Chapter 867: Stellar Malevolence

Daoist Fang crashed headlong into the forest, shattering a swath of ancient trees.

A muffled groan sounded amid the broken branches and crushed grass. Covered in leaves and brambles, he staggered to his feet in disarray, shaking his head as if still dazed.

Moments later, clarity returned. Raising his hand, he saw that the life-saving spirit talisman bestowed by his master had already shattered, its power spent.

He had long suspected ill intent. Even after sensing danger early and retreating in advance, he had still been caught in the blast. Only his master’s talisman had preserved his life.

"So this is the Landou Sect’s secret Dao Technique, the Lightning Control Technique?" Muttering to himself, Daoist Fang’s face turned pale as he looked toward the battlefield.

Lightning still flooded the center. Though his eyes could no longer make out details, he knew well enough that the five cultivators he had recruited were surely doomed.

A surge of relief washed over him. Thankfully, he had been cautious enough not to bring his fellow disciples to storm their opponent’s cave dwelling, but had instead lured a few scapegoats. Otherwise, his own junior brothers would now be corpses strewn across the ground.

Just as he prepared to withdraw, his body suddenly swayed. A wave of dizziness overtook him.

"What is this?" Alarmed, he hurriedly turned his vision inward. To his shock, he found within his body a strange and alien energy. It was icy cold, sinister, chaotic and like a malevolent qi that he had never encountered before.

It had invaded his upper dantian, striking at his primordial spirit, sending it into turmoil and nearly throwing his true essence into chaos.

"It followed the lightning? Slipped in without my notice? What is this power! The Lightning Control Technique, which is easily the strongest Dao Technique I’ve seen in my life, was actually sealed away by Landou Sect and deemed forbidden! And the Douniu Peak branch that cultivated it was expelled, their disciples cast out of the sect..."

He sat down cross-legged at once, struggling to drive out the baleful force. Suddenly, the furious cry of his fourth junior brother reached his ears. "Golden Radiance Armor! You were the one who killed our junior brother!"

Daoist Fang froze. A memory surged to the surface. Decades ago, when their master’s most beloved disciple, the youngest junior brother, perished in the Demonic Sea. The murderer had never been caught, while he, as the eldest senior brother, had been punished without mercy for failing to protect him, enduring bitter hardship as a result.

And now, after endless searching, the killer was right here among these five! He had only meant to use them as expendable pawns, yet unexpectedly uncovered his junior brother’s murderer. Truly an unforeseen reward.

It must have been the Golden Radiance Armor that preserved the man’s life back then. The armor was a gift from their master to his youngest disciple, and Daoist Fang knew its power well.

"To kill my junior brother, and to wear his inner armor as if it were your own..." Murderous intent blazed in his eyes, though the malevolent qi binding him left him unable to act for the moment.

***

Ma Debao whipped the Five Whips of Heavenly Chasm furiously, his body bouncing backward like a shrimp flicking through water. But his luck soon ran dry. Without warning, dizziness struck him just as it had Daoist Fang.

"Ah!" He clutched his head, body stiff, his true essence scattering into disorder. The Five Whips of Heavenly Chasm trembled wildly in his hands, nearly slipping from his grasp.

When he discovered the alien energy within him, he hurried to expel it. But by then the Kui Dragon had already slaughtered the other three and was bearing down upon him.

Terror consumed him. His protective essence had unraveled under the malevolent force, leaving him unable to control his astra. He could not resist. With a lash of its tail, the Kui Dragon knocked the Five Whips of Heavenly Chasm from his hands, then drowned him in a sphere of lightning. His life ended in an instant.

***

Qin Sang, who had escaped the desolate island, also felt an unsettling change within himself.

Turning his vision inward, he saw the Sky-Eyed Butterfly flailing in his Qihai like a drunken moth.

Puzzled, he wondered why the creature had been affected so strangely.

Is the lightning poisoned?

Sweeping his spiritual consciousness through his body, he found the presence of a strange energy, yet one that felt oddly familiar.

"Stellar malevolence?" He recognized its nature at once. It was strikingly similar to the stellar malevolence he had once drawn in while cultivating the

Heavenly Demon Body Refinement

. It was cold, chaotic, and sinister.

The Sky-Eyed Butterfly had clearly been unsettled by this force.

In his cultivation, any stellar malevolence he drew was blocked by the Jade Buddha, then carefully refined and expelled. It never lingered. These fragments of stellar malevolence must have entered along with the lightning.

The Sky-Eyed Butterfly had devoured the lightning, and with it had swallowed stellar malevolence as well.

Why has lightning, force of purest yang and strength, mingled with stellar malevolence, a power of chaos and cold?

There was no time to ponder. Qin Sang quickly aided the Sky-Eyed Butterfly in expelling the corruption.

With his long experience dealing with stellar malevolence, and since the butterfly had only swallowed a small portion of the thunderforce, the effect was minor. He swiftly stabilized its primordial spirit.

Just then, angry shouts rang from ahead.

Focusing his gaze, Qin Sang saw the sea churning violently. A black-robed figure emerged from the waves, striding across them with a strange banner in hand, glaring at him with fury.

He quickly noticed more figures in other directions, all similarly clad, each bearing the same kind of banner, their qi linked together.

"Golden Radiance Armor? Junior brother?" The words struck Qin Sang like a bolt of memory.

Back during the chaos of the witch race, he had been ambushed by witch cultivators in the Demonic Sea. After killing them, he fled at once. Later, Ran Luo had told him that those slain had been the direct disciples of the Black Snake Mountain's grandmaster of the witch race.

It was only thanks to Elder Zhou and Ran Luo, who used the trading alliance’s influence to shield him, that the matter had blown over.

And now, here in the Inner Sea, he had exposed himself again because of the Golden Radiance Armor.

"They are Black Snake Mountain's disciples, witch race cultivators!" Qin Sang’s eyes narrowed.

This is the heart of human territory. Witch cultivators usually linger near the Witch God Continent, in the southern seas. Why are they here?

And judging by their banners and coordinated formation, they had not come by chance.

Qin Sang’s heart sank. Among those who had come on this beast hunt, someone must have betrayed them. The most likely suspect was Daoist Fang.

He was either a witch spy, or from the witch race himself.

The immortal cultivation world held countless strange treasures, some capable of concealing one’s identity, enough to deceive even the Sky-Eyed Butterfly’s perception. It was not impossible.

Combined with the mysterious group who had wielded the strange lightning technique, the outlines of a vast conspiracy loomed over Qin Sang’s mind, filling him with questions.

The black-robed men moved to block his path, sending messages to their brothers, then wheeled to encircle him, raising their banners in unison.

Realizing the danger, Qin Sang cast aside his distracting thoughts. Without pausing, his figure flickered as he hurtled straight at one of the black-robed men.

At last, he saw the banners clearly.

Their golden fabric shimmered with the sealed primordial spirits of ferocious demonic beasts. Those spirits strained restlessly, savage and bloodthirsty, infusing the astra with a thick aura of malice.

The eighty-one Beast King Banners were clearly one set, and their power was certainly not inferior to the Heavenly Cold Wind Array.

Qin Sang knew well that if he allowed himself to be trapped, he would be doomed.