"Mo Ye? Good name..."
Zhong Shenxiu smiled and reached into the void with his hand.
A brand new black notebook emerged, and with a casual flick, it transformed into a massive red scroll.
"Little girl, would you like to sign a contract with me and become a Deceit Master?"
"A Deceit Master? After becoming a Deceit Master, can I solve those evil spirits?" Mo Ye looked at the corpse of the great monk and asked earnestly.
"Deceits cannot be killed completely, but they can be tried to seal and expel."
Zhong Shenxiu answered.
In fact, she didn't have much choice in the matter.
If she didn't become a Deceit Master, the village would be abandoned, a large group of people would flee, and then most of them would starve to death.
And as a little girl, she had an even higher chance of dying.
The little girl calmly took the scroll.
"That contains some of my research and notes on deceits... Also, sign your name with your blood, and you can become a Deceit Master."
Zhong Shenxiu smiled lastly, and his figure gradually became ethereal.
Leaving only the girl, holding the scroll almost as tall as herself, her eyes slightly bewildered, before she knelt down.
She regarded Zhong Shenxiu as some kind of deity...
In a different space, deep within.
The sky was a dull gray, with a light drizzle starting to fall.
If it were the real world, it wouldn't be much, but here it was fatal.
Because from the sky, there was a rain of blood red!
Inside a floating ancient city.
Every household's doors were tightly shut, with not a single person daring to move outside.
This was a world born from a curse, where everyone faced the threat of deceits, constantly undertaking various trials to compete for the last qualified 'vessel'!
Therefore, here, the appearance of deceits was common knowledge!
Even occasionally, there would be large-scale deceit outbreaks, selecting many people for bloody and cruel trials.
Sometimes everyone perished, sometimes only one or two people would survive.
And every sixty years, an extremely horrifying final trial would be held, only those who excelled in the trials could participate, and the result, as always, was total annihilation.
Such blood rain was very common in 'Ancient City,' signifying a deceit!
The ghost wall created by the deceit was very extensive, often enough to envelop an entire city at once.
Then, the deceit would appear in the blood rain, killing any who came into contact with it!
The resounding droplets of rain fell on street corners, gathering in the gaps of the eaves, flowing down slowly.
Zhong Shenxiu held a large black umbrella, strolling leisurely in the blood rain, "Strange... the outside is ancient times, this world is also ancient times... Could it be that this place is all a reflection of the real world, so any progress and development in technology, changes in lifestyle, all the things from the subconscious sea, subtly appear here?"
He took a tour and roughly understood the operating rules here.
As for the King of Ten Thousand Demons?
It still manifested as countless deceits, directly in a state of fragmented sleep.
"If I take action now, I can easily erase It, but the backlash of time and space is a bit too much..."
After restarting such a long passage of time, Zhong Shenxiu also understood the operating rules.
Overall, it meant small matters could be changed, but if the course of major events were altered, one had to be prepared for the history to change completely, with all consequences falling upon himself.
And even with his power at the level of Dharma Body, it seemed almost unbearable to sustain such world-shaking changes.
"In short, if I kill the King of Ten Thousand Demons now, I might not be able to return to the 'future.' I could only stay in this timeline, slowly waiting for history to progress to that moment..."
"Or perhaps, I need to leave behind enough power and an embodiment, play the role of the 'King of Ten Thousand Demons,' bear the historical mantle? Only then can I smooth over the temporal backlash and return to the future, and then I would discover, damn it, that the King of Ten Thousand Demons opposite me is still myself... I always feel that doing so is fraught with dangers; I might truly end up with a split personality..."
"No, I need to think of a more clever solution..."
He pondered for a moment, and immediately behind him, a huge Innate Eight Diagrams materialized and began to calculate.
The divination method of the Supreme Dragon and Tiger Sect was unmatched in all the land.
And having already known most of the history, having cleared away the fog, calculating this small world's development was clearer than ever.
Time passed, unnoticed, and Zhong Shenxiu's thoughts stirred as he stepped into the void.
When he reappeared, he had already arrived at another corner of the city.
A piercing cry rang out from the street.
Zhong Shenxiu walked over and saw a man standing outside a house.
He looked panicked, staring at the blood-colored brand on his own body.
That was the proof of contact with the blood rain—a mark of a cursed fate.
No matter where he fled, he would be pursued by the Deceit until his life was taken!
"This man... probably didn't pay attention when the blood rain fell and got stained a bit, really unlucky..."
Nearby, some windows opened, and pairs of prying eyes watched the scene.
Zhong Shenxiu could even read a plethora of thoughts from their gazes.
The man looked desperate, gazing into the house where his pregnant wife was.
At this moment, his wife, holding a kitchen knife, trembled as she stared at the man.
"Ah Jia, what are you waiting for? Hurry up!"
Next to him, a white-haired, aged father shouted, "It's better to kill him now than to let the Deceit do it! Once killed by the Deceit, he'll become part of the blood rain and might even come back to claim lives..."
Once the marked person was killed by the Deceit, they would turn into a Deceit Slave and return home on the seventh night to take the lives of their relatives.
Only by committing the sin of killing a family member could this cycle be ended.
There was no reason; the Deceits just liked to play these games to torment human reason.
Moreover, even the gazes around them carried a sense of urging.
"I... I can't do it..."
With a clang, the kitchen knife fell from the woman's hand, and she burst into tears.
"If you won't do it, I will."
The old man's face hardened, he picked up the kitchen knife and stepped forward.
"Dad..." The man cried out, and the old man's eyes also reddened, squatting on the ground, "What sin have we committed, my Four-direction Family has also met calamity..."
He had considered himself experienced in surviving supernatural threats, otherwise, he wouldn't have lived to such an age, and he had personally taught his son, evading many dangers.
But mishaps always came when least expected.
"Old sir, may I have a word with you..."
Just then, Zhong Shenxiu, holding a black umbrella, stepped forward.
The old man and the others were stunned.
Blood rain blurred the sky, but as it fell three feet from the large black umbrella, it was repelled, not even wetting a corner of his clothing.
"Exorcist sir! You're an Exorcist, right?"
The old man hurriedly kowtowed indoors, "Thank the heavens... my son can be saved."
'It seems that this inner world has indeed developed a system that makes use of supernatural powers earlier than the outside world...'
Zhong Shenxiu closed his umbrella, entered the house with the man, and silently pondered.