Cultivating Immortality from the Book of Life and Death

Chapter 231 The Underground Threat. (First Update!)

Hearing this, Zheng Que nodded. Lu Maohong was right; there were indeed ghosts above the [Scissors Prison] level that attacked Changfu Town.

However, the Shadow Play is in the sky, not emerging from the ground...

Thinking of this, Zheng Que immediately replied, "There were ghosts attacking Changfu Town, but I was fleeing for my life in a panic and didn't notice how the ghosts appeared..."

【Evil Shadow Play】is a ghost from 【Iron Tree Prison】. Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible for a Qi Refining stage cultivator to escape from such a high-level ghost.

If he were to reveal the truth now, it would be fine if the other party didn't believe him, but if they did, he would be in big trouble!

It would be more reasonable to pretend that you know nothing.

Upon hearing this, Lu Maohong nodded slightly, then said to Zhang Guitu, "Take this fellow Daoist Linghu out for a walk. It has been a long time since I have seen an old friend, so we must have a long talk today."

Zhang Guitu immediately replied, "Yes!"

As he spoke, he looked at Linghu Yuniang, who very tactfully got up and took her leave.

After the two left, only Lu Maohong and Zheng Que remained in the room, along with the two ghost servants who had been following Zheng Que.

With nothing else to do, Qingli had already hung herself on the upper beam of the carriage. Niannu looked at Zheng Que and, seeing that he had no instructions, followed suit and hung herself next to Qingli.

Two women suspended in mid-air, swinging freely and stirring up gusts of cold wind inside the car.

At this moment, Lu Maohong ignored the two ghost servants and looked at Zheng Que, asking directly, "Do you know about the Four Symbols Soul-Suppressing and Spirit-Locking Array?"

Four Symbols Soul-Suppressing and Spirit-Locking Array?
Zheng Que was slightly taken aback upon hearing this. He had heard Ku Lan mention this formation before. It was in the underground mine of Shujiabao when the Soul-Summoning Banner was discovered. The chains that suppressed the Soul-Summoning Banner seemed to be a sub-formation of this formation.

But what does this have to do with Changfu Town?
Thinking of this, Zheng Que immediately shook his head and said, "This junior has never heard of it."

Lu Maohong was not surprised and explained slowly, "The Four Symbols Soul-Suppressing and Spirit-Locking Array is a formation used by the imperial court to suppress resentment and vengeful spirits in a region."

"The cultivator who designed this formation was a grandmaster of formations, honored by the imperial court. Although I also cultivate the Dao of Formations, the gap between me and such a grandmaster of formations is as vast as the clouds and mud."

"As far as I know, all the villages and towns in Taiping County, large and small, were built according to the plan of the Four Symbols Soul-Suppressing and Spirit-Locking Array. Each settlement occupies a ley line corresponding to a node of the array."

"The one in Taiping County is the main formation of this Four Symbols Soul-Suppressing and Spirit-Locking Array."

“The villages and towns below, and even the ancestral lands of some cultivation families, are all branch formations.”

"Originally, this great formation was stationed in He County, and the evil-suppressing ritual issued by the imperial court was used to suppress the formation's core. Even though ghosts and monsters are rampant now, within the formation, regardless of whether it is in the city or the countryside, the resentment of the dead will sink into the ground under the effect of the formation and be suppressed by the earth's veins. In this way, even if the general trend cannot be reversed, it can prevent the formation of too strong ghosts."

"This is also why in some small towns, only one cultivator is needed to protect the mortals and ensure they can continue their daily lives and work as usual."

“In a larger town, three or four cultivators are enough to take care of things.”

"Not to mention Taiping County."

"However, there are always some greedy people who, for their own selfish reasons, disregard the overall situation and use this great formation to do despicable things."

At this point, Lu Maohong's face turned angry, and he said in an icy voice, "The incident in Changfu Town was definitely done by those old bastards from Gongfengfang!"

"Those old bastards have been secretly using blood to refine living people in the city in order to make the [Yin-Clearing Pill]."

"With the main formation's resentment intensifying, the excess resentment will flow into other branch formations through the earth's veins." "The ghosts that attacked Changfu Town are most likely the 'mysterious creatures' suppressed within this great formation!"

Zheng listened attentively and quickly understood what the other party was saying...

When he was in Shujiabao, he saw a branch of the Four Symbols Soul-Suppressing and Spirit-Locking Array.

There is also a similar branch formation underground in Changfu Town.

All the cities, towns, and even cultivation families in Taiping County are the same.

The main array of the Four Symbols Soul-Suppressing and Spirit-Locking Array is located underground in Taiping County.

This grand formation was created by the imperial court, originally intended to suppress resentment and vengeful spirits, and reduce the birth of ghosts in places where the living gather.

However, a small number of cultivators, for their own benefit, are refining large quantities of [Yin-Clearing Pills]...

The [Yin-Clearing Pill] requires living people to refine; the more living people die, the heavier the resentment in the city becomes.

As a result, the resentment accumulates, and the main formation can no longer withstand it, so it will distribute the excess resentment to other branch formations.

However, dividing the forces could not disperse the resentment, so they had to bear it alone.

Over time, when the array can no longer suppress this resentment, the powerful and unpredictable force formed by the underground resentment will first emerge from the weaker array...

Thinking of this, Zheng Que suddenly realized something. Back when he was in Shujiabao, he didn't know the use of the Four Symbols Soul-Suppressing and Spirit-Locking Array. In order to obtain the Soul-Summoning Banner as soon as possible, he even used the power of the Soul-Summoning Banner to forcibly break through that part of the array.

So... if the split formation breaks, it shouldn't affect the main formation, right?

With his mind racing, Zheng Que asked somewhat hesitantly, "Senior Lu, does that mean that some cultivators using living people to refine pills will endanger the entire Taiping County?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Maohong shook his head slightly and said, "Using living people to refine pills is not important."

“Those were originally materials that we were raising in captivity.”

"When Fellow Daoist Xu took over Changfu Town, it was also in order to cultivate better materials."

"The key is the handling of materials!"

"I remember that when Fellow Daoist Xu was refining the Yin-Clearing Pill, he would first gather all the materials together, ask about their wishes, and try his best to fulfill them. Then he would light a censer of Yellow Millet Incense, so that all the materials would be immersed in a dream that they could never obtain in their lifetime, before he would begin."

"In this way, when those materials leave, they get what they want without any pain, which will naturally greatly reduce their resentment."

"The only troublesome part is that the cost is relatively high and the process is tedious, taking a long time to refine a batch of pills."

"In addition, every time Fellow Daoist Xu refines pills, he finds a place in the wild, and every once in a while, he changes the location in the wild to prevent the resentment from accumulating too much and the ghosts that are corrupted from it from threatening other materials."

"It's a pity that orthodox alchemists like Fellow Daoist Xu, who have integrity and principles, are always rare."

"Those short-sighted cultivators, in order to save on alchemy costs and increase efficiency, don't bother to process the materials at all, and always use the Four Symbols Soul-Suppressing and Spirit-Locking Array to forcibly suppress the resentment!"

"If this continues, how can things not go wrong?!"

(End of this chapter)