ATEG Chapter 54

Feiying still managed to escape. He was an evil cultivator who had practiced for nearly a thousand years, with a meticulous mind and countless life-saving methods.

Those blood shadows that escaped fled and scattered in all directions. Each was an illusory shadow, yet each could also transform into a corporeal form. All could interchange and become the main body. Once caught, they would dissipate on their own, preventing others from having the opportunity to track down his other blood shadows through the connections between them. 

Unless they could catch them all in one net, even if only a blood shadow as faint as lamplight remained, Feiying would ultimately be able to recover through it.

The Taiwu Earth God tried to obstruct him with various methods, but they all proved ineffective one by one. Only when he used merit-based mental force to block could he momentarily intercept these blood shadows.

He also realized that this evil cultivator’s escape method was no ordinary evasion technique, but rather a great divine power obtained from who knows where, capable of traveling unimpeded without being hindered by the Five Elements or any magical force whatsoever. Only powers related to karma, such as merit or resentment, could actually stop him.

That ghostly woman from before had also relied on the power of vengeful karma between herself and this evil cultivator to trap him in the courtyard.

Though he himself possessed merit, he had no entanglement with this evil cultivator, so intercepting him was especially difficult. Moreover, this place was not within Taiwu County’s jurisdiction, so there were many methods he could not employ.

Having understood this, the Taiwu Earth God no longer insisted on capturing and annihilating all of Feiying, but instead began attempting to prevent the caught blood shadows from dissipating.

A few minutes later, the Taiwu Earth God frowned at the gradually collapsing blood shadow in his palm.

He did not know what this evil cultivator’s origins were, but his disintegration method was extraordinarily formidable. Even though he tried his utmost to preserve the blood shadow, it still collapsed unstoppably.

Since he could not preserve it, he might as well make the most use of it. Each blood shadow necessarily retained a strand of Feiying’s consciousness. Facing such an evil cultivator, the Taiwu Earth God did not need to be polite—he cleanly and efficiently began forcibly searching the divine consciousness within the blood shadow.

“Feiying…” After the soul search, the blood shadow collapsed even faster. The Taiwu Earth God was unable to extract much information from it.

He did not delay, turning immediately to capture the next blood shadow.

After capturing all the blood shadows whose traces could still be found, the Taiwu Earth God came to understand a bit about Feiying’s identity. This evil cultivator had indeed come for the force behind the Dream-Eating Tapir, but he also had not found any trace of them.

The Taiwu Earth God frowned and turned back to the courtyard where Feiying had previously resided.

Several Guardian Gods were already waiting inside. They had rushed over together with the Taiwu Earth God, but because their cultivation was insufficient, they had fallen behind. By the time they reached here, the battle had already ended.

“Did you discover anything?” the Taiwu Earth God asked.

One of the Guardian Gods replied with difficulty, “We discovered some traces, but not many…”

He recounted the traces they had found one by one. Indeed, there were not many useful clues.

The Taiwu Earth God frowned but did not blame them. They had received the news too late.

Half an hour earlier, while the Taiwu Earth God was conversing with Chi Zhenzi, a Guardian God had hurriedly come to report, claiming that during a routine patrol when they reached the Taiwu border, a letter had shot in from outside the boundary. The letter was wreathed in ghostly qi and stated that an evil cultivator was hidden somewhere nearby, seemingly related to the force behind the Dream-Eating Tapir.

The Guardian God had pursued in the direction the letter came from but was unable to find the sender, so he immediately reported it to the Taiwu Earth God.

After receiving the news, the Taiwu Earth God had immediately rushed over. The informant seemed to have timed it perfectly—even with the Taiwu Earth God’s power rushing over in haste, he had only just barely arrived in time. When the other Guardian Gods reached here, there was not a single soul left.

The Taiwu Earth God now guessed the identity of the letter sender—it was none other than that vengeful ghost who had set up the formation to trap Feiying, probably harmed by Feiying and thus seeking revenge against him.

Such vengeful ghosts often had their consciousness obscured by resentment. Though pitiable, when seeking revenge they also tended to implicate innocent people, and there was no shortage of those who deliberately vented their anger on others. Therefore, even vengeful ghosts who had not yet caused harm would be regarded with vigilance by deities of various regions.

It was rare that this vengeful ghost still retained its consciousness and did not directly oppose the evil cultivator. It knew to first investigate the situation and borrow his power. Unfortunately, this vengeful ghost only wanted to borrow power and did not want to make contact with them. Otherwise, if arrangements had been made in advance, they might not have let Feiying escape.

The Earth God shook his head inwardly. However, though this evil cultivator had escaped, he had also suffered severe damage. For a short time, he would probably have difficulty even harming ordinary people. Moreover, he did not know any clues about the person behind the Dream-Eating Tapir, so there was no need to be too anxious about his escape.

After returning, Chi Zhenzi was waiting for him in the temple.

Chi Zhenzi had pursued the Dream-Eating Tapir all the way. Though he ultimately failed to bring the Dream-Eating Tapir back, he had obtained clues. He divided the strand of aura obtained from Li Chi into two portions—one he gave to the Taiwu Earth God, and the other he sent back to Diancang Mountain. These past few days, he and the Taiwu Earth God had been researching this strand of aura, but had not been able to reach any conclusions in the short term.

When the Taiwu Earth God returned, he met Chi Zhenzi’s gaze and shook his head first. “I didn’t catch him. That evil cultivator was not someone from the mastermind force either; he was just similarly investigating them.”

Chi Zhenzi, however, did not pay much attention to this, but said seriously, “I just received news from Diancang Mountain.”

Hearing this, the Earth God also became solemn. “Is there some news?”

They had been unable to discover the origins of this strange aura through tracking with magic and other methods, but there were practitioners skilled in divination and prognostication in Diancang Mountain who might be able to calculate something.

Chi Zhenzi nodded. “The diviner is my master’s master.”

The Earth God could not help but be astonished. After the collapse of Mount Tianzhu twelve myriads of years ago, the surrounding subsidiary peaks had all collapsed one by one. Diancang Mountain was the only mountain range that survived, inheriting the blessings of Mount Tianzhu.

Mount Tianzhu was the peak of sunrise and the source of earth veins. As the only mountain that preserved some of Mount Tianzhu’s subsidiary veins, Diancang Mountain’s accumulated resources were immeasurably deep. The cultivation and merit of the cultivator who could occupy Diancang Mountain as his place of practice could well be imagined.

The master’s master mentioned by Chi Zhenzi, though not the founding ancestor who occupied Diancang Mountain as his place of practice, was one of his personal disciples.

According to common sense, divining the origins of a strand of aura would not require him to personally act…

The Taiwu Earth God could not help but have his own guess. During this period, he had exhausted all efforts to investigate the force behind the Dream-Eating Tapir, yet had not been able to obtain even half a clue. This was abnormal. 

Though the Taiwu Earth God did not consider himself some incredibly capable great cultivator, his accumulation over thousands and tens of thousands of years was also sufficiently deep. Yet no matter what method he used to investigate, the final result was always nothing, as if such a force did not exist in this world at all.

This could not help but make the Taiwu Earth God form some associations: legend had it that in ancient times, there were great powers who could obscure heavenly secrets and confuse destiny…

But after the Divine Court was established, most destinies between heaven and earth became clear, with little chaos, and such methods became difficult to see again.

“Could it be…” the Taiwu Earth God asked.

Chi Zhenzi continued. “Initially I only asked a friend skilled in this art to act, but when he was divining he did not obtain any results. Later, the Ancestral Master personally acted.”

“After the divination results came out, the Ancestral Master immediately went into seclusion due to severe depletion.”

“The Ancestral Master only said three words:”

“Xuanqing Sect.”