Chapter 164 Cremation Slipped Away
Yu Sui watched as the charred, withered bones reached out from behind and grasped the black sword shadow in the water. She then saw several small clusters of crimson flame crystal flowers sprout from its wrist, emitting scalding white smoke in the water. After the crimson flame crystal flowers fell off, they grew back.
The black skull opened its mouth and let out a sharp roar in the water, the sound of which could not be blocked by the water curtain. The black skull grabbed Yu Sui by the back of his collar with one hand and slashed upwards at the water curtain with the other.
When Yu Sui was pulled out of the water by the black skull, he found that the previously bone-chillingly cold underground river water had become warm.
White smoke billowed up, and besides the black skull's incessant shrill roars, there was also the crackling sound of its crimson flame crystal flowers being extinguished by water.
Yu Sui shook the water droplets off his face and stared wide-eyed ahead: the black skull was half-submerged in the water, and its upper body, exposed above the surface, appeared incredibly tall, though it was hunched over. The black skull turned left and right, then roared forcefully, creating an invisible sound barrier that stirred up a large amount of the five elements' energy.
Having just dodged the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiend Lightning, Lin Chenghai swung his staff to block the sound barrier, cursing, "What the hell is this?!"
Yu Sui scratched his head, wondering to himself, "What exactly is this? Is it my sword spirit? But it doesn't seem to listen to me."
The sound of splashing water rose again. Just as Yu Sui was about to turn around, she saw Mei Liangyu emerge from the water with a gloomy expression. His gaze fell on the scratch on her throat. He pressed Yu Sui's head down with his hand, shoved her behind him, and then looked at Lin Chenghai in front of him.
"Senior brother!" Yu Sui saw that Mei Liangyu looked like he was about to kill someone and quickly grabbed him.
Mei Liangyu didn't even bother with the noisy, dark thing next to her. Yu Sui's shout earlier had used the Eight Trigrams Life Technique, knowing that his hearing was still not fully recovered, and using the Five Elements Qi as a clue, so that the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiend Thunder could find her by following the Five Elements Qi.
He had only been gone a short while. If someone were to kill Yu Sui and steal the Breath of Earth right under his nose, Mei Liangyu would probably go mad.
The purple lightning was swift, and Mei Liangyu dodged and followed its movement. Yu Sui failed to catch him. The underground was already gloomy and dark, with little light. Even with Yu Sui's flowing fire illuminating the way, it was only in the water.
At this moment, purple lightning flashed, sometimes bright and sometimes dark. Mei Liangyu couldn't see Wen Yangzhou's face clearly until he struck the staff with his palm. When the five elements clashed at close range, lightning flashed brightly.
Hu Gui called out, "Stop!"
He was afraid that Lin Chenghai might not hold back and hurt the young master.
Lin Chenghai, who had been gathering his strength, stopped and took the blow after seeing who it was. Mei Liangyu, on the other hand, frowned and stepped back after seeing Wen Yangzhou's appearance.
Hu Gui originally intended to slip away to Yu Sui and take her hostage to force Mei Liangyu to stop, but as soon as he reached the water's surface, he was slashed back by that dark, ghostly figure with a sword.
The black skull roared furiously, its voice like the howl of a tiger and the cry of a dragon, causing Yu Sui to cover his ears. Mei Liangyu and Lin Chenghai were also affected and glanced at the black mass in the water.
Even though Mei Liangyu was deaf, the five elements energy in the roar caused his ears to hurt.
"Senior brother!" Yu Sui covered her ears and signaled to Mei Liangyu, "He is a senior of the Buddhist family. He possessed Wen Yangzhou's body using the Heavenly Secret Technique and was also poisoned by the Azure Blood Golden Butterfly Poison of the Farmer Saint! Be careful not to kill Wen Yangzhou too!"
"Little girl, why are you being so nosy?!" Lin Chenghai took a deep breath, his eyes flashing with golden light, and stepped on a streak of purple lightning that was flying towards him. "You're calling your senior brother to avenge you, huh? I'll see what your senior brother is capable of!"
Mei Liangyu gripped the middle section of the staff with his five fingers and said calmly, "The Buddhist school's method of stealing souls and exchanging spirits is indeed impressive."
Lin Chenghai was startled by these words. Did he know?
Yu Sui was still shouting from below: "My senior brother is not only poisoned but also has an ear injury and can't hear. If you fight him at this time, it's an unfair victory, bullying the weak. What kind of demeanor is that of a thirteenth-realm master?"
Lin Chenghai withdrew his attack, stepped back to create distance, and asked with a serious expression, "What kind of poison have you been given?"
Mei Liangyu's gaze was cold and unreadable, revealing neither joy nor anger, nor could his thoughts be guessed. He stared at Lin Chenghai and said, "You were able to invite a Buddhist master of the thirteenth realm to come to Taiyi, just for that useless half-piece of Breath Soil?"
"Half a piece?" Lin Chenghai's expression was strange. "That little girl only has half a piece of Breath Soil inside her?"
Hu Gui used his Wind Control Technique to stop on the water. Upon hearing this, he looked at Yu Sui in the water with a hint of surprise on his face. He flipped his hand in his sleeve, and a black curse flew from his palm toward Yu Sui.
The black curse transformed into two dark eagle shadows, grabbing Yu Sui's wrist and pulling her toward Hu Gui with an invisible force. Before Mei Liangyu could make a move, Hu Gui explained, "The Ghost Daoist Flying Ink Curse can be broken with the Eight Trigrams Life Technique."
"However... it must be the Kun and Gen trigrams."
Hu Gui stared at Yu Sui, noticing her furrowed brows and apparent distress. Mei Liangyu then pointed two fingers downwards, using the Gen Gua Sheng Technique to break the Flying Ink Curse. Freed from the pressure of the Flying Ink Curse, Yu Sui sank into the water, emerging only after she had moved a considerable distance away.
"I do only have half a piece of the Breath Soil in my body. If I had the complete Breath Soil, I could practice the Nine Schools of Farming Techniques without any obstacles, and I would be immune to all poisons and diseases. Even the most evil poison and Gu techniques would not have any side effects or backlashes. I would have become a master of the thirteenth level of the Farming School long ago. Why would I need to come to Taiyi to study?"
Yu Sui emerged from the water again, keeping a distance from Hu Gui, and said these words, half annoyed and half heartbroken.
She couldn't tell Hu Gui and Lin Chenghai that her father didn't love her and her mother didn't care for her. These words might reach Nangong Ming's ears, and if Nangong Ming knew that she was saying such things outside, she would be in big trouble.
“Only half a piece of the Breath Soil will compete for the five elements of your body. Sealing it with the secrets of the Ghost Path will indeed give you the strength to cultivate the Nine Streams Technique,” Hu Gui said calmly. “However… if you are originally a person of ordinary skills, the five elements of the Breath Soil will only make you weaker than others. Even if it is sealed, you will not be able to learn the Nine Streams Technique.”
Yu Sui was stunned. If Hu Gui knew these things, it was impossible for Nangong Ming and Madam Su not to know them.
Although Nangong Ming knew about the influence of half a piece of the Breath Soil on her, Yu Sui couldn't detect the talent of any family. He tried all sorts of methods to test it, but the final result was that they were all people of average skill. So he didn't seal the Breath Soil because it was useless.
The Asura Eye, a master's eye, can see the entirety of a person's life, whether they are a dragon or a phoenix, mediocre or a genius. Nangong Ming, a confident man, would naturally believe what his Asura Eye sees.
No matter how many times he looked at her with his Asura Eyes, his youngest daughter was mediocre.
Lin Chenghai let out a strange laugh and looked down at Yu Sui: "Half a piece of Breath Soil is more harmful than beneficial. Nangong Ming wouldn't be so foolish, unless the Breath Soil was accidentally separated and he couldn't stop it in time. And the other half... is probably still with your mother, Su Xing!"
"The Breath of Earth is a sacred object of agriculture, a remnant of heaven and earth over thousands of years. Even if there is only half of it, sealing it is no easy task. In this world, there is probably only one person, the Taiyi Saint Chang Gen, who can do it."
Hu Gui sized up Yu Sui: "Your father sent you to Taiyi perhaps to use Chang Gen to seal the Xirang and see if his daughter was truly a person of the Pingshu school, or if there was another reason."
Yu Sui felt a chill run down her spine; she simply couldn't fathom the relationship between Nangong Ming and his master, the Sage Chang Gen.
If Master is from Qingyang, would he have a cooperative relationship with Nangong Ming?
So what role does she play in Nangong Ming's plan?
"Nangong Ming has persuaded the old monster of Taiyi to take action several times. I don't know what benefits he gave that old monster, but now he has even sent his own daughter to the old monster as a disciple. He really makes the most of everything." Lin Chenghai mocked without any politeness, pointing his stick at Yu Sui, "Little girl, since you only have half a piece of Xirang and it is sealed, killing you and taking it would be useless. Today, I will be merciful and let you go."
As he spoke, he glanced at Mei Liangyu out of the corner of his eye, as if he was deliberately saying to him, "If I don't kill your junior sister, can you please stop fighting?"
Yu Sui took a deep breath, and many scenes from her childhood flashed through her mind. As her emotions were shaken, the black skull, which had been quiet for a moment, roared again.
It raised its head and shrieked, even the shadow of the sword in its hand trembled and hummed. Its voice was like the howl of a demon, full of ferocity and killing intent. It collided with the black stone wall, the sound echoed in the sky, and stirred up gusts of fierce wind, causing Mei Liangyu and the other two to raise their hands to defend themselves.
Fiery red crystal flowers kept falling from the black skull into the water, white smoke rose, the icy water boiled, and the earth shook.
On the upper floors, Xing Chun, who had just robbed the sorcerer of the mechanical arts and was about to put on the clothes he had stolen, was suddenly jolted and bumped his head on the stone path, seeing stars. Zhong Lishan, who was next to him, caught him and then heard the roar of evil spirits from below, and his expression turned serious.
"What's going on?" Xing Chun covered his forehead and turned to look down. "What's happening down there now?"
The murderous aura emanating from the black skull shot straight into the sky, startling the mechanical sorcerers on the ground. Li Jinshuang, standing at the edge of the sea of fire, subconsciously pressed down on the trembling hilt of her sword and frowned as she looked down.
What is it?
As soon as Ou Rushuang disembarked from the Spirit Bird, he saw several familiar figures rushing ahead of him toward the center of the sea eye that had been hit by the Wind Control Technique.
Wu Huaiwei, barefoot and with her red ribbons fluttering, stopped at the edge of the sea fire, her expression thoughtful.
Leng Rouyin followed closely behind, one hand also resting on the sword at her waist, her cold brows showing a hint of wariness.
Ou Rushuang's gaze fell on the other two people, her eyes slightly narrowed. She hadn't expected that people from the Ming and Fa families would come.
The renowned sage Sun Heng and the Legalist sage Wei Xizhen, one in black and one in white, used their respective wind-riding techniques to land at the edge of the sea fire and observe the movements below.
At the very bottom of Beikun City, inside the Panlong Grotto, the sound of boiling ice water was drowned out by the roar of the black skull. The sonic attack, except for Yu Sui, couldn't distinguish friend from foe. Mei Liangyu covered his ear with one hand, touching it with blood. He couldn't hear it before, but the roar made it audible.
The Black Skull swung his sword haphazardly, yet the sword energy he unleashed was as heavy as a mountain. Even a slight scratch felt like a thousand-pound stone striking him. The Black Skull's movements were unpredictable and swift as lightning. In the blink of an eye, he was already high above the Buddha statue. His sword energy scattered with each swing, causing the Buddha statue to clang loudly, and sweeping Lin Chenghai and Mei Liangyu away.
"What the hell?" Lin Chenghai shouted as he dodged, "What is this thing?!"
"People from above are here." Hu Gui looked up at the top and said in a deep voice, "It's almost time, we have to leave."
Lin Chenghai looked at Mei Liangyu and saw him rushing towards Yu Sui, only to be slashed back by the Black Skull's swords. Mei Liangyu frowned and clicked his tongue impatiently before turning to look at the Black Skull, as if he were examining the dark creature for the first time.
"Boy," Lin Chenghai called out to Mei Liangyu, and said in a deep voice, "remember this: to you, your master is an enemy, not a friend."
Mei Liangyu stared at him intently, but did not ask any further questions or refute him. Instead, she said, "Leave the Wenyang Scroll behind."
"You really want to save him?" Lin Chenghai asked. "Then he can't be kept alive. Once the soul-stealing and soul-swapping is done, he will be poisoned by the Azure Blood Golden Butterfly and will surely die. If you want to save your friend, then leave Taiyi and come find me."
A whirlpool of water appeared beneath Lin Chenghai and Hu Gui's feet. Both of them looked at Mei Liangyu, and Hu Gui's voice seemed to carry a hint of sigh: "After today, you should understand how to leave Taiyi."
The vortex gradually grew larger, enveloping the two of them, and a towering waterspout rose from the underground river, resembling the eye of the sea, shooting straight into the sky.
The people on Beikun City saw a huge torrent of water sweep in, rising into the sky from the Panlong Grottoes, and then quickly dissipating, much like a suddenly appearing sea eye, which then suddenly disappeared, only this time without leaving behind the strange sea fire.
Following that, a black shadow carrying killing intent and ferocity flew out from the depths. Wu Huaiwei dodged aside, while Leng Rouyin, who was already on guard, instantly drew her sword and clashed with the black skull that flew out from the sea eye. The sword wind swept across, extinguishing all the dying sea fires around them.
The black skull roared at Leng Rouyin, its voice booming like a tiger's howl or a dragon's cry. It resembled an enraged beast, lacking any skill or technique, relying solely on its overwhelmingly powerful elemental energy. Leng Rouyin frowned, shifting her grip to her sword with both hands, lowering the sword slightly. The two figures, one black and one white, who had been observing, attacked simultaneously.
Legalism's approach to power dynamics.
Guidance from a master.
Wei Xizhen and Sun Heng used hand seals to close the distance with the Wind Control Technique. Their fingers touched the top of the black skull's head and the back of its neck. The black skull roared and spun around, its black longsword, which was difficult to distinguish from its real form, shattered the crimson flame crystal flowers that were falling from its body. The broken crystals burst into a raging fire.
The three saints showed no panic, but calmly dealt with the situation, each igniting their protective aura. Leng Rouyin did not retreat but advanced, slashing the flames with her sword and extinguishing all the fire rings that were bursting out towards her.
The black skull stood still, sword in one hand, surrounded by the raging flames erupting from the Crimson Flame Crystal Flower, which burned and dissipated in the fire.
[Author's Note]
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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