Devouring Evil Martial Arts, Eliminating Demons from All Heavens

Chapter 243 Borrowing a Path with the Divine Heart, A Feast for the Eyes

A thick fog rolled in over Beijing that night.

When Cao Ying set off and mounted his horse, he was accompanied by hundreds of people. In addition to kerosene lamps and large lanterns, they also carried torches.

Even so, it could only illuminate half a street.

The capital city is located in the north, with a dry climate, and is only about 400 miles away from the desert.

Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, historical records have frequently documented the occurrence of smog, miasma, and dust storms in this area.

Fortunately, we haven't yet reached the winter season when yellow dust obscures the sun.

Although the smog is thick tonight, it's still just white and not enough to make you cough; it just makes you feel slightly uncomfortable.

Before Cao Ying left the mansion, he had already given orders that by the time he arrived at the square in front of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests at the Temple of Heaven, everyone there would already be ready.

Since Cao Ying and his group entered the capital and became acquainted with Yuan Zai and Yuan Li, they often saw people from the Five Gods Cult performing rituals on stage.

Instead of using the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests or other places where the Qing Dynasty imperial family originally performed sacrifices, a separate altar was built in the square in front of the hall.

This platform is nine feet tall and has three levels, requiring 120 people to stand guard on the outer steps.

Each person carried a large flag, which fluttered and sang loudly in the fierce night wind.

The third platform, nearly ten zhang in diameter, has four large oil cauldrons burning fiercely inside, their flames blazing intensely.

A rectangular offering table is located on the platform, slightly to the south.

The Prime Minister ascended the altar, stood before the offering table, and faced south.

In such foggy weather, one cannot see the stars or moon when looking up, nor can one see the mountains and rivers when gazing into the distance.

Everywhere was a vast expanse of white, yet Yuan Zai revealed a slight smile.

"It seems that the heavens are truly on our side. With weather like tonight, the ritual will proceed more smoothly and conveniently."

Yuan Zai smoothed the whisk in his hand and respectfully placed it on the offering table.

Previously, there were only two items on the offering table: one was a mask of a malevolent god with a black face and gold patterns, and eyebrows like crimson flames, which was the symbol of the Five Wrathful God.

The other thing was a lush green pear tree branch, with white pear blossoms still on it.

In the mist, at first glance, the branches almost looked like they were about to condense dew.

It took a second look to realize that the pear tree branches were actually carved from beautiful jade.

It's such a coincidence that the branches are a deep, almost black, green, the leaves are a tender green, and the jade in the pear blossom part is white, smooth, and clean.

Even if this branch has no other use, it is already an exquisite and priceless jade carving.

“Master Jiaoli, guarding me at my side.”

Yuan Zai looked solemn, bowed three times, and then placed the branch diagonally with the root facing northeast and the tip facing southwest.

Then, the Five Witches mask was placed properly on the branch.

"Five Wrathful Dharma Master, may the divine heart grant me passage!"

After Yuanzai finished speaking the sixteen words, he began to recite a prayer that was indistinct and difficult for the living to understand.

Cao Ying also stepped onto the altar and ordered his subordinates to hold twelve different ritual implements, including command flags, armor, precious mirrors, and hair ornaments, in their hands, arranged in a crescent shape, distributed on the northern part of the altar.

He himself, holding a large, heavy, black sword, stood right behind Yuan Zai.

With thirteen ritual implements and the presence of military officers, they bolstered the prestige of the ritual platform.

The Five Witches are inherently associated with war, calamity, and evil spirits. Faced with the prayers of the contemporary Five Witches leader and the imposing presence of such generals and officers, they naturally felt pleased and responded more quickly.

The mask on the offering table floated into the air, flew into the thick fog, and disappeared.

Less than half a quarter of an hour later, a huge figure emerged from the mist.

The figure was shrouded in mist, making it difficult to see clearly, but its height was undeniable. Others felt that even a nine-foot-high platform would only reach its waist.

The giant's face was as large as an archway, and its features were still vaguely discernible. It was clearly the same as the Five Witches Mask, magnified hundreds of times.

A gold-painted forehead, fiery red eyebrows, a black face with fangs.

Those eyes, mostly white with little black, gleamed with a fierce light, surveying everyone on the execution platform.

Not far from the Temple of Heaven lives a former Beiyang general who escaped from Sichuan a year ago.

This man had short hair and sunken eyes, a sorrowful face, and a beard that was half black and half white. He suddenly woke up from his dream, wearing only a white undergarment, and pushed open the door to go out and look in the direction of the Temple of Heaven.

The Temple of Heaven covers a large area, and the smog is heavy tonight.

This person probably couldn't see what was happening over there, but his face lit up with excitement.

"The Five Witches Cult usually only performs rituals to worship the Five Witches Lord, but tonight they've even summoned Patriarch Jiaoli. What are they trying to do?"

The man muttered to himself, touching a black pendant on his chest that was difficult to decipher.

"It must be something big and urgent, something that even Yuanzai isn't entirely confident about. Perhaps that's where my chance lies!"

Inside the Temple of Heaven.

As soon as the enormous figure of the Five Witch God appeared, all the accompanying soldiers fell silent, their legs trembling.

Yuan Zai relaxed instead, removed his hairpin, messed up his long hair to prevent his crown from being obscured by his hair, and sat cross-legged with his palms facing the sky.

"With the protection of the pear tree, the Five Witches manifest their power, the divine heart lends its way, and a courtyard spans ten thousand miles!"

A phantom image floated out from Yuan Zai's body, its appearance and figure exactly the same as his physical body.

But in the next moment, his body withered and shriveled, eventually becoming nothing more than skin and bones.

The phantom became much more solid and raised its hand to strike.

Cao Ying and his twelve officers felt the magical artifacts they were holding suddenly become hot and cold. Then, various colored lights flew out from the artifacts and wrapped around the illusory figures.

Yuan Zai's illusory figure slowly drifted towards the ghosts and gods in the mist, his expression extremely solemn.

The Five Witches God opened its mouth wide, waiting for him to float into its mouth, then closed its mouth and eyes.

The ghosts and spirits closed their eyes, but the officers dared not close theirs; their hearts were taut even more.

"For Yuan Zai to resort to such methods to investigate, Yuan Li must have suffered greatly. Who exactly attacked them?"

Cao Ying's eyes flickered as he faced the ghosts and gods, inwardly shouting.

"My son, my son! It doesn't matter if people like Zhang Yi die tragically, I just hope that Yuanli can protect my son."

The Five Witches' disciples are scattered throughout the north and south of the country, sometimes thousands of miles apart.

However, as long as they have some cultivation, they can also sense the response of ghosts and gods when they set up altars and perform rituals.

It is evident that as long as a place allows spirits and deities to sense each other from the air, divine power can be transmitted over long distances at extremely high speeds.

The Five Witches Cult's "Divine Heart Borrowing the Way Great Method" is a wonderful method created based on this principle.

By wholeheartedly worshipping the Five Wrathful Gods, one can hone their magical skills and send their soul out of their body to the abode of ghosts and gods.

Then, it mixed its own existence into the divine power perception, borrowed a path from the Five Wrathful Gods, and projected itself to another place.

The speed at which an ordinary soul can fly is not even as fast as the speed of a bullet.

But this divine guidance can reach even those separated by thousands of miles with a single act.

South of Luoyang City, in the Guanlin Temple.

Yuan Li once held an altar here to worship the gods, stealing the original scriptures, which attracted extraordinary attention from the spirits and deities. Although the ritual failed, the spirits and deities' influence remained.

Suddenly, a chilling wind arose from nowhere in the Guan Gong Hall, spinning rapidly.

Yuan Zai appeared from the wind, wearing a purple-gold crown, his hair was unusually black, and his face was shockingly white, his beard was blown askew by the wind.

He was no longer dressed in a Taoist robe, but in black armor, with a precious mirror protecting his heart, carrying a long sword, and his cloak fluttering behind him.

Three out of ten are imposing and powerful, while seven out of ten are incredibly sinister and malevolent.

"Blood?"

Yuan Zai sniffed with his pale nose, "Although there is my junior brother's blood mixed in, my junior brother did not die here."

He chose a direction and suddenly sped off, skimming close to the ground.

The weather in Luoyang is fine, and there is no smog.

A crescent moon, high and small, contrasted with the bright stars that filled the sky.

Yuan Zai flew to the front of Luoyang City, his body like a phantom, passing through the thick city walls without hindrance, and skimming over a large number of houses.

Recently, the underground organization took over Luoyang and began to reorganize the terrifying amount of assets that Liu Xueya and others had plundered.

The first thing to do was to promote the experience of the Han government, so that all the people in the city would boil water before drinking it and would no longer drink raw water.

Although the people in the city didn't understand why, since they didn't have to pay for it themselves, they got used to boiling water before drinking it.

Before they knew it, their habitual stomach aches had decreased significantly, and they slept much better at night.

The old woman was holding her daughter, fast asleep, completely unaware that a ghost was passing through the house.

When the child feels inexplicably cold and has a stomachache.

Yuan Zai had already flown onto the rooftop, gazing at the location of Luoyang Prison, his brows slightly furrowed.

"The Seven Turbid Poisons... a plague god, but it's only limited to a prison, so it's not that powerful."

Yuan Zai gripped the hilt of his sword and let out a cold snort.

"With the return of the dragon vein, all sorts of demons and monsters have started to emerge. Even such a plague god dared to harm our vice leader."

"As the leader of the Five Witches Cult and a successor of the Nuo God, if I don't nip this trend in the bud, what will become of us in the future?"

The dark shadow moved through the air like an arrow, flying silently.

Outside Luoyang Prison, a dozen sorcerers were stationed in various locations, waiting to intercept the evil energy.

Their eyes were fixed on the prison. Although they couldn't see through it, they could sense the evil and plague within.

Mei and others, in particular, were more familiar with the evil poison and could clearly distinguish that the plague's aura was much stronger at this time than during the day.

The hour of Zi (11 PM - 1 AM) has arrived, which is the time when Yin energy manifests.

Chu Tianshu stood in the courtyard, closed his eyes to rest, and waited for the appointed time.

The long sword hanging at his waist trembled slightly.

The remaining power of the fire demon within the sheath had been extinguished by Chu Tianshu with added force.

"it's time."

Chu Tianshu opened his eyes, extended his left hand, and forced blood from each fingertip, which dripped onto the ground.

The blood, as clear and bright as crystal, had no odor when it first dripped out.

But after being buried, it is stimulated by the gloomy and dark atmosphere of the prison underground, and it emits a fragrant aroma that only evil spirits can smell.

Drops of blood, like dew, remained unchanged in color upon entering the earth.

In those converted rooms, the seventy-seven patients all emitted iridescent energy that flowed out from the cracks in the doors and meandered along the floor.

Rainbows from all directions, like sewers, converged on Chu Tianshu's blood.

They covered the bloodstains.

Meanwhile, blood continued to drip from Chu Tianshu's left hand at a steady pace.

The rainbow gradually gathered and piled up, slowly arching upwards.

Like insect nests vying for dominance, they surge upwards wave after wave, rising higher and higher, like hills and pillars.

Just to get closer to Chu Tianshu's left hand.

Chu Tianshu slowly lifted his lowered eyelids.

He forced blood from between his pores and fingers. There hadn't been much damage to begin with, but now he felt a stinging pain between his fingers.

The rainbow's half-body, before it even actually touched his left hand, already posed a slight threat.

He raised his left hand higher, watching quietly, while his right hand slowly touched the hilt of the sword at his left waist.

After so many days of decocting and applying medicine, the connection between the prison's seven turbidities and Luoyang City was severed.

During cultivation, one becomes familiar with the feeling of fighting against the plague, and then uses one's own blood as bait...

The plague god's half-body was finally tricked out.

It grew thicker and thicker, piled higher and higher, five feet, six feet...

Mei and the others outside the prison suddenly looked up.

No one saw the incredibly fast black shadow, but they sensed a trace of yin energy flying overhead.

The main body had already flown into the prison, yet it was still dragging such a long trail of yin energy behind it!
"who is it?!"

Mei cried out in surprise.

Yuan Zai paid no attention to the screams of the weak sorcerers.

When he flew to the roof of the prison, he could already see the scene in the courtyard.

The greasy, iridescent pillars stood before a young man, seemingly still growing, exuding an aura of the supernatural.

"Are they sculpting a statue of the god of plague?"

The thought had just flashed through Yuan Zai's mind.

Chu Tianshu had already drawn his sword.

A white line slashed across, followed by more than a dozen blurry, chaotic slashes and slanted cuts.

Whoosh! Whoosh whoosh!!!

First came the sword marks, then the sword's cry.

The sound of swords piercing the deep night.

In an instant, the plague god's half-body was cut into forty or fifty pieces of varying sizes.

The accumulated rainbow seemed to pause for a moment before bursting forth with a captivating buzzing insect chirp.

The wrath of the plague god was unleashed in vengeance.

Yuan Zai's expression seemed to freeze for a moment.

(End of this chapter)