Chapter 189 Suppressing the Soul "My greatest sin is that I didn't kill them completely..."

The Imperial Palace of the Western Capital.

Even at banquets, the debates continued unabated.

The representatives from the immortal sects all demanded to see the Qilin Horn before discussing further assistance. However, the Great Zhou Dynasty adhered to its ancestral rules, forbidding the horn from being given to outsiders. If the immortal sects refused to believe them and stood idly by while the Yong bandits invaded Great Zhou, leading to the fall of the Zhou Kingdom and the loss of the Qilin Horn, could the immortal sects truly bear such a price? Great Zhou was not asking for the immortal sects' help, but rather informing them that regardless of their assistance, Great Zhou would protect its ancestral treasure to the very end.

As mortals, clearly in a position to be saved, they showed no mercy to the immortals. This group of seemingly weak people displayed an indomitable spirit in the face of danger, inspiring even the immortals who had been far removed from the mortal world for many years to feel a sense of respect. After all, they were the Ji family, who had ruled the Central Continent for over a thousand years and inherited the bloodline of the Qilin God.

If even the last piece of land that could allow humans and immortals to coexist is invaded, the belief in the Four Gods will likely perish. At that time, how much of a place will those who follow the gods and cultivate the Dao have left to stand on?

Disrupting the order of the human world is going against the will of Heaven. Those who cultivate themselves rely on the power of Heaven and Earth and nature, so how can they contend with the workings of Heaven?

After a heated debate, the Prime Minister, the head of the civil officials of the Great Zhou Dynasty, finally succumbed to his exhaustion, seemingly catching a cold. He began coughing violently, and a palace attendant standing nearby quickly handed him a handkerchief. The Prime Minister covered his mouth with the handkerchief and coughed for a while before finally calming down. As he put the handkerchief away, a patch of bright red on it caught the eye of anyone with a discerning eye.

The Prime Minister should not have left the court, but although the Yong Kingdom army had temporarily retreated, border skirmishes continued, and war preparations were the top priority in the court. Despite his frail physique, the Prime Minister still volunteered to go to the front lines to oversee the battle.

The emperor inquired about the prime minister's health with concern. The prime minister replied that he had only caught a slight cold and would recover soon, and would continue to return to the front lines to oversee the battle.

His dedication and selflessness moved both the mortal and immortal realms.

As the banquet was ending, the highly respected prime minister was stopped by an uninvited guest.

The Princess expressed her regret for betraying his trust by dissolving the contract, and now only wished to contribute to the restoration of the Great Zhou Dynasty. She invited him to the Xuanji Pavilion to discuss the matter of dealing with the Immortal Sect.

Such a sincere desire to serve the country would be disheartening if it were denied, so even though he was still suffering from a cold, the Prime Minister went despite his illness.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the eldest princess, who had been silent all along, led the prime minister toward the Bishui Pond.

The pool water there is extremely cold and damp; it's probably frozen solid by now. What are you going there for?

Xiao Jing followed him with some doubt, but remembering her aunt's previous instructions, she didn't dare to follow too closely.

The prime minister continued to cough intermittently, and when he removed the handkerchief covering his mouth and nose, a faint smell of blood could be heard in the cold wind.

Pure blood, without any sweet or strange aroma.

Jiang Yuhuo walked ahead. The Xuanji Pavilion was brightly lit, its light shining on the calm, frozen surface of the Bishui Pool, making it almost impossible to tell which one was the real Xuanji Pavilion.

She pushed open the door, and a wave of warm air rushed in. "The pavilion has an underfloor heating system. Why don't you come in and get rid of the chill, Your Excellency?"

After all, he was only a mortal being and couldn't withstand the cold. The Prime Minister smiled, nodded, and went inside.

As officials in the same court, the Prime Minister and Zhou Sidao had frequent interactions and often visited the Xuanji Pavilion. Usually, there were many cultivators serving the Great Zhou moving about in the pavilion, but today there was not a single person in sight.

With a slight noise, the Prime Minister turned around.

Jiang Yuhuo closed the door, but the sound it made wasn't the sound of a door closing; it was the sound of surging water, as if two deep streams had merged together.

As mortals, we shouldn't be able to hear the sound of this spiritual energy field closing.

Seemingly realizing something, the prime minister's face revealed an enigmatic smile, quite different from the humble and respectful minister he had been before.

Jiang Yuhuo did not rush to draw his sword, but calmly scrutinized the people in the hall, as if looking at prey.

A sigh echoed in the silent hall. "Alas, it seems I'm truly getting old. You've found me again..." He tossed aside the blood-stained handkerchief in his hand and chuckled softly, "Weren't you always looking for the Bloodline? Why do you turn your back on me now?"

A ball of flame rose from the void, instantly engulfing the falling handkerchief. Jiang Yuhu shook her head slightly, "Because you haven't been tainted by that aura at all."

The Prime Minister's expression changed slightly, a hint of surprise in his eyes. "Oh, what did you discover?"

"Just now in the hall, the immortals questioned the strength of Yong Kingdom. You told them that Yong Kingdom's Xuanjia Cavalry is a fierce army, and that they hang three kinds of weapons on their waist chains."

Jiang Yuhu drew his sword and slowly stepped into the hall.

"But as early as five years ago, the Xuanjia Cavalry had already replaced all the heavy and expensive waist chains with lighter leather belts. The waist chains were not used often and only existed briefly among the Xuanjia Cavalry. As the prime minister of Zhou, you should not be able to say such details so casually, but as the national advisor of Yong, you certainly know it better than anyone else."

The blade sliced ​​a line in my palm, and blood smeared the sword.

"Because seven years ago, it was you who commanded such an army to crush an entire tribe."

"Is that right, Mr. Jia?"

The man in the hall chuckled softly. "It was my oversight. I didn't expect you to catch such a tiny mistake." He gave a faint, mocking laugh. "It's been so long, who would remember..."

How perceptive he is of this rival he's watched grow up.

“You may have forgotten, but you have no idea how clearly I remember,” Jiang Yuhuo said calmly.

Those were blood-stained memories etched into my bones, a nightmare that I was trapped in day and night, a nightmare that I forced myself to scrutinize every scene and grit my teeth to memorize every detail.

She may never be able to get over that night...

Before the words had even finished, the black-clad female cultivator's dark eyes suddenly sharpened, and she drew her sword, leaping into the air and slashing at the civil official in the hall with lightning speed.

But the frail civil official who had just been sickly suddenly moved away like a ghost and reappeared behind her. "I even coughed up blood for you to see, and you've really let me down."

Jiang Yuhuo stared coldly at him. "Although you possess the essence of the Heavenly Pillar, you never use it for cultivation. You merely distribute it to control others. You cleanse your own blood, yet allow others to be corrupted by that power. I should have realized it sooner. This is how you treat the Mountain God, Bai Hui..." She paused slightly, recalling that pale, ghostly face caused by excessive blood loss, "and even Li Mengbai."

Hearing her utter these names, the Prime Minister smiled contemptuously. "Heh, you make it sound like I forced them. On the contrary, they begged me. Your mountain god wants to return to his former master, Bai Hui is determined to save her husband, and that child Meng Bai, even though no one is willing to give him anything, still wants more than others... Even this body, he begged me to protect his country and people from the ravages of enemy nations."

"All I did was help them."

"Nonsense!" Jiang Yuhuo interrupted, then retorted, "If this were truly something valuable, would you give it away?"

Situ Xin's appearance under the Spirit-Sealing Array was still vivid in my mind. Back then, he had a resolute attitude of seeking death to destroy the Heavenly Pillar Marrow.

"Can't I be a good person?" The civil official, wrapped in a thick cloak, looked at her, a mysterious smile on his clear face. "Just like you, are you so sure you haven't committed any sins?"

"My greatest sin is that I didn't kill you completely!"

The sword, burning with flames, thrust itself towards the civil official in the hall without hesitation.

But this time, the person in the hall stood still, only suddenly revealing a bewildered yet self-possessed expression. When he saw the sword thrusting towards him, his pupils dilated instantly, as if he was terrified because he had just woken up and was about to encounter danger.

"Princess……"

With a "thud," the sword pierced through the heart without the slightest hesitation.

The prime minister's last gaze was blank and confused. He couldn't understand how the princess, who had already died, had come back to life, nor could he understand why she wanted to kill him.

As the Prime Minister's body fell to the ground, a faint shadow of a soul appeared in the void. The pale and gloomy-faced young man spoke coldly, "You really have the heart to do this to a mortal."

"Having been tainted by your soul, he is no longer a mortal."

Jiang Yuhuo remained expressionless, his gaze fixed on the soul in the void, and swung his sword again.

The spirit nimbly dodged, its voice mocking, "How cruel you are. You've become like this. Even if your family stood in front of you, they probably wouldn't recognize you."

Amidst the flickering flames and flashing swords, a flame finally reached the hem of the soul's clothes. Jiang Yu Huo immediately activated it in his palm, saying, "Thanks to you, I have no family left."

“The Ji family still seems to regard you as their eldest princess.” Jia Qianyang extinguished the flame and stared at his young opponent, who was even calmer than before. “But you killed their prime minister, and now you want to destroy the Xuanji Pavilion that they nurtured.”

After several rounds of fierce fighting, the once empty pavilion had become a sea of ​​fire. Such intense flames were enough to burn this immortal pavilion, which had accumulated hundreds of years of effort in the Great Zhou Dynasty, to ashes.

Jia Qianyang's voice was cold and cruel, "It must be very painful for them to see what you've done."

Jiang Yuhuo remained unmoved, relentlessly attacking him with her sword techniques. The Dingchun Sword, burning with fire, was like a divine weapon in her hands, forcing Jia Qianyang into a corner with nowhere to retreat. "As long as you die, nothing else matters."

"Arrogant!" Jia Qianyang coldly rebuked.

A faint blue light emanated from his hand, causing the person who was flying through the air wielding the sword to freeze and fall to the ground, blood trickling from the corner of their lips.

But Jia Qianyang knew in his heart that her sword moves were not as easy to deal with as he had imagined, so he had to take this opportunity to create a spiritual energy barrier around himself.

But then the man on the ground wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, stood up again, and sneered, "So what if you're arrogant? You can't escape now."

In the blazing firelight, Jia Qianyang saw a pair of extremely wild eyes.

A flame rose from her palm, and as the flame burned vigorously, the surrounding environment gradually changed. The ornately decorated Xuanji Pavilion burned at an incredible speed, collapsing in large sections, like a paper shell.

No! This is just the shell!

Jia Qianyang finally realized that this "Xuanji Pavilion" was just an illusion she had set up. His soul was trapped in the illusion, especially since she had placed a barrier outside the illusion, so of course he couldn't escape.

Jia Qianyang laughed angrily, "You only discovered the Prime Minister's identity tonight, yet you've already made such a meticulous arrangement. Who's helping you, Li Mengbai?"

"You're overestimating your people. Such a realistic Xuanji Pavilion must have been set up by Zhou Sidao. Otherwise, how could it have fooled you?" Jiang Yuhuo glanced at him indifferently. "In order not to miss any possibility, I'm never afraid to waste my time as long as I can kill you."

The flames of the entire building converged on her palm. The "Xuanji Pavilion" was almost completely burned down, revealing the outer layer of pitch-black night. Even the ground beneath her feet was pure black. Only the real Xuanji Pavilion in the distance was tinged with a few lights. It turned out that this illusion was actually set on the Bishui Pool.

The fire, seemingly capable of scorching through the darkness, tore a hole in Jia Qianyang's spiritual energy barrier, and the flames instantly enveloped the soul.

"May your soul be scattered!"

Amidst the scorching flames, Jiang Yuhuo roared, and a bright sword light descended from the sky. The long sword was about to pierce through the Baihui acupoint on the top of the soul's head. Burning away Jia Qianyang's soul was not enough. In order to prevent him from having other clones, only this piercing through the soul could make him completely disappear!

But the person under the sword raised his head and smiled at her. That eerie and unpredictable smile made Jiang Yuhu feel a sense of unease.

Sure enough, something suddenly shot out from under Jia Qianyang's feet, deflecting her sword. Jiang Yuhuo focused her attention and saw a black piece of wood—it was the one that pierced the barrier!

Jiang Yuhuo was very familiar with that kind of wood; it was with it that she found Bai Hui and Li Yanluo.

The Spirit-Subduing Wood has sunk into the Bishui Pool!

These pieces of wood really did belong to Jia Qianyang!

The small hole pierced by the spirit-summoning wood quickly spread out, and the soul-suppressing barrier she had carefully set up soon vanished without a trace, leaving only the flames still burning on the surface of the water.

A mocking expression graced the pale, gloomy face of the ghostly figure. "You seem not to have grasped the true purpose of the Spirit-Subduing Wood. It's such a treasure, a waste to only use it for finding people..."

On the surface of the water, which resembled a sea of ​​fire, Jia Qianyang held a spirit-summoning wood in his hand. A dark blue halo spread out from the bottom of the spirit-summoning wood, extinguishing all the flames wherever the halo reached.

A sharp, dark blue light swept towards Jiang Yuhuo. In that instant, several images flashed through her mind, and a thought crossed her mind: even his spellcasting movements were exactly the same as back then.

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Author's Note: Sorry, sorry, updates will be normal tomorrow.