Chapter 286 - 311: Fierce Battle

From hundreds of millions of miles away, even someone as powerful as Su Bai could not intervene directly. Preserving a sliver of Jin Yunfeng’s spirit was the most he could do.

And now, that sliver of spirit, which had taken refuge in the White Bone Body, flickered faintly at Su Bai’s soft command.

’A total failure, all for nothing...’

’I have failed the Old Mansion Master and let down the Ten Thousand Spirits of the world...’

’My death is of no consequence, but it’s a shame I couldn’t eliminate the Demon...’

’So this is death. It’s not as terrifying as I imagined...’

’Black... Utter darkness.’

’An endless, infinite darkness.’

’Where are the legendary Soul-Collectors?’

’After death, aren’t you supposed to be taken by a Soul-Collector to the Netherworld, judged for good and evil, and sent into Reincarnation?’

’Ah, that’s right. The Netherworld Venerable Master has disappeared. There is no more Reincarnation. I’m going to become a lost and wandering soul...’

In the endless darkness, Jin Yunfeng’s heart was filled with melancholy. Unwillingness, anger, pain, and sorrow flooded his mind.

But he understood this was not his own Mental Realm. It was the omnipresent Demon Evil Qi between heaven and earth, shaking his very soul.

’No wonder so many people become Fierce Ghosts after they die. Under this kind of assault, it’s inevitable that one’s mind would become twisted...’

The thought suddenly occurred to Jin Yunfeng.

’Perhaps I, too, will become a Fierce Ghost?’

"Jin Yunfeng! Awaken!"

At that moment, he suddenly heard a voice call out to him.

It struck him like a sudden enlightenment, a clap of thunder by his ear!

Suddenly, he opened his eyes.

Light reentered his vision. He saw a faint glow. The sky was dim, and a splendid sunset painted the distant sky, its dusky yellow hues stretching endlessly.

He was surrounded by endless mountains. Lush green trees covered the landscape, and a gentle breeze rustled through the grass and trees.

A young man in white robes sat atop the mountain peak.

"It’s you!"

Jin Yunfeng blurted out instinctively, but the sound that emerged was a grating hiss, like that of a venomous snake. He immediately realized something was wrong.

’Where’s my tongue?’

Stunned, he raised his hands and saw two palms, crystalline and pure as white jade.

"You died too quickly. I was only able to preserve a sliver of your spirit. For now, you can only inhabit this White Bone Body."

Su Bai glanced at Jin Yunfeng, now inhabiting the White Bone Body, and communicated with him via Divine Thoughts.

After they parted ways in Ning Village that day, Su Bai had left a trace of his Power of Divine Thought on Jin Yunfeng, allowing him to track his movements.

It had been a casual act, yet he never expected it would end up saving Jin Yunfeng’s life.

After Su Bai’s Divine Thoughts had transformed, his abilities had grown, naturally allowing him to preserve that sliver of spirit from hundreds of millions of miles away.

And this was a testament to his good fortune.

Jin Yunfeng was stunned for a moment, but then he accepted his new reality.

He had already gone into battle determined to die; he never imagined he would survive.

His only regret was failing to kill that Gui Chen Sect Elder.

"Thank you for saving my life, Senior!"

A moment later, he knelt on the ground and offered his heartfelt thanks.

In just a few moments, he had already mastered the art of communicating via Divine Thoughts.

WHOOSH!

Su Bai flicked his sleeve, and Jin Yunfeng rose to his feet involuntarily.

"It was a trivial matter."

"Regardless, it was you who saved my life, Senior."

"I always repay my debts of gratitude. I will forever remember this immense kindness!"

Jin Yunfeng thanked him sincerely once more.

"I have just refined this White Bone Body with my Divine Thoughts. It has lost the ability to devour Essence Blood to raise its Cultivation, but it can now devour Heaven and Earth Essence Qi and the Essence of Sun and Moon."

"Cultivate diligently. Given time, it might not be impossible for you to regrow your flesh and blood and return to your original form."

Su Bai offered this as a word of comfort.

Jin Yunfeng gave a bitter smile. "You jest, Senior. To reach that stage, I’m afraid I would need to pass through countless Thunder Tribulations and cultivate to the Returning Void, or even the Feathered realm."

Generating flesh and blood from a White Bone Body? The difficulty was immense.

Throughout history, some powerful experts had dreamed of preserving a sliver of their spirit after death in order to achieve Reversing Yin and Returning Yang.

But very few had ever truly succeeded. In fact, one could say almost no one had.

He certainly didn’t think he would be the exception.

"Nothing is impossible."

Su Bai gave Jin Yunfeng a meaningful look.

The workings of destiny in the world were complex. In every era, there were those who secretly aligned with Great Fortune, enjoying smooth sailing and turning every misfortune into a blessing.

Jin Yunfeng was just such a person.

Otherwise, out of the trillions of beings in the world, why was he the one who happened to meet Su Bai in Ning Village?

Before, Jin Yunfeng’s fortune had seemed merely ordinary to Su Bai.

But now, his fortune had increased immensely, dozens of times greater than before.

"Nothing is impossible..."

Jin Yunfeng muttered the phrase, and a bit of confidence rekindled in his heart.

He had always been a resolute man. Now, with this newfound belief, his entire aura and state of being transformed once again.

The resilience forged by his brush with death instantly swept away the gloom in his heart.

Su Bai slowly rose to his feet. Without paying Jin Yunfeng any further mind, he flickered and reappeared halfway down the mountain.

A few bamboo huts stood there, his temporary resting place.

They were simple, but clean.

He checked his accumulated Experience Points and did a quick calculation of his daily earnings. A thought immediately came to him.

’In less than half a month, I should have accumulated enough Experience Points to break through to the next realm.’

And the day he finished accumulating Experience Points would be the day he broke through to the Returning Void realm.

...

In the past few days, the world had been in turmoil!

The battle deep in the skies above the Capital City had officially kicked off a fierce war between the Gui Chen Sect and the Gui Dao Mansion.

Qin Wuliang’s status among the many Daoists was, needless to say, immense. He had once been a ghost god under the Netherworld Venerable Master, and countless Daoists naturally obeyed his commands.

More importantly, these Daoists had also learned that the Gui Chen Sect intended to seize their Divine Positions, a realization that filled their hearts with boundless rage.

Thus, in the past few days, the conflict and flames of war between the two behemoths had fully erupted.

Qin Wuliang’s earlier command—to kill three thousand sect members and destroy one hundred branch sects—was completed in less than half a day.

The Daoists, holders of Divine Positions, rose up in a full-scale revolt, displaying a power that left all the Cultivators in the world utterly stunned.

In no more than three days, the Gui Chen Sect’s branch sects within Dayu’s Thirteen Provinces, including those in Yu Province, were completely uprooted and destroyed one by one.

The Spirit Mountains they occupied were burned to the ground, and the Gui Chen Sect’s members within the State Mansions suffered a devastating catastrophe.

Many sect members didn’t even have time to receive the sound transmissions and letters from the Gui Chen Sect’s upper echelons before an enraged horde of Daoists descended upon them. The outcome was predictable.

Within Desolate Province, all Gui Chen Sect members were wiped out in a single night.

Throughout this process, the fighting between the two sides did not affect any other factions or the common people.

The upper echelons of the Dayu Immortal Dynasty seemed to have no intention of stopping the war, issuing no commands and quietly watching the two sides clash.

「But three days later, things began to change.」

An imperial decree from the Immortal Dynasty was issued from the Capital City, transmitted throughout the entirety of Da Yu via the Destiny Immortal Dragon.

The decree was concise, and its main point was...

Effective immediately, the two sides were forbidden from fighting within the borders. If they wished to fight, they were to take it to the Outer Realm to decide victory, defeat, life, and death.

Furthermore, the Immortal Dynasty’s upper echelons also punished the Gui Chen Sect, stripping the Leader of Gui Chen Sect of his Director position in the Incense Hall and confiscating half of the Gui Chen Sect’s Incense.

Neither side had any objection to this.

The Gui Chen Sect, now truly enraged, promised all sorts of benefits during this time, attracting countless Evil Cultivators, Demon Cultivators, Demon Fiends, and Demon Venerables from the Outer Realm to join the war.

For a time, the two sides were evenly matched on the Outer Realm battlefield.

The winds rose, and the world changed.

On Golden Radiance Mountain, Linjiang Daoist sat on an oddly shaped rock, sighing endlessly, his face etched with sorrow.

After hearing his master sigh for the umpteenth time, Nianxin Little Daoist Child, who was holding a Daoist Scripture, shook his head helplessly.

"Master! Can you please stop sighing?"

"Sigh!"

Linjiang Daoist gloomily raised his hand and took out a golden invitation.

"You little rascal, do you know why your master is so worried? It’s all because of you!"

The world was thrown into turmoil after Qin Wuliang’s battle with the Leader of Gui Chen Sect.

Afterward, the Gui Chen Sect sent out a flood of invitations, delivering them to many sects and factions, and even to some solitary Loose Cultivators.

They were invited to join forces to exterminate the Daoists, promised all sorts of benefits, and were even given a pledge that anyone who participated could share in the spoils of Incense.

One must understand, after so many years of accumulation, how vast was the Incense these Daoists possessed?

Immediately, many people answered the call, while the Immortal Dynasty’s upper echelons paid it no mind and gave no response.

After all, in the eyes of the Immortal Dynasty’s leaders, the struggle between the two sides was nothing more than a squabble. The loss of either one would not cause any fundamental damage to the Dayu Immortal Dynasty.

Moreover, the conflict between the two had reached an irreconcilable point.

One had to live, and the other had to die.

But Linjiang Daoist had already received the Cyan Wood Longevity Technique from Su Bai. He only wanted to focus on his own cultivation and, on the side, guide his disciple’s training.

How could he possibly have the heart to participate in a war between two behemoths?

"Just calm down, old man. And don’t you dare say it’s for my sake!"

Nianxin Little Daoist Child rolled his eyes.

"No matter how chaotic the world gets, your disciple here can just find a mountain to hide on. You think the chaos is going to reach me there?"

"You..."

Linjiang Daoist was so angry his beard bristled and his eyes went wide.

Suddenly, his expression changed.

He looked up to see surging beams of sword light tearing through the air, trailing dozens of shockwaves.

They were rushing toward them!