Chapter 115
Chapter 115
“Stand behind me.”
Xia Ximo took a step forward, tilted her head slightly, and swept her gaze over the giant monstrous flower from top to bottom. Then she spat out three words. “Still ugly.”
The Soul-Ferrying Lantern trembled. Wuyou shivered inside it. “My dear lady, stop calling it ugly! If it eats us in a moment, it won’t even spit out our bones!”
The Soul-Devouring Flower was, in the end, still “a flower.”
It had only grown into this half-yin, half-yang appearance because it lived on the Yin-Yang Boundary.
Though, admittedly, it was rather ugly.
The giant flower seemed to react violently to the word “ugly.” Its bloody maw opened wide, large enough to swallow ten Xia Ximos with room to spare.
Yet the person before it remained utterly fearless despite the enormous difference in size.
To be precise, she simply did not take it seriously at all.
Humiliated and enraged, the Soul-Devouring Flower shed its leaves one by one onto the ground. Like snakes, they slithered toward Xia Ximo and Ren Fengjue.
Wuyou hurriedly said, “Before the Soul-Devouring Flower devours a soul, it first wraps the soul up like a snake…”
The bud was enormous, so the leaves were naturally enormous as well. Even a single leaf was more than enough to wrap the two of them up.
But the Soul-Devouring Flower had once been defeated by Xia Ximo. It had only survived thanks to the tenacious regenerative power of its true body.
It did not dare underestimate them. It simply sent down all of its leaves. Even if it could not swallow their souls, it would destroy their bodies!
When dozens of massive leaves densely surrounded them, escape became impossible. Even breathing felt oppressive.
Ren Fengjue still instinctively moved to shield Xia Ximo behind him.
He touched his waist, found nothing there, and only then remembered that he had removed the protective dagger when he entered the palace for an audience during the day.
So his gaze swept over her, and he reached out to pull a plain silver hairpin from Xia Ximo’s coiffure.
“Let me borrow your hairpin.”
Ren Fengjue gripped the hairpin in reverse, his gaze cold and sharp. Then, before Xia Ximo could react, he cut open his own palm.
In a low voice, he said, “Daoist Yan once said my blood can slay a Vengeful Ghost or Evil Spirit. Today is the perfect chance to test it.”
“…”
Then, moving with incredible speed, he drove the hairpin into the sweeping leaves and, with all his strength, slashed sideways.
In that instant, it was almost possible to hear the veins of the leaves make a crisp sound as they split apart.
And those cracks spread rapidly, like flames licking across dry grass…
There was even a scorched smell in the air.
In just a few breaths, all the leaves had turned to ash.
Under the night sky, the Soul-Devouring Flower, left with only its stem and bud, looked as though it had been stripped of its clothing.
It was now even more strangely ugly.
Xia Ximo glanced at the silver hairpin in Ren Fengjue’s hand.
Within his Pure Yang Blood, there was also a special aura mixed in. It would have no trouble dealing with any evil entity in the world.
She narrowed her eyes, only then realizing that this special aura flowed through his bloodline. It had long since become one with him.
Wuyou shook even harder inside the lantern. “Mogu, hurry up and stay away from him. Just smelling that blood makes me feel like my soul is about to ascend to the heavens!”
Xia Ximo took a few steps back. “You’re already hiding inside the lantern, and you’re still afraid?”
Wuyou was both terrified and frustrated.
He thought to himself, Of everyone present, which one of you wouldn’t scare a ghost half to death?
Its leaves destroyed, the Soul-Devouring Flower was shocked and furious. It fixed its gaze on Ren Fengjue as Baleful Qi gathered around it, as if it had decided to drag them down with it.
But just then, a white shadow swept through the air. Like a wisp of smoke and cloud, it carried the Soul-Devouring Flower away.
Immediately after, two shadows, one black and one white, tried to flee.
Seeing this, Xia Ximo quietly worked the fingers of one hand, fixing the two Vengeful Ghosts’ “nine apertures” in place. With her other hand, she “locked onto” the bloodstained silver hairpin in Ren Fengjue’s hand.
Her ten fingers clenched. The silver hairpin shot through the air and plunged straight into the black shadow.
The white shadow froze in midair. Then it could only watch as the black shadow beside it turned to ash.
In that instant, the white shadow was filled with shock, grief, and rage. It tore free of the restraint with its soul power, then turned back and glared at Ren Fengjue and Xia Ximo, as though determined to carve their faces into memory.
Immediately after, it streaked upward like a wisp of smoke and vanished into one of the moons.
“Where did it go?”
Just then, another figure came rushing toward them through the fog.
Xia Ximo and Ren Fengjue both recognized Yan Zhengchu’s voice and turned to look.
“Daoist Yan?”
Since he had appeared here, that meant he had entered the Marquis Mansion as well.
Yan Zhengchu followed their voices and hurried over.
He held a sword in one hand and a talisman pinched between the fingers of the other, looking as though he were ready for a full-on battle.
“Young Marquis? Are you two all right? And where is Manager Bai?”
He fired off three questions in one breath.
Only then did Ren Fengjue realize that the white shadow had been Bai Qingshuang.
He said, “She’s already fled.”
Yan Zhengchu swept his gaze around the area and was just about to use a Tracking Spell to give chase when the ground beneath their feet began to tremble again.
This time, it felt different from the warning signs before the Soul-Devouring Flower had burst from the earth.
The tremors now were more like the entire barrier was about to collapse.
From inside the lamp, Wuyou shouted, “Oh no! The Vengeful Ghost who set up the Prajna Realm is dead, so the Illusionary Realm definitely can’t hold much longer!”
“We have to find the exit as soon as possible!”
“Mogu, hurry and ask that Daoist from Mount Yunhe. He should have a way!”
Xia Ximo glanced at Yan Zhengchu. She did not exactly think he could be relied on, but she still asked, “This Illusionary Realm is about to collapse. Do you have any way to get out?”
“Huh?”
Yan Zhengchu was utterly bewildered. “How would I know that!?”
Wuyou: “…”
Xia Ximo cast him a sidelong look, faintly disdainful. “Don’t you have an incantation for breaking Illusionary Realms?”
Yan Zhengchu looked troubled again. “For ordinary illusions, the spirit enters while the body remains outside. Those are easy to break.”
“But something like this… where we’ve entered with our bodies? This is my first time seeing it.”
“However…”
Inside the lamp, Wuyou was so anxious it was practically spinning in circles. That single word, “however,” nearly gave it a glimpse of hope.
Xia Ximo and Ren Fengjue asked at the same time, “However what?”
Yan Zhengchu said guiltily, “However, after thinking about it, although this barrier was formed through a Soul Art, like any formation, it should still have a core.”
“As long as we can find that core, I have a way to break the formation and get us out.”
As they spoke, the tremors grew even more violent, nearly knocking them off their feet.
Ren Fengjue reached out and, without drawing attention to it, supported Xia Ximo by one elbow. Aloud, he said, “The place Manager Bai escaped into just now was that moon. Could the formation core be related to it?”
At this, Yan Zhengchu clapped his hands and cried out in praise.
“Exactly! There are two moons, so one of them must be fake…”
He began pacing back and forth, pinching his chin in thought, looking as though he were racking his brains.
Xia Ximo suddenly asked, “What time is it outside right now?”
Yan Zhengchu had just come in from outside, so naturally he knew best. He quickly made an estimate. “If I remember correctly, it should be one quarter into the hour of Hai…”
Then he counted on his fingers. “One quarter into the hour of Hai-the moon should be slightly east of southeast, and it should be a last-quarter moon!”