Chapter 215 Life and Death Without Blame (Part Twelve)

Wu Hezhi even had the leisure to turn his head and glance at Jiang Gu.

"Fellow Daoist Jiang, I've been keeping an eye on Wei Feng for hundreds of years. You don't think I wouldn't recognize him, do you?" he asked with a smile as he led Song Chongshi back.

"Is there a difference?" Jiang Gu saw the black mist rising from Qu Fengyu's feet.

He didn't intend to deceive Wu Hezhi. It was just that when Wu Hezhi asked him to choose between two options, Wei Feng's primordial spirit appeared in his sea of ​​consciousness, so he subconsciously chose Wei Feng. As for whether Wu Hezhi believed him or not, that was none of his business.

Wu Hezhi laughed out loud: "There is no difference. As long as one of you is brought in, the other will definitely come in as well. The Jade Steps and the Tribulation Jade are destined to be intertwined."

Upon hearing this, Song Shijun's gaze towards Jiang Gu changed.

Wu Hezhi's attempt to shift the blame eastward makes the importance of the Jade Steps to Wangyue self-evident. Even just capturing Jiang Gu would be a great achievement in Xiao Dan's eyes, no less significant than controlling Wu Hezhi and taking over Qiankun Tower.

However, judging from Song Shijun's expression, he clearly wanted both.

"Brother, don't worry about me," Song Chongshi said. "Kill them!"

Wu Hezhi laughed: "Young Master Song, you've already died once. If you die again this time, you'll probably never have a chance to come back to life. Is your brother willing to do that?"

Song Shijun stared at him coldly: "This place is full of malfunction arrays. Even if you kill him, you won't be able to escape."

“You don’t need to worry about that.” Wu Hezhi’s cardboard had already seeped into Song Chongshi’s flesh. “Have Qu Fengyu come over.”

Song Shijun glanced at him, stepped aside, and said, "Miss Qu, please go ahead."

Qu Fengyu slowly walked towards Wu Hezhi and Jiang Gu. She frowned, stood next to Jiang Gu, and whispered, "Something's not right."

Wu Hezhi grabbed Qu Fengyu's shoulder and then pulled Song Chongshi back to the edge of the teleportation array. Just as he was about to touch the edge of the array, Song Shijun suddenly smiled.

Suddenly, Song Chongshi, who was being controlled by Wu Hezhi, sprang up. Wu Hezhi pushed Qu Fengyu away and tried to block his attack, but it was too late. Song Chongshi seemed to be unafraid of pain, letting Wu Hezhi's hand pierce through his neck and tearing the paper figure in half without using any spiritual power.

Wu Hezhi immediately tried to escape by controlling his divided spirit, but Song Chongshi was even faster. His five fingers formed a claw and a faint light shone from his palm, exactly the same as the light on the Heavenly Secret Box.

Qu Fengyu stepped forward and kicked his wrist away, "Song Chongshi!"

Song Chongshi, however, did not react at all. His neck twisted into a strange arc, and he used brute force to push her away, relentlessly chasing after Wu Hezhi's distraction.

Wu Hezhi's main body and Jiang Gu rushed towards Song Shijun almost simultaneously.

Song Shijun effortlessly blocked their attacks, saying calmly, "Don't waste your energy. In the Soul Loss Array, you are no match for me. Over the years, countless people have coveted the Golden Spirit Pagoda. You are neither the smartest nor the most powerful. Why make trouble for yourselves?"

“If you admit defeat now, I can make things easier for you,” he said.

Wu Hezhi threw a punch at him, but Song Shijun raised his hand to block it and twisted it in the process. Wu Hezhi's entire arm broke, and he staggered back several steps.

Jiang Gu kicked him in the neck, but Song Shijun grabbed his ankle. Jiang Gu used the force to flip him over and kicked him in the shoulder, breaking free of his restraint.

Song Shijun took half a step back, looking amused: "You've actually practiced body cultivation too?"

Jiang Gu glanced at him coldly, a long mace appearing in his hand. Wei Feng, who was wandering in the middle of the box, was stunned for a moment. He reached into the ghost pattern and realized that he didn't know when his master had taken the Golden Spirit Mace.

"The Golden Spirit Mace?" Song Shijun laughed. "It's surprising that Chu Guanshan's possession is in your hands. It seems that what the Master said was true. You did kill Chu Guanshan. It's a pity that it has no spiritual power; it's just a piece of scrap metal."

Jiang Gu didn't have the habit of wasting words in a fight. He ignored the other party's rambling and wielded the mace with one hand, aiming straight for his temple. Although it had no spiritual power, the golden spiritual mace was extremely heavy. Song Shijun was forced to dodge, and the mace landed, smashing a deep pit more than a person's width into the floor, sending rubble flying.

Jiang Gu did not stop at all and continued to attack Song Shijun. Wu Hezhi flew up and cut off his retreat. The three of them fought each other. Meanwhile, Qu Fengyu and Wu Hezhi were distracted by dealing with the controlled Song Chongshi. Above the main hall, Wei Feng was controlling the ghost pattern to quickly open the sealed wooden boxes while keeping a close eye on Jiang Gu's movements.

The Heavenly Secret Box, which had been violently opened, lost its light, and many grayish, scattered spirits slowly floated out.

Song Shijun noticed the strange phenomenon above, his eyes narrowed, and he grabbed Jiang Gu and Wu Hezhi and slammed them backward. Countless sharp bone spikes shot out from the wall, about to pierce their skulls. At the critical moment, Wei Feng manipulated the ghost pattern to envelop Jiang Gu, and crashed into the bone. Just as the bone was about to pierce through his body and hit Jiang Gu, he condensed the ghost pattern a few more times.

"Master, are you alright?" he asked somewhat flustered.

Wei Feng could not transform into human form, only appearing as a cluster of ghostly markings, but Jiang Gu still accurately supported his injured area and said coldly, "What are you doing down here?"

Wei Feng, still shaken, said, "I'm scared—"

“Your master is very skilled; he could easily dodge it.” Wu Hezhi gritted his teeth and pulled himself off the bone spur. “You might as well have come and saved me.”

Wei Feng completely ignored him.

"A mere trick." Song Shijun saw the spirit on the Heavenly Secret Box float out and quickly formed hand seals. Wu Hezhi, disregarding his own pain, immediately tried to stop him.

"Those two surnamed Songs won't get hurt at all!" Qu Fengyu shouted as he fled. "Jiang Gu! Quickly, think of something!"

Jiang Gu tossed the Golden Spirit Mace to Wei Feng: "Hold them off."

Without the slightest hesitation, Wei Feng transformed into mist and split in two, heading towards Song Shijun and Song Chongshi.

Jiang Gu looked down at the cinnabar-stained human skin paper attached to him. According to Wu Hezhi, this human skin paper was originally made by someone with Song family blood, which was why they were able to enter the Golden Spirit Tower smoothly. The Golden Spirit Mace was a divine artifact specifically used to deal with traitors. Although spiritual power could not be used in the Disorientation Array, the Disorientation Array itself required spiritual power to support it... Thinking of this, he rushed towards Wu Hezhi and snatched his storage bag: "How many human skin papers are in there?"

"You—" Wu Hezhi nearly had his ribs broken by Song Shijun's kick, "Over a hundred!"

Jiang Gu took out all the human skin paper from the storage bag, tore off the cinnabar human skin paper attached to him, shredded it into a hundred pieces, and quickly drew blood talismans on it using his blood as a guide.

Wu Hezhi was shocked: "Are you out of your mind?!"

They weren't brought in by someone surnamed Song. Without the cinnabar-skinned paper, they'll soon be strangled by the Golden Spirit Pagoda.

Jiang Gu kept only one piece of cinnabar paper on his person, and then stuck all the pieces of cinnabar paper onto the human skin paper and scattered them into the air. The distracted spirits floating in the air had not yet come to their senses when they were all absorbed into the human skin paper. These palm-sized pieces of human skin paper suddenly expanded and transformed into incongruous human shapes.

At this moment, both Wu Hezhi and Qu Fengyu were seriously injured. Song Shijun had just crushed Wu Hezhi's distraction when he turned around and saw this scene. His pupils shrank and he rushed straight at Jiang Gu.

Wei Feng immediately blocked his path, and the Golden Spirit Mace went straight for his vital point. Although Song Chongshi dodged, he was dragged back several feet. This dark thing sometimes turned into ghost patterns and sometimes into black mist, but it was impossible to kill. It split into two and blocked Song Shijun and Song Chongshi's steps, making it extremely difficult to deal with.

The primordial spirit within the paper doll was slowly awakening. Jiang Gu took out a yellow talisman and affixed it to the teleportation array that Wu Hezhi had created, which required no spiritual power. He then picked up Wu Hezhi and Qu Fengyu and threw them in, but the two were not teleported away.

The cinnabar paper doll covering Wu Hezhi's body was peeling off rapidly. He roared, "Jiang Gu! Do you want to kill me?!"

Qu Fengyu narrowed his eyes upon hearing this.

Inside the main hall, Song Shijun grabbed Song Chongshi and yanked his twisted neck hard. The primordial spirit inside shattered into pieces, but its light shone brightly. As Song Chongshi's physical body was annihilated, the primordial spirit transformed into countless streams of light, which restrained Wei Feng's omnipresent ghost patterns from all directions.

"Master, be careful!" Wei Feng shouted, trying to stop him, but was held back tightly by the stream of primordial spirit light.

Blood splattered all over Song Shijun's face. He stepped out of Wei Feng's ghostly markings and smiled slightly at Jiang Gu: "It is indeed clever to awaken these divided spirits with human skin paper. Unfortunately, someone has already tried this method. He was even brought in by me personally. Guess what happened to him?"

Jiang Gu stared at him without moving.

"He was forever imprisoned at the bottom of the tower, unable to live or die, watching helplessly as the woman who gave birth to him was tortured to the point of being mutilated and her soul scattered." Song Shijun asked in bewilderment, "They had never even met, she only gave birth to him, why did it have to go to such lengths? Was it worth it?"

Jiang Gu remained unmoved, watching as the paper figures slowly opened their eyes. Just as he was about to forcefully activate the Fire Rope, Song Shijun's smile suddenly deepened. With a wave of his hand, a water mirror appeared in front of Jiang Gu.

In the water mirror, a pale-faced woman lay quietly in the Heavenly Secret Box. Jiang Gu's gaze swept over her and then suddenly fixed on her.

Wei Feng had never seen such an expression on Jiang Gu's face before—his master was always calm, composed, and at ease, and even when driven to the brink of despair, he had never shown such surging killing intent and anger.

Song Shijun was very satisfied with his performance and said, "This is a demigod from the Golden Spirit Pagoda many years ago. This woman is exceptionally talented, and it would be a pity to leave her in the pagoda. So I recommended her to the Eight Pavilions. Later, she lived up to expectations and rose all the way to the Misty Rain Terrace. Unfortunately, she later disappeared and should have perished. However, if I am willing, she can come back to life."

"Of course, you can also make her vanish into thin air right in front of you."

Jiang Gu clenched his fist, but the fire rope stopped halfway.

The woman in the water mirror is Gu Qinghui.