Chapter 417: Chapter 381: Half a Step Away
The passage inside Black Tai Sui resembled an hourglass, with the door positioned at its center. Whether in modern times or during the Deceit Dynasty, the closer one got to the Ninth Layer, the closer they were to that door.
Every three layers of the Nine Netherworld signified a greater realm: the first three layers were Wraiths, the middle three Ghosts, and the last three Ghost Gods.
Should Zuo Jinye truly succeed in entering the Ghost God Realm, he would indeed be in the last three layers, and the chances of finding the door would be significantly higher.
Perhaps due to the witch’s instincts preserved in her bloodline, when Sang Que thought of this, her heart surged with intuition. Instinctively raising her hand, an abundance of black mist surged towards her from the abyss behind the Ghost Gate.
Throughout history, witches supplemented their energy in modern times through Black Tai Sui. Additionally, with the ’key’ of the Mountain Ghost Coin, they could shrink the expanded passage.
Spanning over two thousand years, anything could have happened, and by the laws of probability, instances of the passage expanding from the other side must have occurred in the past as well.
Taking a deep breath, Sang Que suspended her right hand, allowing the forces from the abyss to infuse into the Mountain Ghost Coin. In no time, the trigram within the Mountain Ghost Coin was replenished, causing the entire Copper Coin to emit a searing heat that inflicted a knife-like pain all over Sang Que.
Cracks began to appear on the back of her right hand extending to her right arm, black smoke seeped out indicating her inner ghostly power was being repelled by the Mountain Ghost Coin.
Biting her teeth, Sang Que persevered, withdrawing all ghostly power back to her heart while continuing to let the Mountain Ghost Coin absorb the dark power from the abyss, transforming it into a unique energy.
Gradually, centered around the Mountain Ghost Coin, fiery red marks appeared, arranged in the Eight Diagrams pattern, slowly rotating, while the lanterns on the Ghost Gate swayed violently in the ever-furious wind.
Sang Que’s entire arm was nearly scorched to charcoal by this power. Clenching her teeth, her extended right hand guided the surrounding Eight Diagrams to rotate in the opposite direction.
In an instant, the abyss was engulfed in a storm, the howling yin wind screamed like ten thousand ghosts wailing, and the black mist raged violently.
Outside.
Su Yun and others monitoring Black Tai Sui suddenly noticed a shift in the interior images on their monitors, as the rotating ’nebula’ began to move in reverse, causing the once-growing central hole to shrink.
The thermometer indicated a steady rise in temperature suggesting that the surrounding temperature was increasing, was the yin energy decreasing?
Su Yun stared incredulously at Sang Que, who remained seated in stillness with her breathing rhythm unchanged, leading her to doubt whether these changes were indeed caused by Sang Que.
...
Meanwhile, in a location within Qinzhou during the Deceit Dynasty.
Zuo Jinye, still dressed in red official attire, exuding an aura of authority, stood amid a ruin strewn with white bones, staring at the black lake beneath him with a furrowed brow and a face veiled with a misty blood aura.
This place was not Jianshui City; Zuo Jinye had successfully assimilated the powers of the Class Leader and the Hua Dan, grievously wounding the Opera God.
Yet, he could only be considered as having half a foot into the Ghost God Realm due to the unexpected incidents that day, which resulted in substantial depletion, preventing him from a perfect advancement.
The greatest hindrance was the blood curse from those in Yunzhou, for curses are among the most daunting powers, and if the blood curse isn’t lifted, he’ll remain stuck at the threshold.
However, Zuo Jinye pondered whether he might have benefited from this mishap. Recalling the events, he still found them exceedingly perilous; without the blood curse, upon fully entering the Ghost God Realm, all human wills would likely have been obliterated by ghost powers.
Yet, the blood curse hindered him, allowing him to retain some human willpower for now. Until he found a solution, he temporarily could not dispel the blood curse, which also prevented him from erasing Yunzhou from the Da Xuan map.
Having one foot in the Ghost God Realm, Zuo Jinye perceived more deeply, almost seeing through the essence of the world, with a mysterious force guiding him to this location.
Even Zuo Jinye didn’t expect that the Immortal Country Gate was in Qinzhou.
It’s a pity that upon arrival, having barely glimpsed any mystery beneath the black lake, it began to become turbulent and obscure, and the Black and White Impermanence under his command couldn’t probe further.
Surveying his surroundings, he finally glanced one last time at the black lake beneath his feet, resignedly giving up, his form gradually faded and disappeared.
...
Beyond the Ghost Gate, when Sang Que could no longer move the Eight Diagrams regardless of her efforts, she withdrew her hand and stepped back, her right side charred and smoking, crisscrossed with terrifying cracks.
She immediately released the power from her heart throughout her body, depleting her own vitality and blood to heal her injuries.
The passage between the two worlds cannot be completely closed, only sealed to its smallest extent.
Sang Que recalled when first arriving at Wu Family Village, Wu Cheng told her that it was very clean, precisely because of Black Tai Sui. The internal energy flowed like a slowly operating ’vacuum,’ absorbing nearby yin energy and ghosts, naturally flowing them through the passage below into the Deceit Dynasty.
Recently, due to Zuo Jinye’s advancement and his exploration over there, the ’vacuum’ paused, inadvertently releasing the yin energy below.
Now everything has returned to the initial state, and with Zuo Jinye’s capabilities, he cannot directly traverse the passage to this side.
However, Sang Que felt that she couldn’t be too optimistic and must prepare in advance.
So, should she inform Professor Ye and the others about the existence of the Deceit Dynasty?
So far, no important figures have come to contact her directly, possibly due to a lack of trust, as she remains under examination by those significant individuals.
If not for her strength and Professor Ye mediating, she might have already been confined in a lab, hooked to various devices for drawing blood.
With no current leads and unable to resolve the Earth Ghost problem, she won’t survive a fortnight, rendering it futile to say anything.
At that moment, Sand Que glanced around but didn’t see a shadow of the Earth Ghost.
She returned to the graveyard, randomly choosing a grave, crouched down, and pressed her hand onto the mound. The bloody threads emanating from her heart penetrated the soil, allowing her to sense what lay beneath.
As the threads descended, Sang Que ’saw’ the coffin below, indeed containing a corpse, perfectly preserved without decay, maintaining its state of death, a smile on its face as if they truly were living as immortals in the Yunmeng Divine Kingdom.
Perhaps these people’s consciousness hasn’t entirely dissipated, instead inhabiting a dreamlike realm, acting as immortals.
When the entire Wushi tribe perishes in the real world, someone might emerge from the grave, seeking suitable candidates to continue the Wushi’s bloodline and mission.
Retracting her hand, Sang Que glanced at her palm where all the trigrams were complete, then closed her eyes and silently exited the visualization state.
Opening her eyes, the chill in the air outside had vanished, everyone stared at her with inquisitive gazes, pretending ignorance, she rubbed her temple.
In her peripheral vision, the shadow of the Earth Ghost reappeared.
Professor Ye still asked for her help in collecting samples, and Sang Que decided to try. Perhaps the damage caused by Black Tai Sui to her would also harm the Earth Ghost.
However, before that, everyone here must first retreat to prevent a repetition of the Black Tai Sui eruption like last time.
