144: Chapter 144 Soul-Eating Powder

The cold wind scraped past his ears like a knife.

Chen Zilong pushed the "Movement Secret" to its limit, his body trailing a blurry afterimage in the air.

He wished he could tear through space instantly to reach the place he cared about.

However, at the very moment his mind was racing and his true essence was surging, a cold, tearing sensation from the depths of his soul erupted without warning!

"Ugh—!"

He let out a muffled groan; the feeling was indescribable. It wasn't the sharp pain of a blade, but a more terrifying internal "extinction."

It felt as if countless invisible, tiny insects were frantically gnawing at the essence of his soul.

Even the Nascent Soul in his dantian’s sea of qi, which looked exactly like him, dimmed instantly and let out a silent wail.

A twisted expression of agony appeared on the small face of the golden-glowing Nascent Soul.

Terrifying, fine cracks appeared on its surface, like porcelain on the verge of shattering.

His true essence instantly dissipated, and his body froze. Like a bird shot through the wing, he plummeted uncontrollably from a height of dozens of feet!

The wind whistled in his ears, yet it seemed to grow incredibly distant.

His consciousness ebbed and flowed amidst intense pain and grogginess; he only managed to barely protect his head and heart vessels.

Boom!

His body slammed heavily onto the ground. The massive impact brought a sweet taste to his throat, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

Fortunately, he had fallen into a dense forest of ancient trees.

The layers of branches buffered most of the force.

Otherwise, this single fall would have been enough to shatter every bone in his body.

He struggled to sit up, but the power of the soul-eroding powder spread frantically like maggots on a bone.

His vision began to blur, and his surroundings became hazy.

Moonlight filtered through the canopy, which was so thick it was almost opaque.

It grudgingly cast a few fragmented, pale spots of light onto the ground covered in a thick layer of rotting leaves.

The air was thick with the scent of damp earth, the slight sweetness of decaying vegetation, and...

...some inexplicable, cold, musty smell.

"I can't... I can't fall here!"

Chen Zilong bit the tip of his tongue, using the brief flash of sharp pain to force himself to stay conscious.

He immediately sat cross-legged, formed a hand seal, and exerted his full power to circulate the Vajra Demon Subduing Scripture he had obtained from the Ancient Buddhist Sect.

A gentle and pure golden Buddhist light radiated from within him, attempting to dispel that cold, evil toxin.

Phantasmal Sanskrit characters flickered around him, and the faint sound of low chanting echoed indistinctly.

However, the soul-eroding powder only paused slightly upon meeting the Buddhist light. It wasn't purified or dispelled as expected; instead, as if provoked, the speed of its erosion increased!

The Buddhist light held out for less than three breaths before it rapidly melted and dimmed, like snow meeting boiling water.

"It failed..."

A trace of bitterness leaked from the corner of Chen Zilong's mouth, his face appearing even paler under the dismal moonlight. "This isn't some poison at all... it's an extremely malicious... curse that entangles the soul!"

The Vajra Demon Subduing Scripture was supremely firm and yang, specialized in countering demons and heretics.

But against this curse rooted in the soul's essence, clinging like a persistent shadow, it was somewhat inadequate—like punching cotton, with nowhere to direct the force.

Unwilling to give up, his gaze sharpened, and he instantly switched his internal cultivation technique.

Inside his dantian, the dimmed Nascent Soul's tiny hands rose with difficulty, activating the acupoints throughout his body.

Rumble!

In an instant, with him at the center, the air within a radius of several yards swirled violently. There were no dark clouds in the night sky, yet streaks of blinding silver lightning snakes manifested out of thin air!

Lightning intertwined and exploded around him, casting flickering light on his pale face, while his hair drifted slightly due to static electricity.

This was precisely the supreme lightning technique of the Nine Heavens Thunder Control True Canon!

Thunder and lightning—supremely yang and firm, executing punishment on behalf of heaven and annihilating all evils!

He carefully guided strands of pure lightning power into his meridians, directing them toward the cold curse entrenched deep within his soul.

Sizzle—!

Like cold water dripping into boiling oil, a sharp, numbing pain shot through his soul.

Chen Zilong’s brow furrowed tightly, his teeth clenched, and veins bulged on his forehead as cold sweat instantly soaked the back of his clothes.

This sensation of using lightning to "burn" his own soul was like dancing on a knife's edge; the agony far exceeded any external torture.

But then, an astonishing radiance suddenly burst from his exhausted eyes!

"It's... effective! It actually works!"

He clearly "saw" that under the burning of the brilliant lightning...

...that mass of eroding energy, clinging like maggots on a bone, was actually refined away by a fraction!

Though infinitesimal, it was undoubtedly a tiny crack of light torn through the darkness of despair!

Hope was rekindled!

He no longer hesitated and simultaneously activated another incredibly overbearing technique—the Heaven Swallowing Demonic Art!

He would use the lightning technique as the fire and the demonic art as the furnace to refine and devour this damned soul-eroding powder, down to the last bit!

The lightning intertwined with a dark, profound devouring force, forming a delicate balance within him as it slowly wore down the stubborn curse bit by bit.

However, during this process of full-force detoxification, his mind relaxed for just a moment.

The heart-wrenching grief he had forcibly suppressed surged up like a bursting dam, instantly crushing his psychological defenses.

Ye Xishui...

That name, that figure, was like a red-hot iron nail being driven ruthlessly into his mind.

He remembered that somewhat absurd yet slightly warm night.

Under the bright red candles, she wore a phoenix coronet and a ceremonial robe, bowing to heaven and earth with him to become husband and wife in name.

But later, she had requested of her own accord, her eyes clear and determined, saying she was willing to demote herself to a concubine just for a chance to stay by his side.

At that time, he didn't understand.

Recalling it now, had the depths of her seemingly calm eyes already been filled with unspeakable sorrow and fear of her predetermined fate?

She was dead.

Not killed in battle, not from her lifespan ending, but by that woman named Su Yan...

who had possessed her.

The word "Possession" bit at his heart like a venomous snake.

All cultivators understood that so-called Possession meant a powerful external soul forcibly invading and occupying another's physical body.

Meanwhile, the original soul would be slowly devoured and obliterated amidst endless pain and struggle...

Ultimately, the soul would be scattered, losing even the chance to enter reincarnation and be reborn!

True, eternal extinction.

At the thought of this, Chen Zilong's heart suffered a violent, physiological spasm, the pain so intense he could barely breathe.

Tears burst from his eyes completely out of control, sliding down his cheeks stained with dust and blood, dripping onto the cold, rotting leaves beneath him and leaving dark marks.

He didn't wail aloud; his shoulders just trembled uncontrollably, and his throat emitted a suppressed whimper like that of a wounded beast.

He raised his hand and wiped his eyes harshly with the back of it, yet he couldn't dry the continuous stream of hot tears.

His fingernails dug deep into his palms from the force, leaving behind several bloody marks.

But he felt no pain at all, for the agony in his heart had already surpassed the limits of his physical body.

"Heavenly Dao... Heh, to hell with your Heavenly Dao!" he cursed in a low voice, his tone raspy and filled with hostility.

He knew that in the destiny of that so-called "original work," Ye Xishui was nothing more than a pitiful puppet toyed with by the Heavenly Dao.

Controlled by invisible threads, she became a stepping stone for the child of destiny, Ye Wushuang, walking step by step toward the abyss.

She didn't even know what she was doing.

And at the moment of her final awakening, how much grief and despair must she have felt?

Chen Zilong remembered clearly that the original work offhandedly mentioned Ye Xishui's final end: she went to the cliff where "Chen Zilong" had fallen and jumped off without hesitation.

Only to atone for her sins.

Although he had always had an ominous premonition that something might have happened to Ye Xishui...

he had calculated a thousand times, yet never expected such a cruel and malicious ending—

Possession and the scattering of her soul!

"Su Yan! Su Hao!"

He squeezed those two names through his teeth, every word soaked in bone-deep hatred and killing intent. "I, Chen Zilong, hereby swear to the heavens: if I do not extract your souls and refine your spirits in this life, ensuring you can never be reincarnated, I am not fit to be human!"

The surging killing intent and extreme sadness actually calmed him down.

He refocused his mind and drove his lightning technique and demonic art even more frantically, ignoring the waves of sharp pain from his meridians to accelerate the refining of the soul-eroding powder.

Time passed bit by bit, and the moon's shadow moved quietly among the treetops.

After an unknown amount of time, Chen Zilong's heart sank once again, into a bottomless ice cellar.

He had miscalculated.

The stubbornness and power of this soul-eroding powder far exceeded his imagination.

At the current speed, it would be impossible to completely refine and clear it without spending three to five years of painstaking effort!

But...

Would his enemies give him that time?

Su Yan, Su Hao, and the Tianji Sect behind them were likely searching everywhere for his tracks right now.

His strength was now greatly diminished, making him like a lamb to the slaughter.

Forget three to five years; even a single peaceful night was a luxury!

He could feel his mental energy rapidly depleting, a strong sense of exhaustion crashing against his consciousness like waves.

His eyelids became as heavy as mountains, and every blink was extraordinarily difficult.

His vision began to sway and blur, and he even heard a faint ringing in his ears.

His true essence was nearly exhausted, his soul had suffered heavy damage, and his body had reached its limit.

"This time... is it really heaven's will to destroy me?"

A desperate thought surfaced uncontrollably.

Endless fatigue swept over him, and the arms supporting his body began to grow weak and tremble.

Finally, he could no longer hold on, and his body swayed.

His eyes slowly closed, and he fell toward the cold ground.

Just an instant before his consciousness plunged completely into darkness—

Rustle... rustle...

An extremely faint footstep, almost indistinguishable from the sound of wind blowing through fallen leaves, rang out from behind a nearby ancient tree—one so thick it would take several people to encircle it, its trunk covered in strange burls.

Two long, slanted, distorted shadows silently stretched out before him, arriving a step ahead of their owners...

...