Free Web NovelThe moon hung high in the sky, its brilliant white light, like a transparent veil, gently spread over the platform carved with complex Spells.
The vast platform was as black as ink, with thirty-six stone pillars capable of holding several people arranged in an orderly fashion, surrounding the altar at the center of the platform like stars surrounding the moon.
This is Da Chunyang Palace's Zixiao Platform.
From the back mountain to the front mountain, Zhang Huainan, wearing a black Taoist robe, walked with a slightly hunched back and hands behind his back, arriving below the Zixiao Platform, stopping before the hundred and eight stone steps.
After a brief pause, he took another step, his slightly narrowed eyes now fully open, and his entire demeanor suddenly changed.
Deep, vast, and awe-inspiring.
That feeling was like a gentle stream suddenly transforming into a raging, roaring ocean.
"...From Shen Ren Gui, leading the flowing Qi of the Five Emperors above..."
Ascending the steps, Zhang Huainan softly chanted the description of his Spirit Mark's Power. As soon as he finished a section, a fierce wind surged around him, causing his black Taoist robe to flutter wildly.
"...Saving the harmony of all living beings below, protecting the Two Principles from tilting, preserving all lives for eternal peace..."
After chanting the second section of the Power description, dark clouds quickly gathered above the originally clear and cloudless Zixiao Platform.
"Rumble—!"
Along with flashes of lightning streaking through the gaps in the clouds, deafening thunder erupted.
Amidst the thunder, faint whispers echoed, as if responding to Zhang Huainan, repeating the Power description he had chanted.
"...Named the Northern Black Emperor, Five Qi Heavenly Lord!"
As he stepped onto the altar at the center of the Zixiao Platform, Zhang Huainan softly chanted the final section of the Power description. His eyes instantly burst forth with cyan flames that seemed almost tangible, and his casually scattered pale hair and beard gently fluttered in the wind.
Xuanjing Jade Crown, Xuan Feather Flying Robe, Dianzao Great Banner, Tumbling Black Dragon, various phantom images instantly appeared around his body.
Phantom images, each clad in black iron battle armor and looking almost identical to Zhang Huainan, emerged from behind him and then stepped off in different directions, orderly walking onto the thirty-six stone pillars around the altar.
Normally, activating the Zixiao Platform requires at least one conductor and thirty-six assistants to simultaneously channel Spiritual Energy into the Zixiao Platform to activate the solidified Spells carved upon it.
A single person, even with strong enough Spiritual Energy fluctuations, can only unleash a portion of the Zixiao Platform's might.
But Zhang Huainan was an exception; he alone could unleash eighty to ninety percent of the Zixiao Platform's might.
And the reason he could do this was precisely the Spiritual Energy control technique Qingji created—【Body Double】.
However, like Lu Yibei, Zhang Huainan combined the 【Body Double】 taught by Qingji with the Power characteristics of his own Spirit {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} Mark and made appropriate optimizations and improvements.
Unlike Qingji's method of controlling Spiritual Energy outside the body when using 【Body Double】, Zhang Huainan, when using 【Body Double】, relied on his vast Spiritual Energy as support. While spreading his Spiritual Energy outwards, he still maintained a connection with it.
While this control method allowed 【Body Double】 to be more flexible and accomplish more complex tasks, the Spiritual Energy consumption was terrifyingly high, truly shocking.
If someone else were to maintain this state, it would likely take less than three seconds to cause a B Level Psychic to fall into a state of Spiritual Energy depletion.
...
As the thirty-six phantom images took their positions, Zhang Huainan's gaze focused slightly. He slowly sat down cross-legged and began to chant softly. Almost simultaneously, the thirty-six phantom images also opened their mouths and chanted with him, their thirty-seven voices merging into one.
"'Xuanzhu drums and blows the Dharma Thunder, from which light penetrates the heavens, sweeping away worldly dust, dividing sun and moon, within lies Xuanzhu opening a gate...'"
As the incantation was chanted, dark clouds above the sky rolled and surged like a tsunami, with turbulent waves reaching the heavens. The waves collided with each other, erupting in high-pitched roars.
"...Where all phenomena converge to simplify the Mandate of Heaven, divine talismans and true scripts are granted to Zixiao!"
As Zhang Huainan finished chanting the last part of the incantation, a thunderous roar erupted from the sky in an instant.
Immediately, the sky was filled with brilliant lightning. A torrent of azure light, accompanied by heavy rain, poured down from the horizon like a breached flood, enveloping the entire Zixiao Platform.
Earlier, after obtaining the weapon seized from a Secret Society member by Qingxia Zi, which had been eroded by the Code F Monster, Zhang Huainan performed a divination. Combined with the information obtained from Lu Yibei, he quickly fully understood the form in which the Code F Monster existed.
The reason his previous divinations targeting this urban legend always failed was that the urban legend was fundamentally omnipresent, or rather, it existed within all items it had eroded.
In a sense, it even existed within the thoughts and words of those who facilitated its birth by imbuing "things" with malevolent intent.
To suppress or even kill it, the first step was to enter a state similar to its own.
And Zhang Huainan, as a Calamity Level Psychic, could barely achieve this with the help of the Zixiao Platform.
At this moment, he was the thunder that awed the mortal world and also the water that nourished all things.
Standing amidst the lightning, Zhang Huainan saw a dazzling array of objects, as usual. But soon, those objects vanished before his eyes. In a chaotic and unclear void, he finally saw for the first time the urban legend hidden behind the Secret Society—that mass of chaotic colors so brilliant they were beyond description.
Along with that color, it wriggled like active gelatinous matter, constantly outlining the contours of various objects, and countless highly tempting whispers echoed.
"'Really, it's not that I don't want to lose weight, you might not believe it, but it's the delicious food that tempted me first!'"
"'Just this once, I'll quit smoking after finishing this one!'"
"'What is this stuff you have? So bloody and violent? My child was led astray by you!'"
"..."
Zhang Huainan composed himself, as if he hadn't heard the whispers, and moved forward, closing in on that mass of chaotic colors.
Just then, this chaotic space suddenly shook.
Accompanied by the sound of illusory shattering, Zhang Huainan saw from afar that the chaotic mist in the distance was torn apart. Numerous thick tentacles, wrapped in black mist and covered with purple patterns, reached out from the void, getting ahead of him and heavily smashing towards that mass of chaotic colors.
In an instant, countless thoughts that stirred anger arose in Zhang Huainan's heart.
"..."
Is this the urban legend behind the Tulip Club?
It's the first time I've seen its true form!
Although it's just the tip of the iceberg... Zhang Huainan thought.
----
Meanwhile, on the other side.
In the distant suburbs of Amsterdam, lay a large lake. The afternoon sun shone down, but the lake surface seemed to swallow the light, dark and deep. Viewed from high above, it looked like a giant eye emitting malice.
Over a dozen ancient-looking black ships floated in the center of this rarely visited lake. Each ship was carved with a large golden tulip.
The ships formed a large ring on the lake surface, like some strangely shaped altar. At the bow of each ship, several people, bound with ropes, hung down.
Below them, the lake surface churned as if boiling. Faintly visible beneath the deep water, black shadows of indescribable shapes occasionally flashed by.
"'Everyone, standing here today, my mood is actually very bad...' Bruce Ma, dressed in an exquisite medieval Captain's uniform, stood on the foremost large ship, looking down at the people suspended above the water, and said in a heavy tone, 'You were once people I trusted, my family.'"
"'But now, you have betrayed me, betrayed our common faith. If not for a friend from the Night Watch reminding me, I would still be in the dark..."
He was halfway through his sentence when the cabin door behind him was suddenly slammed open. With a dull thud, a white-haired elderly man stumbled out, rushed to his side, grabbed his leg, and began to wail.
"'Adult Bruce Ma, for the sake of my many years of risking life and limb for you, I beg you, please let my son go? He was just momentarily confused, in the future...'"
"'Shut up!' Bruce Ma kicked the old man away, then bent down and said to the old man with a gloomy expression, 'Old Patrick, your son has angered the god, he must die!'"
"'You should know, on this land, only one god is allowed...'"
With that, he ignored the ashen-faced old man, straightened up, took out an old-fashioned flintlock pistol carved with a tulip from his Pregnant, and fired a shot into the sky.
"Bang—!"
Firelight burst forth, and the gunshot echoed across the lake.
The next moment, the ropes binding the "sinners" on all the ships were simultaneously cut. Figures plunged into the deep lake, as if swallowed by something, without splashing a single drop of water.
----
On the other side, the top floor of a landmark building in a financial district.
This was a spacious office, surrounded on three sides by floor-to-ceiling windows. Outside, the evening sun was intense, casting a rosy hue over the concrete jungle.
In the office's reception area, on the highly designed sofa, a middle-aged Jewish man looked at the man sitting opposite him with a nervous expression.
Just then, his phone suddenly rang. After only two rings, he quickly answered the call.
After hearing the news from the other end of the phone, his tightly furrowed brows gradually relaxed, and he let out a long sigh as if granted amnesty.
Seeing this, Jin Chan Lang smiled and asked, "'Mr. Giles, it seems the result is good?'"
"'Yes, yes,' the middle-aged man said repeatedly. 'Those damned fellows have all been rooted out. Please rest assured, they will disappear quite reasonably.'"
"'Very good!' Jin Chan Lang nodded, stood up, picked up the thick stack of contracts from the coffee table beside him, and tore them into pieces in a few motions. 'Mr. Giles, congratulations, through your own efforts, you have avoided the tragic fate of everyone going bankrupt and jumping off the rooftop.'"
"'Then, I shall take my leave. The Caishen (God of Wealth) Adult is still waiting for me...'"
Having finished speaking, Jin Chan Lang stood up, straightened his custom-made suit, and turned to walk out of the office.
"'Damn it, what custom-made suit... it made my crotch itch, finally I can take it off,' Jin Chan Lang's grumbling words came from a distance." frёewebηovel.cѳm
----
22:20.
Shizhou City, in a taxi.
Elder Wang, who was heading to the gas station to meet Yang Yichen, sat in the back row, resting with his eyes closed.
Just then, a familiar voice came from the car radio.
"'You've been exposed, do you know you've been exposed?'"
"'Leave quickly!'"
"..."
The similar warning was repeated three times. The taxi driver's face darkened, and he muttered, "'The quality of these radio dramas is too poor now, what kind of nonsense are they talking about?'"
Just as the driver was complaining, Elder Wang opened his eyes, looked at the car radio with surprise and uncertainty, and frowned.
He recognized it; that was Hu Chuan's voice just now...
