Chapter 281 "Eyes"
The urgent tone reached Sang Wanyue's ears, and she recalled what the woman possessed by the demon beast had said not long ago.
"You must... leave this place quickly..." The demonic beast died, and the long-haired woman's body was severed. She lay dying in Sang Wanyue's arms and said, "It turned me into a growing abscess. I could sense a trace of its thoughts, and among them... was your presence."
Sang Wanyue's gaze gradually dimmed as she watched the woman, and she said softly, "Sleep peacefully."
"Don't let them succeed...please...please..." After saying this, the woman stopped breathing.
She lowered her eyes, recalling the message that had been deliberately sent from the Xuan Shuang Sect, which intentionally or unintentionally revealed information about the Upper Realm, clearly trying to lure them into a trap.
Although I knew this trip wouldn't be easy, I never expected to witness such an open and blatant operation from the upper realm.
“Jianjian, you’ve misunderstood,” Sang Wanyue paused, then continued, “The best candidate for ‘human sacrifice’ is a young cultivator with exceptional talent, but apart from that, everyone present can be the target.”
"Once you are pushed onto the altar, your soul will be stripped away, turning you into a mindless puppet, completely at their mercy. And that's not all—"
"What?" Mu Jianjian asked anxiously.
“The woman didn’t explain in detail back then, only that she would become a ‘mark’ and lose everything,” Sang Wanyue’s tone gradually became solemn. “So Jianjian, what you need to do now is to get away from everything here. Once the chains are unlocked, use the pupil-shifting technique to move away. Don’t look back, okay?”
Okay?
"Time's almost up, why haven't those people arrived yet? Being late will anger the 'Master'." The young man's lazy voice echoed in the palace. He turned to look towards the underworld, but there was no one there. "Should we start now?"
He glanced tentatively at the burly man beside him, ignoring Desert Eagle, who was still agonizing over his broken right arm.
Mu Jianjian's hand slowly touched the silver iron chain connecting her ankle to the boy's wrist. The others were delayed and hadn't returned yet, so for now, this was good news...
This indicates that Ye Wuluo and Linghu Zhuoyu have not been captured yet, and that with their strength, they could even turn the tables and kill each other.
"Let's begin!" the burly man said in a deep voice. He spread his arms, along with his black robes, like an eagle spreading its wings, facing the ever-growing black "bud" behind the lotus stone platform.
There's no need to pay attention to other scum; as long as the "sacrifice" is successful, the "Lord" will descend upon this world!
Thinking of this, his eyes blazed with endless longing and madness.
"Boom boom boom—" Accompanied by the sound of many cultivators stepping forward, the chanting of scriptures became louder and more jarring, giving the impression of spiritual pollution.
"It's too late, Jianjian! We have to make a decision quickly!"
The voice of Sang Wanyue in her mind mingled with the sound of the boy beside her pulling on the chains. Mu Jianjian took a deep breath and looked up at the dark passageway at the end of the palace.
Just a second before she was about to speak, she saw the two people rushing towards the palace and appearing in the light. Their eyes met.
I hope I can make it...
Mu Jianjian pursed her lips, mouthed something to the two of them from afar, and then secretly transmitted her voice to Sang Wanyue.
"Yueyue, you actually know very well that someone has to be 'sacrificed alive,' don't you?"
Even if they could barely hold their own against these few people from the upper realm, if they just threw any one of their controlled people from the lower realm in, and lured the so-called "master" here, all their previous efforts and the sacrifices made by the various cultivators would be in vain.
After all, they can protect themselves, but there are at least dozens of unconscious cultivators here, and it's impossible to protect them all.
She had wanted to ask Sang Wanyue, "Can we win?" but she stopped herself from saying it, afraid that her negative emotions would affect others.
They can't afford to lose, and they don't want a draw; they want to win.
“One of us has to go in, and that person can only be me, Yueyue.” Mu Jianjian lowered her head, letting the boy behind her pull her step by step into the black “flower bud” behind her.
Only when someone goes in to offer a sacrifice will these people from the upper realm become confident and careless, and the main characters will also have to share a large part of the energy to protect the controlled cultivators, thus allowing them to exert their strength to the fullest.
As a transmigrator who possesses a system, this is the optimal solution for her, no matter how she thinks about it.
"Clang, clang, clang—"
At this moment, the boy gazed devoutly at the flower bud that was about to bloom, dragging the chain with a dark light flashing in his hand, naturally unaware of the girl's complete lack of movement.
“No… Jianjian, things aren’t as simple as you think,” Sang Wanyue’s heart pounded, and she felt a long-lost sense of panic. “If you are swallowed by that ‘flower bud,’ no one has ever been to the world inside. If something goes wrong and your soul is destroyed… then you can’t come back, you can’t come back to anything…”
"Yueyue, you have to believe me, hang in there, I will come back, I promise."
No amount of persuasion could dissuade Mu Jianjian from her thoughts. Countless tentacles emerged from the gray-black "flower bud" behind her and slowly wrapped around her body, while she grabbed the iron chain on her shackles with one hand.
"Smack—"
A crisp sound jolted the boy awake, followed by a tearing sensation.
"elder sister!"
"Pointy!"
Two voices rang out simultaneously in the palace. A figure in red and a figure in white rushed to the front of the palace, but were stopped in their tracks by the two figures.
The burly man in the black robe clasped his hands together in utmost devotion, yet his eyes revealed a murderous intent and rejection towards outsiders.
"This is not a place for you." Desert Eagle's feet sank into the ground, his entire body exuding the pressure of a Nascent Soul stage cultivator.
A fierce battle broke out in the middle of the palace, and a strange change also occurred next to the stone platform in front.
"What are you trying to do?" Seeing that the girl intended to pull him into the "flower bud" as well, the boy was no longer as relaxed and indifferent as before. A twisted look appeared on his pale face. "You think you can pull me out like this?"
Did she know that this iron chain was something he had crafted, something that could become one with his blood and bones? How could she possibly pull him down into it?
"Eee-yah-yah—"
The closer Mu Jianjian got to the throbbing "flower bud" behind her, the more she could hear the whispers in her ears. As she became clearer about the words, her soul was also pulled, as if it would leave her body at any moment.
"Help me—" she mouthed, her eyes pleading, as Sang Wanyue appeared behind the boy.
"boom--"
Sang Wanyue tightened her grip and unleashed her true energy, striking the boy from behind. With the help of her force, the two bound by chains fell into the "flower bud" and were instantly swallowed by the writhing tentacles.
The scene, though fleeting, was slowed down many times over in her mind, as if every tiny detail in her field of vision could be magnified infinitely.
She heard it, in the last second before Jianjian fell in, she said—
"Please help me."
"What exactly do you want to do?" Linghu Zhuoyu watched as the girl's figure disappeared into the "flower bud" and was swallowed up. He looked up at the man who was wrapped in sand and dust, and his aura suddenly turned gloomy. A world-destroying aura surrounded him, but his voice was unusually calm.
"Then what do you want to do?" Desert Eagle snorted coldly. After using his true energy to examine the other party's body and find out about the serious injuries all over his body, he did not take the man seriously.
"I want you dead." Linghu Zhuoyu glanced at the surrounding cultivators, then raised his eyes and sneered.
Meanwhile, Ye Wuluo closed his eyes, and a third eye suddenly opened on his forehead. The eye shone with a seven-colored, glassy brilliance, making his devilishly handsome face even more striking. His surging aura seemed capable of crushing all the gods in the world.
"So that's why those people didn't come back. Turns out they encountered a person with an innate Dao body," the burly man said, his nostrils flaring with hot breath. "In this world where true energy is scarce, that's quite a rarity."
"You killed her!" Just as Sang Wanyue was standing in front of the stone platform, lost in thought, a roar erupted from the side of the platform. She turned her head and saw Wan Xing with tears in her eyes.
Upon seeing that the other person's arm had been crippled, her pupils contracted slightly. She then turned and walked to her side, took out a pill from her spatial storage, and put it into the other person's mouth.
Wan Xing resisted fiercely. As she looked up to question him, a tear fell from her eye, "Just now...you could have stopped her, why! Why did you push them both in!"
“I don’t have time to waste with you right now,” Sang Wanyue said, reverting to her usual cold and indifferent demeanor. “You either take my pills and recover properly, or you wait here to die.”
Wan Xing caught her breath, her reason returning slightly. She swallowed the pill and closed her eyes, refusing to look at her.
“I know… I know you two have a good relationship, and you trust her, but… have you ever thought about what if she can’t get out?” Just as Sang Wanyue turned around to join the fight, a low voice behind her stopped her. “There must be some way that we can all face and solve together, right?”
Wan Xing looked up and saw the other person leave without answering, and chuckled to himself.
He promised to shoulder the family's responsibilities and gain the tree spirit's approval, but now he can't even defeat a Nascent Soul cultivator and can only be the one who drags the team down the most. What right does he have to say these things...?
——
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" In the chaos, Mu Jianjian was entangled by countless tentacles and lost her five senses. The last thing she could feel was endless cursing and anger in her ears.
"I am the most talented blacksmith in the Upper Realm! I can create countless masterpieces that cultivators admire. I can't die here like this! I can't possibly die here..."
The squeezing sensation on my body felt more like the touch of an ordinary person returning to normal. My true energy seemed to have been completely drained, and I couldn't use even a trace of it. My vision was also approaching darkness.
Mu Jianjian found the other party's words amusing and said intermittently, "To be devoured by what you consider 'master,' isn't that your... honor?"
The boy, who had been muttering incessantly, finally fell silent for a moment. When he spoke again, Mu Jianjian could not hear him, because in the midst of chaos, she felt her body finally touch the ground.
After a "ding" sound, a giant white eye with black pupils slowly rose from the dark space in the distance.
Their eyes met, and Mu Jianjian's tense body gradually became numb and vacant. In her drowsy state, the system in her brain issued a warning, and the mechanical female voice appeared again.
[Warning! Warning! The host's soul is gradually leaving the body! The host is about to die!]
"ha--"
Mu Jianjian finally snapped out of her daze, collapsed weakly, and gasped for breath, supporting herself with her hands on the ground.
This eye... just like the eye that peeked through the "petals" before, it can cause one's consciousness to be pulled away with just one glance, which is extremely terrifying.
"Eee-yah-yah—"
She heard another muttering in her ear, and a sudden, immense force appeared from behind her head, shoving her downwards. But Mu Jianjian reacted quickly, bracing herself with her hands.
It wants her to kowtow to that "eye"!
"Damn it—" Mu Jianjian held her breath and gritted her teeth, determined not to let her head touch the ground. In the blink of an eye, sweat covered her forehead, but she had already exhausted most of her strength in the previous battles, so she was naturally becoming more and more powerless, and finally she slowly got closer to the ground.
As if it were an illusion, she heard a faint chuckle.
"Bang--"
Her forehead touched the ground, and tiny black threads melted into the girl's forehead, lifting her head again to face the only "eye" that existed in the entire chaotic world.
"bite--"
The system notification sounded again, but Mu Jianjian couldn't hear it.
Her eyes gradually became bloodshot, with black lines appearing, like a puppet being controlled. But the next second, her stiff lips opened with difficulty.
"Get...get out of my head!"
Seemingly surprised by the tenacity of the other party's consciousness, the "eye" in the sky shook as if it had made a decision.
"Eee-yah-yah—"
Another murmur rang in her ears. This time, Mu Jianjian opened her eyes again and found herself standing in a quiet mountain valley.
She looked around at the lush green leaves of the trees with a bewildered expression, recalling the scene she had just been in. After confirming that she had entered the world inside the "flower bud" while fighting with people from the upper realm, she was relieved that she had not been brainwashed and lost her memory.
So what's the situation now?
The true energy in her body has returned... So, is this the "eye" that sensed her strong mental strength and created inner demons and illusions for her?
If it's an illusion or a demonic illusion, then it's much simpler.
Just as Mu Jianjian's heart settled down and she was about to step out of the forest, a powerful pressure came from not far away. A red light that swept across the sky and clouds descended from the heavens, and a resounding sound like the tolling of a giant bell reached her ears.
She turned her head sharply, gazing at the dark light descending from the sky, which merged with her past memories.
When she was on her way to Yingzhou and was stopped by sea monsters on the Black Sea, she entered a state of inner demons where she had seen the exact same red light.
This is what the original owner of the book experienced and saw, also in a green mountain shrouded in thick, white mist—
The original owner of this body, who was imprisoned and retaliated against by Baili Mochen, was trapped in a painting in Baili Mochen's abandoned mansion. She was freed from the painting and regained her freedom because of this red light that ended her century of loneliness.
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