Chapter 159: The Temple of Self-Sacrifice (Combined Three Parts)

"Don't be reckless…" Xu Yuan had just spoken a few words when he suddenly realized something: "What did you just say?"

Qin Ze thought: Is my voice not loud enough?

"My lord, let me go up and smash this damn station with one hammer blow!" Qin Ze shouted into Xu Yuan's ear, crouched low.

Xu Yuan pushed him away and dug at his ear: "You said station?"

"Yeah, this station's all broken-down and covered inside and out with flesh and blood—honestly, my weapon's not quite suited for it. If my lord would lend me your knife, I'd slice it piece by piece!"

But Qin Ze's shout had been heard by everyone.

Di Youzhi frowned: "Qin, are you blind? This is clearly a ghost brothel! Look—on the second floor, a skeleton in pink gauze is opening the window and flirting with you!"

Qin Ze perked up, leaning forward: "Where? Where? I didn't see anything…"

Yu Yunhang, standing beside Xu Yuan, said: "This isn't a broken thatched hut? Every straw on the roof is actually a long, thin venomous snake—this trick won't fool my eyes!"

"Those snakes are writhing, trying to slide down—look at the patterns, they're deadly!"

Xu Yuan's face wore a solemn expression as he turned to Fu Jingyu: "What do you see?"

Fu Jingyu: "I see a meat shop! The butcher is a fat, big-headed, one-eyed old wolf, using a bone knife to chop up several corpses and hang the pieces on bone hooks outside the door!"

Everyone's faces changed—they finally realized: each person saw something different.

Xu Yuan couldn't help but doubt: Were the yin-yang sides I just saw also what this evil thing wanted me to see?

No! Xu Yuan quickly realized—he had seen through the Yin-Yang Guillotine.

I am the only one among them who sees the true sight.

Xu Yuan grabbed Qin Ze: "What did your first arrow do, in your eyes?"

Qin Ze said: "I aimed at a bull's-eye-sized lump of flesh on the roof of this bloody station. My skill? One shot, perfect hit."

"But this evil thing is stronger than that big bird before—when I hit it, flesh and blood surged out and swallowed my arrow whole."

"That's why I thought of switching weapons. Too bad—I don't have a big knife like my lord's…"

Hmm, this great cleaver suits Wu Xiu tastes perfectly.

Xu Yuan pondered:

Qin Ze saw a bloody station. His first arrow hit, though it didn't cause major damage—but Qin Ze firmly believed that if he changed weapons, he could shatter the station.

Di Youzhi saw a ghost brothel.

The rouge-skulled ghosts there were flirting.

From Di Youzhi's view, others would be blinded by those ghostly courtesans—but he alone could see through them, and his inner fire would surely suppress this evil!

Yu Yunhang saw a thatched hut crawling with venomous snakes.

Yu Yunhang was a Ninth-Stream Rank Dan Xiu, and Xu Yuan knew Yu Yunhang's greatest strength was medicinal pills.

Fu Jingyu saw a demonic meat shop, slicing and selling human flesh.

Fu Jingyu cultivated the Maoshan method—the very art best suited to subdue demons and exorcise evils!

It was easy to imagine: not just Xu Yuan and Fu Jingyu, but every member of the team—including Qin Taichen—saw entirely different scenes.

Everyone believed they alone could break this evil!

Each one felt they were about to turn the tide!

Had Qin Ze not accidentally shouted out that one phrase, had they not communicated like this… they'd have fought alone, each trying to use their own strength to "save" the others.

And then they'd all have fallen into the evil's trap.

"Boom—"

The temple ahead suddenly stirred.

Qin Ze yelled: "No good! The bloody station's standing up! Holy hell—a monstrous flesh beast!"

Di Youzhi heard a shrill, icy ghostly laugh—the windows and doors of the brothel slammed open, one by one.

Countless tormented spirits and vengeful ghosts soared into the air, swirling above his head, ready to dive down and tear out his skull.

Yu Yunhang saw the venomous snakes on the thatched roof—suddenly, they all slithered down at once, surging toward him, while from within the hut emerged a mountain of pale white snake eggs!

Those eggs were hatching rapidly!

Shells cracked—and tiny snakes wriggled out.

The little snakes grew fast.

More and more eggs, like a geyser, surged up from below!

Fu Jingyu saw hundreds of demons and monsters bursting from the surrounding hills and wilds, roaring: "Human flesh! Bring me human flesh! Grandpa wants to eat!"

Xu Yuan saw it too—the sinister, eerie temple slowly rising, lifting dozens of zhang into the air, streams of black-and-white yin energy sweeping downward like countless ribbons, or writhing tentacles!

Qin Ze let out a cry of "Ah!" as the black-and-white energy struck him—he rolled his eyes back, collapsed straight down, and thudded to the ground.

Fu Jingyu was met by a flood of venomous snakes—waving his two small yellow triangular flags, he chanted Maoshan methods: summoning wind, controlling water, moving earth—but the snakes surged like a tidal wave, drowning him quickly—he vanished from sight.

Di Youzhi unleashed his inner fire—it struck not the swirling spirits above, but a thick wall of flesh.

The bloody station had, without his noticing, engulfed him.

The flesh walls sizzled where the fire burned, but the walls closed in rapidly, crushing Di Youzhi inside.

Yu Yunhang detonated his medicinal pill—it exploded into a cloud of detoxifying mist, enveloping himself.

But the snake tide vanished—instead, a black ghostly hand reached down from above, seized his hairpin, yanked him up, and hurled him into the ghost brothel!

Xu Yuan faced the horde of ferocious demons.

The fat, big-headed, one-eyed old wolf, a toothpick-sized bone between its teeth, slammed its heavy bone knife onto the chopping block and sneered at Xu Yuan.

The demons surged out—numbers quickly became countless.

They charged forward in waves, overwhelming Xu Yuan in moments.

What each person saw—and had to fight—was not the same "enemy"!

Xu Yuan, through the Yin-Yang Guillotine, saw the truth—yet what the others saw was not false either.

Caught completely off guard, the entire squad was almost wiped out!

Outside the Yin Qi, the Helmsman and Wu Jinghan simultaneously let out a cold sneer.

The Helmsman's wound was aggravated; his face twitched in pain, and a surge of hatred rose in his heart. He cursed, "Once we catch that Wu Xiu, I will turn into a spider and suck him dry until he is nothing but an empty shell!"

That iron-shafted arrow was still stuck in her belly, piercing through from the back.

Wu Jinghan still remembered the first time he went to see Xu Yuan and received a slap from Yu Yunhang.

Now, the few people who had humiliated him had already been swallowed by the Temple, and the sense of relief and satisfaction in his heart was beyond words.

"This Inspector Xu is nothing special," Wu Jinghan snorted.

"Think of a way to get that arrow out for me," the Helmsman ordered.

The two had been watching anxiously from the side after releasing the Temple earlier. Now that the Temple had unleashed its ferocious might and swallowed the entire Purification Bureau, there was no need to worry anymore.

The mission of the Shanhe Bureau was complete.

Next, we return to the city, request the Shanhe Bureau to intervene, and ensure our Pingtian Association can establish a temple within Zhan City!

The temple to be established is this very Temple.

Of course, once inside Zhan City, we cannot eat people so blatantly.

We need to employ some technique!

In this regard, the Pingtian Association has rich experience and can guarantee that neither the Shanhe Bureau nor the Purification Bureau will find any trace.

Wu Jinghan looked at the iron-shafted arrow and said, "I will use fire to burn through this arrow. Helmsman, please endure."

The Helmsman nodded; his face was pale, having lost too much blood.

"Give me a healing pill."

Wu Jinghan handed her a pill.

Then, he condensed the Fire in his Belly into a flame pillar as thick as an egg, carefully maneuvering it until it landed on the arrow shaft near the wound in her belly.

Once this spot is burned through, the arrow can be pulled out from the back.

Neither of them paid any more attention to the Temple; once the Temple swallowed people, it never spat them out.

Next was to completely dissolve those who had been swallowed.

Xu Yuan was overwhelmed by those demons.

But Xu Yuan was not swallowed; instead, he hid inside the carriage.

His body was still covered by the soft armor formed from the Skin Pill.

The demons overwhelmed the carriage.

They tore, bit, pounced, and clawed, yet could not tear open this crafted object.

After a while, the outside of the carriage gradually grew quiet. Xu Yuan peeked through a crack and saw that those demons were all gone.

The surroundings were a vast expanse of dark gray and dimness.

A long river of Yin Qi was floating the carriage, moving steadily toward the vast unknown.

Xu Yuan looked around again and saw that others, such as Fu Jingyu, were each trapped by a long river of Yin Qi, all heading in the same direction.

Everyone had their eyes tightly shut, their faces covered by a layer of green Qi, their bodies stiff and tense.

Xu Yuan thought for a moment and still decided to remain inactive.

After a while, the front of the Yin Qi river suddenly plunged downward.

Xu Yuan, along with everyone else, fell into a chaotic void.

The Yin Qi here was so dense it had truly condensed into black water!

As the black water attacked, Xu Yuan felt the dissolving effect on the carriage suddenly double.

Da Fu huddled at Xu Yuan's feet. Originally motionless and dull, after falling into this chaotic void, it suddenly stretched its neck, as if recognizing something.

Then Xu Yuan saw that familiar faces appeared around him once more:

Jia Yi, Mao Dabin, Shi Bading...

Those two squads of Purification Bureau Captains had also sunk into this dense Yin Qi black water, not a single one missing!

Xu Yuan was puzzled: How were they also swallowed by this Temple?

They had clearly gone to Shuangjiang Pass...

"Someone is setting a trap targeting the Purification Bureau."

Xu Yuan frowned, and the first mastermind that instinctively came to mind was the Shanhe Bureau.

"But exactly what place is this?"

Xu Yuan observed again; the carriage was writhing in the Yin Qi black water.

This was not driven by Xu Yuan, but the Yin Qi black water itself was moving.

Xu Yuan made another judgment: "This is not an endless void; it is highly likely to have boundaries. Otherwise, the black water causing this disturbance would not exhibit such ripples."

A true endless void should offer no place to grip; even the Yin Qi black water would merely float peacefully.

Xu Yuan quietly extended the beast-tendon rope, which transformed into a fine thread, slowly wrapping around Fu Jingyu, Song Lu, Yu Yunhang, Lang Xiao Ba, Qin Ze, Di Youzhi... and so on.

Gradually, everyone from the Purification Bureau was linked together.

Then Xu Yuan pulled sharply, and everyone suddenly appeared beside the carriage.

The carriage rapidly expanded, swallowing everyone in one go.

This immediately alerted this section of the void, causing the black water to churn violently.

Xu Yuan had been prepared long ago; no matter what your reaction is, I will start fighting first!

Whoosh—

A torrent of Fire in the Belly erupted outward.

The Fire in the Belly suppresses evil spirits; the moment the Yin Qi black water met the Fire in the Belly, a hissing sound erupted as a large portion was burned away.

It is just that there is far too much of the surrounding Black Water that causes trouble.

Xu Yuan spat out Fu Zhong Huo from his belly while directing another stream of Fu Zhong Huo onto the carriage wheels.

The war chariot roared and raced forward, crashing violently in one direction.

The chariot's speed was extreme; in an instant, it surged forward several thousand zhang.

But Xu Yuan quickly realized he had fallen into the temple's "trickery" again. Just as before, when everyone retreated together, they ran for ages only to return to the starting point.

The situation was the same now.

Xu Yuan stopped, seeing there was no way to take a shortcut; he could only rely on his strength to fight head-on.

Xu Yuan gripped the "Yin Yang Guillotine" once more and glanced outward with each eye.

His right eye saw the surging Yin Qi Black Water, in which countless Yin Soul fragments were dissolving.

These fragments would be completely dissolved before long.

When Xu Yuan looked again with his left eye, he was stunned.

This chaotic void had transformed into a massive sac-like object, trapping him within.

Every single Yin Soul fragment floating in the Black Water was linked to a corpse that had been similarly dissolved and shattered!

Xu Yuan reached into his robes, pulled out a shadow puppet, and tossed it out.

The Sea Mouth Toad.

The shadow puppet mechanism moved, spewing forth a multicolored poison mist.

The rolling poison mist surged out and mixed with the Yin Qi Black Water.

The Yin Qi Black Water and the surrounding chaotic void twitched several times together.

This was a sign of poisoning.

Then Xu Yuan prepared a dog-skin plaster, ready to apply it to his navel at any moment.

Fu Zhong Huo erupted with full force, slowly burning away the Yin Qi Black Water outside.

Xu Yuan flipped his hand, and two pills flew out.

One of them was a Sword Pill.

The previous one had exploded within the hundred-zhang Black Cliff, but in the past few days Xu Yuan had consumed several more from the "Ten Boxes," condensing a new Sword Pill.

The other was an ordinary Golden Pill.

The Sword Pill whizzed out, shooting toward a specific direction.

The Yin Qi Black Water lashed up again and again, attempting to corrupt the Sword Pill.

However, the Sword Pills within the "Ten Boxes" were of exceptional quality; the Sword Pill Xu Yuan had fused from several of them easily resisted the Yin Qi's erosion.

This reaction from the Yin Qi Black Water made Xu Yuan secretly delighted.

Since it was being blocked, it meant the "trickery" of being trapped in one place could no longer be cast.

Perhaps this trickery had a limited number of uses within a short time.

But more likely, the multicolored poison mist had taken effect, and the opponent was too poisoned to cast it.

The Sword Pill flew several thousand zhang; Xu Yuan was about to lose control of it when suddenly the Sword Pill pierced something.

Immediately after, that thing stuck to it, then wrapped it up.

At such a distance, Xu Yuan's control over the Sword Pill was extremely weak; he could not even retrieve the Sword Pill.

But Xu Yuan was not panicked; instead, he was delighted. He urged the war chariot to charge toward the Sword Pill's position.

The Yin Qi Black Water lashed up layer by layer.

But the carriage cabin, into which the Stepmother had integrated the "Ghost Temple's" abilities, was already indestructible.

The war chariot galloped for several thousand zhang, but the wheels could not hold out.

Massive amounts of Black Water constantly eroded them; the wheels shattered with a crash and sank into the Black Water.

Relying on momentum, the war chariot surged forward another few zhang before stopping.

But for Xu Yuan, this was enough.

Here, the distance to the Sword Pill was only a little over a hundred zhang.

Xu Yuan manipulated the Sword Pill, stirring it up.

At the same time, Xu Yuan injected nearly ninety percent of the Inner Pill's properties into the other Golden Pill.

Whoosh—

The Golden Pill shot out and was stuck by something again after a hundred zhang.

Xu Yuan simultaneously urged the Sword Pill and the Golden Pill, stirring incessantly within that thing.

That thing wrapped around them layer by layer, gradually restricting the Golden Pill until it could not move.

But the Sword Pill was sharp; with a mere thought from Xu Yuan, the Sword Pill pierced through the layers of obstruction and flew back.

At the same time, the Golden Pill exploded!

Boom!

Xu Yuan felt the entire chaotic void shake violently.

Inside the Inner Pill, Xu Yuan had integrated twenty sub-cannons.

This was Xu Yuan's current limit.

But this explosion did not, as Xu Yuan had hoped, let a beam of heavenly light leak down from the blast site.

The surroundings remained pitch-black and chaotic.

The last time he exploded the hundred-zhang Black Cliff, the number of sub-cannons Xu Yuan had consumed far exceeded twenty.

But that was while eating them, he directly injected them into the Sword Pill.

Now, twenty sub-cannons could not blast open this chaos; Xu Yuan sighed inwardly. This time he returned, he must resolve the Inner Pill issue.

If...

Since the path of the Rank Dan Xiu has already become a dead end for himself, he must cultivate another discipline as well to raise his power as quickly as possible.

This explosion was not entirely useless; Xu Yuan felt the surrounding Yin Qi clearly thin out by a few degrees.

The quantity of the Yin Qi black water had also decreased by roughly thirty percent.

It must have leaked out.

The Fu Zhong Huo in Xu Yuan's belly had reached its limit.

Snap!

The dog-skin plaster stuck to his navel—that feeling had returned!

Boom—

The Fu Zhong Huo surged greatly.

Having used Elder Shen's dog-skin plaster twice, Xu Yuan had each time experienced in advance the divine might of the "Upper-Flow" Fu Zhong Huo!

This was simply temptation.

Making Xu Yuan unable to give up the art of the Rank Dan Xiu.

The surrounding chaotic void reacted sluggishly, taking no action against Xu Yuan's suddenly surging Fu Zhong Huo.

The Yin Qi black water continued to crash up in wave after wave.

Even when Xu Yuan quietly released the sword pill again, piercing and slicing repeatedly at the spot where the golden pill had just exploded, the chaotic void's response remained the same: that flexible, viscous thing wrapped around it once more.

But this time, Xu Yuan's state was extraordinary, so even the sword pill under his control was peerlessly sharp.

Countless wounds were pierced into that thing.

Xu Yuan clearly felt that the rate at which Yin Qi leaked from the surroundings was increasing!

This chaotic void, and even the temple from before, gave Xu Yuan the same feeling: sluggish reaction.

Relying entirely on instinct, yet possessing no will of its own.

The terrifying scenes it displayed to every member of the Purification Bureau were different precisely because it hunted in exactly that manner.

Xu Yuan spat out Fu Zhong Huo while controlling the sword pill.

Then he quietly sent out the beast-tendon rope.

The beast-tendon rope, upon touching that thing, was wrapped up just like the sword pill.

Xu Yuan pulled the beast-tendon rope, dragging both himself and the carriage along with it.

Supported by the dog-skin plaster, the Fu Zhong Huo grew more and more turbulent, and the situation between the two sides gradually reversed.

Originally, the Yin Qi black water had been rising wave after wave, aiming to completely extinguish the Fu Zhong Huo.

But now it had become the Fu Zhong Huo surging everywhere, completely burning away the last of the Yin Qi black water!

Just like last time, Xu Yuan's body gradually felt extremely exhausted; sweat poured from him like a flood, yet the moment it emerged, it was evaporated.

Meanwhile, his spirit was incredibly excited, feeling as though he could keep spouting like this forever!

Suddenly, Xu Yuan discovered that the Yin Qi around him had vanished completely!

Whether leaked or burned away, there was not a trace of Yin Qi left in this chaotic void!

That is not entirely accurate, for Yin Qi continued to be generated here constantly, but that tiny amount was no match for the fire.

Xu Yuan then turned the Fu Zhong Huo and directed it at the thing trapping the sword pill.

Only at this moment did Xu Yuan truly see clearly what that thing actually was.

A massive void wrinkle in the shape of a honeycomb.

Layer upon layer, riddled with countless holes!

Inside every Kong Dong and every wrinkle hid a face twisted in pain.

Who knows how many lives had been drowned in the Yin Qi black water of this space, providing this strange entity with vast amounts of negative power such as pain, resentment, and loathing.

And after Xu Yuan illuminated this place, the Fu Zhong Huo immediately condensed into a massive fire dragon that burned upward.

From those layer upon layer of void wrinkles, hundreds and thousands of painful faces screamed out together.

Xu Yuan's brain was instantly pierced by ten million steel needles!

Stars danced before his eyes, his head swelled with pain, and he staggered heavily, falling onto the carriage.

The carriage opened and drew Xu Yuan inside.

Then the carriage closed, becoming like a ghost temple: what is not allowed to enter simply cannot enter.

Blocking all sounds from the outside as well.

Xu Yuan caught his breath, then rushed out again as the Fu Zhong Huo continued to surge and scorch.

Before the Fu Zhong Huo, Xu Yuan had already recalled the sword pill, first slicing through those painful faces with a single sword strike!

That soul-piercing screaming immediately weakened significantly.

And Xu Yuan gradually discovered that these painful faces could actually serve as fuel for the Fu Zhong Huo!

Once they were ignited, they revealed expressions of partial relief, and then the Fu Zhong Huo burned even more fiercely.

Xu Yuan's eyes lit up, and he began to ignite fires everywhere.

Not long after, this chaotic void completely collapsed.

The heavenly light Xu Yuan had longed for streamed in, beam after beam.

These were holes burned out by the Fu Zhong Huo.

Xu Yuan aimed at one of the holes that had already been burned to the size of a doorway, leaped, and jumped out with the carriage.

Then Xu Yuan discovered that he had leaped out of a burning temple.

The temple was still that same temple, still gloomy, but now looking at it, he realized the temple was made of paper, crafted by the same artisans who make those burned for the dead!

This was obviously not the temple's true form; no wonder it always felt sluggish in its reactions.

The paper-made small temple burned faster and faster; seeing that only the bamboo frame remained, Xu Yuan finally felt relieved, then turned his head and spotted the two figures in the distance.

The Helmsman's shirt was torn open at the abdomen and back to allow treatment of the wounds.

Wu Jinghan had just used Fu Zhong Huo to sever the iron-tipped arrow, then forcefully pulled it out from the Helmsman's back.

The Helmsman let out a piercing scream of pain as fresh blood gushed from both front and back wounds.

The Helmsman had earlier asked Wu Jinghan for a medicinal pill, intending to take it at this very moment.

Wu Jinghan had also prepared two patches of hemostatic ointment, ready to apply them now.

Then suddenly, they saw the temple catch fire!

And it burned with incredible speed.

Immediately after, Xu Yuan leaped out from inside the temple.

Both of them froze in place for an instant, forgetting their next move.

Someone had actually survived coming out of the Great Sage Pingtian's "Body-Donation Temple"...

No, it wasn't as simple as merely surviving; this fellow had destroyed the Body-Donation Temple!

Every Body-Donation Temple was of immense importance to the Great Sage Pingtian.

The Main Headquarters had secretly sent this one, ordering them to establish the temple in Champa.

Now that the temple was destroyed, they were doomed!

(End of this chapter)