Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 124: When the Dust Settles

Another wave of crashing and cracking echoed through the tomb.

This time, the explosion was so loud it could rupture eardrums. The entire tomb trembled violently as dirt and stones rained down like a storm. Bai Shuangying swept Fang Xiu into his arms and narrowly avoided being crushed by several falling stone spikes.

The Six Ghost Remnants Immortal wasn’t so lucky. It thrashed madly under the burning Samadhi True Fire, struggling as the tomb collapsed. The little black dog barked nonstop, guiding Cheng Songyun and Guan He to dodge nimbly.

As the earth heaved and the walls shuddered, Mei Lan kept her eyes fixed on Cen Ling.

Ignoring the cracking ground beneath her feet, she directed the Substitution E to lunge forward. Cen Ling’s face darkened. He turned the jade ruyi scepter in his hand. Both Mei Lan and the Substitution E froze mid-motion, a patch of jade-colored sheen appearing on their faces.

Taking advantage of the chaos, A’Shou slipped away again, fading back into the darkness.

Cen Ling clicked his tongue and rapidly formed hand seals with his free hand, performing a divination.

He had a sense that the place wouldn’t last much longer. The Grave-Sealing E had to be eliminated soon. But he was pinned down by Mei Lan’s frenzied assault and the indiscriminate attacks from the evil spirits. He had no room to maneuver.

“The core taboo of the Grave-Sealing E is to ‘seal the tomb’,” he muttered under his breath. “Deliberately destroying the tomb must be a method to break the taboo.”

And since all participants were present, it meant that the supposedly vanished Bai Shuangying was likely still alive and in action. Interesting. That man might actually be the real Fang Xiu.

But that didn’t matter.

Cen Ling drew a dagger and slashed open his chest and abdomen, jamming the jade ruyi inside. His hands were soaked in his own blood, which shimmered with an unnatural jade-green light.

Then he raised both hands and began chanting. A sudden burst of yin energy erupted around him, and Cen Ling’s entire aura changed.

The red bridal veil flapped violently as A’Shou watched silently.

This was “borrowing yin”.

A living person borrowing a spirit’s power, or becoming possessed, to gain strength they should not possess. Cen Ling had rushed through the preparations, and the spell was crude, but his aura was already near that of a ghost immortal.

No wonder he had chosen the jade ruyi. Though not highly offensive, one of its taboos was turning flesh into jade. Combined with Cen Ling’s blood spell, it just happened to stabilize his physical condition.

One had to admit, this man had what it took to rise to the top among the Disaster Resolvers.

But, unfortunately…

Her eyes flicked toward Fang Xiu.

As the tomb collapsed, Fang Xiu showed a flash of pain so raw it resembled a wild animal having its cub torn away. He gasped, shoving himself out of Bai Shuangying’s arms.

According to the Grave-Sealing E’s brainwashing, he should have gone wild trying to recover it. But A’Shou only saw Fang Xiu shakily reach out a hand and point to the Six Ghost Remnants Immortal.

“Good. Destroy it.”

As the tomb fell apart, a hint of clarity flickered in his eyes. “All those coffins, destroy them all…”

Then Fang Xiu mumbled, writhing weakly on the ground.

“That thing is an enemy of the tomb guardian. I used a trick to calm it and reduce damage. It’s too injured to reach its destination.”

“…I am protecting this place.”

Amazingly, the violently struggling Six Ghost Remnants Immortal quieted down. It twisted its scorched body and made a submissive gesture toward Fang Xiu and Bai Shuangying. Then its six burned-white eyes slowly rotated as it turned toward the massive tomb chamber where the Guishan Sect had stored the coffins of its believers.

All the corpses had been moved there. Once that chamber was destroyed, neither the “holy land” nor the “grand tomb” would truly exist anymore.

A’Shou had nothing to say.

Sure. This was “protection”, right?

The Six Ghost Remnants Immortal was indeed at the end of its rope, but no one mentioned it was still cloaked in Samadhi True Fire. If nobody stopped it, could it really just be ignored?

This was like throwing a molotov into someone’s house and then claiming the floor was fireproof anyway.

And why did that Six Ghost obey Fang Xiu?

That thing was born of evil and overflowing with malice. It was practically a rabid dog. Even A’Shou didn’t trust herself to rein it in.

Suddenly she felt she had been too hard on Dian’er. Fang Xiu was truly unreadable. At least Cen Ling still fell within her understanding.

After using the jade ruyi Immortal E to forcefully raise his power, Cen Ling quickly locked onto the Grave-Sealing E’s aura.

He wasn’t distracted by the Six Ghost’s strange behavior. Instead, he immediately turned toward the darkness where Fang Xiu and Bai Shuangying were hidden and charged. Bai Sui was ready to assist, lightning in one hand and a magic weapon in the other.

The tomb continued to crumble, flames roaring, while bizarre, sharp sounds echoed from afar. Countless evil spirits writhed in the fire, their shadows dancing wildly on the walls.

Fang Xiu lay sprawled on the ground, his funeral robe smeared with dust, staring at the two men with wide eyes. But the smile on his face grew wider and wider, looking nothing like a living person.

Just as Cen Ling’s hand was about to touch Fang Xiu’s head…

“…Cen…”

“Cen Ge…!”

“Wake up, Cen Ge! I can’t hold out anymore!”

Bai Sui’s distant cry pierced Cen Ling’s ears. He jolted.

Fang Xiu had vanished. The fire roared louder. Bai Sui was still desperately fending off Mei Lan. He wasn’t a prodigy like Cen Ling. Even though Mei Lan was heavily wounded, with the Substitution E aiding her, he was barely hanging on.

“You just froze mid-fight!”

Seeing Cen Ling respond, Bai Sui called out with a pained grin, “Help me out here, Cen Ge!”

…Cognitive contamination.

In Bai Sui’s perception, time hadn’t changed. Someone had deliberately tampered with him!

Cen Ling’s strength now rivaled a ghost immortal. Anyone who could interfere with him had to be even higher-level. Could it be that the Underworld had noticed and made a move outside the rules?

Cen Ling had no time to worry about Bai Sui. He turned sharply, trying to relocate the Grave-Sealing E. The collapse continued, the fire had somehow shrunk, and smoke was filling the tomb passage. The scene before him looked like the end of the world.

Crack.

From the depths of the gray smoke came a crisp sound…

Like teeth crushing jade.

Then, a figure staggered out of the haze. Bai Shuangying walked forward, holding the head of “Hong Shuangxi” in his arms, and looked down at Cen Ling with scorn. The figure in the funeral robe had vanished, along with the Grave-Sealing E’s aura.

How?

The tomb passage in front of him was filled with black smoke. In it stood a man in white with a cold expression, but the head in his arms smiled brightly, though clearly dazed.

It was like a twisted dream.

…How?

He had made no tactical errors. Every decision prioritized the Disaster Relief Tower and the Holy Land. He had even used four Immortal E’s. How could he have lost so completely?

Cen Ling had never lost in a battle of spells. His only failure was once, out of curiosity, playing a few video games. That defeat flashed through his mind now. He had understood the controls, attacked with full force, yet still lost without knowing why.

He had never faced an opponent like this.

Cen Ling licked his molars and stared at the red and white pair in the distance.

The Grave-Sealing E’s aura had vanished. The Underworld could arrive at any moment. The priority now was not to fight, but to erase evidence.

Cen Ling’s body went stiff. He quickly wiped his palm across his abdomen, and the jade ruyi vanished instantly. His body became extremely weak, as if he had just run ten kilometers.

He immediately grabbed Bai Sui with one hand, eyes fixed on the Substitution E Mei Lan controlled. His face showed reluctant resignation.

“Return, return,” he recited.

“A child for the offering, all must return as one.”

As he was lifted off the ground, Bai Sui still wore a look of confusion.

But at the words “a child for the offering”, his expression twisted.

He wet himself, trembling, trying to say something to beg for mercy. But no words came out—only a desperate, animalistic cry. He seemed to vaguely understand something, or maybe nothing at all.

Within seconds, Bai Sui’s body burst apart, falling to ash.

The Substitution E reverted into a dirty rag doll. Before it hit the ground, it vanished mid-air like the jade ruyi had.

But Mei Lan didn’t stop.

Dragging her wounded body, she and the silken bird charged at Cen Ling with everything they had.

This was the moment she had waited for. She had known Fang Xiu would succeed in resolving the E. Once the Grave-Sealing E was gone, Cen Ling would be forced to erase the evidence.

And when that moment came, Cen Ling would be at his weakest. That belief had kept her from retreating with Guan He and Cheng Songyun.

This was her only chance… Her only shot to kill a top figure of the Guishan Sect while outmatched.

“Dispersing calamity, dispelling the E—protection from all evil. The ritual is complete. I shall now escort you all back to the Tower—”

A hoarse female voice echoed through the darkness.

A’Shou stepped out from the shadows with a blank expression. Golden light flickered on everyone’s bodies. The “protection from all evil” had been activated.

Mei Lan’s silken bird collided with the golden barrier and floated lightly to the ground. Mei Lan’s blood-red eyes snapped toward A’Shou in fury.

Crack.

Just then, from the depths of the gray smoke came another clear sound—

Like teeth crushing jade.

The next second, a ghost wind swept through the area. The smoke was blown away, revealing a tomb chamber in ruin.

This time, even A’Shou’s face twisted. She looked furiously into the depths of the darkness.

She had felt it. A living soul had returned.

“Sorry, but I have to live. Gambling my life was too risky.”

Fang Xiu’s head, still held in Bai Shuangying’s arms, spoke calmly.

“I only hid the Grave-Sealing E’s aura just now. I didn’t expect everyone to believe I had resolved it so easily.”

Of course A’Shou knew what this brat had done.

Fang Xiu had destroyed the tomb with painstaking effort to weaken the E’s control. Then he made noise, hid its aura, and tricked the Underworld into granting protection.

The Underworld’s “protection from all evil”, it instantly destroyed the remnant soul within Fang Xiu’s head. Without a body sustained by the E, his living soul now had a safe place to return to.

In doing so, Fang Xiu had created a situation in which the Grave-Sealing E could be destroyed with minimal risk.

In the past, Underworld agents only came to end the ritual once an E was confirmed broken. Fang Xiu had dared to play this game because he knew they had been watching the whole time.

Worst of all, Fang Xiu had never declared that he had resolved the E. It had been her own mistake, thinking it was over and ending the ritual herself.

And now, to keep Cen Ling in check, she had to pretend she had only just arrived and knew nothing.

…Whether for official duty or personal pride, she had no grounds to accuse Fang Xiu of “deception”.

It had been a long time since A’Shou felt like she was about to explode. She was both physically and mentally exhausted.

Fine. The greater mission took priority. Mei Lan’s intel had been verified. The rest would have to wait…

“Mei Lan?!”

A sudden cry exploded in her ears.

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