Chapter 388: Chapter 388
388: Chapter 375: How Unreasonable 388: Chapter 375: How Unreasonable With a tremendous crash, the ice coffin landed heavily on the Bronze Gate, sending tremors through the entire land and mountains.
Demolished by the impact, Hongying’s broken body was thrown askew, the bronze sword slipped from her grip, and together with the Ghost, they tumbled into the Abyss.
The opened fissures continued to spread, tilting the whole land.
Baili An’s eyes widened in shock as he stared blankly at the pitch-black ice coffin.
For some reason, the color of blood had completely drained from Fang Geyu’s face; though the long wails still echoed in the Abyss, she painfully clutched her ears and pressed her forehead against his back, her beautiful eyes misting up in agony: “Si Chen, let’s get out of here quickly.”
Baili An was startled by the burning heat emanating from the forehead pressed against his back.
He hurriedly turned to support her by the shoulders, even her clothing unable to shield him from the scorching temperature of her body.
He asked with concern, “Fang Geyu, what’s wrong with you?”
Fang Geyu shook her head, urgency tinged with a trace of anxious pleading in her voice: “Can we please leave this place right now?”
Once the Bronze Gate’s seal was broken and Ghost Mountain sealed, where could they possibly go, adrift like floaters on the Doomsday Continent?
Although he was fully aware of this, how could Baili An dare to refuse, so he half-supported Fang Geyu’s limp body onto the jade carriage, then quickly turned back and approached the ice coffin.
With his fingers formed into a spear, he fiercely thrust them into the ice coffin, dragging the black coffin as he hoisted the unconscious Meng Zifei onto his shoulder and began to run, following the jade carriage.
Li Jiujiu poked her head out from the carriage and asked Baili An, “Why are you bringing this thing with us?”
Baili An replied, “This coffin is steeped in Demonic Qi and could speed up the opening of the Bronze Gate.”
He wasn’t telling the whole truth.
In the instant the ice coffin fell, his lifeless heart had begun to beat furiously as though revived; and what was more inconceivable, he could feel a heartbeat within the coffin syncing up with his own, creating a terrifying synchronicity.
The land kept sinking, though not slowly.
Luckily, as vast as Ghost Mountain’s terrain was, it would take several days before it completely vanished into the Abyss.
But that was not what people found most terrifying at the moment.
What truly weighed heavily on everyone’s hearts was that, within the folds of this mountain, countless demons from the Northern Domain lurked in the shadows.
No one knew what kind of mad acts these Demon Cultivators might commit.
The Feather Order sealed the mountains; neither the frigid Mortal World’s mountains nor the white snow could be seen.
Even the small River of Oblivion had frozen into a vast and despairing glacier, with ghost language soundless and the night wind bone-chilling.
The landscape stretched before them as if devoured by the Abyss of the earth.
Baili An and his party returned to the First Realm of Ghost Mountain, a safe distance from where the Bronze Gate had opened, and only then did they stop to rest.
Meng Zifei had already awakened amidst the jolting ride.
The first thing he did was to feel for his sword and horsetail whisk.
His sword was still safely lying in his arms, but the horsetail whisk, damaged by the Second River, was missing.
His mind in disarray, he bit his lip until it bled and, without tending to his own wounds, got up and charged towards the Second Realm.
Li Jiujiu, kind-hearted as she was, couldn’t bear to see him throw his life away and hastily said, “The Bronze Gate has already engulfed the entire Second Realm, aren’t you just going to your death if you go now?”
Meng Zifei stumbled in his step, then suddenly turned back, walking over to Baili An.
He bowed deeply and solemnly said, “Thank you, Si Chen, for saving my life.
There’s something I’ve been holding in my heart for a long time, and if I don’t speak of it today, I fear there will never be another chance.”
Baili An sat on the ice coffin, frowning and looking down at his fingertips ravaged by Demonic Qi and fresh blood.
Suddenly hearing Meng Zifei’s voice, he looked up and said, “A horsetail whisk is just a dead object; is it worth risking your life, Young Master Meng?”
The mountain breeze fluttered his brocade robe and jade belt, his expression serene, his dark, gentle eyes concealing a profoundly ancient emotion.
Meng Zifei unconsciously clutched the sword in his arms and muttered absentmindedly, “Chenyue and the ancient path are my life, both indispensable.
Now that I’ve lost half of my life, I need to retrieve it to continue living.”
Baili An hid his injured fingers in his sleeve and nodded slightly, without any attempt to detain him: “If that is so, then it’s for the best.”
Meng Zifei looked at him intently, his throat moving as he struggled with ambivalent emotions: “Brother Si Chen, I’m sorry…”
Li Jiujiu’s expression was odd: “Why apologize to Si Chen if you’re intent on going to your own death?”
Baili An stood up from the ice coffin, his gaze clear and direct: “It seems that Young Master Meng is admitting that you indeed found the one pulling the strings of the Puppetry Technique behind the scenes in the Mountain Realm.”
Fang Geyu, pale and weak, suddenly sharpened her gaze, its knife-like intensity directed at Meng Zifei, and she sneered twice.
Upon hearing the three words “Second River,” even Su Jing took a couple of extra looks at him.
Meng Zifei gave a resigned smile and said, “I was foolish and momentarily blinded.”
Baili An pressed directly: “What was his purpose in sparing your life?”
Meng Zifei hesitated not at all, slightly gathering his robes, and said wearily, “He wanted me to inherit the Blood River in the Mountain Realm and become his ally.
Thus, one of the reasons I came to Xianling City was because of you, Brother Si Chen.
As the new Mountain Master, if you were to die within Ghost Mountain, I might have the chance to inherit the Blood River.”
He paused briefly, seeming to find it difficult to continue, yet he still went on: “I confess, I’ve harbored murderous thoughts towards Brother Si Chen that I should not have had.”
Meng Zifei’s candidness took everyone by surprise; even Fang Geyu showed a look of shock, and Baili An himself was slightly moved.
He was about to speak when suddenly, a fierce wind slashed through the air, a lethal intent aimed straight at Meng Zifei’s neck.
Baili An’s eyelids twitched, and without thinking, he forcefully pushed, causing Meng Zifei to stagger.
The blade of wind skewed by an inch, but with its astonishing force, it still sliced open his shoulder, leaving a deep, bone-exposing wound!
Meng Zifei grimaced with pale lips, his face agitated.
All eyes at once turned to the white-robed, serene Taixuan Young Master.
Her flowing sleeves gave a glimpse of her porcelain-white fingertips, still brewing a hint of unextinguished murderous intent.
As if unaware of everyone’s startled looks, Su Jing returned their gazes without a ripple in her calm demeanor, saying flatly, “What’s wrong, am I not allowed to kill?”
Fang Geyu spoke out: “In the past two hundred years, everyone in the Immortal Sect and the righteous knew that you, Su Jing, had a cold heart, but who knew that you harbored such heavy murderous intent?
Young Master Meng never once implicated you, and yet here you are striking without cause.”
With the utmost serenity undisturbed, the intent to kill in Su Jing’s fingertips grew rather than diminished: “Conspiring with the Second River of the Demon World, seeking to become one of the six rivers of the Demon World, his nature has fallen towards the Demon Path.
Any of these reasons are enough for him to die a thousand times over.”