Jiang Guixian let out a soft sigh. It was a sound heavy with a century of indignity and boundless exhaustion. He stroked the cold bronze surface of the casket, his eyes reflecting a profound sense of loss.

  "This Myriad Ghoul Casket possesses infinite wonders, but alas..." He murmured. "With this broken body of mine and a damaged soul, I cannot hope to unleash its true power. It took me eighty years just to crack the restrictions on these nine hundred and ninety-nine chambers. As for the deeper mysteries hidden within... I am out of time. I no longer have the heart or the strength to seek them."

  His words carried the desolation of a hero at the end of his road.

  Chen Gensheng’s mind was split. One half remained wary of his volatile master; the other was racing with cold calculations. Slaughter the entire Maple Red Valley. This was no minor skirmish. If the old man succeeded, what could he, as the sole disciple, gain? And if he failed...

  Gensheng only wanted to eat in peace and grow stronger in silence. He had no desire to be buried alongside a madman.

  Jiang Guixian’s gaze shifted from the bronze casket back to the clamorous arena below. The casual air of a spectator was gone, replaced by a virulent, indelible spite—a hatred carved into his very marrow.

  "Child," he spoke, his voice dropping to a terrifying low. "Do you know why I must exterminate every soul in Maple Red Valley? It isn't just because they hunted me back then."

  "Of the three sects that besieged me, the Heaven Sword Sect coveted my life-bound insect, the Sky-Pool Lightning Flea. The Blue Cloud Sect wanted my Nascent Soul for alchemy. But Maple Red Valley..." He paused, each word squeezed through gritted teeth. "They were the most vicious of all. They wanted your Grandmistress!"

  Gensheng froze. He had never heard Jiang Guixian mention a Dao companion.

  "Your Grandmistress... she was the Saintess of the Heavenly Fox Clan. Born with nine tails, she was peerless in her grace." A rare flash of tenderness crossed Jiang’s eyes, but it was gone in an instant, swallowed by a surging tide of hate.

  "When we were trapped in that inescapable net, my physical body was shattered. My Nascent Soul was on the verge of collapsing into nothingness. It was her. To save me, she reversed the forbidden arts of the Fox Clan."

  Jiang’s voice began to tremble—a pain suppressed for centuries finally cracking the surface. "She tore away the cultivation of her eight tails and the majority of her soul, forcing them into my broken frame. Only then was I transformed into a lowly centipede, given a chance to crawl out of that abyss and linger on in this wretched existence."

  "And she? Stripped of her power, she reverted to a weak, infant fox form. Those bastards from Maple Red Valley took her!"

  BOOM! His eyes turned blood-red, his aura bordering on demonic insanity.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "Do you know what they did to her? They used a Soul-Searching Lantern to strip her memories inch by inch, desperate for the fox clan’s cultivation methods! They used an artifact furnace to try and refine her fur into a cloak for their Sect Master! I could only huddle like a maggot in the dark, lightless earth, listening to her screams for three days and three nights!"

  Gensheng remained silent. His cold, insectile heart felt a strange, inexplicable ripple. He subconsciously stroked the ash-white bone ring on his left hand. Inside lay Li Simin’s corpse.

  Jiang Guixian’s "barrier" was a blood-debt of vengeance—the impotent fury of watching a loved one tortured to death. That barrier needed the blood of all Maple Red Valley to be filled.

  "Do you think I’ve lived well these centuries?" Jiang’s rage simmered down into a bone-deep weariness. He hunched over like a truly old man. "I have lived so pathetically. Day and night are nothing but torment. This half-human, half-ghost state is only sustained by the scrap of soul she gave me. Every full moon, ten thousand insects gnaw at my heart, and my soul feels like it's being fried in a vat of oil. I cannot even close my eyes without seeing her soul shattering."

  "Her final look... there was no resentment, no hate. Only one command: Live."

  "Live..." Jiang whispered, laughing bitterly. "She told me to live, but what have I become? A foul bug hiding in a sewer! A failure who couldn't even protect his own woman!"

  He snapped his head up, glaring at Gensheng. "So, they all must die! From the babes in swaddling clothes to the old dogs at death's door—not one shall remain! I will turn this valley into a true land of the dead! I will use their blood and souls as a sacrifice for her! I want everyone in this country to know the price of touching Jiang Guixian’s woman!"

  His roar echoed across the cliffs, filled with madness and finality. Gensheng looked at him and suddenly thought: This old devil is quite pitiable.

  But Jiang’s outbursts were as fleeting as they were intense. As the last word fell, he regained his icy composure. He straightened his robes and stood with his hands behind his back once more, overlooking the valley.

  Below, the competition had reached its peak. The clash of spells and artifacts was deafening, the cheers of disciples rising in waves. And on the high viewing gallery, a figure in white—graceful and peerless—finally arrived and took the central seat.

  The Saintess, Lu Zhaozhao.

  "The hour has come."

  Jiang Guixian tossed the Myriad Ghoul Casket into the air. The bronze box rotated slowly, its surface erupting with a blinding cyan light.

  "I am no longer the Nascent Soul expert of old, but my insects... they are not a bit weaker."

  A foul, stench-ridden aura billowed from the casket. Then, a flood of black specks poured out—dense, metallic-black flies the size of broad beans.

  Corpse-Feeding Flies.

  The lowest grade of scavenger insect. Individually, they were worthless; even a Qi Condensation initiate could swat one. But in a swarm? That was a different story.

  The first wave numbered in the hundreds of thousands. They converged into a massive, sun-blotting black cloud, shrieking as they dove toward the arena.

  "These little things are weak, but they possess the most vicious talent," Jiang said coldly. "They can burrow into any orifice in an instant and lay eggs in the flesh. The hatching speed is staggering. A single fly can hollow out a grown man's body in fifteen minutes. And that dead flesh becomes the cradle for the next generation."

  Gensheng’s scalp prickled.

  On the arena floor, the two disciples mid-duel were the first to notice. One had just cast a fireball when he saw the black cloud descending. He thought someone had unleashed a massive spell.

  "Huh? What is that?"

  The Elders on the platform swept the sky with their spiritual senses and let out a roar of alarm.

  "Don't run! Get inside my Golden Bell Shroud!"