A flash of purple light suddenly appeared. Lu Xuan looked up and saw a stunning face slowly emerging in mid-air, clear and distinguishable. It was Zi Yao, the Director of the Black Bird Guard.
Her features seemed outlined by purple light, carrying a sense of coldness and mystery.
Her beautiful eyes were like clear autumn water, their glistening waves hiding a detachment from the mortal world, yet also resembling cold stars in the deep night sky.
While Lu Xuan was looking at Zi Yao, Zi Yao, who was in the extreme northern cold region, was also scanning Lu Xuan.
“Really? Is this kid really the Deputy Director of the Black Bird Guard that His Majesty personally appointed?”
“Did I see wrong, or is there something wrong with your Purple Spirit Communication Tablet, Senior Sister?”
Just then, an abrupt voice broke the silence. Zi Yao’s originally calm, cold, and composed expression instantly showed a hint of fluctuation.
At that moment, Zi Yao ignored Lin Yuexi beside her. She looked at Lu Xuan with a scrutinizing gaze and slowly spoke.
“You are Lu Xuan?”
Her voice sounded like frosty wind on a cold night, carrying a trace of chill and doubt.
It wasn’t just Lin Yuexi who felt confused; even Zi Yao found it hard to believe that this young man before her could be the Deputy Director of the Black Bird Guard appointed by His Majesty himself.
“That’s me!” Lu Xuan replied, his expression unchanging, as calm as a still lake surface, without a ripple of disturbance.
What identity does this woman have, that she can contact my identity token?
Lu Xuan’s answer brought a glint of surprise to Zi Yao’s beautiful eyes, but in her heart, she slowly began to accept this fact.
“Director Lu, I am Zi Yao, Director of the Black Bird Guard. The Southern Region’s Ming Province is suffering from the scourge of the heretics from the World Purifying White Lotus Cult!”
“By His Majesty’s decree, you are ordered to proceed immediately to Flying Crane Mansion in Ming Province, destroy the White Lotus Nightmare Flower, and eradicate those heretics of the World Purifying White Lotus Cult. There must be no delay!”
As soon as Zi Yao finished speaking, without waiting for Lu Xuan’s response, the purple light in mid-air slowly turned into specks of starlight and vanished.
“Ming Province?”
Upon hearing these two words, Lu Xuan suddenly recalled something from a month ago.
Li Chengxing had once mentioned to him that a large number of heretics from the World Purifying White Lotus Cult had appeared in Ming Province.
So, besides coming to Baidao Mansion in An Province to find Lu Xuan, Li Chengxing also had a very important task when he left the capital.
That was to personally go to Ming Province to eliminate those World Purifying White Lotus cult heretics who were plaguing the common people.
Interesting!
Even Li Chengxing, the Deputy Director of the Black Bird Guard, can’t resolve the trouble in Ming Province?
And as for this White Lotus Nightmare Flower, Lu Xuan had some understanding of it.
Wasn’t this kind of sinister thing supposed to have been completely destroyed?
With this thought, Lu Xuan stood with his hands behind his back, slowly raised his head, and cast his gaze towards the distant horizon.
A look of keen interest quietly climbed onto Lu Xuan’s face, a faint excitement showing in his pupils.
Oh well, let’s just see what tricks these World Purifying White Lotus Cult heretics can still pull for me.
It just so happens that it’s been a while since Lu Xuan last saw these ‘money-delivery boys’ of the World Purifying White Lotus Cult.
Suddenly!
Hurried footsteps sounded in succession at the courtyard entrance.
Immediately after, five or six men dressed in Black Bird Guard uniforms filed in.
These men looked grave and deep, as if shrouded in leaden clouds, emanating a cold, standoffish aura around them.
But when they saw the mess of broken wood chunks in the yard, and Lu Xuan standing there,
The leading elder, wearing a cyan Black Bird Guard uniform, suddenly changed his expression and shouted, breaking the silence in the yard.
“Who are you? Isn’t this mansion supposed to be cordoned off by the prefectural office?”
“What are those prefectural office people doing? With those nasty things around here, how could they be so careless as to let someone sneak in?”
This elder in the cyan uniform was the Black Bird Guard Envoy of Qingxi Mansion!
After the Qingxi Mansion Envoy spoke, the other Black Bird Guards understood intuitively.
They quickly formed an encirclement, their alert eyes locking onto Lu Xuan like hawks.
Lu Xuan also noticed that the newcomers were the local Black Bird Guards, so he gave them a slight nod.
The next moment, Lu Xuan lightly stepped forward. He seemed to step into an invisible void, his figure instantly transforming into a purple light.
Then he completely disappeared. Only a faint trace of air current swirled gently in place, seemingly proving that Lu Xuan had been standing there just moments before.
This extremely eerie scene shocked the few Black Bird Guards so much that they looked at each other, their eyes full of disbelief.
Before they could recover, an ethereal, faint voice echoed around the courtyard, as if coming from the very heavens and earth.
“Those nasty things here have been dealt with by me, the Director!”
Huh?????
“Did you guys hear something?”
The Qingxi Mansion Envoy stood frozen in place. What did he just hear?
Director?
“Yes, Envoy Sir. That man just now seemed to say something.”
“He said he took care of the nasty things here and called himself ‘the Director’.”
“Envoy Sir, isn’t ‘Director’… a bit too…?”
The Black Bird Guard answering the Qingxi Mansion Envoy didn’t finish his sentence, but everyone present understood what he meant.
Isn’t this whole thing a bit too absurd? You run into a ‘wild’ Director in the city of Qingxi Mansion?
How bizarre!
Ming Province!
At the city gate of Flying Crane Mansion’s main city, there was devastation everywhere, bodies scattered on the ground.
Large patches of dried blood remained on the ground, black and red interwoven, looking like a hellish scene.
There were hundreds of men dressed in pure white robes. Their eyes emitted an eerie white light, and their hands gripped sharp broadswords.
The blades shone with a cold, deadly light, reflecting those empty, lifeless eyes that were yet filled with madness.
Their plain white robes fluttered in the wind, but brought no sense of agility; instead, they added a touch of gloom, making them look like manipulated walking corpses.
In front of these people rose a huge white lotus platform.
At the center of the lotus platform were several adult-sized, blood-red lotus flowers.
So red it was startling, like dazzling, dripping blood. A strong smell of blood wafted over.
It permeated the surrounding air, appearing extremely eerie and strange compared to the pure white lotus platform.
Beside these few eerily beautiful blood-red lotus flowers, an old man sat cross-legged on a cushion.
The old man had a gaunt face, crisscrossed with deep wrinkles, like a dry, cracked riverbed.
His eyes were half-closed, and the occasional eerie white light that flashed from them revealed a chilling, sinister look.
His sparse white hair was casually tied behind his head, a few strands falling over his shoulders.
He wore a tattered, yellowed, plain white robe, its hem hanging down, gently swaying in the breeze.
But this attire couldn’t hide the decaying aura emanating from him.
Behind the old man knelt two sturdy men, silent, seemingly awaiting his command.
“How much ‘blood food’ is still left in the city to be sacrificed?”
“And find and capture those surviving Black Bird Guards as quickly as possible.”
“We must find them all quickly. Our Holy Cult doesn’t have much time left.”
“The Great Xia court will send their lackeys soon.”
“When the White Lotus Nightmare Flower blooms, that will be the moment the foundation of the Great Xia Dynasty begins to crumble!”
“Endless nightmares will break through the restrictions of this world and be summoned from the outer domain.”
Having said this, the old man’s eyes flashed with a terrifying white light, his gaze fixed intensely on the three unopened blood-red lotus flowers before him.
Upon hearing this, the two men behind the old man hurriedly straightened up, their postures stiff and upright, their faces full of devout expression.
They spoke in unison: “To answer, Supreme Protector. Except for the Envoy, most of the Black Bird Guards here have been captured by us.”
“We have also sent out most of our cult members to capture the ‘blood food’ in the city.”
“I believe, within no more than two days, the ‘blood food’ in this mansion city will be captured by us and all sacrificed to the White Lotus Nightmare Flower.”
Hearing this, the old man’s already wrinkled face crumpled further, like dried orange peel.
Every crease seemed to express his dissatisfaction, and a fierce light flashed in his eyes.
“Worthless! This Protector gives you only one day to capture all those people,” the old man scolded harshly.
The air around him instantly condensed, seemingly affected by the old man’s terrifying presence.
One day…
This city of Qingxi Mansion is so huge, you couldn’t even walk through it all in a day, let alone exhaustingly capture all the ‘blood food’!
“Yes, Supreme Protector! We will immediately lead men to personally capture that ‘blood food’.”
After the two men hurried away, the surrounding environment became quiet.
The old man slowly turned his head, his gaze once again falling on the three blood-red lotus flowers. His eyes instantly grew fervent, the eagerness in them almost spilling over.
He knew very well the significance of these White Lotus Nightmare Flowers to the Holy Cult.
They bore the utmost importance regarding the Holy Cult’s Supreme Elder and even the descent of the Holy Mother!
Therefore, he could only stay guarding these three White Lotus Nightmare Flowers, allowing no harm to come to them.
Otherwise, all the cult members they had lost before would have died in vain.
Inside the city, at a ruined place, piles of wood debris were scattered everywhere like wreckage casually discarded after a storm.
Beneath this pile of debris hid a deep, impenetrable darkness.
In this darkness, over a hundred people were hiding.
Among them were over a dozen men in Black Bird Guard uniforms, as well as women and children cowering in the corners.
Some women even tightly covered their young children’s mouths, terrified of making the slightest sound.
Because, outside the wooden planks above their heads, desperate cries for help rose and fell, each one wrenching at the heart, as if trying to tear through the endless darkness.
Everyone hiding in the darkness could clearly hear large numbers of people fleeing in panic overhead.
Chaotic footsteps, hopeless shouts, and agonized roars intertwined.
Then, on the ground above, a few light footsteps sounded, completely different from those panicked ones.
It was three men in white robes, members of the World Purifying White Lotus Cult.
And behind them was an even more horrifying sight: two monstrous, infant-like creatures were crawling quickly on all fours.
Their tender skin was covered in stark, naked blood vessels, emitting an eerie red glow.
Their hollow, lifeless, pale-white eyes held only madness and bloodlust.
As their small bodies twisted, their movements were incredibly agile. They occasionally let out low, unintelligible growls.
Blood-red saliva continuously dripped from the corners of their mouths, leaving wet patches on the flat ground.
Weren’t these two monstrous infants exactly the White Lotus Blood Infants that Lu Xuan had been most concerned about?
“The Holy Infants have stopped. It seems there is ‘blood food’—these martial artists—here.”
“If the Holy Infants aren’t mistaken, those damned ‘blood food’ are hiding right over there.”
No ‘blood food’ martial artist’s scent could escape the noses of the White Lotus Blood Infants.
Following the gaze of these three World Purifying White Lotus cult members, their target was the ruins piled high with broken wooden planks.
“Let’s move.”
“The two Elders personally came to instruct us. The Supreme Protector has ordered that we must capture this ‘blood food’ today.”
“If we fail, everyone will be punished according to cult rules!”
The speaker had a sinister look in his eyes, a cruel smile curling at the corner of his mouth, and his tone was filled with extremely cold killing intent.
Instantly, these three middle-aged men from the White Lotus Cult moved together, unleashing an overwhelming, mountain-toppling momentum.
Three terrifying surges of life energy, like man-eating flood dragons emerging from the sea, roared and shot up towards the sky.
The power of these three surging forces caused the surrounding air to begin vibrating.
The three exchanged glances, a ruthless glint flashing in their eyes. Then their bodies burst into motion, like cannonballs from a chamber, smashing into the thick layer of broken wood debris.
With a loud crash, wood chips flew everywhere. The three men forcefully pushed aside the mountain of piled-up wood blocks, scattering them in all directions and raising large clouds of choking dust.
Their brutal actions showed no regard for the people hiding below.
Sharp splinters of wood shot down like arrows from a bowstring towards the innocent civilians underneath.
At this critical moment, several Black Bird Guards in yellow uniforms reacted swiftly. Their life energy surged immediately, deflecting those sharp wooden spikes flying towards the innocent people.
“Damn it!”
“I didn’t think these heretics would find us after all.”
“You people take the civilians and leave first. Old Wei and I will hold off these heretics for a while.”
In the meantime, two men who looked to be in their fifties or sixties leaped up, unleashing the aura of martial artists at the Great Perfection stage of Blood Refinement.
These two were the strongest Black Bird Guards in Flying Crane Mansion, aside from the Envoy and the two Deputy Envoys.
But the Envoy was not in Flying Crane Mansion, and the two Deputy Envoys had been struck dead by that terrifying old monster.
Only these lower-ranking Black Bird Guards were left struggling to survive in the city.
When these two saw the three World Purifying White Lotus cult members ahead, their faces showed resolution.
Although these three heretics only consisted of two at the Great Achievement stage of Blood Refinement and one at the Minor Achievement stage,
What made them truly wary were the two White Lotus Blood Infants crouching behind the three men.
“Old Wei, it looks like we won’t escape this ordeal today either.”
As his words fell, the two Black Bird Guards swayed and charged towards the White Lotus Cult heretics!
At the same time, above Flying Crane Mansion city.
A lifelike yet illusory purple streak fell from the sky, like a shooting star descending.
In an instant, accompanied by a slight tremor that raised a few tiny wisps of dust,
That purple figure landed precisely on the pure white lotus platform, face to face with the white-robed elder.
“This seems to be the place: Flying Crane Mansion!”
With his hands behind his back, Lu Xuan gave the white-robed elder no time to react.
The terrifying divine thought from his Divine Mansion surged out of his body, enveloping the entire sky above Flying Crane Mansion, taking in every single scene within the city into his mind.
