Chapter 761: Covering the Sky with One Hand

Manghuang.

Manghuang is a vast land overseas, a collective term for barren regions where fierce beasts run rampant, filled with venomous snakes, savage beasts, and all manner of swamps and miasmas.

Besides this, it is also occupied by the remnants of the Witch-Ghost Dao, a sect of evildoers long since purged, who use their arts to bewitch the indigenous people.

The so-called "Witch-Ghost Dao" was once a Daoist sect that focused on refining the dead, raising evil ghosts, practicing blood sacrifices to cultivate demons, and consuming human blood and marrow.

This sect was intolerable to the people of the world; even evil cults like Wusheng and Vacuum only focused on bewitching hearts and minds to ascend to a heavenly kingdom, not engaging in the business of drinking human blood. Thus, the Witch-Ghost Dao was long ago exterminated, but some traditions remained; however, they could not survive in countries like Great Gan or Yunmeng, so they could only occupy the barren lands of Manghuang to bewitch the indigenous savages.

According to information obtained by the Champion Marquis, Jingren Heshang had originally taken the Universe Bag and defected to the Witch-Ghost Dao.

Deep within the Tianjueshan of Manghuang, breaking through layers of illusions, one can see a very magnificent city; the city walls are entirely stacked with uniform large stone blocks, with the gaps filled with mortar made of sticky rice flour and mixed with molten iron, making them extremely sturdy.

The scale of this Tianwucheng is smaller than Yujing City, but it is much larger than any provincial capital of Great Gan.

Its atmosphere is ancient and magnificent, and there are many stone statues on all four sides of the city walls, giving one a sense of antiquity.

Suddenly, a thick, pitch-black fog surged up from the city walls on all sides of this Tianwucheng.

This smoke was dense and viscous, shrouding and covering the entire city, which spanned several dozen miles.

Subsequently, all sound and light in Tianwucheng vanished without a trace.

The entire Tianwucheng was enveloped in black smoke, and the faint sound of ten thousand ghosts wailing could be heard, making one's hair stand on end.

This was none other than the—Ten Thousand Ghosts Paying Homage Array.

The ultimate trump card array of the Witch-Ghost Dao.

When this array is activated, it proves that an unimaginable catastrophe has occurred within Tianwucheng, whether due to an external enemy invasion or an internal rebellion; only in a desperate situation would they be forced to start this terrifying array.

And within Tianwucheng, earth-shattering collision sounds rang out from time to time; clearly, experts were engaged in fierce combat.

The further one walked into the depths of Tianwucheng, the more viscous the thick fog became.

In the center of Tianwucheng was a massive plaza several miles in circumference, paved entirely with stone slabs and extremely vast, clearly a plaza used for sacrifices, enough to accommodate thousands upon thousands of people.

The black fog in the plaza was also the most dense.

Once one entered it, one would have the feeling of being trapped in a ghost maze.

Moreover, this poisonous fog was mixed with the unique miasma of Manghuang, capable of corroding both the physical body and the soul.

Those astonishing collision sounds originated from within the thick fog, causing the mist to ripple and flow incessantly. Clearly, experts were fighting within the poisonous fog.

Boom!

Another collision occurred.

The black fog was shaken and flowed in all directions, allowing for a brief glimpse of the situation within the mist.

The battle within the black fog was mainly divided into three battlefields.

On the far west side of the plaza, there were three Daoists dressed in black hemp robes, their bodies appearing as dried as mummies.

Above the heads of these three Daoists was a dense mass of dark clouds, and within the dark clouds, three divine generals with golden light all over their bodies and golden crowns on their heads were faintly visible.

The divine generals had golden wings growing from their backs, and their expressions were majestic.

These are the Shihuang of the Witch-Ghost Dao.

This type of Shihuang can only be refined by Ghost Immortal experts who are proficient in the arts of the Witch-Ghost Dao.

Those three Daoists were the three great Elders of the Witch-Ghost Dao.

And contending against the three Elders were eighteen Martial Dao experts.

Among these eighteen Martial Dao experts, there were actually two junior Martial Saints, and three whose bodies had already entered the "Half-Saint" stage, while the rest were all Grandmaster experts with vigorous Qi and Blood.

This was one of the trump cards secretly cultivated by the Champion Marquis—the Thirty-Six Heavenly Secret Guards.

This time, in order to seize the Universe Bag, the Champion Marquis dispatched all thirty-six Heavenly Secret Guards, half of whom were used to deal with the three Elders.

A junior Martial Saint is already capable of contending with a Ghost Immortal, and the eighteen Martial Dao powerhouses, just by standing there, could shatter and scatter the souls of ordinary Daoist experts with the impact of their formidable blood energy.

If not for this place being covered by the "Ten Thousand Ghosts Paying Homage Array," which forced the Heavenly Secret Guards to divert part of their mental energy to resist the poisonous fog, the three Elders of the Witch-Ghost Dao would likely have been suppressed and killed long ago.

But even so, the three Elders were in imminent danger against the eighteen battle-hardened Martial Dao powerhouses and could be beaten to death at any moment.

The second battlefield was in the sky, where a mass of dark clouds and a mass of brilliant light were contending.

Clearly, these were two great Ghost Immortal experts.

Within the mass of dark clouds, a thin, black-clad Daoist was faintly visible, with a spirit flag covered in Talismans fluttering around him. In front of this black-clad Daoist were five Shihuang, and the Shihuang spat out golden pills from their mouths; once the pills exploded, they immediately turned into dozens of sharp golden Sword Qi, cutting in all directions.

This thin, black-clad Daoist was the Sect Master of the Witch-Ghost Dao, Yu Wutong, and the magic treasure in his hand was the Ten Thousand Ghosts Command Flag, which required feeding with a large amount of essence blood.

And the one fighting Yu Wutong was the Shen Ying Wang, one of the Eight Great Demon Kings; he was surrounded by faint cyan cloud energy, and his soul flew into the sky, turning into a ball of brilliant light, fighting Yu Wutong with great intensity.

The third battlefield, and the most intense one in this area, was where Yue Qingxian, eighteen Heavenly Secret Guards, and a Martial Saint were engaged in combat.

That Martial Saint was a monk with a ruddy complexion, large hands and feet, a burly build, and large ears, appearing to be about forty or fifty years old. His strikes were as fast as lightning, his fist wind was fierce, with the roars of dragons and tigers, his essence and energy rolling and scattering, and his fist intent like balls of scorching sun, which neither ghosts nor gods could invade. Even the black fog could not approach, forming a vacuum zone.

Needless to say, this fellow was Jingren Heshang.

Jingren Heshang was one of the one hundred and eight Bodhisattvas of the Great Zen Temple back in the day, and was only a Martial Dao Grandmaster then; now, ten years later, he had already cultivated into a Martial Saint.

Moreover, he was actually able to contend against Yue Qingxian and the eighteen Heavenly Secret Guards single-handedly; besides the profound martial arts of the Great Zen Temple, he himself had likely reached the level of a middle-stage Martial Saint.

"Master Jingren, your subordinates have all been captured, and now only you remain to resist; what is the use? The destruction of the Witch-Ghost Dao is a foregone conclusion; why must you remain so obstinate? Hand over the Universe Bag and follow me back to Great Gan; with your status as a Martial Saint, the Young Master can guarantee the safety of you and your disciples."

Yue Qingxian's water sleeves rippled out, continuous and endless, and her slender, beautiful fingers under her robes performed complex and mysterious movements, striking out beams of moonlight to neutralize the violent fist intent of Jingren Heshang.

"Haha, ever since the destruction of the Great Zen Temple, I, Jingren, have hidden in Manghuang for over ten years, but I never thought I would still be tracked down by you lackeys of Great Gan. I, this monk, would rather be a broken jade than a whole tile. If you want to kill me, you must leave a few lives behind."

Jingren Heshang laughed heartily, his laughter bold and heroic, swallowing mountains and rivers, yet it carried a sense of desolation, giving one the feeling of a hero at the end of his road.

"Master Jingren, your joining the Witch-Ghost Dao is truly unwise. This group of Witch-Ghost Dao members slaughters living beings and uses the lives and souls of living beings to refine evil arts; they are demons who have completely lost their humanity. You are a virtuous and eminent monk; by associating with this group of demons, you have lost your heart of compassion. If you live, you cannot clarify your original heart to achieve the status of a Human Immortal, and after you die, you will have no face to see your ancestors."

"Hahaha, my Great Zen Temple was too compassionate back then, which is why we refused to strike a lethal blow even when your army came to our gates. Now that I have cultivated into a Martial Saint, my spirit is as immovable as a rock; how could mere words shake my spirit?"

Jingren Heshang laughed heartily again, suddenly throwing a punch, the airflow surging like a tidal wave, and his majestic fist intent gave one the feeling of a giant dragon and a giant elephant; this was the secret art of the Great Zen Temple—the Dragon-Elephant Dharma Seal.

"Three Elders, there will be other days to settle this, let us go!" Just at this moment, the Witch-Ghost Dao Sect Master Yu Wutong let out a long roar, and the "Ten Thousand Ghosts Command Flag" around his body shook violently; several thick strands of black energy suddenly rushed out, baring fangs and brandishing claws like wild dragons, instantly suppressing the ball of brilliant light formed by the soul of the Shen Ying Wang.

Black energy surged out, pressing down on the eighteen Heavenly Secret Guards who were fighting the three Elders.

Immediately following this, the black energy released by the "Ten Thousand Ghosts Paying Homage Array" suddenly retracted, instantly enveloping Yu Wutong and the other three Elders of the Witch-Ghost Dao, and they flew off into the sky together.

"We cannot let him leave; the Universe Bag is on his person."

Just at this moment, a sharp-eyed Martial Saint suddenly had his pupils constrict and shouted aloud.

Only then did the crowd discover that behind Yu Wutong, the Sect Master of the Witch Ghost Sect, there was a large bag.

This bag was neither silk nor hemp, and its color was very strange, as if it were human skin.

The bag was tightly bound with a rope; this rope appeared to be a tendon, yet it was not an animal's tendon, but a human's.

A wisp of immense Pure Yang power leaked faintly from within the bag.

"Correct, that is the Universe Bag."

When she saw this bag, Yue Qingxian was very certain that this Universe Bag was real.

Because the material of this Universe Bag was human skin—the skin of a Human Immortal in the Martial Dao.

When Martial Dao cultivation reaches the Human Immortal realm, one ascends to a brand-new level. One of its characteristics is that the skin changes, becoming incomparably delicate, even more delicate than the essence stripped from yellow jade or crystal. From head to toe, not a single pore can be seen, and the skin is as smooth as the finest silk.

Moreover, a Human Immortal is also known as a "Leakless True Immortal"; as long as they do not actively release it, not a single drop of essence blood, physical strength, or True Qi will leak out.

It is precisely because of this that Human Immortal skin has become the most suitable material for crafting spatial artifacts.

The crowd wanted to pursue and kill Yu Wutong, but Yu Wutong unleashed the secret technique "Ten Thousand Ghost Flying Shadow Escape," and his speed was unimaginably fast; even Yue Qingxian could not catch him.

Hum hum hum!!

Seeing that Yu Wutong was about to escape, the void suddenly began to tremble.

Amidst the swirling of rays of light, an ancient Stone Gate appeared in the void.

This Stone Gate was ancient and solid, filled with a mysterious aura, and runes that could not be understood were carved upon the Stone Gate.

With a loud boom, the Stone Gate swung wide open.

From within the Stone Gate, a wisp of majestic fist intent surged out.

The fist intent stirred the airflow of the void, gathering the power of heaven, earth, wind, thunder, and the four poles of the universe, transforming into a vast and obscure giant hand.

This hand expanded infinitely in the minds of everyone; as the palm opened, it seemed to cover the firmament, causing the entire sky to darken.

And this hand was blocking the path before Yu Wutong and the three Elders, its palm momentum covering heaven and earth, ensuring they would not be able to escape no matter what.

"Damn it, what majestic fist intent."

"From this fist intent, I feel a domineering sense of 'above heaven and below heaven, I alone am honored'."

"Forget it, even if it is a Human Immortal powerhouse, it is impossible to annihilate us with just a wisp of fist intent."

"Good, let us strike together and break through this giant hand of fist intent!"

Yu Wutong and the three Elders had their expressions turn stern, and they immediately began to frantically channel the Witch Ghost Sect's secret techniques.

Head after head of Shihuang roared, and golden pills exploded into countless Sword Qi, surging and raging like a vast ocean, intending to destroy this giant hand condensed from fist intent.

However, when this vast and ancient hand descended from the firmament, it grabbed casually, ignoring the surging Sword Qi, and head after head of Shihuang was grabbed and exploded.

Even Yu Wutong and the three Elders were grabbed into the giant hand without any power to resist; as the giant hand exerted force, pressure so immense it could not be added to swept over the four of them, and their bones creaked and cracked.

Bang bang bang bang!

Yu Wutong and the three Elders had only just let out a scream before they continuously exploded; they were actually crushed to death, transforming into a mass of unremarkable blood mist, and not even their souls escaped.

Having annihilated the four Ghost Immortal powerhouses, that Martial Dao fist intent was also seven or eight-tenths depleted; the giant hand dissipated, leaving only the final wisp of fist intent, which hooked the Universe Bag and drilled back into the Stone Gate.

Immediately, the entire Stone Gate rippled and vanished from sight.

It was precisely this scene that left everyone present in a state of speechless shock.

A Stone Gate appearing in the void, fist intent surging from the gate, the fist intent transforming into a giant hand, annihilating four Ghost Immortal powerhouses in one stroke and snatching away the Universe Bag. These scenes were simply inconceivable.

"This... this..."

Jingren Heshang considered himself a person who had seen the world, but the scene before his eyes still left his mind shaken.

"This is the method of my Young Master." Yue Qingxian was silent for a moment.

On the day of the battle between the Champion Marquis and the Kongque King and others, Yue Qingxian had also witnessed the terrifying scene of "one hand covering the sky."

Although there were slight differences from the previous situation, she was certain it was the Champion Marquis's method.

"Who exactly is your Young Master?"

"The Champion Marquis, Yu An."

"The Champion Marquis." Jingren Heshang's gaze flickered slightly, and he lowered his head, not knowing what he was thinking.

A moment later, Jingren Heshang raised his head and said, "I agree to your request."

The Goddess of the Moon was startled: "What?"

"I agree to return to Great Gan, but I will only work for the Champion Marquis, not for the Imperial Court of Great Gan."

"That is fine, of course that is fine." Yue Qingxian said hurriedly; although the Champion Marquis was ostensibly an official of the Imperial Court, his power was overwhelming, and he was practically a local Emperor; there was no need to pay too much attention to the decrees of the Great Gan Imperial Court. In fact... in Yue Qingxian's intuition, the Champion Marquis might even raise an army to rebel in the future and become the master of Great Gan himself.

"I ask out of curiosity." After hesitating for a moment, the Goddess of the Moon said: "I observe that Master Jingren is by no means a person who fears death, so why, why do you suddenly want to defect to my Young Master?"

Jingren Heshang's gaze flashed: "Because from that palm just now, I felt a pure Buddhist true intent. That Champion Marquis must be a great virtuous person of the Buddhist faith; it is not impossible that he could revitalize the Great Zen Temple."

The Goddess of the Moon's pretty face tightened, and she finally managed not to laugh out loud.

Inside the secret chamber, watching the slowly disappearing Stone Gate, the Champion Marquis held the Universe Bag in his hand, his gaze stern.

"This gate... perhaps, I should go and retrieve the memories of my previous incarnation."