Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 922
The most dreadful thing about the febrile typhoon was that there was no telling what mysteries the electromagnetic fields inside the febrile typhoons had, but the creatures killed miserably by the febrile typhoons, and even the dead bodies that were swept over by the febrile typhoons after they died, could mutate and become the most hideous ghouls!
According to the information that Li Yao had collected on his way on the Sorcerers' River, it was an overstatement that Han Yuantai blamed the rise of the White Lotus Cult entirely on the 'Jade Crystal Pellets' the other day.
The Jade Crystal Pellets were certainly part of the reason, but the most important reason that the White Lotus Cult was never annihilated was that the febrile typhoons would make the dead walk again and turn the remaining souls into deadly ghouls every time that they passed by.
Whenever the White Lotus Cult was dwindling away, it was not unusual for a febrile typhoon to pass by and transform countless poor peasants into ghouls who would become available soldiers of the White Lotus Cult again.
"The febrile typhoon of this year is particularly rough. Three days ago, a febrile typhoon landed and savaged the southeast, causing grievous damage. On top of that, in ten days, another febrile typhoon of a larger scale will probably march northward, very close to the southeast shoreline. If it slightly deviates from the trajectory and lands again, there is going to be a catastrophe!"
Qi Zhongdao explained the situation in the southeast to the people of the Purple Pole Sword Sect. "To make matters worse, the two febrile typhoons happened to arrive at a time when the Sorcerers' River is in the middle of the spring flood season!
"The water level is high, and the wind is strong. The flood of the Sorcerers' River has been unusually large in recent decades. Should the dams collapse, and the Sorcerers' River changes its course, it is very possible that a large area will be flooded!
"Too many people will lose their homes or be killed in the flood. Their remaining souls will not disperse so quickly. When the febrile typhoons blow at them, they will very likely turn into the most brutal ghouls. If an army of a million ghouls tramples on the prosperous land in the southeast, the place will be hopelessly ruined!
"Naturally, 'Mother White Lotus' Wan Mingzhu will not let go of such a heavenly opportunity. According to the message that the Grand Mystery Sect has received, Wan Mingzhu's ghost shadows have appeared near East Peace County. It is very possible that she will lead thousands of ghouls to attack East Peace County!"
The news cast the people of the Purple Pole Sword Sect into silence.
Even Li Yao's eyelids were twitching.
East Peace County was a famous city in the southeast of the Great Qian Dynasty. Although it was not nearly as large as Divine Capital, it was even more prosperous and flamboyant. For thousands of years, it had always been an important town for training in the southeast. Dozens of Cultivation sects had headquartered near East Peace County.
If East Peace County was attacked by the White Lotus Cult's ghoul army, even if it was nothing but a bluff or a gesture, it would be a shocking piece of news. The Heaven Battering Army in the northwest would certainly be boosted by the stimulation, and Ghost Qin's people in the Dark Cloud Prairies would be more ambitious than ever!
"The thirty-three sects near East Peace County have sent out a call for help, hoping that the fellow Cultivators everywhere can give them a hand to save East Peace County from the looming catastrophe!"
"As of now, Master Bitter Cicada of the Stupa Temple has already moved to the southeast to appease the deceased. It is said that Fellow Cultivator Ba Xiaoyu the Beggar is also wandering around the homeless peasants to calm everyone down and cope with the natural disaster together!"
Li Yao's interest was suddenly aroused.
If a rank of 'top ten experts of the Ancient Sages Sector' was made, Master Bitter Cicada of the Stupa Temple and Ba Xiaoyu the 'Beggar' were certainly the two that he admired most.
In the three thousand Sectors, religions and schools whose grand wish was 'universal salvation' were not rare. In the Ancient Sages Sector, such a lineage was known as the Stupa Temple.
Master Bitter Cicada of the Stupa Temple was a truly wise and awakened Cultivator. Although his capabilities were on par with the Three Saints and Four Rapscallions, he was never involved in the conflicts in the world of Cultivators but focused his full attention on dealing with natural disasters.
Wherever there was a natural disaster, there was Master Bitter Cicada. He provided food and water, mollified the deceased, and pacified the living. His prestige was unparalleled among the ordinary folks.
Ba Xiaoyu the Beggar was the same.
His main focus was not to provide food for the victims but to deal with the officials, nobles, and Cultivation sects that earned a great fortune immorally during the natural disaster. He often humiliated the shameless officials and Cultivators in the most hilarious ways.
Even according to the standard of the modern Cultivation civilization, the two seniors could be called real Cultivators.
Li Yao had long meant to get in touch with them, but he had never found a chance.
'Mother White Lotus' Wan Mingzhu was also an important person—or rather, an important ghost—on Li Yao's observation list. Li Yao would like to witness the charm of the 'mother of all ghosts' with his own eyes!
"One third of the training resources of the Great Qian Dynasty are yielded from the southeast. Nobody will benefit if the place is destroyed!"
Staring at Yan Liren and Li Yao, Qi Zhongdao said, "I believe that your sect is well aware of the interests in the region and will send reinforcements!
"However, if we set our target as 'resist the natural disaster and dispel the ghoul army' as we did in the past, it will not solve the problem from the source!
"'Mother White Lotus' Wan Mingzhu is the source of the riot. The ghouls will come back again as long as Wan Mingzhu is not eliminated!
"Therefore, I'm hoping that we can work together to remove the White Lotus Cult and execute Wan Mingzhu!"
"It's not going to be easy to kill Wan Mingzhu!" Dan Fengzi, leader of the Purple Pole Sword Sect, suddenly remarked. "Wan Mingzhu is a top ten expert. She is also an unpredictable ghost without a real entity who can be attached to anyone alive.
"It is not easy to catch her, much less kill her!"
It was not an excuse but a well-grounded concern.
For those at the level of Li Yao, Yan Liren, or Qi Zhongdao, it was one thing to 'defeat' them, and it was another thing to 'kill' them. The latter was ten times more difficult than the former!
Li Yao and Qi Zhongdao could not defeat Yan Liren, but if they were determined to run away, with their life-saving skills and tools, it would be almost impossible for Yan Liren to kill them.
The two of them were still living people with bodies of flesh and blood; Wan Mingzhu, on the other hand, was just an unpredictable ghost. So, it would only be more difficult to execute her.
Chapter 1416: Tall Trees Are Hit First! |
"It's certainly not going to be easy to kill Wan Mingzhu, but it's not entirely impossible if all Cultivators join our hands!"
Qi Zhongdao still appeared emotionless, but passion was beaming out of his eyes as he said solemnly, "In the past dozen years, Wang Xi has been stirring trouble in the court. Everybody in the world of Cultivators could only mind their own business under the threat. The scoundrels such as Wan Mingzhu, Qi Changsheng, and Han Baling took the opportunity to rise, and they have grown stronger to the point that they are barely eliminable!
"Right now, the new emperor has ascended to the throne, Wang Xi is on the run, and the Cultivators are united again!
"If we don't take the chance to remove Wan Mingzhu, Qi Changsheng, Han Baling, and other evil rebels, there will be endless trouble later!
"Wan Mingzhu is indeed the mother of all ghosts, but Fellow Cultivator Yan, Master Spiritual Vulture, Master Bitter Cicada, Fellow Cultivator Ba Xiaoyu, and I are certainly on par with her, if not slightly better!
"As long as we find Wan Mingzhu and fight her together in a suitable trap, the odds are very high that we can execute her once and for all!"
"Well…" Dan Fengzi hesitated and hinted at Li Yao. "Right now, the troops of the court have been dispatched to East Peace County to settle the riot. The elites from the Ghost Armor Clan, Thunderstorm Valley, Flying Spirit Island, the Monster Taming Pavilion, and hundreds of other sects are on their way to the southeast to slay those evils, too!"
Turning a blind eye to Dan Fengzi's hint, Qi Zhongdao went on. "We don't need to talk more about our responsibility to slay evil and serve justice. I only want to add one thing. This time, the febrile typhoon and the flood season have overlapped and will certainly evolve into a super natural disaster. Many sects in the southeast will certainly be uprooted!
"After the natural disaster, large vacant areas that are not protected by the Cultivation sects will be left behind. By then, won't all the people count on the six major sects to supervise the situation for them to live a better life?
"If we don't go there and simply allow the local smaller sects to fight each other, chances are that there will be a catastrophe even more dreadful than the super natural disaster!"
The meaning between the lines was obvious. He was instigating the Purple Pole Sword Sect to start a turf war there.
Dan Fengzi smiled. Nodding, giving neither approval nor disapproval, he said, "Slay evil, serve justice, and help the people are what all righteous people should do. With a natural disaster incoming and the people in an abyss of suffering, the Purple Pole Sword Sect will certainly do our best!
"However, as you have seen, Master, to host the Dragon Spring Meeting three months ago, the Purple Pole Sword Sect used up all our accumulated resources. We are now still slowly recovering!
"This is too important an issue that requires deliberation. If we are indeed sending a large batch of empyreal swordsmen to go to the southeast, we will have to make thorough plans. You must excuse us, Master!"
"Of course." There was neither frustration nor delight on Qi Zhongdao's face. He turned to Yan Liren and said, "Fellow Cultivator Yan, thank you for going easy on me in the battle three months ago so that I was not humiliated in public. Other people may not know this, but I absolutely agree with Master Spiritual Vulture. Your sword is indeed unparalleled!
"But I do wonder, is the unparalleled sword in the world enough to slay the mother of all ghosts in the world?"
Yan Liren blinked. His bald forehead was suddenly shining, and even his breath became hotter than before.
"Master Spiritual Vulture." Qi Zhongdao turned to Li Yao. "Since you have come to the Great Qian Dynasty to earn a name for yourself, after the super natural disaster, won't the vacant prosperous land in the southeast be the best stage for your performance?
"I look forward to fighting side by side with Fellow Cultivator Yan and Master Spiritual Vulture to slay the evils there!"
Not caring about Dan Fengzi's extremely awful expression, Qi Zhongdao finished his remark slowly before he left the room.
Dan Fengzi coughed. He made a gesture to the elders on the spot but led Li Yao to a fine cottage next to a waterfall behind the Sword Washing Pavilion.
As the leader of the Purple Pole Sword Sect and Yan Liren's senior brother, Dan Fengzi was also an extraordinary sword Cultivator.
However, his abilities in making judgements and decisions were even sharper than his sword, which could be seen by his methods in hiring Li Yao as a visiting elder of the Purple Pole Sword Sect.
Li Yao could become a visiting elder of the Purple Pole Sword Sect and be given twice resources, but if Li Yao refused, the Purple Pole Sword Sect would rather go against Li Yao than ask for his help!
Li Yao thought quite highly of Dan Fengzi. He believed that the leader was a person whom he could communicate and negotiate with. In a certain extreme scenario, he could even consider hiring the entire Purple Pole Sword Sect as a whole and regroup it into a certain 'Purple Pole Mercenary Group', which would command and manage themselves and carry out relatively large strategic operations.
The reward of the contract could be an assembly line of modern flying swords or an assault warship that was best at close-distance battles… Everything was negotiable.
"Are you planning to go southeast, Elder Spiritual Vulture?"
While Li Yao was making plans, Dan Fengzi went directly to the topic while he looked at the waterfall outside, which was brushing the rocks.
"I'm tempted." Li Yao had thought of an excuse. "As you know, leader, we barbarian Cultivators are best at playing with poisons and ghosts. Although I have received the heritage of Yan Zhu, a sword forger from Great Zhou, I never forget where I come from. Since Wan Mingzhu claims to be the 'mother of all ghosts', naturally, I want to check out how capable the ghost is!
"Besides, Master Righteous One does have a point. After the super natural disaster, a lot of sects in the southeast will have been destroyed. Does the Purple Pole Sword Sect not want to fill the vacancy in the southeast with the chance?"
Dan Fengzi smiled and shook his head. "You might not know the whole of it yet, Elder Spiritual Vulture. You must not believe everything that Master Righteous One said. This issue is definitely not so simple!"
"Oh? Frowning, Li Yao cackled. "Was the noble leader of all Cultivators lying?"
"Not exactly," Dan Fengzi explained patiently. "Firstly, Elder Spiritual Vulture, you've spent most of your life in the Southland of Sorcerers, and I'm afraid that you don't know how tough the febrile typhoons are. The febrile typhoons are essentially super gales that have landed on the ground with immense, violent spiritual energy that will seriously affect the souls and veins of the Cultivators!
"If caught in a febrile typhoon, even Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators have to summon all their spiritual energy to resist it. One moment of carelessness, and the febrile typhoon will invade their body and soul, resulting in a decline in their Cultivation!
"The greatest headache with the febrile typhoons is that they seem to have wisdom that allows them to search for the Cultivator with the highest Cultivation within the range of their rampage automatically. They will cause the greatest damage to said Cultivator, while the Cultivators of lower levels and ordinary people will suffer much less!
"Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators such as you and me will be their primary targets if we enter the febrile typhoons!"
Li Yao furrowed his brow. "Is that so?"
In fact, he understood it perfectly. The specialists in the Star Glory Federation had long figured out the reason of the common phenomenon in super natural disasters.
The higher a Cultivator's level was, the more immense the spiritual energy inside their body would be. The spiritual energy would generate a powerful force field.
When the force field caused by the super natural disaster approached, it would naturally interact with the most powerful force field first.
A more vivid metaphor would be that, during a thunderstorm, the lightning would always hit lightning rods and trees first. The higher the lightning rod and the trees were, the more likely they would be struck.
The high-level Cultivators, just like lightning rods and trees, were the first ones to take the blow.
"The devastation of the febrile typhoons is just the beginning of the disaster," Dan Fengzi said. "Based on our experience in the past, after every febrile typhoon, there will be a large batch of victims.
"When the victims die miserably, they turn into aggressive ghouls full of hatred. Although such ghouls are insignificant in capabilities and can cause little damage to Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators such as you and me, when there are too many of them, it is possible for them to corrupt our soul and make our mind impure, which can be quite troublesome!
"Since you are from the Southland of Sorcerers, Elder Spiritual Vulture, you must be aware of some methods to baptize the aggressive ghouls. However, I believe that the methods only allow you to deal with a hundred or so ghouls at most, right? What can you do if hundreds of thousands of aggressive ghouls present themselves in front of you?
"Qi Zhongdao, Yan Liren, Master Bitter Cicada, Ba Xiaoyu, Elder Spiritual Vulture—altogether the five 'high-level Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators'—with dozens of regular Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators seem to be an invincible army. However, if a million ghouls come at us at the same time like a tide, it will still be almost impossible for us to resist!
"The most critical issue is, even if we kill all the ghouls and even uproot the White Lotus Cult, so what? What benefits are there?
"High-level demon beasts have demon cores. The powerful spiritual animals have beast crystals and spiritual bones. A perilous adventure in the dangerous land can yield a lot of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that we want. So, it is worthwhile to execute the devils, however risky it is.
"However, if we engage with the army of ghouls, even if we try our best to blow apart their souls, we will gain absolutely nothing. Instead, the broken pieces of their souls might pollute our soul and belief. It is definitely not worth the risk!"
"So, that's the case," Li Yao sneered. "Isn't Master Righteous One implying that the Purple Pole Sword Sect can grab a piece of land in the southeast? Isn't it a benefit?"
"On the contrary, it is the greatest disaster that might even spell the doom of the Purple Pole Sword Sect!" Dan Fengzi said solemnly. "You must've heard an old saying before, Elder Spiritual Vulture, the tall trees are hit first. Do you know why I insisted that Junior Brother Yan not kill Qi Zhongdao in the Dragon Spring Meeting three months ago?"
Li Yao narrowed his eyes. "Because Qi Zhongdao is a man who values rules, and he is the only one who can manage to maintain the balance of the Great Qian Dynasty?"
"That's only part of the reason," Dan Fengzi said. "More importantly, I didn't want Junior Brother Yan to win in the first place. I intentionally wanted him to lose!"
"Oh?" Li Yao was slightly dazed. His eyes suddenly glittered. "Why?"
"Master Spiritual Vulture, do you know which sect is the largest one in the world?" Dan Fengzi asked back.
