Volume 5, Chapter 75 – Revival (Two-in-One)

Father!?

Before she could say anything, the terrified expression on Li Nanyun’s face was swallowed by the shadows inside the stone coffin. Her “entering the coffin” was like the activation of some ritual procedure. An invisible fluctuation suddenly descended, causing her face and body to swell up and burst apart as though they had been swept by microwaves.

Strangely, however, that destructive force was confined entirely within the coffin.

Not a single fragment of the exploded corpse was wasted or splashed outside the stone coffin. Even though there was nothing at all covering the top of it, it was as if some invisible barrier was there, naturally preventing Li Nanyun’s remains from breaking out.

“Li Ji? What are you doing?!”

Not everyone knew the plan. Among the team were people close to Li Ji in seniority, and when they saw this scene, they were shocked and furious. A thread of fear rose in their hearts as well.

At a moment like this, they finally woke from their wild elation and realized that the process of entering the ruin had gone a little too smoothly.

Combined with Li Ji’s abnormal behavior, the conclusion was obvious. He had known about these checkpoints in advance. He had also prepared a vicious plan beforehand, one that required sacrificing Li Nanyun to activate it.

“Great Jiuli, your descendant offers you this blood sacrifice…”

Li Ji paid those people no attention at all. He merely stood before the stone coffin, arms spread, upper body leaning back slightly, his face full of fanaticism as he looked up at the mural above.

Not a single person present could understand the language he was muttering. It seemed to be an ancient tongue, very likely the very cuneiform carved into the murals.

Thud.

With a muffled sound, an elderly man with white in his beard shot out from the team and drove a dagger through Li Ji’s body from behind.

But it was already too late.

Far too late.

Before the old man could even breathe a sigh of relief, he suddenly felt Li Ji’s body trembling, trembling and letting out a strange laugh at the same time.

“Above…”

“Look above…”

What was he saying?

The old man froze and instinctively looked up, only to discover that the wall behind the stone coffins, along with the mural carvings extending upward, had become clear on their own despite the lack of light, as though they themselves were radiating brightness, revealing to them a gigantic mural.

It depicted a massive demon bird with nine heads. One head stood upright in the center, while the other eight were arranged to either side. The arrangement was exactly the same as that of the stone coffins below.

This “self-illumination” rapidly spread from the mural to all the carvings. Even the ground beneath everyone’s feet lit up, allowing them to clearly see that the engraved patterns were writhing, slowly writhing like living things.

Someone immediately tried to turn and flee.

They abandoned all desire for the inheritance. Driven by fear, they wanted only to escape the underground as quickly as possible. But just as they were about to reach the gate, they stopped.

Their bodies would not move.

As the carvings underfoot continued to writhe, tiny growths like fleshy tendrils sprouted from them. They swiftly crawled up those people’s bodies, locking down their legs and even their lower halves, pinning them firmly in place.

Whoosh!

Little Seven, who was standing near one of the stone coffins, suddenly saw the meat pulp inside rear up. It rose like a cobra lifting itself at the sound of a snake charmer’s flute, using part of its body to support what passed for a head. That soft, rotten mass of flesh with no structure at all began dancing in midair.

The same thing happened in every coffin in turn. Under the crowd’s gaze, their fear nearly tangible, the pulp that had once been Li Nanyun in the ninth coffin at the center also rose up and joined the rhythm of the other writhing masses.

Hiss, hiss!

Suddenly, all the dancing meat pulp stopped. Their upper portions abruptly caved inward and spread apart, revealing hollow openings. An invisible force began gathering there. At first it was only a tiny point of light, but it quickly grew larger and larger, forming a huge fireball.

What… what in the world was this thing?

Rеαd оn КatRеαdіոɡСаfe

As the fireballs took shape, the old man restraining Li Ji immediately felt a scorching heat rushing at him. He stared wide-eyed at the monster before him, only to see that fireball slowly turning, like an eyeball, until a vertical pupil faced forward.

There was no hope left.

As the nine vertical pupils emerged and cast intersecting gazes throughout the hall, every living thing touched by that gaze, whether the humans of this team, including Li Ji and the others, or even the lingering microorganisms they had brought in, everything burst in that instant into blood and fluid, then split evenly into nine portions and flowed into the nine stone coffins.

Hiss…

The burning giant eyes swiftly went out. All the flesh fell back into the coffins, which closed together with their lids as though gestating something.

Creak…

A long sigh echoed through the hall. The emotion within it seemed to have crossed ten thousand years of time, like something that had died in a savage age at last breaking free of its confinement and breathing its first breath of the living world once more.

The writhing on the mural gradually stopped, and all the light faded, leaving only the nine pairs of eyes painted there.

Gradually, even those eyes went dark. Then, amid the rumbling sound of coffins opening, nine “flesh men” sat up from inside the stone coffins at the same time.

The “flesh men” were all exactly the same height and shape. They were monsters with no solid flesh or skin at all. At most they were humanoid. Their faces did not even have features, making them look more like clay figures made of flesh-colored rotten mud.

In perfect synchronization, they stepped out of the coffins and walked toward the very center of the radiating carvings at exactly the same pace. Then they compressed together in an instant, all the rotten flesh merging into one.

Plop. Plop.

A sticky, nauseating sound echoed through the darkness.

After a long while, a young and beautiful face suddenly surfaced. It was none other than Li Nanyun, who should have exploded to pieces and died.

“I… this is… the main world…?”

The reborn Li Nanyun seemed utterly unfamiliar with this new world. Her body was terribly stiff, and even speaking was awkward and labored. Strange crackling sounds leaked out between every word, making anyone who heard them feel dizzy.

But very quickly, she adapted.

Having obtained the accumulated memories of all the sacrifices, she understood and comprehended many things, and a trace of wonder appeared in her eyes.

“So many years have passed since the Bahuang clan sealed me here.”

“The strength of the human race seems to have become extremely feeble. Aside from those tribes that needed to rely on me to obtain power, the other tribes seem to have vanished from the earth.”

“This is the influence of the Void Tribulation, and even more the power of time.”

“Demon and human co-rule… Emperor Feng…”

“The sealing off of heaven and earth… Yao Yu…”

“Commanding heaven and earth… Di Xiang…”

“So that is how it is. It seems someone disturbed the ‘rules,’ causing all the fragments to begin returning. Only then was this ruin completed.”

“Oh… or rather, I should say, ‘my temple.'”

As she stood there sorting through her memories, Li Nanyun suddenly lifted her head and saw a bald, dark-skinned man walking out from the black doorway ahead.

It was not black in the sense of ethnicity, but a deep bronze-dark hue, its surface marked with cuneiform symbols drawn in blood.

The bald dark-skinned man walked up to her and knelt without a word, offering up a devout invocation.

“Great Jiuli.”

“I am Rong Wen, the chieftain of this generation of the Liren clan.”

Rеaⅾ oո ΚαtRеаdіnɡСαfе

“It was I who presided over the ritual of your return.”

“I know,” Li Nanyun said to him calmly. “I saw everything. But the quality of the sacrifices was far too poor. I cannot project all of my power here.”

As she spoke, she raised her right arm. Dense little holes of flesh suddenly burst open across its surface, turning it into a honeycomb in an instant, a sight so ghastly it made one’s scalp crawl.

But if a Sage had been here, they would have identified it at once. This was the power of microscopic airbursts.

This resurrected demon clearly understood that knowledge and also knew how to wield it. It was just that the strength of her physical body was still insufficient, not enough to bear the power itself.

“The Qingyun Demon Saint learned of your impending return and has specially deployed two armies outside to await you.”

The bald, dark-skinned man, Rong Wen, was not surprised in the least by her complaint and immediately offered more information.

“Everything has been prepared solely to welcome your descent. Once you go outside, you may eat as much as you please.”

“Armies?” Li Nanyun frowned. “I am already tired of the fishy stench of demon-beast flesh.”

She stared at her right arm as the flesh there immediately began to regrow and restore itself. Then she said, “Perhaps it is because I was born from a vortex of Loss of Order. Compared with demon-beast flesh of the same source, devouring humans brings me greater delight.”

“Perhaps this is what humans call the mutual complement of yin and yang.”

“‘Loss of Order’ and ‘preserving order’ are like two sides of the Heavenly Dao’s laws. Neither side can ignore the other’s separate existence. They are drawn to each other involuntarily.”

“This is the Heavenly Dao. What do you think…?”

At those words, Li Nanyun turned her gaze on Rong Wen. He immediately became visibly tense, sweat beading on his bald forehead.

He realized that if his answer here was wrong in the slightest, the deity he worshiped would instantly eat him.

“There are some…” he said, struggling to keep his voice steady. “In fact, the Qingyun Demon Saint already anticipated your needs. We can accompany you south and eat our way along the Eastern Xia fortresses until your strength is replenished…”

“Then what are we waiting for?”

Li Nanyun ran her tongue across her lips.

“Eastern Xia? That seems to be the nation of that Di Xiang.”

“Entering sainthood by proving the Dao in a single year. That is even more outrageous than Bahuang Terrace.”

“I am very curious about her and her people.”

His vision blurred. Rong Wen felt a hand clamp around his throat and lift him up, as though his whole body were flying through the air.

And yet, he quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

No matter what, he had survived in the end.

…

“Strange… the villages and towns along the way are all empty?”

At the same time, in a desolate stretch of wilderness, a small flying vessel had come to a stop on the ground. The people inside had gotten out, examined the traces in the area, and begun discussing them among themselves.

This was Xu Shu’s advance party. During the first half of the journey, they had constantly jumped through space in pursuit of the Qingyun Army, trying to catch up with them as quickly as possible. Only after a day and a half did that pace finally slow. Nearby Illusory Realm rifts were already present, which caused the void to become unstable. Forcing a small flying vessel to make jumps in such conditions was risky. Not only was it hard to control the exact landing point, the vessel could even be torn apart by the void.

“I don’t see what’s strange about it.”

“The Qingyun Army has always been ruthless toward the human race. Isn’t it normal for them to pass through these villages and slaughter everyone?”

The one who had called it strange was Guo Feng, and naturally the one refuting him like this was Lu Zheng.

Reaⅾ oո ΚаtRеαԁіnɡСafе

These two had never gotten along because of their attitudes toward Chang Ling. At first, it had been about the issue rather than the person, but now it was gradually getting worse.

“You don’t understand.”

Guo Feng said those three words with careful emphasis, then cast Lu Zheng a look that seemed to say, so you’re this ignorant and pitiable, before shaking his head.

“Any village that dares live on its own in a place like this probably has problems to begin with. Anybody with half a brain should know that getting inside a fortress is definitely safer than staying out here.”

“Even so, what does that have to do with what you said before?!”

Embarrassed and furious, Lu Zheng kept arguing. “I think you’re just wasting everyone’s time!”

“Junior Brother Guo is right.”

Bai Changze suddenly cut in. “Any normal person who could enter a city would definitely do so. Wilderness villages like these have no defenses against voidfiends at all. The reason these people remain here is that they have been too deeply contaminated. They can no longer be considered purely human.”

“‘Half-demonization’… is that what it’s called?”

Chang Ling murmured to herself from where she stood.

She had heard of that phenomenon too. It referred to people who had failed to enter cities in time and had been too deeply affected by the Illusory Gods of Demon Pools out in the wilderness. Their minds had already become unlike those of ordinary people, and on the spiritual level they had begun assimilating with the Demon Pool.

Such “strange people” often existed in many Demon Pool tales. For the time being, they were still classified as human, yet they could move freely in and out of Demon Pools. There had even been cases where “strange people” saved living people who had wandered into Demon Pools, and that was mostly because these “strange people” themselves had deep ties to the Demon Pools.

For example, they might once have been kin or lovers of “the source of the Demon Pool.”

A Demon Pool was “soul energy so concentrated by obsession that it refused to disperse,” a phenomenon formed when that energy was interfered with by Loss of Order. In some cases, after a person died, they would quickly become a Demon Pool, while their relatives or lovers, unable to bear leaving because of the depth of their feelings, would refuse to evacuate. They would rather be deceived by the Demon Pool and continue living inside the illusion it wove than wake up. In general, the Demon Pool would not harm them either.

It was an extremely bizarre symbiosis. During the process, those people would gradually be contaminated by the Demon Pool, their souls becoming distorted. Over time, even their fleshly bodies would change. They truly could no longer be considered purely human.

In society, this phenomenon was called “half-demonization,” and many universities had specialized research courses devoted to it.

Rejected by civilized society, such people could only gather and live in places far from fortress cities.

“Villages of the half-demonized usually aren’t specifically targeted.” Bai Changze crouched and pinched up a handful of dirt before continuing, “Because there’s no point. The voidfiends know those people will eventually twist into true monsters anyway. They don’t mind that process happening. In fact, they would be happy to see it, so they don’t harm them. And we won’t wipe them out over it either, because the Demon Pools entangled with them make the ethics here very complicated.”

As for what those moral concerns were, there was no need to ask. They were nothing more than the same old topics everyone already knew.

“Is it really just a matter of moral concern?”

Zhu Sheng had been listening quietly from the side the whole time. Now he suddenly asked Bai Changze, “If you were willing to use thirty thousand civilians as bait just to arrange the extermination of that demon army, then as kin of that General Bai, your vision shouldn’t be this shallow.”

Hm?

Everyone else looked over, surprise in their eyes.

Liu Yong and Zhang Donglai were surprised that Zhu Sheng, who had kept such a low profile along the way, had suddenly turned so sharp. The others were surprised by the information revealed in Zhu Sheng’s words.

General Bai. There was no question that the only person who could be referred to with that suffix alone was Bai Tingyun, the supreme commander of the Tianji defensive line.

So Bai Changze was his kin?

No wonder. That explained Bai Changze’s extensive travel experience.

“You’re right.”

Bai Changze paused in surprise, then relaxed.

“I was being sentimental.”

“The main reason we don’t touch them isn’t moral concern. It’s that they’re simply too weak.”

Rеaԁ оո KαtRеaԁіnɡСаfе

Too weak.

So weak that they were not worth sullying one’s morals over.

“So that’s the general situation, then.” Xu Shu summed up and looked at Guo Feng. “You think it was very abnormal for the Qingyun Army to wipe out these villages?”

“Not wipe out,” Guo Feng corrected. “We’ve seen it all along the way. There isn’t much blood in those villages and towns. The people were taken alive.”

Taken alive?

The group frowned.

That term was deeply unsettling.

Combined with the news that the Qingyun Army had suddenly headed north to join up with another voidfiend army, it made things seem even stranger.

“I propose we temporarily hold off on moving and not rashly follow them.”

Guo Feng continued, “We can wander around the perimeter first, see whether there are any demon villages nearby or anything like that, then capture a few lesser demons and interrogate them. They might know something.”

“Not a bad suggestion.” Xu Shu nodded and looked at the others. “Anyone object?”

The proposal was simply too reasonable. It was so reasonable that even Lu Zheng could not find words to oppose it, so he merely turned his head aside to show he would not take part in the discussion.

“Then it’s decided.” Xu Shu waved a hand. “Guo Feng, Bai Changze, Liu Yong, Zhu Sheng, Zhang Donglai, the five of you stay with me and search for demons. Everyone else, get back on the flying vessel with your Senior Sister Chen.”

Hm?

Only then did Lu Zheng panic. He opened his mouth, wanting to say that he could stay outside too.

“The people on the flying vessel need protection as well.” Xu Shu fixed his gaze on Lu Zheng’s face. “That’s an order.”

Fine.

Lu Zheng’s mouth twitched, and he boarded the vessel in obvious displeasure.

It’s good for young people to have some temper, but at a critical moment, you’d better be able to tell what matters most.

Xu Shu watched his back disappear, then turned his head and found that Zhu Sheng had already started chatting with Bai Changze.

“Have you been to this place before?”

“Do you know where there might be a demon village nearby?”

“Mm…”

Zhu Sheng was being too enthusiastic.

Bai Changze was slightly unaccustomed to it.

Still, he nodded and said, “I’ve never come this far myself, but I heard my uncle mention that beyond the hill ahead, there should be a small river. There ought to be demons living near it…”

Not bad.

Seeing that, Xu Shu nodded slightly to himself.

The team’s atmosphere was coming together.

Now they needed a bit of luck.