Chapter 736: Soul Seizing
Just as the palm was about to touch Yiyi's head, Tang Jie shouted, "Stop! Fix! Ban! Seal!"
These four calls slammed into that human cultivator like massive waves, making him shudder and momentarily freeze.
At the same time, a blast of finger energy shot toward Yiyi.
This finger energy came out of nowhere, but Yiyi seemed to have expected it. She straightened up her little body, allowing the finger bolt to strike. Her body trembled, and then she let out a great shout, numerous green vines appearing around her and tightly enclosing her. The finger bolt had undone the seal on her body!
The human cultivator's palm struck the top of Yiyi's head, and even though the vine armor neutralized some of its power, Yiyi still threw up blood, staining the vines red.
Just when that cultivator was about to attack again, a streak of sword light appeared from nowhere. This was the sword attack that Tang Jie had made earlier, appearing right after that finger bolt and attacking the human cultivator.
Shocked, the cultivator prepared to dodge, but Yiyi's blood-stained vines instantly began to burn, seizing the cultivator in a giant hand of flame and bringing him toward the sword light.
"The Imperial Ember Lotus Mantra?" Aurora cried out in shock while thrusting a palm at Tang Jie. Having just used the Devil Crushing Fist, Tang Jie was powerless to resist and was sent flying away, blood gushing from his body.
At the same time, the sword light swept across the human cultivator's neck. Plush! The head went flying, and blood fountained into the air.
A moment later, Yiyi grabbed Lin Xin with her left hand while her right hand snatched her Mustard Seed Bag back from that human cultivator, and then she began to fall back toward Tang Jie's side. While retreating, she sowed bean soldiers and let out the Mother Cloud combat puppet. Tang Jie reacted perfectly to everything she did, as if he was waiting for just this moment.
"Don't even think about running!" Reverend Seer roared.
Tang Jie may have blasted apart his four limbs, but a Violet Palace cultivator's ability to cast arts with a thought was no joke. With this shout, three counting rods flew around the combat puppet and attacked Yiyi, Lin Xin, and Tang Jie.
But as the counting rods flew out, Tang Jie thrust out his palms, sending torrents of energy at Reverend Seer, blocking both his counting rods and the attacks that Aurora and Iron Blood had furtively sent his way.
"A formation?" Reverend Seer's eyes flickered with shock.
At some point, Tang Jie had set up a formation around him.
The formation was very simple, even crude, but this crude formation played a critical role in protecting Tang Jie, giving Tang Jie a chance to catch his breath. So long as he was given enough time, he could recover.
At that moment, everyone finally realized that Tang Jie must have laid down this formation while fighting with Aurora.
He had enough strength to lay down a formation!
He had never planned to compromise. He had planned everything out, sustaining injuries so that he could impede Reverend Seer and get back Yiyi, after which he would use the formation to protect himself. Even Aurora had to praise his ability to make such meticulous plans in so little time.
But a moment later, a little white hand grew out from Reverend Seer's right arm stump, slapping his skull. "Divine Soul, become a sword and exterminate this devil!"
A white light emerged from the top of his head, and the formation failed to stop it. The white light threatened to pierce through Tang Jie, trying to kill him at all costs.
After unleashing the Devil Crushing Fist and sustaining that heavy wound from Aurora, Tang Jie was powerless to fight back.
At this moment, Lin Xin suddenly pushed Tang Jie away, and that white light punched through her body.
"Big Sister Lin Xin!" Yiyi shouted, rushing over and embracing Lin Xin.
Lin Xin's heart had a huge hole, and she was already lifeless.
Yiyi was dumbfounded.
While Tang Jie had been on his century-long travels, Yiyi had been left in the Silver Eyes Imperial Palace, and Lin Xin had always been there to keep her company.
One hundred years of this had made them the best of friends long ago. For Yiyi, Lin Xin was like her big sister, always taking care of her, always helping her.
When Tang Jie wasn't around, Lin Xin was there to help make plans, rule the country, and share worries and hardships.
The two women had supported each other and managed to turn a fiend empire into a fairyland, changing up the relationship between fiends and humans.
How could Yiyi not be grief-stricken, Lin Xin having died like this right in front of her?
"Bastard!" Even Tang Jie gnashed his teeth in hatred.
This formation had been hastily made during his battle with Aurora, and it was made of pure spiritual energy, with no materials. In terms of both power and range, it was extremely limited, so it was bound to have many shortcomings, one of them being that it could only defend against physical objects, not ethereal ones.
The Divine Soul was an ethereal object, and while it gained physicality at Violet Palace, it could convert freely between the two states, so that Divine Soul Sword simply needed to become ethereal to pass through.
But turning the Divine Soul into a sword was extremely dangerous, and if it failed to wound the enemy, its user might end up being the one injured instead.
Who could have expected Reverend Seer to be so determined as to even gamble his Divine Soul in order to kill him? But now that he was heavily injured, he had no means of using this opportunity that Reverend Seer had given him.
As he inwardly cursed, he suddenly realized that something was wrong.
Reverend Seer's Divine Soul Sword had not returned after stabbing Lin Xin, remaining in her body.
Tang Jie hastily looked at Lin Xin. She was lying peacefully in his lap, motionless, but there was something glowing in the wound.
Realizing something, Tang Jie tore off her clothes, upon which he saw that the little snake birthmark had begun to move, rapidly slithering around Lin Xin's body as if something had stimulated it, even opening and closing its mouth.
Reverend Seer had also noticed something wrong. After the Divine Soul Sword stabbed into Lin Xin, it seemed to have been trapped by something and could no longer come out no matter what he did.
In his prime, Reverend Seer would have been fine with his Divine Soul temporarily absent from his body, but definitely not in his current heavily injured state. After only a few moments, Reverend Seer felt an unprecedented pain seizing his entire body.
This was the immense pain that came from his severed limbs, a pain that he had never experienced in all his years of cultivation.
The higher one's cultivation level, the more resistant they became to pain, which was why he could fight even when his bones were shattered and muscles shredded. But now, without the Divine Soul to support him, Reverend Seer was like a mortal whose limbs had been severed, the pain beyond his capacity to bear.
"AAAAH!" Reverend Seer screamed. "Come back!"
But the Divine Soul ignored his desperate pleas.
It grew brighter and brighter within Lin Xin's body, exuding light and heat like a miniature sun.
Aurora, Iron Blood, and Feng Wuxiang had begun to notice that something was wrong with Lin Xin, and even that demon on the other end of the passage gasped in surprise, seemingly sensing some unbelievable power.
Tang Jie watched as that snake swam around Lin Xin's body. It was no longer making a full circuit, instead swimming around that ball of light like a dragon playing with a pearl.
Yes, a dragon!
Tang Jie watched as that snake grew whiskers, claws, and horns. No longer a snake, it had become a true dragon!
The Azure Dragon!
Tang Jie raised his head and looked into the distance.
Beneath the Chaos Tower, the Azure Dragon's giant corpse still floated above the talisman.
The body of the woman in his lap started to turn warm.
"What's going on?" Yiyi said in shock.
"Don't move!" Tang Jie wiped the blood from his mouth and let Lin Xin go, releasing her to the clouds.
She should have fallen from the sky, but she simply floated there.
Everyone saw a white pearl emerge from Lin Xin's wound, a little human form inside with the appearance of Reverend Seer.
"My Divine Soul!" Reverend Seer wailed.
But he no longer had the strength to take it back.
Lin Xin sat up.
Her eyes were still closed, but the Azure Dragon birthmark on her body was growing larger and larger, the mouth opening up toward the white pearl.
"NO!" Reverend Seer seemed to realize something, crying out in despair.
A moment later, the white pearl flew toward the Azure Dragon, which slightly raised its head as if breaking free from Lin Xin's body, upon which its mouth closed over the white pearl and swallowed it.
Reverend Seer instantly froze, his eyes losing focus.
Upon losing his Divine Soul, he even found it hard to maintain his rationality, and his mind began to degenerate.
The Azure Dragon birthmark began to fade.
It flew a circuit around Lin Xin's body and opened its mouth wide, upon which a clear dragon roar came from Lin Xin's mouth.
"Hahahaha, after waiting for more than ten thousand years, the moment has finally come! I'm free!" An ancient voice came from Lin Xin's mouth.
"Azure Dragon, so it really was you. Your reincarnation is finally about to succeed." The female demon's voice came from the other end of the passage.
"Yes! I have waited for this day for far too many years," the Azure Dragon crazily bellowed using Lin Xin's mouth. "The Immortal Emperor did not deceive me. Immortal Ji Yao, in the end, I got my freedom before you did!"
"Lord Azure Dragon!" Reverend Seer cried out in panic. "You are a Dao Controller of Fate, and I am a Dao Enterer of Fate. I am your servant, so why? Why must you devour my Divine Soul?! Please, show mercy! Release me!"
Tang Jie sighed. "Reverend Seer, can't you see? You're the one he wants. After all, the Azure Dragon isn't the Black Tortoise. Preserving his old memories and power in his new life is no easy task and only comes about due to some special conditions. If my guess is right, the Divine Soul of a Dao Enterer is probably one of those necessary conditions, no?"
'The Divine Soul of a Dao Enterer'?
Everyone was horrified. Could it be
On Lin Xin's skin, the dimming Azure Dragon birthmark froze, and then with a loud laugh, the Azure Dragon said, "Where did such a sharp kid come from? You saw through the truth almost instantly. Hahahaha, that's right, the Divine Soul of a Dao Enterer is exactly what this holy one needs to awaken and gain a new life! That's exactly why this holy one moved this girl to take that strike, saving your life while getting my hands on the Divine Soul. Hahahaha, Reverend Seer, you were born for the purpose of this holy one's survival. This is the arrangement of Fate!"
"'The arrangement of Fate'?" Reverend Seer desperately shook his head. "No, this is impossible! I am the servant of Fate, upholding the operation of the heavens. How could Fate abandon me?"
Tang Jie chimed in, "Fate didn't abandon you. It's just that on the track that Fate laid out for you, you've reached your final stop. If you don't obey, you will be betraying Fate!"
"Me, 'betraying Fate'?" Reverend Seer said in shock.
The Azure Dragon heartily laughed. "That's exactly it! Fate had always arranged for you to be my sustenance. If you wish to comply with the will of the heavens, then you should accept this. How could you only obey when Fate made you a king and then resist when Fate makes you food? To only obey for the good and betray for the bad makes one a false believer! And a false believer should be executed! Hahahaha!"
As the Azure Dragon spoke, Reverend Seer threw up blood, his heavily wounded body collapsing to the ground.
He had already lost his Divine Soul, and this provocation from the Azure Dragon proved to be the last straw, and he died on the spot.
Tang Jie looked at the dimming Azure Dragon birthmark and asked, "Then, with your revival, will Lin Xin completely die?"
"A mere mortal body should be honored to serve as my vessel. Thanks to my protection, she was able to live more than a hundred years, with eternal youth, and a life of luxury. What is there to be unhappy about?" the Azure Dragon replied, the birthmark growing even fainter.
Tang Jie looked at the birthmark and coldly said, "Let me guess what's going to happen next. Once the birthmark completely disappears, the Azure Dragon's soul will break free of this body, and nearby is your own body. You will return to your own body, upon which you will truly gain a new life, an excellent display of resurrection through another body!"
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)