Feng Zikang entered the city and watched the crowd clumsily helping the battered and bruised Grand Tutor Pang to his feet. A throng of people buzzed around him, eagerly recounting the recent events within the city walls.
It turned out that after Feng Zikang left Caizhou, the operation to exterminate the monstrous creatures had been proceeding quite smoothly.
Originally, without their leaders and with no further reinforcements trickling in, the demons were no match for Grand Tutor Pang’s seasoned troops. The Great Tang army, aided by the cultivators, had swept through, nearly eradicating the border demons.
Who would have thought that in the last few days, a peculiar Daoist priest had arrived on the demon side.
He issued a challenge before the lines, which Grand Tutor Pang dismissed. Pang Fei rode out to meet him, skewering the Daoist’s purple-gold crown with his spear, terrifying the man into fleeing with his tail between his legs.
This should have been the end of it, but this Daoist possessed great magical power and harbored a grudge. That night, he cast a spell, shrouding the city of Ganzhou beneath a thick blanket of black cloud.
“Oh?” Feng Zikang looked up at the sky and indeed saw the oppressive black clouds pressing down, harboring something strange within.
“Is this the black cloud?”
“Precisely!” Pang Fei nodded grimly, his own complexion far from good. Indeed, everyone present wore an unusually troubled expression.
“What harm does this cloud actually cause?”
Upon entering the city, Feng Zikang had immediately felt a stifling oppression that made him deeply uncomfortable.
However, he had yet to discover any direct physical harm from it during his approach.
In his irritation, he waved his hand just as a servant approached with a cup of hot tea, colliding with the man. The entire cup of tea sloshed out, splashing directly onto Fei Tianhe’s face!
“Ow!” Although he was a cultivator, a full cup of scalding hot tea thrown in the face still caused pain. Fei Tianhe gasped softly, and Grand Tutor Pang managed a wry smile. “General, you see? This is the situation!”
After the black cloud settled over the city, no one felt any immediate danger. Grand Tutor Pang had feared some malevolent divine ability, like plague or storms, but none had materialized.
It was simply that their endeavors were constantly plagued by misfortune.
At first, it was minor setbacks like qi deviation during cultivation or bumping into people when leaving the house. Later, the situations grew more severe; everything they attempted seemed to go wrong.
For the cultivators, mishaps resulted in little more than embarrassment. But for the common folk in the city, hundreds had died from falls, fires, and similar accidents.
Grand Tutor Pang was furious. He ordered guards to protect the civilians while simultaneously investigating the cause. Finally, they discovered that all these calamities had begun occurring after the black cloud covered the city.
“This black cloud…”
Feng Zikang scrutinized it closely. Within the cloud, a sickening, ochre-yellow tint shimmered, but otherwise, there was nothing remarkable, save for a faint, foul odor.
“We have even collected samples of the black cloud for study and probed it with our divine senses. We have confirmed it: this very moldy cloud is causing ceaseless bad luck throughout the entire city!”
Pang Fei was burning with rage, clenching his fists but daring not swing them, afraid of accidentally striking someone else.
“If we move outside the range covered by this black cloud, then nothing happens at all…”
Grand Tutor Pang sighed faintly.
For cultivators, this was actually a solution—if the place was cursed, they could simply leave. But what of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians residing in Ganzhou City?
Grand Tutor Pang could not bear to let them suffer under this black cloud. He persuaded some cultivators to remain, hoping to deal with the cloud.
Pang Fei also wanted to track down that Daoist, capture him, and force the secret to dispelling the cloud from him.
“Are you certain this black cloud was created by that Daoist?”
Feng Zikang was secretly alarmed. While this divine ability seemed to cause no direct harm, its application in a siege or battle formation would be terrifyingly potent.
To influence the fortune of a person or a place was a heaven-defying power, let alone the fortune of the entire population and all the cultivators in this city.
If it was indeed the work of that Daoist, he had to be eliminated, no matter the cost.
“It was that Daoist,” Pang Fei confirmed, nodding. “Three days after the black cloud appeared over the battlements, the Daoist returned to challenge us, boasting that he would use the black cloud to seal our doom. I wounded him again, and he fled in panic. Alas, I failed to capture him.”
Feng Zikang nodded. This Daoist was likely not one of the established factions from the sea. He must be some rogue cultivator. Though his overall skill seemed mediocre, this particular divine ability was truly venomous.
“Then I shall descend to the city perimeter and meet this Daoist!”
Pang Fei offered a bitter smile. “General, having been tricked twice, this Daoist is now extremely cautious and cunning. Even if he emerges, he hides behind the ranks of the demons and dares not fight. I have tried several times to capture him, without success.”
“No matter,” Feng Zikang waved his hand dismissively. “I am merely going down to observe him, to see what he looks like and gauge his true strength.”
Few high-ranking officers were currently capable of leaving the city. Feng Zikang did not press the matter, leading only Grand Tutor Pang and the assembled cultivators out of the gate to observe the enemy camp.
A cannon fired from the demon lines, and then, heralded by three armies, a Daoist slowly emerged.
The Daoist’s appearance was repulsive: a prominent lump protruded from his forehead, his nose was flat, his lips thick, and his nose hairs and beard were matted together; one couldn't tell what kind of demon he had transformed from.
He swaggered with arrogant confidence, and upon seeing them all—
“You brats! Do you know my power now? In a few more days, I guarantee not a chicken nor a dog will be left alive in your city!”
Feng Zikang stared intently, remaining cold and silent. The Daoist’s cultivation and skill were indeed ordinary. Why he could employ such a baffling, powerful divine technique was a mystery.
The threat of ‘not a chicken nor a dog left’ in a few days—if this black cloud persisted, causing unrelenting bad luck day after day—might actually come true.
He let out a cold snort, spitting out a streak of sword qi that struck the Daoist with unpredictable speed. The Daoist, laughing maniacally, was caught completely off guard and had his hair sheared off by the sword. He tumbled to the ground, screaming, “Retreat! Retreat to the camp!”
Feng Zikang did not pursue the retreating Daoist after delivering that one disabling blow. He smiled faintly and led the group back into the city.
“Do not worry. Tonight, I will scout the Daoist’s true abilities. I will surely find a way to break the siege!”
As night fell, Feng Zikang left the city, found a secluded tent in the northern camp, and secretly activated his Formless Heavenly Demon Avatar.
He dared not circulate it within the city walls; a minor leak might be tolerable, but if his bad luck caused him to be discovered, the consequences would be far worse.
The Formless Heavenly Demon Avatar drifted out, slipping unseen into the demon encampment. A brief search quickly located the Daoist’s tent.
Inside, the lamp burned brightly. The Daoist was already quite drunk, enjoying the company of several beautiful female demons singing and dancing for him. Seated below him were several lesser demons offering excessive flattery.
“Star Lord, your magnificent display this time truly brought great honor to our Demon Bureau! Grand Tutor Pang looks utterly pathetic!”
“Naturally!”
The Daoist chuckled, pounding his chest, while his other hand gripped a wine jug, constantly pouring spirits into his mouth.
“I, the Heavenly Blight Star Lord, who can break my Blight Cloud Divine Ability? Those others are nothing but sacks of wine and rice—hardly worth mentioning!”
Once the Heavenly Blight Star Lord started talking, he couldn't stop praising himself. His audience, of course, offered a torrent of adulation.
He was, it turned out, a rogue cultivator who had been dogged by misfortune since birth, killing his parents the moment he was born. Had he not been a naturally born spirit beast, he likely would have starved to death then and there. Later, the master who took him in died within a few years. Most of his sect brothers perished or scattered, leaving him alone in the end.
He achieved human form and became a demon, but his actual abilities were ordinary, as his master had taught him nothing. However, his innate life-bound divine ability was exceptionally potent: it could shroud others in misfortune, and the more they struggled, the worse their luck became.
This method was vicious. Unless one’s cultivation was so high as to be a full realm above him, the Heavenly Blight Star Lord could blight them. Regardless of their cultivation or divine abilities, their efforts would inevitably go awry, leading to eventual death by bad luck—it was merely a matter of time.
This was indeed troublesome. Feng Zikang lowered his head in thought, subtly stirring the curiosity of one of the smaller demons.
As expected, the half-drunk little demon spoke without restraint, “Star Lord, your divine power is vast; is there anyone under heaven who can cure it?”
The Heavenly Blight Star Lord glared at him, clearly displeased, but he answered truthfully nonetheless.
“Hmph! If a Nascent Soul cultivator came, they could use Yang Fire to refine my black cloud and naturally secure the peace of Ganzhou City. But for such a mere small city, for a Nascent Soul expert to intervene would be utterly ridiculous!”
If such defense and offense required the intervention of a Nascent Soul master, the scale of the conflict would only escalate. Furthermore, based on the intelligence Feng Zikang gathered from Eagle Wing Island, the cultivation world of the Central Plains was not entirely unprepared for this great calamity.
At least, among the various sects and schools, only Foundation Establishment disciples had been sent to this Southwest battlefield, aside from the initial battle with the Five Great Demon Kings. This clearly showed an effort to control the scope of the Southwest conflict.
The eyes of the world were fixed on the South, where chaos was about to erupt. Which Nascent Soul expert would spare a thought for this small city in the Southwest?
“Other than that, is there anything else?” The little demon, spurred by Feng Zikang’s subtle provocation, continued to inquire without reservation.
“Damn it!”
The Heavenly Blight Star Lord flew into a rage, throwing his wine jug, which struck the little demon’s head and drew blood. He slammed the table in irritation.
“Why do you bring up the one thing I don’t want mentioned!”
He grabbed a piece of meat, scratching his head and feeling deeply displeased, muttering to himself.
“If you ask about someone who can counter me, there is someone. Next door to my Heavenly Blight Sect is the Heavenly Fortune Sect. In the Heavenly Fortune Sect, there is some damned character called an Immortal Maiden. Wherever she goes, deserts bloom, and black clouds dissipate. I detest her the most!”
“If she were to come here…”
The Heavenly Blight Star Lord shivered. “Then all this work with the black cloud would be for nothing! This accumulation of blight over so many years—if she undid it, that would be disastrous!”
He had spent decades hoarding this accumulated bad luck to form such a massive black cloud. If the Immortal Maiden of the Heavenly Fortune Sect arrived, and the cloud dissolved by itself, wouldn't he be depressed to death?
“Then… Star Lord, where are the Heavenly Blight Sect and the Heavenly Fortune Sect located?”
The little demon, nursing his bruised head, got back up and persisted with his questioning.
“Are you interrogating me?” The Heavenly Blight Star Lord roared again, smashing another wine jar down, which finally left the little demon completely unable to move.