74: The aura is moving, a sign of the ancient demon

The Immortal Cave's stone door on Holy Son Peak was as heavy as a mountain, separating the inside from the outside.

All the weakness and fatigue on Lin Fan's face instantly vanished.

In their place was an absolute calm and indifference, almost like that of a Heavenly God or demon.

He casually tossed the three "defective" items he had taken from the Sect's treasury into a corner.

The props for his act had served their purpose.

With a thought, a quietblue virtual interface silently unfolded before him.

【Gou Dao Point Mall】

Several high-quality deaths had allowed him to accumulate a terrifying, unprecedented number of Gou Dao Points.

His gaze immediately locked onto the expensive and rare items he had once only dared to dream of.

【Myriad Form Aura Simulation Mask】

【Grade: Dao Tier (Upgradeable)】

【Effect: Perfectly simulates and switches to the aura of any living being you have come into contact with, including spiritual energy fluctuations, Divine Soul imprints, and even Karma traces.】

【Price: 300,000 Gou Dao Points】

"Bought it."

Lin Fan didn't even lift an eyelid.

That trashy item from the Sect's treasury was only fit to be a "skin suit" to disguise this divine artifact.

His gaze continued downwards.

Soon, he was firmly captivated by an item emanating a strong, ominous aura.

It was a straw doll made of withered, yellow straw.

The doll was embroidered with twisted, dark red runes, and its two black button eyes exuded an evil and coldness that could freeze the Soul.

【Karma Grafting · Hatred Transfer Scarecrow】

【Grade: Forbidden】

【Effect: Select a target with 'Karma of hatred' towards you and bind it. Any killing intent lock, Divine Soul curse, or heavenly secret deduction targeting the host will be proportionally transferred to the target. Note: The transfer ratio is adjustable, up to 99%.】

【Requirements: 1. Requires a 'Karma token' containing the target's core aura. 2. The higher the target's hatred value, the more stable the binding.】

【Price: 500,000 Gou Dao Points】

Lin Fan's pupils sharply contracted.

His breathing even paused for half a second.

This thing... had already exceeded the scope of 'Gou'.

This was the ultimate scapegoat technique!

This was a supreme divine skill that would make enemies take the hardest hits for him, and even thank him for it!

"Buy!"

Although his heart was bleeding, Lin Fan gritted his teeth and paid.

With a flash of light, the sinister scarecrow appeared in his hand, cold and rough to the touch.

Everything was ready.

"Hatred target, huh..."

Xuan Yin Sect's Sect Master Gu Tianxie's resentful old face clearly appeared in his mind.

There was no more perfect shield than him.

"Karma token..."

Lin Fan's lips curled into a cold smile, and he took out the token, personally bestowed by the Xuan Yin Sect's Sect Master, from his Storage Pouch—the one he had obtained from Zhao Wuji!

Perfect!

He sat cross-legged, placing the scarecrow in front of him and the token steadily on its chest.

He forced out a drop of essence blood from his fingertip and dabbed it on the scarecrow's forehead.

Forming hand Seals, the binding ritual began!

In an instant, the light within the Immortal Cave began to twist, and a cold, eerie, and malicious aura permeated the air.

An invisible line of hatred extended from the scarecrow, piercing through space, spanning thousands of miles, and connecting with extreme precision to a certain direction.

At the same time, in the Xuan Yin Sect.

Sect Master Gu Tianxie was staring at a row of completely extinguished Soul lamps, his face ashen.

"Qingyun Sect! Lin Gou!"

He was closing his eyes to meditate, accumulating thunderous fury, preparing for the impending Sect war.

Just then!

He suddenly opened his eyes!

An inexplicable, bone-chilling coldness, without warning, enveloped him!

He felt as if he had been targeted by the most vile and malicious thing in the world!

It was as if some unspeakable entity was frantically defecating and urinating on his Luck!

"Pfft!"

His mind reeled, and his spiritual energy instantly flowed in reverse.

A mouthful of hot blood suddenly spewed out, staining the ground in front of him.

"Who! Who is ambushing this Venerable One!"

Gu Tianxie roared in shock and anger, his Late Golden Core Stage Divine Thought frantically sweeping in all directions, but finding nothing.

Qingyun Sect, Holy Son Peak Immortal Cave.

Lin Fan slowly opened his eyes, a chilling arc forming on his lips.

He could vaguely sense Gu Tianxie's disheveled, blood-vomiting state.

Resurrection was his trump card, disguise was his armor.

But framing others was the ultimate essence of the Gou Dao!

He contentedly put away the scarecrow and mask, preparing to continue studying the System's new functions.

Just then.

Boom—!

The entire Qingyun Mountain shook violently without warning!

Immediately after, an ancient, desolate, and utterly evil aura, completely unlike anything from the mortal realm, surged skyward from the deepest part of the Forbidden Ground behind the mountain!

Lin Fan's smile instantly froze.

It wasn't just Qingyun Mountain.

At this moment, the entire Tiannan County, all its mountains and rivers, seemed to tremble slightly as if a giant beast that had slept for eons had turned over.

The sky visibly darkened at an alarming rate.

The Spiritual Qi flowing in the air was no longer a warm and nourishing sweet spring, but a turbid torrent mixed with poisonous grit, violent and defiled.

An Outer Sect Disciple who was meditating suddenly opened his eyes and spat out a mouthful of reverse-flowing blood.

Spiritual Qi rampaged through his Meridians like thousands of steel blades, almost causing him to suffer Qi Deviation on the spot!

"What's going on!"

"My spiritual energy is out of control!"

"Heavens! Why is the sky dark!"

Panic, like a plague, instantly spread wildly among the tens of thousands of Qingyun Sect Disciples.

Innumerable figures rushed out of Immortal Caves and pavilions, looking up at the sky in horror.

That wasn't dark clouds obscuring the sun.

It was a deeper level of pollution, originating from the rules of heaven and earth, causing the high-hanging sun to lose its warmth.

Everyone's gaze eventually converged in the same direction—the Forbidden Ground behind the mountain.

The ten-thousand-foot cliff known as the "Demon Suppression Abyss" was now shrouded in a dense, impenetrable black mist.

The ancient stone tablet Seal that had suppressed the Sect for over a thousand years had a shocking crack appear on its surface!

Strands of pure black Devilish Qi, like living venomous snakes, eagerly seeped out from the crack.

Wherever the Devilish Qi passed, verdant ancient pines withered at a visible rate, turning into scattered black ash within a few breaths.

The tenacious moss on the rocks emitted a "sizzling" corrosive sound, smoking black, and completely dissolving.

A third-tier Spirit Beast tiger, responsible for guarding the Forbidden Ground, merely brushed by a wisp of escaping Devilish Qi, and its massive body suddenly stiffened.

The next moment, its amber beast pupils were instantly stained blood-red!

"Roar!"

With a bestial roar unlike that of a living creature, it lunged madly at its companions, its sharp claws tearing open their throats.

The scent of blood, mixed with that pure evil aura, sent a chill from the soles of their feet to their heads for all the Disciples witnessing this scene.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several streaks of light tore through the sky, and Qingyun Sect's Sect Head and all the Grand Elders in seclusion appeared above the Demon Suppression Abyss at the first possible moment.

Each of their faces was extremely solemn.

The confrontation with the Xuan Yin Sect, that towering rage, seemed so insignificant, even somewhat ridiculous, in the face of this aura that threatened to destroy heaven and earth.

"This... this is..."

A Grand Elder whose beard reached his chest stared fixedly at the crack, his lips trembling.

Another old man, who had lived for nearly a thousand years and whose body was as withered as wood, his cloudy eyeballs almost bulging from their sockets.

He looked at the extremely pure black Devilish Qi, his voice trembling violently from fear and excitement.

"It can't be wrong... This old man has seen descriptions of this aura in the Sect's most ancient forbidden texts..."

His voice spread throughout the Sect.

"This is... the aura of an ancient Heavenly Demon!"

"The texts record that our Qingyun Sect's founding Ancestral Master chose to establish the Sect here not because of the abundant Spiritual Qi..."

"But rather... to suppress this peerless Heavenly Demon!"

This shocking secret, like bolts of Nine Heavens divine lightning, fiercely struck the minds of all the Sect's high-ranking members.

It turned out that the Sect they had guarded for a thousand years was built upon a bomb that could detonate the entire world at any moment!

Compared to the emergence of a Heavenly Demon that could cause devastation to all life in Tiannan County, what was the grudge with the Xuan Yin Sect?

The relative importance was clear at a glance.

Fear, like the arrival of the apocalypse, instantly enveloped the hearts of all who knew.

Inside the Immortal Cave on Holy Son Peak.

Through the crack in the stone door, Lin Fan felt the increasingly dense evil aura, but his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Frighteningly bright!

This Devilish Qi... so pure!

It was a million times more "orthodox" than that Pseudo-Core cultivator's trashy Cultivation Technique from the Xuan Yin Sect!

How was this the apocalypse?

This was simply... an SSS-grade, ultra-luxurious self-service death experience hall custom-made for him by the System!

He was already rapidly calculating what good things he could be rewarded with for dying by having this level of Heavenly Demon Qi infuse his body?

A complete version of the Undying Demon Soul?

The full text of the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Grand Technique?

Or directly a Demonic Path Saint Body?

"Can't wait any longer."

Lin Fan took a deep breath, instantly adjusting his state.

The excitement and calm on his face quietly faded, replaced once again by the paleness of "critically wounded" and the weakness of "stubborn indignation."

Rumble.

The stone door slowly opened.

Lin Fan, dragging his "tottering" body, walked out step by step.

"Senior Brother Lin!"

Zhao Linger, who had been waiting outside the Immortal Cave, filled with worry, immediately went to meet him when she saw him emerge.

The girl's face was filled with panic and concern, her voice even choked with tears.

"Outside... something big has happened outside! Your injuries haven't healed yet, hurry back!"

Lin Fan didn't answer.

He merely raised his head and looked towards the direction of the back mountain with his "weak" but "resolute" eyes.

The surging Devilish Qi made his Thunder Spirit Saint Body feel an instinctive aversion and restlessness.

But he perfectly suppressed it.

He looked at Zhao Linger's pale face, drained of color from fright, and a subtle ripple appeared in the cold calculation within his heart.

"Don't be afraid."

He spoke, his voice hoarse, yet carrying a strange comforting power.

"The Sect is here."

These simple four words, at this moment, were nothing less than the most solid reliance for a panicked girl.

Zhao Linger's eyes reddened, and she nodded heavily.

She looked at Lin Fan's slender yet straight back and suddenly felt that as long as she stood beside this Senior Brother, even if the sky fell, it didn't seem so terrifying anymore.

She didn't know.

The one she relied on, at this moment, was shouting madly in his heart.

'Opportunity! A heaven-sent Opportunity!'

'Must find a way to get to that crack!'

Lin Fan supported Zhao Linger's arm (mainly to make himself appear weaker) and joined the group of frightened Disciples on the peak.

Just then, a majestic voice, like a great bell, resounded throughout the entire Qingyun Sect.

It was that Grand Elder who had lived for nearly a thousand years.

His figure hovered above the Demon Suppression Abyss, like a stabilizing pillar.

"All Disciples, listen to my command!"

"The Sect faces a great calamity unseen in a thousand years, yet it is also an Opportunity unseen in a thousand years!"

"The Devilish calamity has descended, and it is also a time to test your Dao Heart!"

The old man's voice dispelled some of the panic, injecting a solemn Battle Intent.

"However, Devilish Qi is perilous and cannot be rashly investigated."

"After our deliberation, to deal with this calamity, the Sect will immediately open the 'Trial Staircase'!"

"All True Disciples may challenge it!"

"Those who successfully reach the summit will be heavily rewarded with one Magic Treasure of their choice from the Sect's treasury! And will gain the first batch of qualifications to enter the outer reaches of the Demon Suppression Abyss to investigate the Devilish Qi!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire place erupted in an uproar.

Under heavy rewards, there would always be brave men.

The fear in the eyes of some self-important True Disciples gradually replaced by greed and ambition.

But more people still looked at the surging Devilish Qi, their hearts filled with thoughts of retreat.

That was terrifying Devilish Qi that could instantly drive even nearby Spirit Beasts mad; no matter how many rewards were offered, one had to be alive to claim them.

Zhao Linger subconsciously clutched Lin Fan's sleeve, her face full of worry.

"Senior Brother, you wouldn't..."

Lin Fan didn't look at her.

His gaze, piercing through the bustling crowd, was fixed on the Coming soon-to-be-opened staircase leading to death.

No.

That wasn't a staircase.

That was his golden ticket to "legendary death"!