Chapter 183 Escape with a Severed Arm

The golden light screen fluctuated violently, like the surface of a lake into which a giant boulder had been thrown, sending out ripples. The ancient runes on the tower surged madly, emitting a mysterious and archaic aura.

In the end, the gray sword shadow exhausted all its power and dissipated silently.

As for the light screen of the soul suppressing tower, although it vibrated slightly and its light dimmed a little, it still stood tenaciously, firmly protecting Jian Wushuang within.

"Oh?" Mu Changge, who was temporarily in Body Integration with You Li (at this moment the dominant consciousness was still Mu Changge, but the power and perception were borrowed from You Li), felt a trace of imperceptible surprise flash through his cold purple eyes.

He clearly felt that his previous sword strike, although not at full strength, was enough to threaten an ordinary Void Refining Cultivator, yet it had been so easily blocked by this unremarkable small tower, only causing a few ripples and dimming the tower's light slightly.

"It really is about what I imagined," Mu Changge thought to himself, his eyes growing even hotter. "This thing should be the greatest reliance of this 'Child of Fortune', that so-called 'Golden Finger'... Looking at this aura and defensive power, it far exceeds the Spirit Treasure of this realm, and even carries Dao rhymes that transcend the rules of this realm... Could it be the 'immortal kings small tower' that Qingyao once vaguely mentioned, the one that drifted into this realm?"

His thoughts turned like lightning, but his hands did not stop. The dark iron greatsword swung again. This time, the speed was faster, the power more concentrated, and several gray sword beams, more refined than before and carrying a trace of You Li's Origin power, struck the same spot on the golden light screen like lightning!

"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!"

Crisp and grand clashing sounds rang out one after another, like a great bell tolling. The golden light screen swayed violently, ripples spreading wildly, and its light dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye, even faintly emitting a groan of being overwhelmed, as if it would shatter the next moment.

However, every time the ancient runes on the tower body flickered, a new, purer and heavier glimmer would surge forth, repairing and reinforcing the light screen. Although it was tottering, it remained tenaciously maintained and had not been completely broken! The tower body itself remained as steady as a rock.

Mu Changge frowned slightly and stopped his attack. He felt that the defensive power of this small tower was extremely strange; it was not merely a matter of abundant energy. It seemed to contain a trace of higher-level Origin rule power, forming a kind of "Absolute Defense" Domain.

With his current attack intensity, which barely reached the threshold of Void Refining by borrowing You Li's power, he was afraid it would be difficult to break through by force in a short time. Moreover, maintaining this Body Integration state put a significant load on his body, so it was not advisable to fight for long.

"Tsk, troublesome." Mu Changge clicked his tongue inwardly. With a thought, he dispersed the sharp Sword Intent on the greatsword and made a gesture of temporarily withdrawing.

Inside the tower, Jian Wushuang, whose soul had just settled, saw Mu Changge stop attacking through the slightly dimmed but still stable golden light screen. On that face, distorted by fear and anger, a trace of astonishment first flashed, and then a kind of madness and twisted triumph of surviving a disaster welled up.

He panted violently, coughing up a few mouthfuls of stagnant blood, but his eyes were fixed on Mu Changge outside the light screen. The corners of his mouth pulled into a strange and malicious smile, and he mocked in a hoarse, sharp voice:

"Ha... Hahaha! Strike! Keep striking! Mu Changge, is this all the ability you have? You can't even break my defense! Trash! Ant! Didn't you want to kill me? Come on!" He acted like a madman, as if he wanted to vent all the fear and humiliation from just moments ago.

Upon hearing this, Mu Changge was slightly startled at first, then he realized what was happening, and a few black lines could not help but crawl up his head. He muttered to himself in a low voice: "Could he have been beaten stupid by me? Can't handle the stimulation... has he turned dark?"

Then he stopped talking nonsense. His eyes turned cold, and the aura around him changed abruptly. A strange, invisible, and intangible fluctuation, which pointed directly to the deepest fears and desires of the human heart, quietly spread out with him as the center.

Heavenly Demon Sect's top secret technique—Demon Heart Stir!

This technique does not harm the Physical Body or damage Spiritual Power; it specializes in attacking the mind, inducing Heart Demon, and confusing the Divine Soul! It is especially effective against those with unstable minds, deep obsessions, or flaws in their Dao Heart!

"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!"

Jian Wushuang, inside the tower, his originally somewhat ferocious face twisted as his heart shrank violently, and then began to beat rapidly in a strange and crazy rhythm! The sound of the heartbeat was like a heavy hammer beating a drum, roaring in his own ears and even within the entire golden light screen!

Every beat pulled at his Qi and blood, causing them to flow backwards, and shook his Divine Soul; every beat was as if an invisible hand was gripping his heart, tightening more and more!

"Argh!" Jian Wushuang screamed, clutching his chest. His face instantly turned from pale white to a strange purple-red.

He felt as if his heart was about to explode. An unspeakable panic, violence, remorse, and all kinds of dark emotions surged like a tide, impacting his sanity. Before his eyes, overlapping phantoms even began to appear—Mu Changge's mocking face, the severe pain when he self-castrated, the various anomalies after practicing that evil technique, the possible contemptuous gazes of fellow disciples, the despair of his future Dao path being severed...

"No! It cannot go on like this!" Jian Wushuang's Divine Soul trembled completely. He knew that this was definitely some kind of strange mental attack secret technique of Mu Changge! If he stayed any longer, before this "soul suppressing tower" was broken, he himself would die from his heart bursting or Qi Deviation!

Escape! He must escape immediately!

The instinct to survive once again overwhelmed everything. Jian Wushuang endured the severe pain of his heart feeling like it was about to split and the demonic thoughts churning in his mind. While frantically circulating his Spiritual Power to resist the effects of "Demon Heart Stir", he scrambled to pull a silver-shining jade butterfly covered in spatial patterns from his storage ring—it was a life-saving item he had accidentally obtained as a trump card, capable of tearing space in an instant and fleeing randomly. The price was that there would be severe spatial tearing injuries after use, and the location would be completely random, making the risk extremely high. But at this moment, he could not care about anything else!

"Mu Changge! You practice Demonic Technique and wreak havoc on the Righteous Path; everyone has the right to punish you! You will never be able to leave the Yunxu Secret Realm alive! My Wandao Sword Sect will definitely fight you to the death!"

At the final moment of activating the Talisman, Jian Wushuang used all his strength to issue a shrill and venomous curse, trying to make a final struggle in terms of morality and momentum.

At the same time, he rapidly chanted obscure incantations in his mouth, and the jade butterfly in his hand shone brightly. His body began to quickly become transparent and ethereal, and the surrounding space rippled unstably; clearly, the escape technique was about to be activated!

"Want to run?" Mu Changge's eyes turned cold. Although he knew that a Child of Fortune was hard to kill and had been mentally prepared, seeing the other party still able to pull out such a life-saving item to escape under the joint effort of himself and You Li, a strong sense of unwillingness still surged in his heart. If he let him run away just like that, there would be endless trouble!

However, just as Mu Changge was preparing to spare no cost and use more intense means to forcibly interrupt the spatial escape technique—You Li, who was connected to his mind, clearly felt that trace of unwillingness and killing intent in her master's heart.

Almost without any hesitation, You Li's consciousness instantly took over control of the body.

Inside the tower, Jian Wushuang's incantation had been chanted to the final moment, his body was more than half ethereal, and a look of twisted ecstasy intertwined with venom even appeared on his face because he was about to escape...

At that very instant when the escape technique was about to be completed and the spatial fluctuation reached its peak! Mu Changge (actually dominated by You Li at this moment), those cold purple eyes, instantly shone with intense purple light.

Jian Wushuang's ecstatic expression froze on his face, his lips chanting the incantation stopped at the last syllable, and the etherealization process also had an extremely subtle pause.

In that split second of stalling, You Li controlled Mu Changge's body and pointed her fingers like a sword. A point of light, condensed to the extreme and gray with a trace of eerie purple, quietly appeared.

She just waved it lightly towards Jian Wushuang, who was about to become completely ethereal.

A gray-purple thin line that distorted the light silently swept across the space between the two, arriving first despite starting later, and accurately "cut" into the violently fluctuating spatial ripples, and also "cut" through Jian Wushuang's already mostly ethereal body!

On the other side, just as the great battle in the valley broke out, the golden tower shadow soared into the sky, and terrifying energy fluctuations scattered. Dozens of miles away from the valley, on the edge of a swamp rift shrouded in damp fog, a figure in white as snow was standing and gazing. It was Yun Qingyao, who had just entered the Secret Realm to search for Opportunity.

She was originally looking for Opportunity and spiritual objects, but was suddenly startled by the golden tower shadow soaring into the sky in the distance and the violent energy collision that followed. The aura of that tower shadow... made her feel a wave of inexplicably familiar palpitations in the depths of her memory (this scene also occurred when Jian Wushuang obtained the recognition of the small tower back then).

Almost without hesitation, Yun Qingyao turned into a white sword light and rushed towards the source of the fluctuation at the fastest speed. The closer she got, the clearer that sense of familiarity in the depths of her memory became, and the more it made her heart sink.

When she landed silently on a cliff edge on the periphery of the valley, concealing all her aura, and looked down, she happened to see a scene that shook her mind violently—

In the center of the valley, Jian Wushuang was sitting slumped in a sorry state under the phantom of a brilliant nine-story golden small tower, his face pale, his aura withered, and he was sternly cursing someone outside the tower, holding a jade butterfly in his hand, appearing to want to escape. And confronting him outside the tower was none other than Mu Changge, dressed in black with black hair, his aura deep and unfathomable!

Her gaze locked firmly at the first moment on the gilded small tower in Jian Wushuang's hand, which was emitting an aura that was familiar and made her heart ache. Although the tower's light was slightly dimmed, that unique shape, that mysterious aura... all were stinging her nerves, confirming the guess in her heart that she least wanted to believe.

"It really is him... it really is Jian Wushuang..." Yun Qingyao's stunningly beautiful face instantly lost all color, becoming as pale as paper. Her delicate body swayed slightly, and her fair hand involuntarily covered her chest, where a sharp pain came from.

Why... why is it in his hands?

Could it be that the disaster that befell her Family back then, the tragic death of her parents... was really related to this childhood sweetheart of hers? Related to this "biological brother" Saint? Or could it be... that this was just a coincidence?

But this small tower silently overturned all the thoughts she had to make excuses for him; if it really had nothing to do with him, how could he have obtained such a precious treasure?

Countless questions, shock, pain, and a trace of suspicion that had long been buried but that she was unwilling to face, now erupted like a volcano in her heart. She recalled the scenes of the two of them spending time together day and night over the years, and recalled the strange speed of his cultivation progress...

"Why... why is it him?" Yun Qingyao muttered to herself, her voice so light it seemed it would scatter with a single breeze, carrying endless bitterness and confusion. But soon, that confusion was replaced by a bone-chilling coldness. Within her beautiful eyes, clear as a cold pool, appeared unprecedented determination, and a trace of killing intent that had almost solidified.

She slowly tightened her grip on the jade-white sword hilt in her hand, her knuckles turning slightly white from the force. Her pearly teeth lightly bit her lower lip, almost drawing blood.

"If this is truly your doing..." She looked at the familiar yet strange gilded small tower below, her gaze cold as ten-thousand-year black ice, "No matter the price... I, Yun Qingyao, swear to kill you, to console the spirits of my parents in heaven!"

Just as her heart surged and killing intent quietly arose, the battle below suddenly changed!

Jian Wushuang crushed a jade butterfly, his figure rapidly fading, space fluctuating violently, and it looked like he was about to escape. Yet at this critical juncture, Mu Changge, who was confronting the golden light of the soul suppressing tower below, seemed to have exhausted some kind of power. His figure swayed visibly, his face instantly turning as pale as paper. But a flash of resolve crossed his eyes; he suddenly raised his hand, pointing his fingers like a sword, gathering the last bit of sharp Sword Intent at his fingertips, and slashed with all his might toward the fading phantom of Jian Wushuang!

That finger carried a sense of desperate, indomitable, and mutually destructive ferocity!

"Urghhh—!!!" Almost at the same instant Jian Wushuang's figure was completely engulfed by the sword light, a miserable howl that did not sound human, filled with pain and shock, erupted from the distorted spatial ripples, only to stop abruptly! Then, the sword light dissipated, space returned to calm, leaving behind only an arm severed at the shoulder, and the gilded small tower that had lost its luster, rolling onto the ground with a "clatter."

And Mu Changge (or so she thought), who had unleashed this strike that seemed to exhaust all his strength, felt as if all his energy had been drained the moment he slashed his sword fingers. The tyrannical aura around him receded like a tide (You Li's possession ended, returning to the soul-containing jade), his figure swaying violently as he staggered backward. At the moment his body tilted, facing away from Yun Qingyao, Devilish Qi suddenly surged on his hanging left palm, and immediately after, he lightly pressed it under his right chest.

"Pfft!" A very slight muffled sound was masked by the whistling of the residual energy waves coming from afar. Mu Changge's body jolted violently, his complexion shifting from pale to an unnatural dark sallow color. Then, unable to hold it back any longer, he abruptly turned his head and, with a "waah," spat out a mouthful of bright red blood. The light in his eyes rapidly dimmed. Finally, he took one last deep look at the direction where Jian Wushuang had disappeared and at the small tower, as if he had exhausted his last shred of clarity, and his body slumped forward, completely losing consciousness.

The entire process of "self-injury" and vomiting blood was as fast as lightning. Moreover, with his staggering figure and the clever obstruction of the angle, Yun Qingyao, from afar, only saw that after delivering that "final strike," his aura withered, he spat blood, and he collapsed, unconscious.

"Junior Brother Mu!" On the cliff, Yun Qingyao, who had taken in all of this, felt her heart gripped tightly by an invisible hand, stopping for an instant! The cold killing intent and the pain of her Family's blood feud that had surged earlier due to the appearance of the soul suppressing tower were instantly swept away at this moment by a more intense, sharper heartache and worry!

Her mind involuntarily and rapidly recalled every little detail of her time spent with Mu Changge—he had reminded her more than once, in a tone that seemed casual but held hidden meaning, to be careful of Jian Wushuang, saying that this person was full of suspicious points, his Luck was strange, and he might bring disaster to those around him, yet he himself was always able to turn bad Luck into good and his cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds. At that time, although she had doubts and scrutinized Jian Wushuang more, she hadn't fully believed it. She had chosen to investigate secretly, relying on her own channels and methods, but progress had been slow.

But now, the scene before her was like a thunderbolt, splitting open all the fog and hesitation in her heart! Jian Wushuang wielded the powerful "immortal kings small tower"! Mu Changge had fought him regardless of the cost, eventually resulting in mutual injury, with himself exhausted, unconscious, and vomiting blood on the ground! At the last moment, facing Mu Changge's costly strike (as she thought), Jian Wushuang had actually used yet another treasure to escape, and perhaps he was hiding even more secrets! And all of Mu Changge's previous reminders, hints, and even his current miserable state... Everything was for me!

A clear and "reasonable" thought roared uncontrollably in her heart, carrying a burning pain and boundless guilt: 'It must be that Junior Brother Mu discovered that Jian Wushuang possessed the "immortal kings small tower" closely related to the destruction of my Family. In order to help me uncover the truth and avenge my Family's blood feud, he disregarded his own safety and fought to the death against this Saint Jian Wushuang, who clearly possessed heavy treasures and likely hid deep strength! He exhausted everything, even not hesitating to use secret arts that might damage his Foundation, only then managing to barely repel (or heavily injure) Jian Wushuang, while ending up in such a critically injured and dying state himself!'

'And I... I was still secretly investigating, even doubting the truth of Junior Brother Mu's words! I am truly a beast! I actually let him face such a strong enemy alone!'

Looking at the figure in black robes stained with blood, lying quietly on the cold ground below with a weak aura, Yun Qingyao felt as if her heart had been viciously gouged by a knife, the pain making it almost impossible for her to breathe. The feelings she already had for Mu Changge, which she had kept hidden, were now submerged by the surging heartache, guilt, and gratitude. What Child of Fortune, what Family mystery—at this moment, none of it was as important as the safety of that fallen figure!

"Junior Brother Mu!" An exclamation with a trembling tone escaped her lips. Without a shred of hesitation, Yun Qingyao transformed into a snowy white sword light, like a startled swan descending from the Nine Heavens, and with the fastest speed, flew recklessly toward the center of the valley! She had only one thought in her mind—to reach his side immediately!

The sword light arrived in an instant. Just before Mu Changge's body was about to fully touch the cold ground, a pair of cool yet surprisingly strong and gentle jade arms steadily caught him. The cold and hardness of the expected impact with the ground did not come; instead, it was replaced by a warm, soft embrace carrying a faint, cool fragrance. That embrace was not wide, but at this moment, it felt incomparably secure.

"Junior Brother Mu! Mu Changge! Wake up!" Yun Qingyao knelt half on the ground, carefully supporting Mu Changge's upper body in her arms, her voice filled with unprecedented urgency and panic, having long since lost her usual cold self-restraint. She quickly extended her slender jade fingers and placed them on Mu Changge's wrist, a pure and gentle spiritual power cautiously probing into his body to check his injuries.

This investigation caused her already tightly furrowed brows to lock even deeper. Inside Mu Changge's body, his Meridians were damaged in many places, his spiritual power was chaotic and exhausted, his Qi and blood were severely deficient, and there was even a cold, vicious Devilish Qi entrenched between his internal organs, constantly eroding his vitality—this was the root cause of him vomiting blood and falling unconscious. This injury looked extremely tragic; it was clearly the result of experiencing a great battle and overexertion, and then being hit by an extremely sinister sneak attack. (She naturally did not know that these traces of a "sinister sneak attack" were mostly self-directed and acted out by Mu Changge using Devilish Qi, but the effect was enough to pass for the real thing.)

"Fortunately... it is just exhaustion and heavy injury, internal organs damaged, Divine Soul shaken into unconsciousness, but it has not damaged his Foundation..." Yun Qingyao breathed a slight sigh of relief, but her heartache did not diminish in the slightest. She hurriedly took out a mutton-fat jade bottle from her storage Magic Treasure, poured out a jade-green Medicinal Pill the size of a longan, emitting a rich medicinal fragrance and vibrant vitality—the heavenly returning spirit pill, an Earth Rank top-grade Spirit Pill for healing and saving lives, worth a fortune (even Saints and Saintesses only had one of these).

She cautiously used spiritual power to wrap the Medicinal Pill and gently fed it into Mu Changge's mouth, helping him dissolve its medicinal power. Feeling that after the Medicinal Pill entered his body, Mu Changge's weak aura stabilized slightly, and his paper-pale face seemed to have a tiny bit of faint color, Yun Qingyao's suspended heart finally settled a little.

Just at this moment, she keenly sensed that around the valley, several auras of varying strength were rapidly approaching from different directions, attracted by the battle fluctuations and the golden light of the "soul suppressing tower" from just now!

"Cannot stay here!" Yun Qingyao's eyes narrowed. Junior Brother Mu was currently heavily injured and unconscious, with no power to defend himself. She herself only had Nascent Soul cultivation, and carrying a heavily injured person would inevitably restrict her; if they were entangled by someone with ill intentions, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Her gaze quickly swept across the scene, seeing the severed arm on the ground belonging to Jian Wushuang, and the ancient, mysterious gilded small tower rolling to the side. Seeing the small tower, a chill flashed through her beautiful eyes again, but there was more of a complex and resolute feeling.

Without the slightest hesitation, Yun Qingyao grabbed into the air with her jade hand, and a gentle suction force emitted, drawing that "soul suppressing tower" into her hand. Then, with a thought, she stored it into a separate storage ring.

Immediately, she did not delay any longer, carefully using spiritual power to lift the unconscious Mu Changge and carried him horizontally. Her movements were incomparably gentle, as if she were holding an easily broken, rare treasure. Confirming that Mu Changge would not be jostled under the protection of her spiritual power, she gave one last vigilant look at the auras approaching from all around, her figure swayed, transforming into an incomparably swift white streak of light, and she sped away in the direction opposite to where those auras were coming from, without looking back, disappearing in an instant.

In the valley, only the wreckage after the great battle remained, along with the Sword Intent and faint Devilish Qi that had not yet completely dissipated in the air, quietly telling everything that had just happened. Soon, several figures landed one after another, looking at the empty battlefield and the remaining traces, looking at each other in dismay, shocked and uncertain. But all of this had nothing to do with Yun Qingyao, who had fled far away carrying Mu Changge. At this moment, she had only one thought in her mind: find an absolutely safe place to let Junior Brother Mu heal and recover as soon as possible. Everything else could be put aside for the time being.