Within Tianyi’s inner world, the galaxy had become dim, the star’s light started to fade and darkness began to cover the three figures within that world.
Unbeknownst to Tianyi, two of the three figures had changed. The emperor need not be said as his clothes became real silk brocade robes. But the greatest change was the worm-shaped cloud. It was no longer worm-shaped at all and instead was nine spherical objects. Eight brightly lit spheres that revolved around a larger black sphere. In other words, it resembled Tianyi’s nine Spiritual Cores. But they too began to dim with the darkness encroaching upon the world.
Just as it seemed the world would be extinguished, the third indistinct figure began to emit a brilliant rainbow that illuminated the galaxy once more.
Outside Tianyi felt his sweat drench his clothes as he regained the functions of his mind. He didn’t know what happened, just that his vision had gone dark for a moment. But the danger Tianyi felt still lingered within his heart. Not only that but Tianyi discovered that his soul which had reached the threshold of a Nascent Soul realm cultivator had regressed to the quality of a Core Formation realm cultivator. He didn’t dare ponder anymore as he activated the Pendant of Mountains and Seas.
Nine mountains and nine seas descended onto the world, but Tianyi’s pupil shrunk as he saw that the area near the four-story pagoda was untouched as if that area was detached from the world. But Tianyi’s hand didn’t falter as he took out the most powerful talismans his mother had given. Without a second thought, he activated three of them at once.
Three swords formed of immortal qi immediately appeared and pierced towards the immortal.
Tianyi didn’t bother to see the attack word as he activated another talisman. This time the sword of immortal qi appeared, he was enveloped inside and he sped away inside of it. He left the mountains and seas formation to blockade the immortal.
Just as it seemed that Tianyi would leave, a transparent figure began to form in front of Tianyi causing him to leave the sword of qi as it jetted towards the half-transparent man. But the sword qi only phased through him as if he didn’t exist.
Once the man in red fully formed, the four-story pagoda once again appeared behind him.
Tianyi felt his heartbeat quicken as the reality of the situation descended upon him, but he was unwilling to give up. The sensation that lingered within him was just too frightening. Without any more care or reservation, Tianyi began to use all the talisman he had been given.
But the horned man did not change his expression as he deflected or countered everything Tianyi threw at him, even the mountains and seas formation was locked in place, unable to move.
Just as all hope seemed to be lost for Tianyi, a figure appeared in front of him at this moment. It was someone who Tianyi knew extremely well, although this person had been standing behind him all the time that he knew her.
“Elder Meng!” Tianyi cried out in surprise.
“Young master, please escape.” Those were Elder Meng’s only words as she stared off at the immortal in the distance. The immortal in turn seemed to be wary of Elder Meng who had just appeared even though she was in the mortal Unity realm and not Immortal like him.
All of Tianyi’s talisman that he had used were attacks at the immortal realm, but that hadn’t made the immortal as guarded as seeing Elder Meng.
Under Tianyi’s visibly shocked eyes, Elder Meng’s speckled gray hair began to turn black as if it had been dipped in ink and a ghostly garment appeared and wrapped around her robes. He couldn’t see her face, but he guessed that she must have used a special technique to drastically increase her strength that resulted in her regaining her youth.
Her intent to fight couldn’t be more clear.
“Elder Meng, I have some talisman-” Before Tianyi could finish he felt an invisible force push him away. The force was gentle and there was no intent to harm. Tianyi felt his body seize up under the force as if his body wasn’t his to control anymore.
“Eld-” Before he had a chance to call out anymore, another gentle force made his body fly far away. Tianyi completely understood now, this was Elder Meng wanting him to completely leave, he had not expected Elder Meng to be so strong. He had grown prideful because of his special cultivation, but he didn’t expect the quiet Elder Meng to be so strong.
All around Elder Meng were the phantoms composed of skeletons, all of them wearing a bridal dress that had been bleached white creating a very eerie scene. Their ghoulish cries crawled through the quiet night, sending a chilling sensation everywhere. In contrast, the red-robed youth’s phantoms were elegant dolphins. They were pleasant to the eye if a bit disconcerting to look at. They gave off a feeling of a child’s purity.
Just from this scene alone, it would be easy to mistake the immortal as someone who was out delivering justice against a demonic cultivator.
“Lady Meng Jiang, do you need to stake it all for an outsider?” The red-robed youth spoke as he controlled his phantom to clash against Elder Meng’s skeleton brides.
“For Monarch Soulfish to know of this junior is my honor. But I will not let your words sway me. I am an elder of the Buzhou Immortal Sect and I will protect Grand Elder Xi’s son at all cost!” At Elder Meng’s rejecting words, Monarch Soulfish’s brows furrowed at Elder Meng’s words.
With a wave of his hands, more dolphin phantoms appeared and began to swarm Elder Meng’s skeletal brides. At the same time, the confusion in Monarch Soulfish’s eyes became even more evident. “Does she truly not know or was I incorrect about her true identity?”
But no matter what Monarch Soulfish’s questions were, since Elder Meng had decided to stand against him, he would show no mercy.
Elder Meng upon seeing that her skeletal brides were no match in both numbers and strength against the dolphin phantoms made several hand seals. Flesh began to grow upon the skeletal brides, revealing the grievances they had before death. Their eye sockets were empty and leaked tears of blood while their mouth started shrieking horrendously.
Wherever the shriek passed, space seemed to blur. Even the pagoda seemed to shake not from the effect of the shriek but rather something within responded to the grieving shrieks. Monarch Soulfish gently patted the pagoda and it quieted down, the phantom dolphins began to grow bigger under his control until the shrieks no longer had any effects.
Elder Meng’s hand didn’t stop as various hand seals were formed. As she did so the phantom brides’ skin soon attained a rosy blush on their cheeks. The only difference between them and a living human was their empty eye sockets. The greatest was to come as the bleached bridal dresses soon regained their vibrant red color.
But that wasn’t because the bridal dresses’ colors were returning, no it was being colored red from soaked blood. Once the dress became fully red, a ghastly red light surrounded the phantoms. At the same Elder’s Meng’s body became gaunt as if something had sucked away all the blood in her body, but the steel in her eyes never dulled.
Monarch Soulfish’s eyes hardened at the sight. Some of the bridal phantoms had barely reached the threshold of the immortal realm while the rest were all firmly in the realm of an Earth Immortal. He had no problems dealing with the phantoms, but if he delayed any longer than his goal might escape.
He clapped his hand together before fully separating them apart.
As if working on its own rules space appeared above the pagoda behind Monarch Soulfish. From that space, a torrent of azure water started to descend and wash over the entire area.
Elder Meng moved her bridal phantoms in front of her to block against the torrential waters. Soon the water engulfed Elder Meng and her phantoms. She felt like she was in a fragile bubble in the deep sea. All around she could see those dolphins, but the difference was that they were all red on the top and white on the bottom with a horn sticking out of their forehead.
Strangely numerous tiny rats were flailing in the water while they kept drowning yet never being able to die, only able to flail aimlessly.
The protective bubble around Elder Meng continued to shrink under the pressure of the azure sea with no end in sight as if she was in a world that was comprised only of water. No matter where Elder Meng moved, she could not escape the water.
The first to go was the weakest ghost brides. Water crashed into them and they separated away from Elder Meng. With each passing moment in the water, the separated ghost bride’s body was encased in a cocoon and when the cocoon broke open, a white dolphin appeared and became part of the sea.
The longer this went on, the more bridal phantoms became separated from Elder Meng until there were only nine bridal phantoms at the immortal realm left. But even they were beginning to weaken as slight patches of white could be seen on the wedding dresses.
Three immortal realm bridal phantoms had separated and those had already became red-skinned horned dolphins.
There was simply no way Elder Meng could escape this azure sea world. Despite this, the direr the situation the more peaceful Elder Meng’s expression became. She waved her arms and the bridal phantoms all merged with her. In the end, Elder Meng wore a red wedding dress not soaked in blood but made of the world’s finest dyed red silk, it was embroidered with phoenixes and parasol trees and a red veil completely covered her head. Beneath the veil, Elder Meng had peerless features and unearthly beauty that suppressed all the women in the world.
A woman was most beautiful on her wedding day, that saying was not wrong. But it was a pity that there was no one to lift Elder Meng’s veil and reveal her beauty to the world. The only hint of her beauty was the crystalline skin on her hand and the inky black hair poking out under the veil.
There was a sigh, one of hopelessness and regret.
The barrier was gone and azure water encapsulated Elder Meng’s body. But unlike the bridal phantoms, Elder Meng was covered by a cocoon, and instead, she flowed with the currents. Slowly her figure became transparent and dissolved into nothingnss.
Inside the four-story pagoda, Monarch Soulfish watched this all with a calm expression. Amidst the endless water with no surface or bottom, the only structure that existed was the dull red pagoda.
“Qiu.”
Monarch Soulfish whirled around to see a girl that appeared younger than him smiling at him. Her hair was dark brown and her eyes carried traces of innocence as she spun in her red-brown dress.
“Chun.”
Monarch Soulfish’s mouth said without him realizing it, but his face immediately became solemn as he sat down and closed his eyes.
“Qiu, what’s wrong?” His body shivered at Chun’s words as if physically impacted, but he continued to ignore her.
When he opened his eyes once more, Monarch Soulfish was standing outside of the pagoda once more and his target was standing right in front of him. But he knew that he no longer had any chance because standing beside his target was a silver-haired woman in ethereal white robes.
Tianyi followed the direction the force pushed him towards. His heart wasn’t feeling good at all fleeing, but he knew that he was powerless. This feeling wasn’t something he was used to. He was powerless internally and powerless externally.
Just as he was speeding along the way the space in front of him seemed to have become a two-dimensional painting as it tore apart like parchment and a silver-haired woman wearing white robes came out. Tianyi’s eyes brightened, he had never been so excited to see Grand Elder Zhang in his life.
“Grand Elder Zhang! Elder Meng is fighting against an immortal! You have to help her!” Maybe Tianyi himself never realized how desperate his voice had become, but Grand Elder Zhang did.
She placed her hand on Tianyi’s shoulder and before Tianyi’s vision could even blur, he noticed himself across from the four-story pagoda once more. Monarch Soulfish had his eyes closed but it wasn’t long before he opened them once more. There was a trace of sullenness in his eyes as he stared at Tianyi and Grand Elder Zhang.
“Zhang Cuiying, you should know the boy is an outsider. Why do you protect him so?”
Grand Elder Zhang’s eyes became cold.
“Monarch Soulfish, I do not recall ever being so close to you. If I do not protect him what else would I do? Collaborate against my sect member with you?” A brush appeared in Grand Elder Zhang’s hand. It had a splendid handle that emphasized the grain of the wood and the brush was made of what seemed to strands of silver.
Upon seeing the brush in Grand Elder Zhang’s hand, Monarch Soulfish immediately began to retreat, but it was already too late.
A painting of the dull red pagoda appeared before Grand Elder Zhang. With a few swishes of her brush, the pagoda immediately became like an old building able to crumble apart at any moment.
“No!” There was a fierce cry from Monarch Soulfish as he saw the pagoda began to crumble. His body shriveled and blood leaked continuously from his mouth but the pagoda returned to normal. But his body had become like an old building ready to crumble at any moment.
Grand Elder Zhang did nothing as she watched Monarch Soulfish flee.
“Grand Elder Zhang, what about Elder Meng?” Tianyi could not help but inject worry in his voice.
Grand Elder Zhang said nothing and instead grabbed Tianyi’s shoulder once more. When Tianyi regained his bearings, he discovered that he was in the Buzhou Immortal Sect’s Soul Lamp Hall.
The Soul Lamp Hall was where the members of the Buzhou Immortal Sect left their soul lamps so the sect knew whether they were alive or dead. Only inner disciples and above had the qualifications to leave a soul lamp.
Understanding Grand Elder Zhang’s meaning, Tianyi quickly scanned the numerous soul lamps and released a sigh of relief when he saw Elder Meng’s soul lamp still burning. But the strange thing was that her soul lamp wasn’t with the other Unity realm Elders, but placed among the immortal realm Elders.