BW Chapter 171.2

What is Sought (3.2)

 

Wang Bin mixed with his own disciple among the crowd supporting the blood formation. He saw the opportunity and was preparing to make a move to destroy the great formation formed by the cultivators, but before he could act, someone struck him with a spear on his back.

 

Hao Zheng hung suspended in mid-air, coldly looking down at him. The long spear in his hand had red silk ribbons flying, and he smiled while stroking his beard, saying, “This old man hasn’t used his natal magical treasure for a long time. Just right to find someone to practice with.”

 

When Wang Bin saw the true form of that red-tasseled spear, his face went blank for a moment. He said incredulously, “You, a scholar who deals with literature, your natal magical treasure is actually a long spear!?”

 

“When this old man and Chu Jun were slaying demons and monsters, you were still pissing and playing with mud.” Hao Zheng shook the long spear in his hand once, directly attacking Wang Bin’s vital points.

 

Wang Bin stared with shocked wide eyes.

 

Nearly a thousand high-cultivation cultivators formed a great array in mid-air to resist the falling of the Heaven-Piercing Blood Formation. Under the blood-colored light, spiritual power flowed in brilliant and colorful streams. Many usually low-key cultivators who normally kept a low profile suddenly manifested their dharma forms standing between heaven and earth, along with those hundred giant Zen staffs, blocking beneath the blood formation.

 

The lower-cultivation cultivators worked together to resist the blood demons that kept surging up the mountain peak. Those demonic creatures were densely packed together, with wriggling bloody flesh that was both disgusting and terrifying, extremely dangerous. When cultivators blocking in front were devoured, the cultivators behind would immediately fill their positions, with all kinds of magical artifacts flying chaotically in the air.

 

Several cultivators whose names Ning Buwei couldn’t even call out, whom he had never even met, boldly made their moves, joining him in resisting Pei Heguang’s terrifying and vast spiritual power.

 

A white-haired cultivator in tattered Daoist robes even smiled and waved at him, saying, “Aiya, so cute.”

 

The Suzaku knife in Ning Buwei’s hand trembled, nearly slashing toward his face.

 

“What exactly is this Pei Heguang? His cultivation is actually above the Mahayana stage!?” Another round-faced, short cultivator said with a grave expression. “Neither human nor demon nor monster nor ghost, could he have already transcended beyond the Five Elements?”

 

“What nonsense are you spouting.” Another young man dressed in elaborate ornate clothing said, “I don’t believe that combining the three of our powers can’t subdue this nobody!”

 

“Little fellow, you should hurry and find a way to repair the formation. Leave this surnamed Pei to us.” The white-haired cultivator said with a smile.

 

Ning Buwei looked at the three of them in bewilderment. “Who are you people?”

 

“Chu Yu, Chu Yi, Chu Qu.” The white-haired cultivator pointed to himself, then pointed to the other two people. “We are Jun Jun’s senior brothers, oh, the senior brothers from the legend who were cruelly murdered by him.”

 

“That’s right, but actually he can’t beat us at all.” Chu Yi put his hands on his hips and nodded. “It was Master who insisted we let him win.”

 

Chu Qu patted the dust off his wide sleeves and said angrily, “How does this little thing fight while scattering ash!”

 

“Chu Qu has a bad temper, please forgive him.” Chu Yi said with a smile, “The three of us together calculated a divination. Jun Jun has to cross a death tribulation today, so we came together to watch the excitement. But hearing what you all mean, the seventeen states are going to be finished, so we temporarily decided to lend a hand and help out.”

 

Ning Buwei: “…………”

 

Although he knew they meant well, it didn’t prevent him from wanting to beat someone up.

 

“You think you can stop me with just you people?” Pei Heguang floated in mid-air and said coldly: “Even a peak of the Great Perfection cultivator is nothing more than an ant before me.”

 

“Such big words from a child!” Chu Yi, Chu Yu, and Chu Qu together revealed their natal magical treasures and attacked Pei Heguang in unison.

 

Seeing this, Ning Buwei gripped the Suzaku knife in his hand tightly and slashed it thunderously toward the ground. After violent shaking, enormous cracks began spreading from the mountain peak with a roar. In an instant, flying sand and stones scattered while spiritual power surged wildly. Shenyue Mountain split in half, and beneath the pitch-black bottomless chasm, it seemed as if some enormous creature was hidden. The sound of breathing like beating drums came from deep underground.

 

“Ning Buwei!” A sword light attacked from behind.

 

Ning Buwei gripped his knife with his back hand to block this sword strike, only then seeing clearly that the attacker was Xie Jiu.

 

“You shouldn’t continue this futile effort. You cannot possibly stop my master.” Xie Jiu suddenly exerted force with the sword in his hand, forcing Ning Buwei to retreat several zhang away from that abyss.

 

“I don’t want to kill you.” Ning Buwei turned the Suzaku knife in his hand, instantly shocking Xie Jiu back more than ten zhang away. He said coldly, “But if you continue to obstruct me——“

 

Xie Jiu gripped the long sword in his hand tightly, but this time didn’t make a move. He lowered his voice and said, “If you win, could you maybe……”

 

“I cannot.” Ning Buwei said decisively, “If Pei Heguang wins, do you think he would spare my life?”

 

“If I lose, I will definitely drag him down to die with me.” Ning Buwei carried his knife and brushed past him, his voice seeming to be tempered with ice. “Cui Ci, since you’ve remembered everything, why do you still follow him?”

 

Xie Jiu froze in place.

 

Ning Buwei leaped down from the fractured mountain peak, letting himself fall into that seemingly endless abyss.

 

The Suzaku knife tried to return to its sheath, but was held down by Ning Buwei, who said in a low voice, “Three thousand years ago, Di Huai’s blood formation was sealed beneath the Eight Trigrams Formation by Cui Sheng and Sang Panfeng. The eight prefectures correspond to the eight trigrams, each prefecture divided into two states suppressed by spiritual artifacts. The central Zhongzhou is the formation eye. The entire Eight Trigrams Formation controls the circulation of spiritual power in the seventeen states. Five hundred years ago, when Xun Prefecture’s spiritual power was cut off, the Eight Trigrams Formation weakened, causing spiritual power to leak……

 

Now the prohibitions between the mortal realm and cultivation realm have been destroyed. The spiritual power of the seventeen states has poured from the Dark Domain entrance into the entire Xun Prefecture. If we want to suppress the blood formation again, then we must repair the Eight Trigrams Formation. The Eight Trigrams Formation needs the spiritual power of each prefecture to be equivalent to maintain balance, so we must first repair the prohibition——wait?”

 

“Hmm?” A vague questioning sound came from his sea of consciousness.

 

“According to Big Yellow’s explanation, to repair the prohibition, the blood formation must disappear.” Ning Buwei’s face looked very ugly. “This is fundamentally a dead loop.”

 

“Maybe……possible……knife……” The voice from his sea of consciousness suddenly became intermittent, then completely disappeared from his sea of consciousness.

 

“Chu Jun? Chu Jun?” Ning Buwei called to him in a low voice, but only deathly silence remained in his sea of consciousness.

 

The connection between him and Chu Jun through their dao contract was completely severed.

 

After a moment, Ning Buwei landed steadily on the ground.

 

This place really couldn’t be called a tomb chamber, perhaps it wasn’t even as good as a grave. Large patches of withered vines spiraled densely in the depths underground. Thick roots intertwined and connected, forming a sunken flat platform where Ning Xingyuan lay quietly and alone.

 

Probably because Yan Lanpei had been eager for revenge back then, he hadn’t even had time to help him clean the blood stains from his cheeks, which looked particularly glaring on that pale face.

 

However, more glaring than those blood stains was an additional blood hole in Ning Xingyuan’s abdomen at his dantian, as if someone had forcibly dug out his dantian and spiritual roots.

 

“When I dug out his spiritual roots back then, his face was full of disbelief.” Pei Heguang’s voice came from behind Ning Buwei with a laugh. “He grabbed my wrist and kept calling me brother, constantly asking me why……”

 

Ning Buwei suddenly turned around. The Suzaku knife was even faster, carrying towering hatred as it slashed toward Pei Heguang who stood there.

 

Pei Heguang dodged with ease while using a handkerchief to wipe the blood traces from his hands. “The helpers that Venerable Jinghe called aren’t much either. Heh, peak Great Perfection is just so-so.”

 

“Pei! He! Guang!” Ning Buwei’s eyes were blood-red. The Suzaku knife in his hand and the Seven Killings Soul-Devouring Formation pressed forward step by step, trying to strangle and bind him, but each time fell just short by a hair’s breadth, slow by half a breath.

 

“This mortal body simply cannot withstand such excellent spiritual roots and vast spiritual power, so these past few hundred years I’ve been trying to suppress my cultivation and repair this broken body.” Pei Heguang laughed:

 

“Finally able to completely tame these spiritual roots and control this spiritual power, I came out of seclusion and couldn’t wait to find you, Chengfeng. You are my best choice, especially since you have a similar destiny to mine, and you’re a living person with early death fate, and now you’ve achieved the Path of Ruthlessness……In this world, I can’t find a second person who could be such a perfect target for possession.”

 

Black mist rolled around Ning Buwei’s body. In a cacophony of ghostly wails and soul cries, he mobilized almost all his spiritual power and slashed thunderously toward Pei Heguang. Then the Four Symbols Six Combinations Formation blocked his retreat route, and the Seven Killings Soul-Devouring Formation finally completely trapped him within.

 

He unhesitatingly activated his killing move, stabbing toward Pei Heguang’s heart amid surging spiritual power, with evil energy that seemed ready to perish together, violently twisting.

 

Dozens of blue light pillars erupted from the evil energy and Soul-Devouring Formation, shattering Ning Buwei’s arranged formation into pieces. Ning Buwei suffered formation backlash, his movements delayed by an instant, and was struck in the dantian by a palm, heavily slamming into the rocks.

 

Shattered stone fragments fell rustling down. Ning Buwei’s mind went blank for an instant, then he rolled to avoid a sharp sword stabbing toward his abdomen, recalled the suspended Suzaku knife from mid-air to block the sword energy that Pei Heguang followed up with.

 

“Stop struggling desperately, Chengfeng.” Pei Heguang unhurriedly channeled spiritual power into his sword, looking down at him from above like a beast watching prey already in hand. “I’m only using less than half my cultivation level now, yet you can’t even handle my attacks. Those three Mahayana cultivators earlier didn’t even last a hundred moves under my hand——

 

Even if all of you attack together, none would be my match.”

 

The Suzaku knife in Ning Buwei’s hand was pressed down hard, stopping less than half an inch from his throat. Cold light flashed on the sword tip. Pei Heguang pinned him against the wall, revealing a smile identical to Ning Xingyuan’s, and said gently, “Chengfeng, do you know why I can have so much spiritual power? Because of the Re-ju-ve-na-tion Array.”

 

Ning Buwei’s pupils suddenly contracted. His blood-red eyes stared fixedly at him. “What did you say!?”

 

“Ning Xingyuan’s Rejuvenation Array could indeed bring people back from the dead, but the price was using the caster’s own lifespan and fortune as exchange.” Pei Heguang gazed at himself reflected in Ning Buwei’s eyes, as if looking at another person through this reflection. “But how foolish, right? Using your own life to exchange for the lives of a bunch of unrelated people, and calling it the Way of All Living Beings. It really makes me feel disgusted.

 

I tampered with his Rejuvenation Array. Every time Ning Xingyuan cast the formation, half of the lifespan and fortune he used to save people would come to me. In a few more years, when those saved people die inexplicably, the remainder will also come to me.” Pei Heguang said softly, “I originally intended for this lifespan and fortune to return to Ning Xingyuan, but unfortunately……it was truly too attractive.”

 

Pei Heguang’s gaze suddenly turned cold, his voice carrying thick resentment and unwillingness. “He clearly knew I was just a mortal without spiritual roots, yet he refused to help me find a way to survive! He hid me in Danhuai Courtyard. I could only be his shadow! Why!?

 

We are twins, we came from the same womb. I am the legitimate eldest son of the Ning family! Why should I be thrown into a desolate village in the mortal realm while he enjoyed fine clothes and food in the Ning Mansion, enjoyed countless people’s pursuit and envy!? Everyone called him Young Master, called him Young Master Xingyuan, but all of this should have been mine! Ning Xingyuan was originally the name grandfather gave to me!”

 

“Just because I was born without spiritual roots! Just because I’m a waste who can’t cultivate!” Pei Heguang looked at Ning Buwei with a twisted expression – anger, resentment, unwillingness. His eyes were red as he reached out to touch Ning Buwei’s face, his voice suddenly gentle again. “Chengfeng, I thought about giving up. I thought about living peacefully with Xingyuan and raising you together. As long as I could be with you two, that would be enough……”

 

“But everyone was forcing me! Even you and Xingyuan were forcing me!” Pei Heguang’s spiritual power around his body suddenly intensified. The formation originally controlled by Ning Buwei was firmly controlled in his hands, trapping Ning Buwei entirely within it.

 

All of Ning Buwei’s meridians were forcibly sealed. Whether spiritual power or evil energy, everything was firmly suppressed into his dantian by the Seven Killings Formation. His whole body couldn’t move at all; he couldn’t even struggle.

 

“Look, I only used a bit more spiritual power, and you became powerless to resist.” Pei Heguang casually threw the Suzaku knife from his hand onto the ground. “Chengfeng, all of this is over. I spent so much effort for just one purpose – to make you achieve the Path of Ruthlessness.”

 

“Why must it be the Path of Ruthlessness?” Ning Buwei leaned against the stone wall and asked with some difficulty.

 

“Because we both have the destiny of Lone Stars of Calamity, destined to be alone for life, no one will ever come to love us.” Pei Heguang’s spiritual consciousness gradually began invading his sea of consciousness. His voice whispered by Ning Buwei’s ear like an evil ghost. “Ning Xingyuan said you couldn’t achieve the Path of Ruthlessness, so I insisted on making you achieve it.”

 

Ning Buwei’s arms, which had been struggling slightly, slowly dropped.

 

****

 

Mountains collapsed and earth cracked, sun and moon lost their light. Under the Heaven-Piercing Blood Formation, many cultivators formed arrays and struggled to support, yet still couldn’t stop the blood formation from falling faster and faster. From time to time, cultivators with exhausted spiritual power would fall from high altitude. Others couldn’t rescue them in time, so they would fall into the mouths of blood demons and become food. Countless blood demons were still climbing frantically up the collapsed Shenyue Mountain with wailing sounds, like tireless beasts tearing at helpless prey, making people’s hair stand on end.

 

The Heavenly Wave Ruler stopped in mid-air. Feng Zizhang looked up at the Heaven-Piercing Blood Formation above his head. It seemed like he could reach it if he stretched his arms and jumped, yet half an hour ago, this blood formation was still very far from them.

 

He had to lower the Heavenly Wave Ruler further down, nearly colliding with blood demons flying past.

 

“At this rate, we can hold on for at most another half hour before the Heaven-Piercing Blood Formation completely lands and destroys the Eight Trigrams Great Formation.” Big Yellow held Ning Xiu, looking anxiously toward the mountain peak with worry on his face. “We’re running out of time.”

 

Ning Xiu in his arms seemed to sense something in his sleep and shivered.

 

The situation on Shenyue Mountain was severe, and things weren’t much easier down the mountain. Most of the cultivators who stayed here were in the Foundation Establishment stage, with fighting power far inferior to the cultivators on the mountain. They could only hide in nearby ruins and barely protect themselves.

 

Cui Yuanbai had long transformed into the Purple Flame Knife and scared away several cultivators who tried to steal the Heavenly Wave Ruler. Jiang Yizheng said, “This won’t work. The Heavenly Wave Ruler is too conspicuous here. Should we also find a place to hide?”

 

Big Yellow nodded, surveyed the area, and looked toward the old site of Ning Mansion not far away. “Follow me.”

 

Most of the rooms here were already broken and dilapidated. Some had only half a wall left and couldn’t provide any cover. Just when the few of them were at their wits’ end, a window not far away was suddenly opened. Xie Changming and Ge Yunyang stuck their heads out: “Over here, over here!”

 

This familiar scene immediately made Feng Zizhang and Jiang Yizheng feel mixed emotions.

 

Moments later, Big Yellow and the others still entered the room, only to discover there were quite a few people inside. The Xie Changming and Xie Chang’an brothers, plus Xie Wenshi and Xie Jiangnan siblings watching over them, Ge Yunyang holding Ge Yunxi with a female cultivator watching them, and in another corner sat Qingdan Sect’s Jimo Hongcai and Bu Qing, four senior brothers. When they entered, the already cramped room instantly became packed.

 

Xie Chang’an crouched beside Big Yellow for a while, then asked, “Why does he keep sleeping?”

 

Xie Wenshi reached out and pulled him back, looking at Big Yellow with some wariness.

 

“Xiao Shan sleeps a lot.” Feng Zizhang said, “Don’t worry, he’ll wake up when he’s slept enough.”

 

Cui Yuanbai very domineeringly blocked in front of Ning Xiu, looking unfriendly as he stared at Xie Changming and Ge Yunyang. The three of them used to fight often at Wanxuan Academy, and seeing they were about to fight again, Jiang Yizheng quickly hugged Cui Yuanbai to one side.

 

Bu Qing hugged her knees and looked worriedly at the shadows that occasionally flashed outside. She uneasily added another layer of formation, then looked toward Jimo Hongcai. “Senior brother, can we survive this?”

 

Jimo Hongcai’s expression was grave. “Hopefully.”

 

The atmosphere in the room was very oppressive. In the silence, Ning Xiu suddenly woke up and burst into tears with a “wah” sound. The blood demons outside heard the sound and began frantically ramming the doors and windows.

 

“It’s okay, it’s okay, just a nightmare.” Big Yellow went around his sea of consciousness once, breathed a sigh of relief, and softly coaxed, “Xiao Shan don’t cry. This master and Little Black and your older brothers and sisters are all here. Father and Mother will be back soon.”

 

Ning Xiu sniffled, grabbed his finger with teary eyes, and called him softly, “Yellow Yellow~”

 

“Yes, here, here.” Big Yellow patted his back. “It’s okay, don’t be afraid.”

 

Ning Xiu said with a crying voice. “Father~ Want Father~”

 

“Father will be back soon. Sleep a bit more, and when you wake up you can eat porridge and meat.” Cui Yuanbai crouched down and touched his little face. “Xiao Shan be good and listen.”

 

Ning Xiu blinked his eyes in confusion, then suddenly froze in place. His little finger pointed toward the window. “Mu Mu~”

 

“Who is Mu Mu?” Yang Lingzhu looked toward the window in puzzlement.

 

Everyone in the room looked toward where Ning Xiu was pointing in unison, but didn’t see anything. Even Big Yellow felt his spine chill somewhat.