Chapter 161: Aftermath

"One by one, everyone, all of you must walk through the Demon-Repelling Formation."

In the Wu family mortal village at the foot of Mount Longtan, several Wu family cultivators brought the mortals gathered there to a magic formation that had been prepared in advance.

This Demon-Repelling Formation could drive out the demonic Qi from the parts of the mortals parasitized by the demonic cultivators. After being cleansed by the formation and taking some low-tier demon-repelling talisman water, the demonic Qi in these people would be completely driven out in at most one or two months.

However, this low-tier Demon-Repelling Formation was of no use to cultivators parasitized by demonic cultivators. Just like Wu Zitong, who was controlled earliest, if one wanted to remove the restriction set by Gu Liangshan in his body, either the person who set the restriction had to voluntarily help him undo it, or one could only completely kill the demonic cultivator who set the restriction to have a chance at freedom.

It was not yet known if any of the remaining Wu family cultivators had been planted with methods by the demonic cultivators. To check if there were any others parasitized by demonic cultivators, only a Foundation Establishment cultivator would have the means to do so. Song Changfeng and the others could only gather them all in a large hall first.

The reason Gu Liangshan and his group of demonic cultivators targeted the Wu family was precisely because the Wu family's Third Elder was captured by them inadvertently while performing a mission years ago. Upon learning that this person was an elder of the nearby Wu family, Gu Liangshan cast a long line to catch a big fish, bewitching this Wu family elder into switching to demonic cultivation arts before releasing him back to the Wu family.

Afterward, taking advantage of the Wu family's lax management of the mortals below, the group successively disguised themselves as ordinary mortals and mixed into the villages below. Over the years, they had secretly blood-sacrificed many Wu family mortals and controlled several Wu family cultivators, including the garrison commander Wu Zitong. The area below Mount Longtan had almost been completely controlled by these demonic cultivators.

If it weren't for one of the demonic cultivators disliking that the essence blood of these ordinary mortals was too poor and targeting the acquired martial artists that the Wu family valued, which aroused the suspicion of a Wu family law enforcement elder, the Wu family would still be kept in the dark. In a few more years, as long as they controlled most of the Wu family's cultivators, the entire Wu family's cultivators and mortals would definitely not be able to escape the fate of the entire family being blood-sacrificed by the demonic cultivators.

After returning to Mount Longtan, Song Qingming personally checked the remaining Wu family cultivators one by one and confirmed that there were no cultivators 【parasitized】, only then did he feel relieved. After arranging these matters, Lu Yuanfeng, who had already received Song Qingming's plea for help, also arrived at Mount Longtan.

"Fellow Daoist Lu, I am truly sorry. This time, it seems I have used a sledgehammer to crack a nut. After some effort, I only caught a few Qi Refining-stage mice. That demon Yang Wuqi was not in this vicinity. I have troubled you to make a wasted trip." Looking at Lu Yuanfeng, who had arrived in a hurry, Song Qingming hurriedly stepped forward to salute and apologize.

Lu Yuanfeng smiled and waved his hand after listening, "Fellow Daoist Song, do not be so polite. Since it concerns Yang Wuqi, the scourge of the sect, I had to come regardless. I wonder if you have left any living captives? I want to see if I can find any traces of that demon."

Song Qingming nodded and beckoned to Song Changfeng on the side.

Before long, Gu Liangshan and the other captured demonic cultivator were brought up.

After Lu Yuanfeng stepped forward to examine the two, a second-tier spirit talisman suddenly appeared in his hand, which he slapped onto Gu Liangshan's forehead. After he chanted a spell, a trace of thick black Qi suddenly emerged from Gu Liangshan's body and sank into the spirit talisman stuck to his head.

Seeing that the spirit talisman had already been stained with a wisp of black Qi, Lu Yuanfeng immediately took it off.

"This is a Soul-Chasing Talisman made by the sect. It can extract a wisp of the demonic soul hosted by a high-tier demonic cultivator from these low-tier demonic cultivators. With this, as long as the original body is within ten thousand miles of this talisman, we can find his exact location within a month." Seeing that the crowd was somewhat curious, Lu Yuanfeng hurriedly explained.

The wisp of demonic soul on Gu Liangshan was precisely what Yang Wuqi used to control his disciples who were parasitized by him. Once these people dared to have thoughts of rebellion, as long as the demonic soul restriction in their bodies was triggered, their lives could be taken instantly. These were common methods for high-tier demonic cultivators to control their subordinates.

However, this method would also leave some hidden dangers. Once a demonic cultivator planted with a demonic soul restriction was captured, if the original body did not destroy these demonic souls in time, the opponent could use tracking talismans like the "Soul-Chasing Talisman" to find the original body's location within a short time. This was also the reason why Chen Xuanxin was able to accurately block Yang Wuqi when he was tracking him in the State of Wei back then.

However, a second-tier talisman like the Soul-Chasing Talisman was worth two hundred spirit stones each and was not something an ordinary person could use casually. If it weren't for the sake of tracking down Yang Wuqi, the demonic head heavily wanted by the sect, Lu Yuanfeng would not have been willing to take it out easily.

"Looking at the direction indicated by this wisp of demonic soul in the spirit talisman, that demon Yang Wuqi should be hiding in Pingyang County, not far to the north. There is no time to lose; I must return immediately to notify the sect and appoint personnel to come and assist us in completely eradicating this scourge."

After Lu Yuanfeng finished speaking and discussed and informed Song Qingming, he returned to Qinghefang first. Song Qingming, however, still had to stay behind to handle the aftermath of the Wu family, and could only return a day later.

The Wu family's negligence this time led to the infiltration of demonic cultivators, almost causing the entire family to suffer an extermination disaster. Such an event happening under the Song family's jurisdiction also made the Song family very vigilant.

After practicing demonic cultivation arts, most cultivators would find it difficult to control the various desires in their hearts, especially the greed for the power of the arts. It is precisely because of this that these demonic cultivators would blood-sacrifice the living beings of the cultivation world to obtain some power from the demonic gods of the upper realm. And once this desire is opened and they come into contact with the demonic gods of the upper realm, it is difficult to turn back.

As long as they were given a few years, these demonic cultivators could completely destroy a first-tier Qi Refining family that had been passed down for hundreds of years. If they were allowed to blood-sacrifice too many cultivators, they might even breed a Foundation Establishment demon. Next, the nearby cultivation families would definitely suffer as well. Thinking of such consequences, the cultivators of various families were also very afraid.

Next, in addition to sternly reprimanding the Wu family cultivators, Song Qingming also reminded the other affiliated families that from now on, each family should strengthen their own patrol forces to prevent things like what happened to the Wu family from happening again.

Just as Song Qingming was reprimanding the Wu family cultivators, in a dark cave on a deep mountain thousands of miles away in Pingyang County, a somewhat withered old man suddenly opened a pair of strange blue eyes.

"What a bunch of useless things. They couldn't even handle such a small matter."

After the old man muttered to himself, he took out a black spirit talisman. Then, a stream of black ghost fire suddenly surged from his hand, burning the spirit talisman he was holding to nothing.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 162 =====