The Quest for Immortality

Qian State, a certain forbidden land.

Underground chamber, dark and ominous.

Within the chamber, an altar was set, on which rested a vast white skull with a human face and ram horns, ferocious fangs, and bloodstains all over.

Mr. Tu knelt before the skull.

His complexion was pale, tinged with a greenish hue; his fingers were slender, as if soaked too long in blood, cracking with blood seeping in.

Mr. Tu’s pupils were hollow, as if something had parasitized him. He hoarsely muttered words, as if speaking to someone or perhaps to himself:

"That person is dead, his Taoist bones stripped, the gates of Back Ruins will open sooner or later…"

"The living shall die, and the dead shall live…"

"The thousand-year plan is about to make its move…"

"That child… must be taken into our hands. Goodness is the breeding ground for evil; his blood, his flesh, his Sea of Consciousness, are the finest offerings; his Divine Sense, is the best ’Divine Fetus’..."

"But… he was ’snatched’ away…"

Mr. Tu’s numb expression suddenly twisted into pain and anger, and blood seeped through his eyes.

As if he had received rebuke, his heart was in a state of terrified guilt and hatred.

"It’s not my fault, not my fault…"

He trembled and said, taking a long time to settle, before he continued:

"That child is gone, vanished to who knows where. To search again would be like divining the heavenly secrets and searching for a needle in the ocean…"

"But the child, he still has a mother, and a father…"

"They can breed again…"

"With the Four Symbols Demon Formation, Feather Transformation Demon Embryo, Karmic Impurity, as soon as his mother leaves Qingzhou City, we can obscure the heavenly secrets and capture her…"

"This action will infuriate the Taoist Court, offend the Shangguan Family and the Wenren Family, destroying the millennia of strategic planning, leaving the Demon Children of Qian State dead or severely injured…"

"But…"

"To die for the Divine Lord is their honor."

"Capturing the child’s mother is worth everything..."

"With her, we can control Shangguan Yi..."

Mr. Tu let out a cold scoff.

"Shangguan Che is deep and dispassionate, yet his son, deeply emotional, has obvious weaknesses, easily manipulated…"

"…forcing them to bring another child into this world."

"This child, bearing the legitimate bloodlines of both Shangguan and Wenren, will be in our grasp from birth, the perfect substitute."

"But…"

Mr. Tu coughed out a mouthful of blood, "…another miscalculation…"

"Someone has disrupted our cause and effect!"

Mr. Tu said angrily.

His eyes suddenly turned blood-red and his voice became shrill and crazed, no longer human: "Who? Who is it?!"

The inhuman voice echoed in the chamber.

Long after, Mr. Tu coughed several times and regained his calm:

"I don’t know…"

"I can’t calculate it…"

"No," Mr. Tu said through clenched teeth, "I dare not calculate…"

"I see endless fog concealing the heavenly secrets, a mountain of corpses, a sea of dead bodies, a pair of bloody, merciless eyes, the abyss of exploitation, the anomaly of the Great Dao..."

"This is the breath of a Taoist Demon…"

"I..."

Mr. Tu’s eyes showed terror, his teeth chattering, "I… dare not calculate…"

"I would be contaminated…"

"I dare not…"

Mr. Tu shuddered intensely, pounding his head to the ground, bloodying his forehead, constantly muttering "I dare not"...

But just then, fresh blood oozed from atop the human-faced ram-horned skull.

An evil thought invaded Mr. Tu’s Sea of Consciousness.

Mr. Tu came to his senses abruptly, his gaze gradually calming.

"Yes… that’s right."

"It’s impossible…"

Mr. Tu murmured to himself: "This… can’t be real… Taoist Demons are but illusions, a means to deceive the heavenly secrets."

"If the person truly reared a Taoist Demon… I would be a dead man by now…"

"This person is a deceit…"

"He has deceived me."

"Who on earth is he?"

Mr. Tu frowned, questioning and answering in his own mind:

"I disguised myself in ’human skin’ and personally visited that restaurant… My Formation was broken, leaving traces behind, but the method used to break it was clumsy, unpolished…"

"It must have been deliberate…"

"He’s mocking me, deceiving me!" Continue reading at

"The clumsy method would normally not be able to break the Formation. Someone capable of breaking it wouldn’t be this unrefined…"

"This person… has deep cunningness, craftiness…"

"An extremely adept Formation Master…"

"Certainly an old monster too…"

"I wonder what he looks like…"

Mr. Tu began to construct an image of this person in his mind…

Above middle-age, or perhaps an old man, centuries-old cultivation, a hooked nose, defined wrinkles, a shrewd and reclusive gaze, possibly outwardly gentle, but with a smile that is sinister and vicious…

Mr. Tu felt this wasn’t far off.

He took a deep breath, his gaze full of malice.

"Disrupting the Divine Lord’s grand plan…"

"Someday, I will pull this person out..."

"Feed his flesh and blood as sacrifice, nurture Demon Monsters; offer up his Living Soul as tribute, worship the Divine Lord…"

"Let him sink into the Desolate Mountain of Purgatory, forever unable to transcend…"

"Let him know, the majesty of the Divine Lord cannot be violated, the ruler of the Great Wilderness, immortal and undying!"

Mr. Tu’s expression was fervent, fearless…

…

Meanwhile, "man-eating" Mo Hua, unaware that someone also wanted to "consume" him as an offering.

He was presently eating.

And what he was eating were genuine "delicacies of mountains and seas."

As a token of gratitude to Mo Hua, Wenren Wan treated him to an extravagant meal at the largest and most expensive Food Building in Qingzhou City!