"Changtian!!"
Faced with the sudden turn of events, Li Qingyan disregarded her damaged meridians and pushed her cultivation technique to its absolute limit, slashing toward the looming black shadow.
Flames trailed through the scarlet mist, kicking up a shockwave that sent the vapor churning. The hideous, gargantuan shadow was cleaved in two, but Li Qingyan clearly felt that her blade had struck nothing tangible.
The phantom dissipated.
Luo Xiran's voice echoed all around like an orchid blooming in an empty valley, laced with disdain:
"Human, no matter how much you know, it cannot change the reality that you are merely in the Soul Condensation realm. Even a mere graze is enough for this seat to seep our origin into your body."
Li Qingyan glanced at Xu Yuan, who had collapsed to his knees and was coughing up blood incessantly, and bit her lip.
Bai Muxi sank to one knee beside Xu Yuan, pressing a slender hand to his back as she called out urgently, "Young Master... Young Master?! Is this... an aberrant ghost transformation?"
By the end, her voice was trembling.
Now that the full truth of the underground crypt was clear, she could not imagine how the underground city's people could survive if this young master from the upper world succumbed to the transformation here.
Hearing that confirmation, Li Qingyan gripped the Blood God Stone jade pendant in her hand, her fingertips tightening until faint cracking sounds emerged.
"Luo Xiran, stop it."
"Heh... stop? The transformation rite is irreversible."
A low chuckle echoed, carrying a touch of manic amusement from Luo Xiran. "Do not be alarmed. This is a leap in the origin of life itself. Once he becomes one of us, he will naturally understand us and know everything we wish to achieve."
*Crack... crack...*
Li Qingyan lowered her eyes, glancing at the four crates of Source Crystal bombs beside her feet, her voice chilling slightly. "It seems you truly believe this palace would not dare perish together with a base wretch like you?"
Luo Xiran's voice was vast and ethereal, tinged with excitement. "Your Holy Son has already said it—this seat's true body is not here. If you wish to perish together, you are welcome to try."
Not a sliver of hesitation showed in Li Qingyan's crimson eyes as hairline fractures spread across the Blood God Stone jade pendant.
"Then let us put it to the test..."
"..."
"..."
While Li Qingyan and Luo Xiran exchanged words, Xu Yuan had fallen into a state between waking and dreaming. He could feel just how terrible his current condition was.
Everything in his surroundings seemed to drift far away.
Sounds, physical touch, the agonizing pain within his body, even the warmth of the blood spilling from his mouth had grown indistinct.
The conversation between Li Qingyan and Luo Xiran reached him hazily.
The Blood God Stone jade pendant...
The Source Crystal bombs...
Perishing together...
Luo Xiran's arrogant, demented laughter...
And the Blood God Stone jade pendant about to be crushed by Li Qingyan...
"Qingyan..."
Forcing a faint smile, Xu Yuan struggled halfway to his feet, looking at the slender figure in red before him. "Don't move."
"Changtian?"
Li Qingyan's worried voice seemed to come from far away. "How do you feel?"
Xu Yuan pulled back the corner of his lips. The blood spilling over them lent his smile a somewhat bizarre cast, his voice faint as the buzz of a mosquito:
"Didn't I tell you earlier... don't rush. Trust me..."
With those words,
Li Qingyan seemed to realize something and said swiftly, "Do you intend to—"
Halfway through her words, Xu Yuan vomited another mouthful of bright red blood. The buzzing in his ears surged again, leaving him able to see only her rosy lips parting and closing in frantic concern.
She seemed to be saying something crucial, but Xu Yuan could no longer hear it.
Watching those moving red lips, he felt only a bout of dizziness.
*So tired... so exhausted... I just want to empty my mind...*
Everything around him began to blur. Li Qingyan's shouts and Bai Muxi's desperate shaking no longer registered at all.
Yet at that very moment,
his surroundings gradually began to sharpen again. The Inter-Abyss's blood mist, once too thick to penetrate, grew clear and transparent in his perception.
His blood-red pupils, hazy with confusion, swept blankly around.
Xu Yuan discovered he could see straight through the blood mist and darkness—perceiving the flesh tendrils Luo Xiran had anchored to the cavern's inner walls, as well as the aberrant ghosts swimming continuously through the caves.
And in a daze,
Xu Yuan saw a woman deep within the blood mist.
With full red lips and eyes tender as water, brimming with affection, her crimson qipao accentuated a near-perfect figure as she slowly extended a hand toward him.
The next instant,
as if drawn by a call of the bloodline, Xu Yuan stood up blankly from the ground and walked toward the thick blood mist.
"Changtian?"
Noticing that Xu Yuan had stood up, Li Qingyan instinctively looked back at him.
The moment she saw his face, her pupils shrank violently.
An intricate pattern of markings had spread from the graze on his cheek, now covering half of his handsome face and creeping outward in all directions.
The sclera of his left eye was completely swallowed by darkness, leaving a pair of blood-red pupils that gleamed eerie and demonic.
His aura had changed.
It was an aura she was intimately familiar with, one she had sensed on those aberrant ghosts more than once.
"..."
Watching his movements, Li Qingyan's breathing quickened slightly, countless thoughts racing through her phoenix eyes.
Beside her, Bai Muxi instinctively reached out to grab Xu Yuan, wanting to stop him from walking deeper into the blood mist.
*Snap.*
A crisp sound.
Li Qingyan moved first, catching Bai Muxi's fair wrist and stopping her with a sharp look.
"Don't move."
"But..." Bai Muxi's eyes were filled with confusion.
Li Qingyan tightened her grip, leaving immediate red marks on Bai Muxi's wrist, and gritted her teeth, uttering word by word, "This palace told you not to move."
The next moment, her voice sounded in Bai Muxi's ear, explaining:
"Right now... right now, we can only trust him."
Silence fell.
Amidst the two women's silence, Xu Yuan's figure gradually disappeared into the blood mist.
Xu Yuan's footsteps were very light. Yet the deeper he walked into the Inter-Abyss, the clearer and sharper the lucidity in his mind became.
It was as if he had gained an omniscient perspective, everything in the Inter-Abyss laid bare and transparent before him.
He realized he could even sense the black death creep gently writhing several li away.
As he pressed deeper, his aura steadily climbed.
Finally,
he halted before the curvaceous woman in the bright red qipao.
Amid the churning blood mist around them,
the woman, tender as water, simply stood quietly before him, opening her arms as though waiting for him to step into her embrace.
Seeing this, Xu Yuan did not move immediately. His hazy eyes lowered slightly to look at his own hand, now covered in bizarre markings.
*So this is the aberrant ghost transformation?*
*Why doesn't this feel as terrible as I imagined? In fact, there's even a slight hint of comfort?*
As the thought crossed his mind,
the woman's warm hand gently stroked his cheek. It was very warm—so warm that one didn't want to think about anything at all.
Yet beyond Xu Yuan's conscious awareness, the moment her palm touched his cheek, a bizarre fluctuation rippled outward.
Luo Xiran's origin as an aberrant ghost began pouring into Xu Yuan's body.
The black markings on Xu Yuan's face began to boil, ultimately turning as crimson as flowing magma, rapidly spreading across the rest of his body.
It felt like an instant, yet also like an eternity.
Everything returned to calm.
Xu Yuan's narrow, slanting phoenix eyes no longer had any whites left—only inky darkness and pupils that gleamed with scarlet light.
"How is it?"
A soft, coldly alluring voice sounded by Xu Yuan's ear, dripping with temptation.
"Eternal life, formidable power... isn't this what you human cultivators have always sought?"
"Very strong. Quite nice."
Snapping back to his senses, Xu Yuan looked at the woman before him and grinned. He smiled with great delight, raising his hand to rest it gently over the slender hand she offered.
"I never imagined power could be obtained so easily. Is this the Transcendent Realm?"
With that, Xu Yuan slowly closed his eyes against her warm hand.
All was quiet and wonderful. A flicker of softness and allure flashed through the beautiful woman's eyes.
"As long as you walk alongside this seat, Changtian, this will be only the beginning..."
Before her words could finish,
a sudden upheaval struck.
The hand Xu Yuan had wrapped around her wrist abruptly clamped down with immense force.
*Squelch!*
Flesh and blood splattered. The hand extended by the qipao-clad woman was crushed into minced meat by his sheer grip.
The air froze instantly.
Xu Yuan licked the blood that had splashed onto his lips and opened his eyes once more.
His pair of scarlet-glowing pupils looked extraordinarily demonic.
Everything before Xu Yuan had undergone an earth-shattering transformation. The fair, delicate hand once caressing his cheek had turned into a mangled meat tendril.
The gorgeous woman in the qipao was gone as well, replaced by a monstrous, tumorous mass of flesh.
The gargantuan body was covered in pus-filled swellings, with countless meat tendrils sprouting wherever space allowed. Yet right in the center of this grotesque monstrosity grew the head of a stunningly beautiful woman.
At this moment,
she was staring at Xu Yuan with a hint of shock, seemingly bewildered by his actions.
Xu Yuan's white-less scarlet pupils regarded her in kind, carrying a trace of amusement.
"Luo Xiran, this young master has no desire to walk alongside a monster like you. You're simply too ugly."
Luo Xiran fell silent for a moment. She did not rage, quietly drawing back her crushed tendril. Sensing the immense aberrant ghost vitality surging within him, she asked instead:
"You absorbed Ji Tian's demon crystal?"
"Ji Tian?"
It seemed the royal surname of the serpent demons was indeed Ji. It appeared that mindless Black Serpent had been a demon of some status ten thousand years ago.
At that thought, Xu Yuan gave a light chuckle and nodded. "Naturally. Without its demon crystal, I couldn't have preserved my consciousness."
As he spoke,
Xu Yuan pulled open the collar of his Blood Jade Glazed Robe, revealing the black death armor beneath.
However, a piece of the black death armor over his chest was missing, replaced by an inky black crystal embedded into the flesh over his heart.
Under Luo Xiran's watch,
the inky crystal sank directly into Xu Yuan's chest and vanished from sight.
Almost simultaneously, the violent vitality belonging to a Transcendent aberrant ghost began rampaging through Xu Yuan's body, completely tearing his meridians apart—only for the ghost vitality to mend the damage an instant later.
Between this destruction and repair, Xu Yuan's aura began to climb continuously.
Soul Condensation...
Grandmaster...
Origin Realm...
Amidst the heavy silence, Xu Yuan looked at Luo Xiran and asked with mild curiosity, "You're just going to watch me grow stronger and not do anything?"
"Changtian, it... hurts, doesn't it?"
"What?"
Hearing the gentle voice coming from the monster before him, Xu Yuan froze slightly.
Luo Xiran looked at him, her voice filled with tenderness. "Your cultivation is too weak. Absorbing a demon crystal condensed by a high-ranking aberrant ghost will tear your body apart and rebuild it repeatedly. Do you need this seat to ease your pain?"
Xu Yuan wore a peculiar expression as he stared at Luo Xiran's concerned face. "Wait, do you not understand the situation right now? If I—"
"This seat naturally knows that the demon crystal can temporarily preserve your human consciousness, and also allow you to inherit the majority of Ji Tian's vitality."
The monstrous beauty's red lips curved slightly, her gaze gentle. "However, you and I are now the only two sentient aberrant ghosts remaining. Even if you hadn't devoured the demon crystal yourself, this seat intended to feed it to you personally."
"Are you out of your mind?"
Xu Yuan instinctively took a step back, his scarlet pupils filled with bafflement. "We are enemies right now."
Luo Xiran let out a soft laugh, her tone leisurely. "The transformation process is irreversible. Sooner or later, you will become this seat's companion."
At that, Luo Xiran's massive frame shuddered with excitement. Ghastly meat tendrils thrashed wild in the air as she stared at Xu Yuan with growing fervor. Her immense pressure shook the entire cavern, sending low rumbles echoing as a meat tendril extended slowly toward Xu Yuan.
"Come. This seat will bestow upon you the demon crystals of the other aberrant ghosts in this crypt. This seat will help you become a being equal to me."
"..."
Xu Yuan stared at the tendril reaching out toward him for several breaths, then suddenly sighed.
"Luo Xiran, you are truly pathetic."
*Whoosh!!*
A hideous tendril shot from her massive body, streaking straight toward Xu Yuan's head.
With an indifferent look, Xu Yuan tilted his head slightly. The tendril grazed past his ear, the wind pressure merely stirring his long hair.
Luo Xiran's beautiful eyes fixed on him with a smile. "Changtian, you don't have to dodge. An attack of this level cannot harm the current you."
"I'm a human. Having my head smashed in would still be rather sickening."
Xu Yuan glanced at the tendril beside his face, exhaled a breath, and looked back at Luo Xiran with an emotional smile playing at the corners of his lips.
"Still, judging by your behavior just now, it seems even aberrant ghosts need communication and companionship. Ten thousand years have made you desperate for a kindred soul, haven't they?"
Luo Xiran lowered her eyes slightly, looking somewhat desolate.
"Yes. This seat... needs it. So, Changtian, will you—"
Xu Yuan suddenly laughed, staring at her grotesque, tumorous body. "This young master already told you: you're too ugly. You don't fit my aesthetics, and I can't bear to leave my princess and Little Bai behind."
Hearing this, the beautiful face nestled within the tumor chuckled as well. "Then shall this seat kill the two of them first?"
"You cannot kill them."
The Qingyu sword abruptly appeared in Xu Yuan's hand. He held it diagonally across his front, the blade gleaming with a chilling glint. "Your true body isn't here. You are no match for me."
Luo Xiran laughed softly, her crisp, cold allure turning low and demented.
"Xu Changtian, you are merely in the Soul Condensation realm. Did you truly believe that possessing the body of a Transcendent aberrant ghost would allow you to contend with this seat?"
Xu Yuan picked at his ear, amusement in his eyes.
"Don't jump to conclusions so quickly. This young master had a few fortunate encounters in the past, so I might be a little different from an ordinary Soul Condensation cultivator."
"What?"
"..."
Xu Yuan took a deep breath. His voice, infused with Source Qi, rang throughout the entire cavern as he said coldly:
"Li Qingyan, take Bai Muxi and fall back!"
The Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art began to circulate.
At the same time,
a bizarre fluctuation rippled outward with Xu Yuan at the center.
Countless cherry blossoms began to drift down within the Inter-Abyss, accompanied by bursts of immortal music.
Through the resonant nature of aberrant ghost Dao domains, a vast sea of cherry blossoms unfolded around Xu Yuan.
"A Dao domain?!"
Looking at the sudden shower of cherry blossoms, Luo Xiran seemed to realize Xu Yuan's bizarre nature. "Why do you possess a Dao domain?!!"
The man before her was using the traits of an aberrant ghost, leveraging the Inter-Abyss's resonance with aberrant ghosts to unleash a Dao domain of his own.
The moment her words fell, Luo Xiran held nothing back.
The flesh blanketing the cavern's inner walls surged in an instant, and countless meat tendrils shot forth like iron spears, hurtling violently toward Xu Yuan, Li Qingyan, and the others!
Xu Yuan's demonic scarlet eyes, completely devoid of whites, brimmed with savage murderous intent as the Qingyu sword in his grip began to hum.
Sword silhouettes resembling spilled ink manifested in midair, and sword qi swept outward through the cavern!
Blood-Ink Jade: Falling Cherry Sky Dance.
Chapter 295