Chapter 85

The Dead-End City's Sky-Piercing Statue was far more than just ornamental.

This statue was the very foundation upon which the You Sect was established, built at the heart of the secret realm, aligned with the earth veins of Skull Mountain—it was the cornerstone of the Witch-Ghost Secret Realm.

Construction of the statue began during the lifetime of the You Sect's Founding Master, using cultivators as laborers and ordinary humans as materials, and was barely completed only after the Founding Master's death at the end of his three-century reign, possessing countless marvels and tied to the You Sect's ultimate secret, never to be used unless absolutely desperate.

But now, everything had changed.

Lu Yang sat atop the statue's head, motionless, and in an instant reversed the feng shui, replacing the statue and becoming the very axis of this secret realm's heaven and earth!

This was not deliberate on his part, but a natural consequence of the disparity in status.

Just as mortals only pay attention to the highest peak in the world, yet rarely know the second-highest, heaven and earth too often focus only on those of higher status.

"I have come as invited—where is the elder?"

Before Lu Yang's words had even faded, a magnificent Sage-like figure rose behind him, opening and closing its lips to emit a thunderous roar!

Instantly, Lu Yang's voice echoed throughout the secret realm, inside and out.

The countless ordinary people within the Dead-End City fared better, merely covering their ears, feeling the sound like thunder erupting from a mountain, bewildered and at a loss.

Only the You Sect's eight elders felt Lu Yang's voice as if it had "weight"—it crashed down upon them with a boom, scattering their cultivation light, nearly knocking them from the sky, and as they looked up at Lu Yang's manifested Sage form, their faces twisted in terror.

"The villain is audacious! He is desecrating the Founding Master!"

"Just one voice has overwhelmed us—could he be a being equal to the Founding Master?"

"Impossible!"

In an instant, all eight elders turned pale, their faces flushed, and their earlier discussions on how to subdue Lu Yang instantly became jokes.

Yet the next second, they suddenly wore expressions of joy.

The Sky-Piercing Statue trembled slightly under Lu Yang's voice, and a hidden soul within was startled awake, emitting a long, drawn-out sigh:

"A disciple of the Chusheng Sect… finally arrived."

As the words faded, the once cold and rigid statue relaxed its brow, and its iron-cast eyes instantly glowed with sentient brilliance.

The Foundation Establishment soul had awakened!

A true Foundation Establishment soul, identical to—and even superior to—the late ancestor of the Yun Clan, for this one's cultivation seemed even higher than the Yun ancestor's!

Immediately, Lu Yang saw a radiant light shoot forth from the Sky-Piercing Statue, then, through qi manifestation, take form as a handsome Daoist with white hair and a youthful face, ethereal and transcendent, who landed before him and sneered: "Interesting—where is your physical body? Why are you nothing but a soul?"

"Forgive this junior's clumsiness."

Lu Yang smiled faintly, his gaze fixed on the You Sect's Founding Master: "Elder, you don't seem much better off—this must be your fifth reincarnation, hasn't it?"

He was certain this man was a remnant of the Witch-Ghost Dao.

But the Witch-Ghost Dao had been extinct for a thousand years; for a Foundation Establishment True Person to survive to this day, he must have reincarnated at least four times—even with immense cultivation, he was no longer a threat.

"How did Elder know I am a disciple of the Chusheng Sect?"

The You Sect's Founding Master shook his head: "You struck at once and nearly wiped out all my disciples—whose style could that be but the Chusheng Sect's madmen?"

Lu Yang frowned, then declared with righteous indignation: "Your sect's doctrine uses ghosts to rule the people, harming countless lives—this act of mine is to rid the world of a scourge!"

The You Sect's Founding Master laughed: "Indeed, you are a Chusheng Sect disciple!"

Lu Yang: "."

After a moment of silence, Lu Yang shifted the topic: "Why did you summon me here?"

"To break free and reestablish my Witch-Ghost Dao lineage," the You Sect's Founding Master smiled lightly. "Therefore, I need to borrow one thing from you—please don't refuse."

"Oh?" Lu Yang's gaze burned. "What is it you wish to borrow?"

As his words ended, the You Sect's Founding Master's expression turned sinister, his eyes filled with chilling malice, fixed on Lu Yang as if he were prey.

Lu Yang felt no fear, meeting his gaze calmly.

"You understand, don't you? I intend to use the Chusheng Sect's hand to shatter that Jin Dan sword qi—and I need a Chusheng Sect identity to do so."

The You Sect's Founding Master grinned, his teeth gleaming white and cold: "My Witch-Ghost Dao has long specialized in soul arts—I have some expertise in reincarnation and soul usurpation. I've already reincarnated four times; by right, my fifth life should be utterly obscured, beyond transcendence—but there are still ways to cheat."

"If only you would lend me your body."

"I will replace you. My fifth life will regain vitality. I see great potential in you—perhaps you can even help me reclaim my Foundation Establishment realm."

His tone was calm, yet the truth he spoke sent chills through the soul.

"Elder wants to usurp my body?" Lu Yang raised an eyebrow.

"It's not the first time. Do you wonder why, on the day the Jin Dan sword qi descended, so many Foundation Establishment cultivators died—yet I alone survived?"

The You Sect's Founding Master had experience—he had done this once before, seizing the body of an ordinary man as a vessel, using his fate to mask his own and evade the Jin Dan sword qi's purge. Only he among the Witch-Ghost Dao had mastered this technique.

"So that's why you came for me now?"

"I should thank you," the You Sect's Founding Master smiled. "My time is nearly spent. Had you not appeared, I would not have lived much longer."

Lu Yang sneered: "You think you can usurp me?"

"Life is about taking risks. The Witch-Ghost Dao cannot perish under my hands—I am willing to pay any price, even life and death."

Though he spoke thus, the You Sect's Founding Master exuded supreme confidence—perhaps certain Lu Yang was no match for him, or perhaps after a thousand years of clinging to life, he had grown indifferent to all things. Either way, he now filled Lu Yang with intense dread.

Yet Lu Yang still had one question.

If it were merely soul usurpation, why had the Jin Dan sword qi slaughtered the entire secret realm? There must be another, more important reason he did not yet know.

Of course, Lu Yang did not expect the You Sect's Founding Master to tell him.

Even what he had said so far, Lu Yang believed only one-third of—never fully trusting, for who knew if it was a deliberate lie meant to confuse?

"Then I'll just capture you and interrogate you thoroughly!"

Lu Yang's eyes flashed violently, his body vanished instantly, and behind him, the Sage form materialized clearly—two golden hands shot forth from either side and clapped together.

Boom—

Instantly, brilliant golden light drowned the You Sect's Founding Master's vision—he was clearly caught in Lu Yang's Sage form's grasp, about to be instantly refined.

Yet the next second, even stronger radiance erupted from within the Sage form's hands, exploding open Lu Yang's palms—then rolling black clouds intertwined with radiant light, finally revealing a towering, cloud-piercing palace, jade steps and vermilion pillars, solemn and majestic, its plaque inscribed with three grand characters:

【YAN MO DIAN】!

The gates of the mansion swung wide open; jade steps and a vermilion courtyard. Ancestor Ting You took the foremost seat, and behind him a Dharma body likewise manifested, its left hand gripping a human-head banner, its right hand holding a book as it stood.

This was — the Xuanming Prefecture Lord Form!

"If you wish to achieve Foundation Establishment, a rank is merely an entry ticket; there's nothing worth boasting about." Before Ancestor Ting You's words had even faded, his aura, too, surged in tandem.

Boom!

The next instant, his rank had risen to the same tier as Lu Yang's. The two stood on the very same starting line, yielding not a hairsbreadth, and crashed into each other with a thunderous collision!

In that instant, the remaining eight elders of You Sect had not yet managed to come to his aid.

The collision between the two raised a heaven-sweeping wave of air visible to the naked eye, surging and churning in waves like a tsunami, blasting them into a violent retreat, vomiting blood without cease.

Yet beneath such a collision, the radiant light between Ancestor Ting You's brows grew ever brighter.

"Since it's impossible to keep it hidden anyway — if I don't succeed, I'll become benevolence itself!" Ancestor Ting You's tone was ghostly, yet his movements grew all the more resolute, as if he had already made his decision.

This mysterious Foundation Establishment cultivator of yesteryear had relied on a soul-seizing method to veil the heavenly secrets, thereby evading the reckoning of the Jin Dan sword qi.

Yet at this moment he had abandoned concealment, no longer disguising the heavenly secrets, so that his true identity of old and the karma tied to it grew ever clearer.

Clang, clang—!

Within the secret realm, the Jin Dan sword qi suspended high in the heavens seemed to sense something as well, emitting bursts of light ringing, like a divine sword humming within its scabbard.

(End of chapter)