Chapter 151: Winds and Clouds Converge
The first Town Guardian of Dongbin City, the ancestor of the Yan family, was already dead.
As to how he died, Baili Feihong was not clear.
Gongyang Yan could not be said to be very familiar with the Yan family either.
Yet, the figure who once protected Dongbin City and was regarded by its people as a hero of an era had left behind a monumental disaster for the city.
"Senior Yan had no reason to leave us such a massive disaster; it would have held no benefit for him whatsoever."
Gongyang Yan's tone was laced with disbelief.
Baili Feihong was also deeply puzzled.
Yet everything he witnessed was a hard fact.
"I also believe that Guardian Yan would not seal the Kunpeng demon soul in Dongbin City without cause, but the situation is critical now. I must find a way to suppress the demon soul of the Kunpeng."
Baili Feihong said in a deep voice.
With that, he began walking toward Changsheng Street.
Without exchanging further pleasantries with Gongyang Yan, he still had a multitude of matters to attend to.
Once the current crisis in Dongbin City was dealt with, it would not be too late to converse further.
Passing by the Four Seas Martial Arts Hall, he found its heavy gates tightly shut.
Baili Feihong breathed a sigh of relief.
During the period of his absence, someone appeared to have entered his small courtyard to conduct a search.
However, the personal items and daily necessities in his home had not been stolen.
The gold and silver jewelry buried beneath the banyan tree showed signs of having been disturbed, yet they were left behind.
"They even searched my private residence."
"I wonder who could be responsible for this?"
Baili Feihong shook his head, choosing not to pursue the matter deeply.
The traces left by the intruders had already been covered by dust, and with the passage of time, tracking them down would prove exceedingly difficult.
"Ji Xiaoqian once crawled out from the water well in my courtyard. That well connects to an underground river; I can certainly follow the water source deep into the earth's crust."
Baili Feihong set down the Greed-Wolf Demon-Slaying Saber and, with a splash, leaped directly into the well.
When he was practicing the technique known as the White Dragon in the Waves, he had once explored the bottom of the well. Aside from spring water bubbling from the eye, there had been no passage connecting to an underground river.
At that time, his divine abilities had not yet matured, making it exceedingly difficult to delve deep into the earth to investigate the truth behind Dongbin City.
Today was vastly different from the past.
Now that his divine abilities were fully realized, even without an obvious path, he could employ techniques such as Water Escape and Earth Escape to penetrate deep beneath Dongbin City.
"Divine Ability: Water Escape Art."
He transformed into a stream of flowing water, moving upstream against the current.
Following the gushing underground water, he descended continuously.
His divine sense was cast outward, expanding to explore the subterranean world.
Though this location was a great distance from the Demon-Suppressing Tower, it in no way hindered Baili Feihong's search.
Suppressing the Kunpeng demon soul did not need to be rushed at this exact second.
Suddenly, his vision opened up into a vast expanse.
A colossal subterranean karst cave appeared, running through all directions. Twisting and turning, it formed a complex underground water system, with massive volumes of water rushing through the cavern.
The pitch-black world of the underground river did not plunge Baili Feihong into visual darkness.
With his visual acuity, he no longer needed the refraction of light to clearly perceive objects.
His naked eyes could see his surroundings with absolute clarity.
Not to mention the Demon-Suppressing Divine Eyes and his divine sense providing him with multi-perspective views.
"Oh? Water-repelling?"
According to Baili Feihong's estimation, the massive subterranean karst cave formed here should have been completely flooded by the currents of the dark river.
Yet right before his eyes, half the space within the enormous cavern remained entirely untouched by the flowing water.
Discontinuing his Water Escape technique, he leaped upward and stepped directly into the mysterious water-repelling karst cave.
Dazzling gems of various colors radiated brilliant glows, illuminating the world before him.
Rich and dense heaven-earth spiritual energy had gathered here.
Instantly, Baili Feihong knew this place was far from ordinary.
Could another special space akin to the Earth's Core World exist here?
He refrained from releasing his divine sense to sweep the area.
Lowering his head, he noticed numerous skeletal remains scattered across the floor of this place.
A trace of inexplicable surprise welled up within him.
The memorial he had set up for Ji Xiaoqian was merely symbolic, but ever since he practiced the White Dragon in the Waves, he had harbored the thought of entering the underground dark river to try and retrieve Ji Xiaoqian's remains.
Though he knew the hope was exceedingly slim, Ji Xiaoqian had rendered him no small amount of assistance.
Her soul scattering had allowed him to discover how to acquire skill points, thereby finding a path to rapid self-improvement.
Otherwise, he would have been forced to practice incessantly, acting as a diligent bottleneck-breaking specialist, relying solely on accumulated experience to rapidly cultivate techniques.
No matter how fast that was, it could never compare to skill points.
The emergence of skill points was what ultimately forged his Myriad Origin Cauldron.
Guided by the familiar aura of Ji Xiaoqian, he quickly located her remains.
Having long since turned to white bones, she still wore her iridescent silk robes, and right beside her was a disturbed patch of ground.
The size of the trace matched the dimensions of the gold and silver jewelry Ji Xiaoqian had once given him.
Using the Cosmos Cauldron, he gathered Ji Xiaoqian's skeletal remains.
As for the rest of the bones scattered throughout the water-repelling karst cave, Baili Feihong casually buried them within the cavern as well.
Only after finishing this important task did Baili Feihong have the leisure to explore the water-repelling karst cave.
"Demon-Suppressing Stake!"
A stake forged from ferrous fine steel, densely covered with demon-suppressing scriptures, was driven deep into the karst cave.
It was precisely the existence of this Demon-Suppressing Stake, radiating a special energetic force field, that repelled the erosion of the water currents across this region.
Clearly, this was one of the core nodes of the massive underground demon-suppressing array of Dongbin City.
"A truly marvelous artifact. Neither my Demon-Suppressing Divine Eyes nor my divine sense could detect its presence."
The Demon-Suppressing Stake, radiating a five-colored celestial glow, now bore black cracks along its shaft.
It trailed faint strands of dark, malevolent aura.
The Lord of the Eastern Marquis Army had not completely shattered the Demon-Suppressing Array, but he had indeed induced cracks within it.
This disruption damaged the equilibrium of the Demon-Suppressing Prison formed by the array, startling the slumbering demon soul of the Kunpeng.
"Ji Xiaoqian once said that the souls of Dongbin City could not escape the city, nor could they ever reincarnate as human beings."
"It is highly probable that this was the effect produced by the Demon-Suppressing Array."
For so many years, the deceased of Dongbin City were largely buried in Mount Dali.
Mount Dali preserved far too many ghosts and specters.
It was practically a paradise for netherworld entities.
Aside from Mount Dali, where did the souls of those who died elsewhere go if they could not obtain reincarnation...?
The Demon-Suppressing Prison.
"The ancestor of the Yan family nurtured a Kunpeng demon-ghost?"
Baili Feihong's expression turned cold.
Before fully investigating the matter, Baili Feihong should not have spoken thus.
After all, this was a predecessor of the Demon-Suppressing Bureau.
Yet the existence of the Kunpeng demon-ghost was deeply displeasing to him.
If the current Kunpeng demon-ghost were to break free, Dongbin City, built squarely upon the back of the Kunpeng, would be utterly annihilated.
Initiated in blood, Dongbin shall perish, and Great Yuan shall collapse.
If the prophecy held true, it had already entered its second stage.
Namely, [The Destruction of Dongbin].
If Dongbin fell, Baili Feihong could deduce that it would either be destroyed at the hands of the Kunpeng demon-ghost or by the so-called Gate of the Yellow Springs hidden within Mount Dali.
"Could it be related to Mount Dali?"
Among the historical legendary figures of Dongbin City, aside from the Heavenly Guardian General who was the Yan family ancestor, there was another person of even more illustrious status.
The second Grand Supervisor of the Divine Supervision Bureau.
Although at that time the Divine Supervision Bureau's duties were merely to observe astronomical phenomena and regulate dragon veins, as successive emperors placed heavy trust in the bureau, its power grew increasingly immense, and the authority it wielded expanded correspondingly.
It had reached the point where it could contend with the Demon-Suppressing Bureau.
His divine sense surged forth, sweeping across the water-repelling karst cave.
Aside from the Demon-Suppressing Stake, no other anomalies were discovered.
The existence of the Demon-Suppressing Stake was merely one of the very concealed array nodes of the Demon-Suppressing Array.
"Rumor has it that the second Grand Supervisor is still imprisoned within the highest-classified Demon-Suppressing Tower of the Demon-Suppressing Bureau."
"When he arrived in Dongbin City, back when it was still a small fishing village, this land transformed into fertile ground."
"Yet the Kun demon appeared."
"The time when the ancestor of the Yan family came to Dongbin City to serve as Town Guardian actually occurred after the imprisonment of the second Grand Supervisor."
"If we deduce based on historical nodes, everything that happened in Dongbin City cannot be separated from the second Grand Supervisor."
"Yet, is the role of the Yan family ancestor truly as simple as that of a hero?"
At that time, Great Yuan's conquest of the martial world had long since concluded.
Internal turmoil across the realm had ceased, and the national power of the Great Yuan Empire had reached its peak.
Meanwhile, the Netherworld had existed for ten thousand years.
They had constantly been searching for the Gate of the Yellow Springs.
Why were they so certain that the Gate of the Yellow Springs might exist in Mount Dali?
Did this involve the second Grand Supervisor?
What exact crime did the second Grand Supervisor of the Divine Supervision Bureau commit to ultimately warrant imprisonment within the Demon-Suppressing Tower?
Why imprison him rather than simply put him to death?
A multitude of questions flashed through Baili Feihong's mind.
The Kunpeng demon-ghost was formidable.
The demons and monsters attached to the Kunpeng demon-ghost could have escaped, but under Baili Feihong's Blood-Suppressing Mountains and Rivers technique, they chose to hide within the Demon-Suppressing Array.
Since Baili Feihong had arrived, the imprisoned army of demons and monsters would merely become provisions for him, rather than turning into a crisis for the common folk.
What he truly worried about remained the Gate of the Yellow Springs.
The prophecy of Dongbin City's destruction, which entangled the fate of the Great Yuan's collapse, was absolute proof that this matter was far from simple.
Even if a Human Immortal stepped into the world, they could not cause the Guliang imperial household to truly vanish and cause the Great Yuan to crumble.
However, an entity far more terrifying than a Human Immortal existed in this world: a Demon God.
Demon Gods had vanished, but they had not been completely eradicated.
Having ventured deep into the Devil-Monster Sea, Baili Feihong understood this point very well.
Given humanity's current strength, the descent of a Demon God would result in a cataclysmic disaster of extinction.
Behind the Gate of the Yellow Springs, what ancient and unknown terrifying existence lay hidden? No one knew.
In this world, any path leading to eternal life could not bypass the hurdle of the Demon Gods.
Leaving the water-repelling karst cave, Baili Feihong employed the Earth-Fiend divine ability of the Avatar Technique, beginning to patrol the underground of Dongbin City.
He needed to locate every single Demon-Suppressing Stake.
The Demon-Suppressing Stakes could not be shattered just yet.
The Demon-Suppressing Array still needed to be maintained.
The Kunpeng demon-ghost, which had been suppressed for over seven hundred years, could be killed by him, but whether its slaughter would bring about unknown consequences was a gamble Baili Feihong could not afford to take.
"Until the secrets of Mount Dali are investigated clearly, we must temporarily maintain the status quo."
In the end, he chose to step back.
Regardless of whether the Yan family ancestor, the Heavenly Guardian General, was a hero or harbored ulterior motives, before investigating things thoroughly, the best approach was to preserve the current state.
Demons and monsters were not terrifying.
The unknown was what terrified most.
"One hundred and eight Demon-Suppressing Stakes—this is indeed the Demon-Suppressing Bureau's highest-grade sealing magic array."
"The Demon-Suppressing Stakes are already linked to the ley lines of Dongbin City; the slightest miscalculation will plunge the city into an unprecedented natural disaster."
His avatars converged.
This signified that the avatars he had dispatched had successfully located every single Demon-Suppressing Stake.
"Restore the might of the Demon-Suppressing Stakes and patch the vulnerabilities of the array."
...
Baili Feihong's tracks did not escape Gongyang Yan's notice.
However, Gongyang Yan was currently stationed within the Demon-Suppressing Tower, commanding the demon-suppressing officers to restore the defensive array of the tower.
Deploying rune arrays was entirely the craft of the wondrous Artisan Hall.
The Eastern Province capital had an established agency of the Artisan Hall stationed there, and the personnel she notified dispatched by the provincial capital had already arrived.
Accompanying them was the Town-Guarding General of the Eastern Province.
Additionally, the Supreme Headquarters had learned of the events in Dongbin City and dispatched several Guardian Commanders to provide reinforcement.
The invasion of Dongbin City by demonic skin had already alarmed the Guliang imperial household.
Though a new emperor had yet to be officially enthroned, the turmoil in Dongbin City had blown out of proportions.
The Guliang imperial household had no choice but to dispatch a Heavenly Guardian General to Dongbin City to investigate the truth of the situation.
An elder of the Gongyang family would also emerge from seclusion, arriving in Dongbin City by midday.
Gongyang Yan understood that certain factions would inevitably seize this incident to target her.
The sacred sovereign who understood her mission was already dead.
Others who knew of her mission might not necessarily choose to continue entrusting this vital task to her.
The Guliang imperial household certainly would not.
The upper echelons of the Demon-Suppressing Bureau might also doubt her ability to break the prophecy.
Only the sovereign of the past, acting on his own arbitrary will, disregarding the skepticism of all others, had stubbornly planted her in Dongbin City.
In truth, even Gongyang Yan had never fully figured out why the sovereign was determined to pin her down in Dongbin City.
"Dongbin City cannot withstand any more turmoil."
"The convergence of all these various factions will truly destroy Dongbin City."
She had not reported the matter of the Kunpeng demon soul.
Yet with the current Demon-Suppressing Array confining the demon soul, anyone who had reached the Yuantai realm could sense that powerful demonic aura.
At that exact moment, blood-qi saturated heaven and earth, shrouding the entirety of Dongbin City.
Gongyang Yan, possessing the Piercing-Falsehood Divine Eyes, now clearly perceived the foundation of Baili Feihong's confidence.
The peak of the Eighteenth Blood Refining.
Stunned in her heart, she could no longer recall why, upon first discovering Baili Feihong's innate talent in blood refinement, she had transmitted the unshared secret of the Demon-Suppressing Bureau to him.
Yet thinking of the Chu clan village, where he had erased an entire village using the Blood-Suppressing Mountains and Rivers technique, she no longer felt surprised.
Perhaps it was simply an affinity ordained by fate.
At a single glance, she had recognized his extraordinary nature, and thus, harboring deep despair in the deepest recesses of her heart, she had transmitted the heritage artifact of the Demon-Suppressing Bureau to Baili Feihong.
"The future Martial Saint was forged by my own hands, Gongyang Yan."
The despair in Gongyang Yan's heart finally dissipated, replaced by a trace of release and a smile.
With or without her, Dongbin City remained largely the same.
But it could not exist without Baili Feihong.
"Perhaps I can finally free myself from Dongbin City."
"And pursue my supreme saber dao."
What she had said to the Northern Underworld Military Lord back then was not idle boasting.
Give her five years, and her divine abilities would be invincible.
Becoming a Master of Law, she could counter and slay a Martial Saint.
Yet today, she would no longer repeat those words.
Because even if she achieved a breakthrough in her martial path, she might not necessarily emerge victorious against Baili Feihong.
The dense blood-qi made many cultivators feel intensely uncomfortable.
Yet ordinary people felt as though they were bathing in a gentle spring breeze, washing away their bodies and minds while purifying the bad luck clinging to them.
The leaking demonic aura vanished like smoke in the thin air.
The demons and monsters imprisoned beneath Dongbin City fell back into silence once more.
This surge of blood-qi suppressed their other instinctual urges, magnifying only absolute terror.
"Finally cleansed the malevolent forces invading the Demon-Suppressing Stakes."
Baili Feihong breathed out a sigh of relief.
This force was exceedingly bizarre.
Washing it away with blood-qi across all one hundred and eight Demon-Suppressing Stakes required a massive expenditure of energy and time to complete.
The simplest method was to deploy a divine ability, plundering this malevolent power away and refining it with the Myriad Origin Cauldron.
The blood-qi was suppressing the restless demons and monsters while simultaneously holding down the awakening Kunpeng demon-ghost.
"Time is running short for me."
"The entire Demon-Suppressing Array can only maintain stability for one month."
The sealed Kunpeng demon-ghost was reviving from its slumber; it had now absorbed a considerable amount of heaven-earth laws through the cracks, patching the flaws in its demon soul. If within a month, its power were to be pushed to its peak...
"If within a month, I still cannot discover the intent behind the Heavenly Guardian General's sealing of the Kunpeng demon ghost in Dongbin City, I will plunder the power of this Kunpeng demon ghost bit by bit and refine it into the Primordial Cauldron Qi."
When that time came, whatever problems intelligence could not solve would be solved by sheer force.
He believed that with the enhancement of his skill points sitting in the high eight figures starting with a seven, could he really fail to resolve the crisis of Dongbin City?
Baili Feihong reined in his blood-qi and returned to the Demon-Suppressing Tower.
The familiar environment filled him with a sense of warmth.
However, many demon-suppressing officers were still immersed in grief.
Among the dead civilians were relatives of these very officers.
Walking through the Demon-Suppressing Hall, Yan Ruyu, who was usually in charge of missions and administrative business, was nowhere to be seen.
Ding Bo walked up to his side.
"Lady Yan has already left Dongbin, roughly half a month ago. She received the letter you had your disciple bring."
"Leaving is for the best; Dongbin City is currently like an active volcano, showing signs of erupting at any moment."
Baili Feihong said calmly, revealing no particular emotion.
"She is, after all, a member of the Yan family; I believe you must have guessed it. The Yan family has placed its bets on the crown prince. As a direct descendant of the Yan family staying in Dongbin City, the clan worried she would be subjected to coercion by other factions."
Ding Bo spoke in a low voice, revealing Yan Ruyu's secret.
"Yan? Yan?"
"Yan is her mother's surname."
Baili Feihong could not help casting an extra glance at Ding Bo.
Ding Bo shrugged. "Who doesn't have a large family standing behind them?"
I don't.
Baili Feihong muttered to himself internally as he went to find Gongyang Yan.
"Resolved?"
"Temporarily restored the seal. Furthermore, when the seal cracked, the Kunpeng demon soul absorbed quite a few heaven-earth laws through the fissures, making up for the flaws in its demon soul. Thus, the Demon-Suppressing Array that suppressed it for seven hundred years can now only trap it for one month."
Hearing this, Gongyang Yan did not display any panic.
"This matter has not yet been reported to the Supreme Demon-Suppressing Bureau, and I do not know whether the headquarters is fully aware of the Kunpeng demon soul's existence. After all, mobilizing such massive manpower and material resources to manufacture so many Demon-Suppressing Stakes is not something the Yan family ancestor could have coordinated alone."
Gongyang Yan's words reminded Baili Feihong of the Flying Yuan Island.
The value of the one hundred and eight Demon-Suppressing Divine Cables surpassed even that of the Demon-Suppressing Stakes.
This was precisely why Baili Feihong had left the Demon-Suppressing Divine Cables intact, taking away only the Black-Sky Stone Stele.
"If anyone knows, the Five Elders of Demon-Suppressing should be the most clear about it, right?"
Baili Feihong asked abruptly.
"At that time, the Five Elders governed the Demon-Suppressing Bureau. If anyone in the headquarters still understands the existence of the Kunpeng demon soul, it would only be those five lords."
Gongyang Yan nodded.
The mortality rate of the demon-suppressing officers within the bureau was extremely high.
Even the Grand Commanders who presided over the Supreme Headquarters had often been mysteriously assassinated.
Only the Five Elders, from the establishment of the Demon-Suppressing Bureau until their retirement behind the scenes, had continuously influenced the bureau throughout its history.
"I truly wish to ask those five lords in person why they imprisoned the Kunpeng demon soul beneath the depths of Dongbin City."
Baili Feihong shook his head; wanting to see the Five Elders was even more difficult than seeing the Guliang emperor.
"The headquarters will dispatch Guardian Commanders to assist the Dongbin Demon-Suppressing Bureau. The Town-Guarding General of Eastern Province has already arrived at the Demon-Suppressing Tower alongside the personnel of the Wondrous Artisan Hall, and they are currently repairing the rune array of the tower."
Gongyang Yan knew Baili Feihong cared deeply about Dongbin City.
However, the intervention of the Supreme Headquarters meant that even if the Kunpeng demon-ghost broke its seal, there would still be means to suppress it once more.
"I am not actually worried about the Kunpeng demon-ghost breaking out, but rather whether its release will trigger a chain reaction of subsequent events."
Baili Feihong walked to the edge of the wall, gazing toward the direction of Mount Dali.
"The Netherworld's objective has never changed. Their repeated moves against Dongbin City are all aimed at the Gate of the Yellow Springs rumored to exist in Mount Dali."
"This time their target is crystal clear: to detonate the underground secrets of Dongbin City, release the Kunpeng demon-ghost, and set free the demons and monsters that survived by attaching themselves to it."
"Their goal shouldn't simply be the destruction of Dongbin City; that doesn't fit the Netherworld's usual style of operation."
"Now, the matters of the prophecy have entered the second stage."
"No matter how powerful the Kunpeng demon soul is, there are always ways to deal with it. It cannot trigger the collapse of the Great Yuan, nor can it sustain the third stage of the prophecy."
"Therefore, I am wondering if the second line of the prophecy refers to the emergence of the Gate of the Yellow Springs?"
"Regarding the existence of the ancient Profound-Ice Woman Hansu, has the Netherworld obtained some secret from this ancient female fiend that we remain unaware of?"
Baili Feihong's string of observations once again stirred up another task buried deep within Gongyang Yan's heart.
Her family had sent her to Dongbin City with a purpose of her own.
Find the Gate of the Yellow Springs, enter it, and obtain the Yellow Springs Bone Flower to heal her ancestor's arm.
The Saber Saint of the Gongyang family was the ultimate pillar of support for the clan.
How long he had lived remained unknown to outsiders.
Yet ever since he participated seven hundred years ago in cooperating with the Five Elders to deal with the second Grand Supervisor, injuring his right arm in the process, he had never personally made a move again.
He merely provided his Martial Saint token to members of the family to deter all directions.
"It is entirely possible. However, Jiang Dongliu of the Yin-Yang Heavenly Sect has been stationed at Dali Town, studying Mount Dali for a whole year, yet he has never found the Gate of the Yellow Springs."
Gongyang Yan had once believed in the existence of the Gate of the Yellow Springs.
However, Jiang Dongliu of the Yin-Yang Heavenly Sect possessed a terrifying network of connections.
He had even been able to investigate matters concerning the prophecy and was personally acquainted with the prophet.
This demonstrated that the network woven behind this young prodigy of the sect included powerful undead old monsters from various major sects, and he also enjoyed deep ties with the Guliang imperial household.
"Tonight, I will venture deep into Mount Dali to conduct an investigation."
Baili Feihong instinctively furrowed his brows; he needed to personally verify whether the Gate of the Yellow Springs truly existed.
He had witnessed the spectacle of the Hundred Ghosts Night Walk within Mount Dali with his own eyes.
Based on that alone, he could sense that Mount Dali undoubtedly concealed a monumental secret.
Suddenly, Baili Feihong raised his head, looking toward the firmament.
Atop a layer of clouds stood six powerful Guardian Commanders, who had just entered the territory of Dongbin.
"People from the headquarters have arrived as well."
Heavenly Gang Divine Ability: Riding the Clouds and Mist.
From these Guardian Commanders, Baili Feihong sensed the aura of the Sixfold Demon-Suppressing Scripture.
Their cultivation was extraordinarily profound, and their accumulation of divine abilities surpassed any master of the divine ability realm he had ever encountered.
These were likely the "Divine Ability Masters" cultivated specifically by the Demon-Suppressing Bureau for the sake of the World-Suppressing Dharma Form.
The fact that they were not on the Hidden Dragon Roll indicated that they were already over fifty years of age.
Alternatively, the Demon-Suppressing Bureau possessed divine artifacts capable of contending with the Heavenly Dragon Instrument, shielding this group of Guardian Commanders from being recorded upon it.
The six powerful Guardian Commanders made no effort to conceal their auras.
Wherever they passed, their pressure dominated the surroundings.
This was used to declare dominance and deter evil entities.