CH 73

Chapter 73 – No Way Back

TL: Sponsored chapter (2/3)

Eyes gently closed, Bai Tong rested in Lingche’s soft, warm embrace, a trace of a tender smile hidden on his face. He gradually transformed into specks of white light that permeated the air as he became one with the lake, never to be seen again. In Lingche’s fair, slender hands, a sparkling, translucent snowflake gradually condensed into being. From beginning to end, it was clear and bright, pure and devoid of complicated thoughts.

Lingche looked down at the snowflake in her palm, suddenly thinking of a memory that had long become a distant, hazy past, causing the corners of her lips to curl gently into a smile.

… …

“In the end, I was born from the resentment and souls of these small demons. This enmity has no way to be resolved,” ‘Xi Jingshan’ said, turning to Xu Disheng as it continued, “Although I’m ranked at the Evil Spirit Realm, these ten thousand plus years have exhausted too much ghostly power. You help me deal with those two fish demons, and I’ll give you a cultivation method from the Ghost Dao. I’ll deal with that small serpent demon myself.”

Xu Disheng looked at him out of the corner of his eye, then turned back to look at the serpent demon. “We don’t want to get involved with your personal matters,” he said.

The serpent demon shook its massive head as if it was pondering to itself. After a while, it said in a deep voice, “Fine, you can go then.”

The serpent demon moved its body, making a space that led upwards, where waves and the vague shadows of the rippling surface water could be seen.

Xu Disheng said lightly, “Yuan Qi, Li Dan, you three go up first.”

Yuan Qi took the lead, walking cautiously past the serpent demon as he resisted the intense fishy odor of the demonic energy. He entered the water, and after a few breaths of time, he was the first to float to the surface of the lake.

Li Dan pulled the white-clothed girl along as they both walked past the serpent demon to enter the water. When they were right next to the serpent demon’s body, the serpent demon happened to move a little bit, causing the white-clothed to nearly cry out in fear. Fortunately, Li Dan reacted quickly and held his hand over her mouth, dragging her into the water and swimming to the surface.

‘Xi Jingshan’ glanced subtly at Xu Disheng and simply smiled.

Xu Disheng was holding the Parting Water Pearl, so the waterless zone always moved along with him as the center. When he walked by the serpent demon’s body and felt the demonic energy just within reach, Xu Disheng stopped. “Last time, that wolf demon’s soul allowed my Soul Force to grow explosively. Who knows how much it will increase this time? Swallowing Soul!”

In the waterless space, black wind appeared out of nowhere and began to swirl and condense. The black winds transformed into the skull of an evil spirit, its malevolent manifestation even more apparent than ever before.

The eyes of that skull which had been tightly closed before, were now already slightly opened! Although it wasn’t obvious, Xu Disheng could feel the endless negativity contained within the eyes of that evil spirit skull.

The evil spirit skull opened its jaw, and the serpent demon’s massive body began to tremble in its efforts to resist.

The suction force of the evil spirit’s mouth became stronger, and the serpent demon was unable to resist it for much longer. The gaze in its eyes dulled as a concentrated black light was sucked into the evil spirit skull’s mouth, while the enormous body of the serpent demon silently sunk to the bed of the lake.

The evil spirit skull transformed into black motes of light and returned into Xu Disheng’s mind.

Xu Disheng resisted the dizzy, unwell feeling in his mind as he turned back to ‘Xi Jingshan’ and said, “You deal with those two fish demons.”

The moment that evil spirit skull appeared, the expression of ‘Xi Jingshan’ had a huge change in expression, causing him to direct a look of complete bewilderment at Xu Disheng. He inwardly felt a restrained fear towards that evil spirit skull, as it seemed to be a cultivation method that strongly suppressed ghost types.

Back at Floating Moon Valley, Xu Disheng had used the Swallowing Soul Mantra while on the brink of death to swallow and kill that half-transformed wolf demon.

Since then, the Soul Force inside that wolf demon’s soul had long since been suppressed by the cyan jade flute and assimilated into the black Soul Force Flute, causing his Soul Force to grow explosively. This serpent demon was slightly weaker than that wolf demon, so Xu Disheng could still bear the backlash. He didn’t faint outright, and even had some Soul Force remaining.

Ghostly fog swirled in the palm of ‘Xi Jingshan’, which spread outwards, wrapping up the two fish demons. From the outside, the sound of shrieking could be heard.

After a while, the screams slowly came to a stop, and no further sounds came from the ghostly fog. The mist gradually faded, revealing the bare skeletons of the two fish demons.

Xu Disheng peered at the pasty white fish demon skeletons and said, “I want to sell these corpses for spirit stones. You work rather cleanly.”

‘Xi Jingshan’ laughed dryly and replied, “I’m already out of ghostly energy, so this is all I can do.”

With a slight flick of a sleeve, Xu Disheng’s gaze turned and fixed on ‘Xi Jingshan’.

After a while, his face spread into a smile and Xu Disheng said, “Then let’s go up. But I don’t have a big enough storage-type Spirit Tool for this serpent demon’s corpse. It’s a bit inconvenient.”

It wasn’t that Xu Disheng hadn’t thought about sucking up its soul with the Swallowing Soul Mantra, or using the Sealing Soul Mantra to seal it inside the Soul Suppressing Vestment. ‘Xi Jingshan’ looked to be harmless as livestock, but was this really the case? How could it be easy to survive as an evil spirit for over ten thousand years? Seeing him downplay the act of exterminating these two fish demons, Xu Disheng didn’t believe that he didn’t have any energy left.

Xu Disheng only had 20-30% of his Soul Force remaining. Without knowing how deep his opponent’s reserves were, it would be unwise to forcefully take action.

‘Xi Jingshan’ creased his brow, seeming to contemplate something. After a while, it said, “Then I will give you a cultivation method that only ghosts can cultivate, which allows one to open a space inside of one’s ghostly body. The space will be much bigger than your storage pouch. You might even be bigger than you need.”

Xu Disheng looked at him without saying anything.

‘Xi Jingshan’ nudged him with his finger and said with a laugh, “Look at you. You’re so dull, you probably couldn’t even sell a story if you wanted to.” ‘Xi Jingshan’ continued, “I saw that the evil spirit skull that you summoned was a ghost-type technique, but strangely enough, was more oriented towards the soul aspect. Maybe you can try using it and see what happens.”

A stream of ghostly energy condensed in the palm of ‘Xi Jingshan’, which he tossed towards Xu Disheng.

Xu Disheng grabbed the stream of ghostly energy and examined it carefully.

After looking it over a few times, he confirmed that it really was a technique that allowed one to establish a space inside of one’s ghostly body. In his sea of consciousness, he stimulated Soul Force from the phantom image of the evil spirit skull beneath the Soul Force Flute to see if he could establish a space within.

A few moments later, Xu Disheng opened his eyes and shook his head. “Perhaps because my cultivation is too low, this technique won’t work for me right now. But I will hold onto this cultivation method and we’ll consider our scores settled.”

‘Xi Jingshan’ gazed deeply at him and replied, “Perhaps an unknown number of years later, there will be a day where our paths will cross once more. I am only temporarily borrowing this corporeal body to break through the limits that Lingche placed upon my ghostly body and leave these waters. The soul inside of this body has already dissipated, so this storage pouch is yours now.”

With that, it tossed over the storage pouch that was on Xi Jingshan’s body, then took a step out of the surface of the lake, floating in midair. An enormous ghostly energy dispelled from its body, condensing into an extremely dense ghostly fog. After hovering there for a moment, it scattered off into the horizon without a trace.

Xi Jingshan’s body floated down from the sky. Seeing the ghost leave his body, there was no way Li Dan and the others didn’t know what had happened. They hastily went forward to catch his body.

Li Dan anxiously touched Xi Jingshan’s body, feeling the ice-cold sensation on his skin. His heart fell as he muttered, “Senior Martial Brother Xi… you even saved my life earlier. I didn’t even have a chance to repay you…”

Yuan Qi opened Xi Jingshan’s eyelids, then shook his head. “Don’t keep shaking him. He’s already dead.”

Li Dan lifted his head and glared angrily at him.

Yuan Qi also glared straight back at him, sparks flying between their eyes.

Holding the Parting Water Pearl, Xu Disheng walked out of the lake. His indifferent voice rang out, “All of you come down to the water and help me move the serpent demon’s corpse onto the Spirit Cloud.”

A long time passed, and the Jade Water Lake returned to a quiet, undisturbed state.

In the midst of a forest, there was a young hunter. He would look to his left and right periodically as he gradually approached the lakeside.

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“Hmph, Father always told me not to come to the lakeside to hunt because there were monsters. What a joke! That coward, monsters don’t even exist,” the youth said, tightening the bow and arrow on his back. He scratched his head and continued, “That said, there isn’t any prey to hunt around this lake. That’s strange.”

After walking for a while, a small mound of earth came into view, and the hunter’s eyes lit up. This mound was clearly made by means of a human effort, and it was in an area where there were no signs of human inhabitation. The people of his village also never came to the lakeside. Could he have perhaps come across a fated encounter with an immortal’s inheritance? Perhaps there was… treasure inside?

The young hunter dug and dug away at the shallow mound of earth. Eventually, he came across something. It was an ice-cold limb, causing his heart to leap out of his chest.

The hunter pulled the limb out of the earth. Once he got a good look at it, his blood turned cold as he howled, “Ahhhh!! A dead person!”

He sprinted off towards the forest, screaming.

Xi Jingshan’s final resting place actually wasn’t too bad. At least Li Dan had dug a simple grave for him.

However, the wish for vengeance in his heart would never become a reality. The Realm Lord of the Fa Territory would still continue to treat the mortals inside of the Secret Realm like swine.

Xi Jingshan’s past, the obsessions in his heart, and the longing for his parents and clan members… all of them faded away into the yellow dirt.

No matter if it was voluntary or compulsory, once stepping onto this path, there was never a way back.