Chapter 132: Heaven and Earth Fall Silent, Forever Plunged into Darkness (3)

After Wu Zui left, He Ping brewed a fresh pot of tea. After a long silence, he muttered to himself, "Reincarnation of a Heavenly Dao fragment—how interesting! You really think you can avoid the power of causality this way? Just wait until you play yourself to death! When that happens, I will have one more ally among the nine-star Heavenly Daos of the three thousand great worlds."

...

Yanjing City.

Wu Zui’s figure reappeared in Xiao Anguo’s underground office. He quickly departed, heading straight for the "Xianglong-1." After boarding the vehicle and engaging the autopilot, he pulled out his phone and frantically began booking a ticket.

The patterns on that sacrificial altar were all too familiar to Wu Zui. They were the very same patterns he had seen in the memory of the Shadow Lurker—markings the leader of the Purify World Society had personally carved when they held an ancient ritual in the country of Aier.

In light of this, the intentions of the Purify World Society were self-evident.

Xiao Ke'ai’s "Spirit-Replenishing Body" was a prerequisite for conducting such a ritual. Wu Zui had been particularly concerned about this from the start, but despite his utmost caution, he never imagined someone could be powerful enough to break into Xiao Anguo’s stronghold and abduct her.

"I only wish to protect every ounce of beauty..."

Suddenly, Wu Zui’s phone rang, the pop-up notification interrupting his ticket purchase. He had intended to hang up, but upon seeing the caller ID, he hesitated and answered.

"Hello? Minister, what is it?"

"My office was attacked. How are you and Ke'ai?"

"I was at the Dragon Prisoner Well, so I’m fine. Ke'ai was abducted, and I’m on my way to Longshen Ridge to rescue her."

Wu Zui did not hide the truth from Xiao Anguo. At this point, any extra help increased the chances of saving Xiao Ke'ai.

"Longshen Ridge? Wuxiang and Jingqing mentioned a few days ago that they would be heading there. I’ll arrange for a fighter jet to take you. Contact them once you arrive; I’ll tell them to coordinate with you. You have their numbers, right?"

Xiao Anguo spoke with surprise before moving to arrange the transport.

"I have their contact information. I’ll wait at the underground office’s helipad. By the way, get the other spirit detectives treated immediately. Their magnetic cores have been shattered!" Upon hearing he would have a fighter jet, Wu Zui agreed instantly.

"Don't worry, the Yanjing spirit detectives are already on their way. Portals connecting to the Netherworld have appeared in other countries simultaneously. I cannot leave as I must discuss countermeasures with them, so you must bring Ke'ai back." Xiao Anguo’s voice was hoarse.

*It just had to be at a time like this, when I’m not by my daughter’s side,* Xiao Anguo thought with hidden remorse.

"Minister, rest assured, I will bring her back," Wu Zui said firmly, though he was also trying to bolster his own courage. He felt truly uncertain about facing the leader of the Purify World Society.

*That is the monster who even caused the magnetic detection room to explode!*

When reviewing the surveillance footage, Wu Zui had seen that when the leader entered the underground office, the magnetic detection room had performed a scan and strength analysis, causing the entire monitoring system to crash immediately.

One had to realize that the upper limit of that detection room was calibrated based on the strength of Wuxiang and Jingqing. This meant the leader’s power was definitively higher than theirs.

"I’m counting on you!" Xiao Anguo said solemnly. With him unable to break away, everything rested on Wu Zui, Wuxiang, and Jingqing.

...

Not long after Wu Zui hung up, the roar of a fighter jet echoed above.

"Are you Wu Zui?" the pilot asked as the engine noise subsided.

"Yes!" Wu Zui replied and climbed in.

Seeing Wu Zui’s demeanor, the pilot knew he had never been in a fighter jet before. After helping him secure his parachute and safety harness, the pilot said, "Keep your mouth shut, and don’t throw up in the cabin."

"???" Before Wu Zui could ask, the canopy locked shut, and the jet shot forward.

A massive g-force slammed Wu Zui into his seat. His stomach and chest felt as if they had been struck by a heavy blow, and he began to convulse. Wu Zui gritted his teeth; he finally understood why he was told to keep his mouth shut. Unfortunately, untrained as he was, he couldn't even lift his arms.

A few minutes later, the jet neared the city housing Longshen Ridge.

Before they could reach the ridge itself, the onboard radar failed. The pilot immediately made a split-second decision to turn around and find a location for an emergency landing. Two seconds later, red lights flashed in the cockpit; the jet was under the influence of strong magnetic interference. They eventually made a forced landing on a highway.

"Hey! We’re here. I can’t go any further; the magnetic field is too strong. If we get any closer, we’ll have to abandon the plane and parachute out!" The pilot unbuckled Wu Zui and patted him on the shoulder, seeing his deathly pale face.

Wu Zui, as if snapping out of a trance, grabbed the cabin door with one hand and vaulted out, sprinting toward the side of the highway.

"Tch, these spirit detectives have good physiques. The first time I flew, I didn’t..." Before the pilot could finish his remark, Wu Zui began vomiting like a broken dam.

"..." the pilot.

A moment later, Wu Zui felt as though his body didn't belong to him; his stomach was completely empty. The intense pressure left him feeling utterly wrecked. Trembling, he retrieved a small pill from his pocket and swallowed it.

*I prepared this for the robed man, never thinking I’d use it here first. Truly...*

Recovered, Wu Zui thanked the pilot, took his leave, and boarded a car provided by the local spirit detectives.

...

The local detectives were enthusiastic and offered to help, but Longshen Ridge was sparsely populated and home to very few ghosts. Thus, the local detectives were not particularly strong; not one of them reached five-star rank.

After some hesitation, Wu Zui declined their assistance. While there was strength in numbers, anyone below five-star rank wouldn't even be able to escape. Wu Zui couldn't ask them to help save Xiao Ke'ai only to get them killed in the process; that would be unconscionable.

Soon, Wu Zui set off with a map provided by the locals and entered the main peak of Longshen Ridge. As for Wuxiang and Jingqing, he couldn't reach them—whether due to poor reception or some other reason, he didn't know.

Shortly after he began his ascent, the sky around Longshen Ridge darkened. Thick, black clouds spread from the peak in all directions, looking as if a massive storm were brewing, as if the entire world were about to be swallowed by gloom.

An oppressive atmosphere quietly descended, and Wu Zui felt a strange, inexplicable unease.

*Forget it, stop overthinking! Just get to the peak!*

Wu Zui shook his head and continued upward. However, the dense vegetation and gloomy weather made visibility extremely low; even with the map, his progress was slow.

On the other side of the ridge, Jingqing and Wuxiang were also rushing toward the energy convergence point. If they hadn't been occupied suppressing sudden riots in Jinling and at the Dragon Prisoner Well, they would have arrived much sooner.

"The calamity of our human race has begun. It is a pity that of the twelve lineages passed down from ancient times, only you and I remain," Wuxiang said, flying through the air. Sensing the surging energy from the main peak, he looked at Jingqing with a pained expression.

"With a grandmaster entering the game, the decline of our race is irreversible. However, while the grand strategy cannot be changed, the details can. We can still use our bodies to leave a glimmer of hope for our people, earning a chance for our survival," Jingqing said, the patterns of the Bagua constantly flickering in his eyes as if he were performing calculations.

"That is only right!" Wuxiang said with firm resolve.

They increased their speed, racing toward the main peak.

At the summit of Longshen Ridge, the man in the black robe worked alone on the altar. He was preparing to conduct the second ancient ritual. Five fresh corpses lay upon the altar; they were the only remaining practitioners of the ancient arts on Blue Star, aside from Wuxiang and Jingqing.

It wasn't that the black-robed man didn't want to use Wuxiang and Jingqing as sacrifices. It was simply that he only possessed peak seven-star strength, and there was no need to stir up trouble by clashing with peers of equal level. In any case, once the ritual concluded, their cultivation would be wiped away regardless. Two crippled seven-star experts would be nothing more than trash he could dispose of at will.

As for why he held the ritual within the borders of China rather than some remote, desolate place, it was because even in the ancestral lands where energy converged, there were few places where the consciousness of the Heavenly Dao could descend. The black-robed man had no other choice.

As the clouds thickened, the time agreed upon between the black-robed man and the Monarchs of the Dead arrived.

At that moment, countless ghosts—minions of the six Monarchs of the Dead—poured out of the massive portals scattered across various countries. Simultaneously, six new, larger portals appeared, and the six Monarchs of the Dead stepped out.

The monarchs were gargantuan, clearly visible even from a great distance. Under their command, the ghosts launched attacks on everyone nearby, possessing bodies or consuming people as blood-food. The human race, caught off guard, could not mount an effective defense.

The black-robed man’s eyes glowed purple as he gazed into the distance. Seeing that the six monarchs had begun their assault as agreed, he channeled the resentment of the living to initiate the ancient ritual. Under the influence of the vengeful energy, the bodies of the five practitioners began to rapidly corrode and melt.

The black liquid formed from their remains was absorbed by their only remaining parts—their heads. Five beams of black light shot into the sky. As the black-robed man chanted in the ancient language of the Dao, the storm clouds began to expand beyond the borders of China.

In the sky, a pair of enormous eyes gradually revealed themselves.

They were blue-rimmed with golden pupils. Their gaze was filled with majesty and contempt, as if all living things within their sight were mere ants. The eyes slowly shifted to focus on Xiao Ke'ai, who still lay unconscious in the center of the altar.