Chapter 49 Ruin
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Zhao Youqing heard the sound and quickly realized what was happening. She turned around and her face instantly turned pale.
She grabbed Pei Jing’s hand, her voice trembling slightly. “They all came out from the jar.”
Came out from the jar? Pei Jing looked at her, momentarily shocked. “Didn’t you say the ones kept in the jar were meant for food?”
“Most of them are for food, but a few are raised to become these kinds of monsters. They won’t die. Even if they do, they can come back to life. Once bitten by them, whether you’re human or ghost, you turn into blood on the spot.”
Pei Jing looked horrified. “Are these things really that twisted?”
Zhao Youqing: “It was their last desperate move. This time, they finally have a chance to be unleashed.”
She glanced at the mountaintop, swiftly lifted her skirt, and pulled Pei Jing to run along the edge of the slope. Those creature-like beings, confined in the jar for a long time, with twisted bodies, pale gray faces, and swollen features, opened their mouths and angrily raced towards them from the bridge.
Zhao Youqing: “These creatures have no solution in this world. The only way now is to find Zhang Qingshu!”
Pei Jing: “Why do we need to find him?”
They sped through the dense forest. She ran ahead, using her fingers to push aside the blocking dead branches and stepping over the scattered white bones. Each step she took was a path she had walked five hundred years ago. Finally, she reached the center of the woods—a ruin with piles of bricks and tiles on the ground. A weathered wooden sign, bearing the words “Zhonglian,” lay decaying in the soil, emitting a strong, unyielding scent of blood.
Zhao Youqing halted and said, “Do you know why Zhang Qingshu has come back?”
She appeared to smile briefly, and yet, it was as if she hadn’t.
“I knew this day would come. He has always been an extreme person, extremely evil, extremely good. His return will either mark the beginning of a nightmare or the end of one.
“He has returned…” Zhao Youqing glanced ahead, her voice as light as falling snow. “This time, he will bring an end to this place and to himself.”
Pei Jing: “What do you mean?”
Zhao Youqing continued walking. This desolate ruin was under the dominion of something, even the air carried a faint, sticky smell of blood.
Once she entered the boundary, her vitality started to wane, and her form gradually became faint, almost translucent.
Pei Jing held her back, “Don’t go in. Just wait outside.”
Zhao Youqing turned her head, giving him a pale and peculiar smile, and said, “Why wait outside when the person I’ve been waiting for is inside? Once the obsession fades, everything will come to an end.”
Pei Jing felt she had gone mad. “I’ll help you put an end to it.”
Suddenly, Zhao Youqing said, “Young Master, please save him.”
“Save who?”
“Zhang Qingshu,” Zhao Youqing smiled, her eyes crimson, with a fleeting glimmer of tears. “He saved your friend. He wants to bring an end to this place, wants everyone to be buried together.” Her fingers clenched tightly, almost convulsively. “That jar, it’s the origin of all evil, the secret to the eternal life of these monsters. But it’s also the place where he can come alive again!”
She had been in this village for hundreds of years.
She knew everything.
It was a rainy night. Thunder roared. Mountains crumbled. The earth split open.
The palace. A young boy. Just arrived in the capital city. A captivating vision.
Memories surged, overturning like tidal waves. She remembered the exquisitely crafted bridal gown displayed in her chambers.
She had spent a year embroidering it, but before she could wear it, her fiancé had been executed by her own Father Emperor. Blood flowed from Qiankun Hall. She rushed there in haste, only to be stopped by her maidservant at the entrance. The maidservant said, “Princess, please go back. You shouldn’t see these things.”
The maid covered her eyes, and in the pitch-black world, she stood motionless in the rain.
The desperate screams of the young man shattered her peace, waking her from her dreams night after night.
Zhang Qingshu was an eccentric individual, neither entirely good nor entirely bad. Yet, at the height of her youth, the one who caught her eye at first sight happened to be this peculiar scholar who stood out from everyone else, lazy and unconventional.
Thus, love and hate entangled, grievances and obsessions intertwined, making it hard to part ways.
Zhao Youqing tightly gripped Pei Jing’s arm, tears streaming down her cheeks. With gritted teeth, she said each word, “His body is in that jar, connected to another dimension at the bottom of the jar. Hurry… you must go… stop him! Don’t let him destroy the jar!”
Agonizing pain tore at her heart, blood seeping from between her clenched teeth.
She also wanted to bring an end to this place, but not like this. She couldn’t bear to watch him dissipate into nothingness.
Pei Jing hastily nodded and said, “Calm down, please calm down.”
Suddenly, he remembered the image of Shu Yan, weary and irritable. At that time, he had thought that if he were as extreme as Zhang Qingshu, he would be the greatest villain, and why not just end his own life if he wanted to cleanse the world. Little did he know, this madman had never considered staying alive, which explained his perpetually jaded expression.
He just wished that if he had to die, he could die alone. Couldn’t he avoid dragging others into it?
Pei Jing asked the fading Zhao Youqing to stay behind while he ventured deeper into the unknown.
At that moment, the undead creatures chasing from the river arrived at the entrance of the ruins.
The protective barrier seemed to only affect things within the village. As soon as the creatures entered, they immediately experienced bloodshed, their skin bursting, and their veins bulging. They screamed in agony due to the intense pain. However, their bodies had regenerative capabilities. When Pei Jing turned around, his mouth twitched in fear. Those creatures, now transformed into human-like forms, had their ʙᴇʟʟɪᴇꜱ ʀɪᴘᴘᴇᴅ ᴏᴘᴇɴ, ꜱᴋɪɴ ᴛᴏʀɴ ᴀᴘᴀʀᴛ, ᴀɴᴅ ɪɴᴛᴇꜱᴛɪɴᴇꜱ ᴅʀᴀɢɢɪɴɢ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ɢʀᴏᴜɴᴅ. They couldn’t die, their eyes bloodshot as they lunged at him, intending to bite.
“Damn it.”
Pei Jing seldom cursed. Without even looking back, he ran inside. There were no extra paths in this ruin, so he continued forward until he reached the end, where an intact household stood.
The door was tightly shut, with blood splattering behind it.
Pei Jing desperately pounded on the door, pulling, tugging, yanking, and ramming it with all his might. He was in a hurry, not wanting to die here with the lunatic Zhang Qingshu. Moreover, he came to save Chu Junyu. His gaze fixed firmly on the gap in the door, he stabbed at it with his Cloud Slayer Sword, but it left no trace.
The sound of screams and footsteps drew closer.
Looking back, a group of invincible monsters, their blood-red appearances becoming increasingly menacing, approached. Their razor-sharp teeth inspired despair.
Pei Jing took out a talisman given to him by his master. He didn’t know what it was for, but he wanted to delay those creatures for now.
Dropping blood on the paper, he flicked it, and the talisman hovered in the air. After a brief moment of calm, the seemingly ordinary paper suddenly exuded a vast and profound sword intent. The cold blue light pierced through the heavens, unleashing the terrifying power of a Nascent Soul stage elder. With a thunderous explosion, the entire space ruptured, and the immense pressure even reached the courtyard.
In an instant, the surrounding stones and wood shattered, and the creatures behind him let out deafening roars.
However, the door that Pei Jing was fixated on showed no signs of wavering.
It was a barrier, a protective enchantment.
“Those creatures are indestructible. It probably won’t suppress them for long. When they pounce, will my death be a gruesome sight?”
Pei Jing tugged at the corner of his mouth and said, “Chu Junyu, by saving you this time, I’ve probably gotten myself into a mess.”
He had never imagined that there would be such a door, impervious even to the power of a Nascent Soul stage elder. The atmosphere in the courtyard filled him with both despair and familiarity.
The treasures his master had given him were all imbued with tenfold power. Yunxiao’s ancestor, a Nascent Soul stage Elder who had reached the pinnacle of cultivation, truly deserved the title of a formidable being.
Someone who could create a world like this, where even a tenfold power couldn’t shake it, must be unimaginably terrifying.
No, Pei Jing suddenly felt a chill run through his entire body.
Perhaps… it shouldn’t be something human.
…This world might still harbor something surpassing mortal beings.
He felt his ankle being grabbed, the coldness piercing to the bone.
A strong and putrid stench filled the air.
Pei Jing lowered his head.
A grotesque creature, crawling on all blood-red limbs, slowly lifted its head. Its eye sockets were empty, and its face was blurred.
At this final juncture.
The dust and smoke lingered after the explosion.
Within the vastness of sword intent.
He stood separated by a door. Once again, he heard Chu Junyu’s voice, the voice of a youth, cold and clear as a handful of snow. Just like in the beginning.
He said, “Pei Yuzhi.”
…Pei Yuzhi.
What did he call him?
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