Chapter Forty-Four: The Corpse of the Woman from Ten Thousand Years Ago

Gongyang Yan’s words sent a chill through Bai Li Feihong’s heart. This superior of his was a ruthless figure—young in years, yet cruel and unyielding in method.

“Yes, Lord Warden,” Bai Li Feihong replied with utmost respect.

“You’ve refined your bones, not bad. But don’t forget to keep pushing toward the Blood Refining Realm.”

“Understood, sir.”

As expected, Gongyang Yan’s goal was to cultivate him into a Blood Refiner.

With her hands clasped behind her back, she strode through the air, her every step light and graceful, coming to hover above Fairness Town, gazing down upon it from the sky.

Once one broke through the Sixfold Mortal Body Refinement, stepping into the Primordial Embryo Realm, they would begin to commune with the vital energies of heaven and earth, cultivating true essence.

This was the first time Bai Li Feihong had been so close to the power of true essence.

Gongyang Yan, with the bearing of a goddess, did not act immediately, but instead observed Fairness Town.

The thunderous sound of approaching hooves soon filled the air as the main force of the Demon Suppression Division finally arrived, stopping securely before Bai Li Feihong.

The Right Warden, Tie Wuya, was surprised to see him.

“Feihong, Demon Suppressor, what’s the situation now?”

“Reporting to Lord Tie, a powerful demon has awakened within Fairness Town. As for the rest, I do not know.”

“Let’s move, before the demon emerges. First, we must evacuate the townsfolk,” Tie Wuya said gravely.

“Lord Tie, the Warden has ordered a lockdown of Fairness Town. Without her command, no one is to leave,” Bai Li Feihong hastened to remind him.

Tie Wuya’s face darkened—this was precisely what he had feared most.

“All units, on high alert. Lock down Fairness Town!”

“At your command!”

The entire force took positions around the perimeter, sealing Fairness Town off from all sides.

Only Tie Wuya ventured alone into the heart of the town.

At this moment, Fairness Town was in utter chaos. The signal from the Demon Suppression Division was as good as a death knell.

The disaster at Great Li Town had left a deep scar. An entire town, wiped from existence in an instant. The Division’s iron-handed methods had, after years of peace, shown the people once more the true extent of its power.

But Fairness Town, now shrouded in an eerie aura, seemed to have trapped its own people. Like a maze with no exit, they wandered in circles, unable to find their way out.

Terrified, the common folk could only retreat into their homes. The air was thick with crying, shouting, and confusion.

The demon had not yet revealed itself, the Division had not yet acted, yet Fairness Town was already in chaos.

“There’s a stench in the air that makes one want to retch,” Gongyang Yan’s expression was frosted with anger.

Her eyes shone silver as she scanned Fairness Town, instantly discerning the source of the nauseating odor.

Fortune’s Paste.

It was a substance the Great Yuan had strictly banned from entering its borders.

And now, right on her territory, someone had dared to openly operate an opium den.

Gongyang Yan was furious.

She knew all too well the destruction Fortune’s Paste could wreak upon the body—not just for commoners, but even master martial artists would be reduced to ruin by its touch.

This was why she had not acted yet.

The demon’s emergence was imminent.

The Ancestral Residence of the Fu Family, the ancestral hall.

It was as though a white frost had sealed the very world.

Under the influence of a strange power, the entire Fu ancestral home was frozen over.

Within a dark chamber, Qian Youduo gazed in rapture at the golden coffin before him.

The coffin stood ten feet tall, thirty feet long, and ten feet wide. Mysterious talismans were etched upon its surface. Eight massive bronze coffins were arranged around it in the pattern of the eight trigrams.

Below, the floor was inlaid with jade and gold, forming an arcane sacrificial array.

Jade formed the foundation, while gold traced the lines of the mysterious ritual diagram.

Qian Youduo could see with his naked eye the golden veins shining with light.

A well-traveled man, Qian Youduo’s mind leapt to a single thought:

Fate Theft.

“No wonder the old master of the Fu clan could rise so rapidly—he enshrined eight generations of his ancestors in the ancestral hall, siphoning the misfortune from the golden coffin.”

Qian Youduo laughed aloud at this revelation.

“The older generation plants the tree, the younger enjoys the shade.”

“Master Fu, your generosity is most appreciated by your junior.”

“Once I’ve dug up my own ancestors and put them in place of yours, I promise to bury all your family members with the greatest honors.”

Staring at the mysterious golden coffin before him, Qian Youduo’s heart pounded in his chest.

How much gold had it taken to forge this? If he melted it down and exchanged the gold for silver coins, the sum would be astronomical.

Suddenly, another thought struck him.

“Could it be that this golden coffin was crafted by a master upon Fu’s commission?”

It was rumored that Old Fu’s fortune had been destroyed, nine-tenths lost with his fleet.

But Qian Youduo did not believe it.

Given Old Fu’s character, he would never have staked all his wealth on a single fleet. Moreover, by the time the fleet met disaster, Old Fu had already been trading among foreign nations for decades. His accumulated fortune was enough to rival a nation’s treasury.

“This golden coffin is so massive—if it had been excavated at Great Li Mountain, Old Fu could never have transported it back himself, let alone kept it a secret.”

At that thought, Qian Youduo’s heart burned with greed.

If the true treasure was not the golden coffin before him, he could take it regardless—destroying the Fu clan’s fate-stealing array, melting down the coffin for gold, and using it directly.

Liquidate!

What he needed was wealth he could use right now—not some distant, uncertain fortune.

The golden coffin, gleaming like a mountain of treasure, was precisely the wealth Qian Youduo coveted.

He crossed the sacrificial array, passed the altar, and drew close to the golden coffin.

So blinded by greed was he that Qian Youduo failed to notice the seductive whisper of a demon, murmuring in his ear.

He grasped the edge of the coffin lid, and with a strength like that of a god, pushed aside the several-ton cover.

But within was no legendary treasure—only the body of a woman.

Lifelike and beautiful, the corpse was frozen by some mysterious power.

She lay with a head of white hair, as though she had stolen the sun’s radiance for herself.

Qian Youduo was stunned.

She was too beautiful.

Over the years, the top courtesans of more than thirty brothels in Fairness Town had all been his, songbirds in his arms. He had spent nights with hundreds of beauties, and believed himself immune to the charms of any woman.

But this—this was beauty beyond compare.

“Beautiful, truly beautiful. If a fairy descended to earth, she would be no more than this.”

“Is that so?” whispered the wind by his ear, gently stroking his restless heart.

“It’s true,” Qian Youduo murmured, utterly bewitched.

“Go closer. Take the talisman. She will be yours.”

A purple talisman was affixed to the corpse of the fairy.

Qian Youduo gently lifted the talisman.

The moment it left the body, it burst into flames.

The white-haired corpse slowly opened her eyes.

In that instant, Qian Youduo was frozen solid.

The life force from his body flowed into her.

A new luster returned to her form.

The icy chill that had encased her began to dissipate.

“How long have I slept?”

“The world’s vital energy grows thin, pure essence sinks, foul energy rises… In less than a century…”

“The Age of Declining Law is upon us!”

“Have I slept for ten thousand years?”