Chapter Forty-Six: Friend or Foe?

“The world is too dreadful; it was far more carefree back when I studied in Yangshuo.” Xu Zhong shook his head as if trying to fling those thoughts from his mind.

He had made up his mind. After leaving Yujing Terrace this time, he would return to Yangshuo, find a mountain, seclude himself in cultivation, and never step outside again.

“I was only forced down the mountain by Shi Yao at first—how did I get entangled in all these affairs?” Xu Zhong truly couldn’t comprehend it. The things he had endured were never meant for a cultivator at the Five Luminaries stage.

The aura of Geng Metal.

White light spiraled overhead, countless nightmare demons vanishing in its wake.

“Over here!” someone shouted.

He looked toward the sound.

Flags rotated high in the sky, arranged as if forming a grand array. Those within the formation called out.

A man and a demon exchanged glances, then entered the grand array. More and more people followed, streaming inside. The flag bearers on all sides, exhausted, could not keep the flags aloft; not everyone found sanctuary beneath them. Those left outside had no time to curse, rushing to seek another escape.

“Thank you, friend, for your assistance!” Xu Zhong thanked the bearer who called them into the array, then pressed close to Dun Xuan.

“How many true cultivators do you think are here, and how many nightmare demons?” Dun Xuan whispered to Xu Zhong’s ear. “Do you think they know that nightmare demons can seize bodies?”

Xu Zhong scanned the crowd. Some sat, some stood, clustering in pairs or groups of three or five. Not a single person was alone.

“They must know,” Xu Zhong replied. “That’s why they called us two into the array.”

Two or more meant lowered risk: each could vouch for the other’s identity. Either both were nightmare demons, or neither was.

The four flag bearers were especially cautious, keeping clear of everyone else and huddling together. A palm-sized flag hung before each, the master flag of their quadrant, which controlled the hundred subsidiary flags and could alter the array.

Almost everyone stared at these four—or rather, at the flags on their chests.

The presence of nightmare demons heightened their mutual suspicion.

Uncertainty tensed every nerve.

Each dreaded being the next to be shoved into the spirit shrine.

“If I were one of those four, I certainly wouldn’t let so many inside,” Dun Xuan murmured.

They occupied a corner in the northwest.

“There are a hundred and sixty-two cultivators here: ninety-two human, seventy non-human,” Xu Zhong counted them all.

“In groups of four, that makes about forty teams,” said Dun Xuan, grasping Xu Zhong’s intent. “Forty teams can keep the array stable.”

The celestial signs had changed.

Day and night alternated in chaos.

No one knew when the next daylight would arrive, not even Dun Xuan.

Even with such a grand array, individual strength could only last so long.

Thus, the four flag bearers needed more people to rotate in, sustaining the array and waiting for a chance at survival.

Everyone understood this.

All present were flag bearers and supervisors alike.

For who could be sure if the one bearing the flag was not a nightmare demon in disguise?

Should a nightmare demon seize the flag, someone must strike instantly to kill it.

Controlling such an array drained spiritual energy immensely.

After an hour, the four were nearly depleted.

“Change bearers!”

The first to take the master flags were the four-man teams, who infused them with spiritual energy.

There were only six such teams.

Thus, in six hours, the teams would break apart, introducing more uncertainty.

Dun Xuan watched the master flag; Xu Zhong watched outside the array.

Beyond, nightmare demons slaughtered cultivators almost without resistance.

There were simply too many nightmare demons.

And human strength had its limits.

Borrowing external objects was the wisdom of living beings.

Arrays like Xu Zhong’s were plentiful above the nightmare demon grass sea, each sheltering its own survivors.

Besides arrays, there were magical treasures!

Magical treasures were unique, able to protect their owners.

But no matter how ingenious the array or powerful the treasure, none changed the fact that they were trapped in the nightmare demon grass sea.

“Will the celestial signs shift again?” Xu Zhong asked.

Dun Xuan shook his head. “At this moment, the signs are chaotic. Not even the most powerful astrologer can divine them!”

In other words, he had no idea when the signs might change.

“Perhaps, only the appearance of another strong one could help us escape.”

Xu Zhong agreed.

But the strong ones existed in a different space.

Boom!

Attempts to break the array began.

Once the cultivators outside had been slaughtered, their obvious target became Xu Zhong and the others.

“Let some nightmare demons in.” The original four flag bearers had already reached the array’s edge.

They raised their magical treasures high.

The flag bearers understood and asked, “Three breaths?”

“Yes!”

As soon as the words fell, the bearer of the eastern master flag tore open a gap on that side.

One breath!

Nightmare demons surged in, wild with joy.

Two breaths!

The magical treasures struck, slaying some.

The other cultivators finished off the rest.

Three breaths!

More nightmare demons crashed in.

Some were killed, others caught in the closing gap and crushed to pulp.

“Two breaths!” called a cultivator on the west.

The western flag bearer opened a new gap.

Xu Zhong and Dun Xuan did not stand idle.

Xu Zhong raised the rattle gifted to him by the little fox.

As the first nightmare demon appeared, Xu Zhong shook the rattle, directing its force at the intruder.

But the demon showed no reaction, not pausing nor hesitating, only charging forward.

He shook the rattle again.

Still no change.

The gap closed.

“They have no souls!” Xu Zhong told Dun Xuan.

“What do you mean?” Dun Xuan looked at the rattle in Xu Zhong’s hand.

“This treasure targets souls: one shake stuns, two shakes scatters the soul.”

“If they had souls, the first shake would halt them briefly; the second would blast the soul out…” Xu Zhong explained, “But you saw they showed no response. In my view, that’s because they truly have no souls.”

Lowering his voice, Xu Zhong added, “You’ve so many eyes—can any of them discern the presence or absence of souls?”

Dun Xuan, hearing Xu Zhong’s words, felt affronted. “I do have such an eye.”

Then, Xu Zhong saw Dun Xuan manifest his forty-ninth eye, right at the center of his brow.

It was like a bright mirror, reflecting Xu Zhong.

Xu Zhong felt a stabbing pain in his brain, splitting headache, a fog of confusion.

The forty-ninth eye revealed his soul.

“You see, I can show souls, but if I look at someone, they suffer as you just did. Do you think, if I check each one like this, the nightmare demons would be the ones killed?”

Xu Zhong recovered.

“That’s certainly not a good method!”

If Dun Xuan checked everyone one by one, they’d likely be killed as suspected nightmare demons before they found the real ones.

“If only my cultivation were stronger,” he said, gazing at the rattle in frustration.

If he were strong enough, a single shake would scatter every soul in the crowd.

Then, it would be clear at a glance who had souls and who did not.

Xu Zhong pondered, then announced his findings to everyone.

“How can you be sure?” someone challenged.

Xu Zhong explained as before.

For a moment, silence fell.

Then, everyone began scrutinizing one another.

Every outsider seemed to them a possible nightmare demon without a soul.

“I feel your words have deepened their suspicion of each other,” Dun Xuan observed, reading the doubt in their faces and hearts.

“But hiding the truth isn’t realistic!” Xu Zhong replied. “If nightmare demons are among us, the more we know about them, the better our chances.”

As soon as Xu Zhong finished, someone began testing—not for this batch, but for the next.

A gap opened in the array.

Nightmare demons howled through the opening.

The first wave of spells unleashed were all soul-based, in perfect accord.

No effect!

The second wave promptly struck, killing the nightmare demons.

The result was clear.

Nightmare demons had no souls.

They wore only a human skin.

The sense of threat deepened.

Xu Zhong, instigator of all this, seemed unaffected, still observing the nightmare demons outside.

“What are you watching?” Dun Xuan noticed Xu Zhong was entranced.

“You once said nightmare demons were born from humans, the manifestation of ignorance. If so, might they still operate with human foolishness?”

“What are you getting at?” Dun Xuan genuinely puzzled. “Let’s be clear, though I have many eyes, I cannot see abstract things like ignorance.”

“Ignorance is simply lack of knowledge, meaning their intelligence is limited!” Xu Zhong stroked his chin, gazing upward in thought. “If we can’t distinguish who has a soul and who doesn’t, why not pretend to have no soul ourselves?”

Dun Xuan was stunned.

“Is there no such spell?” Xu Zhong’s tradition lacked it.

“There is!” Dun Xuan said after a moment. “Humans truly are cunning. To think up such a scheme!”

“But your whole idea relies on their limited intelligence. If they’re fools, how did they infiltrate?” He glanced at the crowd.

“Yes, my thinking was too narrow,” Xu Zhong admitted, realizing his own oversimplification.

Xu Zhong kept watching.

At that moment, a scream rang out.

Everyone turned.

It was a four-person team.

All had died.

“Their souls are gone!” Dun Xuan said, aghast.

Others looked to him.

Upon seeing his forty-nine eyes, no one doubted.

The Hundred-Eyed Clan possessed innate divine sight, able to perceive the essence of all things.

“They’ve gathered the souls—do you suppose they intend to forge their own souls from them?”

Everyone looked to Xu Zhong.

They simply could not fathom where he conjured such strange ideas.

None of them had seen someone refine souls into a soul as Xu Zhong had.

No sooner had he spoken than Dun Xuan sensed panic from someone.

He quickly found the culprit.

The forty-ninth eye scanned the suspect, revealing a soul—but not the person’s own, rather, the soul of one of the four-person team.

Seeing this, the crowd struck as one, killing him.

“So there really is a nightmare demon among us.”

Speculation had become reality, deepening suspicion further.