Beneath Huwei Mountain lies Huwei Village.
Decades ago, ferocious tigers prowled Huwei Mountain, often devouring people. Then the Immortal Master descended, subdued the tigers, and Huwei Village finally found peace.
Over the years, the village has grown to several hundred inhabitants.
The villagers, simple and honest, grateful for the Immortal Master's kindness, would dedicate a portion of their crops and hunting yields to the mountain. It was both a sign of thanks and a hope to keep the Immortal Master nearby, shielding Huwei Village.
Whether the offerings took effect, or the Immortal Master took pity, nobody knew.
But for the following decades, the Immortal Master truly made Huwei Mountain his residence. Whenever villagers faced untamable beast attacks, he would descend and wield his Divine Skills to slay the creatures.
The villagers' reverence for the Immortal Master grew ever stronger.
They honored him with the title 'Hu Wei Immortal Master.'
Whenever a newborn arrived, they would consider it a great fortune to be blessed with a na given by the Hu Wei Immortal Master.
So ten miles away from the village, there lay a low hill, the villagers' burial ground. Living generation after generation within the mountains, outsiders even called them Mountain Barbarians.
They never took burying the dead too seriously.
When villagers died of old age, illness, or mauled by wild beasts, they were all discarded on this low hill, buried haphazardly.
Thus, it was nad 'Chaotic Burial Mound.'
At nightfall,
Yin Winds swept through Chaotic Burial Mound with howling gales through the woodland, creating eerie sounds that the villagers believed were the cries of ghosts and spirits, daring not to venture near after dark.
But on this night, a lone figure flickered in the pitch-dark.
Looking closely,
This person donned a black robe with disheveled long hair and a face painted with uncanny patterns.
Ordinary people would be petrified at a glance.
The person was unmoved by the mournful Yin Winds.
Standing before a fresh grave, he seriously burned incense and offered prayers.
The incense was strange; it withstood the wind, emitting bursts of an unusual aroma.
After the prayers, with the incense still burning, the Black Robed Man took a vine cut from a tree and stuck it on top of the grave.
Once inserted, he muttered an incantation.
Suddenly, the vine began to grow naturally at an astonishing rate.
When the vine had flourished, the Black Robed Man, muttering under his breath, wielded a peach wood sword. He then took out a Yellow Talisman from his chest, chanting a spell and burning the talisman.
While chanting, he cut a small section of the vine on the grave with the peach wood sword, took a carving knife, and whittled it into a small wooden puppet about an inch and a half tall, painting features with ink and cinnabar.
All this was done ceremoniously.
Just as midnight struck.
The Black Robed Man raised his head, revealing a sinister smirk on his cryptic face. He stored the small wooden puppet within a glass bottle and cried out in a triumphant tone to the four directions.
Four gusts of Yin Wind converged from all directions, swirling around him.
The Black Robed Man extended the glass bottle, and the Yin Winds, full of elation, plunged inside.
"Ooooh~"
Soon after, the bottle began to emit eerie and unsettling sounds.
Clutching the glass bottle, the corners of his mouth twitched with amusent. Backed by the weird noises, Yin Winds, and darkness, he appeared exceedingly ominous and intimidating.
Just as he was about to leave—
"Well, what do we have here? So wonderful thod surely, just to find out it's rely a minor Technique of Cultivating Yin Ghosts."
From deep within the forest, a voice erged.
"Who's there?!"
The smile on the Black Robed Man's face vanished instantly as he bellowed toward the source of the voice, his face taut with vigilance.
Lu Qingfeng stepped out of the woods, rather disappointed.
He had thought it might be so sophisticated thod of Enslaving Ghosts but found it was just the lowliest craft of Cultivating Yin Ghosts, hardly worthy to be showcased. Not to ntion anything else, even the re Seven Evil Banner surpassed this technique by countless asures.
"Who are you?"
The Black Robed Man looked at Lu Qingfeng and asked sternly.
Silently erging like that, and alone no less, he was not an ordinary person. In the pitch-black night, considering his looks, he seed just a youth.
Inwardly, he grew even more wary.
"Don't panic, don't panic."
"I just want to ask you a few questions," Lu Qingfeng waved his hand, stepping forward to stand before the Black Robed Man, laughing lightly.
"What is it?"
The Black Robed Man gripped the glass bottle tighter, retreating a few steps as Lu Qingfeng approached.
Lu Qingfeng chuckled, unconcerned, and directly asked, "Do you happen to know where the exit is among these towering mountains? In this region of the Earth Realm, are there others like you... with such extraordinary abilities?"
Between layers of mountains and valleys, it was difficult to get anywhere.
Ordinary villagers couldn't venture more than a dozen miles from ho, and information was scarce.
After erging from the Rebirth Pool for more than two months, Lu Qingfeng had encountered average villages, learning nothing from his inquiries. This Black Robed Man, however, was the first extraordinary individual he t with so skill.
Thus, after so observation, he revealed himself to ask.
He was preparing to leave the mountains to enter a bustling human city or nation. But before that, if he could interact with a few more individuals like the Black Robed Man before him, to gain insight into and familiarize himself with the combat thods of the Sky Witch Realm, it couldn't be better.
From the part, one infers the whole.
It would allow him to grasp so understanding and be prepared.
As Lu Qingfeng asked, the Black Robed Man, shrouded in darkness, seed to ponder.
For a mont, silence.
Only the incessant Yin Winds and the continued wailing from the glass bottle filled the air.
But after a brief silence,
Lu Qingfeng saw the Black Robed Man flash an eerie grin, and the strange noise from the bottle stopped abruptly. He blew into the bottle, and four gusts of Yin Wind erged, disappearing into the dark.
"What's this about?"
Lu Qingfeng suddenly laughed.
The Black Robed Man's silence just now must have been him waiting for the small ghost inside the bottle to finish feeding. Clearly, all his skills lay within the glass bottle. As soon as the mont arrived, he swiftly made a move.
Quite a ruthless character.
"Playing ghostly tricks!"
"Let's see how they match up against my technique!"
The Black Robed Man's voice was hoarse, like rust scraping, unsettling the mind.
Lu Qingfeng watched the Black Robed Man's eyes flash fiercely, feeling exposed. A sensation of emptiness overca him as if his footing was lost, covered in obscurity with nowhere to turn.
Then, it felt as though the entire scene before him was about to vanish without a trace.
Truly bizarre.
"This technique is sowhat interesting," Lu Qingfeng's eyes blazed with spirit light, and the veil of nothingness before him shattered. Amidst his heart's movents, countless Sword Qi surged from within, striking an unknown place within his body fiercely—
"Crack!"
The Dao heart freed, regaining sudden clarity.
"So quickly?!"
As the technique broke, the Black Robed Man's eyes dimd, his face revealing shock. This powerful technique had always been his trump card. Against peers, as long as their power didn't greatly surpass his, they would be ensnared by it, allowing him to slaughter as he pleased.
Few had ever escaped it.
Yet Lu Qingfeng broke it so effortlessly, causing the Black Robed Man great alarm.
"Four Spirits, aid in slaughter!"
He dared not slacken.
As the Black Robed Man's hands ford a Seal Technique while reciting a spell, four gusts of Yin Wind surged from the glaze bottle, swirling before converging on Lu Qingfeng.
Pregnant with thick Yin Qi, they attacked his Divine Soul directly.
At the sa ti.
The Black Robed Man's eyes sparked, and in his heart, he shouted—
"Karma Barrier—Heaven Covering!"
Lu Qingfeng suddenly felt as though a thin veil had draped over him, severing his connection with heaven and earth. Like a rootless duckweed, he couldn't perform any techniques.
"Interesting."
"Interesting."
Lu Qingfeng was genuinely intrigued.
He had thought this man only possessed the Technique of Cultivating Yin Ghosts, presenting himself just to inquire about the local situation, and thus not interested in his thods.
But now, with the Black Robed Man's continuous attacks, Lu Qingfeng was delighted.
Aside from the Yin Ghost Techniques, these two techniques alone were indeed wonderful.
"Vajra Spell!"
Lu Qingfeng's True Qi circulated, a faint Golden Light flickered across his body, as if a Vajra Protector, a Divine General, was chanting spells.
Instantly, the thin veil dissipated, and he reconnected with the world.
"Karma Barrier—Earth Concealing!"
The Black Robed Man, teeth clenched and blood streaking his eyes, cast another spell.
Lu Qingfeng's True Qi in his Dantian rippled, on the verge of quieting. His physical body, his Divine Soul, seed on the brink of annihilation. Yet ultimately, the Vajra Spell prevailed, churning True Qi, strengthening his flesh and soul, breaking the spell.
"Four Spirits, pardon!"
The Black Robed Man's face soured, aware he had t a tough opponent. His hands danced with Seal Techniques, his mouth endlessly chanting.
Finally, he held back no longer.
Lu Qingfeng stood at the center.
Four gusts of Yin Wind bore down on him, manifesting as four Yin Ghosts.
"You petty trickster!"
With a fierce glare, Lu Qingfeng stood still, his body radiating Golden Light.
"Ah!"
"Waah!"
The four Yin Ghosts scread in terror, dissolving like snow under the sun, vanishing into the Void.
Petty tricks were still petty tricks.
Faced with Super-level Techniques, the difference was unfathomably vast.
"Pugh!"
Earlier, the breaking of the three techniques had only drained the Black Robed Man's heart power. But now, with the destruction of the Yin Ghosts fostered through years of essence and blood, real calamity struck.
He spewed a mouthful of blood, sustaining severe injuries!
"Crack!"
The glaze bottle in his hand shattered in response, and the Black Robed Man collapsed to his knees, his face twisted in agony. Decades of refining culminated in a glaze bottle and four Yin Ghosts.
He figured that with them, he could secure a place back at his forr sect.
But now, all was destroyed, turned to nothing.
The blow to his spirit was far more lethal than any physical injury.
The Black Robed Man kneeled, staring blankly at the broken glaze bottle, for a mont forgetting a formidable enemy stood opposite.
"A pile of junk Magic Artifacts, a few lowly ghosts unworthy of attention—you mourn them so deeply?"
Lu Qingfeng shook his head, gaining a deeper understanding of the End of Dharma.
The path of cultivation here was cut off.
Looking at the level of the Black Robed Man, his Qi Perception was ager.
If asured by Inner Breath, he might only compare to a Mid-stage Fetal Breath Realm cultivator. But with those decades-refined Yin Ghosts and the three techniques just used, even against a True Qi Realm cultivator from Luoxia Sect, he might manage to win.
"This realm indeed has its rits."
Lu Qingfeng was pleased.
Using weakness to overco strength was not the way of the Righteous Sect, but it had its advantages. It seed this life deserved a longer stay, for a deeper exploration.
"Junk Magic Artifacts?"
"Unworthy ghosts?"
As the Black Robed Man wallowed in his sorrow, he suddenly heard Lu Qingfeng speak and snapped back to awareness. "Such arrogance!"
...
Huwei Mountain.
Lu Qingfeng strolled with hands clasped behind his back, surveying the Taoist temple on the mountain—imposing, with three entrances and exits.
"You sure know how to indulge."
Lu Qingfeng said with a smile to the man before him.
"Forgive the laughter at your expense, Upper Master."
"It's all due to the warm hearts of the villagers at the foot of Huwei Mountain, who built this for . I could not refuse and had to accept."
The Purple Pavilion Wanderer replied with a forced smile, sowhat ingratiating, which combined with his pale face and strange patterns, appeared sowhat eerie.
Lu Qingfeng glanced at him and chuckled inwardly.
This elder in purple robes was none other than the Black Robed Man whom Lu Qingfeng had subdued in the Chaotic Burial Mound.
At the Chaotic Burial Mound, as the Purple Pavilion Wanderer, whether in action or submission, he was decisively quick.
Now, so obsequious, truly two-faced.
Not short on sches.
But with Lu Qingfeng's strength, and his vigilance, this little Purple Pavilion Wanderer's intentions, no matter how crafty, couldn't shake the sky.
In the Chaotic Burial Mound.
Seeing Lu Qingfeng's formidable strength and wishing to keep his life, the Purple Pavilion Wanderer readily submitted. Easily subdued.
After the submission, Lu Qingfeng learned that this man secretly cultivated Yin Ghosts, practicing thods that hard Yin Virtue. Yet, in public, he was a venerated Immortal Master of a local village, quite revered and known as 'Hu Wei Immortal Master.'
Protecting the locality.
Though deeds and misdeeds could not offset each other, when the day cos for him to descend to the underworld, the Purple Pavilion Wanderer would face the judges there. Lu Qingfeng would not play executioner.
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