CBGC - ch158

Chapter 158: The Murderer

"What's wrong with you?" Uncle Bai asks with concern, noticing Su Tingyun's pale face. He scrutinizes her carefully but finds nothing unusual.

Big Bai, who’s inside Su Tingyun's sea of consciousness, suddenly grows immense. Her previously white skin turns pitch black, and she glares ferociously at a gray mist not far away. However, Big Bai can’t move at all, maintaining an angry stance like a petrified statue.

"It's nothing," Su Tingyun cannot speak. However, she watches herself reply with a smile. This realization horrifies her even more, but she can't think of any way out.

She observes as her body turns around, heads back to her residence, and sits down. Then, she curls her fingers, and spiritual energy flows to produce a black flame at her fingertips. This isn't her heavenly fire, but its power far exceeds hers, indicating the opponent's formidable soul.

She struggles for a long time, and with the ring's assistance, Su Tingyun manages to squeeze out a few words, "Who are you?"

"An mere Human Immortal can actually speak under my pressure?" the gray shadow says in surprise, then takes the jade bracelet on Su Tingyun's wrist and examines it carefully.

Watching her body being controlled and being unable to do anything about it, Su Tingyun feels a mix of anger and anxiousness. In this White Cloud Realm, she's a already an existence who could cover the sky with a a mere palm. Yet now, she's being easily controlled. What would she do if her body does something against the realm and she ends up killing her fellow sect disciples?

This person can enter her soul and suppress her essence, but isn't trying to take over her body. What is his goal?

"Have me as a substitute?" Who does he want her to replace?

The gray shadow plays with the bracelet, sitting on the floor and leaning against the bed. He holds the bracelet up to the sunlight streaming through the window, and the reflected light makes the room shimmer. He studies it carefully and then laughs softly.

Su Tingyun recalls the name she saw on the Marriage Stone. Perhaps the gray shadow's soul is too focused on the bracelet, causing its suppression to weaken slightly. She cries, "You are Xuanyuan Wentian!"

The jade bracelet was a gift from Senior E Changguang, whose name was inscribed alongside Xuanyuan Wentian's on the Marriage Stone. The name on that stone wasn't blurred in the slightest, and the sword intent on it matches the one emanating from the obelisk at Obliteration Sword Tower.

Hearing his name, Xuanyuan Wentian chuckles. "I wasn't planning to trouble you, so I chose Yan Yuqing. Unfortunately, he was lucky enough to avoid being crushed by the Dual Realm Mountain. Finding you was a last resort."

Had the heavens not relentlessly pursued him, he wouldn't have created a substitute to be suppressed by the Dual Realm Mountain, thereby securing a chance at survival for himself…

He has endured for many years. Yan Yuqing entered the Dual Realm Mountain, yet his soul was never completely overtaken by the evil energy, keeping him alive. As long as the replacement Yan Yuqing did not disappear, his own condition grew weaker and more painful each day, causing his soul to gradually but unstoppably dissipate. In the end, he would vanish entirely from this world...

He has fought against the Heavenly Dao for so long; how could he give up so easily now?

After his bloodline awakened and he became a demon, his immense power brought daily agony, as if being slowly dismembered. His bones, flesh, and soul were peeled away bit by bit. Despite this, he wandered the world, enduring the pain, waiting for a substitute to grant him ten thousand years of peace, waiting for the next cycle...

"You can't possibly know how much it hurts," he says, using Su Tingyun's body, closing one eye to gaze at the jade bracelet's glow. "Do you want to feel it?"

A faint thread appears on the gray shadow, wrapping around Su Tingyun's soul, making her shiver with fear.

His voice is light yet icy, "Can you feel it? Does it hurt?"

Su Tingyun looks at the gray shadow in bewilderment, a strange feeling rising within her. After living for so long, has this monster become stupid?

Where is it supposed to hurt? She doesn't feel any pain at all. She's about to feign a painful expression, only to realize that they're in her Dantian and Sea of Consciousness-- she can't deceive this demon here, can she. So she just frowns and asks, "What do you want?"

"Do you like Senior E?" She blinks. "I like her too."

Considering her current situation, with the demon in her sea of consciousness and completely suppressing her, she tries to find common ground, hoping to gain some favor and avoid immediate harm.

"Senior E was the most beautiful woman I've ever seen." The demon's killing intent washes over her, and Su Tingyun is immediately on high alert. Considering this demon's attitude towards E Changguang, she doesn't think she said anything wrong. She refuses to believe that Xuanyuan Wentian would find fault in her statement. Perhaps he just finds her attempt to connect too obvious?

"Her smile is the most beautiful." Her words cause Xuanyuan Wentian to pause, and the expression on Su Tingyun's face softens under his influence.

At that moment, Little Bai, atop Big Bai's head, weakly claps its leaves twice, but lets out a hearty laughter. This is the voice of Senior E, replayed by the Orchid Tongue Grass from the Sealed Heaven. Su Tingyun wonders how Little Bai heard it, considering the cliff collapsed when the seal broke. Did some of the grass somehow survive?

"Hahaha!" Senior E's laughter freezes the gray shadow that is Xuanyuan Wentian. After a long pause, he says, "You gained her recognition and affection, tamed the Word Spirit, and obtained such a peculiar companion Orchid. Your luck is extraordinary."

"If I had any other choice, I wouldn't harm you." He coughs lightly, feeling the jade bracelet in his hand grow hot, almost too hot to hold.

At this moment, he realizes something and belatedly ext. It doesn't hurt anymore.

"You—, you are no longer within the Laws of Heaven." Countless threads emerge from the gray shadow, weaving through her sea of consciousness, then her limbs, even her bones, and finally going back into her Sea of Consciousness. The threads merge into to Xuanyuan Wentian's form.

He laughs heartily, "I originally intended to corrupt you with demonic energy, destroying your Haoran Zhenqi and sending you to the Dual Realm Mountain. But I didn't expect your body to be forged from celestial bones, refined by celestials to hide from the heavenly law, beyond the five elements. Hahaha..."

Black energy engulfs Su Tingyun, swallowing her like a tornado, causing excruciating pain. "By taking your body, I will fear nothing!"

Su Tingyun feels the agony of being flayed alive, as if a blade is scraping her bones and heart. She almost faints, but the clear stream from the ring surges into her body, preventing her from being instantly crushed.

"A mere Human Immortal, let's see how long you can last!"

At this moment, the five elements within the ring—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—surge forth simultaneously, descending like five colorful dragons from the sky and charging toward Xuanyuan Wentian. Xuanyuan Wentian takes a half step back, exclaiming, "The creation of the world! You actually have the potential to become a god! In that case, I must take your body."

Within Su Tingyun's body, his soul stops weakening. As an ancient demon lord, having survived for millions of years, his soul can easily annihilate Su Tingyun even in his weakened state, as she's only a Human Immortal. His body turns into countless black dots, each transforming into black beetles, swarming toward Su Tingyun. The red dragon representing Heavenly Fire roars and plunges into the insect swarm, colliding and shredding countless beetles...

Wherever it passes, flames rage, burning numerous black demonic insects. The green dragon formed from wood energy entwines with the red dragon, intensifying the flames. However, the black energy continues to surge, accompanied by roaring black flames, forcing the red and green dragons to retreat, their momentum dwindling.

The gold, water, and earth dragons charge directly to the center of the gray shadow. But Xuanyuan Wentian only laughs loudly, then spews a murky breath that covers the three dragons with black spots, causing them to crash heavily to the ground.

"Your world has just been created, while I am the filth that has existed since before the birth of these three thousand realms. How can you hope to challenge me? Su Tingyun, stop struggling and just die!"

From within the gray shadow, black energy condenses into a broad sword, slashing at Su Tingyun. The golden dragon, represented by the Springwater Sword, has landed on the ground. It then takes to the air with a long roar. It does not evade or simply block the strike, but it keeps roaring and charges head-on.

The Springwater Sword represents metal. When it appears in Su Tingyun's consciousness, it manifests as a golden dragon. However, at this moment, a red infant dragon's shadow appears around the golden dragon, the sword spirit of the Springwater Sword, the remnant soul of the sealed young dragon...

It has finally found the true culprit behind its cruel seal. Despite the opponent's formidable sword energy, it remains fearless, having waited for this moment...

"So it's you. No wonder this child sword became hers and holds such animosity toward me." The thin sword and the broad sword were once a pair, both his former weapons, used to pin the dragon's head and its other vital point. He did not expect the thin sword to merge with the dragon's soul, turning into a weapon against him.

But such sword intent is hardly worth mentioning.

The golden dragon collides with the black energy-formed giant sword with a resounding clang. The black sword chops off one of the dragon's horns and continues downward, scraping off a layer of dragon scales from the golden dragon. Su Tingyun can clearly see numerous cracks appearing on her Springwater Sword, and she herself spits out a mouthful of blood.

Despite spitting blood, her face remains smiling, making her expression extremely strange.

Seeing the severely damaged Spring Water Sword trembling, the blood-soaked golden dragon struggles to rise and clumsily flies into the air. Ignoring the pain, Su Tingyun shouts hoarsely, "Do you think that after destroying my soul, this body will still be free from the laws of the Heavenly Dao?"

She yells with all her might, "Dream on! It is not this body that is beyond the laws of heaven, but me. If I die, you will still face the fate of being utterly annihilated!"

"Neither gods nor demons can escape the constraints of the Heavenly Dao!" She lifts the cracked Springwater Sword and positions it horizontally before her, her gaze sharp as a blade. Despite being corroded by demonic energy, she stands tall like a pine tree, glaring coldly at Xuanyuan Wentian, enunciating each word: "Only I can!"

The Spring Water Sword points directly at Xuanyuan Wentian, emitting a faint dragon's roar in response to her words.

"If you don't believe me, try it!"