Chapter 213 Cleaning Up the Situation:
"Brother Jiang! Stop right now! The flower demon has been destroyed!"
Rong Xie rushed to the ball of light and reached in to explore.
The ball of light suddenly brightened for a moment, and Rong Xie's heart almost jumped out of his throat.
"Rong Xie?" Jiang Caijie's surprised voice came from within the ball of light. "How did you get in?"
"I—it's hard to explain right now, anyway, the flower demon has vanished into thin air, and everything's fine now!" Rong Xie shouted.
The next moment, the vision darkened, and the light peeled away like silkworm cocoons, revealing the figure sitting inside the ball of light.
Judge Jiang stared at Rong Xie in astonishment: "When did you cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage? How can you possess such powerful spiritual energy?"
“Brother Jiang, please put your primordial spirit away first, then we’ll talk,” Rong Xie said.
Judge Jiang was skeptical, and this skepticism reached its peak when he saw Shen Bingsi still lying face down at the edge of the barrier. However, when his gaze moved a little further out and he saw the small ball of light floating in the spirit-locking array, he raised his eyebrows in surprise:
That is—
“Xiaozhi’s spirit,” Rong Xie said. “was found by Senior Brother Lu. He told me to take good care of it, and that perhaps in the future… it will grow into a complete soul?”
"Senior Brother Lu?" Judge Jiang was completely bewildered. "You're not talking about Lu Yingqi, are you? Isn't he already dead?"
“He’s not dead! He just attained enlightenment and ascended to immortality, and he also destroyed the flower demon in the process.” Rong Xie quickly explained the situation. “My spiritual power was transferred to me by him, but it can only be retained for a while to facilitate my entry and exit from the Heaven-Sealing Formation.”
"Proving the Dao...ascension?" Judge Jiang was even more bewildered. "You mean just now? After I entered the ball of light?"
"Yes!" Rong Xie said, "Brother Jiang, didn't you feel anything when the Nine Heavens Tribulation came down so fiercely?"
“No,” Judge Jiang shook his head, “I had only been inside for a moment when you pulled me out.”
"What?" This time it was Rong Xie's turn to be stunned. "Only a breath has passed? How is that possible? Senior Brother Lu and I were just talking for ages. I thought a quarter of an hour had already passed..."
“It’s definitely a breath, I haven’t even settled in yet… wait,” Judge Jiang seemed to have thought of something, “could it be… time stopping?”
"Time stopped?"
“That’s right. There’s a legendary spell that’s almost divine, which can stop time and allow time to flow normally only within a specified area,” Judge Jiang said, looking at Rong Xie. “You just said that Lu Yingqi ascended to immortality? If he has reached the Dao Proving stage, he can indeed use this spell.”
Rong Xie nodded: "He has indeed reached the stage of attaining enlightenment."
“But how could that be? When he came over just now, he was at most at the Nascent Soul stage. I couldn’t be mistaken,” Judge Jiang said, puzzled.
"He had an epiphany." Rong Xie's eyes lit up as he looked expectantly at Judge Jiang. "He found a way to prove himself on the Path of Ruthlessness. Brother Jiang, you can try it too, it's just—"
Rong Xie suddenly stopped talking. It wasn't that he was deliberately teasing Judge Jiang, but rather that this method was a bit difficult to talk about. He couldn't very well tell Brother Jiang that the method was suicide, could he?
"What is it?" Even the usually calm and composed Judge Jiang couldn't help but show a hint of urgency at this moment.
“Yes—” Rong Xie composed himself, “find what you love most, and then destroy it.”
"Huh?" Judge Jiang was taken aback. "Isn't that just killing one's wife to prove one's Dao? Nothing new. Wait, didn't Lu Yingqi already kill Xiaozhi? Why is he only proving his Dao now?"
"Because... Brother Jiang, you have to promise me first that once you know the method, you won't try it rashly..."
"certainly."
Rong Xie observed Jiang Caijie's expression: "Senior Brother Lu realized that what he loved most was himself, so he deliberately led Shen Bingsi to kill him, and even stabbed himself with his own sword."
Judge Jiang said "Oh" and remained silent for a long time.
After waiting for a while and seeing that Judge Jiang had no new questions, Rong Xie said, "Brother Jiang, I'll go check on Shen Bingsi. After the flower demon is eliminated, Shen Bingsi should wake up safely, right?"
"Oh," Judge Jiang said, snapping out of his reverie. "Is that so?"
“Brother Jiang, don’t forget what you promised me,” Rong Xie emphasized.
“I won’t forget,” Judge Jiang chuckled, “I was thinking that this method is indeed not universally applicable and should not be spread.”
“That’s right.” Rong Xie nodded seriously.
"Go see Shen Bingsi first. I'll contact Xiaohe to confirm, and then I'll come find you."
"good!"
Rong Xie rushed to Shen Bing Si's side.
"Bing Si, Bing Si?" Rong Xie carefully turned Shen Bing Si over, placed his head on his lap, and washed his face, which was covered in dirt, with water.
At the same time, Judge Jiang took out the Mirror Palace token and contacted the registrar, informing her of the situation.
"Has the flower demon been eliminated? Ah Jiang, I knew you could do it!" came the recorder's excited voice.
"It wasn't me who destroyed the flower demon, it was... never mind, I'll explain in detail later. Could you ask the Heavenly Mirror for me if the flower demon was indeed destroyed?" said Judge Jiang.
The clerk rushed off to find Tianjing, and after a while, she returned, but her tone was not so certain: "Tianjing has answered me."
"how?"
"The situation is a bit complicated." The registrar took a deep breath. "To put it simply, the flower demon was indeed eliminated, but before it disappeared, it left behind a wisp of resentment."
"……What?"
"What?"
After Judge Jiang relayed Tianjing's reply to Rong Xie, Rong Xie's face, which had regained its color, turned pale again.
"Does that mean the flower fairy isn't dead and will still appear in Shen Bingsi's dreams?" Rong Xie's voice trembled.
“No, the flower demon is dead,” Judge Jiang sighed. “However, its resentment has not yet dissipated. It is currently in Shen Bingsi’s dream. If Shen Bingsi does not wake up, the other people who are hypnotized and asleep will not wake up either.”
"Then, how can it be dispelled?" Rong Xie asked anxiously.
Judge Jiang shook his head: "Logically speaking, resentment should dissipate after a period of time following the death of the original body, but Shen Bingsi has not yet woken up, so it's hard to say what the situation is."
"So that means waiting is useless?" Rong Xie stared intently at Judge Jiang and asked.
"It's hard to say," Judge Jiang pondered for a moment. "Flower demons feed on dark energy, so their resentment might be many times stronger than that of ordinary people, and it would take them longer to dissipate. I'll use some spells to dispel their resentment on them, and let's wait and see."
In the following days, Judge Jiang used various methods to try to dispel the resentment in Shen Bingsi's sea of consciousness and awaken him, but none of them succeeded.
Shen Bingsi remained unconscious, as did Sect Master Feng and the five elders. The three hundred people below Wenxin Gorge were also unconscious, their fate unknown.
When the Heaven-Sealing Formation collapsed, the silver barrier shattered into millions of ice crystal-like fragments, falling in the setting sun like a flurry of snowflakes, scattering across the ground and quickly piling up into a layer of silver frost.
Amidst the frost-covered ground, Shen Bingsi slept soundly. Judge Jiang and Rong Xie circled around him, trying various methods, but Shen Bingsi showed no signs of waking up.
Judge Jiang sighed, got up from the ground, and Rong Xie looked up at him. Judge Jiang shook his head.
Rong Xie gripped Shen Bingsi's clothes tightly, his vision blurred with tears.
Jiang Caijie's gaze shifted to the distance. In the back hall of the Tianji Altar, groups of Xuantian Sect disciples had already appeared there, looking over nervously.
"I'll go and calm them down first. I'll be back in a bit. The registrar has already left," said Judge Jiang.
Rong Xie looked down at Shen Bing Si, his face tense, and gave a soft "hmm".
"You don't need to worry too much. If all else fails, we can enter his dream and wake him up." Judge Jiang hesitated for a moment before finally suggesting this method.
"Really?" Rong Xie suddenly raised his head, his eyes filled with hope again. "Then let's dream now!"
“Not now,” Judge Jiang leaned back slightly. “The people from the Xuantian Sect have already arrived.”
Rong Xie then noticed that many people came out of the back hall and stood together at the bottom of the steps.
"Don't worry, once they know the truth, they'll be even more eager than you to wake Shen Bingsi. If Shen Bingsi doesn't wake up, Sect Master Feng, the elders, and so many others won't wake up either," Jiang Caijie sighed. "I'll be back soon."
“…Okay.” Rong Xie then turned his gaze back to Shen Bing Si.
As Judge Jiang walked away, he heard Rong Xie mutter under his breath, "No one is more anxious than me."
As dusk fell, Jiang Caijie took off the sect leader's token from Feng Zongzhu, held it in his hand, and issued a summons to all the peaks.
Elders and high-ranking disciples flew in from various peaks and gathered at the Heavenly Mystery Altar.
The Xuantian Sect, which was originally numerous and powerful, now had less than a hundred members, and their panicked and disheveled state was evident.
Especially when they saw the "corpses" displayed on the cliff edge and the "mountain of corpses" piled up at the bottom of Wenxin Gorge, they were terrified and confused, mistakenly believing that the Xuantian Sect, one of the three major sects, had been destroyed and that Jiang Caijie had summoned them only to inform them of this terrible news.
“They’re not dead yet,” Judge Jiang said bluntly, calming everyone down. “They’ve just fallen into a deep sleep due to the resentment of the flower demon.”
"Where is the flower fairy?" This thought immediately crossed everyone's minds. They all looked around, their faces showing fear.
"The flower demon has already been eliminated by Shen Bingsi and cultivator Lu Yingqi." Judge Jiang once again accurately grasped the crowd's psychology. "Cultivator Lu Yingqi ascended to enlightenment and is not here—"
When the phrase "Lu Yingqi attained enlightenment and ascended to immortality" was mentioned, everyone was shocked, and gasps of surprise rose and fell.
"Lu Yingqi? That name sounds so familiar. Is it someone with the same name?"
"Is it that madman from the Ruthless Dao Palace who had an affair with his own servant?"
"It can't be him, can it? Wasn't he crazy? How could he suddenly achieve enlightenment and ascend to immortality?"
Incredulous discussions quickly spread. The elders and disciples were shocked by this unexpected news, and for a moment they forgot about the crisis that Xuantian Sect was almost destroyed and that the sect leader and the five elders were still lying on the ground.
"Gentlemen, please be quiet and let me finish," Judge Jiang said in a deep voice. "Your sect's crisis of extinction has not yet been resolved! You don't want to disperse here and go home, do you?"
The official's imposing presence silenced the murmurs, and everyone turned to look at him.
Judge Jiang's face was solemn: "Shen Bingsi is cursed by the resentment of the flower demon and is currently in a deep sleep. Only when he wakes up can those who have been hypnotized by the flower demon wake up."
"Sword Saint Shen... how could this be?"
"That hateful flower demon! Even after being eliminated, she still continues to do evil!"
When will Sword Saint wake up?
The crowd discussed the matter again, but of course, they came to no conclusion. Their spirits had been shattered by the disaster and were unlikely to recover quickly. They could only look to Judge Jiang for help: "What can we do now?"
"Everyone, do your best to help settle these fellow disciples and get them back to a safe place before they wake up," said Judge Jiang. "In addition, all the incense cultivators, gather here and come with me to the Ruthless Dao Palace. If Shen Bingsi doesn't wake up, we may need to enter his dreams to awaken him."
The mere mention of "entering a dream" silenced everyone, who stared at Judge Jiang with fear on their faces.
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