Chapter 26: Sacrificing Oneself

The dense fog could not conceal such brilliant crimson light. At that moment, Zhao Rucheng had just managed to climb up from the ground, and the swarming wandering souls were almost about to drown him.

Then Du Yehu arrived!

He did not even need to move. As that intense qi and blood power surged outward, the approaching wandering souls collapsed and scattered one after another.

Du Yehu was extremely direct. He grabbed Zhao Rucheng by the collar and dragged him toward Ling He.

Having taken a vicious claw from the resentful ghost, all his elder brothers were burning with worry, yet Zhao Rucheng himself did not look injured at all. He shouted angrily, “Hey, hey, hey! I can walk by myself!”

Du Yehu ignored him completely. Halfway there, he tossed the noisy Zhao Rucheng toward Ling He, then turned around and smashed his fist, wrapped in dense qi and blood power, fiercely at the resentful ghost.

Leaving aside how Ling He leapt up to catch Zhao Rucheng, just look at Du Yehu’s fist.

Compared to the Purple Qi Comes from the East Sword, the fist technique he cultivated was not especially profound. Even in the outer academy, it had been rather neglected. But when he used it, it was especially fierce.

This punch did not slip through an opening. It directly met the resentful ghost’s enormous claw head-on, strength against strength, attack against attack. It was truly incomparably forceful!

The nearly tangible qi and blood power wrapped around his iron fist and crashed into that green-black giant claw. For a moment, they were actually locked in a stalemate.

Right at that moment, Jiang Wang had already swept past again. Sword light flashed, cutting open the resentful ghost’s other eye.

“Retreat!”

The moment Jiang Wang succeeded, he withdrew far away, and Du Yehu also leapt back rapidly.

The blinded resentful ghost in place grew even more violent. Its pair of giant claws lashed about wildly, stirring fierce winds in every direction.

When its attack slowed slightly, Jiang Wang turned back once more. His long sword drew a graceful arc through the air and drifted lightly like a falling leaf onto the resentful ghost’s right claw, almost soundless.

Yet at the instant it touched that green-black sharp claw, an unparalleled sharp whistle erupted!

Purple Qi Comes from the East Sword Manual, third killing form. Its essence lay in sharpness!

With one sword strike, the resentful ghost’s right claw was severed.

Jiang Wang did not linger in battle at all. In fact, he had already begun retreating the moment he struck.

Having lost its vision, the resentful ghost could only madly vent its rage at the empty air before it. At this moment, Du Yehu, whose qi and blood burned fiercely, had already circled behind it and leapt high into the air. His left hand clasped his right, both hands swinging down like a hammer, smashing viciously onto the resentful ghost’s hideous head.

Boom!

Qi and blood like beacon smoke naturally restrained ghosts, not to mention how ferocious Du Yehu’s strike was. That fist, wrapped in layers of qi and blood power, smashed the resentful ghost’s entire head apart in one blow!

Du Yehu could not dodge in time and was splashed with green-black filthy blood, but it was quickly burned away by the power of his qi and blood.

Only after the resentful ghost’s headless remains collapsed did the red light around Du Yehu instantly withdraw, his face turning deathly pale.

Jiang Wang leapt to Du Yehu’s side and reached out to support him.

“Brother Tiger, this…”

Qi and blood were the root of a person. Even now, when Jiang Wang condensed dao essence, it began with the supply of qi and blood. Du Yehu’s strength just now had burned away his very self with every passing instant.

He was not a martial artist who specialized in the martial path and could not lock down such surging qi and blood at all. After this battle, he would need at least five years to recover.

How long were five years at the beginning of cultivation?

Not to mention the issue of qi and blood beginning to decline after a certain age.

One step slow meant every step slow. This might mean he would be cut off from transcendence forever.

Yet Du Yehu had not hesitated in the slightest. In a moment of life and death, there was no time to think about so much. And the more instinctive the choice, the more clearly it proved one’s heart.

“Small matter.”

Du Yehu secretly adjusted his breathing and recovered a little strength before pushing Jiang Wang away.

“I’m not at the point where I can’t walk yet. Let’s go. The situation at the central palace must be even more dangerous.”

Ling He was naturally full of worry, but at a time like this, it was not convenient to say much. He shifted Zhao Rucheng onto his back, then stepped forward and picked up his sword from the resentful ghost’s remains, silently guarding Du Yehu’s side.

He had also burned some qi and blood earlier, but only a small amount, not enough to affect his foundation. Thus, he still had the strength to fight with his life on the line.

As the only completely intact and strongest combat force among the four right now, Jiang Wang naturally had to stay flexible so he could strike at any moment. Therefore, he only carried his sword and walked at the front, with no intention of lending a hand.

Only Zhao Rucheng was still muttering complaints nonstop.

“Big Brother is still the considerate one. That old tiger is clumsy as hell. Seriously, carrying me like a little chick—what did that look like? If Miss Miaoyu finds out, won’t my heroic image be completely ruined?”

Miaoyu was now the leading courtesan of Three Parts Fragrance House, and also the most popular girl in all the pleasure houses of Maple Forest City. Zhao Rucheng had already spent over a thousand taels of silver at Three Parts Fragrance House just to taste her favor, but had yet to succeed.

Du Yehu said nothing, not because he did not want to beat him violently, or at least curse him a few times, but because he truly lacked the strength.

“Enough already,” Jiang Wang said impatiently. “Other than mindless wandering souls, this place only has resentful ghosts with confused minds. Who are you trying to impress?”

“Who can say for sure?”

Zhao Rucheng grew more energetic instead. Lying on Ling He’s back, he gestured with his hands.

“What if some beautiful female ghost is hiding somewhere, secretly peeking at me? A perfectly good romantic encounter would be ruined just like that. Can Old Tiger afford that loss?”

Du Yehu nearly rose from his deathbed in fury, erupting with the last bit of strength to smash this foul-mouthed fellow’s head apart.

Before he could explode, Ling He had already swung his sword hilt backward and jabbed upward.

“Hiss…”

Zhao Rucheng sucked in a cold breath, and his arrogance immediately vanished.

…

Meanwhile, behind that heavy mist wall, at the center of Little Forest Town, within the central palace of the Nine Palaces formation.

A huge vortex was slowly rotating.

It was no longer possible to tell what this place had originally looked like. Everything had dissolved into this silent vortex. Other than the vortex, nothing remained.

At the center of the vortex was a kind of pure blackness, as if even a person’s gaze could be drawn into it, and no one could escape.

Beside the vortex stood four cultivators with long, steady auras, each filled with abundant dao essence. All were dressed in black robes and stared straight ahead.

Not far in front of the vortex stood a house that had been smashed to pieces, with nothing left but a single brick wall.

A woman in red leaned lazily against that wall.

She was wrapped tightly from head to toe, yet somehow gave people endless temptation. In her hand, she held an oval mirror, but what the mirror reflected was not her beautiful face. Instead, it showed the figures battling resentful ghosts within the Nine Palaces formation.

“The disciples of Maple Forest City Dao Academy this year aren’t much. Only those few sword moves are somewhat decent.”

The woman in red muttered, then flipped her hand and put away the mirror.

“All right, the time has come. If I’d known it would go this smoothly, I would have slept a bit longer at noon.”

As she yawned, the woman in red walked gracefully before the vortex.

“So sleepy…”

Only after arriving before this mysterious vortex did her expression become slightly more serious. She turned sideways and bowed properly.

“Respectfully inviting the elder.”

The four black-robed cultivators also bowed with her.

Then, from within the dense fog, an old man with white hair walked out.

The old man’s face was wrinkled like old tree bark, and his eyes were extremely cloudy. His back was hunched, and even his steps were unsteady.

But as he walked forward step by step, his back straightened inch by inch, and the aura of his entire body surged continuously.

He paid no attention to the woman in red or the others. He only stared at the vortex, as if staring at the eternal love of his life, his gaze incomparably devout.

By the time he reached the vortex, his aura was already as deep as an abyss and vast as the sea, pressing down until people could barely breathe.

The woman in red lowered her head even further.

The white-haired old man folded his ring finger and little finger inward, forming a triangle over his heart with his thumb, index finger, and middle finger. He softly chanted:

“Beneath the River of Forgetfulness, within the abyss of the Yellow Springs. The honored god returns to the world and illuminates the mortal realm.”

Then he took out a white bone dagger and, with clean decisiveness, stabbed it into the crown of his own head.

His entire body fell straight into the vortex!

(End of Chapter)