Tainted will

An hour before,

In a spacious underground cave, the air was mixed with the odor of blood.

In this dark place, a thousand-meter-wide rune consisting of innumerable lotus symbols shone with a dim red light.

Above the rune, there were two thousand plus cultivators both dead and alive. All the corpses were piled up forming a miniature hill, and for those who were still breathing, cold black lances were inserted all over their bodies preventing them from utilizing their spiritual essence.

These people were very anxious, but they did not dare to ask anything. They stood on their spots without even daring to move a little, just like tiny whelps.

The whole cave was deathly quiet out of fear; even the sound of a pin dropping could be heard.

'Hmm, there are roughly around twenty-one hundred spirit realm cultivators and 106 Yin-Yang corpses. They performed better than I had envisioned.' Zhou Yi mused as he eyed the human resources, he had already placed the last surviving member of his four-yang realm subordinates into the rune.

'Once the ritual is executed, that brat Yi Yun will not only be cursed with bad luck but we will also be able to pinpoint his location until he gets rid of the curse. Even though I am extremely confident in my three cute disciples but this way it is even more assuring."

"Let's begin the ritual" Zhou Yi muttered to himself before sending strands of his divine sense and spiritual essence into the rune.

This process of pouring the divine sense and spiritual essence was quite specific; one moment, he had to choose a symbol in the southeast, and the very next moment, it would be northwest, and suddenly, it would be the symbol in the center.

Soon, the rune started to give out unmatched crimson brilliance and then rays of red light shot upwards and gradually linked together and soon formed a blood-red lighthouse that covered the entire rune, including all the captives within.

"Corrupt" Zhou Yi made a hand sign.

At the very next second, those bodies trapped inside the rune were already beginning to show changes.

"Wha… what is happening to me?!" All the cultivators inside were shouting in fright as they saw their skin and bones starting to melt ever so slowly.

"Ahhh, it is painful, so painful!"

"I can't endure this, just kill me!"

Soon, they fell to the ground one after another; some madly grabbed their skin and tore off their clothes, while others bent their body like shrimps as blood rushed out of their mouth, nose, and ears.

Zhou Yi didn't even spare them a glance as he busied himself with making hand seals. Su Yang's gaze was cold like steel as watched the scene, Su Yin's eyes were shut and her heart held an inking of pity for these cultivators.

As for Zhi Yan, he peacefully lay on the puff of white smoke slowly orbiting the rune. One could only wonder what was transpiring within his unfathomable mind.

Fifty minutes quickly passed as the miserable screams quickly came to an end.

"Go," Zhou Yi finished his hand sign and drew a complex symbol in the air with his right hand. Next, he took out a jade bottle that held Bai Ming's blood and emptied it by pouring the blood on the symbol before pushing the symbol toward the void above the blood-red lighthouse. After absorbing Bai Ming's blood the symbol glowed with a demonic light as it floated above the blood-red lighthouse.

The cultivators trapped inside the rune by now were refined into droplets of condensed life essence. These golden droplets shined like fireflies as they charged into the demonic symbol.

'Curse, Complete!' Zhou Yi nodded inwardly before taking out an extremity-grade blade from his storage bag, he stretched his forearm and slashed, blood started flowing rapidly and he threw his own flesh into the massive symbol. A sizzling sound was heard and flesh was fully incorporated into the symbol.

"Your turn, remember the greater the portion of your flesh you use the greater you're sensing capacity. For example, once we finish this ritual I should be able to pinpoint that brat's location as long as he is within a thousand miles radius." Zhou Yi said as he threw the blade toward his disciples.

Su Yang and Su Yin repeated the process and sliced a chunk of flesh closely resembling that of Zhou Yi's cut.

"Here," Su Yang passed the blade to Zhi Yan.

Zhi Yan held the blade but didn't immediately use it, he began to ponder.

"We don't have time to waste, quickly get it over with already." Zhou Yi plainly expressed.

"Fine," Zhi Yan replied in a detached voice and tightened his hold on the blade.

Not a second later, both Su Yin and Su Yang stared at Zhi Yan with wide-open gazes, their hearts shocked at the scene.

Zhi Yan steadily held the blade against his waist and began grinding it against his flesh like a handsaw, dark green blood leaked out from the horrendous opening. The sharp blade entered the meat as if it was cutting butter and made its way to the intestines and then the spine.

In the quiet surroundings, the soft sound of a blade cutting flesh could be heard. The entire time Zhi Yan didn't let out so much as a grunt, and he seemed to be quite skilled at it. It was as if he was not cutting himself, but a wooden block.

"What the fuck are you doing!? You fucking lunatic, there is no need to go that far! The ancestor's land is opening in just three days, how are you going to recover from this before the opening of the mystic realm, you'll only be a liability, think carefully!" Su Yin partially screamed at the top of her lungs breaking her usual cold fairy demeanor.

Even Su Yang was having a hard time watching Zhi Yan, only Zhou Yi had his lips slightly curled up as he watched the scene.

Zhi Yan who was still cutting himself slightly tilted his head to glance at Su Yin and said in a low tone,

"Bitch shut up, I know what I am doing." Then he continued to shred his lower half.

•...•

Back to the present, in another underground cave.

Bai Ming's face was darker than the night sky, he paced around for a while before taking a deep breath.

Bai Ming faced Teng Zhe and asked, "Aren't you a supreme mortal realm expert, is there really nothing you can do about this curse, at the very least can't you find out its effects?"

Teng Zhe showed a helpless look as he spread out his arms, "Little brother Yi Yun, do you truly think that Supreme mortal realm experts are omnipotent gods? We have our limitations be it physical strength, life span, and knowledge."

Bai Ming's gaze was still unsympathetic. Teng Zhe could only sigh internally, "Even though I am not well-versed in curses but generally speaking, curses are used to decrease the target's luck. But we can't be sure that it will be the case for you too, it could be a different type of curse for instance at specific times you may lose control over your spiritual essence or you might lose a few years of your life or something else."

'Bad luck, unmanageable spiritual essence..' Bai Ming's eyelids drooped as numerous thoughts whirled in his mind. The more he discovered about the uses of these curses, the deeper Bai Ming's heart sank.

'Old Zhou, you hid deeply. Who would have thought that you had even delved into these obscure curses, can't you..let your best friend succeed just one time?... Damn you!' Teng Zhe's gaze flickered with a murderous light.

"Okay, you are clueless about curses but there should definitely be others in the sect or cultivators in the Tiannan province who are knowledgeable about curses." Bai Ming said in a deep voice as he stared at Teng Zhe with narrowed eyes.

"Are you doubting my sincerity? Hmph, you should already know how much this herb means to me." Teng Zhe momentarily stared back at the Bai Ming before continuing to talk, "Listen, young man don't you think that I would have considered something like that already, there is a reason I said we can't do anything about the curse."

"Continue," Bai Ming replied with a deadpan expression.

"The concept of curses is very obscure, there aren't many individuals who are knowledgeable about it in this time of age. From my understanding, as of now except for Zhou Yi, there aren't any cultivators within our Red lotus sect that are particularly versed in the art of curses." Teng Zhe replied in a single breath.

"Okay, then what about outsiders?" without missing a beat Bai Ming pressed with a question.

Teng Zhe sighed and spoke in a deep voice, "Of course, and I am also acquainted with a few of them. But that doesn't necessarily solve our issue. To begin with, we only have three days before the mystic realm opens, and the likelihood of getting a hold of any one of these specialists within just three days is exceedingly low."

"And even if we succeed in getting hold of one such expert with incredible luck, we can't travel outside at the moment. Every time the mystic realm is opened, famed lone cultivators, demonic cultivators, and even cultivators from the other first-tier sects would be lurking around the borders of our sect like hungry sharks. I am not just talking about spirit realm cultivators here, but Supreme Mortal realm experts who are escorting their juniors or disciples. Every time the mystic realm opens chaos erupts in the sect and not to mention we also have to look out for that old bastard, Zhou Yi."

"Sigh, If it was just me traveling outside I could barely manage but having to travel while protecting you is going to be incredibly dangerous. It's not worth it."

Bai Ming frowned deeply, he paced around as innumerable thoughts churned in his mind,

'This is bad..wait! I can't leave the sect but others can enter the sect right? Hmm, no if we aren't willing to leave the sect because of the dangers, then why would some stranger take such life-threatening risks without adequate benefits.'

'Ah! I can use my teleportation formation to leave the sect, but.. this has more disadvantages. First of all, I would be completely exposing the secret of my teleportation formations to Teng Zhe, he would definitely feel unrest with me possessing something like that. Secondly, it's only a tier-4 formation hence cultivators above the spirit realm are unable to use it. The worst case would be that I teleport outside the sect alone and the curse planted on me is a tracker type, Zhou Yi can then easily use this chance to target me. And that is me ignoring the threat posed by the expert that is supposed to rid me of the curse. The risks are just too high, sigh.' Bai Ming's gaze was dim like water.

No matter how much he mulled over he simply couldn't think of a quick and doable solution. In the end, Bai Ming could only accept his helplessness in this matter and leave the issue for the future.

'No use in pondering about it, things don't always have to go according to one's wishes. I am strong but I am not omnipotent, I'll just appreciate this bitter charm of unpredictability until I become the supreme being among all the righteous gods and demonic overlords.' Bai Ming's heart finally returned to peace. However, the stubbornness in his soul roared soundlessly.

Teng Zhe who was closely watching Bai Ming the entire time suddenly felt his balls sweat, a bad feeling welled up in his heart as he noticed the subtle smile on Bai Ming's face.

Teng Zhe valued this feeling as much as he valued his very life, he didn't doubt it for a fraction of a second. He impatiently declared, "Yi Yun, you have already acquired what you desired. Since there is nothing more to discuss, I shall take my leave."

Saying that Teng Zhe immediately turned around to leave, But....before he could even move an inch.

"Hehehe, My dearest teacher what's the hurry? Can't you spend some time with your beloved disciple.."

Bai Ming's sweet and playful words slithered into the pitiful Teng Zhe's ears making his heart shudder.

Teng Zhe immediately rolled his eyes, the premonition in his heart instantly pierced the nine heavens, and he immediately felt a headache coming toward him;

'Ah shit, not this again!'