Chapter 131: Chapter 95: Danger Level: Class 1-C

The Weixiu star has hung high for seven days.

The traces of that disaster remain deeply imprinted in this city, and Chouhuai City is filled with the stench of decaying corpses.

The pervasive scent of rotting corpses lingers in the air over this city being rebuilt.

Within the city, remnants of walls and ruins are everywhere to be seen.

On the streets, rotting corpses are continually being dragged out from the debris, piling up into mountains.

Those corpses have decomposed to the point of deformation, making them unidentifiable.

To prevent the accumulation of corpses from sparking an epidemic, under the supervision of the cultivators of Chouhuai City, the last traces are being cremated to ashes.

Liou Yuan walks slowly along the street, witnessing the piles of corpses ignited by fierce flames, shakes his head, unwilling to look further.

He begins to wander through different parts of Chouhuai City, following the memories of his nearly one-month stay here.

Chouhuai City is vast, and the current detection range of the Fixed Star Compass is no more than five hundred meters in radius.

Clearly, this distance is insufficient to encompass the entirety of Chouhuai City.

If he cannot roughly locate the position of the Star Evil, using the Fixed Star Compass recklessly is likely to yield nothing.

Wasting the opportunity to use the Fixed Star Compass is a minor issue.

Missing the reward for capturing this Calamity-level Star Evil would be the greatest loss.

Liou Yuan casts his thoughtful gaze over the surroundings, pondering to himself: "Forget about pinpoint accuracy, as long as I can roughly determine a range that the Fixed Star Compass can cover, that’s enough."

Undoubtedly, this is a challenging task.

Even Foundation Establishment Great Cultivators have no means to accurately locate the Star Evil, nor does Liou Yuan.

But he has one advantage.

That is, Liou Yuan was the first to sense the peculiar scent in Chouhuai City and has been immersed in it for nearly a month.

He cannot pinpoint the Star Evil’s position, but he can roughly determine its whereabouts through the intensity of the scent.

"The denser the scent, the closer it is to the Star Evil."

"Conversely, the farther it is."

Liou Yuan recalls the memories of the past month.

During this time, his legs have traversed every corner of this city.

The spots with rich scent and those with faint ones flash quickly through his mind.

Then Liou Yuan takes out a piece of Xuan paper and begins marking it with the Bamboo Infant Pen.

Liou Yuan marks heavily with ink in places where the scent is strong; conversely, he makes a light stroke where the scent is faint.

Soon, dozens of hundreds of small dots appear on the Xuan paper.

Liou Yuan glances over the Xuan paper, quickly identifying a general area, then circles it with the Bamboo Infant Pen.

"Use the Fixed Star Compass right here!" Liou Yuan taps the center of the circle with his finger, having already made up his mind.

Then Liou Yuan puts away the Xuan paper, activates the Treading Flowing Waves technique, and disappears from the street in a surge of blue spiritual light.

Lingjue Temple, a temple built alongside Chouhuai City at Jade Sun Pass.

Its age is as old as the city’s.

However, the Jin Dynasty holds supreme royal authority, and most of the people in the cities under its control revere the royal power rather than the gods and Buddhas in temples.

As a result, the incense offerings at this temple have always been poor.

With the passing of the last head monk of Lingjue Temple fifty years ago, the monks, due to uneven distribution of incense money, quarreled fiercely and eventually dispersed.

This led to the temple’s complete abandonment.

Strangely enough.

The entire Chouhuai City, even the yamen, was destroyed by the Calamity-level Star Evil that besieged the city.

But Lingjue Temple remained untouched.

The azure blue light stops at the entrance of Lingjue Temple, revealing Liou Yuan’s clean and decisive figure.

"Lingjue Temple!" Liou Yuan glances at the skewed plaque at the temple entrance and murmurs its name softly.

This is where Liou Yuan marked as the center of the circle.

Approaching the dilapidated temple, the musty odor of decaying wood hits him in the face.

The paint on the beams peels like withered leaves, curling and falling off, exposing the decaying wood beneath.

The stone lions on either side, once imposing, now miss a corner and are covered in moss.

Liou Yuan steps into the courtyard, where wild grass grows rampant, spreading through the cracks in the stone, as if trying to swallow the temple bit by bit.

The incense burner in the center lies tipped on the ground, its body full of cracks.

Inside the hall, a Buddha statue withered, its golden surface peeling away, revealing the coarse clay beneath, with an arm broken and face indistinguishable.

Liou Yuan glances at the Buddha statue, unable to recognize its identity either.

After circling around and finding no living creature, Liou Yuan feels considerably relieved, musing, "A silent place, no need to worry about the Fixed Star Compass being seen."

Saying so, Liou Yuan doesn’t hesitate. His mind moves, and the Fixed Star Compass is already perched on his left palm.

Creamy white starlight immediately emerges, illuminating the Buddha statue within the hall.

"In the void, the needle points clear, the southern Zhang constellation ascends thrice, the positions of Kan and Li are known to man, a tiny discrepancy renders it useless..."

Liou Yuan holds the Fixed Star Compass in one hand, forms a hand sign with the other, murmuring incantations.

Clang! The Fixed Star Compass activates.

At this moment, the power of the Fixed Star Compass covers the entire Lingjue Temple and even many streets outside.

Then, a miniature map slowly forms on the Fixed Star Compass.

"At this crucial moment, don’t fail me..."

Liou Yuan mutters, his eyes nervously fixed on the forming map.

He hasn’t finished speaking when his eyes suddenly focus, then locking tightly onto the Fixed Star Compass.