CH 23

The person behind him grabbed his shoulder and said, “Wu Xingxue…”

The voice was very low, and it sounded right beside the year. It was obviously a warning, but it also had a hint of helplessness.

Wu Xingxue turned his head and saw Xiao Fuxuan’s sharp and narrow eyebrows when he had his head lowered. He suddenly felt that it was rather fortunate that this Celestial Immortal did not come to the mortal world very often. Otherwise, just relying on this look of his, even if he didn’t like to talk, plenty of girls would still fall for him.

He suddenly felt moved, and asked back, “Did I say something wrong?”

Xiao Fuxuan raised his eyelids.

Wu Xingxue continued, “My body is a devil to begin with, and I was the one leading those things on a pilgrimage in the Hua Sect. And so I thought, it shouldn’t be very easy for me to be possessed, after all, I am the Devil Lord. As for the dreamless pill, it’s not easy to come by either. Therefore, try to save them if you can. Immortal, what do you think?”

“……”

Xiao Fuxuan didn’t comment.

He looked at his opening and closing lips, then looked away and straightened his body up, probably speechless at this moment.

Unexpectedly, Wu Xingxue also added quietly, “Also, you’re scaring the little disciples.”

Xiao Fuxuan: “?”

It was hard to describe the Celestial Immortal’s expression when he heard this nonsense. Either way, Wu Xingxue found it funny…

But the little disciples at that moment were on the verge of going insane.

At first, it was just “because I am already one”. They were only frightened at that time. But after Xiao Fuxuan said “Wu Xingxue,”ˇ they were sent away completely.

The disciples’ scalps went numb and their heads went dizzy as they heard these three words. Thunders seemed to be crashing beside their ears, and their souls appeared to be leaving their bodies.

Fortunately, Yi Wusheng, who couldn’t stand this any longer, was there too.

Since Xiao Fuxuan pressed the sword against him back on the carriage and told him to “swallow the words back”, he has been practicing a script. He would constantly remind himself to not forget, and now was the perfect time to use it.

He helped the disciple up and told him the nonsense of “how the Devil Lord was severely injured in the Northern Frontiers, and how an innocent soul ended up possessing his body.”

The disciple had a lot of trouble believing it.

Just as he was trying to process how someone like Wu Xingxue would end up having a mortal possess his body, a cracking explosion was heard.

The explosion shook the valley and everyone looked over in shock.

They saw that the peaceful immortal-abolishing platform was now full of cracks, as if the thing under it had been accumulating power for a long time, and finally threw a heavy blow.

Black devilish energy seeped out from the cracks, causing the cultivation disciples to shiver from fear. Goosebumps uncontrollably appeared over their bodies.

On the floor, Gao’e and the others were also trembling. Their shattered bones made crackling noises during the process.

The round room cooled down instantly, as if it had suddenly turned into an ice cellar.

“What’s going on with the array? Why does it seem like… it has stopped?” One of the disciples murmured, subconsciously looking at the thirty-three statues.

Only now did he suddenly realize that the round room had been silent for a while now. Hua Xin’s vague voice of “My disciple Yun Hai” has long disappeared.

The layer upon layer of constant oppression just now seemed to have exhausted the last bit of immortal power.

The light coming from the enormous array slowly dimmed down, and the interlacing patterns had also disappeared.

Then, the sound of cracking noises sounded.

The cultivation disciples all looked towards the immortal-abolishing platform, thinking that it was the platform breaking down.

But immediately afterwards, they realized that the sounds weren’t from the immortal-abolishing platform, instead… they were from the divine statues.

Everyone looked over, just to see huge cracks starting to form on the divine statues.

Wu Xingxue quickly looked at them and found that the origin of these cracks started at their worship mark and was quickly spreading up to the top of their heads.

Boom——

The first statue crumbled and collapsed.

Boom——

The second one.

Then the third, the fourth, the fifth…

Even if a single divine statue of that height collapsed, it would still cause a devastating quake, let alone so many all at once.

In a matter of seconds, the entire round room was filled with dust and smoke, and shattered rocks splattered everywhere. If it wasn’t for the protection from Xiao Fuxuan’s spirit sword, everyone would have been buried alive by the flying rocks.

In the blink of an eye, almost all thirty-three statues have already collapsed into dust.

Wu Xingxue looked through the mist of dust and saw that there were only four statues still standing. Those four statues were also full of cracks, and they were only barely staying up.

“No more, no less, it just happened to be four,” he muttered.

The fog was too heavy at the moment to see clearly, but he guessed that the four statues should probably be two men and two women.

Sure enough, one of the disciples in front of him had already called out, reading the names of the two remaining divine statues, and then added, “Two male immortals and two female immortals.” 

Wu Xingxue looked towards Gao’e and the three others, finally understanding why they were “ordained.”

Each of the little boy and girl statues in the catacomb corresponds to the thirty-three divine statues. Each little statue provided offerings to a divine statue, and the offerings were immortal power, used to maintain the operation of the array.

For each day that the divine statues continued to stand, the array would continue to run, and the Yun Hai underneath the immortal-abolishing platform would continue to struggle.

Therefore, Yun Hai “ordained” these commoners.

Innocent mortals were brutally murdered, and then sealed into these little boy and girl statues. Those grievances, through the worship marks, were then transferred to these thirty-three divine statues…

When an immortal becomes infected with slaughter and evil resentment, how could his or her immortal power last?

In addition, these thirty-three were originally abolished immortals to begin with. Their immortal powers were probably also left behind by Hua Xin in the beginning. So with every suppression, their immortal powers would decrease. In addition to the evil grievances slowly eroding them, these statues would collapse sooner or later.

The call “My disciple Yun Hai” just now was probably the last attempt to keep him sealed.

The reason the four statues did not crumble like the others was because Gao’e and the others came out of their little children’s statues after being sent a dream by the Immortal. Thus, their resentment towards the divine statue was less.

When they first heard about the dream sent to them by the Immortal, everyone thought that the Immortal must be up to no good.

But thinking about it now, the dream stated that they were still “tied to mortal affairs”, and that there was some “missing celestial energy”. That Immortal was probably trying to restore this giant array that was about to collapse.

Wu Xingxue thought about it for a while, then felt like the immortal who sent the dreams must be Mingwu Hua Xin.

Everyone was just about to ask, but the situation did not allow them to speak another word.

The four remaining statues were simply not enough to support the giant array. After the statues collapsed, the immortal-abolishing platform also exploded abruptly and shattered to the ground.

The ground suddenly opened up a deep trench. No one could see who was lying there; they could only see the thick ink-black devilish energy being continuously released.

They resembled a swarm of snakes, with numerous snake heads outstretched and their massive mouths and fangs slowly reaching outwards–

“Watch out——”

Yi Wusheng shouted.

But it was still too late. The second they got touched by the devilish energy, it was as if they turned into mindless zombies: They walked out of the spirit sword’s protection.

The next moment, the devilish energy attacked like a group of vicious pythons.

“AHHHHHHH!”

Following a few screams, those disciples became entangled in the black devilish energy.

They pulled their swords out in a panic, sending dozens of bright white flying swords into the darkness. But they missed, and their efforts were in vain.

Perhaps the person lying in the deep trench was too hungry. The devilish energy took these three living people and started to send them downwards.

Just before everything was too late, Xiao Fuxuan’s sword by his waist suddenly flew out. The sword hilt spun between his fingers, and the golden light from the blade drew a huge sword flower in the air.

He pressed his fingers on the silver hilt, and then gave it a push——

Sword energy came crashing down like a tsunami wave, frigid and acute sharpness rising dozens of feet in the air, slashing down with full force.

That slash came like a huge wave.

The overwhelming evil energy was split in half, forcing it to let go of the disciples, who then fell onto the ground.

They hurriedly went to grab their swords, but before they could, they heard a cold voice say “go”. Immediately afterwards, they felt a golden light sweep over them, and they were swept back into the protection of the spirit sword.

They turned their heads around, only to see that the devilish energy had gathered again and was soaring into the sky, almost filling the entire tomb. The Celestial Immortal stood there coldly with his sword and was drowned in the boundless blackness.

“!!!” Everyone’s faces turned pale and they exclaimed.

However, in the next moment, countless golden beams with sword chants stabbed straight out of the endless devilish energy.

It was like the shining sun piercing through the clouds.

The sword with the “Mian” character shot upwards, went through the devilish energy, turned its tip, and then slammed downwards with full force——

The moment it wedged into the ground, sparks splashed outwards, but it was also wrapped in cold wind and snow. Amidst the interlaced extreme heat and coldness, all the devilish energy was swept away.

Wu Xingxue saw Xiao Fuxuan holding the hilt of his sword, half kneeling in front of the deep trench.

He passed through the protecting spirit sword, ignored the disciples trying to stop him, and walked over.

The devilish energy dissipated, revealing the person lying down there.

It was indeed Yun Hai.

He looked very similar to how he looked in the divine statue. From this, it could be seen that the person who carved the divine statue in the catacomb was extremely familiar with his appearance.

The divine statue was made of rock, with a hint of grayish-white color. He looked even more withered than that. If one added some vigor and blood to him, then he would definitely turn into a very handsome man.

But at this time, he had his long hair scattered, tangled vines crawled on his body, and his robes were as dark as ink as the devilish energy swarmed around him. One couldn’t tell that he was once from the Immortal Capital at all.

The vines climbed all the way to his neck, and one of them stretched out long, with a huge but withered flower on the branch, which covered exactly half of his face.

Wu Xingxue reached out to peel the flower off, but was grabbed and stopped by Xiao Fuxuan.

But the wind from his motion still made the flower move slightly…

During the movement, the half of Yun Hai’s blocked face was faintly revealed.

Wu Xingxue frowned.

The other half of his face was handsome and delicate, and indeed made him look like an Immortal. But this half, it could be called terrifying —— covered with scars and shaped like a ghost.

He didn’t know how it ended up like this.

And he definitely couldn’t even imagine how Hua Xin reacted after coming to the Valley of Great Sorrow and seeing his disciple like this.

Xiao Fuxuan’s sword suddenly moved, pulling back out from the stone.

Under the shock of sword energy, everyone present heard a sound. It was like a clear bell ringing through a deep valley. With just one sound, the little disciples were all forced to squat down and cover their ears.

“What’s that?!” Although they were really close to each other, they could barely hear. They almost had to shout.

In the end, Yi Wusheng had to tap on each of their foreheads to return them to normal.

He looked at Xiao Fuxuan’s trembling immortal sword and said, “That should be… an Interrogation.”

Legend has it, when Celestial Immortal Xiao Fuxuan delivered his punishment, he would bring an Interrogation on behalf of the heavens, revealing the sins of the devil.

Hence, in the ear-piercing sword chants and dissipating black fog, they saw what happened hundreds of years ago.