Chapter 456

I instinctively flung my hand, trying to throw off the Língchí dāo.

But that blood‑dripping Língchí dāo seemed to have grown on my hand, and I could not shake it off no matter what.

As I struggled helplessly, a bloody head rolled gurgling to the front of my toes.

The skin on his head had been peeled off, bloody, his eyes bulging out, the eyeballs covered in bloodshot veins.

I was frightened and stepped back, but my legs felt as if they were frozen, completely beyond my control.

I sensed the blood‑thirsty killing intent ahead, looked up, and came face to face with the Seven Halls Yama.

It was he who had severed this person's head!

No…… I felt like I was going mad.

"Ah Wu..."

A voice, both strange and familiar, issued from the mouth on that head—this voice…… wasn't it the one that appeared after I got the pawn ticket from Yin Dang Hang?

He was the one I made the deal with!

I opened my mouth to ask him something, but I could not make a sound.

This is a memory regression; I am watching my own memory from the sidelines, I can only look on, forced to accept, yet unable to do anything.

No, I don't believe any of this!

Whether it's me or Feng Wu Jiu, we could never commit such a heinous act.

I find it even harder to believe that Feng Wu Jiu and the Seven Halls Yama share such a connection!

If they had known each other long ago and jointly plotted such a heinous crime, the Seven Halls Yama would not have been so calm when seeing me.

His eyes held only my aunt!

Right, it must be a memory error.

Or perhaps someone deliberately tampered with my memory?

Then this memory regression is not simply a memory regression; could Hēimǎng have already cultivated to the level of weaving dreams into reality?

Weaving dreams into reality can indeed alter memories!

At this moment, I am utterly conflicted.

I both wish I were under the control of dream‑weaving, unwilling to believe I once committed such great slaughter in Yin Dang Hang; yet I also do not want Hēimǎng to truly have reached dream‑weaving, for that would mean his sorcery has grown powerful beyond control.

I became utterly confused, and a hissing voice suddenly came from my ears: "Ah Wu, open your eyes and behold your great achievements!"

"You once said, for the prosperity of our phoenix clan, everything under heaven can be used by us."

"Ah Wu, come back!"

"All beings are for me, all are good fruits; we are saving them!"

…

At this moment, my thoughts are in extreme turmoil.

I feel as if an invisible pair of hands is constantly stirring in my brain, making me unable to distinguish reality from illusion, or right from wrong.

As time passed, listening to those seductive words, I even felt that what he said seemed somewhat reasonable.

As the saying goes, if I do not enter hell, who will?

If I am in hell, it is to save all beings; what crime do I have?

Boom!

Just as I was gradually being led astray, a fierce sword qi burst in, the mighty Dragon Qi on the sword blade instantly enveloping my whole body.

My whole body shuddered, my thoughts jerked back, and I found my body trembling in the seawater.

Not far ahead, Liu Junyan gripped the Ancient Bronze Sword, its tip driven deep from the tower's summit, the Dragon Qi on the sword blade flowing down from the tip along the tower's body… the black python that had coiled around the tower had already vanished.

I felt dazed, my body swaying as if about to collapse, a sharp pain in my lower abdomen, blood continuously trickling from the corner of my mouth.

"Xiao Jiu!"

Liu Junyan swam over, scooped me up by the waist, lightly patted my cheek, and infused a bit of true qi into my body, forcibly pulling my consciousness back.

"It's alright."

I heard his voice.

Then he put one arm around me, the other parting the seawater, and brought me upward.

I was lying on Liu Junyan's shoulder.

As he carried me upward, I was facing the tower below.

The entire tower was enveloped in Dragon Qi, which emanated from the Ancient Bronze Sword's blade.

This Dragon Qi was originally meant to pass through the Linghai Forbidden Ground and be carried away toward the true south.

Now, Liu Junyan, via the Ancient Bronze Sword, has forcibly resealed this Dragon Qi back into the Linghai Forbidden Ground.

By doing so, he can retain a strand of Dragon Qi in Linghai, use it to suppress the resentful killing qi there, and most importantly, break the enemy's formation array.

One of the eight formation arrays has been broken; the remaining seven are no longer complete.

But…… I struggled to rise.

Liu Junyan, though puzzled, also stopped and released me.

I endured my bodily discomfort and swam toward the tower again.

Under the Dragon Qi's deterrence, the vortex and resentful killing qi vanished.

I descended from the tower's tip bit by bit, not missing a single inch of its body.

As I swam to the middle‑lower section of the tower, a bright light suddenly flared within the tower's body.

Immediately, a phantom appeared within the tower's body.

That phantom sat cross‑legged, hands clasped before it, and in its hand lay a piece of golden scale armor!

That piece of golden scale is one size larger than Liu Junyan's seven scales, deeper in color, and looks very powerful at a glance.

But at this moment, that piece of golden scale was already covered in cracks.

Light shone through the cracks…… it was the White Dragon's inner core!

No wonder!

No wonder the White Dragon's entrails had been ripped out, yet he guarded his inner core; it turned out he had also cultivated a heart‑protecting armor, using this golden scale to guard his inner core.

If I hadn't come down from above, hadn't discovered the Hēimǎng, hadn't gone back and forth, this inner core would sooner or later belong to the Hēimǎng!

The golden scale couldn't hold out much longer.

Liu Junyan also followed me back into the Pagoda Formation, staying by my side, his body covered in scale wounds.

He had originally come with me, but when he saw this phantom suddenly appear in the tower's body, he also froze.

The phantom seemed to sense Liu Junyan's arrival; it slowly lifted its head and gazed at him across the tower's body.

At this moment, my heart was a tangle of five flavors.

What is Liu Junyan to the White Dragon?

No one could give a definite answer.

But that doesn't matter; what matters is what the White Dragon thinks.

The phantom was the last wisp of Dragon Qi that the White Dragon's seal left lingering in the tower's body, and also his obsession to protect his inner core unto death.

Just like Dahui Chan Master in the Mount Song Canyon High Tower, just like my mother in Dark Wutong Mountain, this obsession clung to them until it completely dissipated.

And at this moment, the instant the phantom faced Liu Junyan, it loosened the hands it had clasped before its chest.

The golden scale shattered completely, and the phantom vanished.

That White Dragon's inner core pierced the tower's body, with an unstoppable force, directly sinking into Liu Junyan's body.

Liu Junyan's body stiffened, and then he involuntarily transformed into the true form of the Báijiāo.

The flood dragon's body was covered in blood, large patches of scale armor peeled off; some spots had scorched skin, others had flesh turned outward, even exposing bone…… I knew that after this Heavenly Tribulation, Liu Junyan would surely be gravely injured, but I hadn't expected him to be hurt this badly.

But soon, his wounds healed at a speed visible to the naked eye; after all his scales shed and grew back anew, even the pair of horns on his head underwent a change……