Chapter 174 - 173: Xian Yu Fei

Chapter 174: Chapter 173: Xian Yu Fei

As expected of a prestigious, long-established European family; giving money would have seemed tacky. Qin Peilan had simply given her a collector’s edition set of diamond jewelry—the kind that was priceless and couldn’t be found on the market.

Gu Qingyin’s brow arched slightly as she gracefully accepted the gift.

’If it weren’t for me, Kangkang would have certainly lost his position as heir. Who knows if he would even still be alive. No payment could be too extravagant for that. Besides, they gave it willingly.’

That very night, Gu Qingyin had Huo Xingchen take the jewelry set and head back home. Her reason for persuading her son to leave first was simple and blunt.

"Go back first and help me liquidate these assets; we can’t keep all of them on hand. I’ll return in a while. I want to visit the cities your father traveled to when he was young."

Huo Xingchen, completely in the dark, returned to the country with the items the very next day.

After seeing her son off, Gu Qingyin immediately boarded a plane to Berlin.

It was nighttime when she arrived in Berlin. Without wasting a single second, Gu Qingyin hailed a cab and, using Huo Yunjing’s memories as a guide, went to that specific street.

However, they didn’t know the exact location, so Gu Qingyin had the driver drop her off at a familiar-looking spot, intending to search for it on foot.

She had taken but a few steps when a sudden, deep silence fell over the area. Even the sound of the wind vanished. The few pedestrians scattered around froze as if someone had pressed pause, becoming as still as figures in a painting.

Gu Qingyin stopped in her tracks, her expression unchanged as she said, "Martial Uncle, have you grown so accustomed to hiding all these years? I came alone, yet you still don’t dare to show yourself?"

After a few seconds of silence, Xian Yu Fei’s inscrutable voice rang out, "You’re truly unlikable, and not very bright, either. To think you’re still trying to provoke me at a time like this."

Gu Qingyin’s lips curled into a slight smirk. "My mistake. I didn’t realize Martial Uncle couldn’t handle the truth. I’ll be more careful next time."

The moment her words fell, specks of sand began to materialize out of thin air three meters in front of her, coalescing into a complete human form. It was Xian Yu Fei.

Xian Yu Fei wore his habitual smile, but his eyes were terrifyingly cold. He was clearly incensed.

There was, after all, a difference between the real person and his illusion. Xian Yu Fei was considerably taller than Gu Qingyin had expected, and his presence was far more powerful.

"Martial Niece, you shouldn’t have come." As his words faded, Xian Yu Fei’s pupils abruptly turned an eerie shade of purple.

Almost simultaneously, Gu Qingyin’s pupils constricted, and her entire body froze, unable to move.

Huo Yunjing suddenly materialized, assuming his Fierce Ghost form and lunging toward Xian Yu Fei.

Xian Yu Fei didn’t dodge. Instead, his left eye suddenly swiveled, locking onto Huo Yunjing.

Huo Yunjing instantly felt as if he’d been struck by lightning, plummeting from the air and crashing to the ground. His eyes, now blood-red, glared at Xian Yu Fei.

Xian Yu Fei’s left eye remained fixed on him, while his right eye was still looking at Gu Qingyin. It gave him a strangely disjointed appearance, as if two different souls inhabited his body.

The smile remained on his lips, as if victory was already in his grasp, but a few seconds later, his brow furrowed, and his right eye burst with an intense purple light.

Gu Qingyin remained motionless, but a brilliant golden light erupted from deep within her eyes. In a place unseen, her soul was resisting with all its might.

’No one had ever targeted her soul before. She had no idea where her limits lay. This was turning into an opportunity to truly test her potential.’

Xian Yu Fei was continuously trying to control her, while she was continuously resisting, even attempting to trace his soul power back to its source to overpower and perhaps even control his own soul.

People with exceptionally strong soul power were rare to begin with. In the past, Xian Yu Fei had relied on his Summoning Spirit Skill to directly control and annihilate souls, and he had never met his match.

He had sailed through most of his life without a hitch; he never expected to run into a wall against his own martial brother’s disciple.

Xian Yu Fei found it hard to believe, completely unable to accept this reality. But as time went on, he could clearly feel his soul power being pushed back.

By the time he realized with a start that he should retreat, Gu Qingyin had already latched onto him.

Xian Yu Fei was startled, but as befitted a wily old fox who had spent half his life on the run, his shock lasted only a moment. He instantly abandoned the portion of his power attacking Gu Qingyin and instead focused his full strength on controlling Huo Yunjing.

Gu Qingyin’s eyes were now completely gold. Sensing Xian Yu Fei’s intention, she gave a cold snort, and a fleck of gold instantly appeared in Huo Yunjing’s blood-red eyes.

He was her soul messenger, and he was her man. This, combined with their complete and utter trust in one another, created an invisible channel between human and ghost, allowing them to transfer energy across time and space.

With Gu Qingyin’s help, coupled with the fact that Xian Yu Fei had just abandoned a portion of his soul power, Huo Yunjing immediately broke free from the suppression and got to his feet.

Huo Yunjing slowly raised a hand to form a seal, and a flock of black birds immediately burst from the shadows behind him, talons bared, as they swooped toward Xian Yu Fei.

With his focus entirely on manipulating soul power, Xian Yu Fei’s movements were sluggish; there was no way for him to evade this attack.

But Xian Yu Fei didn’t panic in the slightest. He made no move to dodge, simply standing his ground and calmly waiting for the flock to descend upon him.

Huo Yunjing sensed that something was amiss, but he didn’t halt the attack. Instead, he minimized his connection to the flock. This way, if Xian Yu Fei had some countermeasure, he could protect himself at a moment’s notice.

And just as he suspected, as the birds came within a meter of Xian Yu Fei, they were suddenly and uncontrollably drawn toward him as if they were metal filings and he a magnet. Yet, they never actually touched his body.

The captured birds dissolved back into Yin Qi in the blink of an eye and were... consumed by Xian Yu Fei.

Upon seeing this, Huo Yunjing immediately halted his attack. He kept the remaining birds circling in the air, his brow furrowed as he studied the man in confusion.

’Logically, a human shouldn’t be able to absorb Yin Qi. But Xian Yu Fei was clearly absorbing it just fine, and yet... he wasn’t a ghost...’

"What are you?" Huo Yunjing’s voice was hollow and cold. "The living dead?"

Gu Qingyin was surprised as well. ’I thought he was just an Evil Cultivator with no moral compass, but it turns out he’s something far worse. If I’m not mistaken, Xian Yu Fei’s natural lifespan should have ended long ago. But he must have used some method to forcibly imprison his soul within his body, turning him into a half-human, half-ghost creature. To a being like that, Yin Qi is no different from a restorative tonic.’

Huo Yunjing tsked. The birds all converged and merged back into the shadows behind him. In the next moment, Huo Yunjing instantly retracted his aura, becoming indistinguishable from an ordinary person.

If not for his deathly pale complexion, no one would have been able to tell he wasn’t human.

"Oh?" Xian Yu Fei looked slightly surprised. "A Ghost Cultivator?"

’A normal ghost soul could never do something like this. Only a Ghost Cultivator following an orthodox cultivation path—one seeking to ascend from ghost to immortal—would be capable of it.’

Huo Yunjing saw no need to answer. He glanced back with a hint of resignation. "Qing Yin, my methods don’t seem to have any effect on him."

Gu Qingyin offered him a reassuring smile. "It’s alright. Head back for now."

Huo Yunjing slowly faded away, leaving behind an almost imperceptible sigh.

Gu Qingyin swiftly raised her hand, flinging out a handful of peach wood nails.

The peach wood nails landed with a series of THUDS, sinking halfway into the ground and forming a simple Array. Gu Qingyin immediately began forming a hand seal.

As she completed the seal, the Array instantly activated. Arcs of lightning flashed across it before it unleashed a powerful suction force.

The next second, Xian Yu Fei was pulled bodily into the center of the Array.