218: The Chosen One resurrected

Although Huan Ying didn't understand exactly what movies or White Purity referred to, seeing Cao Bu's playful smile, alarm bells rang in her heart, and she instinctively felt uneasy.

She forced herself to stay calm, trying to maintain her innocent posture: "What is this movie Big Brother is talking about?"

"It sounds very interesting, but who is White Purity?"

"Why do you say I'm like her?"

Cao Bu took two steps closer, his gaze wandering over her face and figure.

"It's a very special kind of play that allows people to deeply experience different emotions and Realms."

"As for White Purity, she's a woman who performed her play to the ultimate limit."

"You have qualities similar to hers, where innocence and coquettishness coexist. You're very suitable to be the female lead of my movie."

He reached out his hand, his fingertips almost touching Huan Ying's cheek: "Come, Big Brother will take you to a special place. It's quieter there, more suitable for filming."

Huan Ying suddenly took a step back, dodging Cao Bu's hand. The disguise on her face completely faded, replaced by cold killing intent.

She understood instantly.

Cao Bu's so-called filming was definitely nothing good; it was likely an excuse for humiliation, and might even involve evil arts.

"Cao Bu! Do you take me for a three-year-old child?!" Huan Ying shouted sharply. Spiritual Qi erupted around her, her aura now a world apart from her previous delicateness. "It was just watching a play, yet you're actually taking it so seriously."

Before her voice had even faded, Huan Ying's figure vanished, appearing behind Cao Bu in the next instant.

A Deep Blue Short Blade lunged straight for his back heart, its speed reaching the limit and its angle tricky and ruthless.

Fang Ruodan was about to act, but Cao Bu raised his hand to stop her: "Stay on the sidelines to support me, prevent her from using any trump cards or escaping."

Hearing this, the boiling power of the Great Emperor within Fang Ruodan's body slowly calmed down.

Facing this strike, Cao Bu didn't even turn his head. He merely curled his lips into a mysterious arc and whispered, "Virtual-Real Yin-Yang Boundary, open."

In an instant, centered on Cao Bu, an invisible domain boomed open.

The Virtual-Real Yin-Yang Boundary!

Within the domain, the boundary between reality and illusion was controlled by Cao Bu's will.

Huan Ying's lethal strike, the moment the short blade touched Cao Bu's robes, felt as if it had stabbed into a void phantom. All her power was like a clay ox entering the sea, vanishing without a trace.

She felt that what she had stabbed was not flesh and blood, but a mist that existed somewhere between existence and non-existence.

"What?!"

Huan Ying was greatly shocked. She wanted to pull back and retreat, only to find the surrounding scenery beginning to distort and change.

The ground beneath her feet was solid one moment and rippling like water the next.

The sky flickered between light and dark; the stars seemed within reach, yet as distant as another lifetime.

All her attacks, whether long-range techniques or close-quarters Martial Skills, would either collapse midway or pass directly through Cao Bu's figure once unleashed, unable to cause any damage.

Cao Bu himself was elusive, sometimes solid and sometimes illusory; she couldn't lock onto him at all.

"Within my domain, the virtual and the real are determined by a single thought of mine."

Cao Bu's voice came from all directions, carrying a heart-palpitating calmness: "To me, your attacks are all but illusions."

Huan Ying frantically employed various means, trying to break through this bizarre domain, but all her efforts were like striking the air.

She felt her strength draining away and her mind wavering. An unprecedented fear enveloped her.

"It's over."

Cao Bu's voice suddenly rang out clearly by her ear.

In the next moment, Huan Ying felt the space around her suddenly freeze, and an irresistible, vast power descended from the heavens.

The spiritual Qi in her body was instantly sealed. Her body could not Move, and she couldn't even make a sound.

She could only widen her terrified eyes, watching Cao Bu's face, with its wicked smile, slowly become clear before her.

Cao Bu reached out, gently lifting Huan Ying's chin, his gaze deep: "Now, the leading lady is in place. The movie can start filming. You will experience what an ultimate play is."

Under the absolute control of the Virtual-Real Yin-Yang Boundary, Cao Bu began his filming.

After an unknown amount of time, the Virtual-Real Yin-Yang Boundary quietly dissipated.

At the scene.

Cao Bu's clothes were neat, and his expression was calm.

Meanwhile, Huan Ying was slumped on the ground, tears in her eyes and her clothes in disarray. Her aura was withered to the extreme. Her previous liveliness and sharpness were completely gone, leaving only endless humiliation and daze.

Fang Ruodan had been watching quietly from the side from beginning to end, her eyes as calm as still water.

Zhao Wei and Lin Rou watched from not far away, their hearts racing.

Cao Bu stood up and said coldly, "Force out a wisp of Primordial Spirit and Essence Blood."

Huan Ying snapped back to her senses, glaring at Cao Bu with rage.

This was her first time, and it had been taken away by this beast just like that.

"You have no choice. Even if your grandfather came, he would only be seeking death," Cao Bu said, looking down at her.

Huan Ying hesitated for a moment, bit her lip, and ultimately did as she was told.

After striking the Primordial Spirit and Essence Blood into the ten thousand fragrances paying homage to the phoenix diagram, Cao Bu turned to give Fang Ruodan instructions:

"Ruo Dan, go to the Lin Clan. Do it cleanly."

Fang Ruodan nodded, her figure turning into a stream of light that vanished into the horizon.

Cao Bu glanced at the corpses of Lin Xiaotian and Lin Dong, then looked at the soul-shaken Huan Ying, as well as the complex-looking Zhao Wei and Lin Rou, saying faintly, "Pack up. We're going to Eternal Night City."

The women silently straightened their clothes and followed behind Cao Bu.

As the sun set in the west, their figures gradually moved further away, finally disappearing into the twilight.

An unknown amount of time passed.

Lin Dong suddenly snapped his eyes open.

The sharp pain coming from his chest made him instantly sober.

He looked down and saw the hideous wound on his chest was slowly healing, as a strange power flowed through his limbs and bones.

"I'm not dead?" He sat up, memories surging back like a tide.

The dagger Lin Rou had plunged into his chest, Zhao Wei's heartless words, Cao Bu's indifferent face, and the despair of having his cultivation completely destroyed.

"Cao Bu, Zhao Wei, Lin Rou." With every name he uttered, his teeth clenched tighter. "I will make you pay a hundredfold!"

Lin Dong roared as he crawled up from the ground, his spiritual Qi surging, even stronger than before by thirty percent.

"Is it the Reincarnation Seal?! It's actually the Reincarnation Seal I got from that Immortal Secret Realm last time. They said it could save my life; I didn't expect it to be true."

He quickly understood, and a sky-toppling hatred ignited in his eyes: "Cao Bu, I want you to pay in blood! I want you all to die a horrible death!"

"Oh?" A voice suddenly came from behind him. "How do you want me to die a horrible death?"

Lin Dong spun around, his pupils shrinking abruptly.

Cao Bu was already standing behind him at some point.

He stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze looking at him as if looking at a dead object.

"You—" Before Lin Dong could even Move, Cao Bu had already raised his hand.

There were no flashy Moves, no world-shaking momentum.

Just a simple clench of the void.

*Crack.*

The spiritual Qi Lin Dong had just condensed instantly scattered, and the bones of his entire body made a cracking sound of shattering.

He couldn't even let out a scream before his body exploded into a cloud of blood mist under that absolute power.

With another wave of Cao Bu's hand, the blood mist, along with Lin Xiaotian's corpse not far away, turned into dust in silence.

Having done all this, Cao Bu turned and walked toward the three women waiting nearby.

Zhao Wei's face was somewhat pale. Watching Cao Bu approach, she finally couldn't help but speak: "Cao Bu, since you saw that Lin Dong had another life, why didn't you just turn him to ash earlier?"

Cao Bu didn't stop, only saying faintly, "I just wanted to see if he really could be resurrected."

Zhao Wei was stunned. She wanted to say more, but saw that Cao Bu had already walked ahead.

Lin Rou supported Zhao Wei, whispering, "Mother, let's go."

Huan Ying walked at the very back, her eyes dull and hollow.

The afterglow of the setting sun pulled their shadows very long, until they finally disappeared at the end of the wilderness.