Chapter 227

Upon hearing those words, Xu Zhi Nan chuckled a few times. That dark and hoarse voice added a lot of sarcasm: "'Good person'. Zi Heng, you ruined your last life on these two words, how can you still be so foolish? Loyalty, feelings, responsibility and face, you as the Human Emperor can't get any of them and can't even let go of any of them. You can't even be callous to those who are heartless and unrighteous to you. Do you know what I disliked most at first was your indecisiveness?"

Xie Bi An said in a deep voice: "You are right. I am to blame for what happened to me, but what about you?"

"I, Xu Zhi Nan, cannot live this life in vain like you."

Xie Bi An gritted his teeth. Xu Zhi Nan's every sentence of mockery made him feel like a knife was piercing his heart. Even if he was deliberately provoking him, he also stabbed a vital point.

"Actually, I also feel bad for you." Xu Zhi Nan looked disdainfully at Li Bu Yu, "Li Bu Yu pretended to be polite and comply with you, killed your parents, and made you bear the eternal infamy of killing your father the emperor, yet you can't be so pleased as to take revenge. For the sake of the overall situation, not only did you want to keep his rotten life, you can’t even reveal to the public what he really did before."

The faces of the people from Wuliang Sect all became extremely ugly. Even Li Bu Yu's face was ashen, and his foggy eyes could not let out any thoughts.

Li Zhi Qing said with a trembling voice: "You, you repeatedly make false accusations against him, do you have proof!? You made things appropriate for yourself, did all kinds of evil, deceived everyone in the whole world, half of what you've said cannot be believed!"

"And him." Xu Zhi Nan's gaze drifted to Fan Wu She, "How did you treat him, and how did he treat you?”

Xie Bi An's heart thumped.

Fan Wu She looked at Xu Zhi Nan gloomily, "It’s not your place to point out what happened between me and him."

"I'm probably the only one in the world who knows what's going on between you and him." Xu Zhi Nan slightly narrowed his eyes, "Does Your Holiness not want to know the truth of all things?"

"... What truth?"

"Xu Zhi Nan!" Xie Bi An shouted, "The perfect body you want is in my hands. He can't give it to you."

"Will you return it to me?"

"You withdraw from Fengdu and retreat to Kunlun."

Xu Zhi Nan shook his head, "I don't have much time left." He stretched out his withered branch-like hand and placed it in front of his eyes to inspect carefully, "Even with the aid of ice crystal and the Golden Carved Jade Suit, and the Chunyang Technique to protect the body, this is not my physical body after all, and it has aged to its limit ... I must not return without success this time."

"I will also not let your plot succeed either." Xie Bi An didn't dare to imagine what kind of monster Xu Zhi Nan would become if he got Cheng Yan Zhi, a pure Yang body that was young and had excellent roots, with the addition of ice crystal, and also holding two top-notch magical treasures, the Golden Carved Jade Suit and the Ice and Snow Jade.

"So I didn’t count on you either." Xu Zhi Nan looked at Fan Wu She, "Your Holiness, in the Golden Trunk Jade Policy, there is all the truth you want to know. Use Yan Zhi's body to exchange it with me."

Fan Wu She said in a cold voice, "What makes you think I want to know any truth?"

"You don't want to?" Xu Zhi Nan sneered, "Don't you want to know how your big brother, who you can't let go of in two lifetimes, really thinks of you?"

"Xu Zhi Nan!" Xie Bi An said angrily, "No matter how you kick up a cloud of dust, I also ..."

"Dangshanhe." Xu Zhi Nan suddenly recited these three words.

Both of their bodies froze.

"This name is so beautiful. The flower is also beautiful, so I remembered it at once." Xu Zhi Nan said lightly, "It's a pity that Your Holiness has actually forgotten all about it."

"... What are you talking about?" Fan Wu She's chest clamored non-stop. He did not know what Xu Zhi Nan was going to say. He sensed that it would greatly shake his heart.

"The emperor loved orchids when he was young, but he abandoned the orchid garden that he had been managing for several years afterwards. Only one pot remained and was raised in his bedchamber. That was a new variety he raised, which was named 'Dangshanhe’. Why was that the only plant left? Your Holiness doesn't remember anything at all?"

Xie Bi An gritted his teeth and said, "Stop talking."

Fan Wu She quickly traced his past, trying to find an orchid-related fragment of memory among the 100 years of chaos and confusion, but during his 100 years of torture in Hell, it was already difficult to maintain his mind from extinguishing, going mad and getting lost. He desperately tried to remember all kinds of things about his big brother. For this reason, he was bound to lose a lot of less important things. Now whenever "Dangshanhe" is mentioned, he still can only remember that it is given by Lan Chui Han.

"That one plant was when Consort Shen destroyed the orchid garden. You ran back in the rainy night and took away an intact one."

Fan Wu She’s eyes were wide open instantly.

He remembered. There was such an orchid. That was the only one he found in a wrecked orchid garden that still looked alive, but he was afraid it wouldn't live, and was also afraid of being discovered by Shen Shi Yao, so he brought it back to Bailu Pavilion and secretly raised it. He wanted to raise it well until it bloomed, and then take it to big brother. With this one plant, big brother perhaps wouldn’t be too sad.

Later ... Later he experienced the cruelest betrayal in his life. He lost everything he once had. He fled Daming with bitter hatred in a wretched manner, so how could he remember any flower?

Fan Wu She turned his head stiffly, and looked at Xie Bi An in a daze. Between the flow of pupil light, is the obvious doubt and innumerable expectations.

"Is ... that one plant?" Fan Wu She made a subtle sound that even surprised himself.

Xie Bi An’s expression and eyes were cold, remaining unmoved.

"Dangshanhe, was it the one I raised? The only orchid you left behind, which was later given to Zong Zhong Ming and became an heirloom of Xianyue Pavilion." Fan Wu She took a step closer towards Xie Bi An and questioned forcefully, "Is it?"

Lan Chui Han gasped and couldn't help but sigh with emotion that the Creator played with humans. A hundred years of reincarnation, the gap between the past and future, the white clouds transformed into grey dogs*, this flower's offspring still came back to the original owner's hands.

"Dangshanhe was originally my flower. What's so strange about it?" Xie Bi An felt his face tense up in a short period of time. To him, this past is also unbearable to recall because the feelings he once thought he had for Xiao Jiu all turned out to be karmic fires that burned him. He avoided Fan Wu She's gaze and said sternly, "Xu Zhi Nan, Cheng Yan Zhi's body is in the Underworld. No one can get their hands on it except me. No matter how you provoke him, it's useless. Do as I say, otherwise you won't get this body back until you die."

Xu Zhi Nan turned a blind eye to Xie Bi An's threat: "Your Holiness is right, it is that flower. Your big brother has always kept it and it alone." He stared slyly at Fan Wu She, "Everything you want to know about your big brother, all those questions you've been puzzled about for two lifetimes and didn't understand are in the Golden Trunk Jade Policy."

Fan Wu She lowered his eyes and looked at his hands expressionlessly, with one holding a sword, and the other holding a black jade soul token. He raised his eyes and looked at Xie Bi An again. His eyes had a stern and murderous aura.

With just that one aggressive gaze, Xie Bi An knew that Fan Wu She wanted to snatch the Shanhe Sheji Map. He tried his best to mobilize the spiritual energy in his dantian, but found that he had consumed too much and could not hold on to it any longer.

Lan Chui Han also noticed Fan Wu She's intention and crossed his sword in front of Xie Bi An.

At this moment of mutual hostility, Fengdu City shook again. The shake is more violent this time. Even some of the houses started to collapse and crack. A large number of ghosts that were originally led back to the Underworld by Xie Bi An's soul guiding lamp were recaptured by the Yin servants. The Yin energy had already weakened, but it became rich again at this moment, as if there's a physical object expanding quickly to block the light, pressing the air, and finally leaving a gloomy halo and a suffocating pressure.

"... Was this his doing?" Lan Chui Han said in a hoarse voice.

Those who have experienced the vanishing of Fumenghui are not unfamiliar with this feeling. It was Jiang Qu Lian who opened the Ghost Gate.

The Ghost Gate is different from the Yin Yang Monument. It is a gap between the human realm and ghost realm which can be torn apart at any time and anywhere by ghosts with extremely powerful supernatural power, letting the human and ghost realms interconnect. As the king of ghost kings, Jiang Qu Lian has such an ability. Opening the Ghost Gate is very dangerous. Any unauthorized opening of the Ghost Gate by ghosts will be severely punished by the Underworld. At the same time, this action will cause extreme depletion to the caster. Those lonely and wild ghosts in the depths of Jiuyou will follow the Ghost Gate and crawl to earth. They are mostly angry ghosts that were reborn in the Hungry Ghost Path or Hell Path. They don’t have wisdom. They only have instinct. The scent of the living beings is a great temptation to them. When the Ghost Gate opens, the earth will suffer a disaster.

At this time, the defenses of Hell have been destroyed by Jiang Qu Lian. He opened the Ghost Gate again, and all the fiercest monsters of Jiuyou came to the earth under his summons.

It is likely that Jiang Qu Lian is no match for the army of Yin servants, so he broke the caldrons and sank the boats*.

Xie Bi An couldn't manage Xu Zhi Nan anymore and ran in the direction of the Yin Yang Monument.

An enormous empty hole was torn open at the Yin Yang Monument, which has been destroyed beyond recognition. The boundary between the human and ghost realms is extremely blurred. The Yin Yang Monument, which originally had a strong boundary and guarded by many troops, can be gone in and out by anyone at this time.

There were corpses everywhere. Human ones, ghost ones. They were too horrible to look at.

Xie Bi An entered the Underworld, and saw a wretched and tragic scene. The Ghost Willow Forest was full of ghost corpses. There were waves of shrilling cries along with the fluttering of willow leaves. They will eventually become the nourishment of the Ghost Willow, so that the ghost tree, which has stood in Jiuyou ever since the disconnection between heaven and earth, can flourish forever. Compared to them, they are just a flick of dust.

Xie Bi An felt his legs shiver. The great battle between the Supreme Demon and the Great Emperor Beiyin a hundred years ago was rumored to have millions of Yin soldiers. Like everyone else, he had only seen it in history books, not knowing if that war was as horrible as it is today.

When Xie Bi An walked through the Ghost Willow Forest, he actually saw a group of fierce ghosts attacking the boundary of the Heaven Master Palace. He drew out his Wuqiongbi, and knocked them back one by one while shouting angrily. He returned to the Heaven Master Palace and hurriedly put the ice coffin away, then found Bo Zhu hiding in the secret room.

Seeing that Bo Zhu was unharmed, Xie Bi An then heaved a sigh of relief. He instructed Bo Zhu to continue hiding here, and used his remaining spiritual power to add an extra boundary before leaving the Heaven Master Palace despite Bo Zhu's pleas.

The Underworld was already in a state of chaos, with the Yin servants and angry ghosts fighting each other at close quarters. Xie Bi An eventually found Cui Jue and Jiang Qu Lian at the foot of the mountain outside the Red Palace, where not only Night Tour, Ox Head and Horse Face were in the formation, but even Meng Po had no choice but to join the battle.

"Official Lord Cui!" Xie Bi An opened a pathway with one sword and slowly retreated to Cui Jue's side, "Are you injured?"

Cui Jue is a civil official with profound cultivation but he was not good at martial arts, even though the Judge’s Brush in his hand grasps the lives of many people.

Cui Jue's face was pale and he shook his head, "How is it outside?"

"Not good." Xie Bi An said in a deep voice, "Qi Meng Sheng ... no, Xu Zhi Nan, he is digging up human cores in order to sustain his life."

"Where is the Supreme Demon?"

"He ..." Xie Bi An was shocked. If Fan Wu She worms his way into the Underworld at this moment, no one could stop him, but the mortal and ghost realms are on fire, and he is unable to attend to other things at the same time.

Jiang Qu Lian is in the midst of commanding the ghost army. He was badly injured, plus with the depletion caused by opening the Ghost Gate, he must also have been exhausted. This made his expression increasingly distorted and crazy. Through the countless Yin servants and ghost citizens, he said: "Impermanence, you finally came. How can this battle be without you and your core?"

"Jiang Qu Lian, what exactly is your purpose?"

"I have said it before not long ago that I want to be reborn as a human." Jiang Qu Lian wiped off the crimson blood at the corner of his mouth, "Remember what I said before? Jiuyou is the ghost citizens’ Jiuyou. The fate of the ghost citizens should be decided by the ghost citizens themselves, and not the Underworld. The Underworld is only the lapdog of the gods in heaven."

Cui Jue gritted his teeth and said, "You want to take over the Underworld, you’re simply indulging in fantasy and overestimating your capabilities! Think about what happened to Zong Zi Xiao a hundred years ago, are you better than the Supreme Demon who can command millions of Yin soldiers?"

"This time is different from those former days because ..." Jiang Qu Lian let out a wild laugh, "The injuries that the Great Emperor Beiyin got a hundred years ago have not yet healed!"

This statement caused all the Underworld generals to change their expressions.

"How long do you think this secret can be hidden? I know you went to beg the Five Ghost Emperors, but they refused to fight. Without the Great Emperor Beiyin, how can you, a small judge, invite the Five Ghost Emperors?" Jiang Qu Lian laughed sinisterly, "The emperor was seriously hurt by the Supreme Demon. He probably won't be able to recover for a hundred thousand years, otherwise how could he not even be able to repair the Fengdu boundary and still have to rely on the Eastern Emperor Bell? You never expected that, right? The Five Ghost Emperors and I knew all about it. If the Underworld needs an emperor, then we’ll leave an emperor who’s recuperating in seclusion, but the Underworld doesn't need judges and Underworld generals. The rewards and punishments of Yanluo Hall, and the six paths of reincarnation at the end of the Naihe Bridge, should not follow any Heaven Path bullshit. Jiuyou should be returned to the ghost citizens. I want to decide my own next life!"

"Jiang Qu Lian, you're completely insane!" Cui Jue roared, "The six paths of reincarnation under the management of the Underworld have brought peace to the human and ghost worlds for millions of years. If you go against heaven, you will bring disaster. Even if you are reincarnated as a human being, will you be able to live in peace and get what you want!"

"I just know that if I continue to be a ghost king in the Underworld, I won't become an immortal and I won't enter the world, so might as well turn the whole world upside down and let the Heaven Path make way for me!”

Xie Bi An was silent for a moment: "... Jiang Qu Lian, you're doing all of this, is it for Lan Chui Han?"

Jiang Qu Lian's eyes were cold: "He doesn't deserve it."

"Do you want him to remember his previous life, no matter what happened in his previous life?"

"..."

Xie Bi An was about to say something when he suddenly felt a wave of Yin energy pounce on him. He had foreseen the danger but failed to dodge it because of his poor spiritual power. The familiar stiffness struck him again. He was possessed again.

The qiankun bag was untied by his own hands and thrown to the person who appeared behind him at some point and manipulated him --- Fan Wu She.

Xie Bi An forced out the ghost in time, but his qiankun bag had already fallen into Fan Wu She's hands.

The crowd held their breath as they watched Fan Wu She took out the Shanhe Sheji Map. His long fingers played with it frivolously back and forth, and his gaze was sweeping across the scene with a fake smile, and finally ending with a deep, hard-to-understand look at Xie Bi An, as if issuing an imperial decree: "I'm going to get my things back."

 

 ----

PS: I've change 'Immortal Alliance Li' to 'Alliance Leader Li' for all chapters related

PS from Emzie: Aaaah I haven't posted edits in awhile. It's finals week for me so I've been busy with that and work. I'll upload the rest of the chapters that I have so far, but I may not upload for the next few days ugh (˚ ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )

 

white clouds transformed into grey dogs*[白云苍狗]--- The changes in human affairs often take freakish forms

broke the caldrons and sank the boats*[破釜沉舟]---burned the bridges; cut off all means of retreat

 

Edited on 5 June (Emzie)

 

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