Chapter 109: Crimson Flowers Hidden in White Bones (9)
A jade figurine?
For a fleeting moment, Bai Chunsheng felt as though something had suddenly clicked in his mind.
Daoist Changping of Tianqing Sect had his soul forcibly stripped away and was then artificially transformed into a demon. That meant the mastermind behind all this was highly skilled in the art of soul manipulation.
Yet the cultivation world had explicitly banned the study of souls a thousand years ago. That meant either this person had been secretly researching it all along—or he was a cultivator who had survived from a thousand years ago until now.
Bai Chunsheng and Yan Yi had once encountered such a person by chance in the Shattered Stone Mortal Realm.
The master of the jade puppet of Lingyu Mountain.
At the time, Bai Chunsheng had speculated that Changliu Mountain must have been the inheritance of a cultivator proficient in soul arts, at least at the Mahayana stage. But in truth, when they later entered Changliu Mountain, aside from the bizarre and perilous jade figurine town and the strangely shifting halls, they found nothing else.
Especially since the signature on the portrait in the main hall had been Ye Jingxing’s. From his conversation with the immortal of Penglai Island, Bai Chunsheng had learned that Ye Jingxing might very well have been Yan Jingqiu’s biological father. And because Ye Jingxing’s skeletal remains had been found in the mine of the Shattered Stone Mortal Realm, Bai Chunsheng had never connected these two matters before.
But the more he thought about it, the more something felt off.
Ye Jingxing’s whereabouts had been unknown. The skeleton in the mine had carried an identity token bearing the name “Ye Jingxing,” yet neither he nor Yan Yi had ever verified whether those remains truly belonged to Ye Jingxing himself.
Moreover—
Bai Chunsheng recalled that he and Yan Yi had left Ye Jingxing’s bones behind in Changliu Mountain. His heart began pounding wildly. What if that had been the condition required for Ye Jingxing’s resurrection?
Ye Jingxing had been Yan Jianhang’s disciple. If he had learned some obscure secret technique, allowing his soul to return to Changliu Mountain to be nurtured, then once his physical body was restored, resurrection wouldn’t have sounded so impossible.
Once Bai Chunsheng linked all these clues together, he couldn’t stop. His thoughts spiraled further.
And even if it wasn’t Ye Jingxing—what about the Dragon Maiden in the portrait? Ye Jingxing had claimed that he killed his wife to prove his Dao, thus slaying the Dragon Maiden. But what if he had deeply loved her, and in order to avoid the relentless pursuit of both the Yan family and the dragon clan, he had spread the lie that the Dragon Maiden was dead, shouldering the blame for elopement alone? That wouldn’t have been impossible either.
Otherwise, the coincidences were simply too many.
Jade figurines. The Shattered Stone Mortal Realm. Souls. Demons…
For once, Bai Chunsheng’s thoughts were sharp and quick. The jade figurine had already entered the Yaoyue Pavilion in a few swift flashes. It maintained the same posture Bai Chunsheng had seen outside the window, its limbs barely moving—it hadn’t walked in. It was more like a chess piece that had been moved into place by someone else.
A rare gust of sinister wind blew in from outside. The candle that was meant to burn eternally in the room was extinguished.
The Soul Abyss had never been bright to begin with. Now, without candlelight, it felt even darker and more desolate.
Bo Yan stood up and took a natural half-step forward, shielding Bai Chunsheng firmly behind him. “Don’t move.”
There was a reason he said that. Since losing his memory, this was the first time Bo Yan had felt such overwhelming pressure. He had never experienced anything like it before. Even when facing Miaoyan Zhenren and Lord Cuixia—both at the peak of Mahayana—he had never felt such evenly matched force.
Unlike Bai Chunsheng, whose thoughts turned to Ye Jingxing and the Dragon Maiden when facing this enemy, Bo Yan thought of Yan Jingqiu.
Bo Yan let out a cold laugh. “A rat that hides its head and shows its tail.”
In the brief moment it took to speak, the jade figurine had already lunged forward. In its hand was a jade sword.
Even before the figurine appeared, Bo Yan had faintly anticipated something and had been waiting. He did not retreat half a step. Instead, he advanced, meeting the attack with his own sword.
Afraid of becoming Bo Yan’s weakness, Bai Chunsheng flipped off the couch while the two fought and took out a defensive treasure to shield himself.
On the surface, the jade figurine’s strength was no weaker than Bo Yan’s. Yet after exchanging blows, it kept retreating. It might have been the opponent who lasted the longest under Yan Jingqiu’s blade that Bai Chunsheng had ever seen. Clearly, its true master was even more formidable.
Just as Bai Chunsheng focused intently on their battle, a bolt of lightning exploded at the edge of his vision.
He turned and saw that the lightning had flashed in through the open window and skylight. But this was the Soul Abyss—there was no moonlight, no stars, no clouds, no sun. Where had thunder come from?
Before he could think it through, a tremendous force struck, nearly knocking him off his feet. He felt as though he were being pressed into the ground, and that very ground was trembling violently, as though mountains were being crushed into valleys and the earth itself torn apart.
Everything around him shook—the floor, the windowsill, the table, the bed…
There was the sound of water, like a rising tide, growing closer and closer.
An earthquake?
Yaoyue Pavilion was on the verge of collapsing into ruins. Even while fending off the jade figurine’s attacks, Bo Yan somehow still had the presence of mind to reach out and grab Bai Chunsheng. Affected by the laws of heaven and earth, cultivators below Mahayana could hardly use any spells within the Soul Abyss. With a single pull, Bo Yan drew Bai Chunsheng into his arms and mounted his sword, flying out of the Pavilion just as it shattered.
Fortunately, Bo Yan had been concerned that the prideful Bai Chunsheng might feel uncomfortable at night and had ordered the dragon attendants to stay far from the Pavilion. It was the dead of night; only the two of them were there. No one else was caught in the disaster.
Outside, it truly was thundering. The rumbling grew louder and louder until torrential rain began to pour.
This was Bai Chunsheng’s first time leaving the Soul Abyss and arriving in the true Water Abyss Realm.
He huddled in Bo Yan’s arms, thoroughly protected. His bright eyes swept across the scene below, damp strands of hair clinging to his cheeks. Bo Yan said nothing. He even took the time to brush the wet hair from Bai Chunsheng’s forehead behind his ear so he could see more clearly.
The Water Abyss Realm was a spirit realm without any continent.
Occasionally, rising from the water were nothing but towering sea rocks and stretches of water forests. The dark clouds overhead did not merely encircle the Soul Abyss beneath the deep sea—they stretched endlessly, as though they had long enveloped the entire spirit realm.
In the distance came the long, mournful cry of a giant whale.
Suddenly, a mouth split open across the jade figurine’s smooth, featureless face. It seemed to smile. “Without your memories, you can’t even defeat this mere avatar of mine anymore?”
Bai Chunsheng kept his gaze locked on Bo Yan as he fought the jade figurine. The attack had been fierce and strange. For now, he pushed aside thoughts of the Dragon Maiden and Ye Jingxing.
Assuming these events were orchestrated by the same group—why frame Yan Jingqiu as the mastermind earlier, only to now attempt to kill him?
The secret to becoming a Venerable. The completion of the Heavenly Dao…
Suddenly, Bai Chunsheng realized something. He took out the Immortal Spirit Register.
The pages flipped on their own, without wind, turning to a page he had never read before. It displayed news from three hours earlier:
In the Three Pure Spirit Realm, Loose Cultivator Liaoji was missing.
At Cuiwei Palace, Lord Cuixia’s divine soul had shattered.
Huge shoutout to @_nyanmaru_ on Discord for commissioning this! The chapter will be posted regularly, show your support for Ciacia at Kofi.
