Chapter 47 Part 3

He had looked at Lian Yunzhi while speaking, but his gaze shifted to Mu Cheng afterward. It was unclear if he meant to goad Lian Yunzhi into striking or Mu Cheng into suicide.

Lian Yunzhi trembled with fury.

But the chain piercing his shoulder blade coiled midair, summoning a pitch-black dagger and pressing it into his hand.

Lian Yunzhi flung the dagger away as if it were poison. In the next instant, the chain through his body swelled abruptly. He threw his head back with a muffled groan as blood soaked half his robe.

Mu Cheng’s hands were covered in blood.

He trembled as he pressed against the bloodied hole spreading across Lian Yunzhi’s chest. Blood gushed from between his fingers no matter how he tried to staunch it. In this transparent cage, he could not mobilize his spiritual power. He could not open his storage ring to feed Lian Yunzhi healing pills. He could not even cast a simple cleansing spell to spare his cleanliness-loving Dao Companion such indignity.

His gaze involuntarily drifted down to the dagger on the ground.

But in the next moment, vines extended, shoving the dagger deep into the earth. Lian Yunzhi locked eyes with Mu Cheng, his blood-choked voice resounding in his mind—

[Don’t do anything stupid! They still want the “Immortal Treasure”!]

Immortal Treasure.

Mu Cheng snapped back to reality, recalling that the so-called “Immortal Treasure” was none other than Lian Yunzhi, the “Immortal Grass.”

He could not die.

He could not “return.”

Mu Cheng half-knelt on the ground, trembling as he clutched Lian Yunzhi tightly. He slowly raised his head, inch by inch.

The winds of Xiaoze State whipped fiercely, allowing him to see every person present clearly.

He saw the lead Body Integration cultivator regarding them with feigned righteousness, though undisguised greed lurked in his eyes.

He saw the Middle Immortal Realm villagers peeking from the back, fear overriding gratitude, their gazes filled with shock and contempt.

He saw the familiar Mission Hall Hall Master, to whom they had submitted many missions. The Hall Master had once praised their youthful promise and called them the backbone of the righteous path. Now, he whispered to a companion, “I was right not to mistake them. Those two young men had extraordinary combat prowess—never seen before. They must be connected to the new genius who defeated the Linxian Sect Chief Disciple… Don’t touch it! This is a new magic artifact from a senior…”

He saw dozens of souls Lian Yunzhi had released from the Pure Bottle, their gazes evasive as they hid behind kin and friends—all pointing fingers at them.

Finally, he saw Feng Yuan’s gaze toward Lian Yunzhi: fearful, jealous, triumphant.

The winds of Xiaoze State pierced Feng Yuan’s soul. He heard Feng Yuan seethe inwardly: Why? Why is he, who colludes with an evil demon, still Heaven’s Proud Son with immortal affinity! Why did he take my only path to rebirth to reshape a body for an evil demon?! I paid so much for that Pregnant Body Lotus Root! When I heard only one remained, I even pushed my most beloved senior brother into the River of Forgetfulness…

Feng Yuan’s Primordial Spirit throbbed within its Divine Soul sheath.

It was black.

It was… evil.

Mu Cheng suddenly understood.

—So what had stirred his hunger, making him ravenous, was evil.

“I know what my spiritual root is now.”

Mu Cheng kissed Lian Yunzhi’s brow and gently laid him flat on the ground.

“…What is it?”

Lian Yunzhi was desperately racking his brain for an escape when the pain in his shoulder blade dragged him into a haze. He had not even caught Mu Cheng’s words clearly, murmuring the question on instinct.

Mu Cheng stood up.

“It’s the Ten Thousand Evils Spirit Root.”

He was no different from Lu Yan. They had both harmed the innocent, both were villains, both bore sins.

He was evil—but so what?!

The winds of Xiaoze State suddenly turned biting, like bone-scraping blades slicing across Feng Yuan’s soul. Feng Yuan stared down blankly and found a chunk missing from his chest—his Primordial Spirit gone.

His Divine Soul scattered abruptly, eliciting cries of alarm around him.

Nor was Feng Yuan the only one to inexplicably lose his Primordial Spirit and scatter. Next fell the Middle Immortal Realm villager. His collapse drew little notice at first, but the two children’s wails prompted investigation. When the cause—his Primordial Spirit’s mysterious departure—was confirmed, the crying children toppled one after another.

Then the young cultivators who had escaped the Xiaoze State Illusion Realm began dropping successively, souls scattering one by one.

The soul-scattering spread, realms rising from Foundation Establishment and Golden Core to Soul Transformation!

The Void Refining and Body Integration cultivators finally reacted. They glared at Mu Cheng and Lian Yunzhi in the transparent cage with fury and fear blazing in their eyes, murderous intent igniting.

But the instant rage and terror birthed that killing intent, their Primordial Spirits faced devouring. The iron chain in Lian Yunzhi’s chest vanished without trace, the transparent cage shattered, countless pitch-black souls fled their bodies and slammed into Mu Cheng’s back. His pupils gradually turned blood-red.

“It’s truly the evil demon!”

Someone shouted, only to have their soul devoured in the next breath.

Someone shouted that the Evil Demon had descended upon the world, someone cried out for the Celestial Immortals to save them, but more people’s exclamations hadn’t even left their mouths before their Primordial Spirits were devoured, and their souls scattered into oblivion.

The sky over Xiaoze State turned black, dark clouds pressed low over everyone’s heads, and the winds of Xiaoze State swept across heaven and earth like a raging giant dragon. Robes fluttered wildly, dry grass flew about, and Mu Cheng walked step by step to the center of the crowd, like an Asura drawing near.