Su Xiaoxiao’s tomb was a duality of yin and yang, comprised of both a true tomb and a false one. The false tomb was safer, but it contained some of the doctor’s burial goods. Thus, the stronger Guanqing had been chosen to guard that tomb.
Killing Beigong Chonglou and the others inside the false tomb was as easy as getting her to manifest. Not everyone could be as unaffected by the immortal ghost as the Deaf Prince, after all.
Sometimes, hearing was much scarier than seeing. Many of the horror movies back on Earth were considerably less frightening with their audio turned off. An immortal ghost began with sound to strike fear into people’s hearts, its quiet murmurs capable of evoking the most primal kind of dread from the living. Moreover, Tinglan surmised that Guanqing had probably become a poison ghost too, so she could kill with her venom just as easily as her spectral abilities.
……
Inside the bubble, all was well and wonderful. Row after row of immortal fruits and herbs lined the garden; among them, Lu Yun saw a number of main ingredients used in the Tribulation Surrogate Pill. The laws of immortal dao remained intact in these herbs; clearly, the microcosm belonged to the ancient world.
This was Su Xiaoxiao’s herb garden.
As the first prince of the North Sea, Beigong Chonglou was a peerless immortal. However, his realm seemed a bit unstable—unmistakable evidence that he had forcibly and hastily broken through. He was surrounded by many other immortals, who devoted themselves to carefully packing away the garden’s herbs.
“This bubble is like a mirror.” Lu Yun noticed the truth as soon as he got closer. “The microcosm isn’t here.”
The Deaf Prince balled up his fists and grit his teeth. His jaw was so tightly clamped together that his gums bled.
“But, since the bubble is showing us a picture of what’s over there, we should be able to send them something from where we are!” Lu Yun turned to his furry friend. “Little fox, conceal this place with your mirage arts. Don’t let the things within the yin energy come in here!”
The little fox nodded. Her watery blue eyes glittered with a dreamlike radiance as power rippled outward from her form. As a golden immortal, she’d reached a new realm with her illusions. Even some kinds of the walking dead were susceptible to them now—zombies, for example.
As long as the unknown entities within the yin energy miasma didn’t enter here, they wouldn’t recognize the images’ illusory nature.
Although Lu Yun and the others noticed no difference, where they were now appeared to be stuffed to the brim with corpses. The little fox’s illusions fooled sight, sound, scent, and touch. Any observer who didn’t surpass her in cultivation would lose themselves in her phantasms.
“The Scroll of Shepherding Immortals, please.” Lu Yun said quietly, glancing at his friend.
Qing Han quickly grasped his friend’s intentions and unfurled the blank scroll with a wave of his hand. The treasure’s power instantly filled the air, drastically changing the surrounding environment within an eighteen meter radius.
Lu Yun wanted to set up a feng shui layout here, rather than a formation. A formation might create unintended layouts that conflicted with the feng shui that was already present inside the tomb. Directly setting up a feng shui layout guaranteed that potential problems wouldn’t arise, and the two he wanted were ‘Soulcalling’ and ‘Mirage’. The environment here wasn’t conducive to their setup, which meant he had to make a few changes.
That was where the scroll came in.
Under the tutelage of Empress Myrtlestar, Qing Han could easily make use of at least part of its special abilities. The scroll enclosed their surroundings with an energy as pure and unsullied as its surface.
To set up the new terrain, Lu Yun needed only to paint whatever he desired. The young man took out a chunk of immortal crystal and got to work. Rune after rune was painted in thin air, then printed themselves upon the scroll, morphing into great picturesque mountains and rivers as they did so. The special environment they created existed only upon the scroll, but its effects were very much applicable to outside reality.
A Mirage layout!
It could project everything about where they were to a place he designated. Just as the small bubble before them projected the microcosm inside the false tomb, the mirage layout could do the very same in the opposite direction through the bubble.
What Lu Yun wanted to project was only a feng shui layout; more precisely, a Soulcaller layout! Even when projected by a Mirage layout, the Soulcaller layout would still be able to take effect on the other end.
Hum...
The air quivered. Wisps of blue smoke emerged in the water, as though countless vengeful ghosts were making their presences known. They wailed and screamed, recounting the endless grievances and regrets of their lives.
“Project!” Lu Yun flatly ignored these unwanted specters. He activated the Mirage layout, sending the Soulcaller layout into the microcosm.
……
“Hahahaha—” Beigong Chonglou roared with unmasked pleasure. “I didn’t expect the tomb to hold an ancient ruin like this! These herbs are perfectly preserved!
“Those six idiots came all the way to the North Sea for revenge, eh? All the way to Levitating Island… little do they know that I’m right under their noses this entire time! They’ll get theirs for destroying Myriad Returns Market some other time… but they helped me in the process!” The first prince beamed proudly. “My North Sea court studied Levitating Island for five thousand years! We figured out the entrance was right below a long time ago. Now that the idiots have broken the island’s natural formation for us, the monster ancestor’s tomb is finally open!
“Every dao immortal in the North Sea has already headed into imperial waters. They’re too focused on the skydragon tomb to care about this place. Even without those six, I would’ve brought down the island somehow anyway.…
“Heheheh… do those fools from the Corpse Refiners really think they’ll get something good from following me?” Beigong Chonglou didn’t know whose tomb this was. Levitating Island had a legend about a ‘monster ancestor’s tomb’, and he didn’t know any better to think otherwise.
“A Sevenleaf Spiritflower… tsk tsk, this is the main ingredient for the Sevenfold Truespirit Pill! Taking that will stabilize my cultivation and remove all of the dratted side effects from eating that dragon whelp!” The prince smirked excitedly, then put away the flower with utmost care.
“You ate a dragon, did you not? Are you not afraid of vengeance from its kin?” A sinister voice suddenly sounded at his ear.
Beigong Chonglou shivered. He recognized that voice all too well! It was the voice of the blue dragon whelp he’d eaten! He reflexively turned his head, only to see the ghastly pallor of a human visage hanging on his shoulder.
“Aaaaaaah!” A shrill shriek later, Beigong Chonglou had completed a dozen backward rotations. “Who are you?! I’m sure I’ve already fully refined the dragon I ate, so its soul shouldn’t still exist! If you’re not the dragon… then who?! Who?! Men? Men?! To me! To me!”
Fwoosh.
The bright skies of the small realm suddenly dimmed, and an ominous wind began blowing.
A faint figure stood where Beigong Chonglou had been a moment ago. Long, black strands of hair covered a bleached, sallow face, though a pair of scarlet eyes remained visible between the gaps. Her ashen robes dripped with putrid seawater. She looked exactly like the dragon whelp he’d eaten a few years ago!
Everyone thought he had outright killed and destroyed the Unsullied Sea’s young princess, but he’d actually eaten her alive!
Over time, his crime had become an inner demon. He worried about reprisal from the Unsullied Sea day and night… in fact, it was his greatest fear. The immortal ghost’s appearance drew on that fear to stifle his senses.
“D-don’t come over here… help! Heeeelp!” Beigong Chonglou curled up under a tree, screaming incoherently.
“Your Highness, Your Highness! What’s going on?” The other North Sea monster immortals picking herbs were shocked by their prince’s odd behavior. In their eyes, nothing had changed about the realm at all.
They couldn’t see the abruptly descending ghost.
As an immortal ghost, Guanqing was far stronger than Tinglan. She slowly lifted her head, the corners of her mouth cracking open as she did so, exposing the white bone beneath.
“Ah!” Beigong Chonglou screamed and spat out a mouthful of black blood. The liquid smoked as it touched the ground, corroding a spirit herb there.
“This is bad, His Highness has encountered the tomb’s immortal ghost!” exclaimed an old man in understanding. A golden talisman appeared in his hand and he chanted a few words, then plastered it on Beigong Chonglou’s back. Color slowly began to return to the prince’s cheeks.
Swish!
In the next moment, Beigong Chonglou’s right hand beelined for the old man’s throat.
“An immortal of the Unsullied Sea… are you here for revenge? Die!” the prince roared with bestial hoarseness.
“How dare… an immortal ghost… possess the first prince… get out!” The old man’s eyes bulged. Another golden talisman appeared in his hand, clearly intended for a second round of exorcism. A malevolent grin from Beigong Chonglou interrupted him, and the prince’s fingers suddenly turned black.
Bang!
The old man—a peerless immortal monster spirit—spattered outward in a spray of inky liquid. His body had entirely liquefied. The other monster immortals caught in the splash turned into screaming puddles of purulent blood as well.
“Heeeee… more Unsullied Sea immortals? More? More? Die… die… die….” Beigong Chonglou’s lips were stretched in an insidious smile. He walked out of the microcosm step by step with a white shape firmly attached to his back, blinding and deafening him.
……
“How terrifying! Even a peerless immortal can’t resist that ghost’s poison.” The Deaf Prince blanched at what he’d witnessed, but what he saw next really raised every hair on his body.
As soon as Beigong Chonglou left the microcosm, the poison ghost on his back turned its head. Its reddish gaze glared evilly at him through the bubble.