Chapitre 30: Stone Cup, Blood Wine, Severed Fingers
"Crack!"
"Crack, crack!"
Several fissures split the void, and out stumbled three... white-clothed people?
Well, they could be called white-clothed people, as Jin Ren had seen their faces before. They were among those captured by Zhu Yike's "Jumping Paper" technique, sealed within sheets of paper, and cast into a spatial fragment.
But now, they hardly resembled white-clothed people at all!
Each one was clad in a white robe drenched in fresh blood, their bodies covered in grievous wounds. One of them was even missing an eyeball.
They looked more like red-clothed people—literally red-clothed people who had just endured a bloody battle!
"Hallmaster Dao?"
"What? Hallmaster Dao? It's really Hallmaster Dao!"
The two Higher Voids who first emerged from the spatial fissure, covered in blood, initially reacted with suspicion upon seeing Dao Qiongcang standing there, pristine in his immaculate robes. But upon closer inspection, they confirmed his identity through undeniable signs: the Divine Sinan, the Divine Puppet, and the familiar surroundings of Qingyuan Mountain.
Dao Qiongcang furrowed his brow at their words.
Jin Feng, a Higher Void with gold elemental attributes, had served as a white-clothed for thirty-two years, known for his devastating offensive prowess and the Heaven-Piercing Golden Spear he wielded.
Huang Zhao, a Higher Void with earth attributes, had served for forty-six years. For the first twenty-three, he was renowned for his unbreakable defense, earning a reputation as an "immovable old turtle," though his combat record wasn't particularly remarkable compared to other white-clothed people.
In the second half of his career, he had partnered with Jin Feng. Together, their offense and defense complemented each other so well that they could fend off attacks from teams of ten other white-clothed individuals and even survive a blow from a demi-saint. They were famously known as the "Jin Huang Duo."
This pair represented the strongest combination among the white-clothed dispatched on this mission.
But after being sealed in the "Jumping Paper" and thrown into a spatial fragment...
Who could have injured them so gravely in such a short time?
Not even a hundred Higher Voids would be capable of inflicting such injuries through sheer numbers!
Had they encountered a demi-saint?
But if it had been a demi-saint, even the strongest Higher Voids wouldn't have survived. And if a saint had appeared, how could Dao Qiongcang have remained oblivious, still casually conversing with Xu Xiaoshou at Qingyuan Mountain?
Dao Qiongcang's gaze swept over the two anxious men, but instead of addressing them directly, his attention settled on the one-eyed Cutting Path cultivator.
"Ah... ugh... ah..."
"Get away from me! Stay back!"
The man's mental state was unstable. He gasped between breaths, shouting randomly at the empty air before him. His remaining eye was filled with panic, fear, and complete disorientation.
Dao Qiongcang scrutinized his decaying scalp and recognized him...
Du Liang.
Dao hadn't reviewed much detailed information on him because Du Liang was just a Cutting Path cultivator.
His distinguishing feature was a unique commanding ability, where his spiritual source could transform into commands, controlling all things—both living and dead. He was notorious for his extreme lasciviousness. Once a tall, handsome man with a head full of black hair, Du Liang now looked wretched, his face rotten, and his hair mostly fallen out, leaving only a few frail strands.
As for his cultivation, his energy reserve was shattered, his foundational roots collapsed, and his life was nearing its end.
He had clearly suffered precise and deliberate attacks, especially on his energy reserve—damage too meticulous to be caused by the chaotic spatial fragment alone.
"Only you three are left?" Dao Qiongcang asked, glancing around. The spatial crack had already mended itself and restored the void to its original state.
A fourth white-clothed figure had yet to emerge.
Out of fifty or sixty people thrown into the spatial fragment, only three had made it back in this short time, and one of them was gravely injured.
At this point, Dao Qiongcang could guess they had encountered something or someone at a demi-saint level—or something just as bizarre.
"What happened?"
Instead of further disturbing Du Liang, Dao turned to Jin Feng and Huang Zhao.
"Reporting to Hallmaster Dao, we were sealed into a special space by that wretch, and we were resisting together..." Jin Feng's anger flared as he pointed to the unconscious Zhu Yike, lying on the ground, and gave him a vicious kick.
"Pfft!"
The unconscious Zhu Yike spat out a mouthful of blood, briefly waking in pain before fainting again.
"Old Jin, stop!" Huang Zhao hurriedly pulled his partner back.
This Red Flower Bandit was already unconscious and had a weapon prohibition seal hung around his neck. Hallmaster Dao had obviously kept him alive for a reason—killing him now wasn't an option.
Jin Feng, still fuming, suppressed his anger and continued his report:
"Somehow, that space suddenly collapsed, and we saw a figure... it seemed to be a person!"
Seemed to be? A person?
Dao Qiongcang nodded slightly, signaling for him to continue.
"We couldn't see him clearly. At that time, we were trying to break through that special space..."
Dao Qiongcang knew exactly what space Jin Feng referred to. He had experienced Zhu Yike's "Jumping Paper" before—it was an extremely oppressive and confined realm.
Dao had managed to transform Xiao Qi into Yu Zhiwen and conceal himself because he had already comprehended the Golden Gate Technique and could break through at any time. However, for the white-clothed people, breaking free would be far more difficult. They would have had to endure the oppressive atmosphere similar to the one Dao himself had faced back in Changde Town. It was a nearly impossible feat unless Zhu Yike had been sealed outside in time.
But Dao Qiongcang glanced at the unconscious Zhu Yike, knowing he had sealed him early enough.
Jin Feng and the others should have returned quickly from the spatial fragment to Qingyuan Mountain.
Yet something had clearly gone wrong.
Dao had anticipated that under highly unusual circumstances, a spatial fragment might claim the lives of one or two Cutting Path cultivators. After all, white-clothed people were experienced warriors, accustomed to dealing with the dangers of spatial fragments.
But only three had returned...
After taking a deep breath, Jin Feng continued.
"It was just an encounter. We didn't even get a proper glimpse of the person's face. Was it even a human?"
"In the spatial fragment, we were plunged into absolute darkness."
Absolute?
Dao Qiongcang pondered this.
Spatial fragments were inherently dark, but spiritual senses allowed for telepathic communication. Through these senses, one could still perceive spatial storms and spatial blades, thereby avoiding danger.
Absolute darkness meant nothing could be done at all…
Huang Zhao nodded in agreement and added, "I felt the same as Old Jin. We couldn't see anything and completely lost track of our comrades' positions."
"Yes!" Jin Feng, clearly hot-tempered, flared up again, ready to kick Zhu Yike a couple more times, but was restrained just in time.
Gritting his teeth, Jin Feng said with hatred, "In just that instant of absolute darkness, when I woke up, more than half of my brothers who fought alongside me were missing."
"I broke through the darkness the fastest and immediately found Brother Huang, luckily not far away, within my spiritual senses' range."
"He was still curled up, and I helped him break free from the darkness."
Curled up, meaning in a defensive position, waiting for aid... Dao Qiongcang nodded, understanding their professional terminology. "Then?"
Jin Feng hesitated, then awkwardly said, "Couldn't see anything. Maybe he was scared by our combat prowess and disappeared."
"And the others?" Dao Qiongcang asked.
Jin Feng shook his head, his gaze heavy with sorrow. "When I woke up, there were few uninjured people around. After saving Brother Huang, the rest…"
Dao Qiongcang waited silently.
"Died."
Jin Feng struggled to utter the final word.
He suddenly erupted, brandishing a golden spear and aiming it at Zhu Yike's head. "I'll kill you, you bastard…"
Huang Zhao held him back, turning him around to calm him down.
"You speak," Dao Qiongcang turned to the more composed Huang Zhao.
"I was in a defensive stance, waiting for help, so the darkness couldn't invade me. I think if Old Jin hadn't broken through the darkness, none of our team would have survived."
Huang Zhao paused, then added, "Yes, we were the team attacking the Chief of the Path Division but actually targeting the Red Flower Bandit, mostly composed of Higher Void-level fighters."
Pointing to Du Liang, he continued, "They were in charge of defense, protecting Yu Zhiwen, but ended up guarding the team attacking Red Flower Bandit, mostly Cutting Path Stage fighters."
"We were sealed into different enclosed spaces."
Dao Qiongcang recognized that Huang Zhao's ability to explain the situation, despite its complexity, was commendable considering the circumstances of Sky Stealing.
He urged him to continue with his eyes.
Huang Zhao, aware of what Hallmaster Dao wanted to hear, thought for a moment and said, "In the defensive position, I sensed something sinister and evil…"
"Specifically, as Old Jin described, in 'absolute darkness,' there were forces of corruption targeting the physical body, spiritual source, and even lifespan."
"Also, my soul was attacked. Unable to breach my defenses, he shifted his focus to others."
"The intensity of the attacks was immense! Overwhelmingly so! I could withstand it, but others might not."
"The result…"
Huang Zhao wanted to say it was as Old Jin described—that upon escaping the absolute darkness, they saw their fallen comrades.
His gaze happened to fall on Du Liang.
Du Liang's face seemed itchy. He scratched it, peeling off a piece of skin, and blood flowed profusely.
Dao Qiongcang could now piece together the battle within the spatial fragment.
A group of white-clothed people, without even seeing the enemy, had been severely injured or killed, making their description of the battle vague and elusive.
"Du Liang?" He approached the Cutting Path cultivator, who was scratching his skull after peeling back his scalp.
"Heh heh…"
Du Liang, still laughing mirthlessly, raised his head at the sound, his lone remaining eye unfocused. He then quickly clutched his head.
"Ahhh!"
He let out a miserable scream.
Dao Qiongcang moved his Divine Sinan, and a starlight swept across.
The Great Purification Technique!
Caught by the spell, rationality returned to Du Liang's chaotic eyes. He stared blankly for a moment. "Hallmaster Dao?"
"What did you experience?"
"I…" Du Liang began to speak, but then scanned his condition through spiritual senses, finding his foundational roots collapsing and his spiritual source dissipating.
Realizing his end was near, he collapsed to the ground, "I…"
"You saw him. He let you come back to tell me something?" Dao Qiongcang finished for him.
Jin Feng and Huang Zhao were stunned.
Saw him?
How was that possible?
Du Liang was only at the Cutting Path Stage…
But on second thought, if it wasn't deliberate, how could Du Liang, a Cutting Path cultivator, have survived such a deathtrap?
Jin Feng felt a chill.
He wondered if his survival was not due to his combat strength or the speed with which he broke through the darkness.
At least he was alive…
He patted his head, trying to forget the fear, glaring fiercely at Zhu Yike once more.
It was all this bastard's fault!
He must have colluded with the enemy!
Beside him, Du Liang seemed to be reminded of dreadful memories by Hallmaster Dao's words, his eyes filled with fear. "He, he…"
He stammered for a long time but couldn't speak, as if resisting himself.
"Can't say or don't dare to say?" Dao Qiongcang's eyes gleamed.
Du Liang glanced at his ruined body, feeling he had only a few words left.
He shook his head and said miserably, "Hallmaster Dao, I have only one request…"
"Speak."
"In Jade Capital City, I have three hundred and sixty-two wives. I have wronged them. Please help me dismiss them and provide compensation…" Du Liang closed his eyes, "evenly distributed."
Jin Feng went ballistic at those words.
"For heaven's sake!"
"It's at this juncture, and you're worried about your mistresses in front of Hallmaster Dao?"
"What have you seen? Speak!"
Huang Zhao hurriedly pulled his companion away, offering an apologetic look to Hallmaster Dao.
Dao Qiongcang remained composed.
He hadn't forgotten the rigorous standards by which he selected the white- and red-clothed people.
Among them were individuals who might be lascivious, hot-tempered, or have their own quirks.
Yet, in matters of importance, they did not fall short.
The reason Du Liang refused to speak wasn't that his wives were more important than the people and events he had witnessed, but because it was as Dao Qiongcang suspected…
He dared not speak!
Rather, he couldn't speak!
"Do you trust him, or do you trust me?" Dao Qiongcang asked, his tone firm.
Du Liang struggled to contain his emotions, his lone pupil trembling violently. "Hallmaster Dao, please… stop asking…"
"Do you trust him, or do you trust me?"
"Hallmaster Dao!"
"The night is about to fade, and the light is nearing," Dao Qiongcang solemnly declared, reciting the oath of the white-clothed people. "I will seek vengeance for you."
Tears streamed down Du Liang's face, his pupils quivering as he reached out with trembling hands and said, "Then, give me… a wooden table."
"A wooden table?"
Jin Feng and Huang Zhao were dumbfounded.
Even Jin Ren, standing as an outsider, was equally baffled.
Why mention a "wooden table" now?
Was it the same "wooden table" they understood?
Dao Qiongcang's expression shifted slightly. From his spatial ring, he retrieved a finely crafted tea table of red sandalwood.
Just as Du Liang was about to touch it, Dao Qiongcang flipped his hand, and the table vanished.
Summoning his Holy Power, he swiftly crafted a simple wooden table from the nearby forest—hewn, mortised, and tenoned—and placed it before Du Liang.
Jin Ren felt an inexplicable chill.
Dao Qiongcang's serious treatment of this "wooden table" unnerved him.
Jin Feng and Huang Zhao remained puzzled but kept silent, observing.
Du Liang gratefully glanced at Dao Qiongcang, tore off the blood-soaked hem of his robe, and placed it on the wooden table.
At that moment, everyone noticed that even his thighs were rotting.
"He told me to say it like this…"
As Du Liang spoke, he scooped up a handful of yellow soil from the ground and firmly patted it onto the blood-stained cloth on the table, centering it precisely.
The mixture of fresh blood and soil was unsettling.
What was more disturbing was that Du Liang had lost several fingers. Of his ten original fingers, only six remained—two on the left, four on the right—dangling loosely from his skin.
He then picked up three stones from the ground, about the size of chicken eggs, and placed them in front of the mound of soil.
"He said, 'Arrange them well, evenly spaced, for life begins equal, and rules must be strict…'"
Jin Feng shivered involuntarily.
"He said, 'Hallmaster Dao, imagine these as three wine cups. Blood is the wine in the cups, brewed from beautiful dreams…'"
Huang Zhao's pupils dilated, and he abruptly looked behind him, though nothing was there to cause the chill in the air.
"He said, 'Hallmaster Dao, strike the snake at seven inches, and kill a man until he ceases to breathe. Spare my life, and I shall offer you three incenses…'"
Jin Ren suddenly realized the significance of this ritual! He recalled seeing something similar in the ruins of Ran Ming.
He desperately wanted nothing to do with this, not wanting to witness what was about to unfold. He feared it would taint his eyes.
But he was trapped within Dao Qiongcang's Great Confinement Technique, unable to sever his spiritual senses at will!
A flicker of red flashed in Dao Qiongcang's eyes. He acted swiftly, throwing a heavy punch to shatter the altar Du Liang had constructed.
"Du Liang, what are you doing? Stop!"
Sensing something was wrong, Jin Feng raised his spear and struck.
Bang!
The air ruptured with an explosion.
Too close! Dao Qiongcang barely dodged in time, avoiding a fatal blow. He activated Divine Sinan, but the Greater Teleportation Technique wasn't instantaneous. Jin Feng's strike sent Dao Qiongcang soaring into the sky.
In mid-air, Dao Qiongcang grimaced in pain.
"Anomaly! Anomaly!" A voice rang clear in his mind, though he wasn't sure if it had been there from the start or had just begun.
Checking himself, he saw his clothes filthy, his head drooping, sweat pouring from his armpits, and an odor emanating from his body—clear signs of the Five Decays of Heaven and Man!
Dao Qiongcang dared not delay. Divine Sinan spun, conjuring two beams of light, aiming for Du Liang and Jin Feng.
"Great Killing Technique!"
But just before acting, Dao Qiongcang hesitated.
With a swish, another Great Killing Technique shot toward Huang Zhao, whose defensive prowess he respected.
"Jin Feng, have you gone mad?!" Huang Zhao, shocked by Jin Feng's audacity, rushed toward the altar to prevent further disaster.
Blood streamed from his eyes, pooling into his mouth as he quickly formed a hand seal: "With my blood, nourish all things!"
Hum!
An earthy-yellow halo enveloped Huang Zhao as he tried to protect Hallmaster Dao—or what he thought was Hallmaster Dao. In reality, it was the altar.
"Sizzle!"
The Great Killing Technique incinerated Jin Feng, leaving no trace, while Huang Zhao's defense withstood one beam, though the second shot toward Du Liang's head at an angle.
Before anyone could react, Du Liang's head was pulverized into dust.
Yet, headless, Du Liang continued moving!
He used the thumb and forefinger of his left hand to break the middle, ring, and little fingers of his right hand, planting them into the mound of yellow earth as if offering incense.
Dao Qiongcang's body erupted in goosebumps!
He was too slow!
Before the Holy Power wore down Huang Zhao's defense, Du Liang had already performed the sinister ritual.
"Great Visualization Technique!"
Dao Qiongcang quickly conjured the Dead Sea beneath Huang Zhao, stripping his spiritual source and reducing him to a bloodied, lifeless figure kneeling before the altar.
Kneeling perfectly, as if he was the offering.
Meanwhile, headless, Du Liang continued to act as though orchestrating a macabre ritual.
Dao Qiongcang broke out in cold sweat, realizing the ritual was complete. Too late to stop it, a chilling wind from the Nine Heavens began to howl.
"No…"
Dark clouds gathered, spatial cracks tearing open above, and the cries of the white-clothed figures echoed mournfully from the spatial fragments.
Dao Qiongcang closed his eyes, knowing another force was at work.
Seated atop Sacred Mountain Gui Zhe, Dao Qiongcang waved his sleeve, his voice emotionless.
"Innocents cast into reincarnation, I will receive your obeisance."
Woo—
The lingering spirits bowed low in humble reverence.
The altar solidified with stone cups filled with blood wine, and severed fingers as incense.
A streak of crimson light shot from Qingyuan Mountain, seemingly aimed at the distant Sacred Mountain, veiled in shadows.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone