3 fois vol d'âme

Chapitre 7

Suddenly, Jiang Yao found herself being led to a dormitory room by the man and thrown heavily onto a bed. Jiang Yao felt dizzy.

Suddenly, nine dazzling sword shadows flashed in the dormitory room; it turned out the man was sheathing his sword. When the man turned around, Jiang Yao finally saw his face clearly and was utterly astonished by it.

2004-12-7 22:35:00

With a face full of acne, this person was none other than Li Zhanghao, the vice president of the student council. At this moment, however, he had a black square scarf wrapped around his head, and three samurai swords with their hilts tucked into his waistband. He exuded an aura of transcendence and detachment, and inexplicably, he also possessed a dashing charm.

And this dormitory room turned out to be the very same dormitory room that Li Zhanghao and Cao Hui lived in, which was rumored to be very eerie.

"How could it be you?" Jiang Yao sat up in bed and asked in shock as she looked at Li Zhanghao in front of her.

"I'm sorry, Chairman Jiang, I'm sorry to have startled you," Li Zhanghao said with a smile and in a gentlemanly manner.

"Who are you?!" Jiang Yao realized that Li Zhanghao, who was standing in front of her, was a completely different person from the one she knew.

"Hehe, let me introduce myself. I am a Taoist priest from the Edo period of Japan. My real name is Chiba Toichiro, and my current name is Li Zhanghao," Li Zhanghao said.

"A Taoist cultivator? A Japanese? How is that possible?" Jiang Yao found the situation increasingly unacceptable to her.

“You don’t believe me, and that’s understandable. No ordinary person in this world would believe what I’m saying. It’s because your understanding is too narrow, and you simply cannot comprehend the path of human cultivation,” Li Zhanghao said calmly.

"I'm really going crazy right now. I can't even imagine what happened today," Jiang Yao said, holding her head in her hands, on the verge of a mental breakdown.

“Actually, you can’t blame yourself. You can only blame fate. Do you know? This school was a forbidden, sealed place in ancient times,” Li Zhanghao said earnestly.

"What does 'Sealed Land' mean?" Jiang Yao's curiosity overcame her fear.

“In ancient times, a very powerful cultivator placed a powerful array on this land, sealing something that was then known as a forbidden artifact. No one knows exactly what this forbidden artifact looked like. However, a legend has spread among cultivators in later generations that this forbidden artifact will break free of its seal and reappear in the world after several centuries,” Li Zhanghao recalled.

"What is a cultivator?" Jiang Yao asked, even more puzzled.

“You don’t need to ask that, because even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand. But right now, I just want to tell you that you’re safe for now. What just happened was the forbidden artifact collecting and absorbing spiritual bodies before breaking the seal, just a prelude to its complete breakthrough. Everyone else has already been refined and absorbed, and now only you and I are still alive in this school. The reason you’ve survived until now is entirely because of the jade pendant you’re wearing on your chest.” Li Zhanghao looked at the blue brocade pouch on Jiang Yao’s chest and said slowly.

"This jade?" Jiang Yao couldn't help but lower her head and take out the emerald from the brocade pouch on her chest.

By this time, the emerald had lost its luster, its vibrant green brilliance gone. The entire piece of jade looked like a dried-up corpse, drained of its blood, devoid of its former vitality. The character "wind" carved on the jade had also disappeared.

"How could it have turned out like this?" Jiang Yao said in surprise.

"This jade was originally meant to save someone else's life, but unexpectedly it saved you by chance. It seems this piece is all about fate," Li Zhanghao said with emotion.

When Jiang Yao heard Li Zhanghao say this, her expression darkened, because she knew that the one who should have survived was not her, but one of the three Li Qius.

"Forget it, don't be too upset. This is all beyond human control; everything is predestined. Now that the forbidden artifact is about to break free of the formation, I think other cultivators will arrive here one after another. I'm only here to control the adverse reactions caused by the forbidden artifact before it breaks free, but ultimately, I'm powerless to reverse the situation. Such is fate. I believe your jade was also a cultivation tool made by a cultivator, but it's useless now," Li Zhanghao said helplessly.

Jiang Yao didn't want to talk; she hadn't yet recovered from her deep self-blame.

“I’ve already set up an array here, so that forbidden artifact can’t extend its power here for the time being. We’re safe for now,” Li Zhanghao said softly, looking at Jiang Yao’s distressed expression.

At this moment, a muffled loud noise suddenly came from the location of the morgue in the school, and an even heavier yin energy began to envelop the entire school. Moreover, the color of the yin energy turned into a deep blackish-green, like the thick miasma in a poisonous swamp.

However, this yin energy could not escape the campus and reach the outside world, because the school itself was a natural evil-repelling formation with nine palaces and eight directions. Although it could not completely contain the forbidden artifact that was about to break the formation, the power of this forbidden artifact, which had not yet been born, was still unable to break through this larger formation.

Grass Ash remains assimilated into the earth, wandering back and forth within it, not daring to easily reveal its form on the ground. This is because the powerful oppressive force constantly tracks him from the ground above, and Grass Ash knows he is still trapped within this formation and unable to break free.

Suddenly, the grass ash struck an impenetrable barrier on the ground, as if something was restricting the land in front of it.

"How strange, I've assimilated the land, yet I can't integrate into this place," Grass Ash thought to himself.

He tentatively used the demon-cultivating energy he possessed to make contact with this land, but unintentionally a crack appeared.

"Hahaha, so this is the location of the formation's core? It seems I'm about to break the formation," Grass Ash said smugly.

However, Cao Hui never imagined that the open crack he had broken open was not some so-called array eye at all, but rather the location of an even more dangerous forbidden artifact sealed within the array.

Chapter Twelve Metamorphosis

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It is noon now, and the sky over the entire city has turned completely dark. There are no stars or bright moon, only a dim purple sun, its original brilliance obscured by dark clouds, exuding an eerie and unreal beauty.

This astronomical phenomenon aroused more curiosity than astonishment among the city's residents, as everyone believed it to be a "celestial dog eating the sun," and could not understand this pitch-black celestial phenomenon as a normal total solar eclipse.

What exactly happened? Everyone was thinking the same question, yet no one could answer them. Near the medical university, the environment was even more eerie, shrouded in a faint, ghastly green aura. Passersby and vehicles assumed it was a university anniversary celebration, yet they couldn't glimpse the full extent of the aura through it. The aura had condensed into a mist; from a distance, the entire medical university resembled a nebula enveloped in this green fog. Occasionally, one or two meteor-like objects could be seen streaking inwards, but they couldn't get close. The green mist seemed alive, rejecting any attempt to penetrate its interior. Because the place was so strange, few citizens dared linger, retreating at all costs. In this day and age, everyone had learned selfishness: mind your own business, or else panic; protect yourself. As a result, there was no one to be seen within a hundred meters of the medical university. Even vehicles only sped by in groups of three or five, not daring to stop for even a moment.

Suddenly, a group of humans with an otherworldly aura appeared outside the medical university. These people exuded an aura that made people afraid to look directly at them, as elegant and mysterious as immortals. Each of them had a long sword stuck in their back, but the shape of the sword could not be seen.

These people naturally exuded a powerful force field, causing their antique robes to flutter even without wind, and their long beards to dance in the air, making them look like immortals descending to earth.

One of them was the cultivator who had once tried to subdue the "Shilongpan" and had already reached the "Ascension to Immortality" realm.

At this moment, a female cultivator with a face as clear as a lotus emerging from water, hair tied in a bun, and a graceful figure stepped forward, bowed respectfully, and said to the cultivator in the "Ascension" stage: "Venerable Hanzheng, this area within half a mile has been completely controlled by our sect. Please enlighten us, Venerable Hanzheng."

The cultivator, revered as Venerable Hanzheng, had his brows furrowed, a solemn aura lingering between his eyebrows, and his entire face was meticulously styled.

"Gui Eting, how long have you been cultivating?" Venerable Hanzheng asked.

The young and beautiful woman, Gui Eting, was taken aback by Han Zheng's question, because she didn't understand why Han Zheng would ask her this question at this time.

"Your Excellency, E'ting has been a member of the Illusion Sect for over 3,600 years. I wonder why Your Excellency Hanzheng asks this question?" Gui E'ting asked respectfully, puzzled.

“Three thousand six hundred years is enough for a cultivator of the Illusion Sect to enter the ‘Seeking Immortality’ realm if they are not dull-witted,” Han Zheng said with emotion.

"Your Majesty, Eting has passed the 'Seeking Immortality' stage and is now entering the mid-stage of 'Refining'," Gui Eting said respectfully, her face beaming with pride.

"You're a promising student, but do you know how many people in our sect here today can actually reach the 'Refining' realm?" Han Zheng said with a hint of helplessness.

“Your Excellency, there are currently seventy-one cultivators from my Illusion Sect here. Half of them have already reached the ‘Infant Soul’ stage, and the other half have all entered the ‘Peering into Immortality’ stage. Apart from Eting, only two have entered the early stage of ‘Refining’. However, Your Excellency has now entered the ‘Ascension to Immortality’ stage,” Gui Eting explained in detail.

“Very good, but do you know what this formation in front of us is?” Han Zheng asked, looking at the scene inside the medical university.

"In my humble opinion, this formation should be the ultimate innate demon-subduing formation of the Sixty-Four Hexagrams of the Daoist cultivation world," Gui Eting said respectfully.

“Absolutely correct. This formation was set up by a pioneer in the cultivation world of ancient times, namely my grandmaster, the Refining Primordial Master. But do you know what is in the formation?” Han Zheng turned to Gui Eting and asked.

"This disciple is foolish and unable to discern the strategy within the formation," Gui Eting said somewhat timidly.

"It's not that you're stupid, it's that even I can't figure out what's trapped in the formation," Han Zheng said with an even more helpless bitter smile.

"Didn't our ancestral master leave any signs?" Gui Eting asked, somewhat shocked.

"Nothing was left behind, only a name, nothing else," Han Zheng said with endless anguish.

This was the first time Gui Eting had ever seen Venerable Han Zheng display such emotions, because cultivators who had reached the "Ascension" stage could completely control their seven emotions and six desires, reaching a state of being without desires or wants. However, the fact that Han Zheng was showing such pain at this moment moved Gui Eting deeply.

"Immediately issue the order that all disciples, except those who have reached the 'Refining' stage, must withdraw and wait within a radius of 500 miles," Han Zheng said suddenly, putting away her pained expression.

Gui Eting was puzzled, but dared not ask further why this arrangement was made. She could only respectfully reply, "This disciple obeys."

Gui Eting quickly disappeared from Han Zheng's side to give orders to the disciples to leave the area.

"Forbidden Artifact, what exactly are you? Why was it only by my master's self-destruction that you could be sealed here?" Han Zheng said with deep emotion as she looked at the scene inside the medical university.

In truth, the geographical location of this medical university has been protected by the successive leaders of the Illusion Sect since ancient times. In ancient times, the Illusion Sect used illusion arrays to keep this land out of people's sight, so no buildings were ever constructed there. However, nothing is absolute. With the passage of time, the rapid advancement of human civilization, and the rampant development of land, people became addicted to unauthorized construction, and thus, the Illusion Sect's illusion arrays were unintentionally destroyed. Furthermore, the Illusion Sect in modern society has transcended the mundane world and is no longer willing to engage in deep contact with humanity. Moreover, human technology has advanced considerably, making it difficult for the cultivation world to easily disrupt the normal order of the human world, let alone cause conflict. Therefore, they have begun to allow humanity to destroy the land, and some highly valuable feng shui sites have been built on with shoddy, substandard projects, rendering these once auspicious sites worthless.

However, all builders are superstitious, and before developing any project, they inevitably have to find a feng shui master to assess the feng shui. Most of the high-level feng shui masters are from the Illusionary Sect, and when this medical university was being built, it was none other than Venerable Han Zheng who came to assess the feng shui.

However, it remains unknown why Han Zheng would place the morgue, an extremely yin place, on the spot where the forbidden artifact was sealed by the array.

By this time, all the disciples of the Illusion Sect had withdrawn from the area, leaving only Gui Eting, another man and woman, and Venerable Han Zheng. The man appeared to be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, with a tall, handsome figure, thick eyebrows, large eyes, and a chiseled face, exuding the mature aura of a seasoned man. The woman was even more striking, around twenty-three or twenty-four years old, petite yet voluptuous, with delicate eyebrows, phoenix eyes, rosy cheeks, a pert nose, cherry lips, and skin as smooth as brocade. Her eyes seemed to hold tender affection, yet also occasionally revealed a clever and mischievous spirit. These two were truly like dragons and phoenixes among men; standing together, they seemed a match made in heaven, a perfect pair, the envy of all.

“Meng Cun, Xin Xue, E Ting. Now only the three of you have reached the ‘Refining’ stage. Do you know why I withdrew the other disciples and left only the three of you?” Han Zheng said solemnly, looking at the three disciples in front of her who had reached the ‘Refining’ stage.

The three of them shook their heads simultaneously, their eyes filled with confusion.

"Do any of you three know what the fog that gathers in this campus is?" Han Zheng asked softly, looking at the ghastly green fog that enveloped the medical university.

"According to my observation, this mist should be malevolent energy," Gui Eting said.

"It's not that simple. This is the Xuanming Soul-Dissolving Qi, known as the most sinister Qi in the world. If a cultivator without the 'Refining' stage enters recklessly, they will be unable to resist the invasion of the Xuanming Soul-Dissolving Qi and will have their nascent soul taken away," Han Zheng said.

“The people inside must have all met with misfortune,” Gui Eting said calmly.

"I just used my spiritual sense to enter it."

2004-12-7 22:38:00

"Put on the Spirit-Controlling Armor to prevent the invasion of Soul-Dispelling Qi," Han Zheng said, turning to the three disciples behind her.

A faint, dazzling silver light emanated from Meng Cun, Xin Xue, and Gui Eting simultaneously. Three sets of light, silver-white armor, covered in mysterious patterns, appeared on their bodies, leaving only their heads and hands exposed. Han Zheng, however, remained alone, walking directly into the medical university without any protection. Meng Cun, Xin Xue, and Gui Eting followed behind. Once the four entered the medical university, the tear behind them was immediately filled by Xuanming Soul-Dissolving Qi, leaving no trace.

At this moment, the scene inside the medical university was completely different. All the flowers and plants in the flower beds had been infected by the Xuanming Soul-Dispelling Qi and turned into a ghastly green ghostly flower, while the lawn had turned as black as ink and seemed to be floating, as if it were alive.

The area within sight was less than half a meter, but the power of the four cultivators, led by Han Zheng, was enough to see everything. The further they went in, the greater the energy of Xuanming Soul-Dispelling Qi became. Meng Cun, Xin Xue, and Gui Eting could clearly feel the pressure, and Han Zheng couldn't help but frown.

"We need to find that cultivator first, and then make further plans. The forbidden object trapped in the formation is about to be broken, and the strength of the four of us is not enough to deal with it." Han Zheng said to Meng Cun and the other two using the "spiritual connection" of the cultivation world.

However, the "telepathic connection" signal was clearly weak, and Meng Cun and the other two could only hear intermittently. They only understood that Venerable Han Zheng was looking for the cultivator who had been in the formation, but they could not hear anything else.

It truly lives up to the saying, "From afar, it's like practicing Qigong; up close, it's easy to understand; from a distance, it's incomprehensible; up close, it's hard to hear."

The four of them, including Han Zheng, found it increasingly difficult to move forward, and the area they could see gradually shortened. It seemed that this forbidden artifact was truly domineering, and even cultivators who had entered the "Refining" stage were not enough to completely cope with the adverse effects before the forbidden artifact appeared. However, Han Zheng, who had already entered the "Ascension" stage, was not affected much and was still able to maintain the status quo using the magical energy she had cultivated.

“The Xuanming Soul-Dissolving Qi has assimilated this campus, and some demons will inevitably emerge. The three of you should be careful.” Han Zheng spoke again using her “Spiritual Connection” spiritual sense.

However, the signal seemed to be getting weaker and weaker. Meng Cun, Xin Xue, Gui E Ting and the other two only knew that Venerable Han Zheng was speaking to them, but they couldn't hear what he was saying. So they used "Telepathic Connection" to ask loudly, "Venerable, what are you saying? Can you say it more clearly?"

Before they could finish asking their questions, a strange fluctuation suddenly appeared in Xuanming's Soul-Dispelling Qi. The next moment, everything seemed to stop, and the world seemed to enter a completely tranquil space. All the turbulent winds and clouds around them disappeared. All that could be seen was the pale green mist that had originally enveloped the surroundings, which turned into sparkling crystals that drifted around Han Zheng and the other three.

A uniquely fragrant scent of pollen wafted into the olfactory senses of Han Zheng and the other two. The aroma was exceptionally comforting and warm, as if they were floating on clouds, soaring alone above the clouds, where the clouds swayed and the wind was ethereal. Then, from within the faint, pale green crystalline light, came an even more melodious sound from a guzheng. The music resembled the ancient piece "Three Variations on Plum Blossom," but with subtle changes and rearrangements, making the melody even more poignant and captivating.

At this moment, after the prelude of the ancient melody ended, the main melody began, and a faint, ethereal sound came from all directions.

"In this mortal world, there are always those who are deeply in love. Do not laugh at their infatuation for being too mad. If one does not endure the bitter cold, how can one smell the fragrance of plum blossoms? What is love in this world that makes people willing to die for each other? Of all the love and sorrow in the world, the most heart-wrenching is the 'Three Variations on Plum Blossoms'."

The song, the melody, is like those lovelorn souls in the mortal world lamenting the pain of unrequited love, a love that is both close and distant, difficult to separate and understand. Listeners can't help but feel saddened and heartbroken for the singer, stirring up bittersweet memories of their own first love, as if their entire heart is swept away by the song, sharing its sorrow and lament.

Meng Cun, Xin Xue, and Gui Eting were completely overwhelmed with emotion, tears welling up in their eyes. However, Han Zheng's expression grew increasingly tense; he knew that he and his disciples had fallen into an ambush set by the enemy within the Xuanming Soul-Dispelling Qi.

"This is a soul-summoning melody, everyone be careful." Han Zheng no longer used "telepathic communication" to communicate, but directly used the magic energy she had cultivated to add to her voice and shouted loudly.

At the same time, Meng Cun and the other two shuddered involuntarily, quickly regained their senses, looked at each other in shock, and then formed a circle back to back, assuming a fighting stance.

"What kind of monster are you? Show yourself!" Meng Cun shouted angrily.

Suddenly, the melody and singing stopped completely, and the crystalline fragrance that had been floating around them vanished, but the strange scent of pollen returned, becoming even stronger. Han Zheng and the other two were once again enveloped by the Xuanming Soul-Dispelling Qi.

Before this strange phenomenon ended, a floating figure appeared before Han Zheng and the others. This figure looked like a giant butterfly, but in the middle of the butterfly's wings was the outline of a person.

"The Demon Butterfly!" Gui Eting gasped in shock.

The Demon Butterfly is an anomaly in the Demon Realm, considered one of the three scourges of the Three Realms, along with the Divine Tree of the God Realm and the Demon Fox of the Demon Realm. These three anomalies not only cause headaches for cultivators in the God, Demon, and Monster realms, but also leave them helpless. This is because they are essentially a combination of spiritual and evil energies from these three realms, possessing the most secret cultivation methods of each realm. No one has ever seen their true form, and no one can destroy them. Even the leaders of the three realms are powerless against them. Firstly, these three anomalies never initiate conflict; secondly, their true forms existed at the same time as the progenitors of all cultivators, making them impossible for them to subdue. However, the existence of these three anomalies is always a ticking time bomb. Who knows what earth-shattering evil they might commit on a whim? Therefore, prevention is paramount. Thus, the cultivators of the three realms unilaterally consider these three anomalies a public menace, desiring their swift extermination. In reality, this is merely a superfluous thought born of boredom. However, all cultivators must understand the existence of these three anomalies. If someone could subdue one of them, they could use it to reach an unpredictable level of cultivation. But so far, no cultivator has succeeded.

At this moment, the legendary demonic butterflies from the Demon Realm appeared here, making Han Zheng and the others' scalps tingle.

Han Zheng was at a loss for what to do, because the appearance of such a legendary anomaly was completely beyond his comprehension; such a demonic creature could never exist in the human realm. Yet, he had encountered it nonetheless, leaving Han Zheng utterly perplexed.

Suddenly, Han Zheng sensed another strange fluctuation of spiritual energy around her. The pale green mist rippled, and wisps of azure waves and gusts of energy slowly flowed through it, eventually replacing the pale green mist. The eerie figure of the demonic butterfly gradually faded away until it disappeared completely.