Chapter 427: Known as

In an instant, Bai Wan's heart turned icy.

She had anticipated many scenarios and made targeted arrangements, even secretly setting ambushes to prevent traitors from leaking information.

But she never imagined the Salt Guild would dare interfere.

It wasn't her fault—after all, the Celestial Mandate Sect had hidden themselves so deeply that even others on Wushan struggled to find them.

Even they had to perform solemn rituals and endure great suffering before the sect would reveal itself.

Most likely, it was the person behind the Salt Guild who devised this plan…

In just an instant, Bai Wan understood the reason.

But now, it was beyond redemption.

Indeed, these people had begun their move.

"Bai Wan, your sins are immense!"

"If you're wise, kill yourself here—save us the trouble!"

"If you die, the others may live!"

Several voices echoed left and right, as if woven into the wind and rain, reverberating around them, impossible to pinpoint.

Li Yan ignored them and unleashed his full spiritual power.

Too bad—his opponent was a Land Immortal, whose Dao and spellcraft far surpassed his own, and who had been prepared from the start; he could not be found.

Oddly, the Gou Die did not grow hot.

His true body is not here!

Meanwhile, the Salt Guild's brat was shrinking back, clearly having set the fire and now eager to flee and watch the spectacle.

"Wu Ba, grab him!"

Li Yan's eyes narrowed slightly, and he gave a low command.

The moment he spoke, Wu Ba leapt forward.

Though his frame was massive, his Xianqi physique and years of scaling the Shennongjia mountains made him as swift as a beast.

Whoosh!

A dark shadow, riding wind and rain, crouched low, using hands and feet alike, leaping like a tiger across a ridge—only two bounds, and he reached the cliff's edge.

Before the Salt Guild brat could react, he felt his body lighten, then screamed as he was flung into the air.

Thud!

He landed flat on his back before Li Yan.

Li Yan stomped his head down with one foot and said coldly: "Speak—where did you find them?"

The brat's face was pale with terror, utterly stripped of his earlier arrogance.

"Boy, don't meddle in what doesn't concern you!"

Before he could answer, the voices from the wind and rain spoke again, low and tense with fury.

"This has nothing to do with you living Yin Officers!"

"Leave the mountain now, or you'll regret it!"

Li Yan glanced up, indifferent: "Funny—I know these two girls. I have to get involved."

"Exactly!"

Sha Li Fei also put his hands on his hips and shouted: "These two are my big niece! Today, I'm definitely stepping in!"

Though he shouted loudly, acting reckless, his hands slipped beneath his robe, gripping his fire weapons, shielding Lu San in front.

That was Sha Li Fei.

Whether the mission succeeded was uncertain—but first, he protected his own. In his eyes, no matter how adorable the two girls were, they couldn't match Lu San's life.

Especially since Lu San was building his tower—right now, he was vulnerable.

"Hmph!"

The voices seemed enraged, growing colder.

Meanwhile, Wu Chaoyun and Wu Xingyu suddenly collapsed, clutching their heads, rolling and screaming in agony, their cries piercing the soul.

Li Yan hadn't expected them to directly use spirit tablets to cast curses—his fury surged, and the killing intent in his eyes burned fiercer.

"Attack!"

Li Yan suddenly spoke, his voice icy as frozen steel: "Go ahead—attack. And you bastards watching from the sidelines, listen well!"

"If we part peacefully today, we'll leave the mountain immediately, as if nothing happened."

"If these two girls are harmed, I'll stay on Wushan until I've exterminated every last one of you—sworn to it!"

He poured all his strength into his voice, which echoed across the mountains and fields.

Even the raging wind and storm couldn't drown out that chilling killing intent.

"Bold words!"

A fierce voice rang out—deep, sinister, carrying the growl of a beast: the Tiger Demon he'd met before.

He growled: "I've met living Yin Officers before—I've killed two. You don't know your place!"

"Stop!"

Bai Wan's face was ashen; she looked at the screaming girls, her eyes filled with sorrow: "Old woman agrees—if I die, will you let the others go?"

"Colluding with outsiders, and you think you can walk away unscathed?!"

Before the Celestial Mandate Sect woman could speak, the Tiger Demon cut in: "Today, none of you leave."

His voice was clearer now—significantly closer.

At the same time, Li Yan's Gou Die grew hot.

Without hesitation, Li Yan gripped the Gou Die and accepted the task.

White mist churned—the stone well appeared…

His name was Luo Heilian, once a famed Daoist in Ganzhou, talented but a folk cultivator with no sect backing.

He had fortune: while performing rites for others, he accidentally received guidance from an ancient ghost in a tomb, gaining the Fangxian Dao methods, thereafter specializing in arranging peculiar fengshui arrays to steal others' fortune and cultivate Yin Ghost arts.

His cultivation soared, but countless families were ruined and destroyed by his actions—until the Enforcement Hall hunted him down to death.

But for reasons unknown, he somehow escaped the Underworld during the Zhongyuan Ghost Gate opening, and since then, cultivated a demonic body…

"You!"

Li Yan suddenly opened his eyes, his mouth twisted in a cruel grin.

He grabbed Bai Wan as she tried to kill herself, gripped the Gou Die, and shouted: "All of you—turn around!"

"Qing Jia! Above, black sky; below, black earth; sky without light, earth without gate; Yin spirits march, Yang beings retreat! Banish evil—evil flees! Exterminate ghosts—ghosts perish! By order of the Northern Yin Fengdu, swiftly, as the law commands!"

"Heaven has its order, earth has its law; the Yin Bureau arrests souls—Yang beings, retreat!"

Holding the Gou Die, Li Yan activated two methods at once.

First, he summoned Yin soldiers with the Gang Ling.

Second, he captured the Yin criminal with the Gou Die.

These were secret techniques from Liu Gang's Living Yin Officer manual.

Using both together, once the task was accepted and the target was nearby, if his aura was caught, he could immediately dispatch troops to arrest him.

It resembled the Luo Feng Exorcism Method.

This method was powerful, but it consumed one Gang Ling.

Ordinary living Yin Officers, once granted a Gang Ling, would hoard it for emergencies—no one would waste it like Li Yan.

Whoosh~

A violent wind surged; the Yin energy of the earth rose.

"Turn around and close your eyes!"

Bai Wan couldn't stop them—she ordered her disciples to turn away.

Instantly, darkness swallowed everything.

This was the true might of the Yin Bureau's troops—drawing power from the Underworld, even Wushan's rain and clouds were momentarily suppressed.

The peak of Wushan plunged into darkness.

And this darkness surged downward like a tide, turning rain along the way into flying snow, icy and bone-chilling.

"Roar!"

A beast's roar erupted—a tiger suddenly appeared, eyes blazing crimson, took two steps, then was engulfed in black smoke, whipping up a storm as it fled down the mountain.

It was a Dunshu —clearly, the Tiger Demon was fighting for his life.

But how could he escape the Yin soldiers' hunt? The darkness spread downward; mountains trembled, birds fell silent, everything cowered, heads buried.

"Roar!"

Amidst a desperate scream, the tiger was swallowed by darkness.

Armor clanked, chains clattered—then silence. The darkness vanished.

On the ground, only a tiger corpse, coated in frost.

Another Gang Ling appeared within the Gou Die.

Generally, those who returned to life received the least reward from the Yin Bureau—after all, some ordinary people accidentally returned.

Only those like Zhao Changsheng of the Ghost Cult or Huang Liu Shi, who disrupted Yin-Yang balance and committed unforgivable crimes, received greater rewards.

"Hmph!"

Li Yan gripped the Gou Die, sneered coldly: "Just a returned soul—who's the one talking big?"

He glanced around, then suddenly opened his eyes.

!.

"Who else?!"

The mountains fell silent, save for the sound of wind and rain.

If they weren't afraid of death, why would they return to life or become earth immortals to cling on, witnessing the tiger demon being seized by the Underworld? The terrifying memory surged again in those minds.

"You have great audacity!"

The female voice of the Siming Society sounded again.

"You sneaked onto Wushan, provoked us, and freely killed people—you've broken the original pact. From now on, no immortal in the mountains of Shenzhou will tolerate you; we will relentlessly hunt you down, and even after death, you won't find peace!"

The voice turned cold, tinged with madness.

Li Yan laughed bitterly, coldly saying: "Fine. I'm right here. Why don't you come out and try?"

Sha Li Fei scratched his head, somewhat helpless.

This matter would have been best resolved peacefully.

But he knew Li Yan's nature—he wouldn't yield to force.

He understood human relations and social customs, but once his stubborn streak took hold, he became reckless, refused everyone's face, and was stubbornly hard to shake off.

Otherwise, how would the village have nicknamed him "Ghost-Fear"?

Seeing Li Yan's demeanor, the Siming Society members calmed down, stopped speaking, and continued chanting their spells.

"Ahh—!"

Two little girls screamed continuously, held in Long Yan's arms, unable to be calmed, their eyes filled with tears.

Long Yan, also a fiery temper, immediately cursed: "You call yourselves enlightened masters? If you have the power, show yourselves! Attacking children—what kind of skill is that?"

Beside her, Wang Daoxuan's gaze turned icy. He pulled out a talisman, his fingers shifting rapidly as he formed seals and inscribed the incantation.

Finally, his eyes lit up. He brushed the talisman across the foreheads of the two girls and said firmly: "Young Brother Yan, I've got it!"

The Daoist was skilled in the "Seven Arrow Secret Spell," one method of which was using talismans to capture the opponent's spell energy and launch a counter-spell.

He was no match for those women—even with the fourth arrow of the secret spell mastered, he had no chance whatsoever.

After all, the gap in cultivation was too great.

Yet Li Yan could use that trace of energy to directly summon the yin soldiers for capture.

"Well done!"

Li Yan rejoiced and hurried to take the talisman.

But at that moment, Wang Daoxuan's expression changed abruptly. He felt a tightness in his chest, spat blood, and hurled the talisman away.

Puff!

In midair, the talisman turned to ash.

Wang Daoxuan wiped the blood from his lips and said grimly: "The opponent is experienced—they sensed something wrong and enacted a countermeasure."

Looking again at the two girls, Yun and Xing, they had stopped screaming and fallen unconscious, their faces covered in bulging blue veins—clearly they had been tortured severely.

"Next time, I'll come myself!"

Bai Wan, hair disheveled, eyes bloodshot and wild, said: "I know the Yanzhou technique too. I'll die fighting to take them with me!"

At this point, there was no turning back.

Bai Wan's last shred of sentiment toward the Siming Society vanished completely.

Perhaps out of caution for Li Yan, the others ceased casting spells. The storm on Shennü Peak continued to rage, growing fiercer.

Li Yan looked down and kicked the Salt Guild boy away.

The boy had been unlucky—unable to resist his curiosity, he'd opened his eyes to see the yin soldiers. Now his hair was white, his face twisted in terror, covered in frost, dead and cold.

Li Yan turned to Lu San. Seeing he was unharmed, he exhaled in relief.

Earlier, consumed by rage and urgency, he'd summoned the yin soldiers. If Lu San had been affected, it would have been disastrous.

Yet Lu San's condition grew stranger by the moment.

Beneath him, moss began to grow—visible to the naked eye, tender sprouts of grass pushed up from the ground.

"He's lucky."

Bai Wan glanced once and declared grimly: "The Beast-Taming technique and the Spirit Tree Secret Art must be fully complete."

"His bloodline must be extraordinary. Too bad the wild age is gone—otherwise, he might have become a Great Witch…"

As she spoke, Bai Wan's eyes suddenly lit up. She whispered: "The opportunity on Shennü Peak comes from the former Shennü Palace during dream-wandering."

"Though the Shennü Palace is ruined, some relics were preserved by the Siming Society. When this young brother awakens, perhaps we can find a way…"

"Then let's wait."

Li Yan nodded, then looked at the others, his expression grave: "All of you, prepare. The old ghosts on the mountain are cautious—but they've dealt with living yin officers before."

"First, they'll find a scapegoat to wear down our resources. Then they'll hire experts to launch a surprise attack."

"Each of these old ghosts is wealthy—they won't lack those willing to die for them…"

This was the consequence of having acted first.

No matter the reason, the pact was broken. Attacks will come endlessly. And even if he died, the living yin officers wouldn't seek revenge.

Besides, he hadn't even joined the living yin officer organization yet…

Perhaps fearing Li Yan would trace the trail and summon yin soldiers again, the women of the Siming Society no longer appeared—no one knew what they were waiting for.

After a while, a violent wind suddenly swept across Shennü Peak, and the primordial Gangqi surrounding Lu San dissipated.

Lu San slowly awoke, eyes filled with confusion. It took him a long moment to recover, then, seeing his surroundings, he immediately realized something had happened.

"What happened?"

Lu San rose, patting the little fox Chu Qi who ran over, and asked grimly.

"San'er, congratulations!"

Li Yan saw that Lu San had officially reached the Third Floor of Dao cultivation.

Normally, reaching the Third Floor required heavenly treasures and earthly essences—but Lu San broke through effortlessly, truly surprising.

But now wasn't the time for questions. Li Yan quickly recounted everything that had happened, then asked: "What did you see? Any clues about those people?"

"I entered a palace."

Lu San looked around. "The terrain resembles this place."

"I've been inside Yunzhong Jun's Divine Palace before—the feeling was very similar. I remembered many details."

"The Shennü Palace was empty. A voice guided me to the chamber holding the secret scriptures, but everything was coated in mud…"

"The voice directed me to find the Mountain Ghost inheritance, then inexplicably told me to build a tower. Afterward, strange voices appeared in my ears…"

"That voice screamed 'Li.'"

"Then the Shennü Palace plunged into darkness. The voice vanished completely. I heard the sound of flowing water—and a woman cursing."

After hearing this, Li Yan had already formed a suspicion.

The cry of "Li" must have been the same rejection he'd faced when entering the dream. The Shennü Palace's darkness was likely caused by the yin soldiers blocking it.

This opportunity was certainly tied to the Siming Society.

"By the way!"

Lu San frowned and pulled something from his pocket. "Inside the Shennü Palace, I found this. I grabbed it in the chaos—didn't expect I'd actually bring it out."

In his palm lay a blood-red jade cong…

(End of Chapter)