Chapter 17: Master (Part 9)

He Tingtong grabbed Su Tan’s waistband as the three wildly ran across the dragon corpse.

Must say, Su Tan’s positioning skills honed from years of gaming were truly impressive. After discovering they were trapped on the dragon corpse unable to leave, he abandoned sword flight, leading the two youths behind him to play eagle-catching-chicks with the dragon maiden.

The three ran back and forth on the corpse. Su Tan tilted his head back, gasping heavily: “I—damn, is she going to chase us until the world grows old?”

Behind him, He Tingtong and Fu Fengyan kept pace together. They’d already run back and forth like this dozens of times. Moreover, this mist was cold and gloomy, slowly absorbing spiritual energy from their bodies. The longer they stayed, the more exhausted they became.

He Tingtong didn’t forget to reply amid gasps: “Looks like it. Brother Tan, the aura here is strange. We must find a way to escape, or we’ll be drained dry.”

Seeing the lantern-carrying dragon maiden’s vague figure appear ahead again, Su Tan made an emergency stop, grabbing two little tails to turn around, striding back. In the fierce wind could be seen the dragon maiden lifting her veiled hat, revealing that huge, terrifying eye, timidly looking toward them. Su Tan glanced back once, immediately closed his eyes, shouting in collapse: “Beauty, stop chasing! I’m gay!”

He Tingtong: “…”

Fu Fengyan tilted his head: “Gay?”

Su Tan took time amid chaos to educate: “Means cut-sleeve.”

Fu Fengyan looked at He Tingtong before him, eyes brightening, loudly saying: “Then I’m gay too!”

He Tingtong’s vision went dark, angrily saying: “At a time like this, can you two seriously flee for your lives?”

The three fled in panic. They ran back to the dragon head in one breath. Ahead, mist surged—suddenly a pale hand extended, nails on fingers sharp as knives, glowing with greenish-white bone light. Su Tan raised his sword to strike, slashing through the air. This time actually touched solid substance—metal clashing, instantly sparking in the air!

His wrist ached, nearly unable to hold the sword.

“Quick! It became solid!!”

The next moment, He Tingtong behind him waved to throw out dozens of talismans. Golden light like threads instantly trapped the dragon maiden’s form. Her whole body stiffened, that large eye flowed bloody tears, tilting head to look at them: “Have you… seen… my horns?”

“Haven’t seen! Haven’t seen!” Su Tan collapsed, taking talismans He Tingtong handed up, throwing them handful by handful, scattering like paper money flying everywhere. “Beautiful sister, I didn’t wrong you! Didn’t harm you either! Grievances have sources, debts have owners—go find the scumbag, don’t trap us ahhhhh!”

“We orphans and widows don’t have it easy. I’ll scatter paper money for you, burn you a big mansion, burn the scumbag for you. Just peacefully go, stop tormenting us!”

This trapped figure dispersed. The dragon maiden’s form scattered like smoke again. Talisman papers floated down from the air, landing on the ground, spontaneously combusting. The next second, the woman suddenly approached closely, slender figure almost sticking to Su Tan’s face. Those dozens of swimming eyeballs stared at him in unison—crimson red, venomous, emanating threads of cold air: “Or-phan, wi-dow.”

“…Child… you have a child?”

Su Tan had that mass of flesh and blood pressed to his face, heart beating almost leaping from his throat. He stammered: “These—aren’t these two big sons?”

“Kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him!”

The long lantern fell to ground. White mist from all directions immediately surged. The next second, He Tingtong saw in mid-air—those water ghosts climbing upward all turned their heads, rushing toward them like rain.

The life-concealing talismans failed!

Forming hand seals with one hand, He Tingtong struck first with a lightning-fire talisman, blasting the dragon maiden’s form away. This time still solid substance—the woman’s slender body rolled several times, falling to ground. She covered face crying bitterly. The reddish-brown hem gradually sank into the dragon body beneath feet, whole person like sinking into muddy swamp, crying as she sank down.

He Tingtong dragged Su Tan backward several steps. Talismans from sleeves flew, raising hand to wave, circling around to form a ring. Densely packed small seal script characters floated out, forming a huge wall, blocking ghost souls falling from overhead.

Around them, white mist floated with scattered phosphorescent fire. Dragon corpse scales beneath their feet opened and closed. The enormous corpse like mountains slowly undulated. Lake water churned. Scales and flesh fell off piece by piece. That fishy-sweet smell grew heavier.

In the mist, the massive, ferocious dragon body slowly stood up, swimming like a snake. A huge, ferocious head twisted, staring at them. Eyes covered with shadow—one red, one blue. Red like flowing blood, blue like bright mirror.

Su Tan: “…”

His eyes rolled back. Unable to catch his breath, he fell straight down—cleanly and efficiently scared unconscious.

He Tingtong caught him with one hand. Talismans in his sleeves had run out. With current cultivation, his swordsmanship wouldn’t even leave any scratch on dragon body scales.

Fu Fengyan lowered hands looking at this massive corpse before him. “It’s a chaotic spirit.”

He Tingtong carried unconscious Su Tan on his back. “Formless, soulless, unconscious—I can see that.”

Among nine provinces cultivators—third realm tempers body, sixth realm tempers spirit, above ninth realm can generate consciousness sea heart domain in spirit mansion. Twelfth realm and up, consciousness sea heart domain manifests externally with its own dao principles.

Consciousness sea heart domain completely controlled by realm master, forming another small world. When cultivators above twelfth realm unexpectedly fell, if consciousness sea heart domain wasn’t destroyed on spot, after losing its master, it would often become a mass of unconscious spiritual body, taking very long to naturally dissolve between heaven and earth.

Masterless consciousness sea heart domain would drift everywhere carrying master’s remaining obsessions, forming wandering spirits. Wandering spirits had no consciousness, mostly gentle and harmless—at most trapping people, seeking spirit heart to resolve doubts, then could be artificially dispersed.

Immortal Alliance usually called this spirit resolution.

But in the world existed another kind of consciousness sea heart domain—if realm master stained with evil karma during life, realm corrupted without anyone to cleanse and dispel darkness, over time consciousness sea heart domain would become “sick.” All those painful, unwilling, resentful, angry—all negative emotions would accumulate bit by bit until realm master died, backlashing upward. Sick consciousness sea heart domain without master control became chaotic spirits—strange and disorderly, carrying realm master’s unwilling resentment drifting everywhere devouring, harming lives.

Before them was the dragon maiden’s chaotic spirit.

Chaotic spirits difficult to resolve—only breaking and killing worked.

“Dragons are spiritual creatures, blessed by heaven and earth—shouldn’t be like this.” He Tingtong looked at that gradually enlarging dragon head, eyes seeming sorrowful.

In mid-air, the barrier erected with small immortal scripts began shattering under ghost soul attacks. Flying spiritual light scattered in white mist like rain threads.

Fu Fengyan pressed his wrist. “Kill her?”

He Tingtong frowned, shaking his head. “Supposedly, Qin Tan brings out a child from the chaotic spirit, so the protagonist should still be here. If we kill him along with her, the world will become unstable again.”

He Tingtong had calculated—the cultivation world he lived in probably had five Heaven’s Chosen. One dies, heaven becomes unstable. Five die basically equals world destruction. Last life all five died, then world collapsed.

“Search some more. Should have hidden him somewhere.” He Tingtong dragged Su Tan forward running. The youth was too tall, toes dragging ground. Fu Fengyan grabbed Su Tan’s other arm from the side. Two people carried him running.

“Moreover, the dragon maiden has human form, can generate love and hate—cultivation mostly thirteenth realm and up. Yet now this chaotic spirit’s danger and harm isn’t very great, movements also sluggish, even needs to command water ghosts to attack. Is it because inner pill and horns were taken?”

He Tingtong looked at this vast white mist, and the hua-la hua-la sound of water currents impacting scales making ding-dong sounds. “Moreover, she’s still searching for her child, unable to find no matter what. Yet the dragon corpse is completely visible—exactly what place can’t she see…”

Fu Fengyan grabbed He Tingtong’s hand, pulling and tugging, nimbly flying up. He raised hand, fingers forming sword seal. “No road ahead, I’m turning around.”

White mist hazy, water vapor falling on people, forming dew-like white pearls on forehead hair and eyelashes. Fu Fengyan blinked, water drops shaking off, rustling like falling rain.

Seeing He Tingtong looking at him, Fu Fengyan puzzled: “What’s wrong?”

He Tingtong suddenly smiled. “I think I probably know where the protagonist is hidden.”

“Heh.”

He Tingtong rapidly ordered: “Knock him out!”

Fu Fengyan without another word, one palm down, heavily chopping at completely defenseless Qin Tan’s neck. Qin Tan’s vision went dark—Sword Sect chief disciple forced offline.

After a moment, another gasp. The youth twitched once, coming back to life. Then Su Tan’s excited voice rang above He Tingtong’s head: “Don’t be afraid! Saved, saved! I remembered everything!!”

The three had fled from dragon body to dragon tail. Behind were water ghosts swarming over, and ferociously opened dragon maw. Ahead was pitch-black, bottomlessly deep lake marsh. Water surface raised waves without wind. Under each undulating wave seemed pressed a snow-white human face, eerily staring at them.

Su Tan lifted the two youths beside him by their collars, emergency braking, then flying upward on sword. Long sword spun in air, almost flying backward to avoid one bite. Sword tail dragged out a gorgeous spiritual light, facing that massive dragon head directly charging forth.

Before them, dragon head ferocious and half-rotted, sharp teeth interlaced sharp as boulders, long whiskers dancing, crimson swollen eyes nearly falling from eye sockets, lines of bloody tears weeping.

“It’s the eyes!!” Su Tan shouted. “Her eyes!”

“The protagonist has an ancestral spirit tool, the Heart-Inquiring Mirror. The world in the mirror can contain living people!”

“The book said that spirit tool is hidden in his eyes!”

Amid cracking sounds, overhead talismans couldn’t hold anymore. A water ghost smashed down. Su Tan frantically pushed away the fishy ghost face. He waved arms, one left one right, carrying two little brothers, toward that glowing blue dragon eye, using fastest speed diving headfirst in.

Heaven and earth spinning.

They fell into a misty rain realm.

Blue stone, black tiles, smoky willows swaying. Crowds on long stairs watched the three descend from sky, landing on someone’s roof, momentum continuing, stepping on wet tiles crashing down amid successive sounds—three human forms tumbled to ground.

Fu Fengyan at bottom, He Tingtong next.

Before others could come watch, Su Tan did a carp jump getting up, scooped up flattened He Tingtong and Fu Fengyan, running away in one breath.