Scripture of Days Past

Chu Qiguang relinquished his knowledge of the Elixir of Undying to summon the Ring of Ignorance, and as he did so, a foreign black substance flowed out of the hole in his chest like blood.

As the battle continued, Chen Zimo suddenly felt an intensifying itch on the back of his neck. He threw another punch at Chu Qiguang. Chu Qiguang blocked his fist with the palm of his hand, and the force of Chen Zimo’s punch was somehow redirected toward a nearby guard, sending them flying away.

At the same time, the itch on Chen Zimo’s nape was becoming more and more unbearable. It was to the point that it demanded all of his attention.

He reflexively scratched at his nape, only to tear away a chunk of bleeding flesh. His face distorted in horror, and he staggered in retreat, only to fall to the ground as his feet suddenly disintegrated into a pile of rotten flesh.

He wanted to call out to his guards for help, but his words were stuck in his throat as soon as he clapped his eyes on them. The guards had developed grotesque, inhuman features, and strange, tentacle-like appendages extended out of them.

D-Demonification?! He could feel his own consciousness quickly fading away, and he turned around to see Chu Qiguang approaching him with a sinister grin.

”Wh-What have you done?” Chen Zimo murmured.

”How does demonification feel?” Chu Qiguang asked in a curious voice.

Chen Zimo was fighting to remain lucid as he grabbed onto Chu Qiguang’s ankle, but he was too weak to do anything.

”Don’t worry,” Chu Qiguang said, reassuring him in a soothing voice. ”I’ll make sure every single one of your clansmen goes to join you in the afterlife. You’re not going to be lonely there.”

Chen Zimo opened his mouth and threw up a huge mouthful of black sludge.

He wanted to say something, but his attention was drawn to the huge black hole that was gradually expanding to fill his entire field of view. Through the hole, he felt as if he could see secrets beyond human comprehension and imagination.

An alien voice rang out from within the hole, releasing an otherworldly allure. He couldn’t help but become more and more entranced as he peered into the black hole.

Even as his head fell to the ground, an intoxicated smile remained tugging at his lips, and his grotesque, headless corpse slowly crawled its way toward Chen Yuebai.

Chen Yuebai hadn’t undergone demonification as he was quite far away from the scene. He let loose a terrified scream as he attempted to flee, but his legs were broken by a pair of stones thrown by Chu Qiguang.

Chu Qiguang looked up at the sky amidst Chen Yuebai’s agonized screams, and as the aggression in his chest faded away, he could feel his mental state elevating even further.

According to Qiao Zhi, any further improvement made by a fifth-state Dao artist would put them in a state where it would become easier and easier for them to sense the Heavenly Dao, but without a proper cultivation art, they would become more prone to demonification.

Hence, becoming a fifth-state Dao artist was essentially the beginning of a path of no return. One had to either reach the Dao Comprehension state or become a demon; these were the only two options.

As Chen Yuebai’s screams faded away, Chu Qiguang left the Sunshine Garden before anyone else arrived on the scene.

Chen Zimo, Chen Yuebai, and all of the guards were the only ones who saw him here, and they were either dead or had turned into demons.

In the wake of this incident, the Chen Clan would surely suffer a heavy fall from grace, and the only thing that Chu Qiguang had to do was avoid being linked to the Chen Clan’s demise.

After leaving the Sunshine Garden, Chu Qiguang met up with Qiao Zhi and several other cat fiends in a pre-determined location, and then they snuck out of Past Sun County together.

”How did it go?” Qiao Zhi asked with an excited face. ”I bet Chen Zimo was really shocked, right? What was his face like before he died?”

The other cat fiends also looked eager to hear Chu Qiguang’s answer. Chu Qiguang rolled his eyes in exasperation before giving them a recount of the event.

Chu Qiguang’s recount was rather dry and unembellished, but Qiao Zhi listened to the entire story with relish.

”It’s just a shame that you didn’t let me have a go at them as well. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting you to take such a decisive and aggressive approach.”

Chu Qiguang became thoughtful upon hearing that.

The Chen Clan had invested over a hundred thousand taels of silver to compete against the Wu Clan in the cotton trade, so they had already become sworn enemies. Chu Qiguang could only eliminate them completely.

As a fifth-state martial artist with Qiao Zhi waiting in the wings and the secret weapon called Ring of Ignorance at his disposal, he could ensure the destruction of the Chen Clan without attracting any suspicion on himself.

In spite of all of this, it was indeed not his style to be so aggressive and direct.

Is it because I’ve become a fifth-degree martial artist? Has my strength emboldened me and made me more reckless?

On the way back home, Chu Qiguang noticed that there was something tucked inside the pocket in the front of his robe, sitting right in front of his chest. He pulled it out to discover that it was a book containing some incantations and medicinal recipes from the Elixir of Undying.

A look of realization instantly appeared on his face. Is this the knowledge that I had to give up to use the Ring of Ignorance?

Upon returning home, he studied all of the incantations and medicinal recipes again from scratch.

Unbeknownst to him, at the same instant when he summoned the Ring of Ignorance, a burst of invisible, undetectable force had swept over the entire Northern Mountain Manor.

At the docks, a black shadow emerged from the depths of the river, and a furry head poked out of the depths, looking in Chu Qiguang’s direction, or to put it more accurately, it was looking in the direction of the Ring of Ignorance.

***

The next day, news of Chen Zimo’s demonification spread across the entirety of Past Sun County. The official story was that Chen Zimo had undergone demonification before killing his grandson, Chen Yuebai. Afterward, around a dozen guards had also undergone demonification due to demonic tainting.

The demonic creatures then wreaked havoc across the nearby region, causing widespread death and destruction.

Thankfully, Chen Zimo wasn’t so difficult to track down for the Daoist priests who arrived on the scene. His demonic form was as large as a house, after all.

Many of the old people in the county were already lamenting the imminent fall of the Chen Clan. In their eyes, Chen Zimo had to have undergone demonification because he wasn’t devoted enough to the Profound Origin Dao Lord.

With that in mind, everyone became even more devout in their faith and with their prayers.