Chapter 120 Reunion in a Single Glance
Just one glance.
Suddenly, Shinju could feel his heart pounding abnormally. Not only that, but he was also able to mobilize his true energy, which surged wildly through his body. He could even sense the restlessness of the three upper corpses, while the four petals on his back were rapidly burning with a searing heat, like a branding iron scalding his flesh.
Shinjuku stared intently at the demon general, his golden eyes wide, his soul nearly leaving his body.
How could this be...? How could His Majesty be here?! Could it be that even after he left, the demon still wouldn't let the people of the Nian Dynasty go? He's already gone, and even if he hurt His Majesty again, the collapse of the small world couldn't bury him. Why did that lowly grandson still have to kill him so ruthlessly?! To exterminate them all!!!
Clear tears streamed down Shinju's face, startling the demon general who met his gaze. However, the demon general quickly lowered his brows, his expression indifferent as if he did not recognize Shinju, his eyes showing no wavering.
Upon seeing this, Shinjuku's heart sank, and a chill ran through him.
The Ghost Mother didn't miss the fleeting look of surprise on the Ghost General's face, so she smiled and asked, "Sir, why don't you come closer and take a look? Is this the person you're looking for?"
Unexpectedly, the ghost general did not move an inch, but only looked at Shinju from afar.
His obsidian-like eyes reflected the mature physique of a true deity, the drooping, aggrieved beast ears, and the bushy tail faintly visible between his legs. The crimson in the demon's eyes thickened and darkened, as if mixed with the brownish-white of his tail.
His gaze was no different from that of a jade appraiser observing raw jade, meticulously "licking" every inch of Shinju's skin. In just a few breaths, his eyesight expanded to its limit, looking at the man over and over again.
However, when his gaze fell on the silver earrings on Mayuki's earlobes, Mayuki felt the suffocating stickiness on his body disappear, as if it had just been his imagination. Mayuki clearly saw the look of doubt in the other person's eyes.
Then Zhen Su and Lou Lan saw the ghost general with a gloomy face say, "A fish eye is being passed off as a pearl."
Zhen Su was even more surprised than Lou Lan, so much so that the last few clear tears rolled down his cheeks, and he stopped crying.
Lou Lan couldn't help but turn to look at Zhen Su. She truly hadn't considered that someone would impersonate the person the Ghost General was searching for in order to get close to him. Was the bait she had used actually the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind? This thought made Lou Lan's expression grave, and she was about to interrogate Zhen Su—
Then Shinjuku said, "...I don't know him."
Lou Lan's gaze swept back and forth between the two, and finally, seeing that the ghost general still refused to take a step forward, Lou Lan's eyes darkened, and he said only: "Since you don't recognize him, how I deal with this little thing is none of your business."
Lou Lan floated to Zhen Su's side, her long, pointed armor brushing against Zhen Su's thin cheek. She looked at him with admiration and said, "His flesh would be a good vessel. It looks perfect for my Kua'er. A ghost soldier, yet he has a genuine flesh and blood body. It's like finding a treasure."
As soon as he finished speaking, a circle of crimson light appeared on the ground, illuminating the area around Shinjuku.
Shinjuku was finally able to see clearly that he was lying on a cold stone bed, his entire body tightly bound to it by a purplish-red, intestine-like object. Beneath the stone bed was a huge eight-ring magic circle, its intricate and bizarre patterns filled with countless pieces of corpses, severed limbs, heads, several thick trails of blood, greenish-black bile, and even unidentified filth.
As the magic circle was activated, a strong stench of blood and foul odor was also aroused. The smell made Shinju feel dizzy and lightheaded, but the culprit still wore a gentle and peaceful smile.
"This is not my fault. Who told you two to be so unlucky, not even knowing each other?" Lou Lan said, then spread his hands and snapped his fingers. The two cages were pushed out by the female cultivators.
As soon as the cage latch was pulled out, two elderly men dressed in luxurious brocade robes crawled out with ferocious expressions, looking like starving ghosts. Greenish saliva dripped onto the ground as they stared intently in the direction of Zhen Su, their cloudy eyes gleaming with hunger. Both of them had chains around their necks, the other end of which was tethered to the female cultivator's hand. Without her permission, they began scratching the stone floor with their sharp fingernails, clearly eager to devour their prey.
Lou Lan glanced at the other side with disgust, then looked away, whether because of the two old men or the jarring noise, it was unclear.
As Shinju gazed at the two female cultivators, he suddenly felt a strong sense of familiarity. Although their clothing was unfamiliar, he knew he had seen their faces and posture somewhere before, and recently at that…
That's right, he remembered, it was in the karst cave in Yilian Village!
But weren't those cave girls long dead?! They were even skinned alive and made into insect puppets, so why are they now Lou Lan's subordinates, dressed in cultivator's robes?
A chilling thought surfaced in Shinjuku's mind.
However, regaining his freedom is of utmost importance right now. Even as he was crying, he didn't forget to try and break through the secondary dantian that was sealed off by the magic array beneath him. Not to mention that he was currently at the center of this ominous array and could be destroyed at any moment, he was also surrounded by Lou Lan's domain, so he had to find a breakthrough as soon as possible to leave with the Poison King.
Under the relentless impact of true energy, the secondary Purple Mansion finally loosened. Zhen Su immediately opened the Qiankun Bag through the secondary Purple Mansion and fed all the remaining Earth Crystal Stones to the evil souls within the Upper Three Corpses. All of these actions were carried out in secret.
The foul-smelling air was thick with a palpable tension, as if an explosion was imminent.
Lou Lan surveyed the entire area, and since this was her domain, with a single thought, without even needing to give a verbal command, the two hungry old men twisted their limbs, which were crooked under their brocade robes, and crawled rapidly towards Zhen Su like alien spiders along the array patterns on the ground.
Just as Shinju was waiting for his chance to strike, someone who had seemed aloof and arrogant from the beginning suddenly solidified into the form of a giant scorpion behind him, exuding a menacing aura. Upon closer inspection, one could see that the giant scorpion had a single, pointed horn on its head, emitting a mesmerizing crimson light, and its stinger stood upright at the back.
"Dragon Scorpion!" At the Ghost General's command, the Dragon Scorpion's massive pincers, like boulders launched from a catapult, slammed down with tremendous force into the path of the two old monsters.
With a deafening roar, waves surged. As the billowing dust settled, the old monsters were nearly thrown back, but this also meant they had avoided the attack. Their broken limbs were at even more bizarre angles than before, and they continued crawling towards Shinjuku, this time at a much slower pace.
Upon hearing the ghost general's attack, Lou Lan couldn't help but chuckle mischievously, his upturned eyes clearly displaying a blatant "success." "Oh dear, why the sudden attack, sir? You're not telling me you've only just remembered that you know this kid, are you?"
While joking, Lou Lan swiftly pressed the sharp armor against Shinju's neck.
Its deceptive and swift movements are beyond the reach of any ghost general's malevolent aura.
Under Lou Lan's sidelong glance, the ghost general ground his back teeth in resentment, a metallic taste immediately tasting on his tongue. He clutched his forehead, forcefully suppressing the lotus stem tattoo that was gradually spreading all over his body, and put away the dragon scorpion.
"Ghost General, come over here obediently." Lou Lan stopped laughing, and the excessively long armor on her slender fingers pierced into Zhen Su's flesh, going even deeper.
The ghost general stepped forward.
Lou Lan secretly watched where he would land.
The two old monsters, one from the south and one from the north, approached Shinjuku respectively, their distorted faces revealing greed and madness.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye, and in that blink of an eye, Shinjuku suddenly understood something.
Lou Lan only ever saw him as bait, not as someone who truly wanted his body. Otherwise, she wouldn't have let those two old monsters out and hurt him, which wouldn't have served her interests in needing a vessel.
Therefore, Lou Lan's target has always been the King of Poison!
Shinju immediately shouted at the demon general, "Don't come any closer!!"
The demon was stunned by the angry look of the maniac lion, and stopped in his tracks, his shoes hanging in mid-air. Then, he realized something and quickly pulled his legs back.
Seeing that the ghost general was about to step into the eye of the array she had set up in advance, Lou Lan was furious. She turned her head and was about to take action against Zhen Su.
However, Masakura had anticipated this and was waiting for her move. In an instant, a cloud of black mist exploded in front of Lou Lan, and a demon swordsman with eight scarlet longswords between his fingers lunged forward, about to stab Lou Lan's head.
"How did you break free from the golden rules of her array?!" Lou Lan's eyes widened in shock. But the evil spirit's attack, which had come at him head-on, vanished into nothingness in the next instant.
Shinju watched helplessly as Lou Lan swallowed the evil spirit whole through the gash that tore from its neck all the way to its mouth.
“Evil, evil spirit—” Shinju’s breath trembled violently, his eyes filled with remorse. He hadn’t even had a chance to ask the evil spirit’s name before…
Lou Lan's large laceration on her upper body returned to normal. Her long, crimson tongue curled around her pearly teeth as she chuckled, "Quite delicious, thank you for the treat. Little thing, you've done a pretty good job raising ghosts. Any more?"
Shinju gritted his teeth, ready to fight back, but then the magic array shone brightly with red light, and suddenly many withered bones appeared on the ground, grabbing Shinju and firmly fixing him to the stone bed.
He once again lost most of his senses from the Purple Mansion, the Three Corpses, and the True Immortal Body, and was completely unable to move.
The ghost general narrowed his long phoenix eyes, and his Yin energy suddenly surged. He drew an extremely long Miao sword horizontally from his palm, the blade covered with crimson lightning.
Knowing the vast area covered by the magic array, the ghost general was certain that stepping into it would likely result in being controlled and having no chance of victory. So, without changing his expression, the ghost general plunged his knife into his wrist and then slashed it vertically downwards, spraying a large amount of blood onto the glowing red magic array patterns, covering a significant portion of them.
Lou Lan immediately felt as if she were facing a formidable enemy, and she almost vomited blood. For a moment, she could no longer care about Zhen Su. The formation was still sufficient to trap Zhen Su, but if she wanted to completely drag the ghost general into the formation's core and control him, this interference from the pattern would be fatal.
Therefore, Lou Lan no longer concealed anything and quickly issued orders. The two hundred female cultivators who were lurking around the magic array immediately rose from their kneeling and waiting positions and collectively surrounded and attacked the ghost general.
"Force him into the formation and weaken him as much as possible!!" Lou Lan transmitted her voice to the female cultivators.
The female cultivators were supple and graceful, their movements unpredictable yet subtly rhythmic. Despite their large numbers, their formation was incredibly sophisticated, and with the added attack power of the array, the ghost generals locked in combat were unable to gain the upper hand for the time being.
Lou Lan personally took action, like a valiant general, leading the female cultivators in unleashing wave after wave of vicious attacks that drained blood and devoured souls.
One against many, and Lou Lan's strength was no less than his. The more the ghost general parried, the heavier the burden became. His already precarious sanity repeatedly slipped into unconsciousness, and he barely managed to hold on by sheer willpower and instinct.
One of the female cultivators who had met the Ghost General under the tree earlier, seeing that the Ghost General was not in a good state, couldn't help but mock loudly: "Do you really think that we need to be afraid of you, a mere Ghost General? Our Lord is an unparalleled Ghost Owl! He is only one step away from becoming a Ghost King. When did it become your turn, a Ghost General, to be so arrogant?!"
Upon hearing this, the other female cultivators were greatly encouraged, and they all cast admiring glances at Lou Lan, their attacks becoming more frequent as they approached the Ghost General step by step.
While they were locked in fierce battle, a horrific scene unfolded on the stone bed at the center of the magic array.
"Ahhhhh... Ah... Hah... Ahhhh!!"
Abandoned on the stone bed, Shinjuku was ensnared by two hunched old monsters who emitted eerie laughter, who began tearing at his body without warning.
The earrings that should have been silent were suddenly shaking on their own, flashing silver light as if they were anxious.
But Shinjuku's body was like real jade. They chewed until their teeth broke, but they couldn't even bite off a single bit of Shinjuku's flesh. They only managed to break a little bit of skin.
The old monsters were furious. After a while, they reluctantly shifted their target. Their sharp shark teeth snapped into Shinjuku's white, upright ear, tearing off a mouthful of hair. Shinjuku immediately felt pain.
The silver adhering to the earrings vibrated even more violently, and finally could not sit still any longer. It flowed and spread out, covering Shinjuku's two ears, turning them silvery-white.
The old monster is too tough to chew anymore.
Shinjuku couldn't see the strange phenomenon happening to his body and was puzzled. Instead of the expected pain coming from his head, a piercing pain suddenly came from his tailbone.
This led to Shinjuku's painful cry.
His thick, furry tail was torn off by the old monster with his bare hands, leaving a bloody mess at the cut.
Mayuki nearly fainted from the pain.
This deafening, sky-piercing scream immediately attracted the attention of the ghost general, who was already surrounded by his own murderous aura.
The demon general's dark eyes cleared briefly as his gaze shot toward Shinjuku, where he saw the nine-ringed severed tail that had been half-eaten by the "hungry ghost," and Shinjuku's weak and pained face, his body straining but unable to break free. Before he could even utter a cry of "Qing'er," everything went black.
Lou Lan did not let this opportunity pass. She ordered the female cultivators to push the ghost general, who was frozen in place, to the center of the formation. For the first time, the red light emitted by the formation dyed the entire area red, as bright as the sunset.
Eighteen soul-fixing needles, each half a person's height, pierced through the magic array in an instant, all embedding themselves into the ghost general's tall and powerful body.
Lou Lan held her breath, tightened the bulging bundle in her arms, and her eyes gleamed with extreme excitement.
With the ghost general's malevolent aura, her son, Kua'er, can come back to life!
The ghost general remained motionless.
Just as Lou Lan's side was preparing to perform the resurrection ritual on the spot, the ghost general, riddled with blood holes, suddenly opened his completely red, pupil-less eyes. Blood vessels bulged around his eyes, and black blood flowed from the bulging canthi. The ten-petaled inverted lotus tattoo quickly covered his entire body, making his skin appear to be a pure and extreme black.
At the same time, Gui Xiaolou Lan's crimson domain was completely swallowed and covered by the dark purple, and all the spiritual energy in the domain was drained. In an instant, the infinitely expanding black mist exploded, and the super strong pressure unique to the "filth" level shook out. That absolute power could cause people's liver and intestines to break and their minds to be destroyed!
This transformed man, exuding the aura of a ghost king, expressionlessly pulled out the soul-piercing needles from his body as he strode towards someone.
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Author's note: [Revised] and polished.
[Revised] The issue of inconsistent clothing among the old monsters has been changed to all wearing brocade robes.
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