Chapter 662: A Great Terror is Born (1)

Hiding in a corner, I watched Xu Yan personally take the field and enter the cave. I was absolutely thrilled.

Good and evil have been irreconcilable since ancient times. The pedantry and arrogance of the Five Great Upper Sects led them to attack directly without even asking Mr. Paper for an explanation.

The sect cultivators had squandered their final chance to uncover the truth. Now, I could finally put my mind at ease, sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight.

Mr. Paper was thoroughly baffled. Facing Xu Yan's aggressive approach, he was caught between shock and rage, his curses echoing throughout the Underground Ninth Level.

Truth be told, Mr. Paper had it pretty rough. He first went to Xinhu to lay an inescapable snare for me, only to discover a massive crisis with the Uncorrupted Bone he was guarding. Not only was the feng shui grand formation he had painstakingly cultivated for over two decades broken, but his former companion Chen Jiuge had turned into an enemy to contest the Two-Faced Buddha for control of the Uncorrupted Bone. He had struggled to rush back here and do everything in his power to salvage the situation. Yet, before that was even finished, the sect cultivators inexplicably arrived at his doorstep and violently attacked him over a single disagreement.

The bitterness in Mr. Paper's heart could only be understood by an outsider like me at this moment.

But understanding was one thing; I certainly wasn't going to help him solve his problems. It was a dog-eat-dog fight, and I couldn't wait for them to mutually destroy each other.

By that same logic, the sect cultivators must have realized something was amiss, but they were riding a tiger and found it hard to dismount. The righteousness ingrained in their bones compelled them to press forward. Eradicating demons to defend the Dao was their fundamental duty; fearing demonic heretics would severely impact their own cultivation.

While I was secretly rejoicing, the cold, gloomy voice rang out once more.

"Stubborn fools! So what if you are the Five Great Upper Sects? You are seeking your own deaths!"

By now, even I could hear the impatience and a hint of powerlessness in his voice.

"Mr. Paper's suppression of the Uncorrupted Bone must have reached its most critical juncture. He can't afford any distractions. They picked a good time."

Not long after, Xu Yan walked out of the cave. His Daoist robes were stained with blood, and he gripped a handful of White Fur in his hand.

"Daoist Master Xu, is it still a white fiend inside?" Lu Chen and Wei Wenming both leaned in. Xu Yan had only been inside for barely half a minute before walking back out. Dispatching the monster inside the cave in such a minuscule window of time proved his astonishing strength—it was likely even greater than Lu Jingxiu's.

"Something between a White Corpse and a Black Corpse. I am now more convinced than ever that an extremely terrifying entity is being nurtured here. Otherwise, it would be impossible for so many Walking Corpses to spawn alongside it." Xu Yan threw the White Fur onto the ground. The roots of the fur had already turned black; at most, they would fully turn into black fur in a few months. "Nine winding paths leading to the netherworld. Out of these nine caves, only one should be real. But it doesn't matter. Real or fake, I won't miss a single one."

"If even a single one of the Walking Corpses in this cavern gets out, it will trigger sheer chaos." Xu Yan's gaze grew solemn. "The profound sects have hidden from the world for too long. If I hadn't descended the mountain this time because of the Ghost Mother, I would never have known that evil filth had bred across the lands, plunging everything into such a mess."

"Jiangcheng is an ancient city. There are many taboos here, making it a special case. It cannot be generalized."

Lu Jingxiu also stepped forward. He and Xu Yan took turns searching the eight caves from right to left, ultimately stopping in front of the cave where the Uncorrupted Bone was located.

"It seems Gao Jian and the people backing him are hiding in here." Having continuously charged into the caves to fight and forcefully dismantle the traps Mr. Paper had laid, both of them were finally showing a hint of exhaustion.

Xu Yan was still holding up fine, his Daoist robes merely stained with blood. Lu Jingxiu, on the other hand, was in a much worse state. He had been afflicted with corpse poison; his complexion was dull, his vital energy was stagnant, and the wound on his back had begun to emit a foul stench.

After hiding in the back as a spectator all night, I rubbed my eyes. "The main event is finally starting."

I watched as all the sect cultivators entered the last cave before stepping out of my hiding spot. "Wang Shi should be in that cave too. Given his various strange movements earlier, that guy has very likely already been caught by Mr. Paper."

I hadn't fully disclosed the architectural layout beneath the Third Ward to Wang Shi, yet he had directly found the critical path, fleeing all the way to the Underground Ninth Level in one breath. This was highly abnormal.

Pacing forward slowly, I stopped outside the cavern and tilted my head to peer inside.

Corpse qi was dense inside the cave. I could faintly see several disciples of the Golden Mountain Sect walking at the rear of the group. Each of them held a talisman of extraordinary quality, allowing them to move freely through the corpse qi.

"These sect cultivators have deep pockets. Even a casual talisman used to ward off corpse qi is a premium item among Lesser Vehicle Talismans. If I could rob them blind, the haul would be unimaginable." Beneath my mask, my eyes revealed a glint of greed, and my left leg stepped involuntarily into the cavern.

The moment the tip of my shoe stepped into the cave, the Jade Bone in my pocket suddenly vibrated. It seemed to have sensed its main body.

At the exact same time, a roar echoed from the depths of the cave!

Like a wild beast, it carried a heavy aura of ferocity and madness.

"The Uncorrupted Bone!" Knowing things had gone south, I reached into my pocket and clutched the Jade Bone, hurriedly backing out of the tunnel. "I almost caused a massive disaster."

The group inside the cave was also badly startled by the roar; whether it was the sect cultivators or Mr. Paper, they all furrowed their brows.

"An ordinary Walking Corpse couldn't possibly make a sound, not even a Black Corpse that has cultivated for decades!" Xu Yan stood his ground, his eyebrows shooting up. "There is definitely an extraordinary entity being nurtured at the end of this cavern!"

He turned around and issued a warning, "In a moment, my Daoist brother and I might not be able to look after you. Protect yourselves."

The closer they got to the end of the cavern, the clearer the roar sounded. Several seconds had already passed, yet the echoes in the passage had not ceased.

"Five Great Upper Sects! I have no grudges or enmity with you! Why must you press so relentlessly?!" Mr. Paper's voice shifted from gloomy coldness to sheer madness. He had seemed a hair's breadth away from successfully sealing the Uncorrupted Bone just now, but because I accidentally stepped into the cave, the resonance from the bone fragment caused all his efforts to be wasted.

He probably still didn't know why he had failed, let alone place the blame on me.

"Five Great Upper Sects? Soon, you might not even be able to scrape together five. For ruining the Buddha's physical body in this life, you can all just wait to be washed in blood!" Mr. Paper's vicious words rang loud and clear throughout the entire Underground Ninth Level. He was truly enraged!

"Such arrogance!" Xu Yan flicked his sleeves, radiating an imposing aura. "I want to see exactly what abilities a demon like you possesses to dare spout such nonsense about washing the Five Great Upper Sects in blood."

The sounds of a clash soon erupted from inside the cave. I stood outside, burning with impatience, my curiosity snaring my heart like a creeping vine.

"Taking this bone fragment inside will get me discovered by the Uncorrupted Bone, but leaving it outside isn't safe either." I reached into my jacket and touched Gu Bei's Peachwood Box. I tried placing the Jade Bone inside. Once covered by the peachwood, the Jade Bone stopped vibrating; its connection with the main body was severed.

"Good thing I kept it on me. I can't end up capsizing a boat in a drainage ditch during this final stage." Growing even more cautious, I pressed myself against the wall and slipped into the cave.

At this moment, I was less than ten meters away from the sect cultivators. Although the tunnel wasn't a straight line, if they adjusted their angle, they would be able to spot me the moment they turned around.

I had to admit, this was a gamble. My heartbeat gradually quickened. The feeling of sitting on the mountain and watching tigers fight was great, but if I fell into the fray, I would be torn apart by both tigers simultaneously.

When I stepped within seven meters of them, Wei Jianming, who stood at the very back of the cultivators' formation, seemed to sense something. He glanced back, but he hadn't cultivated the Heavenly Eye, and the thick corpse qi in the cave obscured his vision.

Startled by his glance, I instantly didn't dare advance any further. Rooted to the spot, I utilized the Judging Eye to observe the situation inside the cave.

The disciples of the Golden Mountain Sect remained at the cavern's periphery, with Lu Chen guarding their flank. Deep within the cave where the corpse qi was thickest, Xu Yan and Lu Jingxiu were joining forces to set up a formation to disperse it.

Right in front of the two Daoist cultivators lay the secret room I had entered earlier. However, the chamber housing the Suspended Coffin had undergone a massive transformation.

Its internal area had expanded by at least a factor of two. The cavern walls were riddled with the scars of combat. The most exaggerated part was the floor—the spot where the Suspended Coffin originally sat had completely collapsed, leaving behind a massive pit.

I couldn't see what lay inside the pit. I could only watch the endless corpse qi and earth vein energy billowing out of it like a rolling tide.

And right at the edge of the pit, an expressionless man in a gray suit stood in distant confrontation with the sect cultivators.

"He is Mr. Paper?" I had never seen him before, but looking at that deadpan face, I felt a strong sense of familiarity. "Strange. This guy's face looks so stiff. Why does it somewhat resemble the paper dolls burned for the deceased at funerals?"

The live show streamer wore a Paper Doll Mask. This guy wasn't wearing a mask, but the first impression his face gave off was that he himself was a paper doll!

"Could this guy be a paper doll that gained sentience?"

I watched in silence. When Xu Yan and Lu Jingxiu finally pushed aside the corpse qi and stepped within three paces of Mr. Paper, the continuously expressionless Mr. Paper took a piece of white paper out of his suit pocket.

He unfolded the paper, revealing a blurry, indistinct drawing of a man on it.

The moment I saw that white paper, my eyes went wide. "That wisp of my Yin energy is inside the drawing! The ghost in the picture is Wang Shi! Is this Mr. Paper's method of sealing ghosts?"

Pinching the drawing paper between his fingertips, Mr. Paper spoke to the approaching Xu Yan, "You call yourselves an orthodox sect, yet you drove a Yang Talisman into a living person's body and forcefully stripped out his soul. Using such despicable methods to probe for information makes you worse than the demonic path!"

Ordinary ghost entities couldn't withstand the power of a Yang Talisman—such as a Seductive Ghost, a Desire Ghost, and so on. The reason Wang Shi was different was that he was someone I had brought down from the Death Train. He hadn't been to the Underworld and thus belonged to those who had returned to the living.

"A Yang Talisman Yin Spirit?" Xu Yan was taken aback by his words, then seemed to misunderstand his meaning. "No wonder the Compass couldn't point the way. It turns out you sealed him in a drawing."

Up until this moment, the old Daoist still thought the person implanted with the talisman was me. "The villain files a complaint first! This person was perfectly alive and well before he came down here. How did he turn into a Yin Spirit the moment you caught him? It is clearly you who murdered him and sealed his soul! You demon, you even ruthlessly struck down your own fellow disciple just to wash yourself clean!"