Chapter 160

Chapter 160 – Life Is But A Dream

Jingjing sprayed fresh blood out of her mouth onto her finger. Her blood covered her finger evenly like it had a mind of its own, quickly transforming into strange-looking runes. It emanated a gloomy air as it proceeded to move toward the corpse’s forehead.

“Burn the Soul, Transform the Shadow!”

A light gray soul with a threatening expression and filled with a vengeful hatred struggled as Jingjing drew it out of the corpse’s head. She drew a line with her finger and unleashed qi, causing the soul to roar indignantly as it was turned into the illusion of a mirror against its will.

“We are here to find out who did this terrible thing to Fenglin. Given a choice, I really wouldn’t want to do this. I hope you can understand!” said Jingjing quietly. She felt bad for the unrestful soul.

Perhaps the soul was surprised by the clear and earnest gazes of the two young ladies. Even as it continued to roar, its furious expression slowly turned to one of pleading as it looked deeply at the three of them. It finally let out a long howl and allowed its final memories to be reflected in the mirror.

“The plague did start from the palace.”

Gu Suihan watched as the emperor was escorted to his residence by a large group of guards. The patrolling guards had all turned into aggressive and insane creatures that had gone out of control. When they spotted the emperor and his entourage, they roared and pounced toward the group.

The images slowly became clearer and clearer, and the scene suddenly changed. Several unsuspecting concubines hiding within the harem had been injured by the ones who had gone insane and shuddered as they clutched their wounds. But after some time, the concubines’ eyes suddenly reddened and gave off a violent aura as they shrieked and turned on the people nearest to them.

Everyone was focused on the danger outside the harem and didn’t expect the concubines to go insane. As a result, several people were injured in no time.

The scene changed again. A woman dressed like the empress roared wildly as she pounced at the emperor.

The emperor looked visibly upset as he pulled her into his arms instead of fighting her.

“I…will keep you company,” murmured the emperor as he looked down lovingly at the empress in his arms, who had clearly lost her mind as she struggled and roared.

She stabbed her fair hand into his chest, causing blood and flesh to fly everywhere.

The warm blood sprayed on her face, and she seemed to regain her rationality for that moment. Her eyes became clear again, and tears rolled down her cheeks as she called out, “Your Majesty…”

“I…don’t blame you!” said the pale-faced emperor gently as he wiped her tears away. He then gave off a powerful blast of energy that killed them both on the spot.

The only thing that remained was the satisfied smile on their faces.

Their lives ended as dramatically as the firecrackers during the New Year, and as beautiful as the fireworks during the Mid-autumn festival.

The soul burned as though it was thinking about all the scenes that had been reflected in the mirror. Its expression slowly became calm and peaceful as it looked hopefully at the three of them, then slowly turned into a wisp of smoke that disappeared in the wind.

As the wind blew past the three living ones, they could still hear the emperor and empress’ last words echoing in the air.

“Your Majesty…”

“Don’t be afraid, I will keep you company!”

A few moments later, Jingjing and Shuang’er hugged each other and started bawling. Large teardrops streamed down their supple cheeks.

“Life is but a dream. Only I…shall last to eternity,” thought Gu Suihan. A strange look flashed in his eyes for just one moment before disappearing.

He looked at the two ladies whose eyes were red and puffy, then calmly held a handkerchief to them. “The plague…started from further inside the palace.”

Jingjing and Shuang’er took the handkerchief from him, their voices choked as they said, “Where exactly?”

The two of them are going to hate me even more… This thought went through Gu Suihan’s mind quietly. “Over there.”

“Let’s go!” Jingjing had a look of deep hatred in her eyes as she marched toward the direction in which Gu Suihan had pointed.

Somehow, Shuang’er caught a glimpse of Gu Suihan’s emotionless face and that indifferent gaze that seemed to despise the entire world. Her heart pounded fearfully as she thought, “I feel like…I’ve seen that expression before somewhere…”

“Over here!” said Jingjing after she scanned her surroundings, made a hand seal and drew out one soul from among the bones all over the floor.

She retrieved the memories of the soul even as it growled incomprehensibly.

“This place…Seven Kill Sect disciples once stayed here temporarily,” she uttered in disbelief after some time.

“The Seven Kill Sect really…really dared to do such a thing?” Gu Suihan said in surprise.

“Wait…not quite…” She looked a little upset and distracted, as though she was trying to confirm something. She caught hold of another soul and checked its memories.

“It’s probably…someone among them.” Jingjing’s face turned pale, and she clutched her forehead a little weakly. Using this soul-reading technique multiple times was taking its toll on her.

“This person’s clothing seems different from the others,” said Shuang’er as she pointed to a pile of dried bones against the wall. The corpse’s clothes were torn and tattered, but one could still see some traces of his expensive and detailed armor.

Gu Suihan sent a wisp of qi out and found the identity token of the corpse.

“A palace guard,” said Gu Suihan before handing it to Jingjing.

“Extracting the soul…” She forced herself to execute her soul-reading technique again.

Pfft! Her eyes were shut tightly as she suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood. Her face turned deathly pale, and her legs nearly gave way under her.

“Are you alright?” asked Gu Suihan concernedly as he hurriedly pulled her into his arms.

“This…was where…Seven Kill Sect disciples stayed…also, there’s…there’s a well…in this courtyard, but…the others don’t have one! This…this would be the most likely place to start…a plague, because…everyone needs…water…” said Jingjing breathlessly.

She felt really embarrassed in Gu Suihan’s arms and both her neck and ears were red. She thought about pushing him away, but leaning against his broad chest made her feel so safe, so she didn’t want to give that up, either. After struggling in her heart for a while, she gave up and let him hold her.

“Let’s go in and take a look.” Gu Suihan carried her and walked further in even as Shuang’er pouted and glared at him for not carrying her as well.

“I can sense you already…come on out, the fruits I’ve taken so much effort to cultivate…” thought Gu Suihan as his eyes began to burn excitedly.

Unfortunately, Shuang’er was trailing behind, while Jingjing kept her face buried in his chest from being too embarrassed, so neither of them noticed the change in Gu Suihan’s expression. This was the same gaze he had when he stared at the split soul which was guarding Shuang’er in the secret realm.

“Watch out, there’s a formation!” shouted Gu Suihan suddenly as he retreated. The two ladies raised their heads frantically and felt pressure like a huge ocean wave had hit them. Everything went black, and they both fainted.

Gu Suihan flung the woman in his arms aside, then turned his attention to the house within the courtyard, which was now essentially just a few broken pieces of wood.

“Water!” he said quietly without doing anything. A fountain measuring several meters in height suddenly rose from the well. It followed Gu Suihan’s gaze and picked up all the broken pieces of wood within the courtyard.

“Rise!”

The water turned into a gentle stream that slowly flowed into the ground beneath the house.

“Explode!” Gu Suihan’s gaze paused. Something started moving beneath the burned and broken pieces of wood on the ground, as though a ferocious beast was struggling to surface. A second later, the sound of something breaking filled the air as the broken pieces were sent into the sky by the water and landed outside the courtyard.

After the broken pieces were cleared, a very complex formation could be seen on the ground.

Purplish black formation runes exuded a faint frostiness as they wriggled around the formation lines like little snakes. If a cultivator were around to scan this formation for qi, they would be shocked to see a thick black whirlwind of qi floating above the formation.

Vengeful ghosts and spirits struggled to fly out of the whirlwind from time to time, but the whirlwind would always use a thin chain to pull them back. This occurred against and again without stopping.

His eyes burned excitedly as he muttered, “Yin fiendish steel, demonic bloodstone, soul-snatching wood, spirit-searching grass.”

He walked up to the formation and took out the items that he had already prepared beforehand from inside his storage ring. He followed a particular sequence and weightage, turning each item into powder before placing them in the indentions around the border of the formation that was flickering faintly.