Dao Qi Wu Zang Guan Guan: I became a Daoist Master in the 1990s

Chapter 156 Where can a mortal become a god?
The night was as dark as ink, and the desolate village was deathly silent.

Qi Yun's figure transformed into a barely perceptible shadow, merging into the thick darkness.

He lightly touched the ground with his toes, landing silently, and swept across the ruins like a ghost, his aura as concealed as withered wood and stubborn stone.

Scattered torches flickered in the village, illuminating the figures of patrolling bandits.

He lay prone behind a half-collapsed earthen wall and overheard the hushed conversation of two bandits leaning on their spears, which came intermittently in the night wind.

"San Gouzi and Magan are so lucky. The altar master said that their 'destined affinity' will arrive tonight, and they can ascend to heaven together..." A hoarse voice carried undisguised envy.

Another voice hesitated slightly: "They say it's about becoming immortals... but after Brother Liu and the others went in, they never came out again... The main hall always feels eerie..."

"Pah! You don't know anything!" the hoarse voice snapped. "The altar master said that it was shedding the mortal body and ascending to the ranks of immortals! Who would come back?"

Once you become an immortal, you'll never be hungry or cold again, and you'll live forever! Just think about it, in this world, living is worse than being a ghost, so what an incredible blessing it is to become an immortal!

"When the next batch of 'Fairy Rice' comes out, let's grab a lot, maybe it'll be our turn..."

Qi Yun's eyes turned slightly cold, and the doubt in his heart turned into certainty.

This so-called "becoming an immortal" is surely just a pretext for that evil corpse-refining technique.

He didn't linger. With a flicker of his body, he drifted like a wisp of smoke towards the place in the village where the yin energy was most concentrated.

That dark and gloomy ancestral hall.

The ancestral hall has a simple and dilapidated appearance, with peeling red paint and rusted door knockers, making it no different from any other ancestral hall in a deserted village.

They climbed over the wall and entered the main hall.

A musty, dusty smell wafted over, and the altar and memorial tablets inside were neatly arranged, but covered with a thick layer of dust.

After investigating privately, Qi Yun found nothing unusual.

He then pinched out the "Seeking Yin and Exploring Evil Talisman" with two fingers, and exhaled a small amount of milky white true qi.

"puff!"

The talisman instantly transformed into a wisp of azure smoke, coiling around his fingers, and a sudden coolness arose between his brows.

The scene before my eyes changed drastically in an instant!

The ancestral hall was no longer peaceful. Countless thick, dark, malevolent energies, visible to the naked eye, seeped in from all directions like living things. Instead of spreading, they gathered into viscous black streams, hissing as they all drilled into the huge offering table and behind the layers of memorial tablets!

Are there any secret mechanisms?

Thinking to himself, Qi Yun immediately stepped forward to investigate carefully.

The offering table fits perfectly against the ground.

He flicked his fingers and gently tapped the ground beneath the offering table with the end of the Chengyun sword sheath.

"Knock knock... empty..."

There really is a hidden layer!
He placed his palm against one side of the offering table and slowly applied force.

A dull creak of machinery rang out, and the offering table, along with a huge stone slab beneath it, silently slid to the side, revealing a dark, downward-pointing opening just wide enough for one person to pass through!
A chilling wind, ten times colder than the outside air and carrying a strong stench of blood and decay, suddenly rushed out, causing Qi Yun's robes to flutter wildly.

Without hesitation, Qi Yun ducked down and slipped into the tunnel.

The stone steps were steep and damp, and the stone walls on both sides were extremely slippery.

After descending more than ten feet, a huge underground cave suddenly opened up before us!

In the center of the cave, a huge altar nearly three zhang high stood prominently!

The altar was ancient in design and was made entirely of a strange, dark red stone, as if it had been soaked in blood and dried up countless times.

The altar was covered with runes, which Qi Yun recognized at a glance as the text of the "Scripture of Salvation," but every word was written in reverse!

The supreme immortal scripture, originally meant to liberate people from suffering, now exuded overwhelming resentment and deathly silence, frantically absorbing the gathered, immense yin energy into the altar. Dozens of figures stood indistinctly around the altar.

Their skin was bluish-black, withered and emaciated, their eyes were empty, and they emitted a strong stench of death. They were the corpse soldiers that had been refined, guarding the altar like sculptures.

What's even more chilling is that right in front of the altar, ten people are kneeling in a dark mass!

They were all men, dressed in rags, with numb faces and empty, lifeless eyes, like lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

Their bare skin was covered with twisted and sinister runes drawn with some kind of dark red cinnabar, which flickered faintly in rhythm with the altar absorbing yin energy.

A middle-aged Taoist priest, dressed in a dark red robe and with a sinister face, stood before the altar, holding a black bell, and chanting incantations:

"Taiyin refines the form, the corpse dissolves to become an immortal... stripping away the remains of the body, the spirit returns to the Purple Palace... using your physical bodies as furnaces, I forge my immortal divine weapon... so be it!"

The bell jingled softly, but instead of a clear, crisp sound, it produced only a series of low, unsettling sobs.

As the incantation was recited, the altar absorbed Yin energy at an accelerated rate. A dark red, sinister light emanated from the top of the altar, shining upon those awaiting refining, making the blood runes on their bodies even more vibrant. Their bodies began to tremble slightly, and a distorted expression of pain and confusion appeared on their faces.

Qi Yun hid in the shadows of the entrance and took in the whole scene. Even though he had expected it beforehand, seeing it with his own eyes now ignited a raging fire in his heart!

Just as his emotions began to ripple, the milky white true qi circulating within his body and the dense, impenetrable yin and deathly qi around him created a very subtle conflict.

Though it was only for a moment, it was like water being poured into hot oil!

The chanting of mantras by the Red Sun Altar Master in front of the altar abruptly stopped!

He whirled around, his sinister gaze like two poisoned daggers, suddenly piercing towards Qi Yun's hiding place, and shouted sharply, "Who?! How dare you spy on the altar!"

Before he finished speaking, the black bell in his hand suddenly shook.

"Woo!"

An invisible sound wave that distorted the air, mixed with the thick black gas stirred up by the altar, suddenly erupted like a boiling, raging tide, instantly condensing into several ferocious ghost hands that tore through the night, carrying a bone-chilling, foul wind, and rushed straight towards the shadow where Qi Yun was!

Wherever it passed, the ground bricks and stones were covered in frost, and fine ice crystals condensed in the air.

"They are quite vigilant."

Qi Yun no longer hid, his figure suddenly emerging from the shadows. As his clothes fluttered, those ferocious ghost claws pounced in front of him, exuding a sinister aura.

However, in that instant, a crimson-gold light flowed around him, and the Crimson Hunting Fire roared up, its extremely yang and powerful aura rising like the sun!
"Chucky!"

The ghostly claw collided with the real fire, like an icicle falling into a furnace, instantly emitting a shrill and ear-piercing burning sound. Black smoke billowed up, and the originally solid and tangible ferocious creature twisted and disintegrated in the firelight, turning into wisps of smoke and disappearing without a trace.

The Crimson Sun Altar Master's pupils suddenly contracted, and for the first time, a look of surprise and doubt appeared on his face: "True fire of the Daoist sect? Pure Yang energy?! Which lineage of Daoists are you? You are courting death, daring to obstruct the Grand Preceptor's grand plan?!"

As he spoke, he swiftly formed a hand seal with his left hand, and a strange wave silently rippled outwards.

The Chaos God Incantation is unleashed in response to the incantation; it is formless and intangible yet penetrates directly into the soul, like a poisonous needle piercing from the shadows.

The opponent's mastery of the Chaos God Curse was far superior to that of the imperial guards.

It's enough to cause ordinary cultivators to lose their minds and have their true energy reversed!

At the same time, he pushed out with his right palm, and dark death energy surged in his palm. A bone-scraping wind howled out, and black ice formed on the ground wherever it passed. Even the light seemed to be swallowed up and eroded by it!

However, a slight light appeared between Qi Yun's brows, and the Law of Rejection naturally activated. The power of the Chaotic God Curse touched his body, but it was like a mud ox sinking into the sea, not disturbing his mind in the slightest.

Faced with the oncoming yin wind and palm force, he simply pointed it out steadily with the sheath of Chengyun Sword.

The Crimson Hunting Fire surged forth once more, like a crimson dragon roaring through the sky, colliding fiercely with the Yin Wind and producing a deep rumble.

The malevolent wind, powerful enough to corrode bones and destroy souls, was quickly evaporated and dissipated in the flames, not even a trace of its aftershock could get close!

The leader of the Crimson Sun Altar staggered back two steps, staring at Qi Yun in disbelief, his eyes filled with shock.

"Impossible... This is absolutely impossible! Who are you?! How could ordinary fire possess such power?!"

(End of this chapter)