Master of Strange Dao

Yu Ziqing wore a solemn expression, looking at the two stone fragments in his hand that had merged into one. His two hands gripped the ends, and suddenly exerted force.

The power within his body began to circulate, Qi-Blood erupted, the Yang God opened its eyes, and a White Bone Divine Bridge stood in the middle. All the power was twisted into a single stream, meticulously controlled, almost entirely acting on the stone fragment.

However, the stone fragment, with no fluctuations of power, remained unmoved, showing no response at all.

Yu Ziqing furrowed his brow slightly. With his strength, he couldn't break apart the merged stone fragment. It seemed it truly fused, rather than temporarily pieced together with Evil Qi as before.

He had previously sought advice from the Mountain Lord, who also didn't know what the deal was with this thing or how to restore it, but it was definitely not Evil Qi.

As for why Evil Qi could piece together the stone fragments, temporarily connecting them, nobody knew.

Because these stone fragments are related to some deity, definitely unrelated to the Evil Lord.

This strange situation, Yu Ziqing couldn't find any connection in it.

Now, the two stone fragments had inexplicably fused on their own, indicating the appearance of a force that allowed their fusion, yet Yu Ziqing hadn't sensed any force.

He thought of the past Extremely Cold Forbidden Land, back then he couldn't see or sense the secluded blue sky there and had to borrow others' vision.

So, if it's some power of other deities, which he couldn't see or feel, that would seem normal.

The distant commotion gradually reached his ears. Yu Ziqing stowed away the stone fragments and gazed toward the West Qian border.

The migrating people from West Qian were nearly at the Dadui border.

As for drawing an outlined borderline on the ground, there wasn't one; this area beneath their feet actually served as a border buffer zone.

Dadui people coming here didn't count as entering Daqian, and Daqian people coming didn't truly count as entering Dadui.

But now, Dadui people had already placed guardians here to stop anyone from the east from crossing the buffer zone.

Those powerful cultivators might not be able to stop them, but it wasn't difficult to stop these ordinary people, who had clearly been affected by an unknown influence.

Yu Ziqing gazed into the distance, seeing that people from both sides had already met, and soon after, disputes began.

He sighed deeply; without finding the cause, without finding a solution, he dared not let outsiders in.

Yu Ziqing waited quietly here, and as time passed, three days later, another group of people gathered together, came from West Qian to the border.

When those people appeared, the stone fragments in Yu Ziqing's storage ring showed another movement.

Two more stone fragments, without acting under any force, hovered in mid-air.

Yu Ziqing's eyes narrowed, and he called out.

"Wang Zixuan."

There was no response. Moments later, two stone fragments connected at a corner and fused again before dropping down.

Yu Ziqing held them in his hand, thoughtfully looking towards the second wave of West Qian people who had hurried over.

The group was huge, with at least five or six thousand people, likely gathered from several groups to form a larger cohort for safety on the road.

The strongest cultivator among them had already reached Fourth-tier, but those children under ten were either ordinary people or already at the Late Period of First-tier, with no one in between.

Aside from the children, among all others, there were still no small cultivators from initial entry to Late Period of First-tier.

It means that those who might have successfully entered the path had likely been affected, causing their Qi to scatter.

Yu Ziqing stepped forward and vanished; soon he arrived at a small temple in Jiachen City.

"There's something I need your help with.

Lately, you have no executions to watch, come out with me."

The Yang-destroying Devil, bored and idle, naturally didn't mind, and agreed readily.

Yu Ziqing took away the Yang-destroying Devil's tablet covered with red cloth, again reaching the eastern border of Dadui.

"Can you feel anything?"

"I do feel something, somewhat familiar, yet also something annoying, not very clear."

"Let's wait then."

Yu Ziqing, with the Yang-destroying Devil, continued to wait.

After waiting a few days, in a place south of the border, many migrants from West Qian appeared.

Yu Ziqing concealed his form, taking the Yang-destroying Devil to the place, only to already see the migrants confronting Dadui's border guardians.

At this moment, the pile of stone fragments brought by Yu Ziqing popped out another piece. This piece, along with the previously merged two fragments, gathered and slowly fused together.

"Do you feel anything?"

"I felt something, but can't recall it; just felt that whatever was related was quite annoying in the past, second only to the Seven Yin."

"Let me borrow your perspective."

Yu Ziqing extended a hand, grabbing the Yang-destroying Devil's tablet. A stream of power flowed, Yu Ziqing controlled that faint trace of power and channeled it into his eyes.

In an instant, everything between heaven and earth seemed to lose most of its colors, leaving only black, white, grey, and a tinge of blood-red.

When Yu Ziqing gazed at the two stone fragments, he saw extremely faint traces of grey mist, like a dissipating fog, gathering from the east.

And the biggest source of the grey mist came from those West Qian migrants on the ground.

The children were most enveloped by the grey mist, followed by those ordinary people. Then, a faint wisp of grey mist would occasionally appear on cultivators at Second or Third-tier as well.

These grey mists seemed to be summoned, continuously gathering and condensing, absorbed by the stone fragments.