A palm descended, as if the heavens and earth were suppressing down with the force of millions of jun. It landed on the violently surging light screen of the jade bracelet, forcibly cracking the light screen apart.
Ji Die gritted her teeth and poured all her strength into driving the jade bracelet. She even spat a mouthful of blood onto it, performing a blood sacrifice on the jade bracelet. The jade bracelet erupted with boundless radiance, carrying an unparalleled might. Yet it still could not withstand this earth-shaking palm. The elegance of this palm was beyond what Ye Chu could describe; it was utterly shocking. The light screen of the jade bracelet failed to block it. The jade bracelet shattered directly, and Ji Die was sent flying backwards. Blood sprayed from her mouth as she crashed heavily onto the ground.
As Ji Die was hurled away, the Wind Venerable’s gaze shifted to Ye Chu.
Ye Chu’s expression changed dramatically, his face drained of all colour. He knew full well how terrifying Ji Die’s jade bracelet was; he had witnessed it in the General’s Tomb. Yet such a treasure had been destroyed by a single palm from this man.
Ye Chu could still draw on his baleful qi, but what did that tiny amount of baleful qi mean in the eyes of this opponent? In front of such a powerful being, Ye Chu had no power to resist at all.
Ye Chu glanced at Ji Die lying on the ground. Her gaze happened to meet his. Both their faces were ashen. In this situation, no one could save them. Death was the only outcome.
The Wind Venerable reached out towards Ye Chu, clearly intending to tear off his arm. Ye Chu tried to retreat but found he could not even move. He could only watch helplessly as the Wind Venerable’s hand closed around his arm.
Ye Chu thought of Bai Xuan, of Yao Yao and Xi Xi. His heart was filled with unwillingness. Yet at this moment he could do nothing at all.
Just as Ye Chu waited for the Wind Venerable to kill him, the moment the Wind Venerable’s hand touched Ye Chu’s arm, he suddenly let out a miserable scream. His body was sent flying backwards, smashing into the black stone. He crashed straight into it, then crawled back out. In those hollow eyes there was clearly a trace of dread. Without looking back, he fled.
Ye Chu’s arm had been grabbed and left a bloody mark, yet he himself remained unharmed. He was stunned by this and found it utterly unbelievable.
Even Ji Die stared wide-eyed, frozen as she looked at Ye Chu. She had never expected such an outcome. Before this, she had thought both she and Ye Chu were doomed to die. Yet the person she had previously ignored had somehow driven away a Supreme Venerable.
Ji Die struggled to prop herself up and looked at Ye Chu’s arm with its bloody mark. Her eyes were filled with extreme suspicion.
While she was still puzzled, she suddenly noticed tears streaming down from Ye Chu’s eyes like falling raindrops. His expression was dim and sorrowful, as though grief was written across his face. He wept with heartbreaking anguish.
Although Ji Die was some distance from Ye Chu, she could still feel that intense sorrow. The emotion infected her, making her feel like crying too. It was a pain that pierced straight to the heart, carrying a desolate misery.
This sensation made Ji Die frown deeply. This emotion had definitely come from Ye Chu, yet it was far too bizarre. For Ye Chu to affect her with such feelings, his state of mind would need to be vastly superior to hers. But clearly her strength far surpassed his, and her state of mind was also much stronger. How could he possibly make her feel this way?
Ji Die was full of doubt, but Ye Chu was tormented by this sorrowful emotion to the point he wanted to die. A desolate feeling filled his heart, as though his closest loved one had passed away, driving him to the brink of ending his own life.
Ye Chu knew this was the feeling left behind by that Supreme Venerable from years ago. He forcibly suppressed it, yet he could clearly sense that the Supreme Venerable’s intent within his primal spirit had grown thicker once more.
At this moment Ye Chu understood why the Wind Venerable had been blasted away. He had touched the Supreme Venerable’s intent, something the Wind Venerable could not possibly withstand. Even though he was an absolute powerhouse, in front of a Supreme Venerable he was still utterly powerless. Having no soul left, encountering such an intent naturally filled him with terror and dread, causing him to flee.
The Supreme Venerable’s intent had saved his life, but it had also caused him to become even more deeply tainted by that intent. Ye Chu knew he was now one step closer to losing himself within the Supreme Venerable’s state of mind. It would not be long before he met the same end as that Supreme Venerable and took his own life in front of the world.
The tears in Ye Chu’s eyes continued to fall like rain. Ji Die watched him strangely from the side. For the first time, she truly looked at Ye Chu properly.
This young man had once tried to act improperly towards her, and Ji Die had felt great disgust towards him. But she had never taken him seriously; after all, he was just a passer-by, someone she was destined never to cross paths with again.
In her eyes he had been nothing more than a useless scoundrel. Such a person did not even stir the slightest desire in her for revenge.
Yet last time in the General’s Tomb he had surprised her. He had endured the erosion of the multicoloured pattern baleful spider and survived, revealing all sorts of mysteries. That had made her look at him properly for the first time. And now, he had actually repelled the Wind Venerable.
Although she did not know how he had done it, if word of this spread it would surely become a world-shaking legend. The Wind Venerable was no ordinary figure; he was a terrifying being who ruled his own domain.
Ji Die sized Ye Chu up. She recalled how, back then, Ye Chu had been utterly powerless. Yet in just a few short years he had reached this level. Though it was not particularly strong in the grand scheme, in a place like Yao City, reaching this point could already be considered heaven-defying.
Ji Die opened her mouth, originally intending to ask Ye Chu how he had forced the Wind Venerable to retreat. In the end she held back. She took out a multicoloured pill from her bosom and swallowed it. Her originally pale face regained a trace of rosiness.
Ji Die gathered the fragments of the jade bracelet and carefully placed them in her bosom. The materials used to forge such an artefact were extremely precious and hard to find. Even though the jade bracelet was ruined, those materials still held immense value.
Still, thinking that the heaven-and-earth artefact that had followed her was destroyed like this, she could not help feeling a pang of heartache.
Ye Chu took a few steps forward. But before he had gone far, his expression turned extremely ugly. Even Ji Die stood up and immediately turned to flee. Yet they discovered that behind them stood a large group of dried corpses.
Right in front of Ji Die and Ye Chu was a middle-aged man. Just like the Wind Venerable earlier, his expression was blank, his eyes hollow. He too was a corpse spirit.
“Heavenly Feather Holy Lord!” Ji Die swallowed hard and forced out the words with difficulty.
Heavenly Feather Holy Lord?!
Ye Chu’s heart nearly jumped out of his chest. This was a descendant of a Supreme Venerable. Even he had become a corpse spirit. Just what kind of horrifying things were in this cursed place? And what if the ancestor of the Ye family had also turned into a corpse spirit?
Ye Chu felt this place was far too terrifying. No wonder it had become a forbidden land. When even figures like this had turned into corpse spirits one after another, who could come here without their scalp tingling in fear, aside from a Supreme Venerable?
Most importantly, from what Ji Die had said, even a Supreme Venerable had come here in the past and never returned. Although Ye Chu did not believe the other party had died inside, it was still enough to show how terrifying and mysterious this place truly was.
“Bloody hell, what kind of damned place is this? If I’d known it was like this, I would never have come in even if you beat me to death.”
Ye Chu wanted to cry, yet there was still no path of retreat. Looking at the Heavenly Feather Holy Lord in front and the dried corpses behind, Ye Chu’s face was ashen. This time there was no escaping death. He had just barely managed to scare off one using the Supreme Venerable’s intent, but he did not believe he would be so lucky again.