Chapter 178 Overcoming Suffering "From now on, I'll let you go."...

“Most people who become the body of Fuxi will suffer a backlash and die, just like those who died in the secret room of the fishing village. I think you have all seen it, right?” Chen Ying took the opportunity to make a condition, “After all the Wangxiang return to the secret realm, I will help Lu Bing draw out the Gu snake in its body.”

The sorcerer is cunning and ruthless; logically, one shouldn't trust him easily, however...

“You either kill me, or you have to trust me,” Chen Ying said. “I can now control the rampaging snakes inside Lu Bing’s body and temporarily alleviate his pain. The prerequisite is that she releases the ice seal on Wang Xiang.”

It turns out that manipulating Zhou Yaren is just as easy as manipulating Lu Bing. No wonder these two can be brothers. They share some common traits and have similar weaknesses, making them both susceptible to being controlled by others.

Bai Yuan remained noncommittal, then withdrew the chilling aura that had sealed the Wangxiang, and the ice sculpture slowly melted away.

Although the other party did not say it explicitly, Bai Yuan's actions and Zhou Yaren's silence had already revealed everything.

Chen Ying finally relaxed, catching her breath. Each breath aggravated her injuries, causing excruciating pain. She struggled to crawl towards Lu Bing, leaving several bloody handprints on the ice.

Chen Ying first took a porcelain bottle from Lu Bing's arms. Her hands trembled slightly as she poured out a pill and fed it into his mouth. Then, she wiped her hands on her blood-stained clothes and began to smooth out Lu Bing's twisted snake veins, slowly smoothing out the congested knots.

Bai Yuan watched Chen Ying's actions without looking to the side, knowing that she wouldn't dare to play any tricks at this moment.

Ah Cong was the first to thaw, and rushed forward immediately with a knife in hand.

After all, enemies are bound to be hostile when they meet. Fearing it might act impulsively, Chen Ying spoke up in time: "He didn't hurt any vital organs, he won't die."

She had lost a lot of blood, soaking her clothes, and her injuries looked particularly serious.

Ah Cong gripped the knife handle tightly, wishing he could stab Zhou Yaren through the neck in the next moment.

Chen Ying grabbed his hand, trying her best to keep her tone calm, and said in a deep voice, "Acong, if you miss this opportunity, you may never have another chance."

Ah Cong suddenly froze on the spot, staring straight at her.

Chen Ying lowered her eyelids, stroked the snake vein on Lu Bing's arm, and said, "Forget it, we can't beat them."

The next moment, Ah Cong discovered that the knife in his hand had been frozen in its sheath.

Ah Cong looked up at Bai Yuan, who exuded a chilling aura. Bai Yuan remained unmoved, silently demonstrating that it had no chance to draw its sword.

Gradually, Lu Bing's convulsing limbs calmed down in Chen Ying's hands, while Chen Ying's hands trembled more violently than his.

"Lu Bing," she whispered as she leaned closer.

Seeing Lu Bing's eyes roll under his thin eyelids, he must have been exhausted from the ordeal.

Chen Ying kept a close eye on the celestial phenomena; the eclipse was only a moment away, and she had to wake Lu Bing. Chen Ying pulled out her hairpin, intending to stick it into Lu Bing's acupoint.

Bai Yuan grabbed her wrist: "What are you doing?"

Chen Ying said matter-of-factly, "Wake him up."

"Use a hairpin to tie it up?"

This woman is really wary. Chen Ying said, "Otherwise, do you have any other ideas?"

Bai Yuan had no idea what trick she was playing: "We have to wake her up now?"

"We can also let him just sleep like that and never wake up, so don't blame me."

Just as Zhou Yaren was about to step forward, an endless darkness suddenly descended, and the world was almost plunged into night.

Everyone looked up at the same time.

A lunar eclipse occurred, causing a dramatic change in the heavens. The sun was swallowed up, leaving only a thin golden edge, like a feather of light. Stars burst forth in the long night, casting their light into the sea, arranged in an orderly fashion across the sky and the vast ocean.

At this very moment, Chen Ying, who had endured so much suffering, finally saw the light. Fang Xiandao had recorded in the secret chamber that the sun was the master of Yang and the moon was the origin of Yin. She murmured, blood choking her throat, her words muffled: "Fuxi observed the shapes of the sun and moon in harmony, imitating the movements of the celestial phenomena."

As soon as Chen Ying finished speaking, the sky and clouds stretched out, the sea was vast and blue, and eight winds suddenly rose, stirring up a thousand miles of clouds that surged and gathered together.

A breeze entered his body, playing the tune on the violin at Zhou Yaren's waist. He was suddenly startled: "This is—a trace of wind?"

He never expected that traces of wind would remain in the secret realm that was difficult for ordinary people to reach.

Without hesitation, Zhou Yaren held the pitch pipe in his hand, and stood between heaven and earth, gathering the yin and yang energies to "establish images".

Thus, the heavens responded with a beautiful scene, and the earth responded with a resounding echo; on the vast East China Sea, a scene unfolded like a painted curtain.

The scene depicted in the image is exactly the same as this moment, when the shapes of the sun and moon are aligned, almost overlapping with reality.

On the vast and boundless sea stood a tall and imposing figure, calmly standing between the sea and the sky, with long hair cascading down to her waist, covering her strong and slender snake tail.

"A human head and a snake's body." Master Fang stared in disbelief, completely stunned. "Could that be—the Emperor Xi?"

The image depicts only a silhouette, with Fuxi standing without feet, his long snake tail winding and dragging into the sea.

The moment Fuxi manifested himself in the standing image, Zhou Yaren, who was holding the pitch pipe, was stunned.

As the saying goes, the wind is a divine instrument of heaven and earth; a single sound contains the tones of the six musical scales, and a single breath encompasses the changes of the four seasons. In the pre-Qin period, music was created by heaven, a manifestation of the Way of Heaven. Gu Zong, who listened to the wind to discern the seasons and harmonized musical scales to create music, was a practitioner of understanding the Way of Heaven and Earth.

The trace of wind remaining in the East China Sea comes from the dynamic image of the Xun hexagram in Fuxi's hexagram arrangement.

Fuxi observed the heavens and earth and all things to deduce the laws of nature, and determined the Xun hexagram as wind. This dynamic image is a legacy of Fuxi.

A myriad of stars are reflected in the azure sea, covering the entire area. The dark sun and moon in the sky form bottomless black holes on the sea surface. When the gentle breeze blows, eddies are stirred up on the originally calm sea where the reflections of the sun and moon are.

"Fang Xiandao speculates that the realm where the Undying People live should be a secret realm formed by the celestial phenomenon of the sun and moon aligning." Chen Ying has read all the records and can be said to know the most. She stared at the dark vortex and said, "Therefore, whenever there is a solar eclipse, the location of the Boundless Secret Realm will be revealed under the heavenly Dao and exposed to the sea."

In the heavens, this signifies a solar eclipse; on earth, it signifies the appearance of countless secret realms in the sea.

Long ago, Fuxi had already reached the East Sea and, by observing the alignment of the sun and moon, glimpsed the secrets of the matter.

Where the sun and moon shine, the southeast wind stirs up the tides and clouds, creating countless phenomena between the sea and sky. The shadow of the eclipse casts down from the heavens. Countless stars burst forth with silver light, as if connecting heaven and earth.

Because they were in the midst of it, they could hardly realize that this was the manifestation of the Fuxi divination array, the image observed by Fuxi, the image standing in the wind, the mirage of the moon.

At the same time, the venomous snake lurking in Lu Bing's blood swelled and protruded, moving orderly under his skin without haste or impatience. Lu Bing's drooping fingers suddenly trembled.

Chen Ying turned her head and saw Lu Bing open his eyes. She found it hard to describe Lu Bing's state at this moment. It was as if his symbiotic body with the snake had truly awakened under the influence of the divination array. Lu Bing slowly stood up, as if he was being haunted by the scene before him, and walked step by step toward the mirage in the "Standing Image".

Lu Bing passed by Zhou Yaren and, under the radiant glow of countless stars, stepped toward the pillar of shadow formed by the lunar eclipse.

“Lu Bing.” Zhou Yaren sensed it.

Lu Bing ignored him, walked a long stretch of icy road, and stood alone in the "Standing Elephant". He looked up and slowly raised his hand.

Chen Ying couldn't help but take a half step forward, her gaze fixed on Lu Bing, who was shrouded in starlight, and murmured, "The Hand of Fuxi, open it personally."

The vast sea seemed to be lit up with starlight.

In the void between the starlight, there is a faint horizontal black line that is deeper than the surrounding area.

The moment Lu Bing raised his fingertip and touched the top of that black line in the void, the wind and clouds surged, the sea mist rose, and the vast mirage condensed into a huge human-headed snake body behind him!

Master Fang, who witnessed this scene, was so shocked that he forgot himself: "The body of Fuxi!"

It truly is the body of Fuxi.

Those vipers can indeed concoct the body of Fuxi.

Unable to control himself, Master Fang ran along the slippery, icy road, staggering as he chased after the illusory figure that resembled the image of Fuxi.

The next moment, Lu Bing and Fuxi's gestures were almost synchronized, and they drew a horizontal line towards the miniature image of the sun and moon merging together.

A sound like tearing silk seemed to echo in the vast expanse of heaven and earth.

Suddenly, as if the dawn had pierced through the long night, a ray of golden light appeared in the void, as if it had pierced through the endless darkness and cut a hole in the sky.

The golden light turned Lu Bing's pupils amber, and he didn't blink, his long eyelashes clearly visible.

Master Fang suddenly fell to the ground, sliding several meters across the ice before landing at Bai Yuan's feet. He didn't bother to get up, but looked up in shock, his voice trembling with emotion: "One stroke, the creation of heaven."

Legend has it that Fuxi drew the Eight Trigrams, starting with the Qian trigram.

The Qian trigram is the first line of the eight trigrams, and since Qian represents heaven, it is said that "one line opens the heavens".

So this is the creation of the world with a single stroke. Bai Yuan stared at the narrow line of golden light and said, "So it all started from here when Fuxi created the world with a single stroke? This is the 'world' created by the 'single stroke,' the origin of Taoist arts."

Fuxi observed the heavens and earth, the sun and moon, the stars, and all things in the world. The Qian hexagram he came to understand originated from the East Sea. Then, with the "one stroke" that opened the heavens and earth, he opened up the boundless secret realm.

Fuxi thus discovered the immortals dwelling in the Boundless Secret Realm.

After discovering the Immortal People, Fuxi, perhaps out of some consideration and concern, set up a divination array at the entrance to completely conceal the secret realm.

The vastness of the sea made the already isolated secret realm even more hidden. Furthermore, Fuxi personally arranged the divination symbols to conceal it. To find it, one must use Fuxi's hand to hold the Yin Sui (a type of fire-lighting device) to locate its exact position.

This was originally a form of protection, but because the Way of Fuxi was deciphered by the world and news of the existence of the immortals spread, people with ulterior motives set their sights on the secret realm of the sea, thus staging a drama of setting sail to seek immortality and medicine.

Since the sage has passed away and his immortal body is no more, a new sage's body is created. Thus, one after another, people suffer great calamities because of their greed and delusions.

Unjustly breaking the secrets of heaven and earth, disaster struck when the legendary Emperor Fuxi drew a single stroke.

A thousand years have passed, and the secret realm has once again been opened to the outside world.

"This is the entrance to the Boundless Secret Realm." Chen Ying was so blinded by the ray of light that she could hardly open her eyes, and her eyes ached so much that tears were about to well up. She could hardly look directly at it, so she turned to Wang Xiang, who was standing beside her in a daze. "A Cong, I'll leave you here."

Ah Cong hesitated before turning to look at Chen Ying, his body almost wooden.

"Hurry up and go," Chen Ying urged, "Don't waste time."

Ah Cong walked forward stiffly, having waited for so many years, and finally the door of his hometown slowly opened for them, and all the phantoms walked towards the narrow entrance.

Halfway there, the creatures turned back at the same time, as if by prior agreement.

Chen Ying, dressed in blood-stained clothes, stood there, smiled at them, and then whispered goodbye: "Farewell."

Having been together for over a decade, the impending separation is somewhat bittersweet, but thankfully they are finally able to leave this world.

Goodbye, Ah Cong.

The entrance was slowly expanding, and the light seemed to pierce through Zhou Yaren's blind pupils and shine into his eyes. For a moment, he seemed to see the light, and not just the entrance that opened from the "standing image".

Perhaps it was a sense of trepidation upon returning home; he couldn't remember his past, yet an unprecedented sense of familiarity surged forth, as if it were the place he longed for, and all the unspeakable sorrows and anxieties bound him.

Drawn by the entrance, Zhou Yaren slowly lifted her foot and couldn't help but embark on this journey home.

Time has passed, and he has experienced many things. His legs are heavy, making every step he takes almost arduous.

Bai Yuan silently watched his retreating figure, and then laid an indestructible icy road on the way to Zhou Yaren's hometown.

This icy road stretches out silently for a very long time.

But he is a sinner banished from the secret realm, branded with an indelible torment. The secret realm could never accept him, and if Azhaosu were to set foot there...

A sudden rumbling sound echoed across the sky, as if a giant boulder had rolled into the clouds.

Storm clouds surged like a tsunami, instantly obscuring the sky and stars, their force like thunder.

The earth-shattering thunder shook people to their core, and lightning streaked across the sky, lashing down like a giant whip from the heavens to earth.

Everyone turned pale under the electric light. Master Fang frantically dodged on all fours, but there was nowhere to take cover on the vast ocean.

The terrified boatmen scrambled under the boat for cover. The whip, though lashing down, barely grazed the boat from above, shearing off most of the hull that was stuck in the ice, before smashing it open with a bang.

The mirror grinder, who was lying on the ice crack below the boat, got his scalp tingling.

Chen Ying's expression changed drastically. Without thinking, she rushed towards Lu Bing, who was standing under the cumulus clouds and lightning. She suddenly pounced on him, grabbed him tightly, and rolled a long way away from the aftershocks.

The whip formed by lightning swept across the area, striking directly at Zhou Yaren.

With a loud "boom," the icy path was shattered.

Zhou Yaren leaped up, barely avoiding the snow-white whip.

However, chains of torture materialized from the cloud waterfall, extending from all directions and entangling Zhou Yaren, who was leaping into the air. Despite his desperate attempts to dodge and struggle, Zhou Yaren had nowhere to hide due to the brand of torture on his body, and the shackles precisely locked his limbs.

when--

The summoned gale failed to cleave the chain of punishment descending from the sky. The splashing white light scratched his cheek, and Zhou Yaren turned his head away, blood dripping from the long, thin wound that reached his temple.

Why?

Before he could ask a question, a muffled thunderbolt tore through the sky, striking the sea once more from the thick clouds.

At this moment, he was a prisoner who had walked into a trap; the secret realm had never shown him any mercy.

Azhaosu's crime is unforgivable. He dared to step into the territory of the Undead. He will immediately be punished by Heaven and executed.

Zhou Yaren didn't even have a chance to defend himself; from beginning to end, he was a sinner in the secret realm.

The serpentine lightning illuminated the entire dark sea in a ghastly white light, transforming into a swift and violent whip that lashed down with terrifying force.

Under the immense divine might, the iron chains rattled and trembled, as if their very bones were shaking.

Bai Yuan rose up fiercely, standing in front of her amidst the swirling wind and frost. The ice blade she had drawn was shattered, and she withstood the remaining thunderous power, which nearly shattered her internal organs.

"Ya-ren!" The fall had completely sobered Lu Bing up, and as soon as he regained his senses, he witnessed this scene. His pupils constricted, and he scrambled to his feet, but Chen Ying grabbed his arm.

"Don't go over there!" Chen Ying screamed, "Are you out of your mind?!"

"Let go!" Lu Bing forcefully broke free from her. "Chen Ying, was it you?!"

Lu Bing overestimated her. If she were that capable, she would have killed Zhou Yaren a hundred times over. Why would she need to suffer under him?

Chen Ying grabbed Lu Bing's clothes again, but her body was covered in acupoints pierced by the blind man, and she could barely muster any strength to stop Lu Bing from going to the minefield. "That's because he betrayed the Undead and harmed his own kind, so he was punished by the heavens. Now you know how great his sins were, that even the heavens want to execute him."

Lu Bing forcefully shook off Chen Ying, not wanting to hear another word of her nonsense.

"You ignorant fool!" Chen Ying exclaimed angrily. "Under the might of Heaven, you are nothing but an ant. Do you think you can save him?"

Terrified by the lightning and thunder, Master Fang ran around in a panic and bumped into the two people tugging at each other. He rushed over in a panic, almost slipping into the sea, and grabbed Lu Bing, crying out, "Officer Lu! It's dangerous, you..."

Before Master Fang could finish speaking, the sword at his waist was suddenly drawn with a whoosh.

"Lu..." Chen Ying's outstretched hand hadn't even grasped Lu Bing's clothes before her voice abruptly stopped.

Master Fang was suddenly stunned.

All I could hear was ticking, ticking, ticking...

A sharp, icy chill ran through her abdomen, and Chen Ying froze for a moment before slowly lowering her eyelids to see the sword that had pierced her body.

Lu Bing gripped the sword hilt tightly, the blade plunging straight into her abdomen. Blood dripped down the blade onto the pristine ice surface, resembling blooming blood plum blossoms.

Lu Bing's hands are so steady, they didn't even tremble once.

"Chen Ying, you've gone to such lengths for Wang Xiang, all for the sake of immortality, what a pity..."

Chen Ying felt as if she had heard a joke. So that's what they all thought. It's like the saying, "Every man for himself." Unfortunately, they were all wrong.

"Who said that?" Chen Ying endured the sharp pain in her abdomen and forced a smile. "Young Master Lu, do you think everyone wants this worthless life? This worthless life of mine will sooner or later... die without a burial place. Why don't I give you this chance to vent your anger today?"

Lu Bing hated her so much that his eyes were bloodshot.

Chen Ying was laughing, holding the long sword that Lu Bing had plunged into her body, her mouth full of blood as she laughed: "But I've ruined you like this, even if you kill me, it won't be enough to vent your anger, right? Lu Bing, how about I teach you a trick? First, cut me into eight pieces, slice off the flesh piece by piece, and feed it to the fish and the dogs."

As Chen Ying spoke, she burst into laughter, tears streaming down her face. She said, "But what can I do? Even if I could do it all over again, I would still do the same thing. I would catch you, torture you, and turn you into the Hand of Fuxi. I am incorrigible."

Chen Ying stared at Lu Bing, as if she had gone mad. She stepped forward, the sword penetrating her abdomen an inch deep, pressing against her spine. She was not afraid at all, and she struggled to step towards Lu Bing, letting the sharp sword inside her pierce through her spine.

With a snap, she spat out a mouthful of blood.

“If I die, you’ll be free. Are you happy?” She grasped Lu Bing’s hand, which was tightly gripping the hilt of the knife. Lu Bing stood still, not taking a single step back because of her advance. Chen Ying raised her head, looking directly into Lu Bing’s eyes, and then, as if showing leniency, she said to Lu Bing, “From now on, I’m letting you go.”

“I’m letting you go,” she repeated with a smile, as if she were happy for him. “Lu Bing, you are finally free.”

Lu Bingkui remained unmoved, his scarlet eyes glistening with tears, until Chen Ying could no longer support herself and leaned against him—he had finally avenged his grandmother and father.

"Congratulations," Chen Ying thought to herself. "Lu Bing, let me be all the calamities and hardships you've endured in this life. Now that you've overcome all your suffering, may you live the rest of your life in peace and tranquility."

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Author's note: Our Master Fang is here to deliver the sword.