Chapter 18 - Chapter 18

The unlucky heavy sword weighed dozens of kilograms, and Xuan Ji's hand was stuck to it. His wrist was forced to twist in a very awkward position, and he couldn't use any strength. The black flames rushed towards him, and the sword was also stuck by several white bone claws, leaving him in a dilemma.

Seeing the situation was not good, Xuan Ji immediately changed his attitude: "Senior, I was possessed just now. I am a jerk. How about we unite and face the outside world together?"

Sheng Lingyuan was gentle and polite, and he replied, "Good."

After that, they continued their efforts to break the sword and to use each other as a shield. They had a high degree of tacit understanding and were truly a pair of bad friends who had met each other too late.

The white bone claws appeared out of nowhere and were incredibly powerful. However, the two of them were not afraid, as one could summon lightning and the other could repel evil spirits. Originally, they didn't take the strong fighting power of the white bone claws too seriously. Unfortunately, no matter how powerful one's fighting power was, it was no match for their internal conflict. The cold black flames greedily surged along the sword and quickly enveloped Xuan Ji's entire body under Sheng Lingyuan's deliberate guidance. At this time, the black hole that had extended its white bone claws emitted a powerful gravitational force and sucked in goat-bearded man, Xuan Ji, and Sheng Lingyuan, who were trapped in the sword.

With a "snap," they disappeared, leaving only Xuan Ji's broken wristband and a stunned Luo Cuicui, who was watching the whole process up close. From his perspective, Xuan Ji was like someone who was trying to give himself to the white bone claws even though they didn't want him. He looked as eager as an old father who would throw pork belly into the bowl of his child who was trying to lose weight. He finally succeeded in being captured!

Luo Cuicui was amazed by the concept of "leading the charge" and "unwavering commitment." He rushed forward with his green vines swaying in the wind, and grabbed Xuan Ji's lost wristband. Tears filled his eyes as he choked up and said, "This must be a martyr, right? He must be a martyr!"

Xuan Ji, the "martyr," and his sword were dragged into the darkness. As they fell, the goat-bearded man had already passed out and was no longer conscious. In that instant, Xuan Ji quickly grabbed his collar, and at the same time, a pair of huge wings burst out of his back, tearing his clothes apart.

Dazzling flames danced on the wings, cutting through the darkness. Sheng Lingyuan was caught off guard, and his breath - if he still had any - suddenly stopped as his eyes were burned by the wings. His vision was glued to the dazzling wings, and his head was struck by a sharp pain, as if someone had hammered his skull open.

At the same time, all the sounds around Xuan Ji suddenly disappeared from his ears. Before he could even react, the heavy sword in his hand suddenly became scorching hot, and he felt a burning sensation in his palm!

Xuan Ji was not afraid of fire, he would often test the temperature of the oil and fire when cooking, so he had never felt the sensation of being burned before. He initially thought that his palm had been pierced by something sharp, but then the sword seemed to change its nature, becoming denser than a neutron star, and directly pulled him down - the sword handle still stuck in his hand!

The force of the fall was unstoppable, and Xuan Ji was like a moth trapped in a spider web. Even flapping his wings like an electric fan was of no use, and he was dragged down along with the sword.

He could only curse Sheng Lingyuan's ancestors in his heart, while wrapping the huge wings around himself. With a loud crash, Xuan Ji slammed onto the ground like a fireball, and the flexible wings bounced him up and rolled him over ten meters away, leaving him feeling as if his shoulder blades were about to shatter from the pain. The wings suddenly disappeared, and his upper body, including his sweater and coat, became a dark beggar's attire. He saw stars in front of his eyes and almost passed out, struggling to catch his breath. After a while, he finally recovered and found that he had successfully let go of the sword handle, which was now lying beside him, and the heavenly demon inside was either dead or unconscious, without even a thought in his mind.

The goat-bearded lay motionless next to him, and Xuan Ji quickly checked his breathing, thankfully finding that he was still alive. He breathed a sigh of relief, and then checked his own body for any broken bones.

With a movement, he heard a crisp sound under his feet. 

"Hmm? What did I step on?" 

Xuan Ji hesitated for a moment before snapping his fingers, and a small flame rolled out from his fingertips. 

As he shone it downwards, he exclaimed, "Holy sh*t!"

He leapt up, his wings unfurling once again, suspending him in mid-air. The burning light on his wings illuminated the ground, revealing that this eerie place was incredibly vast. Wherever the light reached, there were human bones covering the ground, stacked layer upon layer, as far as the eye could see. Bones of all shapes and sizes stared up at the sky, and from Xuan Ji's perspective, it seemed as if they were all fixated on him. The dark eye sockets glinted with an eerie light from the flames.

"Senior...hello? Hey, senior, are you still alive?" Xuan Ji felt goosebumps all over his body, and his throat was dry. He reached out and his heavy sword floated up from the ground, accompanied by a swarm of reluctant white bones.

Having learned his lesson from before, Xuan Ji didn't dare touch the hilt of the sword, keeping his hand a safe ten centimeters away from it as it hovered beside him. "Say something, this place is too creepy...hello?"

For a while, the sword remained still, and just as Xuan Ji began to doubt the signal strength of this place, he heard Sheng Lingyuan say, "Don't make noise..." His voice had become distant, as if he was separated by something.

Xuan Ji thought to himself, "Wait, why can't I hear what he's thinking anymore?"

With no response from Sheng Lingyuan, Xuan Ji confirmed his suspicion: the door constructed by Sheng Lingyuan in their shared consciousness had disappeared.

Sheng Lingyuan had no time to deal with these issues. He felt cold, and the warm flames on Xuan Ji's wings only made him feel colder, like he had fallen into an icy abyss. He couldn't remember anything related to these wings, but he inexplicably felt that they were familiar... and terrifying.

It was strange. He was a reckless person who feared nothing, so why was he scared now? 

Sheng Lingyuan simply couldn't remember anything, and under the watchful gaze of the bones, his head felt like it was going to explode. Many dusty memories were clamoring to be unearthed, all jumbled together without any rhyme or reason, wailing, screaming, and howling... and someone screaming shrilly, "Where are you? You fraud, where are you!"

The sound was heart-wrenching, every word was like thorns and thistles, scraping past his ears as if it wanted to tear off his flesh. Just then, a hand suddenly reached out and tentatively grabbed the hilt of his sword. The hand was slender, not as thin and weak as a young person's, nor was it particularly thick and reliable, but it was dry, warm, and filled with vitality and liveliness. With a gentle grip, it brought Sheng Lingyuan back to reality.

The screams and cries suddenly receded into the distance, and Sheng Lingyuan's ears cleared. He heard the voice of the little demon say, "Hey, it seems like our 'telepathy' is broken. Can you feel it?"

Sheng Lingyuan: "...yes."

Really.

He listened carefully and couldn't hear what Xuan Ji was thinking. But at the same time, the desire to drink blood emerged once again.

This made Sheng Lingyuan suddenly have a vague guess: "Be careful not to get blood on me."

Xuan Ji immediately reacted, "Do you think it's because of the blood that we were like that just now? What's the principle behind it?"

Sheng Lingyuan didn't answer, but looked down at the pile of corpses beneath his feet.

Xuan Ji was probably an adept at being two-faced and didn't feel embarrassed at all. He boldly suggested to Sheng Lingyuan, "Hey, you know, even though you tricked me, I tricked you too. So let's just call it even and I'll forgive you."

Sheng Lingyuan sneered, "Your generosity knows no bounds."

"It's all good," Xuan Ji flapped his wings and flew up a bit, "Since our main conflict is resolved and we're both in trouble now, and we don't even know where we are...let's rebuild our relationship, what do you think?"

Sheng Lingyuan thought it was a good idea. After all, they were both perfectly in sync when it came to being treacherous and deceitful. They could easily tear each other apart if something went wrong, without feeling any guilt. They got along easily and happily.

"I know where we are," Sheng Lingyuan said, "Hold your breath."

Xuan Ji: "Huh? Why..."

"Shh, haven't you heard it yet?"

Xuan Ji shuddered and, along with Sheng Lingyuan, held his breath and concentrated for a moment. He heard a whispering sound - like a small group of people murmuring something together in a large auditorium that could accommodate thousands of people.

At the same time, he noticed that the goat-bearded man he had thrown into the pile of bones was moving.

"That person seems to have stood up," Xuan Ji told Sheng Lingyuan, but felt that something was wrong and flew up a bit.

The fire fell on the goat-bearded man, who rolled his eyes and tilted his head to one side, clearly still dizzy. Like a puppet on a string, he stiffly lifted his legs and jumped around in place, giggling like a mischievous child with a "giggling" sound.

Something was moving inside his loose coat, and Xuan Ji stared at it intently. As the goatee man danced, his movements became larger and a small piece of white bone slipped out of his sleeve and bounced on the ground twice before wriggling back into his pants!

Beneath his clothes, the bones were controlling his movements!

"What the hell is this..." Xuan Ji said.

"This is the tomb of the witch people," Sheng Lingyuan said softly.

Xuan Ji thought he heard a hint of weakness in the demon's voice.

"What? What kind of tomb is this mass grave?"

"Witch people, have you never heard of them?" Sheng Lingyuan was silent for a while, then whispered, "After thousands of years, even their names are forgotten."

Xuan Ji frowned slightly. He had seen the words "Dongchuan Witches Book" on some of his family's old bamboo slips, and that was where he found records of "heavenly demon" incidents.

Dongchuan... Witches – so witches weren't a sect, but a real race that had existed?

Were they ancestors of minority groups?

"My history isn't very good, what do you mean by 'witches’?" Xuan Ji asked.

Sheng Lingyuan spoke a language that Xuan Ji had never heard before.

"Hmm?" Xuan Ji said.

"This is the language of the witch people," Sheng Lingyuan said. "Teach it to them."

Xuan Ji hesitated for a moment, recalSheng Lingyuan Lingyuan's tone, and repeated the convoluted "gurgling" sound and the white bone movements.

Sheng Lingyuan wondered, "Why do you suddenly trust me without asking what it means?"

Xuan Ji shamelessly said, "Ah, I'm just a simple person who doesn't like to think too much."

Sheng Lingyuan scoffed at this nonsense and didn't bother to mock him.

After a brief moment of "heart-to-heart communication," the two of them probably had a better understanding of each other. Essentially, they were of the same kind, and their perspectives on things were actually quite similar. Although they wouldn't hesitate to fight to the death, they were both very good at creating a harmonious and friendly atmosphere when there was no conflict of interest. Since they could no longer hear each other's heartbeat, their main conflict had disappeared, and they were not in a hurry to get rid of each other for the time being. 

If Sheng Lingyuan wanted to come out of the sword, he would have to rely on Xuan Ji to figure out a way, unless he wanted to be trapped in the sword and be used as a javelin by the skeletons in this pit. Otherwise, it was really unnecessary to harm the sword's owner here.

The white bones on Goatbeard's body "heard" this sentence of non-standard shaman language and slowly turned to Xuan Ji, "looked" at him, and then staggered forward.

Sheng Lingyuan: "Follow me."

Xuan Ji: "Where are we going?"

"Didn't you ask me where the human-faced butterfly came from?" Sheng Lingyuan's voice sounded somewhat distant. "The origin is here."

Xuan Ji's heart jumped and he quickly followed. As they flew a few hundred meters with the staggering Goatbeard, there was still no end in sight, and he couldn't help asking, "How many bodies are there here in total?"

"Forty-one thousand, six hundred and thirty-six," replied Sheng Lingyuan.

"...What?" Xuan Ji was shocked for a while before saying, "How did you know, did you count their heads?"

"Of course, I know," said Sheng Lingyuan calmly. "I killed them all myself."