Mahayana 118
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Chapter 118: Su Miaoqing: Xiaofeng, Don’t Touch Randomly!
TL : Cnine
ED/PF :
Part 1
At that moment, Xiao Yifeng felt an urge to tell her everything, but he suppressed it. Smiling, he said, “Thank you for understanding, Senior Sister. I hope you will keep this a secret for me.”
“Mmm.” Su Miaoqing nodded. There was a trace of gloom in her beautiful eyes. It seemed she was disappointed that Xiao Yifeng had no intention of telling her the truth.
After all, the two of them had been childhood sweethearts and had never really kept secrets from each other. And yet, this fellow was now hiding something from her. She had told him every one of her secrets, and he had seen everything anyway.
Annoyed and hurt, she kicked him sharply. Xiao Yifeng, struck out of the blue, could only stare in confusion.
---Hadn’t she been understanding just moments ago? How did things go so wrong so quickly?
He let out a bitter smile. Women, he realised yet again, were a mystery he simply could not unravel.
At the boundary of Wraithwood Ridge, Xiao Yifeng caught sight of the stone stele standing there alone. With nothing guarding it, he wasted no words and simply collected it.
Hellhound Ridge, Golden Rooster Mountain, and Wraithwood Village were in fact shaped like a funnel, with Golden Rooster Mountain forming the narrow centre. Hellhound Ridge and Wraithwood Village sprawled endlessly, laced with eerie and unnatural formations.
“Senior Sister, it would be safer if we go in holding hands. Maybe that way we won’t be split up,” Xiao Yifeng suggested.
Su Miaoqing did not argue. She calmly reached out and took his hand, though her gaze stayed firmly elsewhere.
After storing away Little Snow, Xiao Yifeng carefully went over the method for passing through Wraithwood Village. Su Miaoqing listened with quiet focus.
Only after making sure that nothing had been overlooked did Xiao Yifeng finally take her hand and guide her into the domain of Wraithwood Village.
He quickly sensed Su Miaoqing’s tension. Her slender fingers tightened ever so slightly around his own.
They had not gone far when the surroundings changed completely. Dead, withered trees stood everywhere, cold gusts of wind swept through, and dense mist rolled in from all sides, swallowing the path ahead and blurring any sense of direction.
“Senior Sister, there might be some strange force here that can split us apart. Stay alert,” Xiao Yifeng said quietly.
But from the moment they entered Wraithwood Village, Su Miaoqing had fallen silent. All Xiao Yifeng noticed was that the soft, almost boneless hand in his suddenly felt damp.
He spun around in disbelief, only to find that the hand he was holding belonged to a swollen male ghost. Its face was a mess of rot, pus seeping from ruptured flesh.
Xiao Yifeng’s eyes flew open as he activated his eye technique, suspecting some kind of illusion. But the truth was worse. This was no trick. The thing in his hand was a genuine wraithwood, and Su Miaoqing had vanished without a trace.
The bloated ghost split its face into a grin, revealing a mouth packed with writhing corpse worms. The contrast was sickening. A moment ago, it had been a stunning beauty. Now it was a grotesque demon.
A curse nearly burst from Xiao Yifeng’s lips. Fighting down the nausea, he flung the hand away and silently cursed the owner of this immortal palace.
His Luo Hong flashed, cleaving the repulsive ghost in two. He rubbed his hands fiercely, flames erupting to burn away the lingering aura, yet the sense of revulsion refused to fade.
So the legends were right. This place hid a sinister power, one that could separate companions without mercy. Even holding hands offered no protection. Xiao Yifeng’s spiritual senses finally screamed the truth at him. Su Miaoqing had been switched out, and he had not noticed a thing.
Elsewhere, Su Miaoqing walked forward, wary and alert, eyes scanning the fog-choked wilderness. Then she felt it. The hand holding hers began to wander, fingers brushing her palm far too deliberately.
Her face flushed. “Xiaofeng, behave yourself! Do you realise where we are?!”
She tugged her hand, but instead of stopping, another hand reached towards her face. Pale. Slender. Cold as death.That was when it clicked. She spun around.
Floating beside her was a white-robed female ghost, its skin drained of colour, lips cracked, eyes empty, a long tongue dangling grotesquely from its mouth.
“Such exquisite skin… such a perfect figure,” the ghost whispered with a laugh that curdled the air. “Even I am jealous. Why don’t you give this body to me?”
A shiver ran straight down Su Miaoqing’s spine. Goosebumps exploded across her skin as she screamed. In the blink of an eye, raging flames erupted from her hand, swallowing the ghost whole amid a shrill wail, leaving nothing behind but scorched air.
Su Miaoqing still felt shaken. Although cultivators are not supposed to fear ghosts or spirits, she had been afraid of such things since childhood.
She sent out her divine sense, but felt only emptiness around her. Everywhere were withered trees, with lonely wandering spirits hanging from their branches.
Countless faint ghostly lights drifted through the air, and thick mist surrounded everything.
Su Miaoqing felt as though she had stepped into the most terrifying place in the world, and worse still, she was completely alone. She would rather return to Golden Rooster Mountain and fight the Golden Chicken again than keep wandering in this ghost's den. At least there, Xiao Yifeng would be by her side.
Elsewhere, Xiao Yifeng stood alone, without Su Miaoqing at his side and with not another soul in sight.
He knew the Wraithwood Village stretched endlessly, and he had no idea where Su Miaoqing had been scattered to. Still, with the Coiling Dragon Jade Pendant in her possession and the Golden Core–level talismans he had given her, he could not bring himself to worry too much.
Moreover, if Su Miaoqing truly fell into danger, awakening her Immortal Bird source blood should allow her to survive. The flames of the Immortal Bird were, after all, a natural bane to these shadowy spirits.
Having sorted that out in his mind, Xiao Yifeng decided it was time to act. Wasting time worrying wouldn’t help. Reaching the Netherwold Court first would.
He stowed Luohong away and drew the real Immortal-Slayer Sword.
The jet-black sword sat heavy in his hand, and right beside him popped up the sword’s red-clad spirit. She swept her gaze across the surroundings, a look of satisfaction on her face. Licking her crimson lips, she laughed softly. “It seems this place will provide quite the meal.”
The Immortal-Slayer naturally suppressed soul entities. it was practically a divine weapon of massacre in Wraithwood Village. Every ghost it slew became fuel, their soul power absorbed to strengthen the blade. No wonder the sword spirit was so thrilled.
With no one around to observe him, Xiao Yifeng cast aside all pretence and fully unleashed the Formless Mind State of the Formless Temple.
A pure, tranquil power surged forth, enveloping him completely. Bathed in its light, he appeared spotless and transcendent, like a monk who had attained enlightenment and stepped beyond the mortal world.
“That power of yours is truly detestable,” Zhan Xian(Immortal Slayer's Sword Spirit) complained.
“Detestable or not, in a place like this it’s invincible,” Xiao Yifeng answered. “Come.” Raising the Immortal-Slayer, he flew onward, deeper into the ghost-ridden abyss.
Xiao Yifeng rose boldly into the sky. Almost at once, vengeful souls sensed the warmth of living flesh. Wailing and shrieking, they surged towards him, though lacking the reckless frenzy of the Golden Chickens he had faced before.
Without hesitation, he flung the Immortal-Slayer Sword to its spirit. He stood bare-handed, calmly forming seal after seal. Behind him, layers of Buddhist light blossomed like a radiant halo.
He extended a finger towards the approaching horde. A beam of immaculate Buddhist light erupted forth, and the souls screamed in despair as they were wiped from existence.
A faint smile appeared on Xiao Yifeng’s face. The Formless Heart Sutra truly was the perfect counter to such beings.
Seeing that more wronged spirits were still reaching out towards him, he waited until they drew close and then shouted loudly, “Om!”[TN: The character “唵” (ān / ōm / om) is a sacred syllable in Buddhist, Hindu, and some Taoist traditions. It’s most famously known as the beginning of the Om/Om Mani Padme Hum mantra in Buddhism.]
Golden light burst from Xiao Yifeng like a miniature sun, bathing the surroundings in a terrifyingly pure Buddhist radiance. The vengeful souls shrieked and disintegrated, their forms reduced to drifting ash as if scorched by sunlight itself.
He pressed on relentlessly. At his side, Zhan Xian wielding the Immortal Slayer sword moved with lethal grace, cutting down each spectral foe.
Her method, however, was utterly different: each spirit she struck howled once and vanished, absorbed entirely into the sword.
Despite their contrasting styles, both wielded unparalleled control over the spectral forces. They advanced together, deeper into the Wraithwood Village, obliterating any divine or Buddhist apparition that dared appear, the wandering ghosts were reduced into mere playthings before them.
Even the occasional Golden Core realm soul barely lasted a few moments under their combined, innate dominance.