Chapter 118: Are You Ready?

“Hmph, you already know the answer, yet you still ask!”

Before Elder Qi could reply, Black Feather, standing in the distance, gave a cold snort and said, “That mysterious man was fabricated by you from the very beginning. Your purpose was to erode us piece by piece from the shadows. Otherwise, how do you explain the fact that this mysterious man has still not been found?”

“So you simply killed our people?” Shen Sanqian ignored Black Feather entirely and turned to Xuan Mo.

“Red Robe is dead.” Xuan Mo did not answer Shen Sanqian’s question. Instead, he abruptly uttered those words.

Upon hearing this, an amused smile suddenly appeared on Shen Sanqian’s face, as though he had discovered something new and intriguing.

“This has truly come as a pleasant surprise.”

A smile lingered at the corners of Shen Sanqian’s mouth as he continued, “You are going to die anyway, so there is no need for me to deceive you. Those strange beings of yours who died were not killed by us. In fact, I only just learned that Red Robe had died.”

Xuan Mo’s body trembled faintly. His right fist clenched tightly as he said in a low voice, “So it really was you...”

...

“Lord Ning, the time has come.”

Hearing the voice outside, Ning Xiu slowly rose and pushed open the door.

The attendant who had been waiting outside for quite some time stared blankly at Ning Xiu as he emerged from the darkness, then bowed and said, “Lord Leng has sent me to escort you over.”

At first, as he looked at the completely unlit room, the attendant had been somewhat doubtful, wondering whether anyone truly lived inside.

Ning Xiu nodded and turned to close the door. With it, the endless darkness behind him was shut away as well.

He looked up at the night sky. Once again, there were no stars.

It was precisely midnight—the first hour of the day.

Led by the attendant, Ning Xiu followed quietly behind him. Before long, they reached the deepest part of the Six Fan Gate.

Before a solemn and imposing great hall.

“The other two lords are already inside. Lord Leng will arrive shortly.” The young attendant bowed slightly, then turned and left.

Ning Xiu pushed open the doors of the temple and walked inside.

Sure enough, two people were already waiting in the great hall. At the sound of his arrival, they simultaneously raised their heads and looked toward him.

Ning Xiu studied them for a moment. Neither appeared particularly old, yet both possessed considerable cultivation. They were likely replacements brought in later.

Ning Xiu knew that of the eight people originally meant to enter the temple, everyone except himself had long since died.

The three of them stood in the great hall, silently awaiting Leng Ying.

All three were visibly tense. The difference was that the other two were excited and exhilarated by the divine initiation ceremony that was about to begin, while Ning Xiu harbored a faint unease deep within his heart.

He understood clearly that the greater the matter, the more important it was to remain calm.

Yet even though he repeatedly forced himself to do so, he could only manage it with difficulty. In the face of the unknown, some fear remained within him.

It was simply human nature.

“We have finally reached this day. Soon, we will cast off our mortal status and become members of the Soul-Suppressing Office.”

One of the constables thought of the arduous life he had fought through over the past twenty years. A resolute, almost liberated expression gradually appeared on his face. He drew a deep breath, then looked at Ning Xiu and the other constable.

“The three of us are fated to meet today. Once we enter the Soul-Suppressing Office, we should advance together and support one another.” A happy smile appeared on the other constable’s face as well.

Ning Xiu could feel that their joy was genuine.

Could I really be imagining things?

Could this truly be an exceptionally fortunate event, with me merely worrying needlessly?

He gently shook his head inwardly. He trusted his instincts.

Footsteps rang out.

“Lord Leng!”

When Leng Ying’s familiar, corpse-like face appeared before him, Ning Xiu instantly gathered all his thoughts and locked them away.

Often, the best way to survive was to remain foolish.

Leng Ying glanced at Ning Xiu and the others, nodded slightly, and said, “Follow me.”

The three of them followed Leng Ying as he began walking toward the depths of the great hall.

When the constables of the Six Fan Gate sought divine empowerment, they never went farther than the outer hall. No one had ever ventured as deeply into the temple as Ning Xiu and the others were now doing.

The farther they went, the more intense Ning Xiu’s unease became.

He glanced at the two men beside him and found that they still sensed nothing at all.

Step.

Leng Ying, walking at the front, suddenly stopped.

Ning Xiu looked ahead and realized that they seemed to have reached the end of the great hall.

He raised his head and saw an altar before them. At its very center stood an ancient stone statue. It could hardly be called finely carved, yet it possessed an extraordinary presence.

Leng Ying slowly walked to the altar and knelt on one knee.

Seeing this, the other two constables hurriedly knelt as well. To avoid drawing attention, Ning Xiu carefully lowered himself to his knees behind them.

The black tiger with wings growing from its back—was this the Law Beast?

Ning Xiu’s heart surged like a storm. The deity on the altar was utterly unlike the Law Beast of his memories.

In the world he had once inhabited, the Law Beast was also known as the Beast of Justice. The larger ones were as big as oxen, while the smaller ones were the size of sheep. Resembling the qilin, they were covered in thick black fur, with bright and spirited eyes and a single horn growing from the forehead. They could distinguish right from wrong and recognize good, evil, loyalty, and treachery. They were symbols of auspiciousness.

Yet the statue before him radiated an overwhelming ferocity and a malice that seemed to come from the deepest depths. With such a savage appearance, how could it possibly resemble an auspicious beast?

What shocked Ning Xiu even more was that the black tiger, which should have been nothing more than a lifeless statue, seemed to have come alive. Its vicious eyes were studying him.

Ning Xiu hurriedly lowered his head. At last, he confirmed that there truly was something wrong with this temple.

What he was curious about was what Leng Ying would do next.

After all, the people of the Soul-Suppressing Office had indeed undergone the temple’s divine initiation ceremony and received what was supposedly divine power. Their realms and cultivation had genuinely improved, lifting them beyond the limits of ordinary mortals.

Kneeling before the altar, Leng Ying lowered his head and continuously chanted something under his breath. Then he rose and slowly stepped onto the altar.

Ning Xiu watched as he took an object from his robes and placed it before the statue. Immediately afterward, he lit three candles—one directly above the statue, one to its lower left, and one to its lower right.

Once everything was complete, he bowed toward the statue, then slowly descended from the altar. He looked at one of the constables and said,

“The altar is ready. Pan Long, are you prepared?”

Pan Long nodded excitedly. “Lord Leng, I am ready.”