A look of displeasure crossed Nangong Si's face, his gaze dark
like rolling, molten iron. He looked over, and his eyes snagged on the blazing
red of Mo Ran's holy weapon before moving on. "Who's that?"
"He's the gongzi from Sisheng Peak, surname Mo," Ye Wangxi replied.
"Mo?" Nangong Si knitted his brows slightly. "The one that was
picked up off the streets some years ago?"
"Mn."
Nangong Si cast Ye Wangxi a sidelong glance. "You know him?"
"We resided in the same courtyard at Peach Blossoms Springs."
Nangong Si sneered. There was no telling what he meant by it, but
when Ye Wangxi saw his reaction, his quietly handsome face paled, his
lashes lowering, and he pursed his lips and fell silent.
"If he's going to keep waiting, then I may as well grant him some
face," Nangong Si said. "A master of a holy weapon at such a young age? I
gotta see what he's made of."
Mo Ran, however, had no attention to spare for the Rufeng Sect
members. He turned back toward the town, his robes whipping in the wind.
The barrier had already cracked; there wasn't much time left…
Chu Wanning, are you not done yet?
Luo Xianxian's nails ripped through the silk curtain. The white cloth
fluttered, and the plain fabric was shredded into countless pieces of falling
snow.
Chu Wanning sensed a remarkably familiar presence, but he couldn't
quite put his finger on it. Finally, his eyes widened. "Tianwen?!" No, it
wasn't Tianwen. But as he exchanged blows with her, he felt it—an energy
that was incredibly like Tianwen's emanated from her person.
The inner curtains of the sprawling Chen household were like a fine
mist, and locked within were a living soul and a vicious ghost. They
exchanged a dozen moves. With each blow, the fog in Chu Wanning's mind
cleared a little more, until he came to a sudden realization—with this,
everything made sense. "Heart-Pluck Willow…"
Luo Xianxian was already dead, her body cremated to ashes. During
their first encounter, she'd had to make use of Madam Chen's body to haunt
the family. Why, then, was she able to show her true form now?
That mysterious man had taken a withered branch of the Heart-Pluck
Willow and fabricated a temporary shell for her soul to inhabit. The boiling
hearts of the townsfolk outside, the steaming haze of colored fumes. Metal,
water, fire, earth…they were only waiting for wood: Luo Xianxian's body,
made from the Heart-Pluck Willow.
What was that man planning?
Had he gone to such trouble only so that Luo Xianxian could regain her
flesh body and slaughter her way into the ghost realm to be with Chen
Bohuan once more? Who would go to such lengths for her? She had no living
relatives, after all.
Relatives… A relative!
A memory stirred in Chu Wanning's mind, and his blood rushed
through his veins. He recalled—back when he first met Luo Xianxian, she
had told him something. She had a brother who'd gone missing many years
ago… Was it him?
"All in my path shall die!"
Right now, Luo Xianxian had a body of flesh, while Chu Wanning was
merely a living soul. While her spiritual powers couldn't compare to his, she
was solid and he was air—for the moment, they were evenly matched. In the
blink of an eye, her bloodred nails came lunging for his heart. Chu Wanning
swiftly dodged to avoid damage to his soul, then flipped his palm and tapped
the spot between her brows.
"It's useless. Try it as many times as you like; the purification spell
can't harm me!" She laughed savagely, throwing her head back to howl at the
heavens. All around them, bands of corpses in Butterfly Town harkened to
her cry. "All ye wandering spirits, heed my command! Come ye forth to feast
on flesh and slake your thirst with blood!"
Terrifying wails and howls suffused the air. Butterfly Town had sunk
into complete pandemonium, and the frenzied, heartless undead came
scurrying to the Chen Manor at her summons. The walking corpses poured in
like a flood, shrieking and roaring like crashing waves toppling under the
howling winds. The blood-curdling cries were like the screams of a
battlefield, and all at once, everyone both inside and outside the barrier
could hear them with awful clarity.
Outside the barrier, the cultivators stood shaken. Inside, Chu Wanning
battled all alone.
There was only his silhouette, his lone soul, a streak of white standing
before Luo Xianxian. She laughed in glee, madness and wretchedness
flooding the depths of her eyes. But a gentleman is like bamboo, with
unbending integrity, and Chu Wanning remained unfazed even in the face of
hundreds of ghosts. Only his brows were drawn deeply together, a layer of
gloom darkening his eyes. "Luo Xianxian, do you remember what you once
told me?"
"Hm?" She hadn't expected him to ask such a question and was a bit
taken aback.
Chu Wanning took advantage of her momentary confusion to leap to the
roof of the Chen Manor's courtyard in a flutter of white robes. His silk boots,
pristine and untainted, landed lightly on the edge of the black sandalwood
eaves. "You once told me you never wanted to become a vicious ghost. You
said you didn't want to hurt anyone." As the pitch of his voice dropped, the
wind began to rise around them.
Chu Wanning looked up to see corpses swarming toward them from
every direction. He knitted his brows slightly and raised his hands, his broad
sleeves fluttering in the haunting winds. Between his hands shone a golden
glow. "Forgive me."
At once, thousands of willow vines shot up from the ground.
Gash after gash opened in the earth beneath the flowing rivers of blood
and throngs of corpses in Butterfly Town as sturdy willow trees burst
through. The vines gleamed a blinding gold, like countless shimmering
chains, and bound every fleeing corpse in their tendrils.
Chu Wanning's eyes were closed, his long hair whipping wildly before
a face as cold as snowmelt in a mountain stream. "Tianwen," he called in a
grim voice, "Ten Thousand Coffins."
His eyes flashed open, blazing like lightning.
Those rows upon rows of golden weeping willows glowed brilliantly,
and innumerable branches sprouted and grew in dense numbers, trapping the
walking corpses as they roared and struggled. In the next second, a gap
creaked open in every willow tree. As the holes widened, the trees dragged
the dead into the dark and brutally sealed them within.
Ten Thousand Coffins.
The largest weeping willow of all sprouted from the courtyard of the
Chen's household. Fast as the sharpest arrow, its vines flew after the dodging
Luo Xianxian. However, the girl currently had a body made from the HeartPluck Willow herself. Heart-Pluck Willow, Tianwen, Jiangui—all branches
from the same heavenly tree, brought to the mortal realm by the Exalted
Gouchen. Thus the Ten Thousand Coffins of Tianwen couldn't immediately
overtake the small and swift shadow of Luo Xianxian.
The gold-embroidered phoenix on her vivid red wedding robes rolled
in the turbulent winds as the giant willow darted after her, pulling itself from
the ground, up and up, breaking through the barrier and stretching toward the
skies above.
On the other side of the barrier, the crowd was shocked into silence by
this sky-shattering tree. Those with lesser spiritual power couldn't endure it;
their legs went weak at the zongshi's oppressive presence, and they fell
heavily to their knees.
The willow tree formed from Tianwen's spiritual energy grew taller
and taller, until it seemed it would reach even the luminous moon itself. Chu
Wanning had unleashed his spiritual powers to a degree hitherto unseen.
Among the cultivators surrounding Butterfly Town, there were many whose
eyes were bloodshot, and even Nangong Si, with all his cultivation, found it
difficult to breathe, his chest tight and his heart beating rapidly. He gritted his
teeth. "A character like this exists at Sisheng Peak? Who is this Yuheng
Elder?"
Next to him, Li Wuxin remained unruffled; he was the head of a sect,
after all; he could handle this much. "Nangong-gongzi, this man is Chu
Wanning, I tell you!"
"What?!" This startling news, on top of the already intense spiritual
pressure, was too much. Nangong Si choked and spat out a mouthful of blood.
"It's…Chu-zongshi?"
"Young master, please don't speak anymore." Seeing that he was hurt,
Ye Wangxi raised a hand and pressed two meridian points on Nangong Si's
body to help him circulate his spiritual powers. Yet unexpectedly, Nangong
Si wasn't grateful in the slightest. He pushed Ye Wangxi roughly away and
wiped the blood from his lips. "Don't touch me."
Ye Wangxi fell silent.
"Ye-gongzi, allow me." Song Qiutong nominated herself in a small
voice.
Being a Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast, she wasn't greatly affected. She
stepped forward gracefully, her lovely eyes delicate and fearful as she gazed
at Ye Wangxi.
Yet this time, Ye Wangxi didn't seem so friendly as he had been when
they'd first met—he completely ignored her.
Having received the cold shoulder, Song Qiutong turned to gaze at
Nangong Si with tear-filled eyes. Nangong Si's attitude toward her was much
improved compared to their first encounter, but he, too, declined. "Your help
isn't needed. I was merely shocked to hear of someone I haven't seen in
many years. I'm not that weak. If you have free time, go help others."
From where he stood, Mo Ran didn't notice at all this exchange
between Song Qiutong and the two gongzi of the Rufeng Sect. He'd dropped
down beside Chu Wanning's vacant body, lifting his head to watch Chu
Wanning's living soul engaged in the heat of battle with Luo Xianxian within
the barrier. He looked at that army of corpses temporarily sealed by
thousands of willow trees, his heart and mind surging with alarm and anxiety.
To use a spell like this, even under normal circumstances, would
exhaust one's spiritual powers—and moreover, Chu Wanning's soul was
currently outside his body. Just how ridiculously powerful was this man…
Before Mo Ran could finish the thought, an ear-splitting cry rent the
air.
In the end, the Heart-Pluck Willow was no match for Tianwen.
Beneath the lonely moon, Luo Xianxian was bound by the willow vines,
branches and leaves sprouting fast and swallowing her rapidly. That
colossal, sky-scraping tree enveloped her completely within in its trunk.
Finally, the ancient willow that had touched the clouds shrank slowly toward
the ground, gradually descending until it stood equal once more with the
other willows.
By now the barrier had been completely shattered. But since the Ten
Thousand Coffins conjured by Tianwen still held the scores of walking
corpses hostage, the danger was still held at bay.
Even so, Xue Zhengyong didn't dare relax his guard and ordered
Sisheng Peak's people to stand sentinel before every willow tree. As for the
others, they dashed straight for the courtyard of the Chen Manor. In such a
dire situation, Mo Ran didn't think twice; he immediately swept up Chu
Wanning's cold body into his arms and rushed over with the rest.
When the group arrived, the ancient willow chaining Luo Xianxian had
transformed into a coffin. The girl lay within, her expression fluctuating
between savagery and sorrow, her eyes sometimes vicious, sometimes
aggrieved. Two distinct voices spilled from her lips, switching from one to
the other. The first was full of madness as it raged, "Why do you obstruct me!
Why do you obstruct me! You all deserve death! Every last one of you!" The
other voice was soft and helpless: "Yanluo-gege, is it you…is it you who's
come? Please, I beg you, save me… I don't want to hurt people. Please…"
The two voices rose and fell, back and forth, until after a long while, silence
reigned within the coffin.
At this point, the spiritual power of Chu Wanning's living soul was at
its limit; he was barely holding on. Yet, relying on his will alone, he pressed
his fingers between the brows of the girl in the coffin. "Speak thy name."
The ghost girl slowly opened her eyes; they were still that violent red.
"Watch out!" Li Wuxin blurted. Just as he was about to charge forward
and end the maiden's life, Chu Wanning pointed a finger and a bolt of
lightning cracked down in Li Wuxin's path, stopping him in his tracks.
"Chu Wanning, you—!"
Chu Wanning ignored him. His eyes were locked on the delicate girl as
she haltingly sat up in the willow coffin. No trace of killing intent lay in her
bloodred eyes. Instead, they were full of panic and loss as she answered
softly, "I am Luo Xianxian."
When Chu Wanning heard her answer, he finally breathed a sigh of
relief. His lashes fluttered closed as the projection of his living soul faded. A
moment later, the man in Mo Ran's arms twitched gently. Mo Ran quickly set
him down, propping him against a pillar in the courtyard. He got down on
one knee, bringing himself to Chu Wanning's level. "Shizun, are you back?"
Chu Wanning's phoenix eyes were dazed, and it was several seconds
before they regained their focus. He glanced at Mo Ran. Chu Wanning had
depleted his spiritual powers too greatly. He was a man with a weak
spiritual core to begin with, and he now appeared somewhat frail, his face no
less pale than when his soul had walked free from his body.
"Mn…" Chu Wanning responded. He leaned against the pillar for a
spell, then rose gingerly to his feet, using the pillar for support. With slow
steps, he came before Luo Xianxian and lowered his gaze to look at her.
Luo Xianxian's small mouth parted slightly as she stared at him in
shock. "Yanluo-gege…Why am I here? W-what happened?"
"First things first." Chu Wanning's body was weak, but his eyes were
still bright and sharp. He cut straight to the heart of the matter: "Tell me, who
was it that fabricated your body? Do you remember? It's extremely
important."
"I…"
Chu Wanning waited tensely, his nails near cracking with how hard he
was digging them into the stone pillar.
"I can't remember very clearly, but I have some impressions…"
Luo Xianxian mumbled. "It was a man, he…he…"
Next to them, Xue Meng was getting impatient. "Think harder!"
Luo Xianxian wracked her brain, digging through her memories. "At
the time, everything was hazy; I didn't see his face clearly. But I heard his
voice; he had a bit of a northern accent… I think… Maybe… Ah!" she cried
out. Terror filled her face. "I remember now! It's him! It's him! The
tangerines! The tangerine thief!"
"The tangerine what?" Xue Meng grumbled. "What nonsense…"
However, Chu Wanning understood at once: she meant that madman
she had encountered as a little girl, the one who chopped down the tangerine
tree!
There was a man from Linyi whose heart died at twenty.
Who was it…
Linyi. It couldn't be Rufeng Sect, could it? Was it—
Right then, a crisp clap of thunder exploded across the heavens, and
the Zhenlong Chess Formation that spanned the sky over Butterfly Town
flashed red.
"Not good!" Xue Zhengyong shouted. "Everyone, keep watch on the
Ten Thousand Coffins! The creator of the formation has probably noticed
we're here by now—something's coming!"
Sand flew and debris scattered, and smoke and dust began to rise from
all around. Every cultivator in Butterfly Town was on high alert, their backs
pressed against one another and their long swords held before them.
Chu Wanning's eyes darkened, and he turned to Luo Xianxian. "Get up!
That man left a white chess piece inside your body. Don't let him control you
any longer. I'll help you purge it. Once the white piece falls, leave
immediately. Go to the underworld and return to the cycle of reincarnation.
You must not linger in the mortal realm!" As he spoke, light gathered in his
palm, and he clapped it to Luo Xianxian's chest. But as the spiritual energy
passed through her, there was no sign of any white piece from the Zhenlong
Chess Formation.
Chu Wanning froze. A chill rushed up his spine, like the quick flash of
a spark—he sensed danger. "Go, quickly!" he shouted.
But it was too late. A sharp scream tore through the air.
The heart of the Zhenlong Chess Formation in the sky above glowed
with a bloody red light and struck like lightning right into Luo Xianxian's
willow-crafted body. The ground rumbled, and fiery light roared to the skies.
"Luo Xianxian!"
The girl's silhouette rapidly contorted in the sea of fire, and in a split
second, a wisp of a fragrant soul rose to the skies and mixed with the
burning, miasmic fumes. The soul mingled with the fumes into a single entity.
Where Luo Xianxian once stood, a stream of jade-green light now shot
toward the heavens.
"A spiritual essence of wood?!" The blood drained from Chu
Wanning's face, and his eyes flashed with hostility. He'd been thinking about
this all wrong—he'd been thinking about this whole thing the wrong way!
While alive, Luo Xianxian must've been someone who possessed
great wood elemental spiritual energy. The villain behind the scenes wasn't
making an offering of the metal, fire, water, and earth elements to the wood
elemental Heart-Pluck Willow. Rather, he was waiting for the enormous
miasma of resentment to coalesce into that crash of thunder and strike Luo
Xianxian's body, transforming her resentful spirit into an energy source for
what was left of the Heart-Pluck Willow.
Metal, wood, water, fire, earth. All five elements were now
assembled. This person had everything they needed…
Chu Wanning lifted his head and looked to the sky. Everyone was
looking at the sky. Everything stopped; it was horribly, terrifyingly still.
Suddenly, the earth began to quake.
It was all too like what he and Mo Ran had seen in the ancient city of
Lin'an, in the illusion at Peach Blossoms Springs. Above Butterfly Town, a
titanic purple-black rift rent the night sky. Within, they beheld endless,
bloody chaos, death, pestilence, hatred, as if the eye of the devil himself
slowly opened before them.
Li Wuxin pointed at the rift. "The Infinite Hells!" he cried, voice
trembling. "The barrier to the Infinite Hells—i-it's broken! The firmament
over Butterfly Town is torn; the door to the ghost realm is open!"