Chapter 80: Listening to the Nether

Looking at the lifelike red wax deity statue, Lü Yang grew even more interested.

In his previous lifetime, he had spent a full ten years researching the soul of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Because of that, he could tell.

“Which elder do I have the honor of meeting?”

Lü Yang cupped his hands and looked straight at the statue before him.

In his eyes, a wisp of a Foundation Establishment soul was clearly hidden within the red wax-carved statue!

However, the statue gave no response, only continued to act on its own, saying, “Those who offend our sect shall die a thousand deaths and never be forgiven!”

As the words fell, the statue took a step forward and suddenly vanished.

The distance between it and Lü Yang was covered in one stride, and its five fingers clenched into a fist that came smashing down!

Seeing this, Lü Yang neither dodged nor retreated, instead throwing a punch of his own.

Witnessing this scene, the black-robed Daoist was overjoyed.

This ancestral statue was no ordinary item.

Only someone of his status within Nether Wishper Sect could possess such a personal protective treasure.

Usually, carrying it on oneself could greatly delay being devoured by witch ghosts.

And in times of need, one could summon the ancestral spirit as now, to suppress enemies.

Though made of red wax, one strike from it could split mountains and shatter stones—no ordinary human body could withstand it.

Therefore, in his eyes, Lü Yang was seeking death.

Boom!

In the next moment, a loud explosion burst out between Lü Yang and the statue, with waves of energy sweeping in all directions.

Lü Yang’s body instantly disintegrated.

Whoosh whoosh—!

Clouds rose and fell, energy scattered and gathered again.

As the surging white mist boiled and rolled, it quickly distanced itself from the statue and then reformed into Lü Yang’s body.

“What is that!?”

The black-robed Daoist stood dumbfounded, clearly shocked by Lü Yang’s ability to gather and scatter at will.

His gaze toward Lü Yang grew increasingly wary.

On the other side, Lü Yang was full of admiration.

“What a fine statue.”

Despite the praise, he had already made up his mind: this so-called Nether Wishper Sect was most likely a remnant legacy of a Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Witch Ghost Path who had reincarnated!

“I knew it—though a centipede dies it never stiffens. Since the Witch Ghost Path wasn’t entirely wiped out, it must have some potent hidden hands left.”

“Judging by the outcome I saw in my past life, this hand likely failed in the end, but for me, it's still a behemoth to deal with.”

While Lü Yang was pondering, the statue struck again.

It punched once more.

Lü Yang raised his fist to meet it, but he was still forced to retreat step by step, ultimately disintegrating again and reforming at a distance.

“No match.”

Lü Yang sighed.

This avatar of his, formed from Innate One Qi, specialized in martial arts.

Yet its physical body was weaker than the statue’s, and without his greatest advantage, it was naturally hard to win.

“But if you can call for backup, why can’t I?”

The next second, Lü Yang suddenly formed a hand seal.

Crack!

A rift opened behind Lü Yang’s head, and from it surged a majestic golden light that finally manifested as a mountain-sized giant hand reaching out!

Outside the secret realm, Lü Yang’s true body had taken action!

The golden light hand spread its fingers, revealing a formation in its palm suffused with blood light.

With a slap downward, it instantly swallowed the statue into the formation.

“Heaven-Slashing Blood River Sword Formation, rise!”

Lü Yang formed another hand seal.

Within the formation, a mournful rain of blood fell.

Every drop of blood was like a sharp sword light, slashing toward the statue.

“You insolent junior!”

The statue stood firm, with ten thousand ghosts wailing around it, showing no fear.

The wisp of Foundation Establishment soul within it also regained clarity and sent out a transmission:

“A mere seventh-grade formation cannot harm this seat.”

“Which sect or school do you belong to? If you can rescue this seat, I will reward you greatly. If you’re willing, come meet me at the main altar of Nether Wishper Sect.”

“Senior seems to have misunderstood.”

Outside the secret realm, Lü Yang’s true body let out a cold smile.

“The formation is not meant to deal with you, just to temporarily trap you in case you run away.”

“What?”

In the next moment, Lü Yang’s ‘Saint Aspect’ moved.

The golden light hand clasped the formation tightly.

He pushed the Saint Thief’s position to the limit.

Then, with a forceful clasp, as if erasing a line from a book with a rubber, he wiped everything in his palm clean.

When the golden hand opened again, the statue had already been crushed to powder.

Only a residual glow remained, caught in the hand of Lü Yang’s Innate True Qi avatar.

It was that very divine light of the supernatural power 【Underworld Lord Xuanming's Ghost-Controlling Position】.

As for Lü Yang’s true body, he directly severed one arm.

After all, that hand had already reached into the secret realm, with Golden Core sword qi surrounding it and unable to retract.

Keeping it would be a waste, and it would regrow eventually.

Then, Lü Yang had his avatar put away the 【Underworld Lord Xuanming's Ghost-Controlling Position】.

After examining it for a moment, he sighed with slight regret: “Still incomplete, at most one percent. Makes sense—this statue was clearly mass-produced. It couldn’t possibly carry a powerful divine ability.”

As Lü Yang sighed, the black-robed Daoist beside him went mad.

He stared blankly at the shattered statue for a long while before returning to his senses.

His eyes toward Lü Yang turned blood-red in an instant.

“You dare destroy our sect’s ancestral statue!?”

Lü Yang raised an eyebrow at that.

“So that’s the ancestor of Nether Wishper Sect. Foundation Establishment and still alive—been reincarnating and lingering for over a thousand years?”

The black-robed Daoist ignored Lü Yang’s words entirely.

Nether Wishper Sect was deeply rooted in the secret realm and revered by all.

Now that the ancestral statue was destroyed, it was as though his faith had been defiled.

He immediately lost all reason.

“Destroying the ancestral statue—our sect shall never forgive you!”

Before he even finished speaking, he roared and lunged toward Lü Yang.

Lü Yang sneered coldly.

“At this point, it’s I who shall not let your sect off!”

With those words, he waved his sleeve.

His Innate True Qi formed a giant hand that grabbed the black-robed Daoist and smashed him into paste along with his ghost.

However, Lü Yang did not leave right away.

He patiently waited for a moment.

Soon, the yin energy in the area gathered again.

A new black-clothed ghost emerged—it was exactly the witch ghost ‘Hu Mingluo’ that he had just smashed!

Lü Yang watched the entire resurrection process of the witch ghost and clicked his tongue in wonder.

“As expected, this is why the Witch Ghost Path can cling to life until now.”

Witch ghosts could not be killed!

The Witch Ghost secret realm was deeply intertwined with the earth veins under Skeleton Mountain.

The inner and outer areas were seamlessly connected, forming a sealed cycle.

After a witch ghost died, it would turn into yin energy and merge into the earth veins.

Then the yin energy from the earth veins would reform the witch ghost, sending it into the secret realm—thus creating an alternative form of immortality.

To break this, one had to either uproot the entire secret realm along with Skeleton Mountain’s earth veins, or force the secret realm to emerge on its own.

The latter was the method of True Person Yinshan—since no one would attempt the former.

Not because it was impossible, but because it shouldn’t be done.

Uprooting the earth veins would cause immense karmic loss and directly impact future reincarnations.

Even a Golden Core True Lord was not immortal.

When their lifespan ended, they too had to reincarnate and cultivate anew.

And if they accumulated too much karmic loss, their next life would be plagued with tribulations.

“That’s why the Golden Core sword qi stayed in the secret realm and chose the boiling frog approach rather than flipping the table directly.”

“From this perspective, my act of collecting ghost creatures is also inadvisable—it would slowly deplete the yin energy in the earth veins beneath Skeleton Mountain.”

“But so what?”

Lü Yang reached out and grabbed the just-resurrected black-clothed ghost, throwing it into the Myriad Spirits Banner.

He didn’t care at all whether it would affect the earth veins of Skeleton Mountain.

Karmic merit?

If there’s none, then there’s none.

With a low point in this life, there’s room to grow in the next.