Chapter 964: Chapter 964
The small knife rested against the ring finger of the short, thick hand, then slowly cut through.
The owner of the hand let out a muffled groan, and the view slowly rose upward.
Just as the view reached the chin of the hand's owner, the Mystic Light Mirror was suddenly filled with a strange face.
It was an incredibly twisted face, not because the features were twisted, but the entire face was twisted like a wrung-out towel.
Yet you could still recognize it as a face, even each feature individually appeared complete and normal.
The person in the coffin let out a scream of agony then fell silent.
The Golden Child and Jade Maiden fared even worse, twisting just like that face.
And it wasn't just the whole body twisting but every part of their bodies twisted, dead beyond dead.
Doctor Nile roared in anger, and his entire body was engulfed in dazzling golden light.
The golden light converged into a massive eye, which quickly transformed into a resplendent golden eagle.
The eagle spread its wings, shielding everyone with its feathers.
But in the next instant, the eagle twisted and shattered like the Golden Child and Jade Maiden.
Doctor Nile didn't even have time to scream, collapsing instantly.
However, his efforts bought time for the others.
The Yaksha let out a shrill cry.
A tall figure clad in blazing armor, hands dripping with fresh blood, appeared behind her, brandishing a sword like raging fire, slashing towards the face.
Wherever the sword blade pointed, the space split open like cut paper, and the face was severed in half.
"The Great Curse of Yin-Yang World Chaos!"
The coffin lid was suddenly lifted, and a horizontal Taiji diagram flew out, blasting toward the face.
In an instant, the sky wept, the earth howled, gods mourned, ghosts cried, and a chilling blood rain began to fall on the mountain.
"Dark Magic: Mass Disappearance!"
Yaksha exerted every effort to cast one last spell.
The next second, Liu Zheng and all the others vanished into another dimension.
When the Taiji diagram collided with the face, the whole world seemed to hit a pause button.
No one knew how long had passed, but as if someone pressed play again, everything on the mountain top and the face itself split in two, twisting into indescribable shapes.
Except for the coffin.
During this process, the appearance of the two half-faces became increasingly blurred, finally completely disappearing.
Minutes later, a short-statured person wearing a Taoist robe, leaning on a walking stick, walked towards the mountain top.
His steps seemed heavy, yet his form floated ghost-like, as though a wisp of blue smoke, ascending the summit.
At this moment, Liu Zheng and the others were expelled from the Shadow Realm back to this world.
Those who were full of ambition just a moment ago now lay scattered in disarray, not a single person unscathed, missing limbs or twisted like pretzels.
Liu Zheng was the most severely injured, his whole body from hair to toes resembling a bunch of entangled vines, as if each part viewed another as a mortal enemy and fought until mutual destruction.
Yet the Taoist-robed person paid them no heed and walked straight to the brown coffin.
"What a fine coffin indeed, even the Garbage Processing Plant's contents can't damage it."
The robed person said, looking at the brown coffin, in a clear, bright voice.
But his face was completely covered by long, cascading hair, entirely concealing his appearance.
"No wonder you went to such lengths for it, sparing no effort." Discover more novels at N0v3l.Fiɾe.net
The robed person stroked the coffin lid with both hands, completely intact.
"But when you gave me to the Kuihua Demon to win his favor, did you ever think I would return one day, bearing such a gift for you?"
The robed person's voice was full of restrained anger and unbridled ridicule.
"Alright, come out, Master, I know you're not dead. I know you better than you know yourself, playing such tricks before me just makes you look more like a clown."
The robed person patted the coffin lid and said.
"Ungrateful wretch, you dare come back."
The voice from within the coffin came, noticeably weaker.
"Why wouldn't I dare come back? It's you who wronged me, not I who wronged you, Master."
The robed person replied leisurely.
"Hmph, I saved you from the breeding ground, cured your illness, refined your bone marrow with rare treasures, taught you Immortal Techniques, a kindness as great as rebirth, not even asking you to die for me should be questioned, how have I wronged you?"
The voice in the coffin sneered coldly.
"Indeed, if you had asked me to die, even refining my blood into a Magic Artifact, I wouldn't hate so deeply. But you shouldn't have been so good to me, making me truly care, then give me to the Kuihua Demon."
"Do you know how desperate I felt when I woke up in the Kuihua Demon's bed, after sleeping in your embrace?!"
The robed person's voice gradually intensified.
"Since you planned to give me to him from the start, why show me false affection?"
"Hmph, had I not made that Kuihua Demon believe we were truly in love, how would he think I was completely submissive to him?"
The voice in the coffin laughed coldly.
"Yes, it took me a whole night to figure it out. If not for wanting to know this answer, I might not have survived that night."
"Fortunately, I survived that night and many nights after, finally waiting until today."
The robed person reflected.
"Tell me, Master, how would you like to die? Considering you're my lifesaver and teacher, I can allow you to choose a less painful way."
"That's a question I should ask you, once I recover, I'll surely crush your bones and scatter your ashes!"
The voice in the coffin raged.
"In that case, I'll choose myself. Initially, I didn't want to use this, but alas, Master, your turtle shell is too hard."
The robed person shook his head, taking out an Ice Lotus from his robe sleeve.
Inside the Ice Lotus was sealed a drop of vivid red blood, as passionate as fire, blooming like a lotus.
"Red Lotus Karma Fire! Insolent disciple, you intend to die with your Master?"
The voice in the coffin was enraged.
"Don't worry, you can die ten thousand times and I won't die. Of course, even if I did, it wouldn't matter, for at the moment you saved me, I decided to live and die with you."
The robed person whispered softly.
"The extreme yin births yang, cycles of rebirth reversed!"
The coffin lid opened again, the dry hand rapidly becoming lush and full, like a baby's.
"It's useless, Master. I spent centuries for this moment, I've calculated everything."
The robed person shook his head, reaching out and matching palms with the figure in the coffin.
The robed person's entire left hand was ground to powder, yet he seemed indifferent.
With his right hand, he pushed aside his hair, unveiling half of a similarly twisted face.
The voice in the coffin exclaimed, aborting his second strike in shock.
Taking advantage, the robed person crushed the Ice Lotus, pouring the drop of Red Lotus Karma Fire into the coffin.
"Northern Dipper soul nails!"
The robed person took out seven long nails, nailing them onto the coffin lid in the Northern Dipper formation.
The person in the coffin struggled relentlessly, but the coffin lid did not budge.
"You're too afraid of death, Master, that's your biggest flaw. But no one is immortal, even the ascended face the five inevitabilities of celestial beings. The more afraid you are of death, the more it finds you."
The robed person shook his head.
He couldn't open or destroy the coffin, but he could nail it shut.
He looked at his hand, where contact with the Red Lotus Karma Fire split open inch by inch, his blood freezing, piercing through his flesh and skin, blossoming into ice flowers.
The fourth verse of the Yogacharabhumi says, "The Red Lotus realm differs from this, beyond the blue it turns red. Skin splits, sometimes tenfold, sometimes more. Hence this realm is named Red Lotus."
The eleventh verse of the Abhidharma-kosha of Vasubandhu says, "Padma, this is called Red Lotus. Bitter cold pierces, the body splits like a red lotus."
Red Lotus Karma Fire, once contracted, is impossible to shake off.