Chapter 125: The Desolation of One (Combined Two-in-One)

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This forest was no different from any ordinary one. After walking for more than half an hour, Zhou Bai stopped with a serious expression. It wasn’t because he had encountered demons again, but because he came upon a clearing piled high with numerous skeletons.

These bones had been there for quite some time; the flesh and blood had long since vanished, leaving only bleached white bones. A few carrion flies hovered tirelessly above them.

Zhou Bai approached the pile and raised his hand slightly, releasing a surge of energy from his palm that pushed aside some of the bones.

Beneath the skeletons lay a dark red stone tablet inscribed with the words: “Boundary Marker of Xuzhou, erected in the fifth year of Tang and Song.”

Zhou Bai had no idea what had transpired at this border, but it was clear that many refugees had perished here. The soil on this patch of land was faintly darkened.

He could sense that the Underworld Bureau had employed some means to protect the region beyond Xuzhou’s boundary, yet a great number of refugees still fell here. A palpable aura of despair emanated from the bones—after all, they were just one step shy of escaping this hell on earth.

He sighed, then used his Tang blade to carve out a deep pit in the ground. While chanting a sutra of rebirth, he buried the skeletons beneath the earth.

When Zhou Bai finished, a small mound of earth appeared above, and in his lower dantian, the Great Treasure Glazed Medicine nurtured a newly sprouted lotus seed.

Since devouring a vast amount of Buddhist power, the Great Treasure Glazed Medicine had been dormant. He had expected a lotus seed to grow quickly, but it took this long to emerge.

Zhou Bai didn’t understand the connection, but his action had invisibly sown seeds of good karma. If the bones were left to accumulate, a demon would soon be born, causing further devastation.

Crossing the stone tablet into Xuzhou, Zhou Bai immediately felt the intensification of yin energy. His ghost tree in the dantian stirred to life.

Previously, the yin energy in Xuzhou had been so dense that ghosts could roam freely even in daylight.

After continuing through the forest for some distance, Zhou Bai utilized his yin-yang eye to clearly perceive his surroundings; no demon could hide.

Without even pinpointing their exact locations, he raised his hand and slashed a blade of energy through them.

Checking his system panel, the points earned were meager but better than nothing—every little bit counts.

Zhou Bai’s pace was swift; in less than half a day, they reached the forest’s end, though the skinny horse and Ah Huang were thoroughly exhausted.

He estimated that many demons would appear in the forest at night, making it a good opportunity to earn points. But since he had urgent matters, he resolved to take care of them first.

By now, it was evening. Emerging from the dense forest, Zhou Bai saw a shimmering lake. Bathed in golden sunset light, it appeared breathtakingly beautiful.

He paused and took out a map, carefully comparing it. There was no indication of this lake’s existence.

Puzzled, Zhou Bai approached the unknown lake. Only a few crows perched on its surface, and upon seeing him, they surprisingly swam toward him.

His keen eyesight immediately noticed something amiss—the feathers of the crows glowed with a bloody hue. Their eyes were red, and their body proportions were distorted; their wings too small, forcing them to swim like fish.

Zhou Bai calmed the skinny horse. When the crows swam close, he slashed with his blade, cleaving one in two.

The rest scattered in fright, diving underwater and swimming away like fish.

He retrieved the crow’s corpse from the water. Upon contact, his skin tingled with an odd sensation, causing him to squint.

The crow’s body showed clear signs of demonic transformation.

Strangely, the ecology of Xuzhou had changed—these demonic crows had become aquatic, which was bizarre.

This was only his initial foray into Xuzhou; what other strange phenomena awaited him was uncertain. So far, he had rarely seen ordinary beasts.

He pulled out the Nahai Gourd, took a swig himself, then poured some onto the lake’s surface.

Within the Dragon-Tiger Bone Strengthening Wine was a trace of demonic energy, a powerful tonic to newly born demons—far more nourishing than human flesh.

Suddenly, the tranquil lake stirred violently. Countless dark shapes darted beneath the surface.

To the untrained eye, it might seem like water ghosts, but Zhou Bai knew better.

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This lake was inherently unnatural.

It seemed to pull living beings underwater, trapping them with no chance of escape, turning them into part of the lake itself.

Most unsettling was the sight of several humans within the water, who appeared to retain faint awareness.

Zhou Bai inhaled deeply without hesitation. He released the salted fish coiled around his arm, watching it transform into a white dragon.

Together, they unleashed a water control divine technique. Though it rapidly drained their demonic power, it maximized the skill’s potency.

The water twisted like ropes, strangling every demon within. The lake turned blood-red, revealing its true nature.

All the water then rose, controlled by Zhou Bai, and fell as raindrops.

Amid the raindrops, Zhou Bai detected no anomaly; it seemed ordinary. The problem lay beneath the lake.

When the water vanished, only a large pit remained. Countless demon corpses lay piled within, their demonic aura visible to the naked eye—almost tangible.

Zhou Bai froze momentarily, then reacted. He stomped and leapt onto the dragon head of the salted fish.

From twenty meters above, he was stunned to discover the lake was a footprint of a giant beast. Many such footprints extended into the distance.

Yet none of those other footprints formed such a strange lake—only this one was anomalous.

He jumped from the dragon head into the pit, rummaging through the demon remains.

At the center grew a peculiar plant, bearing a fruit the size of a fist, resembling an undeveloped embryo.

Suddenly, his lower dantian stirred—not the Great Treasure Glazed Medicine, but the Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva’s Original Vows Sutra.

Since residing there, the sutra had been inert. Other divine techniques occasionally reacted, even those transformed into demonic forms would wail within the dantian.

The sutra began flipping its blank pages, stopping roughly one-third in.

Suddenly, the sutra appeared in Zhou Bai’s palm. Before he could react, a suction force drew the embryo-like plant into its pages.

Then nothing happened; the pages remained blank, though the sutra seemed heavier.

The Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva Sutra vanished, returning quietly to the dantian alongside the Great Treasure Glazed Medicine.

Zhou Bai faintly heard the cry of an infant—was it hallucination or reality?

Having dealt with the strange lake, he gained considerable points, and both Buddhist and Taoist divine techniques responded.

He mounted his horse, reflecting that staying only in Hangdu would have limited such opportunities. Indeed, opportunity and peril coexist.

Unlike the forest, the plain allowed the skinny horse to run at full speed. It let out a neigh, its body temperature rising slightly, charging like a black lightning bolt.

Half a day later, a giant eyeball floated above the pit, seemingly searching nearby. It stopped by a hoofprint outside the pit.

A white mist dispersed, and the eyeball disappeared.

...

After traveling over half a month, Zhou Bai encountered many demons, though most were low-level. Some had formidable divine techniques, even forcing his skeletal true body to manifest.

His gains were substantial; points had surpassed five hundred. With continued effort, ascending his foundational cultivation method was imminent.

Besides the Hangdu city government, Old Rat Li was also helping Zhou Bai collect secret manuals. He needed to accumulate points to attempt cultivating mutant divine techniques.

He estimated that ascending mutant divine techniques would accelerate his true body’s ascension to true soul, though with great risk.

This was a minor problem, however. If Zhou Bai pursued Buddhist cultivation, conflicts with mutant energies might arise.

How to harmonize Buddhist and mutant divine techniques was a puzzle he pondered. He had some leads but needed to uncover why Wu’s cultivation speed was so rapid.

After many days on the road, he fully grasped the devastation wrought by demon invasion. In over half a month, he hadn’t met a single living person.

The most shocking were deserted villages, overgrown with trees and vines enveloping the buildings.

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The roots and stems had penetrated the thatched roofs, leaving most structures half-collapsed.

This wasn’t the work of a single year; it looked like decades had passed.

Were it not for Zhou Bai’s keen eyesight, he might have missed the village amid the greenery.

A thorough search found no corpses, only extremely old furniture scattered inside.

The harsh reality was that only three towns in Xuzhou retained some inhabitants; the rest either fled or died along the way.

At a valley entrance, Zhou Bai signaled the skinny horse to halt.

Dismounting, he compared his memory repeatedly before breathing a sigh of relief—Wu’s first incarnation’s clone was ahead.

The valley entrance was narrow, allowing passage only one person at a time. The cliffs were overgrown with thorny vines, with animal corpses hanging here and there.

Originally, there should have been conifers, whose fragrance could be sensed from afar, but now only tangled vines remained.

The landscape was drastically altered; no signs of human survival were visible. Yet the valley’s form was distinctive—he was certain he hadn’t erred.

According to Wu’s memory, the valley once sheltered a remote mountain village with a sparse population.

But that was before the calamity in Xuzhou; what had happened in the last year or two was unknown.

One thing was certain: the evil monk’s first incarnation’s cultivation was not high, and it was unlikely he died at a demon’s hands.

Before Wu’s fourth incarnation was killed by Zhou Bai, Wu could always transfer his consciousness to his clones.

But during this time, it was uncertain. Though Xuzhou had stabilized somewhat, demons remained numerous.

If a clone were slain by some careless demon, it would severely injure Wu, but Zhou Bai could not use his skeletal true body to check memories to locate the remaining two clones.

Regardless, he would enter the valley first. Zhou Bai stepped into the entrance, followed by the skinny horse and Ah Huang.

Both sides of the stone walls were adorned with numerous carvings, mostly depicting farming and weaving. Text was scarce but neat, unlike crude engravings.

After walking for about ten minutes, Zhou Bai fully entered the valley. Before him lay several dilapidated houses amidst the vegetation.

He immediately felt disappointment; these houses were no different from those he had seen on the road—overgrown with plants and partly collapsed.

Entering the village, it seemed deserted for at least half a year.

Xuzhou’s situation was peculiar; plant growth accelerated dramatically at certain times, so exact timing was uncertain.

According to memory, he reached a northern thatched house, relatively intact but empty.

On the table sat a deity statue, resembling Wu exactly as Zhou Bai had seen him in Hangdu.

Worshipping oneself?

Strange indeed. No wonder Wu derived heretical interpretations from the orthodox Buddhist scriptures, indirectly leading Zhou Bai to awaken demonic divine techniques. This monk was hardly different from an evil heretic.

From Wu’s memory, this was the first incarnation’s residence. Ostensibly, an elderly man nearing a hundred years, but in truth almost two hundred.

Though Wu’s first three incarnations had transcended, their original bodies persisted.

To better awaken in the mortal world, these clones lacked memories post-transcendence. But would a two-hundred-year-old truly see himself as an ordinary man?

There was no proper furniture inside. Zhou Bai found only tattered clothes and a few yellowed Buddhist sutras. After inspection, none were recognized by the system.

Ah Huang sniffed the tattered clothes and seemed to sense a purpose, excitedly leaping about, eager to prove useful.