Chapter 421 - Desecrated (2/2)
“Lil Chen!” Yu Yifeng cried as he rushed forward to help the wobbling Xiao Chen. Then in a shaking voice, he spoke, “It’s Muxue…”
“Muxue?!” Xiao Chen jerked himself awake, wiping off the tears welling in his eyes. He looked at the young woman standing motionlessly beside the stone sarcophagus. It really was Li Muxue, looking evermore a spitting image of Hua Weiyang. It was the strange sorrow that assailed him and caused him to mistaken Muxue as Hua Weiyang.
On the other side, every one of the defenders knelt on their knees, bowing deeply in worship to the silent young woman. Only Ye Wuxin and the Great Immortal remained standing with looks of incredulity wiped across their faces. No one moved, even the Corpse Puppets which looked as if they were being petrified by a source of Malicious Grudge so astounding and massive that even the Corpse King dipped its head reverently.
“No… This is not right,” Ye Wuxin stammered in a hushed voice, his face curdling with horror and disappointment, “The sacrificial ritual has failed. What we’ve only managed to accomplish is to inject the girl with a strong supply of Heavy Grudge to desecrate her soul and render her under our control. Desecrated, that’s what she is now. But nothing more. But why? Why have we failed to remove her memories? And why have they allowed her to be fielded into battle… It’s too risky…”
Every member of the Jade Qing Sect was too stunned to speak while Perfected Immortal Yanluo, still wavering in her steps, murmured, “Muxue…” Zi Mo rushed to hold her, keeping her steady as he said gently, “Rest easy, Junior Sister. The girl is only under their control. She is not yet a full-fledged Corpse Puppet yet.”
Tears gushed from Xiao Chen’s eyes again as he moved step by step slowly towards the partially-corrupted Li Muxue. A stiff arm clutched at his elbow; it was Yu Yifeng, imploring tersely, “Wait, Lil Chen! Muxue’s already…”
The desecrated Li Muxue turned slowly, surveying the crowds on both sides of the battlefield through her dreamy, lethargic eyes. There was nothing in her. No hate nor love, no qualms nor scruples. Only orders and commands that she would obey without failure. And there was only one command she had received: kill. Kill everyone!
Swish!
She melted into a bat-like silhouette of red that reappeared before the ranks of the invaders of the Orthodox Path and began her work. The work of blood and flesh. In the blink of an eye and the swing of her arm, more than a handful of heads leaped off the necks of a few mages with fountains of blood gushing out morbidly for several feet. Then she disappeared again, reappearing in the midst of another cluster of mages and their heads plopped off again. She was so quick and agile as a panther on a hunt, doling out death and blood with unnerving zeal. By the time the invaders truly grasped what was going on, dozens of headless corpses were already left sprawling on the ground, lying in growing pools of blood and viscera; all of them dead by her bare hands.
The formation of the invaders went into terrible disarray with the pandemonium brought about by the desecrated Li Muxue’s single-minded slaughter that went on and on. The formerly-courageous and confident invaders, who were so close to having taken the Ridge, were now fleeing frantically for their lives. Xiao Chen beheld the chaos, his face positively distraught, “STOP! MUXUE! YOU MUST STOP!” He freed himself from Yu Yifeng’s hold and dashed towards the desecrated Muxue now in a deadly pirouette of her waltz of death.
The desecrated Li Muxue sensed someone approaching and she instinctively swung her arm, sending a magical bolt of dark energy straight at Xiao Chen. It slammed into him with a dull bang and he flew off his feet, landing in a heap several yards away, vomiting blood and saliva.
“My Lord!” Guifeng yelled, rushing to his aid. He helped Xiao Chen to his feet as the latter wiped off some blood from around his mouth. “Stand down, General.”
The desecrated Li Muxue continued her dance of death, leaving more mages dead or maimed and yet no one could stop her. Looking from the other side of the battlefield was the pleased Great Immortal from Hell and Ye Wuxin. The former looked at his High Chieftain, stroking his beard as the two men shared a look with some satisfied smiles.
“STOP! MUXUE! STOP KILLING PEOPLE!” Xiao Chen roared at the top of his voice, his eyes bulging as if they were going to pop. I will never forgive this infernal order and all its members! I’ll kill this Red Sleeve myself if I have to! He vowed to himself, the knot in his stomach clenching tightly. He sprang up and rushed to Li Muxue again.
Li Muxue stopped at the sight of this man whom she could not recognize. She knew him not. Yet she could not bring herself to lay a hand on him. She shook her head, as if trying to summon a long-dormant memory from within the depths of her mind. Yet she found nothing. A blank mind with hardly any shred of anything she could remember, save for the words of the command she had received: kill everyone.
Hesitantly, her lips parted to stammer out the words, “W-who… are… you?”
The brief layoff gave enough time for the invaders of the Orthodox Path to quickly retreat and regroup somewhere farther away. They could not leave; the way down the Ridge was already closed off by the reinforcements of Corpse Puppets, yet their advance forward was now encumbered by a corrupted and berserking Li Muxue. Their morale was spent and the mood was miserable.
In the meantime, the Great Immortal and Ye Wuxin could hardly believe their eyes. With frowns forming over their brows, they wondered, Impossible. A person with his soul desecrated live only by the orders and commands of his master. He would never speak nor have emotional sentiments. But what is going on? What drives her to speak? Was this a whiff of her former consciousness that the sentience of the Divine Corpse failed to consume?
Looking at Muxue through eyes red and wet, Xiao Chen croaked hoarsely, “It’s me, Muxue… Weiyang… Do you not remember me? I’m Xiao Chen… It’s me..” His voice faltered and two lines of tears dribbled down his cheeks.
Li Muxue tilted her head as if she was studying him. Then she raised a hand, her eyes slowly returning to its original pigment, and it caressed tenderly upon Xiao Chen’s face, wiping at his tears.
No one was hardly unperturbed or startled by this. Not many within the ranks of the invaders knew Li Muxue nor her relationship with Xiao Chen and the rest of the Jade Qing Sect. To the most of the Orthodox Path, she was merely an unknown girl now corrupted to be the vessel of the Divine Corpse of the Corpse Refinery Sect, destined to wreak havoc and despair. But no one anticipated this unexpected change in her behavior, not especially when she was just embarking on a killing spree just moments before.
At the far end of the battlefield, the formation of the defenders was fraught with incredulity and denial. Few of them had seen the Divine Corpse prior to its appearance today and fewer more knew who Li Muxue was. Yet the Divine Corpse, the object of their hope and salvation and the harbinger of death for their foes, was showing signs of affection and tenderness to a mortal. Impossible! Far away, still watching from the forest, Su Lianyue had hardly moved an inch. Her eyes had been on the battlefield, seeing everything unfold and her eyes trembled for the briefest moment before it went still again.
Fear and disbelief now shone in the eyes of the Great Immortal and Ye Wuxin. They could simply not comprehend what was going on. But Ye Wuxin took a long, deep breath, and said, “We are losing control of the Mystic Yin Body. Quick. Draw her away from the battlefield before something bad happens…”
The tears never stopped. Xiao Chen could not tell who she was in front of him. Whether Weiyang or Muxue, he did not know. She would never have been Hua Weiyang’s replacement; not when the Li Muxue he knew had a mind, a temperament, and consciousness of her own. But now, with Li Muxue standing like a mindless and empty husk in front of him, he felt as if he was meeting Hua Weiyang again.
“Who are you…” He spoke rapidly, “Are you Muxue? Or are you Weiyang?” He could no longer see clearly with the tears obscuring his vision, raising a hand slowly to touch the face of the person in front of him. But before his fingers grazed her skin, he felt a stab of ice piercing into him. Then came the sensation of pain. Li Muxue had driven a hand through his chest.
He watched as his blood dribbled down her hand and dripping off her elbow, trickling into a pool of red that was spreading on the cobblestones of the square.