Killing Dao Fruit
Chapter 98 - 96 Yin Morality Lends, Whose Elixir?

Chapter 98: Chapter 96 Yin Morality Lends, Whose Elixir?

The night was heavy and suffocating, as if an invisible monster had swallowed everything whole.

Despite its verdant tile roofs and heavy eaves, resplendently luxurious, the entire Luoyang Royal Mansion

was engulfed in pitch darkness except for the curving paths lined with stone lanterns identical to those in the Royal Mausoleum, silent and devoid of any human voices.

Since entering the Luoyang Royal Mansion, the abnormal power that altered perception in "Deceit Realm·Mid-Year Festival" rapidly receded.

Even though Wang Yuan was not greatly affected to begin with, he suddenly felt a sense of relief.

He was disguised as a character from the Yifan branch with the military title of General of Serving Country: Zhou Jingxuan, walking in silence behind two eunuchs, heading towards the deepest part of the mansion.

He felt none of the fear that others might feel at this hour.

Since childhood, he had encountered more ghosts than people.

Even if those two eunuchs suddenly turned into paper dolls and turned their smiling faces to him, he could coolly comment on whether the blush on their faces was evenly applied.

After walking for half an hour in the vast royal mansion, the scenery finally opened up to reveal a lush, cloud-like expanse of green lotus ponds.

At first glance, endless layers of jade lotus leaves unfolded before him.

Amid the poised leaves floated blossoms as large as bowls, white and pink, like beautiful women emerging from a bath.

The breeze had yet to reach him, but the intoxicating scent already enveloped his nostrils.

But through Wang Yuan’s eyes, which held the ability to see the Unsightly, where was the pleasing sight of a lotus pond?

The layers of lotus leaves were nothing but sheets of human skin stretched over white bones, the white and pink flowers were rotting human hands...

Something seemed to be struggling and writhing beneath the pitch-black water, causing ripples to spread across the surface and emitting waves of foul decay.

Wang Yuan acted as if he saw nothing, entering a beautifully intricate water pavilion shaped like the character "回" next to the lotus pond without a change in expression.

This building, partly on shore and partly extended into the water, was vast in area, capable of seating several hundred people at once even with separate tables.

Arriving last, Wang Yuan noticed many others already seated in the pavilion with its light gauzy curtains and beaded drapes.

Finally, he heard some noise from the living.

In the pavilion, lamps fueled with questionable oils flickered dimly, casting people’s faces in an inconsistent light.

On one side, figures dressed in fashions from two centuries past sat rigidly behind tables, unmoving, their complexions stiff and murky.

They resembled weathered tombstones eroded over hundreds of years.

"Is that you, Jingxuan? Come over here."

A hushed voice suddenly called out, and after a moment’s pause, Wang Yuan realized someone was calling him.

He turned to look at the other side of the pavilion, where a feminine youth wearing a prince’s python robe was beckoning to him.

Not far from him stood a figure as fat as a pig, the very culprit behind all of the Wang family’s main branch’s miseries—Luoyang King Zhou Wenye!

Suppressing the urge to chop the fat pig and splatter blood everywhere, Wang Yuan shifted his gaze back to the feminine youth.

’Second Prince Dechang Zhou Jingxiang?

He’s so lucky? Managed to escape being ’selected’ as a corpse, survived the first three two-hour periods after entering the Deceit Realm, and even successfully secured an entry token?’

In Zhou Jingxuan’s memory, indeed, there were a couple of occasions where he had played together with the generous Dechang Prince, and they were quite familiar due to their close ages.

Therefore, adhering to the habits of this identity, Wang Yuan quickly made his way over.

First, he hid the animosity in his eyes, then performed a perfunctory greeting to the Luoyang King, the chief and clan leader of the Yifan, before finally sitting next to Zhou Jingxiang.

"Your Highness!"

"Hmm, surviving by fluke is a blessing, just sit here quietly."

The Dechang Prince only gave a reminder and then remained silent.

Wang Yuan noticed,

General Wei Anning, "Ghost Matchmaker" Lady Gao, and five Mystic Armor Guards surrounded the Luoyang King and the Princess Consort like stars around the moon, while the Dechang Prince seemed subtly distanced.

’Tsk, tsk.’

Feeling the subtle atmosphere, Wang Yuan mentally straightened Zhou Jingxiang’s cap.

Only after taking his seat did Wang Yuan have the leisure to look around, assessing the results of his actions.

He noticed that the living attendees of this banquet numbered less than a hundred, actually adding up to only about thirty or so.

His strategy of killing by proxy had resulted in the demise of thousands from the Yi King descendants, the Prince Mansion’s servants, and the Daling Wang family, leaving barely one in a hundred alive.

The ones present were either exceptionally lucky or truly skilled.

Only about ten people formed the core group of the Luoyang Royal Mansion.

Master Ge’s side had four people: Ge Daoxuan, Wang Yunhu, and the Ma Brothers.

Apart from these two most powerful groups, a few lucky ones were scattered about.

Mainly members of the Yifan Clan and important servants from the Prince Mansion allowed the currently assumed identity of Zhou Jingxuan to seem not so out of place.

On the other hand, from the nearly a thousand people of the Daling Wang family, only Wang Yunhu appeared.

The iron-blue complexion of this clan uncle clearly reflected his mood at the moment.

Wang Yuan merely exhaled a sigh of relief and felt no particularly strong emotions.

After all, these were just insignificant minor characters; their fates had long been expected.

Instead, those lucky ones garnered his attention.

Among these survivors, many were missing arms or legs, and even those who fared better had lost ears, eyes, noses, or tongues...

They were the prices carelessly paid to obtain the tokens.

These people had no idea what "Killing Banquet" or "Immortality Wine" were, nor why they had ended up here.

Only under the instinct for survival had they fought with all their might to obtain the tokens that allowed them to sit here.

However, their usual arrogance from bullying men and dominating women was gone; sitting with the group of subordinates as still as tombstones, each one’s eyes shifted around, trembling with fear, like birds startled by the mere twang of a bowstring.

"This doesn’t seem like any good banquet. Will we even be able to get out of here?"

"We definitely will! Look, the Prince and General Wei, they are all calm and composed, obviously they have a plan. We just need to follow their lead."

"..."

On the other side, Wang Yunhu intermittently glanced towards the Luoyang King’s group, continuously whispering and discussing with Master Ge, evidently uneasy about the formidable appearance of the Prince Mansion.

The Ma Brothers also tensed up, as if they had a sword hanging over their heads.

They seemed not yet to realize that all the efforts they made earlier had been allowed, or even facilitated, by the Luoyang Royal Mansion.

Hiding behind his mask, Wang Yuan looked on like an indifferent spectator, coldly observing the myriad emotions on these people’s faces.

Anxiety, restlessness, perplexity, fear, even hysteria...

A sudden sense of satisfaction arose within him. Truly, what goes around comes around.

How much did they, in this moment, resemble himself from just a month prior?

It was at that moment—

Boom—!

A loud cannon blast focused everyone’s attention outside the water pavilion.

Command flags, path clearers, the White Banner, staff drums... a full set of Prince ceremonial processions opened the way, and a twenty-eight-man-carried jade chariot slowly approached.

Apart from that single cannon blast, the entourage of over a hundred people didn’t make a sound, moving in perfect harmony, as if they were limbs of the same body.

People couldn’t help but focus their eyes on that jade chariot.

On the throne adorned with golden dragons, a young man wearing a royal robe sat quietly with his eyes tightly closed, his countenance gaunt and sinister. He was carried to the main seat of the water pavilion by strong men.

"The Yili King’s body!"

A faint blue light shone from Wang Yuan’s eyes as he regarded the Yili King quite differently from the others.

Although it wasn’t the thousand-headed giant vulture he had seen outside, it was still a monstrous figure with three pitch-black owl heads.

Its skin was covered with black, filthy feathers, rotting all over, even exposing the creature’s innards and organs.

Among the three owl heads, the left and middle ones had already fallen back into sleep, only the right one twitched intermittently, as if it might doze off at any moment.

Just then—

Wang Yuan finally saw the concrete entry in the "Small Book of Life and Death": "Owner A."

[Owner A: Yili King Zhou Yi

Abnormality: None

Life Chart: Owl God Snatching Food

Qi Fortune: *****

Divine Power Skill: ’Earth Department Taoism · Three Vultures Power Technique’

Cultivation: *****

Yin Morality: -9999999]

The entry was fragmented, revealing only subtle details of the Abnormality, Life Chart and Yin Morality, besides the Divine Power Skill.

But it was enough to give Wang Yuan a glimpse into the reality of the "Weird" before him.

Through face-to-face transmission of knowledge dispersed by the "Weird," the "Small Book of Life and Death" also began to display a portion of the "Earth Department Taoism · Three Vultures Power Technique."

It was also a cultivation method for Yin Officials.

His grandfather’s "San Tu Yin Official Skill" cultivated via refining "Yin Morality," whereas the "Three Vultures Power Technique" cultivated through "Debt."

Because the nature of "Yin Morality" is the fortune bestowed by Heaven and Earth.

By cultivating the "Three Vultures Power Technique," one could set a term and borrow against the accounts from Heaven and Earth.

It allowed one to overspend their future "Yin Morality," so that all the "Debt" incurred within this term would not immediately rebound upon oneself.

However, if one hasn’t achieved sufficient cultivation by the end of the term and lacks the ability to repay the "Yin Morality," then a brutal backlash from the amassed "Debt" would ensue, the more evil committed, the more severe the backlash!

Wang Yuan had an epiphany.

"So that’s it!

No wonder this fellow full of evil has any ’Great Fortune’ or ’Yin Morality’—probably the Yin Morality used to modify his Life Chart was borrowed through cultivation methods.

And this is the ’two hundred years of Great Fortune’ that grandfather mentioned!"

"Although there are still two hours left until the end of his two hundred years’ death anniversary, not only the ’Owl God Self-Consumption,’ even the ’Debt’ backlash has already begun.

The Yili King’s condition is worse than I had previously imagined!

Even the White Book in my hand is now useless to him at this moment.

His only chance now is to brew the ’Immortality Wine’ before midnight and steal a ’Killing Dao Fruit’ from the ’Undying Tree,’ to return to his original state!

Nothing could be more crucial than this."

A flash of sharpness appeared in Wang Yuan’s eyes as he once again focused on the groups headed by Ge Daoxuan and Zhou Wenye.

"So, who is this ’Elixir’ that follows Huang Wu and Lady Peach Fairy?"

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