I Have an Omen System-Chapter 49 - 48: Plague Poison Altar Master

「After returning to the Blood Demon Sword Sect.」

Qin Xuan finally learned the full story of what had happened from the other Demon Cultivators.

While Chen Xuanba was wiping out the Blazing Fire Sect, Qingyunzi, the Nascent Soul Sect Leader of the Cyan Cloud Sect, had led disciples from the Lower Five Sects of the Thirteen Righteous Sects in an assault on the Blood Demon Sword Sect.

With the heavens in flux, those at the Divinity Transformation realm could not intervene.

The Blood Demon Sword Sect’s Nascent Soul Sect Master happened to be in secluded cultivation. With Chen Xuanba, the Holy Sect Demon Son, away seeking revenge, there was no one to request aid from a Venerable Divinity Transformation, nor could anyone activate the Sect Protection Array.

Everything was so perfectly timed, it was as if it had all been planned in advance.

If it weren’t for two Nascent Soul Demon Monarch Elders within the Blood Demon Sword Sect—whose lifespans were already nearing their end—the sect’s gates might have truly been breached in this joint assault!

But the cost was immense.

One of the Blood Demon Sword Sect’s Nascent Soul Demon Monarch Elders was gravely wounded, and Celestial Demon Peak vanished.

Ji Boying’s father, the strongest Golden Core True Demon who had inherited the legacy of the Yanxue Sword Demon, had fallen. Even Wei Qingyi, the Poison Blood Demon Child, had nearly lost their life!

In contrast, while the Thirteen Righteous Sects had suffered heavy losses, the Cyan Cloud Sect itself had sustained few casualties.

Qingyunzi, the Sect Leader of the Cyan Cloud Sect, retreated completely unscathed. As he departed, he proclaimed:

"To restore order and justice to the Daqian Dynasty, the next time I arrive will be the day the Blood Demon Sword Sect is destroyed!"

For a time, panic and fear spread throughout the entire Blood Demon Sword Sect.

’There’s definitely a traitor in the Holy Sect. Things can’t be this coincidental...,’ Qin Xuan mused.

Too many things about it were suspicious.

The most obvious clue was that despite their father’s death, the two brothers, Ji Boying and Ji Bochang, were acting as if nothing had happened.

Even Chen Xuanba, a Demon Child with such an explosive temper, had remained completely silent.

Unfortunately, Qin Xuan’s cultivation and status were still too low for him to be privy to such inside information.

...

「Deep within the Ten Thousand Poison Swamp」

A sickly, green miasma permeated the air.

Ghastly white bones littered the muddy swamp, piled high layer upon layer to form a towering, suffocating altar.

The Plague Poison Altar Master sat upon a throne made from a giant beast’s skeleton atop the bone altar. His ash-white Daoist Robe billowed though there was no wind, and his entire figure was shrouded in darkness, his face completely obscured save for a single, eerie glimmer of light.

Six Foundation Establishment Incense Masters, including the Plague Gu Daoist, knelt on the ground. They were half-submerged in the mire, yet not one of them dared to look up.

"Grandma Rot Heart."

The old crone whose name was called trembled violently in fear. With great difficulty, she lifted her withered head from the toxic mud, revealing half a face covered in festering sores and deep, crisscrossing wrinkles.

The Plague Poison Altar Master’s voice boomed, "To this day, why is your [Rotting Body Miasma] Position still unstable?"

Each word landed like a heavy stone, his immense aura so oppressive that it even suppressed the sickly green miasma, stopping it from spreading through the swamp!

Grandma Rot Heart was horrified. She immediately prostrated herself, her withered hands sinking deep into the mud as she begged for mercy in a hoarse voice,

"I beg for your mercy, Altar Master! I... I will do everything in my power to stabilize the Position... Please, Altar Master, give me one more chance."

Grandma Rot Heart slammed her head against the ground again and again, not caring that the toxic mud was corroding her old face.

Her frantic movements sent toxic sludge splashing everywhere.

"A chance?"

The Plague Poison Altar Master’s voice was devoid of emotion. He looked down from on high, his face a mask of indifference, like one watching an ant struggle for its life.

"Positions must be supported, and Life Stars must be guided. I give you a chance, but who, then, will give me one?" the Plague Poison Altar Master roared.

BOOM!

The moment he finished speaking, the toxic swamp right next to where Grandma Rot Heart was prostrated suddenly erupted.

A giant claw made of ghastly white bones burst from the mire and instantly dragged Grandma Rot Heart, a Fourth-Layer Foundation Establishment Demon, into the churning sludge.

"No—!"

Grandma Rot Heart’s scream was cut short before it even began.

SPLAT...

Like a giant python seizing its prey, the massive bone claw crushed Grandma Rot Heart—flesh, skin, and skeleton—with no resistance whatsoever.

Crimson blood splattered everywhere with a sickening, bone-grinding crack.

The remaining Incense Masters remained prostrate, trembling uncontrollably. Their faces were deathly pale, and though the toxic mud soaked through their Daoist Robes, not one of them dared to move.

As Grandma Rot Heart died, a ball of eerie green light drifted up from the toxic swamp, carrying with it a beautiful, almost sacred, aura.

When the eerie green light appeared, the surrounding miasma began to seethe and boil, cheering joyfully as if welcoming the arrival of its monarch.

The Plague Bone Altar Yin Wood Position—[Rotting Body Miasma]!

The Plague Poison Altar Master reached out and received the floating orb of light that was the Position. His voice echoed faintly.

"My Plague Poison Altar has no need for the useless."

"And that includes those who achieved Heaven Dao Foundation Establishment."

Below the altar, the silence grew even more profound.

The air was so thick it felt solid, weighing down heavily upon every person present.

With Grandma Rot Heart dead, the five remaining Foundation Establishment Incense Masters—Plague Bone, Withered Marrow, Yin Leech, Defeated Blood, and Soul Erosion—dared not even breathe.

They, too, had inherited Positional Divine Techniques from the Plague Poison Altar.

These Incense Masters might act high and mighty in front of the Outer Sect Demon Disciples, but here in the Inner Sect, all it would take was a single thought from the Altar Master to strip them of their Positions and leave them dead and decapitated!

"Plague Bone, I hear that your Bone-rotting Island took in a few promising Foundation Establishment candidates a while back?"

As he spoke, the eerie green light between the Plague Poison Altar Master’s fingers flickered silently, like a cold will-o’-the-wisp.

"Al... Altar Master, your insight is sharp." The Plague Gu Daoist’s heart clenched. He pressed his forehead deeper into the toxic mire.

"There is no need to be nervous. Yanxue True Monarch has granted our Plague Bone Altar two additional slots for Heaven Dao Foundation Establishment. Who they go to will depend on luck."

The Plague Poison Altar Master’s voice, like a steel knife scraping across bone, echoed in Wen Shichu’s ears once more. "However, you are to take this [Rotting Body Miasma] of Rotting Heart as well."

"I am loaning you the Power of this Position. You have ten years to find someone for me who can completely stabilize this Yin Wood Divine Technique.

"Otherwise..."

The Plague Poison Altar Master’s voice trailed off, leaving the threat unspoken.

A chill shot down the Plague Gu Daoist’s spine, and he immediately began to kowtow with even more frantic desperation.

He slammed his forehead so hard into the soft, cold sludge of the swamp that it produced dull, muffled thuds.

"...Thank you for your grace, Altar Master! This subordinate will carry out your will, even if it means death!"

"Hmph. Good that you understand."

The Plague Poison Altar Master spoke again. "Withered Marrow. Yin Leech."

"Here!" the Withered Marrow Daoist and Lord Yin Hei answered, their voices trembling.

"You two are to assist Plague Bone. If anything goes wrong, I will hold both of you accountable."

"We will obey the Altar Master’s decree!"

As he spoke, three orbs of light—one blood-red, one crimson-flame, and one a sickly green—descended and floated silently above the heads of Plague Bone and the other two.

On the throne of bone, the eerie glimmer of light that was the Plague Poison Altar Master silently extinguished.

Yet the five Incense Masters remained in their most subservient posture, heads buried deep and bodies rigid, not daring to move an inch.

Within the Ten Thousand Poison Swamp, viscous, toxic bubbles churned to the surface, making a low, gurgling sound. GURGLE... GURGLE...

The surrounding miasma seemed to grow even thicker.

...

「Time passed slowly.」

After returning to the Sect, Qin Xuan was formally assigned the subordinates befitting his position as a Steward: Demon Cultivators at the Qi Cultivation Fourth Layer or higher.

There were twenty in total.

All of them had passed the Saint Cultivator assessment.

Finding him competent and easy to work with, Qin Xuan had specially requested for Zhao Youliang to be transferred from the Demon Disciple Dormitory to serve under him.

When Zhao Youliang heard the news, he was so happy he didn’t sleep for three days and three nights.

’Now I finally don’t have to worry about dying in the Sect!’

Every speck of dust from this era, when it falls upon the shoulders of an ordinary person, becomes a towering mountain.

The Blood Demon Sword Sect had gone through a major reshuffle after the battle. Qin Xuan dutifully played his part as a cog in the machine, while also contemplating how to cultivate the Positional Divine Techniques from the Blazing Fire Sect.

One day, the Plague Gu Daoist suddenly summoned Qin Xuan and the others.

"Greetings, Master Wen Xiang!"

"All of you, rise," Wen Shichu said. "I’ve summoned you today to share some good news."

"By the grace of the Altar Master, our Plague Bone Altar now has four slots for Heaven Dao Foundation Establishment. Each of you can choose one. Who wants to be first?"