Soto City, City Lord's Mansion!
When the group arrived at the City Lord's Mansion, it had already been taken over by the Spirit Hall.
It was said that, like the Xiang family, the City Lord's Mansion had been struck by an epidemic, and important officials in the city had already died.
The Spirit Hall in Soto City was a main hall, and its master was an elderly Spirit Saint.
"Look, these are the people corrupted by the black energy."
The old Spirit Saint led the group to the place where the sick were housed. Whenever someone in Soto City was found to be sick, they were brought here and locked up for simple isolation.
These were large prison cells, formerly used to hold prisoners, but without roofs, exposed to the sun.
The cells were still shrouded in black energy, and the people inside were all corrupted by it, their foreheads turning black.
Those with lifeless eyes lay weakly on the ground, groaning in pain.
Those with bloodshot eyes were violent and restless, attacking those around them.
Once their eyes turned black, it would be their death.
Ordinary people, entangled in black energy, could only survive for a month at most.
"Aren't there any Spirit Masters?" the Grandmaster asked.
This quarantine area is for ordinary people; not a single Soul Master shrouded in black energy was seen.
"Yes, they're gone!
Any Soul Master corrupted by the black energy disappears without a trace.
We've controlled a few, but they've changed, becoming like demons, attacking people irrationally. If they can't break free from control, they'll even self-destruct.
The damage from a Soul Master's self-destruction is too great, so we dare not capture those tainted by the black energy."
The attack from a Soul Master's self-destruction is no less powerful than a Soul Fusion Technique performed by two people. At the same level, the power of a Soul Master's self-destruction is enough to kill another Soul Master of the same level and injure a Soul Master one rank higher.
However, generally speaking, not every Soul Master can self-destruct; self-destruction is a skill, only achievable with special Souls or special methods. The fact that
these Soul Masters tainted by the black energy can self-destruct is inextricably linked to this black energy.
"Where does this black mist come from? How do people become tainted by it? How does it enter the human body? Tell me everything you know about the black mist."
The old Soul Saint pondered for a moment and then said,
"The black mist doesn't know where it comes from. At first, only one or two homeless beggars on the street were contaminated, and then deaths gradually occurred.
The corpses of the dead produced a large amount of black mist.
Then this black mist contaminated other people, and slowly, as more and more people died, the black mist became denser and denser."
"And what about these dead people? Is there no way to deal with them?"
"We tried cremation, but the black aura persisted even after the bodies were burned. The
same thing happened with burial; the black aura still seeped from the earth.
Finally, the head of the Gan family came up with a solution: transporting the bodies to the mass grave outside the city.
This black aura was supposed to dissipate slowly in the sunlight. Originally, after the bodies were transported to the mass grave, Soto City had gradually recovered, and the black aura was supposed to dissipate.
But last night, the Xiang family was suddenly enveloped in black aura, and over a hundred people died.
The black aura swept through again, resulting in its current state.
Based on our observations over this period, the black aura invades almost anyone it sees; only a very few can withstand its invasion. Those who can withstand it are people of strong will or pure heart, mostly scholars.
If a Soul Master is tainted by the black aura, they can only expend their Soul Power to remove it; if they cannot resist, they will also become like these people before us."
"Are all the Xiang family members dead? Were those bodies also transported to the mass grave?"
"The bodies were indeed transported to the Burial Abyss, but none of the Xiang family's direct descendants have seen them. To be precise, the Xiang family members who died were all ordinary people; the Soul Masters are nowhere to be found."
"That means the Xiang family's Soul Masters, like those previously tainted by the black energy, have disappeared!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
At this time, Grandmaster had already arranged for Ye Lingling and others to treat those tainted by the black energy.
However, the effect was minimal; their treatment could only alleviate the pain, not dispel the black energy. The effect was even slower than Grandmaster using his Soul Power to dispel it, but using Soul Power came at a great cost, lowering cultivation levels.
The best method now was to let sunlight dispel it.
"After the black energy is dispelled by sunlight, will these patients recover?" Grandmaster asked.
"They can recover, but they'll be weak for a while."
"Soto City is currently shrouded in black mist. Given the current weather, how many days will it take to dispel it?"
"About ten days."
"Lord Lan, isolating them here isn't a solution. Why not have soldiers lead them out of the city and set up an isolation zone in the fields outside?
Let them see the sunlight; it will help dispel the mist faster.
It's best to report this situation quickly, requesting support and alerting other regions. I suspect a Soul Master is manipulating things here.
Also, the people in the city should be searched, and those remaining should be isolated and relocated."
"..."
Having roughly understood the nature of the black energy, Grandmaster had already devised a countermeasure.
As an elder of the Spirit Hall, it was only natural for the Hall Master to handle these matters.
This wasn't about helping the Spirit Hall; it was about protecting the lives of innocent civilians.
Ma Hongjun was still worried about his acquaintances.
"Hall Master Lan, besides Soto City, have any other places experienced black energy? For example, villages near Soto City, or towns further away like Musu Town."
"No news has come yet. However, we've been busy with Soto City, so we don't know much about the situation in other villages and towns.
My daughter is in Musu Town, and according to her message the day before yesterday, everything is normal there.
Other places should be fine too."
Knowing that other places were safe, Ma Hongjun felt much relieved. After dealing with things here, he planned to go to Musu Town first.
"Oh, by the way, Hall Master Lan, with such a major incident, what are the other two major families in Soto City, the Gan and Bei families, doing?" "
After the City Lord's Mansion fell, our Spirit Hall stepped forward to take over the city's defense forces."
At the time, among the three major families, the Xiang family remained silent until their massacre, neither cooperating nor obstructing, living their lives as usual, seemingly indifferent to what was happening in Soto City.
The Gan and Bei families, however, prioritized the greater good, actively cooperating with our takeover of Soto City and contributing manpower and resources to help clear the city of corpses.
The solution of transporting the bodies to the mass grave was their suggestion, and they have been carrying it out ever since.
Yesterday, the Xiang family lost over a hundred people, and it was thanks to these two families that all the corpses were cleared out of the city in just one day.
Otherwise, the black aura surrounding Soto City would be even more concentrated now. "
Upon hearing Lord Lan's words, Ma Hongjun sensed something was amiss. The Xiang family's reaction was normal, as they had always been known for their independent and self-willed nature.
However, the Gan and Bei families shouldn't be cooperating so readily.
Soto City, after all, is a city of the Barak Kingdom and the Heaven Dou Empire, not under the jurisdiction of the Spirit Hall.
Even though the Spirit Hall was stepping in to manage the situation for the sake of the bigger picture, the two powerful local families shouldn't be acting so subserviently.
Something fishy must be going on!
Ma Hongjun had suspected these two families when he realized the black energy was related to the Soul Master with the Tombstone Martial Soul.
Now that the Xiang family was destroyed, the black energy would soon be dispelled, and Soto City would return to normal.
The three major families would become two.
However, the scale of the black energy's attack seemed beyond what the two families could possibly manage.
"Let's go check on the Gan and Bei families!"
Ma Hongjun suggested.
Regardless, even if they weren't the ultimate mastermind, the two families must have played a role in it all!
(End of Chapter)"