Rebirth

In the darkness, the Shaman tried to repeat its old trick, but this time Wei Yuan was not about to give it the chance. Releasing and clutching in one fluid motion, his large hand clamped onto its body once more. The Shaman struggled desperately, thrashing with tremendous force, but this time both of Wei Yuan's hands gripped its midsection. No matter how violently either end whipped back and forth, it could not break free. Just as Wei Yuan prepared to follow up with another strike, he suddenly sensed a deep, virulent malice directed at his own midsection! Leaving the Shaman aside for the moment, he immediately protected his vitals with one hand. Sure enough, it was Perpetual Wither again—and two of them cast in rapid succession! A curse capable of harming Wei Yuan's physical body ranked among the Wu clan's finest in terms of power, and the figure before him could unleash it directly without needing a blood sacrifice, making it virtually impossible to guard against. Furthermore, its shamanic arts were peculiar, allowing it to move freely even within normal underground earth, whereas Wei Yuan had to use Daoist magic to turn the earth into sand before he could execute earth-escape techniques. If not for the boundless depth of Wei Yuan's Dao power, any other cultivator fighting it underground for so long would likely have exhausted their reserves and fallen in bitter defeat. Taking advantage of the moment Wei Yuan spent shielding himself, the Shaman slipped away once more. Then, Wei Yuan felt another, deeper malice targeted at his midsection, aimed slightly further back. This time, Wei Yuan held nothing back. First, he sealed his ears with Dao power. Then, he drew out a golden two-pronged fork, focused his Dao power to the limit, and flicked it hard! *Clang!* The piercing vibration traveled far and wide. In the darkness, over a dozen sound sources resonated simultaneously, their acoustic waves clashing and amplifying one another. Those were a dozen-odd ancient bells Wei Yuan had quietly laid down beforehand, tuned in advance to resonate with the fork. With more than a dozen great bells resonating at once, even though Wei Yuan had sealed his ears, he still felt waves of nausea and physical discomfort washing over him. If it was like this even for Wei Yuan, the petite Shaman stood no chance against such concussive force. It curled up in agony, temporarily stripped of any ability to move. Immediately after, a Five-Tier Mortal-Suppressing Pagoda crashed down, trapping it within, before being cast directly into his Dao Foundation. The moment it was sealed by the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, a terrifying consciousness suddenly awakened on the Shaman's body. In an unimaginably distant place, a pair of eyes opened, their gaze bridging heaven and earth to fall right here. "Audacious!" A majestic voice rang in Wei Yuan's ears, bearing a terrifying aura that compelled all living beings to submit! Except Wei Yuan had sealed his ears, so he did not hear what was said. Wei Yuan hurriedly withdrew the Dao power blocking his ears, but that terrifying will spoke no further, seemingly deeming that exchanging another word with Wei Yuan would compromise its Dao heart. By then, the black mist underground dispersed, and Wei Yuan's senses returned. He immediately detected two powerful auras rushing toward him at high speed, bound to arrive in mere breaths of time. The reinforcements were coming too fast, leaving Wei Yuan precious little time. Fortunately, before this excursion, Wei Yuan had discussed the possible scenarios in detail with his master and Eldest Senior Sister, preparing contingencies for each. Now, without needing to waste a thought, he simply executed the plan at maximum speed. One after another, two Shamans arrived at the scene in an instant. The heavily wounded monstrous beast had long since fled. The area was tidy, marked only by slight undulations in the ground. Of the two Shamans who had arrived, one was the bow-wielding shamaness, while the other was a slender Shaman Scholar whose lower body glided along the ground like a serpent. His aura was deep and heavy, causing the scenery within tens of feet around him to ripple. He was unmistakably a Great Shaman. As soon as the two Shamans arrived, they noticed more than a dozen dead nether flies scattered across the ground. Several had been sheared in two, and for one of them, the head and tail lay far apart. The Great Shaman frowned slightly and said, "Today is clearly not Fly Weather. Why would so many nether flies appear?" Seeing the shamaness shrink back, somewhat fearful of stepping forward, the Great Shaman scowled and barked, "What are you afraid of? Even if Fly Weather truly broke out, I could bring you back to the realm in time. Useless trash, stay away from me and keep watch at the side!" The bow-wielding shamaness lowered her head. "Yes, Lord Tan Wu." The Great Shaman suddenly halted, staring at the ground beneath his feet. Frowning, he murmured, "This is Junior Martial Sister's Six Consciousness Mist, but why can't I sense her anymore?" Just then, the corpse of a nether fly in the distance twitched slightly. Subtle as the movement was, how could it escape a Great Shaman's perception? He immediately walked toward that nether fly. A single nether fly was actually exceedingly weak; even if hundreds swarmed at once, a Great Shaman would not care. It was just that nether flies never moved except in swarms of hundreds of millions, with the smallest swarms still numbering in the tens of millions. A severed nether fly carcass partially blocked his path ahead. Naturally, the Great Shaman would not alter his course for such a trifle, so he swept his tail to flick it aside. Yet the moment the remains were swept away, a mournful sword light flashed, sinking silently into the Great Shaman's serpentine body! The Great Shaman let out an earth-shattering roar. Before he could react, more than a dozen Mortal-Suppressing Pagodas crashed down from above, slamming heavily onto his serpent torso! A Mortal-Suppressing Pagoda had negligible effect on a Great Shaman; even a dozen striking in unison only slowed his movements slightly and caused his magic power circulation to falter by half a beat. Yet that hairline difference was enough—the Great Shaman's Dao Foundation had already been shredded by the sword light! In Qingming, Zhang Sheng felt a sudden stirring in his heart. He looked up toward the sky, then resumed his reading. Wei Yuan did not even have time to collect the spoils of war before fleeing straight back to the Native Realm. Just as his figure vanished, a cloud of blood so dark it bordered on black appeared where he had stood. Filaments of blood began to drift down, while the surrounding space was sealed shut. As the threads of rain fell, the Great Shaman's serpentine body was riddled with gaping holes wherever a single drop touched it, leaving him utterly defenseless. The rain fell for several breaths before tapering off. The blood cloud drifted back and forth through the air, but no matter where it searched, it could not locate the target of the curse. Within the Qingming Domain, Wei Yuan opened his eyes, a mix of pleasant surprise and lingering dread visible on his face. The petite Shaman he had captured was clearly someone of great importance, carrying the divine sense of a Nether Shaman. What was more, there had been a Great Shaman guarding nearby; less than ten breaths after the incident, the protector had already arrived on the scene. Then, the moment Wei Yuan's tracks were exposed, the Nether Shaman's blood curse had followed in rapid succession, nearly catching him. That guardian Great Shaman could not be compared to the one Wei Yuan had seen earlier alongside the shamaness; his cultivation had likely still been in the early stage. Caught almost completely off guard, he had taken a solid hit from Zhang Sheng's Parting Sorrow sword qi, leaving him no fate other than dying on the spot. Now, Wei Yuan had another four hundred heavenly merits credited to his account, though the lion's share naturally went to Zhang Sheng. Without lingering over the merit figures, Wei Yuan immediately entered his sea of consciousness. The petite Shaman possessed formidable methods, and a single five-tier pagoda likely would not hold out for long. Yet when Wei Yuan entered his sea of consciousness, he was surprised to find the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains extraordinarily tranquil. The five-tier pagoda stood not far from Jade Mountain, completely devoid of motion. Before Wei Yuan could investigate with his divine sense, he saw the Shaman walk straight out of the pagoda. The Five-Tier Mortal-Suppressing Pagoda seemed entirely insubstantial, allowing her to phase right through its walls. Her figure was petite yet voluptuous, her height resembling that of a girl barely past ten years old. A strip of scales ran along her spine, from which several streamers extended outward. Were it not for those ribbons of unknown material and purpose, she would have looked no different from an ordinary human. At this moment, the four eyes on her face were completely hollow, entirely blind to Wei Yuan standing nearby. She walked straight toward Jade Mountain and stepped right inside. Within the small pool inside Jade Mountain, the bottom was already covered with deep, dark water. Upon entering Jade Mountain, the shamaness stepped straight into the dark water and vanished. Ripples spread across the surface, followed by the emergence of a translucent figure, who walked out of Jade Mountain and stood in place, motionless. The newcomer was a young girl, stripped of most of her former Shaman traits. A silver line traced her back, while her original four eyes had shifted to two primary ones, the remaining two reduced to small black dots near the center of her brow. Witnessing the entire transformation, Wei Yuan felt an inexplicable chill seize his heart. Deep within the Wu domain, inside a grand hall fashioned entirely from red jade, hundreds of Shamans of various forms stood as though asleep. At the far end of the hall stood an altar, and upon its highest tier sat nine Great Shamans in a circle, surrounding a small blood pool at the center. Beneath each Great Shaman ran several blood channels, through which blood flowed from their bodies and converged into the central pool. At the terminus of each blood channel stood the sculpted likeness of an exotic beast, each of the nine entirely distinct from the others. Through their open mouths, the Great Shamans' blood dripped into the pool, drop by drop. Floating within the pool of blood was a petite yet voluptuous body, its aura obscure and profound, bobbing gently in the red liquid. Right at that moment, a string of bubbles broke from the bottom of the pool. The previously calm blood surged violently, and the body in the pool twisted into an expression of agony, curling up and convulsing continuously. Her aura surged rapidly, crossing its limit in the blink of an eye, only to plummet headlong from its zenith! She let out a shrill scream, and then all fell silent. Among the nine seated Great Shamans, one suddenly tilted sideways and collapsed without a sound. The remaining Great Shamans opened their eyes in unison. After a moment of dead silence, a piercing wail rang out: "The ritual has failed! The Little Princess... is dead!!"