Lu Sheng easily gained control over the situation. He led the group of Geshas swiftly toward the God Clock.
After being ganged up on, Zhou Quanwu's expression was much calmer now. However, her eyes were filled with indignance more than anything else.
As the Yellow Springs Witch, she was extremely powerful. However, among the Geshas who ganged up on her, at least four of them were peak witch Geshas whose strength was on par with hers. She was so overwhelmed that she could not even unleash her own Divine Energy Embellishment.
She was now in the same predicament Du Xia had been in just moments ago.
These Geshas relied a lot on the dimension enveloped by their Divine Energy Embellishments. Without the enhancement from the dimension affected by their Divine Energy, they could not even unleash half of their strength.
With so many Geshas unleashing their Divine Energy Embellishments, even if Zhou Quanwu worked with the other two leaders, they would still be powerless to fight back, let alone if it were Zhou Quanwu fighting back on her own.
The Imperial Phoenix was knocked out by a slap from Lu Sheng. He was tossed onto the car which arrived later, together with Star Sand and the masked boy. This masked boy was also a witch Gesha who had been hiding underground since the beginning.
He had been marked by Du Xia's Hunting Mark. There was no way he could have escaped. He was surrounded and apprehended by the group of Geshas in no time.
To Lu Sheng, the so-called three great organizations of the world were a joke.
His greater than level-1,000 hypnotic… no, his psychological guidance art had ruled over them all.
These children were young, but they had potential. Lu Sheng felt that he had the responsibility to guide them onto the right path.
With the cooperation of the group of Geshas and Zhou Quanwu's directions, Lu Sheng met Zhou Quanwu's father in no time. With the combination of the father and daughter pair, Lu Sheng brought Du Xia and four other witch Geshas to the God Clock.
The huge God Clock was much bigger and taller than when it had just appeared.
If they got close, they could not even see the ends of it. All they could see was a huge towering stone wall which seemed to part the heavens and the earth.
Zhou Quanwu brought Lu Sheng and the others to the bottom part of the God Clock's midpoint.
"The God Clock will appear once every five years. If we want to open it, we'll have to gather three witch Geshas with suitable attributes. The three attributes are the sun, moon, and star. Du Xia is of the moon attribute."
"Sun, moon, and star?" Lu Sheng walked closer and touched the God Clock softly.
"Hiss…"
He could sense the vast Mental Energy slowly flowing within this giant God Clock. The Mental Energy had been accumulated over the years.
Lu Sheng was the only one who could sense this mysterious power. In truth, if he did not have Deep Blue, it would be impossible for him to sense the energy flow of this level.
"You've found the sun and star?" Lu Sheng looked at Zhou Quanwu.
"Mm-hm. They're ready. All that's left is Du Xia's moon attribute." Zhou Quanwu nodded slightly. She looked at Du Xia who was clinging onto Lu Sheng. "Also, you don't have to worry. All she has to do is completely infuse her energy into the God Clock to activate it. However, I don't think the current Du Xia has met the criteria."
"What criteria?"
"Break away from impure intentions and focus on one point. Then, she'll have to infuse all her energy into it," Zhou Quanwu explained drily.
After Lu Sheng heard that, he narrowed his eyes and said nothing.
Suddenly, a few bald strong men by his side moved closer to him. They whispered something to his ear.
"Bring him here." Lu Sheng gave it some thought and eventually nodded.
The group scattered and stood watch. In no time, Lin Shishi brought a stooping white-haired old man to Lu Sheng.
"Good day, Master. My name's Liean. I've been living in these plains for more than 70 years. Ever since its appearance, I've observed that this God Clock has been slowly changing. In the beginning, it wasn't this huge. It was not even a tenth of the current size."
Lu Sheng focused and asked him, "Oh? Do you know when it started appearing?" He had a guess already, but he could not be sure.
"About 60 years ago. It has appeared every five years since then," the old man replied softly.
Du Xia could not help but ask, "Are there any abnormal occurrences after its appearance?"
"What else? Every time it appears, a small batch of people will die, and they're always children. I feel sorry for them," the old man spoke with regret. "This time, I was merely curious when I saw adults among the group gathered here… there's the army as well."
"Throughout the 60 years, you've done nothing but watch?" Zhou Quanwu suddenly asked.
"Heheh… In the beginning, I was merely waiting for my little sister to reappear. However, she never showed up. Hence, I decided to stay in the area and keep an eye on this location. As time went by, I got used to it," the old man spoke nonchalantly.
Lu Sheng scrutinized this old man. He was surprised to learn that an eccentric old man could live in these dangerous plains for 60 years without experiencing any problems.
This was a location where Geshas fought it out.
"So, what's your objective for seeking me out here?" Lu Sheng did not think that this was a coincidence.
The old man smiled strangely.
"Just give up. You can't change anything here. These little fellows are fated to come here, and they're fated to die here. Generations of men have tried to stop this, but their efforts were all meaningless."
"Is that so?" Lu Sheng was starting to suspect that this was a special rearing ground created by an expert. The expert would reap the harvest every five years, and this God Clock was the crucial tool used to gather the harvest.
"Rumble…"
All of a sudden, the giant God Clock started turning slowly. Countless patterns started appearing on the clock's surface.
A black rift spread downward from the center of the round disc. It quickly spread to the spot where Lu Sheng and the others gathered.
"According to the legend you've obtained, what should we do now?" Lu Sheng turned to look at Zhou Quanwu, the Imperial Phoenix, and the others.
"We should unleash all our energy toward the rift. We only have to keep at it for 10 minutes," Zhou Quanwu explained simply.
"Is that so?" Lu Sheng had Du Xia unleash her Divine Energy Embellishment into the rift.
10 minutes later, he had other Geshas with attributes similar to the moon join in with their Divine Energy Embellishments.
The rift grew brighter swiftly. Lu Sheng slowly expanded his main body's spirit. He carefully probed the interior of the rift.
He kept reaching further with his spirit. Before he knew it, he was already several thousand meters inside it.
The deeper he went, the denser Lu Sheng felt the Mental Energy became. It was clear that this giant God Clock had been around for a very long time.
The interior of the rift was pitch-black. Lu Sheng swiftly extended his spirit. This continued for about 10 seconds.
"Pcchht!"
A massive ball-shaped dimension appeared before his eyes.
The inner walls of the dimension were soft and dark red like human flesh. Naked corpses of boys and girls were wedged into it.
The navels of these corpses were connected to slender blood vessels. The densely packed vessels converged downward—toward the depths of the dimension—into three huge vessels as thick as human arms.
The three huge vessels supplied their contents to a slender woman who sat upright on a black iron throne.
The woman's long black hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Countless chains twisted around her body. A dark blue fluorescent rune shone between her brows.
Her limbs were impaled by black steel nails as thick as thumbs. Her lips and eyelids were also sewn shut by black threads, and she could not open them.
What surprised Lu Sheng was that the three blood vessels connected to the back of the woman were not transfusing blood. Instead, it was a sticky goo which resembled petroleum.
The goo was like nutrients which nourished the densely packed black chains on the woman's body.
'Seal! This is a seal!' Lu Sheng was startled. He instantly understood the alleged function of this God Clock.
'Using Geshas as an energy source, they'd nourish this seal right here… What a grand scheme… This is equivalent to a giant formation that spanned decades and can still provide for itself…' Lu Sheng was also a person who studied formations. He quickly understood the theory here.
"Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!"
Suddenly, a loud and extremely rhythmic heartbeat pounded within the God Clock.
"Swash."
The black-haired woman who sat upright on the throne suddenly opened her eyes. The threads which connected her eyelids were torn away forcibly.
The black chains tangled around her body formed layers as heavy as an armor.
Lu Sheng quickly retracted his spirit which plunged back into his own body in the blink of an eye.
'Heavenly Evil Phoenix Soul Pill… Open the god Clock, and you'll be able to obtain the Heavenly Evil Phoenix Soul Pill. Consume it, and you shall have eternal life…' Some highly tempting information surged into Lu Sheng's mind.
"Interesting." Lu Sheng withdrew his spirit. He stared at the black rift before himself.
"Hundred Flower, Frost Moon, Blood Net. Come with me, we'll go in and have a look."
"Alright!"
"Understood."
The three of them exchanged glances. Each of them had different thoughts. They walked up to Lu Sheng and readied themselves to enter the rift.
Lu Sheng took a few steps forward and suddenly stopped. He looked at Du Xia who was stubbornly clinging to his arm.
Du Xia's hands were wrapped tightly around Lu Sheng's arm. Her legs were entwined on his waist. She stuck to him like an octopus.
"I'm going too." Her expression was calm.
"We have enough men here. You won't make any difference even if you go." Lu Sheng flailed his arm in an attempt to free himself from his sister.
However, Du Xia unleashed her Gesha Power to fasten her hold. She was determined not to let go.
Lu Sheng's several flailing attempts did not yield anything, yet he was worried about injuring her if he was too rough. Feeling helpless, Lu Sheng had no choice but to drag Du Xia along into the rift.
He had a feeling that it was extremely possible for the woman they were about to meet to be similar to the man he met in the Spiritual Power World back then. They were both domineering beings sealed underground.
After walking into the rift for several hundred meters, the horizons widened up instantly. They entered a spherical dimension.
The inner walls of the dimension were wedged with Geshas' corpses. The dark red flesh-like walls were even pulsing with the heartbeat.
"Here comes another batch…" A ridiculing female voice filled the dimension.
The loud heartbeat sound was accompanied with a hazy suppressing feeling which hung above the hearts of the people gathered there.
With this arrangement and this situation where the person on the throne was being nourished and sealed by so many Geshas, it was clear that this was not a friendly place.
"Get down." Lu Sheng glanced at Du Xia who was still clinging onto him.
This time, Du Xia obediently climbed down and stood on her own.
"Big Brother, you've changed. Every time you gave me a shower, you'd secretly run your hands all over my body. But now, you won't even let me hug you." Her voice was calm, her tone peaceful.
However, the more she acted this way, the more Lu Sheng felt that something was off. The moment she said those words, the three Geshas behind him started looking at him with different gazes.
"What're you talking about?!" He smacked Du Xia on the back of her head.
Du Xia held her head and explained, "It's true. Every time you're done, you'd comment on how I don't feel as good as Du Qiu." There was the faintest of smiles on her lips.
"Ma… Master… if you'd like, I can supply any kind of girl for you… If you don't mind them all being dead, that is…" The Hundred Flower Immortal quickly tried to curry favor with him.