376: Chapter 376 The Four-Character Dao, the Killing Aura Retreats

The burly man froze for three breaths, then moved his gaze away from Su Changge and swept it towards the few Cultivators from the Cangxuan Dao Domain who had already started to stand up.

He reached out and pressed his hand onto the shoulder of one of them.

"Without my word, nobody is going anywhere."

The Cultivator who was pressed paused, turned his head to glance in Su Changge's direction, his eyes filled with something indescribable—not entirely a plea for help, but more like a bewildered expectation, unsure if this person before him would speak again.

Su Changge stood where he was.

His gaze fell upon the patch of Evil Qi churning up from the ground cracks, staring at it for two breaths.

After the burly man's action, the Evil Qi churned even more violently. As the Nascent Soul Stage aura of the few Blood Pattern Camp brothers behind him leaked out, the air around the tea stall felt heavy. That black mist, carrying the stench of underground decay, seeped out along the cracks and spread across the ground. The concentration wasn't high, but once it drilled into the nasal cavity, it brought an indescribable, irritating sensation, like taking handfuls of rust and wet mud mixed together and stuffing them into the deepest part of the lungs.

Su Changge frowned.

He wasn't acting; he was genuinely frowning.

The smell was indeed unbearable. Ever since he landed on the Dragon Vein Ancient Continent, he had struggled to adapt to the atmosphere here. This surge of Evil Qi compounded that discomfort several times over, leaving him with a physiological revulsion as if standing on the edge of a landfill.

He spoke.

Four words, not loud, with an even tone. It was a complaint from the heart, every word true, without a single drop of exaggeration.

"Noisy, filthy."

He thought that would be the end of it.

He thought it was purely an expression of distaste, a way to vent after speaking, at most making the other party unable to gauge his background and creating some hesitation—in all likelihood, it would have no other effect.

But the System never followed his expectations.

The tea stall's canopy twitched silently in the windless air. The patch of Evil Qi spreading across the ground stopped the instant his words fell.

There was no fluctuation of magic power, no Formation lit up. The Evil Qi simply stopped in place, suspended. Two breaths later, it began to silently retreat into the ground cracks, retreating cleanly until not a single trace remained on the ground, as if that Evil Qi had never surged out at all.

At the same moment, something descended above the tea stall.

Formless, colorless, soundless.

Every Cultivator present, regardless of their cultivation level, felt that weight at that moment. It wasn't the pressure of cultivation, nor the might of a Magic Treasure, but something more fundamental that smashed directly into the depths of their Divine Soul. Before they could even discern what it was, they only knew their spines were chilling and their legs were going weak. A silent alarm rang in their consciousness, telling every nerve: There is something here, and it cannot be offended.

The burly man's hand, which had been pressing on the Cultivator's shoulder, let go.

His knees buckled; they had bent before he even realized it. By the time he became aware that he was kneeling on the ground, he tried to stand up, but his legs trembled slightly and ultimately failed to respond.

The few Blood Pattern Camp brothers who had risen with him suffered the same result, landing on the ground one after another, faces pale, sweat beading on their foreheads, not one of them speaking.

The tea stall became completely silent.

Even the sizzling sound from the water-boiling stove seemed to have been muffled.

Those few Cultivators from the Cangxuan Dao Domain froze in their respective positions, not rushing to leave. Whether standing or sitting, their expressions were frozen in that same instant, their eyes nailed to Su Changge, unable to look away.

The Cultivators at the other tables in the tea stall had already quietly retreated to the base of the wall, leaning against the wooden pillars. Some had their hands resting on their Magic Treasures, but no one made a sound; no one dared to make any noise at this moment.

Su Changge lowered his head, flicked away the traces of scent left on his sleeve by the Evil Qi, and adjusted his cuffs.

[...]

[I was just expressing distaste.]

[The Evil Qi smells bad, the noise is truly noisy, and the filth is truly filthy. This is a one-hundred-percent honest statement; I didn't mean to trigger anything.]

[System, you detected a hint of distaste in my emotions and decided to give me the full set of special effects, didn't you?]

[I didn't even lift a hand.]

[I just said a useless remark.]

He kept his face expressionless, lifted his head, and swept his gaze over the few Blood Pattern Camp Cultivators still kneeling on the ground. Without pausing, he let his gaze fall on those few Cultivators from the Cangxuan Dao Domain and lifted his chin.

"Leave."

One word, resonating as it landed.

The slender, middle-aged Cultivator was the first to snap out of it. When he stood up, his legs were a bit weak; he steadied himself by bracing against the back of a nearby chair. He turned to glance at the people kneeling on the ground, then turned back, bowed deeply in Su Changge's direction, and performed a salute. The salute was extremely heavy, his waist bent as low as possible.

He said nothing, just this salute.

The few people behind him also lowered their heads—about five or six of them—all doing the same.

Su Changge did not acknowledge the salute, lifted his feet, and walked towards the outside of the town. His pace was steady, neither fast nor slow, his robes fluttering slightly with each step.

Ye Qingyao stood up from the rough wooden table, followed, and walked half a step behind his left side, her gaze fixed on his back, never shifting throughout the journey.

Zhao Tian was the last to come out.

Before he walked out of the tea stall, he couldn't help but turn his head to take one last look inside.

The burly man was still kneeling, his spine bent deeply, his forehead nearly touching the ground. The few Blood Pattern Camp brothers beside him were in similar positions, lined up in a row; not one of them was moving, not one of them was speaking.

Zhao Tian swallowed, turned his head, and hurried to catch up.

After walking about thirty zhang out of the town, at the edge of a relatively open wasteland, Su Changge stopped. There were no other Cultivators around. The land was cracked, the wild grass was short, and the wind finally picked up a little, blowing from the north with a dry, dusty scent.

Ye Qingyao stood at his side, her voice lowering.

"Revered Master, those four words just now."

Su Changge did not speak.

"Based on this Disciple's experience over the years, I have never seen anyone who could directly purify Evil Qi with words alone. Ordinary methods to suppress Evil Qi require setting up Formations, channeling techniques, and consuming a large amount of cultivation. Even if a Grandmaster at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage were to act, it would still take several hours to cleanse the Evil Qi within a radius of several miles."

Ye Qingyao paused.

"But Revered Master, you merely spoke."

Su Changge watched the slowly flowing golden light in the direction of the Dragon Spine Mountain Range in the distance, his expression calm, saying nothing.

Ye Qingyao continued.

"At the Ten Thousand Immortals Assembly, this Disciple witnessed many miraculous phenomena from Revered Master, but every time I recall them, I always feel one detail is the hardest to explain: when Revered Master acts, there is never any fluctuation in cultivation, no movement of Spiritual Qi, no circulation of magic power. Those effects are completely disconnected from Revered Master's cultivation, as if they already existed between heaven and earth, just waiting for Revered Master to speak, waiting for Revered Master's single thought, and then they moved on their own."

Su Changge's fingers curled slightly.

[Ye Qingyao, you are actually very close to the truth.]

[There is no cultivation fluctuation because I truly have no cultivation to utilize. I am only at the Qi Refining First Layer; I cannot mobilize a single bit of Spiritual Qi. Every time an effect occurs, it is the System operating in the background; it has absolutely nothing to do with my own will.]

[If you take another half step forward, you will find the truth.]

[But you cannot take that half step, because your entire logical framework does not allow you to accept the conclusion that "this Revered Master is actually a waste."]

[Your cognition is protecting itself, and I feel anxious for you.]

He withdrew his gaze from the golden light in the distance, turned to Ye Qingyao, and spoke a sentence.

"The Evil Qi of the Dragon Vein Ancient Continent has accumulated over years and months; it is not something that can be suppressed by human power for long. Sooner or later, there will be a day of backlash."

Ye Qingyao's gaze lingered on his profile for a moment, then she nodded gently, her expression serious.

"This Disciple understands. Revered Master is saying that treating the symptoms does not treat the root cause. The root of the Evil Qi problem lies in the imbalance of the Dragon Vein itself, and the struggle between the four forces is merely accelerating this process."

Su Changge did not say "correct," nor did he say "incorrect," merely letting his gaze fall back into the distance, his eyes calm.

Ye Qingyao interpreted this silence as tacit agreement.

Zhao Tian stood a little further away, looking down at the cracked patterns on the ground, struggling to maintain a normal expression.

At this moment, a series of footsteps chased out from the direction of the town. Feet stepped on the hard soil with a solid rhythm, neither fast nor slow. After walking about a dozen steps, they stopped at a position about ten steps away from Su Changge.

It was those few Cultivators from the Cangxuan Dao Domain, led by that same middle-aged Cultivator. They stood there, not moving further forward, just waiting quietly.

When Su Changge turned his gaze towards them, the middle-aged Cultivator bowed and saluted. The salute was heavier than before, and his bent waist remained so for a longer time.

"Senior, I have a few words; I ask that you please pause for a moment."

Su Changge glanced at him, did not leave, and did not speak. The meaning of that look was roughly: Speak.

The middle-aged Cultivator straightened his waist, his expression solemn, his eyes slightly red.

"I am Anting Yuan, originally from the Cangxuan Dao Domain. Three years ago, I traveled to the Dragon Vein Ancient Continent and was later taken in by Prince Shilie of the Poyue Ancient Stronghold. I am currently serving in the Poyue Ancient Stronghold. This trip was under the order of Prince Shilie to head to the crystal vein mine in the east to collect the Dragon Crystal Ore needed by the Prince. Passing through here, we were intercepted and extorted by the Blood Pattern Camp. If not for Senior's intervention, I fear we would not have been able to leave this town today."

He paused here, his tone becoming a fraction heavier.

"Senior, the four words you spoke earlier did not just save us few; rather…"

"They saved our souls."