Chapter 138 (1/2)
“Hahahaha…” Xiao Chen emitted a peal of frenzied giggles as he watched dazedly at the unsheathed Autumn Water in its magnificent grandeur, his face filled with melancholic misery.
His weird and insane laughter caught everyone by surprise. The whole company was captivated by the divine splendor of the Autumn Water only to be distracted by his sudden change of demeanor. The brief episode did not go unnoticed by Xiaoyue; but being in the thick of battle against a foe so powerful, she could not afford being disturbed. With a flick of her finger, the Autumn Water answered her call with a high-pitched ring and shot towards the Corpse Champion in a blinding flash of light!
The epic charge of the Autumn Water at its foe was so awesome that the Corpse Champion could feel the raging intensity of its force. For the first time in this battle, it sensed danger closing in. The zombie channeled its powers, the evil Qi exuding from its foul person billowed like a strong gust of wave that rode forth to meets its adversary. But the imbued strength of Qianyu Nishang was not to be underestimated; the bolt of brilliant light shot with the force of an exploding star, flooding the hall with the radiance of a burning sun and disintegrating the rest of the corpses now lying on the ground into dust.
“NOOO!” Mu Chengxue screamed, her eyes blood-streaked with maniacal frenzy. With all her True Energy, she forcibly broke the spell of Xiao Chen’s magical barrier.
“Arghh!” Xiao Chen gasped and spat a mouthful of blood. He had left a shred of his consciousness within the spell of his magical formation to prevent Mu Chengxue from breaking free from his hold. But the sight of the Autumn Water had distracted him enough for Mu Chengxue to succeed in freeing herself, hence the rebound of her force upon him.
With a fleet-footed step, Mu Chengxue dashed to the front, with vain hopes that she could stop the charge of the Autumn Water. Sadly for her, it was but merely a naive and fruitless endeavor; the streaking bolt of light that was the Autumn Water was traveling at such an impossible speed that it easily shattered the magical barrier that the Corpse Champion had used his evil Qi to construct, penetrating past its defenses and shot cleanly through the zombie, boring a large hole in its chest.
“NOOO! NOOO! BROTHER!!!” Mu Chengxue howled with anguish as she ran forward, leaping into the air to catch hold of the falling body of her brother.
Despite their triumph against a foe so evil and powerful, the company received their victory with their heads hanging over their shoulders in the midst of Mu Chengxue’s grieving sobs and gasps. The Autumn Water’s final coup de grace had punched so huge a hole in the corpse’s chest that its heart was gone and it could no longer return to life.
Tears poured down Mu Chengxue’s cheek like a sorrowful deluge. “Brother…” She panted through her sobs as she hugged at the body of her dead brother tightly.
With a heavy heart, Xiao Chen began to move slowly towards her. His thoughts wandered to his teacher. Through forest and fen, he had been searching for her. How would he take the news, if one day word of her demise were to indeed reach him?
He shook his head, dispelling these thoughts from his mind. He reached beside Mu Chengxue. But suddenly, he saw the corpse beginning to move! The body of the Corpse Champion looked at Mu Chengxue and smiled. “Xue, it is you…” His voice faded swiftly into the breeze, as did the dust of his crumbling body that nothing of him was left in the end.
Everyone was amazed by the corpse’s final moment of lucidity and its last words, especially Xiao Chen. Each and every fragment of a person’s soul had been gone if the person had been turned into a Corpse Puppet. What was left would only be a mere lifeless puppet with utterly no recollection of its past. But how did this Corpse Puppet recognize Mu Chengxue in a rare moment of clarity? Unless….
A flurry of thoughts coursed through his mind. Confused and perplexed, Xiao Chen could not explain the sudden phenomena he had just witnessed. Instead, he felt a sudden murderous desire to kill burning from his front. It was Mu Chengxue who was just in front of him!
She turned slowly, her face filled with hatred and anger. Without any notice, she leaped towards Xiaoyue, her sword threatening to snap at the latter’s neck!
“I’ll kill you!”
But Xiaoyue had anticipated her intent; with the Coalesced Colors Equal to Dust technique, she easily evaded Mu Chengxue’s stroke, leaving merely a mirage in her wake. “He was no more your brother than a mindless puppet of this Wuwang City,” Xiaoyue spoke with a steely voice, trying to urge Mu Chengxue to choose reason over rage, “I am not your enemy, nor I am the person who had brought such fate to you and your brother! It is the Wuwang Wind Cloud City that you should seek vengeance from!”
Driven by her witless rage, Mu Chengxue paid no heed to Xiaoyue’s words; she continued chasing after Xiaoyue with her sword like a snake with its fangs bared. The clash threw up dust and winds into the air of the underground hall, as the glint of steel shone through the thick, grubby mist.
Still, Xiaoyue, with her agile and nimble footwork, left only illusory phantoms for Mu Chengxue to sink her sword into as she easily maneuvered to safety like a dancing specter again and again. Her voice could be heard, cold and frosty like ice, saying to her pursuer, “Do not test my patience, Miss Mu. You’ll be sorry for it!”
Xiao Chen could no longer bear to watch anymore; he leaped into the fray, and blocked Mu Chengxue’s path. “Please, Miss Mu,” he said to her, “Please stop now.”
Mu Chengxue was so near to accidentally hitting him when he intervened. “Move away!” She spat at him, her voice full of venom.
“Please listen to me, Miss Mu,” Xiao Chen shook his head, indicating his resolve. “Your brother might still be alive. I’m not saying this to merely console you. There are reasons to suspect that the corpse is not your brother’s.”
“What do you mean?” She snapped, her voice trembling with doubt and suspicion. But her grip on the hilt of her sword did not loosen.
“I myself cannot be fully sure what is going on. But I am positively certain that if your brother had been turned into a Corpse Puppet, it’s impossible for him to retain any emotions and memories of you. He’d never be able to smile to you.”
“Amitabha…” Xu Gu chanted suddenly, breaking his silence. “There is more to this entire intrigue than meets the eye, Miss Mu. Please calm down. What matters now is getting everyone out of here safely.”
Yu Yifeng and Luo Shangyan came over to help console her. At last, she returned her sword to its scabbard, although her hatred for Xiaoyue was still evident.
“Well then, let’s get started. Please look around, everyone. See if there are any avenues of exits here,” Xu Gu ordered. His eyes remained transfixed on the two remaining sarcophaguses still hanging in mid-air. This made everyone look up too, wondering if the two remaining stone coffins housed any more powerful and evil Corpse Puppets.
But this huge underground hall was protected by enchantments and the stone coffins were too high up in the air for Xiao Chen to cast forth his Divine Sense to find out the contents of the coffins. With the lack of success, he said to his companions, “Let’s first concentrate on finding an exit.”