32: Chapter 32 The Shadow

The Old Daoist in Yellow Robes stared at the fist rapidly expanding in his vision, coiled with ominous black patterns.

"Body as Profound Weapon, lock mountains and suppress abysses, manifest power through exertion, as if falling into the Nine Nether... even a force of ten thousand jun shall be ground to dust, by decree!"

The Old Daoist in Yellow Robes formed a pagoda seal with his hands. As his words fell, the sound of countless chains clanking rang out.

Instantly, a heavy black chain lashed out from the void towards Ding Qing, seeking to suppress him!

"BOOM!!!"

A fierce gale howled, and a white ring of Qi exploded between the two of them.

Ding Qing steadied his blasted-open posture, his gaze sharp and cold.

This old bastard was indeed holding back a trick!

He lowered his head to look at his knuckles.

Seeing the fist that had clashed head-on yet remained unharmed, a low chuckle gradually transformed into maniacal laughter.

"Again!"

The pity on the Old Daoist in Yellow Robes' face finally morphed into a sharp shout, carrying an unprecedented urgency and warning:

"Stop! If you continue like this, you'll only rouse them!!"

Almost the moment his words fell.

HUM!!!

The entire Baiye City, no, this entire solidified fragment of the past, trembled violently, silently!

It wasn't a physical vibration.

But the past itself, the light and shadow of time, even the 'memory information' constituting this past, was wailing and distorting.

Ding Qing's certain-kill punch, less than three inches from the old daoist's head, was abruptly halted by an invisible, viscous resistance.

It wasn't the old daoist's power.

It was this fragment of the past itself solidifying, emitting a groan on the verge of shattering.

Simultaneously, high above Baiye City, a fine, yet ominous black crack silently split open!

Within the crack was not emptiness, but a churning, viscous darkness like sludge.

In that darkness, what seemed like countless pairs of eyes brimming with malice, hunger, and resentment instantly snapped open!

Cold, twisted gazes, like billions of poisonous needles, instantly locked onto the Battle Intent-emanating Ding Qing standing below like a war god, his Killing Intent soaring to the heavens.

And onto the Old Daoist in Yellow Robes behind him, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, his aura withered, yet his eyes holding a heavy expression.

"Look... look..."

"Liv... ing... Souls..."

"Liv... ing... blood food..."

"Tear... them... apart..."

Countless overlapping, fragmented whispers, as if from the deepest depths of the Nine Nether Hell, directly resounded in the depths of both their Souls.

Ding Qing sharply looked up.

Beneath the shadow of his hat brim, those icy pupils burning with molten Battle Intent.

For the first time, truly met that spatial rift, met the countless inhuman, twisted gazes within.

They were not physical entities, yet more chilling than any physical being.

They were the very... obsessions of this buried era, unwilling to dissipate completely, clinging to the deepest layers of this past...!

The Old Daoist in Yellow Robes coughed up a bloody froth tinged with black Qi, his voice hoarse.

"Young friend, they... have awakened. Now, we either get torn apart and devoured by them together... or..."

His turbid gaze fixed intently on Ding Qing, he spoke word by word:

"...come with this old man to find the Blade Master. Only he... can lead us through this 'past.' Besides that, there is no path to survival!"

Ding Qing slowly retracted his fist, still poised before the old daoist.

The nine body-suppressing black patterns on his body throbbed madly, emitting a low hum, resisting the terrifying malice emanating from the crack.

He looked at the countless greedy eyes within the crack, then at the old daoist before him, aura withered yet gaze resolute.

His frenzied Killing Intent did not recede.

Instead, under the immense threat, it grew more condensed, more ferocious!

The corner of his mouth twisted into a smile, cold to the extreme and excited to the extreme, like a primeval Vicious Beast that had discovered its true prey.

"Excellent!"

His voice carried a determination to crush everything.

"Then... we'll fight our way through!"

"I want to see for myself whether the obsessions of this era you speak of are more formidable, or if my fists are superior!"

"As for you, Old Scoundrel..."

Ding Qing's gaze, like a blood-quenched blade, swept over the Old Daoist in Yellow Robes.

"If you dare play even the slightest trick, I'll slaughter you first!"

HUM—!!!

That black crack tearing through the sky above Baiye City rapidly spread and expanded like ink dropped into water.

The viscous, sludge-like darkness churned violently.

Within it, countless pairs of greedy, twisted, endlessly malicious gazes fixed tightly on the vibrant fragment of the past below.

"ROAR—!!!"

No longer were they vague whispers.

But countless overlapping, shrill, destruction-craving shrieks.

Like billions of red-hot steel needles, they viciously stabbed into the Souls of Ding Qing and the Old Daoist in Yellow Robes.

Even with Ding Qing's boiling Qi and blood, he still found it difficult to withstand.

Rip! Rip! Rip!

One after another, viscous, twisted, shadowy figures, as if condensed from pure malice, like evil ghosts breaking free from Hell's shackles, scrambled frantically to tear themselves out of the crack.

The moment they landed, their forms!

Beneath the shadow of his hat brim, Ding Qing's eyes abruptly erupted with a ferocious, molten light.

Shadowy figures!

Exactly the same as the shadowy figures within the thick fog of Phoenix Mountain that devoured life, mysterious and unpredictable.

Only, now, they no longer needed mirror reflections, no longer needed white fog to conceal themselves.

They manifested their true forms directly, like tangible, flowing filth.

Viscous darkness surged and churned over their surfaces, emitting a Yin-cold, deathly stillness, and a bone-deep desire to devour.

At least ten times more intense than at Phoenix Mountain.

"Woo..."

The few pedestrians closest to them suddenly stiffened.

Visible to the naked eye, faint wisps of pale-white mist, representing the vitality of life, were forcibly pulled from their seven orifices and pores.

Their skin lost its luster at a terrifying speed, turning ashen, withered, and covered in wrinkles.

Their eyeballs instantly turned turbid and sunken.

Without even being able to utter a scream, they collapsed limply to the ground like thoroughly weathered rotten wood, transforming into curled, twisted, desiccated corpses.

This was just the beginning!

Those extracted wisps of pale-white mist, representing Life Qi, did not dissipate.

Instead, they were greedily drawn into the viscous darkness of the shadowy figures that had descended.

The shadowy figures, like gluttons, devoured this 'nourishment.' Their bodies swelled slightly, and the malice they emitted grew more solid, more terrifying.

The entire Baiye City, this solidified 'picture of peaceful living,' instantly transformed into a slaughterhouse.

Terrified screams, desperate wails, and the cries of livestock instantly tore apart the false tranquility.

People fled like headless flies, but how could they escape the ubiquitous, clinging shadowy figures?

Wherever the shadowy figures passed, life force was severed.

Leaving behind only rapidly desiccated corpses littering the ground and wisps of completely absorbed mist.

"So that's how it is! Hahahaha!!"

Far from showing the slightest fear, Ding Qing instead threw back his head and let out a low, ferocious, maniacal laugh.

"Perfect timing!"

The Qi and blood within his body were completely ignited, erupting forth.

His muscles bulged, his tendons and bones resonated together, emitting a low hum like the grinding of metal.

Last time at Phoenix Mountain, his Iron Cloth Shirt was at the sixth gate.

Facing those mysterious shadowy figures, he could only rely on raw Qi and blood force to clash head-on, yet found them difficult to shake.

In the end, he fled down the mountain in disarray!

That feeling of stifled frustration, of strength with nowhere to apply it, remained fresh in his memory.

But now!

He was already far from what he used to be!

Iron Cloth Shirt Nine Gates Great Perfection, tendons and bones like divine iron cast, Qi and blood like a furnace of molten lava.

Moreover, he possessed the supremely rigid and explosive movement technique, 'Eight Steps of the Heavenly Dragon.'

His strength had increased by more than tenfold?!

This time, he would not flee again. If the Blade Master wouldn't show himself, then he'd do it himself.

Kill! Crush them! Test this body forged through a thousand hammers and a hundred refinements!

Ding Qing took a step forward.

The bluestone slab beneath his foot shattered into dust like fragile glass.

A violent wave of air blasted out, sending several nearby dried corpses tumbling away.

His posture lowered slightly, his right fist, covered in black patterns and gleaming with an ancient bronze ferocity, already tightly clenched.

Where his fist pointed, the air was compressed to the extreme, emitting a sharp, ear-piercing sonic boom.

His target was the nearest shadowy figure currently devouring Life Qi!

"Hold your attack!!"