Chapter 23

The Soul-Reaping envoy had been under siege for a long time, and her anger was growing. Her attacks became increasingly ruthless, with a mere wave of her hand sending countless corpses flying. Fortunately, the puppets didn’t bleed; otherwise, the scene would have been even more gruesome.

Xu Manman gradually realized that the envoy was truly unfathomable. Despite having fought for a long time and suffered numerous injuries, she showed no signs of exhaustion. On the contrary, Jing Wuye and his side were already struggling to keep up.

The envoy’s malice towards Xu Manman was almost palpable. She cut a path through the crowd, heading straight for Xu Manman. Xu Manman turned and ran towards the front hall.

Two ghost-faced spiders, with more legs than her, ran even faster, overtaking her with no intention of helping. Xu Manman had to admit this was a learning experience. Seeing the envoy about to catch up, she released the flowerpot she was holding. As soon as the pot hit the ground, white light burst forth, and the Immortal Lang Yin materialized in human form, standing between Xu Manman and the Soul-Reaping Envoy.

Li Que and Ao Xiu, who had been unattended, also broke free from their cocoons and surrounded the Soul-Reaping envoy.

Jing Wuye, who had been following closely behind, was stunned by the scene.

The soul-reaping envoy sneered coldly, “You idiots, being toyed with and still unable to see who the real traitor is. The one who ran the fastest is the traitor.”

Jing Wuye looked forward with suspicion, only to see Xu Manman running toward the front hall without a backward glance, not even sparing a look at the Immortal Lang Yin.

Jing Wuye’s body shook as he looked at Xu Manman’s retreating figure, recalling everything that had happened.

He seemed to come to a realization, “So… the Ghost-Faced Spiders are the real traitors…”

Indeed, the fastest runners were the Ghost-Faced Spiders, and Xu Manman couldn’t catch up. And yes, how did Li Que and Ao Xiu escape? It must have been the Ghost-Faced Spiders who released them!

The envoy was at a loss for words. She took a deep breath and said, “I’m tired and too lazy to explain. Kill them all, and next time, get some smarter subordinates.”

Immortal Lang Yin’s Jushuang Sword was already at hand, and the envoy’s expression became serious as she prepared to engage fully.

The Hall of No Return was constructed of black stone with a strange spirit-absorbing ability. Although it was far from the power of the spirit forbidden formation, it still posed a threat to cultivators.

The envoy summoned eight puppets, two of which are Dharma Aspects. Jing Wuye also regained his senses and led his subordinates to fight Ao Xiu and Li Que.

Li Que, filled with pent-up anger, finally had the chance to unleash it, rapidly pushing back the puppets. Ao Xiu, always calculating, conserved his strength and let Li Que take the lead in the fight, while he discreetly observed the battle on the envoy’s side.

Immortal Lang Yin faced nine opponents and did not falter. His Jushuang Sword split into shadows, and his white robe fluttered like a startled swan. He effortlessly evaded all deadly attacks, remaining unstained by dust.

In a blink, three of the envoy’s puppets were slain. But her goal wasn’t here. Seizing the moment when the puppets blocked Immortal Lang Yin’s view, she dashed towards the front hall. She understood one thing: Xu Manman was the true culprit. Capturing her was the only way to turn the tide.

Xu Manman was also the greatest weakness present; she was merely at the Golden Core stage.

Immortal Lang Yin cut down two more puppets with a single sword and chased after the envoy.

Xu Manman had just reached the front hall when the Soul-Reaping envoy caught up again. Her lifeless eyes glared at Xu Manman coldly, resembling a demon from the depths of hell.

Xu Manman felt a chill down her spine.

Seeing the envoy’s bony fingers reaching for her face, she dodged to the side but couldn’t avoid them completely. The sharp nails dug deep into her flesh, leaving five gruesome, bone-deep gashes on her shoulder and neck. Blood gushed out, staining half her dress red in an instant.

Xu Manman’s face turned pale as she fell to the ground, unable to even cry out in pain. A soft vine wrapped around her waist, pulling her away from the envoy’s next attack.

Xu Manman felt a tightness around her waist, and she was suddenly lifted into the air, landing in a firm embrace. The pain was so intense that her vision darkened. She weakly leaned against Immortal Lang Yin’s neck, barely opening her eyes to catch a blurry glimpse of his profile.

The soul-reaping envoy’s nails were undoubtedly laced with a deadly poison. The blood flowing from Xu Manman’s wounds turned a dark purple, and she could almost feel the venomous insects burrowing into her body, trying to reach her heart and spiritual orifice.

Immortal Lang Yin glanced at her shoulder and neck wounds, frowning. He placed his hand over the injuries, and a warm glow emanated from his palm. A cool sensation dispelled much of the pain as he attempted to gradually remove the poison that had invaded her body.

His true form could neutralize any poison in the world, and his spiritual energy could do the same. However, this poison was incredibly potent and dangerously close to her heart. If he lost focus for even a moment and the poison reached her heart, the consequences would be dire.

Immortal Lang Yin couldn’t let go of Xu Manman at this moment; otherwise, she would undoubtedly die. He could only hold her weak body with one hand and press tightly against her gruesome wound with the other.

The soul-reaping envoy wouldn’t miss this opportunity. Without giving them a moment to breathe, she and her puppets launched another attack. Immortal Lang Yin dodged the attacks while holding Xu Manman, but the envoy’s true target was still to kill Immortal Lang Yin. Her right hand twisted, leaving a bloody gash on Immortal Lang Yin’s face and severing several strands of hair.

Immortal Lang Yin tilted his head, coldly watching the envoy attacking him. He neither feared nor retreated. At this moment, his spiritual energy surged around him, his black hair fluttered, and a bright green light shone beneath his feet. The next moment, seven or eight vines rapidly grew from beneath him, forcing back the approaching puppets.

Immortal Lang Yin slightly parted his thin lips and shouted in a deep voice, “Constrict!”

The vines instantly wrapped around the puppets, tightening until they were forcibly split into two parts. The envoy avoided the strangling vines but had barely caught her breath when she saw countless green leaves flying towards her. The leaves appeared thin, but they emitted a terrifying cold light, seeming to possess the power to cut through gold and stone.

Immortal Lang Yin shouted, “Shatter!”

The sky filled with flying leaves formed an unbreakable formation of entrapment, leaving the envoy nowhere to escape. She relied on her dharma form to withstand the attack. Her theatrical costume was sliced by the countless flying leaves, leaving her body covered in numerous blood marks. Through the mask and the leaves, she gazed at the cold and indifferent young man, a feeling of shock and fear rising in her heart.

That man was like a hibiscus flower blooming in the autumn wind, seemingly delicate but innately proud and strong. No matter how fierce the autumn wind or how cold the frost, he remained unyielding, unfazed by the elements.

Xu Manman weakly leaned against Immortal Lang Yin’s chest, her mind hazy as she thought to herself, “I’m still burdening the Immortal lord.”

She never liked burdening others and didn’t want to be a hindrance. She had been like this since she was a child. Perhaps because she was a burden, her parents abandoned her. In Xu Family Village, although the old women were kind to her, whenever she made a mistake, they would mercilessly scold her, calling her useless.

So, she always thought she needed to be useful to others, to make them like her, to not be seen as a burden. She was always friendly and helpful to her fellow disciples, always respectful and dutiful to her master, always diligent and hardworking. She believed that only by being useful would people like her, and only by being liked would she have a place to belong in this world.

But her master told her that she needed to learn to please herself.

“All things in this world are not necessarily meant to be useful, but they should definitely be brilliant.”

“You should live beautifully, happily, and grandly, to not waste this life that the heavens have given you.”

She walked through the world for a hundred years and finally understood. Or perhaps she didn’t fully understand. Because at this moment, becoming a burden to the Immortal Lang Yin still made her sad.

There were too many corpses in the Hall Of No Return. One puppet was killed, and another would appear, as if they were endless. Xu Manman fainted in Immortal Lang Yin’s arms, softly leaning against his chest.

Seeing that she couldn’t kill Immortal Lang Yin, the envoy already had the intention to escape. She manipulated the puppets to block Ao Xiu and Li Que, intending to use the magic array to flee herself.

At this moment, a clear phoenix cry echoed through the Hall Of No Return, and a burst of fire came rushing in, incinerating dozens of puppets to ashes.

“The Nine Suns Li Fire!” The Soul-Reaping envoy’s face showed astonishment, “It’s the Feather Emperor!”

The Nine Suns Li Fire is said to be the immortal divine fire originating from the sun, capable of burning all evil and filthy things in the world. This divine fire is passed down through generations, and only the Feather Emperor of the Di Luan clan can inherit it.

Just as the soul-reaping envoy finished speaking, a brilliant phoenix shadow flew into the hall, followed by dozens of cultivators. The phoenix shadow landed and transformed into a human form, adorned with a golden crown and red clothes, with phoenix eyes and vermillion lips, exuding a charm that couldn’t be ignored.

Li Ying smiled slightly as she glanced at Xu Manman, who was unconscious in Immortal Lang Yin’s arms, “You called me here, and now you’re asleep yourself.”

Li Que entered the hall at this time, pleasantly surprised, “Sister, why are you here?”

“I’ve been following you all along,” Li Ying nodded towards Xu Manman, “She discussed a plan with me, to lead you all into the trap and then have me clean up the battlefield. My Nine Suns Li Fire is the nemesis of the Soul-Reaping’s division, and she calculated this well.”

Li Que’s face darkened slightly, and he said, “You sold me out without even telling me.”

Ao Xiu had figured it out for himself while only he seemed like a fool.

Li Ying smiled slightly, affectionately saying, “You are my own brother. How could I possibly sell you out?”

Li Que’s expression softened a bit.

“You’re not worth anything,” Li Ying said.

Li Que staggered and almost lost his balance. He hadn’t taken such a heavy blow even in the Hall of No Return. One Xu Manman, one Li Ying—he had suffered too much at the hands of women.

The Soul-Reaping envoy listened to the conversation and realized that she had been plotted against from the beginning; the other side had been prepared, and her cause was already lost.

She summoned all the puppets, causing the entire Hall of No Return to shake. Li Ying sneered disdainfully and, with a flick of her fingers, turned the puppets to ashes. All the Yin corpses and puppets could not withstand the scorching heat of the Nine Suns Li Fire.

The envoy ran towards the top of the hall, where there was a stage, and the sides of the stage were pitch black, concealing who knows what traps.

Li Ying narrowed her phoenix eyes slightly. With her left hand, she grasped the air, and a long bow appeared in her palm, shaped like a phoenix’s tail and glowing with golden light. Her right hand summoned a long arrow out of thin air, with a small flame at the tip, radiating an incredibly powerful fire energy—that was the Nine Suns Li Fire.

Li Ying pulled the bowstring taut, and with a flick of her fingers, the long arrow shot towards the Soul-Reaping envoy’s back. But the envoy seemed to anticipate this, and with her left hand, she grabbed someone from the side of the stage, using him as a shield at the moment the arrow was released.

The man’s face was pale as he painfully lifted his eyes to look at the incoming arrow. Li Ying instantly realized something was wrong. With a thought, the Nine Suns Li Fire immediately extinguished, but the momentum of the long arrow didn’t decrease, and it fiercely pierced into the man’s right shoulder, pinning him to the wall.

Li Ying’s phoenix eyes filled with anger as she drew the bowstring once again. However, this time, the bowstring held an arrow entirely formed of flames. With a release of her hand, the long arrow emitted a bright and clear cry resembling a phoenix’s call. The arrow, like a fiery phoenix, rushed toward the envoy.

The envoy attempted to repeat her tactic of using someone as a shield, but the arrow seemed to have eyes and a life of its own. It curved its neck and, at a cunning angle, struck the envoy right in the face.

The Soul-reaping envoy screamed in horror. She was already at the end of her strength and had no way of blocking Li Ying’s full-powered arrow. In just a moment, the envoy was engulfed by flames, emitting a piercing, tragic scream before turning into ashes.

Li Ying didn’t spare a glance at the doomed person. Instead, she flew onto the stage and reached out to the person pinned against the wall.

It was a tall, handsome man with a slender figure. However, he appeared emaciated and pale, as if he had been through extreme torment. Although Li Ying had retracted the Li Fire from her arrow, it had still inflicted a severe external wound, with blood staining half of his body red.

Li Ying pulled out the long arrow, and the man slid off the wall, falling into her arms.

Li Que arrived beside Li Ying at this moment and asked, “Why did you kill the soul-reaping envoy without keeping her alive for questioning?”

“It’s unnecessary. Do you know why the Blood Sect is so mysterious and hard to get information about? Because they all take a heart demon blood oath, forbidding them from revealing a word about the Blood Sect to outsiders.”

Li Ying looked indifferently at the ashes of the Soul-reaping envoy.

“That little girl said she had a way to infiltrate the Blood Sect and gather information, so I agreed to her plan.”

Li Que suddenly understood the purpose behind Xu Manman’s series of actions.

The heart demon blood oath is made to one’s own heart demon. As long as you have a clear conscience, the oath won’t be triggered.

Jing Wuye and the others truly believed that Xu Manman was one of them, so they had no psychological burden in telling her about the Blood Sect, thus the oath wasn’t triggered.

On the other hand, when Jing Wuye realized that revealing the Blood Sect’s secrets didn’t cause any issues, he trusted Xu Manman even more.

Even when the plan was exposed and the formation was found to be abnormal, she still had the presence of mind to trick Jing Wuye into revealing the location of the Fate-Defying Division.

Xu Manman certainly played with people’s hearts very well.

Li Que looked at Xu Manman with a complicated expression. At the moment, she was unconscious, held horizontally in the arms of the immortal Lang Yin. Her face was as pale as paper, but with immortal Lang Yin’s spiritual energy protecting her, her life was likely not in danger.

Everyone present had a cultivation level a hundred times higher than hers. She was just a small Golden Core stage cultivator, unable to withstand even a light touch from the Soul-reaping envoy. Where did she find the courage and resolve to plan such a perilous situation with a one-in-a-million chance of survival?

What was her true motive?

Was it really out of love for Lian Yue Daozun?

“Li Que, what are you daydreaming about? Check the sides of the stage for anything unusual,” Li Ying said.

The Soul-reaping envoy had already turned to ashes, and the puppets she controlled had fallen to the ground. With the Di Luan clan cleaning up the battlefield, the remaining individuals posed no threat.

Li Ying walked to the sides of the stage and took a look, and she was slightly taken aback.

There was nothing particularly strange or frightening on either side of the stage, just the usual arrangements you’d find in a regular theater. A few people were lying on the ground, all as emaciated and lifeless as the man struck by the arrow.

“Are you people from the Blood Sect?” Li Que asked, grabbing one of the barely conscious individuals.

The person, barely breathing, weakly mumbled, “We… are musicians, captured by the Soul-reaping envoy… to play music…”

Li Que released the person, walked over to Li Ying, and said, “The Soul-reaping envoy had a strange hobby of enjoying operas. These people were all captured by her to perform music and plays.”

When they first encountered the envoy, she was hiding beside the stage, watching a play.

Next to the stage were some corpses dressed in theatrical costumes, previously controlled by the envoy as puppets, while the barely alive ones were musicians she had captured.

Li Ying, thoughtful, looked down at the man, barely clinging to life in her arms. Just then, his aura weakened, and he lost his human form, transforming into a white cat.

So, it was a cat spirit.

Li Que, standing by, said, “They aren’t from the Blood Sect and might not have taken the heart demon blood oath yet…”

Li Ying nodded nonchalantly, stood up with the white cat in her arms, and said, “Makes sense. You carry them out.”

Li Que was taken aback, “I’m supposed to carry them?”

Li Ying glanced at him, “Am I supposed to carry them?”

As Li Ying was about to leave, she suddenly heard the white cat in her arms meow softly and then utter an extremely faint word. She leaned in to listen.

“Qin…”

Li Ying raised an eyebrow and glanced at the guqin nearby. She didn’t expect this cat spirit, near death, still wanted to take the guqin along. So, she told Li Que, “Take the guqin with you too.”

Li Que, slightly disgruntled, pressed his thin lips together, watching Li Ying pass by him. He said, in a dry, sarcastic tone, “Farewell, feather emperor.”

Li Ying let out a slight snort, “Heh.”