Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Balance of the Bald Man

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(The previous chapter has been revised and expanded.)

...

Seventh year of Eternal Night. The air was dry and brittle; beware of fire.

Within the capital.

In a remote and secluded mountain range, cut off from the outside world.

All was silent, the only illumination a scattering of flames flickering around.

At that moment, an intense and urgent pressure suddenly erupted.

This aura surged like a tidal wave, sweeping over several mountains in an instant.

Under this overwhelming force, peaks were battered as though by mighty tornadoes; some summits were sheared clean off, earth flying, mossy woods destroyed, as if struck by an earthquake...

Witnessing such a scene would terrify and astound any mortal. This power was beyond comprehension.

Yet its source was but a single man.

He was bald, bare-chested, his body wiry and robust.

His features were unremarkable—just an ordinary face—but his presence was impossible to describe, radiating an invincible air that looked down on the world.

“In the days when the Dao Ancestor preached across the Nine Provinces, the mere pressure released at a whim could shroud all of Zhongli. I have devoted my life and only just grasped a sliver—when will I ever wield such methods as the Dao Ancestor?”

His eyes were deep, filled with yearning.

Even after a century, recalling that day still sent chills through his soul.

Under that pressure, all people of Zhongli were bound, their fates beyond their own control.

It was a terror beyond words.

“The sinister aura in the northern mountains grows thicker and more violent. I suspect those flesh-eating, bloodthirsty monsters are preparing to attack once again.”

He took a deep breath and withdrew his pressure from the mountains, raising his head to glance in a certain direction.

In his vision, a remote area was shrouded by a crimson mist, rising like thick battle smoke, blotting out the sky—strikingly conspicuous even in the pitch-black night.

Of course, only he could see it.

No other living being could perceive the scarlet miasma.

He called this the Aura of Demons—a harbinger of evil.

Yet, he paid it little heed.

If he wished, he could annihilate the source of that demonic aura in an instant, but he did not.

As the Daoist scriptures teach, all things in this world exist for a reason; life itself is blameless. Guilt lies with the opposition of living races, but every being simply strives to survive.

The sea of suffering is boundless; the other shore lies ahead.

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The struggle for survival between races should be settled by those involved. If he intervened, he would upset this balance.

He should not.

...

...

Eighth year of Eternal Night.

Dawn had not yet broken; darkness lingered.

On this day—

Across the mountains and hills, countless sharp and mournful roars erupted from the sunless depths of the forest...

The next moment,

With those cries,

A swarm of ghastly pale monsters burst forth from the night...

Having recuperated for years, this species—born to devour flesh and drink blood—prepared to launch yet another assault against the Li Dynasty...

Under the ink-black twilight,

The vast white spore army surged forth from the forest like a flood of ants.

They were the vanguard, nothing more than ordinary Kers, with not a single Sphinx among them.

Even so, this force alone was enough to draw the world’s attention.

Before the capital of the Li Dynasty,

News of the monsters’ renewed invasion reached the city in record time.

Upon the ramparts,

Amidst the stench and foul wind, an old man with white hair stood calm and composed, showing no panic, his expression barely changing.

Over the years, they had watched the monsters in secret, always preparing for this second wave.

Their preparations had made the defenses before the capital impregnable.

Moreover, during these years, the old man had compiled all his years of cultivation and insights into books, distributing them among the ordinary cultivators defending the city.

He had achieved fame in his youth, his talent unmatched; though perhaps not invincible, he was certainly among the elite of all cultivators on the Great Road.

His insights were as precious as the rarest treasures to ordinary cultivators.

Through his careful teaching, nearly a tenth of the ten thousand cultivators had broken through their previous limits.

Most importantly, a few had reached a level of mastery sufficient to lead others, partially compensating for the lack of high-level strength.

In manpower and resources, they had done all that could be done. In the old man’s eyes, they were fully capable of stopping and defeating these repugnant monsters.

“Form ranks.”

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He drew a deep breath. When the pale monsters were a hundred paces from the city gates,

The old man suddenly gave the order.

Empowered by his cultivated Dao, his voice boomed like thunder, carrying clearly to every cultivator present.

A flurry of sound followed—

In the air,

Visible to the naked eye,

Countless “streams of light” began to appear, each flickering with flame.

These dazzling streaks shot through the darkness like meteors, cutting through the night and illuminating the gloom, arcing through the air before plunging down toward the mass of pale spore creatures.

They were branches from the mossy woods.

Their tips had been sharpened with fire and stone, and before use, they had been baked over flames for a long time.

Though this made them less sturdy, the old man’s strategy was not to pierce those ugly beasts with wood alone.

What he sought was the raging fire that would erupt as the red-hot carbonized wood met the dry leaves and branches below...

Spears tipped with burning flames hurtled through the sky like a rainstorm, issuing a shrill whistling as they shot toward the white spore horde.

As soon as they struck the dry grass,

Clouds of choking smoke erupted, instantly enveloping the pale monsters.

Nearly simultaneously,

All the creatures faltered, momentarily stunned.

They relied on scent and sound to find their enemies and direction, but the thick, acrid smoke severely hindered both senses.

“Though the fire didn’t ignite as I hoped, it’s having an unexpectedly effective result nonetheless.”

Watching the pale monsters stumbling helplessly in the smoke, the old man could not hold back a hearty, booming laugh.