Chapter 37.2

【In the gloomy Nine-layer Tower, Chi Lu and the City Lord of Fengyue City are secretly plotting. Chi Lu is annoyed that Jing Shuxing refuses to yield, and simply pours all the anger that was rejected by Jing Luoyun onto Jing Shuxing. Coincidentally, the City Lord of Fengyue City is extremely biased, only loving his second wife and second young master. She and Jing Yi hit it off right away, planning to make Jing Shuxing the living sacrifice of the Soul Transformation Formation, to make him completely disappear from the world.

Start the final mission: Push Jing Shuxing into the Soul Transformation Abyss.】

Chi Lu’s mouth twitched, she didn’t want to see this light curtain that was so different from reality anymore.

Jing Shuxing woke up in the prison, slowly opening his eyes. 

The sound of an argument reached his ears. A few cultivators were arguing over a piece of ice-blue satin, heatedly discussing how many sections it should be divided into, or how the money from selling it should be divided.

Jing Shuxing pressed the center of his brow, feeling a throbbing pain, and gently took a breath.

The pain gradually subsided, and his previous memories returned. He remembered what had just happened, remembered how he had carefully proposed to Chi Lu, inviting her to leave Fengyue City with him.

He remembered how Chi Lu had smiled without saying a word, and then knocked him out with a hug.

He didn’t understand the reason, he didn’t understand at all. Just a few days ago, she was still leaning on him, laughing without restraint.

Jing Shuxing clenched his teeth tightly, as if trying to suppress the pain that was about to overflow.

Looking around, the prison that held him was like an iron cage that was closed on all sides, without even a window to let in light. Only a hole was left on the wall, reflecting the dim candlelight, and the laughter and scolding of the cultivators came from outside to inside.

Wait a minute?

Iron cage? Hole? Light?

Jing Shuxing looked up in astonishment, raised his hand to cover his eyes, then released it, repeating this several times.

He could see the light, see the moon shadow, the stars, through the flickering candlelight in the hole, the dark prison was blooming with colorful brilliance at this moment. 

He only then realized that the fragrance of the spiritual grass was lingering between his lips and teeth. Apparently, someone had stuffed a spiritual pill into his mouth while he was unconscious, completely soothing the rampaging spiritual power and allowing his eyes to regain their sight.

Jing Shuxing didn’t need to think about it. The person who would feed him medicine at this time could not possibly be someone from Fengyue City, nor could it be the Young sect leader who coveted his appearance.

“What on earth is this?” He murmured to himself.

It would have been fine if it was just a rejection, but why wouldn’t she even talk to him, knocking him out and throwing him into this desolate place. Not only did she throw him here, but she also gave him a sweet date^[1]sweet date in here is just a metaphor, not a real sweet date., making it impossible for him to hate her.

Jing Shuxing extended his finger and touched the small hole. After the breeze passed, the small cage disappeared. Many people wearing shackles looked at each other, not knowing what had happened for a moment.

The cultivators who were arguing about how much the satin was worth suddenly fell silent, looking around in confusion, trying to figure out what had happened.

A few quick-reacting ones immediately drew their long swords, just about to shout for help, when they were suddenly pushed away. The young man took the ice-blue satin from their hands and gently stroked it, “You can’t get it dirty.”

A light smile appeared on Jing Shuxing’s face. He caressed the ice-blue satin surface and politely saluted the guards, “Could you tell me where you put my staff?” 

Most of the cultivators recognized Jing Shuxing. This person, whose spiritual platform had shattered, could hardly gather much spiritual power. This kind of earth-shaking power would not come from his hand.

One of them didn’t want to deal with him and shouted loudly for reinforcements: “Come——”

Before his words fell, there was a tiny explosion, and he disappeared completely. Just as the people around were looking for him, a drizzle of blood splashed on everyone’s face.

Jing Shuxing casually pointed at a trembling guard: “Where is my cane? Where did you put it?”

Before he could answer, Jing Shuxing set off a firework in front of everyone.

When he pointed to the next person, before he could speak, the guard proactively knelt down: “Answer to the first young master, we have never seen any cane. It seems to have been left somewhere by you, first young master.”

The tone and manner of speech instantly became respectful, as if he was truly the genius of the cultivation world that everyone talked about, rather than the living sacrifice they mentioned, a poor bug who had been sentenced to death early.

“Left behind?”

Seeing Jing Shuxing frown, a guard immediately offered obsequiously: “How about I lead the way for you, first young master?” 

“Lead the way?”

Jing Shuxing’s gaze lowered, his raven-black eyelashes were like a round fan, completely covering the emotions in his eyes.

He had gotten used to it. The more anxious and helpless he was in his heart, the more calm and peaceful his tone became, humble and reasonable, and now he couldn’t change it.

“No need, there are only a few places in total, I’ll go find it myself.” He let out a crisp laugh.

After saying that, he lightly flicked his robe sleeve, turned around and left with his hands behind his back.

Before leaving, he waved his hand, and the large pomegranate behind him burst out with fresh juice. The not-so-sweet scent drifted from the place that was originally a prison, and the crimson ink swirled and slowly trickled down to the city tower below the mountain.

Halfway through, he gently covered his waist with his palm and took out a figurine in surprise.

The figurine had been imbued with spiritual power to prevent deformation. The beautiful little girl doll smiled faintly at him.

Chi Lu didn’t know the situation on Jing Shuxing’s side, she was “obediently” cooperating with Yun Pianpian and Jing Yi.

Suppressing her nausea, she gathered spiritual power at her fingertips and gently drew on the corpse, outlining the restriction that the former Lady Jiang Yumu had placed on the Soul Transformation Formation.

“This restriction, even if the person who set it is dead, it still takes some time to unravel.” Chi Lu said thoughtfully as she traced the pattern with her fingertip.

Jing Yi’s face darkened immediately, obviously not pleased with this answer. 

Yun Pianpian asked softly, “Young sect leader, you wouldn’t be trying to delay time in hopes of someone coming to rescue you, would you?”

“I’m not.” Chi Lu opened her eyes wide, “How can you accuse a good person out of thin air, Yun Young lady?”

“Look, this is a Soul Recognition Pact. I need to let it ascertain that the master’s life force has dissipated before I can turn it into a Spirit Pact that everyone can dismantle. This is a Spirit Mechanism Lock. I don’t know what kind of lock pattern Lady Jiang has set, I can only try one by one.”

Chi Lu explained what she knew, and Jing Yi had long lost the patience to listen.

“How long do you need?”

Chi Lu held up a finger, “Two hours, I will unlock this restriction.”

“City Lord, don’t worry, you and I are on the same side.” She simply spoke frankly, “I also hope that Jing Shuxing will fall into the Soul Transformation Abyss, so I will give it my all for this.”

Jing Yi confirmed that Chi Lu’s words were not false, then he snorted coldly and left with Yun Pianpian. He didn’t ask why Chi Lu said such strange words, he always disdained to ask, as long as he could achieve his goal, he didn’t care what happened in the process.

On the contrary, Yun Pianpian cast a curious look at Chi Lu.

Although the two of them left, they left a bunch of monitoring magical instruments around. Chi Lu turned a blind eye and immediately threw herself wholeheartedly into the work of lifting the restriction. 

She immersed her whole being into the spiritual veins. Her consciousness passed through the barrier and entered the inner spiritual network.

She focused on negotiating with each spiritual lock, unraveling each deadlock. Unconsciously, she reached the last spiritual lock.

That spiritual lock was strange, unlike the other meticulously crafted locks that obviously took a lot of thought, this spiritual lock was just hanging there loosely. From Chi Lu’s perspective, she only needed to touch it to unlock it.

Chi Lu put her palms together and bowed a few times to the spiritual lock, “Senior Jiang, I have heard of your reputation and respect you very much. Now that I am breaking your restriction, please do not blame me.”

After speaking, she reached out her hand towards the spiritual lock.

After her finger skillfully flicked it, the spiritual lock opened in response, the restriction was completely lifted, the barrier stabilizing her consciousness under her feet was removed, and a gust of evil wind surged from below, intending to envelop Chi Lu’s consciousness.

Chi Lu was prepared, she chanted a mantra to detach herself from the inside of the formation, just preparing to go down the tower to call for people, when she looked back and saw the hanging corpse, she suddenly lost her voice.

The corpse opened its eyes.

A large amount of spiritual power was mobilized, and the soul returned to its place, allowing this corpse that had been dead for more than ten years to briefly have vitality. The dark and lifeless eyes were staring straight at Chi Lu.

The corpse had shed its black outer layer, revealing the smooth and new skin underneath. She had been wrapped in those things for many years, and with the abundant spiritual power inside the Nine-layer Mysterious Tower, she was able to keep the corpse from decaying.

Jiang Yumu was extremely beautiful, and her face somewhat resembling Jing Shuxing. She was suspended in the air, her hands crossed over her chest, her face expressing an incredibly ferocious look, as if she was sobbing and cursing.

With the restriction lifted, the scene inside the Nine-layer Mysterious Tower suddenly changed.

The inside of the tower became pitch black, with a towering pillar at the center that pierced through the nine-story tower. The pillar was engraved with dense inscriptions, many of which were faded and mottled, becoming the only source of light in the Nine-layer Mysterious Tower.

Chi Lu jumped up from the ground, and gathered spiritual power to protect her body. Before she could run down the tower, she heard a cacophony of ghostly wails and howls behind her. Countless evil spirits and ghosts brushed past her, arrogantly and harshly yelling, colliding against the four walls of the Nine-layer Mysterious Tower.

“What is going on?” Chi Lu shivered in fear, “What are these?”

Her voice trembled as she asked, and after a while, the system finally stuttered to reply with two words: evil ghosts.

“I know they are evil ghosts! What kind of evil ghost has such strong resentment, such strong power? Could it be that Jing Yi killed some ancient great power of the cultivation world and buried his bones underneath?”

Before Chi Lu could react, the corpse moved again. The movement was not big, but after a brief struggle, a strand of soul came out from the corpse. Jiang Yumu’s soul was barefoot, floating in the air, her hair disheveled, her eyes glowing red, looking down at Chi Lu from above.

~