Chapter 3178: Three Corpses
Arriving at the place Yan Liren had mentioned, Zhang Ruochen activated the Bodhi Tree to its fullest extent. The Buddha light it emitted illuminated the surroundings, and the darkness could not withstand it.
The ground was still composed of dark matter.
This area was uneven, but strangely, bubbles floated within the darkness.
The bubbles varied in size—some were over a hundred zhang in diameter, while others were only as large as a thumb.
Under the Buddha light, the bubbles shimmered with a glazed radiance, dazzling and brilliant.
Zhang Ruochen extended a finger, intending to touch one of the fist-sized bubbles. Yan Liren quickly stopped him, saying, "Don't touch them. The bubbles contain powerful void force that can injure a divine body."
Zhang Ruochen showed no fear and directly crushed the bubble with his finger.
The bubble burst silently, releasing a surge of void force that struck him and rapidly spread outward.
Yan Liren swiftly retreated, releasing layers of blood-red divine qi shields. However, even these could not block the void force, and the shields were annihilated one after another.
Just as his physical body was about to be eroded by the void, Zhang Ruochen reached out and absorbed all the void force into his palm.
Yan Liren calmed down, realizing that Zhang Ruochen had become a powerhouse capable of contending with Gong Shang. His cultivation and methods far exceeded Yan Liren's understanding.
"Naturally formed void force can be this powerful," Zhang Ruochen muttered to himself, looking up at the hundred-zhang-diameter bubbles floating above. He still felt some wariness.
He had some knowledge of the Way of Void, but he was far from mastering it.
Mu Lingxi said, "It's void matter."
"Void matter? Void and matter cannot coexist simultaneously," Zhang Ruochen said.
Mu Lingxi replied, "To many cultivators, they wouldn't believe in the existence of pure light matter and dark matter, nor that time can manifest like a river."
"Your inability to comprehend the existence of void matter only shows that your cultivation is still insufficient and your understanding of this world is lacking."
She gazed at the ubiquitous bubbles and said, "It's gaseous void matter. This place is more dangerous than I anticipated."
Yan Liren added, "Indeed, it's very dangerous. I once saw Gong Shang escape from here with only half his body."
Zhang Ruochen closed his eyes to sense carefully, extending his consciousness into the darkness. "This place looks like a dried-up riverbed—high on both sides, low in the middle, stretching far in both directions."
Mu Lingxi said, "Then go and investigate whether it's a riverbed. Leave the Bodhi Tree here."
"What about you?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
Mu Lingxi replied, "Do I need to do this myself?"
"But what if Gong Shang is hiding in the shadows? Can you handle it?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
Mu Lingxi said, "Would he dare to act? He would only think this is a trap to lure him out. Stop wasting time. Do as I say. If anything changes, come back quickly."
Leaving the Bodhi Tree, Mo Yin, and the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations behind, Zhang Ruochen and Yan Liren ventured into the darkness.
Zhang Ruochen felt that Feng Tian, having held a high position for so long, had become too arrogant, looking down on any cultivator below the Infinite Realm. This was dangerous. The weaker one is, the more cautious they should be.
Gong Shang was not only highly cultivated but also cunning and resourceful—not an easy enemy to deal with.
To ensure Mu Lingxi's safety, Zhang Ruochen had left the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations behind.
Walking into the darkness, Zhang Ruochen remained vigilant, occasionally looking back at the distant golden light of the Bodhi Tree. They were moving farther and farther away from it.
"She may seem proud and arrogant, not taking Gong Shang seriously, but it's actually because she has enough confidence in you, believing that with you here, Gong Shang cannot harm her," Yan Liren said.
Zhang Ruochen asked, "How did she help you overcome the shackles in your heart?"
Yan Liren then recounted what had happened earlier.
"A dream spanning thirty thousand years—such a formidable technique. Qing'er's 'Cloud Dream Thirteen Chapters' pales in comparison."
Zhang Ruochen sighed and added, "This Feng Tian actually took the initiative to help someone—a miracle. However, I suspect this dream also instilled the concept of fate into you. You've escaped Gong Shang's shackles but fallen into the shackles of fate."
"It doesn't matter. As long as I'm no longer controlled like a servant, I'm content," Yan Liren said.
"Oh?"
Zhang Ruochen looked down. Under the illumination of his Truth Divine Light, the ground was covered in dense reflective patches.
They were puddles!
He crouched down to examine them and found the water contained a strong stench of decay.
Could this really be a dried-up ancient riverbed?
If it was a riverbed, then there must be a way out.
...
Mo Yin knew Mu Lingxi's true identity, so she was very cautious, not daring to show her usual seductive charm.
"Divine Refinement Flower, a natural cultivator of the Death Path. If you submit to me, your future achievements will be limitless," Mu Lingxi said.
Mo Yin bowed respectfully and said, "Thank you for your favor, Feng Tian, but Mo Yin will not betray my master."
"Who said I want you to betray him?" Mu Lingxi said.
Mo Yin replied, "If Feng Tian did not intend to deal with my master, why would you take an interest in a mere Divine Refinement Flower? In the end, only my master is worthy of your attention, Feng Tian."
Mu Lingxi let out a faint, cold laugh and said no more, her gaze fixed on the darkness.
Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen appeared, covered in blood and wounds, rushing over from the distance in great urgency. He shouted, "That monster is chasing me! Open the formation!"
Mo Yin's expression changed drastically. She immediately waved her sleeve, manipulating the formation inscriptions to open a gap in the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations.
Zhang Ruochen charged into the formation, stumbling and falling beneath the Bodhi Tree, his hair disheveled and looking utterly embarrassed (langbei).
Mo Yin rushed over to support him, asking, "Master, where is Yan Liren?"
Zhang Ruochen suddenly looked up, a sinister smile on his face. Dark power gathered in his palm, and countless rules and divine patterns erupted. With a single palm strike, he struck Mo Yin, forcing her back into her original form—a Divine Refinement Flower.
He let out a loud laugh, then turned his gaze to Mu Lingxi. To his surprise, this woman, who had just broken through to the God Realm, was unusually calm, showing no fear at all.
Zhang Ruochen stopped laughing and said, "You're not afraid at all?"
Mu Lingxi said, "Your transformation technique might fool her, but can it fool me? I let you into the formation because I intended to lure you out. It saves me the trouble of searching for you and wasting time."
"Me?"
Gong Shang reverted to his true form, too lazy to ponder why she called herself that. Knowing that Zhang Ruochen would surely return immediately, he released strands of dark divine power, coiling them toward Mu Lingxi.
But to his horror, Gong Shang found that the dark divine power could not even approach the woman.
Her body grew larger and larger, her aura becoming more and more formidable, like a primordial giant holding up the heavens and earth.
No!
It wasn't her growing larger—it was Gong Shang shrinking.
Mu Lingxi raised her hand, and the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations shrank to the size of a palm. Gong Shang was trapped inside the formation, standing like an ant on her palm.
Gong Shang immediately unfolded his Divine Realm World, attempting to break free from the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations. But no matter how large his Divine Realm World expanded, the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations expanded with it, always remaining trapped in her palm. Her hand seemed like an entire universe.
"The Yin Yang Eighteen Formations has no artifact spirit. It can't possibly have such power. Who are you?" Gong Shang roared in anger, his voice tinged with fear.
Mu Lingxi said, "It has no artifact spirit, but the formation inscriptions contain my blood."
Just as Gong Shang was about to sense the aura of the formation inscriptions, Mu Lingxi activated the formation. The eighteen space divine formations transformed into eighteen divine millstones, spinning and contracting inward, crushing his Divine Realm World piece by piece.
Gong Shang let out a long howl. Three strange auras erupted from his body, spreading through the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations.
Sensing this aura, Mu Lingxi's eyes showed a flicker of shock for the first time. "Three Corpses Corpse Poison! Who are you?"
The three strange auras were gray, black, and dark red. They concealed Gong Shang's true form, causing him to vanish within the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations.
Blood-colored phoenixes flew out from the formation inscriptions of the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations, charging toward the three strange auras.
But the moment the two forces clashed, Mu Lingxi recoiled as if avoiding a venomous snake. She flung the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations and Gong Shang away from her hand.
Looking at her palm, she saw that the corpse poison had entered her flesh.
Before she could sever her arm, the corpse poison had already spread along her arm, invading her entire body. Her skin visibly withered and turned black.
Even a god's body was fragile against this corpse poison.
Mu Lingxi staggered backward, leaning against the Bodhi Tree, her body decaying rapidly. The Buddha light emitted by the Bodhi Tree could not purify the corpse poison.
A phoenix phantom appeared around her, releasing divine power to resist the corpse poison.
"Boom!"
The three strange auras shattered the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations, soaring into the air with delighted laughter: "Who would have thought, who would have thought it was you, Feng Caiyi! How did you become so weak?"
His voice kept changing—sometimes it was Gong Shang's voice, sometimes another hoarse, unfamiliar voice.
At the densest point of the three strange auras, Gong Shang's divine body recondensed. Half of his head was a rotting, sickly green, while the other half remained Gong Shang's appearance.
Mu Lingxi's body was decaying, enveloped by the Three Corpses Corpse Poison, and she seemed to be in great pain. "Are you the Three Corpses Emperor, or Gong Shang?"
Gong Shang hovered in midair, two voices speaking simultaneously: "Back then, half of the Three Corpses Emperor's head was severed by Bilozi's dying sword strike and fell into the temporal turbulence. In truth, even I don't know whether Gong Shang refined half of the Three Corpses Emperor's head, or whether half of the Three Corpses Emperor's head refined Gong Shang."
"But that doesn't matter anymore. What matters is that you, Feng Caiyi, have become so weak and have fallen into my hands. Once I refine you, I will surely be able to leave this place."
Feng Tian realized she had underestimated Gong Shang. She hadn't expected him to harbor half of the Three Corpses Emperor's head within him, and she knew that today, there was no escape.
Feng Tian herself was born from the Corpse Clan, so she deeply understood the terror of the Corpse Clan's patriarch, the Three Corpses Emperor. Even just half of his head was not something a Great God could handle.
No wonder Gong Shang could withstand a strike from a God Venerable Talisman without dying.
"I never thought I would fall into your hands. When it comes to cunning and concealment, few in the entire Hell Realm can match you, Three Corpses Emperor! Your earlier terrified act was quite convincing," Mu Lingxi said, her eyes losing their luster but still wearing a cold smile.
Gong Shang said, "It seems you're not convinced?"
"Why should I be convinced? Although I am constrained by this vessel, killing you would still be effortless. I'm just unwilling—you're only half of the Three Corpses Emperor's head," Mu Lingxi said, lifting her gaze with contempt.
Gong Shang snorted angrily, unleashing the Three Corpses Corpse Poison, forming three twisting beams of light that shot toward her.
Mu Lingxi raised her arm, ready to unleash a heavenly-level power even at the cost of shattering her vessel. But a streak of light flashed in front of her, blocking her. A tangible Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram spun in midair, colliding with the beams of the Three Corpses Corpse Poison.
"Boom!"
Part of the Three Corpses Corpse Poison was absorbed by the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram, while the rest was scattered.
Zhang Ruochen's body slid backward. He let out a long roar, and several Sword Ancestor Soul Swords flew out from his body, piercing through the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram and shooting toward Gong Shang hovering in midair.
...
Only one chapter today. I'm really not in the zone.
(Chapter End)