The Purgatory Calamity
Chapter 542 - 516 Evil Path Great Cultivator_1

Chapter 542: Chapter 516 Evil Path Great Cultivator_1

First Realm, South Abyss.

Gui Sacrificial Sect.

With two True Gods in its possession, the Gui Sacrificial Sect had a deeper foundation than the Jiuli Sect, boasting a total of nineteen cultivators in the Immortal Realm.

Xing Heng was one of them.

To any sect, those in the Immortal Realm were the backbone; creating just one required an enormous amount of the sect’s resources.

Therefore, the lives of those in the Immortal Realm were very important.

At this moment, the current Sect Master of the Gui Sacrificial Sect, Shang Ye, stood in a dark Stone Hall where the "Life Soul Plaques" were kept.

He took down the one corresponding to Xing Heng, injecting his Divine Sense to check it.

Everything Xing Heng experienced up to a quarter of an hour before his soul was extinguished was imprinted on his "Life Soul Plaque."

He watched Xing Heng communicate with someone using a Black Jade Waist Token, watched Xing Heng leap out of the Ghost Cloud Ship, and watched Pang Jian come wielding the Origin Demon Sword.

He also watched Xing Heng get slain by Pang Jian.

"Sword Tower, Pang Jian."

Shang Ye immediately knew what had happened.

He was first deeply shocked.

In the terrifying thunderbolts that spewed Qingming ghost fire, the Great Tao Truth hidden within made even him, adept in the mysteries of Ghost Dao, uneasy.

Only after steadying his heart and mind did he begin to think further.

"Xing Heng, why did he insist on capturing Dong Tianze, and why did he still refuse to give up even after Pang Jian appeared? Standing behind Xing Heng was..."

Shang Ye pondered for a while but couldn’t figure out the reason, so he chose to report directly to the Ghost Mother.

...

Deep within the Gui Sacrificial Sect.

A barren rock mountain, bound by numerous rust-covered chains, with only a small temple at the summit.

The ancient chains, heavy with the marks of time, occasionally carried a ghostly howling that made one’s scalp tingle, as if connected to an Underworld Ghost Realm, or leading to another time and space.

The temple at the mountain top seemed to suppress all ghosts and evil spirits, radiating supreme majesty.

Having stood before the temple, Shang Ye reported the death of Xing Heng in detail through the stone door.

Then, he waited in silence.

After a long time, the voice of the Ghost Mother emerged from within the temple, "I cannot even guess what Mu Wentao is thinking."

Protector Xing Heng and Second Elder Jiang Cen, both belonged to Mu Wentao’s lineage.

As a fellow Immortal Realm cultivator, Jiang Cen would not so easily command Xing Heng, and from what Shang Ye saw through the "Life Soul Plaque," the person speaking with Xing Heng was definitely not Jiang Cen.

If it had been Jiang Cen, Xing Heng would not have been so cautious and reverent.

In the entire Gui Sacrificial Sect, apart from the Ghost Mother, only one other True God could have Commanded Xing Heng’s utmost obedience.

Even Shang Ye, as the Sect Master, knew he did not have the capability or the status to do so.

Therefore, it was the other True God of the Gui Sacrificial Sect, Mu Wentao, who had ordered Xing Heng to capture Dong Tianze alive and refused to give up even after Pang Jian appeared.

—He was also the Ghost Mother’s junior brother.

Shang Ye lowered his head and asked for instructions, "What should I do about the Sword Tower?"

"The Human Race needs a sword cultivator even stronger than Pu Zhaotian, and even more so, a powerful Sword God," said the Ghost Mother in a voice devoid of emotion, coldly, "In this era, no True God would obstruct the birth of a supreme Sword God. I cannot, and neither can Wentao."

Shang Ye turned his head and looked toward a mound a hundred miles away, saying, "Then..."

"Do nothing as the Sect Master of the Gui Sacrificial Sect. Wentao is currently not in the sect, and I do not know where he has gone. I will wait for him to seek me out," the Ghost Mother continued.

Shang Ye nodded respectfully, "I understand."

...

As an Individual Cultivator, the fact that Shang Xiuchun could take root in Hongdu City and ascend to the Immortal Realm surely meant he had extraordinary qualities.

His extraordinary quality was that when he sensed danger, he could withdraw and leave immediately.

For years, he had painstakingly run Hongdu City, establishing a trading area, setting up tea houses and taverns, and various places of entertainment for frivolous cultivators who lived life on the edge.

Through this, he had amassed tens of millions of Spirit Stones and Spirit Jade.

Hongdu City had always been a gold mine in his hands; its importance to him went without saying.

However, when he realized that this Hongdu Fragment Land had become a battleground chosen by some terrible power, and that it involved both the Sword Tower and the Gui Sacrificial Sect,

he resolutely decided to cut his losses and leave.

"Staying alive, surviving in this chaotic world, is what’s most important."

No sooner had he shot out of Hongdu Fragment Land like a ghostly bolt, Shang Xiuchun looked back regretfully, sighing deeply, "Why must the clash of immortals involve the place I’ve managed?"

He didn’t know what forces were involved in the darkness, but he knew he couldn’t afford to provoke them.

After one last look, he redirected his power, contemplating where to hide his identity and escape to.

"The most dangerous place is the safest—Demon Abyss."

He quickly decided on his destination.

At that moment, a massive Bone Gate suddenly appeared in the void in front of him.

The thousand-zhang-tall Bone Gate was wide open.

Behind the gate, an ancient city constructed of white bones faintly appeared, where numerous fleshless skeletons roamed, not limited to the Human Race, but also including Ferocious Beasts, Alien Tribes, and many other Different Kinds that had vanished in the river of time.

A figure as thin as a bone, wearing a loose grey-white magical robe, with a face full of smiles, stepped out from the towering Bone Gate.

After coming out, he gently advised, "Shang Xiuchun, Hongdu City cannot be without you. Please return."

"Bone Gate, Bone Saint Lv Qinghe, you’re actually still alive!"

Shang Xiuchun was horrified and lost color.

Bone Gate, like the Blood Spirit Sect, was once a great sect of the Second Realm and was also defined as heretical by the great sects of the First Realm.

The master of the Bone Gate crowned himself as the Bone Saint.

This evil sect knew how to refine bone puppets out of different kinds; ferocious beasts, spirit beasts, the human race, all could be transformed into bone puppets by the sorcery of the Bone Gate.

But this sect had been destroyed for nearly a thousand years, with any disciple who appeared being killed.

In recent hundreds of years, Bone Gate gradually fell into silence, with not even a single disciple seen.

The last Bone Saint of Bone Gate was the Lv Qinghe before them, who was said to have been slain by the Great Elder Jiang Ran of the Sword Tower.

After many years, Lv Qinghe reappeared in the world, and looking at his cultivation level... it seemed he had reached the peak of the Immortal Realm!

"Was it you, Lv Qinghe, who lured Pang Jian into Hongdu Fragment Land and destroyed that space teleportation array?" Shang Xiuchun asked in a grave voice.

"No."

Lv Qinghe shook his head with a smile, standing in front of that thousand-zhang-high Bone Gate, insignificant as mosquitoes flies.

"I’m just one of the sealers, and this is the route I sealed," Lv Qinghe patiently explained to Shang Xiuchun. "There are several other routes, each one sealed by sects like the Blood Prison Sect and the Black Wood Sect. This fragment of Hongdu land only allows entry, not exit."

"Brother Shang, please forgive me."

Lv Qinghe bowed apologetically.

Behind him, that thousand-zhang-high giant Bone Gate suddenly burst into grim white flames.

As the bone-chilling flames ignited, from the Bone City behind the gate, bone giants strode out.

"Please go back!"

Just as Lv Qinghe straightened his bowed body, a massive evil divine power suddenly surged out from within the Bone Gate.

Shang Xiuchun’s body was pushed by that evil divine power, like a tiny insect in a roaring tide, utterly unable to resist the might of heaven, losing control over himself.

He was thus swept away towards Hongdu Fragment Land.

"City Lord!"

The individual cultivators who had decisively evacuated because of his actions, also knowing that bad omens loomed, followed him as they fled from Hongdu City.

But they suddenly saw him being involuntarily forced to return from the void outside the Fragment Land.

...

On the shores of the lake.

As Dong Tianze broke through the lake’s surface, he stopped by Pang Jian’s side, and both heard the alarmed and strange cries of the individual cultivators from the void in the far north of the Fragment Land.

"There really is something strange."

Pang Jian frowned and immediately rushed into the sky, concentrating his divine power to look towards the northern firmament.

A giant gate made of bone stood in the void north of Hongdu, and bone puppets without flesh and blood were walking out of it in a majestic procession.

"Bone Gate!"

"The true evil sect, Bone Gate!"

"Bone Saint Lv Qinghe! Wasn’t he killed by Jiang Ran of the Sword Tower? How is he causing trouble again?"

The individual cultivators cried out in terror.

As some saw the situation turning dire, they planned to bypass Bone Gate and escape from the other side of the Fragment Land.

A filthy blood sea, reeking of blood, appeared in the void to the west of the Fragment Land, and several cultivators clad in bright red robes emerged laughing from the polluted sea of blood.

"Blood Prison is here, do you dare to come in?"

A plump middle-aged woman with thick makeup on her face and lips that seemed to be smeared with fresh blood laughed heartily at those approaching.

The heavy white makeup on her face, paired with the bright red at the corners of her mouth, made her look quite frightening.

"Blood Prison! Blood Prison Sect!"

An individual cultivator in the Soul Wandering Realm felt his scalp tingle as he approached the filthy blood sea, heard the name Blood Prison, and was about to turn and flee when the plump woman reached out and pulled him back.

Dark red blood light surged in her palm, generating strong suction.

The Soul Wandering Realm individual cultivator, against his will, flew towards her palm, and on the way, his organs burst and his flesh exploded.

Before he could reach her palm, the cultivator turned into a clump of blood mud, merging into the polluted blood sea.

"Black Wood Sect!"

"There are followers of the Black Wood Sect!"

In the east of Hongdu Fragment Land, individual cultivators were also releasing cries of terror and despair.

Pang Jian turned to look and immediately noticed the gloomy black forest that had appeared out of nowhere in the void to the east.

From that grim black forest, he sensed an aura of withering and death.

In Pang Jian’s mind, instantly surfaced the image of the Alien God from the Outer Realm who had taken residence in the Woodman’s body, intent on infecting and consuming Cloud Marsh’s World Tree.

His dispersing aura was causing all things to wither and die.

The Black Wood Sect must have some connection to Him.

"Are they coming for you, or are they coming for the Sword Tower?" Dong Tianze summoned the Yin Spirit Blood Halberd, looked around, and said in a solemn voice, "You should immediately call for reinforcements from the Sword Tower."

"And I will also speak to her."

Dong Tianze took the initiative to communicate with Pang Lin using the mark on his glabella.

...