Chapter 85 My Body is Gone, My Soul Remains

Wen Rensheng rode his sword and led the Yi people eastward. They deliberately stood in a higher place so that they could observe the situation on the ground more clearly.

Cangzhou was even more chaotic than he had imagined.

There are two main streets in the city. The one on the north side was specially marked out by Yi Jinxiang to guard the monster that has been deeply poisoned and gone mad. Most of the staff of Huagong have been transferred here.

However, the number of monsters falling ill in the city is increasing, and in just a few days, the entire North Street is almost full.

Ordinary cages cannot contain monsters. Their bodies are affected by the "Calamity," causing them to become enormous. Even the smallest rat monster can grow to be as tall as two people.

Hearing the voice, he frowned slightly and silently watched a frenzied dog below.

He had broken free of his chains and was growling at a deer spirit not far away, baring his fangs. His upper lip was turned outward, and saliva uncontrollably dripped from between his teeth, a long trail that dragged on the ground.

They are ferocious and ugly, difficult to tame, and bar their teeth and drool when they see prey.

—This is what the God of Fate wants the world to see.

"I... I knew it! This is what all monsters look like!"

Yi Fang knelt on one knee at the center of the sky, one hand gripping Wen Rensheng's trouser leg tightly.

"That's terrifying! Will you end up like that too? I'm the Earth God of Zhongzhou now, you have to protect me!"

Hearing the human voice and hearing him criticize the monster again, she was a little unhappy, but still promised, "I will protect you."

Yi Fang wasn't very convinced, so he simply grabbed Wen Rensheng's legs with both hands, afraid that Wen Rensheng might throw him off if he got upset.

Hearing the voices, he had no time to comfort him; his gaze was fixed on the dog demon.

Like many others, his body was tortured by the calamity into a bizarre and twisted shape, his eyes rolled back, his back covered in mottled patterns, and his mind had been extinguished.

Even kind-hearted monsters can become vicious and wicked after being poisoned by the "Calamity Poison".

Perhaps just a few days ago, he and that deer spirit were still neighbors supporting each other, entrusting each other with the care of their children.

But things in this world are never constant; yesterday's warmth can turn into fratricide and bloodshed in the blink of an eye.

Upon hearing the voice, endless sorrow welled up in his eyes, and a knife-like pain arose in his heart, causing even the Heavenly Heart beneath his feet to tremble slightly.

So pitiful, so innocent.

Just as the vicious dog pounced and was about to bite the deer spirit's throat, Hearing the human voice, he closed his eyes, raised his hand, and unleashed a spell that sent the dog demon flying ten miles away.

With a loud bang, a cloud of dust suddenly rose from the ground.

The sound, like a stone falling into a lake, quickly caused a huge uproar in Cangzhou City.

The restless monsters all looked up at Wenrensheng in mid-air.

A sudden raindrop fell from the gray sky, landing precisely on the beauty mark at the corner of Wenrensheng's eye, slowly tracing the path of her tear along her cheek.

"...He heard a human voice?"

Someone recognized him first.

"It's the one who forced the Night Wanderer to retreat before..."

"Hasn't he been missing for a long time?"

"..."

Hearing the commotion below, Yi Fang couldn't help but tug at the hem of his trousers where he had been listening to the noise.

"Are you famous here? Were you the savior before?"

After saying this, he thought to himself that people who have been saviors are indeed addicted, and when it's their turn to take risks again, they will run out without hesitation. This is called heroism.

Yi Fang was a smart man and wouldn't do something so foolish. He decided to take advantage of the moment when the sound of voices would lure out the "Calamity" and escape from this ghostly place full of monsters.

“I’m not a savior,” Wenrensheng said calmly, wiping the raindrops from his face. “This is the last ‘calamity’. After we’ve collected all this, please take me back to the inn. I’ll give you a reward.”

"Oh..." Yi Fang was somewhat taken aback, "You're planning to let me go?"

Hearing the voice, he spread his palm and used his spiritual power to send the copper coin into the air.

“My brother is not very steady and has a bad temper,” he said. “I apologize to you on his behalf for the trouble he caused you by tying you up the other day.”

Yi Fang never expected that he would be apologized to by a monster. He opened his mouth but didn't dare to speak.

Like most people, he harbored unfounded malice towards monsters. He always saw monsters in stories and on the stage, and he firmly believed in their ugly and fierce appearance.

Especially after the God of Destiny bestowed upon him a life of great wealth and honor, he hated monsters even more, feeling that the misfortunes of his previous life were all due to the monsters' mischief, which had stolen his luck.

The human voice he heard was nothing like the monster he had imagined. He was pure and kind-hearted, and even his voice was gentle.

When the Yi people first encountered such a monster, their minds were thrown into disarray, and they were momentarily at a loss for how to react.

Hearing the voices, he didn't say much. He opened his palm, and the copper coin in mid-air was instantly magnified several times, covering the sky like a bronze mirror. Fine rain seeped in through the hole of the coin, wetting a small corner of the land.

Once the "calamity" here is dealt with, Cangzhou City will be temporarily safe. The rest can be left to the master and the mountain god; all I need to do is try my best to survive.

Hearing this, Wenren thought to himself, and his hand seal changed, causing the coin's eye to light up with white light once more.

The red lotus on the ground trembled slightly, sensing the call of spiritual energy, and was gradually uprooted.

Hearing the voices, he mustered all his strength to pull back his spiritual power, intending to collect all the calamities here at once.

Yi watched his movements nervously, forgetting all about escaping. He almost blurted out "Good luck!"

"Hold on tight," a voice said.

He focused his mind and mobilized his spiritual power, and soon most of the red lotuses on the ground were uprooted, while the red sores between the river and the roof tiles were gradually being cleared away.

"Oh..." Yi Fang hugged his leg, "Stand, stand firm, young hero!"

However, at that moment, the clouds on the horizon suddenly turned dark, a demonic wind swept through Cangzhou City, and the surrounding barrier gradually became unstable.

The Yi people hurriedly looked up, their eyes widening slightly.

"night……"

Hearing voices, he looked in the direction of the sound, but saw nothing.

"Night?" he asked. "I can't see clearly."

"Night Wanderer...it's that one, that one!" Yi Fang suddenly sat up, pointing to the horizon and shouting, "The one who gave me godhood! Si—"

As soon as he finished speaking, Yi Fang felt a sweet taste in his throat and suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.

Startled by the voice, she hurriedly supported him, asking, "What's wrong?!"

Yi Fang vomited a mouthful of blood, his eyes reddened, and he struggled to grasp Wen Rensheng's hand.

"Goddess, I... I'm too weak, I can't call her by her name..."

Buddhist name, divine status...

Hearing the voice, he pondered for a moment and instantly understood what the barbarian meant.

It's the God of Fate!

His brows furrowed slightly, and his palms suddenly clenched together, instantly drawing all the "misfortune" into his eyes.

The copper coin instantly returned to its original size. Hearing the voice, the rider rode forward on his sword and reached out to take it.

However, at the last moment, the copper coin suddenly flew out of Wenrensheng's palm.

!

His expression tightened, and he suddenly looked up.

A red-haired figure slowly descended in front of them.

"You think you can just take it away like that?"

Si Ming smiled and said in a sweet, cloying tone,

"I consider you a confidant, so you can't let me down like this, can you?"

Upon hearing the voice, he showed utter disgust. He quickly retreated on his sword to a rooftop, put Yi Fang down, and without turning his head, pressed several pressure points on him.

"You should run!" Wen Rensheng said, sheathing his sword and blocking the way. "You know the Shrinking Earth Spell, escaping won't be difficult. Go to the nearest inn to Hua Palace and find the Mountain God..."

He stopped mid-sentence, breaking out in a cold sweat, and shook his head hastily, saying, "No... it's been two hours already. My brother should be on his way to find me. I don't need you anymore. You should just run!"

“I…” Yi Fang began with difficulty, “Then you…”

Hearing someone interrupt him, he said, "I still have a sword in my hand; I can protect you."

Having said that, he took a step back, exerted his strength in his lower body, leaped up, and slashed at Siming with his sword.

Si Ming dodged to the side, summoning a sword in his hand as well, and clashed weapons with Wen Rensheng.

"Give it back to me!" someone shouted. "Those are my brother's things!"

Si Ming deflected his sword and said with a smirk, "It's just a penny. If you ascend with me, all the magical treasures in the world will be yours."

Hearing the voice, he gritted his teeth and struck again: "You promised five years, why are you resorting to such underhanded tactics?!"

"Me, using underhanded tactics?"

The God of Fate looked displeased.

"You lied to me, saying you wanted to cultivate the path of ruthlessness. That's why I let you go that day!"

"But who would have thought that when I secretly came to see you a few days ago, you were still cuddling with your lover? I was so heartbroken to be deceived by you!"

Hearing a voice rebuke, "You never believed it in the first place, did you?"

Wen Rensheng's sword moves were very aggressive, and Si Ming took a few steps back, dodging Wen Rensheng's attacks as if playing around.

"Oh, so what?" Siming lifted Wenrensheng's chin. "I just like seeing the true nature of demons revealed, is that not allowed?"

Hearing the voices, he turned his head away, his face full of hatred: "That's not the nature of monsters, you deliberately provoked them to go mad!"

Si Ming chuckled, walked around behind Wen Rensheng, and forced him to look at the ground.

"Look, you just helped them, but none of them thanked you."

Perhaps due to the sudden arrival of the God of Fate, the monsters below transformed into their original forms one after another and began to attack each other indiscriminately. Soon, some monsters fell to the ground, their limbs being torn apart as they screamed.

"Run!" someone shouted, trying to catch their breath. "Run with all your might! Don't kill each other! I'll save you!"

The sound shattered the silence of the sky, and the rain suddenly intensified, pelting the ground with a sharp, pattering sound.

The deer spirit, who had been so frightened that it fell to the ground, crawled backward.

She was the first monster to react. She struggled to her feet and began running forward recklessly.

Hearing the voice, he turned around and his gaze fell on the copper coin that Si Ming was holding between his fingers.

There's no need to snatch it; just chop it up.

Hearing the voice, he felt reassured, lowered his center of gravity again, and resumed his sword stance.

Si Ming was short, so his sword strikes had to be lower to hit the copper coin.

Si Ming dodged his moves, swaggering around with the copper coins in his hand.

"Thanks to that kid who pretended to be the local deity, I was able to find your new hiding place so quickly. If you blame him, then kill him."

"We weren't planning to hide from you for long anyway," Wenren said harshly. "Besides, you've been bothering my master for so many years, it was only a matter of time before you came looking for us. It's not surprising!"

When Si Ming heard him mention the God of Literature, he lost his composure.

Her face darkened instantly, and she gripped Wen Rensheng's sword with her bare hands.

"What did you say?" she said fiercely. "You said I was clinging to her? When did I cling to her?! I find her disgusting and hate her, but she's the one who's been ungrateful to me!"

Hearing the voice, he realized that the provocation had worked. He immediately released his grip on the sword hilt, transformed Tianxin into the size of a dagger, and snatched it from Siming's hand.

Don't steal other people's things!

He shouted, flipped his wrist to grip the dagger, and stabbed it directly at Siming's eyes.

Si Ming's eyes widened, and he subconsciously raised his hand to block, revealing the bright copper coin in his palm.

Hearing the voice, a smile crept onto his lips. He mustered all his strength, gripped the dagger tightly, and plunged it downwards!

哢哒.

Spiderweb-like patterns appeared where the knife tip fell, and the copper coin shattered into five pieces with a few sharp cracks.

"What is that...?"

Si Ming frowned, looking at the copper coins scattered all over the ground.

The next second, Wenrensheng pulled back with three fingers, and several streams of ochre-red spiritual energy instantly surged from the center of the copper coin, rushing into Wenrensheng's heart.

A look of pain flashed across his face, but his eyes remained resolute as he glared fiercely at Si Ming with a murderous gaze.

“I will kill you,” he said.

Siming was stunned for a moment, then covered her mouth and exclaimed in surprise, "Are you going to commit suicide? With so much 'calamity essence' entering your body, you're going to lose your mind before you even become stronger! You're so stupid!"

There was a hint of appreciation for her talent in her tone, and she frowned as she heard the voices.

But he soon had no time to worry about these things. A large amount of "calamity essence" entered his body and began to stimulate the circulation of his spiritual root.

Hearing the voice, he felt a surge of heat throughout his body, his mind felt as if it were about to explode, and his killing intent surged up relentlessly.

The Heavenly Spiritual Root greedily absorbed the spiritual energy from the surroundings, and thousands of fine threads burst forth from his back, relentlessly entangling the demons on the ground whose spiritual energy had overflowed and whose minds had gone mad.

They were quickly drained of most of their spiritual power, their bodies slowly shrank, and one by one they collapsed to the ground.

In contrast, Wen Rensheng felt the spiritual energy within his body becoming even more agitated, as if each strand of spiritual energy had been given life and was rushing around wildly in his body.

He mustered his willpower and steadied his spirit, then raised his sword again and pointed it at Si Ming, and they began to fight.

Si Ming hadn't expected Wen Rensheng to fight so desperately. She lost her composure and dropped her sword after only a few moves. Her body was quickly covered in cuts, and she was nearly stabbed in a fatal spot several times.

"No way... You don't want to be with Murong He anymore? You don't want to marry him?"

The inconceivable truth of the God of Fate.

“I’ve seen your destiny. Judging from the voices I hear, the red thread between you and Murong He is the tightest I’ve ever seen. Do you really intend to commit suicide with him? This is…”

"It's none of your business," Wen Rensheng gritted his teeth, flipped over and leaped onto Si Ming's shoulder, pinning him down. "If I don't kill you today, my brother will. You're going to die eventually, you can't escape it!"

Si Ming's expression was also not good. She grabbed the ankle of the person who heard the voice, flipped the person over, and quickly retreated a few steps.

"That depends on whether you have the ability," she sneered, slamming her bare hand on the ground. "Murong He has already demoted himself to a mortal. I am now the leader of the Martial Gods in the Upper Realm. If you want to kill me, you'd better get my divine status first!"

The roof tiles were blown off by Si Ming's blow, and he dodged the sound of people, glancing back hastily.

Most of the monsters in Cangzhou have already fallen; it's time to seal their heart meridians.

He thrust Tianxin downwards, and tens of thousands of blue butterflies suddenly flew out from around the sword, rushing towards Siming and temporarily protecting Wenrensheng within them.

He sat down cross-legged, took a deep breath, and laboriously circulated his qi through a small cycle.

Sealing off the heart meridian is no different from suicide; no matter how well it is done, the body will suffer extreme pain.

He was afraid of pain from hearing human voices, so he first chose two acupoints that didn't hurt much. He focused his fingertips and pressed them twice, instantly cutting off the flow of spiritual energy in his body and easing the agitation considerably.

“In this way…” Wenrensheng breathed slowly, “it won’t turn into one of those ugly monsters.”

However, these two meridians are related to the "five senses" and "vital energy" respectively. After they were sealed, the person could no longer support themselves when they heard human voices, and the blue butterflies around them quickly turned into fireflies and dispersed.

As soon as they dispersed, Si Ming's sword came flying through the wind, pointing straight at Wen Rensheng's brow!

"A human voice can be heard!"

"Young hero!"

——

A sudden ringing in my ears.

Hearing voices, his vision went black, and he fell backward before the sword tip pointed at him.

Yi Fang lunged forward and caught Wen Rensheng with his body as he fell. His knees were scraped raw from the sliding, and the pain was like being pricked with needles, causing him to groan involuntarily.

"Ouch...that hurts!"

Fortunately, Wenren landed safely thanks to Yi Fang's cushioning, and his body was not seriously injured. Yi Fang endured the pain, turned him over, laid him flat, and began to check for Wenren's presence.

"What are you doing?" Yi Fang asked incredulously. "You've crippled your meridians? You'll never be able to wield a sword again! What are you trying to do?!"

“There are...two acupoints left…” Wenren coughed up blood and struggled to grab Yifang’s sleeve. “Let my brother do the sealing, I dare not…I’m afraid I’ll just end up…um!”

Halfway through his speech, he felt a sharp pain in his heart and vomited a large mouthful of blood onto the ground.

He had just sealed off his five senses, and his eyes gradually became bloodshot and he could no longer see clearly. The urgent cries from the Yi people in his ears turned into a blurry buzzing sound.

No wonder Mu insisted on personally sealing his heart meridian; his own hands were too clumsy, causing him so much pain...

I should have never drugged him in the first place, or at least used less...

"No... my brother won't allow me to do that..."

Hearing the voice muttering indistinct words, Yi Fang was quite frightened. He trembled as he reached out his hand, about to form a hand seal for the Shrinking Earth Spell.

But the next second, he felt an extremely chilling coldness coming from behind him, and his body stiffened and he was unable to move for a moment.

murderous look.

It was an intense killing intent... even stronger than the killing intent emanating from that Si Ming!

Yi Fang gasped for breath, instinctively protecting Wen Rensheng's head, his entire body trembling slightly.

"Impressive," came the voice of the God of Fate. "You're in mortal form now, yet you managed to fight your way out in just one hour?"

A mortal? Who has arrived?

Despite the surging fear in his heart, Yi Fang managed to prop his head up and look ahead.

The torrential rain made the ground wet and muddy. His gaze passed over the bloodstains beneath Wen Rensheng's body, and followed the path until he finally spotted a figure.

The man stood halfway up in the shadows, holding a severed head, which he casually tossed aside.

The sword in his hand was stained crimson, with drops of blood mingling with the rain and trickling down its blade.

-----------------------

Author's Note: I've written two chapters; there's one more to come.