Chapter 34 Beneath the black hair lies filthy soil, steeped in the blood, flesh, and bones of countless dead…
Although Zhou Yaren was caught off guard, she was already on alert and on guard. With a palm strike, Bai Yuan's black silk-like hair was immediately blown away by the strong wind, and her black hair suddenly stood up, revealing a section of her snow-white neck, so slender that it could be completely pinched with one hand. However, her neck was covered with scarred shackles.
The hideous ghost face emerged from these shackles, or rather, from Bai Yuan's body. Its gaping, blood-red mouth stretched almost to the back of its ears, revealing a mouthful of fine, serrated white teeth, resembling a vengeful ghost.
After the ghostly face was shattered by Zhou Yaren's palm strike, countless demons and monsters hidden under the black hair seemed to see the light of day again, rushing out and roaring as they crawled out of Bai Yuan's body.
Zhou Yaren stared in disbelief. Before he could withdraw his hand, Bai Yuan suddenly turned around and forcefully threw him away. As if she had been stabbed in the back, she fiercely shouted, "Get out of the way!"
What happened?
Zhou Yaren was completely caught off guard and had no idea what was going on.
Bai Yuan, however, seemed to be haunted by countless vengeful ghosts, and knelt prostrate on the ground.
Zhou Yaren has never been afraid of demons and monsters, and even though he is usually very calm, he showed a brief moment of panic at this moment: "What's going on?"
As he asked the question, a wind talisman was thrown from his fingertips.
With a "poof," the wind talisman ignited the malevolent energy surrounding Bai Yuan as if adding fuel to the fire. A series of ghostly wails and screams were heard, and the malevolent energy suddenly surged, with countless demons and monsters leaping out once again.
This attack not only failed to suppress the attack, but instead provoked an even more frenzied counterattack.
Despite their best efforts, they could only manage to free half of their bloodied bodies, as their hands, feet, and necks were bound by shackles from which they could not escape. They could only remain bound to Bai Yuan in a life-or-death struggle, tearing at each other in a desperate battle.
Just like within the Taiyin/Dao body, they are bound together by a shackle, unable to escape each other. However, judging from their current form, they resemble evil spirits growing from the very skin and hair of the innocent.
Zhou Yaren stared at the scene in disbelief. He had clearly broken those shackles: "Why is this happening?"
Bai Yuan knelt on the ground, her ten fingers curled into claws as if in spasm, and her bones made a cracking sound. Accompanied by the loud rattling of iron chains being stretched to their limit, she felt countless shackles embedded in her flesh and bones, tightly fastened to every bone. With each frenzied leap of the evil spirits, they pulled and yanked her bones outwards, as if trying to tear her into a pile of pieces.
But she has a tough bone in her body and cannot be easily broken.
Bai Yuan was in so much agony that he couldn't lift his head, and he almost choked out, "...this...ghostly place..."
She convulsively grabbed a handful of wet, sticky sand, then smelled a foul, putrid stench: "Filthy earth."
It is filthy soil that has been pickled with the blood, flesh, and bones of countless dead.
Bai Yuan realized that this hellish place was an extremely yin place that harbored filth and nurtured evil, which was why she was forced to reveal her ugly side.
Because she couldn't suppress it—she was so weak that she certainly couldn't suppress it—those restless resentments took the opportunity to burst out, running rampant and rebelling within Bai Yuan's body.
Finally, she could no longer restrain herself, and a low, painful moan escaped between her teeth. At the same time, a sudden melody emanated from Tingfengzhi's waist. A chilling wind blew, playing the tuning pegs at his waist, producing a mournful, resentful death cry, both tragic and unwilling.
The moment the clerk was struck by the vengeful spirit, Zhou Yaren thought of the dead who had gone to the Ghost Palace to beat the drum and appeal for justice. They had all died unjustly and with their eyes wide open in death.
A sharp gust of wind, carrying the talisman, shot out from his hand. Bai Yuan abruptly raised her head, her face, covered in shackles, indistinguishable from the evil spirits clinging to her, exuding a terrifying and grotesque aura. Especially her eyes, now bloodshot, seemed to hold an irreconcilable blood feud, almost dripping with tears of blood. Zhou Yaren trembled with fear, as if she would pounce on him and tear him to pieces at any moment.
Because Bai Yuan had already torn apart the gale with his bare hands, Zhou Yaren took a half step back in fear, but Bai Yuan did not pounce on her.
She conjured a black umbrella from nowhere, which suddenly opened above her head, covering that terrifying face.
At the same time, the agonizing screams were swallowed by the umbrella, and the vengeful ghosts were suddenly tightened and brutally twisted into Bai Yuan's body, returning to their scarred state, becoming the shocking marks on her body. Her flowing black hair slowly cascaded down, obediently covering Bai Yuan's back.
Zhou Ya stood there, trembling with fear, his hands and feet even feeling stiff and numb. The moisture in the air had already soaked his head, face, and clothes.
What just happened was like a startled dream, yet it wasn't a startled dream.
It took Zhou Ya a long time to recover her senses. She stared intently at Bai Yuan, who was standing under the umbrella, her heart trembled violently, and she even felt a little breathless.
Bai Yuan swayed precariously, barely managing to stay upright, his voice weaker than ever before: "Were you frightened?"
Even at this moment, she still couldn't let go of her pride and wanted to continue to show off, but she really couldn't hold on any longer. Her knees buckled and she was about to fall forward, but she was caught by an arm in time.
Zhou Yaren bowed and slipped under the umbrella. When he looked up, he discovered that the umbrella contained a Bagua symbol.
Bai Yuan, having exhausted his last bit of strength, collapsed in the other's arms like a spent arrow, unable to even lift his eyelids. He could only move his lips: "Aren't you afraid? You actually dare to come forward... Then please give me a ride, let's hurry up and leave, this godforsaken place is not a good place to stay."
So Zhou Yaren bent down, slipped one arm under Bai Yuan's knees, and lifted her up, willingly becoming her means of transportation. Zhou Yaren stepped onto the "Fairy Trail," traversing the misty water. Though his steps were steady, he always felt a sense of unsteadiness beneath his feet. He couldn't understand: "Didn't I already break free of my shackles? How could this be?"
“You only severed their form, merely freeing me from the Daoist prison, but their grievances are invisible shackles. As long as this resentment persists, the shackles formed by these grievances will never be broken.” The shackles, if unbroken, would entangle her relentlessly. Bai Yuan, having spoken such a long speech, felt somewhat choked up and paused for a moment before continuing, “Therefore—I am also a prisoner.”
How did things come to this?
Bai Yuan wanted to say that she was also wronged, but she couldn't bring herself to say it.
After listening, Zhou Yaren lowered his eyes thoughtfully and replied, "Hmm, you're a hundred times worse off than me." It was absurd that he actually expected someone a hundred times worse off than himself to help clear his name.
Bai Yuan laughed, but didn't laugh out loud. Her forehead unconsciously rested against the other person's neck, and she only briefly curled the corners of her mouth.
Zhou Yaren asked in a low voice, "Then what are you going to do in this situation?"
What can we do?
Bai Yuan didn't answer, as if he too had begun to seriously ponder the question.
The moon, like a silver candle, shone into the earth, casting two intertwined shadows beneath the surging waterfall, the spray almost murky in the air.
Bai Yuan sniffed very lightly, and could always smell a fishy, rotten smell. She even suspected that she was rotting, and her whole body gradually became fishy and smelly.
Therefore, he inadvertently asked with certainty, "Do I smell bad?"
"What?"
Am I smelling bad?
Zhou Yaren lowered her head slightly, her breath brushing lightly against Bai Yuan's temples. Her nostrils were filled with a frosty coldness, devoid of any human scent or any other smell.
He said, "It's not you, it's the filth."
So Bai Yuan relaxed, worried that she would rot and develop a foul stench in that dark underground place.
However, the further Zhou Yaren went, the heavier and more difficult his steps became. He had already sensed that the smell of this unclean soil was somewhat "poisonous," otherwise the wronged soul that had been entangled with Bai Yuan would not have suddenly broken out and caused trouble with unusual violence.
Although Zhou Yaren carefully held his breath the whole way, it was impossible for him to hold his breath indefinitely, so he could not avoid inhaling the foul smell of the filthy soil.
When she could barely walk, Zhou Yaren frowned, moved her stiff fingers, and felt as if her joints were rusted.
He didn't stop, striding forward, the white grievance in his arms growing heavier and heavier, as if he were carrying a heavy boulder, making him deeply understand the other party's words, "It's not a good place to stay for long."
However, the road ahead was shrouded in mist, and Bai Yuan's vision could not penetrate this hazy fog.
Fortunately, Zhou Yaren was used to being blind and didn't need to rely on her eyes to find her way. She stepped into the vast fog by instinct, as if she were in a misty rain, her head, face and clothes were soaked by the moisture.
Because walking was too strenuous, Zhou Yaren was already slightly out of breath: "Where does Da Yu's 'immortal trace' lead?"
The innocent man in his arms remained silent, his forehead pressed against his neck like an ice cube, offering no response.
"A false accusation?"
She was utterly exhausted and extremely unhappy with her current situation, so her tone was naturally impatient: "Who should I ask?"
Zhou Yaren: "..."
But after a moment's hesitation, Bai Yuan finally spoke, explaining, "When Yu the Great tamed the floods, he naturally went to areas prone to devastation. And with every disaster comes countless deaths and injuries. The great river has existed for countless millennia, and the number of floods, large and small, that it has caused is beyond human calculation. The number of lives and livestock lost in these floods is innumerable." Bai Yuan paused, then continued, "It is said that after great disasters, the accumulated corpses in this river, flowing for countless millennia, would form a whirlpool, becoming the final resting place for the drowned, called the River Tomb."
This should be a naturally formed river mound, where the remains of countless drowned people are buried by the silt at the bottom of the river. Their flesh and bones would then rot and dissolve here, polluting the soil and becoming an extremely yin place hidden at the bottom of the water.
Bai Yuan said coldly, "Many unscrupulous sorcerers are mostly immoral. In order to achieve certain goals, they will go to the river to find this extremely yin place."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Yaren felt her joints growing increasingly rusty, and she involuntarily slowed down, holding her breath as she asked, "What are you looking for?"
Bai Yuan almost blurted out: Why should I care what they do?
She frowned, forcibly suppressing the restlessness in her heart, and replied in a relatively amicable manner, "It's an ominous place; all sorts of people do it."
No sooner had Bai Yuan finished speaking than the ominous place began to manifest its foreboding.
Zhou Yaren felt the ground soften, and her feet sank into the soft, tofu-like mud, though not completely. When she lifted her legs again, her boots were covered in filthy mud.
The mud looked as if it had been soaking in bloody rain for a very long time, turning almost blackish-brown, and emitting an unusually foul odor that nearly suffocated the two of them.
Zhou Yaren continued walking, stepping on several hard objects in the soft mud. He had a feeling that the hard objects were probably bones or something similar.
Bai Yuan tightened his grip on the umbrella ribs, his knuckles turning almost transparent. His half-closed gaze caught sight of the wreckage scattered on the ground—human bones and animal bones, mixed together and indistinguishable, half-buried in the mud, emitting a nauseating stench.
Bai Yuan couldn't help but turn his head, his nose just touching Zhou Yaren's clean, white collar, and smelling a faint, bitter medicinal scent.
His shoulder and neck were injured, so he had applied medicine.
However, the bitter medicinal smell was mixed with something else, a pleasant and warm scent emanating from Zhou Yaren's skin and flesh.
However, the smell did nothing to ease Bai Yuan's discomfort; instead, it made her increasingly agitated. Her eyes were fixed on the clean collar, and she felt a little... a little...
Zhou Yaren paused, feeling Bai Yuan trembling slightly in her arms: "Bai Yuan, what's wrong?"
"I..." Bai Yuan couldn't help but raise her hand, grabbing Zhou Yaren's collar. It was as if the hand was beyond her control, forcing her to tighten her grip little by little. "I want to..."
"What?"
"I think……"
She was obsessed with thinking... what was she thinking about?
Two opposing thoughts clashed, and Bai Yuan suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils contracting. In the midst of the bloodthirsty savagery, he struggled to regain a moment of clear reason, as if his temples had been pierced by steel needles.
What is she trying to do?!
Bai Yuan regained her senses, and the evil desires in her heart were amplified infinitely under the influence of the filthy soil. No, she shouldn't have these evil desires. It should be said that this was a wicked heart that suddenly grew out of the filthy soil.
She suddenly realized that this person harbored malicious intentions and wanted to kill him!
Kill Zhou Yaren! Bit off his neck, stuff him into this river mound, let him turn into a pile of mud, and all the sins will end.
All suffering originates from him; kill him and you will be freed from this sea of suffering.
He was innocent; he was killed.
Kill him!
Bai Yuan was stunned—all the suffering?
Zhou Yaren, completely bewildered, continued to ask, "What are you thinking?"
I want your life.
Bai Yuan raised his chin, opened his mouth to meet the words "bite off his neck" in his ear, revealing a row of neat white teeth. Then, thinking of the words "escape from the sea of suffering," his teeth started to itch terribly.
Before she could even lower her mouth to Zhou Yaren's throat, her injuries flared up unexpectedly, causing her to wince in pain.
Only livestock would bite and tear. She is not a beast, and she wouldn't be so easily swayed by the miasma emanating from the filth that she would become a beast herself.
Bai Yuan clenched her teeth fiercely, thankfully not so fierce as to bite off her own tongue. However, by biting her tongue in a self-destructive manner, she finally managed to stop the wicked desire that she was almost unable to suppress and the uncontrollable trembling.
Bai Yuan's cold gaze pierced through the thick mist and fog, catching sight of an approaching dark figure. She said in a chilling voice, "Put me down."
A gust of wind suddenly blew from the front, disrupting the previously calm air. Zhou Yaren sensed this unusual airflow the moment Bai Yuan spoke. She turned around and gently put Bai Yuan down, while simultaneously slashing a wind blade at the approaching black shadow.
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