Free Web NovelLord Bing stood still, frowning as he gazed at the decaying land before him, silent for a long time.
Normally, it is difficult for a high-level Psychic to die naturally... Here, natural death means aging like an ordinary person, until a certain moment, ushering in a peaceful passing.
Normal birth, aging, sickness, and death are an unattainable luxury for high-level Psychic.
Even if it is time for them to die of old age, they will not die immediately. The powerful authority corresponding to their Spirit Marks and the massive Spiritual Energy contained within their bodies will continue to sustain their lives as their bodies gradually age and sicken.
Thus, souls that should have perished are imprisoned within decaying husks, tormented by weakness and illness day in and day out.
This process, from a certain perspective, is also a form of corruption, similar to the strange story's degradation and corruption.
The Night Watch once discovered an autopsy report of an A+ Level Psychic over 150 years old while destroying an Eclipse Society stronghold.
That report showed that the Psychic had more than thirty malignant tumors with a diameter exceeding 5cm in his body, accompanied by multiple organ calcifications and a large number of bone deformities and hyperplasia. Yet, even so, he was still alive before being dissected.
To avoid torment, some high-level Psychic, after falling into an aging state, will find proper ways to handle their affairs. freёweɓnovel.com
Others, lacking the courage to end their own lives, will struggle until they are tormented into losing their sanity, their Spirit Marks losing control, and transforming into urban legend.
Still others are even crazier, and will even try to find ways to replace their bodies and prolong their lives. For example, Zhang Shuo cultivating Spirit Marks similar to his Spirit Mark authority on Hu Chuan, then integrating with Hu Chuan, and then further, seizing control of the body, is a feasible method.
Although Zhang Shuo's original intention was to possess multiple Spirit Marks, he ultimately failed and was taken over and controlled by Hu Chuan...
For Psychic who are powerful to a certain extent, or even Calamity Level who have become a symbol, the price that must be paid to draw Spirit Marks is even greater.
Many times, even if their lives have ended in some way, their consciousness may not completely dissipate, but will exist as residual souls, attached to items they have long carried with them.
Even if they themselves may not wish to do so...
If that personal item is a high-level Spiritual Energy item, it may even help them retain a certain amount of combat power, just like Qingji's residual soul, attached to Lingtai Pure Karma.
And for a Calamity Level Psychic like Nangling Commander, who died in battle unexpectedly in his prime, his residual soul will almost certainly be preserved.
This is why the Nangling Commander's Cenotaph will not, over time, along with other things within Yumen Pass, gradually be corrupted by the accumulated urban legend' flesh and Spiritual Energy.
Psychic and urban legend with relatively low Spiritual Energy fluctuation levels cannot even get close to that Cenotaph, let alone destroy it.
Under the protection of the sealed Spell set by several The Torch Bearers' leaders and a dozen The Torch Bearers, perhaps only a Calamity Level can make the Cenotaph disappear.
"......"
Things are getting tricky!
Who did it?
What was that guy's purpose? Lord Bing wondered puzzled.
And just as he was puzzled by the strange phenomenon before him, something even more bizarre and terrifying happened—the information about the specific location of the Cenotaph in his memory suddenly began to blur.
In just a few breaths, he only remembered that his The Torch Bearers' leader ancestor had discovered the Nangling Commander's Cenotaph while repairing the Yumen Pass city wall, and had left a manuscript.
As for the detailed content of that manuscript, where the Nangling Commander's Cenotaph was, what was inside, who left it... and so on, all the information became blurred.
It was like a cloud of smoke, clearly there, but when you reached out to grasp it, you couldn't.
Making that Cenotaph disappear into thin air, and at the same time changing others' cognition of its related information, is a bit creepy.
This is equivalent to, to a certain extent, erasing the traces of another Calamity Level's existence, which is something most Calamity Level find very difficult to do.
In the long years that have passed, from the tribal era to modern times, there have been many cruel wars for the uniqueness of "gods", countless Psychic, urban legend, people, and even animals and plants lost their lives in the war, but countless legends of "gods" have not disappeared because of this, and have been passed down to this day, which is enough to prove how difficult it is to erase the existence of a Calamity Level urban legend.
Anyway, Lord Bing admitted he couldn't do it.
He was a genuine Calamity Level, not a "fake" like Lord Huaiyuan whose strength was very unstable and whose upper and lower limits varied greatly.
So, for the first time in his life, Lord Bing had an urge to shout, "What the hell!"
Before this, as a descendant of the The Torch Bearers, growing up in a family that dealt with urban legend, watching his elders rub urban legend on the ground all day, Lord Bing had no fear of urban legend since childhood, and didn't even know what "seeing a ghost" meant.
An unsettling feeling lingered in his heart, his back felt cold, as if a female ghost was clinging to his back, blowing cold air on him.
He was quite experienced with a cold back...
One summer when he was young, the old house in the mountains lost power. With temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius, and no air conditioning or fans, his family, worried that he, who had just drawn his Spirit Mark and had a low Spiritual Energy level, couldn't bear it, caught and sealed an evil spirit urban legend for him to hug to cool off.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Bai Kai called Lord Bing several times, but saw no reaction from him. Impatiently, he reached out and waved his hand in front of his eyes. "I say, what's wrong with you? Why are you suddenly acting possessed?"
"Where's the Cenotaph? Why haven't we seen it yet? Didn't you say we were almost there? How much further?"
"Hmph!" Lord Bing took a deep breath, turned to look at Bai Kai, and said with a solemn expression, "Something's wrong. I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to find the Nangling Commander's Cenotaph."
Whether that Cenotaph even exists is uncertain... Lord Bing added in his heart.
"Huh?" Bai Kai looked confused, stunned for a few seconds, then pouted and said, "Who was it earlier who so confidently said that with his family's deep knowledge and his ancestors having dug up the Nangling Commander's tomb, there would definitely be no deviation? It seems he's not very reliable..."
Halfway through his sentence, he realized that Lord Bing had no intention of refuting him, and had been frowning, with even a hint of panic in his eyes, and immediately lost interest in continuing to mock him.
Firstly, an opponent who doesn't resist makes you lose all desire to attack.
Secondly, if Lord Bing shows some uneasiness, it means the situation is truly serious.
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After a pause, Bai Kai asked seriously, "What exactly went wrong?"
"It seems someone erased the existence of that Cenotaph..." Lord Bing said, then vaguely told Bai Kai the terrible truth he had discovered.
After listening, Bai Kai stared blankly at Lord Bing, frowning, "I understand, but not completely..."
"Sigh!" Lord Bing sighed helplessly, "I told you ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) to read more books, but you spend your time on women. Now you can't even understand this."
"Don't you want to hear what you just said?" Bai Kai rolled his eyes and retorted indignantly, "Damn it, either the time, place, and characters are chaotic, or they're omitted. Stream-of-consciousness novels wouldn't dare to write like you. I'd be damned if I could understand!"
"What's more, what's wrong with spending time on women? I'm comforting lonely souls and saving wounded spirits. I'm doing good deeds, what the hell do you know!"
"......" Lord Bing was silent for a few seconds, directly ignoring Bai Kai's last sentence, "I really want to tell you more details, but as that Cenotaph was erased, my perception of it was also greatly affected, so I really can't explain it clearly to you."
"Alright, alright!" Bai Kai waved his hand, "If you can't explain it clearly, then don't. My head hurts from listening too much. Just tell me, if we can't find that Cenotaph, what should we do next, and I'll just follow."
"Now it seems..." Lord Bing thought for a moment, and looked up at the depths of Yumen Pass, shrouded in darkness and mist, "there's only one other place to go."
"Another place?" Bai Kai asked.
"Yes." Lord Bing nodded slightly, "In fact, to find an item containing the Nangling Commander's residual soul, besides the things inside the Cenotaph, there are three alternatives."
After speaking, he paused, specifically leaving some time for Bai Kai to ask him why he knew so much.
However, Bai Kai, who already knew Lord Bing would answer "family knowledge", was too lazy to ask, and just listened quietly.
"One is Hong Bian Monk's temple. It is rumored that when he allied with Nangling Commander, they exchanged tokens..."
"The other place is Nangling Commander's former Lords Manor, but to get there, one must pass through the former army camp within Yumen Pass, encountering a large number of urban legend entrenched there, and the risk may be high."
After listening, Bai Kai nodded thoughtfully, then frowned as if he noticed something was wrong. "That's not right! Didn't you say there were three alternatives? What's the other one?"
"The other one is the former brothel within Yumen Pass..."
"Brothel?" Bai Kai's eyes lit up and he interrupted, "Good place! It's happily decided, we'll go there!"
As Hua City's top male escort and a shareholder in the Underground Human Entertainment Club, going to a brothel can, to some extent, be considered a home game.
Isn't it great to have a home buff?
Maybe he could even learn some special things by conducting on-site research at ancient colleagues' workplaces, and bring them back to improve the service quality and add new features to the Underground Human Entertainment Club.
Seeing Bai Kai's expression, as if he was about to go home, Lord Bing rolled his eyes, "Do you know why I didn't mention that brothel?"
"Why else?" Bai Kai said indifferently, "Isn't it because you look down on us spiritual mentors who engage in artistic work?"
"......" Lord Bing tried to speak several times but held back the urge to retort, glancing sideways at Bai Kai and saying lightly, "That's because I can't remember where I learned about the existence of that brothel, nor can I remember where that brothel is."
"I guess that's probably because the information source for that brothel is related to the Nangling Commander's Cenotaph, and now that the Cenotaph has been erased, my perception of that brothel has also been affected."
Going to find a brothel whose location within Yumen Pass is unknown, and what strange things are hidden inside, is clearly not a good choice.
"Then..." Bai Kai thought for a moment, "doesn't that mean we can only go to the monk temple?"
They had already seen the Long Xiang Army wandering within Yumen Pass last night, and knew that those urban legend Long Xiang Army were quite strong and difficult to deal with in large numbers.
Now it was almost night. If they were to cross half of Yumen Pass to the Nangling Commander's Lords Manor, passing through the army camp, they might encounter a large number of Long Xiang Army, and also have to face the Calamity Level urban legend lying on the roof of the Lords Manor, which would be quite tricky.
"But that monk temple seems to be the Miracle Order's destination, right?"
"It's just the Miracle Order, what's there to fear? Dealing with the Miracle Order is simpler than dealing with a Calamity Level urban legend plus an army with an average B Level or higher." Lord Bing said, slightly raising his chin.
In fact, if he hadn't been in a hurry to come to the South of the city to find the Cenotaph, the first thing he would have done after entering Yumen Pass would probably have been to find those Miracle Order members and give them a lesson, persuading (physically & spiritually) them to stop their dangerous actions.
Bai Kai thought for a moment and nodded, "Alright, then let's go to the monk temple!"
He was just reminding Lord Bing what he might encounter at Hong Bian Monk's temple, not worried about conflicting with the Miracle Order.
After all, he was an agent who participated in the Night Watch's operation against the previous Miracle Saint twelve years ago.
————
At the same time.
Taking advantage of the arrival of "daylight", the active urban legend within Yumen Pass hid their forms and fell into slumber. Fang Ji led a group of Miracle Order members across half of Yumen Pass and arrived at the small temple with the unique style of Zoroastrianism.
Then.
Under the solemn and fervent gaze of the Miracle Order members, the elders, holding the soul urn containing the holy relic, followed Fang Ji, who had changed into a pure white robe, and entered the deepest building of the temple.
It was a very strange building, like a gigantic white marble cube with sides over five meters long, seamless and integrated. Except for the entrance, the other four sides were carved with magnificent patterns: fierce tigers holding swords in their mouths, hounds herding sheep, bulls carrying fine wine on their backs, and herds of elephants with tusks cast in gold.
From a distance, it looked like an exquisite gift box, or a massive coffin.
As Fang Ji stepped into this strange building, a fierce glint flashed in his eyes.
May you perish!
Although the ritual to awaken the First Generation Holy Child had not yet been performed, he couldn't help but say his wish in advance in his heart...
