A Good-for-Nothing

67. Master Shifu Starting Another Closed-door Cultivation Session (1)

Translator: Dragon Rider

Somewhere in the north-west.

The scene was a total mess. On the outer perimeter of the spacious meteorite crater were numerous shattered rocks and evidence of a struggle, but there was no trace of human.

There were no constructions, no roads and no creation of human industrial civilization of any form.

Li Zong was standing on the edge of the crater, howling wind whipping his clothes. Seen from behind, there was a hint of lonesomeness in his figure.

This time only Tun Shanhai and Han Zhuo were with him to perform this task. Zhen Ni was not present. Han Zhuo was a man of few words and didn’t talk much. Tun Shanhai flicked a glance at Li Zong from behind him and failed to summon up to courage to accost him.

“The living are passing travelers, the dead are returnees.”

Li Zong gazed down at the bottom of the huge meteorite crater, in the middle of which was an Eight Diagrams Yin Yang Circle (Eight Diagrams are eight combinations of three whole or broken lines formerly used in divination). The pivot of the exorcism circle had been sabotaged. Some kind of black gas was escaping from it in wafts. Mixed with yellow sand in mid-air, the gas was churning, seeming rather eerie.

There were a couple of fresh corpses at the bottom of the crater. They bore special marks on their foreheads. Only those who participated in the operation of sealing the Demon King in an enchantment 20 years ago could recognize these people by the marks –they were Demon’s Attendants.

Li Zong and Zhang Jingqiu had covertly led their teams to the north-west and the Hang City respectively. Twenty years ago, a couple of top-ranking officials of the Supernaturalism Management Bureau (SMB) joined hands and managed to seal the Demon King in an enchantment with some exorcism circles, two of which were in the north-west and the Hang City.

There were six exorcism circles in total, each of which was in a different location. If all six exorcism circles were deactivated, there would be an extremely high risk that the Demon King would be able to revive without any difficulty. As a result, no outsiders knew where the six exorcism circles were. Information on their whereabouts could only be found in a top-secret file numbered “001” stored in the archive of SMB.

Even Li Zong and his subordinates were not privy to it.

Locating these exorcism circles was the very reason why numerous Demon’s Attendants had been hiding in the dark performing all kinds of covert activities.

The resurgence of Dream Eaters and Demon’s Attendants was actually an early warning. The demons were restless and about to make trouble.

As expected, when Li Zong and the other two reached the exorcism circle in the north-west, they had found that some Demon’s Attendants had preceded them. Li Zong and the other two had had a fierce fight with them. Eventually, all Demon’s Attendants present were killed, but it was too late. The exorcism circle had been sabotaged and was beyond repair. They could do nothing but watch as demonic Qi escaped out of the damaged circle.

None of the three of them excelled at exorcism circle. The demonic Qi was gathering into a thickening cloud, continuously attacking the outermost layer of protective shield.

Head down, Li Zong gazed at the pivot of the magic circle. The black gas was getting thicker and thicker.

“Inform Director General Zong. Tell him he needs to send some men here to restore the exorcism circle.”

Tun Shanhai, who was poking at his cellphone, hurriedly replied, “I already did.”

Standing on the edge of the crater, Li Zong raised his hand, held up his fingers and with that, remarkably, a flame was conjured from above his fingertips.

Han Zhuo twisted his head aside and noticed this. Realizing what Li Zong was intending to do, he observed in a deep voice, “Chief, Zhen Ni is not here. It’ll be a problem if you get hurt.”

“The outermost protective layer won’t last until backup from SMB arrive. If the demonic Qi escapes, that will be a real problem.”

Li Zong gracefully leaped into the crater. The flame in his hand flared up dramatically as it came into contact with the black gas. Han Zhuo and Tun Shanhai were deeply worried. There had been a dozen Demon’s Attendants, all of whom were fairly powerful. Even Tun Shanhai had sustained an injury during the fight, which had also consumed a considerable amount of Li Zong’s energy. In these circumstances, using karma flame to incinerate the demonic Qi would take a heavy toll on Li Zong.

Blueish yellow flames spewed from Li Zong’s palms and eventually enveloped him. On contact with the licking flames, the black gas, as if having felt the scorching heat, recoiled madly back into the pivot of the exorcism circle. There seemed to be anguished screams reverberating through the crater, which sounded exceptionally horrifying. Clothes of the two people standing on the edge of the crater fluttered violently in whistling winds which were gusting in all directions, making their blood freeze.

Behind a giant rock nearby, a shadow-like man was quietly watching this scene. The grayish white eye that he revealed was full of resentment and malice.

“What a ruthless guy. In order to ruin master’s plan, he actually resorted to such a suicidal method.” After mumbling this, the shadow-demon couldn’t help but toss another glance at the man in the crater, secretly clicking his tongue in astonishment. The amount of demonic Qi in there was enough to corrupt several dozen powerful cultivators, yet this man burnt all of it so easily. ‘Who on earth is this guy? When did SMB recruit such a powerful staff member?’ he wondered.

“I’ve got to inform master right now before things get worse.”

The shadow rapidly faded away, leaving no trace whatsoever of his previous existence on the scene.

In the Qingwei Sect.

Dawn had not broken yet when He Zheng was dragged out of his bed. Cheng Dong, Zu Zhichong’s younger sect-brother, enthusiastically covered He Zheng’s face with a hot water-soaked towel and abruptly gave his face a hard wipe, which sent him almost fully awake.

He Zheng was just about to hurl abuse when he saw Cheng Dong’s silly face and instantly lost his urge to curse.

“Younger Sect-brother, it’s high time you got up and did morning exercise.”

He Zheng glanced out the window and saw that it was still dark. There was only a faint glimmer of light near the horizon, which was rather obtrusive.

“It’s so early,” He Zheng complained. The night before, he stayed up late reading the handbook given by Xuanqing and it was not until three o’clock that he drifted into sleep. At this moment, he felt as if he had just closed his eyes and had not even lain down on the bed when someone dragged him to his feet, so it was not really surprising that he was consumed with annoyance.

“It’s almost six o’clock. I’ve been trying to wake you up for quite some time. Elder Sect-brothers have already finished their morning exercise.”

He Zheng raised his hand and flicked his hair backwards, anger bubbling inside him. However, he managed to keep his temper, put on his clothes and walked outside.

There were indeed a lot of people doing morning exercise out there.

“He Zheng, here! Today I’ll teach you how to gather Qi.” Zu Zhichong standing at the front beckoned to him. Though still angry, in the knowledge that his training was not something to be taken lightly, He Zheng followed Zu Zhichong to a relatively quiet spot and started practicing. Zu Zhichong demonstrated the moves and He Zheng followed suit.

He Zheng was very intelligent and mastered many of the moves after seeing the demonstration merely once. Strangely enough, the longer he practiced, the more energetic he felt. After the whole routine was over, he was soaked with sweat. Though even his back was covered in sweat, he felt exceptionally vigorous, as if his body had been becoming lighter as he practiced the breathing exercise.

Zu Zhichong was secretly amazed by how quick a learner He Zheng was. Seeing He Zheng started practicing the routine for a second time, he didn’t stop him. “I’ll go and get your breakfast. Finish the routine but don’t do it a third time.”

He Zheng, mind concentrated on the practice, showed a total disregard for his words.

Zu Zhichong had just entered the kitchen and picked up a bowl of congee meant for He Zheng when a notification tone emanated from his cellphone. He fished it out and saw that there was a message sent in a WeChat (a popular social media app in China) group. Tun Shanhai was complaining about the awful food provided on the train. Zu Zhichong took a shot of the mixed congee, sent it in the Wechat group and texted Li Zong –’Chief, check out the breakfast I prepared for Cutie.”

Tun Shanhai sent an “angry” emoji.

Zu Zhichong chuckled and immediately made an attempt to curry favor with Li Zong, typing, ‘Chief, I’ll get him two eggs later. Cutie is doing morning exercise. He’s working really hard on it.’

However, he waited for quite some time but there was no response from Li Zong.

After a while, Tun Shanhai sent Zu Zhichong a “whisper” message, typing, ‘Stop disturbing Chief. He’s injured and having a rest.’

On being informed that Li Zong had been wounded, Zu Zhichong was instantly on the alert, typing, ‘Did anything happen in the north-west? How did Chief come to be injured?’

‘Nothing serious. The incident in the north-west has been handled. We’re on our way back to the Coastal City,’ Tun Shanhai replied in the WeChat group.