Longevity Chronicles-Chapter 378 - 270: Enchanting Soul Technique, The Absurdity of Worldly Affairs

Zhang Baisui's lack of talent for cultivation was once again confirmed.

He had labored throughout the entire night and then some of the morning.

Finally, at noon, as the last mouthful of Essence Blood sprayed forth, filling the secret chamber with blinding Golden Light, the Blood Sacrifice was announced complete.

When the Golden Light dispersed, what was revealed was a face pale as death with exceedingly dark circles under the eyes, filled with a look of deep resentment, staring at Huang Jing Daoist.

He felt an unprecedented emptiness within himself, even a night spent battling with those dance girls in the Sleepless City, who were as seductive as Beautiful Corpse snakes, had never left him this drained, so weak that he almost couldn't even stand.

Ignoring whatever Huang Jing Daoist wanted to say, Zhang Baisui waved his hand and said:

"Uncle Huang Jing, go rest; I need to sleep for an entire day."

"Don't anyone stop me, I'll sleep right here, right in this..."

Though he had cultivated the Yin Yang Ascension Scripture, Zhang Baisui wasn't a genuine cultivator after all, with not a shred of experience in austere cultivation.

After expending Essence Blood for seven or eight hours straight, he was terribly weak.

As he spoke, Zhang Baisui was planning to push Huang Jing Daoist out and then fall asleep himself.

But suddenly, it seemed he saw something unbelievable, and his eyes widened in shock.

Following his gaze, one could see that the "Saint Statue", originally inanimate, had somehow turned into a body of flesh and blood.

"Eh?"

"How magical! It looks exactly like that bastard Zhu Qi."

"But such a face is equally irritating. It won't do; let me slap him first to soothe my anger."

While speaking, Zhang Baisui, the young master, was about to do something ridiculous.

He forced his weakened body to try and give the Saint Statue a slap.

However, as he made his move, Huang Jing Daoist acted too.

This old Daoist had been patiently interacting with Zhang Baisui for the past dozen or so hours.

And just after the Blood Sacrifice was completed, impatience could no longer be hidden in the old Daoist's eyes as he seized Zhang Baisui, while advising:

"Young Master, please don't move rashly. The Blood Sacrifice has just been completed and the Saint Statue is in the process of 'turning from death to life', extremely fragile and must not be disturbed."

"Also, Young Master, the Residence Master had another order when I came."

"What?" Zhang Baisui was just about to ask when his body was forcibly straightened by Huang Jing Daoist.

Then he saw a face with a forced smile speak to him, "The Residence Master commands, if upon reaching Demon City the Young Master shows improvement, he may be entrusted with an important task. If the Young Master remains the same profligate, then let me, old Daoist, use some special methods. So that at tonight's treasure assembly, the Young Master doesn't leak any secrets and spoil things."

Hearing this, Zhang Baisui's face dramatically changed, and he was just about to shout in anger.

Alas, it was too late.

"Young Master, forgive my offense."

"This method is called 'Heavenly Immortal Enchanting Soul Method'. It has no side effects. On the contrary, it will enable the Young Master to perform perfectly tonight."

Before his words ended, the old Daoist Huang Jing suddenly shone a yellow light from his eyes, enveloping Zhang Baisui within it.

Such a turn of events!

Tao Qian, the third person in the secret chamber, was completely unprepared for this.

But after a little deduction, he understood the reason.

"Although Zhang Baisui is a prodigal son, unable to be entrusted with significant matters, only he could perform the Blood Sacrifice as Zhang Jiudeng's sole blood relation."

"However, Zhang Jiudeng is also afraid that his son will spoil things, so he had Huang Jing Daoist perform this technique afterward, to eliminate any future problems."

"As for why not use the Enchanting Soul Technique from the start? It must be due to a clash of techniques."

"This is a rare opportunity."

Any Enchanting Soul Method requires the practitioner's undivided attention and does not allow for distractions.

Naturally, one also becomes almost unaware of their surroundings.

Huang Jing Daoist could never have anticipated that as he put his own Young Master under a spell,

the Divine Statue that had turned into flesh and blood revealed behind it, a seemingly dead mosquito that suddenly came back to life.

It quietly flapped its wings and flew up to the neck.

Without any hesitation, it pierced into the skin, and its proboscis-like needle began to surge, injecting a large amount of unknown substances into this body of flesh and blood.

Tao Qian was adding something else, handful after handful, of invisible Desire Sin Worms entering Zhu Qi's Incense Avatar.

"If this Divine Statue remained inanimate, these worms would have no effect."

"However, now that it has become a flesh and blood body through the power of Incense Wish Power and the Blood Sacrifice Technique, it's an opportunity not to be missed."

With that thought, Tao Qian finished his addition.

Not long after, the flesh and blood body began to turn back bit by bit into inanimate matter.

Consequently, traces of both the Blood Sacrifice Technique and Tao Qian's Desire Sin Worms were wiped clean.

"This Incense Divine Dao has some mysteries, indeed."

Tao Qian muttered to himself and lay back down to his original spot; the scene of bewitchment had also ended.

When Zhang Baisui awoke once again, he seemed to be unchanged.

But his actions and tone were subtly different.

He no longer thought of slapping Zhu Qi's Avatar, but instead turned his head to Huang Jing Daoist and respectfully said:

"Uncle Huang Jing, gather our Nine Lamps Mansion's people. With little preparation, we will head to Prince Zhao Mansion to offer congratulations later."

"As the Young Master of Nine Lamps Mansion, I must personally deliver our generous gift into the Ninth Prince's hands, to demonstrate our sincerity."

"Young Master's words are most correct, hahaha."

After laughing, Daoist Huang Jing, who felt immensely accomplished, waved his robe and left the quiet room to summon those Demon Cultivators.

Just when he was so full of himself, he failed to notice.

A mosquito was closely following him as he left.

Daoist Huang Jing was extremely cautious. Whether it was setting up Forbidden Techniques or sweeping with his Divine Thought, he'd done it more than once.

If it were just any other spy, they would likely be discovered.

Unfortunately for him, he came across Tao Qian, the wielder of the Secret Demon Transformation Technique.

In the Cultivation World, the ones who could see through this technique were at the very least from powers like the Great Freedom Temple, the Taishang Dao, or the Evil Sect—all major factions of Daoist, Buddhist, and Demon.

The Heavenly Immortal Dao wouldn't cut it.

…

Tao Qian returned to the quiet room and resumed his human form.

He was about to sit down to organize the secrets he had spied upon, while also pondering the next steps of his plan.

But before he could sit down, he suddenly became aware of something.

His brow furrowed as he got up, his big belly protruding, and opened the door.

In the next moment, he saw an extremely eerie sight.

Snow!

Flakes of snow bathed in a black glow appeared out of nowhere and shrouded the entire Demon City.

In just a dozen breaths or so, the vast Demon City seemed to have entered the depth of winter, as buildings, streets, homes, and the refugee zones in the distance were all covered in heavy snow.

Such a sudden change left nearly twenty million people in the Demon City in a daze.

Tao Qian reached out to catch a flake; upon touching his palm, the snowflake immediately melted into a trickle of water running down through his fingers, within which there was a significant amount of pitch-black ash-like substance, and from it, a faint stench wafted.

In his mind, the Record surged:

[Record: Black snow, a celestial omen, denotes a disaster of corpses, or up to millions falling dead.]

Seeing this information, Tao Qian's expression instantly darkened.

But before he could do anything, one after another, more celestial omens began to appear.

Above the sky, blood-red light suddenly appeared, and a crimson star flashed by... [Record: The passage of the Death Star, a celestial omen, portends great disaster.]

A few breaths later, looking again, the edge of the sky darkened and brightened alternately, revealing another star enshrouded in purple light and ominous meaning... [Record: The flashy Death Star, a celestial omen, signifies a disaster of resentful spirits and ghosts.]

The earth suddenly trembled, and large pits mysteriously appeared in each district of Demon City, dark as dungeons and exuding a chill as they emitted countless pale bones... [Record: The earth demon turning over, a supernatural phenomenon, portends a disaster of buried bones.]

With each celestial omen and phenomenon revealed, Tao Qian's complexion grew uglier.

Having cultivated the Cultivation Tribulation Technique, Tao Qian now understood that these phenomena represented the severity of the impending disasters.

"There were also these in Southern Yue during the great human catastrophe, but I was either in Fumin or inside the Beautiful Corpse's belly, blind to them."

"But even then, there weren't as many."

"This means that even though I've glimpsed the truth behind it all, I might still be unable to stop Zhu Qi, Huang Chong, and Zhang Jiudeng."

"Could those millions of people still be doomed to be slaughtered?"

Tao Qian wore a solemn expression, a torrent of thoughts swirling in his mind.

Suddenly, at that moment, a new change occurred.

This time, it wasn't celestial omens or phenomena.

Thunderous explosions echoed above Demon City, drawing the attention of all the people who had fallen into a stupor due to the numerous strange occurrences.

Soon they realized that it wasn't thunder but fireworks.

An incredibly spectacular fireworks display had apparently begun at noon. Those fireworks clearly involved the handiwork of Cultivators; they were not only long-lasting but also dazzling. Even in broad daylight, they thrust the entire Demon City into a festive atmosphere.

If that had been all, onlookers might have seen it as a clumsy cover-up effort.

But quickly, a massive number of Cultivator soldiers poured out from Prince Zhao Mansion, appearing in every district in the blink of an eye.

Apart from clearing traces of the celestial omens, these forces began to dispense money.

Literally, dispensing money.

A tremendous number of copper coins and even silver coins, alongside those circulating vehicles, traversed nearly every bustling street within Demon City.

The citizens, who had been panicking, were now immersed in a frenzy.

They even began to actively spread praise for Prince Zhao—at no charge, they shoveled out accolades by the basketful that rang throughout Demon City.

"The Ninth Prince has proclaimed that today shall be the [Saint's Birthday] in Demon City, a universal celebration."

"To celebrate the Ninth Prince's great achievements and his benevolence to the populace, every hour, we will come out to parade, and where we pass, a shower of flowers shall be silver coins. All who see it shall partake, and everyone will be joyous."

"The orders have been passed down, the Ninth Prince, moved by the hardships of the people, has decided to open the granaries for disaster relief from today, ensuring that millions of refugees will not go hungry—with rice, flour, steamed buns, and porridge in abundance."

"Tonight, the Ninth Prince will host a valuable treasure event, to revel in joy with all people. Just shout 'Long live the Ninth Prince' once, and silver coins and banknotes may fall from the sky, right into your hands."

"Long live the Ninth Prince! Long live the Ninth Prince... Ah, it's true, I got hit, I'm rich!"

"Long live the Ninth Prince! Long live! Long live!"

Who knew when, but Tao Qian's figure appeared on the streets.

The black snow still floated down, and the various omens showed no signs of ceasing, but the panic they brought was soon thoroughly dissipated by the brilliant fireworks and the sky full of copper and silver coins raining down, along with the boundless supply of rice, flour, steamed buns, and porridge around Demon City that had millions of refugees cheering with joy.

At this moment, looking at Demon City, no one could tell that this was a territory on the verge of having millions of people slaughtered and offered in a Blood Sacrifice.

Quite the opposite—it was now a place of peace and rejoicing for all people.

Standing amidst the citizens, who were clamoring for copper and silver coins, Tao Qian slightly opened his mouth, taking a while before he exclaimed in astonishment:

"Is this Zhu Qi's doing, or Huang Chong's?"

"The methods are absurd, yet effective, extremely effective."

ps: Here comes the second update, seeking monthly tickets.