A Night of Desperation

Chapter 342: Induction II

"Indeed, this man is named Zhao Yanjun. He appears young, but in reality, he is a ninety-seven-year-old man," explained Qing Huang.

"Zhao Yanjun is nicknamed Heaven’s Hand, his Daoist Skills are similar to Supreme Forgetfulness, modeling after the celestial heart. On the surface, he seems gentle and humane, but in fact, he is extremely cold-hearted, selfish, and profit-oriented."

"Then, their appearance here... What does it mean?" Yu Hong asked.

"I fear that I came too hastily, which aroused their suspicions," Qing Huang said, now completely considering himself one of their own as his life and death rested in Yu Hong’s hands.

After a pause, Yu Hong understood; among the Seven Evils, Zhao Yanjun’s uncertainty about how dangerous Yu Hong was led him to refrain from rash actions and thus, retreat.

"Let’s not worry about him. You’ve had a tough time," Yu Hong said gravely. "How’s the situation inside?"

"The Spiritual Domain is dissipating, there shouldn’t be much trouble left, just that... many ordinary people have died," Qing Huang said cautiously.

"You’ve had a hard time, and you are injured too; go back and rest first," Yu Hong nodded, understanding that casualties among ordinary people were inevitable in such disasters.

He turned to look in the direction where Zhao Yanjun had left, sensing a massive hidden spiritual power there.

It seemed to notice his watchful gaze, and then moved away to the far distance.

The opponent’s spiritual power was extremely exaggerated, and his Daoist Skills might be very high.

Yu Hong didn’t feel he had exerted any spiritual power, but it seemed that Zhao Yanjun had still sensed something amiss.

Indeed, Yu Hong had already been ready to directly take action to deal with him; surprisingly, the other party was unexpectedly agreeable.

He was unwilling to sever the refinement process of the Five Spirits Spring.

Thinking this, Yu Hong turned back, looking at the Mutual Aid Alliance members continuously appearing in the yard and the many corpses brutally disfigured...

"Zheng Rou!!" called out his weak teacher, Yu Mo.

"Master!" Yu Hong’s expression tightened, and he quickly moved forward.

*

*

*

A few hundred meters away from Qingchen Temple, at a breakfast baozi shop.

Zhao Yanjun, one of the Seven Evils and known as Heaven’s Hand, pushed open the glass door designed to keep out the cold wind, walked past a few tables where customers were eating baozi and rice porridge, and sat down at a small square table at the very back.

Someone was already sitting there, currently engrossed in eating food.

"How did it go? Did you notice anything unusual? How did Qingchen Temple eliminate the Mud Doll Sect?" The man raised his head slightly upon hearing footsteps, revealing a strange appearance with buckteeth, a flat nose, and skewed eyes.

For the situation in Taizhou, the Seven Evil Alliance had calculated that even with the support of high-level experts from Zihe Palace, Qingchen Temple should not have been able to resolve the Mud Doll Sect so quickly.

Moreover, they even had the Dark Sky Master, Qing Huang, make a move afterwards.

Yet, the result was a complete defeat.

If not for the success of their previous strategy to deceive the public, the plans in Taizhou could have ended in failure.

"There was foreign interference." Zhao Yanjun pulled out a chair and sat down. His lips didn’t move, but his voice strangely reached the other person’s ears.

"Did you see the person?" The ugly-faced man continued to eat his rice porridge baozi. His voice also transmitted through the air.

"..." Zhao Yanjun didn’t speak, only picking up the teapot and pouring himself a cup of hot tea.

However, his hand trembled slightly as he poured the tea, the fingertips tightly pressing against the handle of the teapot, turning somewhat white.

He was actually trembling!

One of the top seven of the Seven Evils, second only to Long Qingzi, with a status and strength comparable to the Nine Sects’ Sect Masters.

Such a top-level Magician, who could have been revered as a True Monarch in ancient times, was actually trembling in fear from just one meeting...

The ugly man was stunned, watching Zhao Yanjun’s trembling hands, and even stopped chewing for a moment.

"What... did you encounter!?"

Zhao Yanjun calmly placed his hand on the table after pouring the water.

"Just an ordinary-looking young Taoist."

He paused.

"On him... I saw something extremely, extremely terrifying. Endless light, endless darkness, and some kind of twisted and evil mystic fluctuation, which made me hallucinate at the first glance."

"Self-induced spiritual vibration, activated by the instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm—hallucination?" The ugly man’s voice also turned solemn.

"Yes..." nodded Zhao Yanjun. "I was originally just tracking Qing Huang to see what he was up to, but then... suddenly this happened halfway, and I immediately broke into a cold sweat."

"Luckily, that creature, that monster, I managed to manipulate him first, playing a role-playing game with him, and he also pretended to be an ordinary person talking to me."

He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"After acting along with him for a while, I tried my best to appear natural, and when I found an opportunity, I immediately got away."

"Among us seven, you, Old Zhao, are the most level-headed. If I had gone first, I definitely couldn’t have been as natural as you," praised the ugly man.

"It was a sudden inspiration," Zhao Yanjun sighed. "That monster, it felt like a huge time bomb to me, a little provocation could directly explode, destroying the entire city, no... the danger I felt, might be even greater!"

"How could such a monster exist in this world? Could it be one of those beings from ancient times??" The ugly man didn’t doubt his companion’s words; they had decades of friendship, and he knew Zhao Yanjun very well.

"Anyway, we still need some solid evidence to confirm the situation here, otherwise, it’ll be difficult to report back to the Alliance Hierarch," he said gravely.

"I don’t want to deal with that guy a second time. Now that the Yin Qi Sky Pillar here has been opened, since that creature didn’t intervene, let’s just leave it be. Let’s just report back and pretend nothing happened." Zhao Yanjun directly refused to continue.

"That works, but if the Alliance Hierarch asks..."

"Just tell the truth. The Alliance Hierarch is a monster, that guy is a monster, let them fight it out themselves. I actually think that with the Alliance Hierarch’s mental state, he might find it interesting." Zhao Yanjun said with a laugh.

"Alright then." The ugly man also thought of something and began to laugh. He was actually curious about the creature his companion mentioned, thinking that if he could just take a glance from afar, it might be more convincing.

*

*

*

Two days later...

Qingchen Temple’s annex.

Yu Hong was sitting cross-legged in the Quiet Room, with Five-Colored Spiritual Power flowing into him like a phantom, completely merging into his body.

This signified that the Five Spirits Spring had finally accomplished its intended effect, completing the last step of awakening his talents.

Yu Hong sat still, eyes tightly shut, as earth-shaking transformations were taking place inside his body.

As the Five Spirits Spring’s final integration completed, a layer of five-colored fluorescence suddenly appeared on the surface of countless cells.

Subsequently, the activity of the cells surged like crazy, skyrocketing like a rocket.

The self-healing activity inside the cells accelerated to ten times its normal speed, astounding in its swiftness.

A feeling of refreshed clarity, as if one had just woken up from sleep, rapidly filled Yu Hong’s brain.

He opened his eyes, about to stand up.

Suddenly, a stream of information flowed out from the Black Mark on the back of his hand.

’Bathed in the Five Spirits Spring, special trait acquired: Extreme Summoning.’

’Extreme Summoning—When using any summoning technique, the number of summons can be decided autonomously, multiple summons are allowed within the bounds of the Daoist Skills (only applicable within the Qingchen’s Guanwu Skill system).’

"It worked!!" Yu Hong hadn’t expected that the Five Spirits Spring would trigger a prompt from the Black Mark, nor did he expect this talent to be a special trait.

At the same time, his spiritual power sharpened, and this moment marked its complete culmination. Though there had been some delays due to external distractions, everything went smoothly without any interruptions.

Whoosh.

Imperceptibly, a thin circle of spiritual power radiated outward from Yu Hong like a gentle breeze.

He stood up, feeling his consciousness and thoughts clearer than ever. Memories from long ago could be vividly recalled.

’Special trait acquired: Spiritual Sharpness.’

’Spiritual Sharpness—Calculated against the normal mental strength and density of an adult male as 1, when the density and strength of spiritual power reach 100, it undergoes a qualitative change, immune to all influences from techniques with a spiritual value below 100.’

Yu Hong felt a wave of relief, his days of rigorous cultivation had finally paid off.

He now possessed five special traits, and even without Inner Strength or any other abilities, his traits alone could exert extraordinarily formidable power.

Creak.

He pushed open the door, and the people of Qingchen Temple had long been waiting outside.

The Taoist Temple had been attacked before, and although it was rescued by Qing Huang, there were still considerable casualties among the ordinary adherents.

Fortunately, with timely rescue and assistance from the Mutual Aid Alliance, the situation in Taizhou’s urban district was relatively stabilized.

After the defeat of Ning Ruofei, who had been possessed, the massive swarm of locusts began to slowly disperse.

The residual parts were also purified through the collective efforts of everyone.

Now, Yu Hong finally emerged from seclusion, as the current strongest talent of Qingchen Temple, his status was already quite special.

Moreover, this retreat was to break the limit of spiritual power and step into the Seventh Level Temple Master Level.

Therefore, it brought greater expectations to everyone.

At this moment, out in the small courtyard, Yu Hen, Yu Mo, Zheng Ming, Zheng Ying, Cheng Shu, and all others were present.

Everyone eagerly watched Yu Hong as he walked up to Yu Mo.

"Teacher, I have fulfilled my duty!" he said, bowing with a fist in hand.

"....!!!" Yu Mo opened his mouth, wanting to respond, but could not utter a word.

Only those who had truly experienced it knew the importance of strength in this era, especially during these challenging times, a stronger force was desperately needed.

He reached out and firmly patted Yu Hong on the shoulder.

Qingchen Temple, from now on, finally has its own Temple Master level practitioner!

"We’ve succeeded... We’ve finally succeeded!!" Yu Hen suddenly opened his arms and laughed loudly at the side.

Others thought he was happy because of the breakthrough to Temple Master level, but actually, the elders of the Yu Generation knew it wasn’t just for that, but also because the key Five Spirits Spring had been successfully absorbed and integrated!

These two achievements combined signified that from today onwards, Qingchen Temple would welcome a top genius with unprecedented talent!

In this era of frequent disasters and worsening environments, the emergence of such a talented disciple might just be the turning point for the rise of Qingchen Temple!

Zheng Ming, Zheng Ying, and other disciples watched this scene without jealousy, feeling a faint sense of pride.

When the gap becomes large enough, jealousy turns into recognition and admiration.

And indeed, the current situation desperately needed a highly skilled Magician capable of stabilizing the situation.