Zhi Xuan appeared beside Wei Tianfeng, instantly gripping the hand of Shi Jing’s fra as his own domain essence accelerated the decay of Shi Jing’s body. The hand gripping Wei Tianfeng released, and Zhi Xuan responded by forcing the creature to stare directly at him.
"Behold, the true Ghost Path," Zhi Xuan whispered. From his eyes, the glow of the Six Paths of Reincarnation surged within his pupils for a mont.
Instantly, Shi Jing’s fra, which had been wild and blind, turned stiff as if his entire existence was nailed down by Zhi Xuan’s gaze. Within the sapphire blue pupils that had now shifted into the vortex of the Six Paths of Reincarnation, the creature no longer saw a mortal practitioner, but an expanse of ancient gates regulating the flow of life and death in the universe.
Zhi Xuan hurled the body toward the ceiling of the corridor, letting it float in the air as hungry ghosts slithered from his fra, lunging toward Shi Jing. "Devour that thing."
The hungry ghosts sward like countless black shadows, launching from Zhi Xuan’s robes with soul-piercing shrieks. They lacked a fixed form, appearing only as gaping mouths filled with rows of sharp teeth and elongated, thin claws.
Zhi Xuan clenched his jaw; from the beginning, the underworld had not permitted the manifestation of domains that too strongly defied the order of the underworld. Yet he moved his fingers, continuously grinding against the heavy pressure slamming into him.
"Foolish boy," Ruo Xianxue’s voice echoed in his sea of consciousness. "Even releasing a high-level technique is forbidden in the underworld, yet you use the essence of your domain, which is higher than the domains of those little children, to obliterate that ghost."
Zhi Xuan did not flinch, even as the laws of the underworld began to weigh down on his shoulders like thousands of collapsing mountains. Fresh blood seeped from the corner of his lips, but the light in his eyes remained as sharp as a heavenly sword.
Shi Jing’s high-pitched screams slowly faded, turning into the hiss of steam evaporating in the cold air of the corridor. The body that had been twisting like a snake was now pulverized, completely absorbed into the throats of Zhi Xuan’s hungry ghosts.
Once finished, the black shadows darted back into the shadows of Zhi Xuan’s robes, leaving behind a haunting silence. BUM! The pressure of the underworld laws, rejecting the existence of the Six Paths of Reincarnation, finally exploded.
Zhi Xuan was pushed back three steps, his feet sinking deep into the stone floor, leaving a long, smoking trench. The light in his pupils returned to a calm sapphire, but his face appeared slightly paler than usual.
"Senior!" Ji Haoxuan and Wu Xinghan imdiately approached, their faces full of worry and indescribable respect.
Zhi Xuan raised his hand, signaling them not to co any closer. "I am fine. The laws of this place indeed reject the laws of the Nine Plains."
Wei Tianfeng sat limply, clutching his neck as it gradually recovered. He stared toward the spot where Shi Jing had just been, his eyes reflecting deep sorrow behind his horror.
"One by one... those who once stood equal to beneath the sky of Chi Di, have now ended like this," Wei Tianfeng murmured hoarsely, closing his eyes. "ng Zhan, Shi Jing... I can still feel their gazes at the banquet that night."
"Lift your head, Wei Tianfeng. Mourning the dust will only result in your steps being buried," Zhi Xuan said, his voice flat yet piercing the coldness of the corridor.
Wei Tianfeng took a long breath, trying to stabilize his shaken spiritual essence. "I know, Senior. It is just... seeing them destroyed not as warriors, but as vessels for hungry ghosts, is truly suffocating."
"They chose their path when they let anger burn away their common sense," Wu Xinghan interrupted, turning toward Jing Kuang, who was still trembling in the distance. "Then what about this rat, Senior? Should we obliterate him as well?"
Jing Kuang jolted, his scarred face staring at Zhi Xuan with wide eyes. "Don't... I beg you... I have no killing intent! I only followed them because I was afraid... I don't want to beco dust!"
"Senior," Ji Yuanyi interrupted, her voice small but full of anxiety. "What if he has also been possessed? Can't those ghosts hide within the cracks of fear?"
"I found no seed of darkness within him," Lu Qingyan answered while slowly waving her fan, though her eyes remained vigilant. "He is just a lucky coward, Yuanyi."
"Lucky?" Jing Kuang laughed bitterly, his voice breaking. "You call seeing your comrades turn into monsters and being destroyed by the God of Death before your eyes luck? I would rather have died on the ship than see this horrific truth!"
"Then die," Wei Tianfeng hissed while struggling to stand up. "You will be like them soon enough if you do not find the way back."
Jing Kuang shook his head quickly, tears mixed with blood flowing down his cheeks. "There is no way back... these corridors keep changing... every ti we turn, the path we just took disappears into black fog."
"A cycle of shifting space," Ji Haoxuan thought, looking at the ceiling of the corridor which was growing lower. "How long were you trapped here before eting us?"
"I don't know... maybe hundreds of breaths, or maybe thousands of years," Jing Kuang answered dazed. "Ti here feels like thick mud. We just kept walking until ng Zhan started screaming about betrayal and the Devil Gu... then everything went dark."
"Did you see Elder Xuan Ji or any other Ancient Clan envoys?" Ji Haoxuan asked with urgency.
"No... they disappeared as soon as the first fog descended. We were separated in the blink of an eye," Jing Kuang looked down, his shoulders shaking. "Only the three of us were left... and now, only I am alone."
Zhi Xuan looked away from the pathetic Jing Kuang. To him, the youth was no more than a grain of sand left on the shore of death; too insignificant to be destroyed, yet too fragile to be saved. His eyes turned to the far end of the corridor, where the darkness seed to freeze like an impenetrable velvet curtain.
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Wu Xinghan stepped forward, grabbing the collar of Jing Kuang’s robe without hesitation, making the man's body lift suddenly. "You are truly a fool for a practitioner; following ng Zhan from the start only brought you into this disaster. Since you are self-aware enough, then stand up."
"Though he appears fragile, at least he has the resilience not to be possessed by that dark aura," Wei Tianfeng hissed, his eyes watching Jing Kuang being slowly dragged by Wu Xinghan. "Xinghan, it seems you are showing rcy because Kuang is important to little Xingyan?"
Wu Xinghan did not answer, only letting out a thin snort as he released his grip, letting Jing Kuang stand on wobbling legs. On the other side, Wu Xingyan remained silent, her eyes staring at Jing Kuang flatly, with no spark of affection or hatred, as if the youth before her were rely remnants of ruins that happened to be intact.
"Senior Gu, Jing Kuang was the one who intended to surround you and bring the na of the Ancient Chen Clan to attack you," Lu Qingyan said, her voice sounding disapproving. "Will Senior let him be?"
Zhi Xuan only walked on, as if he did not care about the slurs hurled at him during the banquet that night. "You say that while actually speaking to yourselves. I have no grudge toward slurs; my steps are too long to simply stop for a grudge."
Zhi Xuan’s calm footsteps echoed along the corridor, creating a rhythm that seed to soothe the turbulent pulse of the earth. His indifferent words, laden with the arrogance of an expert, left Lu Qingyan stunned. She realized that for the figure before her, the existence of the Young Kings was no more than a small ripple on the surface of the ocean; aningless and quickly forgotten.
"Steps too long to simply stop for a grudge..." Lu Qingyan whispered, bowing her head deeply, feeling how small her own Dao Heart was compared to Zhi Xuan’s Dao perspective that transcended the mortal horizon.
"Enough, Qingyan," Wei Tianfeng interrupted, turning his gaze back to Jing Kuang and walking closer. "Kuang, can you walk? Even if you are a fool, I will not allow the sky of Chi Di to erode further."
Wei Tianfeng took a long breath, an exhale carrying the remnants of the tightness from his inner struggle. He reached out his sturdy arm, draping it over Jing Kuang’s limp shoulder, forcing the trembling body to stand upright again. Jing Kuang winced; his bones felt as if they were crushed under the pressure of the underworld aura, yet he did not reject the support.
"Tianfeng, are you crazy?!" Wu Xinghan tried to step in, attempting to move Wei Tianfeng away from Jing Kuang. "Let him walk alone; he is no longer worthy of help. You are carrying a walking grave for yourself too, Tianfeng!"
Wei Tianfeng did not budge, even as Wu Xinghan’s sharp gaze pierced toward him. He actually tightened his hold on the increasingly frail Jing Kuang. "Xinghan, if we leave every shattered piece on this path, then what difference is there between us and that heartless dark fog?" Wei Tianfeng said with a deep voice, radiating the authority of a practitioner who had crossed the boundary of fear.
"Xingyan, hold back your brother," Wei Tianfeng said. "After leaving the underworld later, Elder Wu must provide the best wine because I am supporting an important person for their little Wu."
Wu Xingyan jolted, her face which was as cold as snow now decorated with a flush of red that spread to her ears. "Wei Tianfeng! Watch your mouth! Who cares about Jing Kuang!" she exclaid while pulling her brother’s robe sleeve so he wouldn't do anything reckless.
Wu Xinghan snorted loudly, though he eventually softened. He looked at Jing Kuang with a gaze still laden with contempt. "Thank your fate, Jing Kuang. If it weren't for Wei Tianfeng suddenly becoming generous toward trash, I would have left you to rot here."
Jing Kuang did not answer, his tongue felt stiff, but he nodded slowly as a sign of profound gratitude. In his heart, a seed of new awareness began to grow; that in a place where the laws of heaven no longer applied, petty humanity beca the only light remaining.
Zhi Xuan did not flinch; his steps remained unchanged. Behind him, the voices of the Ji, the Wu siblings, and Wei Tianfeng bickering made them look less like Weaver experts in the underworld and more like those who understood that each left a seed that would end either poorly or otherwise.
"Mingling, Tang, Bashan, Zhuwei..." Zhi Xuan thought, the corners of his lips lifting thinly. "Seeing those who were perhaps not yet born when we stood on the fields back then, it keeps reminding how far I have walked while you have grown silent in the embrace of the earth."
"Five hundred years have passed, and your soul still has room for those monkeys," Ruo Xianxue said from the sea of consciousness. "Actually, what makes you keep that mory of finitude so guarded? Your path is to transcend the Heavens, yet you always have a place for that rickety village and every strike of those wheat sacks."
Zhi Xuan did not imdiately answer through soul transmission. He kept walking, letting the hem of his robe sweep the dust of eternity which now appeared darker. His mind drifted to the image of a village far from the bustle of cultivation, where the aroma of freshly harvested wheat and the sound of laughter over muddy ground were far more real than this suffocating underworld law.
"Because, everything also began with that mortal promise," Zhi Xuan thought softly, an admission he rarely voiced even to himself. "The way I protect, the way I slash, the way I walk in this world. Everything originated from the night I completely walked out of those fragile gates. If I lose that mory, then what am I? The cold Ancient Heavens, the haunting Ancient Devil, or just a youth with the Nine Heavens Bead inside him?"
"I do not wish to harden like those statues, Great Saint," Zhi Xuan thought. "When a person originates from where they stand, even if that place has dissolved into the dust of ti and the person has stepped too high... then I will carry this anchor until the end of my path."
Ruo Xianxue looked up to gaze at the sky of Zhi Xuan’s sea of consciousness, her Sun and Moon double pupils seemingly staring far into the past.
"You are still the sa as the boy who was terrified after seeing a decaying corpse on that rainy afternoon," Ruo Xianxue said, her lips pulling into a cynical yet acknowledging curve. "Only different in the way you now perceive the world. Ah... truly moving, and it makes rember how you called as if I were your older sister."
Zhi Xuan did not respond to Ruo Xianxue’s teasing. He rely allowed his inner silence to be a shield against the increasingly maddening pressure of the underworld laws. Ahead, Zhi Xuan did not stop as he encountered statues that appeared familiar to his eyes.
Before him, the line of statues they had encountered earlier reappeared, but this ti their position was more horrific. The statues were no longer rely standing upright; they were prostrating with foreheads touching the ground, forming a long line leading into a thick darkness.
The stone faces grinned, their wide-open mouths as if whispering forbidden prayers in the silence. Every low thump of their footsteps was muffled, carrying a tone that sounded like an uncomfortable hum.
Zhi Xuan stopped walking only when he found two statues blocking the open path; the corridor seed to narrow because of the two prostrating statues whose heads were tilted up, as if staring at Zhi Xuan with that grin.
Ji Haoxuan and the others imdiately stopped. They felt their skin crawl; their divine senses warned them that these two prostrating statues were not frozen fras, but a living trap of intent.
Zhi Xuan smiled thinly; he moved his fingers and released an integrated intent. "Try to swallow this intent."
Instantly, the Life-Death Slaughter intent surged from Zhi Xuan toward the two statues; a speck of grey light shot toward them, which was initially swallowed by the two statues like an abyss consuming everything.
A mont after the grey intent entered, the sound of clashing stone began to ring out, louder and more painful. The statues shook violently, their once rigid grins began to crack, radiating grey light from within the gaps of the breaking stones.
They slowly dissolved, as if the right to have a form had been withdrawn by a higher authority after they swallowed that integrated intent. The dust from the destruction of the two statues did not fall to the earth but floated in the air like grey fireflies losing their light.
"Even the heavenly tribulation could only crack this seed," Zhi Xuan whispered inwardly. "What makes lowly forms like you think you can withstand it?"
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