Longzang

Chapter 354 Naturally, it should be first.
The Sun Also Rises.

As Wei Yuan watched the rising sun, he took the opportunity to examine his own fortune. Five Dragon Blood Trees sprouted tender buds, forming a circle like a natural magic array. At the center of the array, a faint wisp of fortune was slowly rising, elevating Wei Yuan's luck to a new level.

It was still the height of summer within the realm, but in many parts of the Great Tang, it was already the dead of winter.

In three days, it will be the New Year.

At this moment, the realm was filled with joy. People in each city spontaneously made decorations, and many people prepared for the New Year according to previous customs. This was the first New Year in Qingming, and the cultivators had already agreed to ring the bell twelve times on New Year's Eve to celebrate.

For this purpose, Yu Zhizhu specially cast a bronze bell weighing ten thousand catties. These days, he is busy inscribing the array so that the sound of the bell can be heard throughout the entire realm.

A batch of sacred fields will ripen on New Year's Eve, as if in celebration.

In recent days, the number of caravans traveling between the border areas has increased by 50%, with various New Year's goods being continuously transported into the border region.

Everywhere was thriving and filled with joy.

Wei Yuan stood atop the main peak, overlooking the entire realm, enjoying this moment of peace and tranquility. However, he suddenly felt something was amiss. This morning was too quiet; even the usually bustling city had fallen silent, with people hurrying through the streets, as if everyone had lost the desire to speak.

Wei Yuan frowned slightly, looked up at the sky and around him, and felt an indescribable tranquility, but could not see anything unusual.

Deep within the Witch Realm, on a magnificent altar nearly a thousand feet high, tens of thousands of high priests of the Witch Clan ascended the steps one by one. At the head of the procession, numerous strongmen carried a white jade coffin covered with a scarlet cloak. The coffin was somewhat transparent, and a faint blood-red light rippled within.

The group finally reached the top of the altar and placed the white jade coffin in the center. Two spirit shamans and two ghost shamans sat at the four corners, while a holy shaman pushed open the coffin lid.

A young girl lay quietly in the coffin. Her face was serene, as if she were in a deep sleep, her four hands were folded and placed on her chest, and a long tail was coiled between her legs.

As the ceremony began, streaks of blood rose into the sky from the altar, and a huge, slowly swirling vortex appeared in the air, its terrifying pressure causing all the witches to tremble.

A giant claw emerged from the vortex in the sky, slowly reaching for the girl in the coffin. The girl was lifted up as if by an invisible hand, flying towards the giant claw.

This giant claw was hundreds of feet long, and the girl was as small as dust in front of it.

As she rose into the air, the girl suddenly showed an expression on her face, as if she were in great pain, and let out a series of shrill screams that resounded through the heavens and the earth!

Her body writhed unnaturally, then her long tail suddenly exploded into a bloody mist, followed by her legs, body, and arms, which exploded one by one, and her screams grew increasingly shrill.

Several high priests sitting atop the altar suddenly clutched their heads, writhing in agony. After a few rolls, their heads exploded, turning into pools of pus and blood.

The girl's head held on for an extraordinary long time; she even opened her eyes. But her eye sockets contained only rotting flesh and blood; there were no pupils. Suddenly, a fountain of blood gushed from her eyes and mouth, as if her head contained an endless supply of blood plasma. Finally, her head exploded, leaving only her screams echoing through the heavens and earth for a long time.

Around the altar, 100,000 superior sacrifices and 500,000 medium sacrifices simultaneously collapsed, while an endless sea of ​​inferior sacrifices surrounded them. Blood flowed freely from beneath the sacrificial offerings, pooling into the altar.

In the blink of an eye, a blood-red aura hundreds of feet thick burst forth from the altar, soaring into the sky and tearing a hundred-mile-long rift in the firmament.

The pillar of blood lasted for a full quarter of an hour before dissipating, leaving only three of the deepest black bloodstains where the girl's body had been, seemingly trying to absorb everything around them.

The giant claw in the air reached down again, grabbing at the three black wisps from afar. The three black wisps slowly rose, while the giant claw trembled slightly, as if it were lifting three mountains.

In the blink of an eye, the giant claw seemed unable to withstand the pressure and began to crack, oozing drops of blood. Once those blood droplets, each the size of a train carriage, hit the ground, they would ignite into a raging ghostly fire, burning everything to ashes.

On the altar, numerous shamans, ghost shamans, and spirit shamans gazed at the sky, watching their little princess vanish into nothingness, severing her future and transforming the very foundation of her existence into terrifying causal power. With this power, she unleashed a devastating curse, condemning the murderer who killed her, and everything connected to the murderer.

This arrangement has been in preparation for a long time, and its activation now suggests that the Heavenly Witch has finally found a clue. However, judging from the three portions of causal power in the sky, the clue is not yet clear, and all three targets are possible.

The holy sorcerer and a wild sorcerer, who knew some inside information, exchanged a cryptic glance.

From the moment of her birth, the little princess displayed many extraordinary abilities. Her senses and spiritual awareness improved by leaps and bounds, and no danger could get close before she could detect it. This was why she dared to train in the Netherworld with only a few guards.

She carries a special karmic burden, which has drawn the attention of all the Celestial Witches, who have devoted themselves to nurturing her. It is said that under the blessing of that karmic bond, she will undoubtedly become the next Celestial Witch.

But now, all the remaining cause and effect have turned into a terrifying curse. The little princess, who could have become part of the legend, has already perished as the curtain slowly rises.

Since ancient times, the will of Heaven has been difficult to fathom.

The three black objects vanished one by one, and then blood rain began to fall from the sky. The blood in the rain was human blood, rich in spiritual energy, a response from heaven and earth to the sacrifice. The shamans all opened their minds and bodies, beginning to cultivate and absorb it. A small group of shamans at the top of the altar absorbed ninety percent of the entire blood rain.

The Azure Netherworld.

The dawn's glow spread rapidly, soon covering the entire sky. The heavens turned a dark red, acquiring a rich, viscous texture. The people within the realm looked up at the sky, all unusually calm. No one panicked, no one fled, as if they had silently accepted their fate.

This is the ultimate fear.

The most basic fear is panic, screaming and running away; moderate fear is paralysis and weakness, unable even to escape; while extreme fear is a calm, peaceful waiting for everything to happen, without thinking or contemplating, almost heroic and fearless. With a hum, a stream of pure energy spewed out from the center of the azure sky, then transformed into a blue light curtain that covered the entire realm.

All the cultivators of Taichu Palace received the summons and flew towards the main peak. The main peak has an array left by Ji Liuli, which, combined with the power of all the cultivators, can provide maximum protection.

Such a strange phenomenon was remembered by the elders who survived the early days of Qingming. It was a great curse of the Wu tribe, but the blood curse back then was far less large in scale than this one.

Wei Yuan sat in his study, picked up a mirror, and looked at himself. The flesh on his face in the mirror was constantly dissolving and sliding off, and then his two eyeballs rolled away one by one.

Wei Yuan instantly knew that this was the Great Curse of Cause and Effect!
At this moment, Wei Yuan didn't have time to think about why the Wu Clan still knew. He rushed out of the room, walked around Zhang Sheng's residence, and planted four dragon blood wood buds in the four main positions.

Wei Yuan already knew his fate from the divination using the jade mirror. In truth, he didn't need divination to know; no one could escape the Great Curse of Cause and Effect. Therefore, Wei Yuan now only hoped that his teacher, with whom he had the deepest entanglement, could escape this calamity.

Wei Yuan planted the last Dragon Blood Tree next to the Azure Netherworld Stone.

Everything began here and will end here. I wonder if this meager bit of luck can save a few more mortals.

Amidst the vast landscape, the young girl Yin Yang slowly opened her eyes, faintly resonating with a distant point in the heavens. At this moment, Wei Yuan could no longer sever her connection with the world. However, the Great Curse of Cause and Effect had already descended, and the Witch Clan must already know of her existence.

A gigantic eye opened in the blood-red clouds of the sky.

This narrow eye has three pupils, each looking toward the past, present, and future.

Standing atop the peak, Wei Yuan gazed up at the Heavenly Eye, which stretched for hundreds of miles, without a trace of fear. Wei Yuan desperately wanted to live, but as death approached, he found himself utterly unafraid.

Looking back on my life, though short, it has been incredibly intense.

He forged an unparalleled foundation for the Dao, conquered alien races, expanded territories, enabled hundreds of thousands to survive, and led hundreds of thousands of people who originally had no hope of a path to the Dao to build their foundations. The Great Bright Demon-Subduing Sword, the Ten Directions Glazed Golden Fire, and the Six Paths of Jia Yi Divine Wood Qi may seem like a joke, but in reality, they opened up a path to the Dao for countless people.

Wei Yuan hoped that after his death, this path would continue, and not be cut off midway. Fortunately, the cultivators of Taichu Palace had already accepted the ideas of the outer world, and as long as some of them were still alive, they should continue.

As for Xu Wenwu... even if this world is completely destroyed, he might still be able to travel to the next world.

His father, his mother whom he had never met, and other ties were all now beyond his consideration. Everything had happened so suddenly that Wei Yuan was completely unprepared.

Amidst the vast landscape, the girl's face shifted constantly, sometimes showing pain and struggle, sometimes cold indifference. All the immortal plants held their breath, remaining silent, as if sensing the impending doom.

The red lotus bodhi tree grew increasingly ethereal, its branches and leaves swaying, and the faint sound of chanting could be heard. The laurel fairy tree hid behind the ice glass divine tree.

Wei Yuan entered the vast land and rivers and brought out the White Lotus of Impure Earth.

In the study, Zhang Sheng cast a divination to predict Wei Yuan's fate, and the hexagram read: End.

Zhang Sheng rose, straightened his clothes, bowed three times to the portrait of Ancestor Xuan Yue in the study, then sat cross-legged on the couch, placed his sword on his knees, and quietly waited for that moment to arrive.

The fourth immortal sword rested on his lap, and it suddenly hummed softly: "There is still a glimmer of hope."

"I know."

"Then why not ask?"

How do I find it?

"Use me to cleave through the void and return to the Primordial Palace. Use the Yin-Yang Reversal Pendant to feign death and escape. With the power accumulated by the Azure Palace over a thousand years to sever the cause and effect, I can regain my life."

"If that's the case, Wei Yuan is dead."

He must die!

Even so, I have to stand in front and shield him.

"Knowing that death is inevitable?"

"Ah."

"Why not keep your body useful and avenge him in the future?"

Zhang Sheng smiled calmly and said, "The world is in turmoil, and life is full of ups and downs. You and I are just ordinary people. Whether we live or die is not that important. If we cannot stand up in this life-or-death moment, what future do we have? We are not worth having the so-called useful body that we have gained by clinging to life."

Therefore, at this moment, those who are teachers should naturally take the lead.

(End of this chapter)