Chapter 129: The Situation Collapses

"Unimaginable, it's simply like a miracle!"

Xu Chen's facial muscles twitched continuously, and he exclaimed with a face full of shock.

If one were to purely set aside this disgusting process, the way the Soul Beast fused these corpses' flesh and blood with souls could be called an unprecedented miracle.

Lan You's hands, which were gripping Xu Chen's lapels, were trembling violently.

Xu Chen felt her fear, gently grasped her hand, and then continued to stare at the giant bat as it continued to fuse and grow, until at a certain moment, a giant bat exuding a terrifying aura was fully formed; as a pair of blood-red eyes opened, Xu Chen flicked his finger lightly, his Divine Sense guided the sword art, and the Second-Grade Flying Sword hanging before the bat's head slashed abruptly across the bat's neck.

"Boom—"

A flash of spiritual light streaked by, and the bat's massive head fell from its inverted body.

Accompanied by the splashing sound of black water flowing like blood, the bat's huge body began to spasm and twitch crazily, its two giant wings fluttering and swaying aimlessly.

The flying sword circled above and below the bat, and with a few flashes of spiritual light, the bat's wings and body were cut apart and collapsed, instantly piling up on the ground.

"Huh, it's not dead yet!"

After cutting the giant bat into pieces, Xu Chen felt the Soul Beast's life force dissipating rapidly, while a pile of black flesh was also quickly withering.

Xu Chen did not continue to act, but instead released his Divine Sense to permeate the entire cave, shrouding the pile of shredded flesh, black water, and black smoke to carefully observe the changes within.

Soon, the shredded meat and black water all over the ground withered and began to rot, then suddenly exploded with a bang; amidst the black mist scattering across the sky, a round bead turned into a streak of black light and flew out along the passageway.

Having reached this critical juncture, it was naturally even more impossible for Xu Chen to let it escape, so his Yuan Qi surged out, transforming into an invisible wall that completely blocked the passageway.

The Black Bead slammed heavily into the Yuan Qi wall and rebounded, but the violent impact made even Xu Chen's soul shake, his face turning a shade paler, which instantly surprised him even more.

The Black Bead seemed intent on escaping, so it rampaged through the narrow cave; clusters of black light exploded with bangs against the obstruction of the Yuan Qi, and Xu Chen felt his Divine Sense being riddled with holes, but his Yuan Qi was thick, so the Black Bead could never escape, and was eventually compressed by the Yuan Qi until it could not move, finally being imprisoned in mid-air.

This doesn't seem to be a Soul Bead?

Looking at the Black Bead, which was as large as a bowl, Xu Chen was both surprised and delighted, but when his Divine Sense landed on it, he quickly confirmed that this thing was not a Soul Bead.

Because the Soul Power it emitted was not very strong, about the same as an ordinary Zhenyuan Realm Soul Beast, yet a extremely intense life force was hidden within the Black Bead.

"Could this be an egg?"

Xu Chen was even more astonished, but now was not the time for careful observation; the cave was filled with black mist, foul-smelling, and covered everywhere with corpse parts, black water, and shriveled dried corpses, so Xu Chen raised his hand to store the Black Bead in his storage bracelet, then walked out with the emotionally unstable Lan You.

Soon, the two of them exited the mine.

The old Daoist and his disciple were still hiding behind a rock not far away waiting, and seeing the two come out safe and sound, they hurried to greet them.

"How did it go, two Immortals?" the old Daoist asked with a nervous face.

Xu Chen smiled slightly and nodded, saying: "Fortunately, we did not fail the mission; this place is not suitable for a long stay, I will send you back to the city first!"

After speaking, Xu Chen wrapped them in Yuan Qi and took the master and disciple up into the air on his flying sword; Lan You seemed to have calmed down by now and hurriedly followed on her sword, and the two streaks of Escape Light returned to the small city in the blink of an eye.

However, this time they did not land in the deserted outskirts, but directly on the street in front of the small tavern where they had just eaten in the city.

At this time, the main street had already been placed under martial law by the City Lord's Mansion, several corpses were still lying scattered on the street, and some bold commoners were also watching in terror from afar.

"Look, the Immortals have come!"

Watching the four descend from the sky, the commoners were stunned for a moment before instantly cheering to the heavens, then kneeling and kowtowing one after another.

A short, fat man wearing official robes scrambled to the front of the four and knelt down with a thud, kowtowing repeatedly: "I beg the Immortals to help kill the evil ghosts and save our lives!"

Xu Chen smiled and nodded: "Rest assured, the evil ghost that plagued this place was hiding in a mountain cave near a village five miles north of the city; it has now been slain by us, and there should be no more hidden dangers."

"Yay, the Immortals have killed the evil ghost, we are safe!"

Although Xu Chen's voice was not loud, under the transmission of Yuan Qi, almost all the commoners in the small city could hear it, and the commoners and soldiers watching on the street cheered in unison.

The man was overjoyed, prostrated on the ground and kowtowed several more times with loud thuds, then scrambled up, trembling with excitement as he arranged for people to post notices to reassure the public.

Xu Chen looked at the old Daoist and his disciple, his Divine Sense lingering on the young Daoist for a moment before saying: "This disciple of yours has good aptitude, his Spirit Root is already showing signs of manifestation, he can be considered a seedling for cultivation; if he joins my Taiyuan Sect, he may have a chance to step onto the Immortal path in the future, but we have important matters and cannot take you with us. If you have the heart, go to Nanyang City near the Southern Border, visit the outer sect of the Taiyuan Sect, and report my name; naturally, someone will lead you up the mountain. Now that this matter is settled, we shall take our leave!"

After Xu Chen finished speaking, he flicked his finger and a small medicine bottle landed in front of the old Daoist and his disciple.

"These are a few pills for cleansing the marrow and refining the essence, you can take them in advance. My name is Xu Chen, we shall meet again!"

The master and disciple were so excited that they knelt on the ground together with a thud, the old Daoist clutching the medicine bottle tightly with tears streaming down his face: "Thank you, Immortal, we will go to Nanyang City immediately."

"Mm, the world is unstable now, take care on the road. When I return to the mountain, we shall meet again. Farewell!"

Xu Chen raised his hand to cast out his flying sword and stepped onto it, Lan You followed closely behind, and two streaks of Escape Light shot into the sky, leaving the small city in the blink of an eye.

Xu Chen and Lan You did not care how the commoners in the city would spread the news.

Although the Immortal and mortal worlds were deeply intertwined, they were like strangers; there was no intersection between cultivators and ordinary commoners, and even if there were dealings, they were only with the imperial family, nobility, or loose cultivator families.

Therefore, Xu Chen would not waste his breath on these ordinary commoners.

Lan You was even more so; the Yuqing Hall was high and aloof, and in their eyes, the Emperor was nothing more than a dog, unworthy of any respect. Disciples like them almost never had any face-to-face contact or communication with ordinary commoners.

Behavior like Xu Chen's—interacting kindly with two mortal Daoists and even bestowing pills and accepting them into the sect—was even more incomprehensible.

The Yuqing Hall was very strict in accepting disciples, and never considered anyone without excellent Spirit Roots.

Moreover, they prioritized inner sect, outer sect, and family disciples, followed by imperial nobility and those wealthy commoner families. As for the children of ordinary poor families, unless they happened to be encountered while traveling or training, and possessed particularly excellent Spirit Roots, there was a possibility of them being accepted into the sect, but such opportunities were pitifully rare.

For a mortal to obtain an Immortal connection and step onto the Immortal path was truly harder than ascending to heaven.

For commoners in such a remote small city as the one before them, it was perhaps difficult to see the trace of an Immortal even once in several decades or a hundred years.

Therefore, the descent of Xu Chen and his companion to slay demons and eliminate monsters would be passed down forever like a miracle.

Xu Chen was different from Lan You; he was born in humble and lowly circumstances, so he had no discrimination against the bottom-level commoners, and thus would not have a sense of superiority.

And the way the Taiyuan Sect accepted disciples was completely different from the Yuqing Hall.

The Taiyuan Sect itself started from humble beginnings; the founder from over three hundred years ago was merely a loose cultivator from the common folk. Because resources were scarce, they had a "let it be" attitude toward accepting disciples, did not have much contact with the powerful and wealthy, and instead collected poor children with Spirit Roots from the common folk to cultivate them slowly.

Therefore, the temperament of Taiyuan Sect disciples was relatively easygoing and harmonious, and they held more kindness and tolerance toward mortal commoners.

Because they suddenly discovered that this escaped bat Soul Beast had already appeared in the heartland of the Great Song and caused mortal turmoil and heavy casualties, for the time being, Xu Chen and his companion did not rush to fly directly to the Yuqing Hall, but instead rode the Spirit Sparrow to observe and search along the way near villages, towns, and cities where mortal commoners were more densely populated.

After several consecutive days, they actually encountered another place where a Soul Beast was wreaking havoc.

This was a Soul Beast similar to a flying squirrel; its strength was not formidable, but to ordinary mortals, it was as terrifying as a demon or ghost, having directly leveled a small mountain village. When Xu Chen and his companion found the Soul Beast, they discovered it had already collected a large number of human bodies, fusing them to form a terrifying body several zhang in size, and had even created many smaller Soul Beasts.

However, fortunately, this kind of Soul Beast would not invade the soul, but would only kill and devour flesh and blood like a wild beast or Demon Beast, so it was easier to deal with and was quickly wiped out by the two working together.

Having witnessed the destruction caused by these two Soul Beasts, Xu Chen's good mood for traveling was completely ruined; at the same time, feeling that the situation was becoming increasingly serious, he decided not to linger on the road any longer, but to go to the Yuqing Hall as soon as possible to report this matter to the high-level officials of the Yuqing Hall and then resolve it through the Immortal Alliance.

After all, the two of them were thin on the ground and could not possibly travel the entire world to clear out and exterminate these scattered, fleeing Soul Beasts.

Furthermore, Soul Beasts had begun to fuse human and beast flesh, blood, and souls to forge bodies, so the situation would inevitably become even more complex in the future.

What kind of changes this would ultimately bring to the Immortal World and the mortal realm was even more impossible to know.

Based on what the two had seen, after Soul Beasts forged flesh, blood, and souls, their strength became even more formidable; ordinary Soul Beasts could almost reach the strength of a Second-Tier Beast, which mortal rogue cultivators could barely handle, let alone those martial arts heroes or sorcerers who only had a rough grasp of simple talismans and Daoist arts.

If this situation continued to develop, the circumstances would inevitably spiral out of control, and chaos in the mortal realm would be unavoidable.

If Great Song was like this, the situation in the neighboring Ming Kingdom, Shu Kingdom, Wu Kingdom, and Eastern Wasteland, where Black Wind was already out of control, would only be even more rotten to the point of being beyond repair.

However, these were not problems that a piece-of-trash little cultivator like Xu Chen should be considering.

If the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up.

Every nation had its Immortal Sect, as well as the high and mighty Spirit Realm Great Cultivators and those powerful experts of the Danyuan Realm.

To what extent the final situation would collapse would still depend on the growth rate of these Soul Beasts and the intensity of the Immortal Sects' extermination efforts.

Nevertheless, Xu Chen still felt a faint sense of worry; he feared that the peaceful Immortal World would soon face a violent upheaval and massive change.

(End of this chapter)