Chapter 915: with translation of chapter title

"Damned Daoist!"

Xisha Lao Gui's face darkened; thinking of the benefits bestowed by Xiong Tian Gang, although he was greedy, he had never said he would grow fat by breaking his word.

"I have no choice but to go myself!" Xisha Lao Gui let out a cold snort.

Several months passed.

When Xisha Lao Gui's skull carriage crushed the eighth sand dune, the twelve life tablets hanging from his waist exploded simultaneously.

At this moment, he had already arrived in the Endless Desert and had been searching here for some days.

Filthy saliva dripped from his withered yellow beard, etching trails of green smoke into the sand: "Exactly forty-nine karma puppets, yet I couldn't even catch a scrap of that brat's clothing......"

The blood-embroidered words "Hunt Heaven" on the carriage curtain suddenly fell off, turning into two red snakes that burrowed into the sand sea.

In the quicksand depths a thousand li away, Yan Buji, who was processing demon beast remains, suddenly lifted his head; the fissure scepter in his hand split open a rift!

Lin Qingli's ice silk automatically formed a profound ice barrier, yet two red snakes protruded from the void; the instant their tongues licked the barrier, the ice layer faded to ashen white.

"Karmic backlash!" Yan Buji ignited a clump of Wenwu Fire in his palm and hurled it at the red snakes; the terrifying flames instantly swept the surroundings: "Damned, they've come after us!"

And in that very moment, Xisha Lao Gui's hoarse laughter suddenly exploded in both of their seas of consciousness: "So the little mouse was hiding here......"

The red snakes exploded with a boom into blood mist, each droplet reflecting Xisha Lao Gui's twisted visage.

Yan Buji bled from his seven orifices, let out a cold snort, and unleashed a Chaos Break; the powerful force instantly solidified the air within a ten-zhang radius, but in an instant the exploding surge of fist power obliterated everything ahead!

Lin Qingli seized the opportunity to throw her natal ice soul; the extreme cold Dao Mark froze the blood mist into an ice crystal labyrinth.

"Go!" Yan Buji grabbed her and smashed the ice wall, spiderweb cracks spreading across the surface of his Asura armor.

Behind them, the ice crystal labyrinth exploded in collapse, each fragment turning into a miniature skull of Xisha Lao Gui; a dense chorus of mocking laughter echoed across the wasteland: "Run! The longer you run, the sweeter your flesh becomes!"

When Xiong Tian Gang crushed the third soul lamp, the City Lord's manor's captive dragon-eating sharks suddenly went berserk collectively.

These ancient aberrant species, which should have been sleeping deep in the cold pool, used bone spurs to slit their own abdomens, hurling their viscera—tainted with Yan Buji's aura—into the air to destroy themselves!

The phantom of Xisha Lao Gui hovering above the blood pool suddenly solidified to three-tenths: "See?"

The Nine-Loop Thunder Whip lashed apart the phantom, yet it brought forth a string of eerie laughter.

Black patterns on Xiong Tian Gang's face writhed like living things, which he branded into a scorch scar with thunder beads: "Three drops of dragon blood for three days of your action."

"Ten days." A half-body of Xisha Lao Gui emerged from the blood pool, his withered finger pointing at the mural behind the City Lord's throne: "Add this painting, the Eight Wastelands Hunt Dragon Diagram."

The primordial thunder dragon sealed within the mural suddenly opened its vertical pupils, and the entire bronze hall creaked under the dragon's might.

Xiong Tian Gang's eye corner burst, and the thunder whip slowly lowered: "If you fail......"

"I will compensate you with my fate." Xisha Lao Gui's true form fully manifested, behind him hovering a destiny wheel woven from a hundred thousand karma lines: "But before that...."

He suddenly lunged at the mural, tearing open a black fissure at the dragon's reverse scale: "First, let's collect some interest."

When Yan Buji crushed the sixth human-faced poison spider, the secret art of scorching fire in hot oil suddenly ignited black flames in his spirit platform.

Lin Qingli's ice silk wrapped around his wrist and she retreated hastily; the sand where he had stood began to seep out a dark green fluid, within which appeared a trigram drawn in blood by Xisha Lao Gui.

"Kan is water, Li is fire......" Yan Buji wiped the black blood from his lips: "This old ghost is inverting the five phases' directions!"

As soon as the Soul-Suppressing Seal was cast forth, an invisible force pressed it back into his palm; the sun and moon in the sky suddenly appeared simultaneously, and their light cut a checkerboard-shaped scorch mark across the sand sea.

Twelve golden-armored puppets burst from the sand, their eye sockets throbbing with Xisha Lao Gui's blood-soul fire.

Lin Qingli's ice soul sword slashed the puppets' necks, yet it sprayed a string of karma ripples: "These are karma incarnations; cutting them is useless!"

Yan Buji tore open his collar to reveal the chaotic azure lotus at his heart; the lotus core's grains rotated counterclockwise: "Let's gamble on a temporal-spatial dislocation!" He grabbed Lin Qingli's wrist and slammed into the nearest puppet, activating the Nether Weave Needle at the moment of contact.

In the instant the void rift swallowed the two, all the puppets self-detonated, and a violent karma surge hurled the hundred-li sand sea into the sky.

The shockwave overturned Xisha Lao Gui's skull carriage, yet he did not anger but laughed; his withered hand plunged into his own chest and pulled out half a spine: "Found you......"

The spine turned into a stream of light shooting southeast, with sand grains along the way automatically condensing into markers pointing to the oasis.

When Yan Buji fell out of the void, the rushing water vapor made his pupils contract sharply.

The oasis before him was no more than ten li square; emerald-like lake water reflected nine full moons, and between the shadows of the swaying trees on the shore starlight glimmered.

Lin Qingli's ice silk, upon touching the lake surface, immediately formed seven-colored ice flowers: "What rich water-elemental spiritual energy!"

"Something's off." Yan Buji pressed her wrist; the water-elemental Dao markings on his Kunpeng hammer were flashing wildly: "Thirty li out it's still soul-devouring quicksand, yet here there is uncontaminated spiritual energy."

He kicked up a stone and threw it toward the thicket, startling hundreds of glowing butterflies, each wing bearing human-eye patterns.

Lin Qingli suddenly let out a muffled groan; her natal ice soul showed cracks: "Something is devouring my extreme cold Dao Mark......"

Before her words faded, the lake water suddenly boiled, and the nine full moons turned into nine pallid pupils.

The swaying trees twisted into bone-spike cages, and the ground's sand and gravel became writhing jade insect eggs.

As Yan Buji retreated violently, he found his Asura armor weighing as much as a thousand jin, and saw countless transparent roots piercing the seams of his armor.

"Devouring Dao Ancient Tree!"

He activated the Swallow Desire Pot, pouring out a sea of desire to stir the roots: "This is no oasis; it's a trap cultivated and laid by Xisha Lao Gui!"

From the lake's center rose a half-virtual, half-solid dharma aspect of Xisha Lao Gui, a hundred thousand karma lines dangling from its fingertips: "Hehe, thanks to you two for watering my destiny tree."

The jade insect eggs burst open one after another, each spawning a puppet identical in appearance to Yan Buji: "Now it's time to harvest the fruit......"

When Lin Qingli shattered the seventh puppet, her ice soul sword's blade was already covered in black, vein-like patterns.

Yan Buji's Kunpeng hammer struck the jade lake surface, yet it only raised a circle of eerie laughter lines.

Xisha Lao Gui's dharma aspect sat leisurely on the destiny tree's branches, his fingertips entwined with the karma lines peeled from the two of them: "The time has come."

The jade lake water suddenly inverted upward, revealing an altar beneath made of countless cultivators' skulls piled together.

Xiong Tian Gang's roar rose from the altar's center; he had actually been sewn onto the Eight Wastelands Hunt Dragon Diagram by Xisha Lao Gui using karma lines, the dragon's reverse scale embedded in his dantian: "Old ghost, you dare......"

"I'll borrow your City Lord's fortune for a moment." Xisha Lao Gui's true form emerged from Yan Buji's shadow, his withered hand reaching for Yan Buji's Swallow Desire Pot: "As for you...."

Behind him, the destiny wheel suddenly lacked a corner: "I'll use your life to fill it!"

At the critical moment, Yan Buji crushed the Nether Weave Needle hidden under his tongue; its tip pierced the void, erupting a void surge that swept all three into the core of the destiny tree.

Amid Lin Qingli's scream, they saw the tree's heart sealing Xisha Lao Gui's rotting true form—a corpse crawling with maggots—using bony fingers to inscribe new karma in the void......

"Damn powerful old ghost, but I've fallen for your Dao!" Yan Buji's face darkened.

"Hmph, a dead person doesn't need to say so much!" Xisha Lao Gui's voice came over, obviously already having murderous intent.