The widespread uproar caused even more people to appear. No one understood what was going on, but all the ninth layer Sky Warriors banded together to take down Ke Fang, the guard who had seemingly lost his mind.

Xue Wei was still hiding. He was not close, but he was not far away either. He was hiding on the rooftop of a nearby house, cloaked in the dark of the night where no one could see him and a smirk was spread on his lips. 

This Ke Fang had been gloating earlier that day when he saw Xue Wei and Hei Gou strolling through the village, yet now he was under the control of the people he had looked down upon. 

It took time for the other experts to take down Ke Fang. Although he was one against many, he had been fighting with reckless abandon and was desperately trying to take down as many experts as possible. 

Eventually after an hour, when he had caused severe injuries, there was no more Qi left in his body, and he was fighting solely based on his physical strength.

"Now the big question is whether or not he will be killed, or if I have to end it," Xue Wei wondered to himself as he looked at the scene that was playing out in front of him.

The ninth layer Sky Warriors were all angry beyond belief. They could not understand what was going on, and no matter how much they tried, they saw no reason for Ke Fang’s sudden mental collapse.

"Don't kill him!" someone yelled out. "We need to investigate what is causing him to behave like this!"

Hearing this, Xue Wei shook his head. As if he would ever give them the chance to question the man he was controlling. Using Mind Infestation, he completely eradicated the guard’s soul. 

Finally, Ke Fang's eyes turned dim, and his movements stopped. He no longer struggled but instead collapsed on the ground.

It was impossible to live without a soul, so when Xue Wei extinguished the soul of the expert, his life also vanished together with it.

Xue Wei turned around and rushed back to the temple without being noticed. He knew that they would start searching the surrounding areas after realizing the man had died to see if they could find the cause for his sudden revolt. 

Xue Wei had a sinister smile on his lips as he rushed back to the temple. On the way, he ran into the priestess, who was smiling slightly at the sight of him, but he just nodded his head and vanished into the room he had been given. 

"How was it?" Hei Gou asked right away when he saw Xue Wei entering the room. The latter grinned, nodding his head. "According to plan," Xue Wei announced. 

They then sat down and discussed the next part of the plan. During the following day, Xue Wei and Hei Gou left the temple and walked through the village, only to find that a somber and depressed atmosphere covered it. 

A funeral was underway, and a large pyre was evident in the middle of the town, where the corpse of last night’s crisis were being burnt on their platforms, after which their ashes would be gathered and handed over to their families. 

No one paid attention to Xue Wei or Hei Gou. The two of them were being treated as if they were air. The villagers were unhappy with what had happened, and shocked, unable to fully comprehend it, but they did not connect the sudden change in Ke Fang’s behavior to these two strangers.

If anything, the blame was being put on the sword Tianyi. Maybe it had gained so much strength that it was capable of invading the minds of the experts in the village? No one knew, but this was the theory that Xue Wei heard the villagers mutter to one another. A snicker escaped him for a second before he steeled his expression and straightened out the look on his face. 

The two friends did not stay in the village for long before returning to the temple. And when they did, they ran into the priestess on the way.

The priestess looked at them with a contemplating gaze, but she asked nothing and said nothing either. She just let them pa.s.s her and enter the temple. As to whether or not she had guessed the truth, Xue Wei did not doubt that she knew, but she had long since steeled herself for the fact that to gain freedom she had to be willing to sacrifice the other villagers. 

Xue Wei could only feel praise for her. She had grown up together with the villagers, and although they all secretly hated her, they were the reason she had been alive for so long. They had looked after her and provided her with anything she might need, but now she was still able to sacrifice them for her own future. 

The following night, Xue Wei once more snuck out of the temple and went down to the gate. Once more, he controlled another guard, who went on to slaughter everyone that came close to him

He failed to take out the entire village this time as well, but the other ninth layered Sky Warriors were starting to feel the toll after fighting two desperate experts two nights in a row. 

This continued on the third night, but this time one of the sane Ninth layer Sky Warriors made a mistake and died. 

The day after that, the villagers stopped guarding the gates out of fear for the same thing happening again. The experts opted instead to patrol the village.

This time, the weaker experts started committing suicide. One after another, they would brandish their swords and slice their throats. When they did, their eyes were completely blank and filled with nothingness, each one of them not even pausing for a moment to consider what they were doing. 

Day after day, more and more people died. It was a ma.s.sacre, and the streets in the village were painted with blood. Everyone was blaming the sword, but they were also starting to fear one another.

It was a week after beginning their covert ma.s.sacres that Xue Wei, Hei Gou, Tianyi, and the priestess started the next part of the plan. 

It was in the middle of the night - a time where everyone had opted to hide in their rooms because they feared suicides and deaths. The three gathered in Xue Wei's room before they headed to the chamber where Tianyi was sealed. 

Xue Wei quickly removed all the talismans that were on the sword. Removing the talismans was simple. When they were taken off, he felt that there was no longer any weight pressuring down on him, making him feel light as a feather. 

"Let us move," Xue Wei said with a low voice. In the darkness of the night, the three snuck out of the temple and made their way into the village.

"Watch out for patrols. Although I think most of them will have hidden away due to the risk of being ‘possessed’, it is not impossible to run into someone," Xue Wei instructed them with his compressed voice. 

All three of them were feeling tense, their bodies rigid as they slowly advanced into the village.

They had no choice but to cross the entire village. Every time they came across a loud sound, or a house with light s.h.i.+ning out of the windows, they would stop and breathe as quietly as possible while scouting out the obstacle before determining whether or not it was safe to continue forward.

Xue Wei was leading the group, Tianyi in hand, ready to silence anyone that obstructed their way. The priestess was in the middle, and Hei Gou was in the rear. They walked silently through the dead of night, but their hearts were stuck in their throat, the adrenaline pumping through their veins. 

"They will notice your disappearance tomorrow," the sword said to the priestess. "We need to get out of the Vermilion Forest as soon as we can. These villagers will not let you escape easily, especially not since you are escaping with me."

"Although they hate you and me to the bones, they still feel compelled to take their job seriously. That is, the job to keep me captive and to sacrifice their souls."

"If they had not had this strong sense of responsibility, they would never have stayed in the village knowing full well that it would become the death of them. Still, not even a single person decided to desert their cause, not even the children consider it a fact. They are all giving their lives to keep me captive – and although they hate it, they will do so without hesitation."

"This is the scariest kind of people to be chased by. The kind of madmen who are willing to give up their lives can fight with a ferocity that no man has ever seen before. They can call forth a power so overwhelming that it is hard to stand against them without equal will."

Xue Wei said nothing and moved forward even more cautiously than before. His eyes swept every nook and cranny of the road through the village as they crossed, and his spiritual power was spread as far as possible to keep an eye on their surroundings.

He found that many people were in their houses, but a few were outside, picking up wood to keep their fires burning or going to the restroom. 

They were walking in the cover of the darkness, but suddenly a patrol seemed to appear from behind and in front of them at the same time. If they turned to the side, they would be seen from the lights in the windows. 

"We are going to be noticed!" Tianyi suddenly transmitted to the others, his voice slightly panicked. Xue Wei felt him gather power, but then Hei Gou stepped forward. His body transformed into a ma.s.sive black dog, and then he swallowed all light in the entire village. 

It seemed as if he had swallowed the moon; the rays of moonlight could not s.h.i.+ne down onto the village any longer, and the only light that one could see was from the houses where fires were burning, but the darkness suppressed even that. 

An uproar erupted in the village. Everyone noticed that the moon vanished, but Xue Wei, Hei Gou, the priestess, and Tianyi did not have a lot of time to consider the shocked and alerted state of these people. Instead, they climbed onto Hei Gou's back, who flew towards the village gates through the darkness he had conjured.

The patrol which had been in front of them suddenly felt something breeze past them, and they all drew their weapons, but they could not use them due to the immense darkness - if they tried, they were likely to wound each other instead of whatever had just gone past them.

Hei Gou remembered the words spoken by Xue Wei before. He flew at a low alt.i.tude, but high enough to not be noticed by the people who they were escaping from. 

 Xue Wei knew that devouring the light was Hei Gou's ultimate innate ability as a Celestial Dog. He knew that it would have drained him of some energy, but this act had saved them nonetheless. When they landed at the gates, Hei Gou changed back into his human form. After that, the four escapees headed deep into the fog that was pervading the area outside of the city gates.

When Hei Gou transformed into a human again, the moon reappeared in the sky. During its absence, nothing had been seen, and no one had moved. It was simply impossible to walk in darkness so dense that they could not even see a hand in front of themselves, let alone move.

As the moon returned to the sky, one man saw the appearance of three figures, and his eyes constricted. He instantly recognized the white dressed young woman who was now heading out of the village. 

The only woman in the village who would wear such white clothes was the priestess, and she was not allowed to leave the village. 

"Heed my call! The priestess is escaping together with the strangers!" he yelled at the top of his lungs with Qi infused into his voice, which traveled across the entire village in no time. "They have taken it and are escaping our sight! Gather up right away and let the chase begin!"