The two exchanged a glance but did not rush to get closer.
There are at least several thousand souls here, which probably attracted all the souls in the city to this place.
“These souls are not in a normal state.” Qi Zhiheng quickly noticed the abnormality. The eyes of these souls were glowing red, and they had almost no remaining consciousness. All that remained was the instinct to devour each other.
Yang Yitian looked around. There might be an internal formation here, causing these souls to lose their rationality as humans and only have the instinct to devour each other.
Qi Zhiheng's thoughts drifted away, recalling the feeling of drifting in a void after his death in his previous life, where his soul also tore at each other.
Yang Yitian surveyed the array formations here: "There's a large soul-trapping array in the entire city, preventing souls from leaving after death. Then there's a modified small soul-trapping array in this house, attracting wandering souls to it. Finally, there's this array that can cause souls to lose their minds. We need to be careful; we don't yet know if these arrays target souls specifically, or if they affect both humans and souls."
Qi Zhiheng also knew that even if the formation here was designed to target the soul, cultivators or ordinary people would still be affected to some extent once they entered.
Therefore, the two were extra careful and moved slowly inside.
"Aren't you studying Buddhism lately? Isn't there any way to restore these souls to their senses?"
"I'm just a beginner, my skills aren't up to par yet. You should think of a way to break the formation that's causing the soul to lose its mind."
"I think that even if the formation is broken, they may not be able to regain their senses." It's like being slashed; even if the opponent stops swinging the sword, it doesn't change the fact that they've already been injured.
At this moment, a soul rushed out and lunged at Yang Yitian, but was bounced back by a barrier.
Qi Zhiheng instructed, "Don't move around. Let me see if anyone is still conscious."
It's not easy to stay conscious within this formation. However, if a soul was recently captured by the formation, it should still retain some of its sanity.
Qi Zhiheng led people through one soul after another. Most of these souls were missing limbs, which meant they had probably already been through a battle.
He tried to communicate with several seemingly intact souls, but all attempts ended in failure.
To calm these souls down, a ritual of deliverance is necessary, but these are the souls of ordinary people. After the ritual, they will be sent to the cycle of reincarnation and will be unable to communicate with each other.
Yang Yitian said, "Then I'll take a look at the flaws in this formation." Although even if the formation stops now, these souls will not be able to regain their senses, for his own safety and to avoid being driven to madness, he felt it was still necessary to destroy the formation.
While Yang Yitian destroyed the formation, Qi Zhiheng searched for the souls that could still communicate normally. This process didn't take too long; half an hour later, Yang Yitian had broken the formation that was causing the souls to lose their minds.
Qi Zhiheng, however, has yet to find a soul he can communicate with.
"Let's go out first." Qi Zhiheng suddenly realized something.
The two temporarily left the dilapidated house, and he sensed a powerful aura approaching the city.
Yang Yitian had already dealt with any potentially dangerous formations in the city. After leaving the house, the two of them also left the city. Fighting here would be extremely dangerous for the residents, and people could easily die. The last time two cultivators fought, it resulted in tens of thousands of casualties.
Others might not care about the lives of ordinary people, but he, who still aspires to ascend to immortality, doesn't want innocent people to be implicated and thus affect his own path.
The two men headed in the direction from which the person had been discovered, leading him to the edge of a row of barren hills.
The newcomer wore a gray Taoist robe, had white hair and a white beard, and held a whisk, exuding an air of otherworldly elegance. If Qi Zhiheng hadn't possessed a dark spiritual root and was extremely sensitive to demonic energy, he would probably have thought the other party was an upright and righteous person.
The gray-robed Taoist sensed that the two people in front of him were both at the Nascent Soul stage, and his previous tension subsided.
His cultivation was at the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm, so he naturally didn't take the two Nascent Soul cultivators seriously. He said coldly, "You ignorant brat, you have little skill, yet you try to ruin this old man's plans!"
Qi Zhiheng and Yang Yitian exchanged a glance, noticing each other's cultivation level, but they weren't too worried.
Yang Yitian said to Qi Zhiheng with some emotion, "No wonder he can eat so many spiritual creatures here. He's a Nascent Soul cultivator." Only a Nascent Soul cultivator could have such a grand scale.
The gray-robed Taoist did not delay with the two and attacked directly!
Yang Yitian and Qi Zhiheng both dodged the attack.
Yang Yitian complained, "This old guy doesn't look like a villain! He doesn't have the 'villain dies from talking too much' problem!" Let's get straight to the point!
Qi Zhiheng was speechless and told Yang Yitian to step back first: "Even if he doesn't talk much, he's still going to die."
Yang Yitian asked with some concern, "Are you alright? Don't you need my help?"
Qi Zhiheng was quite confident in his abilities. With a wave of his hand, he replied domineeringly, "He's just a demonic cultivator in the Nascent Soul stage. I can handle him by myself."
Since Qi Zhiheng had said so, Yang Yitian retreated a bit to avoid disturbing his battle with the gray-robed Taoist.
Although it was a barren mountain below, it was also home to many creatures. He planned to stand below and block any attacks that might cause damage.
"Arrogant!" As a Nascent Soul cultivator, the gray-robed Taoist could hear their conversation. How could a demonic cultivator who had reached the Nascent Soul stage be a simple character? He was not about to let them get away with being looked down upon like this.
With a flick of his whisk, a stream of black spiritual energy transformed into a series of enormous black beasts that lunged at Qi Zhiheng.
This was Qi Zhiheng's first time encountering demonic cultivators, and he planned to make contact with them personally to test the depths of their demonic energy.
A giant beast formed from demonic energy lunged at Qi Zhiheng's face, but Qi Zhiheng stretched out his right hand and blocked the demonic energy beast that was charging at him!
The gray-robed Taoist sneered, "As expected of an inexperienced Taoist cultivator! A mere Nascent Soul cultivator dares to defend against demonic energy bare-handed! Didn't your masters tell you that demonic energy is not something to be touched lightly?" His words were full of sarcasm. It was common knowledge that demonic energy should not be touched casually; he didn't believe Qi Zhiheng was unaware of this, but rather that Qi Zhiheng didn't know he was a demonic cultivator! After all, his demonic energy was very special, and it was normal that he couldn't recognize him.
Qi Zhiheng remained unmoved. Demonic energy would indeed make Dao cultivators uncomfortable, but he was a Dao cultivator with a dark spiritual root.
Enveloped in gray smoke, the black behemoth gradually decomposed, transforming into spiritual energy that could provide power to Qi Zhiheng, before being assimilated by the gray mist.
Qi Zhiheng himself was somewhat surprised. He hadn't expected the gray mist to be able to decompose the demonic energy of others. He was certain that the demonic energy he had encountered in the Netherworld was something he couldn't decompose, at least not within other people's bodies. Therefore, he guessed that this might be related to his recent entry into the Buddhist path. Both light and dark attribute spiritual energy would take the form of gray mist, but the light attribute energy, mixed with the power of Buddhist cultivation, should be able to effectively suppress demonic energy.
"How is this possible!" The gray-robed Daoist was shaken. These giant beasts formed from demonic energy were intimately connected to him, and their disappearance also affected him. If the beasts had been simply scattered, it wouldn't have caused him much harm, since his demonic energy beasts relied on this kind of illusory manipulation to remain invincible. But once they dissipated and couldn't reassemble, his demonic energy beasts lost their advantage!
Before he could figure out what methods Qi Zhiheng had used to fight his demonic beasts, Qi Zhiheng had already annihilated several more demonic beasts in the blink of an eye! He then absorbed the dissipated power into his own gray mist!
The gray-robed Taoist priest had annihilated several demonic beasts, but he himself had also suffered considerable damage, spitting out a mouthful of blood. Realizing what had happened, he quickly retrieved his demonic beast artifacts. Attacking his opponent with the demonic beasts would only result in a more severe backlash!
After retrieving the demonic beast, the gray-robed Taoist took out a round spiritual artifact. The artifact was covered with demonic beast totems.
The circular magical artifact split into six parts the moment he moved it.
The six parts began to rotate around the center point! A huge phantom wheel appeared in mid-air, containing six parts, each with a different scene.
A strong sense of oppression swept over him! The airflow caused Qi Zhiheng's robes to flutter loudly. The power displayed by this magical artifact was enough to suppress Qi Zhiheng. Just now, even before they had fought, he felt that his cultivation had been affected to some extent.
Qi Zhiheng was also somewhat shocked and blurted out, "The Six Paths of Reincarnation!"
A portion of the originally enormous phantom lit up, and some black figures crawled out from it. Their faces were not clearly visible, but their body shapes suggested that they were both male and female.
The gray-robed Taoist's expression turned serious. Before he knew what kind of power Qi Zhiheng was using against him, he had to be cautious: "You do have some knowledge. Since you know this is the Six Paths of Reincarnation, you should know the power of this spiritual artifact. If you obediently surrender now, I'm willing to let your Nascent Soul go!"
A cultivator's nascent soul is equivalent to a life. As long as the nascent soul can possess another body or be reborn, it can start over and have a chance to be reborn.
Qi Zhiheng saw the appearance of the men and women clearly and sneered, "The spiritual weapon is indeed a good one, but unfortunately in the hands of someone like you, it is just a form without spirit and is not worth fearing!"
Qi Zhiheng succinctly pointed out the flaw in the Six Paths of Reincarnation, and the gray-robed Taoist's face turned ugly! This Six Paths of Reincarnation was indeed only a half-finished product; its power seemed immense, but it was nothing more than a paper tiger.
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