Longzang

Chapter 152 A formidable foe has arrived.
Southern Qi Dynasty.

Inside a lavish mansion, drums and music resounded, and singing and dancing were taking place in the main hall.

More than ten songstresses, draped in light veils, their bodies partially obscured, danced with movements that varied in speed and intensity, sometimes powerful and vigorous, sometimes graceful and boneless. Their steps were sometimes dignified, sometimes alluring, sometimes peculiar, and sometimes utterly inconceivable.

The hall was filled with guests on both sides, all of them dazzled and drooling, clearly showing they were all unsophisticated.

Seated in the main seat was a middle-aged man in brocade robes. He had a handsome appearance, but his breathing was weak and his cheeks were somewhat swollen, indicating that he was physically weak.

At this moment, he had a beautiful woman on each side, one feeding him food and the other serving him wine, without the other needing to lift a finger. However, he still had to eat by himself and watch the courtesans by himself, as he couldn't ask anyone to do it for him.

After the middle-aged man took a bite of food, the beautiful woman next to him brought a wine glass to his lips. But in that instant, the wine in the glass suddenly turned dark red, like blood about to congeal, and emitted a foul stench!

The beautiful woman cried out in surprise, but remained calm. She tried to throw the wine glass away, but the middle-aged man grabbed her wrist, took the glass from her, and comforted her, saying, "It's none of your business."

The unexpected turn of events left all the guests in the hall stunned. The dancers also froze in place, afraid to move lest they bring about their own demise. In such a situation, whoever moved would die.

The middle-aged man stared at the blood-red wine in his cup, then suddenly smiled and said, "Someone wants me to have no descendants? Heh!"

He suddenly raised his glass and drank it all in one gulp!

The guests were all greatly alarmed and cried out repeatedly, "Lord Hui'en! You mustn't!"

"What should I do?"

"Help!"

Countless armored guards rushed into the hall, surrounding the middle-aged man and protecting him.

The middle-aged man calmly put down his wine glass and muttered to himself, "If that's the case, then I'll give you another pair of eyes!"

He reached behind him and gouged out his own eyes, bloodied and raw eyeballs!
Screams erupted in the hall, and people jumped up and ran around frantically, but anyone who dared to approach the middle-aged man, no matter who they were, was cut down on the spot by the Iron Guards.

The middle-aged man sat upright and said in a deep voice, "Go to the palace and fetch the imperial physician."

Moments later, squads of blue-armored warriors rushed into the main hall, driving all bystanders out and concentrating them on guard duty. Immediately afterwards, a man in a yellow robe with a dignified appearance strode into the main hall; he was none other than the ruler of Southern Qi.

Duke Hui'en remained seated, blood still flowing from his empty eye sockets, his front already soaked through.

King Qi's gaze swept across Duke Hui'en's face like lightning, and he asked, "What's going on here?"

Hui En Gong said calmly, "I don't want to see the day when my bloodline ends, so I took out my own eyes first."

"You think this was done by me? Ridiculous!"

Duke Hui'en raised his head slightly and said, "Is this not His Majesty's intention?"

King Qi snorted heavily and turned his head, saying, "To cast a curse all the way to the capital? Do you think Southern Qi has no one to rely on? Grand Preceptor, do you know who did this?"

The Taoist priest behind King Qi, who had been keeping his head down the whole time, finally raised his eyes, glanced at the empty cup on the table, and said, "This is a blood curse from a witch. Duke Hui'en has already retaliated, and the cause and effect have now been severed. It will take some time and effort to find out who cast the curse."

King Qi's face darkened, and he ordered, "Investigate thoroughly! I need to know the results within seven days! Someone, go to the Dragon Glass Tree in the palace and fetch two fruits to give to Duke Hui'en as eyes."

The guards took the order and left.

King Qi bent down and wiped the blood from Duke Hui'en's face, saying, "If I wanted to kill you, I would have issued a clear decree, not resorted to these tricks. You've gone too far with this act."

Duke Hui'en smiled and said, "That shows how wise my elder brother is."

King Qi snorted and got up to leave.

Western Regions.

Suddenly, the blood-red eye on the altar let out a loud cry, one of its eyes exploded, and blood sprayed all over the old man and the phantom!
Blood Eyes covered his face and screamed in agony, while Phantom moved away from the old man.

The old man's expression changed, and he said, "You two think I'm the one who did this?"

"if not?"

The old man did not react, but said, "This matter is strange. Let me first offer a prayer to Heaven and try to calculate it..."

Seeing the growing murderous intent in the blood-red eyes and the phantom, the old man hesitated for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said, "I'll calculate it now."

The old man released a large amount of blood energy from his sleeve, revealing an extremely complex array diagram. Then, he pointed a finger, activating the diagram. The instant it activated, a faint aura suddenly appeared within the array, causing the three great shamans to tremble as if they had seen their natural enemy, almost screaming!
The aura vanished in a flash, and then the array became chaotic, revealing nothing more.

The old man's face was extremely grim. He said, "Immortal methods! They actually still have immortal methods left here! If I hadn't deduced them, I'm afraid I would have run headfirst into their hands!"

His bloodshot eyes had recovered, and he said coldly, "You really don't know?"

The old shaman pointed to the heavens and swore an oath: "If I had known about this beforehand, may I be struck by lightning and my soul be struck by the heavens, and may I never enter the divine realm again!"

This was the most serious oath of the witch clan. For ordinary witches, breaking an oath was no big deal, but for a great witch, the consequences of breaking it were extremely severe. Seeing the old man swear such a solemn oath, Blood Eye finally believed him.

The Phantom remained silent throughout.

The three great shamans each had their own thoughts and were devising countermeasures. The aura they had just witnessed was undeniable; it was not only the work of an immortal but also tainted with the blood of a great shaman, otherwise it wouldn't have terrified them so much.

After a brief standoff, the old man said, "The Xu family has many Dharma forms. I'll try to find one with poor luck and push him to that place to test it out. However, since it involves Dharma forms, the spell will be quite costly. You two will have to provide me with some offerings. Phantom also needs to give me a spell to reduce someone's luck and bring them misfortune. Only by reducing that person's excess luck as much as possible can we have a chance of success."

As long as someone stepped forward to test the waters, sacrificing some blood and energy was nothing, and both Phantom and Blood Eye agreed. In the Azure Nether Realm, Yun Feifei was leading a group of young masters and ladies, teaching them the basics of mounted combat. She mainly dealt with the young masters, while two handsome and charming male cultivators taught the young ladies mounted combat.

Despite Wei Yuan's repeated warnings beforehand, these cultivators from the Western Regions were used to being carefree, unrestrained, and wild, so some of them still couldn't control themselves and touched a young lady's thigh.

The young woman flew into a rage on the spot, leaving the young cultivator completely bewildered. He couldn't understand how the previously ambiguous atmosphere had suddenly changed.

The young woman summoned guards who seized the young cultivator and were about to chop off his hand. The other Western Region cultivators rushed over, and a standoff ensued with the guards, the situation threatening to erupt into violence.

Upon learning of the incident, Wei Yuan rushed over, feeling deeply troubled. He ultimately ordered his men to drag the young cultivator away and severely whip him a hundred times. Out of respect for Wei Yuan, the young lady did not pursue the matter further, thus calming the situation down.

Yun Feifei, who rushed over, asked quietly, "They seemed to be getting along really well just now. I even thought there was something going on between them, how did it turn out like this?"

Wei Yuan frowned and said, "Who told you that there's something going on between them? Did you tell them that?"

Yun Feifei was startled and shrank back, saying, "I didn't!"

"You'd better not have it!" Wei Yuan said sternly.

Yun Feifei sensed that Wei Yuan was truly angry, and then she became frightened and whispered, "It's not a big deal, is it? Why are you so angry?"

Wei Yuan suppressed his anger and said, "If anything happens to these people, any one of their family elders would be enough to wipe out the Lan Divine Palace several times over! They came for me, and if they die on the battlefield, no one can say anything. But if they fall for your petty tricks, do you think their families will let it go?"

Wei Yuan glared at Yun Feifei and said, "If it's truly mutual affection, then so be it. But if I find out you've used any underhanded methods, I've killed plenty of people, one for each one! Also, if anything like this happens again, you'll be guilty as well!"

Yun Feifei was shocked: "This is not fair!"

"Bear with it." Wei Yuan had already walked away.

When Wei Yuan returned to his residence, he found Bao Yun, Xiao Yu, and Cui Yu all there, waiting for him.

Upon seeing Wei Yuan enter, Cui Yu said, "I have already spoken with Brother Xiaoyu. Those Western Region cultivators fought alongside you in the bloody battles, so I don't intend to delve too deeply into this matter. But there can't be a next time. If something really happens, I won't be able to explain it to their elders."

Wei Yuan asked, "What if they are truly in love?"

“That won’t do either!” Cui Yu said firmly.

Wei Yuan frowned and remained silent.

Cui Yu's tone softened a bit, and he said, "I know those girls are looking for something new, and this is the person they specifically asked for. But it's like meeting a few puppies on the street; you might find them cute and pet them a couple of times. But if those puppies want to come home and sleep with you, that's obviously not going to happen. So, mutual attraction is basically impossible."

Xiao Yu said, "Serves you right for getting bitten by touching things randomly!"

Cui Yu smiled wryly: "No wonder you don't have any friends."

Without a second thought, Xiaoyu replied, "You guys are enough. Any more would just be bad influences."

However, upon seeing Wei Yuan, he added, "Wei Yuan doesn't count!"

Wei Yuan was both amused and exasperated.

At this moment, Bao Yun said calmly, "Actually, she's just a girl with a bit of cunning. She's used to being wild and is afraid that we'll take her place, so she's secretly instigating others to test us. She probably thinks that these young masters and ladies from noble families are just like the people she's met before, easy to fool."

Cui Yu then realized: "So they want to compete with us for power."

Xiao Yu scoffed: "What's there to argue about? Any one of us can break through to the Dharma Aspect stage, what else is there for her to argue about?"

Cui Yu also felt the same way.

The disciples of Taichu Palace possess talent and resources far surpassing those of smaller sects; even among the young masters and ladies, two or three have a chance of breaking through to the Dharma Aspect stage. As for the Western Region cultivators, only Yun Feifei and Xu Wan'er have a slight hope, and that's only if Wei Yuan provides them with sufficient resources. Under the original conditions of the Western Regions, they would have no hope of ever reaching the Dharma Aspect stage.

Bao Yun glanced at Wei Yuan and said, "Besides power, you can also compete for men."

Cui Yu suddenly realized what was going on, looked Wei Yuan up and down, and smiled with a hint of malice.

Xiao Yu also sized up Wei Yuan, her face filled with disgust.

Wei Yuan hadn't expected the firepower to be concentrated on him so suddenly, and he immediately felt that he couldn't stay here any longer. Fortunately, at this moment, the realm suddenly trembled, the sky became clearer, the trees and grass became more vibrant, and the spiritual energy and vitality became richer.

Everyone sensed the change in the realm, and they all looked towards Wei Yuan.

Wei Yuan focused on communicating with Qingming, and after a moment smiled and said, "The Qingming Realm has been fully expanded, and it is now 110 miles long. Next, it will be nurtured to the third tier."

"Wasn't it supposed to be a hundred li? How come it's ten li more?" Xiaoyu asked.

Wei Yuan said, "After the previous battles, many of the corpses of the Wu Clan warriors were transformed. Qingming received extra nourishment, so its domain expanded a bit more."

Cui Yu was taken aback and said, "It has this function? How come I've never heard of it before?"

“Perhaps this is what makes celestial objects so special,” Bao Yun said.

Cui Yu also thought it made sense. Although he was an outstanding member of the Cui family in this generation, there were very few Immortal-grade World Stones in the entire mortal world, so Cui Yu naturally had no opportunity to come into contact with them.

With the boundary now established, Qingming has officially taken root. Wei Yuan's gains have all increased slightly, and his perception range outside the boundary has also improved.

Wei Yuan suddenly looked to the west. In his perception, green energy was rolling in from that direction, and the Wu Clan army had arrived!
(End of this chapter)