novelapdf Chapter 288 Jiang Mu, you've been tricked!
Chapter 288 Jiang Mu, you've been tricked!
"Six days?"
Jiang Mu shook her head, "Six days won't do, that's too long."
Normally, he wouldn't mind spending a few days here with this female ghost.
But now Chu Lingzhu and Duanmu Li are still in the secret realm, their fates unknown. How can he wait six days?
Jiang Mu looked up at Mo Li, her tone straightforward:
"Is there any other way to lure that guy named Yang Mo here beforehand?"
Moli fell silent.
She gently bit her lower lip, and after a moment said softly, "There is indeed a way... that is, to let me enter your body." "Enter my body?"
Jiang Mu raised an eyebrow.
Moli raised her eyes, her gaze frank and clear:
"Since you were able to pass through the maze outside and arrive at this Netherworld safely, it means that your soul is perfectly in harmony with the spiritual energy of this secret realm and that your destiny is special enough to accommodate my spirit."
If I enter your body and temporarily place my soul as the master of your physical form, I can use your living yang energy to leave this Netherworld and personally go to find Yang Miao.
Jiang Mu scoffed, "Isn't this just possession?"
Moli shook her head, then nodded and said:
"I am not capable of forcibly taking over your body right now; you, my lord, must take the initiative to accept me."
However, my lord, you can rest assured that I will not harm your soul during this time.
"After all, I am a spirit of this secret realm, bound to the laws of this world, and possess my own reincarnation. I cannot occupy a living person's body for long," Jiang Mu said, scrutinizing her. "I don't trust you."
In this dog-eat-dog world of cultivation, how can you hand over control of your physical body to a female ghost you've only known for less than half an incense stick's time?
Only someone with their brain squeezed by a door would do something like that.
Moli's eyes dimmed for a moment, but she did not argue. She simply nodded gently, lowered her eyelashes again, and sat quietly on the rock, saying nothing more.
Ripples spread out in circles on the water's surface, shattering and then piecing her reflection back together.
Jiang Mu stroked his chin, staring at that pale face for a long time, his mind racing with countless thoughts.
After pondering for a long time, he finally asked:
"If you find that poplar membrane, what do you plan to do?"
Seeing that there was still a chance for things to turn around, Mo Li's eyes brightened slightly, and she quickly replied, "This concubine only needs to borrow your spiritual power, young master."
In the past, when I was reincarnated, I had to wait three days and three nights to recover my cultivation and cast spells. But by then, Yang Qi would often have already come to my door.
However, if I have your star power to support me, I can directly use a secret technique to forcibly strip him of his power as the "Lord of the Secret Realm".
Once he retrieves the Spirit Key, he will have no one to rely on in this secret realm.
Jiang Mu said, "Then, you can open the exit and let me and my friends leave here?"
"right!"
Moli nodded.
Jiang Mu squinted, staring blankly at the corpses floating in the dark pool.
After weighing the pros and cons, a sudden smile appeared on his lips, and he nodded: "Okay, deal. What's next?"
Moli looked at him in surprise.
She probably didn't expect that this man, who had just coldly said "I don't trust you," would agree so readily.
The woman bowed gracefully in gratitude.
He then walked up to Jiang Mu, raised one hand, and gently placed his palm on Jiang Mu's chest.
In an instant!
A chill rushed into Jiang Mu's body through her chest.
Jiang Mu instinctively tensed her muscles, and her blood and qi circulated throughout her body, surrounding and blocking the cold aura.
"Close your eyes."
The woman's voice gently rang in his ear, "Don't resist, relax."
Jiang Mu forcibly suppressed the turmoil in his blood and slowly closed his eyes.
I have completely opened my heart and soul.
He let the chill travel along his meridians, all the way upwards, and finally flow into his spirit.
Soon, Jiang Mu felt his soul being enveloped and suppressed by a gentle membrane, slowly pressing it into a corner of his sea of consciousness.
Immediately afterwards, the body's five senses and control are gradually stripped away.
He could clearly feel that another soul was merging with his body.
He remained conscious, but had lost control of his body.
At the same time, Mo Li's divine soul power naturally touched the star position law hidden in Jiang Mu's body.
"This is·……"
Having completely taken control of Jiang Mu's body, Mo Li gently raised her hand, star power flowing between her fingertips. A hint of amazement and appreciation appeared in her eyes. "So it's the Yangmen Star Position under Kang Jinlong. To have attained such a high-ranking star position at such a young age is truly a gift from heaven."
"Don't worry, once I kill Yang Li, I will return your body to you."
With that, she waved her hand gently.
The water in the pool surged silently, as if it had a spirit, flowing to his feet and forming a crystal-clear water lily, lifting him into the sky.
It swept away into the distance, carrying with it a silvery-white wave.
Although Jiang Mu's soul was temporarily "squeezed" into a small corner deep within his sea of consciousness, he lost control of his body.
But he can still share the view outside.
Furthermore, one can communicate with Mori through telepathy.
Jiang Mu suddenly asked, "Does every secret realm have a master?"
"not really."
Moli responded softly in her mind, manipulating the water waves to avoid a mountain peak.
"Some secret realms are rich in spiritual energy, and over time, they may give birth to a spirit of the realm. Others, however, remain inanimate and never possess any consciousness. The vast majority of secret realms are simply independent spaces."
Of course, all of this depends on the fate of heaven and earth. Just like the same fertile land, some places can grow towering trees, while others are forever overgrown with weeds.” “So, how many years have you been in this secret realm?”
Jiang Mu asked again.
Moli was silent for a while before softly replying, "It's been many, many years. So long that I can't even remember how long it's been."
Jiang Mu asked again:
"I'm quite curious about something: why do things like secret realms exist in this world?"
It is not an illusion, but a real place with mountains, water and living things, yet it is not entirely connected to our real world.
And it's fragmented, a piece here, a table there, like a shattered mirror.
Moli's tone carried a hint of confusion:
"This is a difficult question for me to answer. However, a long, long time ago, someone told me that these secret realms are actually the world from the past."
"The world of the past?" Jiang Mu was startled.
"Um."
Moli slowly said, "That world was destroyed for some unknown reason. The Heavenly Dao collapsed, all things shattered, and in the end, only some fragments were left scattered in the void."
These fragments are the secret realm.
They still retain some of the spiritual energy and laws of the previous world, which is why they are somewhat similar to the present world, yet different in every way. Jiang Mu murmured:
"Does that mean that in that era, cultivators didn't need to compete for any star system when cultivating immortality?"
"I suppose... that's how it is."
Moli gave an uncertain answer.
Before long, the two arrived at a dilapidated gray hall hidden in a precipitous valley.
The main hall is entirely constructed of dark gray boulders.
Most of the roof tiles have fallen off, but the grandeur of the palace is still evident.
Many low-level demons were scattered around the main hall.
Some were dozing on broken pillars, while others were gnawing on bones among the rubble.
Seeing a figure suddenly descend from the sky, the demons were startled at first, then let out a roar and pounced, brandishing their sharp claws. Moli casually waved her hand.
"Buzz"
A ripple suddenly spread through the air.
The next moment, the movements of those demons suddenly froze in mid-air.
Starting from the tips of his claws, he gradually turned to stone...
One monster after another turned into stone statues, still in their pouncing poses.
Moli walked through the group of stone statues, pushed open the door of the main hall, and went inside.
The hall was empty.
Countless talismans were pasted on the four walls.
The talismans were yellowed and brittle, but the cinnabar patterns on them remained as fresh as ever, like tiny blood vessels wriggling on the wall. Moli stared at the talismans, a flicker of disgust in her eyes.
She intertwined her hands in front of her chest, forming a mudra.
"Splash!"
A clear wave of water appeared out of nowhere and swept along the four walls.
Where the water waves passed, the red runes on the talisman faded and dissolved quickly, as if washed away by dish soap.
Only blank pieces of yellow paper remained.
Then, she waved her sleeve.
The blank talismans that had lost their effectiveness peeled off one by one and fluttered down to the ground.
"What are these scribbles for?"
Jiang Mu asked curiously.
As Moli withdrew her magical aura, she answered in her mind:
"This is a sacrificial array that Yang Miao used to deceive the laws of heaven and earth. Although he used despicable means to seize the spirit key and steal the power of the 'Lord of the Secret Realm,' he is, after all, an outsider who does not belong to this world."
To prevent the fundamental laws of the secret realm from rejecting or even turning against him, he set up these formations to forcibly suppress the spiritual veins of this place. "I've cut off his escape routes and uprooted his foundation; that way, I'll have a better chance of winning when I deal with him later."
As the last talisman turned to ashes, the hall shook violently.
A huge crack appeared in the center of the floor, and a long stone staircase meandered down from the crack.
Without hesitation, Moli descended the stone steps.
With each step she took down, a faint glow would spontaneously ignite on the rock walls on either side, illuminating her path.
Soon, she arrived at an underground tomb.
The tomb chamber was not large, and the walls were covered with ancient insect and bird seal script that Jiang Mu could not understand.
In the center of the tomb chamber, there was a stone coffin.
Unlike ordinary coffins, the stone coffin is dark gold in color.
A star map was engraved on the coffin lid, with stars connected by fine, hair-like gold threads, forming a complete diagram of the movement of constellations. "Don't tell me Yang Mo is in this coffin."
Jiang Mu made a comment in his mind.
Moli didn't speak, but her expression became quite solemn.
She walked to the stone coffin and slapped the edge of the coffin lid with her palm.
The heavy stone coffin lid flew off and crashed into the wall several meters away with a dull thud.
A plume of black smoke billowed out of the coffin.
Moli waved her sleeve to disperse the black smoke and eagerly stepped forward to look into the coffin.
Inside the stone coffin, apart from a layer of carbonized blood-red silk lining the bottom, it was completely empty!
"How could that be?"
Moli looked shocked.
"What's wrong? Was there supposed to be something in the coffin?"
Jiang Mu sensed that something was wrong.
Moli took a few deep breaths of the cold air from the ground, forcibly calming her emotions before slowly explaining:
"This tomb originally contained an extremely important treasure. This treasure is of the same origin as the secret realm and has always been the core that has maintained the operation of the secret realm. Yang Miao has been trying to glimpse it and attempt to refine it all these years."
Once he successfully refines it, his strength will skyrocket to another level. I've always feared that day would come, so I must retrieve the Spirit Key as soon as possible, no matter what.
But to my surprise... he had already taken the treasure before I could.
"So you mean...?"
Jiang Mu's tone also turned cold, "You're not even confident you can kill him now?"
This is not good news.
I lent my body out not so I could travel a thousand miles to be killed.
Moli was silent for a moment, then said frankly:
"Now I can only hope that Yang Mo hasn't had time to fully refine the treasure. If he only took it without refining it, I still have a 70% chance of killing him. But if he has already obtained the treasure..."
Her voice lowered a few decibels, "Only 60%."
At this point, Mo Li suddenly had a thought, as if she remembered something, and her tone suddenly brightened:
"Wait! There's another place in this secret realm."
There's also a treasure sealed there, though not as powerful as the one in the coffin, but just enough to counter the evil technique Yang Qimo cultivates. If we can get our hands on it, our chances of success will increase by another twenty percent.
"Where?"
Jiang Mu perked up.
Without wasting words, Mo Li immediately manipulated Jiang Mu's body to turn around and leave the underground tomb, rushing out of the main hall along the stone steps.
She rode the waves and flew towards another direction of the secret realm.
Halfway through the flight, she suddenly plummeted to the ground, staggering and barely managing to steady herself by grabbing onto a dead tree.
The woman breathed slightly, raised her hand to press her temples, and spoke in a weary voice:
"No, my soul is not the original owner of this body after all, and cannot stay for too long. If we continue to force it, both our souls will be damaged. I will return the physical body to you first, and I will take over when we arrive at our destination."
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Mu felt the yin-like suppressive force in his sea of consciousness quickly withdraw, and his soul floated back up.
My consciousness wavered.
He then regained control of his body.
He moved his stiff fingers and turned his neck, his knuckles making a crisp clicking sound.
"Keep going forward, I will show you the way."
Mo Li's voice came from the depths of his mind, much softer than before, as if through a thin veil.
Soon, guided by Moli, Jiang Mu arrived at a vast expanse of red maple forest.
The maple forest was so red it looked unreal.
Each maple leaf seems to be a piece of blood-red glass that has sprouted from the branch.
The mountain wind rustled through the forest, and the red shadows fluttered in the air, making the whole hillside look as if it had been splashed with a layer of flowing rouge.
A winding forest path extends from beneath your feet into the depths of the maple forest.
"Keep following this path."
Moli reminded her.
Jiang Mu nodded and stepped onto the path paved with maple leaves.
The sunlight was warm, the red leaves were like a painting, and the surrounding scenery was so beautiful that it seemed to cleanse one's soul.
But Jiang Mu's back tensed slightly.
As he ventured deeper into the maple forest, he could sense that behind this picturesque scenery, auras were constantly sweeping over him... After walking along the path for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the view ahead suddenly opened up.
A secluded Taoist temple appeared at the end of the maple forest.
Jiang Mu stopped and looked up.
The eaves and layout of this Taoist temple bear a striking resemblance to the one the Qingqiu fox demon had conjured up in Tree Village using illusion magic. A bamboo reclining chair sits at the entrance of the temple.
An elderly woman with a full head of silver hair was lying on a recliner.
She held a tattered banana leaf fan in her hand, swaying gently back and forth in her recliner, basking in the warm sun with her eyes closed.
"Go over there."
Mo Li's voice rang in Jiang Mu's mind.
"Tell her you're just going in to offer incense and pray for the person you care about most, and she'll let you in. But remember, you must be sincere and never make up lies."
Jiang Mu pondered for a moment, straightened his robes, and stepped forward to the old woman.
The old woman's boots made a soft, rustling sound as they stepped on the gravel. She stopped fanning herself with a palm leaf fan and slowly opened her eyes.
She looked Jiang Mu up and down, her voice gentle: "Young man, where are you from? What are you doing here?"
The old woman's pupils were unusually clear, unlike the eyes one would expect at her age.
Jiang Mu bowed slightly and said calmly, "I'm praying for my beloved and would like to go in and offer incense."
"Oh? Praying for your loved one..."
The old woman said, "Then stretch out your hand."
Jiang Muyi opened her right hand as instructed.
The old woman placed the palm-leaf fan on her lap and took out an ice lotus flower from her sleeve, placing it in his outstretched palm.
The lotus flower was no more than half the size of a fist, and it was completely translucent.
It feels cool to the touch but not biting.
It rotated slightly in his palm, reflecting a circle of cold, eerie light.
The old woman said:
"This is Wenxinlian. Young man, I want to see if you are truly praying for the lover you speak of."
Jiang Mu stared at the slowly rotating ice lotus in her palm, and suddenly felt her eyelids getting heavy.
The cold light on the lotus petals rippled outwards in concentric circles.
The sensation made him feel slightly dizzy.
The coolness traveled from my palms up my forearms, over my shoulders, over my neck, and into my consciousness.
In a daze, the Taoist temple in front of me disappeared.
He stood on a gray, desolate plain, the sky low and leaden clouds churning.
The wind was cold, but it made no sound.
A slender woman stood in the distance, her back to him.
He recognized the figure from behind.
Every line is etched in my memory; it's the scent of cypress!
He took off after him.
No matter how he ran, that figure was always far away from him, as if separated by an entire world.
The wind grew stronger, making her figure appear increasingly faint.
Bai Xiang did not turn back, but walked further and further away in the wind, becoming thinner and thinner.
Then she suddenly disappeared.
Ahead lay a precipice, a bottomless abyss, the darkness below like a gaping maw.
He rushed to the edge of the cliff and, without any hesitation, jumped off.
The intense feeling of weightlessness gripped Jiang Mu's internal organs, and the scene shattered like a mirror.
Jiang Mu was jolted awake, her chest heaving violently.
Fine beads of cold sweat covered his forehead.
The Taoist temple is still there, the old woman is still there, and the ice lotus in her palm has melted into a puddle of ice water, dripping onto the ground through her fingers.
The old woman looked at the water stains on Jiang Mu's palm, a complex emotion rising in her eyes.
She sighed softly:
"You'll be a miserable person in the future... Go in."
Jiang Mu wiped the water stains from her palms on the hem of her clothes and stepped across the threshold of the Taoist temple.
The temple was dimly lit, and the air was filled with the scent of sandalwood.
At the center of the altar stands a clay statue of a tall, slender middle-aged man. His face is handsome and upright, exuding the imposing and authoritative air of a superior.
The incense burner was filled with smoke and ash.
A row of unlit incense sticks sat nearby.
"Offer incense!"
Moli's voice suddenly rang out in her mind, filled with urgency and excitement.
"Which deity is this statue?"
As Jiang Mu walked to the offering, he asked a question.
"It's Yang Miao."
Moli's voice turned colder.
"He has taken my place and has sculpted himself into a deity to be enshrined here. You should quickly offer incense. This deity is connected to his mind; if you are too late, he will sense it and it will be difficult to deal with him if he comes back."
Jiang Mu didn't say anything more, and picked up three incense sticks from the table.
He lit the ever-burning lamp by its flame, bowed three times, and then inserted it into the incense burner.
Just as the incense offerings were finished, the statue opened its eyes a crack.
The next moment, Jiang Mu felt his consciousness suddenly plummet.
It felt like being slapped on the back of the head and plunged into deep water.
His soul was suppressed by a sudden surge of cold power, and control over his limbs and bones was stripped away in an instant. Mo Li regained control of his body.
The first thing she did was raise her right hand, gathering the surging starlight within her into her palm, and strike the statue that had just opened its eyes! "Boom!!"
The clay statue of the deity burst open from the very center.
Fragments of the clay statue mixed with incense ash flew everywhere.
After the statue cracked open, the two eyeballs that were originally embedded in the eye sockets flew out from the mud and were scooped up and held tightly in her palm.
"presumptuous!"
The commotion inside the Taoist temple startled the old woman outside the gate.
She stared at the young man inside the hall who had shattered the statue with a single palm strike, and two flames of anger suddenly ignited in her eyes:
"You're not that young man from before! Who are you?!"
Mo Li slowly turned around, her face gazing at Jiang Mu's handsome features, a bewitching and cold smile playing on her lips:
"Grandma Feng, what's wrong? You can't even sense my presence anymore?"
The old woman shuddered.
Her mouth was open, and her lips trembled a few times:
"Moli? How is it you... This is impossible! How could you have gotten out!"
Moli toyed with the two blue beads in her hand and said coldly:
"Do you really think that old man's broken formation can trap me for all eternity?"
"Hmph, if I hadn't been mindful of the familial bond he had shown me back then, and hadn't been merciful enough to refrain from delivering the final blow, how could I have been trapped in that dark, sunless pool of blood, suffering endless torment!"
"Shut up!"
Upon hearing this, the old woman trembled with anger.
"You ungrateful wretch, you're still so stubbornly unrepentant!"
Back then, in order to seize the position of the master of the secret realm, you colluded with those demons of the Red Umbrella Sect, inviting wolves into the house and plotting to harm your adoptive father who treated you like his own son! You betrayed your master and ancestors, suffered the condemnation of the heavens, your physical body was destroyed, and you almost lost your soul.
Even though your godfather was pierced through the heart by you, he was willing to sacrifice his last bit of his soul to save you, forcibly fusing the Secret Realm Key into your remnant soul. This is how you were given the opportunity to reincarnate and condense a physical body in this Netherworld!
But you actually...
"Hahaha, what a great excuse for saving me!"
Moli laughed so hard she almost fell over, but her eyes held a deep-seated resentment and venom.
"Grandma Feng, stop deceiving yourself."
He saved me? Wasn't he just afraid that if I died, he would completely lose hope of reviving his lover?
Do you really think he took care of me out of kindness and genuinely treated me like a daughter?
He died; it was his own fault!
"Tsk tsk tsk, Moli, after all these years, you still have such a temper."
Just then, a gentle and mellow male voice suddenly drifted from outside the Taoist temple.
Suddenly, a figure appeared outside the Taoist temple.
The other person stood backlit by the setting sun, holding an open red umbrella in their hand.
The umbrella, its surface as red as blood, cast shadows on half of his face.
"Yang Mo!"
Moli's eyes flashed with hatred.
Yang Mo smiled as he looked at Mo Li inside the hall:
"Moli, where did you get such a beautiful face? Looks like you're really lucky."
Moli exuded murderous intent, gritting her teeth as she roared:
"We had an agreement back then: you and I would join forces to kill my godfather, and I would give you the divine artifact from the bottom of the secret realm."
But why did you go back on your word and betray me?!
"Over the years, every time I've managed to condense a reincarnated body in the Netherworld Pool, you've immediately come to kill me!"
Yang Mo sighed helplessly and folded up the red umbrella.
"Moli, this is a misunderstanding. How could I harm you? On the contrary, I'm protecting you."
Your soul was shattered so severely back then that if it hadn't been nurtured in the Netherworld, where the yin energy is most abundant, it would have been scattered long ago.
I come to kill you every year only to keep your remnant soul in its purest state. Think about it carefully, if it weren't for me, would you still be standing here speaking now?
These shameless and hypocritical words made Moli even angrier.
"It seems you lied to me."
Jiang Mu's voice suddenly rang out in his mind.
"So what if I lied to you?"
Now that things have turned ugly, Mo Li was too lazy to pretend to be innocent with Jiang Mu anymore, and coldly replied,
"Jiang Mu, you're a brainless idiot who's easily fooled."
From the moment you accepted my soul, your body can only belong to me and be used by me!
"I was just lying to you when I told you on the way that my soul couldn't stay in your body for long. Once I've dealt with that guy, I'll destroy your soul and use your body for a sacrificial ritual!"
"Heh heh, the acting is actually pretty good."
Jiang Mu said calmly, "But... are you so sure that a little fish like you can swallow my entire ocean?"
Moli was too lazy to pay any more attention to him at this point.
Anyway, someone's dead.
At this moment, all her attention was focused on the man standing outside the Taoist temple with an umbrella, and she asked coldly:
"Where are my godfather's remains? You didn't already take them and refine them, did you?!"
Yang shrugged: "I thought you were hiding."
"Still pretending with me at a time like this?"
Moli opened her right hand, revealing the two blue beads she had pried out of the statue's eye sockets, and said sharply,
"Yang Li, stop dreaming. Without these two 'Secret Realm Array Eyes,' even if you swallow that divine object and the old man's remains whole, you still won't be able to fully control the fundamental laws of this secret realm!"
Now that I've emerged from that Netherworld Pool, it's time to settle our old scores!