Chapter 191: Corpse-Sewing Garment

Not since the establishment of Bianliu County had there been a Fourth Tier battle on such a massive scale.

The sky darkened as the very winds and clouds changed color.

Violent Weird Energy rippled outward in endless rings from Feinan Temple, kicking up a massive sandstorm that completely swallowed the county.

Residents cowered inside their shops, their hearts in their throats as they peered through the cracks in their doors at the sunless sky. Most knew only a fraction of the truth behind the conflict, leaving them completely baffled as to how things had escalated to this point.

A select few, however, knew a little more. They understood that this chaotic clash was actually a coordinated siege by a group of Fourth Tier experts intent on killing Wei Nantian.

Except... the battle that was supposed to be a swift and effortless victory was proving to be anything but.

That terrifying figure, towering over a dozen meters tall, stood proudly in the center of the city. Even as the wounds across his body multiplied, his imposing aura only blazed brighter. A thunderous roar tore from his throat:

"Come! Kill!!!"

...

Before the pillar of light to the north.

Bi Jie looked at the sudden arrival of Bai Qiu and smiled.

"Oh! If it isn't Boss Bai. Are you here hunting for treasure too?"

Bai Qiu's expression was exceptionally dark, but he forced himself to remain patient as he spoke:

"You're not a simple man, Boss Bi. It doesn't seem like you returned to Bianliu County just to visit relatives, like you claimed."

As he spoke, he took a step forward, closing the distance between them. Weird Energy surged in the palm gripping his walking stick.

"Heh. Boss Bai, you've been investigating me for so long, and you still haven't figured out my background? Surely not," Bi Jie replied with a chuckle.

"You know exactly where every single carriage of opium in Minhu is shipped. You're just flattering me."

...

A hint of gloom flashed through Bai Qiu's eyes, and his advancing footsteps came to a halt.

He finally knew where Bi Jie was from.

No wonder his investigation had yielded no progress lately. Bi Jie belonged to East Lake Prefecture.

The man standing before him was an official cultivator.

For Lake Prefecture to send someone all the way down to Bianliu County, this man was either a regional inspector, or... he had been sent here specifically to investigate him, Bai Qiu.

Judging from the current situation, the latter was far more likely.

"Boss Bi, everything is up for negotiation," Bai Qiu said with a smile.

"Things have already reached this point. Is there really anything left to negotiate?"

Bi Jie chuckled, pointing at the pillar of light beside him.

Beneath that pillar of light was a massive dirt pit.

The contents were obscured by a dark glow, making them hard to see clearly, but one could vaguely make out the shapes of several human figures...

"It's just you and me right now. If you're willing, Mr. Bi, this pit could be nothing more than a place to bury trash," Bai Qiu said with a smile.

"And if I'm not willing?"

Bi Jie looked at Bai Qiu.

"Why wouldn't you be?" Bai Qiu smiled. "Just say the word on what you want, Mr. Bi. I'll see if I have it. If I do, I will hand it over personally."

"And if you don't?"

"If I don't, I'll find it, and then hand it over personally."

Bai Qiu let out a hearty laugh. "There are very few things in Bianliu County that I, Bai Qiu, cannot get my hands on."

"How grand of you, Boss Bai."

Bi Jie nodded, staring back at him. "Since that's the case, I don't want much."

"I just want the head of the lord of Baile Manor."

BOOM!!!

A massive explosion echoed through the distant sky. It was Wei Nantian. The great saber in his hands violently clashed with a giant bell summoned by the abbot of Feinan Temple.

In that instant, the sound rolled like thunder, providing a dramatic backdrop to their conversation.

Bai Qiu looked up at Bi Jie, his gaze turning incredibly dark.

"So there is no room for negotiation, Boss Bi."

"Wasn't what I just said a negotiation?"

Bi Jie smiled.

As his words fell, the atmosphere between them instantly grew more suffocating and murderous than the chaotic Fourth Tier brawl raging outside Feinan Temple.

...

In the southern part of Bianliu County.

Yan Jing sprinted rapidly across the rooftops. He had already stowed the Thorn away. Whenever he reached the edge of a roof, dark threads would manifest in his hands. Concealed by Weird Energy, they shot out to the opposite eaves, pulling his body across the gap.

A group of figures pursued him relentlessly from behind. They were the elite members of various factions who had just tried to intercept him, only to be bypassed.

"No good, he's too fast."

A cloth cultivator stopped in his tracks. He wasn't a cultivator who excelled in physical prowess to begin with. Faced with Yan Jing's continuous acceleration, he felt his stamina hitting its limit and had to stop.

"Don't panic! Someone has already circled around to the front to block his path. Keep chasing!"

A carving cultivator spoke up. He wasn't great with stamina either, but he had received word that an aroma cultivator and a killing cultivator from the Wu Faction had bypassed the chase to ambush him ahead.

As long as they could trap the human, they would eventually find a way to whittle down his ring of light.

And even if they couldn't find a way, they still had to prevent him from claiming that so-called 'treasure.'

At that moment, the sprinting Yan Jing suddenly sensed danger and looked up at the eaves diagonally ahead.

Two people stood there, flanking the roof on the left and right.

One wore a long-sleeved cloth shirt, holding a stack of paper money in his left hand and carrying a massive incense candle over his right shoulder.

The other wore a short jacket and shorts, gripping a pair of sabers as a bloody aura swirled around his body.

At this point, he was only a few hundred meters away from the pillar of light. With Yan Jing's current burst of speed, crossing that distance would only take seconds.

Which meant that these two were his final obstacles.

The aroma cultivator lightly waved the stack of paper money in his hand. It ignited without a spark, and gloomy black flames danced in the wind.

Translucent soul bodies materialized around him one after another, while the paper money in the aroma cultivator's hands continued to multiply.

These were the Life Coins he had accumulated over the years. Right now, under orders from his superiors, he was throwing caution to the wind to stop Yan Jing. Even though his heart bled at the cost, the flames in his hands burned brighter and brighter.

The soul bodies showed no intention of attacking Yan Jing; they simply barricaded his path. If Yan Jing initiated an attack, his final three points of Mental Immunity Value would be completely wiped out.

But just then, a fierce gale from a punch blasted in from the side, instantly blowing a massive hole straight through the high wall of souls.

The aroma cultivator's face paled. He looked to the side and saw a tall, burly figure draped in a long robe standing there, holding a Smoking Pipe. He pointed it toward them from afar:

"I carved out this mountain!"

As his words fell, another robed figure leapt out from the other side:

"I planted this tree!"

After shouting, the figure swayed and nearly lost his footing. Fortunately, the first figure reached out and steadied him, allowing him to barely stand firm.

Even so, once he found his balance, his voice was loud and brimming with momentum:

"If you want to pass through here..."

"Leave behind your wealth to buy your lives!"

After the burly figure finished the final line, he raised both hands and struck a boxing stance. Violent Weird Energy surged, and in an instant, two giant phantom fists materialized in front of him.

The next second, the ferocious fists crashed into the soul wall like a tidal wave.

The other figure also transformed in an instant, directly morphing into a giant.

In fact, he looked even larger than the distant Wei Nantian.

The aroma cultivator and the killing cultivator immediately paled at the sight.

For a moment, both assumed that Wei Nantian's backup had arrived.

And it wasn't just them.

At that moment, the group of Fourth Tier experts at Feinan Temple, as well as Bai Qiu and Bi Jie to the north, all had flickering gazes, entirely caught off guard and plunged into suspicion.

There are still more experts?!!

Taking advantage of Old Man and Tiger intimidating the crowd, Yan Jing launched into a sprint and leapt straight through the massive hole in the soul wall.

As he brushed past Old Man, the elder muttered in a low voice, "What you want is right beside the pillar of light."

"Understood."

Yan Jing was currently in his original body.

However, he had crossed paths with Old Man once before. When Old Man had come to the Sun-Swallowing Tower to provide clues, Yan Jing had been present.

The two men brushed past each other.

Old Man paused for a moment. After throwing a punch, he turned his head and shot a glance at Yan Jing.

This scene had clearly never happened in his memories, yet it gave him a striking sense of déjà vu.

It wasn't the visual itself, but the feeling of it.

What's going on?

However, he only hesitated for a second before throwing himself right back into the fight.

He was very old, after all. It was normal for him to forget or mix things up.

In just those few short seconds, Yan Jing had already reached the side of the pitch-black pillar of light.

This pillar of light was, naturally, Old Man's doing.

Initially, Old Man had refused to reveal this plan to 'Yi Ji' and Tiger. But looking at it now, Tiger had ended up joining the fray after all.

Ever since their last run-in at Old Sin City, Tiger seemed to have developed an addiction to this sort of thrill.

Yan Jing ran up beside the pillar of light, where a livid, bluish-gray corpse lay on the ground.

Naturally, it was Wei Bufan's corpse.

Wei Nantian had recovered this corpse over ten days ago, and had kept it resting in the room right next to his own.

Yan Jing stared down at the corpse. Over the past few days, he had spent every night mentally simulating what he was about to do to ensure nothing would go wrong. But in the end, there was always a gap between simulation and live combat.

He exhaled heavily.

Thousands of dark threads surged from Yan Jing's eyes. Guided by his thoughts, they drifted nimbly through the air, slowly pouring into Wei Bufan's body.

The instant the first thread made contact with the center of Wei Bufan's brow, the corpse visibly twitched.

Then, its originally livid complexion gradually began to regain a rosy hue.

Yan Jing's eyes deepened profoundly, Weird Energy surging across his entire body. He appeared motionless on the outside, but with a mere thought, he simultaneously manipulated thousands of threads to begin stitching Wei Bufan's body back together.

Corpse-Sewing Garment.

At this moment, the Wei Bufan lying before him was no longer just a simple corpse in Yan Jing's eyes. Instead, he appeared in an incredibly clear and bizarre state.

Every fiber of muscle and every single bone was laid bare in crystal clarity. The pitch-black threads swam through his flesh, re-stitching every bone and restoring every wound.

By the end of it, the Wei Bufan lying on the ground didn't look like a corpse at all.

Not only had his complexion turned rosy again, but his entire body had regained a trace of vitality.

He looked as if he had merely fallen into a deep sleep.

A few minutes later, once all the wounds on Wei Bufan's body were fully mended, the pitch-black threads began to gradually split apart. After a portion of them embedded into his muscles, the remaining threads divided even further until they were gossamer thin. Flowing together like liquid, they injected themselves directly into Wei Bufan's blood vessels.

"Mgh..."

Wei Bufan's body gave a violent shudder. Then, he slowly sat up and opened his eyes.