Qi Xuansu gazed at the black sun before him and muttered, “What is this?”

Madam Wu also looked at the mural of the black sun, flames flickering within her eyes. “You can think of it as a special kind of talisman, one that possesses extraordinary power.”

That explanation was practically meaningless. Of course, Qi Xuansu already knew the mural possessed mysterious power, since it was the source of the shadows.

Qi Xuansu rephrased his question. “Who left this mural here?”

“It had to be someone from the temple. No matter how many precautions you take, it’s always hardest to guard against an insider,” Madam Wu said as she shook the feathered serpent skin in her hand. “Only one of their own could bypass this thing and leave the mural here, ultimately causing the outbreak of the shadows. This mural is more like a catalyst, converting part of the divine power accumulated on the island into shadow power.”

Qi Xuansu asked, “What should we do now? Destroy the mural?”

Madam Wu replied, “All things obey balance and conservation. The island’s divine power has already been drained dry, so these shadows are like water without a source. Though they appear to be expanding outward, in truth they are merely making a final dying struggle. Otherwise, they would not need to thin themselves out overall just to repair the hole you burned through them. They could simply generate more shadows directly from the source. So after some time, they will naturally dissipate on their own.”

Qi Xuansu continued staring at the black sun. “I don’t understand. What exactly is the purpose of this shadow power? Surely it’s not as simple as creating disturbances just to attract the attention of the Western Daoist Order. There must be some deeper motive driven by profit.”

Madam Wu did not deny his reasoning. “I heard that you once witnessed the descent of True Lord Siming in Jinling Prefecture, correct?”

Qi Xuansu nodded. “The Cult of Fates dumped a massive amount of so-called ‘Gifts’ into the water, which spread throughout the city via the waterways and even turned Zhenwu Lake into a vessel for True Lord Siming. That’s why the divine descent caused such an enormous commotion. True Lord Siming’s objective was to harvest living souls and flesh.”

Madam Wu said, “To gods and immortals, both incense power and living souls are edible. Humans are like chives that regrow within days after being cut. Harvesting incense power is like cutting chives while leaving the roots intact. As long as the roots remain, you can harvest them again and again. Harvesting living souls is like uprooting the entire plant. Once consumed, it’s gone forever. That’s why most gods do not casually kill people. Instead, they spread faith and repeatedly harvest their believers’ incense power like chives.

“However, there are always exceptions. In terms of effectiveness, living souls are far more nourishing than incense power, just as a hen is more valuable than the eggs it lays. In emergencies, gods will slaughter the chicken and eat the meat, using living souls to replenish divine power. This not only skips the tedious process of extracting divine power from incense power, but a single living soul can provide as much divine power as the annual offerings of a hundred devout believers or a thousand ordinary believers. That is the origin of blood sacrifice.

“Back then, Zhang Luxu, the leader of the Five Demon Sect, sought resurrection. But because his faith had nearly vanished, he secretly sent people to collect living souls through grotesque methods of mutilation. Ten living souls equaled the annual output of 10,000 ordinary believers. A thousand living souls amounted to the incense power generated by a million ordinary believers in a year. With just 1,000 living souls, he could achieve an initial resurrection. If the souls belonged to cultivators, the required number would be even lower. Depending on cultivation level, the souls of Xiantian Beings and Heavenly Beings convert into different amounts of divine power, though I’m not entirely sure about the exact exchange ratios.

“Of course, this shortcut comes with hidden dangers. Just as Immortals are constrained by heavenly tribulations, the consequence of blood sacrifice is karmic fire. A small amount of karmic fire is nothing much, merely a minor irritation to a god’s divine body and divine kingdom. But if too much karmic fire accumulates, it will corrode the divine body and collapse the divine kingdom, burning everything to ashes in a great blaze. Therefore, unless faced with a life-or-death crisis, gods generally will not harvest living souls on a massive scale. Doing so is no different from drinking poison to quench thirst.

“In this regard, different gods possess different levels of resistance. Wu Luo is exceptionally resistant to karmic fire and can even manipulate it. That is why Wu Luo is especially fond of blood sacrifices. However, over the past 200 years, she has accumulated far too much karmic fire, far more than any other deity. No matter how high her resistance is, there is still a limit. She can no longer carry out blood sacrifices recklessly and must restrain herself somewhat.

“But when I say restraint, I only mean that Wu Luo reduced the frequency of blood sacrifices, not that she stopped entirely. Do you remember the incident where the Yinglong Warship crashed in Cuowenbu? If Wu Luo had merely shot down the Yinglong Warship, its internal protection systems would have prevented so many deaths. Certain people within the Daoist Order merely intended to use the damage of a single Yinglong Warship to achieve some political objective. But Wu Luo took the opportunity to harvest living souls, causing a massive number of Daoists to die unexpectedly. These included cultivators with high levels of cultivation. So one can imagine just how much divine power Wu Luo obtained from them. So many deaths were completely beyond the Daoist Order’s expectations and far exceeded the limits of what they could tolerate. Naturally, the Daoist Order was enraged, which was why they quickly reached a consensus internally and retaliated.

“I know you’re curious as to why I know all this so clearly.”

Madam Wu adjusted her star crown and dusted off her feathered robe. “I was fortunate enough to personally participate in the battle and accompany the army into Wu Luo’s divine kingdom. Yes, an army. That operation was not merely the one Great Sage and two first-rank Spirit Guards that was publicly announced to the outside world. In reality, three Great Sages and six first-rank Spirit Guards were deployed, along with the corresponding fleet of Yinglong Warships. The objective was nothing less than to kill Wu Luo outright.

“Wu Luo naturally suffered devastating injuries. If not for assistance from the Buddhist Sect, even with the advantage of fighting within her divine kingdom, she would have been beaten into her first death. In the end, it was equivalent to vomiting up all the divine power she had consumed and losing much more on top of that.”

Only now did Qi Xuansu realize that the Cuowenbu incident had contained such secrets behind the scenes.

What kind of force was three Great Sages and six first-rank Spirit Guards? That did not even include the number of immortal objects and Yinglong Warships. No wonder Wu Luo was still no match for them despite fighting in her own divine kingdom. She had nearly been beaten to death on the spot.

Some people often wondered what distinguished the duties of Tiangang Hall from those of Beichen Hall. This was one such example. When facing a large-scale situation officially classified as resistance against the Daoist Order that required suppression and military intervention, the Tiangang Hall would lead. Setting aside the Great Sages, this operation had been planned jointly by the Tiangang Hall and the Spirit Guard Office.

That was why when Daoist priests encountered resistance or non-cooperation during investigations, they often said that the crimes would be counted as resisting the Daoist Order. The implication behind those words was that once the Tiangang Hall was involved, the matter would take on an entirely different nature. Beichen Hall usually arrests people. But when Tiangang Hall was involved, life and death no longer mattered.

Furthermore, Wu Luo was backed by the Buddhist Sect. Although the Buddhist Sect lost against the Daoist Order in the past, the latter had never succeeded in completely destroying the former. The Buddhist Sect retained considerable strength, and unlike the Confucian School, did not become entirely subordinate to the Daoist Order. Even to this day, the Buddhist Sect remains a major destabilizing force. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

This inevitably reminded Qi Xuansu of the Lord Buddha’s intervention in Poluo. Although the Holy Xuan defeated the Lord Buddha and shattered him into pieces, the former also paid an enormous price and ultimately ascended prematurely. The crucial point was that the Lord Buddha still remained in the mortal world. Not only did the Buddhists wish to resurrect him, they even sought to control him. It seemed that the current Buddhist Sect had already gained control over one of the Lord Buddha’s hands.

Under normal circumstances, as long as the Daoist Order did not encounter problems, the Buddhist Sect would never be able to stir up much trouble. Back then, the Buddhist Sect could not defeat the Daoist Order on the main battlefield. Now that the Daoist Order had developed tremendously, how could the Buddhist Sect possibly win? The problem was that the Daoist Order liked to create problems for itself. The several incidents involving Ancient Immortals causing chaos and the Buddhist Sect scheming in secret had all happened because internal issues within the Daoist Order gave these outside forces opportunities to exploit these vulnerabilities.

As long as the Daoist Order could unite internally, any Ancient Immortal could be beaten into the state of their first death. The key issue was that the Daoist Order often failed to reach unity.

Qi Xuansu had long ago thought that if he ever became the Grand Master and managed to eliminate the chronic problem that was the Buddhist Sect, his name would surely go down in history.

He was not greedy for wealth or women. When necessary, he could even let go of power. But he was still human with desires. What he coveted was an eternal name remembered through the ages.

Qi Xuansu had not yet entered the Golden Tower Council and thus had not come into contact with these hidden secrets.

However, as a veteran of the Daoist Order, Madam Wu knew far more than he did.

Qi Xuansu asked, “Madam Wu, are you saying these shadows are actually carrying out blood sacrifices?”

“What else could they be?” Madam Wu countered. “Have you seen a single survivor?”

Qi Xuansu carefully recalled the corpses he had seen in Juesheng Hall. Their internal organs had withered away, leaving behind only skin and bones. Their flesh had vanished completely, and their souls were nowhere to be found.

Madam Wu said, “Gods who possess divine authorities related to war generally have strong resistance to karmic fire and are skilled in blood sacrifice. Gods who possess the authority of death can convert flesh and blood into divine power. Earlier, I mentioned that Wu Luo was extremely resistant to karmic fire. That’s because she had once been the final ruler of the Ancient Wuist Sect and had indeed waged wars. But why was True Lord Siming able to act so brazenly in Jinling Prefecture?”

Combining Madam Wu’s earlier explanations, Qi Xuansu immediately understood. He said, “True Lord Siming governs life and death, so he possesses the ability to convert flesh and blood into divine power. Although both methods are forms of blood sacrifice, Wu Luo and True Lord Siming focus on entirely different things. The former devours living souls, while the latter consumes flesh and blood. That is why the two have been able to cooperate smoothly for so many years without any conflict of interest.”

“That’s right,” Madam Wu said. “People always speak of the three secret societies, but True Lord Ziguang was actually incompatible with the other two. She neither devoured living souls nor consumed flesh and blood. She obtained divine power through divination for others. So it was inevitable that she would eventually part ways with them.”

Qi Xuansu pondered for a moment before saying, “Madam Wu, you just mentioned that Kukulkan may possess the divine authorities of the sun, storms, war, fear, and death. The legends even openly state that Kukulkan, like Wu Luo, favors blood sacrifice. This means Kukulkan can both devour living souls and consume flesh and blood. No matter how we go around it, this matter still cannot be separated from Kukulkan.”

Madam Wu replied, “No. There are other gods capable of the same things.”

“Who?” Qi Xuansu immediately asked.

Madam Wu answered, “You already guessed it earlier—the Fallen Apostles.”