Chapter 63 An Evil Intent 3
After a long while, she consumed all the flesh of his head—he remained alive throughout the whole process. Finally, only a skull remained. She forcefully pulled his skull apart and licked his cerebral fluids; the colonel only died at this moment. Then, the man in white looked back at Ye Shaoyang, "Do you still want to see how Higashino Jun died?"
"Just show me the outcome. I don't want to see the process. I know that he must've died a worse death than the colonel," said Ye Shaoyang as he rubbed his head. Then, the man in white waved his hand. The scene changed to a big room heaped with bundles of goods. It looked like they were in a storehouse.
A man and a lady, covered with blood, leaned against the stocks. From their necks down, they looked just like a pair of skeletons. However, they still had their internal organs, while pieces of flesh remained attached to their bones. It was hard to believe that they were still alive, but they let out weak moans; they looked dull.
"She is the colonel's niece, Higashino Jun's Japanese girlfriend. Xinyu possessed Higashino. Then, she wrote a letter to his girlfriend and frightened them in a most horrible fashion until they broke down. She used two days to taste their flesh. After a total of one thousand and eight licks, they became two skeletons and died in agony."
'That's impossible, won't they die after losing so much blood?' Xiao Ma asked as he shivered.
The man in white replied with a smile, "A skilled executioner can prolong the death of their victims for three days and three thousand cuts during ancient times. After all, she is a soulbound undead. She is able to fix one's soul to their body to keep them alive."
"I felt very satisfied when she killed those two guys, but why the nurse? She didn't hurt Xinyu before." Xiao Ma hesitated.
"She had no more kindness the moment Higashino pushed her away. Her sole purpose is to take revenge on everyone and society," Ye Shaoyang sighed.
The man in white nodded and said, "Within ten days, she killed everyone in the hospital. She captured their souls and sent them to the spirit nest; they became her servants. Well, this is how she transformed into a soulbound undead. Let's go back."
He waved his hand again; the whole building collapsed, as if an earthquake had occurred. Ye Shaoyang fell. Then, he violently shuddered and woke up. He found himself lying on the bed. He reached under his pillow and felt relieved when he found the Qixing Dragon Dword still there.
He sat up and looked at the man in white, who stood in front of the window with his hands behind his back, as he gazed outside. The man looked cool as his long hair and shirt danced in the wind, like a hero from an old Chinese drama. When Ye Shaoyang thought of all the things that Feng Xinyu had gone through, all sorts of feelings welled up and tangled his heart.
"You can ask anything now." The man in white looked back at Ye Shaoyang.
Ye Shaoyang tidied up his thoughts. He had a lot of questions, but first, he asked the one that he wished to know the most, "Why did you bring us see Feng Xinyu's incident?"
"To let you understand the formation of that spirit nest and how she became a soulbound undead. Although I bear a grudge against her, I always felt that she was not the main culprit behind her becoming a soulbound undead. If possible, I hope you can transcend her soul after you defeat her," said the man in white.
Ye Shaoyang looked at him with doubt, "How come you are so kind? You are a specter."
The man in white answered, "Who says there are no kind specters? I have never killed a person before. If not, I wouldn't have survived till today. Anything else you would like to know?"
Ye Shaoyang paused and asked, "Where did the shadow specter come from?"
"I'm not sure. It was there since they opened the ancient tomb."
"Ancient tomb? What old tomb?"
"I have to tell you everything from the beginning. Don't think that I am very talkative. I have to start from the beginning to make you understand the whole story," replied the man in white after he took a breath.
"Many years ago, when those Japanese built this military hospital, they were trying to cover up the two construction works beneath it—an ammunition depot, and a refuge to provide them safety and a secret exit. During the construction, the armies found a millennium ancient tomb. They opened the coffin in order to look for the treasures, but they met an undead king inside…."
Such an event shocked Ye Shaoyang. Those guys were so unlucky to meet an undead king during construction.
"It killed all the of the military personnel that entered its vicinity. They couldn't use heavy weapons down there, as the weapons might destroy the whole construction. So, they sent more military personnel in to deal with it, but it still killed them. The Japanese had no choice. They hunted for sorcerers everywhere to deal with the undead king. However, the undead king killed seven sorcerers in a row. This continued until Rui Lengyu's great-grandfather went in."
This news stunned Ye Shaoyang. He had never thought that the Rui Lengyu's craft of whispering was handed down in her family.
"Even though the undead king killed them, they had also heavily injured it in return. Thanks to luck, her great-grandfather manage to use a spell to seal it up. Out of his national integrity, he made an excuse of transcending the souls and arranged a hundred spirit funneling formation. He locked up all the souls of the dead within the array. The hospital is on top of the ammunition depot. You are a sorcerer, so you can guess why her great-grandfather did that."
Ye Shaoyang took a deep breath. A hundred spirit funneling formation would gather Yin Qi toward a specific location. If one made Tan Lang and Po Jun the two focal points of the formation, they would alter the formation. This would change it to discharge Yin Qi and push away Yang Qi. Such a formation was useful in a graveyard to help transcend spirits. But if used to discharge Yin Qi into the hospital… it would kill many.
"Her great-grandfather originally intended to use the formation to send the souls in the depot to kill all the Japanese in the hospital. That specter formed after he set the formation. I don't know its background, but it was strong. Alone, it suppressed all the other souls, which kept the people in the hospital temporarily safe—till the appearance of Feng Xinyu. Then, he released the spirit Qi into her before her last breath. The spirit Qi entered her body and immediately precipitated her into a supreme spirit."
"But why did it have to wait until she was about to die?" Xiao Ma chipped in from behind. He had also woken up already. All the while, he had listened to the man in white, as he told Feng Xinyu's story.
Ye Shaoyang replied, "She died with hatred. Her body could withstand the great impact from the Yin Qi. Normal spirits wouldn't be able to bear it; their souls would shatter into pieces."
Xiao Ma thought for awhile and asked, "In that case, the specter might have planned this beforehand?"
"No, you can't plan something like this beforehand. I guess it was always waiting for this opportunity, waiting for a person to die in a violent way to help it finish its plan. After Feng Xinyu became a supreme spirit, it guided her to cultivate both spirit and undead together. Her body in the hospital would absorb corpse Qi, while her soul continued to cultivate in the spirit nest.
"After that, the government took over this building and buried all the corpses in Qiyun Mountain. The specter dug up her body and transferred her to the valley. It fixed up the Chain of Nine Yin Formation and continued to cultivate Xinyu's body. It also obtained an ebony hardwood coffin from the underworld. It originally planned to wait for her to cultivate to the peak and become a spirit mother Rakshasa…."
Chap 64 - A Thousand Year Love
"Sorry to interrupt, but what is a spirit mother Rakshasa?" Xiao Ma asked.
"It is an evolution of the soulbound undead. It is stronger, but only one appears every few hundred years; only a female who belongs to the wood element of the Five Elements can achieve it. Feng Xinyu fulfils the conditions and grasped the great opportunity. If she really becomes a spirit mother Rakshasa, it will become a big deal. Even my master wouldn't be able to defeat her," Ye Shaoyang explained.
The man in white said, "Rui Lengyu's grandfather invited Sorcerer Cheng Yun from Mount Wutai to fight against the shadowy specter and Feng Xinyu. He sealed the spirit nest and Xinyu's three Hun and seven Po with a spell—until now."
Terror struck Ye Shaoyang after he heard these words. Then, he asked, "What were the specter's intentions? Why did it do all these things?"
"The specter made her stronger for its own benefits but I am not sure about its intentions, as it is already dead."
"What?" Ye Shaoyang and Xiao Ma exclaimed in unison.
"Sorcerer Cheng Yun killed it?" asked Ye Shaoyang.
The man in white shook his head, "Sorcerer Cheng Yun was extraordinary. He fought both at once. He ignited his mortal body, used his sarira to reinforce the Seal of the Devil-Defeating-Golden-Warrior, and forcibly sealed Feng Xinyu in the spirit nest. At the same time, he heavily injured the specter. The specter took several decades to heal and recover its cultivation. It released Xinyu after that. Unfortunately for it, it met Dao Feng. Dao Feng slew it after a grand battle."
Xiao Ma burst into laughter when he heard that, "Hahaha…It must've been born under an ill star. Sorcerers kept beating it up. After it cultivated for decades, it emerged; only to get killed right after appearing …hahaha…He really deserved it!"
"This is what we called as vice rises one foot, virtue rises ten," Ye Shaoyang said.
Xiao Ma frowned, "Why have I heard it differently?"
"It depends on who says it," Ye Shaoyang answered. Then, he looked back at the man in white, "Why didn't Dao Feng kill Xinyu along with the specter?"
"It was very hard to kill the specter. How strong do you think Dao Feng is?"
"I don't think that he was all that strong. But he was stronger than the current me. After all, he was a few years older." Ye Shaoyang replied.
"Correct. I also participated in the battle that time. The two of us fought with Xinyu and the specter. Although we managed to kill the specter in the end, we were also heavily injured. Dao Feng used a spell to reseal Xinyu in the spirit nest. After that, he went to Sichuan and never returned."
Suddenly, Ye Shaoyang realized that Dao Feng and Feng Xinyu had warred previously. So, that's why she directly asked him where Dao Feng was when they first met. It made sense, she probably thought she had become stronger after cultivating for a few more decades. She wanted to fight with him again and take revenge on him for sealing her. Ye Shaoyang felt that something was off about his theory, but he had no time to carefully think about it now. He asked the man in white, "Do you know why Dao Feng went to Sichuan?"
The man in white shook his head, "I don't know. I looked for him in Sichuan many times but failed to find him. He has totally vanished."
Ye Shaoyang shrugged; asking the man in white was unfruitful.
"How is Old Rui? What happened to him after that?"
"Old Rui?" the man in white frowned, "You mean Rui Lengyu's grandfather? The Japanese killed him after he finished the job. Tomorrow, you can ask Miss Rui."
Ye Shaoyang said, "Then, tell us about you. Why are you so informed about all the incidents?"
The man in white replied, "I am Qin Feng, a citizen of the Song dynasty. Actually, I should say I came into existence during the Song dynasty. I came from master Zhu Rui's painting. As you know, I was once a man in his painting."
Ye Shaoyang and Xiao Ma glanced at each other. What the hell? This fellow was from the Song dynasty. Even if you started the count from the end of the Southern Song dynasty, he was almost a thousand years old now! Now, Ye Shaoyang understood why this fellow could simply enter his dream without alarming the Spirit Repelling Bell.
"Which…Zhu Rui are you talking about?" Ye Shaoyang scratched his head. Su Dongbo was the only good painter during the Song dynasty he could think of. However, Qin Feng did not explain and continued, "Master Zhu Rui drew me using a mixture of the his blood and ink. By doing so, he painted more real and lively portraits. The master gave this painting to his friend, who happened to be a monk. The friend hung it in his meditation room. I listened to the chanting sutras and the sounds of the Chinese temple block every day. That's how I became a specter after twenty years."
"After that, I wandered for a few hundred years. Then, I cultivated for a few centuries until I met a girl that attracted me, a daughter of a government official. She was very pretty, and talented…."
"Stop! Cut it short. Don't talk about something that has nothing to do with the current events," Ye Shaoyang did not want to listen to these irrelevant love stories, which were all similar.
Qin Feng looked at him angrily, "Because of me, she never married throughout her life, nor did she report to the Underworld after she died. We were together for two hundred years before we met a monk from the Jinshan temple. We were no match for him; he subdued her and sent her to the Underworld. I managed to escape. She suffered from the six paths of transmigration. Finally, after two hundred years, she was born as a human again. I identified her by her birthmarks. The girl was Chen Lin."
Xiao Ma subconsciously reached out to his wallet and muttered, "Its her…."
Suddenly, Ye Shaoyang had an evil thought. Luckily, Chen Lin reincarnated into a girl.If not….
"Initially, we could continue our previous relationship. However, Feng Xinyu killed her…."
"What? She killed Chen Lin!" Xiao Ma exclaimed. Ye Shaoyang stared at him to warn him not to interrupt. Ye Shaoyang wanted to let Qin Feng continue.
"I showed you the incidents I witnessed with my own eyes through that dream. As a specter, I still consider myself to have sense of justice. I tried to stop that shadowy specter, but I lost. However, I later met Dao Fen and joined forces with him. Only then did I exact my revenge.
"I waited for Xiao Yun—the reincarnated Chen Lin. I watched her grow older and entered the School of Foreign Languages. I did all that I could to help her remember her past, but…because I helped Dao Feng fight Feng Xinyu previously, she used a fragment of her soul to kill Xiao Yun when I was not around. Feng Xinyu did this because she held a grudge against me."
Qin Feng felt deeply upset when he recounted this, "She captured Chen Lin's soul and kept her in the spirit nest. But I don't know why Xinyu has not destroyed Chen Lin's soul. I could feel her existence. I tried to save her a few times, but I've never succeeded."
Ye Shaoyang felt shocked, "Even with your level of cultivation, you're unable to save her?"
Qin Feng replied, "There are a lot of awakened spirits and specters in the spirit nest, and the Yin Qi is too strong down there. These factors greatly amplified her power. I was not her match. The only person I could think of to assist me was Dao Feng. So, I went to look for him in Sichuan numerous times, but I couldn't find him. I had no choice. I could only wait in Stone City. This continued on until I recently met Miss Rui. After I learned her family background, I decided to work with her."
Qin Feng glanced at Xiao Ma, "I know he has a photo of Chen Lin with him, so I tried to enter the photo that night. I wanted to meet with her illusion to lessen my longings for her. But then, I ended up meeting you."
Ye Shaoyang remained quiet and waited for him to continue.
Qin Feng then said, "You had the same aura as Dao Feng. I guessed that you came from Maoshan Sect, so I dragged the two of you into a dream to test your abilities."