Filthy Cultivation: I Pierced the Heavens with the Merit System

These cultivators were like soulless shells, blindly marching towards the center of the illusion without exchanging any words with each other.

Even if they accidentally bump into or knock over the stone wall, they don't react at all.

They slowly rose like puppets, dragging their bleeding bodies forward, looking eerily like fake people.

Li Fuyao staggered as she blended into the group of cultivators. Using her control over illusions, she not only tried to keep her steps and posture in line with the cultivators, but also imitated Bai Suifeng by creating a pair of small, closed eyes below her original eyes. At first glance, she looked no different from the strange-looking walking corpses around her.

She walked slowly and steadily, but she wasn't idle anywhere else either.

Li Fuyao tucked her small hands into her sleeves, secretly making hand seals under her clothes. Her spiritual power spread out like a spider web, and she carefully sensed her surroundings with the power of her hand seals at a frequency of once every three minutes.

As she got closer to the center of the illusion, she noticed that the number of cultivators around her was also increasing.

Moreover, these monks not only looked more dull than before, but the degree of distortion also became more and more serious over time.

Some of them were no longer recognizable as human, twisted like hybrid monsters from a horror movie, with corrosive saliva dripping from their jagged, menacing teeth, and strange, indistinct sounds gradually emanating from their mouths.

Seeing this, Li Fuyao had to add some scales and armor to her body to make herself look more believable. She couldn't hear what the cultivators were chanting, but she could feel Bai Suifeng's unusual reaction to the tones behind her.

A strong desire mixed with resistance and disgust emanated from the soul seed, only to be violently dragged back by the little guy's struggle. That tearing and tangled sense of contradiction set off alarm bells in Li Fuyao's heart.

She raised her hand and kneaded the soul power into a ball the size of a cotton ball. She secretly manipulated the ball of spiritual power to sneak into Bai Suifeng's ear hair, sealing his hearing. Only then did Li Fuyao feel that the little guy behind her had calmed down again.

"I wanted to ask you that right there in those rubble: why would you rather suffer yourself than let it affect me? Don't you know you'll die if you keep holding it in?"

"You'd be much more relaxed if you just transferred the burden to me, so why don't you proactively ask me to share the load?"

She murmured softly, as if asking the little wolf cub behind her with its eyes closed, but gave no time for a reply, continuing to mutter to itself within the soul seed:

"Hey, don't be fooled by how I saved you and bought you toys at the beginning. That was all just a performance to complete the mission. My kindness towards you was all for a purpose. Even the risking my life and getting hurt for you was just a ploy to gain your trust."

"I'm a heartless, wicked woman, so don't you dare take this pretense seriously, you little brat. If you're this nice to me, it'll make me look like a beast, you know?"

As Li Fuyao spoke, she lifted the heavy little guy on her back.

She pursed her lips and gave a soft snort, glancing at the stone forest she was almost at the end of. She quickened her pace slightly, continuing to mutter into her soul seed as if speaking to someone else:

"I will never truly care about you. My family's kindness towards me is always for a reason, let alone you, a little wolf cub who fell from the sky. There is no such thing as sincerity in this world, and I will not fall for it again!"

"I was only angry because I hate that someone else has taken my things. That's why I didn't feel sorry for you. Absolutely not. I'm wary of you. I won't give you any more chances to lie to me!"

Bai Suifeng behind her had his head down and eyes closed, completely hidden by the arms and long hair that Li Fuyao had conjured.

In the absolute safety and warmth, his four black paws trembled with Li Fuyao's movements, whether he heard or not these heartbreaking words.

As they spoke, the end of the stone forest was already in sight, and the more Li Fuyao walked, the more agitated she felt.

Affected by the thick filth, the restlessness gradually disturbed her mind, and she could even hear the indistinct whispers of the cultivators around her more clearly.

The cultivators murmured in a strange tone, their crimson eyes wide open, as they walked step by step into the misty crevice of the stone forest ahead. A unified, eerie song drifted from within:

"The wickedly tempt souls, heed the call; blood-red eyes bestow downfall, reflecting the most obscure depths..."

Li Fuyao shivered involuntarily, suppressing the urge to sing along, and cautiously followed the other into the crevice.

Beyond the crevice lay a vast arena, resembling a Roman colosseum. The circular, gradually descending steps were filled with monks of varying expressions and postures, standing in perfect unison like children practicing a choir, swaying slightly as they sang:

"I would gladly offer my soul, even unto death; if the vile lord hears my song, he will plunge into the abyss in madness..."

Holy crap, that's really weird!

What kind of cult scene is this?!

While complaining, Li Fuyao followed the group and found a spot on the steps to stand, striking a pose and humming along aimlessly.

She blinked her itchy, sore eyes, trying to peer through the hair to see what was going on in the central area, which was shrouded in black mist and glowing with light, when she suddenly heard a loud rumble from the square, and something vaguely rose up from it.

Oh wow! Is a conspiracy about to unfold?

Li Fuyao's heart tightened, and she quickly squinted to look closely.

What rose up was a huge altar shaped like a door frame. On the altar were many strange and inexplicable magical artifacts, and a figure dressed in a black robe and wearing a musician's mask was standing among a group of gray-robed demonic cultivators.

The black-robed man exuded a powerful and domineering aura. Li Fuyao could sense that his cultivation level was at least two major stages higher than hers. Moreover, he emanated a dense, foul power, making him stand out like a source of radiation pollution.

"It seems he is the leader of those evil spirits."

Li Fuyao squinted, grinding her teeth, and flipped through her inner notebook with her fingertips:

It's you old bastards who bullied my son!

I will remember this grudge!

So what if you have high cultivation? I'll still screw you over when I get the chance!

She gritted her teeth in frustration before closing the notebook and looking elsewhere. There she saw the blood-red runes winding across the altar, looking incredibly sinister.

Li Fuyao felt a surge of madness rise within her after just one glance, and she almost screamed out loud on the spot.

The black-robed, masked figure who had been keeping his head down suddenly looked up with great alertness, as if he had noticed something. This startled her so much that her heart skipped a beat, and she quickly clenched her fists and looked away, barely managing not to reveal anything unusual.

The madness in her heart gradually subsided as her gaze shifted away. To avoid alerting the enemy, Li Fuyao dared not look again, and could only turn to survey her surroundings, frowning as she pondered:

What are these guys up to by making such a big fuss?

The singing continued in her ears, and as she thought of the altar shaped like a gate, a sudden chill ran through her:

These guys aren't planning to use the souls of all the cultivators present as a sacrifice to summon that Lord of Impurity, are they?!