The half-page golden book spun and twirled in the air, with a clear light shining down, closely followed by Chu Liang.
In finding Song Qingyi, it was simple – just erase Lin Bei's name from the half-page golden book and replace it with Song Qingyi's name using true energy.
When he actually used this magical treasure, Chu Liang realized that when searching for a person, it was not enough to merely know the person's name; one also had to visualize the person's form in one's mind with divine thoughts to achieve a connection from the depths of the mind.
It made sense; otherwise, it would be incredibly difficult with numerous people sharing the same name and surname.
The half-page golden book flew out of the city. It was just beginning to get light outside. The surroundings were eerie, and Chu Liang quickly stopped his footsteps when he reached a thatched hut near the riverbank.
He crouched down, staring at the tightly closed doors and windows of the thatched hut, feeling an inexplicable sense of eeriness. He sniffed the air and detected a hint of a bloody smell.
Something was not right.
Instead of advancing recklessly, Chu Liang cautiously approached and then silently probed the situation with his divine senses.
A cultivator at the Divine Will realm could open his divine senses, allowing his perception to be clearer than that of his eyes. Coincidentally, as he broke through to the middle stage of the Divine Will realm, his divine senses had also greatly expanded.
However, in that moment when his divine senses probed into the thatched hut, he saw the scene inside- the eerie formations, the mysterious black-robed figure, and Song Qingyi under control…
At the same instant, he keenly sensed a subtle fluctuation of negative energy.
Not good.
Chu Liang immediately became alert; the other party had set up defenses against his divine senses.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
The black-robed figure in the thatched hut suddenly turned his head sharply. His gaze was as sharp as starlight.
Whoosh—
Outside the thatched hut, Chu Liang quickly turned to flee.
But with a loud bang, the door of the thatched hut burst open, and a ghostly figure floated out, its afterimages flashing three or four times, already chasing up to Chu Liang's back.
Feeling an extremely chilling wind behind him, Chu Liang's mind went on high alert. Realizing he couldn't escape, he drew his sword in an instant, turned around, and thrust his sword back!
Swish—
The white sword energy surged, more powerful than before, but the black-robed figure seemed to disregard it, simply extending his fingers and directly piercing through the sword energy, completely unharmed. He then caught Chu Liang's sword blade between his fingers.
Snap.
The sword light extinguished in an instant, and there was no trace of movement.
Chu Liang shouted, "Watch this!"
Forming a hand seal with his left hand, a cold star sparkled at his fingertips, poking towards the figure in the black robe.
But just as the figure in the black robe raised his hand to intercept, a sudden flash of red light shot out from Chu Liang's sleeve.
Soul Binding Rope!
It turned out that "watch this" was just to attract his attention. Chu Liang knew that the other party was at least in the early stage of the Golden Core Realm. There was no chance of a direct confrontation, so he wanted to secretly control the opponent.
Unfortunately, in the face of absolute strength, these tricks were insignificant.
With a turn of his hand, the figure in the black robe clutched the Soul Binding Rope in his palm. At the same time, a bony and rugged ghostly hand emerged from his chest, grabbing Chu Liang's neck!
Immediately after, a second ghostly hand appeared, holding a faintly glowing long nail, pushing it into Chu Liang's chest.
Chui Hun Nail.
"Ugh!" The nail pierced his soul, and Chu Liang felt his entire body become stiff, unable to move.
In the blink of an eye, there was no escape, no chance of fighting back, and he was completely subdued.
The Divine Will fought against the Golden Core Realm and suffered a disastrous defeat.
At that moment, he deeply realized the impassable gulf between the third and fourth realms. Challenging beyond one's level was simply unrealistic.
The figure in the black robe chuckled and turned back into the grass hut, casually tossing Chu Liang to the ground.
"Hehe, are you here to save her?" He glanced at Chu Liang, then at Song Qingyi. "Buy one, get one free, two Divine Will realm souls, quite a fruitful trip..."
"Chu... Chu Liang..." Song Qingyi saw Chu Liang being captured and struggled to call out through tears. She blamed herself for causing harm to others in the guise of seeking help.
Chu Liang remained calm, despite being thrown to the ground, still attempting to exert all his strength to struggle and wriggle, trying to break free from the Chui Hun Nail's restraint. Unfortunately, his efforts were in vain. He exerted all his strength but only managed to turn halfway.
"Give it up, you'll never break free," the figure in the black robe said, watching his futile efforts. He didn't stop Chu Liang's struggle, just sneered mockingly, "When I bring her into the Netherworld Book, it will be your turn next. Then you two won't be lonely anymore, you can be together."
With that, he glanced at the sky outside, his expression serious, getting ready to activate the formation.
The people of the demonic path, walking the rivers and lakes, were cautious due to the secrecy of their practices.
Just like the formation he had just set up, which would be triggered by any divine consciousness probing, they had to resort to such measures for survival.
Of course, he could easily capture these two Divine Will realms. But he also knew that with these two, there would definitely be more to follow. He had to complete the soul-capturing ritual as quickly as possible and then leave this place.
So he stopped wasting his breath.
With a lift of his hand and a change of finger gestures, suddenly all the black candles burst into a high ball of dark fire, coalescing in mid-air and faintly forming a gateway!
"Come, my precious..."
He gazed at Song Qingyi with cold, crazed eyes, slowly raising his hand.
"Yin and Yang person!" At this moment, Chu Liang suddenly shouted out.
His cultivation level was higher than Song Qingyi's at this time, although both were unable to fully break free from Soul-Piercing Nails, he was much more fluent when speaking.
The figure in the black robe stiffened, glanced at Chu Liang, then ignored him and continued to raise his hand toward Song Qingyi.
"Lousy ass!" Chu Liang cursed again.
"Hmm?" The person in the black robe gave him another glare, furrowed his brow, but still paid him no heed.
After all, it would be his turn soon; there was no need to bother with a dead man.
"Your mother is dead."
"I am your father."
"You immoral, dagger-carrying, no family for forty miles, wolf-hearted person, were your parents cousins? Did they have an incestuous marriage in their past life, doing such immoral and damaging things, giving birth to a short-lived person like you..."
Chu Liang's expression remained calm, his gaze indifferent, but his mouth kept spewing out fragrant words, delivering quite a string of abuse to the person in the black robe.
Using the most polite face to say the most impolite words.
The person in the black robe, who had initially ignored him, was now trembling with anger, pointing shakily at Chu Liang, "You...which sect do you come from? Why is your behavior so low?"
"Your father is from the Shu Mountain sect," Chu Liang answered casually.
"Alright, alright," the person in the black robe laughed in exasperation, "Don't think you won't feel anything after death. I will absorb your complete soul and then torture you for forty-nine days with ghostly fire and Yin knives after putting it in the Netherworld Scripture! I want to see if you can still be so tough!"
With that, he raised his hand toward Chu Liang!
"Don't..." Song Qingyi screamed with all her might, tears streaming down her face.
Chu Liang was surprisingly calm in the face of death.
Snap.
As the person in the black robe's finger gesture reached him, a sudden beam of black light shot out from the black jade book in front of him, instantly enveloping Chu Liang's body.
In an instant, a mass of light and shadow was sucked out of Chu Liang's body, entering the gate formed by the group of dark fire, and the black jade book emitted a brilliant light.
Whoosh---
When the light faded, Chu Liang's eyes were vacant, devoid of any trace of vitality, already becoming a body devoid of soul.