74: Chapter 74 Fierce Battle

The Black-robed Man wearing the Ghost Metal Sheep mask sat cross-legged atop a huge black lotus.

He slowly opened his eyes, his gaze piercing through the boiling crimson blood pool and locking onto Lin Ye, who had kicked the door open and entered.

A dry, harsh chuckle came from beneath the mask.

The laughter scraped against the stone walls of the underground cave, echoing in the empty space with a condescending mockery and disdain.

"To be able to break the outer Five-Ghost Soul-Sealing Array and cut down Peripheral Elder, you junior from Taiping Street certainly have some tricks up your sleeve."

The Black-robed Man did not show any panic due to the intrusion of an external enemy.

He slowly raised both hands, his wide sleeves sliding down to reveal a pair of emaciated palms covered in black corpse spots.

His ten fingers formed a bizarre spell seal, and his fingertips pointed at the eight black stone pillars standing around the blood pool.

"It is just a pity that you have come a step too late."

Accompanied by his action, the dozens of living people bound to the stone pillars simultaneously let out a shrill and tragic wail.

The intricate runes carved on the surface of those stone pillars lit up with dazzling blood light, and the cut wounds on the wrists of the living people gushed out more blood, accelerating into the blood pool below along the grooves of the stone pillars.

The boiling of the blood pool intensified.

In mid-air, the phantom of the Ghost Mother with three heads and six arms absorbed a massive amount of the living people's vital blood, and its originally illusory body began to condense solid dark red scales.

The six thick arms danced wildly in the air, stirring up gusts of foul wind.

"These eight stone pillars secretly correspond to the number of the eight gates: Rest, Life, Injury, Delusion, View, Death, Shock, and Open."

The Black-robed Man pointed at the living people struggling in pain, his tone revealing a cruel fanaticism.

"They are all people with purely Yin characters in their Eight Characters. I used the secret art of the Yinshan Sect to tightly bind their heart meridians to this [Blood-Soul Symbiosis Array]."

He spread his hands, adopting a posture of letting himself be slaughtered, but his tone was arrogant to the extreme.

"You are welcome to destroy this stone pillar; as long as you dare to use even a shred of thunder magic, the immense force of the array's backlash will instantly tear their internal organs to shreds. Every time you smash a pillar, you will personally send these few lives to the netherworld."

"Come on, living immortal of the upright sects. Make a move and let me see which one you plan to kill first?"

The Black-robed Man laughed wantonly.

He was certain that these so-called righteous people had misgivings and would never dare to use dozens of living human lives as a gamble.

As long as they delayed for half an incense stick's time, the Ghost Mother would descend completely, and everyone in this cave would be reduced to blood food under his dharma seat.

Lin Ye stood at the floodgate, coldly watching this farce of moral kidnapping.

His gaze swept across the bound living people.

These people were dressed exquisitely, wearing expensive luxury watches on their wrists. They were obviously from the wealthy and powerful class of Jiangzhou City, secretly abducted here by the Yinshan Sect evil cultivators to serve as array-eye sacrifices.

Faint light leaped in front of his retinas, and the somewhat mechanical prompt tone of the system rang crisp and clear.

"Ding! "My Lord, Please Behave Yourself" System prompt: Detected that a core protector of the Yinshan Sect is performing moral kidnapping, attempting to use hostages to stall for time. Please determine a brilliant strategy to break the situation within three minutes and smash this despicable method!"

The light screen popped up, listing three options:

[Option A: Mother Goddess Descent — Put down the peach wood sword in your hand, kneel on both knees and bitterly beg the other party to let go of the hostages, expressing your willingness to trade one life for another.]

[Reward: Touching Dazhai Good Person Medal. Consequence: The Black-robed Man will laugh and skin you alive, then slaughter all the hostages, and your stupidity will become the biggest laughing stock in the metaphysical world.]

[Option B: Capitalist Redemption — Directly ignore the evil cultivator's threat, and open an on-site bidding life-saving service to those wealthy and powerful hostages.]

[Utilize their extreme desire for survival, stimulate the Pure Yang fire of their survival instinct, and disintegrate the Blood-Soul Symbiosis Array from the inside.]

[Reward: Husband Points + 400, acquire the spell [Gathering Yang Lion's Roar], and massive monetary rewards.]

[Option C: Perish Together — Sneer "What do their lives or deaths have to do with me", and directly throw out the Taiyi Heavenly Thunder Talisman for indiscriminate bombardment.]

[Reward: Cold-blooded Butcher title. Consequence: You will shoulder the massive karmic retribution of dozens of human lives, your Dao heart will be tarnished, and your future cultivation will inevitably suffer the backlash of heavenly condemnation.]

"Hehe! Don't you know that in the end times, you kill the holy mothers first?"

Lin Ye sneered.

Play moral kidnapping with him?

This bunch of rats hiding in the gutters simply didn't understand what all is fair in war means.

"I choose B."

With his thought settled, Lin Ye heavily slammed the lightning-struck peach wood sword on his back onto the ground.

He took a deep breath, and the vast true Qi of the Pure Yang Dao Body gathered in his chest cavity.

The system-rewarded [Gathering Yang Lion's Roar] was instantly mastered.

A shout mixed with Taoist gang Qi roared thunderously within the vast underground cave.

"All you bosses tied to the pillars, prick up your ears and listen well!"

This roar shook the water surface of the blood pool into layers of ripples.

Those hostages who had fallen into a semi-comatose state due to excessive blood loss were shaken by this masculine true Qi and struggled to open their eyes one after another.

"Your lives are now hanging on the Ghost Gate. If you want to live, open your eyes wide and look at me!"

Lin Ye pointed at the tip of his nose, his voice piercing through the foul-smelling blood mist and clearly entering everyone's ears.

"My name is Lin Ye, owner of the Taiping Old Street Funeral Shop. Today I am here to save you, but my appearance fee is very expensive—one head, ten million for a life-buying price! Those who agree, nod at me immediately right now!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere inside the cave experienced a brief stagnation.

The expression under the Black-robed Man's mask completely froze.

He had imagined that Lin Ye would be angry, would compromise, or would have misgivings, but he never expected that this young man would actually start extortion and raise prices on the spot right in the center of an S-rank disaster array!

The wealthy merchants and powerful figures tied to the stone pillars were stunned for half a second before the instinct to survive instantly defeated their heartache over money.

Never mind ten million; as long as they could live, they would gladly bankrupt themselves.

Dozens of heads nodded desperately on the stone pillars, their eyes bursting with an extreme desire to survive.

"Very good!"

Lin Ye's lips curved into a smug sneer.

"Now, listen to my command! Everyone, bite the tip of your tongue hard! Spit your tongue-tip blood onto the black stone pillars tied to you! Quick!"

A person has three fires: both shoulders and the top of the head.

Tongue-tip blood is where a living person's entire Pure Yang vital essence gathers.

When a person faces a desperate situation and bursts out with an extreme desire to survive, the Yang energy of this mouthful of tongue-tip blood will climb to its peak.

The wealthy merchants did not dare hesitate at all.

To save their lives, they bit their tongues hard.

"Puff! Puff! Puff!"

Mouthful after mouthful of warm Pure Yang tongue-tip blood was spat onto those black stone pillars carved with dark and evil runes, one after another.

The moment the Pure Yang blood touched the extreme Yin array eyes, it erupted with a harsh "hissing" sound.

Wisps of white smoke rose from the surface of the stone pillars, and those runes flashing with blood light were forcibly corroded and blocked by the Yang blood.

The Yin-Yang balance of the Blood-Soul Symbiosis Array began to shake violently under the impact of the living people's desire to survive from within.