CHAPTER 767: CHAPTER 188 FAIRY’S DEMISE

After enduring the Tai Chu Heavenly Tribulation, Zhou Yan’s Eye of Soul Destruction likewise could see through illusions. The combination of the Nine Orifice Exquisite Heart and the Observing Qi Skill was now not inferior to Wu Ji.

Following Wu Ji’s method, Zhou Yan also saw the golden pathways and saw the figure ahead, but he did not share this information.

"Hmm, okay."

Zhou Yan smiled slightly and calmly responded to Wu Ji.

Subsequently, Wu Ji led the way, and Zhou Yan focused on controlling Black Chess to protect everyone, as the group slowly moved forward.

The golden curves were changing intermittently, but Wu Ji recognized these changes with uncanny accuracy, as if divinely assisted.

Due to this, the danger to the group immediately dropped to the lowest level, and the pressure on everyone was greatly reduced.

"Vast Qi enriching the spirit, this somewhat resembles the saying ’The divine are just three feet above,’" Zhou Yan thought to himself.

"Bloodline conflicts only bring calamities when Life Charts clash, but Wu Ji and I are related by blood, I thought too much," Fang Hong chuckled at himself. However, the unknown, unseen figure was making him deeply uneasy.

It wasn’t just Fang Hong who felt unsettled; faced with the unknown figure sneering at them, no one could be at peace, feeling an inexplicable nervousness in their hearts.

"Wu Ji, what... what is that person?"

The Emptiness Saint asked solemnly, with an instinctive fear in his voice.

"It’s a blurry figure; I can’t see it clearly, but he is standing under the Heavenly Destiny Enlightenment Tea tree, with his hands behind his back, seemingly watching us."

"He smiled again, but why does his gaze seem so forlorn?"

"I can’t make out his face, but he seems very kind, and I feel like I know him. His beard is white, and above his head... above his head, there is, there is a golden sword hanging."

"Hmm? Behind him, there are nine swords... Sword Light, the Sword Array... transforming."

As Wu Ji walked, he shared what he saw.

Everyone’s heart could not help but tremble.

"Hmm?"

Wu Ji suddenly stopped.

His gaze was fixed on what lay ahead, and his expression immediately changed.

Zhou Yan was startled and immediately concentrated, employing the Observing Qi Skill combined with the Nine Orifice Exquisite Heart to look ahead.

Instantly, Zhou Yan was also shaken to the core, his entire being momentarily stunned.

"Father? Father, how have you undergone Transformation? Son has just fulfilled your wish, don’t leave me—"

Suddenly, Wu Ji, as if mad, charged ahead.

"Wu Ji—"

The Immortal Wu Xu was shocked. This place was full of unimaginable dangers, and she watched her son Wu Ji every moment. Having been negligent in the past, and now keen to make amends, she cared all the more. Seeing something amiss, she immediately rushed ahead, risking everything to ensure her son’s safety.

Suddenly, a blood-colored Ghost Fox appeared ahead, an exceptionally powerful creature. It was a woman, a woman whose entire body was drenched in blood.

Raising her massive claws, the fox struck, and in an instant, both Wu Ji and the Immortal Wu Xu were enveloped within it.

At that moment, the protection from Black Chess failed for the first time, shattering with a "Pu" sound. Within the black light, the Evil King and everyone else instantly turned ashen.

"Puchi—"

"Puchi—"

In an instant, the body of Immortal Wu Xu was torn apart by the Ghost Fox’s claws, exploding into a mist of blood.

The Body of Destiny Jia Yongcheng, and beside him Li Wuxian and Moon Immortal, were hit simultaneously without any chance to fight back. Their bodies shattered instantly, and before any of their souls could escape, they were killed on the spot.

...

In Zhou Yan’s eyes, the figure of Yanyan now appeared, smiling at him and saying, "Father King, come over here, Yanyan has been waiting for you for a long time."

Yanyan was smiling, yet behind her, a huge death trap loomed, but she was oblivious to it.

Zhou Yan instinctively wanted to rescue Yanyan, but he suddenly awoke to the realization that this was the illusion of a Demon Heart.

He snapped back to reality and saw the figure beneath the tree transform from a vague image into Yanyan, and then instantaneously into a blood-colored Ghost Fox woman, ferocious and terrifying with a human head and fox body.

Zhou Yan almost immediately activated the powerful protective force of Black Chess, consuming nearly ten times the usual amount of Soul Power, yet the Guardian Light of Black Chess was still shattered in an instant by the Blood Soul claw of the Ghost Fox.

In an instant, Zhou Yan watched the people around him die a horrific death.

The shattered fragments of soul energy slowly drifted away and autonomously entered Zhou Yan’s body, becoming soul power within him.

Zhou Yan desperately tried to control his own devouring instinct, but he couldn’t stop the natural tendency of his body to automatically absorb the surrounding energy.

"Soul Slash the noble path, yes, Soul Slash the noble path! Original Soul Power, Nirvana Rebirth Technique, Undying Rebirth Technique!"

Zhou Yan’s mind stirred, instantly recovering from the massive frenzy and sorrow, and immediately exerted such methods.

But just then, the Blood-colored Ghost Fox Soul set its sights on Zhou Yan in an instant, its massive claw sweeping toward him.

"Scram!"

Zhou Yan’s rage erupted, instantly burning a hundredfold of soul power, driving Black Chess and unleashing an Immortal Strike towards the Blood Ghost Fox Soul, shattering the massive claw in one strike.

But even as the claw shattered, it reformed again, proving impossible to dissipate.

This creature was mighty, far beyond imagination.

"Retreat! Don’t be impulsive!"

The Evil King pulled Zhou Yan back, his voice sharp.

"There’s no way back! The pathway is correct, but this Ghost Fox Blood Soul has mutated, forming an Undying Demon Heart, we’re done for."

The silence from Wu Ji eventually calmed, and he recovered, but no longer resisted. He knelt on the ground, tears uncontrollably rolling down as he gazed at the shattered remains of Wu Xu Holy Daughter’s flesh and blood.

He had been subjected to Soul Extraction and had his talent discarded, and he did not cry.

He had been forced to a dead end, enduring hunger and humiliation for more than ten years, and still, he did not cry.

He had been scorned and laughed at, saliva spat on his face, trampled underfoot and humiliated by others, and yet, he did not cry.

Today, finally reconciling with his mother, receiving her maternal love, he felt an unimaginable sense of warmth and happiness; yet his mother had departed.

The already lowly life, raised in captivity like a servant or a fattened pig, had perished just like that.

Is there any hope left in life?

"Father, where is the happy home you promised me?"

"Where is home?"

...

Suddenly, Wu Ji stood up, roaring with all his strength.

His voice echoed far and wide, reverberating again and again, as if he was frantically questioning without pause.

"All I wanted was a home, a happy home... that’s all. Everything I did, just to gain my mother’s acknowledgment, to secure peace and happiness for my family, to ensure they’d never again be ’fattened pigs’ seeds. But... now my home is gone."

Tears in Wu Ji’s eyes turned to blood, and suddenly his body became entirely crimson. He went mad and charged into the endless fog ahead, disappearing from sight.

"Wu Ji——"

The Emptiness Saint shouted loudly, a mixture of shock, anger, and fear changing his expression, before he too, frantic as if insane, rushed forward and suddenly was swallowed by the Array Patterns and disappeared.

"Pfft——"

The Ghost Fox Blood Soul’s claw struck down, shattering the Void. The Yaochi Saint struck at Zhou Yan, who was preparing to resist fiercely, with a top-level Saint Artifact, but it was instantly crushed to pieces.

Half of Yaochi Saint’s body was battered, his cultivation wasted by half instantly.

He was covered in blood, a horrific sight to behold.

"Damn it, I’m going all out!"

The Void trembled, as Fang Hong and Liu Jin spit out blood at the same time. The fat man spewed out an Infinite Soul Stone!

"Soul Power immeasurable, Merit infinite! Suppression through the ages! I don’t believe I can’t shatter you!"

Liu Jin unleashed the replica of the Infinite Soul Stele, powered it with a great amount of his Lifebound Essence Soul, and struck a peerless blow.

Their own strength was comparable to a Sword God’s Fifth Transition, forcibly suppressed to Nine Changes of Sword Void here, but at a terrible cost, they could unleash a terrifying killing intent in an instant.

The cost of such an act, however, was akin to death.

But at this moment, the fat man was truly enraged and thus was willing to pay any price, even if it were akin to courting death.

Zhou Yan managed to dodge the imminent threat, but witnessing family and friends suffer catastrophe in the blink of an eye became a pain beyond description, fueling his boundless wrath. Thus, he immediately attempted to invoke the Thunderhawk Sword Soul, intending to summon the Heavenly Tribulation to obliterate the area.

However, though the Thunderhawk Sword Soul appeared, the Heavenly Tribulation could not be called forth; the area had become a different place, beyond his control over the tribulation.

His greatest strength had been lost in an instant.

Zhou Yan felt like he’d been played. He almost immediately wanted to question Lee Ling—why do this?—even though Zhou Yan knew in his heart that some things were beyond control.

As expected, for a brief moment all was still in the Void, and then Lee Ling’s voice reached him.

"My body is but a vessel, and the manifestations such as the transformation of the Endless Ice Palace are mere illusions. Yet, the real Endless Ice Palace also exists here, within me, where grave dangers constantly shift. Facing these, I, too, am powerless to intervene. If you must hate someone, hate me then. This is an illusion from the Tai Chu era, and the illusion contains reality. What kind of native beasts have spawned over countless years, I cannot say. Moreover, given the tragic fate of the Jade Fox lineage, the emergence of mutated Evil Spirits isn’t unusual.

I am merely a lingering obsession, not even equal to a wisp of a soul," sighed Lee Ling, her voice tinged with helplessness that left Zhou Yan silent.

Zhou Yan realized that blaming others for not protecting his friends, without considering his own failure to guard them, was downright unjustifiable.

But with no other options, he was driven to desperation.

Zhou Yan wished everything unfolding before his eyes was false, but that was just a ridiculous thought. With the Nine Orifice Exquisite Heart, he could plainly see life and death.

Those people had perished; their Life Soul Power had shattered.

Even his own Soul Power, renowned as able to transcend life and death, bone and flesh, was incapable of reassembling their souls. There was neither time nor opportunity.

"You... fend for yourself. This place is known as the Desolate Land by all cultivators for a reason. Fortune here is not acknowledged by the rules of the Tai Chu era. Without fortune, even geniuses are insignificant ants here. If you fall, your life will end here too."

"If the inheritance that I’ve set ends in failure, well, there’s nothing to be done. That beyond Wu Ji’s efforts, I did my best to ward off the looming dangers, yet they still couldn’t escape; there’s nothing more to say. Even I was unaware of the Ghost Fox Evil Spirit’s sudden descent," Lee Ling’s voice faded away, eventually into nothingness.

The world returned to normal, as if time had paused for just a moment.

The Ghost Fox Kill Intent grew stronger, the Yaochi Saint was wounded, the situations of the Evil King and Fairy Die were also dire, even Liu Jin and Fang Hong nearly perished from the shock, sustaining significant injuries though faring slightly better than the Yaochi Saint.

The fat man’s killing move had little effect, shattering one fox claw while another claw’s killing intent already loomed close.

A look of true despair spread across everyone’s faces, confronting a savagely fierce being entirely beyond their power.

"Go!"

Zhou Yan’s expression darkened, finally grasping the peril of this place, a cruelty totally unlike the dangers he had faced before.

Zhou Yan once again manipulated the Black Chess, unleashing a great swath of Immortal black light, his Soul Power halved once more in the process. He also conjured a massive amount of Tai Chu Rune Purple Flame surrounding the Immortal black light. Then, gathering the Evil King, Qian Yao, Fairy Die, the Yaochi Saint, Liu Jin, and Fang Hong, he forcefully charged toward his side.

There lay an enigmatic Tai Chu Rune Ancient Array, its Array Dao unclear, but within some of the runes, Zhou Yan deduced a connection to space and a teleportative effect; he concluded this must be a Transmission Array.

"Pfft—"

With a step, the Void exploded, a brutal shockwave bursting forth. The seven of them were nearly pulverized instantaneously, but the Void violently twisted, and in an instant, the seven were teleported away.

At that moment, as the Ghost Fox Blood Claw King’s paw swiped down, the space where Zhou Yan and the six others had just stood crumbled, as if the Void itself had been punctured.

Had they been a moment slower, all seven would have been instantly killed.