Chapter 5

As a cultivator, Cheng Lingzhu’s intuition was sharp. She knew very well that she had never encountered such a situation before.

On the other side, Lu Xuan clicked his tongue in wonder.

He thought to himself that the saintess of the Dushi Sword School had become so human after not having interacted with her for thousands of years.

When he first met her master, Cheng Hongtan, she had been as cold as a block of ice and refused to say anything.

Of course, it might be because the saintesses at that time were all in the Mahayana stage.

Although his strength was only comparable to that of a Golden Core cultivator, he was still a mighty figure after all. It was normal for him to be arrogant.

Cheng Lingzhu didn’t know what Lu Xuan was thinking about. She suppressed the distracting thoughts in her mind and stretched out a slender white hand. There was a vortex of mana circulating at the tip of her finger as she pushed open the door.

An ancient aura flowed out of it.

Dust fell from the door frame as the two of them walked in.

The house was huge, reminiscent of the mansions of wealthy families in the mortal world.

However, there was only one house, and the rooms inside were separated by walls.

There was nothing special about the furniture in the room.

However, in the middle of the room, there were two figures kneeling.

These two statues looked like they were made of stone, and they both had their backs to the door.

Cheng Lingzhu subconsciously held her breath and swept her spiritual sense over them, only to discover that they were two dead objects without any signs of life.

She glanced at Lu Xuan, who raised his hand and pointed ahead.

Cheng Lingzhu looked in the direction he was pointing. There was a shrine placed against the wall, and the cloth covering it was covered in dust.

If it wasn’t for the fact that no one had cleaned this altar, it would probably have been no different from the decorations of ordinary people’s homes.

“Is this…a Buddha statue?”

Cheng Lingzhu furrowed her brows as she looked at what was being offered at the altar.

It was carved on black stone, wearing a kasaya with a bun on his head. He sat on a lotus platform, and his face was full of compassion.

Lu Xuan nodded. The two of them looked at each other and took a few steps forward. They arrived in front of the two kneeling stone statues and sized them up.

The two stone statues, a man and a woman, looked like a couple. The carvings were very detailed. The edges and stitches of the clothes, the wrinkles and eyelashes on the face, and even the rough calluses on the hands were all clearly visible.

If it had been done by hand, the person who carved the statue must have had a cultivation base. Otherwise, it would have taken too much time and energy to outline these details.

Apart from the exquisite carving, what was even more eye-catching was the expressions of the two stone statues. They were extremely pious and reverent and even contained a sense of emptiness and perfection.

Cheng Lingzhu subconsciously looked at the altar and felt that the couple’s faces had become compassionate.

Lu Xuan raised his hand and circulated his Dharmic powers.

The Buddha statue in the shrine flew out and landed in his hand.

Cheng Lingzhu was shocked when she saw Lu Xuan suddenly take the Buddha statue. She wanted to stop him, but he was too late.

Fortunately, nothing happened in the main hall after he took the black stone Buddha statue.

Cheng Lingzhu heaved a sigh of relief. However, she saw him turn the Buddha statue over and raise his eyebrows. Clearly, he had discovered something.

Her gaze fell on the Buddha statue and she noticed that there was a face carved on the back of the statue.

This face was completely different from the one in front of him. It had a green face and fangs, and it appeared to be almost lunatic. Its smile was ferocious, and one could only vaguely see the shape of a Buddha. Its opened mouth was like a demon that wanted to swallow all living beings alive.

Cheng Lingzhu narrowed her eyes.

She looked at the stone statue at the side and touched it with her hand. She felt a rough touch.

“It is indeed made of stone.”

Lu Xuan nodded and placed a hand on the shoulder of the stone statue beside him.

With a crack, he broke off one of the statue’s arms.

The inside was also made of stone, and the texture was the same as the surface.

Lu Xuan patted it twice, and sandstone fell.

“Let’s go to the other houses and take a look,” he said.

Cheng Lingzhu didn’t say anything. She merely nodded and followed behind him. She should be the one leading the exploration, but she had a natural trust in Lu Xuan.

In this City of Death, she subconsciously chose to believe him.

After a while, the two of them came out of a house.

Lu Xuan and Cheng Lingzhu had already explored more than ten houses nearby. The layout inside was the same as the first house.

There were Evil Buddha statues standing in the shrines and mortal stone statues knelt in front of the Evil Buddhas.

“What should we do now?” Cheng Lingzhu asked as she looked at the pitch-black street.

The darkness of the City of Death was shrouded by a mysterious power.

With Cheng Lingzhu’s cultivation, she could only see things within 30 meters.

Lu Xuan pondered for a moment, then stretched out his hand and pointed in the air, drawing a square with his mana.

“I took a look just now. The layout of this city is actually in a radiating shape.”

Diagonal lines intersected, determining the center point, and then many straight lines passed through this point.

“The houses in the city are all built on these lines, arranged in a straight line. There is a circular area in the middle, which is the core area of the city,” Lu Xuan explained.

He had already seen the layout of the City of Death after visiting more than ten households.

“You can see things in the distance?” Cheng Lingzhu asked.

“Our Dao Evolution Sect was also a large sect back then, so we still have quite a number of trump cards,” Lu Xuan replied.

These words could not be considered a lie. After all, the Dao Evolution Sect’s greatest trump card was Lu Xuan himself.

Unlike Cheng Lingzhu, the darkness of the City of Death couldn’t block Lu Xuan’s vision.

Standing on the empty street, he could see clearly what was at the center of the city.

It was an extremely tall, black Buddhist hall.

…

In a short while, Cheng Lingzhu’s face paled slightly as she stood at the foot of the steps. Her breathing quickened.

The City of Death gave her a bad feeling.

It was even more so after they entered the city. The closer they got to the temple hall, the stronger the decaying aura became. The invisible pressure from the City of Death also became heavier.

No cultivator would like such an environment. Cheng Lingzhu’s Daoist robe glowed, and strange Dao patterns lit up as if it was resisting some kind of power.

Lu Xuan noticed the change in Cheng Lingzhu’s expression and wondered if the saintess of the Dushi Sword School was too weak.

When Lu Xuan first met Cheng Hongtan, this Mahayana stage expert with Golden Core strength had let Lu Xuan see what it meant to be a crazy killer.

If Cheng Lingzhu knew what he was thinking, she would definitely have cried for him.

She was a young girl at the Golden Core stage, so how could she compare her psychological quality with a Mahayana stage cultivator who had lived for a thousand years?

Lu Xuan stretched out his hand and snapped his fingers.

In the darkness, specks of starlight appeared and fell on Cheng Lingzhu.

Cheng Lingzhu immediately felt that the decaying spiritual energy in the surroundings was isolated, and even the oppressive feeling disappeared.

She thanked Lu Xuan, thinking that he had used the secret treasure from the Dao Evolution Sect to help her resist the influence of the City of Death.