But what he who was using the Clean Water Charm did not notice was that a strange drop of green blood shone green on his left shoulder, quickly entered his skin, and disappeared without a trace.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Although you were not killed by me, you died because of me. Go and regain your life in another world. Quick!”
Wearing a painful expression, Ding Ning took out a Soul-redeeming Charm to redeem the soul of Zhai Fang. The light of the charm flickered, but nothing seemed to have happened, and no soul had been seen to go and regain its life.
This was the first time Ding Ning had used the Soul-redeeming Charm, thinking that this was a normal phenomenon, but what he did not know was that Zhai Fang had sacrificed his soul to the Demon and cursed him with his life, his soul had disappeared, and he could not regain his life anymore.
Ding Ning made Zhai Fang’s pieces of meat in a pile disappear with the Corpse-decomposing Water and then cleaned the room with the Poison-cleansing Charm, preventing the toxins from harming people. Seeing no more traces, Ding Ning left quietly.
What he did not know was that in the depths of a mountain in Xiangxi thousands of miles away from Ninghai, a huge sarcophagus was enshrined in an ancient-looking, rough stone hall. In front of the sarcophagus was a gray-haired man in a black robe who had a dark complexion and looked as miserable as a ghost, sitting on the ground to meditate with his eyes closed.
There were no traces of modernization in the big hall. Only rows of bronze lamps were lit on the surrounding walls, exuding a strong strange smell, and no one knew what oil was the fuel.
Suddenly, a bronze lamp flickered constantly, and the orange flame suddenly turned into a strange green, which made the hall that was already spooky even spookier. One would shudder if he came in.
“Zhai Fang’s Soul-guiding Lamp is off?”
The white-haired old man suddenly opened his eyes, trembled all over, and shot a terrifying sharp look from his old murky eyes. As his black robe moved of its own accord, his terrifying momentum increased wildly, with his infinity angry roar reverberating in the hall, “Who, who on earth dared to kill my grandson and forced him to sacrifice his soul, making his soul disappear? No matter who you are, I will cut you into pieces. Wu Tianxie, although you didn’t know my grandson’s identity, as head of Demon Cult, you should also take responsibility for my grandson’s death and must give me a satisfactory account.”
With a flash, the white-haired man in the black robe had disappeared from the big hall, but the green-flame oil lamp still kept burning. A vaguely seen illusive figure struggled with continuous pain and gave out silent and miserable cries until the green light flashed and the bronze light went out completely.
On this day, Zhai Ying, an elder of Xiangxi Corpse-driven Sect who had been cultivating for dozens of years without coming out, left the mountain with raging anger and conducted a bloody killing in the complicated human world. Wu Tianxie, an excellent kung fu practitioner who was ranked the 317th on the Fighting List, was hunted and had no shelter to escape to. If the former head of Demon Cult had not persuaded Zhai Ying with kind words after getting the news and coming out of his cultivating place, promised to track down the real murderer to give him a satisfactory account, and also offered compensation, Zhai Ying’s anger would not have been quelled and the entire Demon Cult would have been killed.
But this was the reality. Demon Cult was a small sect, not in the least comparable to a great sect like Xiangxi Corpse-driven Sect. Although the former head of Demon Cult was not in any degree weaker than Zhai Ying and nearly half of Demon Cult’s disciples had been killed, he had to ignore the insult and humiliation and smiled at Zhai Ying.
Wu Tianxie, who was suffering from the unexpected scourge, felt aggrieved. “Old jerk, you did not inform me when you put your grandson into our Demon Cult secretly. What was your intention?
“How could I know that unlucky guy is your grandson? If I had already known that, I would have treated him so respectfully as my ancestor and would not have dared to allow him to move from place to place. Now your grandson is dead, and you accuse me. How shameless!”
Yet, he could not do anything but to send someone to ask about the news while praying that the Gu insects Zhai Fang raised had not all died and could return to Demon Cult as soon as possible.
The reason was that when each Demon Cult disciple joined the cult, they would raise a kind of Shadow Gu with their essential blood. As long as the Shadow Gu could return within seven days and a secret method was used on it, the virtual scene in which the disciple of the cult was killed would be restored, and then the killer would be found.
Zhai Ying, who stayed at the headquarters of Demon Cult, refused to leave, looking stern and aggressive, but he was quite happy in fact.
Zhai Fang was his grandson, but he was not outstanding among his many grandsons, so his death was nothing important. In the beginning, he was very angry, but after the former head of Demon Cult promised to teach him the way to raise the Brain-eating Gu as compensation, his anger soon disappeared.
Corpse-driven Sect had always been known for making corpse puppets. Although making a high-level corpse puppet was easy, it was very hard to control it as flexibly as a person controlling his arm.
The characteristic of the Brain-eating Gu was that it could swallow a creature’s brains and replace its brain as the commander. For Corpse-driven Sect, this was their unique way to control the corpse puppet.
That he sent Zhai Fang to Demon Cult was to wait for an opportunity to get the method of making the Brain-eating Gu. Now Zhai Fang was dead, but his ultimate goal had been achieved, so Zhai Ying was happy.
Although Zhai Fang was an unimportant grandson, he was Zhai Ying’s grandson, and no one could kill him only because they wanted to. His insistent stay at Demon Cult was for two reasons: One, he waited for learning the way of making the Brain-eating Gu; two, he waited for Wu Tianxie to give him an account and then found out the murderer to get revenge.
Of course, Ding Ning knew nothing about all this. At this moment, he had returned to his previous room and threw a USB flash drive to Halidan.
“It turns out that Kalaman wanted to kill me, and I almost misjudged Xikala.”
Halidan looked sullen and never expected to see such truth.
“So, sometimes seeing may not be believing.”
Helplessly, Ding Ning extended his hands with the palms facing upward. As a friend, he had done everything he could. As for the way to deal with this matter, it was Halidan’s business.
When Zhai Fang told him the truth, he was also surprised. Initially, he thought that Xikala was an accomplice at least, but unexpectedly, she was also cheated by Kalaman.
The truth was that the man Xikala sincerely loved was Yiding of her age, and the two of them had privately decided to marry. After learning that she and Halidan were engaged, she became very sad and went to tell Yiding in tears, but Yiding could not do anything about it.
Unexpectedly, Kalaman hid nearby and heard it and immediately had the deadly one-stone-two-birds plot to kill Halidan, making Yiding the scapegoat.
In an accidental opportunity, he came across Zhai Fang who was looking for the Spiritual Gu from place to place. After being stunned by Zhai Fang’s magical techniques, he served him like a God with delicious food.
Zhai Fang was just an incompetent small Gu master and had no qualification to be a God in Shenzhou, but after he was worshipped like a God by a prince like Kalaman, he became exhilarated and more pretentious.
Kalaman had the ambition to take the throne, but he had been unsure if he could kill Halidan. Now there was a God-given opportunity, so how could he let it go? Therefore, he promised to pay Zhai Fang lucrative sums for killing Halidan.
Although Zhai Fang’s Gu technique was not incompetent, it was very easy to deal with an ordinary person like Halidan. To covet the reward, he agreed immediately.
But to put the Gu, he needed to have Halidan’s hair or essential blood, nails and other items as media. As the crown prince, Halidan enjoyed a very high-level defense, and it was not easy to get these things.
So, Zhai Fang put the Mind-confounding Gu in Yiding and controlled him. When Yiding was in the confounded state, Zhai Fang asked him to egg Xikala to take Halidan’s hair that could be used for putting the Gu.
Xikala did not want to marry Halidan, but she did not want to take his life. When she asked him what he wanted to do, Yiding, who was controlled by Zhai Fang, bewitched her that if she did as he told her, she would not need to marry Halidan and would live with him forever, and also promised again and again that this would not kill Halidan.
Hoodwinked by love, the simple Xikala believed what Yiding said and cooperated with him to take Halidan’s hair and other things used for putting the Gu, helping Zhai Fang plant the Gu successfully.
The Spirit-eating Insect was something that Zhai Fang accidentally found in a dangerous place in Zhongdong. He did not know that was the Spirit-eating Insect and thought it was the Spiritual Gu, but after exhausting all means to raise it, he could not make it become the Gu King, so putting it in Halidan was also his experiment.
When Zhai Fang spoke of the process of getting the Spirit-eating Insect, Ding Ning didn’t believe it because the insect was invisible to the naked eye, so how could he get it?
According to Zhai Fang, that place was filled with white mists. At that time, the Gu inside him trembled and did not dare to show itself. With records in the Gu books he knew, he suspected that these white mists were composed of tiny Gu insects, so he collected some Spirit-eating Insects with a vessel and fled, and then he used his secret method to make the Spirit-eating Insects show their original form and then began to make the Gu.
Ding Ning believed it as soon as he heard it. After all, the Spirit-eating Insects did exist in the form of mists. Since there were large numbers of the Spirit-eating Insects there, the totem of the Mist Tribe was probably nearby.
So, he asked Zhai Fang to tell him the details of the terrain there, but unfortunately, Zhai Fang only roughly remembered that it was located in a desert southeast of Dibai, and it was not easy to find the place.
Ding Ning had many things to do and had to give up the plan to look for the Totem of the Mist for now, but he asked Halidan to find some people to help keep an eye on it after he returned to his homeland. No doubt, Halidan agreed instantly.
Halidan’s matter finally came to an end, but Prince Hengli began to pester Bai Qing to solve his jade carving problem. After hearing it, Ding Ning couldn’t help but grin and glare at Bai Qing.
Bai Qing had a thick skin. Previously, he was still a little embarrassed, but now when they had already been sworn brothers, he asked Hengli to go to Ding Ning without showing empty courtesy, telling him that Ding Ning was the student of the Master of the Divine Burin.
Hengli was so happy that he took Ding Ning’s hand and nagged that he wanted to see the Master of the Divine Burin. Ding Ning was so depressed and had to casually comfort him that the Master of the Divine Burin did not see outsiders, but he would ask his master to carve the jade for him, on the condition that they must keep the relationship between him and the Master of the Divine Burin a secret.
Hengli was a little disappointed that he could not go and see the Master of the Divine Burin himself, but when he thought that his sworn brother was surprisingly the student of the Master of the Divine Burin, he instantly beamed in great joy, staring at Ding Ning with a hot look which gave others gooseflesh.
“This is my bet. There are 200 million pounds in it.”
Very solemnly, Hengli took out two cards and put one of them into Ding Ning’s hand.
“What are you doing? How can I accept your money? I said I was joking just now.”
Ding Ning became sullen and said instantly.
“Fourth Brother, that’s a horse of a different color. I am a gentleman, and I’m willing to pay for what I have lost. We must do this according to the gambling agreement. I am not asked to call you ‘Big Brother’ when we meet, and that is already the great benefit I’ve got. You must take the money, or you mean to look down upon me.”
Hengli insisted with a serious face, and that unquestionable look made Ding Ning depressed, so he had no choice but to accept it.
“Also, there are 400 million pounds in this card, which are almost equivalent to 3.4 billion Shenzhou currency. It is the money I pay your teacher to carve the jade. I don’t know if it is enough, but you can tell me if it is not.”
Prince Hengli showed a business look, stared at Ding Ning with his unblinking turquoise eyes, and begged earnestly. “I prepared a piece of emerald jade. Please ask your master Master of the Divine Burin to carve it more carefully because this is a gift to my grandmother for her birthday.”
