Chapter 87 It's time to clear the name of the wronged ghost...
The entire army of Puzhou was ambushed and wiped out, with no survivors. Activated by the Twelve Killing Formations, the violently killed soldiers suddenly rose from the standing statue—in reality, they were the corpses of those who died in the desolate wilderness.
Upon hearing this, Lin Mu instinctively drew his sword, turned around, and pierced away a corpse that was wielding a large knife and trying to attack him.
Only after stabbing him did he realize that although he strongly resisted this evil spirit, his body obeyed its commands faster than his mind. It was precisely because of his conscious obedience that he was not harmed by the corpse calamity.
But didn't she just say he was being unreasonable?!
Lin Mu's face flushed red, whether from anger or annoyance, he didn't know. In that instant, he didn't care about arguing with the other party, otherwise he would really seem unreasonable or even sophistry.
Lian Zhao protected Liang Youyi and reminded his fellow disciples, "Everyone be careful."
The entire Taihang Road was on high alert, and they all entrusted their backs to deal with the corpses.
The Corpse Demons revealed their ferocious nature, unleashing a barrage of weapons. The few who had dared to trespass on the Jingguan were now facing an army of tens of thousands of Corpse Demons. The sheer size of the army filled the young men with terror—another battle was about to begin, but this time they were the ones trapped in the encirclement. With nowhere to retreat, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and fight.
The talismans and yellow paper from the Taihang Mountains flew everywhere, colliding with the swords and spears that transformed into the shadows of weapons, creating a sky full of "fire trees and silver flowers".
A hideous skull suddenly leaped up, almost pouncing on Liang Youyi's face. Startled, Liang Youyi roared and waved his arms wildly, but the dutiful Lian Zhao dragged and pulled him away, slashing him with a swift and fluid sword.
Although Lin Mu was young, he didn't hesitate in the face of danger. However, he was no match for a hundred men and gradually fell into a disadvantageous position, starting to struggle to keep up.
Fortunately, Li Liuyun swept over with a sword aura, clearing away a wave of corpses that were rushing towards him, allowing Lin Mu to catch his breath. Turning his head, he saw that the annoying Taiyin torturer was as fast as a blur, dazzling Lin Mu so much that he couldn't even make out her moves. Moreover, her movements were sharp and fierce, stirring up frost wherever she went, as if a cold disaster was raging, freezing a large number of people to death as she went by.
The "dead bones" wielding spears and swords were instantly frozen by frost. The flashes of swords and blades froze in mid-air. Bai Yuan raised his hand and pulled, his fingers seemingly wrapped with thousands of ice threads, scattering the "frozen dead bones" that had crashed into him.
Bai Yuan moved with ease through the army of corpses, slightly tilting her head to avoid the spears that were thrusting at her. The wind-blown wind made her black hair gleam with silver frost, making her look like a snowman walking among the demons, her pure white exuding an inviolable holiness.
The young and ignorant Lin Mu couldn't help but wonder: Was she frozen to death before she died?
Perhaps in the dead of winter, when the world was covered in ice and snow, her body was frozen and imprisoned forever in the snow-covered mountains and ice caves, becoming an evil spirit sculpted by frost and snow.
Lin Mu, lost in thought, nearly had half his ear sliced off. Luckily, he reacted quickly, and his earlobe was only slightly grazed by the blade. From then on, he dared not let his guard down again. To be distracted by pondering the mysterious and eerie evil spirit at such a critical moment was utterly suicidal.
Bai Yuan, who was regarded as an evil spirit by everyone from beginning to end, narrowed his eyes and looked past the "thousands of troops" formed by the corpse calamity, and looked at the few trees that had been burned bare.
The fire still raged, and a charred, twisted human figure lay crookedly on the tree trunk, head tilted back and mouth agape, as if screaming silently in the flames.
The charred branches crackled and popped, and a section of branch snapped and fell. Bai Yuan asked, "Does this place seem familiar?"
Zhou Yaren stood neither too close nor too far from her, unleashing a gust of wind that swept out, killing many. He scanned the terrain in the image, but did not understand Bai Yuan's meaning: "Where does this look familiar?"
Bai Yuan then realized that he was blind and had passed by without seeing it with his own eyes, so he said directly, "This place is where Huang Xiaoyun is buried." She pointed to the tree where the daughter of the prefect was burned to death, "Huang Xiaoyun's mother and Tiezhu's mother were both impaled on that tree."
Zhou Yaren was suddenly taken aback.
"Indeed, this is an ominous place."
Hundreds of years ago, the army of Prefect Lu Heng was completely wiped out here, and his wife, daughters and relatives were burned alive here.
“No wonder the sacrificial fire formed here.” Zhou Yaren stared at the human figures that had been burned alive, struggling in agony in the flames in various contorted postures.
As the prefect's daughter was engulfed in flames, she witnessed her father being pierced by spears and swords, letting out an unusually shrill and mournful cry. Even as her eyes were burned out by the flames, she did not close them.
How can she close her eyes?
Even if she were reduced to ashes, she would not be able to close her eyes.
Grief and resentment, like billowing smoke released from flames, spread across the sky and enveloped the entire battlefield strewn with corpses.
Enveloped in black smoke, the deaths of all the fallen soldiers appeared even more terrifying and bizarre, as if at any moment, the violently murdered soldiers would transform into vengeful ghosts to retaliate and tear them apart—becoming a horde of monstrous corpses. The Elephant of the Wind and the Twelve Killing Formations overlapped, probably mistaking them for the Jing'an Prince, who was torn to pieces, and swarmed towards them.
Lian Zhao, protecting the burdensome Liang Youyi, almost met the same fate as Prefect Lu Heng. A young man from the Taihang Mountains leaped over and timely blocked a dozen or so spears for Lian Zhao. Under the massive, heavy thrusts, the young man fought with all his might, when suddenly, with a crack, his wrist holding the sword broke.
"Wen Ji!"
"It's alright!" The longsword suddenly slipped from his hand, and Wen Ji immediately caught it with his left hand, unleashing a killing move while simultaneously raising his right arm. In the brief moment between Lian Zhao's attacks, he used one hand to pull the opponent's wrist bone back into place. The two worked together perfectly, narrowly escaping from the spear.
"Hey you!" Lian Zhao hadn't even caught his breath when he suddenly widened his eyes and shouted at Bai Yuan, "Watch out behind you!"
In that critical moment, he didn't remember Bai Yuan's name at all, nor did he bother to call her an evil spirit like Sanmu did.
Bai Yuan's energy channels were sluggish, and her originally light and agile limbs felt as if they were filled with lead. Her bones and flesh weighed heavily on her body, making her movements suddenly heavy and clumsy, to the point that she was forced to retreat repeatedly by several corpse worms.
"What happened to her?" Lin Mu couldn't understand. She had seemed invincible just a moment ago, but now she looked like she had lost all her martial arts skills.
Li Liuyun, who was in the know, said, "I heard from the wind that her spiritual veins had been sealed."
As a large number of corpses rushed towards them, Bai Yuan grabbed Zhou Yaren and pulled her in front of him as a shield. The latter did not break free and used the opportunity to throw out several wind blades to avert danger.
She gave Zhou Yaren a disapproving look and rudely grabbed the "human shield" to block left and right.
When the group of teenagers turned around unintentionally, they were utterly dumbfounded to see this person dominating Tingfeng Zhi and slaughtering everyone around him.
Wasn't her spiritual vein sealed by Tingfengzhi? How could she still manage to rip Tingfengzhi apart like this?
Why did Tingfengzhi just let her take advantage of him like that?
Zhou Yaren was completely passive, letting Bai Yuan do whatever he wanted without any temper. To prevent Bai Yuan from tearing her clothes, Zhou Yaren had no choice but to grab Bai Yuan's wrist and neck, pleading for mercy with her clothes disheveled: "Have mercy."
Bai Yuan felt a burning sensation from his scalding palm and realized that the other party had been suffering from a high fever and was quite ill, yet he had acted as if nothing was wrong and was still able to fight three hundred rounds.
However, this formation uses the Big Dipper formation to command the evil spirits within the Jingguan, activating the Twelve Killing Formations. The killing aura of the ancient battlefield will continuously form an army of corpses, with no end in sight.
Li Liuyun observed the qi and form, and under the cover of his fellow disciples, he continuously manipulated the star chart in his hand. Stepping on countless corpses, he leaped into the air, corresponding to various positions of the great formation, trying to find a way to break the deadlock.
Zhou Yaren held the white grievance in one hand, her folding fan twirling rapidly between her fingers, the surface of the fan flashing with light and shadow, and with a swift slash, she forcefully parted the crowded army of corpses.
Fu Feng suddenly crashed into the "sky lantern".
Lu Heng's wife, daughters, and relatives had long since been reduced to ashes in the fire. With a gust of wind, they were scattered everywhere, literally reduced to ashes.
After annihilating Lu Heng's entire army, Prince Jing'an paused before the charred tree and picked up the jade pendant, now discolored from the ashes...
Suddenly, the ashes scattered everywhere transformed into charred ghosts that lunged at Prince Jing'an, as if they wanted to tear everything apart!
But it was no use; it couldn't tear apart the Prince Jing'an in the "standing statue." So the ferocious ashes transformed their resentment into a butcher's knife, wielding it against the person in the "standing statue," roaring, "Stop!"
Zhou Yaren, who was holding the ruler, almost had his hand chopped off.
"What, you're angry because your shameful past has been dug up?" Bai Yuan pulled Zhou Yaren so hard that she stumbled. "There's no need to be so desperate."
"Stop!" The roar was like a sharp knife piercing everyone's eardrums, and thick smoke and ashes turned into countless deadly spirits that rushed towards Zhou Yaren.
The talismanic blade shot out from his fan, but a dark shadow that had dodged the blade's attack suddenly closed in and stabbed into Zhou Yaren's waist.
A hand covered in frost quickly crushed the sharp, ghostly blade, preventing it from penetrating too deeply, but blood was already seeping out.
Bai Yuan's eyes darkened: "From the end of Qi to now, more than four hundred years have passed. Isn't that long enough? It's time to clear the name of that wronged ghost."
Thick smoke and ash filled the air, everywhere, and so did the danger.
"You didn't expect anyone to remember all of this, did you?" Bai Yuan said cautiously. "It was clearly you who secretly contacted Prince Jing'an and exposed your whereabouts..."
"Shut up!" The violent blade viciously stabbed towards Bai Yuan's brow. "Ash" went mad, but instead stabbed into a fan radiating runic light. The runic light instantly shattered it into its original form—turning it into ashes.
“I’ve seen most people die from ignorance and stupidity,” Bai Yuan said. “Who is Prince Jing’an? He’s probably killed more people than you have ever seen. Do you really think that Prince Jing’an, who has fought on the battlefield, would refrain from attacking Puzhou for your sake?”
The words "utterly ridiculous" were clearly written on Bai Yuan's face.
Faced with the ambition of conquering the country, the affections of lovers are like weeds under the hooves of horses. Bai Yuan finds it hard to understand what this girl was thinking back then. Did she believe that love was stronger than gold and could overcome everything?
How much emotion must one have acted to cause such a tragedy?
"Shut up! Shut up! I told you to shut up!"
It seems they've really gone to their wits' end this time. Countless ghostly figures attacked, and Zhou Yaren was overwhelmed, almost dancing with three heads and six arms.
"As the daughter of Prefect Lu Heng, do you not know that Puzhou is a strategic location fought over by military strategists?" Bai Yuan spoke without restraint. "Because of your personal feelings, your entire family and even the people of Puzhou have been killed by Prince Jing'an, and then Guan Lan, who escorted you, has been made to take the blame."
"It was him! It was him all along!" The ghostly figure turned his attention to Zhou Yaren, viciously scratching her forearm. "It was you who leaked our whereabouts and betrayed my father, causing the fall of Puzhou. I'll kill you!"
The law tube suddenly slipped from his hand, and Bai Yuan quickly caught it.
With a flick of her folding fan, Zhou Yaren sliced off half of the ghost's head with the sharp edge. Even so, the resentment did not dissipate. It regarded Zhou Yaren as Guan Lan and wanted to tear out its heart and liver.
"You want to kill him to silence him, to make him a vengeful ghost forever, and you're afraid..."
"Shut up!"
"You're afraid that your affair with Prince Jing'an will be discovered..."
"There's no personal relationship involved! Shut up!"
Not only did Bai Yuan not shut up, he also wanted to enrage Hui Jin to the point of being reduced to ashes: "Others will know that you secretly met with Prince Jing'an, and did not hesitate to give yourself and your birth mother to your lover as hostages, and coerce your father to surrender."
"Nonsense! Nonsense!"
"You probably thought that Prince Jing'an was the chosen one, so you thought you were farsighted enough to choose to serve him. But your father was a stubborn mule who wouldn't adapt to the situation. Even with the enemy at the gates, he didn't know how to change course. He was corrupt and inflexible. But you were different. The dying Qi Kingdom was doomed. You assessed the situation and believed that a wise bird should choose a good tree to perch on. So you offered Prince Jing'an the terrible idea of offering yourself as a hostage to force your own father to serve Prince Jing'an..."
The ghostly figure roared in fury: "Bullshit! Shut up!"
"Then, clinging to the delusional idea of becoming the empress, she thought that after the deed was done, Prince Jing'an would take Puzhou without firing a single shot and would grant her the position of empress."
"That's utter nonsense!"
“You certainly dared to think and act, but who could have predicted that your own father was a man of unwavering loyalty, willing to drag the whole family down with him,” Bai Yuanyan paused here, but couldn’t help but say a few more words to this “ashes” who were not worth mourning, trying to reason with him, “In this world, there are always some single-minded people who, because of their beliefs, disregard life and death and do some heroic deeds of sacrificing themselves for righteousness. It’s a pity that his self-righteous daughter never understood this.”
The air seemed to freeze as Li Liuyun and Zhou Yaren turned around at the same time.
Even Lin Mu was surprised that the usually sarcastic and eccentric evil spirit would actually utter a couple of human words, although saying that Lu Heng was stubborn was not a good compliment—the evil spirit probably really didn't know how to properly praise people.
Regardless of right or wrong, the times shape people. Lu Heng dedicated himself to the country, engraving loyalty and righteousness into his very bones and soul, remaining steadfast until his death.
Unfortunately, this woman didn't understand her father. Bai Yuan coldly said, "You never expected that the Prince Jing'an, whom you chose at all costs, would actually burn you alive. Trying to negotiate with a tiger will only result in being devoured. I've never seen anyone so eager to die. Judging from your appearance as you face death, you don't seem tired of living. You've developed disloyalty to your own father, yet you think you're on the same side as the Prince Jing'an? The facts prove that you two are nothing more than people with your own ulterior motives."
The dark figure went berserk and crashed into Bai Yuan, as if it wanted to die with him.
"Hate? What's the use of hate? In this chaotic world, heroes fight for supremacy, and those who struggle for power live and die, conquering the land on mountains of corpses," Bai Yuan was forced to retreat, pushing Zhou Yaren forward to shield her from the vicious demon, continuing his merciless barrage of insults without any restraint, "What makes you think you can stir up trouble and influence the battle in Puzhou? I didn't know how influential Miss Lu was in life, but you overestimate yourself. If you're going to jump into the fire pit, you'll drag your parents and family down with you. Lu Heng probably won't even know until his death that the good daughter he raised has such a great future, dragging him and the people of Puzhou to hell with Prince Jing'an..."
"No, I didn't!"
"This kind of despicable act is indeed shameful, and no one would be ashamed to admit it. Hmm, I suppose Lord Lu's remains are also being suppressed in this mound of corpses. I wonder if he heard anything about it..."
Finally, the shadowy figure, reduced to ashes, couldn't bear the shock any longer and roared, "I didn't! I only ordered Liu Changyu to withdraw his troops because I was afraid he would be attacked in the camp! It's not like what you said at all, it's absolutely not like what you said, I didn't betray my father!"
These words were like a thunderbolt from the blue.
The rampaging carnage suddenly stopped, and a long spear was just in time to hang above Lian Zhao's head, narrowly escaping his death.
The law enforcement officer fell into Bai Yuan's hands during the fight, and the "Li Xiang" had already dissipated, but everyone only realized it at this moment.
"Is there a difference?" Since the result is the same anyway, Bai Yuan's voice sounded particularly light in the silent Jingguan, "Fool."
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