Translator: transcendentwings
Flowers of blood bloomed!
The array that used a blood sacrifice was naturally more powerful than ordinary formations. The five points of light birthed a star and 22-degree halos soared. Xu Xingzhi felt that “Xianbi” at his waist weighed more than a thousand kilograms as it plummeted straight to the ground.
The sound of weapons being forced to the ground was endless and even the steel spear in Zhou Beinan’s palm was no exception. Zhou Wang immediately crouched down in an attempt to retrieve her blades, but found that the two giant blades that she was used to wielding were like Mount Tai that had developed solid roots, attracted by the array patterns on the ground and weighed onto it.
Five hundred meters before Wen Xuechen, the jade colored wheel was whirling around, using itself as the eye of the formation to maintain the operation of the entire formation.
After releasing the wooden handle of the dagger, Wen Xuechen rolled himself forward half a meter, fished out a plain silk handkerchief from his lapel and wiped his fingertips that were stained with Lu Yujiu’s blood clean before tossing the crumpled handkerchief away.
The bloodstained white silk handkerchief was blown away by the strong winds like the broken string of a kite carried away into the sky.
Lu Yujiu raised his head and watched his own blood drift away, then mechanically lowered his head to peer at the dagger wedged between his ribs.
Lu Yujiu felt so unwell that he felt his head spinning. He couldn’t figure out why things turned out this way.
He couldn’t comprehend why he was removed from the Qingliang Valley roster.
Lu Yujiu tried his best to recall the crimes he committed thirteen years ago, but after mulling it over, he was only left with a sense of grievance. Waves of heat rose up, pressing against the base of his eyes, making him unable to open them.
He stared at the person he once admired so much to the extent that he never dared to look the other person directly in the eye, his body shaking like wild grass that was unable to lift its tips due to the rain at night which penetrated the forest canopy above.
He tried his best, but could only whisper in a low murmur: “. . . You are not Wen-shixiong.”
Seeing Lu Yujiu tip over to one side in a daze, covered in blood, Zhou Beinan’s lips trembled.
He was more confused than angry. He couldn’t even understand why this scene was happening.
Xu Xingzhi heard him muttering under his breath like a drunkard rambling in his dreams: “Xuechen. . . Lu Yujiu. . .”
His tone sounded somewhat comical, so much so that Xu Xingzhi wanted to laugh, however, even he, himself, was gazing in Wen Xuechen’s direction as if he were also sunken in a dream.
The expression on the faces of everyone who knew Wen Xuechen all shattered with only Meng Chongguang still using one arm to protect Xu Xingzhi while stepping back cautiously.
Fury was the first emotion to come alive in Zhou Wang’s body. She roared angrily with raging flames ignited inside her heart and across her vision. She no longer tried to pick up her weapon in vain and just manipulated her energy to fly up, her long black hair danced in the air messily, making her face seem paler, like snow.
Currents formed under her feet as she rushed crazily towards Wen Xuechen!
Zhou Beinan finally recovered from his daze and shouted out “Ah-Wang” loudly, his figure already dashing towards her like a shooting star.
Qu Chi pushed Tao Xian over to Xu Xingzhi’s side and similarly followed after Zhou Wang.
When the spiritual array on the ground detected that someone moved, soft veins of light hundreds of meters long and fifty meters thick instantly rose into the air, like giant pythons with their bloody mouths agape, taking a bite at Zhou Beinan and Qu Chi!
Zhou Beinan was fully prepared and planned to strike him head-on. Unexpectedly when the giant python of light reached his eyes, it turned into residual rays like fireflies, sweeping directly past him, only to transform into a slightly clenched giant fist that smashed straight towards Qu Chi!
That huge palm approached as if it wanted to cover the sky and the sun. Qu Chi was only focused on chasing Zhou Wang back so when he noticed the afterimage of it advancing along the strong gusts, he instinctively reached for the sword at his waist, then when he realized that the blade was no longer there, he no longer had any time to put up a defensive stance.
The giant fist that swelled up like a miniature mountain swiftly came careening towards Qu Chi’s face!!
But in the end, the punch didn’t fall on Qu Chi.
At that critical movement, Xu Xingzhi came up from behind, ducked in front of Qu Chi and blocked the hit with his own fist, holding back the direction of the strike from landing on its intended target!
Compared with that giant palm, his left fist was like a sesame seed against a watermelon seed, though in an instant, the spiritual power surging from the center of his fist completely crushed the giant hand into pieces!
Xu Xingzhi’s simple garments were gathered up in the wind, and the wooden hand hanging down by his side was also swallowed up by flapping garments.
However, just as he lifted his eyes, the scattered fragments turned into thousands of tiny glowing moths in a flash as they swooped towards Xu Xingzhi’s head and face!
Before Xu Xingzhi could panic, his head and face were protected by a robe, and his ears were shielded by a pair of hands.
Amid the buzzing of moths in the sky, Meng Chongguang hugged Xu Xingzhi and whispered hoarsely: “Shixiong, don’t be afraid.”
When a moth flew past Xu Xingzhi’s ear, in between the trembling of its wings, a person’s voice was actually transmitted: “Xingzhi, I’ve already told you before, you should be glad that I’ve never participated in the Heavenly Ranking competition.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Compared with Zhou Beinan and Qu Chi, who were entangled in layers of flying light blades and found it difficult to escape, Zhou Wang, who was charging forth in the front, was not hindered at all.
Qfc Wefmtfc vlvc’a gfagfja jcv rja lc qijmf, kjlalcu obg tfg jgglnji iflregfis.
Vfflcu atja rtf kjr bcis j ofk offa jkjs ogbw Qfc Wefmtfc, Itbe Qjcu uglaafv tfg qfjgis ktlaf affat jcv jvnjcmfv obgkjgv klat ygeaf obgmf bcis ab offi tfg ybvs revvfcis yfmbwf tfjns jr lo tfg ilwyr kfgf yflcu wjclqeijafv ys j qeqqfaffg’r atgfjvr.
Zhou Wang took a closer look and discovered that the originally invisible silk threads took shape and tightly bound her major joints. The thin silver threads spread out densely and wrapped around her palms, waist, abdomen, and ankles.
She was like a butterfly that ran into a big web that a spider had woven.
Zhou Wang gritted her teeth and took a step forward. A thin stream of blood immediately leaked out from the places which were strung up in circles. A string of scattered drops of blood oozed from the webbing between her index finger and thumb, slid down her fingers, then slowly trickled down her forearm.
Wen Xuechen’s voice was very light: “Don’t move. If you don’t want to be sliced into pieces, then stand still obediently.”
Seeing the blood of the two people closest to him, blood surged into Zhou Beinan’s head until it was about to explode. While he was shielding himself against the strong spiritual energy veins that were constantly rushing towards him, alternating illusionary and tangibly, he miserably cried out: “Wen Xuechen, are you f*cking crazy ah! That’s your daughter! It’s Xiao-Xian’er’s child ah. . .”
He was roaring, but his tone of voice sounded more like pleading.
In the past thirteen years, he had dreamed of how the other two would be reunited with her, and all of those scenes were without exception, tender.
Zhou Beinan had imagined that if he shed tears at that time, then wouldn’t he be making a tremendous embarrassment of himself; but then he thought it over again and concluded, screw it, if it was shameful then so be it, as long as the four of them could gather together again, he’d be willing even if he had to die another eight times.
Yet he had never entertained such an encounter as the one before him, not even once.
Wen Xuechen heard his words and scrutinized Zhou Wang with interest.
“Beinan is still like that, still unable to weave any lies.” Wen Xuechen mumbled to himself, “I have never been married, so how would I have any children.”
The girl in front of him had several fresh cuts on her face, yet the blood still couldn’t offset the redness brewing at the corners of her eyes.
She clenched her teeth and took another step forward, blood gushing forth from the bend of her knees again.
Wen Xuechen frowned slightly: “I warned you, if you don’t want to be dismembered, just stay where you are honestly.”
All of Zhou Wang’s hatred condensed into red veins causing her widened eyes to become bloodshot: “You hurt my family, I want you to die without a burial place!”
With those words, countless bursts of blood bloomed from all around her body at the same time and her brown shorts were instantly stained with bright blood. However, she seemed to be completely indifferent to the pain and opened her mouth like a small beast, revealing her gleaming teeth as they chomped onto the layers of thin threads that imprisoned her wrists.
The snapping sound of those fine strings spread out in her mouth along with the raging metallic taste of blood.
Beng.
Beng.
Beng.
Continuous splintering noises came from her joints.
The butterfly would rather tear off her wings and be able to tear down this spider web with her into the abyss if only to bring her family back to her side.
Such tenaciousness and curious vitality made Wen Xuechen taken aback for a moment before he revealed a subtle smile: “You’re not that bad of a child, Why follow them ne.”
What answered him was several fracturing sounds.
Wen Xuechen didn’t retreat at all. He lost interest in the young girl in front of him and scanned the other people before him with keen eyes.
—Lu Yujiu was already down for the count. This wasn’t too far from what he had guessed the situation would be before. With the way he valued Qingliang Valley, the moment he saw himself, he would definitely be the first one to rush over.
—The girl in front of him who was willing to fight him to the death wasn’t within the scope of his calculations. This net had been prepared for the reckless and headstrong Zhou Beinan. However he didn’t expect that this girl’s actions would have such a miraculous effect and with her as bait, he had successfully attracted the attention of Zhou Beinan and Qu Chi.
—Xu Xingzhi valued relationships and justice. He had been interacting with them in the savage wasteland for so many days, even if his memory had not yet been restored, he would still try to protect them.
—As for Meng Chongguang, his movements were much easier to predict. If Xu Xingzhi was in danger, he would definitely not stand idly by.
—The only thing he didn’t expect was that Xu Xingzhi’s spiritual power that had been sealed in his meridians seemed to have recovered. Though, his desperate fear of insects was difficult to cure, so he still wasn’t too difficult to take care of.
And in this way, his true purpose could be achieved.
Wen Xuechen wiped his pale and purple lower lip with his thumb and coldly commanded: “. . . Attack ba.”
As soon as he finished speaking, several teleportation gates appeared beyond the formation. As the wheel of light rotated, a weapon pierced directly out of it, completely skewering the right shoulder of a Danyang Peak disciple whose armor had been shed from behind.
Although those disciples were ready to guard against any changes in the formations on the ground, they didn’t expect that there would still be an ambush. In a short time, two or three disciples were already seriously injured and fell over.
Tao Xian exclaimed and Yuan Ruzhou seized his sleeve with her skeletal hands. She yanked out the withered flower hairpin from her head and stepped in front of Tao Xian in a protective gesture.
More than a dozen disciples from Qingling Valley dressed in their uniforms swarmed out of the teleportation array. After slashing out a bloody path with their swords, they charged towards Yuan Ruzhou and Tao Xian!
Yuan Ruzhou instantly realized that something was wrong and shouted loudly: “Shixiong! Meng-shidi! You guys come back quickly! They are aiming for here! Wen Xuechen is trying to lure the tiger away from the mountain ah!”
Surrounded by flying insects, Xu Xingzhi’s legs were so weak that he could hardly stand. He couldn’t resist the dense fear that creeped out from his joints.
He could only shove Meng Chongguang’s shoulders: “Make haste! Save Tao Xian and Ruzhou!”
Meng Chongguang held the other’s head stubbornly: “No, I will never leave Shixiong.”
Xu Xingzhi fumbled around and smacked the other on the head through the layer of clothing: “Hurry up and f*cking go! I have spiritual power to protect me, I won’t die!”
Meng Chongguang gritted his teeth and squeezed out: “No way. Wen Xuechen just wants to take advantage of when all of us are separated to take Shixiong away! There’s no way I’ll let go!”
While he was talking, he received two more slaps on the face from Xu Xingzhi, but he still refused to give in.
With tears in his eyes, he embraced Xu Xingzhi more tightly: “Shixiong, we were finally able to reach this point with much difficulty. . . Even if you kill me, I won’t let you go!”
Xu Xingzhi struggled to rip off the robe that was draped over his head. The sound of the insects instantly weakened his legs further, causing the acid in his stomach to churn. However he still squirmed with all his strength in order to stagger back towards Tao Xian and the others.
Several disciples wearing Qingliang Valley uniforms had already broken through the heavy siege with blades and came right to Yuan Ruzhou, cutting off half of her hairpin with one swing; Xu Xingzhi, who was stumbling towards them with difficulty, was entangled in a storm of surging moths and could be swallowed up by them at any moment.
There were still several threads holding Zhou Wang back, while Zhou Beinan and Qu Chi were tied back with dealing with the ever-changing array, finding it tough to escape.
No one expected for a sharp shout to sound from Wen Xuchen’s direction at this moment: “Everyone stay your hands!”
Lu Yujiu gripped a dagger covered in blood in his hand and with trembling fingers, he placed the blade at the other’s throat.
At some point, the other had crawled up from the ground, quietly removed the dagger that had been fixed in his stomach and approached Wen Xuechen from behind.
Even Wen Xuechen was only focused on gazing thoughtfully at the thrashing Zhou Wang and hadn’t paid any attention to Lu Yujiu’s movements at all.
Lu Yujiu’s terrifying phantom mask became even more ferocious as he roared: “Everyone stop! Or else I’ll kill him!”
Those disciples seemed as if they held their breaths until suffocation while Wen Xuechen alone remained unexpectedly calm through it all. He raised his voice: “Kill Tao Xian, there’s no need to mind me.”
He turned his head to peer at Lu Yujiu, who was covered in blood and pretty much proactively provoked the other: “Kill me ah.”
Lu Yujiu clenched his teeth, raised the knife, and brought it down, driving the dagger soaked in his own blood into Wen Xuechen’s chest on the right side, then he cut downwards with the blade and used all his strength to tear open the other’s right chest towards his abdomen, ripping open a wound that was more than the length of a palm.
. . . Only when he was dead, would this rotating array stop spinning, only then would the formation cease to operate.
—The person in front of his eyes was no longer the Wen-shixiong from that year.
Although he was thinking like this, Lu Yujiu’s complexion was deathly pale and when Wen Xuechen’s blood splattered onto his body, it was so cold that it chilled his bones.
This slash used up all of his remaining strength and when he inserted the dagger into Wen Xuechen’s chest, he was already unable to stand due to excessive blood loss. The extra cut was made by his falling momentum due to gravity as he slid down the side of Wen Xuechen’s wheelchair, a mark cut by inertia.
However, when he fell over and looked up at Wen Xuechen in a sorry manner, he was shocked to find that the expression on Wen Xuechen’s face was as usual. He didn’t seem to be in pain or bothered by it at all as if that bleeding laceration on his body didn’t exist; In fact, he had only made one move, which was to reach out and hold his stomach to prevent any of his organs from spilling out uncontrollably.
. . . Wen Xuechen even had the mood to curl the corners of his lips at him.
Seeing this scene, Lu Yujiui and the bound Zhou Wang gaped at him in horror.
An extremely terrifying thought popped up in Lu Yujiu’s mind. His gaze shifted from the ground strenuously, trying to identify the faces of the disciples who intended to silence Tao Xian with his blurred and unfocused vision.
When he discovered that something was wrong, several disciples who had followed them from Huawei Territory also picked up on the peculiarity very swiftly. One of them pointed at one of the disciples wearing a Qingliang Valley uniform and exclaimed in a hiss: “Demonic! He’s a disciple of the demonic path! I’ve seen him before!”
“Wen-shixiong is accompanied by those from demonic cultivation?!”
“. . . Wait a minute, he’s injured, but hasn’t died. . . He’s not Wen-shixiong, he’s an awakened corpse! Jiu Zhideng transformed Wen-shixiong into an awakened corpse!”
Hearing this, Wen Xuechen tilted his head slightly, as if he didn’t understand as a chilling smile crept across his face.
Xu Xingzhi could no longer hear the clamor beside him, he rushed to Yuan Ruzhou’s side, used his spiritual power, and knocked away an approaching demonic disciple with one palm. Then he snatched the remaining half of the floral hairpin from Yuan Ruzhou’s hand and leaned in close to her ear to swiftly say: “Shixiong will make another one for you.”
After that, he tried his best to pour all of his spiritual energy into the broken flower hairpin in order to break through the layers of phantom moths, pierce through those illusionary yet solid spiritual veins, and strike directly against Wen Xuechen’s Eight Trigrams Array which was used to maintain the operation of the entire formation.
The flower hairpin only interrupted a few revolutions of the spinning array for a few moments, before it was torn into pieces.
However, these few moments, whether for Xu Xingzhi, for Zhou Beinan, or Qu Chi, were already more than enough.
The years of fighting for their lives in the wasteland have made them adept at seizing the opportunity.
They all brought their weapons at the ready. Zhou Beinan and Qu Chi aimed at the rotating array while Xu Xingzhi aimed at Wen Xuechen and the three combatants launched their assault at the same time.
Wen Xuechen’s jadeite roulette that had just started to revolve again immediately shattered into three pieces and Wen Xuechen was launched backward by the force of hundreds of peach wood nails that “Xianbi” transformed into. The sleeves of his robes, clothing, and trousers were all outlined densely and he was pinned against the surface of the outer layer of the giant tower.
The wheel was destroyed, then in an instant, the moths, spiritual veins, and threads all became invisible.
Wen Xuechen raised his line of sight to locate Tao Xian, who was standing unharmed in the distance and was only somewhat frightened, and sighed softly: “. . . Really a waste.”
Yuan Ruzhou let Tao Xian go and swiftly dashed to Lu Yujiu’s side, who had already collapsed onto the ground. She picked him up and without any hesitation, she transferred his wounds that had nearly drained all the blood from his body to her own.
Xu Xingzhi covered his ears that were throbbing with a buzzing noise, shaking his head back and forth several times, yet he still couldn’t remove the grating sound of the moths’ fluttering wings out of his mind.
But, the words “awakened corpse”, “demonic path” kept slipping into his ears, arousing his faint headache and that accompanying dizziness again.
By the time he was supported by Meng Chongguang and brought to the tower, Lu Yujiu and several of the other injured disciples had already been sent inside the tower to rest and recover.
Zhou Beinan used the reverse end of the body of his spear to strike Wen Xuechen in the waist and abdomen a few times. Unable to relieve his hatred, he stretched out his foot to kick him as well, but as expected, the kick just struck empty space.
His face turned pale with anger: “Ruzhou, come here and restore his body completely, I still have something to ask him ne.”
When Yuan Ruzhou heard this, her eyes were colored with suspicion, but she still obediently removed all of his terrifying wounds.
From beginning to end, Wen Xuechen showed no signs of pain in his expression, He just squinted his eyes to scrutinize Tao Xian, who was still in shock, and Qu Chi, who was comforting him by his side, before he finally turned his attention back to Zhou Beinan: “You stole the divine artifacts and were thus exiled here, was that treating you poorly?”
“Wen Xuechen, you are a f* cking fool ba?” Zhou Beinan was stunned for a moment before he cursed loudly, “What kind of hypnotic potion did Jiu Zhideng feed you? When did we steal the divine artifacts? He, Jiu Zhideng, led the demonic cultivators to attack the four sects. He slaughtered all of you at Qingliang Valley, creating mountains of corpses and seas of blood, with the dead and injured littered everywhere, you don’t remember that anymore!? They exiled us disciples of the four sects who refused to surrender to the demonic cultivators here and kept us in confinement for thirteen years and you’re f*cking tell me that you don’t remember?!”
There was a buzz in Xu Xingzhi’s mind and suddenly, he couldn’t catch his breath.
. . . The demonic path launched a counteroffensive? Surrendering to the demonic cultivators?
These few statements split Xu Xingzhi’s head apart, causing him excruciating pain and allowed his mind, which had been sealed for a long time, to see the light again.
. . . He recalled now.
. . . He finally remembered everything.
The author has something to say:
To summarize: Beinan and the others who had been imprisoned for thirteen years in the wasteland are actually the heroes.
I’ll mention some foreshadowing qwq I hope that the little angels won’t find it annoying
Foreshadowing 1: Wen Xuechen became the “Consciousness of the Three Realms” and became unconcerned with their life and death, only focusing on the interests of Jiu Zhideng;
Foreshadowing 2: In Wen Xuechen’s memories of the past, there was Xu Xingzhi, but Xiao-Xian’er never appeared, only fragments of words and scattered memories; (refer to chapter 39)
Foreshadowing 3: Wen Xuechen didn’t warm himself by the fire after entering the wasteland (in chapter 2, when Zhou Beinan suspected that Xu-shixiong was an awakened corpse, he tested him with fire; in chapter 51, Wen Xuechen, who was originally physically weak, didn’t agree to the disciples’ request for him to warm himself by the flames)
That’s about it, the next chapter officially enters the extended memory rewind~
Author’s Chapter Summary:
Formation, swarm of insects, real awakened corpse
The translator has something to say: *rubs hands together*, the truth finally revealed!
Update 1/2
Thank You for the new chapter (◞ꈍ∇ꈍ)◞⋆*✚ ♡