Chapter 165: Open Up for Me!

It was September, and the mansion had grown slightly cooler.

Xie Jinhuan lay on his pillow, feeling as though he had entered a strange realm, where he could see sinuous river-like qi channels flowing through flesh, bone, and blood.

Thin strands of green mist, tireless little spirits, drifted down from the river's upper reaches, merging into flesh and bone, methodically nourishing and strengthening them until not a single flaw remained visible.

The green mist drifting from upstream seemed endless; he could not intervene or think, only observe like a god, watching his body visibly grow stronger, even feeling a sense of "When the spring wind delights, the horse's hooves race swift; when life is sweet, one must revel fully."

But for some reason, as his physique grew ever more perfect, a sudden dread of impending death surfaced in his subconscious!

This feeling grew stronger, stronger!

In the end, it drowned out his joy, leaving him restless as if seated on needles…

When this feeling reached its peak, Xie Jinhuan, with sheer willpower, forcibly severed the green river's flow, halting his physique's further growth, then withdrew his spirit back into his mind, jolting awake as from a nightmare.

Whoosh—

An unfamiliar room and furnishings came into view; outside the window, the sunset's afterglow lingered, and beside the bed lay a large cat in a dark green dress…

Xie Jinhuan sat up on the bed, as if waking from a blackout, having forgotten everything from the dream, his eyes blank.

How did I fall asleep…

Oh right, I just ate Zi Su's Sheng Long Huo Hu Pill…

Is it already evening…

Good thing I didn't die…

Spirit refreshed, blood and qi abundant, full of energy, even able to sense fine threads of qi flowing within his body…

His ears were extremely sharp, able to hear the faint flutter of insect wings far away and the whisper of wind through grass.

His eyes had become incredibly clear, able to see the tiny bristles on the bed canopy's silk cords…

This pill truly worked instantly—grown this much in just two hours…

But his abdomen felt bloated; it seemed the pill's potency hadn't fully dissipated, blocked somewhere…

Why am I blocking it?!

Xie Jinhuan, puzzled, noticed Wan Yi asleep beside him, and tried to raise his hand to shake her awake.

But the glasses-wearing girl beside him suddenly opened her eyes, her gaze like a demon queen atop a mountain peak.

"Huh? Wife?"

"Mmm~"

Ye Hongshang carefully studied Xie Jinhuan, who had sat up as if rising from a deathbed, and looked slightly surprised:

"You're truly impressive—holding back the pill's power and forcibly awakening your spirit. I was planning to surprise you, but now it's wasted."

Xie Jinhuan examined his arms and legs, confirmed he hadn't turned into a half-beast, then asked curiously:

"What surprise?"

Ye Hongshang rose and sat before him, helping to straighten his robe.

"Do you remember what day this is?"

Xie Jinhuan stared at the ghostly little wife, his mind racing:

"Your birthday?"

Ye Hongshang shook her head, solemnly saying:

"Today is the anniversary of our first meeting."

"Oh~… Holy shit!"

A sharp, explosive cry echoed from the guest room!

Xie Jinhuan instantly bristled, leapt up, and scanned around:

"I slept for ten days?!"

"Mm."

"Is Bing Tuozi still alive?"

"Still alive."

"Then how much time do I have left?"

"About five hours. I'm not precise without being beside you—it might be even sooner."

"… "

Xie Jinhuan felt the sky had collapsed!

He glanced outside and saw Jingcheng hadn't erupted into chaos—there must still be time. He grabbed his weapon and ran out, spotting Meiqiu fighting a rooster along the way, snatched her up:

"Gukji~~~~…?"

The voice vanished in an instant…

——

On the other side, Mount Zihui.

Zhang Guan, the Supervising Abbot, clad in Daoist robes, offered incense to each ancestral master in the Ancestral Hall, muttering:

"Ancestors, protect us—let Mount Zihui avoid any trouble. These Buddhist baldies are truly shameless; when others hold funerals, I go down to perform rites, and they still sneakily inquire about fees. I, the Supervising Abbot of Mount Zihui, got thirty taels of silver shoved into my hands—how can they accuse me of 'extorting exorbitant fees and plundering the people's wealth'…"

Little sister A Cai, following behind and bowing, chimed in:

"Thirty taels of silver can feed an ordinary family for a year—Master shouldn't have taken the silver."

"You don't know the cost of firewood and rice until you run the household—if we took nothing, how would we feed a thousand souls in the sect?"

"Just like Master, go slay demons and monsters! The imperial court just awarded ten sets of Qing Ling Pills—those pills are worth the same as Dragon's Blood Pills…"

"Sigh~"

Zhang Guan, thinking of the imperial court's reward, was delighted—ten sets of Qing Ling Pills meant ten new inner-disciple heirs, boosting the sect's strength, and abundant stock would attract promising disciples.

But a tiger like He Shi, capable of toppling a nation, is easy to kill but hard to find; Zhang Guan shook his head and sighed:

"Where are demons and monsters so easy to find? In principle, we of Mount Zihui can only capture evil spirits within the Danzhou Realm. This time, when we went out to slay demons, the Sect Master secretly entered Jingcheng, daring not to inform the capital. If the Palace of Great Yin finds out beforehand, we won't even get a sip of the soup..."

Ah Cai was just over ten years old. At this moment, her big eyes rolled, and she bowed to the Ancestral Master:

"May the Ancestral Master bless us, causing Mount Zihui to produce a few more great demons..."

"Eh? Eh?!"

Zhang Guan's face changed abruptly. He was just about to warn the Ancestral Master that the spirit in heaven should not make rash wishes, when he noticed a flash of white light over the mountains outside the Ancestral Hall:

Boom—

Lei Ting tore through the sky, followed by wind gathering and clouds swirling.

Zhang Guan frowned, stepped out of the temple door, gazed at the endless mountains in the distance, stroked his beard for a long time, and sighed:

"Mount Zihui is truly a place of good Feng Shui. Look at this thunder, how magnificent!"

Ah Cai nodded with sparkling eyes:

"Yes, yes~ It's just like undergoing tribulation."

——

Deep within Mount Zihui, heavy rain poured down.

The Wild Boar King, one meter fifty tall at the shoulder, squatted under a tree, wagging its small tail. Looking at the sudden downpour, it secretly pondered the long road of cultivation: when would it ever end?

If one day it ascended to the Boar Realm, it would definitely make those two-legged beasts who had used illusion arts to bewitch its true form into a mount understand what "thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river" meant...

Just as it was pondering this in secret, a roar came from the mountains and fields.

Boom-boom-boom...

The sound was like a dragon or python crossing the wilds, or a fierce tiger piercing through the forest.

?

The Wild Boar King flipped to its feet, pawed at the ground, and before it could figure out which Daoist friend was coming, it saw a white shadow slash horizontally through the tree canopy, stirring up falling leaves.

Swish—

Then the sound of breaking wind from the retreating figure returned in the blink of an eye, crashing down before the great tree, covered in sweat, eyes flashing like lightning!

?

The Wild Boar King sensed the newcomer was not friendly. It immediately bared its large teeth and charged straight at him. But the white shadow that landed, the human figure, possessed a physique like a human-shaped dragon or python!

It simply grabbed the boar's head with both hands, slammed it violently to the side, and pinned the massive boar body into the mud. Then it raised a hand and delivered a huge slap:

"You dare charge me?! I even fed you two handfuls of grass last time..."

"Awooo~ Awooo~..."

Crackle-pop-crackle, accompanied by screams like a pig being slaughtered...

A short while later.

Xie Jinhuan rode the powerful mountain boar, crushing through dense forest and shrubs along the way, galloping deep into the mountains. His body was washed by the autumn wind and cold rain, yet the steaming sweat could not be suppressed.

After leaving Lin Fu, in order to snatch every second, he abandoned carriages, boats, and horses, opting instead to sprint at full speed using his physique.

As a result, Zisu's pills were truly well-deserved; they were indeed 'the speed of a leopard, the strength of a bear, the endurance of a human'!

Without the ability to ride the wind and soar through the sky, he flipped over mountains and crossed rivers, traversing three hundred li, running from Luoyang to the depths of Mount Zihui, hardly pausing for breath.

Now riding on the boar's back, after only panting for a few minutes, he felt his thunderous heartbeat slow down. He raised his arm, looked at his hands, and felt that he was no longer human, but a proper demon.

Not only was his Qi circulation incredibly smooth; the Black Dragon Colliding with the Pillar no longer required gathering Qi, the Wandering Dragon Coiling the Mountain had no deficiencies, and his physical explosion was astonishing. He would definitely not lose in a head-on clash with a Demon Daoist.

Against cultivators of other sects, he was a three-stage physical cultivator who would not go berserk or lose his mind, possessing both strength and intelligence. He didn't even know how cultivators of the same realm could fight him.

However, the 'Vigorous Dragon and Tiger Pill' was indeed different from what he had expected.

This item was a pill that enhanced 'talent', raising his original Grade A talent to the Banished Immortal level, causing all six dimensions to surge dramatically.

But his realm did not advance quickly; in ten days, he had barely touched the mid-stage of the Second Rank. He was unclear whether his current foundation could cover the Demon-Suppressing Tomb formation. Even if it couldn't, he carried pills that drastically increased his cultivation.

Boom-boom-boom...

The Wild Boar King galloped at full speed.

Xie Jinhuan rested for a moment, finally able to speak, and turned his head:

"How much longer??"

"Goo-ji?"

Meiqiu flew alongside lazily above the mountain forest. Hearing the sound, she lowered her head and glanced down.

The Ghost floated like a shadow, her gaze fixed on the direction of the Demon-Suppressing Tomb:

"Anomaly has already appeared. The tomb may explode at any moment."

"Oh my..."

Xie Jinhuan dared not delay and galloped at high speed.

Ye Hongshang had been out for a month. Although she walked the world in the form of a ghost, having someone to play and fight with was far better than the hundred years of chaos inside the Demon-Suppressing Tomb.

Moreover, she felt something special about Xie Jinhuan. Upon their first meeting, she felt he was her lover from a past life. Facing parting, she didn't know if there would be a day to meet again in this life, and her heart inevitably felt a sense of loss.

After a moment of silence, Ye Hongshang floated to the front:

"Before we part, shall I let you kiss me?"

"..."

Xie Jinhuan looked at her soul-stealing, charm-snatching face, paused for a moment, and shook his head:

"When you come out as a True Person, I'll kiss you! Just consider this a nap. Without you, I'd have to make Meiqiu my wingman, and she eats more than she does..."

"Goo-ji?!"

Hearing these words, Meiqiu immediately landed and gave Xie Jinhuan's forehead a thorough beating.

Meanwhile, the rain in the deep mountains and old forests grew heavier and heavier. The sky was filled with thunder clouds, as if some flying cultivator was undergoing a lightning tribulation. This was clearly a prelude to the tomb exploding.

To restore the physical strength needed to reseal the Demon-Suppressing Tomb, Xie Jinhuan had been riding the Wild Boar King and sprinting along the way. He finally arrived at the deep mountain and ancient tomb at midnight.

Crackle-crackle, pop-pop…

The earthen mound hidden in Shenshan, covered by autumn woods and wild grass, flickered between light and dark beneath the dense Lei Guang, while the pouring rain nearly drowned out sight and sound.

Ye Hongshang glanced once, then drifted toward the mound:

"Hurry up, dig the mound open, and I'll teach you how to handle it."

Xie Jinhuan looked at the ghost-bride who had manifested a five-meter-tall carriage form, feeling a bit reluctant to part with it.

But the tomb could explode at any moment — there was no room for thought. He still drew the Tiangang Mace from his waist, and then:

Boom—

A storm dragon-tornado appeared between the mountains, like a black dragon slamming into a pillar, crashing head-on into the base of the mound.

The commotion was masked by the azure thunder. A man-high gap opened in the rock, over a zhang deep. After four such strikes, the mound was pierced through, revealing a tomb chamber with some odds and ends and three corpses inside.

The tomb chamber had an arched dome, dim and lightless. Eight tomb-guarding beasts crouched along the walls, iron locks in their mouths, connected to a Demon-Suppressing Coffin roughly a zhang across at the center.

The Demon-Suppressing Coffin was entirely jade, covered in elaborate incantations. A sword-hole on top indicated the Zhenglun Sword had once been thrust into it.

So this is the Demon-Suppressing Coffin…

Judging by the size, it can't fit a five-meter ghost-bride…

Xie Jinhuan was a bit puzzled. Following the ghost-bride's guidance, he leaped onto the Demon-Suppressing Coffin, thrust the Zhenglun Sword into it, and felt his whole body's qi surge wildly. He discovered that, with his current physique, he could indeed control the seal of the Demon-Suppressing Coffin.

Hum~

The sword-edge let out a hum, the eight chains swayed slightly, and the tomb-guarding beasts — lifeless as they seemed — glowed with a dim red light in their eyes, like eight pairs of eyes staring at the central coffin.

Ye Hongshang drifted before him, directing Xie Jinhuan to operate the grand array as her form gradually faded, a hint of reluctance in her eyes:

"Sister is waiting inside. If you arrive late, you'll face the consequences yourself."

"Understood. Sleep well — it's just a matter of closing your eyes and opening them again."

Xie Jinhuan's eyes stung a little too, but there really was no other choice right now.

Even if the ghost-bride were a bad bride, if he was going to overturn the whole world, he first had to gain enough strength to control the situation!

The consequences of blowing up the tomb now were unpredictable — his voice carried no weight, he truly couldn't afford to gamble.

Ye Hongshang drifted before him, their gazes meeting. Sensing the Demon-Suppressing Tomb slowly closing and her perception of the outside world growing weaker, she thought for a moment, then leaned forward and lightly kissed Xie Jinhuan on the lips:

"Stay safe on your own."

Their lips met.

This time there was no clipping through — the touch was utterly real!

"Phew…"

Xie Jinhuan's heart was full of reluctance. He gritted his teeth and said:

"Don't worry, I'll dig you out very soon!"

"Don't lie to sister, now. When I come out, if you've turned into an old man, I won't want you anymore."

"How could that be? Good night, wife."

"Hehe~"

Hum~

The soft laughter gradually faded, leaving only the humming of the sword and the faint clatter of trembling chains.

Clatter~ clatter~…

Xie Jinhuan knelt on the Demon-Suppressing Coffin, steadying the three-foot-long sword, pouring all his strength into returning the array to its place. But as the sound of chains swaying reached his ears, for some reason a wave of panic welled up in his heart.

It was as though he had heard this sound somewhere before, making him feel extremely agitated.

With the ghost-bride gone, it felt as if something had been carved out of his heart — hollow and empty — to the point that even breathing became difficult…

And this deathly silent, dim, lightless tomb chamber, the tomb-guarding beasts with faint glimmers in their eyes…

Xie Jinhuan couldn't recall where he had experienced this, but the inexplicable agitation and panic made it impossible for him to even concentrate.

What's going on…

Xie Jinhuan closed his eyes, listening to the chains trembling as the array patterns drove them, and racked his brain trying to recall where this panic came from.

But his memory was a blank — he couldn't summon any scene at all.

After a long period of deep contemplation, Xie Jinhuan gritted his teeth, fished out a Dao-Advancement Surge Pill, and tossed it into his mouth.

Hum~

The pill entered his belly, and his blood vessels seemed to be set alight. Frenzy and bloodlust instantly flooded his mind!

Xie Jinhuan's forehead gradually bulged with veins, his qi rampaged through his flesh and blood, his blood and marrow were being squeezed dry, battering every meridian in his body. Power surged through him, but it also scrambled his mind.

Xie Jinhuan's eyes turned crimson, his whole being became restless and overrun with wild desire, but scenes also flashed through his mind…

A towering Shanfeng that pierced the clouds, an endless Wang Yang…

A stone wall inscribed with "Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Sect," and a whole wall full of the character "Righteousness"...

A swing hanging by the sea, a back clad in a red dress…

Crash~ crash…

The sound of waves and chains mingled, coming from he knew not where. He tried to recall the face of that red-clad figure, but it was as if someone had erased it from his memory — no matter what, he could not remember…

But fortunately, this old man can tell by the rear just as well!

That full curve is the ghost-bride — it can't fool these eyes of mine…

……

Thinking of this, Xie Jinhuan suddenly understood something.

Perhaps he hadn't gone mad before losing his memory — he had gone mad after losing it!

During these three years of amnesia, he must have been with the ghost-bride the whole time — perhaps right here in this tomb, or perhaps cultivating within an illusionary realm…

The fact that he could dig out the Demon-Suppressing Tomb clearly meant it was to free the ghost-bride. Setting aside the past, even now the ghost-bride was a tremendous help to him…

And the vibration of these chains might be the barrier he must break, hence his panic and disarray...

Even if digging up the Great Qian would cause an explosion, he must have considered the consequences beforehand and been willing to bear them...

After spending a month with Ah Piao, between parting forever and flipping the table, he might well choose to flip the table...

Once he leaves this tomb chamber, he will be a righteous hero revered by all, with a beautiful wife, lovely concubines, and vast wealth; as long as he stays steady, there will be no more turmoil in his life.

But if he locks away the person he has spent day and night with in this dark, sunless cage, isolating them from the world, seeking stability and caring only for himself, then what kind of "Jinhuan" is he?

If one can be suppressed in the Demon-Suppressing Mausoleum, there must be a problem, but as long as it is good for him, that is enough...

Three years ago, when he was trapped in a desperate situation, perhaps it was the Ghost Bride who saved him...

This martial skill was also forged with the Ghost Bride's help...

Digging it up could break the Soul-Suppressing Curse, revealing where his father went, what happened during these three years, and why he must dig up the Demon-Suppressing Mausoleum...

The Ghost Bride clearly did not want to leave, did not want to stay in the grave!

She simply did not want to put him in a difficult position, so she said nothing...

"Damn it—!"

Xie Jinhuan gripped the sword hilt with both hands, veins bulging on his forehead, eyes blood-red, his thoughts a tangled mess!

Familiar yet strange images flashed in his mind, while the clanging of the chains at his ears grew increasingly irritating, gradually dispersing the rationality that could be interpreted as 'cowardice' and 'escape'; after taking a deep breath, he roared:

"I'll just see if they can really poke a hole in the sky... F***ing open!"

Clang—

Amidst the explosive shout, the three-foot sword broke free from the suppressing coffin!

A beam of red light shot skyward, instantly engulfing the shadow on the Demon-Suppressing Coffin...

(End of this chapter)