31: Chapter 31 Testing

"The Master leaves your corpse intact." Ye Lan pressed his wrist down.

The black spear pierced Gu Zhan's glabella. The dark golden bones let out a dull thud, shattering completely. Gu Zhan's massive body twitched twice and then stopped moving.

Eastern Desolate, Tianxuan Peak Hall.

A line of blood-red text popped up on the light screen.

[Ding.]

[System Notification: The Destined Daughter Su Qianxue witnessed the fall of a Nirvana Realm powerhouse; her worldview has suffered a devastating impact.]

[destiny points +5000.]

Gu Sheng looked at the numbers ticking up in the top-right corner. Five thousand destiny points. Normally, he would have laughed out loud. Now, he only felt a chill down his spine. The man wearing the bronze ghost mask on the screen killed Nirvana Realm experts as easily as killing chickens.

The underground plaza.

Ye Lan pulled out the black spear. The tip of the spear drew a long crack on the ice. He turned around. The hem of his black robe dragged across the crushed ice, making a rustling sound. Step by step, he walked toward the center of the altar.

Su Qianxue tightened her grip on Luo Qingxue's arm. Her nails dug into her own palms, drawing blood. She stood in front of Luo Qingxue, her long sword held horizontally across her chest. The blade trembled violently from the strain in her arms.

Ten steps away, Ye Lan stopped. The black spear thudded heavily onto the ice.

Luo Qingxue raised her hand. Her blood-stained fingertips pressed onto Su Qianxue's shoulder.

"Step back."

Su Qianxue bit her lip and did not move.

Luo Qingxue's fingers increased their pressure, pulling Su Qianxue behind her. She took half a step forward herself. Her dried-up Meridians simply couldn't support this movement. Her body swayed, and her right knee almost buckled to the ground, but she forced herself to stay upright.

The bloodstains on her white dress had already turned a dark red.

Luo Qingxue looked directly at the bronze ghost mask.

"Commander Ye."

Those three words echoed through the cavernous underground plaza.

Ye Lan was halfway through the motion of kneeling on one knee when he froze mid-air.

"You and that person have watched for so long; you're finally willing to show yourselves."

Luo Qingxue spoke very slowly, enunciating every word clearly.

Underground plaza.

Ye Lan did not stand up, nor did he continue to kneel. He remained in that half-crouching posture. Behind the bronze ghost mask, no emotion leaked out.

The air pressure suddenly dropped.

On the surfaces of the remaining ice pillars nearby, fine cracks appeared. This was the pressure unconsciously emitted by a Half-step Creation Realm powerhouse.

Su Qianxue was forced back three steps by this pressure. A metallic sweetness welled up in her throat.

Luo Qingxue stood her ground, not retreating an inch.

"What?" Luo Qingxue took another step forward, now only three feet away from Ye Lan. "Did I hit the mark? You don't even dare to kneel anymore?"

Ye Lan lowered his head.

"This subordinate wouldn't dare."

His right knee slammed heavily onto the ice, shattering the frozen surface.

At the very moment Ye Lan knelt.

Within the Void Realm less than ten zhang to Luo Qingxue's left, space distorted without warning.

There was no tearing, no booming sound.

Like a smooth piece of cloth being folded in the middle, a foot wearing a white jade cloud-patterned boot stepped out from the folded space.

Following that, a man wearing a moon-white robe emerged.

The man was fanning himself with a jade-boned folding fan. A purple-gold wine gourd hung at his waist, and his long hair was tied up casually with a wooden hairpin.

The moment he appeared, the violent cold of the Far North Icefield automatically bypassed his body.

Eastern Desolate Hall.

Gu Sheng immediately pulled up the System scan.

[Target locked.]

[Name: Xiao Wuji.]

[Identity: Left Envoy of Xuanming Hall.]

[Cultivation: Half-step Creation Realm.]

Gu Sheng sucked in a breath of cold air. Another Half-step Creation expert. What kind of heavenly Laws did Xuanming Hall violate back then to be wiped out? This kind of lineup, if placed in the current Central State, would be enough to steamroll any Immortal Holy Land.

Underground plaza.

Xiao Wuji closed his folding fan, tapping the ribs against his palm.

"Qingxue, what are you saying?" Xiao Wuji had a gentle smile on his face. He took two steps forward. "Didn't we just arrive? Northern Abyss is far, and the spatial barriers are thick. Commander Ye is a crude man who only cares about rushing; he almost smashed the Void Passage to pieces. My old bones had to work quite hard to keep up."

Luo Qingxue looked at Xiao Wuji.

On her pale cheeks, the few bloody gashes that had split open from forcibly invoking the Law of heaven and earth were slowly oozing blood.

"Just arrived?" Luo Qingxue's voice was flat. "Or was it to confirm whether I am still me?"

The folding fan tapping Xiao Wuji's palm stopped.

The smile on his face gradually faded.

The temperature of the entire underground plaza dropped to absolute zero at this moment. It wasn't the cold of the Far North Icefield, but pure killing intent.

The black spear planted beside Ye Lan let out a low hum.

Su Qianxue's hand holding the sword had already lost all feeling from the cold. She couldn't understand the riddles these three were speaking at all.

Inside the ring, Danqingzi's Soul body was already trembling violently.

Eastern Desolate Hall. A bolt of lightning flashed through Gu Sheng's mind.

He understood everything now.

These two Half-step Creation monsters hadn't just arrived. They had been there for a long time.

They had hidden in the Void Realm, watching "Gu Han" being chased by Ziyang Holy Land, watching "Gu Han" open the Xuanming Hall ruins, and watching "Gu Han" being besieged by three Nirvana Realm experts.

They didn't act.

Because they sensed that the Soul inside this body wasn't right.

When Gu Sheng controlled this body before, he used the Origin aura of a Major Achievement Lunar MysteriousChar Body and had the "Thousand Faces" disguise. The essence of the Soul was Gu Sheng.

These two monsters suspected that someone had performed Possession on their Master's remains.

They watched as the three Nirvana Realm experts struck with lethal intent.

They were waiting. Waiting for the possessor to be pushed into a corner.

If the possessor died, they would come out to reclaim their Master's remains and slaughter those three Nirvana Realm experts while they were at it.

If the possessor didn't die.

Gu Sheng looked at Luo Qingxue's blood-stained back on the screen.

Until Luo Qingxue's true spirit fragments fully awakened, forcibly cutting Gu Sheng's connection and taking over the Physical Body. Until Luo Qingxue used the highest administrator authority of the Far North Icefield to forcibly rewrite the Law of heaven and earth.

That was something only the true Xuanming Goddess could do.

At that moment, Xiao Wuji and Ye Lan finally confirmed it.

Their Master, Luo Qingxue, had truly come back to life.

Only then did Ye Lan act at the last second to block Li Daoran's killing blow.

This wasn't loyal protection at all. This was an extremely cold-blooded test.

Underground plaza.

Xiao Wuji tucked his folding fan back into his waist. He raised his hand and rubbed his chin.

"Master is wise." Xiao Wuji didn't deny it. He admitted it frankly.

He took another step forward.

"Three hundred years ago, your Divine Soul was extinguished. The moment your Soul Lamp went out, the entire Xuanming Hall saw it." Xiao Wuji dropped his playful attitude. The spiritual energy around him began to churn unconsciously. "Three hundred years later, your remains suddenly appeared in Xueluo City. Not only did they have breath, but they were also accompanied by a protector whom even I couldn't see through."

Xiao Wuji pointed at Li Yifeng, who was lying in the distance.

"How were we supposed to believe that the person controlling your body was actually you?"

Luo Qingxue looked at him coldly.

"So, you just watched as Gu Zhan and the others pushed me until my Physical Body was on the verge of shattering?"

"It was a necessary price." Xiao Wuji's voice was steady. "If you were truly possessed, that body would be destroyed, and so be it. The dignity of Xuanming Hall does not allow anyone to defile your remains. If you were truly the Master..."

Xiao Wuji knelt on one knee.

His posture was even more standard than Ye Lan's.

"Then you would surely have a way to prove your identity under the siege of the Nirvana Realm."

Madmen.

Gu Sheng cursed in front of the screen. The higher-ups of Xuanming Hall were all damn lunatics. To verify an identity, they would even gamble with their master's life.

Luo Qingxue looked down at the two Half-step Creation Realm experts kneeling before her.

She did not get angry.

She raised her right hand and drew an ancient rune in the air.

The moment the rune took shape, a dull toll of a bell echoed from deep within the Xuanming Hall ruins, thirty thousand zhang underground.

Ye Lan and Xiao Wuji's bodies shook simultaneously.

"Xuanming Dao Seal." Xiao Wuji looked up.

"Confirmed now?" Luo Qingxue lowered her hand.

"Confirmed." Xiao Wuji stood up and brushed the ice shards off his knees. "Welcome back, Master."

Ye Lan also stood up, pulled out his black spear, and retreated behind Luo Qingxue.

The crisis was resolved.

Su Qianxue let out a long sigh of relief. The long sword in her hand clattered onto the ice.

In the Tianxuan Peak Hall, Gu Sheng stared intently at the screen.

On the System light screen, a series of dense red warnings popped up.

[Warning!] [Warning!]

[Detected abnormal Karma line reverse tracking!]

[Target: Xiao Wuji.]

In the screen's image.

Xiao Wuji had just stood straight. He didn't look at Luo Qingxue, nor did he look at Ye Lan.

He turned his head.

His gaze pierced through the ice of the underground plaza, through the snow of the Far North Icefield, and through the endless Void Realm.

It looked straight toward the Eastern Desolate.

Toward the Tianxuan Peak Hall.

Toward Gu Sheng, who was sitting in front of the light screen.

Xiao Wuji raised his right hand and lightly tapped his fingertip in mid-air.

"Master," Xiao Wuji spoke.

"Since you have returned, then that 'lonely ghost' who has been hiding deep in your Sea of Consciousness and controlling your body..."

A blinding white light lit up at Xiao Wuji's fingertip.

"This subordinate will now drag him out for you and extract his Soul to refine his essence."