Chapter 51: The Unyielding Stance of the Fengdu Judge

Lü Ming's corpse went limp, twitched slightly twice, and then stopped moving entirely. Only those eyes remained fixed firmly on Li Xuan, his face still frozen in a look of sheer disbelief...

Until the day he died, he could not understand.

How immense an opportunity was the True Immortal descending to the mortal world to lead believers in ascending to the heavens amidst rosy clouds?

Why couldn't he understand?

Li Xuan slowly pulled out the fruit knife, wiped it clean with a tissue, and his blurred face was reflected on the thin blade...

When watching the movie, he had thought Xie Yali had truly found believers from her past lives to awaken their memories.

Now, it seemed more like she had distorted the believers' perception through a brainwashing-like method of control, likely related to an entomopathogenic fungus capable of secreting excessive dopamine. Xie Yali's methods closely resembled a fusion of Gu sorcery and descending head sorcery, capable of making people die within hallucinations. In other words, the hallucinations perceived by those infected with the entomopathogenic fungus were "real"—if they were "burned to death," their skin would exhibit thermal burn reactions.

Moreover, if the infection lasted too long, it would cause irreversible damage.

Take this mother and daughter for instance...

They were already beyond saving.

The woman no longer had the strength to stand; her legs were weak, and her body slumped limply against the bed, tears streaming from her eyes as she looked at her eighteen-year-old daughter. Weakly, she said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

The girl could feel her life slipping away. She crawled to her mother's side, resting her head gently in her embrace, and said, "I want to hear you tell me a story from when I was little. Tell me the one about the 'Tiger Grandmother'."

The woman let out a soft murmur of assent.

She slowly began to recount the distant tale: "A long, long time ago, a pair of brother and sister lived on this side of the mountain. One day, their mother asked them to deliver pastries to their grandmother who lived on the other side. Before reaching the place, they had to pass through a very, very deep forest on the mountain..."

Her voice grew fainter and fainter.

Li Xuan watched as the mother and daughter died in that dim room.

He sat cross-legged, placing his hands on his knees, took three deep breaths, and faced the two corpses. The magical power in his elixir field slowly rose upward to his mouth and tongue, to his nasal breath, and he slowly began to chant:

"Thus spoke the Dao: Once upon a time, in the Primordial Blue Heaven, within the Azure Empyrean Empty Song Great Floating Li Earth, they received the Primordial Lord's Limitless Superior Salvation. When the Primordial Lord of Heaven expounded this scripture, he circled it ten times to summon the ten directions, who then took their seats. True celestial deities, supreme sages and exalted ones, wondrously practicing immortals, and countless multitudes came riding upon the void through the flying clouds and cinnabar firmament..."

The chanting was very soft, resembling a whisper.

Yet every single word was exceptionally clear.

In the dim room, only the sound of Li Xuan reciting the *Supreme Superior Scripture of Limitless Salvation of the Primordial Lord* remained. A trace of warmth was added to the cold and gloomy room, and in a trance, it seemed as if figures were detaching from their corpses and heading toward the nether realm...

After chanting it seven times repeatedly, he then recited the *Supreme Superior Scripture of the Three Primal Origins for Bestowing Blessings, Pardoning Sins, Eradicating Calamities, Dispersing Misfortunes, and Prolonging Life to Protect Destinies*. His expression was one of sorrow and compassion, and the Token of the Great Emperor of Mount Tai hidden within his gourd glowed with a faint white light in rhythm with the scripture.

Having finished all these,

Li Xuan slowly stood up, turned around to look at the fallen Lü Ming, and although the man was already dead, a trip to Fengdu was still required.

He fished out the Fengdu Treasure Guidance Seal, took out a sheet of yellow paper, raised Lü Ming's index finger to dip it in the blood from his heart, and wrote a crooked talismanic script. Afterward, he stamped it with the treasure seal, pasted the talisman paper onto Lü Ming's forehead, and spoke softly, "With Fengdu's guidance, by imperial decree, go!"

As the voice fell, the talisman paper turned to ash and smeared across Lü Ming's face.

Faintly, the sound of chains seemed to ring out, and Lü Ming, whose eyes had been wide open, closed them at some unknown moment.

Li Xuan placed the mother and daughter onto the bed, cleaned up the room, and wiped away his own traces. As for Lü Ming, he propped him casually against the bedside table, helping him place his own hand back onto the fruit knife to stab it back into his heart.

Such a self-contradictory crime scene setup would not fool anyone for long.

Still, dragging it out a moment longer was better than nothing.

He turned on the air conditioner, dropped the temperature to its lowest setting, closed the doors and windows tightly, and left the apartment without attracting anyone's attention. Avoiding the main surveillance cameras, he returned to the streets...

Li Xuan sat on a chair at a roadside food stall, gazing at the bowl of noodle soup before him.

He had always considered himself the "child of other people" in the eyes of his neighbors from childhood through adulthood. From primary school to university, his academic performance was stellar, and he had received countless praises from teachers and mentors.

Yet only he knew that he did not actually enjoy studying; he had merely been doing what the world deemed correct.

Now, his parents had died in an accident.

And having acquired a strange seed that allowed him to travel across myriad realms, Li Xuan felt that the shackles in his heart were gradually developing cracks. Trapped within them was the true version of himself—the self who did whatever he wanted to do.

Having just witnessed the tragic deaths of that mother and daughter, his heart remained unsettled, and his fists clenched tightly several times.

Snap...

Hoo...

Li Xuan let out a long breath of turbid air...

He raised his head to look at the sky, stretched out his hand, and abruptly clenched it into a fist!

Didn't the strict laws of Fengdu bind ghosts and gods precisely to forge a clear and bright universe, allowing ordinary people to live in peace?

With an incomparably unyielding posture, he would straighten his heart to restrain demonic laws and ignite the divine light!

...

Night fell.

Li Xuan arrived at Huanglin Building, took out Lü Ming's access card to unlock the elevator gate, and headed for the 18th floor.

Hum...

Hum...

The sound of the elevator operating.

He could almost hear the sound of his own heartbeat.

The two intertwined.

Ding-dong...

The elevator doors opened, and facing him once again was a massive glass door. With a beep of the access card, the glass door slowly slid open.

He walked in naturally, passed through a corridor, rounded a corner, and the space suddenly opened up before his eyes. In the dim light, a quaint Daoist temple came into view!

If not for the withered mold spots and cracks covering every single brick, a sudden glance might have mistaken it for some piece of performance art, constructing a brand-new Daoist temple inside a skyscraper.

The temple gates were open, and burning incense sticks were inserted into the incense burner at the entrance.

Li Xuan crossed the threshold and stepped inside. In the dimness, piles of strange objects seemed to litter the floor. Right at that moment, with a click, the lights flashed on. The main hall lit up as bright as day, and lying prone on the ground were living people one after another...

On the arms of these people, new and old scars were visible to varying degrees. Before each of them lay a rooster bowl containing half a bowl of blood emitting black dust.

Li Xuan's arrival did not cause the slightest reaction from them.

Standing before the altar table were two men: Huang Yifeng and Lin Daosheng, the two major bosses of the IC Corporation. Their expressions were detached, as though they were looking at a dead person.

The black dust pervading the air drifted down onto everyone, yet the moment it neared Li Xuan, it was as if it hit an invisible wall and could only automatically veer away.

Seeing this scene, Lin Daosheng felt a trace of emotion emerge in his pupils—it was anger.

An ancient bronze sword slid out from his sleeve, its edge honed to a brilliant gleam. Grasping it in his hand, he pointed the tip of the sword at Li Xuan and said, "The immortal seed does not harbor demons or evils. Since you are devoid of affinity with the Dao of Immortality, it seems you are the immortal-blocker spoken of by our Master."

As the three words "immortal-blocker" left his lips,

those believers raised their heads simultaneously, staring fixedly at Li Xuan in unison. From beneath their wide sleeves, sharp blade tips slid forth, and they slowly rose from the ground, closing in around him in a semi-circle...

Li Xuan reached into his pocket and pulled out a sealed plastic bag filled with a thick layer of talisman ash. He tore open the opening and violently flung it into the air!

The talisman ash danced across the sky, its density instantly surpassing that of the "wriggling" dust. When it fell upon the believers, it sizzled audibly. Their faces contorted in agony, they coughed violently, and immediately afterward, they vomited thick, black liquid mouthful after mouthful...

He looked at these believers and said, "The so-called ascension is nothing more than a scam. You are merely pitiful people infected by Gu sorcery, to be cast aside casually once you have been used..."