Chapter 670: It was an anomaly!
"Disappointing. Utterly disappointing. The deaths of your subordinates have been well recorded after their soul lamps all went out. But for a week, you have not sent word about what you encountered. Now, you’re saying you haven’t even reached the site where the Ancient Flame Seed was rumored to appear? You got intercepted by foreign creatures?"
Standing before the statue of the Violet Deity, Zuo Tianqiong had his hands behind his back as he looked down on the kneeling Mu Wuyan.
His mood was already dark for having no progress on the task that the Violet Deity had left him. Now, the Grand Elder that he sent away as a punishment for his incompetence against a measly store in the Eastern Abyssal Domain had returned in failure.
Mu Wuyan coughed, splashing the pristine, violet-veined marble floor with his blood. He was still seriously injured but now that he was also being subjected to the Temple Master’s Immortal Embryo aura, his injuries made every breath a battle.
"Temple Master," Mu Wuyan forced the words out through clenched teeth. "It is this lowly servant’s fault. I have seriously underestimated these foreign creatures. If it were only an ambush, I was confident to defend against them... However, the nature of the enemy defies all logic of our cultivation. They were an anomaly."
"An anomaly," Zuo Tianqiong narrowed his eyes as the word rolled off his tongue with a dangerous, glacial calm. He descended the steps from the statue, his long violet robes trailing behind him like a shadow. "We are the Violethaven Temple. We burn or freeze anomalies under the might of our Violet Fire and Ice. You, a Void Refinement Stage cultivator, dare to tell me you were powerless? Have you only been relying on the heaven-grade artifact that you let someone destroy?"
"T-this... The situation is different, Temple Master. These creatures, they fed on our flame and ice." Mu Wuyan confessed, the memory of the terrifying encounter forced his ruined body to tremble. Even his desperate escape out of the Crimson Waste made him abandon any thought of struggling if ever he faced an encirclement of those qi-eating anomalies. "All I know is these creatures are wrapped in verdant vines. They consume spiritual energy, Temple Master. The barrier of the ship was consumed by them, and the hotter our flames burned, the thicker their armor grew. If there were only a few of them, prevailing would’ve been possible even with that disadvantage, but they came as a horde..."
Elder Bing Xin, standing silently to the side, felt a chill run down her spine that had nothing to do with her cultivation. "Consume spiritual energy? What kind of creatures are those?"
"They might’ve been the creatures from the Outer Realms. An Anchor has stabilized within the Crimson Waste. And... they might be coming to us. A calamity.
Zuo Tianqiong harrumphed as he waved his sleeves, sending Mu Wuyan tumbling backwards, "Humph! Calamity? What kind of calamity can our Temple not withstand?!"
Over the years, the Temple had not been without enemies. And every time, they would come out on top. Even that middling store that dared declare itself as their Temple’s enemy wasn’t enough to be counted as a threat.
To him, unless the Violet Deity willed it, no one could topple their prestige.
His use of the Vanguard Accords wasn’t because of the store. It was only because the Violet Deity ordered him to do so. To contact the entities on the other side of the Anchor.
If we wanted to, he could’ve sent a few Void Refinement Stage Elders to raze the Eastern Abyssal Domain. But he found it beneath him to move against such trivial matters while a divine edict hung over his head.
"Pathetic. You speak of calamities like a frightened mortal, Mu Wuyan," Zuo Tianqiong sneered, looking down at the broken Grand Elder. "If these creatures consume spiritual energy, it simply means they are mindless beasts driven by hunger. And beasts can be leashed and directed."
He turned back toward the shrouded statue of the Violet Deity, his mind already spinning the disaster into some kind of opportunity. One that he needed to grasp.
"If the Dreilling of the Highland Realm proves too difficult to negotiate with, perhaps these... verdant abominations will serve as a suitable alternative. A swarm that consumes our enemies’ spiritual barriers? Imagine turning such a force loose upon the Eastern Abyssal Domain. Their ’Convenience Saint’ would watch his precious barriers and arrays be devoured from the outside in."
"Temple Master, no!" Mu Wuyan gasped, pushing himself up on one trembling arm. The desperation in his voice was genuine. While he was still hateful of that damned Shopkeeper for destroying his artifact, he knew that if the East was already dealing with those foreign creatures, the key to stopping the scourge had long been unearthed by them.
"They are not mindless! I saw... I saw them being directed. They hunt in packs, driven by a collective will. If you attempt to leash them, they will simply consume the leash, the hand that holds it, and the arm attached to it! They are a plague!"
Zuo Tianqiong’s expression turned blank and cold. He raised a single finger, and a pulse of pure, suffocating Violet Glacial Qi slammed into Mu Wuyan, freezing the blood on his lips and pinning him to the floor with absolute force.
"You forget your place, exile," The Temple Master whispered, his voice echoing like cracking glaciers in the vast hall. "You were sent to find a flame seed, and you returned with excuses and fear after leaving behind the lives of your subordinates. You will be confined to the Penance Caves until you remember the pride of Violethaven. Elder Bing Xin!"
Bing Xin stepped forward, her head bowed perfectly. "Temple Master."
"Take this broken tool away. Dispatch a team of our finest stealth operatives to the Crimson Waste to seek that place with a stabilized Anchor. They are to capture a specimen of these... energy-eaters. Alive. If the Violet Deity commands us to use the chaos of the Outer Realms, we shall forge a weapon from it, regardless of the danger."
He looked back at the statue, his ambition blinding him to the obvious reality. "We are the masters of the West. We do not adapt to anomalies. We force anomalies to adapt to us."
Bing Xin hesitated for a moment but she eventually gritted her teeth. Getting revenge for the loss she suffered at the East would still have to wait.
"It shall be done, Temple Master," She replied softly, suppressing the deep, freezing dread settling in her gut as she grabbed the frozen collar of Mu Wuyan and dragged him from the hall. "Senior Brother, you must heal yourself first."
—
Lin Mo opened his eyes and sensed the warmth on both sides of him. He had no idea exactly how it came to this, but... after touring the newly expanded Shopkeeper’s Quarters and deciding to rest in his new room, the two women followed him inside.
To his left, Wu Meiyu was curled onto his side, her dark, silken hair fanned out across the pillows. Her breathing was steady, the elegant curve of her chest rose and fell in a slow, tranquil rhythm.
Even in sleep, the First Princess maintained a refined posture. However, the clearly intentional grip she had on Lin Mo’s chest openly declared her lingering possessiveness.
To his right, Yu Qingyan was a picture of serene exhaustion. Her head was resting lightly against his shoulder, her verdant green robes slightly tangled around her legs.
Her face, usually set in the composed mask of the Verdant Sky Pavilion Emissary, looked startlingly peaceful. And Lin Mo could see the faint flush born from what had transpired between them still lingering on her cheeks.
The [Twin-Frost Resonance Ring] on her finger pressed against his side, pulsing in a steady rhythm that perfectly matched his own heartbeat.
Lin Mo lay perfectly still, staring at the vaulted ceiling of his new bedroom.
He thought as he carefully modulated his breathing so as not to wake either of them, "This might be arguably the most perilous situation I have faced since arriving in this realm. How did it get to this?"
He tried to retrace the steps that had led to this situation.
The tour of the upgraded quarters had been impressive.
The system had expanded the living space into something resembling a high-end penthouse suite.
Not that he had lived in one before, but he at least saw the luxuriousness of such accommodation.
The communal lounge area had grown, featuring panoramic windows that looked out over an endlessly shifting scenery. He and his employees could now rest in it during their breaks.
The kitchen had been moved and upgraded with more mimicry of high-end appliances and automated spirit-fire stoves. As for the bathrooms... well, they became mini-spas in their own right.
But the biggest change was the bedrooms.
Gone was the single, communal sleeping area that he previously partitioned. The expansion had generated distinct, personalized rooms branching off from the main lounge, giving everyone their own privacy.
As for his bedroom and how the two women somehow ended up sleeping with him, he was beginning to recall it.
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