Chapter 141 Let's continue our cooperation. Remember, I'm in your future...
The inky sword energy burst forth in an instant, engulfing and sweeping away the firefly-like spells that descended from the sky, annihilating the sword cultivators who were flying with their swords.
Then, a powerful sword aura slashed down from mid-air, cutting off the speed at which the dark sword aura was devouring and covering the area. Chong Jue solemnly sheathed his sword, made a hand seal with his backhand, and pulled out the hundred cultivators who had been trapped in the dark sword aura.
"How dare you!" Chong Jue roared, followed by a barrage of sword shadows.
He is the sect leader of Hongqi Sect, the number one sword sect. If he uses swordsmanship, it means that he is really serious this time.
Without even lifting his eyelids, Yu Tianxing's unsheathed black sword soared into the air, unleashing a burst of spiritual pressure that swept across the sky filled with sword shadows.
At the same time, the black sword that soared into the air merged with the inky sword energy, surging towards the hundred cultivators.
"Form ranks!" The hundred cultivators quickly changed positions. The sword cultivators pointed their swords forward, and the magic cultivators chanted incantations. The air pressure suddenly solidified, and a translucent high wall flowing with spiritual energy rose from the ground and stood in front of them.
The surging, dark sword energy crashed head-on into the semi-transparent high wall, producing a deafening roar.
Sword energy clashed with the high wall. A dark shadow, too fast for the naked eye to perceive, shot out from the darkness. The longsword was agile, its blade gleaming and translucent as it struck the center of the high wall.
With a crackling sound, countless cracks extended from the point where the sword's edge struck, and the semi-transparent high wall completely collapsed.
The ink-black longsword, without pausing for even a moment, pierced through the high wall and struck the hundred cultivators inside.
Blood splattered where the sword flashed, and nearly a hundred heads fell to the ground, dumbfounded, before they could even utter a cry.
The headless corpse lay sprawled on the ground.
In an instant, the corpses piled up like a mountain. At that moment, the unobstructed dark sword energy surged in and annihilated the mountain of corpses.
The bodies of the deceased cultivators have vanished without a trace.
The surviving cultivators turned pale, their legs gave way, and they collapsed to their knees with a thud.
The dark sword energy grew increasingly intense, spreading unstoppably to every corner of the courtyard.
*
Under the starlight, an unassuming scroll floats forlornly in the air above the quiet courtyard. The unfurled blank scroll reveals ink marks, horizontal and vertical strokes outlining a black and white ink painting that is indistinguishable from the surrounding courtyard.
Unlike the actual deserted courtyard, the courtyard in the painting depicts human figures: a cultivator in mid-air wields his sword to pierce a dense mass of ink, while in a corner of light ink, a mountain of corpses lies, and a tall, slender cultivator stands with his head bowed before it. In extremely light ink, a few simple strokes are drawn behind the bowing male cultivator, and a female cultivator hanging behind him is faintly visible.
Once the scroll painting was completed, the scroll, which had been suspended in mid-air, suddenly fell to the ground as if it had lost its strength.
The ink painting trembled, and ink gushed out from the scroll. In an instant, the figures in the painting appeared in the real courtyard, and their every move was exactly the same as the ink painting.
It's out! Ji Mingran looked around and fixed his gaze on the scroll that had fallen onto the lotus pond in the courtyard.
The thing that sucked them all into that space was this scroll artifact.
The scroll had barely touched her gaze when it flew into the air. Chongjue clenched her left palm, rolled up the scroll, and focused her gaze intently on Yu Tianxing, ignoring the painting on the scroll.
"You wicked creature!" Chong Jue was furious, and the pressure around him suddenly intensified! "You slaughtered the entire Mingming Sect, and now you've killed all the cultivators who were hunting you down. Your crimes are heinous and unforgivable!"
With a horizontal slash, the sword intent and fury pressed down, instantly leveling the elegant courtyard to the ground.
Yu Tianxing slightly raised his sword-wielding hand, blocking the thunderous blow. He didn't even glance at Chong Jue, his dark eyes glancing towards Wusi Academy, where the disciples used to gather and where his parents lived.
Lotus flowers withered, water overflowed, muddy soil, broken tiles and beams.
This place, like the nameless one, his sect, his home, ultimately turned to dust, like smoke blown away by the wind, vanishing overnight.
"Those I killed were not cultivators." Holding his black sword in reverse, Yu Tianxing held it against the heavy silver sword that lunged at him. His expression was indifferent. "I have no intention of getting entangled with you either."
Chong Jue: Still trying to deny it! Trying to escape? You'll have to get past the sword in my hand first!
As soon as he finished speaking, Chongjue's sword fell.
Yu Tianxing only took a slow step back, and Chong Jue and his sword strike had already disappeared before his eyes.
Before Ji Mingran could even blink, she had already followed Yu Tianxing to the wilderness.
The pursuing cultivators, the ruins of the sect, and everything that had just happened were all left behind.
Yu Tianxing directly used teleportation magic to arrive at another location.
Ji Mingran finally realized, "You really are quite impressive." At this time, Chong Jue was still no match for Yu Tianxing.
Yu Tianxing stood with his sword raised, the sharp blade reflecting his eyes. He said softly to the sword, "From now on, you'll have to work hard."
He started anew.
What followed was a long and complicated memory.
Ji Mingran followed him, watching him travel across continents, pursue Jiang Chaoxing's hiding place, and wipe out one after another of the sects and clans that had been invaded by parasitic mutants.
His solution was simple and swift: a single, sweeping sword strike wiped out the entire sect, and then he used sword energy to obliterate the bodies of the dead. Only in this way could he ensure that the monsters would not escape to another body.
The only ones who could survive his sword were a handful of genuine humans who had not been parasitized by the mutated species.
Those who survived hated him intensely.
Yu Tianxing didn't care about that; all he cared about were the monsters.
Only by using this method could he kill all the hiding mutants before the cultivators chasing him or the mutants disguised as cultivators arrived.
However, this approach was considered unacceptable by outsiders. The ten cultivators of the Dao Sect pursued him for many years and finally caught up with his trail in another secluded minor sect.
At that time, he finally found Jiang Chaoxing who was lying in wait. The two fought for several rounds, and he seriously injured Jiang Chaoxing with his sword.
After witnessing him take his last breath, Yu Tianxing was surrounded by the ten Daoist cultivators who had rushed to the scene.
This time, however, he put down the black sword and let the spells fall on his body, without trying to escape.
He was taken away by Chong Jue and did not notice that the dark sword energy suddenly dissipated when it wrapped around Jiang Chaoxing's nose.
Yu Tianxing thought Jiang Chaoxing was dead, but Ji Mingran knew he wasn't.
However, Yu Tianxing has already been imprisoned by the Ten Masters of the Daoist Sect.
The torture methods were used extensively. The prisoners were only wrapped in tattered cloth from the waist down, and every exposed part of their skin was covered in wounds, with bones visible.
On the execution platform, the ten elders of the Dao Sect looked solemn as they discussed how to deal with him.
"Those of us who have been chasing him for years know that he is not only at the Mahayana stage, but his cultivation is far superior to that of his contemporaries. If he did not act voluntarily, how could he be easily subdued?"
"That is precisely why we must take this opportunity to severely punish him, lest he develop murderous intent again in the future and cause further suffering."
“He has committed numerous sins over the years, and even if he surrenders himself now, his crimes are unforgivable.”
"I heard that Jiang Chaoxing, the last disciple of the Nameless Sect, escaped from the abyss with him back then. Over the years, he has been hunted down by Yu Tianxing. His inner demons have intensified, and he has long since become a corrupt cultivator, colluding with several demonic sects. His whereabouts are now unknown."
"How tragic and lamentable." The ten elders of the Dao Sect shook their heads and sighed, "The nameless sect has ended up like this."
"We have determined that this person has not fallen into demonic possession, but I fear that the Abyss cannot imprison him."
"He did such a thing without being possessed by a demon, which is more terrifying than that of someone who is possessed by a demon. He must be executed!"
“In that case, why not hand him over to my sect for imprisonment?” Chongjue said.
Compared to his first encounter with Yu Tianxing, he now possessed a more dignified and composed aura of a powerful being. "The Soul Devouring Formation will cause those who enter it to repeatedly recall their most painful memories. During this time, their primordial soul and memories will perish together, and their cultivation will gradually weaken. This can both imprison them and allow them to atone for their sins through painful memories."
"This..." The ten cultivators of the Dao Sect looked at each other, and several of them frowned, showing their disapproval. "To damage their souls is going too far."
Amidst the commotion, the ten Daoist disciples voted one by one, and Chongjue's proposal won by a narrow margin.
The scene that Ji Mingran witnessed ended with Yu Tianxing being thrown into the Soul Devouring Array.
The chains formed by the Soul Devouring Array pierced through Yu Tianxing's body, rubbing and intertwining between his bones and flesh, causing him excruciating pain and trapping him firmly within the array, making it difficult for him to break free.
Ji Mingran was still hanging behind him, watching as everything around him gradually faded away, as if returning to silence.
This is the end; this is the last memory scene displayed by the Soul Devouring Array.
As of the time Yu Tianxing was trapped in the Soul Devouring Formation.
Having accompanied him through countless experiences, Ji Mingran came to understand even more that these memories were not Yu Tianxing's entire life story. The formation only preserved memories sufficient to cause him to lose consciousness and collapse. Therefore, the passage of time in the memories she witnessed was not uniform.
That's why the young man who should have been at the Golden Core stage when he emerged from the Spiritual Cultivation Competition actually had a cultivation level close to the Mahayana stage, which allowed him to take on the mission to go to the abyss.
He then broke through to the Mahayana level, killing one mutant after another until he was imprisoned.
Now all of this will start over again, and Yu Tianxing will have to relive those unbearable memories once more.
The boy, pulled by the chains, uttered painful murmurs.
"Wake up, Yu Tianxing, your memories don't end here." Ji Mingran whispered close to his ear, "Remember, I'm in your future."
He reached down with his palm, from Yu Tianxing's neck down to his chest, and suddenly gripped and pulled.
With a whooshing sound of subway cables, the figure beneath her vanished into nothingness. Ji Mingran leaped lightly down, her feet landing in an endless expanse.
Once again, countless memories twinkled like stars in the sky, and if you looked closely, each twinkling star was a memory playing out.
Ji Mingran did not look up to check everything.
Since she has already experienced it all from beginning to end, why should she go through it again? Yu Tianxing's cycle should come to an end.
“You’ve been locked up for so many years, and the formation has been devouring you for so many years. Your consciousness is intertwined with it. You can hear me speak, and you can sense me, right?” Ji Mingran said to himself, pulling on the chains.
“You scattered your primordial spirit, so you must have originally intended to die. If that’s the case, I’m not against following you, but you’ve come to find me. You’ve returned from the small world, so can I assume that you now want to live?” Ji Mingran slowly pulled on the chains.
"You're really putting on a brave face, Yu Tianxing." Ji Mingran pulled out chain after chain, his hands unable to let go, and wrapped the chains around himself again and again. "You say you can handle it? How many years would it take you to handle this by yourself? My travels are about to begin."
“But, being stubborn is good too. I like being stubborn, I just like being stubborn.” Ji Mingran emphasized, “If we don’t be stubborn, how can we climb out of purgatory, how can we survive? The more I look at it, the more I feel that we are indeed a match made in heaven.”
As if hearing a response, Ji Mingran continued, "Are you numb from killing monsters? Are you worried that you'll become a monster yourself?" She slowly said, "It's a coincidence, I'm the same. I'm so tired of killing that I'm afraid of becoming the same kind of monster every day. But no matter what, one good thing is that I have a lot of experience dealing with these monsters. Leave everything to me."
“You’re happy for me to get your things for free, but you’re not happy to get mine for free.” Ji Mingran’s hands didn’t stop moving as she spoke; the chains were almost wrapped around her throat. Her voice was muffled, but her tone was surprisingly light: “In exchange, give me the array power you provided to the formation.”
Ji Mingran grasped the chain wrapped around his neck with his ten fingers as if shaking hands with someone, and said lightly, "It's difficult for you to break free of the formation by yourself, and it's also difficult for me to break free by myself. Now it's perfect, let's cooperate like before. Since you have merged with it, you can give me its formation power. With the formation power, I will have enough strength to break the formation."
The chains swayed gently, as if in response to her words.
Ji Mingran smiled faintly, closed his eyes, and a dazzling light burst forth from his fingertips. Warmth enveloped her body through the chains and flowed into her consciousness.
Waves surged into the dried-up sea fields, and the long-parched sea of consciousness was being replenished with spiritual energy at an astonishing speed!
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