There were a lot of instances when a cultivator would say the cliche phrases of "I felt the breath of death" or "I felt the cold aura of death", but Bai Qi considered it always to be just a way to say that they were scared. Or add a bit more tension to the retelling of one of the so usual brushes with death that cultivators tended to have.

Well, he considered it until now, as the aura he was sensing right now, coupled with the image that was revealed along with it, could be not explained better.

An absolutely naked body that towered over seven feet. Even though it was extremely skinny, almost like if the skin was placed over the bones, Bai Qi could probably accept that it was a person. But not with the grey skin or almost feet long nails, better-called claws, that grew from each of the extremities. Of which the being in front had three, missing his left leg entirely. In place of it, there was something akin to a prosthesis, if one could ignore that it was made of bones and more resembled a beast one, with its inverted knee and clawed appendage.

It was probably even wrong to refer to the being as male, as the body was androgynous.

But it wasn't the appearance that made Bai Qi feel fear.

Neither it was the pile of bags and sacks some of which had body parts peeking from or the bound bodies of people along with them that suddenly was revealed right where the smaller formation attacked by Qiu Zemin was located.

Nor it was the cold aura, one that seeped into the body through each pore and suppressed cultivation, body, and even mind.

It wasn't even the fact that Bai Qi could not begin to sense the cultivation behind that aura.

No, the cause of Bai Qi's growing fear, almost panic was the small and unassuming pendant on the being's neck. An ivory-colored jade on a simple string without any visible inscriptions or carvings. And one that irradiated such an air of blood, regrets, curses, and death that calling it evil, no EVIL would be a joke.

He had never seen this exact item, but he had seen and participated in the sealing and consequent destruction of several similar ones. They were on another level of strength and had been the cause for a long and bloody war between the immortals from seven high-level planes. What appeared to be a simple jade, was only a form in which dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of mortals and cultivators alike were compressed into... All while alive.

Who would create such an abhorrent item? Who would leave any signs of morals, soul, and even mind behind and be so insane and twisted to create one?

Bai Qi never understood, even though he had been present both when the Bone Calling Immortal revealed them, as well when she used them. Initially one of the best healers and corpse puppet masters known to all planes near the Ninefold Coil, an interconnected segment of nine different Astral Road streams. At some point, she suddenly went mad and had to be put down for creating several items she called 'The Millionfold Ends Jades'.

Probably she would have reached their completion, but in her madness, she decided to show them in a gathering of the Immortals from five high planes of the Coil, amongst which Bai Qi, who had just assumed the position of the 'Sacred Forest' Master was present.

He even now shivered in disgust as he remembered her shimmering eyes and the exalted tone she used to describe them.

"You don't understand, you are all just too bent on your moral rules and other fallacies! This is the true path, THESE are the true treasures we should be creating and not the attempts of treasures that the Saints and Astral Masters do. What are a million lives compared to the opportunity to reach the power of any Realm just by willing it? What are a few mortals and weaklings for the chance to secure and ensure the safety of the entire plane? Just a few more years and I will finish them, and you all will HAVE to open your eyes"

Regretfully for her, she never had the opportunity to finish them, as just a second after she finished talking, and the one that called the meeting, the Exalted Golden Immortal, Kuai Jin used a formation to reveal the number of people that were fused alive into her so-called treasures, the entire assembly attacked her.

Her incomplete treasures, heavens forbid from them being treated like that were still powerful, and it took the cooperation of 17 Heavenly and True Immortals to finally put her down.

But at least she was just mad, while the other present people turned out to be worse. In place of destroying the items on the spot, as Kuai Jin, Bai Qi, and another two Immortals advocated, the other 13 decided that it was better to seal them. Their reasoning? "They are evil indeed, and no cultivator should be allowed to use them. Still, we can not discard such an item, after all, what if our planes are threatened by a Divine? Or some kind of enemy on that level?"

Five items - a ring, a diadem, a bracelet, a hairpin, and a bangle. Seventeen immortals from five different planes...

One would expect, and Bai Qi offered that they would be divided evenly and each plane should decide by themselves, and it looked like it would be so. And each of the items was sealed and assigned to a plane.

Except that the impossibility of letting go of such power soon made practically everyone in that room turn on each other, and a true war for the items began. A war that encompassed all of the Immortals of each of the five planes.

In the end, with the help of several like-minded Immortals from the other two high-level planes of the Coil, Kuai Jin managed to get the upper hand, retrieve the five items, and via a connection barely established by everyone requested the strength of a Divine Emperor from the Sacred Road Monastery. Who purified and destroyed the items, managing to liberate the souls of almost three million.

It took only a breath for the memories surface in Bai Qi's mind, and the current situation had not changed at all. Neither he nor Wu Ren could act in any way, be it moving, speaking, or probably even breathing while the being, one that probably had been a man stood a few feet from the ground right in the middle of the formation enclosed area.

"Do you wish... To die? To serve? Or to know?" Suddenly it talked, and Bai Qi felt how the restriction alleviated slightly. Just barely enough as to speak.

"To know, I wish to know" Bai Qi did not care about why this demon, man, or whatever it was offered three options, but he knew that the only thing that could help him right now was to stall for time. As powerful as was the formation around them, it was barely enough to contain a Warrior King, and this being aura was far superior to that. No Warrior Emperors took evening strolls in empty districts, but their senses extended for miles and were attuned to sense anything as powerful as them instantly. And even if none of them did sense this aura, that Gate Elder couldn't have missed placing sensing formations around the Astral Gate, could he?

And the other reason for speaking instantly was Wu Ren. After all, the worst thing right now would be to provoke the being!

"How unusual for the young search for knowledge"

"Don..." Wu Ren tried to say something, but the demon-like being instantly silenced him, before asking

"And what do you wish to know about?"

"I do not know who, or sincerely what Lord is, but I have always searched for knowledge about the universe and the Astral Road. I have arrived here from another plane in my search, but I have not gained anything yet. So I pray for Lord to grant me this wish, even at the cost of my life" The most extensive theme possible and the most sincere pleading voice coupled with a desire to know even at the cost of one's life. Bai Qi decided to bet everything on the following minutes.

"I have declared myself a demon, and to grant wishes as my path. But I do not require your life in payment, no, become one of mine. If you do, all the answers will be revealed to you"

"Lord, you mean like the ones we fought? They are the ones that serve you?" As Bai Qi tried to weasel himself out of the offered deal, he could only inwardly trash in a manner far from his usual countenance - "Lying piece of shit, what was that about granting wishes? Just go and explain to me the truth behind Astral Road then! And we could probably compare notes or something while the Emperors get their asses out of bed and come".

Not that it prevented him from trying to guess why the being was even talking in place of killing him on the spot. Or why it was trying to recruit a 2nd level Sage Realm in place of a Peak Warrior Lord like Wu Ren.

________________________________________________________________________

Several message talismans were flying back and forth over the entire Shuomen city. Alarms went off and the City Lord had already commanded all able Warrior Kings and Emperors, no matter their power to gather in the Palace.

Bai Qi's thoughts were right on the spot when he doubted that a Warrior Emperor would just take a stroll outside and casually sense the aura seeping from the formation, as was right about Deng Guiying's methods. The latter had indeed created and requested assistance for not one, but six different formations around the Astral Gate, and all of them had sent him an alarm at the same time.

Not caring about the teacup he let go of or the destruction he provoked in the 'Phoenix Tear' VIP room he occupied, Deng Guiying immediately took flight - breaking through the wall and not even caring to deactivate the privacy formations, simply destroying them.

As he flew at his utmost speed, he took out and broke a small jade spindle, sending the never before used signal of absolute threat to the city. Lord Shou, the commander of the guards, who had secluded himself for meditation crashed out of his room just a breath later, and without taking a single moment, even to don his armor, flew out his residence. On the way to the Free District, he alarmed the entire forces of the city, including the City Lord, who sent a general call to all the Warrior King and above Cultivators in the city. Even the ones from the Overlord districts.

***

"What is happening, Uncle Deng?" A young-looking woman with a slightly red face asked with concern as she landed on the 'Persimmon Tower' roof.

"I do not know yet, all of my formations sensed an extremely powerful aura, but I have not been able to locate it yet. It seems like it is concealed" Deng Guiying explained without turning around, with his entire attention focused on his senses, extended for almost four miles towards each side.

"And the Locating formation?"

"Being activated already" A heavily built middle-aged man, dressed in a common robe but with an intricately decorated meteor hammer in his hands landed brusquely while speaking.

"Lord Father" The young woman saluted with a small bow.

"Ming'er, you could at least greet me normally" With a sigh the man said, but then shook his head before asking

"Elder Guiying, are you sure about the threat?"

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't have used the spindle, would I? I can believe in a formation being tampered with, but six? It means that something is definitively here! And that something has aura stronger than mine or the sixth formation would have never activated" As Deng Guiying's words registered, both of the others paled. Revered Elder Deng was undoubtedly the third strongest cultivator in the City, and at this moment, the strongest one, the Revered Formation Saint Fang wasn't even present!

________________________________________________________________________

"To Serve and Know? Or to Die?" Not biting on any of Bai Qi's attempts, the being asked again. And this time, it was definitively the last...