Chapter 60: Jichuan Ancient City
Without a moment's hesitation, Chu Yun led the three of them, stepping into the spatial rift torn open by the Judge's Pen's final divine power. The sensation of traversing space was a hundred times worse than falling into the underworld. Chu Yun and the other two felt as if their souls had been thrown into a massive, rapidly rotating drum filled with spatial debris. Their consciousnesses were torn, stretched, and twisted, nearly collapsing. After an unknown amount of time, the intense dizziness finally subsided, and they found themselves standing on solid, cold, and deathly ground—they were back, finally returning from that near-death experience in the underworld to the human world. "Cough cough..." Mo Li was the first to cough violently. Her already ethereal soul had become even more translucent after this brutal spatial journey, as if it would dissipate at any moment. Li Ge was also in poor condition, with black "blood" adorning the corners of her mouth, a sign of severe damage to her soul's essence. Chu Yun was undoubtedly the worst off. His soul, scorched by the burning essence, was so weakened that he could barely even maintain aloft. He could only half-kneel on the ground, gasping for air. But they didn't bother to check their own injuries, their gazes completely transfixed by the hellish scene before them. This was the ancient border city, suffused with resentment, mentioned in the Judge's last words—Jichuan City. The sky was blood-red. Though the eerie blood moon hadn't yet fully formed, its ominous glow had already dyed the entire sky a shocking crimson. The air was viscous and eerily thick, a bloody aura older, richer, and purer than any breath in the underworld. It was like a blend of millennia-old rust and the stench of decaying corpses, sending the three men's weakened souls reeling, nearly vomiting. The ground was black. The earth beneath their feet had lost all life, its dry, cracked ground a sinister crimson, soaked in blood and burned by fire. "What...happened here?" Mo Li's voice trembled uncontrollably as he gazed at this god-forsaken scene. "War." Chu Yun supported himself on a half-broken stone tablet that had been weathered to the point of remaining broken, and slowly stood up. "This is the ancient battlefield where countless brutal wars broke out between humans and demons in ancient times. It is said that the number of heroic souls and demonic ghosts who died in the battles was so great that even the reincarnation of the underworld could not accommodate them. Resentment and evil spirits have permeated every inch of this land, making it the most ferocious and evil 'Jedi' in the world." "That's why," Li Ge took over, his face pale and his eyes unprecedentedly cold. "This...
Without any hesitation, under the leadership of Chu Yun, the three of them stepped into the space crack torn open by the last divine power of the Judge's Pen.
The sensation of traversing space was a hundred times worse than falling into the underworld. Chu Yun and the other two felt as if their souls had been thrown into a massive, rapidly rotating drum filled with spatial debris. Their consciousnesses were torn, stretched, and twisted, nearly collapsing. After an unknown amount of time, the intense dizziness finally subsided, and they found themselves standing on solid, cold, and deathly ground—they were back, finally returning to the human world from the underworld where they had narrowly escaped death.
"Cough cough..." Mo Li was the first to cough violently. Her already ethereal soul had become even more translucent after this violent spatial journey, as if it would dissipate at any moment. Li Ge's condition was also not good, with black "bloodstains" at the corners of her mouth, a sign that the essence of her soul had been severely damaged.
Chu Yun was undoubtedly in the worst condition. His soul, having burned through its essence, was so weakened that he couldn't even maintain levitation. He could only half-kneel on the ground, gasping for breath. But none of them bothered to check their own injuries; their gazes were completely horrified by the hellish scene before them.
This is the ancient border city full of resentment mentioned in the judge's last words - Jichuan City.
The sky was blood-red. Though the eerie blood moon hadn't yet fully formed, its ominous glow had already dyed the entire sky a shocking crimson. The air was frighteningly thick, and a bloody, evil aura, older, richer, and purer than any breath in the underworld, washed over them. It was like a blend of millennia-old rust and the stench of decaying corpses, sending the three men's weakened souls reeling, nearly vomiting.
The earth beneath my feet had lost all life, the dry, cracked ground tinged with an ominous dark red, as if soaked in blood and burned by fire.
"What...happened here?" Mo Li looked at this scene abandoned by the gods, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
"War." Chu Yun supported himself on a half-broken stone tablet that had been weathered to the point of remaining broken, and slowly stood up. "This is the ancient battlefield where countless brutal wars broke out between humans and demons in ancient times. It is said that the number of heroic souls and demonic ghosts who died in the battles was so great that even the underworld could not accommodate them all. Resentment and evil spirits have seeped into every inch of this land, making it the most ferocious and evil 'Jedi' in the world."
"It is precisely because of this," Li Ge took over, his face pale and his eyes cold as never before, "that this place became the perfect 'breeding ground' for that madman Xuan Chenzi to hold the 'Blood Moon Changing the Sky' ritual."
She closed her eyes and sensed carefully. After a moment, she opened them suddenly, her voice filled with unprecedented horror: "Something is wrong."
"What's wrong?"
"All the... 'earth veins' here have been 'killed'." Li Ge pointed at the black soil under his feet, his voice trembling.
"What do you mean?" Mo Li was puzzled.
Upon hearing this, Chu Yun immediately focused his remaining Taiyi Qi into his eyes. The next second, the world before him suddenly changed: beneath this pitch-black, dead earth, the golden "veins" that should have carried spiritual energy and nourished the soil and water had turned completely black. They no longer flowed with vitality and spiritual energy, but instead, they were filled with an evil energy filled with death, distortion, and filth. Like giant black snakes, twisted and infected by sorcery, they frantically drained the land of its remaining vitality and millennia of accumulated resentment, all of which ultimately converged in one direction.
Chu Yun slowly raised his head, gazing towards the very center of the ancient city. There, a massive black altar composed of pure evil energy loomed, emitting a terrifyingly ominous glow. Like a gigantic, greedy "heart," it transformed the entirety of Jichuan City into a "fuel factory" providing nutrients for the final ritual.
"What a cruel method!" Chu Yun gritted his teeth, the raging rage in his heart threatening to ignite his frail soul. This was no longer a simple killing; it was the ultimate desecration of the very concept of "life." He couldn't imagine that an elder of the Tianshi Mansion's Law Enforcement Hall, revered by the world for centuries, could harbor such ruthless madness!
"We must destroy that altar." Chu Yun's voice was cold and emotionless.
"How?" Mo Li's face was full of helplessness. "We can barely even maintain our souls now. That place must be the most heavily guarded by Xuan Chenzi and Shadow Pavilion. Going there now is tantamount to committing suicide."
"Let's find a place to recover first." Li Ge said calmly, "We can't do anything in this state. We must find our 'physical bodies' in the mortal world and return our souls to their proper places before we can recover our fighting strength."
"But how do we know where the physical body is?" Mo Li asked.
"I can feel it." Chu Yun closed his eyes and sensed, "Although the crack torn by the Judge's Pen is one-way, it will automatically teleport our physical body to the relatively 'safe' area closest to the soul's descent point. I can feel that our physical body is in... that direction." He pointed to an inconspicuous hill outside the ancient city.
Without hesitation, the three of them immediately drifted in that direction, carefully weaving through the dead, ghostly ancient city. The streets were deserted, and most of the houses on either side had collapsed, their ruins covered in dried, dark blood. The entire city was filled with a suffocating atmosphere of despair.
When Chu Yun was about to pass through a narrow alley, he suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?"
"There's someone... in front." Chu Yun's voice was a little uncertain. He could feel a few faint breaths of "life" at the corner of the alley.
The three of them immediately became alert, quietly approached the corner, and cautiously stuck their heads out.
The next second, they saw a horrifying scene that they would never forget: at the end of the alley, there were several "people" in civilian clothes, standing with their backs to them, motionless, like statues.
"Hello?" Mo Li called out tentatively through the soul connection, but those "people" did not respond at all.
"They...seem to be a little off."
At that moment, one of the "people" slowly turned around. Chu Yun and the other two finally saw his face clearly—pale as white as paper. His eyes, though open, lacked focus and spirit, filled with pure, complete emptiness, like the abyss. His movements were stiff and slow, like a puppet that had just learned to walk, as he slowly approached the three of them.
Then, the second, third... the "person" in the alley slowly turned around, stared at them with those empty eyes that made people's scalps tingle, and walked towards them with the same stiff steps.
"They... they are not human!" Mo Li's voice was filled with horror. "They don't have 'souls' in their bodies. They are just zombies!"
"They're puppets." Chu Yun's face was extremely ugly. "They're the same puppets as the ghost messengers in the underworld! Their souls have been sucked away, leaving only empty shells controlled by evil magic!"
"Have their souls... also become the 'fuel' of Xuan Chenzi's altar?" Li Ge looked at the "walking corpses" that were getting closer and closer, his voice so cold that it seemed to freeze the air.
No one answered, but everyone already had the cruelest answer in their hearts.
Without stopping, the three of them swerved as quickly as possible through this eerie and ominous alley. They knew that the remaining "living people" in the city had probably already become like this. They felt like they had stumbled into a vast, bloody slaughterhouse, the only "outliers" about to be discovered.
They finally reached the hill without incident and found their bodies in an inconspicuous cave hidden among rocks and weeds. The three bodies lay quietly on the ground, breathing steadily, as if they were asleep.
The three of them no longer hesitated and immediately controlled their souls and returned to their respective bodies.
The moment his soul returned to its place, a long-lost, real feeling of being alive spread throughout his body. Chu Yun was the first to open his eyes, feeling the warm blood flowing through his body again, listening to his strong heartbeat. He had never felt that being alive was such a wonderful thing.
But then, an even stronger surge of rage and a heavy sense of responsibility surged into his heart. He remembered the judge's last words, Xuan Chenzi's hypocritical face, and this ancient city that was wailing for his dream of ascending alone.
He glanced at Li Ge and Mo Li, who had just woken up and whose faces were also filled with fatigue and solemnity.
"Take a break."
He said slowly, "Then, we will go... meet the 'masters' of this 'bloody slaughterhouse'."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
