Killing Dao Fruit
Chapter 336 - 333 Plague Umbrella, Corpse Forest

Chapter 336: Chapter 333 Plague Umbrella, Corpse Forest

Fluttering sounds...

Huang Wu, dressed in an ethereal moon-white gossamer gown and activating her Daoist Skill "Moon in the Water and Flower in the Mirror," speedily traversed through the dream realm, surrounded by a cluster of brilliant silver-grey butterflies.

A tiny black arrow floated in the center of her soft, white palm.

The arrow kept fine-tuning its direction, guiding her through the boundless sea of dreams.

This arrow was extracted from a diseased refugee, embodying all the information regarding the Rat Plague.

The principle: "Knowledge" attracts similar "knowledge," continuously converging.

By leveraging the special nature of the public dream, Huang Wu could follow the trail and trace the origins of the Rat Plague back to its initial source.

One of the foundational abilities of the "Calamity Butterfly" is Dream Divination!

The essence of all things in the dream realm is one whole, an endless convergence of knowledge and information.

As long as one enters the dream with a strong desire, one can perform divination within the dream, continuing forward from the historical context of the past to foresee the future.

One can also passively receive enlightenment on matters closely related to oneself, avoiding potential dangers in advance!]

The "Deceit Object・Calamity Butterfly" was born from the public dream of Dengzhou Prefecture, having absorbed the knowledge accumulated by local residents over thousands of years.

Activating this ability here allowed Huang Wu to gain the maximum boost effortlessly.

That’s why the deeper she investigated, the more alarmed she became; with each discovery, her face grew more solemn.

Since the start of spring, a large number of refugees have been continuously pouring into Dengzhou Prefecture.

Under the leadership of Zhou Jinhuan and Duan Zhiyin,

The Government Office used the substantial funds and grain supplied by Old Master Wang to hire refugees to repair city defenses, roads, water conservancy facilities...

They also reclaimed the wasteland that had been gradually abandoned over the past decades due to the "Dragon Qi Prohibition."

As of today, these outsiders, the refugees, had already spread throughout all nine counties and one state of Dengzhou Prefecture.

Wang Yuan’s caution was not wrong.

The refugee who contracted the Rat Plague was indeed not the only patient in Dengzhou Prefecture.

It’s just that most of them are still in the incubation period, which is why they failed to capture the attention of the Day Patrol Deities and Night Patrol Deities.

"It’s fortunate we discovered it early; otherwise, the consequences would be unimaginable."

Huang Wu waved her hand to manipulate the dream, using the privileges of the Chief Mother to compile some of the missed cases into an Imperial Decree, which was relayed to the various City God Temples within the prefecture for them to act swiftly.

The Rat Plague, even in its incubation period, can still cause infection, with a fatality rate that can reach a terrifying 60% at its peak!

If the transmission chain is not cut off in time and the infection sources are not quarantined, it won’t be long before Dengzhou Prefecture turns into a mortal purgatory.

What’s even more frightening is that the scale of population movement caused by consecutive years of disaster and forced relocation of the warlords would far exceed that of the past, greatly accelerating the spread of the Rat Plague.

Even Dengzhou Prefecture, which has far superior management efficiency compared to other places, is like this; the situation in other cities on the transmission chain can only be worse.

"We originally thought that the refugee was just a secondary infector.

Now it seems there were at least four intermediate spreaders before him; the underlying Rat Plague worms must have been silently spreading throughout the North Border for who knows how long."

With a simple thought, billions of flickering orbs appeared before her.

Huang Wu gently tapped on a "Calamity Butterfly" with her delicate toes and instantly rushed out of the public dream of Dengzhou, following the arrow’s guidance into a much larger sea of dreams.

"The second one is still in Yu State."

With the information elements gathered and converging with ease, she found one intermediate spreader after another.

Yet, the higher the level of the infectors, the more severe their symptoms.

And each infected person extended multiple branches of the transmission chain, like extensions of a tree, leaving clear and identifiable traces in the collective dream.

The one with the most branches even extended out fourteen forks.

To Huang Wu, these details were as clear as the lines on her palm, leaving nothing out.

Compared to Cui Baiyu, the "Punishment Evil Thunder God" who could only blindly follow evil qi, Huang Wu’s efficiency in tracing the source of the problem improved by far more than a hundredfold after joining forces with Wang Yuan.

When Huang Wu traced back to the fourth layer,

She had crossed the entirety of Yu State, almost half of Yan State, and arrived at the land of Desert South, close to the border city in the northwest of Yan State.

In the realm of dreams, distance bears no meaning; reaching this place took her merely under fifteen minutes.

"The victim was infected about half a month ago.

Both in terms of time and location, it matches with the birth of the "Yellow-Skinned Dharma King" on the North Sea Coast.

Xiao Yuan’s prediction was not wrong; it appears to be the lingering poison from the Spring Festival, a part of ’Heaven Righteous Dharma Dao’s’ schemes did indeed succeed.

It looks like I need to get in touch with Xie Yanji again to understand the situation that Marshal Mansion has grasped."

Unfortunately, the dream of the first infected person was lifeless, clearly indicating they had died a long time ago.

Not even a soul was left; only faint remnants existed within the public dream.

Huang Wu could still vaguely hear some familiar chanting sounds among them.

Upon routinely collecting the information of the diseased, the direction of the black arrow in her palm suddenly shifted, pointing straight towards the heartland of Junzhou!

With a single step on the "Calamity Butterfly," Huang Wu covered a thousand miles in an instant, entering the public dream of Junzhou to continue the pursuit.

However, no sooner had she stepped into the realm of Junzhou than the black arrow in her palm seemed to trigger something.

Crack!

A crisp sound echoed as an even higher power suddenly descended from the unknown depths, instantly shattering the arrowhead to dust.

No further data could converge.

Huang Wu’s phoenix eyes suddenly tensed.

"Someone is using Daoist skill to disrupt the heavenly secrets, blocking the exact location of that ’Yellow-Skinned Dharma King’!

We can only confirm that it is currently in Junzhou, but it is no longer possible to pinpoint which prefecture or county it is in.

This is not just the ’Deceit Object·Yellow-Skinned Dharma King’ causing havoc. There is also an accomplice whose identity is not yet known, who is taking this opportunity to stir up trouble for their own unspeakable purposes."

Realizing the complexity of the situation, the young ghost girl was not prepared to give up just yet.

Following Wang Yuan’s breakthrough to ’Yellow Seal Mage’ and consuming the ’Green Peach’ to condense the ’Three Caverns Dharma Body’.

’Star Lord Taibai’s’ ’Exorcism and Disaster’ abilities had been greatly enhanced, and before going to bed and entering the dream, he had already blessed Huang Wu with it.

Plus the fortuitous enhancement from the ’Ziwei Life Plate’ in the obscure depths, she now found herself blessed with prosperity and fortune, reaching a level where it was as if ’Star Lord Taibai’ himself was offering his personal protection.

Therefore, Huang Wu, full of confidence, prepared to directly erode the real world from the dream realm, forcibly breaking through the membrane lying across the heavenly secrets.

Given her current run of luck, wherever she landed, there was a significant probability that she could arrive in the vicinity of that mastermind behind the calamity.

More importantly.

Although the ’Calamity Butterfly’s’ current power paled in comparison to its heyday when it used the entire Dengzhou Prefecture as its nest, it was still sufficient to blur the lines between dreams and reality, offering her powerful protection. She could even defend herself against ’Yellow Seal Mages’ who were not skilled in this particular discipline.

’Ability Two, Water Moon: Dream Realm Descent.’

’Heavenly Moon? Water Moon? Which is real and which is fake?’

’Confusing reality with the dream realm, wherever it stands becomes the Dream Realm, greatly enhancing the Dream Realm Dao Skills.’

’Driving the Dream Realm to erode reality, the range and intensity depend on the strength of the living beings’ dreams and one’s own level of Taoist proficiency.’}

Without much hesitation, she informed Wang Yuan to prepare for a reception beforehand, then pinched her fingers into a mantra and took seven consecutive steps forward on the butterfly bridge formed by the fluttering ’Calamity Butterfly.’

She recited aloud:

"Calamity Butterfly, seated in the central palace. As an avatar, mounting a tiger, rescuing from the descending fire dragon. Holding a precious fan, walking with martial dignity. When a person earnestly pleads, all wishes are granted. In urgent matters, all are notified in dreams.

’Moon in the Water and Flower in the Mirror, Taiyin takes action!

’Hurry up as the Decree commands! Imperial Order!’"

As the last step was taken, she felt a momentary sensation of weightlessness, and the scenery before her eyes abruptly changed, with the objects from reality hurtling towards Huang Wu.

The membrane between the dream realm and reality dissolved at a terrifying rate, causing parts of both worlds to forcefully overlap.

Just as Huang Wu noticed the scenery appearing before her becoming increasingly familiar, as though she could reach out and touch it,

A filthy yellow light suddenly flashed across her entire field of vision.

It was only after Huang Wu managed to discern that it appeared to be a massive Luo Umbrella, black and yellow in color, embroidered with various disease motifs and the words "Plague Umbrella,"

That her body was flung away effortlessly. Though uninjured, by the time she managed to stabilize herself, she had already deviated from her target and fallen into a pitch-black dense forest far away.

A cacophony of agitated scriptures filled her ears:

"At that time, the Corpse Forest Master joyously illuminated the Corpse Forest and the grand assembly with his bright light, which before long, returned through his mouth. Sitting upright, his mindful concentration unshaken...

’If there are sentient beings who are hungry and eat my flesh, thirsty and drink my blood, having eaten and drunk their fill, may they develop the Bodhi Heart and be free from hunger and thirst...’"

Since coming out from the ’Guanlan Pavilion’ of the ’Nine Soldiers,’ Huang Wu’s knowledge had vastly expanded.

"That large umbrella just now is one of the four magical forms of the ’Plague Dao,’ the ’Plague Umbrella’ capable of commanding plagues and constructing various malicious formations!

’Although I did not see the ’Yellow-Skinned Dharma King,’ it’s very likely these ’Deceit Objects’ were summoned by Daoists from those sects.

’It’s also because of the influence of the ’Plague Umbrella’ that the precision of divination has reduced drastically.

’And also...’

Huang Wu looked around her, seeing nothing but Bodhi Trees, with each one rooted to corpses displaying the nine aspects of death, such as bloating, bloodied, and so on.

Black Bodhi Seeds swayed in the night wind, tinkling eerily as if children were playing.

In the shadowy depths of the Bodhi Forest, there seemed to be a group of sinister monks draped in hemp kasayas, surrounding an exceptionally tall Bodhi Tree and ceaselessly chanting scriptures.

"They are reciting the ’Essential Body Sacrifice Scripture’!

’And this place, a ’Corpse Forest,’ is known as a graveyard and body dumping site for monks, where it is said that the Corpse Forest Master once made an offering of his own flesh and blood to living beings.

’That’s right, these people belong to the ’Nine Aspects Corpse God Dao’ which is affiliated with the ’Plague Dao’ in the same sect!

’It was them who triggered the corpse uprising in Beimang Mountain when the Court deployed the ’Sacrificial Technique·Five Grains Harvest’!"

Huang Wu’s eyebrows knitted tightly, thinking she had only been dealing with a rat plague triggered by the ’Yellow-Skinned Dharma King.’ As long as the source of the plague was resolved, all would be well.

Unexpectedly, there were also two other sects involved with unclear objectives.

As she was about to take her steps back into the dream realm.

She heard a chilling voice suddenly chant a Buddhist mantra:

"Having entered the Corpse Forest, I ask the generous donor to offer us your flesh and blood!"