The joy on Madame Xu's face suddenly froze, and an abrupt sense of unease rose in her heart.
It had been just like this last time.
She couldn't help but look at the Cult Leader. He had promised her, and she was waiting for a turn of events at this very moment.
The smile on the Cult Leader's face also slowly faded, his eyes darkening. Someone with this kind of personality was, as expected, difficult to deal with.
Then again, only someone like this would be recognized by the righteous energy of the Scholar's Dao.
He spoke, any trace of the faint respect he had previously feigned completely vanishing. “Young Master Xu, things have already come to this, and the ritual has been set. I'm afraid whether this dharma assembly proceeds or not is no longer up to you.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his hand to give a signal.
The Double Snake Cult members standing on both sides stepped forward, closing in from the left and right. They immediately reached out to grab Bai Ci's arms, intending to restrain her by force.
Xiang Jinsheng was among those closing in.
When their eyes met, they knew everything was going according to plan. Bai Ci was more than happy to play along with the act.
She made a token struggle, raising her hands feebly. Her movements carried a hint of awkward stiffness, as if she were completely unfamiliar with the condition of this body.
Her lack of control over the body's strength and movements made every single struggle full of openings.
Within moments, Xiang Jinsheng grabbed her arms and firmly pinned her in place.
“Take her away,” the Cult Leader commanded, sensing nothing wrong with how things were unfolding.
The cultists kept a strict watch over Bai Ci. It wasn't until nightfall that they escorted her toward the high platform at the very center of the main altar.
Madame Xu was stopped below, not permitted to draw near.
The high platform was built entirely of green stone and stood about ten feet high. Its surface was wide and flat, carved with crisscrossing dark patterns. Countless lines intersected and tangled together, weaving an airtight array net.
At every node where the lines intersected, an object tightly covered in red silk was placed. They had different contours and stood at varying heights.
Because they were thoroughly concealed by the red silk, it was impossible to see what they actually were for the moment, but they were likely nothing good.
Bai Ci was escorted by the cultists to the exact center of the high platform, where she was made to stand still.
The Cult Leader followed her onto the platform. Standing beside Bai Ci, he raised his hands to form a hand seal, and the candles surrounding the platform were lit one by one.
Next, the faint glow of the candlelight was drawn in, filling the patterns carved into the platform.
Once the patterns were fully illuminated, a strange change occurred in the pitch-black night sky.
Tiny, silver-white specks of light began to drift down slowly from the gaps in the clouds. Like countless stars scattering across the sky, the starlight cascaded down to the mortal realm, all of it landing upon the high platform.
The shimmering light fell in a gentle rustle, swirling around Bai Ci.
These specks of light had originally come for Bai Ci—or more accurately, for Xu Qinghe, who was stitched inside her. However, under the influence of the candle-lit patterns, the light could no longer recognize its intended target and instead surged toward the Cult Leader.
Standing beside Bai Ci, the Cult Leader closed his eyes to feel the boundless power continuously pouring into him, a greedy, triumphant smile spreading across his face.
He believed the ritual was already a complete success. The power of the once-in-a-millennium Wenqu Destiny had been drawn out by the array, and he was about to use this dharma assembly to break through his bottlenecks and reach the absolute peak.
He slowly spread his arms and tilted his face toward the cascading starlight. With a fanatical expression, he prepared to embrace this supreme power that was now within his grasp.
But right at that moment, he suddenly sensed something was wrong.
Apart from the first wave, which he had successfully absorbed, the second wave of rustling light merely danced around him and Bai Ci, showing no intention of merging into his body. Moreover, something else seemed to be mixed within it.
What was it?
Within the clouds, blinding flashes of electricity flickered faintly. Dark thunderclouds quietly gathered, and the rumbling of thunder echoed beneath the heavy sky, poised to strike.
“No, this is wrong—”
The Cult Leader realized it. The wild joy on his face instantly froze, replaced by terror and shock.
The cascading light across the sky instantly changed color. The gentle silver glow vanished completely, turning into a blinding, blue-white electric glare.
This was not pure starlight at all; wrapped within the docile energy was a violent, raging power of lightning.
In the next instant, a deafening roar shook the air.
Layers of lightning crashed down, piercing through the heavy clouds and striking straight onto the center of the platform. The impact instantly illuminated the entire green stone structure, making it as bright as day.
One bolt of lightning after another rained down, yet they seemed to have eyes. They precisely avoided Bai Ci standing in the center and struck directly at the Cult Leader beside her.
The Heavenly Tribulation Lightning of this world loathed nothing more than those who attempted to steal through falsehoods and deceive the heavens.
The Cult Leader had deceived both heaven and earth, so he naturally had to suffer the backlash of divine punishment.
The moment the lightning erupted, the nearby cultists had already sensed that something was amiss and retreated a great distance, crowding near the entrance of the limited space.
Several consecutive bolts of heavenly thunder crashed down, locking onto the Cult Leader alone as they hammered him.
Relying on his profound cultivation, he forced himself to endure the onslaught. His robes were blasted to tatters, and his hair was charred and disheveled. The transcendent aura of an enlightened master he had previously projected was entirely gone, leaving him in utter disarray.
He watched as another even thicker bolt of blue-white lightning took shape and crashed down.
Faced with an extreme life-or-death crisis, the Cult Leader had no choice but to steel his heart and abandon the opportunity for longevity he had so painstakingly sought, focusing only on surviving the immediate moment.
He was utterly unwilling to let his chance to reach the peak, which he had plotted for years, be ruined just like this. Yet, he wanted even less to perish under the heavenly thunder.
In the blink of an eye, the Cult Leader suddenly lunged to the side and clawed his hand forward. Grabbing Bai Ci's wrist in a death grip, he yanked her in front of him with a sudden burst of strength.
He intended to use Bai Ci, who possessed the Wenqu Destiny and the orthodox Scholar's Dao fortune, as a meat shield to block this fatal divine punishment.
As long as he could use her fortune to offset the lightning's power, he would survive.
As for whether this Wenqu could survive, he could no longer afford to care.
Below the platform, everyone held their breath as they watched the sudden turn of events from afar. Madame Xu's entire body went rigid, her heart leaping into her throat.
In her eyes, the descending thunderbolt was striking straight toward the top of Bai Ci's head, close at hand and completely unavoidable.
At this moment, only a single thought remained in her mind.
Inside this body was the son she had anxiously longed for and suffered for months to find.
If the heavenly thunder was going to strike Bai Ci, it was going to strike her Huaining!
“No—”
Madame Xu let out a piercing, desperate shriek. With her blood churning wildly, she tried to break through the surrounding cultists at all costs, intending to rush onto the platform and block the thunderbolt for her son.
At a moment of such thunderous danger, the cultists only cared about not getting caught in the crossfire themselves. Who would bother to stop someone determined to rush up and seek her own death?
Thus, Madame Xu's actions were left unchecked.
Yet, the moment she was about to break through the crowd, a steady and powerful hand clamped onto her arm, pinning her firmly in place.
It was Lin Wenyu.
No one knew when he had slipped in, but after arriving, he had been blending into the crowd, quietly watching the shifting situation of the entire ritual.
He knew quite a bit about Madame Xu, so he couldn't help but let some of his own feelings bleed through. When he spoke, his tone carried a touch of impatience and indifference that was only moderately concealed.
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