On the chessboard, heaven and earth are the game, the wheel of calamity ruthlessly rolls over the era of great contention.
A great sect massacre, the decree of destiny, the alternation of power in court...
Yet the Fox Girl, a mere pawn, not only fails to gain her destined divine position, but also cannot even comprehend the alliance her Fox Race is best at.
Xu Qing's divine thought circles back, the images within the Sutra of Salvation, concerning the Fox Girl before him, play out scene by scene.
"I don't believe it, this is all false! I am a Goddess's walker, a disciple of a Saint, you are a Heart Demon! You are bewitching me!"
Xu Qing stepped up to the struggling Fox Girl, speaking gently:
"A Nine-tailed Fox who cannot even comprehend alliances, how could a Goddess choose you as a disciple?"
"Look at me, not only foxes have allied with me, but cats, ghosts, and humans too."
"And look at yourself, always talking about this Heart Demon and that Heart Demon, yet never looking in the mirror."
"The Heart Demon has always been yourself."
After speaking, Xu Qing glanced at the drum on the waist of the mourning Fox.
"Pipa and drum, flute playing and zither strumming, you call me your Heart Demon, then look around, can you still see any old friends or intimates at Xuanyuan Mound?"
The mourning Fox Girl turned her head, seeing only endless graves, enveloped by bone-corroding yin winds.
Xu Qing continued: "I am the best funeral director in the world. If you break free from the Dharma Master's control and let go of your obsession, I can perform a ritual for you and your departed friends right here at Xuanyuan Mound."
"How about it?"
The Fox Girl looked at her drum, and only now she understood why she always wore mourning clothes.
Turns out, she had already died under the Immortal-Slaying Flying Saber, and her old friends' souls had long flown to the underworld.
"I remember now, but I won't listen to you. I want to follow the Dharma Master and make those immortals and gods pay in blood!"
Xu Qing chuckled: "I'm afraid that's not up to you!"
The Fox Girl's divine technique relies on the Heart Demon, on the heaven in her heart.
Without breaking the Heart Demon, one becomes their own heaven and earth, not within the three realms or the five elements. At this moment, even with the support of the Sutra of Salvation, Xu Qing cannot rescue her.
But now, her faith wavers, the Heart Demon has broken, and the Sutra of Salvation, stuck at the final stage, begins to turn pages again.
This time, the mourning Fox Girl saw the Nine Netherworlds Dharma Master refine her abandoned body and extract malicious resentment to create an evil corpse.
When the Sutra of Salvation stopped flipping pages, all of the Fox Girl's discontent dissipated.
"I hate it so much, why didn't you appear earlier..."
In her final moments, the Fox Girl spoke a cryptic sentence.
Xu Qing pondered for a moment and understood her meaning.
She obviously envied her fellow Nine-tailed Foxes, Yizhen and Bai Qiuyu.
As for appearing earlier...
Even if they were born in the same era, she wouldn't catch his eye.
After all, even among Nine-tailed Foxes, there are distinctions.
Xu Qing sorted through the Fox Girl's belongings; apart from a drum, a mirror, and a white bone comb, there was nothing else.
It is apparent that even becoming a walking corpse, a woman's love for beauty never fades.
Xu Qing kept the treasured drum and mirror, then looked at the exorcism reward.
Celestial Middle Grade, Bewildering Barrier.
This is an illusion artifact that can evoke the seven emotions and desires—joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, evil, and lust—of humans, ghosts, and gods.
As long as the artifact is opened, even immortals and gods with slightly weak wills will fall prey.
Once trapped in the Bewildering Barrier, the afflicted will completely lose their true selves.
The Bewildering Barrier can turn slight anger into overwhelming murderous intent, and a hint of affection into infatuation, similarly doubling mild fear into despair.
This is an instrument of desire, strong against the strong, weak against the weak.
The stronger one's desires, the stronger their Heart Demon.
Besides these, the Bewildering Barrier can also distort others' sight, sound, smell, showing them what they most desire or fear.
The holder of the barrier can also create enchanting or cursing sounds, stirring others' Heart Demons, turning those trapped into puppets, and making them smell alluring sweetness or putrid stench.
Overall, the Bewildering Barrier is its own heaven and earth, akin to an enhanced phantasmal grand formation.
Xu Qing looked at the pink cloud mass floating irregularly in his hand; this is the essence of the Bewildering Barrier.
With a mere thought, the cloud mass morphed into a strand of ribbon, fitting onto the Dharmic Image of Longevity.
When not in use, the Bewildering Barrier serves as attire; when fully activated, ribbons dance, and the area within a hundred miles is shrouded by invisible pink mist.
With a mere thought, Xu Qing could hear countless whispers around him.
Voices of people young and old, Buddhist chants, various sighs, cries, and laughter came from all directions, enchanting countless captivated souls.
Xu Qing played with it briefly, whether in the dissolute chaos of the fireworks field, military camp mutiny, or a night parade of ghosts, torrents flooding, all acted as he commanded.
With the Bewildering Barrier, he became a master of illusions no less skilled than those specializing in the art!
Once he put away the barrier, all the chaotic sounds vanished, and the Ancient Yin River Dao returned to its usual desolation.
Xu Qing looked at the remaining rewards: an ownerless life lantern and a pupil-capturing technique.
The ownerless life lantern is ranked celestial, a supreme treasure of the demon race, capable of resurrecting deceased monsters, but can only be used once every sixty years.
Moreover, the deceased monster cannot have died for more than forty-nine days.
Xu Qing recalled the Fox Girl's resurrected pipa demon, who died again before a full cycle, and could not be saved this second time.
"This treasure could serve as a treasure for the Medical Hall of Cat Immortal Hall."
Most immortals in the Cat Immortal Hall were monsters who attained enlightenment, fitting the life lantern's conditions perfectly.
Then what would his Funeral Shop be, a spring? A resurrection point?
Xu Qing marveled, the life lantern truly delighted him.
After securing the life lantern, Xu Qing delved into the pupil-capturing technique, ranked Earth High Grade.
This magic is a seductive art; the practitioner only needs to make eye contact with someone to cause them to become infatuated and weak.
Simultaneously, it creates irresistible allure and blind loyalty towards the practitioner.
No matter the command, the enchanted will comply unconditionally.
A bona fide succubus cultivation technique!
However, the applicability depends on the person; those with lower cultivation than oneself can be easily charmed.
But against profound cultivators, the technique only increases goodwill and enhances personal appeal slightly.
If the opponent's cultivation far exceeds one's own, the seductive magic not only fails but could evoke aversion and unnecessary trouble.
Xu Qing shook his head slightly; this pupil technique seemed suitable only for everyday trivial problems.
For other matters, it wouldn't be much use.
In the following days, Xu Qing adhered to the same practices.
Once he refined the demon corpses, thoroughly supplementing them to the secular world, Xu Qing left the yin river, arriving in Jiangnan Dao to begin constructing a new Da Luo branch temple.
At present, the number of 'True Master Disabled' accepted in the Da Luo Sect had already exceeded halfway.