181: Chapter 181 Shocking

Bai Wuji did not hesitate for a single second, completely abandoning his own thoughts and surrendering his body to Bai Yu's combat instincts. He slid to the left, evading a frontal assault, and his Bone Knife sliced a gash into the abdomen of the second Faceless Fiend on his left. Immediately after, he ducked, dodging the horizontal sweep of three claws from the right.

He was like a loach, weaving through the siege of the five monsters. Every strike was perfectly timed, and every dodge was a narrow escape.

But two fists were no match for four hands.

A Faceless Fiend pounced from a blind spot, its sharp claws tearing viciously at Bai Wuji's back.

Bai Wuji didn't have time to dodge.

"Pfft!"

The sound of claws ripping through flesh rang out. A large chunk of flesh was torn from Bai Wuji's back, and blood instantly stained his clothes red.

Intense pain surged through him.

At the same time, Bai Yu, who was leaning against the corner, snapped his eyes open. His body convulsed violently, and the clothes on his back were also soaked with blood.

"Dammit..." Bai Wuji staggered a few steps, using his knife to prop himself up. "This Equalization... is really killing me."

Bai Yu didn't speak. He stared fixedly at the five Faceless Fiends, a look of absolute determination in his eyes.

"Empty your mind." Bai Yu's intent was stronger than ever, carrying an irresistible authority.

"What?"

"Give me full control of your body."

Bai Wuji was stunned for a moment. Give his body to someone else? That was the same as handing over his life.

But he looked into Bai Yu's eyes—those eyes that had not hesitated to shatter themselves for his sake just moments ago.

"Fine."

Bai Wuji closed his eyes and completely relaxed every muscle in his body.

The moment he closed his eyes, Bai Yu's left hand suddenly formed a seal. The symbol on his wrist erupted with an unprecedented blinding light.

Bai Wuji opened his eyes again.

His gaze had changed.

He was no longer the stubborn youth who had taken beatings while secretly learning at the foot of the mountain, but the Sword Dao Grandmaster who had suppressed the Ten Directions Array on the negation seat for countless ages.

"He" stood tall and casually flourished the blade. The Bone Knife let out a crisp hum, as if cheering for its master's return.

The five Faceless Fiends seemed to sense a lethal threat. They stopped in their tracks simultaneously, letting out uneasy low growls.

"He" did not attack first. Instead, he held the Bone Knife vertically before him and ran two fingers of his left hand slowly along the blade's surface.

The originally amber blade was instantly ignited with a layer of pale flames.

This was no ordinary fire; this was the Karmic Fire that burned the Divine Soul.

"Sever."

"He" softly uttered a single word.

A single strike was unleashed.

There was no world-shaking sound, nor any dazzling display of light and shadow. There was only an extremely pure white line that expanded outward with incredible speed.

The white line swept through the bodies of the five Faceless Fiends.

The monsters' movements froze instantly. In the next second, their bodies were cleanly severed in half. Pale flames ignited at the cuts, and before they could even scream, they were reduced to ash.

One strike, five Fiends slain.

The iron staff in the old man's hand fell to the ground with a clang, and his jaw nearly hit the floor.

Medicine Not So's mouth hung wide open, unable to close for a long time.

"He" sheathed the knife, his body swaying slightly. Bai Wuji's consciousness reclaimed dominance. He felt as if all the strength had been drained from his body; his legs gave way, and he slumped directly onto the ground.

The dull ache in his chest had turned into a tearing, agonizing pain. He knew that Bai Yu's situation was even worse.

He looked back.

Bai Yu had already collapsed in a pool of blood. His newly recovered right arm had become completely transparent again, and even his left hand was beginning to dissipate.

"You're crazy..." Bai Wuji gritted his teeth, crawling over while enduring the intense pain. "You used your Divine Soul to strike with the sword?"

Bai Yu looked at him, his lips curling into a tiny arc.

"As long as... you... didn't die... it's enough."

The tremors in the courtyard finally ceased.

Pure Void Master let out a long breath and collapsed against the wall. "Calibration complete. The formation core has stabilized."

The crack in the sky stopped expanding, and the gray mist began to slowly flow back. Everything seemed to be over.

Bai Wuji breathed a sigh of relief and reached out to support Bai Yu.

Right then, a sudden change occurred.

The crack that had begun to close was suddenly forced open by an incredibly terrifying power.

A massive vertical pupil, covered in black scales, emerged from deep within the crack. The eye stared fixedly at Bai Wuji and Bai Yu in the courtyard, its gaze filled with endless greed and malice.

The temperature in the entire courtyard instantly dropped to freezing.

Pure Void Master's heart, which had just settled, leaped into his throat again. His face was whiter than paper.

"What is that thing?" Bai Wuji gripped his Bone Knife, his fingers turning white from the force.

Bai Yu looked at the vertical pupil, his fading gaze focusing once more. He spat out two words, his voice carrying an unprecedented gravity.

"The True Body."

A giant hand covered in bone spikes slowly reached out from the crack.

When the giant hand emerged from the rift, all the gray mist in the courtyard was pressed down to the ground.

It didn't disperse; it was crushed down. Like an invisible foot stepping on the air, every suspended particle was forcibly pinned into the cracks of the stone floor.

Bai Wuji's eardrums buzzed.

It wasn't because the sound was too loud, but because all surrounding sounds had vanished. The wind, breathing, heartbeats—all gone. The world had been muted.

Then, the giant hand moved.

Five fingers covered in black scales gripped the edges of the Sky Curtain at the rift, like a person lifting a manhole cover. The moment the knuckles bent, the Sky Curtain let out a dull boom, and the ten-foot-wide crack was torn open by another three feet.

A mist of blood sprayed from Pure Void Master's nose.

He was sent flying, his back slamming into the courtyard wall and shattering a section of it. The formation core he had just risked half his life to calibrate was shaken loose again the moment that hand gripped down.

"The formation core—" Pure Void Master's voice cracked. "It's tearing it open by force!"

Bai Wuji stood in the middle of the courtyard, looking up at the hand.

It was close now. Even the patterns on the fingers were visible. Each black scale was about the size of a person's palm, and an amber-red liquid seeped from the gaps between the scales—not blood, but something more like the final heat of cooling magma.

The shadow of the giant hand covered the entire courtyard.

Bai Yu was still lying on the ground. His right arm had become transparent again, and his left hand was also flickering. That single strike just now had exhausted his remaining Divine Soul; he was now like a piece of paper that had been crumpled and then smoothed out, liable to shatter at any moment.

But his eyes were open.

He was staring fixedly at the giant hand.

"It cannot come out," Bai Yu's voice was extremely low, each word sounding as if it were being scraped from his throat. "If it comes out, everything is over."

Bai Wuji looked down at him. "How do we stop it?"

Bai Yu didn't answer. His gaze shifted to Pure Void Master.

Pure Void Master crawled up from the base of the wall, blood still hanging from the corner of his mouth. The two of them locked eyes for a brief moment.

Pure Void Master understood.

"No," Pure Void Master shook his head. "In your current state, if you feed power into the formation core one more time, you'll be gone."

The corner of Bai Yu's mouth moved. It wasn't a smile, but a sort of habitual muscle twitch.

"It's not me who's providing it."

Pure Void Master was stunned.

Bai Yu's gaze turned toward Bai Wuji.

Bai Wuji also froze for a breath, and then he understood.

Equalization.

Array power Equalization. Lifespan Equalization. Perception Equalization.

The two of them were now two blades tied to the same rope. Bai Yu had no strength left, but Bai Wuji still did. That invisible thread was bidirectional—just as Bai Yu could pass his Sword Intent to him, he could also pass his life force to Bai Yu.

"You're going to drain my life to mend the formation core?" Bai Wuji asked.

Bai Yu looked at him and said nothing.