Chapter 200: Chapter 199: Taoist Jing Feng as the Vanguard

He returned to Daluo Palace and brought Yunyang, who was heading back to Yangcheng after his leave, over to Hu Yufei. The two of them then descended the mountain together, bickering playfully as they went to suppress demons and exterminate ghosts.

Besides Yunyang, all the other Daoists had also descended the mountain, except for Taoist Yan Ling and Taoist Ming Chong.

Although they had annihilated the Golden Wind Divine Sect and Daluo Palace now ostensibly controlled Changping Prefecture, the prefecture was still teeming with Demons and Ghosts, whether they roamed alone or in small, scattered groups.

Their Cultivation may not have been high, but they committed no shortage of evil deeds. In aggregate, the Evil Qi they provided was no less than that of organized evil factions like Three Extremes Mountain and Infinite Cave.

As the many senior Daoists roamed the lands on their mission of Demon Suppression, a constant stream of Evil Qi, in varying amounts, poured into the Five Thunders Order. This assisted Gu Zhao’s Cultivation and helped him form Thunder Seeds.

Having formed only one Thunder Seed, Gu Zhao was in no hurry. He planned to accumulate a few more before recruiting people all at once.

...

Although most of them were away from Daluo Palace, it didn’t stop Gu Zhao from using the Five Thunders Order to inform them about Deng Lingyun and the situation in Shide Prefecture.

"It seems the Sect Leader’s luck is quite good," Taoist Yan Song teased.

"If Shide Prefecture can resist the Netherfire Sect Leader, who has nearly two thousand years of Dao Practice, they can’t be too weak themselves. They probably have a figure on par with the White Bone God Monarch of Bai Shi Prefecture," Taoist Yi Hong analyzed.

"We’re doing this in the right order. First, we take Bai Shi Prefecture, then we move on to Shide Prefecture," Taoist Ming Yu said with a nod.

"I’m already in Guangwu County," Taoist Jing Feng said calmly. "Some people from the Yellow Heaven Altar came here to proselytize. I eliminated them."

"Be careful of that Yellow Heaven God. His power is no less than that of the Golden Wind Divine King," Taoist Yan Song reminded him. "Besides, those Yellow-skinned are a whole den of them. There might be other masters among them."

Taoist Jing Feng acknowledged the warning. "I will be careful."

...

「Bai Shi Prefecture, Guangwu County, a small town.」

In his left hand, Taoist Jing Feng held a Weasel that had reverted to its original form. With a wave of his right hand, he released a Ghost General that slaughtered the two or three Little Demons that had followed the Weasel.

Feeling the Evil Qi absorbed by his Thunder Seed, Taoist Jing Feng let a faint smile grace his lips, which in turn terrified the handful of villagers who had gathered around him.

"Ma... Mage..."

"Plea... please put away your Divine Techniques..."

If not for Taoist Jing Feng’s gentle tone, and the nearby demonic corpses—one Weasel, two black-lined rats, and a golden-silk snake, all reverted to their true forms—they would have been unable to tell if the Daoist or the demons were the evil ones.

"Daoist, the fiends have been purged. I have completed my duty!" the Mingling War Ghost God General said, bowing deeply with cupped hands.

The villagers trembled uncontrollably as they stared at the Divine General. He had blood-red hair, a ghastly green face, eyes as wide as Copper Bells, and upward-pointing fangs. His armor was wreathed in black energy, making him look more like a ghost than a god.

"Return," Taoist Jing Feng said with a nod. The Divine General’s body shrank, transforming into a streak of black light that shot into the space between Taoist Jing Feng’s eyebrows.

The Beiyin Fengdu Technique allowed one to create nine Divine Prisons. It was a method to capture, collect, refine, and command Ghosts. By extracting the True Spirit of a captured Ghost and refining it within a Divine Prison, one could turn it into a Ghost General for personal use.

According to the scriptures, each Divine Prison could house eight Divine Generals, each specializing in one of the following: Battle, Pursuit, Capture, Seizure, Shackles, Torture, Execution, and Slaughter!

Taoist Jing Feng currently possessed only one such prison, the Mingling Prison, into which he had placed the eight Golden Wind Guardians captured during the battle with the Golden Wind Divine Sect.

He had already tortured them to the point that their wills were completely broken, transforming them into the eight Divine Generals of the Mingling Prison. Their lives and deaths were in his hands, to be summoned or dismissed at will. Each now possessed a hundred years of Dao Practice, and with the enhancement of the Beiyin Fengdu Technique, their power was a cut above what it had been before.

As the villagers watched the fearsome-looking Mage recall the Divine General, the chilling aura in the air mostly dissipated, and they finally let out a collective sigh of relief.

"Mage..." One of the villagers mustered his courage, stepped forward, and asked in a low voice, "My child..."

Taoist Jing Feng pointed toward the rear courtyard. "In the back house, the second room from the left. There’s a tunnel under the bed leading to a cellar. Your missing children are in there."

The crowd swarmed into the rear courtyard. They quickly found and opened the cellar, rescuing more than a dozen children, all five or six years old. But their relief was short-lived, as cries of anguish soon rang out—not all the children were still alive.

Taoist Jing Feng sighed, his gaze falling upon the corpses of the Little Demons at his feet.

’None of them were transformed from fierce beasts. Is that why they chose the path of Incense?’ Taoist Jing Feng’s gaze swept over them, his eyes filled with contempt. ’But to target children even after becoming demons... they’re as timid as mice. Pathetic creatures that will never amount to anything.’

"You’ve got some nerve, saying our Yellow Heaven Altar won’t amount to anything."

"Judging by your robes, you must be from Daluo Palace in Changping Prefecture."

"We haven’t even come for you yet, and you have the audacity to come cause trouble in Bai Shi Prefecture!"

"The Patriarch’s foresight is truly divine! He knew something had happened in Guangwu County and that Daluo Palace would surely send someone to scout ahead. We’ll capture their vanguard and sever the hand they’re reaching out with!"

As the words fell, four figures vaulted over the wall, landing in a circle and surrounding Taoist Jing Feng.

Taoist Jing Feng glanced around at the four of them. ’Their Dao Practice isn’t very high,’ he thought. ’Where do they get the confidence to try and ambush me?’

The four men glanced at the corpses on the ground, their eyes turning to Taoist Jing Feng with venomous hatred. Without a word, each produced a porcelain bottle and immediately uncorked it.

"You fiend! You killed our Altar Master! Today, you’ll pay with your life!"

In an instant, endless yellow smoke poured from the four bottles, immediately filling the entire courtyard and enveloping Taoist Jing Feng.

Taoist Jing Feng immediately held his breath and silently recited the Golden Light Curse. A ray of golden light formed a Protective Body barrier around him, warding off the yellow smoke.

But this yellow smoke was no ordinary substance. It obscured vision, disoriented the mind, weakened techniques, and wore down one’s spirit. It even seemed to possess the ability to expand space itself; when Taoist Jing Feng probed it with his Divine Thought, he could find no end to it.

"Hahaha! This is the Yellow Heaven Divine Smoke refined by our Patriarch! Even if you have heaven-defying powers, you will die here today!" one of them sneered.

"All hail the mighty Yellow Heaven God!"

"He might be an old, tough rooster, but stew him long enough and you’ll still get a decent bowl of soup!"

"Hahahah—GACK?"

The last man was in mid-laugh when he suddenly felt a bone-deep chill. A sinister, cold aura permeated the air, piercing through the layers of yellow smoke to assail his body, feeling as if it would freeze his very soul.

Just then, the four men noticed the yellow smoke in the air was suddenly thinning. It began to condense into fine wisps of moisture, which then slowly drifted to the ground and dissipated into nothing.

At the same time, they realized their surroundings had changed. They were no longer in the small courtyard in town, but had suddenly been transported to a valley.

The sky was dim and overcast. The ground was covered in a thick layer of frost, surrounded by jagged, grotesque rocks. Gnarled old trees, black and frozen, stood silently beside a frost-covered, icy pool.

"Where is this?"

"An Illusion Realm?"

"Guard your Sea of Consciousness! Use your Divine Thought to break this formation!"

But no matter how they swept the area with their Divine Sense, they couldn’t break this "Illusion Realm" that felt completely real.

Taoist Jing Feng let out a cold cackle. The four men then saw eight figures rise from the nearby icy pool. Each one exuded a dense, sinister aura, and none of them seemed any weaker than the men themselves.

Seeing that their yellow smoke had failed and they were now besieged by powerful foes, the four were terrified. One of them looked at Taoist Jing Feng—who was cloaked in golden light yet exuded a deathly Yin Qi, like a veritable Yama—and cried out in alarm, "Could you be the Sect Leader of Daluo Palace?"