The enemies that had raided the Chu Family were all taken care of, and the captured disciples set free. Those that were injured were moved to the infirmary of the clan so that they could receive treatment.

After they were set free, the disciples of the Chu Family angrily glared at the attackers that Venerable White had subdued. Some of the short-tempered disciples couldn’t help but charge forward and use their fists to vent the anger and hate in their heart. The Chu Family wasn’t a buddhist sect, and they weren’t the type to repay ingratitude with kindness.

In the meantime, the new leader of the Chu Family, Chu Wenyan, and two elders arrived next to Song Shuhang and thanked him and Venerable White for saving the Chu Family.

Afterward…

Song Shuhang asked, “Right, family leader, is Miss Chu Chunying safe? After Fellow Daoist Soft Feather discovered what had happened to the Chu Family, she was very worried about her safety.”

“Fellow Daoist Song, don’t worry. Chunying is fine, and wasn’t injured,” the family leader replied.

After looking at Song Shuhang, the heart of the family leader was filled with emotion. If he didn’t remember incorrectly, when this Fellow Daoist Song had fought on the Grievance Settling Platform the last time, he had just advanced from the First Stage Dragon Gate Realm to the Second Stage Realm. But now, he was already unable to gauge his real strength. He got the feeling that the strength of the opposite party wasn’t below his own.

With his strength of the Third Stage, he was the strongest member of the Chu Family aside from their ancestor. Had Fellow Daoist Song also reached the Third Stage? The family leader felt that he had been simply living at the bottom of a well up until now.

“Right. Fellow Daoist Song, how is Chu Chu?” Chu Wenyan asked.

After the end of the battle on the Grievance Settling Platform, Chu Chu had gone with Song Shuhang to take care of Miss Li Yinzhu. She hadn’t gotten in touch with the Chu Family since then, and they had no idea how she was doing right now.

“Miss Chu Chu is fine, and she’s practicing in a secret realm alongside Yinzhu,” Song Shuhang said with a smile. Then, he pointed at the defeated enemies, and said, “We’ll let the Chu Family deal with those guys lying on the ground. They don’t have the strength to revolt anymore, and you guys can deal with them as you wish.”

Chu Wenyan said, “Fellow Daoist, the Chu Family will never forget this favor.”

Venerable White said, “Don’t worry, it wasn’t much. Anyway, let put this matter aside for the moment. Where is your old family leader of the Fifth Stage?”

“The experts among the enemy ranks injured the ancestor, and forcefully carried him off. Now, they should have already reached that ‘forbidden area’,” Chu Wenyan replied with a bitter expression on his face.

“Which direction did they go in?” Venerable White asked. If they made haste, they could perhaps catch up with the ancestor of the Chu Family.

The family leader shook his head. When the ancestor was carried off, all the members of the Chu Family had been locked up already, and none saw which direction the ancestor went in.

“In that case, do you know the location of the forbidden area?” Venerable White asked. “If you know the location of the forbidden area, we can intercept the opposite party and save your ancestor if we are fast enough.”

“We aren’t very clear where the forbidden area is. However, there is a letter that the ancestor wanted to give to little friend Song, and there might be clues about the position of the forbidden area inside,” the family leader said at this time.

Then, he tore off his left arm—his left arm was an artificial limb.

The letter that the ancestor had left for Song Shuhang was hidden in this artificial limb. Luckily, the attackers didn’t bother searching the disciples of the Chu Family after taking away the ancestor, and didn’t discover the letter.

Song Shuhang took the letter and opened it.

Sure enough, the accurate position of the forbidden area was recorded in the letter. There was also a detailed account of the trip that Chu Kangbo and Li Tiansu had made to the forbidden area.

The forbidden area was hidden deep in the ground, and there were incredible dangers concealed within. The first time Chu Kangbo and Li Tiansu went to the forbidden area, the former got severely injured as they arrived on the periphery of the forbidden area, and Li Tiansu had no choice but to bring him back. Afterward, Chu Kangbo stayed in the Chu Family all the time, and came out only after his wound got somewhat better. Later, Daoist Priest Li Tiansu went to explore the forbidden area on his own. He eventually died there, with his corpse flying far away and falling beside Song Shuhang and Venerable White, forming a knot of karma with them.

In the letter were described three types of danger one would face after barging into the periphery of the forbidden area. The first one was a voodoo curse. If they stepped into the range of the voodoo curse, weak-willed cultivators would go berserk. Their eyes would become red, and they would start attacking their companions.

Back then, Chu Kangbo got affected by this voodoo curse, and suddenly attacked Li Tiansu. Luckily, Li Tiansu’s strength far surpassed Chu Kangbo’s, and he was able to subdue him and leave the range of the voodoo curse. Fortunately, the effects of the voodoo curse vanished two hours after they had left its range.

The second one was a type of invisible attack that somewhat resembled an invisible attack of sword qi. But, according to Li Tiansu’s guess, it was the work of a sword-shaped insect that could stay invisible and evade the detection of cultivators.

The third and last one was a talisman that an expert of unknown strength had left behind. Back then, when Chu Kangbo and Li Tiansu approached the talisman, a fist suddenly materialized, and severely injured Chu Kangbo with a mysterious fist technique.

After reading the letter, Song Shuhang handed it to Venerable White.

Venerable White concentrated his gaze on the ‘address’ written on the letter and nodded his head. “I know the approximate position. Shuhang, let’s go! We absolutely can’t let those guys get into the forbidden area before us!”

After saying this much, Venerable White stretched out his hand and slashed, creating a space crack in the air. Then, he grabbed Song Shuhang, and barged into the crack. The monster bird Little Cai tightly held onto Song Shuhang’s shoulder so as to avoid falling off.

“Bang!”

The space gate closed.

The mouth of the family leader was wide open, and it didn’t close up for a long time.

The power of space… was that a Ninth Stage Tribulation Transcender?!

There was still hope for their ancestor!

❄️❄️❄️

After a short moment…

Venerable White and Song Shuhang drilled out of the space gate and appeared in an underground area.

“We are there already?” Song Shuhang asked.

“Of course. My teleportation is very precise, and the deviation is not even one centipede,” Venerable White said with a smile.

“One centipede? You mean one centimeter?” Song Shuhang said.

Venerable White replied, “It’s the same thing. Anyway, we are talking about a distance equal to the length of a fingernail.”

“In that case, the forbidden area should lie right in front of us, right?” Song Shuhang asked. In other words, they would soon enter the range of that voodoo curse, and they had to mentally prepare themselves.

“Hmm, actually, we are in the forbidden area already, and we are in the range of that voodoo curse on top of that,” Venerable White said.

“…” Song Shuhang. Senior White, don’t be like this! At the very least, give me the time to prepare!

Just as he was pondering, Song Shuhang felt pain in his head.

It wasn’t the voodoo curse attacking him—it was Little Cai hitting his head with her beak.

Song Shuhang had a bad feeling. He moved his shoulder and stretched out his hand to grab Little Cai.

However, Little Cai flapped her wings and dodged Song Shuhang’s hand. Her eyes were bloodshot as she was flying around and pecking Song Shuhang’s head with all her might. It seemed she had been affected by that voodoo curse.

Little Cai wasn’t an ordinary bird. She was someone that had cultivated and turned into a monster bird. The hardness of her beak could be compared to that of steel, and it was rather painful getting pecked.

Luckily, the strength of Song Shuhang’s body had already reached the Fourth Stage rank, and he had also practiced body tempering techniques such as the ❮Immovable Body of the Buddha❯, ❮Steel Hands Technique❯, and ❮Scholarly Indestructible Body of the Buddha❯.

Otherwise, Little Cai would have made him bleed after pecking his head.

“Senior White, Little Cai got affected by that voodoo curse.” Song Shuhang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

At the same time, he cautiously touched his size-reducing purse. What to do if Lady Onion in the purse got affected as well and jumped out, starting to hit his knee?

“The will of this little monster is really weak.” Venerable White stretched out his hand and made a grabbing motion, catching Little Cai in his palm. The strange thing was Little Cai’s bloodshot eyes returned to normality as soon as Venerable White grabbed her.

“Chirp. Weird, what happened just now?” Little Cai said in puzzlement after recovering.

“You got affected by that voodoo curse. Everything is good now,” Venerable White said. “For your safety, you should switch places and stand on my shoulder from now on.”

Little Cai quickly nodded her head.

“Right, you’d better not poop on my shoulder. I’ve heard that birds cannot control themselves when they have to poop, and if they feel like pooping, they will just do it,” Venerable White said.

“…” Song Shuhang.

Little Cai said, “Senior, I’m a monster bird. As such, I can control myself even if I’m still a bird.”

“Good to hear.” Venerable White turned his head around, and said to Song Shuhang, “Shuhang, do you think you can resist? If you feel like you can’t, get closer to me so as to avoid getting affected by that voodoo curse.”

“I should be fine,” Song Shuhang said as he pointed at the faint golden light shrouding his body. After his light of virtue had materialized, things such as curses and poisons were unable to harm him.

“I had almost forgotten about your light of virtue. In that case, let’s advance… Tsk, it seems that the group of attackers is right ahead of us. From the looks of it, they got here not too long ago. My luck is pretty good today. Let’s quickly catch up to them and castigate them!” Venerable White said.

The little monster bird said, “Strange, none of those guys was affected by that voodoo curse?”

“They probably prepared in advance. After all, they have the ancestor of the Chu Family with them,” Song Shuhang said.

Since the survival of the whole Chu Family was on the line, the ancestor of the Chu Family had no other choice but to tell everything to the attackers.

“The way the voodoo curse was set up is rather ingenious, and it can’t be avoided just because one is prepared,” Venerable White said.

Just as he was speaking, Venerable White suddenly stretched out his hand and waved it; radiant sword light swept all around immediately afterward.

After the sword light swept the surrounding area, it cut a person that was hiding there, revealing their presence. It was a cultivator of the Fifth Stage Spiritual Emperor rank, their eyes bloodshot and expression filled with madness. This person had been clearly affected by that voodoo curse.

The voodoo curse had the power to make people go berserk, making them instinctively attack all the living things in front of them. However, the person affected by the curse could still display their magical techniques and skills.

Just like this cultivator of the Fifth Stage Spiritual Emperor Realm, who was able to use this skill to erase their traces so that they could secretly assassinate all nearby living creatures, even though they had bloodshot eyes.

After getting forced to reveal their presence, the cultivator of the Fifth Stage Spiritual Emperor Realm grinned evilly.

“Quack, quack, quack.” His laughter was the same as the cry of a duck. Soon, he charged toward Venerable White.

But after he had taken two steps, his body transformed into several particles of light that dispersed in the wind.

He had already died after receiving Venerable White’s sword qi attack, but had yet to notice it.

“The number of cultivators that attacked the Chu Family was pretty high, and only six of them were affected by the voodoo curse. Four of them died already… this one was the fifth, so there is still one left, and is loitering around in a distant place,” Venerable White explained. “From the looks of it, this group that attacked the Chu Family was put together in haste, and is only temporarily working together.”

Otherwise, they would have tried to save their companions affected by the voodoo curse!

Just as Venerable White was explaining, a scream was transmitted from a distant place, and the pungent smell of blood assailed their nostrils.

Several figures appeared ahead of them while riding their flying swords at low altitude.

These figures had several clearly visible and deep sword cuts all over their bodies.

“Disperse! If we stay together, we are bound to meet our end!” one of the cultivators shouted.

The remaining cultivators quickly dispersed.

But as they were splitting up and fleeing for their lives, the head of a cultivator was sent flying, his eyes filled with regret. His body then fell from the sky.

While his body was falling, countless streams of invisible sword qi attacked his body. Two breaths later, the body of that cultivator was attacked and devoured until it completely disappeared. It felt as though there were countless invisible piranha that had swallowed him up.

It wasn’t only his body… his daoist robe, talismans, and flying sword were also devoured until nothing was left.

“Is that the second layer of defense arranged on the periphery of the forbidden area, the one with those strange insects?” Song Shuhang said.

“Correct, those are ‘invisible sword insects’. Back in the days, the ancient witches were very skilled in raising this type of insect, and they can be considered a valuable treasure. Shuhang, you seemingly practice a cultivation technique that can allow you to tame spirit beasts, right? Do you want to try to raise these insects? Although they grew up somewhat violent, they are still the descendants of a spirit beast, and they can be tamed,” Venerable White said.

The ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts’ Technique❯ Song Shuhang practiced was the cultivation technique passed down in the Divine Beast Department of the ancient Heavenly City, and the Divine Beast Department specialized in taming spirit beasts.

“Eh? Those things can be raised?” Song Shuhang said. “But how can I raise them? I grab them and then tame them?”

These invisible sword insects were extremely scary. A cultivator that could ride a flying sword was someone that had, at the very least, reached the Fourth Stage Realm, but they still didn’t have any power to oppose those invisible sword insects.

“If you want to catch and tame the invisible sword insects before our eyes, you will first need to be as strong as me. Otherwise, you’ll end up like that cultivator that was devoured just now,” Venerable White said. “However, we can directly barge into their nest and look for their eggs. If we can find an egg, you can try to use your spirit beast taming technique to hasten the hatching of the egg. If you succeed, you’ll obtain an ‘invisible sword insect’ as a protector.”

“Are we heading to their nest, then?” Song Shuhang asked.

“Yes, follow me. I feel that my luck is pretty good today. We will definitely find their nest,” Venerable White said, full of confidence.

Thereupon, Venerable White pulled Song Shuhang and turned around, heading right…