Chapter 161

Turbid remained silent for a long time beside them. Eventually, unable to tolerate it any longer, he used the rules of the world to group the Ghost Tribe and Demon Tribe together with the other two tribes.

He looked at these tribes, whom he had spent a lot of time and effort manipulating and tempting, intending to have them internally collapse the Heavenly Dao, so that he could strike a fatal blow with the weapons created by Ke Xingzhou. He felt as angry as a deceived little pig: "You... you useless fools! This is not how your desires were supposed to be!!"

No matter how much Turbid existed outside of order and had the ability to tempt beings into chaos, he still had to find a breakthrough point.

The tribes he had brought together, which ones were not suppressed by the human race for thousands or millions of years, or had been led by his instigation into forming an unbreakable grudge with humans?

Even worse, some of those seemingly selfless divine beasts, after experiencing the great war from ten thousand years ago, were no longer the pure divine beasts they once were.

He had clearly planned everything well. Everything was supposed to go according to plan, but how had it turned out like this!

Turbid was almost bursting with rage. Just at this moment, Duan Changsheng's earlier remark about "salary" woke up many of his "pawns," who were locked in the barrier. The group looked at each other in confusion, and when they saw Ke Xingzhou and Nie Chen, they suddenly froze.

At this moment, they seemed to feel that their salary, benefits, and even merits for the next month were going to shrink, and a deep sense of despair appeared in their eyes.

There were exceptions, though.

The two constellations, Fengbo and Yushi, looked down at their situation, then raised their heads to look at Turbid, who was angrily holding Ke Zhengye's image. They finally realized what was going on.

They each grabbed one of Turbid’s hands and shook them vigorously up and down: "Good person!"

"Thank you! Thank you for saving us from the ancient formation!" Fengbo wiped away his snot and tears. "Wuuuuu... My divine power has been overused, and after my power declined, even my eyesight wasn’t good anymore. I accidentally entered an ancient god’s formation, and almost couldn’t get out. Luckily, you were here..."

Turbid: "…………"

--

Turbid grew increasingly angry and shook off the two ridiculous constellations.

He glared at them angrily: "You deserve to die!"

Only then did everyone realize that the person who looked exactly like the sect leader’s foster father, yet without any discernible aura, seemed to be in opposition to their Xiaoyao Sect and was not someone to be trifled with.

The scene immediately fell silent.

Everyone was feeling uneasy when, in the quiet, Ke Xingzhou’s voice quietly spoke up: "Why hasn’t he made a move yet?"

Everyone: "?"

Turbid’s figure froze, and then they heard Ke Xingzhou suddenly realize: "He really doesn’t have the ability to make a move."

Ke Xingzhou had been wondering about this earlier.Turbid was an existence on the same level as the Heavenly Dao, and the methods used by the Three Realms and Six Paths could not constrain him. If Turbid were truly that terrifying, why did he incite Lord Du'e to start the war between gods and demons ten thousand years ago instead of taking matters into his own hands?

The existence of the Three Realms and Six Paths had no impact on his struggle with the Heavenly Dao.

And earlier, as well.

The barrier set by Lian Cheng also belonged to the Heavenly Dao's methods, and it was obvious that it wouldn't impose much restriction on Turbid. It was merely a psychological comfort.

Yet Turbid really stayed outside the Ke family and even appeared slowly, waiting for Lian Cheng and Nie Chen to be alert and on guard.

If it were him, he would have chosen a much simpler and more effective action plan — like appearing directly beside the target's bed when no one was paying attention, and ending everything in one go.

Ke Xingzhou had a strange feeling at that moment, and now seeing Turbid manipulate each tribe one by one, he became even more certain of his guess.

He narrowed his eyes, drew the bow to its maximum, and aimed the arrow at Turbid's position. He grinned and said, "So you really only have words, but in reality, you don't have the ability to interfere with the world, right?"

Turbid: "……"

Turbid immediately became enraged.

But just then, Ke Xingzhou's expression changed, and his smile disappeared.

He tensed his arm muscles and pulled the already strained bowstring further.

The constellations suddenly froze.

"Ke Xingzhou, what are you doing? Your merits!"

With the action of drawing the bow, the merits that Ke Xingzhou had painstakingly accumulated over the time rapidly diminished. At a visible speed, they flowed into the light arrow, making it grow brighter and more dazzling, impossible to look at directly.

A person who was usually so reluctant to use his merits seemed to feel nothing, his gaze cold and resolute as he stared at the culprit in front of him who was attempting to disrupt the peaceful lives of all beings: "You want this bow, which means it can affect the Heavenly Dao, and it can also affect you."

He paused, and a fierce aura appeared in Ke Xingzhou's eyes. He then formed another light arrow and aimed it at the sky above.

"Ten thousand years ago, I wanted to ask, since the Heavenly Dao knows everything and can do anything, why does it allow everything to happen and never intervene?"

"He saw you deceive the divine beasts, provoke the Three Realms, cause suffering for the beings, falsely accusing the Demon Tribe, stripping the divine beasts of their merits, ignoring the overflowing Hell, and the suffering of the human world..." Ke Xingzhou ground his teeth, adding, "And now, it allows you to sow discord between the parts of my sect, increasing the operational costs of the sect!"

Turbid: "……"

Before Turbid could speak, Ke Xingzhou asked the final question: "—What role does your existence really play in the Three Realms?"

Turbid looked at the light arrow, and he felt his hair stand on end. He couldn't help but stiffen his spine and take half a step back.

"What do you want to do? The forces of purity and impurity both belong to the Heavenly Dao. If the Heavenly Dao collapses, the Three Realms will be destroyed!"

Ke Xingzhou lowered his brows and eyes, unmoved: "It's just your side of the story."

As he spoke, the sky, which had remained still, finally changed. Thick clouds gathered together at an unnatural speed, and rolling thunder struck the ground without any warning, making a crackling sound.

The threat was palpable.

Nearby residents, who had originally intended to join the strange creatures flying over to watch the commotion, saw this and quickly took shelter under nearby houses.

Exclamations rose one after another, and it seemed some had been injured by the thunder, with their companions shouting, "Call an ambulance!"Ke Xingzhou sneered, "So he's not completely hands-off after all."

As he spoke, the merits on his body were continuously being infused, and it was evident that they were about to run out.

Such a level of merit's golden light wouldn't cause a fatal effect on Turbid; at most, it would only result in injury.

But just as Turbid thought he could breathe a sigh of relief, a hand was placed on the back of Ke Xingzhou's hand.

Nie Chen, who had been pushed aside by Ke Xingzhou earlier, now gripped the bow again and enveloped Ke Xingzhou with his entire body from behind, like a huge shadow behind him.

His merits hadn't been fully infused before, but now, as he placed his hand on Ke Xingzhou's, that terrifying aura of merit began to flow once again, infusing into the light arrow.

Subtly, even Lian Cheng’s bow couldn’t help but hum, as if it couldn’t withstand the enormous amount of merit and was on the verge of shattering.

For Turbid, the terrifying aura of death on the light arrow aimed at him made his heart skip a beat.

"Wait... wait!" he gritted his teeth, attempting to negotiate with Ke Xingzhou, "What exactly do you want? Becoming a god, becoming a saint? I can fulfill all your desires!"

At the same time, the terrifying thunder in the sky subsided, as if it, too, was waiting to hear Ke Xingzhou's response.

Ke Xingzhou's expression remained indifferent, as if the offers made by Turbid were nothing more than the chicken breast in tonight’s fried chicken that he wouldn’t even touch: "I want you not to dare to offend."

With that, he flicked his finger. The fully charged merit's golden light, together with the arrow, shot toward Turbid and the pure and impure aspects of the Heavenly Dao!

Turbid's eyes widened in shock as he looked down, unable to believe the large, unhealing hole in his chest.

The gray mist of his true form frantically tried to heal the wound, but it was no match for the merit's golden light, which represented the will of all things in the world. Soon, his strength was completely devoured, and the golden light even spread over his body, eating away at other parts of his form.

"--How is this possible? How is this possible?!"

The calamity clouds in the sky suddenly dispersed, just as abruptly as they had arrived, revealing the clear blue sky once more.

Everyone felt inexplicably lighter, as if an invisible hand had finally moved away, and they could breathe much easier.

The nearby residents looked up in confusion, discussing this strange phenomenon.

"After the thunder, why does the air feel a little fresher?"

"It should be that... whatever effect it is, the thunder burned away the impurities in the air?"

"Not sure, but it seems really impressive... Wait, weren't we just here to watch the excitement?"

"Ah, right! Let's go, let's go..."

"We can't leave! There's a villa area ahead, the security won't let us in!"

Just as everyone was sighing in disappointment, a ride-hailing car slowly drove into the villa area. It only lowered its window at the gate to verify the face, and then was allowed entry.

Ke Zhengye cursed all the way, first cursing the traffic conditions in the capital, then cursing the ever-changing weather. He almost couldn't hold back from revealing that his adopted son liked men, which nearly made him choke on his own temper.As Ke Zhengye approached the Ke family's gate, he saw the nearby neighbors walking out, and out of curiosity, he followed their gaze to see what was happening.

"What’s going on? Why are there so many people over there?"

A passerby, stretching their neck to look ahead, responded enthusiastically.

It turned out that after the sudden brightness outside, the neighbors in the villa area finally realized that the commotion was something more than just people coming to the Xiaoyao Sect to pray, and they all went out to check what was happening.

The enthusiastic neighbor who had been explaining things to Ke Zhengye didn’t know what was happening either. After saying a few words, he noticed the crowd had stopped moving. He quickly walked a couple of steps forward, squeezed through the crowd, and went to the front to see.

Then he saw Turbid, with a large hole in his chest.

Neighbor: "…"

Neighbor: "?!"

Neighbor: "Ah!!! Ke Zhengye is dead!!!"

Ke Zhengye, rushing back home to deal with a domestic dispute, wasn’t interested in gossip. He tried to bypass the crowd on the edge, heading home, when he suddenly heard this.

Ke Zhengye: "???"

His bad temper couldn’t hold back anymore: "Who said I’m dead?!"

The people, shocked by the strange scene and still processing the fact that someone had died in the community, nearly had their souls leave their bodies when they heard this. When they turned around, they saw someone who looked exactly like the deceased—Ke Zhengye.

Neighbors: "…………"