Chapter Eighty: Undying (Part Two)

With a dull boom, I felt a terrifying aura erupt from the corpse-burier before me. The ancient character for “break” that had just been driven into his body was instantly shattered apart.

Zhao Wen staggered backward at once. Then I saw his body lurch violently, and the ancient “break” character, carrying a trace of dark, inky energy, shot into the center of his brow in an instant. His whole body trembled, and he was forced back again before collapsing onto the floor with a hard thud.

A mouthful of blood burst from his lips. Zhao Wen hurriedly sat cross-legged, while coils of black, flame-like energy roiled around him. Amid countless flashes of ghastly dark light, I could clearly feel his soul fading rapidly.

“Sir, I can’t hold out much longer. The power of this corpse-guardian is simply too overwhelming. I have no way to fight back at all, and the Spirit-Trapping Grand Array I’m controlling is about to be shattered from the inside!”

I nodded and stepped back.

As I retreated, I could almost see the Spirit-Trapping Grand Array that Nie Xiaoke had laid down under my instruction with wandering souls beginning to tremble and fracture. Though it had indeed damaged the corpse-guardian’s soul, I could still clearly sense that his momentum had only grown stronger.

“What’s going on?” I asked in confusion.

Tu gave me an explanation.

On the Sword of All Beings that I had wielded were countless wandering souls, and under the savage impact of this array-breaking force, those souls had no ability to resist. Most of them had been swallowed by the corpse-guardian, and under such circumstances, his power had naturally surged to a terrifying degree in an instant.

I was so frustrated I could have cursed. The wandering souls in the Sword of All Beings had taken me great effort to gather, and now more than half of them had been lost in one blow. I told Nie Xiaoke to think of a way to retrieve all the remaining souls from the half-broken array before they too were devoured. But Nie Xiaoke told me that her current power was nowhere near enough to contend with him. Besides, she existed in the form of a wandering soul herself; if she appeared, she might be trapped by this corpse-guardian as well. At that moment, I could also feel a soul-deep agony tearing through me.

The Sword of All Beings was under my control to begin with, and every array I laid would carry my aura. So at this very moment, I could almost feel the heart-piercing pain of having my soul swallowed one piece at a time.

Buzz.

Sizzle.

Just when I was at a complete loss, a cool, spring-water glow suddenly enveloped the entire space. Then I saw, floating above the blood-soaked corpse-guardian’s head, a water-blue orb.

The orb spun slowly, and as the blue light flickered, I could clearly feel streaks of water-blue radiance flashing around my body. In this space, the wandering souls within the Sword of All Beings, who had earlier been listless and with their eyes shut, suddenly opened their eyes again and howled as they surged toward the corpse-guardian.

“You and I are both ancient corpses. Why must you go out of your way to oppose me? I can see that you yourself have had your share of fortunate encounters, and this orb is none other than the Tear of the Vast Sea, the national treasure of the old Xiyue Dynasty. As long as we join hands, we could even go to the Underworld!”

“Hmph.”

Xiyue ignored his words and gave a cold snort instead. She raised a hand and lightly grasped at the spinning pearl.

At once, the Tear of the Vast Sea stopped turning. But in the next instant, it erupted with a terrifying brilliance that directly blasted all the wandering souls in the entire space aside.

I hurriedly swung the Sword of All Beings in my hand, drawing all the souls that had been repelled by the Tear of the Vast Sea back into the sword. The moment those souls entered the Sword of All Beings, they were immediately bathed in beams of Buddhist light, and the whole space began to shake violently.

Standing at the center of the array, Nie Xiaoke slowly lifted a hand. Suddenly, I felt countless Buddhist chants resounding through the air, and within that Buddhist light were interwoven countless shadows of myself.

At once, I saw that all the wandering souls which had flown into the Sword of All Beings obediently entered a great array that had already been illuminated by Buddhist light.

The entire array kept flashing with a dim, shadowy color, while faint threads of Buddhist light coiled along the sharp edges around its perimeter.

I let out a long breath. By now, the Sword of All Beings had become one of my most important places of cultivation. Within it, I could temper my soul power. Although my body and other aspects could not yet be trained there, this kind of spiritual and soul-tempering was one of the essential core strengths of a geomancer.

Sizzle.

Buzz.

A series of sounds rang out as space twisted and cracked. The corpse-guardian stood there, while the flesh around his body was being compressed and sliced apart by the void, making for a horrifying sight.

In less than ten minutes, his body was reduced to little more than a skeleton. Blood spread in a great pool across the corridor, and the stench of rot burst out at once, sharp and nauseating.

I was speechless for a moment and could not help stepping back two paces.

Pfft.

At last Zhao Wen spat out a mouthful of black blood, and the black corpse-qi coiling at the center of his brow vanished as well. I quickly walked over to him, helped him to his feet, and asked, “Teacher Zhao, how do you feel now?”

Zhao Wen took out two slices of fresh ginger. He bit into one and handed me the other.

“The corpse-qi and the foul energy here are extremely heavy. We have to get out quickly. If we stay here too long, even living people will turn into zombies!”

I nodded. Only then did I notice how thickly corpse-qi had spread all around us.

It seemed this entire building had been thoroughly transformed into a house of corpses. Sigh. All of this had been caused by that corpse-guardian before our eyes. Rage welled up in me, and at this moment my resolve to slay demons and purge evil only grew firmer.

“I’m the same as you. My body will not be destroyed. If you want to destroy me, you’ll have to dream on!”

Just as the Tear of the Vast Sea began spinning once more, the corpse-guardian seemed to have found a breakthrough. In a flash, the blood-red heads that had been winding around his body surged wildly toward Xiyue. His own body smashed through the corridor wall and shot downward from the floor above.

The night was like water, cold to the bone.

When we rushed over, all we saw was a streak of red light, vivid and glaring beneath the moonlight, flashing a few times before darting straight toward the distant mountains.

Hoo, hoo, hoo.

Xiyue, beside us, exhaled a long breath. At that moment, her whole body appeared pure and brilliant in the moonlight filtering through the window.

“No need to chase him. He and I are both now imperishable. Unless he is destroyed by secret methods, this body will remain forever undying. This corpse-burier has become even more troublesome now. But since he is gravely injured this time, he probably won’t be able to come out and commit crimes again for a while. Let’s deal with what is in front of us first.”

I nodded. Since even Xiyue said so, there was naturally nothing more Zhao Wen and I could do.