One could say the Seven Calamities and Eight Sufferings was a curse of the highest caliber—Meng Jingzhou's Bachelor Curse Fist wasn't even fit to carry its shoes. After suffering a relentless succession of blows, the Imperial Preceptor had thoroughly realized that with the Immortal Fairy present, along with Yun Zhi who could casually disrupt his desperate life-risking moves, there was no way he could escape. Since escape was impossible, he would drag someone down with him in death! Among all his enemies, Lu Yang had the lowest cultivation. Moreover, the Great Yu cultivators coming to the Dao Seeking Sect had originated because of Lu Yang in the first place. Every time their plans had crumbled, Lu Yang was involved. The capture of Venerable Black-White meant that the other subordinates who had infiltrated the Dao Seeking Sect had fallen as well. A total wipeout! Rather than saying the Dao Seeking Sect had thwarted the restoration of Great Yu, it was more accurate to say that Lu Yang, this stumbling block, had thwarted it! It did not matter if he was captured. Great Yu still had his Master, as well as the slumbering cultivators from the mid-to-late Dayu Era; there was always hope for a resurgence. Then he would eliminate Lu Yang! He cast the most agonizing, cruelest curse upon Lu Yang. Never mind that Lu Yang was merely at the Golden Core stage—even a Tribulation Transcendence cultivator would be dead! In the Imperial Preceptor's eyes, chains and shackles descended from the heavens one after another, locking together and carrying blood and retribution as they descended upon the mortal realm, bringing the most agonizing punishment to the world. These shackles represented the curse, the materialization of the curse itself. Even someone proficient in karmic spells could not see them; only a half-immortal like the Imperial Preceptor, who delved deep into karma and had condensed a rudimentary Karma Dao fruit, could see it all! The shackles were heavy, producing rattling collisions that resonated like the sounds of the Dao. *You dared to stand so close to me. It's too late for regrets now!* The Imperial Preceptor watched their expressions with keen interest, wanting to see faces twisted in regret and grief—regretting having underestimated him, grieving that Lu Yang was beyond salvation. He saw Lu Yang's expression remain unchanged. He saw the Immortal Fairy looking puzzled. He saw Yun Zhi completely expressionless. There was not a trace of the regret and grief he longed to see. As the shackles drew near Lu Yang, contrary to all expectation, golden light burst from Lu Yang's entire body, revealing two karmic threads. Two immensely thick threads coiled around his body: one connected to the Immortal Fairy, and the other to Yun Zhi. The moment the shackles touched Lu Yang, they were instantly deflected and rebounded onto the Imperial Preceptor. The Imperial Preceptor watched helplessly as the curse backfired, letting out an unwilling roar, "No—!" *What in the world is with the karma on this brat?!* *Just two karmic threads, yet they blocked the curse he was so proud of?!* *The one who slapped him was an immortal—how could an immortal have such heavy karma tied to a mortal?!* *And the other one who interrupted his technique—her karma with Lu Yang also deflected the curse!* *To block the curse purely through karma meant that she was an immortal as well!* *Both of these women, breathtaking beyond words, were immortals!* *What kind of joke was this?! How could a single sect possess two immortals?!* Having lived for twenty thousand years, the Imperial Preceptor had never heard of any sect possessing two immortals. Let alone a sect, not even their Great Yu Dynasty had that! Just what kind of place was this Dao Seeking Sect? Calling it a tiger's den or a dragon's lair didn't begin to describe the danger here. Even storming the Imperial Palace would be safer than coming to the Dao Seeking Sect! The Imperial Preceptor felt a mass of flames burning in his chest, so fierce that he thrashed and rolled across the ground; then it felt as if a sphere of water engulfed his head, reducing him to a mere mortal and plunging him into suffocation. The backlash of the curse: the Calamity of Fire and the Calamity of Water from the Seven Calamities. "What's going on?" Lu Yang was baffled. The Imperial Preceptor had glared at him murderously, chanted a long string of words he couldn't even make out, and then suddenly thrown himself onto the ground, rolling about, wailing and screaming in agony. "A curse backlash, obviously. He was trying to curse you with the Seven Calamities and Eight Sufferings just now. But with this celestial protecting you, you don't need to fear such curses. So, as the caster, he's the one who fell into the curse instead." The Immortal Fairy looked at the Imperial Preceptor as if looking at a fool. As expected, he wasn't very bright. Seeing the Imperial Preceptor play his trump cards time and again, only for each to be effortlessly defused, Venerable Black-White felt his heart sink to rock bottom. The Dao Seeking Sect's foundation was bottomless. "First-in-Command, why don't you protect me too?" The Third-in-Command sidled over with an ingratiating grin. The Immortal Fairy glanced sideways at him and waved her hand. "Shoo, shoo! Why would I protect you? If you get hit by a curse, just self-detonate a few times and the curse will pretty much be gone anyway." Dejected, the Third-in-Command slunk away and resumed chatting with Venerable Black-White. "Brother, how did you get caught? Are you in cahoots with this fool rolling on the ground and snuck into the Dao Seeking Sect? Didn't you know the Dao Seeking Sect is my First-in-Command's turf?" "Back in the day, even the Four Ancient Celestials didn't dare set foot on my First-in-Command's turf lightly. Even if they came, they walked on eggshells, hardly daring to breathe!" Venerable Black-White: "..." *Dammit, shut up! The more you say, the more I regret everything.* "Good thing I threw my lot in with the Dao Seeking Sect early on, or else I'd be getting tortured just like you." The Third-in-Command felt deeply fortunate that he had yielded in the nick of time back then. The moment he realized the Immortal Fairy was his superior, he had surrendered on the spot. "So are you a guest elder or an elder of the Dao Seeking Sect now?" "A prisoner." Venerable Black-White: "..." "Regardless, we've finally caught all the Great Yu cultivators in one net. Truly a cause for celebration." Lu Yang clapped enthusiastically. His luck had been awful lately, constantly running into Great Yu cultivators whenever he stepped outside. Now, at last, he didn't have to worry about that anymore. "Hehe, isn't that all thanks to this celestial serving as Acting Sect Master and managing things properly?" The Immortal Fairy planted her hands on her hips to claim credit, grinning from ear to ear. "Wise and brilliant, Fairy! With you here, what could those Great Yu cultivators possibly amount to!" Lu Yang kept clapping, piling on praise after praise as he flattered the Immortal Fairy with all his might. "Caught all of them in one net?" Hearing Lu Yang say this, Venerable Black-White felt a sudden surge of dread. Lu Yang turned his head, flashed a chuckle at Venerable Black-White, and said nonchalantly, "You know Wu Youdao, the sixth Emperor Yu, right? He's here too. The Fairy and I caught him together." "His Majesty was captured by you?!" Venerable Black-White's eyes bulged in shock and fury. After Wu Youdao lost contact during the battle of Hanshui City, he had assumed Wu Youdao and the others were severely injured and hiding somewhere to recover. Who could have imagined they had been captured by the Dao Seeking Sect? This guy named Lu Yang truly was an obstacle to Great Yu! He had thought Lu Yang's only disruption to the plan in Hanshui City was exposing Huang Ming's existence. He had never expected that even His Majesty had been captured by Lu Yang! Eldest Senior Sister paid no attention to Lu Yang and the Immortal Fairy's mutual boasting. She was preparing to interrogate the Imperial Preceptor, who was rolling on the ground and wailing in agony. "I ask, you answer." "Aaaargh!" "How many cultivators does your Great Yu have in total?" "Aaaargh!" "After this failure, does Great Yu have any backup plans?" "Aaaargh!" It was not that the Imperial Preceptor refused to confess; the Seven Calamities and Eight Sufferings were simply too vicious. The pain was so excruciating that he couldn't get a single word out. Yun Zhi was somewhat helpless. Having interrogated countless people, this was the first time she had encountered such a situation.