Chapter 104: Wrapping up!
Earlier, Huang Yuren had been too emotionally stirred to notice, but upon hearing Feng Xuexiang’s words and taking a closer look, she realized something was amiss.
If Feng Xuexiang had truly entered the Rebirth Formation, the jade scrolls in his possession would have been drawn out, instead of nothing happening as it did now.
Huang Yuren’s expression darkened. At this point, she looked toward her senior brother Xin Liu, who was standing beside her on the life-giving ground.
The body Xin Liu currently inhabited had a unique fate. If he were used to sacrifice to the formation, its power would instantly be amplified.
Almost simultaneously, both Huang Yuren and Xin Liu made their moves. However, Xin Liu, who had long been wary of his junior sister, acted a fraction of a second faster. He leaped from the life-giving ground toward the high platform, aiming straight for the emaciated corpse’s hand, which held the most crucial red jade scroll.
This scroll contained their master’s power, and if Xin Liu could seize it and escape, he would be able to disrupt the resurrection formation.
Unlike Huang Yuren, who was determined to resurrect Chi Heng, Xin Liu had long harbored rebellious thoughts and was even more unwilling to see Chi Heng awaken.
Once resurrected, their master would undoubtedly discover Xin Liu’s past betrayal, and his fate would be grim.
“Stop!”
Huang Yuren shouted in anger, but by then, Xin Liu had already grasped the red jade scroll in the corpse’s hand.
In the next moment, Xin Liu’s expression changed dramatically.
The jade scroll began to absorb him, and the corpse’s bony hand twitched, gripping his hand tightly. At the same time, its terrifying face opened its pitch-black eyes.
Xin Liu was utterly terrified, almost giving up resistance under the immense shock to his spirit.
However, he noticed that the souls in the surrounding soul lamps were still intact. His master’s corpse had not yet been resurrected, but it was influenced by the power of the jade book and attracted by the blood energy.
Xin Liu steeled himself and reached out with his other hand towards the nearest lamp, which held a gathered soul.
Feng Zaiyin’s body had Yang energy in its blood, and because of this, Xin Liu had previously been unable to completely devour Feng Zaiyin’s soul; he could only suppress it within him. Now, however, he felt fortunate.
His palm was cut by the spikes in the lamp, and the Yang energy in his blood instantly extinguished the soul lamp.
With one soul missing and another lost, the corpse suddenly stiffened.
Xin Liu attempted to repeat his tactic, but suddenly he felt a suction force coming from deep within his soul.
He screamed in terror as a thick death energy flowed from Feng Zaiyin’s body towards Chi Heng’s corpse.
Xin Liu’s dead soul was absorbed by Chi Heng, and the disciple’s dead soul instantly replenished the missing soul energy in Chi Heng. The corpse became more animated, even sitting up.
Feng Zaiyin’s uncontrolled body rolled down the steps and collided with Huang Yuren’s feet.
Seeing her master absorb the dead soul with her own eyes, Huang Yuren hesitated and dared not approach any closer.
Her master had previously said that the senior and junior disciples in the tomb were all there to guard the jade book for him and assist in his resurrection.
But Huang Yuren suddenly realized that her master might have long foreseen that his own soul would scatter, so these disciples, whom he had nurtured for years, were all meant to replenish his soul.
Including her.
If she approached now, she too would become a consumable for her master’s soul.
Xin Liu destroyed the soul lamp but was absorbed by Chi Heng’s instincts. This happened so quickly that the shocked and furious Huang Yuren didn’t even have time to stop Xin Liu, and the few people watching from outside the hall were even slower to react.
When Feng Zaiyin collapsed, the entire hall, inside and out, trembled, and the magnificent palace was instantly reduced to ashes by the force that erupted within.
A circular ruin appeared at the center of the palace complex.
When the force surged, Yu Shi instinctively wanted to protect Feng Xuexiang but was instead pushed down and held beneath him.
Yu Shi looked up and saw the pained expression on Feng Xuexiang’s face. He quickly supported his shoulder and asked, “Are you hurt?”
“I…” Feng Xuexiang began to speak, but the two jade scrolls on him suddenly floated up and shot like arrows toward Chi Heng’s sitting corpse.
These two scrolls had been taken from Huang Yuren and Xin Liu after entering the tomb, but now they were effortlessly seized.
Feng Xuexiang clutched his chest as the other four jade scrolls embedded in his chest were also stirred, eager to break through his flesh.
A vortex rose from the ground, sweeping everyone into it.
Feng Xuexiang, the only one able to maintain his balance in the fierce wind, suddenly began walking toward Chi Heng’s corpse.
Out of everyone, he felt the strongest pull.
It was as if he was being controlled, moving forward step by step, locking eyes with Chi Heng from afar.
Something flickered in his eyes, and his tightly bound hair snapped the tie, flying forward in the wind.
Not only the jade scrolls within his body, but also the soul that once belonged to Chi Heng, were drawn to the slowly reviving Chi Heng, trying to leave Feng Xuexiang’s body.
Yu Shi stabilized himself in the wind, caught up with Feng Xuexiang, and firmly grabbed his arm.
He covered Feng Xuexiang’s eyes with one hand, breaking the involuntary gaze between him and Chi Heng, and pressed his head into his shoulder.
“Xuexiang, hold on. Don’t let yourself be controlled.”
Upon hearing this, Feng Xuexiang’s expression twisted in agony. He clutched his chest tightly, preventing the jade scrolls from leaving his body, fighting against the force.
“Ah! Master, have mercy!” Huang Yuren suddenly cried out in pain.
The soul energy Chi Heng had replenished using his disciples’ dead souls was quickly being consumed. In the stalemate, Huang Yuren, who was closer to the corpse, was also seized by a force and dragged toward the jade platform.
She clung to the edge of the bare jade platform so tightly that her fingers bled. Gritting her teeth, she suddenly detached from the body, and her gray-black dead soul darted toward Feng Zaiyin’s body, quickly taking refuge within it.
“Feng Zaiyin” instantly opened his eyes and fiercely slashed his own arm, sending a large spray of blood splattering toward Chi Heng’s corpse.
In an instant, three soul lamps were extinguished.
The suction force in the air immediately lessened significantly.
Yu Shi held Feng Xuexiang tightly, witnessing this scene, and quickly looked over at Jiang Mang.
As the female lead, Jiang Mang had a natural Five Yang Fate. While different from Feng Zaiyin’s Yang energy, she also had some restraining power over Chi Heng.
At that moment, Jiang Mang was looking back at him, her expression somewhat tense.
Before they came, Yu Shi had told her that if they encountered a crisis in the tomb, they might need her to take action.
At the time, Jiang Mang had thought that with her grandfather and uncle around, and given her short time in cultivation, what could she possibly contribute?
But now, seeing her grandfather suppressed by this force and her uncle painfully leaning on Yu Shi, she realized she was the only one who didn’t feel much of the suppression.
Panicked, she thought to herself: What should I do now?
But with her natural courage, after the initial panic, she quickly understood when she saw the possessed “Feng Zaiyin” extinguishing the lamps near the corpse.
Fueled by a rush of determination, she raised her hand, and a cold wind and snow encased Chi Heng’s corpse in ice.
“Extinguish the lamps on his body,” Yu Shi reminded her.
“Got it!” Seeing the ancient corpse, which had been there for who knows how long, freeze into a block of ice, Jiang Mang instantly gained confidence and rushed forward.
Like a fearless calf unafraid of the tiger, she neither felt the pressure affecting Feng Xuexiang nor had the trepidation of Xue Shanwei, who was acutely aware of the corpse’s terrifying power.
When she realized that her wind and snow couldn’t extinguish the dim lamps on the corpse, and the ice she had just formed shattered in an instant, she turned her attention to the possessed “Feng Zaiyin.”
Huang Yuren, afraid to get close to Chi Heng’s corpse and losing more blood, turned pale.
Seeing that his blood seemed useful, Jiang Mang ignored everything else. She dragged him over and pressed his bleeding hand against one of the soul lamps on Chi Heng’s corpse.
With a sizzling sound, one of Chi Heng’s soul lamps went out, and Huang Yuren, terrified, cursed loudly.
Jiang Mang’s spirits lifted: “It works! Keep going!”
“Are you out of your mind? Let me go!” Huang Yuren struggled desperately.
Feeling a portion of her soul being sucked away as soon as she neared Chi Heng’s corpse, she dared not stay close and fought to break free from Jiang Mang, falling directly off the jade platform.
“Why are you running? If you don’t help, you’ll die too!” Jiang Mang shouted.
Yu Shi clung tightly to Feng Xuexiang, preventing him from approaching the jade platform. His gaze remained on Jiang Mang, and suddenly he shouted, “Jiang Mang, behind you! Get out of the way!”
Jiang Mang instinctively reacted to look back but immediately threw herself down from the jade platform. Her foot twisted as she landed heavily on Feng Zaiyin, making him spit out a mouthful of blood.
Jiang Mang thought, ‘That was a waste. It would have been better if it had been directed at the lamp on the corpse!’
“You… are… Jiang Mang?” Feng Zaiyin suddenly seemed to awaken, his tone confused, but then shifted to another voice, cursing angrily, “Damn it, move aside! The formation is working, he’s going to wake up!”
The remaining soul and three spirits beside Chi Heng’s corpse were merging into the body.
The withered corpse was infused with vitality and stood up from the long couch.
Draped in a long robe, several jade scrolls fused into his body, causing his withered frame to gradually regain its flesh and whiteness.
However, the jade scrolls were still incomplete, and half of his body remained like a dry corpse, unable to continue changing.
He stepped down from the jade platform, ignoring the terrified Huang Yuren and others, and walked straight toward Feng Xuexiang.
With a flick of his sleeve, Yu Shi, who was holding onto Feng Xuexiang, was overwhelmed by a wave of pain, causing him to be involuntarily thrown away.
“Yu Shi!” Feng Xuexiang, half-kneeling on the ground, saw Yu Shi fall and his beautiful face instantly showed deep anger and malice as he glared at Chi Heng with a fierce expression.
His chest, previously torn open, revealed a frightening sight beneath the beautiful flesh—a restless jade scroll was rampaging inside him, about to tear him apart.
“You want to absorb me? Fine, let’s see if you absorb me or if I devour you!” Feng Xuexiang spat hatefully.
He ceased resisting the pull and quickly moved toward Chi Heng.
Yu Shi struggled to his feet from the side, his expression changing slightly: “Xuexiang, stop!”
Feng Xuexiang glanced at him and then transformed into countless purple butterflies, swirling around Chi Heng’s mottled and bizarre body, wrapping him up.
It was like moths to a flame; countless butterflies were burned and died, only to be replaced by more that surged forward in an endless, relentless cycle.
From their center, the power of the jade scrolls merged and expanded outward in layers, like ripples on water.
Yu Shi tried to get closer, but one of the entangled forces was extremely violent, causing blood to flow from his eyes, nose, and mouth even from a slight approach.
Xue Shanwei created a barrier and came over to pull him away from the eye of the storm.
“We can’t get any closer; we must fall back!” Xue Shanwei grabbed Yu Shi and Jiang Mang and managed to retreat to the edge of the ruins.
In the center, the purple light mass formed by the butterflies periodically contracted and expanded as the two forces viciously consumed each other.
At some point, an intense burst of light exploded from the center, accompanied by thunderous sounds.
Yu Shi felt a ringing in his ears, as if his head had been struck heavily.
Before he fell backward, he saw countless butterfly wings, caught in the air currents, drifting around him.
The shattered purple wings, like snowflakes, fell onto him.
In the blink of an eye, these delicate wings seemed to turn into Feng Xuexiang’s blood.
Yu Shi grasped a dying butterfly that landed on his palm, losing consciousness amidst the swirling purple.
Everyone present was stunned and lost consciousness.
After a long time, someone awoke, and Yu Shi was also roused.
He looked toward the distance, where there was now silence.
The ground was covered with countless butterfly corpses, and in the center was a gray-white, lifeless cocoon.
**TN
Only two chaps left for this arc. 🙂
