Just a Useful Pawn in the Stain Sect

Chapter 78: Chapter 78: Re-entering the Wu Ghost Realm

One month later. The Skull Mountains.

Lü Yang flew on his Flying Light, his journey completely unhindered. With his current strength, he no longer paid any mind to ordinary cultivators at the Final-phase of Qi Refining.

Even though he was now just a Yin Spirit refined from a single soul, his higher Position allowed him to deal with cultivators at the Final-phase of Qi Refining with a mere wave of his sleeve. The only way an opponent could fight him was if they, like the Yun Miaozhen of the past, had mastered a Legendary Technique or possessed a Marvelous Treasure.

Of course, this was limited to crushing weak cultivators.

Having lost his physical body, Lü Yang was actually at his weakest. If he were to encounter a cultivator of the same Position, his only option would be to flee.

Soon, Lü Yang stopped his Flying Light.

In the distance, a black mountain range with Yin Qi soaring to the heavens came into view.

’Good. It seems Perfected Yin Shan hasn’t arrived yet...’

Lü Yang sensed the karmic links, confirming that the Wu Ghost Secret Realm had not yet emerged and that the people from the Divine Martial Sect had not yet arrived. Only then did he transform into a gentle breeze and disappear into the mountains.

Lü Yang remembered the location where the Wu Ghost Secret Realm had appeared in his past life, so it was easy to find this time. Before long, he arrived at a cave entrance and ambled inside. At first, the passage was extremely narrow, but after several dozen paces, it suddenly opened up to reveal a vast subterranean lake.

’This is the place...’

Lü Yang gazed at the lake, feeling a strong spatial fluctuation, but he didn’t enter immediately. Instead, he lingered at the entrance to the Secret Realm.

’Haste makes waste... No need to rush. I’ll toy with it for a bit first.’

Lü Yang took out the Myriad-Soul Banner and gave it a gentle shake. Chen Xin’an’s figure immediately materialized, and Lü Yang promptly threw him into the entrance of the Wu Ghost Secret Realm.

He hadn’t forgotten that there was a strand of Golden Core Sword Qi inside the Secret Realm.

In his past life, he hadn’t practiced any Stain Sect Techniques, so the Sword Qi hadn’t killed him. But in this life, he had cultivated the Stain Sect’s Body Refining Technique, Theft to Sainthood.

’Under these circumstances, Heaven only knew if that Sword Qi would spare him.’

’Just in case, I’d better have Senior Brother Chen scout the path first.’

Chen Xin’an: ”...”

BOOM!

The next moment, ripples spread across the subterranean lake. Through Chen Xin’an’s perspective, Lü Yang quickly got a clear view of the scene within.

The first thing that entered his vision was a brilliant strand of Sword Qi.

However, the Sword Qi didn’t strike. Instead, it locked onto Chen Xin’an from afar, as if marking him, and then actually allowed him to enter the Secret Realm.

’That easy?’

Surprised, Lü Yang formed a Daoist Hand Seal, about to recall Chen Xin’an...

ZZZZING—!

Almost simultaneously, the Sword Qi that had fallen silent suddenly shuddered. Chen Xin’an, who was just about to leave the Secret Realm, instantly dispersed into a cloud of White Qi.

Seeing this, Lü Yang raised an eyebrow. He first glanced at Chen Xin’an’s Spirit inside the Myriad-Soul Banner to ensure he could be resummoned after a while. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. He then took out another Banner Spirit and threw it into the Secret Realm. After repeating the experiment a few times, he finally reached a conclusion.

’So you can enter, but you can’t leave...’

Lü Yang grew pensive. ’Of course. The purpose of this Sword Qi is to extinguish the Dao Lineage of the Wu Ghost Sect, so it won’t allow anyone to leave the Secret Realm.’

’As for why it lets people in... Damn it, it’s using the realm as a groundbait!’

At this thought, Lü Yang’s eye twitched. ’It’s luring Demon Dao cultivators to hunt for treasure, only to trap and kill them all together!’

’The Righteous Dao is so damn ruthless!’

Although Lü Yang wasn’t certain if his guess was correct, it was definitely what he would have done. Judging others by his own standards, he figured he was most likely right.

Thinking of this, Lü Yang became even more cautious.

Thus, he waited patiently for several more months. Only after his Primal Qi Avatar had once again reached the level of a Celestial Martial Artist did he send it into the Secret Realm.

This time, he had no intention of leaving and instead delved deeper into the Secret Realm.

Soon, buildings began to appear in Lü Yang’s vision. Most of them had been reduced to skeletal remains, with only broken artifacts scattered on the ground.

Lü Yang looked around. Unlike the outside world, the entire Wu Ghost Secret Realm was filled with only incredibly dense Yin Qi. Without a corresponding cultivation technique, an ordinary cultivator couldn’t even practice breathing here, and over time, their physical body would be eroded by the Yin Qi.

’Could there be any cultivators in a place like this?’

Lü Yang pondered this but kept moving, looking around with great interest. He had already realized he was in what appeared to be a city.

Just then, a desperate, muffled cry came from nearby:

”You fool... What are you doing?”

Lü Yang turned to see a face peeking out from a corner of the ruins. The person roared in a low voice, ”Are you trying to get yourself killed? It’s already nighttime!”

The person behind the face hesitated and struggled for a moment before gritting his teeth and crawling out of the ruins. He was a boy of no more than fourteen or fifteen. He scurried to Lü Yang’s side, grabbed his hand, and roughly tried to drag him away.

Lü Yang raised an eyebrow at this but didn’t resist.

In the next second, however, the boy’s expression suddenly froze. He turned his head, and a look of despair washed over his fairly handsome face.

”I shouldn’t have saved you... We’re doomed... We’re both going to die...”

TAP, TAP, TAP...

Almost simultaneously, footsteps echoed through the empty ruins. Lü Yang looked toward the sound and saw an old man dressed in yellow, his eyes utterly lifeless.

The old man’s eyes were grayish-white and his pupils were unfocused, yet they were fixed directly on Lü Yang and the boy. As his gaze fell upon them, a visible patch of darkness began to creep toward them, carrying the thick stench of a rotting corpse.

”A Yellow-clothed one! How could it be a Yellow-clothed one?!”

The boy followed Lü Yang’s gaze and also noticed the old man. When he saw the color of the old man’s clothes, however, his face instantly turned deathly pale.

Behind the boy, Lü Yang watched it all with great interest.

In truth, he hadn’t understood a word the boy had just said, but that didn’t stop him from being interested in the sudden appearance of the Yellow-clothed Ghost.

The next second, Lü Yang placed his hand on the boy’s head.

He had no interest in wasting time on conversation to slowly gather information. As a disciple of the Stain Sect, performing Soul Searching directly was more to his liking.

”You!?”

The boy never imagined Lü Yang would repay his kindness with malice. He let out a wretched scream as Lü Yang’s spiritual perception stabbed directly into his mind.

A moment later, a massive amount of information flooded into Lü Yang’s mind.

Language, culture, worldview, and all the intelligence regarding this ”Wu Ghost Secret Realm”—Lü Yang extracted everything, down to the last detail.

When night fell, hundred ghosts would appear and make the world a living hell!

Inside the Secret Realm, the Sword Qi hung overhead, preventing anyone from cultivating. They were all mortals. The only path to survival was to devour ghosts in service to Yama...

White-clothed Ghost, Yellow-clothed Ghost, Black-clothed Ghost, Red-clothed Ghost...

The Tingyou Sect, Ghost Messengers...

As Lü Yang digested the massive flood of information, he marveled at what he learned, but it also raised a doubt in his mind. ’The Secret Realm wasn’t like this in my past life.’

In his past life, the Wu Ghost Secret Realm had been almost completely empty. Not a single living thing was seen, right up until the moment Perfected Yin Shan destroyed it. Yet in this life, the Secret Realm was clearly teeming with life. The cultivators of the former Wu Ghost Sect had not only survived, but had even found an alternative path of cultivation.

’Could it be because of that Sword Qi?’

Recalling the Golden Core Sword Qi entrenched in the Secret Realm, Lü Yang felt a bone-chilling cold. ’Could it be that the Sword Qi slaughtered them all?’

But on second thought, that didn’t seem right to him.

After all, the Golden Core Sword Qi had remained dormant in the Secret Realm for so many years. What could possibly have happened in the future to make it suddenly slaughter everyone inside?