Chapter 142: Shocked, My Foundations Were Undermined

Before it was dark, Li Si sat on the city wall of Eastflow City, watching the scenery. He looked relaxed, but he had actually been as busy as a dog.

Since he became the Calamity-Bearing Human King early this morning, he was busy fully organizing the 540,000 people under his command. First, he planned the urban cluster along the Blackwater River basin, which had a population of 140,000.

Then he planned the merging of towns in Greyrock City, which had a population of 30,000.

After that, he went to the farthest north, a place beyond the source of the Blackwater River, and planned the second key urban cluster along a tributary of the Blackwater River called Heng River.

The Heng River area was close to the heart of the former Sacred Raven Kingdom, so it had a larger population. There were five cities and seventeen small towns, all crowded along the five-hundred-li Heng River, with a total population of 180,000.

Li Si spent a full four hours on the urban cluster in the Heng River basin to get everything arranged properly. Even then, he still had to instantly execute dozens of people and reluctantly take out 100,000 portions of Black Fate Fuel from his personal savings to strongly encourage and comfort them.

In short, after all the trouble, he was almost completely exhausted.

Moreover, he still had to pay attention for a long time to prevent any strange problems.

After all, the Heng River basin urban cluster was a full 2,500 li away from the Yunhua Sect headquarters, and it was about to go out of range.

So, although there were still two cities and several small towns in the southeast, Li Si really did not have the heart to organize and merge them today. He stayed in Eastflow City. To treat diseases and save people, he had to start with the most critically ill patients.

The problems in Eastflow City were already very serious. In just one day today, nineteen people died for no clear reason.

It was worth noting that Li Si had taken control of Eastflow City a month ago, using various threats and incentives, carrots and sticks. The local city lord and temple priests were also quite obedient. As long as the major problems were solved, they did not casually harm the common people. In fact, before yesterday, the development here had been good.

But as soon as the big pit appeared, people started dying today.

At this time, Eastflow City was very quiet. Only the patrolling Black-Armored Warriors walked through the streets holding torches. Everyone else had already hidden in their homes, with every household’s door pasted full of Talisman Paper.

This was a specialty of the Floating Cloud Sect, which Li Si had urgently sent over.

The dead had already been quickly cremated. Several protective Formation Arrays on the outer city wall were activated. Everything seemed normal, and the city lord of Eastflow City, along with several temple priests, were guarding the city. The Divine Decree had been issued, so who would dare to be careless?

Moreover, the deaths today were really strange. Those who died were not the old, weak, sick, or disabled, but strong young adults. They had all received some Divine Arts and had Qi Refining cultivation. The places of death were all in individual Quiet Rooms, which were pasted with Demon Sealing Talismans according to the rules, but these Demon Sealing Talismans were never activated.

The people cultivating inside were not killed by attacks, nor did they die from Qi Deviation. Instead, they all had white hair, lost teeth, and looked extremely old.

When Li Si saw this, he could tell at a glance that their lifespan had been drained.

This looked very much like the method of the Mist Demons.

But the problem was, Mist Demons only appeared at night along with the Dark Mist. These nineteen people all died during the daytime.

So Li Si had reason to believe that something of a higher level than the Mist Demons had been released.

For now, everyone was temporarily forbidden from cultivating until the problem was found.

“What a sly thing!”

Li Si glanced at the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl in the sky. He had already been guarding here for over two hours and, together with the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl, used the Jiuxuan Spirit Response Deduction Method. The deduction result showed that the culprit was in the big pit a hundred li south of Eastflow City, but there was no other information besides that.

“It feels like this is forcing me to go to the big pit for a final battle. Hmm, wait?”

Suddenly, Li Si’s heart moved. He had received news that 57 local residents had died.

This was completely without warning, and it happened right under his nose. Even the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl, which could illuminate the Mortal Realm and the Illusory Void, did not detect it.

Whoosh!

Li Si teleported directly to the home of one of the deceased. The deceased was a strong young man in his twenties. His whole family lay on a crowded bed. The others were sleeping soundly, completely unaware that the family’s pillar had already died.

Li Si felt chills in his heart. The cause of this person’s death was the same as the others who died during the day today: no wounds, no Soul Corruption, no physical corruption, just his lifespan being drained.

At first glance, he left peacefully, like an old man of seventy or eighty.

This was not fun at all. If this continued, the entire Eastflow City would be finished. If all the strong young adults died, how would the remaining old and weak survive?

Li Si also checked the Heart-Calming Talismans, Disaster-Averting Talismans, Demon Sealing Talismans, Mind Stabilizing Talismans, and Golden Light Talismans outside the house. All were intact and unactivated.

In other words, neither the True Cultivator system nor the Soul Cultivation System could do anything about this method of directly devouring lifespan.

“I need to change my approach. I can’t rely on the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl for everything. The advantage of the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl is that it can illuminate the Mortal Realm and the Illusory Void, has Evil Spirit algorithms, and is very sensitive to mutation pollution. But since the deceased showed no pollution, this must be an unconventional method.”

“Even, it feels like this is exploiting a loophole in the rules.”

Li Si thought for a moment, then gave the City God Dharma Seal from the Yunhua Law Seal to the Eastflow City temple high priest Bai Xiaohan. The Bai family was the top family in Eastflow City and was once a prominent cultivation family, so they still had a good foundation. Even the city lord of Eastflow City was from the Bai family.

However, what Li Si never expected was that as soon as Bai Xiaohan received the City God Dharma Seal, he suddenly screamed and rapidly aged at a visible speed. In just three seconds, he became old and decrepit, on the verge of death.

Li Si hurriedly took back the City God Dharma Seal, saving his life, but at least forty years of his lifespan had been drained.

“They are life-draining ghosts! Dozens of them, surrounding me…”

Whoosh!

A Divine Grace Baptism descended, stabilizing Bai Xiaohan. The people around him were as quiet as cicadas in winter, afraid of disturbing those life-draining ghosts.

But without a doubt, these life-draining ghosts had specific targets. Li Si was thoughtful and quickly retrieved the information and memories of all the deceased.

This was the advantage given to him by the Fate Forge + Land Deed Seal.

However, with over 500,000 people under his command, Li Si couldn’t check everyone’s memories and life stories, so he had overlooked this detail.

After a while, he found a clue from the memories of these deceased and Bai Xiaohan. During the era when the Evil God Cult ruled Eastflow City, the Bai family had once plotted to rebel.

But relying on their own strength alone, it was difficult to succeed. So, by chance, they came into contact with another mysterious power. This power helped them secretly evade the surveillance of the Evil God’s power and gave them many benefits, but the condition was to become believers of this power.

From then on, the Bai family began to secretly spread this mysterious power within Eastflow City, expanding the faith. During this process, the brutal and cruel rule of the Evil God Cult, who often sacrificed live people, and the Raven People who frequently came for feasts, made many people deeply resentful. So this mysterious power became like a savior and was wildly spread in Eastflow City.

In just a few years, almost everyone in Eastflow City secretly believed in this mysterious power and called it the Gray Mist Envoy. The Bai family and all its believers called themselves Gray Mist Cultists.

But for some reason, this mysterious power from the gray mist never showed signs of directly confronting the Evil God Cult. They hid very deeply. Even when Li Si took control here before and established his base, he didn’t notice anything wrong.

Otherwise, given the number of Gray Mist Cultists in Eastflow City, if they sincerely wanted to engage in resistance, Li Si really would have no way to deal with it.

“So, this is the problem.”

Li Si frowned. Among those who died today, all were Gray Mist Cultists. However, after receiving the Divine Arts and techniques Li Si passed down, they were all very interested. Over the past days, they had been diligently cultivating and mostly reached the Qi Refining stage. So, they died.

Including the temple high priest Bai Xiaohan. The reason he was targeted was because Li Si gave him the City God Dharma Seal, which immediately attracted an attack.

Now the logic matched up.

The Gray Mist Envoy was punishing its believers.

Anyone who dared to get close to Li Si in action would die.

But this thing was really well hidden. Apart from evidence of the Gray Mist Envoy’s activities found in people’s memories, there wasn’t even a Divine Idol in the entire Eastflow City.

In fact, no one had ever seen the Gray Mist Envoy. The few who had only saw a wisp of gray mist.

Additionally, the Gray Mist Envoy never directly attacked Li Si. It did not compete with Li Si for the Land Deed Seal, nor did it fight for nominal control of Eastflow City. It seemed just like the former Evil God Cult; what Li Si could take was just the naming rights…

It was a bit terrifying to think deeply about.

What did this Gray Mist Envoy want? On the surface, it didn’t fight for power with him, even helping his image as the Calamity-Bearing Human King, but secretly it was undermining his foundation.

Was this really the wheel of fortune turning, and did heaven spare anyone?

Next, Li Si quickly went to investigate other cities. If his entire territory was infiltrated by the Gray Mist Envoy, how could he play this game?

After some investigation, Li Si breathed a sigh of relief.

So far, only Eastflow City was the most severely affected. Then, Greyrock City, eight hundred li away, had a small number of Gray Mist Cultists, probably only recently contacted.

As for the other cities, there were basically none.

“The Gray Mist Envoy, Mist Demons, Dark Mist, Mist Demon King, Lord of the Mist… They are indeed good friends on the same side.”

Li Si temporarily gave up the investigation because the cause of these people’s deaths was already confirmed. Once they chose to believe in the Gray Mist Envoy, it was like leaving a mark similar to a coordinate in their bodies. The Gray Mist Envoy could easily make them live or die.

To be realistic, the Gray Mist Envoy could make all 70,000 people in Eastflow City die in an instant.

This was something Li Si could not interfere with.

“But I can also do something else. For example, in my territory, I won’t allow a single patch of Dark Mist to appear.”

Li Si flew high into the sky and looked at the huge deep pit. Inside, large amounts of Dark Mist were rolling, ready to surge out at any time.

He didn’t know about other places, but within the range of his Pure Land, this was the only source of Dark Mist.