Ghost Immortal

Lei Jian nodded approvingly.

He stretched out his right hand and turned the last shard of porcelain over in his palm.

The back of this fragment is different from the others.

A tiny mark is engraved on it with extremely fine engravings.

The token is about the size of a palm, and the character "正" (zhèng) is engraved on it.

The Taoist priest with four eyebrows exclaimed in disbelief, "It's actually a token of the Zhengyi Sect! How could the Zhengyi Sect be associated with the witchcraft and sorcery of Southern Xinjiang?"

The Zhengyi Sect is one of the three major sects in the world today, standing alongside the Maoshan Sect and the Quanzhen Sect. It has countless eminent figures and disciples all over the world.

However, the Zhengyi Sect has always taken "righteousness" as its motto, and its rules are strict, with its disciples strictly prohibited from practicing evil arts.

If this incident was indeed orchestrated by the Zhengyi Sect, then the implications are far beyond what a few disciples of the Maoshan Sect with the "Zhi" generation could handle.

Lei Jian took out a small bamboo tube from his pocket. One end of the tube was sealed with wax, and a diamond-shaped stamp was stamped on the wax.

Li Feng recognized the seal.

This is the highest-level secret communication method of the Maoshan Sect, and only the top five disciples of the Zhi generation are qualified to use it.

"On my way back, I'll stop by the quarry." Lei Jian placed the bamboo tube on the table and tapped it lightly with his fingers.

"Although the woman is dead, her tomb is still there. I also found this on the stone wall of the tomb."

He poured a rubbing out of the bamboo tube.

Rubbings are made by printing ink onto rice paper. The ink marks are blurred, but the content can still be seen.

One mural depicts a young Taoist priest kneeling before a tomb, holding a pottery jar in his hands.

Although the murals are crudely painted, the expressions and movements of the figures are depicted with remarkable realism.

The grief and resentment on the young Taoist priest's face, conveyed through the rough lines of the paper, allowed everyone present to feel the despair of the person in the painting.

"Who is this Taoist priest?"

The Taoist priest with four eyebrows stared at the rubbing and asked a question.

Lei Jian named a person: "This person is Zhang Xuanye, a direct disciple of Zhang Xuanqing, the former leader of the Zhengyi Sect, and also the husband of that female corpse."

These words shocked everyone present.

The Taoist priest with four eyebrows suddenly stood up, knocking the chair over.

His eyes widened: "It's Zhang Xuanye! Didn't he disappear more than two hundred years ago? The history of the Zhengyi Sect records that Zhang Xuanye encountered a landslide while traveling, and his body was never found. The Zhengyi Sect sent out hundreds of people to search for three whole months but could not find his whereabouts. In the end, they could only build a cenotaph for him."

Lei Jian said coldly, "That's fake. Zhang Xuanye is not dead. Not only is he alive, he has lived for more than two hundred years."

"For more than two hundred years, he has been active around Qingyan City. Every few decades, he would create a batch of bizarre deaths, using the resentment of the living as a catalyst to maintain the operation of the formation for corpse liberation to become immortal."

He pointed his finger at the young Taoist's face on the rubbing: "But these people who died mysteriously were not killed by his own hands. Zhang Xuanye cultivates the orthodox Taoist methods of the Zhengyi Sect. The Zhengyi Sect's methods emphasize righteousness and sincerity, and are extremely powerful, but they cannot be used to kill mortals at will."

"If a disciple of the Zhengyi Sect uses Taoist magic to kill innocent people, his own Taoist heart will suffer a backlash. At best, his cultivation will regress; at worst, he will suffer from demonic possession. Therefore, he cannot and dares not kill people."

"How did he create all these deaths? That's too bizarre," Qiu Sheng couldn't help but ask.

Lei Jian pulled a piece of yellow paper out of his sleeve.

"Zhang Xuanye used an extremely ingenious method to bypass the Taoist restrictions of the Zhengyi Sect." Lei Jian placed the yellow paper on the table and pointed to the words on the paper.

"He used his Taiyin destiny to set up a Five Elements Guiding Array covering a radius of 100 miles around Qingyan City. The purpose of this array is to cause all cultivators with Shaoyang or Taiyin destiny who enter the array's range to be unknowingly affected by the array's energy field, causing their mentality to change and making them do things they shouldn't have done."

Li Feng suddenly realized: "For example, Master Gu! Master Gu's mindset was affected by this great formation?"

Lei Jian corrected, "To be precise, it was a inducement. The Five Elements Guiding Array does not directly control people's minds, but is like lighting a lamp in the dark to attract moths to a flame."

"When a cultivator with the Lesser Yang and Greater Yin destiny enters the array's range, the spiritual power within their body will resonate with the array's aura. This resonance will amplify certain thoughts of the cultivator infinitely."

"Especially thoughts related to obsession. Gu Zhenren was obsessed with resurrecting the female corpse and avenging her. This obsession was constantly amplified by the great formation, eventually driving him to commit a bizarre death."

Master Four Eyebrows suddenly snapped out of his daze and slapped his thigh hard: "So, Zhao Laosan, Manager Wang, Li Chaofeng, and those others were killed by Master Gu!"

Lei Jian shook his head, his expression complex.

"Gu Zhenren's Gu techniques can indeed kill people, but when he was in the Southern Frontier, he only killed those who had a grudge against him. He was a great shaman, not a murderous maniac."

"But ever since he entered the territory of Qingyan City, his behavior has completely changed. He has started targeting ordinary people, and the way he kills them is extremely cruel."

The Taoist priest with four eyebrows murmured, "These are the ways to die in the Five Elements and Five Hells. It matches up."

Lei Jian nodded: "The deaths in the Five Elements and Five Hells are sacrifices for the corpses to become immortals, but Zhang Xuanye himself cannot kill people. He needs a wielder to carry out these killings for him."

"For hundreds of years, he had been waiting for the right person to wield the sword. It is not easy to find a cultivator with the Shaoyang Taiyin destiny, especially one with a high enough cultivation level. He waited a long time before Gu Zhenren finally came along."

"Gu Zhenren's Taiyin destiny is perfectly matched with the great formation. His cultivation is also sufficient to kill the chosen sacrifice. Moreover, Gu Zhenren has an obsession with resurrecting the female corpse. This obsession is the best tool for the great formation to manipulate him."

Upon hearing this, Li Feng finally had the last question in his mind answered.

Why would a Gu Master place Gu worms on a corpse after killing someone?

It wasn't for the sake of simply killing, but to use Gu worms to absorb the resentment remaining in the corpses, and then transfer that resentment to his ghost Gu puppet.

Gu Zhenren thought he was refining Gu, but in reality, he was collecting the essence of resentment from the Five Elements and Five Hells for Zhang Xuanye.

The resentment of everyone he killed would be absorbed by the great formation, becoming nourishment for his corpse to dissolve and become an immortal.

"But why would Zhang Xuanye do this?" Qiu Sheng asked, scratching his head, his expression still a complete mess.

"He's a direct disciple of the Zhengyi Sect, giving up a promising future to spend over two hundred years trying to become a Corpse-Dissolving Immortal. What's the point?"

Lei Jian sighed deeply: "Because when the woman died, she was pregnant with his child. He wanted to save not only the woman but also the unborn child."

Lei Jian's voice was heavy.

"The method of the Corpse-Dissolving Immortal not only allows one to transform into an immortal, but also allows the soul of the dead to transcend with him. He has staked everything on this formation."

"He'd give up his future, his reputation, even his own lifespan, anything to bring his wife and children back to life!"

Qiu Sheng opened his mouth and sighed, "Love has always brought only regret, and this regret will last forever. Alas! What a pair of star-crossed lovers."

Li Feng, however, was not moved by the story.

Zhang Xuanye's wish is certainly sympathetic, but how many people did he kill for it?

For hundreds of years, every few decades, this guy would create a batch of five deaths in the five prisons, each of which required five lives.

Over the course of two hundred years, at least several dozen innocent people have died under his formation.

Not to mention, Gu Zhenren, this unfortunate fellow who was used as a pawn, was doing all the work for others from beginning to end.

Lei Jian gathered up the items on the table one by one and put them back into his sleeve.

He turned around, looked solemnly at the Four-Eyebrowed Taoist, and murmured, "Zhang Xuanye's Five Elements Guiding Array is still missing the last step. On the ancient post road under the Five Old Peaks, I discovered the core array eye. The array eye has accumulated enough resentment, and it only needs the last Five Elements offering to be fully activated."

"Once the great formation is activated, Gu Zhenren's soul will be forcibly extracted from his body and become a sacrifice for the Corpse Immortal. At that time, Zhang Xuanye will be able to use his soul as a guide to complete his transformation into an immortal that he has been waiting for for two hundred years."

The Taoist priest with four eyebrows asked, "Who was the last sacrificial offering?"