A Will Eternal

Bai Xiaochun looked at the glowing light that was the restrictive spell, and hesitated. He didn’t want to make a deal with the three great clans unless it was absolutely necessary. After all, it would be hard to tell how things would work out in the end, and he would definitely be putting himself in a lot of danger.

If he could really control the giant ghost king’s cultivation base with a restrictive spell, then that would be worth taking the risk. After all, if it didn’t work, he could simply toss him aside and flee. But if it worked....

Although the thought was very enticing, his eyes widened with anger.

“Even now you dare to screw with me, old bastard?!?!” Bai Xiaochun raged.

“No! I'm really not! Brother Bai Hao, you have to trust me. I'm... I'm really not trying to trick you!!” The giant ghost king was getting very anxious. He really was telling the truth, and had no desire to try to trick Bai Xiaochun. If he did, and it was revealed, then he would be putting his life at risk.

“Bullcrap!” Bai Xiaochun yelled.

“I'm really not lying... I swear it....” Feeling he had no other choice, the giant ghost king began to swear an actual oath.

By this point, Bai Xiaochun was getting the sense that the giant ghost king really was being sincere. However, he still didn’t feel comfortable with the situation, so he gave a cold snort and slapped his bag of holding.

“Get out here right now, little turtle!”

However, there was no reaction whatsoever from his bag of holding....

“Fudge!” Bai Xiaochun yelled angrily. “I'm warning you, little turtle, all of this trouble is because of you, so if you don’t get out here immediately, then you and I are done for. Forever! Got it? Don’t ever come to me for help with anything again!”

A moment later, his bag of holding vibrated, and the little turtle poked his head out into the open. Looking a bit embarrassed, and simultaneously ingratiating, he said, “Don’t get angry, kid. Uh... I didn’t realize things would go this way....”

He even blinked a few times for effect. However, Bai Xiaochun merely reached down and grabbed him, and he didn’t dare to dodge to the side.

“Enough with the jabbering. Look at this restrictive spell and see if there’s anything wrong with it.” With that, he held the little turtle out right in front of the giant ghost king’s hands.

The giant ghost king glared angrily at the little turtle, well aware that he was the reason Bai Hao had uncovered his identity.

As for the little turtle, he was aware of his role in events as well, and could also see that Bai Xiaochun was very angry. They were all in a dangerous situation, and now was not the time to be careless. Eyes sparkling, he looked closely at the glowing restrictive spell in the giant ghost king’s hands.

After a moment, his eyes went wide, and he stuck his neck a bit further out of his shell.

“This restrictive spell is really malicious!” he exclaimed. “Listen, punk, if you cast that spell, and you die, the giant ghost king will die. But if he dies... nothing will happen to you.”

The giant ghost king’s heart couldn’t have been filled with more bitterness, and yet, he was out of options. He had originally planned to use this restrictive spell on some of the rebels, after the whole situation was resolved. However, in order to get through the current crisis, he was going to use it on himself.... Furthermore, although the restrictive spell could be unraveled, even with his fully-restored cultivation base, it would take years.

Having heard the little turtle’s analysis, Bai Xiaochun gritted his teeth and angrily said, “You listen up, old man. I can tell you have a lot of tricks up your sleeve, but considering the fact that I already severely injured a deva patriarch, even if you were more well-prepared, you wouldn’t be able to pull the wool over the eyes of my little turtle. You've only seen a tiny fraction of what I'm capable of. In fact, even if your cultivation base was back to normal and you tried to kill me, I still have ways to make sure we went out together!”

After a moment of silence, the giant ghost king quietly said, “You don’t hurt me, I won’t hurt you. Just keep me safe for a month, and I’ll get you that deva soul. Then all of this will become a thing of the past. I'm the kind of person who sticks to my word. I don’t renege on promises. It doesn’t matter what happened before, as long as you can keep me safe for a month, and I get my cultivation base back, then I won’t do anything to you, nor will I remove the restrictive spell. You can really rest your heart at ease!”

Bai Xiaochun looked deeply at the giant ghost king, then pulled out the long red spear he had taken from him earlier.

“Alright, King Giant Ghost. Since we're going to do things this way, then remove your branding mark from your ring of holding and your other magical items. That will give us a better chance of getting through this alive.”

“There are only random personal items in the ring of holding. And as for all those magical devices, even if I removed my branding mark, you couldn’t use them unless you were a deva....” He was telling the truth about everything he had just said. However, seeing that Bai Xiaochun’s eyes widened with anger at this response, the giant ghost king quickly removed the branding marks.

Bai Xiaochun’s looked excitedly into the ring of holding to find a large collection of soul medicine.... There were also quite a few treasures. However, none of them were magical in nature, but rather, ordinary treasures that mortals would value.

“Random things?” He pursed his lips as he pondered why the giant ghost king would collect things such as this. A moment later, his eyes came to rest on the red spear, within which he could sense a fear-inspiring aura. He quickly tried to brand it with his own mark, but soon found that the giant ghost king had been correct, and that he couldn’t.

It was the same with everything else. Finally, Bai Xiaochun sighed and put everything away. Then he looked the giant ghost king up and down a few times before nodding in agreement to the proposal.

The giant ghost king finally breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately suggested again that they head back to the stone turtle. However, Bai Xiaochun was still hesitating, unsure of whether that was a smart thing to do. First of all, the three great clans would definitely have locked the Devil Penitentiary down, which would make it very difficult to get back inside.

Second of all, although they had reached an agreement, it had only just happened, and Bai Xiaochun was as yet not completely comfortable in giving the giant ghost king the upper hand.

“I have a lot more experience than you when it comes to running away,” he said proudly. “I don’t dare to claim to be an expert in much, but I can tell you that I've done a lot of fleeing in my life.” With that, he grabbed the giant ghost king and began to move.

“You--” the giant ghost king began in irritation. However, before he could say anything else, Bai Xiaochun smacked him across the side of the head.

“Shut up! Are you keeping me safe, or am I keeping you safe?” At first, it had felt very stimulating to push a demigod expert around. By now, though, he had gotten used to it.

The giant ghost king could only grit his teeth and stew in his frustration.

Bai Xiaochun ignored him. He knew that at the moment, it would be nearly impossible to get out of the city via conventional methods. After all, the three great clans would be searching for him, and others as well.

“I guess I have no other option than to use the teleportation formations that Lu Shiyou told me about.... I hope I can find the one that leads 50,000 kilometers out of the city.... I would feel a lot safer that far away.” Having made his decision, he recalled the information he had acquired regarding the locations of the various spell formations, and then began to head toward the nearest one.

Before long, he and the somewhat sullen-looking giant ghost king had arrived at an old abandoned courtyard residence. After going inside, the giant ghost king looked around curiously, while Bai Xiaochun examined the place more closely. After confirming that this was the correct location, he stomped his foot down onto the ground.

Some rumbling sounds could be heard, and then some rifts spread out. Bai Xiaochun reached into the rift and unleashed some cultivation base power, whereupon the glow of teleportation rose up.

“This....” The giant ghost king’s pupils constricted as the power of teleportation whisked them away. In the next moment, they were gone.

In almost the same moment that they vanished, a dozen or so beams of light shot toward the area. After coming to realize that there was a teleportation portal in the area, the group exchanged dismayed glances.

Meanwhile, in another part of Giant Ghost City, glittering light could be seen in a certain residential building as Bai Xiaochun and the giant ghost king materialized.

When Bai Xiaochun looked around, he was a bit frustrated. He knew that there were a lot of teleportation formations, and he wasn't sure which one led to the spot 50,000 kilometers away. That meant that he would have to search through the formations one by one.

On the other hand, the giant ghost king gasped in shock. Just when he was about to ask about what was going on, he looked over at Bai Xiaochun and realized that he was about to punch the ground.

Only a moment later, another teleportation formation appeared, and the two of them vanished again....

By this point, Giant Ghost City had descended into complete chaos. The entire city was on lockdown, and there were even soul cultivators outside the city creating a perimeter to prevent entry and exit.

After the city was fully secure, more people began to join in the search. Before long, the Chen Clan’s deva patriarch appeared in the location where Bai Xiaochun had initially appeared out in the open. However, after the area had been almost completely destroyed by the detonation of the demigod soul, the auras in the city had been so disrupted that not even the deva’s divine sense could spread out very far to find clues.

Otherwise, the search for Bai Xiaochun would have gone much more smoothly for them.

At the moment, the only option they had was to search everything with a fine-toothed comb.

The Cai Clan Patriarch chased the Bai Clan patriarch all the way back to the Bai Clan. Once the Bai Clan patriarch was safe inside, the Cai Clan patriarch looked at the city with glittering eyes for a moment before heading back toward Giant Ghost City to join in the search.

There were two more deva experts in Giant Ghost City, those being Duke Netherworld and Duke Deathcrier. Although Duke Netherworld was inclined to join the search, in the end, he decided to leave that to everyone else. As far as he was concerned, his main mission was to make sure that Duke Deathcrier didn't find Bai Hao.

If he did, he would also get the giant ghost king’s true self, which would make it very difficult for anyone else to do anything. Therefore, Duke Netherworld went to make sure that Duke Deathcrier didn't join the search.

Duke Deathcrier knew what he was up to, and decided that he had no other option than to resign himself to the will of the heavens.

And thus it came to be that only two devas were left who could participate in the search for Bai Xiaochun. In addition to them were the armies belonging to the six heavenly marquises, and the forces of the three great clans. All of Giant Ghost City was being scoured from top to bottom.