Volume 1 Volume 6 Chapter 50

Volume 6 Chapter 50: Rescue and Escape (Part 3)

"I have answered your question, now tell me your birth date and time."

The strange man, or the master of the Zhong family, said coldly to Dongfang Qingling.

Hearing the words of the Zhong family master, a look of struggle appeared in Dongfang Qingling’s eyes.

Should I say it? Or should I not say it?

Dongfang Qingling felt complicated and confused.

She did not want to easily reveal her birth date and time. Not to mention that speaking it out meant she would have to be sacrificed as a offering. Moreover, at this moment, the Zhong family master’s soul and body were not connected yet, but his power had already reached the Golden Core Stage. If he fully connected, how much stronger would he become? And seeing the resentment on the Zhong family master’s face when he mentioned Xu Qingfan, it was clear that once his strength was restored, he would surely seek revenge on Xu Qingfan.

Wouldn’t that be helping him do bad things?

But what would happen if she didn’t speak? Her previous strong attitude had already angered this mysterious master. At that moment, his gaze was very dangerous. If she delayed any longer, he might just pull her soul out to get the information directly. At that point, not only would she be unable to keep it a secret, but she would also suffer endless pain.

Under the cold stare of the Zhong family master, Dongfang Qingling struggled for a long time. Finally, seeing impatience appear on the Zhong family master’s lifeless face, she showed a look of weakness in her eyes.

"Ding Miao, Jia Chen, Jia Shen, Jia Zi."

Finally, Dongfang Qingling compromised and softly spoke her eight characters, while slowly closing her eyes. Her long, thick eyelashes seemed to become damp, quietly waiting for her next moment of fate.

After hearing Dongfang Qingling say her eight characters, the master of the Zhong family showed a hint of joy on his face. He turned around the altar and instructed the zombies to finish arranging the remaining setups according to Dongfang Qingling’s eight characters.

Then, the master of the Zhong family gradually became serious. He mumbled a mysterious, deep, and complex spell. As he chanted, the wind in the cave rose, making the dim light even darker. His body started to emit heavy black mist, while the zombies around him exploded into pieces, leaving only trails of black mist that merged into the black mist surrounding him. The already dense and dark black mist grew even gloomier, like a thick cloud wrapping around the master of the Zhong family, only the endless wails of vengeful spirits replaced the thunder in the clouds, making the shadowy cave even more terrifying.

At the same time, the bone altar beneath Dongfang Qingling began to glow with flickering green ghost fire, slowly floating into the air and flying toward the master of the Zhong family, who was wrapped in the black clouds. As more green ghost fire entered the black clouds, they stirred up more violently.

"Boom…"

Just then, a loud crash echoed, shaking the cave. The ghost fire vanished, and the black clouds enveloping the master of the Zhong family instantly dispersed, leaving the master sitting on the ground with a dark blue face that looked somewhat pale.

"Crash…"

Then, another sharp cracking sound was heard as the bone altar beneath Dongfang Qingling suddenly shattered. Dongfang Qingling fell to the ground, but after the ritual, it seemed that nothing had happened to her.

Not only that, after the altar shattered, Dongfang Qingling, who was originally trapped and unable to move, surprisingly became able to act!

Noticing this, and seeing the master of the Zhong family sitting not far away with a blank expression, Dongfang Qingling showed a happy face. She formed a spell with her fingers, and a cloud appeared beneath her feet, gently lifting her up. At the same time, a sparkling little sword suddenly appeared in her hand. With a wave, the little sword transformed into countless ice needles, aimed to pierce through the top of the cave, ready to break free and escape quickly.

But just as the countless ice needles were about to strike the top of the cave, a thick black mist suddenly rose above it, wrapping the entire cave, and the ice needles, upon contact with the mist, were completely consumed before they could attack the cave.

Dongfang Qingling was shocked and quickly turned to look back, only to find that the master of the Zhong family had already gotten up from the ground and was now coldly staring at her, with deep hatred and strong killing intent in his eyes.

"The fortune you gave me was fake," the master of the Zhong family said slowly. "I gave you a chance, but now, don’t blame me for tormenting your soul."

As he spoke, the master of the Zhong family slightly raised his right hand and pointed gently at Dongfang Qingling. A black mist condensed together, seeming almost solid, and shot quickly towards her.

Dongfang Qingling was greatly alarmed. Six months ago, the master of the Zhong family had used this same move to capture her, so she naturally did not dare to be careless. She swiftly waved her hands, and several white diamond screens appeared in front of her, shimmering with white mist, instantly forming solid and thick ice walls to block her path.

Unfortunately, all of this had no effect in stopping the attack from the master of the Zhong family.

The black mist pierced through the blocking ice walls in an instant, corroding them. Seven or eight ice walls were destroyed so quickly that Dongfang Qingling didn’t even have time to blink, and though she tried to dodge, the black mist was too fast and hit her body.

The moment the black mist entered her body, Dongfang Qingling felt all her vitality leave her instantly. The Spirit Qi within her became uncontrollable, and the cloud beneath her feet vanished suddenly. She fell to the ground and, after losing her strength, couldn’t even get back up.

Then, Dongfang Qingling encouraged herself to lift her head, only to find that the master of the Zhong family had come to stand in front of her without her noticing. He did not say another word, but reached out to touch her forehead. His hand glowed with a faint black light, and she could faintly hear cries of ghosts within the dark light, a sign that he was about to use the "Soul Searching Technique."

It seemed that the master of the Zhong family had lost his patience and decided to use the "Soul Searching Technique" to probe Dongfang Qingling’s birth chart. He no longer cared about the negative effects it would have on him when he used her as a sacrifice for his secret method.

As Dongfang Qingling watched that hand glowing with black light slowly move toward her, she knew that what awaited her next was the endless pain of soul torture. After the pain, there would be death, as she was sacrificed.

"Indeed, I still cannot escape?"

Dongfang Qingling thought quietly. Strangely, as death drew near, the expected panic did not come. Instead, there was an inexplicable calm.

"That’s fine. After all, once he uses the ‘Soul Searching Technique’ on me, there may be some trouble when he tries to use me as a sacrifice for his secret method, which might lower his chances of success. My death won’t be completely without value."

Dongfang Qingling smiled faintly, thinking to herself, unsure if this line of thought was comforting.

When the master of the Zhong family’s hand was just an inch away from her forehead, Dongfang Qingling slowly closed her eyes, awaiting her fate.

In the next moment, Dongfang Qingling seemed to feel the cold and chilling intention from the hand of the Zhong family master.

"Boom…"

Heaven does not completely shut the door on people; sometimes this saying proves true.

Just as Dongfang Qingling closed her eyes to wait for death, she suddenly heard a loud rumbling sound coming from the top of the pit, followed by the sound of many falling rocks. Dongfang Qingling opened her eyes in shock and found that, without knowing when, the top of the pit had been broken open from the outside, revealing a large opening. Sunlight streamed boldly into the pit from the opening.

Having not seen sunlight for a long time, Dongfang Qingling slightly squinted her eyes as the sunlight fell down, not daring to look directly at it. She only saw a figure suddenly appear at the opening, blocking part of the sunlight, or rather, that figure was wrapped in sunlight, as if a God of War had descended from the sky.

Then, the figure grew larger and larger in Dongfang Qingling’s eyes as it jumped into the pit.

"Boom…"

"Bang…"

"Thud…"

"Aww…"

As the figure jumped into the pit, the master of the Zhong family, who was about to use the "Soul Searching Technique" on Dongfang Qingling, seemed to be provoked. He suddenly roared and charged at the newcomer, who showed no fear. With quick movements of their fingers, countless beams of black and white light shot out, making the Zhong family master appear very cautious. Instead of reaching the newcomer, he ended up dodging awkwardly. At the same time, the shadow of Little Black on the newcomer’s shoulder let out an excited "quack" and also pounced toward the Zhong family master.

"Junior Martial Sister Dongfang?! Is that you?! Are you okay?"

Then, Dongfang Qingling heard that distant yet familiar voice.

For some reason, at that moment, Dongfang Qingling forgot to respond.

"He has returned…"

In that moment, Dongfang Qingling thought to herself.

…

Seeing Dongfang Qingling actually in the pit, Xu Qingfan couldn’t help but feel grateful that, after having no clues, he thought to come back here.

After leaving the giant black mountain, Xu Qingfan traveled all around the Southern Wasteland to search for any signs of Dongfang Qingling and Jin Qinghan, but he couldn’t find even a hint.

In his worry, Xu Qingfan remembered the little bits of information he had, realizing that the only time there was a trace of Dongfang Qingling was where he had fought the mysterious black-clothed master; besides that, there were no clues about Dongfang Qingling or Jin Qinghan anywhere in the Southern Wasteland.

Even though Xu Qingfan had searched that spot at least seven or eight times, with nothing to find, he reluctantly came back, hopeful that he might discover something he had overlooked before.

After searching without success again, just as Xu Qingfan was about to leave, he suddenly sensed a faint wave of death energy beneath his feet. Startled, he attacked the ground repeatedly, causing a hidden underground chamber to appear before him, where he found Dongfang Qingling, weak and fallen inside. In front of her stood a strange zombie that was about to cast a spell to harm her. Alarmed, he unleashed the "Life and Death Finger" upon the zombie in quick succession.

At the same time, Little Black also charged at the zombie. For Little Black, the zombie filled with strong death energy was a great treasure.

Under the dual attacks of "Life and Death Finger" and Little Black, although the zombie was very powerful, it was still pushed back by Xu Qingfan. Seizing the moment, Xu Qingfan quickly moved to Dongfang Qingling’s side, helped her up, and asked with concern, "Junior Martial Sister Dongfang!? Is that you?! Are you alright?"

After asking, he noticed that Dongfang Qingling was just staring blankly at him, her eyes looking somewhat dazed, as if she hadn’t even heard his question. Believing that she had been cursed, and with the dim light in the underground chamber making it hard to see, he didn’t care about the usual rules of touching and lifted her up in his arms to leave the chamber.

At that moment, Dongfang Qingling finally reacted, her cheeks turning a bit red. After coughing once, her voice became calm again.

"Senior Brother Xu, be careful of that zombie. It is not an ordinary zombie; it is the black-clothed master that attacked us that day. For some reason, his body is destroyed, but now he is trying to come back to life using another’s body."

Hearing Dongfang Qingling’s words, Xu Qingfan was slightly taken aback. He looked up at the zombie and found that it was currently fighting fiercely with Little Black, and both sides seemed to be evenly matched for the moment.

"I see."

Xu Qingfan said softly, thinking about the Water Spirit Qi and the pure but not very strong dead energy he had sensed here before. At that time, he thought another cultivator using dead energy had appeared. Now he realized it must have been this zombie. After borrowing a body to return to life, its strength had greatly reduced, but its control over the dead energy had become much purer. As for why it had turned into a zombie, it was likely because its original body had been destroyed by Zhuyin.

Just as Xu Qingfan was observing, the zombie launched a fierce attack on Little Black, pushing Little Black back, and then ignored Little Black completely, charging toward Xu Qingfan.

"It’s you again! Why is it always you? Why do you always have to ruin my plans?"

The zombie spoke human words, its howls filled with deep hatred.

Indeed, ever since Zhong Ling was ordered to find Xu Qingfan and retrieve the Zhong family’s sacred item, he had encountered continuous misfortune. Not only did he repeatedly suffer defeats while chasing Xu Qingfan around the Shenzhou Continent, but he even dared not return home, as his family considered him useless. Now, his body was ruined, turning him into a half-human, half-ghost monster. Even if he returned to the Zhong family, his position as family master would be at risk. It was easy to imagine how deep his hatred for Xu Qingfan had become.

Seeing the strange zombie charging at him, Xu Qingfan snorted coldly and was about to take action when his expression suddenly changed. He turned to look into the distance and then, without hesitation, began to flee in another direction.

It turned out that three cultivators in black were quickly flying toward this place. Their aura and attire were exactly the same as when that zombie was a black-robed master, clearly indicating they were all part of the same group.

Most importantly, all three of these people have reached the late stage of the Golden Core Stage!