Volume 2, Chapter 102 – Different (2)

“‘The spring’ just happens to lack a key sacrifice. I only need her body; her soul will serve nicely as a guide, to draw down the ‘Blood Sea’.”

Mm?

As she read this memory scene, a faint change came over Bai Xiang’s expression.

Invisible sword-Qi swept through the morgue, clearing away all the white mist that had been blocking her sight. She immediately saw the floor beneath her feet, where thick “lines” had been drawn in congealed blood, forming something that looked very much like an evil ritual array.

The white mist was there to hide this?

And those pungent preservative smells were to mask the scent of blood?

He was even afraid she might still smell it, so he’d chosen a morgue… All of it was for this array!

Buzz—

The ground suddenly trembled. The blood-lines flared blood-red in an instant, and all the body bags in the morgue burst open at once, revealing their contents floating in the air.

They weren’t corpses at all, but all sorts of carefully selected human organs.

Sections of bone, chunks of lung… and even numerous human brains. Under the influence of the array, they gathered together at once, piecing themselves into the outline of a giant whose upper body alone touched the ceiling.

Shenming Sword: Thunder-Tiger Sword-Sha.

Splitting-Light Multiple-Images Sword Formula: Triple Afterimage.

Bai Xiang swung her sword, slashing out four tiger-soul sword-Qi in one breath.

Because this was indoors, there wasn’t much lightning drawn down. The tiger-soul phantoms were primarily formed of formless, colorless sword-Qi, with little lightning wrapped around them.

But their power was hardly diminished. They rushed in together and smashed the “giant” apart, each one unleashing a storm of sword-Qi that indiscriminately tore apart everything in the morgue!

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Scrrraaaape—

In almost an instant, the ceiling, walls, floor, and those blood-lined arrays, along with the shattered remains of organs flung into the air—everything but Bai Xiang herself, their master—was sliced into bits.

With a boom, a wall was smashed apart by the tiger-souls. Bai Xiang shot out in a blur, floating in midair to look down on the small building.

The building itself was only a temporary structure. Aside from its basement, which had anti-air defenses, the aboveground part was flimsy. Under the tiger-souls’ destruction, it quickly collapsed, sending up a cloud of dust.

Was it over?

Buzz…

Suddenly! Bai Xiang heard a sharp, urgent cry in her ears.

Very faint, but extremely piercing. It didn’t even sound like something coming through normal hearing, but more like noise acting directly on the soul—something her mind received straight on.

Sss sss sss!

More strange sounds followed. Bai Xiang immediately layered her soul-arts onto her eyes and saw countless resentful spirits and remnant souls flying out of the dust below—at least ten thousand of them.

These didn’t seem like ordinary remnants.

Compared to all the remnants she’d encountered before, these were very different.

Their overall color was that of filthy, muddy blood—not just ordinary red—and they were more like real corpses, like blood-skeletons and blood-corpses you could only see from the soul’s perspective.

Each of these remnants had a terrifying face, as if they gathered all the malice a human expression could ever hold. Twisting, roaring, they dragged bloody trails as they circled and wheeled in the air above, their ill intent obvious at a glance.

“Heh.”

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Hearing the commotion, Bai Xiang lowered her gaze to see a pale-faced young man in an officer’s uniform walking forward, escorted by Chilong Circuit’s Watchman Xu Zhe.

“The Prince of Nanling, Yao Qingyuan?”

Bai Xiang demanded.

She could sense the black shadow coiling around this man.

The feeling was much like Bolou had given her, only a hundred or a thousand times stronger. Barring surprises, this should be the very same black shadow that had just possessed someone.

“It’s me.”

The young man—Yao Qingyuan—nodded.

“So the rumors about the Blood Sea are true.” Bai Xiang glanced at the “blood souls” all around, then down at the ground, where, as the dust cleared, an even larger array was revealed, one that nearly encompassed the entire southern military camp.

Yao Qingyuan turned to look at Xu Zhe.

Xu Zhe immediately bent at the waist. “It must have been that Huang Meng who leaked it…”

“It doesn’t matter.” Yao Qingyuan frowned. “No one can stop it anyway. For now, your offense is excused.”

“Thank you, Your Highness!” Xu Zhe lowered his head even further.

“Shenming’s Bai Xiang.” Yao Qingyuan looked to Bai Xiang again. “I’ll ask you one last time—will you swear allegiance to me?”

“His Highness values talent, that’s why he’s given you so many chances.” Xu Zhe also urged her. “You’ve seen how cold and ruthless Yujing is. ‘Rebellion’ might sound ugly, but if the alternative is being jerked around by that dog emperor, what’s so bad about bearing such infamy?”

“Well?”

“Girl Xiang, you’re proud by nature. Surely you’re not so devoted to Yujing that you’d gladly take up the cause of the Imperial House against a so-called national traitor?”

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“Sounds pretty on paper.” Bai Xiang looked at the two of them with cold eyes.

“So this ‘valuing talent’ means ripping out my soul and leaving only my body for your experiments, then draping my remains in my original skin, hanging me up like a pair of antlers on a wall?”

“…Then there’s nothing to discuss.” Yao Qingyuan frowned.

Bai Xiang knew a little too much, and that made him faintly uneasy.

Better to get rid of her early.

He made up his mind.

Normally, with such a distinctive woman, he’d want to preserve part of her soul and savor his fun for a while to make it worthwhile. But compared to his grand design, such things were clouds in the sky. He wasn’t particularly reluctant.

At a thought, tens of thousands of blood souls erupted into motion, diving at Bai Xiang and wrapping around her in three layers inside and out, forming a massive ball of blood.

“These are the ‘grievance blood remains’ of all who died to ‘Shenli’ in Chilong Circuit.” Yao Qingyuan raised his voice slightly, as if explaining it for Bai Xiang’s benefit.

“Your little aunt, Bai Nianchan, enjoyed the same treatment back then.”

“Just on a much smaller scale.”

“She couldn’t endure the torment, so she chose to take her own life.”

The blood sphere kept swelling and writhing. Countless blood souls howled as they wrapped around it, treating Bai Xiang like a life-and-death enemy, trying to squeeze into her body and tear her soul out to devour it.

Even Shangqing sword arts can’t hack through this many…

Yao Qingyuan watched the scene with leisure, finally letting his hanging heart drop.

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This way, the trouble in Chilong Circuit would be settled.

He’d even get Bai Xiang’s corpse. Later he’d have to mobilize all his people to examine it carefully, to see where her talent and mysteries came from…

Buzz…

“Mm?”

His brows twitched. Yao Qingyuan lifted them slightly, as if he’d heard some faint hum.

What was that sound?

Buzz… buzz… buzz… buzz—!!!!

Before he could react, the hum exploded into a deafening roar. All those blood souls screamed shrilly at once, and in the very center of the blood sphere a dark vortex appeared, sucking every last blood soul into itself, revealing Bai Xiang’s blurred silhouette—and the blood-colored sword in her hand.

This!!

How is that possible!???

Shoo!

All the grievance blood remains were swallowed clean by Feixiang Heaven. Bai Xiang drifted lightly to the ground and looked straight at the two men ahead.

Feixiang Heaven looked as if it had been steeped in a pool of blood—blade and hilt both scarlet. Even the sword-Qi swarming around her was stained red, and if you listened closely, you could faintly hear countless broken wails.

“How unfortunate.” Bai Xiang gently lifted the sword.

“I’m not the same as Bai Nianchan.”