Xu Qing gazed at the eighteen Fire Cloud Horses approaching continuously, their necks adorned with Scripture Reels of the Esoteric Sect.

At this moment, the Scripture Reels were spinning wildly, with each revolution stripping away the flesh of the horses, turning them into skeletons enveloping molten rock hearts.

"The Living Sacrifice Secret Method of the Esoteric Sect's Time Wheel Scripture." The Vajra Demon King's Devil's Sound echoed lowly.

The Fire Cloud Horse under Xu Qing became restless.

Watching its kindred bloodline being desecrated, the Fire Cloud Horse, which had entered the Transcendent Stage, couldn't help but become enraged.

These thousand-mile horses sacrificed alive, their eye sockets burning with the "Soul Burning Fire" of the Esoteric Sect's Time Wheel Scripture.

Before this, the Bronze Civilization's pit created by the Vajra Demon King and the massive Buddha's Hand of the Blood Lotus suddenly began to seep black water, from which twelve bronze coffins emerged. The taotie pattern on the coffins devoured half of Xu Qing's gold-leaf scripture in an instant, causing a burst of Buddha's light to assemble the complete Great Sun Lotus Platform Array Map in the air.

The Vajra Demon King let out a muffled groan suddenly as the Celestial Wolf Tattoo on his chest was torn out by the array map, pulling away his flesh and blood.

Xu Qing's pupils reflected the core of the array map—where a Divine Talisman with the word "Murong" engraved floated.

From the bottom of the Glazed Pit came the loud sound of gears turning, and sixty-four statues of the Ming King broke through the water.

At the center, the Three-eyed Ming King suddenly opened its third eye, and instantly all the artificial Ming Kings formed the Great Vajra Wheel Seal, causing the entire canal to suddenly reverse into the sky!

Xu Qing rode the Fire Cloud Horse through the surging flood, shattering the void.

The Divine Talisman on the array map suddenly lit up, revealing a vision: it was Murong Grandmaster sealing and worshipping the Old Demon of Black Mountain.

From beneath the canal came a tremor that shook the earth and mountains.

Xu Qing suddenly realized: this must be Black Mountain's Old Demon and the Snowfield Living Buddha using this opportunity, borrowing the Martial Saint's flesh to unlock the Emperor Yu Seal.

He had to admit, the Heavenly Demon Transformation of Taichu Demon Qi was terrifying, even reaching the effect of the Martial Saint's flesh through pseudo-cultivation.

Xu Qing felt a helpless urge to complain.

Isn't the Heavenly Demon Technique being too powerful also a bad thing?

At this moment, Xu Qing couldn't afford to be distracted by these matters.

He gazed at the northwestern horizon, the towering shadow of the Bronze Civilization's city walls faintly appearing...

The shadow of the Bronze Civilization's city walls twisted in the clouds, and Xu Qing's pupils reflected the shadow of a small bronze cauldron—one of the nine cores of the Yu King Seal restraining the Ancient Water Demon.

"So they were the real trump card." Xu Qing's Heavenly Repairing Tribulation Hand pressed on the Fire Cloud Horse's mane, infusing Vermilion Bird Divine Fire's ferocity into its body through the spine,

"Senior Fu Xuan, do you still remember the taste of that fatal blow from Murong Grandmaster back then?" Xu Qing murmured, and suddenly in the heart of Jiangning Prefecture's true Fu Xuan, Xu Qing's words echoed, bringing a rush of painful memories of being betrayed by the one trusted most.

The despair and pain of a Martial Saint!

The Taichu Demon Qi seemed to have enjoyed a hearty meal.

The Vajra Demon King's shadow suddenly solidified, burning Martial Saint's Qi-Blood into gold-red under the Demon Qi's induction. The Celestial Wolf Tattoo broke free from the array map's constraints, biting the Divine Talisman phantom in mid-air.

"Crack—"

The sound of the Divine Talisman shattering was like thunder splitting the canal. Eighteen Ghostly Riders shattered in response, and the Molten Rock Heart at the bottom of the Glazed Pit cohered into a crimson stream, flowing into the body of the Fire Cloud Horse beneath Xu Qing, which neighed to the sky as scales grew in layers on its forehead, mixed with a vertically slit bronze pupil!

"A Twin Pupil Skyhorse?"

A sound of surprise from the distant Buddha's voice, "This is the bloodline of one of the Emperor Yu's Eight Steeds!"

In the moment of that vertical pupil's inversion, the Fire Cloud Horse suddenly received the blessing of the Heavenly Repairing Tribulation Hand and Vermilion Bird Divine Fire, awakening the innate instinct deep within its bloodline.

The upside-down canal crashed down because of the Fire Cloud Horse's innate instinct.

The Great Vajra Wheel Seal formed by the sixty-four Ming King statues got blasted apart by the overwhelming momentum of water.

At this point, the Three-eyed Ming King's third eye burst into bloody tears—which condensed in mid-air into a blood-colored relic, aiming straight for Xu Qing's back.

"Well come!" Xu Qing reached back for the relic, as Tai Shi Demon Qi in his palm swirled into a vortex. At the instant the blood light entered the vortex, the shadow of the Bronze Civilization's city walls to the northwest suddenly solidified by three parts, displaying the same taotie patterns as the bronze coffin lids.

The Vajra Demon King suddenly shouted fiercely: "Demon Lord, be careful!"

Blood-colored vines frantically sprouted from the Great Sun Lotus Platform Array Map, each leaf bearing the visage of a Living Buddha.

The tips of the vines stabbed towards the bronze vertical pupil on the Fire Cloud Horse's forehead, only to let out a clamorous sound of metal clashing upon contact.

"Ding—"

Hundreds of specially made Sky Shattering Bombs by Fang Immortal Dao flew out from Xu Qing's sleeve, detonating at the eye of the Great Sun Lotus Platform, ripping the blood-colored vines into pieces. As the rain of blood spilled, he saw that inside the Glazed Pit Bottom, the droplets of blood rain flowed along the patterns of the bronze coffins.

At the same time, inside Xu Qing's bronze mirror, flashed the scene of the Salt Merchant's Private Port.

This was the scene Xu Qing saw through the Heavenly Demon Consciousness from Yan Shan's perspective.

Yan Shan and Martial Arts Academy disciples were leading the Embroidered Guard to barge into the Yu Hang salt warehouse, only to find that the bags filled like mountains had spilled not polished rice, but glutinous rice mixed with white bones!

"A strategem of diversion?" Xu Qing frowned deeply, now fully aware that this was a plot jointly orchestrated by Black Mountain's Old Demon, Snowfield Living Buddha, and Murong Grandmaster.

"Hmph, but you picked the wrong opponent."

…

…

Yingtian Prefecture, Black Water Lake.

Numerous steam waterwheels began to work, their rumble drowning out the thunder during a torrential rain brought down by the combined effort of Fang Immortal Dao and Dragon Tiger Mountain guiding Heavenly Thunder.

The Yangtze River's water began to pour backward into Black Water Lake, alleviating Yingtian Prefecture's drought.

Suddenly, the torrential rain transformed into a blood rain.

A multitude of steam waterwheels developed cracks from the erosion by the blood rain.

Simultaneously, in the direction of Black Water Lake, the outline of the Bronze Civilization's city walls faintly appeared, also being one of the nine core seals of the Ancient Water Demons restrained by Emperor Yu.

The laborers participating in the drought dispelling campaign, under the erosion of the blood rain, became living sacrifices to Emperor Yu's seal.

Three generations ago, sacrificial rituals customarily used living humans as offerings.

Whether the seal on the Qingzhou Canal segment or Emperor Yu's seal on Black Water Lake all required living humans for some mysterious sacrificial ceremony.

…

…

In Yingtian Prefecture, Fang Mansion, Elder Fang lay on a rattan chair, slowly opening his eyes, his gaze seemed to penetrate all barriers to reach over the Black Water Lake.

He saw everything happening at this moment.

"Xu Gongming was right, this world has always been a man-eating place, the common people have always been oxen and horse slaves, and the world has never changed," Elder Fang sighed.

A world where people eat people and slaves, has always been the way of the world since ancient times.

Elder Fang slowly extended his hand.

In an instant, a hand seemed to disregard spatial distances, simply and plainly flattening out the anomaly of the blood rain over Black Water Lake.

For a moment, calm prevailed, the dark clouds dissipated, as if nothing strange had ever occurred.

Only the skeletal remains of the laborers beside the waterwheel remained as the most direct evidence of fear earlier on.

"Continue." Fang Immortal Dao's Daoist Gu instructed the Ministry of Industry officials, then cast a frightened glance in the direction of Fang Mansion, unable to comprehend what means had been used to resolve such a massive crisis.

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