Chapter 552: Void Illusion Demon, Birth and Death in a Single Thought
Song Ciwan appeared beside Yu Wenxu’s tent, and the few West Wind Army soldiers guarding it were overjoyed.
They hurriedly called out, “Xing Lan Fairy! The general has fallen into the Demon Realm! Please, Fairy, help us!”
“Xing Lan Fairy, do you have a plan? Can you save the general?”
“Xing Lan Fairy…”
Though only a few voices, they created a cacophony of pleas.
A little farther away, someone said dejectedly, “General Cai took his own life. He was driven to it by demonic influence… We… we…”
The high-leaping flames were quickly extinguished. Amidst the billowing white steam, several Medical Cultivators exchanged glances from afar. One of them, having finished treating a patient, walked through the white mist toward Yu Wenxu’s tent.
Others, still tending to wounded soldiers, cast worried glances toward Yu Wenxu’s tent.
Above the tent, illusory weapons continued their fierce clash.
CLANG! CLANG! Accompanied by ceaseless roars from within, each illusory weapon seemed to be straining with all its might to shatter its opponent. A heart-stopping sense of crisis loomed over everyone.
Everyone was on edge, their minds filled with varying degrees of tension and worry.
They weren’t just worried about Yu Wenxu; they were worried about themselves!
‘If General Yu truly loses control and bursts out of the tent in a rampage, what will we do?’
Song Ciwan stood outside the tent, listening quietly for a moment. Then, she suddenly stepped forward and grabbed the tent’s canvas with both hands.
The West Wind Army soldiers exclaimed, “Xing Lan Fairy, what are you doing?”
Their alarmed question was answered by the RIIIP of tearing fabric!
WHOOSH!
The tent’s canvas was torn open, and with it, the tent’s protective Array shattered.
Song Ciwan had torn the Array apart with her bare hands. In doing so, she hadn’t even used any Divine Power.
The tent had long since been corroded by Yu Wenxu’s own demonic aura, rendering it incredibly fragile. The protective Array woven into the canvas was already riddled with holes, on the verge of collapse at any moment.
As the tent was ripped open, a terrifying demonic aura, as vast as the Abyss, burst out like a caged beast set free.
“Aaargh!”
“Aaaaaah!”
The nearest West Wind Army soldiers couldn’t help but cry out in pain.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
All of them were sent flying several dozen feet, landing heavily on the ground.
At that very moment, Song Ciwan dashed forward, positioning herself directly in front of Yu Wenxu. She raised her hand and aimed a finger at the acupoint between his eyebrows.
It was a fatal strike!
Sensing the danger, Yu Wenxu’s eyes snapped open.
In that instant, Song Ciwan found herself staring directly into a pair of blood-red eyes shimmering with a black light.
What a malevolent gaze. They hardly looked like a Human’s eyes. Instead, they were a sprawling mountain of corpses, a roiling sea of blood, unending hatred, and eternal suffering…
Yu Wenxu let out a primal roar like a Fierce Beast. His hands shot out, his arms instantly elongating as his palms, glowing with a cold, dark light, slapped down toward Song Ciwan’s head!
It was a movement no normal human body could possibly perform. But Yu Wenxu, still sitting cross-legged, accomplished the bizarre feat, his arms instantly stretching from a normal length to well over six feet long.
Song Ciwan neither dodged nor evaded. She executed Upright Shadowless, and Yu Wenxu’s palm strike hit nothing but air.
BAM!
The missed strike hit the ground, instantly blasting a pit a hundred feet deep into the sand.
A terrifying demonic aura swept through the crater like a storm, while Yu Wenxu himself fell in with a THUD.
THWUMP!
Yu Wenxu landed at the bottom of the pit, face-planting and getting a mouthful of sand…
To be honest, the scene was quite comical.
A lucid Yu Wenxu would never have allowed himself to end up in such an embarrassing predicament.
But for Yu Wenxu, on the verge of demonic madness, nothing he did was surprising.
…
Yu Wenxu scrambled up from the bottom of the pit. He tilted his head back to look at Song Ciwan, who was floating in mid-air, and for a split second, the fierce, red-glowing light in his eyes went blank.
Even in his demonic frenzy, Yu Wenxu retained a sense of shame.
The comical scene had plunged him into deep embarrassment. It was this extreme mortification that allowed Yu Wenxu’s true consciousness to gain the upper hand for a moment.
His eyes were blank, and a look of struggle flickered across his face.
Yet he still roared fiercely, “Come out! Show yourself!”
As he roared, he stomped his foot. BANG!
His entire body shot upward like a boulder.
He launched himself directly at Song Ciwan!
However, Song Ciwan was still in her Upright Shadowless state. Yu Wenxu’s charge was clearly about to hit nothing but air again—
No, he didn’t!
Just as Yu Wenxu’s body shot toward her, Song Ciwan exited her Upright Shadowless state. She raised her hand to execute the Forbidden Rune Technique. Performing Void Talisman Painting, a single “Forbidden” Character immediately transformed into countless chains that bound Yu Wenxu tightly.
Not even the demonic aura that billowed from him, vast as the Abyss, could break the chains. A look of struggle crossed his face as he continued to roar, his expression and actions creating a stark, jarring contrast.
He roared, “Let go—”
He couldn’t even finish the word, the rest of his cry still caught in his throat before it was cut short by Song Ciwan’s finger.
This time, Song Ciwan’s finger finally touched the center of Yu Wenxu’s forehead.
Using her finger as a conduit, the Heart Demon seedling in Song Ciwan’s Sea of Consciousness swayed gently.
The Void Illusion Demon Sword stirred once more—not to harm, but to purge the demon!
Song Ciwan’s lips didn’t move, yet it was as if an ethereal, cold voice sighed and whispered, “General Yu…”
Yu Wenxu’s struggles ceased. His gaze met a pair of cold, profound eyes.
Dark clouds obscured half the moon. As light and shadow slanted westward, the night seemed to be drawing to a close.
In the faint light of the night, those cold eyes were like a timeless, frozen river, flowing silently over all desolation and agitation.
Countless Demons, all indescribable in form.
Yet a single sword purged them all, much like that icy gaze, washing away the dust and sweeping away the superficial.
Yu Wenxu stood stunned, mesmerized…
A voice slowly chanted for him, “General Yu…”
“Frozen for a thousand ages, all things are still;”
“The heart at ease, the spirit serene, perceive my solitary soul;”
“Mind and spirit as one, energy flows in kind…”
With each chanted phrase, all chaotic and malevolent thoughts seemed to be soothed away.
Yu Wenxu stood dumbfounded, his lips moving involuntarily to repeat the chant, “With stillness within, ten thousand changes bring no alarm;”
“No obsession, no anger, no desire, no want…”
As he chanted, the malevolent thoughts receded, and Yu Wenxu’s mind seemed to drift back to his childhood.
It was such a distant time. He was so small back then. He had a mother and father; he was not from a great clan, but the son of a farmer.
He led a cow over hillsides and across the ridges of rice paddies. Then one day, calamity struck…
Yu Wenxu didn’t know that as he unconsciously recalled his past, Song Ciwan, her finger still pressed lightly to his brow, was following his consciousness and witnessing those very memories.
Song Ciwan hadn’t intended to, but she saw it all the same.
Meanwhile, in the Capital, tens of thousands of miles away, the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List stirred once more.