>>gore
Chu Wanning's living soul roamed the inside of the barrier.
Everywhere he went, he found the wandering of ghosts and the vague shadows of lost souls. But the strange thing was those mangled corpses—the heart had been dug out of every single one of them before death; their chests were empty, some with bits of artery and pieces of flesh drawn outside, others with the white of their ribcage visible.
He knew something was off, but the defensive barrier around Butterfly Town grew weaker with every passing moment and he couldn't afford to tarry. He sped toward the Chen Manor with all haste.
He arrived there to find four cauldrons, each half the height of a man, placed in the four cardinal directions outside the Chen Manor and giving off fumes that grew increasingly denser. Rather than the typical white, the fumes were respectively colored red, blue, brown, and gold.
Fires were lit under the cauldrons, each filled to the brim with blood, but once closer, he found masses upon masses of red-colored flesh piled up beneath the boiling blood.
Human hearts!
The cauldrons were stuffed full of the hearts that were missing from the bodies of the deceased!
"Sand Amassed Into Tower[7]…" Chu Wanning muttered to himself.
He suddenly understood why, even after having searched for so many days,
they couldn't find any trace of that person's pursuit for the spiritual essence—— that lunatic, to think he'd actually go this far!
Per this so called "Sand Amassed Into Tower", the hearts of hundreds of people with the same elemental are dug out and gathered together. By the resentment of the dead, the resulting power—while not as strong as that of a spiritual essence—would still be significant for a short amount of time.
But why Butterfly Town?
Why Luo Xianxian...
Stepping into the Chen Manor, its courtyards and halls in utter disarray and everything toppled over, he found Landlord Chen and Madam Chen hanging from the ceiling beams, both missing their hearts as well. But unlike the townspeople outside, they had not reanimated, for both of their bodies from the waist down had been ripped to threads by some savage force, the mutilated mess no longer bearing any resemblance to legs.
He made a round through the main hall and didn't find Luo Xianxian. Further in, inside the Chen family's ancestral shrine room, he saw a bowl of minced meat in front of each and every memorial tablet, as if in offering. Looking closer,
there was half an eyeball mixed into the mince, and a segment of a finger…
Feeling nausea rise in his throat, Chu Wanning was just about to leave when a burst of crisp laughter came from above.
His eyes snapped upwards as the white paper lanterns swayed and the candles inside lit up one after the other.
Luo Xianxian sat on a ceiling beam, dressed in the vivid red of wedding robes and dangling a pair of feet bare and delicate like jade as she rocked gently back and forth, contemplating Chu Wanning with a tilted head.
"Uh-oh, you found me." She giggled; Luo Xianxian looked no different, but behind that gleeful expression, her soul was nothing like the bashful girl Chu Wanning had met back then. Arrogant and unbridled, blazing like a flame, her eyes were big and round still, but they flickered now with a demonic red.
Luo Xianxian had demonized.
Tianwen could interrogate a ghost only once. Chu Wanning had already used it on her when he came to Butterfly Town to exorcise evil the first time, and so could not do so again. The only thing he could do now was to suppress the demonic nature within her soul, call back her original consciousness, and ask her then.
Chu Wanning spoke, "Luo Xianxian, why are you here?" But hidden inside his sleeve, he was already preparing to unleash a spell.
"Pft," the petite girl spat. "I feel like it, not that it's any of your business."
Chu Wanning shook his head, eyebrows knitting even tighter until it looked like there was a scar carved between his brows.
"Over there in the bowl, is that Chen Bo'huan's younger brother?" "Oh, him," Luo Xianxian couldn't care less. "Only the row on the left. The row on the right is that little Yao bitch." "...!" "Of all the men out there, she just had to try and steal my husband, just cause she's the governor's daughter. Getting chopped into mincemeat is exactly what she deserves!" Luo Xianxian had already lost it completely by this point; her temperament was nothing like that in life, and she couldn't recognize the man before her as the "Yanluo-gege" who once fought to requite her.
Chu Wanning's heart dropped upon hearing that Chen-Yao had also met the same fate. In a low voice, he inquired, "Then...the young daughter of the Chens…" "She was kind to me, I wouldn't treat her poorly." Luo Xianxian smiled as she spoke, her lips vibrantly red as if painted with blood.
Rubbing her belly, she said smilingly:
"That's why she's in here." "I ate her. This way little sis will always be with me, and no one will be able to bully her." "...You've truly gone mad." A blinding light burst to life in his palm even as he spoke, the flash of golden brilliance instantly illuminating the whole room. Chu Wanning leapt up and flung a curse onto her forehead as she yelled in surprise.
Demonic screeching filled the room!
Chu Wanning acted with speed and purpose, promptly drawing ten golden chains in an instant to bind her.
He pressed the tips of pale, slender fingers to the center of her brow, his eyes flickering with fire and lightning, his expression dark as thunderous clouds.
His thin, lightly-colored lips parted slightly as he silently chanted an incantation.
Luo Xianxian's eyes bulged outwards and saliva dripped from the corner of her lips, her originally pretty face twisting into something terrifying in the chanting, "Shut up! Let me go! Blood for blood, I've done nothing wrong!" Chu Wanning paid her no heed, eyes cool and downcast as the light at his fingertips grew brighter still.
"AAH——!" Luo Xianxian began to shriek hysterically. "Let me go! LET ME GO!!! MY HEAD! IT HURTS! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!!!" She screamed and wailed, but then suddenly stopped, a sinister crimson lighting up her eyes as the corner of her lips quirked up eerily.
She snickered lightly.
"Is that what you were hoping to hear?" "!!" Phoenix eyes widening, Chu Wanning pulled back his hand and leapt backwards in the same instant.
In a flurry of white, he dodged Luo Xianxian's Soul-Shattering Strike just in time, the silk of his robes settling gently around him as he landed a distance away on the veranda.
Luo Xianxian stood up slowly, no sign whatsoever of the faked agony just now. The Purification Spell actually had no effect on her; instead, she seemed even stronger than before!
"Did you really think a measly Purification Spell could do anything to me?" Luo Xianxian sneered.
"I've devoured the life force of this town's thousand-odd people, and am now on the cusp of cultivating a body of flesh. Then I'll go take my husband back from the netherworld, and we'll leave this place and be inseparable. How could I possibly let you ruin it for me on the final stretch!?" Her original nature was gone; all that she knew now was her desire to be with Chen Bo'huan forever.
An idea occurred to Chu Wanning. He asked in a low voice, "Who told you you could cultivate a body this way?" "What's it to you?" Chu Wanning replied coldly, "Whoever it was, he lied to you. Your original body is already no more, the only way to acquire another is through the cycle of reincarnation. There is no such thing as achieving rebirth by consuming the life force of a thousand people. He tricked you into slaughtering all the townspeople only to gather their hearts for his own ends." "...!!" Luo Xianxian's eyes widened. "Impossible! He wouldn't lie to me!" "Who is 'he'?" "He...he's…" She mumbled over and over, then clutched her head shrieking,
"I don't know! I DON'T KNOW! I want a body! I want to live!! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!!!!!!! He didn't lie to me… he didn't lie to me… you're the one that's lying…
that's right, you're the one lying!!!!!!" A swoosh of red silk, and the ghost was rushing toward Chu Wanning with her claws extended!
Just then, an ominous sound thundered from the skies above. Chu Wanning dodged Luo Xianxian's attack and looked up to find a long, narrow crack in the defensive barrier, ripped through by the overwhelming resentful energy of the town. The life energy of those outside seeped in through the crack, and all throughout the town came the roars of the undead!
The barrier was about to break.
He was out of time!
If he doesn't recover Luo Xianxian's consciousness soon, he'll have no choice but to kill her.
And then there went their last lead...
Outside the barrier, Li Wuxin looked up at that horrifying crack in midair and yelled toward Xue Zhengyong, "Are we still not mending the barrier?! We gotta mend it! If it breaks and the thousand-some walking dead all come rushing out,
we won't be able to hold them back!!" "Just a little while longer!" Xue Zhengyong's expression wasn't much better,
large droplets of sweat beading on his forehead. "Don't mend it just yet, Yuheng is still inside. Just wait a little while longer."
Li Wuxin cursed under his breath, his heart beating wildly at the sight of that barrier cracked like an egg. He snarled, "And how much blood do you think will be spilt if the barrier fails?! How will you answer to the entire cultivation world then!" Then he whipped around to yell at his disciples, "Have the messages been sent yet? When will the other sects get here?!" The disciple in charge of messages was drenched in nervous sweat. "The other eight great sects all said that this is a serious matter that must first be reported to their respective sect leaders, and that the sect leaders and elders will have to discuss things before they can send any aid." "..." Li Wuxin's face darkened even more. "What about Rufeng Sect?
Nangong-xianzhang has always been mettlesome, surely he isn't so spineless?" "Uhm…" The disciple was at a loss for words when the communication talisman suddenly started glowing. He quickly read it and announced, overjoyed,
"Rufeng Sect is coming! They just sent word that they're sending people over right now!" Sure enough, within ten minutes, a wave of blue clouds appeared on the horizon, which, once closer, were not clouds at all, but a drove of nearly a thousand strong, each donning blue mantles emblazoned with the heron, flying through the sky on swords lined up in impeccable formation.
And, at their head, were Nangong Si and Ye Wangxi.
Nangong Si rode in astride his faewolf Naobaijin, jaded bow on his arm and full quiver across his back, an imposing air about him, the arrogance and intemperance of youth writ clear on his face.
Ye Wangxi was dressed all in black as before, with a cloak embroidered with the heron of Rufeng Sect on top, looking seven parts handsome, three parts beautiful.
"What is this?!" Nangong Si saw the sorry state of the barrier and immediately blew up, his furious gaze scanning the crowd and skipping right over the people from Sisheng Peak of the lower cultivation realm to land on the sect leader of Bitan Sect, the only one here even remotely fit to be addressed by him.
"Li Wuxin! Do you not see that crack in the barrier? What are you lot doing just standing around, don't you know to mend it?!" Li Wuxin was Nangong Si's senior by far, but Nangong Si was the sole heir of the foremost sect in the cultivation world, so he could only grin and bear it even as his entire face flushed red under the admonishment.
"Young master Nangong, little do you know, but the barrier remains in disrepair only at Xue-zhangmen's insistence…" And with that, the hot potato was tossed to Xue Zhengyong.
"Sisheng Peak?" Nangong Si glanced at Xue Zhengyong and let out a hmph, perhaps in contempt or perhaps something else.
Then he waved his hand and turned to speak to his personal attendant, "Just go patch the shitty pot up, all this yammering almost had me thinking it was something serious." Ye Wangxi tried to stop him, "Young master——" But Nangong Si wouldn't even spare him a glance. And, even stranger, Song Qiutong was here as well, face shrouded behind a layer of white silk and eyes downcast, looking demure and obedient as before, but today she stood with Nangong Si rather than Ye Wangxi.
Rufeng Sect was nothing if not expeditious, and obeyed none but their own leaders. Especially those personal attendants of Nangong Si's, the lot of them stepping up in sync, completely ignoring any and all explanations as they immediately set about laying down the seals and arrays to mend the barrier.
"WAIT!" Xue Zhengyong had only just interrupted four or five people's attempts, yet when he turned around, there was another already forming the mending seal and sending it flying in a streak of blue light toward the crack in the barrier.
Blood drained from Xue Zhengyong's face as he yelled, "YUHENG!!!!" There was a sudden BANG! And sparks flew everywhere.
At the very last second, just as the seal was about to reach the crack, it was cleaved apart by a flash of crimson like a bolt of blood-red lightning!
All heads snapped up collectively to see a young man with a length of willow vine in hand, guarding the barrier where he stood on his sword in mid air. His features were bright and friendly, as if naturally shrouded with warmth, but right now his eyes were sharp and unyielding, gaze alight like the flaring leaves of the vine raised in his hand, coursing with a light the color of blood and erupting with sparks.
High above them in the air, Mo Ran's brows were drawn low in a frown as he spoke darkly, "Didn't I fucking say that no one is to touch this barrier? Are y'all newbs deaf or stupid?!" He loathed Chu Wanning, but that was between the two of them.
Be it the past life or this one, on pain of death, he absolutely will not allow anyone other than himself to touch so much as a hair on Chu Wanning.
He's said it before—he's the only one allowed to kill the one he hated, the only one allowed to wreck him, to torment him.
In his fit of rage, he couldn't help the savagery of his past life from rearing its head, bleeding through into his demeanour and making it deviate completely from his usual playful and easy-going young master attitude.
Xue Zhengyong, Xue Meng, and even Shi Mei were taken aback by this display of his, to say nothing of those of Rufeng Sect.
Author's Notes:
1.0 Dog is pretty much possessed by 0.5 Dog near the end in this chapter, he reclaimed his bastard energy hahaha, we'll count him as 0.75 Dog~
[7] 聚沙成塔 many grains of sand accumulated becomes a tower, proverb meaning that many small amounts accumulate to make a large amount. In this instance, it's the name of a technique/method.