Chapter 197 Eternal Sinking
Zhong Zhengming slumped to the ground, his hands trembling as he made hand seals and chanted incantations, but he could no longer summon any spiritual power.
"No...this is impossible!" he screamed hysterically, "My spiritual root...my cultivation!"
He frantically scratched his chest, his nails digging deep into his flesh, as if trying to dig back his lost spiritual roots.
Blood stained his front, but he was completely unaware.
"You despicable people!"
He suddenly lunged at Lu Yao, but fell heavily to the ground in mid-air.
Without the support of spiritual energy, his body was like an empty shell.
"That's mine! It was born to be mine!"
His gaze swept over the expressionless Zhong Zhengxuan, and he suddenly burst into maniacal laughter: "You think you've won just like that? The secret techniques I know and master are things you'll never know..."
Zhong Zhengming's words came to an abrupt halt, as if an invisible hand had gripped his throat tightly.
His eyes bulged out, veins stood out on his face, and white foam uncontrollably spilled from the corners of his mouth.
A thick, inky black mist gushed out from the top of his head, followed by a second and a third.
These are the very origins of the evil arts he has secretly practiced over the years.
Without the suppression of the spiritual root, these forcibly plundered powers began to backfire wildly.
He convulsed violently, and it felt as if countless insects were wriggling under his skin.
Those evil arts that he was once so proud of are now slowly gnawing away at his meridians.
Lu Yao watched this scene coldly: "What is forcibly taken will eventually have to be repaid double."
His eyes were bloodshot, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. "I've already engraved the forbidden techniques from the Earthly Fiends' Heavenly Book into my soul! When I'm reincarnated, Lu Yao, you just wait—"
"Reincarnation?" Lu Yao chuckled, a laugh that sent a shiver down Zhong Zhengming's spine. "I might as well tell you, this is your reincarnation."
She gently waved her hand, and a golden light entered Zhong Zhengming's brow.
In an instant, memories of his past life flooded into his mind like a burst dam.
"Ah—" he screamed in agony, rolling on the ground with his hands covering his head.
Past events flashed through my mind:
In the imperial court, if it weren't for Lu Yao's prediction that "this child will surely cause the people to suffer," he should have been the emperor's most favored prince.
In order to reclaim the throne, he did not hesitate to bear the infamy and even used forbidden techniques to suppress her under the Broken Soul Ridge.
He finally ascended the throne and became emperor, but was murdered on his imperial bed by palace servants three days later, becoming the biggest joke in history books...
Now, he has finally achieved his wish and mastered metaphysics.
But Lu Yao, who was reborn, stole his spiritual root!
"No...this is impossible!"
He was convulsing all over, his fingernails scratching ten bloody marks on the ground.
The obsessions of two lifetimes collapsed at this moment.
All the cultivation he had painstakingly acquired was about to be destroyed by this woman!
"Lu! Yao!" he howled like a wild beast, his voice filled with boundless hatred, "I could suppress you a thousand years ago, and I can do it again today!"
He used all his strength to throw a talisman at Lu Yao.
That talisman was a refined and simplified version of the last evil technique in the Earthly Fiends Reversal Book, the Nine Nether Soul Locking Array.
Zhong Zhengming knew that he and Lu Yao would eventually have a showdown, so he prepared this talisman in advance.
Incorporating the blood of his closest relatives provided by Lu Jianhong and Xie Yutong, Lu Yao's birth date and time, genuine materials, and secret treasures... all for this moment.
Surprised?
He grinned, his mouth stained with blood, eager to see Lu Yao's panicked expression.
But Lu Yao casually raised her hand, and the menacing talisman hovered three inches from her fingertips.
She tilted her head and chuckled as if watching a child's trick: "A thousand years have passed, and you still only know this one move?"
With a flick of the fingertip, the talisman instantly turned to ashes.
The smugness on Zhong Zhengming's face hadn't faded before it froze on his face.
"If I hadn't willingly severed three of my immortal bones back then, what could this Nine Nether Soul-Locking Array have done to me?"
Lu Yao looked down at Zhong Zhengming, who was curled up on the ground, a cold smile curving her lips.
"Did you think you won that contest a thousand years ago?"
"You did trap me with the Nine Nether Soul-Locking Array, but what was the result? I died suddenly in three days, my body and head separated... This is the imperial destiny you stole."
Crouching down, Lu Yao looked directly into his bloodshot eyes: "And in this life..."
She laughed out loud, "You're not even qualified to be my opponent. Who would bother with an ant?"
As the last word fell, the black energy within Zhong Zhengming's body suddenly erupted.
"Please have mercy, Master!" The First Elder suddenly rushed forward and grabbed Lu Yao's sleeve tightly.
The second elder knelt down with a thud, his forehead hitting the bluestone slab heavily: "For the sake of your master's friendship with the Zhong family, I beg you to spare his life..."
"Friendship?" Lu Yao sneered. "It's a one-sided favor from my master! You used the Earthly Fiend Heaven-Reversing Book left by my master to do evil, betraying her trust and entrustment. Do you even deserve to mention her?"
Zhong's father uttered a muffled plea: "Ah Xuan... Father was wrong... Save your brother..."
Before Lu Yao could speak, Zhong Zhengxuan had already stepped forward slowly.
The pure, ethereal light emanating from her illuminated a cold face: "When I was chained to the bronze plate, did anyone plead for me even once?"
The black mist coiled around Zhong Zhengming's limbs like a venomous snake, dragging him little by little into the ground.
He let out a scream that was not human, watching helplessly as his flesh rapidly rotted away under the corrosive black energy, revealing his bare white bones.
The black mist was not simply smoke, but rather formed from countless twisted vengeful spirits.
Zhong Zhengming was horrified to discover that he recognized many of the faces.
There were Guan Mu, who was used by him to test the Three Powers Reversal Strategy; there were ordinary people whose families were destroyed because of him in their previous lives; and there were even palace servants who were harmed by him.
They sneered, tearing at his soul with claw-like black energy.
Suddenly, a deep abyss split open in the ground, emanating a putrid stench.
As Zhong Zhengming was dragged toward this bottomless pit, he saw the dense runes on the cave walls.
It was the incantation he had carved on the Nine Nether Soul-Locking Array back then.
Now, these runes have become a prison for him.
Beneath the abyss lies a boiling pool of blood.
Countless pale hands reached out from the blood, eager to tear this new sinner apart.
Zhong Zhengming struggled desperately, but just as he fell into the pool of blood, he heard Lu Yao's final words:
"To the deepest hell, to be forever condemned."
Blood poured into his seven orifices, scorching every inch of his soul.
He found himself becoming one with those vengeful spirits.
He will remain conscious forever, becoming part of this pool of blood, enduring the daily bites of other sinful souls.
This is the true meaning of being condemned to eternal damnation.
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