Chapter 168: Forbidden Dark Listening (Requesting Monthly Tickets)

Those whose progress had stalled felt as if they had heard the crucial secret of their sect's cultivation, certain in their hearts that if they could clearly hear it, they would ascend to a higher rank.

Those who had lingered for years at the rank of Double-Striped Captain felt as if someone were whispering behind them, wondering why they were still not Mountain-Moving Captain—if only they could hear clearly, they would find the root of their stagnation.

Those who doubted their wives seemed to hear a string of flirtatious banter—the woman's voice sounded like their wife's, the man's voice… well, certainly not their own.

The young and smitten heard their beloved speaking about them with someone else.

All manner of such things.

But all of them heard only vaguely, never clearly or distinctly.

Some felt their ear canals were blocked, so they dug furiously with their fingers.

As they dug, they pierced their eardrums and pulled out white, brainy matter!

Others strained their ears, desperate to hear more clearly.

From their ears drifted out strands of pitch-black ghostly silk, spreading and growing rapidly until they reached five feet long, winding around a companion's head and tugging hard to drag it into the ear canal.

As if the ear canal were a monstrous, terrifying mouth.

The companion screamed in agony, then—crack! —his head was torn off and sucked into the ear canal.

The ear canal burst open outright.

Crack!

His head exploded too!

Two headless corpses tumbled from their horses!

"Cover your ears!" Xu Yuan roared: "Today, 'Dark Listening' is forbidden!"

Xu Yuan's own ears had been itchy too, but his "Boundless Taboo" destiny subtly stirred, strengthening his resistance to demonic techniques, and he suddenly snapped awake.

But after Xu Yuan shouted, he realized no one reacted—as if they hadn't heard a thing!

"Damn it!" Xu Yuan thought, mind racing, leaping down beside Jia Yi.

Jia Yi, too, seemed to have heard something—he tilted his head, one ear raised, listening intently…

Strange things were slowly crawling out of his ear!

Xu Yuan spat into his palm—"Pfft!"—and fire roared to life in his dantian.

His flaming palm cracked sharply across Jia Yi's face.

Crack!

The strange things turned to ash.

Jia Yi jolted awake, but his eyes still held a vacant, foolish clarity: "My lord, why did you hit me…?"

"Today's ban: 'Dark Listening!'" Xu Yuan growled. "Use Tiger-Leopard Sound or Thunder Sound—any one of them, wake everyone up!"

Jia Yi broke into a cold sweat, instantly activating his sect's ability:

"Hng!"

The Tiger-Leopard Sound reverberated—half the men snapped awake.

Like Jia Yi had been moments before, they still looked dazed.

The other half still strained their ears, listening.

More and more things were now crawling out of their ear canals…

Xu Yuan shoved Jia Yi: "Wake them one by one!"

Jia Yi didn't dare delay—he sprinted to the nearest Captain and unleashed the Tiger-Leopard Sound: "Hng!"

The Tiger-Leopard Sound kept booming, and soon Jia Yi was gasping for breath, exhausted.

But in the end… three men could not be saved.

Two had dug into their ears and pulled out their brains.

One had a three-foot-long yin-worm crawl from his ear and bite through his neck!

Xu Yuan sighed deeply—when dealing with the old ghosts at the village shrine, no one had died.

Now six were dead!

Serving the Purification Office meant never knowing when death might strike without warning.

Xu Yuan grabbed Qin Taichen by the arm: "Can we break out?"

"Yes."

Xu Yuan spurred his horse: "Follow me!"

The sword pill rose into the air; Xu Yuan held the reins in one hand and dragged the Yin-Yang Guillotine in the other, charging ahead toward the village's edge.

If any evil blocks the way, cleave it first!

Shi Bading roared: "Xu Brother, let old brother clear the path!"

Having long ridden on Xu Yuan's coattails, Shi Bading had long wanted to repay the favor.

He was a Wu Xiu—his horsemanship far surpassed Xu Yuan's.

He quickly overtook Xu Yuan, galloping hard, swirling his great sword into massive blooms of blade-light.

The empty, dark sky above suddenly dropped countless glistening spider silks; Shi Bading crashed straight into them.

The silks layered and clung, wrapping around Shi Bading, ready to hoist him up.

Only then did they see—a giant headless spider, dozens of zhang above.

On its round, bloated belly grew a pale human face.

Its massive legs moved swiftly, entangling Shi Bading in silk and hauling him upward.

Shi Bading let out a long roar: "You underestimate Shi! Too much!"

He swung his arm hard, slashing his great sword upward.

A three-zhang-long gray-white sword shadow tore free from the blade—chirp! —splitting the headless spider cleanly in two!

Wu Mi: "Sword Qi in the Box!"

Shi Bading shook his shoulders; like a warlord shedding his armor, the spider webs clinging to him were shaken off and sent flying.

Shi Bading did not pause for a moment, continuing to urge his horse forward.

The headless spider's two halves of the corpse fell down; he had already run ten or so zhang.

Xu Yuan nodded silently behind: This is the power of a Seventh-Rank Wu Xiu.

If he did not possess such skill, how could He Youxing value him?

The unit galloped swiftly; ahead and behind was pitch black.

Xu Yuan asked Qin Taichen again: "What is the usual range of a Sky Leak?"

Qin Taichen lay flat on the saddle, shaken badly: "Usually it is a range of several dozen li."

After replying, Qin Taichen suddenly saw a large tree flash past beside him and cried out urgently: "We're running the wrong direction! That tree just now—we should have turned left!"

Xu Yuan immediately shouted: "Shi Police Inspector—"

The unit looped ahead and turned left.

By now they had run out of the village fields, leaving that patch of irrigation channels, and everyone breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Shi Bading, galloping wildly on horseback, suddenly saw in the darkness ahead, as if a mist had been parted, a hunched old woman leaning on a cane, walking haltingly.

Shi Bading snorted coldly: "Whatever ghost thing you are!"

He dug his heels hard into the horse's flanks; the speed of the steed beneath him increased again, yet that old woman, though clearly walking very slowly, always remained ten or so zhang ahead of the unit.

Behind Shi Bading were already three or five Wu Xiu Captains, skilled riders who followed closely, forming the unit's first echelon.

These men also saw that old woman.

"My lord!" one Captain shouted: "This evil spirit likely has some trickery; we cannot keep following. Let me shoot an arrow at it to test it."

Shi Bading roared: "Test what nonsense! Whatever evil spirit it is, just go up and chop it down!"

Having shouted this, he planted both feet in the stirrups and leaped into the air like a great roc.

He cleared the horse's head, landed on the ground ahead, then strode forward in pursuit of that old woman.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Every step a Seventh-Rank Wu Xiu took produced a heavy sound like a great drum.

The ground itself seemed to tremble.

That old woman suddenly stopped, twisted her head strangely, turned her face toward the rear, and smiled gloomily: "Why are you old women chasing me?"

It was a strange face painted with black, white, and gray oil paints.

The corners of the eyes, the wings of the nose, and the corners of the mouth all gave a sensation of sinking downward.

Seeing that face, those Wu Xiu Captains' entire consciousness followed, sinking endlessly into the black-white-gray three-color vortex...

Why are we chasing her?

I don't know!

I don't know!

I don't know...

More and more confusion, along with the sinking consciousness, also merged into that black-white-gray three-color oil-paint vortex!

They forgot why they were chasing, forgot who they were, forgot that danger still existed in this world...

Several Captains swayed, and their bodies fell straight from their horses.

And the ground beneath them had already turned into a slick of black-white-gray three-color oil!

The three fell into the slick; the oil churned, and the three slowly sank.