The Purgatory Calamity
Chapter 300 - 284: The Person Fomenting Trouble in the Shadows_2

Chapter 300: Chapter 284: The Person Fomenting Trouble in the Shadows_2

"If I hadn’t snapped back to my senses in time, I might have ended up like him."

As he spoke, Dong Tianze took out a Calming Pill and swallowed it, starting to regulate his mood.

"Like him?"

Everyone’s expressions changed, increasingly unsettled by Dong Tianze’s personal revelations.

"Let me take a moment."

Dong Tianze closed his eyes to recuperate, as if to walk out of a terrible nightmare.

It took a long while before he regained his normal state and then proceeded to cast his Spell on the next person.

Strands of soul shadows flew out from Ghost Howling’s holes, piercing through the Spiritual Power Strong Shield of that Black Valley disciple, clinging closely to the person’s forehead, the corners of eyes, and ears.

They were like little devils, listening intently to the person’s heart’s voice at close range, sensing his thoughts and spiritual consciousness.

It only took a moment.

Cold sweat broke out more profusely on Dong Tianze’s forehead, his eyes struggled, his complexion pale, as if drained of more spirit.

"This one is not it either!"

Dong Tianze clenched his teeth and growled softly.

Just as he was about to retract the soul shadows, he found they were contaminated by the dead silence in the other’s Sea of Consciousness, losing all spirituality.

"This time, I’ll need a long time to recover!"

Under the expectant gaze of everyone, Dong Tianze continued to gasp for breath as if he had suffered a soul wound.

Pang Jian asked quietly, "Are you okay?"

Dong Tianze opened his eyes and looked at Pang Jian, shaking his head, "Nothing’s wrong, just...too tired."

After a moment’s thought, he added, "It’s not like simply deploying the Spiritual Power Strong Shield makes everything alright. It seems there’s a power that can infiltrate and contaminate their souls when they lose hope, despite the Strong Shield."

"Their state of being living dead isn’t a natural transformation; I think there’s external intervention."

Everyone was shocked.

"Are you saying that we are unaffected only because our will is strong enough, and we’ve never given up hope?" Zhuang Yuyan’s pupils showed unease.

The Sword Boat might stagnate in the fog for a very long time.

Those who haven’t turned into living dead, still able to communicate normally, might also gradually lose hope with the passage of time.

If the flame of hope in the heart is extinguished, an unknown Alien Power will penetrate the Firm Cover, will erode the heart and soul.

If that happens, the shadow of death will also envelop everyone at some moment.

Even she isn’t confident that in several years or decades, she would still be as firmly convinced of her own salvation, still believing that she will eventually be saved.

"Mhm."

Dong Tianze nodded.

While talking, he took out a Spirit Nurturing Pill to restore his vitality and spirit.

Just by probing the thoughts and spiritual consciousness of two people, he was already overwhelmed, coming close to giving up hope completely, just like them.

Once this thought was etched into his mind, he felt he would also become one of the living dead.

At this moment, Pang Jian suddenly looked towards one of the living dead, a disciple from Black Valley, and asked, "What’s her name, and what is her Cultivation Realm status?"

"Xu Jie, an outer disciple, late stage of the Hollow Profound Realm."

The one who answered was Lv Lianchen, also an outer disciple of Black Valley.

He came closer to the Black Valley woman who looked the oldest, her hands covered in age spots, and her face wrinkled, and said, "She’s over a hundred years old and has the oldest age and poorest cultivational talent among us."

To be in the Hollow Profound Realm at over a hundred years old was rare for those with poor talent in the various Sects of the Second Realm.

"Is there something wrong with her?"

Lu Lingchan approached as well, observing Xu Jie with a puzzled expression on her pretty face.

She knew nothing about Xu Jie, and before Pang Jian had asked, she hadn’t given the Black Valley female disciple a second glance.

As a Direct Disciple high above, and Xu Jie being the least talented outer disciple, there was a natural chasm between their statuses.

"Did you discover something?"

Zhuang Yuyan also asked softly.

With her serene temperament, she quietly drew closer to Pang Jian, her eyes as if able to see through people’s hearts, and looked at Pang Jian’s face.

"This little junior brother is quite...handsome, much more so than the slick-tongued and lax Qi Qingsong."

A gentle smile curled at the corner of her mouth, showing a trace of interest in Pang Jian’s sharp and somewhat cold and detached appearance.

"Pang Jian, what’s going on?"

"Is it her?"

Qi Qingsong and Fang Boxuan immediately asked.

Zhao Yuanqi hesitated for a moment before taking down the big red gourd from her back, preparing in advance.

"Zhou Qingchen, my gourd can absorb you inside. If the situation turns dire, remember not to resist me when I point the gourd’s mouth at you," she transmitted with Red Mountain’s secret technique.

Zhou Qingchen was stunned and gave her a strange look.

With more than a dozen people on high alert, dealing with one who was causing trouble in the shadows, could there be any problem?

Besides, they had Zhuang Yuyan from the Spirit Condensation Realm!

Zhou Qingchen thought she was being too cautious to the point of making a mountain out of a molehill.

Pang Jian didn’t answer everyone’s questions but said to Dong Tianze with a grave expression, "Next, you’ll probe her thoughts."

"Alright."

Dong Tianze immediately agreed.

Then, he added, "Actually, I don’t think there’s a need to exert ourselves to investigate further."

"Those people won’t come back; in my eyes, they’re as good as dead. I suggest we just start the killing!"

"Pang Jian, since you suspect her, let me kill her for you first."

The ruthless Dong Tianze, seizing on Pang Jian’s suspicion, grabbed his Ghost Howling and was ready to strike.

—He didn’t care at all whether the person was really the troublemaker.

Qi Qingsong’s expression changed dramatically, "Don’t!"

Lu Lingchan also hurriedly said, "She has a heartbeat, she knew to summon the Spiritual Power Strong Shield for defense, and she is still absorbing power from the Spirit Jade. She is clearly alive; how can we just kill her like that?"

"Pang Jian, why do you suspect her? Without concrete evidence, you should let Dong Tianze probe her Sea of Consciousness again!"

"You can’t just kill someone directly!"

Even if Xu Jie had the worst talent for cultivation, she was still one of their Black Valley people. As the leader of Black Valley on this journey, Lu Lingchan felt it was her responsibility to protect the members who had not died.

Dong Tianze coldly said, "The living dead won’t come back; their spiritual consciousness has already been worn away."

Pang Jian asked, "You’re saying they have no self-awareness left?"

"Hmm."

"Then I understand."

Pang Jian nodded his head.

The next moment.

The Astonishing Spear shot out without warning, aiming for the aged Xu Jie, who was over a hundred years old!

The spear tip shone with blinding light!

Flame Force, Extreme Cold Alien Power, and the forces of the sun and moon were forcibly mixed at the tip of the spear. As it reached Xu Jie, it suddenly exploded into conflict and burst violently.

The splendid spear light, displayed in the manner of the Chaotic Sword Skill, instantly crushed the light screen Xu Jie had conjured.

"Boom!"

At the moment the light screen burst, the desiccated figure of Xu Jie suddenly disappeared.

In the third layer of the Sword Boat stands, as if the stars shifted, the vanished Xu Jie suddenly reappeared!

Her long nails, like blades shimmering with cold light, sliced and tore at her own face and body, cutting open her own skin.

Then, a terribly thin figure was revealed from within Xu Jie’s body.

This person had been wrapped in Xu Jie’s skin all along, only now choosing to reveal their true form.

"Crack, crack!"

His joints snapped crisply, his stature suddenly swelled, and his features subtly transformed.

In a moment, the visage of a jaundiced young man was presented before everyone.

"Luo Yuan!"

Black Valley’s Ye Fei suddenly shouted sharply, with an I-knew-it look on his face.

Ye Fei pointed at the man and cried out, "He is the one I spoke of, that outer sect disciple from Sword Tower! He appeared in the Cloud Thunder Forbidden Zone, he is Luo Yuan!"

Pang Jian’s mind thundered, his consciousness somewhat muddled, struggling to grasp the situation.

The sudden appearance of the person’s visage exactly matched the one Pang Jian had assumed in the Cloud Thunder Forbidden Zone!

"This..."

Dong Tianze was also taken aback.

This Sword Tower disciple, stepping out from Black Valley’s Xu Jie, still bloody, wasn’t he the very one who had traded with him at the Ghost Altar, another face of Pang Jian?

Before his true identity was exposed, Pang Jian had transacted with him time and time again in the guise of the jaundiced young man.

If he was Luo Yuan, then who was Pang Jian?

Dong Tianze’s extremely odd gaze wandered over the face of the person on the third-story stands, and over Pang Jian’s face, eager to question what exactly was going on with Pang Jian.

Yet he forcibly held back.

"Indeed, I am Luo Yuan."

The man admitted his identity calmly and composedly.

...