Chapter 59

A drop of blood splattered into Fu Ming's eye. He still didn't understand what was happening, but his dark pupils followed the figure before him as she fell.

In a daze, the black qi furrowed between his brows receded. Lin Yu collapsed toward him. Before he could even see her face clearly, Fu Ming instinctively caught her and pulled her into his arms.

The moment he touched Lin Yu, light finally returned to Fu Ming's eyes. He lifted his gaze, trembling uncontrollably.

The colorful magical arrays in the sky had not yet dissipated—red, white, and black lights surrounded him, spinning around him, with two massive ancient divine beasts before him.

Bai Ze was still roaring: "The divine race dares to enter our territory? Kill! I'll beat her to ashes!"

Di Ting behind him couldn't hold Bai Ze back. Bai Ze swatted Di Ting aside with a claw, crazed: "I want the divine race dead!"

Fu Ming gently laid Lin Yu down. Blood still seeped from her mouth. He cupped her face, trying desperately to wipe away the blinding red, but it was futile.

The air in his chest seemed completely sucked out. Fu Ming couldn't breathe for a moment. His head ached, his thoughts inexplicably chaotic. Somehow, tears welled in his eyes, blurring his vision.

"Mm..." Lin Yu's eyes were squeezed shut, her face twisted. She spat out another mouthful of blood.

Fu Ming's hands were covered in Lin Yu's blood. It felt like all the blood in his veins had gone cold. The blood trickled from his palms, staining his sleeves. He didn't dare touch Lin Yu again, as if the moment he got closer, she would vanish.

Just then, Bai Ze charged at Lin Yu again, its eyes gleaming with the ferocity of a wild beast eyeing prey—the most primal, untamed look. Its hatred for her was undisguised.

The divine race deserved death. How dare they appear openly on its own turf? It cared nothing for political wrangling; it wanted every divine being dead and would gladly devour them whole.

As Bai Ze opened its massive jaws to tear into Lin Yu, Fu Ming stood and stamped off a nearby pile of ghost messenger corpses, launching himself toward Bai Ze's shoulder!

In a flash, Fu Ming rose to Bai Ze's height. He raised his sword and thrust it unhesitatingly at its white eyes!

At the same time, Bai Ze roared, its eerie cry piercing Fu Ming's eardrums and drilling into his mind. The consciousness he'd barely regained clouded over again.

Fu Ming faltered for a moment. Just as Bai Ze thought it had ensnared him and prepared to strike, Fu Ming's sword plunged into its eyeball!

"Aaah!" Bai Ze bellowed, stumbling back and colliding with the giant net behind it.

Blinded, Bai Ze was still defiant. Its face contorted in fury as it lunged forward again. Di Ting hurried to restrain it, shouting, "The Ghost King said to let that divine one go! Stop fighting!"

Di Ting assumed Bai Ze would heed the Ghost King's command, but instead, Bai Ze grew even angrier. It bared its fangs at Di Ting. "Who does the Ghost King think he is? I'll have them dead today!"

Bai Ze attacked Fu Ming again. Its vision was impaired; it could only vaguely make out his direction. Fu Ming stood still. Di Ting watched the battle about to erupt, on the verge of tears.

Bai Ze was far stronger than Di Ting. Even a god from the Nine Heavens would struggle to gain the upper hand against it. Di Ting thought Fu Ming was doomed, imagining how horribly he and Lin Yu would be torn apart. He shut his eyes, unable to watch.

Fu Ming faced the charging Bai Ze head-on. His eyes were still bloodshot, his brows shadowed with unyielding gloom.

Wisps of black smoke flew from Fu Ming, swirling over the surrounding sea of corpses and blood. The fine black threads dove into the bodies, and in an instant, the entire eight-hundred-li stretch of Yellow Spring Road was invaded by darkness.

Fu Ming tightened his grip on his sword. The icy beads on the tassel clattered against the blade. His lips pressed into a thin line. "Rise!"

At his command, the piled-up bodies of ghost messengers stiffly stood. They stared at the colossal beast before them, faces grim, eyes burning with bone-deep hatred.

Scattered soul-hooks and soul-chains were picked up again. A thousand ghost messengers surged toward Bai Ze in waves!

A web of chains ensnared Bai Ze in the middle. Bai Ze stomped the ground, and the surrounding ghost messengers were flung away. The force of that stomp cracked the earth open!

The ghost messengers crashed down, some with twisted necks, some with broken legs, limbs and heads scattered everywhere. Fu Ming's expression didn't change. He reanimated the corpses, making them rise again.

Maimed and broken, the ghost messengers twisted and fell, then climbed back up, trapping Bai Ze in the center. Bai Ze tilted its head to dodge an incoming chain, and in that instant, it caught sight of Fu Ming.

Suddenly, all the chains restraining Bai Ze exploded into fragments. With a long howl, Bai Ze shook off the crippled ghost messengers. For a moment, no one surrounded it. Bai Ze charged toward the direction it remembered Fu Ming to be!

Fu Ming drove his sword into the fur of Bai Ze's chest. That thrust revealed his position. Bai Ze put all its strength into a single palm strike at Fu Ming!

Fu Ming yanked his sword from Bai Ze's chest. The force was immense. He braced himself with the sword to stay upright, but his heart burned, and the taste of blood filled his throat.

Bai Ze's snow-white fur was now stained with sticky blood. Fu Ming's blow had been precise—it pierced Bai Ze's heart. With its vital channels damaged and having just delivered a heavy strike, Bai Ze could no longer stand and collapsed.

The ghost messengers, knocked away earlier, swarmed back to encircle the trapped beast. Bai Ze's eyes gradually lost their luster, and finally, its heavy lids closed.

At that moment, Fu Ming finally gave out. Bai Ze's palm strike had carried its full power, meant to kill. Any ordinary person would have been obliterated by a single hit. Fu Ming held on for a while, but the coppery taste surged up, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

He no longer had the strength to hold his sword. He collapsed, drained, and fought to keep his eyes open, refusing to let his eyelids close. The scene before him was chaotic—screams rose and fell—but he couldn't hear them anymore.

People and horses scrambled in panic, new ghost messengers arriving on pale mist. All Fu Ming could see was a blur of scarlet.

...

Yun Chi sat by the Observing Immortal Terrace, watching helplessly as the Tian Shuang star plummeted from the sky, and the tottering Zi Wei star suddenly lost its luster.

The Zi Wei star fell alongside the Tian Shuang star, streaking across the heavens!

The horizon turned blood-red, and the sun was about to rise.

Yun Chi was frantic. If she reported to the Xianzun that the Divine Maiden had entered the underworld on her suggestion, she would surely die. She paced back and forth, anxious as an ant on a hot pan.

In the distance, a crane flapped its wings toward the Observing Immortal Terrace, its cry echoing through the nine heavens.

Following the piercing crane call, the great bell atop the Divine Mountain tolled. From the mountain's foot upward, scattered courtyards lit their candles one by one, and people within the buildings gradually woke to the commotion outside.

The crane brought sorrow, and the bell rang for mourning. Seeing that she could no longer hide the truth, Yun Chi cared not about being implicated. She took a deep breath and stumbled toward the Xianzun's Bushou Hall at the mountain's peak.

When she arrived, candles already burned inside the hall. The Xianzun had long since woken, sitting cross-legged in meditation on the couch. Yun Chi crept up to him, and the Venerable lifted his eyelids to look at her silently.

With a thud, Yun Chi knelt before him, clutching the hem of her robe and fidgeting, unable to speak for a long time.

Finally, she said, "Xianzun..."

The young man on the couch, dressed in a purple Daoist robe today, glanced at her casually. "What is it?"

"Just now, the Tian Shuang star and the Zi Wei star..." Yun Chi bit her lip, her mouth suddenly dry. She forced the words out. "They both fell."

As she spoke, it felt like all the strength had been drained from her body. She hunched over, staring at the ground, not daring to move. A terrifying silence filled the room, as if time itself had frozen.

The Xianzun had woken when he heard the crane's mournful cry. It had been years since he'd last heard that sound. Even though he'd suspected what happened, when he actually heard of the Divine Maiden's death, he closed his eyes in sorrow.

"Where are they?"

"Probably in the Ghost Realm."

If they died in the Ghost Realm, there was no chance of saving them. Without their bodies, their souls couldn't be recalled, and resurrection was impossible. The Xianzun closed his eyes, his heart sinking into an abyss.

"Are you saying," his voice finally came from above Yun Chi, and he laughed abruptly, as if mocking himself, with a tinge of unwillingness, "that all my efforts have gone to waste again?"

Yun Chi dug her fingers into the cold ground, not daring to speak or move. The Xianzun laughed for a long time before stopping. Yun Chi knelt, her head bowed, exposing a stretch of neck. He stared at that fragile neck, as if it could be snapped at any moment, and asked, "What's your name again?"

"Yun Chi." She had introduced herself many times, but he still hadn't remembered.

"Alright, Yun Chi. Would you like to be buried with the Divine Maiden? Not just you—I'll make sure you won't go alone."

Yun Chi trembled. She had anticipated he might demand she be buried alive. In the Heaven's Mandate Tower, human life was the cheapest thing. There was never a shortage of people; when someone died, countless others clamored to take their place.

Yun Chi's throat was parched, and she couldn't speak. To her surprise, the Xianzun asked, "Or... would you like to become the new Divine Maiden?"

He rose from the couch and approached Yun Chi, circling around her. She heard him mutter softly, "Bringing the dead back to life isn't impossible."

Yun Chi's pupils trembled in terror. She wanted to run, but her body was rooted to the spot. She still didn't dare raise her head, just stared at the ground. The Venerable's robe was lifted by the cool morning breeze, brushing against her occasionally, making her skin crawl with goosebumps.

"You and the Divine Maiden have similar figures. I'll summon her soul, and you can be her vessel. We'll revive her, alright?" His tone sounded like he was consulting her, but Yun Chi knew she had no right to refuse.

She could hear her own heart pounding. Struggling to find her voice, she stammered, "Xianzun, this... I'm just a lowly priestess. I'm not worthy to be the Divine Maiden's vessel..."

"Besides, the Heaven's Mandate Tower is full of righteous disciples. Using methods like resurrection... it's really..."

Before she could finish, the Xianzun grabbed her by the hair and yanked her up. She cried out in pain but quickly collected herself. Just as she was about to beg for mercy, he seized her throat. "Are you saying I'm corrupt, walk the crooked path, and am unfit to be the Xianzun?"

"How dare you!" His expression twisted in fury.

Twenty years ago, the Divine Maiden he had nurtured with half his life's effort died silently. He'd sacrificed half his cultivation just to seek a chance for her, but she'd failed him, dying twice in vain.

Twenty years later, he placed all his hopes on a new Divine Maiden. He'd secured her divine identity and refined countless revenants to grant her a century of cultivation, thinking that this time she would surely ascend smoothly to a High God.

But she died again.

Now that the Divine Maiden was dead, how long would he have to wait for the next one? Ten years? Twenty? Fifty? He wasn't sure he'd live that long.

His life's mission was to nurture a High God, and he would spare no cost to achieve it.

"Xianzun... mercy... mercy..." Yun Chi's voice grew fainter, barely a whisper.

The Xianzun dragged her out of the hall toward the altar at the mountain's peak. His voice was laced with a seductive tone as he gently soothed the struggling Yun Chi. "Don't worry. It's just borrowing a body to return the soul. It won't hurt."