Final Battle - 9

Ling Gu's current state is almost inhuman.

Its entire body was covered in purplish-black veins, and it emitted low, inhuman growls.

Several more cracks appeared beneath Ji's feet, and new tentacles began to stir.

Huaiqing's barrier fluctuated violently again, clearly struggling to hold on.

Just when things were at their most precarious—

"Boom!" A burst of flame crashed into the stone chamber from the entrance! The flame was not aimless, but rather struck the area behind Ling Gu that was most densely connected to the rock wall formation!

Ling Gu froze, a hint of pain trembling in his frenzied roar.

At the same time, a nimble figure darted through the gap in the flames, a flash of cold light in his hand, severing several tentacles that were about to attack Huaiqing's flank.

"Gui Tiao?" Ji Wang and Huai Qing were both surprised.

Gui Tiao raised an eyebrow. His left arm was still in a sling, clearly indicating a serious injury, but his usually bright eyes were now shining with an astonishing light: "Sect Leader Ji! Mr. Huaiqing!"

Following closely behind Gui Tiao into the stone chamber was Mi Quan. She had no weapon in her hand, only foxfire of the same origin as Bu Jiu dancing at her fingertips. The earth-shattering attack just now was from her hand.

She quickly scanned the scene and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Ji Wang and Huai Qing, though looking disheveled, had no fatal injuries.

"Leave this place to us." As soon as Mi Juan finished speaking, the light and shadow at the entrance of the stone chamber flickered. A figure dressed in simple, dark blue, close-fitting clothes appeared silently.

The newcomer had a cold and stern face, quite unlike Gui Tiao's carefree and unrestrained nature.

His gaze lingered briefly on Ji Wang, and he nodded slightly.

The next moment, he moved swiftly and entered the heart of the battle. His moves were simple to the point of being rigid, yet terrifyingly sharp. Each move perfectly deflected the attack trajectory of the tentacles, instantly intercepting the offensive aimed at Ji Wang and Huai Qing.

"Hehe!" Gui Tiao's tone was filled with undisguised pride and intimacy as he gestured towards the man with his lip. "This is my senior brother, Ming Qi! Master was worried about me wandering around alone for a long time, so before I left, he insisted on giving me a natal talisman, saying that if there was any life-or-death situation, he could vaguely sense the approximate location even from a thousand miles away..."

"Look," he grinned, "they sensed that there was quite a commotion here, and half the sect was alerted. My senior brother, being the fastest, came to catch me first."

Upon hearing this, Mingqi did not respond, but suddenly intensified his sword strike, pulverizing the two tentacles that were trying to pounce on Guitiao, which was considered an admission of Guitiao's statement.

The flames at Mi Quan's fingertips condensed again, transforming into several flowing crimson-gold chains. Combined with the man's exquisite swordsmanship, they began to systematically compress the space where Ling Gu was raging wildly.

With the pressure suddenly reduced, Ji Wang was able to take a step back and quickly adjust his internal energy.

As Gui Tiao grimaced and dodged a stray arrow that grazed past him, he shouted at the top of his lungs to Ji Wang, "Sect Leader Ji! It's up to you!"

The boy's voice was slightly distorted by the noise, but it carried an unwavering trust: "I'll go help my senior brother! You find this thing's weakness, kill it! And then—"

He turned around, his voice suddenly rising, almost shouting: "Let's go home!"

go home.

Perhaps the traces of his wiping yesterday still remain under that old pine tree; the cushion that Bujiu always complained about when he was reading might still be crooked; and the warmth left by the afternoon sun might still linger on the stone steps in the courtyard.

And, at this moment, in that "home," he is alone, facing Yueyuan and his lover, who is facing unknown dangers.

All distracting thoughts were forcibly suppressed, leaving only one thought in my mind:

End this here. Go back. Go back to him.

Ji Wang slowly exhaled, his hand holding the sword no longer trembling. Under this extreme focus and pressure, the Dao source flowing within his body had shed its last trace of awkwardness and become more and more smooth and free.

It probed out thread by thread, sensing every subtle fluctuation, every blockage and flow of power, searching for the key to the Bone-Listening Array, the inevitable flaw that would appear under the suppression from multiple sides.

In this highly focused state of perception, the arrangement of a certain node in the array ahead suddenly triggered a memory that had almost been forgotten.

Not this life. It was much, much, long ago, so long ago that time itself had turned to dust, so long ago that the title "Yun Shen" did not yet exist. He was still Ji Wang, the junior brother in the Daoist sect who was highly regarded by his teachers and indulged and favored by his senior brothers.

It was an afternoon when sunlight filtered through the gaps in the ancient pine trees, casting dappled patterns on the yellowed pages of the library.

He sat cross-legged on the futon, facing Yueyuan, whose features had not yet been eroded by the obsessions that would follow.

Yueyuan's fingers traced the unfolded ancient array diagram, his voice gentle and patient as he explained the node transitions and weak points of a complex array.

Ji Wang was drowsy listening to that.

He had never been interested in these kinds of patient deductions, preferring sword techniques and straightforward Taoist arts. So his eyelids grew heavier and heavier, his head bobbed up and down, and Yueyuan's voice gradually faded into a buzzing sound in the background.

Just before his consciousness completely slipped into sleep, he heard Yue Yuan seem to sigh, and then, in a tone he had never heard again, tinged with helplessness and indulgence, he clearly stated the fleeting flaw in the flow of the formation—what angle, what power, could be injected to break its most crucial cycle.

But... it seems there's more than just this one sentence.

Before sinking into darkness, Yueyuan seemed to add another sentence, almost as if talking to himself.

That sentence had absolutely nothing to do with the formation, so much so that Ji Wang hadn't even heard it back then. But now, while trying to recall the key memory of the previous sentence, it was forcibly dragged out—

"...If my senior brother really goes to that point as they say, will you stay with him?"

At that time, Yueyuan's tone was complex and difficult to discern, seemingly containing profound meaning, yet also appearing to be merely a common sentiment.

"Ah...okay..." Young Ji Wang agreed hastily, but forgot about it in the blink of an eye.

At this moment, Ji Wang recalled these words that had been delayed for hundreds of years.

Yueyuan did it on purpose.

He deliberately left a flaw in the formation that only the two of them knew. It wasn't to make him break the formation, but to remind him of the senior brother who had once taught him gently, the senior brother who claimed that everything he did was for his sake.

Yueyuan's thoughts were deeper, more twisted, and more persistent than he had imagined.

Although Ji Wang was moved, this was not the time to delve into it. Whatever Yue Yuan's purpose, the flaw was there, and this was the only chance to break the current stalemate!

Ji Wang locked onto the vulnerable spot in his memory, and a short command burst from his throat: "Break its upper left meridian, harass its lower right! Huaiqing, protect me!"

Once the order was given, everyone moved in unison!

The chains in Mi Quan's hands tightened, binding Ling Gu's legs and waist tightly, pinning him firmly to the spot, making it difficult for him to dodge.

Mingqi followed the sword's movement, piercing the point where the upper left meridians intersected, as Ji Wang had indicated. The sword energy was incredibly sharp, instantly severing the torrent of energy. Linggu's body trembled violently, and the purple light on the left side of his body suddenly dimmed.

Gui Tiao took a deep breath and threw the sword in his hand. It turned into a spinning cold light and crashed hard into the array node on the lower right. Although it failed to break through, it successfully disrupted the flow of energy, causing Ling Gu to stagger.

"Go ahead, leave the rest to me." Huaiqing gently pushed Ji Wang forward. "I'm counting on you, Daoist Yun Shen."

Now!

Ji Wang condensed the Dao Source Power flowing smoothly within his body into the tip of his sword, transforming it into a straight golden line that pierced the exposed gray-white node!

The moment the sword tip pierced the node, time seemed to stand still for a split second.

Ling Gu's frantically struggling body suddenly froze. The light in his eyes flickered and swayed violently like a candle in the wind, eventually fading away from its rage and turbidity, returning to a deathly stillness.

The purplish-black veins receded rapidly from his body like the receding tide, revealing the riddled-with-holes shell beneath.

He slowly lowered his head and looked at his heart.

There was no sword there, only a pale golden light spreading outwards from within.

Just as his breath was about to completely dissipate, his eyes, which had regained some clarity, suddenly shifted slightly, his gaze sweeping over Ji Wang's wrist holding the sword, his nostrils flaring.

—There, besides Ji Wang's own Dao source aura, there were also remnants of demonic power that shared the same origin as him.

Ling Gu stopped struggling and no longer tried to make a sound. He simply closed his eyes slowly. It was as if he had unloaded all his burdens and severed the last connection with the world, allowing Ji Wang's Dao Source Power to completely purify his remaining body and soul, returning them to nothingness.

Ji Wang didn't even have time to fully retract his sword before staggering towards Mi Quan: "Elder Mi Quan! Are you alright? Bu Jiu said that if members of the same clan kill each other, there will be a backlash! You just now..."

He recalled that although Mi Quan had offered assistance, it was still a case of fratricide.

Mi Quan, who was calming her turbulent breathing, was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, then shook her head with a reassuring smile on her face: "Backlash? No way."

Seeing Ji Wang's puzzled look, she seemed to suddenly remember something and exclaimed, "Oh...you mean that...that's one of our extremely ancient secret techniques for preserving life."

Her gaze fell in the direction where Ling Gu had disappeared, and it seemed as if she were looking through there into a more distant past. Her voice softened: "If two members of the same clan, with their blood and sweat as the bond, swear an oath, promising never to betray each other... then their blood and souls will be connected. The original intention of this secret method is to enable those who are closest and most trustworthy to work together to overcome difficulties."

“They were once truly good brothers.” Mi Quan’s voice struck the listener’s heart heavily. “Why did they have to come to this point, turning against each other?”

What was said without malice may have been taken to heart by the listener.

Wasn't the same true for Ji Wang and Yue Yuan? The closeness and trust they shared back then were perhaps even deeper and more unreserved than the bond between Bu Jiu and Ling Gu today.

Then what?

Then came the divergence of paths, the clash of ideologies, the meticulously planned betrayal, the earth-shattering formation, the resolute destruction of the source of the Dao, and three hundred years of soul scattering and wandering.

"Are they still able to walk?" Huaiqing asked urgently, tugging at Ji Wang who was still in a daze. "We must get back to Bu Nian Temple immediately."

Before he finished speaking, Mingqi, who had been silent all along, made a move.

Without a word, he bent down, reached out, and with a swift and decisive movement, as if lifting a piece of luggage, hoisted the injured and disoriented Gui Tiao onto his shoulder.

“Sure.” He said succinctly, as if having another person on his shoulder made no difference to having another sword.

"Senior brother!!" Gui Tiao was caught off guard, and the movement aggravated his injured left arm, causing him to let out a bloodcurdling scream, "My arm! My arm is going to break! Be gentle! You're poking my wound! Put me down, I can..."

Mingqi adjusted his posture to prevent Guitiao from slipping down, while avoiding the wound area, but his movements were by no means gentle.

"Shut up, save your energy," he said coldly. "If you make another sound, I'll throw you down."

Gui Tiao's remaining groan was stuck in his throat, making his face turn red. In the end, he only dared to use his uninjured right hand to punch Ling Chuan's back in frustration, muttering under his breath, but he didn't dare to protest loudly anymore.