236 Chapter 236 (1/2)

”About a month ago we came across a strange set of ruins, this was the beginning of our troubles…”

It all started normally with a new interesting discovery. Some people had dug up a passageway that led them into some underground ruins. There was a labyrinth worth of corridors down there and a team of cultivators was dispatched to map the place out.

There wasn't much at the beginning but after a week all signs of the first team of cultivators were lost. They couldn't get any information on their progress and their communication jades weren't responding. It was as if they just vanished.

This prompted the sect to send out a second party of slightly stronger cultivators to go check. The team arrived at an empty camp with no one in sight. There weren't any signs of struggle but after some digging, they could see that their sect members had entered the underground ruins.

Most of the team then entered into the underground passages while a few members remained outside. They reported regularly every hour to the people back at the sect. Then at night, there was a worrying report of some strange sounds coming from the discovered entrance.

Soon the second team met the same end as the first one and finally, the nascent soul elders moved into action.

”Yes… if maybe they arrived sooner we could have done something but it was too late, the creature that slumbered there had already absorbed too much blood…”

Zhang Dong raised his eyebrow but didn't stop the man from speaking. Fang Heng after stopping for a moment continued with the story.

The area was closed off and one of the powerful elders moved in with a weapon in hand. He was greeted by his sect members or at least by what was left of them. They all had turned to horrendous monstrosities, not resembling any kind of demonic beast that they had ever seen.

Some looked like masses of tentacles with eyes, others looked like leeches with giant shark-like teeth. Others were just fused together bodies that gave out dreadful screams of pain that even caused dementia to lesser cultivators.

The monsters then started pouring out of those ruins, attacking everything that they saw. Every defeated enemy was assimilated in one way or the other which made their army grow.

This wasn't even the worst part, that was the leader of the monsters.

”Wait…”

Zhang Dong had to pause after the man had described the big bad monster that was behind all of this.

”Webbed wings… humanoid in shape… big arms with claws at the end and a face that looks like an octopus… also of giant proportions…”

���Something wrong senior?”

”Ah no, please continue…”

The massive monster took flight and caused widespread panic in their lands. Nothing could stop it and the cities it went through turned into its minions. Even their nascent soul masters couldn't stop it as it continued to even turn them into their minions.

In the end, the hidden elders from the Divine Fist Sect used some kind of forbidden art to critically injure the monster. The monster vanished afterward but they weren't sure if it was dead or if it was just waiting to strike again.

The reserve elders had used up most of their life force in that attack and half of them died while the other was in a self-induced coma. They were using some healing arts but they wouldn't be waking up any time soon.

Their sect leader wasn't quite dead either, he had been infected by the monster's poison. He was apparently being kept alive by some of the sect's healing treasures. This was also why he wasn't able to attend this meeting.

Fang Heng was the only nascent soul elder that hadn't been hurt during the onslaught. There were still some lesser monsters roaming around. Their sect was slowly clearing out the infected cities.

'This sounds like some kind of horror movie, I bet that thing isn't dead…'

Zhang Dong felt a bit responsible as he had fought those occult beings before. He still was speculating that the first one had been here because of him. He wasn't sure if it was the same creature, it might have been evolving each time.

He might have to kill it again but this time around he would need to erase every atom down to the soul. He was now a nascent soul master so he could do it this time around.

”I see...I think I need to see those ruins…”

”You want to examine the ruins senior?”

The man was quite surprised. After hearing that story any normal cultivator would evade the trouble. The monster was strong enough to go against multiple nascent soul elders at the late stage.

”Yes, if that monster is what I think it is… then it probably isn't dead, it will be best to strike while it is injured.”

Zhang Dong frowned, another big problem had fallen down on his shoulders. The monster was very good at regenerating and was probably not dead. The old man was from a sect that used divine energies which made him believe that it was weak to those. This was in all likelihood the reason why it fled.

This also made him more confident as he was someone that was versed in the Dao of the holy element. It was a Dao that was above the divine dao that Fang Heng's sect practiced.

”It looks like the fellow Daoist from the United Element Sect did not lie, he is indeed related to that junior.”

Before he could think about what to do next the leader from the Yinglong Pavilion finally spoke up. He glanced from the green glowing chalice to him while leaning on one of his hands. Everyone in the room also stopped with their whispering, it was time for the verdict.