Chapter 36. He felt as if his heart was being struck with a hammer, and covered in cracks

In Situ Wanhuo’s point of view, things were going smoothly in the beginning.

Almost everyone in Yuru Town was dead, the Gathering Souls Pearl was formed; their plans were supposed to be accomplished soon, and the long-awaited goal was getting closer.

But these two popped out of nowhere, like sticking out branches; one of them used their fight to snatch the Gathering Souls Pearl away from him, while the other even understood the purpose of the Gathering Souls Pearl, and smashed it without hesitation.

Sticking out branches: unexpected difficulties, usually created by someone on purpose.

All the plans they had been working on for days and nights, as well as their most painstaking efforts—everything had come to nothing.

Situ Wanhuo was startled and furious at the same time, and resented them to the core. Just grinding the bones and scattering the remains of this person was not enough to disperse the deep hatred in Situ Wanhuo’s heart, let alone simply breaking his neck.

His movements were so swift that even Yun Hai was falling half a step behind, and couldn’t stop him!

If this place didn’t limit his spiritual powers, Yun Hai’s powers would have been enough to gain advantage in a fight with an enemy like Situ Wanhuo; but now, he could only rely on his martial arts to defeat him. Even if he saw clearly what the attack was aimed at, he was a little slow.

Upon seeing Changming’s neck that could be broken soon, blood dripping from the corners of his mouth, and his head twisted to an unnatural angle, Yun Hai felt as if his heart was being struck with a hammer, and his mind covered in cracks everywhere.

At this moment, Yun Hai understood that he was indeed deeply connected with Yun Weisi. Even if he refused to admit it, Changming’s influence on his body itself was beyond any doubt.

At first, they were a cat playing with a mouse, but later, he couldn’t help but to want to see Changming more, and his every movement was attracting Yun Hai’s attention.

In order to cultivate the Heartless Dao, Yun Weisi decided to cast away his seven emotions and six sensory pleasures, get rid of his humanity, and thus get closer to comprehending the Heavenly Dao.

Heavenly Dao: how the world works

But in the end, he was still reluctant to throw away all his past. Otherwise, why would Yun Hai even appear?

He was simply deceiving himself and others, and acting pretentious.

But that person had already died.

Nothing could be done with his broken neck bone.

At this moment, Yun Hai’s mind went completely blank. He could only think about one thing: killing Situ Wanhuo.

However, Yun Hai’s expression changed slightly as he tightly grasped Changming’s shoulder and noticed that something was wrong.

The arm he was holding was cold and soft, easy to break with one pinch.

And not only the arm, his whole body turned into sand blown by wind in front of everyone’s eyes, vanishing like smoke.

Situ Wanhuo was astounded.

It was the Art of conferring spirit!

Unexpectedly, Changming used this technique to make a substitute for himself, and put it right under Situ Wanhuo’s nose, luring him closer to make a deathblow?!

At the same time—

A sword with dim dark qi and a black blade pierced his chest from behind!

Even masters of cultivation couldn’t get close with common weapons, let alone people with no cultivation like Changming.

But the Sifei Sword was an exception.

It had been following Changming for a long time, and had already gained consciousness. It completely ignored Situ Wanhuo’s protective barrier of spiritual powers.

At the moment when he was distracted, the sword opened a gap in his barrier.

Yun Hai reacted extremely fast. Almost at the same time when the Sifei Sword pierced through, his Chunzhao Sword followed, closing all Situ Wanhuo’s ways of retreat and giving him no chance to take the first hit initiative.

Although he had no spiritual powers, he was united with his sword, and its qi pierced Situ Wanhuo’s vital point.

Even though Nie Emei was young and inexperienced, after going through that misfortune, she had toughened a lot, so she quickly helped them to attack with her spiritual powers.

“Don’t kill him!” Changming gasped for breath.

As if the Sifei Sword’s black qi was chains, it binded Situ Wanhuo’s limbs tightly, wounding him and giving him no opportunity to struggle.

“I still have questions for him.”

Yun Hai stretched his arm to catch him again, preventing Changming from losing all his strength.

Although Situ Wanhuo was obviously suffering, and his body was quivering, his mind was still clear.

“Your name is Jiufang Changming?” Not waiting for Changming to speak, he asked first.

“Right.”

Situ Wanhuo sneered.

“And he said you will be the strongest person in the future? Is it possible that all others will die? You look like this now, but you will become the best in the world?”

Changming didn’t have to ask him to know who told him this.

There was only one person who came here from the outside like them, and who knew the future.

“Situ, although your cultivation is not as high as it will be in the future, you are still a master in your generation, the head of a sect; yet you let others lead you by your nose, even filling a thing like this Gathering Souls Pearl. You see, to gather spirits, you have to sacrifice your own life. Are you ready to be thrown away as soon as you finish the job?”

Hearing Changming’s indifferent and disdaining tone as he said these words, Situ Wanhuo stopped laughing, and his expression became a vehement one.

“What do you understand?! If I use it the right way, not only will I be safe and sound, but will also be able to reverse the course of events, to bring them all back to life! You know nothing, even though you are the strongest! Sick trash like you should have already died… ah!”

The Chunzhao Sword and the Sifei Sword stabbed him harder at the same time. Situ Wanhuo’s face paled, and he couldn’t finish his words.

Changming raised his hand to brush his arm.

Situ Wanhuo suddenly felt as if a thousand needles pierced his arm. The pain couldn’t be suppressed, and he was drenched in cold sweat soon, even crying because of the pain.

Of course, for people of his status and position, to cry while being tormented by their enemy was unbearable, but Situ Wanhuo really couldn’t hold it.

“Just who on earth taught you the technique of making a Gathering Souls Pearl?”

Changming was speaking unhurriedly: “Think carefully before you answer. You are the head of the Situ Family, so let me remind you: if you are the instigator, and this matter becomes known to the world one day, your Situ Family will fall into disrepute, and everyone will lambast it. As far as I know, there are no high-level cultivators in the Situ Family except for you, let alone masters. You can regard lives as mole crickets and ants, but you care about people from the Situ Family, right?”

Situ Wanhuo’s expression twitched from the suffering, malevolence and hatred.

“I want to revive a person. Chi Bijiang told me that I’ll be able to fulfill my wish if I set an array for refining a myriad of human souls. And the Gathering Souls Pearl is the central part of this formation.”

Changming: “The owner of the Wanxiang Palace, Chi Bijiang?”

Situ: “Right.”

Changming: “And she is going to make this array just to help you?”

Situ: “I don’t know. I only wanted to achieve my goal, and I never asked or cared for her reasons.”

Changming: “There is no way one person would be able to gather that many souls. Who is helping you!”

A strong gust of wind whirled past them, and Changming, Yun Hai and Nie Emei felt a pressure assault their senses. They couldn’t help but retreat a bit, pulling out swords from Situ Wanhuo. His body rose into the air, and a person suddenly appeared, grabbing him from behind and taking him away.

Chen Ting!

Using an opportunity, he launched a rush attack. Everyone was already injured, and no one managed to stop him in time. Chen Ting quickly leaped over several roofs, bringing away the other, and soon they disappeared from their sight.

Yun Hai wanted to chase them, but Changming held him back.

“It’s too late. Chen Ting is like you, he can travel through the Nine Layers of the Abyss freely, so he can hide in this sea-like boundless place at the blink of an eye.”

“It was him! It was certainly him!”

Cong Rong suddenly shouted excitedly, waving her hand so hard that she almost hit Yun Chang’an.

“He blinded me! Although he said nothing back then, this qi, and his sneer, I remember them! It was him!”

She was silent before for two reasons. Firstly, Changming was interrogating Situ, and she was afraid that she would disturb him; secondly, she wasn’t completely sure, so she was looking through her memories again and again to verify this guess.

“At that time, I heard some movements outside, so I opened the window to take a look, and I saw him killing people. Those… those people were running around, scared, and had no opportunity to resist at all. He would grab their necks and break them, killing dozens with one swoop. Then, he saw me…”

Cong Rong would never forget this glance, even in her dreams.

It seemed that he sensed her peeking at him, so he turned his head fiercely to look under the eaves, right at her.

After that—

It was too late for her to close the window, run away or take a weapon. A sharp pain pierced her eyes.

Cong Rong trembled with fright slightly.

Yun Chang’an embraced her subconsciously.

It seemed that Cong Rong also wanted to receive as much warmth as possible, and she fell into his arms.

“Why didn’t he kill you?” Yun Hai asked.

Yun Chang’an answered him: “Because I just quarreled with her during the day, and talked harshly, I was afraid that she would hide in the house and cry, saying that I was bullying her, so I kept wandering outside the door. When I heard her screaming, I kicked the door open immediately. That person could have killed me, but he thought it was a waste of time, so he left us behind and went to kill others.”

If torturing Cong Rong to death was fun, when Yun Chang’an stepped in, they were less amusing to kill for Situ.

There were many living corpses in Yuru Town, and it was inevitable that there would be fish that slipped through the net like Yun Chang’an and her. Situ Wanhuo wanted to refine the Gathering Souls Pearl, so, of course, the more people in the city were killed, the better. Yun Chang’an and Cong Rong couldn’t make any waves and storms, and it was never too late to deal with them afterwards.

Make waves and storms: change the situation.

Like this, Cong Rong didn’t drop dead like others immediately, and even managed to save her life.

But Yun Chang’an was blaming himself.

“If only I stepped in earlier… I heard nothing at that time, if I…”

Yun Hai wasn’t very compassionate, even though the two of them were his parents. All these events had already happened in the past, and now everything was simply following the original track.

But not completely without changes.

At least, the Gathering Souls Pearl that originally contained more than ten thousand souls for the formation, was smashed.

Souls, refined for an array, nourished it, suffered for the formation, going there in circles with no chance to escape.

Now, these souls ascended to the sky and dispersed, going where they should have.

“I remember Yun Weisi saying that the Nine Layers of the Abyss wasn’t created by the forces of one person. Except for him, Chi Bijiang was also working hard. Now, it seems that all this so-called help was only the continuation of what they hadn’t finished.”

The corners of Changming’s mouth curled up mockingly.

Nie Emei said hesitantly: “I’ve heard my shifu say the Wanxiang Palace is proficient in the Art of calculating celestial phenomena, the Art of seeing past and future, and especially in the Art of divination, the Eight Trigram Formations, and so on. Chi Bijiang is the owner of the Wanxiang Palace nowadays, the best of the best. But she usually lives in seclusion. Common people offer her fortunes for going down the mountain, but can’t even catch a glimpse of her. Why would Chi Bijiang be a part of this, just why do they need to refine a Gathering Souls Pearl for their formation? Don’t tell me that she also wants to revive someone?”

Art of seeing past and future: lit. to learn what happened 500 years ago and will happen 500 years later.

Yun Hai said: “Gathering souls is gathering resentments. Things like grievances are not actually that much different from the sun and moon’s essence, but can be collected faster: you don’t have to find a blessed spot and cultivate laboriously. Many people who want to take a shortcut choose this way. If you think about it carefully, to gather so many resenting souls overnight, you’ll have to act like them. If you want to poison drinking water or the everyday spice of the people from the town, the Huliang Grass is an excellent host for your poison.”

Changming: “If that formation is really enough to reverse the course of events, reviving people or raising cultivation levels, and doesn’t require spending much effort, then its value goes beyond what you can imagine. People who support such a formation can create their own new world, act there as they please, granting life or death, giving or seizing properties at will, and governing the destiny of mankind.”

Having said this, he stopped for a while, as if thinking of something.

Yun Hai snorted with laughter: “If you have already figured it out, why not say it aloud? Then let me speak in your stead. The Liuhe Zhutian Formation was originally set not for the purpose of protecting the Human World from the demons, but as a formation to draw the souls of the dead with the aid of demons!”

Changming: “I was one of those who held the formation. Although I’m not as proficient as Chi Bijiang, if someone tried to fool me under my nose, I would have noticed it. Unless—”

Yun Hai: “Unless that person used a moment when you were distracted, changed the formation, inserted a Gathering Souls Pearl, and used the souls as a [banner], turning the Sacred Mountain Wan into the deepest hell, then letting it reach every corner of the world!”

The deepest hell of internal sufferings: the lowest Naraka (level of the hell) in Buddhism.

Changming rubbed his temples. These memories were vague and broken, and he couldn’t recall what happened in detail.

But now, Situ Wanhuo appeared, and the entire matter could be deduced easily.

Everything they had seen so far was only the tip of an iceberg, not even worth mentioning.

“At that year, you agreed to help them with the formation, becoming one of its supporters, but your purpose was originally poles apart from theirs. The formation was fine at first, and, with Chi Bijiang’s skills, deceiving your eyes wasn’t an impossible feat. After that accident, the casualties were heavy, your soul was damaged and started to drift about in the Yellow Springs. For an unknown reason, the formation mostly failed, so they could only settle for second best, and sealed the Nine Layers of the Abyss, creating such a bizarre place for neither humans nor ghosts.”

Yun Hai was almost right about the cause and effect, but Nie Emei and others were puzzled, thinking that their dialogue was mysterious and odd. They knew nothing about the Liuhe Zhutian Formation or the Nine Layers of the Abyss.

“That Chen Ting,” Yun Hai said, “obviously has a tremendously high cultivation, but pretends to be low-key. He followed you, calling himself a companion, but was actually keeping an eye on your movements, only to prevent you from changing the past. Even if he isn’t one of those who set the formation many years ago, he certainly knows much!”

Changming: “There was also that demon. He looked like he was going to kill Chen Ting, but they are actually on the same side.”

“Enough!”

Yun Chang’an suddenly interrupted them.

“Are the thousands of people’s lives in Yuru Town as insignificant as ants in the eyes of cultivators like you?! Innumerable lives! When I take a breath, I can only smell and taste blood! Even if you uncover this conspiracy, will all these people come back to life?! They were alive and fine in the morning, talking and laughing, and now they became like this! Is your cultivation built on the blood and flesh of common people? What ‘cultivators’, obviously, you are butchers! Demons!”

After all, he was only a youth of ten-something years, a son of the rich who was usually enjoying life without thinking of the future. After going through a large accident like this, he had a breakdown, so he could only shout loudly to vent his rage. Tears were flowing down his face.

Yun Chang’an tightly embraced Cong Rong, who had no one to rely on. He felt infinitely sad.

Tn:

With this chapter, we have 25.4% of the novel finished!