Fairy, don't go! I have a mod.

Master Huiming put down his teacup, put his palms together in return, and looked him over with a smile, his gaze sweeping back and forth between Mu Tianmiao and Lin Yanluo.

He didn't say anything, but he increased the speed at which he twirled the prayer beads.

Chen Zisu stood to the side, watching the two men, one old and one young, politely exchange greetings.

He glanced at Lin Yanluo next to him, her ponytail askew and her face still bearing the lingering glow of the sunset, and sighed inwardly as many sighs as he could.

She rubbed her temples, put on a polite smile, and raised her hand to introduce Master Huiming:

"Master, this is Lin Yanluo, the weapon-refining elder of our Immortal Shadow Sect, and that is our young sect master, Mu Tianmiao."

Master Huiming put his palms together, chanted a Buddhist prayer, and said with a smile.

"We should have had a proper chat, but it's getting late, and I'm embarrassed to keep you two elders from resting any longer. Let's get down to business first."

After saying that, he took an object out of his sleeve and carefully placed it on the table.

It was a gourd about the size of a palm, dark gold in color, with fine Sanskrit characters engraved on its surface, but its luster was dull.

There was a very fine crack on the mouth of the gourd, as if it would break at any moment.

Lin Yanluo picked up the gourd and examined it several times, turning it over and over in her hands.

As he ran his fingertips along the fine crack, his expression gradually shifted from nonchalant to serious.

Master Huiming held his prayer beads, his kind smile fading slightly, and his tone unusually solemn.

"This magical artifact was originally a treasure used by our temple to seal away evil spirits. It has been passed down for at least seven or eight hundred years. My junior brother took it to suppress a corrupted demon beast, but the gourd itself was also corrupted and eroded."

"Now, not only can we not seal away evil things, but we can't even seal ourselves anymore."

Lin Yanluo frowned and looked up: "Pollution? Star pollution?"

The moment those words were spoken, the atmosphere in the reception room changed instantly.

Chen Zisu, who had been leaning against the door frame rubbing her temples, straightened up upon hearing this and her expression turned serious.

Mu Tianmiao's smile faded slightly, and his gaze fell on the inconspicuous dark gold gourd, his brows furrowing slightly.

He had personally experienced how terrifying things polluted by the starry sky could be in the first-generation secret realm. That Soul-Stealing Demon Fragrance Flower almost killed him four times, and he still gets chills when he thinks about it.

Star pollution.

These four words are a taboo subject in any sect in the Eight Desolations.

Anything, whether it's a magical artifact, a spiritual plant, a demonic beast, or a cultivator, will immediately become the most troublesome and dangerous mess once it's associated with those two words.

At best, they are sealed off and suppressed; at worst, they are destroyed on the spot—without exception.

Chapter Ninety-Nine: You damned monk!

Lin Yanluo placed the gourd on the table, her fingertips swirling with spiritual energy, slowly tracing its surface. She looked up at Huiming, her tone much more serious than usual.

"This wasn't made by you, was it?"

Master Huiming nodded, and stopped fiddling with his prayer beads.

"That's not true. This gourd was obtained by a senior in a secret realm by chance hundreds of years ago. Since the treasure is useful, we naturally want to get our hands on it."

“Our temple’s abbots throughout the ages have used it to seal away many evil spirits, so it can be considered a meritorious ritual implement.”

Lin Yanluo didn't ask any more questions.

She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, a ring of fine spiritual energy patterns appeared in her pupils. Pale golden light flowed in her eyes; it was the unique spiritual pattern pupil technique of a weapon refiner.

She formed a hand seal and slammed her hands onto the table. Instantly, the entire table transformed into a small analytical array, with array patterns spreading outward from her palms like ripples, enveloping the dark gold gourd within.

She pulled out a thin, cicada-wing-like knife from her storage ring. The blade was only half an inch wide, and the entire knife was pitch black without any reflection. This was a spirit-dismantling knife used by weapon refiners.

The Spirit-Dismantling Blade can precisely cut into the spiritual energy channels without damaging the artifact itself.

She bent down, the blade slowly sliding along the Sanskrit patterns on the gourd's surface, the movement extremely light and slow, like a surgical procedure.

As Lin Yanluo's blade cut deeper and deeper, a wisp of black gas suddenly seeped out from the fine crack on the gourd's surface.

The black mist was extremely faint, yet it carried a chilling aura that sent shivers down one's spine. As soon as it emerged from the crack, it spread across the tabletop.

The light of the array dimmed rapidly where it was touched by the black energy, emitting a soft hissing sound.

Chen Zisu subconsciously took a step back, reached out and pulled Mu Tianmiao back half a foot, her expression even uglier than when she kicked the door earlier.

Lin Yanluo reacted extremely quickly. The instant the black energy seeped out, she had already retreated out of the array's range, landing steadily three steps away.

She made several hand seals in quick succession, and spiritual energy flew out from her fingertips like threads, reinforcing every node of the array on the table.

The pale golden array patterns lit up again, firmly suppressing the black energy within the area of ​​the tabletop, preventing it from spreading even an inch.

She stared at the black energy churning and struggling within the formation, her brows furrowing into a knot, and her tone returned to its standard, sharp-tongued, feminine manner.

But this time, everyone present could tell she wasn't joking.

"You monks, you don't even bother to understand the magic artifacts you get before using them. You're fucking stupid."

Master Huiming was called stupid to her face, but he showed no anger whatsoever.

He clasped his hands together, a bitter smile appearing on his chubby face. His gaze fell on the black mist, and his tone became even more solemn than before.

"Elder Lin is right. This old monk was indeed careless. I thought it was just a normal decline in spiritual energy, but I didn't expect..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but everyone understood what he meant... This matter seemed far more serious than anticipated.

Lin Yanluo rolled her eyes, pointed at the black mist with her finger, and spoke in a sharp and impatient tone.

"This isn't a magic weapon; it's alive. It was probably hidden inside before you even got it."

"All the demons and evil spirits you've sealed inside over the years have been eaten by it. And you still consider it a meritorious artifact? It's just waiting for you to feed it!"

Master Huiming's usually smiling eyes suddenly widened, his hand holding the prayer beads froze in mid-air, and it took him a long time to squeeze out two words.

"...Alive?"

Before Lin Yanluo could finish speaking, the gourd seemed to understand human speech and suddenly began to tremble violently.

A large amount of thick black gas gushed out from the crack in the gourd's mouth, many times more ferocious than before when it was thin.

The black mist churned and twisted in the air, vaguely coalescing into ferocious faces that let out silent roars.

The array on the table was violently shaken by this force, and fine cracks began to appear in several of the array patterns.

"Chen Zisu!" Lin Yanluo shouted without turning her head.

"Go find Qin Shuxin, quick!"

Without any hesitation, Chen Zisu turned around and rushed out of the reception room. She lightly touched the ground with her toes and flew into the air, heading towards Qin Shuxin's residence.

She knew what Lin Yanluo's tone meant.

Things have gotten to a very bad point.

"Mu Tianmiao!"

While reinforcing the formation, Lin Yanluo threw a key at Mu Tianmiao.

"Go to my bedroom, there's a safety lock in the bedside table, bring it to me!"

Mu Tianmiao caught the key, glanced at her, and without asking any more questions, turned and ran.

Lin Yanluo flipped her hands repeatedly, layering spiritual energy array patterns upon layer, until fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.

She turned and glared at Huiming, gritting her teeth as she cursed:

"You old fool, you're just trying to harm us! Why don't you invite me back to your Nanshan Temple to practice?"

"They insist on activating this thing within our Immortal Shadow Sect... damn it!"

Master Huiming's once chubby, round face could no longer retain any semblance of the composure of a high monk; a fine layer of sweat beaded on his bald head, reflecting the light under the lamp in the reception room.

As he followed Lin Yanluo in channeling Buddhist power into the sealing formation, he rambled on incoherently as he tried to explain.

"This can't be entirely blamed on me... There are no Nascent Soul stage weapon refiners in the temple. The highest-ranking weapon refiner elder is only at the Golden Core stage. I..."

"I was afraid they would damage the gourd, and considering that Elder Lin of your sect is a renowned weapon-refining master throughout the eight wastelands, that's why I personally came to visit..."

His voice grew softer and softer as he spoke, and finally he raised his robe sleeve to wipe his sweat, staring longingly at Lin Yanluo, completely losing the airs of a high-ranking monk.

"It was my mistake, I didn't consider things carefully. Elder Lin, what is the situation now?"

Lin Yanluo's hand seals became faster and faster, but the cracks in the formation were spreading at the same speed.

She stared intently at the churning black mist, speaking rapidly.

"I don't know much about the pollution of the starry sky, but there is one rule that is generally accepted among weapon refiners."

"The truly terrifying sources of pollution don't just appear out of nowhere."

"They are rejected by the world's will and must lower their cultivation level and compress themselves to below the upper limit that this world can bear in order to squeeze in."

"This is the trigger for most pollution incidents."

She paused for a moment, then her voice suddenly rose, carrying an extremely rare loss of composure.

"But the aura emanating from this gourd... is that of a Nascent Soul cultivator! What exactly did you feed it? How has it recovered to the Nascent Soul stage?!"

Master Huiming's expression changed completely.

He dared not utter another word of nonsense. He clasped his hands together, and Buddhist power surged from his palms like a tide, weaving in the air to form a golden Buddhist sealing formation.

Layer upon layer pressed down on Lin Yanluo's spirit pattern array.

The two formations, one gold and one white, combined their power simultaneously, finally pressing the churning black energy back onto the table.

Lin Yanluo gritted her teeth, her hands never stopping forming array patterns, while her mind raced with calculations.

The source of pollution from the Nascent Soul stage was activated in the heart of the Immortal Shadow Sect, just a few mountain peaks away from the hundreds of candidate disciples and representatives of various forces at the recruitment conference.

If this cannot be contained, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Chapter 100 I'll turn you into a shoe insole, grateful for your arrival.

Pollution is also graded. This is no secret.

In the truly elite circles of cultivators in the Eight Desolations, although research on star pollution is taboo by various sects, those who need to know it know a little bit about it.

What's most terrifying isn't how high the cultivation level of the pollutants is, but that their abilities simply don't follow the common sense of the cultivation world.

It is not immortal magic, not martial arts, not any known system of magic, but a power that leans more towards bizarre rules.

Once certain conditions are triggered, pollution will operate according to its own rules, just as naturally as water flowing downhill and fire burning uphill, completely irrational.

The aura emanating from the gourd in front of them was that of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

If it is fully activated, its domain will expand instantly.

Nobody knows what will happen then.

Each type of pollution has different rules; some distort space, some devour spiritual energy, and some cause all living beings within its range to lose their minds and kill each other.

In the worst-case scenario, the entire Immortal Shadow Sect, along with the various forces that came to observe the ceremony, and the hundreds of candidate disciples outside the mountain gate who are still queuing up to wait for further testing tomorrow, will be affected.

Thousands, even tens of thousands of lives will be wiped out in an instant when pollution begins.

Only high-level cultivators like them have any hope of survival!

Just then, the space in the reception room twisted without warning for a moment. Without any fluctuations of spiritual energy or the light of a teleportation array, two figures appeared out of thin air in the center of the room, as if they had been standing there from the very beginning.

Li Xizhao wore a moon-white long dress, her face was as calm as water, and her aura was restrained and unleashed, but her usually lazy and casual eyes were now as sharp as two drawn swords.

After landing, she didn't look at anyone; her gaze was fixed directly on the black aura on the table, which was being suppressed by a double array.

Chu Cheng stood beside her, dressed in black, his long black sword at his waist still sheathed, but the scabbard was already trembling slightly, emitting a very faint hum.

His hand was already on the hilt of the sword, his five fingers long and steady, and the sword intent emanating from him was extremely cold.

Two Nascent Soul stage cultivators arrived at the same time.

Lin Yanluo and Master Huiming both breathed a sigh of relief, but they dared not relax their grip on the seal.

Li Xizhao and Chu Cheng need no explanation from anyone.

Having reached their level of cultivation, they have already touched upon the rules of the Eight Desolations World itself, and are extremely familiar with the aura of star pollution.

They could sense even the slightest hint of this aura.

While maintaining the Buddhist seal, Master Huiming shrank his neck and bowed and scraped to Li Xizhao and Chu Cheng with a big smile on his face.