Twilight Boundary-Chapter 647 - 638: Daluo Dharma Sect

"What the hell? The Divine Descent Platform was prepared for the Noble Zhang Family?"

Hu Ma felt his scalp tingle as he listened to this. The predecessors really knew how to play the game... They spent twenty years tricking the Zhang family into crafting their own doomsday device? I want to see it!

Already struggling to contain his anticipation, Hu Ma hurriedly followed behind Mr. Longjing. He saw that the inner city of the City of the Dead had now become a wasteland. Buildings were collapsing, and roads were twisted. The bricks that paved this real city floated in the gloomy mist. Some were dissipating bit by bit, while others were being fought over by countless Vengeful Ghosts.

Just before he had entered this place, it had been grand and imposing, strict and majestic, with both living people and Yin Ghosts guarding it tightly, openly and secretly.

Yet Mr. Longjing had only borrowed a breath from him and written eight characters, and this enormous mansion was destroyed?

Thinking back to when he led a group of Reincarnators to dismantle the Iron Gate Yan Family, Hu Ma felt a little inferior.

At this time, Mr. Longjing calmly walked forward through the ruins and twisted alleys as if he were exceptionally familiar with the place, strolling deep into them.

"Do you think the Ten Surnames are powerful?" he asked.

Hu Ma, caught off guard by the sudden question, felt a bit embarrassed. "Uh… hmm?"

He remembered a time when a member of the Ten Surnames from beyond the five degrees of kinship came over, and it had scared the Reincarnators in Mingzhou so much that they didn't dare breathe. So he pretended to be calm, nodded, and said, "They're just okay!"

"Hmm?" Mr. Longjing glanced at him, appearing somewhat surprised. "Don't be too arrogant!" he said.

"The terror of the Ten Surnames has reached a point where no one dares to underestimate them. The world is full of miracle men, and with Tai Sui, each Path has some incredible skills. Twenty years ago, Lao Junmei skinned the Emperor and severed the Yi Dynasty's dragon vein, while I broke the Dou Clan's fortune. The cunning State Preceptor was likely scared and went into hiding. Since then, the Ten Surnames have been different.

"We fought tooth and nail, but the Ten Surnames took advantage of the greatest opportunity under the heavens.

"Now, they have spent twenty years digesting their previous gains, and each family's abilities have greatly improved, making them incomparable to twenty years ago.

"I know the Noble Zhang Family well, and from them, I can infer the current status of the other nine surnames."

He added with a faint smile, "Ha, I have to admit…

"People say the Ten Surnames are the ancestors of all Paths, but that's really just self-flattery. The skills in each Path have long been passed down from the common folk. It's just that the ancestors of the Ten Surnames were summoned to the palace by the Yi Dynasty to manage the Hundred Ghosts haunting the world. Over the centuries, their skills became increasingly exquisite, and their abilities grew greater. They simply caught all the good opportunities…"

This serious commentary left Hu Ma somewhat surprised.

He adjusted his mindset and then quietly said, "If Senior Longjing says so, then we understand. The Ten Surnames indeed have great skills—hidden dragons and crouching tigers, numerous trump cards. They recruit skilled people from all over the world and control the great trends of the world. We Reincarnators each have our own abilities, but usually, we have to avoid them, not daring to actually face the Ten Surnames…"

"Avoid them?" Mr. Longjing seemed astonished, looking at Hu Ma with a helpless expression. "You don't need to be so timid."

"The Ten Surnames are powerful, but we are more powerful. They are the most powerful people to arise from the human world, but we come from the heavens…"

Hu Ma listened. No… he thought. He naturally respected this senior, but now, he couldn't help but internally criticize. Do you really have to go around in such a big circle to show off? Whether you want to insult the Ten Surnames or praise them, I can go along with it…

"Mr. Tie, hold on!"

As they were talking, a figure staggered out from behind a broken wall in front of them. The man was covered in blood and dust, with spectral shadows visibly gnawing at his body. When he looked up at Mr. Longjing, his face was fierce, and he shouted sternly, "The two Old Masters have given orders! You must not leave the small courtyard! Return quickly…!"

Mr. Longjing didn't even look at him and continued walking forward. He had already understood. The man swallowed a mouthful of blood, suddenly took several steps, and began rapidly rubbing his hands together.

"Hmm?" Hu Ma couldn't help but be startled; he immediately recognized this man as an expert.

The weak ones had already died under Mr. Longjing's nightmare spell. This man's skills were likely at least sufficient to have pushed open three mansion gates.

Hu Ma was about to make a move but then heard a series of dull sounds—CREAK, CREAK, CREAK.

As the other's hands rubbed together, the surrounding broken walls seemed to come alive, twisting and changing incessantly.

Hu Ma had been following Mr. Longjing, but the road beneath his feet suddenly changed, transforming into a dark, straight passage.

It led directly to the small courtyard they had just left behind. He could even hear the raspy sound of a phonograph drifting over from ahead.

Hu Ma, who had been ready to act the moment he saw the opponent, was now stunned. There was no trace of the man before him. Only towering brick walls and dark alleys remained.

However, Mr. Longjing didn't stop walking. He approached the wall, reached out, removed a brick, flipped it, and inserted it back.

Then he pointed at the brick and said, "Blast it!"

Hu Ma immediately unleashed a True Yang Arrow. Flames erupted from the brick.

The next moment, a muffled groan sounded. The surrounding alley walls returned to their ruined state, and the man who had blocked their way was now kneeling in the alley.

Blood flowed from his Seven Apertures, his body stiff. His face bore an expression of disbelieving horror. He was dead beyond any doubt.

"What was that ability?" Hu Ma was somewhat dumbfounded as he walked past the man. "Our True Yang Arrow can easily kill a minor evil spirit, but this expert was killed just like that?"

"It's true, we lost that battle twenty years ago, but our defeat wasn't for lack of strength in combat," Mr. Longjing said. He didn't even glance at the fallen man, merely picking up a nail from the ground as he continued walking and speaking to Hu Ma. "We misjudged the State Preceptor."

"We didn't imagine he would betray us, nor did we expect the Ten Surnames to have such courage, to stab us in the back."

Hu Ma was immediately drawn in by Mr. Longjing's words. "So, the key lies with that State Preceptor?"

Mr. Longjing replied nonchalantly, "Have you heard of him too?"

Hu Ma nodded and said softly, "Nowadays, there are Ten Surnames, but the Ten Surnames believe there is an eleventh. The additional one is the lineage of the State Preceptor."

After a pause, he whispered, "I also heard people say that twenty years ago, the State Preceptor dueled with the Great Virtuous Master in Shangjing. The skies darkened, gods and ghosts wept. Eventually, the Great Virtuous Master lost. But despite his loss, he still skinned that old Emperor and severed the Yi Dynasty's fortune. Afterward, the State Preceptor disappeared, and the Reincarnators were purged, forced into hiding."

"Is that what they say?" Mr. Longjing's lips curved into a faint, sarcastic smile. "They really know how to flatter themselves… I stayed with the Zhang family for twenty years, and no one dared to tell me such things."

The sneer lingered on his face as he gave a cold laugh. "If he has any skills, his greatest is deceiving people like us."

Hu Ma, feeling stirred by this, whispered, "Senior, these matters are crucial for us."

"The so-called State Preceptor is just a title." Longjing's voice was laced with undisguised sarcasm and disdain as he continued, "Their order is called the Daluo Dharma Sect. They entered the palace and were appointed as National Guardian Mages, thus becoming known as State Preceptors. He is the thirteenth-generation successor of the Daluo Dharma Sect and the third-generation National Guardian Mage, with the Dharma name Dong Xuan. We knew him even when his Master was still alive.

"Though he is a man of this world, he is clever. He aspired to our ways, admired our talents, and we held him in high regard. Twenty years ago, we joined forces with him to overthrow the Yi Dynasty's Dou Family, specifically to stop that Grand Celestial Sacrifice which had persisted for two hundred years. Reflecting on it now, we were indeed too arrogant back then. We were attempting a truly heaven-defying act…

"Dynastic changes follow the mandate of heaven. The Yi Dynasty's Dou Clan could have met its end, but it should have been according to this natural order, not forcefully severed by individual Great Power!

"But we did it back then, and what's more, we succeeded… Yet the outcome…" He trailed off, then spoke softly, a deep sigh escaping him. "It was indeed difficult to bear…"

"Grand Celestial Sacrifice?" Hu Ma's heart skipped a beat upon hearing these words, and he hurriedly looked up at Mr. Longjing.

Mr. Longjing stopped, handed the nail he had just picked up to Hu Ma, and gestured with his eyes towards some stone slabs ahead. "Hammer this nail into the gap by the third stone slab ahead!"

"Yes!"

Hu Ma took it, gripped it with both hands, and thrust it down forcefully. It immediately sank halfway. He then stomped on it, driving the entire nail in.

PFFT!

As the nail was driven in, the sound of blood being spat suddenly echoed through the seemingly empty ruins. Four figures clad in black robes slowly crumpled to the ground.

A patch of ashen blue marked each of their foreheads. They were dead beyond any doubt.

"Yes." Mr. Longjing walked past them and stated calmly, "It stems from the ambition of the Dou Family's ancestors, who crafted stone weights to sell away the entire world in exchange for a chance at immortal fate.

"We cooperated with the Daluo Dharma Sect, initially thinking they also saw through it, but looking back now, we were wrong.

"His admiration for us was a pretense. His willingness to stop the Dou Family wasn't because he saw through the trap of so-called immortal ascension, but because… he wanted to become an Immortal too!"