Chapter 57, The Final Chapter of My Past Life: Ascension in One Day
Zang Yu dug the old emperor's remains out of the black dragon coffin and threw them into the sea of fire. He then resolutely walked towards the fire, each step incredibly difficult.
A frantic voice in his head was restraining his movements.
"You madman, you want to die with me! No, I can't die yet, the world and wealth outside are all mine."
Zang Yu did not stop walking. Even though his body was as stiff as rotten wood, the old emperor was afraid, and his voice softened:
“I won’t take your body from you. All this wealth is yours, whether you spend it or squander it all. You don’t want to be a good person, but this money can make you a famous good person.”
"Think of those people who are still suffering out there. They need you. How worried they would be if you died."
Zang Yu paused for a moment, as if he could hear faint calls and cries from outside the cave.
"Go back. The exit is to the left of the imperial mausoleum. Is there anything worse than being alive?"
Zang Yu closed his eyes, trying to ignore the sounds outside. His hoarse voice boiled in the flames: "Whether I live or die is not important. I only want you to die. The world will not be any different without me. But with you, no one will have peace."
He let the flames roll over him, but suddenly he was pulled into an embrace from behind. The person hugged him and ran into the hall.
"What are you doing here? A fortune teller?" Zang Yu hesitated for a moment before saying, "Don't tell me it's to save me."
He didn't see Xiao Wenxin being thrown in, and Pei Shu had no conflict of interest with him, so he shouldn't have gone so far as to kill her.
Xiao Wenxin stuffed something into his mouth, and a slightly itchy sensation slid down his throat. Before Cang Yu could even feel it, he was overwhelmed by a surge of pain throughout his body.
"What's this?"
"It's medicine, don't worry. Just hang in there a little longer, I'll definitely find a way."
Zang Yu laughed and said, "It would be better to poison me. Do you know I can't last much longer?"
As the fire intensified, Xiao Wenxin led him backward, and Cang Yu's expression gradually turned grim until he slowly regained his composure.
"Aren't you afraid of dying?" Zang Yu pointed to a spot in the corner of the wall. "The exit is over there."
Xiao Wenxin found the mechanism. After he climbed to the second floor, Cang Yu couldn't wait any longer. He went to the center, took the crystal hourglass from the mouth of the golden dragon head, and turned it upside down on the mechanism plate. "When the sand runs out, the door behind will open."
One hand gripped the mechanism, holding the latch of the crystal hourglass. "Don't rush out yet. Pei Yang's army is outside. Going out now would be like throwing yourself into the lion's den."
Zang Yu's expression was gloomy as he plopped down on the ground. "Then wait two days. You can go out and scout out the situation then."
Xiao Wenxin remained silent, lit the seven extinguished lamps in the room, and silently placed a strand of her long hair into the lamp oil of each.
After everything was done, a muffled voice came from the corner: "It's too bright, turn it off quickly."
Xiao Wenxin walked over and squatted down. "If you don't turn on the light, I'm afraid you'll fall."
His head, which had been lowered, suddenly lifted. In the shadows, his eyebrows and eyes gradually blurred, revealing a sinister look, as if he and the darkness behind him were about to devour him.
"If you're going to light lamps, why seven?" The clear voice trailed off with an aged tone, and a sinister gaze fixed on the seven lamps on the wall, which resembled dragons swimming in the night. The hand beneath the sleeve slowly rose. "Do you think I know nothing and don't understand what the Seven Star Lamp is?"
Although the seven lamps on the wall look ordinary, they clearly form the shape of the Big Dipper when connected.
They dared to play tricks on him, like the Imperial Observatory!
The dagger was knocked from his hand, and he was then bound with rope that had been prepared beforehand. Xiao Wenxin did it all in one swift motion, and the person he had bound gritted his teeth and sneered, "You knew all along that I wasn't him?"
“Besides His Majesty, who else could be so familiar with the imperial mausoleum?”
Xiao Wenxin carefully observed the condition of the seven lamps, but suddenly felt a sharp pain in his body. He turned around and saw that the person who was tied up had untied the bandage on his fingertips and picked at the wound until it was torn apart. Black insects squeezed out of the wound.
"Boy, if I don't live, you will all be buried here with me."
Xiao Wenxin endured the pain and re-bandaged the wound on his finger, then applied a hemostatic medicine. Once the scab formed, the contents inside would be unable to move.
"Looks like you really don't want to live anymore!"
The furious roar gradually subsided, and the old emperor felt the soul he had been firmly trampling under his feet slowly drifting away, and his sinister eyes gradually cleared.
"Xiao Wenxin, you..."
The man in front of me had bulging veins, clearly enduring immense pain. As soon as he opened his mouth, blood spilled out. "It's alright, I won't die for now."
Cangyu looked at the seven-star lamps on the wall and asked, "What are these?"
Xiao Wenxin: "The Seven Star Soul-Guiding Lamp is a method recorded in ancient books that can draw out trapped souls. The old emperor's soul is locked around you, and he will destroy you along with your soul."
His voice was deep: "Although I do not believe in reincarnation, I have witnessed many inexplicable things. If I can lead your soul out of your body and into another body, you may be able to break free from the old emperor's control."
A phantom of a vicious dragon appeared above Cang Yu's head, its enormous claws stomping on his head, its eyes fixed on the two of them with a sinister glare. "I will never let him go. Even if he dies, his soul will be my slave for life."
“And you,” he looked at Xiao Wenxin, “just wait to be eaten up by my insects until you’re an empty shell.”
He kept prying the silver bracelet on his wrist, and small white insects flew out and flew towards the jade.
"Don't come any closer, you can't eat him."
The Gu worm instinctively protected its master. After burrowing into Cang Yu's body, he could feel the little creature quickly become still, and the black dragon above his head impatiently cursed:
"Annoying little thing."
Xiao Mingxin stared nervously at the Seven Star Lamp, occasionally saying to Cang Yu, "Wait a little longer."
Here he could not see the stars, and could only beg for a sliver of mercy from heaven so that this method could come true.
The dragon sneered, "Those old fogies in the Imperial Observatory couldn't even figure out the secret to immortality for me, and you still want to save him?"
A faint voice came from behind: "Don't wait any longer. Heaven and earth have their own destiny, which is beyond human control. This life is enough for me. Even if there is no next life, it is still worth it."
In a daze, he heard voices calling his name.
"You brat, remember to come home no matter how dark it is."
"Oh, where has our Immortal Xu gone to help and save people again? Sister, I'll keep your sweet soup and give it to someone else."
"Brother Xu, can you wait for me to grow up so we can travel the world together and become heroes to help the people?"
"......"
Xiao Wenxin turned around, her straight body instantly slumped, and she stumbled to her knees in front of him. She reached out and wiped away the black blood that had spilled from the corner of Cang Yu's mouth. A thousand words were in her heart, but she couldn't utter a single one.
"I am about to die, so I should take action as soon as possible to destroy this body."
He took poison; he wouldn't wait any longer.
The dragon was furious and stared intently at Xiao Wenxin, saying, "If you dare to burn him, his soul is still in my hands."
Xiao Wenxin saw it all clearly.
He vomited several mouthfuls of black blood, and finally looked at the Seven Star Lamp, which remained unchanged.
It's all fake, fake. How can mortals defy fate?
Ke Zangyu shouldn't have died.
He fell down beside Zang Yu, untied the ropes binding him, and nestled close to him.
What he gave Zang Yu wasn't medicine, but a Gu poison from the Southern Frontier—a Gu poison with a shared destiny. As long as he didn't die, Zang Yu would definitely be able to hold on. At that time, the Seven Star Lamp would take effect, and Zang Yu's soul would possess his body, giving them a chance to live.
But everything he did was perhaps just a joke in God's eyes.
The symbiotic Gu inside his body sensed something was wrong and tried to break free, but he suppressed it.
He heard a barely audible question: "Why did you save me? It's not worth it."
Some things seem absurd, but just one glance is enough to make people do many reckless things.
He wanted to say that it was just repaying a life-saving debt, but no matter how he tried, this statement was not convincing.
He admitted that he had orchestrated the encounter, which was by no means accidental, and secretly hoped that the boy would enter his life.
Not wanting to let the chance pass us by, even if it's just a fleeting encounter.
"You saved me without fear, and I need no reason to save you."
Zang Yu laughed, "Then I should be bolder and sleep with you, so I can be a romantic ghost for life."
The sounds inside the tomb gradually subsided, and a wisp of smoke drifted from the Seven Star Lamp on the wall, casting a faint shadow from the body that was about to close its eyes, until the last breath of life dissipated and the wisp of smoke suddenly broke apart.
"Smack—"
The lights shattered, plunging the tomb into darkness.
*
Another melodious flute tune filled the air. When Xu Zangyu opened his eyes again, it was as if he were in a dream. The bone flute was still in his hand, but the flute music had already drifted away.
The two people beside him were still asleep, seemingly struggling in a nightmare.
Chu Shu gripped the bow and arrow, her eyes red: "Uncle, I can't do it."
Being caught up in worldly desires and entangled by evil thoughts is not a good thing. Cangyu knocked the two unconscious to prevent them from getting deeper into trouble and affecting their souls.
He cut his palm and led it from the first-floor exit to the dead boy's body. Sure enough, a rustling commotion arose, and several black insects greedily sucked the blood from the ground, finally crawling into the wounds on the corpse's fingers.
The insects inside seemed to awaken from a long slumber, and strange, blood-red flowers bloomed from the corpses, extending into the shape of evil dragons.
"Long time no see, old friend. I never imagined that the Seven Star Lamp would actually draw away several of your souls. However, you still have one soul in my hands."
A dim spiritual light was wrapped within the demonic flower at the dragon's claw, which had remained trapped for thousands of years.
Xu Zangyu did not take his threat seriously. "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, let alone a thousand years. What about the emperors of the human world? The human world is no longer under the claws of emperors."
A nimble little paper figure appeared in his hand. "Old Emperor, times have changed."
The little paper figure floated down to the dragon's claw, grabbing the soul inside and stuffing it into its own body, but the dragon's claw held on tightly and wouldn't let go.
For the old emperor, a demon who had been imprisoned for years and desperately sought resurrection, nothing was more painful than witnessing his enemy's triumphant and carefree life.
"Never think about freedom. You traitors and rebels will all be buried with my empire. Why! Why can you lowly commoners live while I cannot?"
The old emperor's lifelong quest for immortality was realized in later generations, but what tormented him even more was that the lowly commoners of that time became immortals. And he, the supreme ruler on the throne, was a demon trapped in a dark tomb.
"No, I want your body."
Those demonic flowers were almost bursting out of their bodies when Xu Zangyu started playing his flute.
"It's so noisy, so noisy, so noisy..."
The flute music continued, and all the twisting flowers froze. When the song ended, the little paper figure finally pulled out what was inside, like pulling out a radish.
Xu Zangyu: "I never thought that one day I would be the one to call out my own name."
The little paper figure landed and jumped into a silver-headbanded youth, carefully examining him from head to toe, then clicked his tongue and said, "What an ethereal and otherworldly air! I can't believe I've managed to grow up to look so respectable."
Xu Zangyu: "Don't just learn a few words and then use them indiscriminately."
He picked up the bow and arrow that Chu Shu had dropped, lit it with his spiritual fire, aimed it at the corpse, and shot an arrow that instantly engulfed the evil dragon flower in flames.
"It's all over."
The little paper figure stuck to his body, and another phantom slowly merged into his body, finally filling the vague sense of loss.
But Xu Cangyu quickly sensed something was wrong.
His cultivation level, which was originally at the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm, suddenly jumped to the late-stage of the Golden Core realm in the blink of an eye.
what happens?
Am I hallucinating?
He was so frightened that he quickly probed the spiritual vein, only to be startled again.
How come he's at the peak of the Golden Core stage?
After a moment of stunned silence, a massive amount of spiritual energy poured into his entire body's meridians as if it were his life.
Golden Core Peak Perfection, Nascent Soul Early Stage, Nascent Soul Middle Stage, Nascent Soul Late Stage —
Transformation into a Divine Being!
However, things didn't stop there.
Xu Zangyu felt his vision blurring, as if hot tears were flowing down, but he knew he wasn't so excited as to cry. He reached out and wiped his eyes, only to find blood flowing from them.
It wasn't just his eyes; blood was flowing from his nose, mouth, ears, and all seven orifices.
He was like someone who had sucked in an exploding ball; his body simply couldn't withstand the immense spiritual power. If he didn't stop, he wouldn't ascend directly, but would be blown to bits.
"What's wrong with your soul? No, what's wrong with my soul?"
The voice inside the body said softly, "This evil dragon has devoured hundreds of years of human fortune, it's normal for it to be a little bloated."
Is this normal? He's about to burst from overeating.
His meridians were about to burst, and he was about to seal them when he remembered the gold underground. So he flipped over, created a space, and stuffed all the gold inside.
They even tried to pry open the golden dragon head of the nearby mechanism, but it seemed they used too much force, causing the entire hall to shake.
He forgot that he now possessed power comparable to a Nascent Soul cultivator.
"Boom—"
As the imperial tomb collapsed, at the last moment, Xu Zangyu first set up a seal to wrap himself up, and then sealed his spiritual veins.
When he wakes up, the seal will be broken. He will already be a Nascent Soul cultivator, just one step away from ascending to immortality. What can mere mortal rubble do to me?
But he never expected that his letter would put him into hibernation.
A tremendous cracking sound reached outside, and the Third Elder jumped up and down in a panic, shouting, "Several of my disciples are still buried inside! Quickly, dig them out!"
The dark clouds in the sky above Yu'an dispersed, the earth's energy revived, spiritual energy returned, the weather was fine and sunny, and auspicious clouds filled the sky.
The trouble inside has been averted.
Wen Qianchu's face was really ugly. Before long, all the disciples of Qu Wumen, who rarely appeared in public, came out, and Chu Yang and the disciples of Tianyi Sect also arrived one after another.
There were few arguments; everyone just focused on their work.
Fortunately, cultivators are tough and thick-skinned, and the burial wasn't deep. They quickly dug out two people. The crowd rushed over but were forced back by a powerful pressure. Wen Qianchu approached and saw two unconscious people.
It's not Xu Zangyu.
He growled in a low voice, "What are you all standing there for? Your junior brother hasn't been dug out yet."
Wen Qianchu rarely lost his temper, and the scolding everyone was entirely due to his anger. However, no one complained and silently got to work.
Qi Wanyan stared at the two unconscious people. "They went in together. Why were they able to come out but Xu Cangyu didn't? Did they do something to them?"
Qi Wanyan has an impatient personality and would rather take action than talk. He was about to kick someone when Chu Yang stopped him immediately.
"Don't be so presumptuous. The person hasn't been dug out yet, so you can't make baseless accusations."
He channeled his spiritual energy into the two of them, and they gradually woke up.
Confused and seemingly unaware of what had happened.
"What exactly happened inside the cave?" Wen Qianchu asked coldly.
The two were stunned for a long time but couldn't answer.
Xiao Wenxin: "I only just woke up after falling into Junior Brother Xu's spell..."
He looked up at the almost collapsed mountain, his eyes wide with horror, "How could this happen..."
Chu Shu, standing beside him, had her eyes lowered, and bloodshot veins almost filled her pupils. Wen Qianchu glanced at her and then fell silent.
waste.
He knew the art of tracing back to the mortal world all too well. If one's will is not firm, it is easy to become trapped in the past memories of others and unable to break free.
Chu Shu's condition was no longer simply one of indulgence; she was showing signs of becoming possessed by a demon.
So what if he's the top-ranked member of the Tianyi Sect? He's nothing special.
Unable to get an answer from Xiao Wenxin, the Third Elder turned to Chu Shu and asked, "What were you doing with your bow and arrow at Xu Zangyu in the tomb?"
The struggling gaze suddenly shattered, and the originally dark pupils instantly turned blood red.
The Third Elder noticed that he hadn't spoken for a long time and finally realized something was wrong. "Chu Shu, how did you become a demon!"
Chu Yang was stunned. "Chu Shu, concentrate your energy."
Chu Shu couldn't hear anything anyone was saying; her eyes were fixed on the ruins.
Chu Yang sighed, forcibly suppressing the surging spiritual energy within him. Seeing that he was still dazed and roared, "Are you out of your mind?"
Seeing that Chu Shu was showing signs of regaining consciousness, Wen Qianchu scoffed inwardly, "What a pity."
The tomb chamber had been completely dug open. Chu Shu suddenly ran over like a madman. Two skeletons were nestled together, both charred black.
One of the skeletons, the unburnt remains, was clearly about the same size as Xu Zangyu, and on that skeleton was an arrow that Chu Shu had shot.
With a hunched back, disheveled hair, and stained robes, Chu Shu remained oblivious, letting the filth cover her. She suddenly knelt amidst the sharp rubble, laughing and crying wildly.
“I killed him, it was me, that was my arrow, I pushed him in with my own hands.”
"The person lying there is not Xu Zangyu, but the one who looks exactly like him."
Xiao Mingxin reminded him, hoping he would remember the scene he saw upon entering the tomb. But Chu Shu was no longer listening to him, caught in a strange obstinacy.
"That was him too."
Xiao Ming felt as if a stone was stuck in his throat. Looking at the corpse, his heart clenched. How could that not be Xu Zangyu?
If the Seven Star Soul-Guiding Lamp takes effect, he successfully breaks free from his restraints and is reborn as Xu Zangyu. Then where is Xu Zangyu?
It disappeared without any reason; there's no logic to it.
Everyone kept digging, but gradually they realized something was wrong.
"Why is the main hall empty? In the water mirror, it's clearly filled with gold!"
Chu Yang examined the area but found no problems. He said, "Perhaps the trouble inside is the culprit. From the moment they entered, everything they saw—the gold—was an illusion."
Someone muttered, "I knew it! Even mountains of gold can grow legs and run away."
"The face of the corpse inside still looks like Junior Brother Xu. It must have been intentional on purpose by that culprit to prevent everyone from taking action. I wonder if Senior Brother Chu actually believed it. That's not Junior Brother Xu."
For several days, the entire mountain was searched thoroughly, but nothing was found.
Some say Xu Zangyu was eaten by that calamity, while others say he didn't die and went into hiding.
You Fengchun calculated the divination again and again, but all the results were the same.
Unfathomable, unquestionable.
But he didn't believe it; Xu Zangyu was dead. That person shouldn't have such a short life.
He was waiting, like the little fox from a thousand years ago who guarded the Black Mountain, lacking any intelligence and only knowing how to wait in vain. He believed that Xu Zangyu would come back to see him.
Just like a thousand years later, an unexpected and sudden encounter.
*
Wen Qianchu summoned the soul several times, but the old friend did not return. Finally, at midnight, he pried open the gates of the underworld and entered the netherworld.
Wen Qianchu rarely enters the underworld, but every ghost with a reputation knows Wen Qianchu. In just a few hundred years, this person is almost transforming from a ghost into an immortal.
The ghosts of the River of Oblivion drink blood wine and make merry, reveling every night. When they see a stranger, they assume he is drunk and dizzy.
"Heh, I actually saw Prince Wen visiting the music hall, hahaha."
Someone nudged him and said with a smile, "The Ghost King isn't drunk. That's His Highness Wen. Where in our cold Imperial Spring would you find someone with such a striking appearance?"
The Ghost King's dazed eyes suddenly widened. "Ah, it really is Prince Wen! What brings you here?"
A painting unfolded before him. With a flick of his fingertips, the person in the portrait suddenly broke into a smile, their eyes like gentle waves of affection, their lips like crimson maple leaves. Especially captivating was that lively, mischievous air about them, which stirred a tantalizing feeling within one's heart.
Wonderful, truly a wonderful person.
"Your Highness has sent me a beauty."
Before he could even take the painting, Wen Qianchu put it away.
Suddenly shifting from the painting of a beautiful woman to Wen Qianchu's grumpy, unyielding face, the Ghost King was immediately displeased. "Isn't this for me?"
Wen Qianchu: "This is my disciple. Recently... he may have met with some misfortune. I would like to ask the Ghost Lord if you have seen him in the Underworld?"
The Ghost King swirled the wine glass in his hand. "A disciple is worth running to a place you won't return to for eight hundred years. If that person really dies, what can you do? Help him possess another body and be reborn, or find him and keep him safe by your side?"
Wen Qianchu's face was almost frozen with frost. "Personal matters, I cannot disclose them. If the Ghost Lord has not seen this person, then I shall take my leave."
"Why are you in such a hurry to leave? You won't even have a few drinks with me."
Wen Qianchu didn't turn her head. If she had really seen the Ghost Lord's lecherous appearance, she would never act like this.
After everyone left, the Ghost King immediately summoned his subordinates to draw a portrait. His painting skills were not as good as Wen Qianchu's, and he only captured two-tenths of Wen Qianchu's beauty, but it was not completely inhuman.
He tossed the painting to his subordinate, saying, "If this person were to enter the realm of ghosts—"
"Just send it to my room."
Wen Qianchu, that old devil, he thought he was completely indifferent to beauty, but it turns out he just looked down on mundane things.
If this person really goes to the underworld, tell Wen Qianchu what he's doing. He's cold and lifeless, like a corpse, and doesn't understand anything about romance.
*
On the banks of the River of Oblivion, a perfect couple held hands and released lotus lanterns.
"Wanju, I never thought I could be with you forever after death. If we can be like this for the rest of our lives, it would be worth dying for."
Wan Zhu blushed and nestled in his arms. "But if you are reincarnated, you will surely be able to cultivate even better. Perhaps one day you can even become an immortal and won't have to suffer in the dark and desolate underworld."
Wei Chi gripped the hand in his arms tightly. "What good is becoming an immortal without you? For me, it would just be a long, agonizing ordeal."
As the two were exchanging affectionate words, a Taoist priest suddenly burst in, saying, "Wei Chi, your master has summoned you many times, why did you not return? Why did you not enter the cycle of reincarnation? Your karmic ties in this life have ended; you must not continue to be so stubborn."
The master sent his disciple's soul to the underworld, forcibly leading him into reincarnation. Upon seeing this, Wei Chi grabbed Wan Zhu and ran, only to bump into someone. He looked up and was overjoyed.
"Sect Leader Wen, can you lend a hand?"
Wen Qianchu raised her hand and cast a spell to hide the two of them. When the Taoist priest ran over, he was stunned for a long time.
"It was right in front of me, how could it disappear in the blink of an eye?"
After the person left, Wei Chi smiled and thanked him, "Thank you, Sect Leader Wen. If it weren't for your help many times, Wan Zhu and I wouldn't have been able to achieve our goal."
"roll!"
Wei Chi and Wan Zhu: "..."
This person is so nice, why did they get so angry after I helped them?
Wen Qianchu was annoyed, especially by seeing couples. These two had to come along and keep talking.
Even as a ghost, he still talks so much.
-----------------------
Author's Note: I've finally finished the past life arc, it was such a struggle. The original outline was supposed to focus on the trials to deepen the protagonists' relationship, but while writing this, the inspiration for the past life arc suddenly came to me. I was worried the plot would feel abrupt, so I hesitated for a long time, even considering cutting it. In the end, I decided to use a stream-of-consciousness style.
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