"Xiao Ling?"
Luo Chen asked softly, extending his thick, muscular arm at the same time.
The great python nodded repeatedly and slithered up along his arm.
When it made contact, there was a faint hint of weight, yet it remained airy and weightless, as if made of nothing.
This was not because Luo Chen paid no heed to such little weight, but because she truly was that ethereal and light.
For beneath the seemingly solid form of this great serpent, it was in truth a gathering of pure ghostly qi.
In other words, this python was a ghost!
Yet Luo Chen did not mind in the slightest, solely because she was an old friend of his—Bai Meiling!
Luo Chen slowly raised his arm, looking at the slender Bai Meiling whose eyes brimmed with pleasant surprise, and asked curiously, "How did you come to be here, and even condense a Ghost Nascent Soul, advancing straight to the Tier 4 Ghost Emperor realm?"
Having confirmed it was Luo Chen, Bai Meiling was overjoyed. Her ethereal body coiled tightly around his arm, as if terrified he might vanish.
"Master, it is a very long story."
Luo Chen smiled faintly. "If it is a long story, take your time telling it! It so happens I need to clean up the battlefield as well."
As he spoke, Luo Chen tapped his torso, enduring the pain.
*Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!*
Four black silhouettes were forced out.
They were none other than the four black awls.
Then, reaching out with a beckoning motion, a black light came flying from the distance.
As if feeling a mutual resonance, the four black awls merged seamlessly into that black light like swallows returning to their nest.
Under the moonlight, Luo Chen raised his hand and examined the thick black awl.
Tianfan City's great treasure—the Five Elements Law-Suppressing Awls!
It truly was extraordinarily wondrous. Once driven into a cultivator's body, it severed the eight extraordinary meridians and locked down the barriers of the Purple Palace, making it exceedingly difficult for the cultivator to mobilize their Nascent Soul.
Furthermore, Baizu's artifact-controlling arts had clearly not been subtle enough, failing to push this True Artifact to its absolute limit.
With just a brief examination, Luo Chen knew that if this awl were struck directly into a cultivator's Nascent Soul, they truly would be left completely helpless.
Just as before, by relying primarily on his two split souls to mobilize the magic power within his acupoints, Luo Chen had quietly loosened the suppression of the four law-suppressing black awls without Baizu ever noticing.
That was precisely why he had possessed sufficient magic power to unleash the Wither-Bloom Dao Finger for that decisive final blow!
Beside his ear, Bai Meiling's voice drifted over, heavy with reminiscence.
"Back when the beast tide erupted, the Luotian Sect was forced to relocate. Unfortunately, I was separated from them and left to wander alone outside."
Luo Chen nodded. That incident was indeed recorded in the *Luotian Annals*.
"Fortunately, I was merely a wandering, solitary ghost. Amidst such great chaos, no one paid any attention to me. After all, the resentment, obsessions, and malice of dead cultivators and demon beasts gave rise to wandering spirits and fierce ghosts everywhere.
"With the Soul Nurturing Banner and ghost cultivation method Master bestowed upon me in the early years, I searched for Sister Caiyi and the others while practicing my cultivation."
Luo Chen pinched an incantation gesture and tapped his chest.
Instantly, a bloody mist billowed.
Under the churning red fog, his colossal body shrank at high speed, returning to normal in the blink of an eye.
Luo Chen inspected himself. This battle had been exceedingly fierce and prolonged, lasting from high noon all the way until the bright moon hung high in the sky.
His Xuanchen Armor was now tattered, dented, and warped.
In several places, it had even been pierced through.
With damage of this scale, relying on the armor's self-restoring capability alone was likely out of the question.
After returning, he would need to find materials to mend it and then carefully nurture it for some time.
As for the injuries across his body—flesh torn open and bones exposed—they appeared ghastly and horrific.
Yet to Luo Chen, these wounds were not particularly severe.
He cast a few healing techniques, swallowed several pills, and let his formidable self-healing physique take over. Before long, it was no longer a major issue.
Bai Meiling exhaled ghostly qi as her Phantasm Python form slowly shrank, coiling upon Luo Chen's shoulder.
"When I finally made it back to the Jade Cauldron Domain, I discovered it had been utterly wrecked and reduced to a ghostly domain.
"Still, it being a ghostly domain worked in my favor. I found a yin cave teeming with ghostly qi and bitterly cultivated for decades, finally breaking through to the Tier 3 Ghost King realm in one go.
"After reaching the Tier 3 Ghost King realm, I finally had enough confidence to travel the world. When I heard the Luotian Sect was staying in the Taihu Domain, I hurried over.
"Who could have known that once I arrived, this place had already been seized by the demon race, with countless cultivators slaughtered."
Luo Chen, who was currently gathering the magic treasures scattered all across the surroundings, paused slightly upon hearing this.
Such records were indeed present in the *Luotian Annals*.
There was even a brief sentence within them that had once made Luo Chen sigh with deep emotion:
*Gu Caiyi's disciple Yuan Xiaoyue, died during the westward retreat from Lake Taihu.*
Luo Chen sighed and stepped before Baizu's corpse.
Even in death, though the corpse had sunk into the vast lake, nearly half of it still protruded above the water.
The remains of a Great Demon Emperor!
And one that specialized in body refinement at that!
The value of this carcass was beyond measure.
The only blemish was that its most quintessential blood had been entirely absorbed by the Yuantu Sword, leaving not a drop behind.
Ah, well!
To have slain him was already tremendous good fortune; how could one expect perfection in everything?
Luo Chen spat out a platinum sword pellet, unraveling sword threads, and began rapidly dissecting the corpse.
One arm after another was severed.
The internal organs were sorted out as well.
Luo Chen even went out of his way to gouge out that pair of eyeballs.
Under the mantle of night, Luo Chen transformed into a ruthless butcher, performing this bloody, grimy dissection.
Once he had retrieved all the valuable materials from the carcass, he did not let the remaining centipede flesh go to waste.
"Xiao Hei, it's all yours!"
He tapped his left arm. To Bai Meiling's alarm, a black streak of light flew out.
Black King landed on the ground. Instead of immediately eyeing the grand feast, he crouched before Luo Chen with an aggrieved look.
"Master, why didn't you summon me to help this time either?"
Luo Chen chuckled. "It's not that I look down on you. It was just my first time revealing my complete true form; if I failed to control my strength and slapped you into meat paste, that would hardly be ideal.
"Next time! I will definitely call you next time!"
*Failing to control your strength and slapping me into meat paste—isn't that just looking down on me?*
Black King grumbled under his breath, then manifested his hundred-zhang true form. Unleashing his devouring talent, he swallowed Baizu's true form into his belly.
Using a hundred-zhang body to swallow a massive centipede seven to eight hundred zhang long was truly like a snake swallowing an elephant.
Yet after swallowing it down, Black King's frame had merely rounded out by a single circle.
*Burp!*
He let out a loud belch, gave Bai Meiling a curious glance, and burrowed back into Luo Chen's arm.
Bai Meiling stared timidly at the black dragon tattoo on Luo Chen's arm. "That is...?"
Luo Chen smiled faintly. "A spirit pet I took in over the years, a complete fool."
Bai Meiling flicked her serpent tongue in amazement.
When Black King had swallowed Baizu's true form just now, the aura he revealed had been anything but weak.
To her eyes, even some Nascent Soul True Persons fell short compared to him.
Master had truly grown more and more formidable!
Luo Chen halted his hands and furrowed his brows slightly as he looked at Bai Meiling's Phantasm Python ghost form.
"I recall that the cultivation method I gave you back then was an orthodox human ghost cultivation technique. How did you end up like this?"
Upon mention of this, Bai Meiling, whose story had just been interrupted, instantly grew animated.
"Master, please follow me!"
She flew from Luo Chen's shoulder and dived straight into Lake Taihu.
"Oh?"
Luo Chen blinked, following curiously.
At this moment, Lake Taihu had turned extraordinarily turbid from the fierce battle earlier.
Surges rose and fell, and mud churned.
Wherever they passed, massive stones and jade pillars stood stuck upside down in the lakebed.
Before long, Bai Meiling came to a stop before a patch of dense aquatic weeds.
"Right here!"
She parted the weeds and waited for Luo Chen.
Luo Chen swept his divine sense through the area; there was not the slightest aura of life within.
Puzzled, he stepped into the secluded cave dwelling concealed by the aquatic weeds.
The moment he entered, Luo Chen's body froze.
Inside the submerged cave, a young woman lay atop a stone bed. Her appearance was entirely unchanged, looking just as she had all those years ago.
Luo Chen sighed wistfully. "It's Xiaoyue!"
Bai Meiling followed him in, crawled onto the stone bed, and began recounting the past.
Back then, following the tracks of the Luotian Sect, she had arrived in the Taihu Domain.
Here, she still failed to rendezvous with the sect, instead witnessing the demon race slaughtering the cultivators who hid in fear.
She had intended to leave as well.
Yet along the way, she witnessed 'Yuan Xiaoyue' slaughtering in all directions.
Bai Meiling had been bewildered and revealed herself, but the other party did not recognize her at all.
One had to know that Bai Meiling had stayed on Danxia Peak for a long time afterward; virtually all the Luotian Sect's upper echelons knew her to some degree.
Yuan Xiaoyue held no low status, and having also hailed from Dahe Mill, she naturally knew Bai Meiling.
After a clash, Bai Meiling finally understood why.
Yuan Xiaoyue was long dead.
Her remains had been possessed by a solitary soul.
And that soul possessed no consciousness, driven solely by a pure urge to kill.
To preserve her friend's physical body, Bai Meiling fought a bitter battle against it, ultimately forced to use her Ghost King realm to devour the soul.
Any Ghost King was capable of such devouring methods.
Yet only cruel and tyrannical Ghost Kings would resort to them; orthodox ghost cultivators disdained and feared recklessly absorbing external souls.
It was precisely after that devouring that Bai Meiling became trapped in the Taihu Domain.
"That soul was a fragment of the Nine Nether Phantasm Python!" Bai Meiling explained.
Luo Chen fell into thought, recalling another past event.
When the demon race invaded the Taihu Domain years ago, several Demon Emperors had charged in.
Their leader was none other than the Nine Nether Phantasm Python under Commander Huang Man!
That battle had been exceptionally brutal.
The Supreme Elder of Taihu Palace had joined forces with Lingfengzi and others to forcefully slay the Nine Nether Phantasm Python, even shattering its Nascent Soul and sundering its soul.
Lingfengzi and the others had subsequently divided the python's carcass.
A great sinew from it had even been gifted to Luo Chen as compensation for refining the Wind Concealment Pill.
What Bai Meiling had encountered was a wisp of the Nine Nether Phantasm Python's soul scattered throughout the Taihu Domain.
After devouring that soul, Bai Meiling's modest ghostly cultivation realm suffered a backlash.
Driven by the primal instincts of the Nine Nether Phantasm Python's soul, she began hunting down other fragmented souls scattered across the Taihu Domain.
Throughout the process, Bai Meiling maintained her original heart, grinding away the faint wills within those souls bit by bit to advance her cultivation.
However, her cultivation path had also deviated under the instincts of the Nine Nether Phantasm Python.
Ultimately, she ended up in this current Phantasm Python ghost form!
"The Nine Nether Phantasm Python is unlike ordinary Demon Emperors. Not only is it proficient in water-attribute demon arts, but it also excels in the art of soul charm. The former is attained through cultivation, while the latter is innate. Just like the 'Nine Nether' in its name, its origins trace back to demon beasts born from the dark, damp lands of the Nine Nethers.
"That was why its soul did not perish even after falling in battle against a siege of Nascent Soul cultivators.
"In the end, it was a blessing in disguise for you."
Luo Chen felt a swell of emotion and gently stroked Bai Meiling's condensed ghostly form with tenderness.
Bai Meiling quite enjoyed the touch, though a trace of distress remained.
"Even though the will in the python's scattered souls was exceedingly faint, it still placed an enormous burden on me. To wear them away, I frequently fell into deep slumber, spending my days in a muddled haze. When I sensed Master's presence earlier, I didn't even dare believe it was really you at first."
Luo Chen smiled softly. Had he not been the same?
It was precisely because he had sensed the aura of Bai Meiling's soul that he had fought so bitterly against Baizu; otherwise, he would have cast his fire escape technique and fled without looking back.
"No matter. These minor troubles are things I can help you resolve in the future."
Bai Meiling nodded happily. She trusted Luo Chen completely!
Yet lowering her head to gaze at Yuan Xiaoyue's body, sadness crept back into her voice.
"In the end, Xiaoyue was beyond saving."
Luo Chen looked at the corpse in silence.
Suddenly, he retrieved a block of profound ice!
This profound ice had originally been prepared specifically for Canglong, but it could serve another purpose now.
Sword qi burst from his fingertips, shaving fine ice crystals away in a flurry.
In an instant, an ice coffin took shape.
Luo Chen bent down, lifted Yuan Xiaoyue's body, and placed her inside.
"All mortals must eventually face death. To preserve a whole corpse and have fallen leaves return to their roots can be considered a form of completion."
Storing the ice coffin into his storage ring, Luo Chen beckoned to Bai Meiling.
"Let us leave. We cannot linger here."
Bai Meiling stared at the scene in a daze. She noticed that Luo Chen had grown far more indifferent toward the death of friends.
It was almost as if he had become accustomed to it.
"Hmm?" Luo Chen glanced back at her.
Bai Meiling hurried after him.
Perched on Luo Chen's shoulder, she chattered away with lively banter just like in the old days, eager to dispel that faint lingering confusion in her heart.
"Master, that Soul Nurturing Banner you gave me no longer works."
"I know. That banner was only at the magic treasure rank, and an incomplete one at that. How could it possibly house a Tier 4 Ghost Emperor like you? Do not worry, your master has something far better here—a Soul Nurturing Banner from the North Sea's Yuan Demon Sect, at the True Artifact rank!"
"Really?"
"Would I ever lie to you?"
Perhaps because he had slain a Great Demon Emperor in battle, or perhaps influenced by his old acquaintance's bubbly disposition, Luo Chen was in a rather fine mood, rarely indulging in lighthearted banter with Bai Meiling.
Yet the moment he leaped out of the lake's surface, that pleasant mood evaporated completely.
The battle had ended long ago.
Yet Lake Taihu still raged with churning surges and billowing waves.
The bright moon reflected upon the tossing lake surface could not even coalesce into a cohesive shape.
It shattered one moment, only to fold over the next.
Luo Chen glanced back in the direction of the Bikong Region. Even tens of thousands of li away, it felt as though he could still see the sky-blotting Netherworld Yellow Springs Diagram.
Two full days had passed!
Was the Soul Transformation clash still ongoing?
It had already begun affecting the Taihu Domain.
Not daring to linger, he leaped into the air and flew farther away.
...
A towering cliff soared into the clouds, seemingly leveling with the heavens.
A white-robed man sat cross-legged atop it, watching the clouds roll and unroll across the sky, his mind tranquil.
Beneath his feet was Motian Cliff!
Once the core mountain gate of a Nascent Soul upper sect, a sanctuary where ordinary people dared not tread.
This sect was rather intriguing: its name was Motian Cliff, its inherited True Artifact was named Motian Cliff, and even its core mountain gate bore the very same name.
Yet only after arriving here did Luo Chen understand why they held such an obsession.
The abundance of spiritual qi here far exceeded that of ordinary Tier 4 spirit veins.
Not only that, the spiritual qi atop Motian Cliff was extraordinarily pure and light, remarkably suited for cultivators to absorb and refine without much effort.
The sole pity was that this pure and light sanctuary was only a tiny patch. Luo Chen had only managed to find it through a stroke of luck using his Illusion-Breaking Eye.
The rest of the area was merely an ordinary Tier 4 spirit vein.
"Old Ghost Motian occupied this place for so many years, yet his cultivation remained stuck at the early Nascent Soul stage. What an absolute waste!"
Luo Chen sighed in lament, then closed his eyes, focusing entirely on sensing the flow of world essence.
This was his only way of discerning when the Soul Transformation battle would draw to a close.
Three days had passed since the Mount Biyou negotiations, and the clash of Soul Transformation powerhouses had raged for three full days as well.
Was that Ancient Demon Di Tian truly so difficult to deal with?
Even with the Mingyuan Sect's three patriarchs joining forces, could they not bring him down after three days of grueling combat?
Luo Chen could not help but wonder whether this Mingyuan Sect he intended to join was truly up to the task.
Just as this thought crossed his mind, the sea of clouds beneath his feet suddenly rippled.
Luo Chen was taken aback. "Again?"
Yet in the very next instant, that ripple vanished without a trace.
Luo Chen shot to his feet, spiritual radiance erupting from his eyes as he gazed past the thick layers of essence, looking across thousands and tens of thousands of li into the distance.
"Has it all finally come to an end?"
Chapter 864