Chapter 282: The Primordial Spirit Pivot

The clouds above Mount Baiyuan grew denser, black as an iron plate, not a single ray of moonlight slipping through.

Looking from the direction of Bai Ling Village toward the mountain's depths, the entire Baiyuan range had become one solid shadow.

Darkness stretched from sky to earth, spreading shadows that seemed ready to swallow all the "starlight" across the mountainside.

The sacred Mount Baiyuan now resembled a realm of ghosts.

Crack!

A bolt of lightning slashed through the clouds, illuminating the pitch-black night sky.

The light from Lei Ting did not shatter the darkness of Mount Baiyuan; instead, aided by the lightning's glow, twelve ghost generals stood in formation, faintly visible.

Twelve eerie ghostly faces seemed to reach directly toward the onlookers, locking eyes with them at close range.

This strange spectacle instantly caused the villagers of Bai Ling Village, who had come to watch, to cry out in shock.

People wanted to flee back into their homes, but their limbs felt leaden; that single gaze had stolen their souls, leaving them frozen, helplessly watching the darkness creep closer, unable to move.

If the outer edges of Mount Baiyuan were this bad, the Starlight Sect members inside faced even greater danger.

Pure darkness spread outward; wherever it passed, bright flashlight beams flickered, their light becoming intermittent.

The Starlight Sect members had stronger qi and willpower than ordinary people, so they weren't paralyzed upon seeing the twelve demon gods, yet their limbs still went weak; what had been six strikes per second, now took six seconds for one, and even then they handled their metal rods gently, afraid they'd drop them.

The good news was, the twelve ghost generals attacked indiscriminately; the extremist Xinyuzhou Sect followers were equally paralyzed, unable to dodge even a strike every six seconds.

The bad news was, the Starlight Sect members' opponents had shifted from extremist followers to the twelve ghost generals in the sky.

The twelve ghost generals formed a special array; deep darkness coalesced at their center, steadily eroding downward.

Even those without supernatural energy could sense the aura of death emanating from it.

Only a few could withstand the pressure—like Qing Long, who led the front line and was tasked with breaching Tan Mountain; his body shimmered with dragon-shaped qi, allowing him to remain mobile.

And like Cui Chengze, who rode his motorcycle to the nearest Starlight Sect gathering point, ordered others to guard him, then pulled from his backpack several esoteric materials and half an ancient stone tablet, swiftly arranging an esoteric ritual array.

A pale blue light rose from the array, reaching five meters high, then arced outward into a pale blue dome, enveloping the surrounding Starlight Sect members.

Within the dome, the members' bodily weakness vanished, and their swings with the metal rods grew stronger.

The protected Starlight Sect members praised Cui Chengze's array, declaring his magical power immense—but Cui Chengze, shielding them all, showed no trace of relief.

Because he could only hold back the darkness temporarily; hidden within it were divine qualities, qualities no mortal could resist.

He gazed toward Songquan Village, silently murmuring in his heart: Will that god not act yet?

Though he had a connection with Hai Shenjiang, Hai Shenjiang's true body lay in the deep sea; he could only draw upon Hai Shenjiang's power near the ocean, and now, deep within Mount Baiyuan, perception was suppressed, weakening his bond with Hai Shenjiang further.

Under these conditions, even if Hai Shenjiang possessed him, he might still fail to defeat the twelve ghost generals.

The darkness kept descending; just as it neared the blue dome, just as the villagers watching from nearby towns felt their spirits about to be fully sucked into the dark.

A brilliant flash of Jin Guang exploded into existence.

It was a magnificent, radiant, yet non-blinding golden light; it tore through the black clouds, rising into the heavens, turning the full white moon golden.

Beneath the golden moonlight, a figure appeared in midair—slender, with four luminous wings floating behind her.

The wings spread sideways, each exceeding twenty meters in length.

Hoo~

The four wings flapped, stirring a warm wind laced with glowing particles; the wind swept from Tan Mountain all the way to the outer edge of Mount Baiyuan, restoring all those affected by the twelve ghost generals to normal.

The light dispelled the darkness, but also exposed the twelve ghost generals hidden within it.

Those freed from shock regained movement, yet their eyes remained locked on the twelve massive bodies, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.

Though the four-winged stranger's wings were large, beside the twelve ghost generals they looked like a child beside an adult.

With such a size difference, could she win?

The next moment, they had their answer.

Countless golden particles coalesced in the stranger's hands, merging into a golden hammer over a hundred meters long.

The four-winged stranger swept horizontally, moving swiftly with the hammer; beneath it, the ghost generals shattered on contact—any part touched by the golden hammer was torn cleanly in two.

In an instant, all twelve ghost generals shattered; they did not vanish simply, but reformed into white vapor, retreating along their path back into the bodies of the hostages inside Tan Mountain's cave.

It was a healing light technique—Ailin had used a divine-level Light Soul Calming technique while swinging the hammer.

If Wu Chang had done it, using the most brutal method to destroy the twelve ghost generals, the life force and soul qi within them would have vanished too.

Even if the hostages didn't die, their bodies and souls would be severely damaged; even if healed, they'd drool for the rest of their lives.

Only Ailin could, in the instant of attack, repair the shattered life force and soul qi, and return them to their owners.

Unlike a simple swing, saving lives consumed immense energy and mental focus; in equivalent terms, it was enough to power a hundred ghost general annihilations.

Even for a low-tier god like Ailin, accomplishing this required absolute focus—any slip, and she couldn't guarantee saving everyone.

To put it bluntly, the divine power Ailin "wasted" saving people far exceeded the faith energy those villagers could offer—this was a terrible loss, and a massive one.

Yet Ailin acted without hesitation, without weighing cost or value.

Wu Chang looked up at Ailin, watching the joy on her face; he smirked and shook his head.

Wasteful woman—but for that cute smile, I'll forgive you.

Human joys and sorrows are not shared; while Ailin rejoiced at saving everyone, Jin Canyun inside the cave broke down.

Within the esoteric ritual, apart from the central bronze plaque, all twelve national treasures had shattered.

The shattering was perfectly uniform, with no gaps between them—indicating the twelve ghost generals had offered zero resistance before their opponent.

Undoubtedly, the attacker was a god—a true god.

The opponent seemed to find mere destruction insufficient; they effortlessly shattered the twelve ghost generals, preserved the offerings' lives, and restored their clarity.

Humiliation—blatant humiliation!

Li Zaishi, it's you again!

Returning the offerings untouched—was it because the previous offering wasn't enough? Are you asking me to try again?

Fine. Then I'll summon something bigger—something that will make Li Zaishi and the god he called pay for their arrogance and pride.

Kim Chan-yun bit down so hard he nearly shattered his teeth, cursed "sirah," and ordered his men to seize the revived offerings, retrieve all remaining relics, and summon the spirits again.

But before he could open his mouth, a baseball bat swung from behind, striking him squarely on the temple and sending him flying sideways; he landed, twitched twice, then went still.

Li Yubin, covered in ash and mud as if dug from the earth, swung the bat again and smashed the ritual nodes previously controlled by Kim Chan-yun.

Before anyone could react, Li Yubin had already smashed the skull of another extremist sect follower with the bat.

Their leader, Kim Chan-yun, was dead; the offerings regained consciousness; outside, over ten thousand Star Color Gang members blocked the entrance.

The cave of Tan Mountain descended into chaos.

After a brief scramble, several extremist sect bishops regained control of the scene.

Four extremist sect bishops, flanked by twenty priests, raised rifles and cornered Li Yubin.

In Gao Mu, firearms are strictly controlled; Gao Mu films show gangsters killing entire mobs with leftover bone clubs or slapping them unconscious, but rarely do they draw guns.

Reality isn't so exaggerated, but it clearly reflects the severity of gun control.

The Silent Passage dungeon grants extreme resistance to firearm damage; even Li Yubin, whose physical stats rival a minor superhuman, couldn't withstand a volley from twenty rifles.

At the critical moment, a familiar voice rang out from the cave entrance.

"Activate fire mode."

Everyone turned at the sound: Wu Chang, dressed in a white suit and wearing tinted sunglasses, sat atop a mountain bike, gripping an absurdly large revolver aimed at the extremist sect followers.

The extremist sect followers glanced at their rifles, then at Wu Chang's revolver.

What's this? You plan to fight our twenty rifles with one pistol?

Before anyone could process it, Wu Chang pulled the trigger.

A beam of light erupted from the massive barrel; as it left the gun, it split apart, and by the time it reached the extremist sect followers, it had become a swarm of thousands of hair-thin laser beams covering a twenty-meter radius around Li Yubin.

Shiiii-shiiii-shiiii.

A dense, rainlike sound filled the air—each click represented a beam piercing a human body.

The intense, blinding light made Li Yubin instinctively squint; when the noise faded, she opened her eyes to find the ground around her pockmarked with countless smooth, even craters—as if the floor had always been a dense honeycomb.

The twenty extremist sect followers who had aimed at her were now liquefied into meat paste.

Li Yubin stared in disbelief—when had Gao Mu developed such a terrifying weapon?

"Skill Name: Fire Suppression Module"

"Skill Description: Consumes four high-energy beams to deliver area-denial fire strikes against all enemy targets in a designated zone. Choose between needle-penetration rounds or proximity-detonated explosive shells. Maximum strike radius: one hundred meters." "Note: The specialized bullets spawned by Fire Suppression are enhanced by the high-energy beam state."

Wu Chang twirled Dawn's Weight twice like a cowboy, then slid it back into his waistband.

He was very satisfied with this first shot from Dawn's Weight.

The skill "High-Energy Beam · Modified" allows Dawn's Weight to absorb ambient energy from the air and channel it into the high-energy beam.

Tan Mountain was saturated with faith energy; once absorbed, the high-energy beam's power surged dramatically. If the faith energy were denser, it might even coalesce into a trace of divinity.

With faith energy amplification and the Silent Passage dungeon's rule boosting tech weapon power, a single needle-penetration round obliterated every remaining high-ranking extremist sect member in the chamber.

This shot didn't just kill twenty extremist sect elites—it shattered the morale of the other followers. Recalling the storm-like barrage, they felt no will to resist.

By the time they recovered from shock, Star Color Gang members surged into the cave like wolves.

The Star Color Gang members bowed to Wu Chang first, then turned and charged the extremist sect followers; with their boss watching, their metal batons swung with even greater fury.

Six swings per second wasn't enough to show their loyalty—eight at least!

Wu Chang walked toward Li Yubin, pulled a pocket square from his suit, and handed it to her. "Wipe your face. How did you get so filthy?"

!

Li Yubin's face was caked in mud, her expression unreadable; as she wiped it clean, she recounted what had happened.

Unlike the other passengers, she knew the secrets aboard the Star Leap—she knew the official, military, and Midi Nation had all been involved; while the Xinyuzhou Sect was the mastermind, the other three parties—especially the military, which sent the Blue Island to eliminate witnesses—deserved retribution more.

So after returning to land, she never let the Star Leap incident fade; she kept investigating the Xinyuzhou Sect, hoping to use it as a thread to uncover evidence of the other three parties' deep involvement, then expose it all.

After Zheng Chengxun's suicide in prison, Kim Chan-yun went mad; some high-ranking members, who only sought wealth and didn't want to be dragged into this madness by these fools, began seeking ways to survive.

Among them were several grand bishops of the Xinyuzhou Sect; one contacted Li Yubin through her informant and revealed Kim Chan-yun's entire plot.

But by the time Li Yubin learned of it, Kim Chan-yun had already begun his move; she barely had time to send her informant to warn Choi Chengze, then disguised herself and infiltrated a village near Mount Baiyuan, planning to follow the extremist sect followers into the mountains and locate their hideout.

But fate was cruel: the village she hid in—Songquan Village—happened to be chosen by Kim Chan-yun as the offering site; every man, woman, and child was dragged into the mountains with them.

At first, Li Yubin was thrilled—she could infiltrate the enemy camp so deeply, film more crimes, and find a way to rescue the hostages in a crisis.

But she hadn't expected that the moment they reached the Tan Mountain base, Kim Chan-yun immediately enacted a mystical ritual to control the villagers' minds.

Her willpower was strong; she quickly revealed herself and became the target of extremist sect followers' pursuit.

But Li Yubin wasn't weak; her existence resembled a world's chosen one—as a journalist, her physical stats and combat ability surpassed even Qinglong's, rivaling an average max-level player.

Her high stats and protagonist aura allowed her not only to escape pursuit in the deep mountains but also to sneak back into the Tan Mountain cave during the chaos.

The cave was rich in faith energy; why not harvest it? The Xinyuzhou Sect had previously carved a small garden at the cave's edge, cultivating rare mystical plants.

Li Yubin hid beneath the soil of the garden, going days without food or water, filming the extremists' crimes while waiting for an opportunity.

Just now, when Ailin shattered the Twelve Ghost Generals, she sensed her chance and burst from the flowerbed, killed the guard, snatched a metal baseball bat, crept up to Kim Chan-yun, and smashed his skull with one blow.

Wu Chang listened, stunned. He couldn't help asking:

"You hid in mud for days without food or water? Are you a ninja?"

Li Yubin wiped most of the mud from her face, folded the filthy pocket square, and stuffed it into her pant pocket, then said casually:

"Just basic journalism. Once, to gather evidence of Golden Transport smuggling, human trafficking, I hid aboard a cargo ship longer."

Wu Chang asked curiously: "Did you find the evidence?"

Li Yubin said: "I did."

Wu Chang squinted, recalling: two days ago, he'd seen Golden Transport's cargo ship at the port. He asked: "What happened after?"

At the mention of aftermath, Li Yubin's expression darkened.

"It was turned into a movie—huge box office. During its run, Golden Transport toned down operations. But recently, my informant says they've started up again."

Wu Chang shrugged; this was Gao Mu.

As a journalist, Li Yubin could only expose the issue, but how big the scandal grew or how it would be handled afterward—she had no authority to intervene with her current status.

Li Yubin looked toward the one-sided battle inside the cave and asked, "Isn't this getting a bit out of hand?"

Wu Chang said indifferently, "Out of hand? I don't think so. If I hadn't come, what Kim Chanyun did would've been out of hand."

Li Yubin whispered a warning: "That's true, but they're still human lives. So many dead—what are you going to do about it?"

Wu Chang looked at Li Yubin. "You're here, aren't you? Just report the truth. As for how to wrap it up—you should know already."

"Star Sky Corporation will just invest in a movie afterward, focus on humanity's dark side and grotesque curiosity—bloodier the better, more authentic the better. Maybe they'll even recoup tonight's bonus I handed out."

"Everyone goes to the cinema, curses 'sirah' a couple times, and the whole thing is buried."

Li Yubin sighed, her expression troubled. "What about international impact? It's bad for you, for your company."

Wu Chang's tone grew even more relaxed. "No need to worry about that. There are plenty of 'objective centrists' in international public opinion—they'll say for me, 'At least they had the guts to turn it into a movie.'"

Within minutes, all the extremist sect members still capable of movement fell into infantile sleep, dragged out by Star Color Gang members by their legs.

The two village hostages taken into the cave were also escorted out of Mount Baiyuan by the Star Color Gang, returning to their respective villages.

As they left, Wu Chang specifically asked Li Yubin to take several extra photos—useful for the press release later. He'd even thought of the headline for her.

"Heaven-Defying Rescue! Star Color Gang Storms Tan Mountain: New Yuzhoujiao Sect's Grand Pontiff Performs Human Sacrifice to Summon Spirits; Over a Thousand Hostages in Peril!"

When this becomes a movie, the Star Color Gang will be the heroes. Li Zaishe will definitely have to play a righteous ally.

After dragging away the extremists and escorting out the hostages, only Wu Chang, Li Yubin, and the arriving Choi Seong-jae remained inside the Tan Mountain cave.

After finishing her on-site filming, Li Yubin bid Wu Chang farewell and left the cave to interview the hostages.

Choi Seong-jae stayed behind, carefully collecting broken cultural relics and those still intact. The relics Kim Chanyun took were each worthy of Gao Mu's national treasures, all of high rank, imbued with esoteric energy.

Twelve pieces shattered at once, worsening Gao Mu's already meager cultural losses.

After tallying the list of missing relics, Choi Seong-jae approached Wu Chang, puzzled: "One more item hasn't been found—the one you asked me about before…"

Before Choi Seong-jae could finish, Wu Chang cut him off: "Everything Kim Chanyun took is right here."

Choi Seong-jae didn't react at first. "But…"

Wu Chang: "No buts."

Now Choi Seong-jae understood. His expression shifted from confusion to astonishment.

"Is it real?"

Wu Chang gave Choi Seong-jae a look—let him figure it out himself. He'd given the look; whether Choi Seong-jae could see through his sunglasses was up to him.

As the regretful Choi Seong-jae was escorted out of the cave, only Wu Chang remained inside, and behind him, slowly materializing, was Aileen.

Wu Chang pulled out the bronze plaque engraved with the sun and asked, "Miss Aileen, can you sense anything from it?"

Aileen touched the plaque, closed her eyes, and carefully perceived it. After a moment, she shook her head.

"I sense nothing from it."

Wu Chang frowned. He had studied the Sun Immortal Seal himself—it felt to him like an ordinary piece of metal.

He'd assumed it was because his level was too low, but even Aileen couldn't detect any anomaly.

Too bad—he'd have to leave it to the Omniscient Crystal, who still refused to cooperate.

He took out the Omniscient Crystal from his personal space. As before when he saw the Revelation Tablet, the Omniscient Crystal emitted a faint glow, showing clear longing for the Sun Immortal Seal.

Wu Chang spoke to the Omniscient Crystal in his hand: "I'll give it to you—but first, tell me what energy exists in the Revelation Tablet and the Sun Immortal Seal. Why can't I or Aileen perceive it?"

The Omniscient Crystal hovered in midair, silent—as if it didn't understand Wu Chang's question.

Wu Chang: "Don't play dead. I know you can hear. No work, no food. You won't even give basic intel, yet you want the best? Isn't that a bit too much?"

"If you keep playing dead, I'll lock you away with the Sun Immortal Seal. I don't believe I can't uncover its secrets by the time I reach the Third Layer of the Abyss."

The Omniscient Crystal flickered several times, then finally yielded, transmitting a stream of information into Wu Chang's mind.

"The energy within the Revelation Tablet and the Sun Immortal Seal has many names: some call it the Void Time Singularity, others the Primordial Sea, some regard it as the Creator's Legacy, and still others name it the Primordial Spirit Pivot."

"This unique energy was born at the dawn of creation, when chaos first opened, containing the power of creation and all life, holding infinite potential—an energy of extremely high tier but difficult to harness."

"Compared to deeper layers of the Abyss, it appears more frequently in the shallow layers."

"The primary method of using this energy is direct ingestion into the body—it can reconstruct anything, heal injuries deemed incurable. My body craves it, but I don't know why."

"Finally, the reason you and Aileen cannot perceive this energy is simple: your life tiers are insufficient. Only when reaching a certain life tier can one sense and utilize it."

(End of Chapter)