Chapter 272: Āyàn, I must ultimately grow up

Huicong struggled violently.

At first he shouted 'Kill! Kill!' from his mouth.

He desperately waved both hands, one as if holding a weapon, the other forming seals, but his hands and feet were fixed to the torture rack; steel nails as thick as chopsticks were driven deep, and any movement made blood spill.

The entire torture rack clattered as he shook it.

He kept shouting battle cries for a full quarter hour.

The witchcraft notes record that dream scenes change in an instant.

In reality, a quarter hour might have already become many days in the Dream Weaving Space.

I first tried to actively use witchcraft to control a person's consciousness; it was somewhat taxing, and bean-sized sweat droplets trickled down my forehead.

Liu Junyan and the others watched me nervously, but dared not speak up to interrupt.

After all, I was performing a ritual; being interrupted midway could easily cause a backlash.

After a quarter hour, Huicong's struggling weakened; he suddenly opened his eyes, staring at his brown-black eyeballs, bloodshot pupils, his eyes almost splitting.

He stared blankly ahead, as if seeing something unimaginable.

"Impossible, impossible!"

"How could a Corpse Goblin be defeated? How could a Corpse Goblin possibly be burned to death by fire?"

"Impossible… mmm…"

Blood tears slid from his eye sockets; his whole person resembled vegetation ravaged by a storm and scorching sun, quickly withering away.

In an instant, his beard and hair turned white, his skin cracked like pine bark, his head drooped, devoid of vitality.

That was the despair after long plotting, standing on the edge of victory only to be killed in one blow; Huicong's whole body exuded a deathly aura.

My whole body trembled; between my brows felt like a burning ball of fire, hot and painful, over just twenty-odd minutes, as if trying to drain all my vital energy.

It turned out that activating Ancient Witchcraft consumed so much mental energy.

Fortunately I held up.

At the moment Huicong's head drooped, I formed hand seals and shouted loudly: "Gather!"

As my voice fell, Liu Junyan's large hand already covered my lower back, supporting my body, he asked anxiously: "Xiao Jiu, are you alright?"

I smiled at him: "It's fine."

Huicong again lifted his head sharply, looking at me blankly.

Immediately, he realized that everything he had seen in the Dream Weaving Space just now was false.

It was a near-death dream I crafted for him.

He angrily roared at me, over and over, like an uncontrollable beast, wishing to devour me alive.

But after venting his anger, only a deep sense of powerlessness remained.

Yes, everything shown in the Dream Weaving Space is false, yet I have the ability to weave for him such a true‑false dream, completely disturbing his mind.

The more confident Huicong was in his abilities, the more terrifying it seemed to him.

At this moment, he knew he had truly lost.

I spoke up in time: "Huicong, perhaps you think that as long as you don't loosen your lips we can't find the Corpse Goblin, right? But I want to tell you, you're wrong! Totally wrong! Questioning you is giving you a chance."

I paused, then continued: "Let's do this: I'll mention a name you should know; compared to you, I think he understands the Corpse Goblin better."

Huicong's eyes, reddened by blood tears, stared fixedly at me; he squeezed out a word from between his teeth: "Who?"

"Zhao Zixun."

I was gambling.

I was betting that the Red Flag Child hadn't mistaken the scent; the smell on the Corpse Goblin's body, he had once smelled on Zhao Zixun's body.

He said that was the scent he smelled when they last met before Zhao Zixun's mishap.

And before Zhao Zixun's mishap, following Chen Ping, he had experienced a great battle.

That battle initially had victorious reports sent back, but then suddenly turned into defeat.

Only afterward did Chen Ping begin the Yin Soldiers' Path.

What led Chen Ping to make that decision?

I thought, regarding the Corpse Goblin, I had already obtained the answer.

Indeed, when Huicong heard those three words "Zhao Zixun", his bloodshot eyes widened further, his dry lips trembling nonstop.

I knew I had guessed correctly.

I stepped forward, lowered my voice, and said: "It's a shame; you were given a chance but couldn't seize it, so it's not our fault."

Having said that, I strode out.

As I passed Hui Yumo, I casually dropped: "Yumo, take care of it."

After a brief silence, a hysterical shout suddenly came from behind Huicong: "I speak! I say it all! I was manipulated by that Great Lama; the old thing is too biased; my elder brother died, the Gray Immortal Hall should rightly have passed to me, but the old thing wants to give it to that tiny Gray Little Jump; where does she place me? She's letting Gray Little Jump trample my face, trample my dignity to rise above! Could I not think of another way? I was forced…"

I ignored Huicong's roar and strode out of the dungeon.

The moment I left the dungeon, my legs went weak and I almost fell.

Liu Junyan reached out and grabbed me, heartbroken: "What's the point of being strong? With me here, you don't need to push yourself like this."

"But… you won't always be around." I eased, saying: "Āyàn, I must ultimately grow up on my own."

The words of the Empty Silence Abbott I have always kept in my heart.

If Liu Junyan is destined to wander the world for ten years, then these ten years I must stand on my own.

I will guard the Dang Pu well, waiting for him.

Liu Junyan understood my meaning; he embraced me, and solemnly said in my ear: "Xiao Jiu, you are excellent; in my heart you have always been the kindest, most resilient girl."

After saying that, he bent down, lifted me horizontally, and returned to our room.

He placed me on the bed, wrung out a hot towel, and helped me wipe my face and hands.

None of us slept.

I gazed toward the window, watching the daylight grow bit by bit, waiting in silence.

Hui Yuemo's movements were faster than I had imagined.

She personally came over and told me about Hui Chong's confession.

Hui Chong said, the southwest direction five li outside the grave pit was once an ancient battlefield; over a hundred years ago, a strange war broke out there, and one of the opposing sides was a great general named Zhao Zixun, brave and skilled in battle, capable of fighting a hundred alone.

Not long after the war ended, a great lama approached him to discuss building a corpse-raising ground to nurture hopping corpses.

In that war, the hopping corpse suffered Heavy Damage at the hands of Zhao Zixun, and it requires a large amount of vital essence and Spiritual Qi to be nourished.

The great lama promised that, once the hopping corpse recovered, he would help Hui Chong seize power.

At that time, Hui Chong's elder brother had been dead for over ten years, yet the Old Lady Hui never relinquished authority to him; instead, she doted even more on Hui Xiaotiao.

Hui Chong keenly sensed the danger, and thus he immediately found common ground with the great lama.

But he never expected that even Heaven would help him.

Just as the Nine Heavens Trapping Soul Formation was completed, Hui Xiaotiao was pressed beneath the Formation Array, his life or death unknown.

Hui Chong, on one hand, strove to perform well in the Hui Immortal Hall, hoping the Old Lady Hui would glance at him more; on the other hand, he waited for the hopping corpse to be cultivated, so it could help him return to the Hui Immortal Hall and seize power.

Finally, Hui Yuemo said solemnly: "Hui Chong said that when he first obtained that Golden Scale, the great lama had already said he would use this Golden Scale to conjure a Dragon Vein out of thin air, guide the Dragon Vein into the ancient battlefield, so that the tens of thousands of Yin soldiers in the ancient battlefield would undergo a metamorphosis, becoming like heavenly soldiers and divine generals..."