Master of Strange Dao

Everything happened in the blink of an eye; no one had the chance to react, and even if they did manage to react, it would have been impossible to stop it.

The moment Yang saw the tattoo appear on Hei Wu's neck, he immediately let out a sharp shout.

"Er Han, take those two and get out, now!"

Yang knew too well how to command in a crisis, especially when dealing with someone like Er Han, who needed explicit orders. His body would act before his brain had a chance to process anything.

Just like now, Er Han's face still wore a puzzled look, and his eyes seemed slightly vacant.

But the instant he heard Yang's words, his muscles tensed in a flash, his heart rate doubled, and his whole body became like flammable grease that had been ignited in an instant.

Without thinking, his body turned into a blur as he grabbed the village chief and Yu Ziqing with one hand each and, using his back, charged through the door behind him, rushing out of the house.

As Yang shouted, his limbs moved in unison, and his distinctive explosive leap allowed him to flee towards the outside of the house. At the same time, his throat moved, his tongue curled up, and he spat out a dark stone that landed precisely on Hei Wu's body.

By the time Hei Wu exploded and fell to the ground, less than a breath's time had passed, and there were no living people left inside the house.

Within the span of a breath, a rune appeared on Hei Wu's forehead, from which a faint chanting sound began to emanate, initially soft as a mosquito's buzzing but gradually growing louder.

Along with the chanting, a glimmer of light, like a spreading ripple, emerged from Hei Wu's forehead and then, like a receding tide, rolled back.

At that moment, the dark stone on Hei Wu's body, stimulated by the light ripple and as it rolled back, immediately emitted large amounts of black smoke that merged into the rune on Hei Wu's forehead.

With a puff, the rune shattered, and the increasingly loud chanting stopped abruptly.

The attracted black smoke also retracted back into the dark stone.

...

At the same time, deep in the mountains, where vegetation was lush and towering trees that were dozens of meters high could be seen everywhere, the trees' canopies competed for sunlight, overlapping and filling every gap, casting the ground beneath into darkness.

There stood a Seven-Floor tower.

Below the tower, a man with hollowed cheeks and tattoos covering his entire face stood on a high platform, waving his arms and speaking fervently to the crowd below.

Suddenly, his expression changed, and he extended his right index finger to his forehead, revealing a rune.

Upon seeing his gesture, the people below who had been listening intently began to chant loudly. The sound waves came in waves but did not carry far; rather, they compressed and filled the air with a captivating power.

Tattooed Face looked solemn, his eyes brimming with murderous intent.

A core member had leaked secrets that should not have been divulged, triggering the Forbidden Technique and being devoured on the spot.

He now wanted to see who it was. Each rune was linked to a specific person, and every person was different. He simply needed to sense it, and he would immediately know who had died from the backlash and could also see the surroundings.

Moreover, with the power of the crowd, they could chant the Law Code, and perhaps they could even bring under control those nearby the traitor, who were not especially strong, or at least leave behind a seed of control.

The most important thing was being able to sense nearby presences. Now that a traitor had leaked secrets, all he needed was to capture the aura of the people around him, and perhaps he could identify who it was, or at least determine a rough range of what kind of Dharma Method the person practiced.

He couldn't determine it immediately, but next time they met, he would recognize it right away.

This was their method of concealing secrets, foolproof time and again, thus there were hardly any who would divulge secrets within the organization. Even if some defected, they wouldn't disclose any secrets.

He had thought that this connection was going so smoothly, he would gain even more information.

However, in the instant of the link, he perceived an unfathomably strange power, offering itself in an aggressive manner and breaking through everything to be the first to reach his senses.

Tattooed Face was very decisive; he immediately cut off the connection, shattered the rune, and, to be on the safe side, even forcibly severed a sliver of his Divine Soul's power along with it.

He groaned, his face turning a mottled shade of blue and green, and his keen eyes dimmed somewhat.

His Divine Soul was damaged.

"A trap!"

He couldn't remember what power had been used in the other party's trap anymore. The bit of Divine Soul that had come into contact with that force was now forcibly severed by him, causing it to self-immolate and vanish without a trace.

All he knew was a few words to describe it: strange, domineering, chilling. The next time he encountered this power, he wouldn't be able to identify it either. With just a moment's contact, he knew that the owner of this power was far superior to him.

If the other party had the ability to track him back this way, and if he dared to leave even the smallest imprint, the other party might have already locked onto his approximate location.

If this powerful individual decided to take action personally, he could possibly find this base within seven days.

Fortunately, his reaction was quick and decisive.

Tattooed Face staggered and sat down on the ground, taking out a purple-black pill and swallowing it. His complexion looked a bit better, but damage to the Divine Soul wasn't something that could be easily recovered.

...

The light circle on Hei Wu's body arrived quickly and disappeared just as fast.

A few breaths later, when the dust had settled and while everyone was still in a state of shock, Yang had already started walking towards the kiln.

The village chief waved his hand to the people who had come outside upon hearing the noise.

"Go back to sleep."

Nobody asked any questions; they simply took another look to make sure everyone was alright, then turned around and went back to sleep.

They entered the kiln house again, and the rune on Hei Wu's forehead had disappeared.

The group looked at Old Yang, who squinted his eyes slightly and glanced at Hei Wu on the ground.

"Don't be nervous, someone had planted a Forbidden Technique on him, a silence spell, or maybe something else. He has suffered soul shattering for revealing secrets he shouldn't have, and now he doesn't even have the chance to become a ghost.

Nobody will know where he is or discover the situation here. It's possible that the other party doesn't even realize that it was Hei Wu who died,"

Old Yang explained to Yu Ziqing the general effect of this kind of Forbidden Technique and the methods of tracking used by the people behind. He continued.

"The people from the Seventh Floor, their stationed locations have never been discovered. There were a few times we thought we had found them, but those were just their abandoned outposts. There is little valuable intelligence.

Because of the secrets triggered by the Forbidden Technique, the person tracking just now must be extremely cautious and vigilant. If there is any accident, he will withdraw immediately, knowing nothing.

And if he's overly cautious, he might even suffer a severe setback…"

Old Yang glanced at the black stone on the ground and couldn't help but laugh.

With just a hint from Old Yang, Yu Ziqing understood and burst into laughter like a pig's squeal.

Old Yang was too wicked...

This black stone was a fragment of the Jade Tomb, and its former owner must have been a top powerhouse. Now, however, this black stone was merely a piece of the Jade Tomb.

Such a situation was perfect for scaring people.

The people from the Seventh Floor wouldn't dare to gamble, as triggering the Forbidden Technique planted by someone to reveal secrets in exchange for their death is never an easy matter under normal circumstances.

If they win the bet, they would at most find out who is in their vicinity but have no way to retaliate immediately.

If they lose, their location exposed, there is a high probability... no, it's certain that it would mean the whole family ascending to heaven, a complete annihilation of the outpost.

Those who want to root them out entirely are not few in number.

Including some customers who once bought intelligence from them.

After some thought, Yu Ziqing figured he would make the same decision if he were in their shoes. In such a situation, it was simply too risky to lose.

With the lesson learned from Hei Wu, Yu Ziqing knew which questions might be forbidden when interrogating the Black Mountain Sheep.

Being a demon beast, Black Mountain Sheep recovered slightly faster than Hei Wu; after taking half a dose of the antidote, it regained consciousness.

The interrogation went smoothly. For some reason, after regaining consciousness, Black Mountain Sheep seemed unfazed by the others but was even more terrified when it saw Yu Ziqing, stiffening up throughout the process as if it were shocked into playing dead.

Yu Ziqing rearranged the information retrieved from Hei Wu's interrogation and asked again, inserting some questions abruptly in the middle to repeat them once more.

After half a day, more rust fell from the cracks of the rusty sword, completing its judgment, and Yu Ziqing was sure there were no lies.

Feeling that he had asked enough, Yu Ziqing was not inclined to delay further and continued to inquire.

"Where is the Seventh Floor's outpost located?"

Fear filled Black Mountain Sheep's eyes, its mouth trembling as it didn't dare to speak.

Yu Ziqing shook his head slightly, seeing that this fellow knew speaking would mean certain death.

"Dispose of it."

Such a demon beast, from both its own perspective and the safety of itself and the village, could not be spared.

Er Han was the one to act. He took a sharp blade and, like a Butcher slaughtering sheep, swiftly finished off Black Mountain Sheep; the process was remarkably smooth.

As Black Mountain Sheep approached death, it clearly showed fear, seemingly wanting to do something, but its body remained rigid, unable to move at all. In the end, it faced the blade head-on, breathing its last. Its eyes seemed to carry hints of relief and liberation.

It seemed that dying this way was the best outcome it could hope for.

Yu Ziqing didn't quite understand, and Old Yang was a little surprised as well.

"Did they screw up their brains with too much sedative?"

"Probably so, the sedative I scattered, they licked it so clean, they consumed more sedative than Jinlan Mushrooms…"

Old Yang stared at the slain Black Mountain Sheep, pondering for a long while, but couldn't find a way in which the Black Mountain Sheep could have had a chance at survival or the possibility of sending out a message under these circumstances.

Then he looked at Yu Ziqing thoughtfully.

"Dispose of the Black Mountain Sheep's body, and also, it should have an inner core. I want it."

In the end, a small inner core the size of a pinky finger was dug out and swallowed by Old Yang in one gulp, while the body of the Black Mountain Sheep, along with the wooden bowl that caught its blood, was thrown into the locust forest at the village entrance.

The fallen leaves were like quicksand, quickly engulfing everything that was thrown in.

This time, however, the locust forest underwent a subtle change.

A thin layer of blood mist and dark qi emerged from the thick layer of fallen leaves and then dissipated into the entire locust forest, absorbed by the locust trees.

Some of the gray and withered leaves and flowers on the locust trees regained vitality, and even new buds sprouted from some branches. An unexpected chilly wind arose in the locust forest, stirring the dangling flowers and producing a rustling sound of indistinct whispers.