"Even if it were flattened, these zombies wouldn't be exterminated in a short time. Once the zombies go out of control and invade South Yue City, then all the cultivators in the city would turn into zombies, resulting in an even bigger problem..."
"Young man, don't be too hot-tempered."
"To solve problems, we can't do without military force, but relying solely on military force won't do either..."
The young cultivator sat down sullenly.
"So what do we do?" someone else asked.
After a moment of contemplation, someone slowly said, "Taoist Court?"
"To request the mobilization of Taoist Soldiers?"
"That might be a solution..."
"Who has connections to the Taoist Soldiers Court?"
"There are a few uncles in my family who hold positions within the Taoist Soldiers Court..."
An elder shook his head, "Forget it, the Taoist Court won't send Taoist Soldiers. Even if they do, how many can they send?"
"The risk is too high, the cost too great."
"Why would that be? Eliminating demons and purging evil is the fundamental principle of the Taoist Law, as well as the responsibility of the Taoist Court!"
"That's what is said..."
"Don't oversimplify the matter."
"So much manpower and material resources can't just be mobilized at will."
"Exactly, if you count everything from top to bottom, with all that gets skimmed off each layer, the actual cost could be even greater."
"You shouldn't say such things..."
"The Taoist Court has its own difficulties..."
"What difficulties? The kind that come from demanding bribes and kickbacks?"
"Don't be snide..."
"Your mother's..."
As the people talked, the conversation turned heated.
"Alright, alright," an elder with a white beard and high seniority slowly said, "Let's talk about the important matters."
The argument subsided.
After a moment of silence in the room, someone else said:
"Why don't our families jointly submit a petition to the Taoist Court, clearly stating the pros and cons, bringing the matter into the open, so that the Taoist Court cannot ignore it..."
The crowd nodded slightly in agreement.
At that moment, the gaunt old man from the group suddenly stood up, his hands clutching a Copper Coin for divination, his face pale.
The cultivators looked at each other, some puzzled.
The white-bearded elder frowned and asked, "Brother Wen, what has happened?"
The gaunt old man's expression was panicky, his voice trembling as he said:
"Just now, I had a moment of inspiration and cast a divination with the Copper Coin..."
"The divination revealed..."
"It revealed... the future scene of the mine."
Thinking of that vision, the gaunt old man was still somewhat shaken:
"The living mixed with the dead, the boundaries between life and death indistinguishable, the living like corpses, corpses like the living, and reigning above them, a Corpse King with dark gold blood in its eyes, not subject to the control of any man or corpse..."
Upon hearing this, the white-bearded elder's face turned pale.
The other cultivators, however, were somewhat at a loss, "What of it?"
"It means," the gaunt old man said with a look of fear, slowly:
"That within this Corpse Mine, a Corpse King has been refined. If not suppressed and left unchecked, it will turn into a disaster within a hundred years. This Corpse King will become... a Corpse Sin!"
"Which is to say, this Corpse Mine is actually nurturing a Taoist Demon!"
At these words, all the cultivators were stricken with fear.
"Taoist Demon!"
This was a term only seen in the Tao Cultivation Canon, signifying a disaster that human power could hardly resist.
Even the clans or sects with a thousand years of heritage had records of being destroyed by a Taoist Demon...
Nurturing a Taoist Demon?
The voice of the white-bearded elder trembled involuntarily, "Is this... true?"
The gaunt old man's heart throbbed, "The divination is so..."
After a pause, he added, "I couldn't have calculated such a thing with my own abilities..."
The implication was that someone else had made him calculate it or, rather, had conveyed it through his divination to everyone...
Who that person was, everyone had a clear idea.
The white-bearded elder fell silent for a moment, his face stern as he said:
"Report this matter to the Heaven Shu Pavilion, request the Pavilion Elders to calculate."
"At the same time, also petition the Taoist Court, to request support from the Taoist Soldiers..."
"If it's true as said, that within the Corpse Mine, a Taoist Demon is being nurtured, then we must mobilize all the cultivators we can, at all costs, to suppress the Corpse Mine, slay the Corpse King, and eradicate this Taoist Demon from its inception, leaving no future troubles!"