Chapter Ninety: Surrendering Luzhou City (Second Watch)

Xu Cheng’s primordial spirit was on the verge of shattering. If it were to break apart and vanish completely, not even a supreme immortal might have been able to save him. As expected, the Xia cultivator’s desperate strike was terrifying beyond measure.

Each passing moment as he waited for the golden glow of merit was torture. One fragment after another had already broken free from Xu Cheng’s primordial spirit and dissipated into nothingness.

Then a second, then a third. In the blink of an eye, dozens of shards of his primordial spirit dissolved and vanished without a trace. The world before his eyes trembled incessantly, on the verge of collapse. Yet it was not the surrounding scenery that shook, but Xu Cheng’s own primordial spirit that quivered so violently that everything he saw seemed to sway.

At last, when the golden radiance poured into his body and filled him with inexhaustible strength, the fragmented primordial spirit ceased breaking apart and gradually began to recover.

Like a puzzle being assembled, his glasslike spirit slowly gathered piece by piece until, in the end, it became a complete whole.

The scene before his eyes no longer trembled, and with the Minor Five-Element Creation Art no longer clinging to his body, he was left in the form of a skeleton.

“Right Envoy, are you all right?” Chrysanthemum asked, supporting the right side of Xu Cheng’s body, while Yan Mengdie steadied his left.

“I was almost about to never see you again! Thank goodness I had the merit glow protecting me!”

The Minor Five-Element Creation Art had been applied to his body, and having flesh and blood again felt rather good.

The combined spells the three had unleashed earlier had wiped out everyone else in the governor’s mansion, even the souls of those people. Now the entire mansion stood empty.

“Let’s rest for a while,” Yan Mengdie said quickly. Xu Cheng, newly recovered, was still somewhat weak and breathless, with not a trace of merit glow left on him. It had all been exhausted.

The three of them sat down on the ground. The battle just now had drained Yan Mengdie and Chrysanthemum tremendously.

Through celestial resonance, heavenly light descended upon them. The three Netherworld immortal arts on Xu Cheng’s body—the Yellow Springs Reincarnation Art, the Yellow Springs Forgetfulness River Art, and the Yellow Springs Six Paths Art—ran together, refining the heavenly light into pitch-black jade-like liquid power.

One immortal art was like a turbo engine from Xu Cheng’s former life; three immortal arts were like having three turbo engines within his body.

The power refined by the other two arts did not suit Xu Cheng’s use, so he did not draw upon it.

Still, with three immortal arts working in tandem, their power was already astonishing.

Only when dawn broke and the roosters crowed did the three of them finally recover their spiritual power completely.

If this had been the way of cultivators, they would now have used special methods to draw the purple essence of the first sunlight into their bodies and raise their cultivation.

Last night, in order to push his cultivation up to the realm of spirit-manipulating primordial spirit, Xu Cheng had expended a tremendous amount of merit glow. Then, during the battle, his power had been consumed too quickly, and he had used golden radiance in place of spiritual power. In the end, the merit glow obtained from sacrificing those five primordial spirit cultivators had mostly gone into repairing himself, leaving him with not a trace of it now.

It was much like an ordinary person suddenly finding himself penniless, with even his confidence somewhat depleted.

So at that moment, a thought arose in Xu Cheng’s mind: should he remain here and wait for the Great Han dynasty’s troops to arrive, or should he go and capture more ghosts to exchange for merit glow?

Just then, a thread of golden light suddenly came from the void and flowed into Xu Cheng’s palm.

The golden light coiled around his fingertips and took the form of a delicate little ring. Though it was only a single strand of merit glow, Xu Cheng could not understand where it had come from.

What was going on here?

Examining the ring closely, images surfaced upon it, revealing the cause of the matter. It turned out that this strand of golden light came from the merit gained by Cen Ningyue, Niu Dazhuang, and the three brothers from Fengyang after subduing ghosts and monsters. Most of the merit glow belonged to the five of them, and only this one thread had been credited to Xu Cheng.

Even so, that thin strand of light made Xu Cheng as delighted as a beggar who had suddenly picked up a hundred coins.

At that very moment, a big-headed soldier rushed in from outside, shouting as he ran, “Report! Urgent report!”

Last night’s battle was strange. It had not destroyed the walls or gates of the governor’s mansion, only the houses and pavilions within. Moreover, the black lotus patterns around the area had the effect of preventing sounds from escaping, so the soldier had no idea such a dramatic change had taken place here.

As a result, the moment he pushed open the gates of the governor’s mansion and saw the scene before him, he was instantly dumbfounded.

Where was the governor’s mansion?

He even thought he must have opened it the wrong way, so he shut the gate and opened it again.

The sight made him so unsteady on his feet that he almost turned and fled. Just then, three people appeared before him: a young man who looked only fifteen or sixteen, a plump girl, and a scholarly-looking man of twenty-four or twenty-five with a weathered gaze.

“People can scare a person to death, don’t you know? Get out of my way at once!” the big-headed soldier barked as soon as he saw that they were human.

The three who had appeared out of nowhere were none other than Xu Cheng and the other two.

A chain shot out from Xu Cheng’s hand, binding the soldier and lifting him into the air.

“You... you!”

The soldier had no cultivation at all. If Xu Cheng exerted even a little force, the fellow would be reporting to the Yellow Springs by now.

“Speak. What happened early this morning that made you rush here in such a panic?” Xu Cheng asked at once.

“I... I can’t breathe...” The soldier’s face had turned purple from being strangled. Seeing this, Xu Cheng had no choice but to loosen the chain and let him down.

After gulping down a few mouthfuls of fresh air, the man finally said, “Cough, cough! The people of the Great Han Kingdom have attacked!”

“So fast!”

Xu Cheng and Yan Mengdie exchanged a glance, then spoke at the same time.

“Three honored lords, I’m just a lowly soldier. Please don’t kill me!” the big-headed soldier pleaded desperately.

“Take us to the city wall,” Xu Cheng ordered immediately.

“Yes, sir!” the soldier replied carefully. In his mind, there were only two kinds of people he must never offend: his superiors and cultivators.

After seeing Xu Cheng’s methods, he was convinced that Xu Cheng was a powerful cultivator, very possibly the same one who had made the entire governor’s mansion disappear.

He no longer dared hesitate, nor make the slightest move, and led the three of them toward the city wall.

Because the soldier had a guard token, their path to the wall was smooth all the way.

At last, they arrived before his superior, a city defense commander. The man did not look at the soldier but stood at the edge of the wall surveying the distance, saying sharply, “I told you to notify the honored lords in the governor’s mansion. Why did you take so long?”

Black light flashed in Xu Cheng’s eyes. The defending officer before him had only just condensed the Eight Directions Seal, but it was still not nearly enough to matter. Xu Cheng said coldly, “It seems this honored lord still has not understood the situation.”

“Who is it?”

The commander on the wall whirled around and saw that the big-headed soldier he had sent out was now followed by three people. Shocked, he was about to unleash his martial arts technique when he was instantly bound tightly by the Netherflame Chain.

“If you don’t want to die, stay still,” Xu Cheng said in a low voice.

Only then did the city defender realize that, despite channeling his power, he could not break the chain binding him. He finally understood that he had met a master and cried out, “S-Senior! Spare me! Please, spare me!”

“Do as I say. Open the city gate,” Xu Cheng ordered at once.

“Why are you still standing there? Open the gate, quickly!” the defender shouted, glaring at the big-headed soldier who had brought Xu Cheng and the others over.