The empty city was destroyed (30)
"You just left him like that?"
Duan Yougan paused, gripping the half-piece of the Soul-Suppressing Stone he had just acquired, and looked around the empty room: "Who is it?"
"Who else could it be? Didn't we just meet?"
"Zhan Yan?" Duan You narrowed his eyes, his gaze dark. "You're bored by yourself, isn't it perfect to have him stay here and keep you company?"
"Oh, so you're being kind after all?" The voice chuckled upon hearing this. "Do I need your pity?"
“No,” Duan Yougan replied calmly. “I know you want to be free, and I have a way to free you.”
As he spoke, he raised his hand, and a ball of dark blue flame rose from his palm.
The flame caught Zhan Yan's attention, and he was stunned: "How did you..."
“I can help you, but not now.” Duan Yougan clenched his fingers and extinguished the flame that had just risen in his palm. “Leave his soul behind. Someone will come and do this for me later.”
"Duan Yougan?" Ye Yingying blinked.
Seeing her blank expression, Zhao Huai-ren was somewhat surprised and quickly began to ponder more details: "He's shorter than me, as thin as a bamboo pole, and has really long hair that hangs down his shoulders without any care..."
The more Ye Yingying listened, the more her brows furrowed. She didn't know Duan Yougan, but she knew that the Azure Nether True Fire was given to her by the Ghost Calculator.
Zhao Huai Ren said he had seen the Azure Nether Flame on Duan Yougan, and who were Duan Yougan and the Ghost Calculator...?
Ye Yingying's eyes suddenly flickered, and an idea began to emerge in her mind—
“He’s the cunning strategist.” Just then, Yun Yanqiu suddenly spoke up, “Duan Yougan is the cunning strategist.”
Ye Yingying stared at him blankly, her eyes filled with astonishment.
"You know?" she asked.
Yun Yanqiu nodded: "He had this name when he was in Yanqing Sect."
Yanqing Sect, the sect that was once famous for its weapon-refining techniques, where did the Ghost Calculator actually stay? Ye Yingying was stunned. That crazy old man never talked about his past, yet Yun Yanqiu knew about it.
“Looks like you haven’t forgotten.” Zhao Huai Ren chuckled and shrugged, then said to Ye Ying Ying, “I don’t know Duan Yougan very well, but I can sense that he’s a rather self-willed guy.”
“I don’t know why he gave you this true fire, but as I said, leave here, go to the main hall to destroy the Soul-Suppressing Stone, and then use your flames to burn away the souls in the city, and everything will be over.”
After saying that, he suddenly sat down cross-legged on the spot, looking exactly like Zhan Yan from before.
"Zhao Huai Ren, what are you doing!" Yun Yanqiu was startled when he saw this. He wanted to step forward to stop him, but he was stopped by Zhao Huai Ren after taking only a few steps: "No need!" Zhao Huai Ren turned his head slightly to look at Yun Yanqiu, with a faint smile in his eyes: "There is no need to save me. It is enough that I was able to wait for you to come."
His gaze was very calm, silently conveying his final sentiments.
How could Yun Yanqiu not know the determination in those eyes? He slowly lowered his clenched fist, and the thousand words in his heart gathered in his throat, turning into a trembling "I'm sorry".
Zhao Huai-ren raised an eyebrow in slight surprise, then returned his smile with relief. The smile seemed to say: Now I really don't need to worry about you anymore.
A blinding flash of light, and in an instant, the burly figure vanished from their sight. They were once again back in the snow-swept ruins, the dim sky thick with dark clouds, the howling wind urging them onward to the main hall Zhao Huai-ren had described. It was a dilapidated palace, icicles growing vertically from the gilded pillars, faded tapestries billowing wildly in the cold wind. Charred silk curtains hung low, each fold filled with tiny ice crystals, silently flickering with the phosphorescence of the dead.
The marble floor had long been cracked by the frost, and pale frost flowers seeped out from the cracks, swallowing the already blurred mosaic patterns.
The wind echoed between the pillars, like some ancient instrument playing a tune, its intermittent sobs mixed with the crisp sound of ice cracking.
There was nothing here; even the magnificent throne had been eroded by wind and frost into a pile of rubble. Only a skeleton sat cross-legged on the floor in the very center.
Its head drooped slightly, its empty eye sockets staring at the palace gate, its jawbone loose, as if it were laughing, or as if there was a sentence left unsaid, frozen between its teeth forever.
The wind and snow surged in from outside, swirling inside the skull and emitting a low, mournful wail, like some ancient echo.
The skeleton was wrapped in a long, faded robe, the fabric riddled with spiderweb-like holes from the passage of time, yet it still hung down, like a solidified black waterfall. A corner of the robe was lifted by the wind, revealing jagged finger bones beneath.
Its finger bones remained in a loosely clenched position, as if grasping something shiny.
Ye Yingying stepped forward and bent down to examine the scene when suddenly, a slender black shadow, accompanied by a discordant shriek, pierced through the gale and attacked her.
Ye Yingying reacted extremely quickly, dodging the attack. The next second, she heard the crisp sound of weapons clashing. With a clang, Yun Yanqiu had already raised his sword to protect her, deflecting the black longsword.
"Gu Wusi!" Although she hadn't seen the woman, Ye Yingying was certain that she was nearby. "Zhan Yan is dead, and the magical artifact to avoid his fate no longer exists!"
"There's no point in continuing this fight. What exactly do you want?!"
She shouted her questions at the empty surroundings until the woman emerged from the darkness with a sinister expression.
"Where's Shaoling?" Ye Yingying noticed something amiss. "Where did his wooden figure go?"
"Destroyed." Gu Wusi said casually, "If he doesn't want to live, he only deserves to be a tool."
Having said that, she raised her hand and placed a piece of bone flute to her lips. With a shrill flute sound, the black sword trembled violently and thrust towards Ye Yingying once more.
Yun Yanqiu met the attack with his sword. The moment the sword touched the black sword, a strange change occurred. The scarlet blood energy wrapped around the black sword suddenly surged and transformed into ferocious tentacles. They twisted and turned like living creatures, bypassing his defenses and rushing towards Ye Yingying from all directions.
Ye Yingying's pupils suddenly contracted. Knowing the power of the crimson-black bone sword, she immediately leaped into the air, her figure weaving through the blood-red shadows like a butterfly flitting among flowers. The blood energy, however, was like a hungry wolf that had caught the scent of its prey, relentlessly pursuing her with even greater ferocity.
"Watch out!" Yun Yanqiu shouted, summoning several clear sword lights to sever the blood energy in mid-air. However, the blood energy was as fleeting as smoke, quickly gathering again as soon as it was severed.
The black sword clung to Yun Yanqiu like a leech, forcing him to withdraw his sword and defend himself. The two were suddenly driven into danger by this strange attack.
Upon seeing this, Zhao Yuxiao's eyes narrowed. He gripped the hilt of his sword, leaped up, and, taking advantage of the darkness, circled behind Gu Wusi, placing the blade against her neck.
"Miss Gu, please stop." Zhao Yuxiao remained very polite, which made Wu Yue, who was standing to the side, stomp her feet in frustration.
Gu Wusi seemed oblivious, continuing to play the flute with a cold expression. The flute music resounded throughout the hall, causing the surging blood energy to become even more violent.
“Miss Gu, even if Brother Shaoling is resurrected in the illusion, it’s just like he’s gone from one cage to another.”
The flute music stopped abruptly, Gu Wusi's knuckles turned white, and the bone flute made a brittle sound in her hands as if it could no longer bear the weight.
"What do you know? I was clearly trying to save him..." Her voice was icy, yet burning with rage. "But instead of appreciating it, he's joined forces with you!"
"You keep saying you want to save him, but have you ever asked him if he wants to live like this?" Zhao Yuxiao's sword remained untouched, but his tone suddenly sharpened. "Do you really understand what he wants?"
"Shut up!" Gu Wusi roared in fury, his spiritual energy exploding violently, the shockwave knocking the longsword from his neck away.
She whirled around, her usually cold face now contorted with a monstrous rage, her eyes blazing with a crazed, bloodthirsty light. With a burning hatred in her eyes, she forced out a question: "Do you think I don't want to kill Ghost Calculator?"
"I hate him the most, I wish I could tear him to pieces! But his cultivation has already reached the Void Returning stage, just one step away from ascending to heaven, how can I fight him?!"
“You all speak so righteously, but compared to blood debts being repaid in blood, you always believe in so-called benevolence and morality.”
"What are propriety, righteousness, benevolence, and trustworthiness? I hate these bastards the most! When I uphold these principles, everyone bullies me; when I abandon them, everyone will fear me!"
"If they were truly effective, why did those I saved meet with tragic ends, while those who wronged them attained immortality and ascended to heaven?!"
Gu Wusi roared, venting the anger that had been building up in her heart for so long. Her screams were desperate and pitiful, like the wails of a vengeful ghost. She trembled all over, her eyes were bloodshot, and she had completely lost the elegance and composure she had shown in their previous meetings.
"I've had enough," Gu Wusi said, trembling. "If you hadn't given him false hope, he should be free and unrestrained in the illusion, enjoying a new life..."
"It's all your fault."
Gu Wusi was furious. She raised her hand again and blew the bone flute, but no matter how loud the flute was, the black sword did not pierce the boy in front of her as she had hoped.
With a soft thud, Gu Wusi suddenly realized something. She turned around, stunned, and looked at the ground. The pitch-black killing sword lay peacefully on the ground, its previously frenzied blood energy now completely subsided, obediently swirling around the blade as if guarding it as it slept soundly.
"Huo Shaoling?" Gu Wusi asked softly, but when the black sword didn't respond, she suddenly shouted impatiently, "Huo Shaoling!"
"Stop shouting, he heard everything."
A girl's shrill voice rang out from not far away. Gu Wusi looked up and saw that Wu Yue had brought the puppet from somewhere.
“He doesn’t want to help you anymore,” Wu Yue said. “Who would want to help someone who only thinks about themselves?”
Shao Ling remained motionless, letting Wu Yue drag him to the ground. He couldn't speak, but his silence was enough to break down Gu Wusi's defenses.
He had always known that Gu Wusi was not as righteous and awe-inspiring as he had imagined, but he always felt that this person was willing to save him and even treat his injuries, so he must be kind-hearted at heart.
He followed Gu Wusi with this belief, and also thought that the reason she turned bad was because of the influence of the Ghost Calculator. So he thought that even if it meant sacrificing himself, he had to pull her out of the mire, just like she had saved him in the first place.
Shaoling knew that Gu Wusi sometimes lied to her, but it was good that she was lying to him, because it meant that she still longed for light in her heart.
But now it seems he was wrong after all...
His sacrifice back then had already signaled the failure of this self-rescue. From beginning to end, Gu Wusi had only been watching herself.
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