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Chapter 310 Temptation
In the blink of an eye, everything in front of me changed.

The withered tree, the dilapidated courtyard—all of it had vanished without a trace.

Looking out, all one could see was a hellish landscape of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, where countless wronged souls and vengeful ghosts floated and sank. Numerous monsters, wielding terrifying instruments of torture, would occasionally pull a person out of the blood river, torment them until they were utterly bruised, and then throw them back in like trash.

As the wave of blood swept through, all wounds were healed, leaving only endless pain and torment.

Faintly, one could only hear a faint female voice in their ear.

Those who do not believe in me will be forever trapped in a sea of ​​suffering, never to be liberated.

However, upon hearing that voice filled with majesty and terror, Zhou You merely scoffed.

He merely raised his longsword, and the murderous aura surged forth like a long river.

Then, his body plunged down the hillside.

In the midst of that sweeping sword light, the monster was utterly defeated. Blood splattered everywhere, and in the blink of an eye, only a pile of corpses remained.

Although no words were spoken, the answer was already given.

The woman's voice fell silent, and then the scenery changed again.

The familiar Mother Tree of Flesh and Blood pierced the sky, and countless corpses hung on its branches. All the gods and Buddhas, demons and monsters, regardless of their status or wealth, were all crying out in repentance, begging for forgiveness from the supreme being.

The woman continued speaking.

"Those who disrespect me shall suffer eternal torment, their flesh and blood reborn as ghosts."

Zhou You still didn't answer. He casually raised the Broken Moon Bow and shot the corpses down from the treetops one by one.

The woman fell silent once again.

The scenery changed several times afterward, but Zhou You could only come up with one answer.

That was to sweep through with pure violence like a whirlwind!
The woman's voice finally fell silent, but soon, as the moonlight shifted, the scene before them changed once more.

But it was no longer the hellish landscape of mountains of corpses and rivers of blood; it was a different scene altogether.

Countless gold and silver treasures were piled up like mountains, stretching as far as the eye could see, like the mother tree of flesh and blood. The brilliance of the gold and pearls was so dazzling that one could not open their eyes and could only feel the boundless wealth.

The woman's voice said.

"Those who respect me will obtain immense wealth, countless gold and silver, inexhaustible riches."

Upon hearing this, Zhou You simply sighed.

“I’m telling you, I’ve seen this trick before. Back then, the Buddhists gave you far more than you have. Can’t you come up with something new?”

Although the woman didn't understand, she still readily agreed.

In the blink of an eye, the gold and silver disappeared, replaced by a magnificent palace. Hundreds upon hundreds of naked bodies lay scattered within, all so perfect, all so exquisitely beautiful. All the beauties Zhou You had ever seen were among them—Madam Bone, the dancer under Zaba's command, the cult starlet named Xu Xin, and the white egret he had seen earlier.
All the women were gazing at him, their eyes filled with deep love—even without words, Zhou You knew that whatever he asked, these beauties would obey unconditionally.

Zhou You whistled, then swung his sword down without hesitation.

A beautiful woman's head flew high into the air, and even though she was dead, her lips still held that alluring smile.

"This might be a killer move for a bachelor in ancient times, but for me... come on, how many adult films do you think I've watched over the years? They've gone way more elaborate than this, you know?"

Then the scene changed again.

This time, Zhou Shiyou sat in the middle of the palace, with thousands of officials bowing at his feet and shouting "Long live the Emperor!"—this was the pinnacle of human power—but before the scene was over, he said with great boredom.

"No, we're living a carefree life now, and you want to push me into this position where I have to get up earlier than the chickens and go to bed later than the dogs? Is this a temptation or a punishment?"

Unfortunately, the female voice didn't even want to reply this time; she just kept changing the images.

Thus, Zhou You saw his immortality, saw himself wandering the world alone with his sword, saw himself slaying all demons and monsters, and was regarded as a god by the world.

But he was getting increasingly bored, and even started yawning.

But in the next moment, his expression suddenly froze.

An old man emerged from the misty clouds.

An old man whom Zhou You knew very well, but who is now only seen in a portrait.

After a long silence, he finally spoke.

"grandfather."

The old man didn't speak, but just looked at him with kind eyes.

The female voice rang out again at just the right moment.

"Those who obey me will die and be resurrected, never to be separated again, and to be with me for eternity."

But this time, before the woman could finish speaking, Zhou You raised the Duanxie sword and swung it down without hesitation.

Amidst the gushing blood, his only remaining family member was also reduced to a corpse.

The female voice has finally changed drastically.

"--What are you doing!"

Zhou You gently wiped the blood off his sword, and when he looked up again, his expression was cold.

"Putting aside the fact that all of this is fake, even if he really came back to life, the first thing he would do would definitely be to make me kill him—how could someone as upright and stubborn as him willingly suffer the resurrection of you evil monsters?"

This time, the woman finally shut up completely.

Russian qing.

The image shattered instantly.

Looking again, it was still the same small courtyard, but unlike before, a female corpse was now right in front of his face, and he could even smell the stench of decay.

—Is this the one who created that illusion?
Zhou You rolled his eyes, drew his sword, and unleashed a torrent of malevolent energy, instantly shredding the ghostly thing into a jumbled mess.

Then I turned my head to look again.

Sure enough, Fu Yu was right next to him, with a female corpse pressed against his face—but unlike Zhou You, the female corpse had already stuck her rotting tongue into his mouth, yet he remained completely oblivious, his face full of ecstasy.

Tsk, this kid's mental fortitude is something else. Even my own disciple is one in a billion, and he can't compare.

After smashing the female corpse, Zhou You first tried pinching her philtrum and pouring cold water on her—but to no avail. He then covered his palm with malevolent energy and slapped her twice, using a method passed down through generations to quickly wake her up.

It has to be said that the Big Bin Dou thing is still useful. Fu Yu shuddered, then covered his stinging cheek and jumped back.

"Daoist Master? What just happened?" "I'd like to ask you, what did you see?"

Fu Yu's eyes were still somewhat blank, but he still answered subconsciously.

"Me? I seem to have seen many terrifying scenes, and then I saw myself gaining both fame and fortune, becoming the leader of Maoshan. Then I saw my parents, who died of an epidemic in their early years. Am I dreaming?"

—It's not beyond saving yet; at least it made it to the final hurdle.

Zhou You shook his head, then said.

"Well, you could just treat it as a dream, wouldn't you say?"

"Really?" Fu Yu scratched his head, about to follow Zhou You, but immediately felt a churning in his stomach and couldn't hold it in any longer, so he vomited. "Ugh, Daoist Master, what did I just eat? Why does my mouth smell so awful?!"

I think it's better if you don't know this.

Zhou You ignored Fu Yu, who was vomiting profusely, and walked straight to the black stone tablet, touching it with his hand.

but.

In the next instant, the entire ancestral hall changed.

This time it wasn't a hallucination, but a real scene that actually happened.

The surrounding bricks and stones melted like mud, revealing what was underneath.

That's a corpse.

One corpse after another, piled up like bricks and stones.

Among them, Zhou You also saw the same people he had seen before—but they were now dead, and their deaths were incredibly tragic.

Zhou You's eyes dimmed slightly, but then a scream rang out.

"Master, Master, what happened? How did you end up looking like this?!"

Upon seeing such a horrifying scene, Fu Yu forgot about vomiting and scrambled over—but just as he was about to step onto the ground, Zhou You frowned slightly, and then unleashed a wisp of malevolent energy, forcibly stopping Fu Yu's steps.

"Master, what are you doing?"

Ignoring Fu Yu's trembling voice, Zhou You's expression remained calm.

"Stay there and don't move. I've seen something."

As they spoke, the tip of the sword had already picked a necklace out of the soil.

It was a necklace made of colorful stones, not particularly valuable, and its appearance was rather ordinary, but the problem was...
When he left the village, the girl had told him that her mother wore this necklace.

"."

Looking at the female corpse in the pit, whose face had decomposed to the point of being indistinguishable, Zhou You finally just sighed heavily, then pulled Fu Yu up so that he wouldn't step on these poor people in the ground, and then walked to the stone tablet again.

The stone tablet was pitch black, and it looked like ordinary obsidian, but it felt cold to the bone to the touch. You could vaguely hear a whisper, but if you listened carefully, it would immediately dissipate like dust in the wind.

The upper half of the stone tablet was empty, while the lower half had some characters carved on it. Unfortunately, due to the passage of time, most of them were blurred and illegible, and only a few characters could be barely recognized.

—No, it shouldn't be said that he recognized them. Zhou You didn't recognize those characters at all, but for some reason, he understood their meaning.

"The three of us hereby swear an oath to offer our flesh, our blood, our organs, our bones, our souls, and everything else, in order to forever suppress evil spirits and ensure peace for all generations of humankind."

Even though this text spans thousands of years, when we look at it now, we can still feel a sense of magnificence from it.

It was a feeling of generosity and fearlessness, a resolute willingness to die, yet a sense of joy in it.

Just like the Xuan Yuan Daoist back then.

Zhou You remained silent for a few seconds, then immediately recalled the three statues he had seen in the small mountain village.

"At first I thought it was just a folk belief in a wild god, but it seems... this is the true face of the Three Saints? They sacrificed everything to imprison certain demons under the monument forever... Could these demons be those ancestors? But what is this so-called Netherworld City?"

Zhou You scratched his head and finally decided to seek help from the only relevant person here.

"Hey Fu, do you know what this is?"

To his surprise, the other person looked even more bewildered than he did.

"I've never heard of this before! I've never had anything like it in Maoshan, and my master never mentioned it to me."

—Okay, I knew it.

Zhou You walked around the stone tablet twice but still couldn't find any clues. But he soon had an idea.

Since there's nothing up there, let's look at the bottom instead?
Without further ado, with no tools like shovels around, they used the Evil-Slaying Sword directly—the sword naturally protested, but it quieted down after Zhou You took the lives of a few more evil demons and men.

As for when it will be repaid...
Anyway, the more debts you have, the less you have to worry. If you keep fighting your way through, you'll eventually pay them all off. Probably?
After an incense stick's time, the tip of the sword finally struck something hard.

After using the evil-slaying technique to clear away the surrounding dirt, a black object appeared before my eyes.

Although it is completely black, just like the stone tablet, this thing is fundamentally different from the stone tablet in nature—the stone tablet is icy cold, yet possesses an indestructible chill, while this thing is like a vortex, involuntarily attracting everyone's attention.

Zhou You carefully touched it with the Broken Evil, and seeing that there was nothing unusual or any warning, he carefully took it out.

But at that moment, Fu Yu, who was standing nearby, let out a gasp.

"Master, I recognize this!"

Seeing Zhou You raise his gaze, Fu Yu quickly explained.

"Master, I once went to the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda on Maoshan Mountain with my master. We only went there to suppress a vicious ghost with a hundred years of cultivation. We happened to see this there. My master told me it's something called the Abyss Stone. Once exposed to the outside world, it will automatically connect to the underworld, turning the surrounding area into a ghost realm. But that doesn't make sense. There should only be seven of these, and they should all be tightly sealed in several famous mountains and sects. How did they end up here? Uh, Master, may I take a look?"

Zhou You casually handed it over—but just as Fu Yu took it, his eyes suddenly widened, followed by a scream, and he hurriedly threw the stone away!
Zhou You was quick and managed to catch him before he landed, but he didn't look closely. He used his baleful aura to form a thin mist to protect Fu Yu while taking a few quick steps, grabbing his arm, and asking urgently.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Fu Yu covered his face and said tremblingly.

"No, Taoist priest, it's nothing, I'm fine. It's just that just now, for some reason, I saw something in this stone..."

The voice was still that of the young man, but the words he uttered were as cold as a chilling wind.

"I saw that there was more than one ghost village, more than a dozen. The stone tablets in each one had been dug up and destroyed by people, and each one was wandering around like a living thing."

Zhou You couldn't help but loosen his grip on Fu Yu's shoulder.

"A dozen or so? Are they trying to wipe out Songzhou?! What exactly are the Houtu Sect and this prince up to?!"

(End of this chapter)