Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Deep in thought, Master Bitter Cicada nodded. “Then, have you paid a visit to Roaring Tiger Hall, Master Qi?”

Qi Zhongdao’s face was as dark as the bottom of a pot that had been brushed with shoe polish. He gnashed his teeth. “The Grand Mystery Sect has already visited them. It’s a pity that the meeting did go so well. Therefore, I’m hoping that Leader Dan Fengzi, Fellow Cultivator Yan Liren, Master Spiritual Vulture, Master Bitter Cicada, and the other Cultivators here can go persuade Roaring Tiger Hall to consider the big picture together!”

It was obvious that the super Nascent Soul Stage, who was the nominal leader of all the Cultivators of the Great Qian Dynasty and supported by the ultimate treasure of the Ancient Sages Sector, was more than infuriated.

Qi Zhongdao’s words made a lot of sense. Naturally, Li Yao and the rest of them followed his command. The high-level Cultivators from dozens of sects, carrying their vivid banners, rushed toward Roaring Tiger City like almost a hundred rainbows with their own unique techniques.

While they were on their way, Li Yao approached Dan Fengzi and asked, “Leader, I didn’t know that the Purple Pole Sword Sect would be so generous as to provide food for the disaster victims. Is it true?”

Dan Fengzi chuckled but hesitated. Looking at the high-level Cultivators of other sects nearby, he said in a low voice, “There is more to the matter. We’ll talk about it later. All in all, we only need to follow the Grand Mystery Sect’s lead. Whatever the Grand Mystery Sect does, we do exactly the same!”

Pausing for a moment, he said again, “Later, after we arrive, you must tread lightly, Elder Spiritual Vulture. Roaring Tiger Hall boasts two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, ten at the peak of the Core Formation Stage, and countless low-level Cultivators. It is one of the most distinguished sects in the entire southeast and stronger than many sects in East Peace County.

“Also, Roaring Tiger City, their headquarters, is a city that has recently been built in the past ten or so years. The Tiger Apparitions Array is a first-rate defense array. The Crouching Tiger Cannon is also very powerful remote magical equipment!

“On our side, although we have many sects and experts, and the six major sects seem to be joining hands, most here are not united at all. Who is willing to be the first to march forward and take the blow of a hundred Crouching Tiger Cannons in the middle of the Tiger Apparitions Array?

“What’s more, those who are capable of flying tens of thousands of kilometers above the inundated area in only a couple of days are all high-level Cultivators. Therefore, it’s all the leadership of the major sects who have come on the trip. Look. Even our empyreal swordsmen have had to stay in the camp at the rear because they can’t follow us.

“Now that we are short of an army of mortals and low-level Cultivators to consume the array and the cannons, there will be a great loss if the high-level Cultivators attack all by themselves!”

“What do you mean, leader?” Bulging his eyes, Li Yao pretended to be surprised. “Are you going to assault Roaring Tiger City?”

“It all depends on Master Righteous One!” Dan Fengzi blinked and said, “Everything is obvious now. To weaken ‘Mother White Lotus’ Wan Mingzhu’s power and prevent her from gathering an army of ghouls to attack East Peace County, we cannot allow too many disaster victims to die in hatred and remorse.

“To prevent the disaster victims from dying in hatred and remorse, they must at least be fed so that they will die with their belly full if they have to!

“But where can we find food exactly? Other than East Peace County, which is surrounded by the White Lotus ghoul army, the fortresses of the Cultivators scattered in the southeast are the only places with a storage of food!

“But will the local Cultivators behave nicely and simply offer their food?

“Roaring Tiger Hall is the largest Cultivation sect in the southeast outside the ones in East Peace County. I assure you that countless pairs of eyes are focused on Roaring Tiger Hall right now.

“If Roaring Tiger Hall is willing to provide the food, other sects will certainly follow the example.

“If we can’t bite the hard bone that is Roaring Tiger Hall, the other local sects will certain refuse to offer a single grain of food!”

After pondering for a long time, Li Yao said, “Master Righteous One’s words make a lot of sense to me. If the White Lotus ghoul army savages the southeast and destroyed the farmlands, the rice and wheat for the Cultivators will be highly insufficient, which will do nobody any good. Do the local sects not bear the big picture in mind at all?”

“Big picture?” Dan Fengzi chuckled. “Hehe. Hehehehe. Look, Elder Spiritual Vulture. Roaring Tiger City is here!”

Lowering the tip of his sword, Li Yao narrowed his eyes and looked afar.

Before he saw Roaring Tiger City, he heard cries, screams, shouts, and moans that were soaring into the sky first!

Victims!

Hundreds of thousands of disaster victims, in a series of thick, black torrents, were flowing incessantly from various directions toward the highest place in the hundreds of square kilometers nearby—Roaring Tiger City!

But they were all blocked outside the city by colorful screens of light, only to form a camp of disaster victims, which was like a hell on earth!

Inside the camp, cries were echoing everywhere. Disaster victims in ragged clothes who looked like walking dead were crammed together!

Some of the disaster victims only had their last breath. They had been dragged to the same place, waiting to die. Extending their dry, thin arms where veins were bulging, they were snatching at the sky. There was no telling what they were trying to catch.

Some of the younger and healthier folks were kneeling toward Roaring Tiger City, begging the deities to let them into the city. Many men kowtowed on the rocks so hard that their heads were bleeding until they fell to the side and stopped moving.

A lot of disaster victims were searching for trees, weeds, rats, earthworms… anything that could be put into their mouth. They were fighting and mauling each other like animals for nothing more than a tiny earthworm!

Bright, black auras were soaring from the disaster victims who were catching their last breath. Floating in midair, they condensed into what looked like dark clouds.

Some scarlet things were vaguely condensed inside the clouds. As the disaster victims screamed, they got redder and redder. Like eccentric eyes, they gazed at the ground coldly, full of gloom, hate, wrath, desperation, and other negative emotions.

The auras gave Li Yao an extremely uncomfortable feeling. Even the circulation of spiritual energy inside his body more or less stagnated. He was feeling nausea like the ordinary people who were naturally disgusted when faced with spiders or centipedes!

“The unrested souls and the devastating auras!” Dan Fengzi exclaimed. “I didn’t know that such intense unrested souls and devastating auras had gathered in this place. It appears that Mother White Lotus will gain an army of aggressive ghouls with no effort!”

Reciting the sutras, Master Bitter Cicada moved out of the crowd and ran into the devastating auras above the moon-white cassock!

Almost a hundred black air masses that looked like skulls were immediately formed inside the devastating auras. Shrieking, the skulls lunged toward Master Bitter Cicada!

The pity and sorrow on Master Bitter Cicada’s face grew even denser than before. He shook his enormous pearls and then swung them with his staff!

With his staff as the axis, the pearls rotated rapidly and released colorful mystic rays that sprayed on the hundred skulls.

The skulls made of black air masses were frozen in midair. They trembled violently before blossoming like buds, revealing ragged, fuzzy shadows in the middle of the black air masses!

The unconscious souls seemed to have just woken up from a dream and did not know what was going on.

As Master Bitter Cicada recited the sutras, they seemed to be reminded of everything in their past. The devastating auras around them dispersed, and peace and delight returned to their faces again, before they gradually turned into pure, transparent mist.

In the end, with sighs of relief, they left the world entirely.

All the unrested souls had been appeased by Master Bitter Cicada.

The sky, which had previously been haunted by gloomy winds, finally reembraced sunlight.

The nausea of Li Yao and the other high-level Cultivators finally disappeared.

The so-called ‘soul’ was actually a collection of very special waves. After a person died, without the support of enough energy and materials, they would soon disappear.

However, if their soul received a tiny bit of energy and managed to maintain the previous frequency and form for a while without collapsing, it would turn from a ‘soul’ into a ‘ghost’.

The ‘aggressive ghoul’ referred to the highly unsteady and interferential field that contained tremendous negative emotions in this collection of special waves.

The highly interferential field, if powerful enough, would be able to affect the real world, like the magnetic field of a magnet could attract and affect many metals and even add magnetism to the metals.

If the interferential field invaded the brain of ordinary people, triggered the bioelectricity, and manipulated one’s optical, audio, and central nerves, it was possible that the victim would see all kinds of terrible hallucinations. The central nerves and bodily fluids of the person could also be affected, resulting in wounds and changes to the human body, such as bloodshot eyes, uncanny laughter, weird posture, instant increase of hair and fingernails, and so on.

When the aggressive ghoul was too strong, it could even block the original soul residing inside the body and assume its place!

It was what the ordinary people called ‘run into a ghost’ or ‘possessed by a ghost’.

A human being’s potential was infinite. For ordinary people, they did not know how to activate the potential in the normal state. The most likely time for them to activate their potential was the moment before their death!

If they died peacefully without regret, their potentials would rarely be activated.

However, if they had unaccomplished wishes, if they died a painful, miserable death, or if they had not reaped their revenge, it was possible for them to activate the full potential inside their brain when they were dying, which would lead to a reaction that resembled a supernova outbreak in the brain cells and turned themselves into powerful ghosts!

If that was everything, with the Cultivator’s tough body and soul, they would not be scared of a few aggressive ghouls that used to be ordinary people when alive.

But the real tricky issue was that changes in quantity would cause a change in quality.

Hundreds of thousands of disaster victims had been gathered in the same place. Because of hunger, plague, coldness, and other reasons, their deaths were the opposite of tranquil.

A lot of aggressive ghouls would be generated after they passed away. Some of the aggressive ghouls would even resonate and integrate, upgrading into ghoul generals and ghoul kings that were even more belligerent!