Chapter 312: One Move Ahead

For 【Ang Xiao】, Lu Yang has always been unrelenting in returning the greatest hostility.

Whatever 【Ang Xiao】 wants to do, he will sabotage; whatever 【Ang Xiao】 does not want to do, he will facilitate—highlighting nothing but targeted interference.

So he is very interested in Yu Suzhen's experiences.

Three years of Qi Refining at its peak, certainly gaining a great opportunity under 【Ang Xiao】's push; how much of that did 【Ang Xiao】 secretly sabotage?

By the grace of Qingcheng Feixue True Person, it is just the right time to investigate!

Unable to search the soul, unable to use 【Puppet on Strings】, Lu Yang is also too lazy to ask; it is better to let Yu Suzhen's body tell him directly, a definitive solution.

Thinking this, Lu Yang immediately activated his Superhuman State, his expression focused as he cast the secret technique, effortlessly entering Yu Suzhen's Sea of Consciousness, instantly causing her to emit a scream of agony, as if a iron rod had brutally pierced her body, while past memories flowed out like water.

'The experiences of these three years!'

Quickly, Lu Yang gained complete control over Yu Suzhen's memories; layers of dim scenes surfaced, finally reflecting a single scene before his eyes.

At the very beginning, Yu Suzhen's experiences matched his speculation.

After enduring countless hardships, she finally reached Qi Refining, joined the Heaven-Mending Peak, and after Liu Xin targeted her, she miraculously counter-killed him, thereby obtaining the inheritance of the Innate True Person.

However, it was right here that something was wrong.

Inside Liu Xin's Ten Thousand Spirits Banner, Yu Suzhen saw an existence she had never seen before; her cultivation today is precisely due to that entity's guidance!

'Where... is this place?'

In the memory, Lu Yang widened his eyes, but where his gaze passed, he saw only a turbid river, with churning waves revealing crystal-white bones.

The river was vast, with no visible edge.

Only in the center of the river stood a massive rock, as vast as a mountain, firmly anchored in the very middle of the river, dividing the river into sections.

'Something is not right.'

Lu Yang frowned deeply; the scene before him was what Yu Suzhen saw inside the Ten Thousand Spirits Banner, yet his understanding of the banner far exceeded hers, and he had never discovered such a place within it! This was undoubtedly 【Ang Xiao】's backup plan; had he tampered with the banner?

Suddenly, Lu Yang remembered.

'I have seen this place before.'

This was a memory not belonging to him, yet now he recalled every detail with crystal clarity; in the memory, he was right here in this very place.

However, in that memory, there was another person in this place.

That person stood atop the massive rock in the center of the river, staring straight at him.

'Hiss!'

In an instant, Lu Yang sucked in a sharp breath of cold air and instinctively looked toward the direction in the memory, only to see that a figure had indeed appeared there!

'Wrong... He is an outsider!'

'A trap!?'

At this moment, Lu Yang was indeed "searching the soul"; the various scenes before him were essentially illusory, yet that figure was different; he was undeniably real!

He had walked out of the memory!

The Unnameable Place.

Layers of shadows, a realm shrouded in darkness; there, a handsome Daoist sat cross-legged in mid-air, head raised, his eyes flowing with river-like starlight.

The next second, he smiled:

'Fellow Daoist, truly extraordinary. I placed my move in the Holy Sect, severing karmic ties, yet you managed to calculate it, bringing such a grand entourage to wait for me here...'

【Ang Xiao】's tone carried a long-overdue sense of satisfaction; in his view, everything that had happened so far was merely a game between him and that behind-the-scenes Fellow Daoist; he used Yu Suzhen as a pawn, while the other party had summoned Hong Ju, Qingcheng Feixue True Person, and others to intercept his pawn.

This was no small matter!

'To calculate my true target with such precision, it seems the matter of 【Chen Tu】 has already been exposed; not to mention there is a True Person watching.'

Lu Yang's guess was correct.

At this very moment, Qingcheng Feixue True Person was crouching nearby overseas, but her Dharma Body had merged with heaven and earth; unless one was a True Person, one could not see her figure.

'Fellow Daoist has never personally struck a blow from beginning to end.'

'Using others as knives to kill is practiced to perfection; hiding oneself in the shadows. But if one truly possessed skill, with cultivation equal to mine, why hide in the shadows?'

The smile on 【Ang Xiao】's lips gradually widened: 'Fellow Daoist's cultivation is not high, is it?'

'Mid-stage Jin Dan? Early-stage Jin Dan? You must have borrowed the power of a Fruit Seat; it couldn't be Foundation Establishment, could it? Let me see just how many tricks you possess...'

By now, 【Ang Xiao】 felt certain of victory. Yes, he indeed wanted to use Yu Suzhen's hand to fish out the Innate Dao Sin to refine into a clone, but he would never put all his eggs in one basket; therefore, Yu Suzhen was both his pawn and the poisoned bait he set!

In his view, the Fellow Daoist hiding behind the scenes had miscalculated only one point.

'You probably did not expect that I can already rudimentarily wield the power of 【Netherworld】. This 【Netherworld Enforcer】, though not my clone, is better than one.'

'If you ignore it, it will help me bring the Innate Dao Sin back to the Netherworld, and my scheme will still succeed.'

'But if you intend to stop it and kill it, you will inevitably be consumed by the entire Netherworld!'

The backlash from the 【Netherworld】 is not like karmic retribution.

Karma is a vast net, full of holes and countless oversights; but since all beings undergo reincarnation, the influence of the 【Netherworld】 is truly all-pervasive!

'The backlash of the 【Netherworld】 strikes the True Spirit directly; even if you borrow another's body, you cannot escape!'

By then, he, being within the 【Netherworld】, could follow this connection to directly lock onto the true body of that behind-the-scenes Fellow Daoist and uncover their roots.

'No matter which path Fellow Daoist chooses, I remain undefeated; in this round, I have ultimately made one move ahead!'

Thinking this, 【Ang Xiao】 could not help but laugh aloud; for a person like him, the feeling of surpassing the "Fellow Daoist" was a rare enjoyment.

'How about it? Will you hand over the Innate Dao Sin, or shall I see your true face?'

【Ang Xiao】 looked expectantly toward the present world.

Meanwhile, Lu Yang also reacted, realizing he had fallen into 【Ang Xiao】's calculation, yet he felt little panic.

'My true body is far away; whatever suffering occurs, it is only the clone that suffers.'

Lu Yang, through the 【Puppet on Strings】, sized up the figure that had suddenly appeared; the figure had walked out of the memory and directly entered the clone's Sea of Consciousness.

Looking closely now, he saw the figure was half-black and half-white, strange in appearance, tall and thin, holding a mourning staff in one hand and dragging a Soul-Hooking Chain in the other; he opened his mouth in a loud laugh, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth, squinting his eyes to look at people, radiating points of cold light; upon seeing Lu Yang, he spoke without a second word:

"Hah! What evil spirit has come from where?"

At these words, Lu Yang immediately laughed: "Evil spirit? I think you look more like an evil spirit. To intrude upon another's Sea of Consciousness without permission is not the way of the Righteous Path."

"Impudent!"

That figure let out a cold smile: "Do you take me for those with mortal eyes and flesh? You possess spirit but no soul, consciousness but no ethereal soul. If you are not an evil spirit, then what are you?"

'Judging by this tone, is it not 【Ang Xiao】 himself?'

Lu Yang heard it clearly, and his mind began to speculate: 'What exactly is this thing? Could the evil spirit it speaks of refer to Dao Sin?'

In this regard, 【Ang Xiao】's methods were actually identical to Lu Yang's; the only difference was that Lu Yang had created a 【Second Clone】, while he had created a 【Nether Envoy】. Both knew nothing of their true origins, knowing only to complete the tasks entrusted to them by the mastermind pulling the strings.

Therefore, in the next second, that monster shook its head: "Enough. I am too lazy to meddle further."

"In any case, you, a person without soul or ethereal soul, are destined for reincarnation. Whether you are or are not, today I shall capture both you and that evil spirit outside!"

(End of this chapter)