Chapter 102 Black Impermanence
When the Poison King instinctively reached out to grasp the glimmer of light, it slipped through his fingers like a firefly; as the body departed, the light naturally vanished as well.
Everything is fleeting.
In the end, the King of Poison left nothing in his arms.
"Hehe...heh, hahaha, hahahahaha!" A maniacal laugh suddenly rang out from the head of the table, leaving the three below bewildered but also sending chills down their spines.
Only the little mound outside the corner understood what had happened. He had been sending telepathic messages, constantly calling out Shinju's nickname, but overnight, the point representing Shinju that he could sense had disappeared.
This has never happened before.
Xiao Dunzi, who had survived until today thanks to this faint sense of connection, suddenly went black before his eyes. He accidentally hit his head on the wall, and two streams of blood flowed down his forehead. However, Xiao Dunzi seemed oblivious to the pain in his head. He stared into the void, but could no longer focus on any point. He could only murmur the name of Shinjuku until he lost consciousness due to excessive bleeding and was rescued by Zhixi.
Meanwhile, someone inside the hall was still laughing, laughing out of anger.
He knew that Shinjuku would not die so easily.
However, amidst the elation and relief, what filled my chest was resentment and unwillingness.
"Qing'er, how cruel you are to abandon me."
"fraud."
The King of Zhen's dark eyes gradually filled with crimson, his hatred surging wildly. At the same time, in the dead of winter, a hurricane suddenly swept across the ground, carrying hailstones of varying sizes, which slammed into the ground with the swirling wind. Thatched huts, mud houses, and even brick and tile houses were all nearly reduced to ruins under the dense onslaught. In an instant, countless people fled and fled, carrying pots on their heads, and even more were struck down and left helpless.
The capital city has fallen.
Even within the red walls, no one could escape. The ceilings of the palaces were smashed open one after another, the beams teetered on the verge of collapse, and broken tiles and heavy stones fell one after another. Amidst screams, the guards rushed forward to escort the Poison King to the underground palace, but the Poison King did not move an inch, his eyes filled with sorrow and coldness, while a cruel smile hung on his lips.
“Since Qing’er is willing to abandon this world, then this world has no reason to exist. Destroy it.” The Poison King laughed resolutely.
At this point, the last trace of ink in the King of Poison's pupils was completely covered by scarlet.
.
The scattered stars and fireflies gathered and clung to the soul sitting kneeling in the center of the four-dimensional space, gradually solidifying into a broken body.
The skin covering the handsome features, with its rotting edges spreading in the opposite direction like a burning fire, healed in no time, revealing smooth, flawless, jade-like skin. Long, thick eyelashes slowly lifted, and golden eyes, devoid of joy or sorrow, suddenly shone with a starlight-like brilliance, as if touched by a divine brush, creating a breathtakingly beautiful sight.
Shinjuku lowered his eyes and examined the returned body, a look of surprise in his eyes.
Just moments ago, he was frantically studying the "Five Ultimate Classics," worried about the impending arrival of the underworld officials. He had almost taken a desperate gamble, sacrificing three of his souls to consecrate the formation and forcibly recall his true immortal body. Unexpectedly, his body has returned.
As for the King of Poison... it seems he has come to his senses and finally accepted his "death".
A sudden, oppressive unease welled up inside Shinju, as if his internal organs had been mercilessly crushed by a roller.
But isn't this what he wanted?
Shinjuku's lowered gaze suddenly focused on the red fox fur cloak he was wearing and the scarlet sachet tied around his waist. He subconsciously touched his neck and wrists and found that his collar and bracelet were gone, but the thin gold chain was still hanging on his exposed ankle.
Shinjuku's fingertips touched the switch on the anklet, but he didn't move for a long time.
After a long silence, Shinjuku finally withdrew his hand and murmured, "It's better to forget..."
"Farewell, Your Majesty."
Before the words were finished, a chilling aura suddenly drifted into the carriage-like space. It was invisible, but its biting coldness could still be clearly felt even by the real Sushi, who was wrapped in a warm cloak.
"!!" Shinju roused himself, his dejected expression vanishing, and his golden eyes gleamed with excitement.
Just moments before, several miles away, a colorless, cold current swept out, and a pure black coffin lying on the ground suddenly trembled. The yellow talismans pasted along the edges of the coffin tore apart in a frantic manner. Then, with a loud "bang," the coffin lid was blown off, and yin energy billowed out of the coffin like poisonous mist, gradually condensing into an extremely tall human figure.
Black mist settled down, like a newly built platform, and three people emerged from the coffin one after another.
The one in the lead was the tallest person, but if someone looked closely, they would find that he was not really that tall, but was wearing a tall black hat that was as long as his arm, with the words "Peace Under Heaven" written on it.
Two men stood beside him, both dressed in Yin soldier armor, holding halberds and carrying green lanterns, leading the way.
"Master Black, this is the place," the ghostly soldier on the left reported truthfully.
The tall man known as Blackie frowned as he looked at the desolate landscape ahead. He pulled out a Soul-Hooking Lock from his sleeve, and though his thin lips, hidden behind his mask, remained silent, a deep, magnetic, ghostly voice rang out: "Let's go."
The swirling black mist continued to extend forward, forming its own path, which connected with a huge black box that was twisting and deforming in mid-air not far away.
Meanwhile, the man inside the black box could clearly see the figure of the person below and immediately recognized him as the legendary underworld messenger Hei Wuchang, who had come to capture him with two underworld soldiers.
Looks like we made it in time.
The closer they got to the black box, the more chaotic and inverted the barren landscape became. It looked so close, yet it was like a mirage. They walked for a long time but could not get any closer.
The two ghostly soldiers looked extremely grim.
"This is too eerie, it's like being trapped in a maze! Is this still the mortal world?" The ghostly soldier on the right rubbed his arms as he advanced, trying to suppress the goosebumps that weren't actually there.
The other ghostly soldier also seemed to feel uneasy, nodding in agreement before glancing at Black Impermanence.
As the two looked up at him, Hei Wuchang coughed lightly and said coldly, "In my opinion, this place is most likely a trap set by some cultivator who has made a mess of his own cultivation and is stuck in a gap between his cultivation levels."
"As expected of the knowledgeable and experienced Master Hei, he must have a solution!"
"Of course." Black Impermanence replied with a dismissive look.
However, about half an hour later—
"Why is this happening?!" He had clearly figured out the pattern of the black box's transformations; it had flipped in the same way for the first four times. Why did it suddenly change in the fifth time?! Black Impermanence's hair, stuffed into his official hat, was practically standing on end in anger. But the two ghostly soldiers beside him still looked at him with admiration from time to time, making it impossible for him to say anything about turning back. He could only grit his teeth and try again to decipher the way to enter the black box.
Confined within the black box, Shinjuku couldn't understand why he couldn't break through. He discovered that all his punches were absorbed by the invisible wall and didn't bounce back; they simply disappeared. He tried to project his voice, but it was also completely blocked by the wall. His internal energy couldn't penetrate the wall, and it didn't attract the attention of the three people below at all.
Black Impermanence tried several more times, trying to concentrate the Yin energy at one end of the Soul-Hooking Lock and to carve a hole in the black box.
However, the black box seemed to be able to read his thoughts and ideas. Its changing form always contradicted his judgment. Every time it seemed to be about to break through the previous gap, it always missed the mark. Then the black box would return to its original state without leaving a trace.
Even the two ghostly soldiers couldn't stand it anymore and advised, "Blackie... if it really doesn't work out, let's go back. Anyway, the wandering ghosts in this kind of ghostly place can't amount to anything. The higher-ups won't find out."
Black Impermanence was extremely frustrated and no longer cared about saving face in front of the Yin soldiers. Now that he had a way out, he immediately said, "Alright, let's go and lure the next person."
The ghost soldiers secretly breathed a sigh of relief and turned to walk towards the coffin together.
This really worried Shinjuku.
Don't go!! Take him with you!!
Perhaps it was a case of quick thinking, but Shinju realized that he had overlooked a detail: from the very beginning, there had been something that could penetrate the black box.
—Yin energy.
As the figures of the three Yin messengers grew smaller and smaller, Zhen Su Qi sank into the Golden Core, circulating it through the Yin Xuan Meridian for a complete cycle, attempting to absorb all the Yin Qi into his body.
The Black Impermanence in front of the coffin noticed first that the path formed by the gathering of Yin energy beneath their feet had thinned to the point of almost breaking off. Looking back, they found that the Yin energy from their path was retreating and rushing rapidly towards the black box.
However, it didn't stop there. Even the yin energy on their bodies was rapidly dissipating, transforming into an irresistible force that suddenly pulled them toward the black box.
"What...what is this?! I can't breathe! Blackie, save me!!"
"Blackie, Blackie!! Ahhh!!"
Two ghost soldiers were the first to be sucked dry and turned into shriveled human skin. They were pressed down by Ghost Soldier A, but their lips could still move with difficulty, so they continued to wail. However, they were short of breath and their cries for help were so faint that no one could hear them.
Black Impermanence spread his legs outwards and forcefully plunged them into the ground to fix himself in place, desperately resisting the raging wind formed by the yin energy.
"Damn it, what is the origin of this ghost... It can actually draw out the yin energy from my body. If I could turn it into my own power, could it be a malevolent spirit?!"
Upon hearing the word "煞" from Hei Wuchang's mouth, the faces of the two human skins on the ground instantly turned deathly pale.
This was beyond their capabilities; only someone like Ox-Head or Horse-Face could possibly suppress a ghost of this level.
In the past, whenever a "fierce" appeared, it meant a bloody storm, and all the underworld officials and ghosts faced a major reshuffle.
Black Impermanence stared intently at the black box, his ten fingers gripping the Soul-Hooking Lock were already thinning, and a deep fear welled up in his eyes.
However, his fingers did not wither and die. Instead, a spectacular layer of ice crystals formed on the surface of the black box hanging in the sky. A beam of red light, like a rainbow, shot out and pierced through the black box.
Then everything before his eyes seemed to slow down. Black Impermanence stared wide-eyed, dumbfounded as a crimson figure descended like a god from the sky full of ice crystals, then straightened up from its kneeling position and glared at him with a sharp gaze.
The Yin energy returned to the three people's bodies. The two Yin soldiers lying on the ground hurriedly got up, stood in front of Hei Wuchang, and pointed their spears at Zhen Su.
"What kind of demon are you! Surrender at once!!" Although the shout was full of energy, in the blink of an eye, the two ghost soldiers had already dragged the stunned Black Impermanence back half a mile, and then turned around and rushed straight towards the coffin.
"?" Why did it run away again?
Confused, Shinju took a step forward and chased after them, startling the three into running even faster, as if they were fleeing from some ferocious beast.
Fortunately, just before they closed the coffin lid, Shinju managed to grab the Black Impermanence's soul-snatching lock, wrapping it around himself several times before "weakly" collapsing to the ground.
The Black Impermanence, dizzy from being hit by the enormous weight of Shinjuku: "..."
The ghostly soldier casually closed the lid: "..."
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Author's Note: The next chapter will be the end of Volume One!
[Edited] The ending has been modified.
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