Chapter 84 One-Handed Spirit Exploration Technique: People's hearts can be exchanged.
Everyone reached this conclusion simultaneously, and chaos immediately descended upon the people of Hezizhou.
The two disciples who had previously fled the mountain but were captured by Lou Yan reappeared at some point, squeezing into the crowd and crying, "That anglerfish possesses the power of a hundred demons. Since it has already become a demon, our immortal realm is no match for it, let alone... let alone that it is a monster that can escape into water and go underground at will!"
Lou Yan kicked the man in the face to shut him up.
Even so, these words still caused a stir among the crowd, with many lower-level disciples showing fear and subconsciously taking several steps back.
A moment later, someone attempted to leave on a sword.
Lou Yan immediately made a hand seal to knock the junior disciple's sword away, and then swung his fist to slap the man's face.
"I despise people like you who are afraid of death and abandon their comrades..."
"Lou Yan," Heng Qichun stopped him.
The deity's expression remained unchanged, only a hint of sorrow lingered in his clear, bright eyes. He did not rush to speak, but instead gently patted Nanxu's shoulder, just as he had done years ago to comfort him.
He sighed, his breath spreading into a white mist that filled the air. He addressed his disciples, saying, "We who cultivate the path of immortality have a duty to eliminate demons and protect the righteous path, but now demons roam freely... All of you..."
He paused, glanced around discreetly, and then continued, "If any of you wish to leave, you are welcome to do so."
As he spoke, he summoned a stringless zither. The zither music suddenly rang out, and a stream of water-colored spiritual light burst forth.
The path down the mountain was cleaned up by the sound of the zither; the bloodstains and lingering ghostly aura vanished without a trace.
Nanyu Shan, standing to the side, clenched his fists, his beard bristling and eyes wide, but ultimately said nothing.
All of his thousands of disciples in the Eighteen Realms were his personal disciples. With so many people, there were bound to be some cowardly ones.
Moreover, given the great calamity before them, even if he were their mentor, there was no reason for him to force his disciples to sacrifice their lives for a chubby fish.
So the disciples saw their usually "strict" sect leader, who valued "morality" above all else, turn his back to them, and then slowly raise his hand and wave it outwards—a gesture of dismissal.
A moment later, there was a sudden noise behind them.
The sound seemed to be the footsteps of the younger disciples moving quietly, and amidst the crowd, there was a rustling sound of fabric rubbing against each other. They were running so fast that the ground was hit with a "thump, thump".
Before long, all the sounds disappeared, leaving only a deathly silence in the mountains and fields.
Nan Yushan sighed softly, turned around with a self-deprecating tone, and was about to tell Heng Qichun that his methods of teaching disciples were inferior to his, and that thousands of disciples were not as good as one Lou Yan...
Before he could speak, he paused in surprise.
The thousands of disciples of the Eighteen Realms Sect had all knelt down on one knee, their uniform blue school uniforms piled up in the snow. The disciples stood tall and raised their hands in greeting.
The voice resounded throughout the heavens and the earth: "We are willing to eliminate demons and uphold justice, and join forces to slay evil spirits!"
No one left.
Including the junior disciple who had just tried to leave on his sword, thousands of people from the Eighteen Realms made a joint declaration of their will, including even the spirit-locking pouch on Fu Yusheng's waist that was itching to be used.
Only the two disciples from Hezizhou remained at the back, looking at each other in bewilderment. They exchanged a glance, then their gazes fell upon Nanxu, who was covered in holy marks, and suddenly they spoke—
"Then we..."
"We're not leaving!"
"We must avenge our master!"
Nan Xu's eyes instantly welled up with tears, and two more streams of tears flowed down her cheeks, uttering the first sob after her declaration of her resolve to conquer the mountains.
Lou Yan stared blankly at the scene. Compared to Heng Qichun's expectation, he was clearly the most surprised person.
Scenes from his previous life flashed before his eyes.
Abandoned by his parents in the mountains, thrown into the Heavenly Pool by his master, and hailed as the Demon Lord by all the demons in the world, he died lightly under Heng Qichun's sword.
Then came two hundred years of drifting aimlessly through the world, like a snowflake...
He had long believed that people were cold-hearted and that righteous people were nothing but hypocrites who would cling to life and fear death when disaster struck.
But now, with thousands of fellow disciples kneeling, not only did the cowards who wanted to escape stop, but they also brought back his initial understanding of the loyalty of the people and the principle of mutual dependence.
Perhaps... people's hearts can be exchanged.
Nan Yushan was still stunned, but this situation was exactly as Heng Qichun had expected. He simply smiled faintly, summoned the stringless zither, and said, "In that case, I ask everyone to fight with all your might."
"Lou Yan, go and find out where that anglerfish is."
When his name was suddenly called, Lou Yan was stunned for a moment before he came to his senses. He stammered a reply, then walked to the lakeside under thousands of gazes, lifted his robe and sat down cross-legged.
He casually cast a spirit-detecting spell.
The spiritual energy meandered downwards along the frozen lake surface, probing the schools of fish swimming in the water, the tough corals, and the underwater plants that had absorbed countless spiritual energies.
Lou Yan closed his eyes, moved his fingertips, and urged his spiritual power to change direction, probing upwards along the spiritual spring in the lake.
The spiritual spring did not freeze; as the water flowed, it seemed as if two spiritual energies were colliding. Lou Yan carefully extended his spiritual energy, and immediately a strange ghostly aura surged towards him.
Lou Yan immediately cut off the spirit-detecting spell.
“On…” He opened his eyes, looking at the snow-capped mountain shrouded in mist, “On the sacred mountain!”
Within the Nine Provinces, there are two mountains that mortals dare not ascend. One is the Four Symbols Mountain, guarded by the Four Divine Beasts, because the tomb of Emperor Yi, which leads to the Gate of Hell, is located on that mountain. The other is the Divine Mountain on Crane Island, because by walking along the Divine Path, one can reach the realm of gods.
A thousand years ago, the gods and the lower five realms were divided and ruled separately. A barrier completely blocked this divine path, and since then no one has been able to see the true face of the gods.
If they really wanted to see him, they would try every means to sneak a peek at Heng Qichun in the Eighteen Realms.
In his previous life, Lou Yan used the power of the Nine Netherworld Realm to climb this sacred mountain, stepping over the corpses of many immortals.
With demons clearing the way and the white tiger leading the way, he stepped onto the sacred mountain with one foot. That was the day he was closest to the realm of gods.
What a pity.
Elder Hengyang and the people of Hezizhou died here, effectively blocking the path to the realm of gods.
etc……
Lou Yan suddenly frowned. A strange feeling surged in his heart and then suddenly subsided, leaving only a vague thought—in his previous life, Elder Hengyang died three years after he was imprisoned in Tiantai Pool, so why is his death date now more than two years earlier?
Did this demonic anglerfish not exist in the human world before that?
Before he could think it through, everything that had happened in the past few days was strange, almost crushing the wolf cub's already not very bright mind.
When he looked up again, he was already standing on that high mountain shrouded in mist.
Nan Yushan struck with lightning and swiftly flung it onto an ancient pine tree opposite him.
The thick tree trunk was instantly split in two, and the snow on the branches fell in a rustling sound, blurring the view in front of people's eyes.
As the familiar memories flooded back, a fine layer of sweat beaded on Lou Yan's forehead. He quickly made a hand seal to probe in secret, and sure enough, he sensed a ghostly aura climbing towards his spiritual power.
He immediately identified the source of the ghostly aura and spoke up to stop it before the next innocent pine tree on the southern hill could be split open.
"East!"
"There is a water source twenty inches to the east of the tree!"
Nan Yushan gave him a deep look, but ultimately said nothing, instead urging the lightning in his hand to become even more intense—
"Smack!"
A powerful strike landed on the frozen water source to the east, cracking the thick ice layer into several cracks and creating huge waves on the water's surface.
Everyone involuntarily took a few steps back and quickly formed a magic array to defend themselves. Only when the water droplets that shot into the sky rolled down the array and condensed into a layer of ice in the suddenly cold weather did the disciples remove the array from their hands.
A white mist enveloped everything before them. Under the divine guidance, abundant spiritual energy filled the entire water source, yet nothing strange emerged.
For example, that anglerfish.
Fu Yusheng was the first to frown.
He carefully put away the spirit-locking pouch at his waist, cupped his hands towards Nanyu Mountain, and said, "Master, I'll go take a look."
Nan Yushan tacitly agreed.
No one noticed Lou Yan's increasingly pale face, nor did anyone smell the growing fishy odor in the water.
When Fu Yusheng stood by the water and cast several immortal spells, but to no avail, Nan Yushan couldn't help but flick his sleeve, filling his hands with spiritual energy again, intending to search in another direction.
He had already assumed that the anglerfish wasn't here, and that Lou Yan had gone in the wrong direction.
Just as Nan Yushan was about to strike another old pine tree with lightning, Heng Qichun spoke up: "Senior brother, wait a moment."
Nan Yushan paused for a moment, then turned back in confusion, only to see Heng Qichun tilting his head and asking Lou Yan, "What did you discover?"
Lou Yan didn't want to answer, but Heng Qichun touched his hair when he asked the question.
So the wolf cub feigned magnanimity and snorted, turning his head to look at Nanyu Mountain, "Is that shark from the Merfolk tribe still in Uncle-Master's hands?"
Nan Yushan found this unfilial disciple increasingly inexplicable, but having to give his junior brother some face, he could only snort and reply, "At Lu Duan Gate."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Lou Yan's expression became conflicted.
No one knew why he asked about the mermaid at such a critical moment. Only he, the wolf, pondered: even if he flew back to the Eighteen Realms on his sword, it would take at least two hours.
Can the people at Hezizhou wait two more hours?
Just as he was hesitating, the spirit-locking pouch at Fu Yusheng's waist suddenly began to move violently.
Fu Yusheng hurriedly reached out to press it, but this only caused the "thing" in the Spirit Locking Bag to struggle even more violently.
Nan Yushan immediately noticed the commotion and demanded, "What's going on?"
If it contained ordinary evil spirits, it wouldn't have caused such a commotion.
Fu Yusheng did not answer immediately. His eyes were fixed on the spirit-locking pouch at his waist, and his effeminate gaze gradually darkened.
little things……
He had a gut feeling that Wei Xiuzhu wouldn't cause such a scene for no reason, and with so many people watching, it was obviously impossible to cover it up. So he simply raised his hand and made a hand seal, opening the huge spirit-locking bag in front of thousands of people.
After a blinding flash of light, Wei Xiuzhu, whose wrists were bound by the Immortal Binding Rope, knelt in a sorry state before Nanyu Mountain.
Nanyu Mountain: "..."
Having held a high position for so long, he was unable to describe his feelings at that moment.
The most obedient junior disciple stole a spirit pet and escaped from the sect, while the most valued senior disciple put his junior brother, who had been under house arrest, into a spirit-locking bag and brought him out...
Really...
Nan Yushan sneered in anger, and began to wonder if his disciples were really no match for Lou Yan.
But now is not the time to find fault with Wei Xiuzhu. Nan Yushan untied the Immortal Binding Rope from the little thing's wrist, raised his chin at his little disciple, and said, "Speak!"
Wei Xiuzhu's face was covered in sweat from anxiety. Hearing the question, he lowered his head timidly, rubbing his wrists which were red and swollen from being bound, and said, "The juvenile shark is with me..."
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