Chapter 465: Stop Calling!

The Lu Clan elder turned his head, a hint of confusion in his expression, unsure why Xu Sanyan was acting this way.

Xu Sanyan’s gaze remained fixed on the elder’s face, determined to catch even the slightest flicker of emotion.

Unfortunately, he detected nothing.

“Very well,” the Lu Clan elder said without argument, turning to take the other path. Xu Sanyan’s eyes narrowed habitually, his gaze darting between the two passages before he finally stepped forward to follow.

In the darkness, only the soft sound of footsteps echoed. Xu Sanyan’s pupils glowed faintly, allowing him to see clearly even in the pitch-black.

The deeper they ventured, the more uneasy he felt. An inexplicable sense of danger began to stir within him. Others might dismiss it as a mere illusion, but Xu Sanyan knew better. At his level of cultivation, his instincts for sensing danger were razor-sharp. This feeling wouldn’t arise without a genuine threat.

Without a word, Xu Sanyan stopped in his tracks.

Lu Wanzhe, walking ahead of him, stopped abruptly. Then Yue Shanhe, the Yue Clan Patriarch, and the Lu Clan Elder at the very front all halted simultaneously. None of the dozen or so people spoke or turned around.

The scene instantly became eerily bizarre. Xu Sanyan’s hair stood on end, and an icy chill spread through his heart.

When did this happen?!

When did they get compromised?!

I was right behind them the whole time—how could I have missed this?!

Click… click…

The sound of rusty gears grinding echoed through the night, a grating noise that made his teeth ache. One by one, their heads rotated mechanically, their bodies remaining motionless. Their necks snapped with brutal force, yet they seemed utterly unaware.

Lu Wanzhe’s beautiful face was utterly serene, her black-and-white eyes devoid of life as she stared directly at Xu Sanyan.

The Yue Clan Patriarch’s cheeks twitched violently, his pupils rolling upward and then snapping back to normal, as if locked in a desperate struggle against some unseen force.

Swish—

The moment his eyes rolled upward, the Yue Clan Patriarch ceased resisting, becoming indistinguishable from the others.

Xu Sanyan pressed his thin lips together, a hint of disdain curling the corner of his mouth as he thought of something. “Hmph, playing tricks!”

Over the years, he had faced countless life-and-death situations. How could he be frightened by such ghostly nonsense? He had simply been caught off guard for a moment.

Besides, the Lu Clan elders and others had all fallen victim, while he alone remained unaffected. Didn’t that prove the ghost couldn’t touch him?

His Peak Stage Perfected Dao Harmonization cultivation level gave him unparalleled confidence!

“If this is all you’ve got, you’ll have a hard time keeping me here today. Tell you what, I’ll introduce you to a master. Her name is Lanlan—great service, cheap prices, and she knows how to keep people coming back. She’s way better than you.”

Lanlan, despite being a ghost, exuded irresistible charm, making people linger endlessly. This one, on the other hand, only knew how to scare people. The difference in skill was obvious.

Xu Sanyan wasn’t sure if the ghost understood him, or if his words had simply provoked it. Whatever the reason, the Lu Clan elders and others lunged at him with renewed frenzy.

“Heh, I didn’t even give you the time of day when you were alive. You think you can cause trouble now that you’re dead?”

Xu Sanyan’s expression was arrogant, not even bothering to summon his Heavenly Dao Mark. With a mere wave of his hand, a torrent of spiritual power surged through the tunnel like a raging flood, its overwhelming force unmatched.

The Lu Clan elder bore the brunt of the attack, his body torn to shreds like a ragdoll. The vast disparity in power between them was now brutally evident.

Let me show you what it means to be the strongest beneath a sage!

Xu Sanyan’s lips curled into a smirk as he gazed at the crimson blood splattered across the stone walls, the mangled corpses merging into a grotesque mass. A sudden pang of regret struck him.

Lu Wanzhe was actually quite pretty. What a waste…

Another day wasted.

Xu Sanyan lifted his gaze, staring deep into the tunnel’s depths, completely ignoring the blood-soaked walls. The faint sense of danger that had stirred within him gradually dissipated, replaced by an unsettling calm.

In truth, this encounter had been beneficial to him. Had the ghostly entity remained hidden, Xu Sanyan would have remained uncertain of its capabilities, his guard forever raised.

But now that he had witnessed its power—easily dispatching Soul Refining Realm cultivators like the Lu Clan elder—he no longer felt threatened. While the entity could effortlessly crush such cultivators, it would be helpless against a Perfected Dao Harmonization expert like himself.

“So, you’re the one who painted the murals outside?” Xu Sanyan murmured to himself as he stepped inside, his expression relaxed but his mind still on high alert.

Though his words belittled his opponent, he remained fully focused. Even a lion hunting a rabbit must exert its full strength; complacency could be fatal.

This ghost clearly possessed intelligence, likely of considerable sophistication, having emerged within the past few tens of thousands of years.

Not all ghosts were the same. Ghosts like Lanlan were born with consciousness because they had once been human. Immortals had extracted their souls and spirits using great spiritual power, casting them into secret realms. With their three souls and seven spirits intact, their consciousness remained undiminished.

In contrast, this ghost had been refined by humans, its consciousness erased, leaving only the instinct to kill.

It was like the difference between a real woman and a silicone doll.

But now, the silicone doll had somehow gained consciousness!

“Tsk…”

Xu Sanyan clicked his tongue. Why did this thought suddenly excite him?

If a silicone doll had consciousness, would forcing himself on it against its will count as rape?

They don’t have human rights, so it shouldn’t count, right?

Xu Sanyan shook his head violently, realizing his thoughts were going astray. How could I even consider such a thing?

This completely contradicts the very purpose of my cultivation!

Why am I even thinking about human rights? People with lower cultivation levels than mine have no rights!

I’ve endured countless trials and tribulations, striving to reach this point. I didn’t cultivate to protect others’ rights, nor to be bound by worldly constraints.

I cultivated to act as I please, to indulge my whims without restraint!

The only question that matters is whether I want it, not whether they consent!

“I hope you’re pretty…”

“Silicone doll.”

At the end of the tunnel, Xu Sanyan reached out to touch the stone door before him. The door was covered in densely engraved patterns, patterns he recognized instantly as the formation patterns of the Soul-Gathering Brilliance-Preserving Grand Formation.

Countless layers of formation patterns overlapped on the stone door, forming a complex barrier that seemed to be both sealing something away and protecting something within.

Waves of yin wind seeped through the stone door. Xu Sanyan carefully sensed it, confirming it was identical to the yin wind that had swept through earlier. This meant everything that had happened earlier was caused by the ghostly entity within.

Moreover, it seemed to be able to control the yin wind. He guessed the murals outside had been carved using this method, explaining their chaotic appearance—they had been scraped into existence by the wind.

“Aaaah~!!”

The familiar, piercing roar echoed from behind the door—the same sound that had awakened the myriad ghosts. It seemed to sense someone on the other side, its voice now filled with frenzied intensity.

Xu Sanyan frowned. “Stop yelling. I’ll show you a real treasure soon enough!”

(End of the Chapter)