Great War
"What Ruan Yiyun? This isn't our Demon Lord..." A demon in the crowd abruptly stopped speaking.
So... Qi Yuan wasn't lying, Yun Xingjun... really is Xingguijun. The cultivators' hearts clenched, and their hands holding their weapons trembled.
Ruan Yiyun lightly jumped down and was surrounded by the crowd. He remained calm, spreading his hands...
He laughed and said, "Everyone, if you submit to me now, you will have one more life after I rule the Three Realms."
Fearing that everyone would be misled, Qi Yuan struck first, yelling, "Don't believe him! He'll only make us die with him!"
The cultivators and demons reacted and launched attacks, but the scene was chaotic and some people were accidentally injured.
"Blade!" The Spirit-Slaying Blade was suddenly pulled away by a force, and the Spirit-Slaying Blade that Qi Yuan had just grasped was in Ruan Yiyun's hand in the next instant!
She gritted her teeth, drew her sword, and charged toward the flickering figure, only to be surprised to find that Ruan Yiyun had vanished!
Qi Yuan looked around and saw cultivators and demons fighting each other.
"Go to hell and why are you hitting me? Hit Ruan Yiyun, you idiot!"
"Damn it, you demons are all in cahoots with them! And you still have the nerve to pretend!"
Mu Qinghuai wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and, supporting his arm, shouted, "Stop! Hit Ruan Yiyun first!"
His voice was drowned out by the clamor of the raging waves, and he felt powerless. Unexpectedly, his disciples, one after another, echoed his shouts: "Let's beat up Ruan Yiyun together! Stop fighting each other!!"
"Cooperate! Cooperate and take him down! We can both survive!!"
This method was indeed effective. The cultivators found it reasonable and stopped their attacks, looking left and right as they searched for Ruan Yiyun.
Qi Yuan couldn't find Ruan Yiyun, but instead caught sight of Xie Juxing rushing over. She shouted, "Watch out for Xie Juxing!!"
It was still too late. The white mist dispersed, and white smoke filled the air above the ground, with only a few dark figures vaguely visible.
She suddenly felt dizzy, pinched her nose, and yelled, "Don't breathe!!"
After inhaling the white smoke, everyone felt dizzy and hallucinated, mistaking their companion for Ruan Yiyun, and resumed their previous fighting.
Qi Yuan used her internal energy to expel the toxins, searching for Mu Qinghuai and his disciple amidst the white smoke. She tried to dispel the smoke with her spiritual power, but to no avail; unless the heavens smiled upon her and a strong wind blew in, she could not shake the poisonous gas.
Her cultivation level was high, and she was no longer affected after expelling the white smoke. Due to her visual impairment, she could only shout at the top of her lungs, "Hallucination! It's all a hallucination!"
There was no response, only the clanging of swords clashing together. Qi Yuan had never felt so helpless and desperate. Ruan Yiyun must already be absorbing the leaked evil energy!
What should she do?
Qi Yuan's voice was almost hoarse from shouting. She ran around and bumped into several people, but couldn't find a single hair or touch a piece of clothing in the white mist.
Just as she was in despair, a burst of magic shot into the sky, the airflow dispersing some of the white smoke, but it was quickly filled and overflowed again.
"Zhu Fu!" Her voice was shrill from shouting for so long. She found the location and ran over, not caring at all when she was hit hard on the arm and back along the way, as if she did not feel any pain.
Mu Qinghuai also sensed something and ran towards Qi Yuan's direction. The two finally got their wish and embraced each other.
"I'll try using your method to drive my spiritual power to disperse this poisonous gas!" With her lover by her side, Qi Yuan was no longer flustered or afraid.
"No! This method won't work, and the reason he's hiding is because he's injured and can't beat you. You can't waste your spiritual energy." Mu Qinghuai grabbed her hand and shook his head.
A more powerful gust of air suddenly surged past, accompanied by a deafening roar. This gale whipped the white mist toward the same spot, and the poisonous smoke dissipated.
"Who?" Qi Yuan turned around nervously.
Jin Yanjun held a meteor hammer against the ground, while Huiguangjun held a sword in one hand and had the other behind his back, arriving at just the right moment.
With the white fog gone, everyone gradually regained consciousness, unable to recall what they had just been doing.
"Ruan Yiyun is over there!" someone exclaimed, pointing into the distance.
Jin Yanjun and Huiguangjun were the first to react and rushed over there, followed by Qi Yuan.
They each grabbed one of Ruan Yiyun's arms and subdued him, but Ruan Yiyun did not resist, which puzzled the two of them, who were his senior brothers.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Qi Yuan raised her sword and thrust it straight at Ruan Yiyun's heart. In an instant, the latter broke free from her restraints, grabbed the sword tip, and with a single force, the sword broke.
She leaped back abruptly, her voice hoarse: "He absorbed a portion of the demonic array's power!!"
"Not bad, worthy of being my beloved disciple. My current cultivation level is at the Mahayana stage." Ruan Yiyun lightly touched the ground with his toes and leaped onto the demon array, but no one dared to stop him. Xie Juxing followed closely behind and stood beside him.
"Disgusting!" Qi Yuan spat out two words, then charged forward again with another sword in hand. She felt a surge of relief after finally voicing her true feelings.
Ruan Yiyun casually blocked her attack, but was knocked back two steps and looked up at her with slight surprise.
"I forgot to tell you, I am also at the Mahayana stage!" Qi Yuan attacked her opponent with sword strikes, her speed and accuracy so fast that Ruan Yiyun was completely powerless to fight back.
“I always remember how you killed my parents! It’s always been like this! Every minute I spend with you, even breathing the same air as you, makes me feel nauseous!” She said this with each thrust of her sword, and the oppression in her heart lessened considerably.
Unable to find an opening in the attack, Ruan Yiyun could only parry with her sword, too shocked to speak.
The clash of the two swords stirred up a powerful current of air, and everyone dared to watch from afar, except for Mu Qinghuai, who dared not approach.
"You! You traitor! So that's how it is! So that's how it is! You are... the Ghost King! The Ghost King is you!" Ruan Yiyun's eyes widened, and he could only utter one sentence. He hadn't noticed someone silently appearing behind him while he was blocking Qi Yuan's attack.
He coughed up blood, knelt on the ground, and turned around in disbelief to see the face of his former subordinate.
The bloodstains on Mu Qinghuai's face had dried, and his expression remained as hateful as it had been back then.
The sky was overcast, and as lightning flashed, a scene from several years ago suddenly flashed into Ruan Yiyun's mind.
He suddenly laughed: "So it was you...it was you..."
Qi Yuan was preparing to deliver the final blow to kill him when suddenly the earth shook violently, accompanied by flashes of thunder.
Inky black clouds pressed down on the sky, and gloom shrouded the earth. A surging, boundless black aura burst forth from the demonic array, rushing into the sky, and a red mark appeared in the darkness.
"Hahaha! So what if you hate me! You can never defeat me!! The Demon Formation is activated!!" Ruan Yiyun laughed loudly as she lay back on the ground.
Just as Qi Yuan was at a loss, a voice suddenly rang in her ears, a voice that only she could hear: "Little Yuan, have them activate their inner strength and use their spiritual power on the red mark."
It's less like the sound was in my ear and more like it was in my heart.
She shouted, "Everyone! Use your spiritual power towards the red mark in the sky!!"
A dozen or so close disciples were standing near her, and they repeated the action. Seeing this, everyone quickly formed hand seals, raised their hands above the sky, and released spiritual energy of varying strengths from their fingertips.
Miraculously, the black mist gradually faded, and a human figure emerged from it.
"Look! It's... it's True Person Xuanyang!!" A cultivator who had been struggling in the cultivation world for many years recognized the person.
"Didn't he ascend to heaven?"
"Damn...it really is him!"
"..."
Qi Yuan and Mu Qinghuai looked up in a daze, and the figure became clearer and clearer. They finally saw the true appearance of Xuan Yang Zhenren.
Judging by his appearance alone, he was a young man in his twenties with deep eyes and a face that radiated a compassionate glow. He exuded a faint golden light, giving him an air of divinity.
He sat cross-legged in mid-air, unaffected by the black energy. Master Xuan Yang formed hand seals, absorbing the scattered fragments of power.
A figure appeared faintly behind Xuan Yang Zhenren, placing his hands on the former's back. The person behind him was none other than Jin Yuejun.
"Master...Master."
Ruan Yiyun sat up straight, stunned. His lips moved, and he finally murmured, "Master."
Even after so many years, he could only manage to utter those two words when he saw Master Xuanyang.
Qi Yuan was inevitably surprised. She thought Ruan Yiyun would roar and get furious, but he just stood there, stunned.
Master Xuan Yang closed his eyes, rapidly chanting some incantation. He extended two fingers and pointed them at the demonic array below. The spiritual power in his fingers gathered more and more, and finally, everyone saw a flash of intense white light. When they opened their eyes again, the sky had returned to normal, and the ground was a mess.
Xuan Yang Zhenren and the black energy have disappeared.
Qi Yuan pierced Ruan Yiyun's throat with her sword, who was sitting there blankly. As he fell, a certain obsession in his heart vanished.
This unrealistic feeling made her feel dazed.
She looked down again, and the demonic array that was originally in this place had now disappeared along with the yellow talisman, as if it had never existed.
"Zhu Fu... Zhu Fu?" Qi Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and turned around with a smile, but her smile froze. There was no one behind her.
"Zhu Fu?" She tried to remain calm, looking around, but could only see smiling faces of survivors. The person she wanted to see was nowhere to be seen.
"Has anyone seen the Demon Lord?!" Qi Yuan cried out as she weaved through the crowd.
No one responded to her.
Instead, everyone surrounded her, laughing and saying, "I told you long ago, the fact that Fairy Qi is the Ghost King only proves that she is very powerful, but you all insist that she is a demon!"
"Hero! Who is truly blind to recognize that Ruan Yiyun's lackey as a goddess? In my opinion, it is Fairy Qi!"
"Our Ghost King is truly amazing!"
"..."
Qi Yuan had no interest in listening to these insincere praises, but no matter what she did, she couldn't break free from the crowd that surrounded her.
She leaped up and stepped onto the frost. Someone grabbed the hem of her clothes, and she raised her left foot to kick it away, quickly searching for Mu Qinghuai in mid-air.
“Ouyang… Lanyue…” She spotted Ouyang Lanyue in the corner with sharp eyes, as if she had seen a lifeline.
Qi Yuan rushed to him and knelt down: "You must know where he went. Please, tell me."
Ouyang Lanyue crossed her arms and leaned against the corner of the wall. After a few seconds of silence, she said, "He had already used up all his demonic energy in the white mist. How could he possibly still have enough internal energy to stay still in the same place?"
"You...you mean..."
"He vanished along with the black mist."
That's it?
"Yes, he's in the black mist too."
Qi Yuan stood up without saying a word, stepped onto her sword, and remained expressionless.
Ouyang Lanyue was somewhat surprised not to see her crying bitterly: "Aren't you sad?"
She remained silent for a long time before finally saying, "...He's not dead."
Without turning his head, he flew back on his sword to the spot where most of the people had already left.
"What do you want to ask me?" Xie Juxing's eyes remained expressionless, even though a sword was pressed against his throat.
"That's too many."
“Lingguang Pavilion, Madam Ling, puppet.” Qi Yuan’s voice was cold.
"Heh, I was a ghost all along, and that's when I found out you were the Ghost King. As for Madam Ling, my nominal mother, I naturally killed her. I initially sided with Ruan Yiyun, but I was adopted by her while disguised as a child and became Xie Juxing. My real name is Mingyue," Xie Juxing... no, Mingyue said.
"Mingyue. What's going on with the puppet?"
"Did you really think I could fool you with just words? There's no antidote for the puppet technique. It was all a self-directed act. It was Yunqing who removed the puppet technique from me!" She chuckled. "Good senior sister, Yunqing and I were undercover agents from the very beginning."
"..."
"I know what you're going to ask. I'm going to die anyway, so I might as well tell you."
"Since you are a ghost, then you were the one in the ghost realm back then, right?" Qi Yuan said coldly.
“Of course. But I didn’t expect that the new Ghost King would be you, my dear senior sister,” Mingyue said.
“Lingguang Pavilion, Tianxin Tower, Nianwan,” Qi Yuan said.
"So what if it is? So what if it isn't? How about this, if you let me die a little easier, I might consider telling you how Ruan Yiyun opened the demonic seal." Mingyue smiled, but feeling the tip of the sword at her neck, she finally suppressed her smile. "Yunqing is a reborn person, you know that. He taught Ruan Yiyun with his memories from his previous life."
"I'll ask you one last question. What's going on with the Ye family?"
"...It's all because Ye Hanyun is too stupid. She saw my people killing people and still came to Lingguang Pavilion to find me. Since that's the case, of course I have to wipe out the Ye family." Mingyue said provocatively with a smile.
"Hmm." Qi Yuan chopped off the neck of the person in front of her with a single sword stroke and left without a second thought.
Instead of returning directly to the Silver Bamboo Sect or the Ghost Realm, she went to a nearby temple. Finding herself alone, she finally couldn't hold back her tears.
Temple for Praying for Blessings.
Incense smoke curls upwards in the temple. The ancient temple is bathed in Buddhist light, the Buddha statues serene and compassionate, and believers pray for peace and blessings.
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