Chapter 255 - 130: Black Mountain Buddha Lamp Fire

Chapter 255: Chapter 130: Black Mountain Buddha Lamp Fire

She sighed, a hint of hatred flashing in her eyes:

"Black Mountain demands that we offer twenty fresh hearts every month. If we fail, our Incense and Candle Power will weaken.

"No one dares go to Meiruo Temple anymore, so we have no choice but to find those damn people elsewhere..."

Underwater, Jiang Mu’s heart pounded as he listened.

Black Mountain?

’So the Tree Demon Granny has a master?’

’From the sound of it, this mysterious figure named "Black Mountain" not only possesses a terrifying Cultivation Level, but can even manipulate Incense and Candle Power to control these fiends and ghosts.’

Yu Xiaoqian bit her lip, tears welling in her eyes. "It’s all my fault... I’ve hindered Granny’s cultivation..."

"Finding twenty hearts is the easy part,"

Si Rumeng gazed at the surface of the water, her eyes ice-cold.

"The hard part is figuring out how to truly escape. Being under someone’s thumb our whole lives... it won’t end well. My sister and I once helped the villagers and received their incense offerings. We know better than anyone how potent this stuff is..."

"Granny, who exactly is that Black Mountain?"

As Yu Xiaoqian tenderly combed Si Rumeng’s white hair, she asked, "Aren’t those who receive incense offerings supposed to be deities? Why would he make us harm people and take their hearts?"

Si Rumeng sneered.

"Deity? More like a vicious demon in human skin!

"This person has an incredibly high status, and the incense offerings he receives are immense. He can even help a group of wandering souls like you condense physical bodies. His methods are nothing short of godlike.

"What’s even more terrifying is that he has us place the hearts from our blood sacrifices right where the incense offerings are made. Such a blatant mix of the sacred and the profane should incur the wrath of the Celestial Dao, yet he doesn’t seem to care in the slightest. I have no idea what he’s plotting."

Jiang Mu’s scalp prickled as he listened.

’Enjoying incense offerings while piling bloody hearts beneath the idol?’

’What the hell kind of depraved Evil Deity is this?’

Yu Xiaoqian’s eyes were red, and her voice trembled on the verge of tears.

"Granny, I know you’re always scolding us, but I also know you’re actually protecting us.

"Besides... most of the people who were killed were wicked people with corrupt hearts, and half the time, it was the other wild demon fiends in the mountains who did it.

"But those people from the Demon-slaying Bureau insist on blaming us for all of it.

"I think they’re all in it together!"

Si Rumeng fell silent for a long moment. With a soft sigh, she rose from the water.

Glistening droplets of water trickled down her perfect curves.

"Let’s go and prepare the offerings. Whatever happens, we just need to get through this month."

Once the two had dressed and departed, the great hall fell silent once more.

Jiang Mu slowly surfaced, wiping the water from his face. His expression was complex.

The conversation between the two fiends had completely upended his understanding of the situation.

’If they’re being forced into this, and are even, to some extent, punishing the wicked... how can I possibly bring my blade down on them?’

’In this world, how can even a demon’s fate not be its own?’

Jiang Mu was speechless.

He remembered what Ling Ye had once said.

"If you become a Demon Fiend yourself, you won’t feel any guilt."

But now, it seemed some Demon Fiends were more human than humans themselves.

Jiang Mu asked in his mind, "Ji Hongyuan, what would happen to Yu Xiaoqian and the others without the Incense and Candle Power?"

Ji Hongyuan’s lazy voice echoed in his mind:

"The physical forms of these ghosts are entirely condensed and sustained by that unique Incense and Candle Power. Once that power is cut off, their Soul Bodies will lose their anchor, and they will quickly dissipate into nothing.

"However, the Tree Demon Granny won’t die. Without the Incense and Candle Power to suppress her, she might even break her seals, recover her true strength, and revert to being the rampaging, thousand-year-old Tree Demon."

Jiang Mu sighed.

He really couldn’t bring himself to harm the hapless ghost, Yu Xiaoqian.

’Forget it. I’ll take it one step at a time. First, I’ll check out the core of the formation.’

He dove back underwater and pried loose the purple Crystal Stone that powered the Barrier.

As the Crystal Stone was dislodged, the flow of Spiritual Power in the hall seemed to stagnate for an instant.

Jiang Mu didn’t linger. Using a combination of Demon Shadow and Instant Teleportation, he returned unseen to the small hut that had been sealed by the Barrier.

Sure enough, the invisible barrier was gone.

The hut’s door and windows were covered with thick black cloth, and a large, rusty lock hung on the door.

Instead of breaking the lock, Jiang Mu simply used Instant Teleportation to pass straight through the wall.

The inside of the hut wasn’t dark and gloomy as he had imagined. On the contrary, it was as bright as day.

Ever-burning lamps lined the walls.

And in the center of the room stood a stone platform resembling an altar.

Above the stone platform,

an ancient Bronze Buddha Lamp hovered in mid-air.

The wick burned with a pure-white flame, emitting a sacred, warm, and righteous glow. Faintly visible above the flame was the projection of a solemn, human-like silhouette,

as if it were receiving some form of worship.

However, surrounding the sacred Buddha Lamp were several porcelain plates.

On the plates rested hearts.

Some were still bright red.

Others were already shriveled and rotten.

Wisps of dark-red, bloody mist drifted up from the hearts, coiling around the holy Buddha Lamp before being greedily devoured by the white flame.

Sacred and bloody.

Mercy and cruelty.

In that moment, they were bizarrely intertwined.

Jiang Mu stood before the altar, his gaze locked on the hovering Bronze Buddha Lamp.

’So this is the source of their control...’

He reached out, a faint layer of Star Power covering his fingertip, and cautiously extended it toward the Buddha Lamp.

HUMMM!

Just as his fingertip came within three inches of the pure-white flame, the once calm and gentle fire flared.

He felt a resilient yet bizarrely sticky force surge forth.

It wasn’t a forceful repulsion; it felt more like being trapped in an invisible bog.

Jiang Mu’s fingertip was caught fast, unable to move forward or back.

Worse, a powerful, righteous energy surged up from his fingertip, shocking his meridians into numbness and nearly causing him to vomit blood.