Chapter 77: Blood Lotus Blooms, Netherworld Opens
The karmic fire steaming from the scorched earth had not yet dissipated when a bloodline from Su Yao's fingertip wrapped around the Ice Soul Sword's edge.
Lu Qingyang's Soul-Reaping Banner, thrust in diagonally, severed three blood threads, and when the evil ghost pattern on the banner surface bit Su Gu Niang's fair wrist, it made a sound like metal clashing: "Su Gu Niang, this Physical Body of yours, I'm afraid it's been gnawing on Profound Iron essence as a snack?"
"Fellow Daoist Qingyang, why don't you guess how many Nascent Soul Dao bodies I've devoured?" A crimson lotus bloomed with demonic light between Su Yao's eyebrows, and behind her, a nine-layered illusion of a sea of blood appeared.
The broken Magic Treasures floating in the blood waves were all Spiritual Artifacts that had been missing from Taiyi Pavilion for many years, and a Demon-Subduing Pestle, broken into three sections, suddenly stabbed towards Su Li's back.
Su Li spun around and threw out the Ice Soul Sword sheath; the moment the frost patterns froze the Demon-Subduing Pestle, twelve cold moon wheels flew out from her sleeve, shattering the blood sea illusion.
The jade hairpin in her hair cracked, and her three thousand strands of black hair turned silver-white: "Yao'er, when you stole the Guanghan Palace secret texts, did you ever read the last chapter of the 'Taiyin Corroding Soul Scripture'?"
"Sister, are you talking about this?" Su Yao tore open her robe, revealing an ice crystal embedded in her chest, sealing half of a damaged page inside.
The ice crystal, formed from Taiyin True Water, was actually stained by blood evil, seeping out spiderweb-like red patterns.
Lu Qingyang took the opportunity to snatch the half-section of the Golden Lotus Dharma Seat from the ground, and his eyes brightened as his knuckles tapped the base: "Good heavens, Old Ghost Ye hid the Dragon Vein essence in the cushion!"
Before he finished speaking, the Dharma Seat suddenly exploded with seventy-two Restrictions, and a golden Dragon illusion wrapped around his vital points.
The greedy wolf dagger slid out from his boot, its blade actually picking out three Soul-Devouring Nails along his Meridians.
Su Yao's laughter, wrapped in a fishy wind, swept over, and eight white bone arms stretched out from the blood sea illusion.
Each bone arm held a Demonic Weapon: the Hehuan Bell vibrated the Divine Soul, the Myriad Soul Banner summoned Yin soldiers, and the Saber Qi from the Blood-Transforming Divine Saber corroded through Lu Qingyang's protective Spiritual Light.
He flipped his hand and conjured a fragment of the Profound Yin Mirror; where the mirror light swept, dense Karma lines appeared on the white bone arms.
"So they're all fakes!" Lu Qingyang bit his tongue and spat on the greedy wolf dagger, which transformed into a three-zhang green light, severing the Karma lines, "I was wondering why the Hehuan Sect Saintess's bellyband was in your hands; turns out you stole the Thousand-Faced Gentleman's Illusory Truth Silk!"
Su Li's Ice Soul Sword pierced the core of the blood sea at this moment, its tip touching the crimson lotus between Su Yao's eyebrows.
Taiyin True Water flowed backward along the sword patterns, but upon touching the crimson lotus, it solidified into blood crystals.
Su Yao's pupils turned into vertical slits, and she opened her mouth to spit out a Nascent Soul wrapped in black fire—the Nascent Soul's face was none other than the Taiyi Pavilion Master who had fallen thirty years ago.
"Watch out for the Corpse Infant!" Lu Qingyang threw out twelve lightning talismans to form a net, but the qingmu spirit pearl suddenly flew uncontrollably towards the black fire Nascent Soul.
Cracks on the pearl's surface erupted with a faint glow, actually swallowing the black fire Nascent Soul into the pearl.
The chewing sounds emanating from within the pearl caused all birds and beasts within a hundred-mile radius to vanish, and even the blood sea waves froze in mid-air.
Su Yao took the opportunity to crush the jade pendant at her waist, and a giant bronze hand stretched out from a Void Realm crack.
The giant hand's knuckles were covered in Sanskrit, and its palm lines were a miniature version of the Taiyi Pavilion's mountain-protecting array.
Lu Qingyang dragged Su Li back thirty zhang; where they had stood, the giant hand had pressed a hundred-zhang deep pit, and a bronze altar emerged from the magma at the bottom of the pit.
"Nine Nether Soul-Guiding Array!" Su Li's sword tip picked up a smear of magma, and frost patterns drew a Guanghan Palace Restriction symbol in the Void Realm, "Yao'er, are you mad? Such a Demonic Array's backlash..."
"Sister is still so pedantic." Su Yao's toes touched the blood lotus at the center of the altar; on each of the twelve lotus petals, a Golden Core of a Nascent Soul Cultivator was pinned: "When you pushed me into the demon-transforming pond back then, did you ever consider today?"
Lu Qingyang was prying at the spiritual marrow on the edge of the altar with the greedy wolf dagger, and hearing this, he looked up: "Fairy Su, your sister's novel-like dialogue, could it be that she secretly learned from the Drunken Immortal Pavilion's storytellers?"
Ice Soul Sword Qi grazed his scalp, freezing three sneak-attacking bone spurs.
Su Li's fair hand pressed on the green sparrow pattern on the sword hilt, and moonlight emanated from her body: "Fellow Daoist Qingyang, if you speak nonsense again, the next sword will cut off your tongue."
"Cutting it off would be perfect; Ye Lingxiao's storage bracelet still has three Golden Core Stage snake demon fangs..." Lu Qingyang's voice abruptly stopped, as the qingmu spirit pearl suddenly exploded, and the Jianmu roots spewing from within wrapped around his right arm.
The raised wood grain beneath his skin frantically drew out vital blood, and in the blink of an eye, his entire arm withered like tree bark.
Su Yao shrieked, waving the Myriad Soul Banner, and one hundred thousand Yin soldiers, taking advantage of Jianmu's rampage, broke through the earth veins.
Lu Qingyang formed a hand seal with his left hand and struck his Dantian; the Golden Core illusion showed cracks, but erupted with an even fiercer devouring power.
The fragments of the Profound Yin Mirror formed a reverse Bagua array, channeling the Yin soldiers' grievances into the underground magma.
"Three steps in Kan position, no... five in Qian position..." He coughed blood foam, changing the array incantation, when the Jianmu roots suddenly turned and wrapped around Su Yao's ankle.
The greedy wolf dagger slipped from his hand, embedding itself in the altar's array core, and the Devouring Spirit Gu hidden in its blade frantically gnawed at the blood lotus's Foundation.
Su Li's Guanghan Palace secret art reached Perfection at this moment; Taiyin True Water condensed into a jade toad illusion, and the moment it leaped into the magma, it froze the entire bronze altar.
In the Spiritual Qi storm generated by the clash of ice and fire, Lu Qingyang, clinging to a half-section of Jianmu root, swung behind Su Yao, and when the tip of the Soul-Reaping Banner pierced her back neck, it sparked.
"As expected, she's wearing golden scale soft armor." He clicked his tongue, pulled out Ye Lingxiao's storage bracelet, and shook out seven armor-piercing cones: "Fairy Su, I need some of your heart blood!"
The Ice Soul Sword pricked Su Li's fingertip, and three drops of vital blood fell on the armor-piercing cones, glowing blue.
Lu Qingyang stepped in the Seven Stars Dipper steps, and the armor-piercing cones formed the Greedy Wolf Devouring Moon Array; the moment they pierced Su Yao's major acupoints, the crimson lotus between her eyebrows actually seeped black blood.
"You... how did you know..." Su Yao shrieked, transforming into a blood mist, but when she reformed her Physical Body, the Jianmu roots pierced her Heavenly Spirit.
The qingmu spirit pearl took the opportunity to fly back into Lu Qingyang's palm, and within the pearl, images of the devoured Nascent Soul's memories appeared.
Lu Qingyang wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and flicked his finger, shattering a certain memory light cluster: "So, when Su Gu Niang was raising Corpse Puppets in the Taiyi Pavilion Forbidden Land, she loved to use Hehuan Sect's Charming Fragrance to cover up the corpse stench?"
This last sentence became the final straw that broke Su Yao; she shrieked, detonating the blood sea illusion.
Lu Qingyang dragged Su Li onto the Profound Yin Mirror fragment, and the moment the mirror light tore open a Void Realm crack, the entire bronze altar was engulfed by blood flames.
When they fell out of the Void Realm, they landed in front of the Dragon-Breaking Stele at the Taiyi Pavilion ruins.
The names of previous pavilion masters on the stele were fading, and Lu Qingyang's fingertip ignited with netherworld fire, scorching the stele surface: "As expected, there's a second Dragon Vein hidden here."
Where the flames swept, the stele inscriptions transformed into nine golden flood Dragons that lunged at Su Li.
Su Li ran her fingers across the Ice Soul Sword's body, and the moon arc Sword Qi she cut out froze the golden flood Dragons.
Lu Qingyang, however, took the opportunity to plunge the Soul-Reaping Banner into the base of the stele; the evil ghosts on the banner surface gnawing at the Dragon Vein's Spiritual Qi made a grating sound: "To those who see it, how about Fairy Su takes sixty percent?"
"The Jianmu backlash in your arm has already invaded your heart Meridians." Su Li flicked her finger, sealing seven of his major acupoints, and Taiyin True Water flowed into his Meridians along the acupoints: "If you mess around again, next time we meet, I'll have to light an incense stick for you."
Lu Qingyang bared his teeth, enduring the pain of his Meridians freezing, but a memory pearl slipped from his sleeve: "Just now, when Su Gu Niang's Heart Demon acted up, she said some secrets of Guanghan Palace..." Before he finished speaking, the Ice Soul Sword was already at his neck, the chill from its blade cracking three of his eyelashes.
A muffled thunder suddenly echoed a thousand miles away, and the illusion of the Southern Border's Hundred Thousand Mountains appeared in the clouds.
Su Li sheathed her sword, looking at the rolling poisonous miasma in the sky: "Fellow Daoist Qingyang, have you heard of the Nine Li Witch Gu?"
"Fairy Su, are you saying..." Lu Qingyang crushed the blood scabs that had formed on his arm, the Jianmu roots wriggling under his skin, "the Witch clan's secret method that can resolve the Jianmu backlash?"
The wind stirred up the withered leaves on the scorched earth, their undersides covered in crimson Gu patterns.
Su Yao's sharp laughter came from deep within the earth veins, mixed with the lingering echoes of the bronze altar's collapse: "Sister, guess how many Incarnations I've buried in the Southern Border?"