Chapter 129: The Body and Soul Can Be Controlled, But Not the Heart

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“This is a Blood Sacrifice Array! No, he’s planning to extract our life-source essence to blast open the ward!”

The moment the cultivator finished speaking, one of the twenty-four people in the formation could no longer withstand the immense influx of spiritual energy. His body exploded in a shower of blood and flesh, splattering across the savage, smiling face of Wu Yi.

“Heh heh, someone actually recognized this formation. Very good. But unfortunately… it’s too late! The Blood Sacrifice has begun!” Wu Yi licked his lips, savoring the taste of blood. He extended his right hand and made a grasping motion in the air. A red light was extracted from the dead disciple’s remains—it was his life-source essence, which had not yet dissipated.

Wu Yi threw this ball of essence into the Blood Sacrifice Array. Soon, one after another, more cultivators were unable to bear the violent spiritual energy and exploded. Without exception, their life-source essence was extracted by him and fed into the array.

Before long, Wu Yi, standing at the center of the formation, was covered in fragments of flesh and blood. But he licked his lips happily, his face ecstatic, his eyes filled with greed as he stared at the Spirit Liquid within the ward.

Because his own spiritual energy had been so depleted, Qin Haoxuan had not yet been overwhelmed by the influx of power. Ye Yiming, however, was in a different state. His dantian was filled to the brim, and the excess energy caused the veins on his forehead to bulge violently. His face was so flushed it looked as if it would burst, and his eyes bulged from their sockets—a clear sign that his body was about to explode.

Panic seized Qin Haoxuan, but like the others, he was completely immobilized. He hastily gathered his spiritual sense, molding it into a golden rod, and shot it fiercely at Wu Yi.

At that moment, a bizarre scene occurred. Qin Haoxuan’s spiritual attack passed right through Wu Yi as if he were a phantom, causing him no harm at all.

What is happening? Qin Haoxuan was stunned. He could not comprehend what he had just seen. This was the first time his spiritual sense attack had ever failed. After the initial shock, he quickly racked his brain, searching for an answer in the few books on spiritual sense that he had read.

Could it be that there is no consciousness in his mind? In other words, he is being controlled by a Soul-Transfer Technique! He is just a puppet, and his soul is in the hands of the actual controller!

As Qin Haoxuan was thinking, Wu Yi licked his lips again and continued to extract the life-source essence from the dead disciples, tossing it all into the array. Of the twenty-four people who had formed the circle, only Qin Haoxuan and Ye Yiming were still alive.

Wu Yi’s savage eyes fell on the potent life-source essence within the Blood Sacrifice Array. He muttered to himself in satisfaction, “The cultivation of these disciples is quite good. It seems this ward can definitely be broken! I can’t delay any longer!”

Without waiting for Qin Haoxuan and Ye Yiming to explode, he impatiently began to control the life-source essence. His ten fingers flew like butterflies, and a sinister, demonic aura emanated from his body. A fierce wind suddenly whipped up, sending sand and stones flying. The fine yellow dust on the ground was swept up into swirling vortexes that howled and danced around him.

The grit-filled wind was so strong that even Qin Haoxuan, with his tempered body, felt a stinging pain as it struck his face.

The pin holding Wu Yi’s hair had fallen out, and his long, loose hair whipped about in the wind. Strands of blood-red spiritual energy coiled around his body. He tilted his head back towards the dark sky, looking like a bloodthirsty, evil demon.

One by one, the balls of life-source essence in the array exploded. With each explosion, the blood-red light of the formation deepened. After all twenty-two had detonated, the array’s color was a few shades deeper than fresh human blood, a shocking and heart-pounding sight.

Wu Yi spread his ten fingers and then clenched them into tight fists. The ball of blood-red light began to shrink, gradually condensing under his control into the shape of a sword blade that radiated a grim intent, like a newly unsheathed divine weapon.

“Open!” Wu Yi roared. He threw his arms wide, and the spiritual energy in his body surged. The blood-red sword, carrying an unstoppable momentum, stabbed fiercely at the ward.

The crimson light of the ward flashed once before shattering under the attack of the blood-red blade.

The ward was broken, and the array dissipated. Everything returned to normal. The remains of the twenty-two disciples were buried by the wind-blown sand, and aside from the three figures spattered in blood, the scene showed no sign of the massacre.

As the array vanished, Ye Yiming collapsed to the ground. If it had been a moment longer, his body would have exploded. Even so, the spiritual energy inside him had far exceeded his capacity, and his dantian felt as if it were about to crack. He quickly sat cross-legged and began to circulate his energy. The crimson flush on his face gradually faded, and the bulging veins on his forehead slowly subsided.

Wu Yi, who had been radiating a demonic aura, was now lying on the ground, clutching his head, his eyes flickering between confusion and clarity.

“Uncle-Master Chi Lian, how could you use a Soul-Transfer Technique to control me and slaughter our fellow disciples with a Blood Sacrifice Array!” Wu Yi seemed to be talking to himself, his face contorting from its savage expression back to its normal appearance. He looked at the fragments of bone and flesh of his fellow disciples protruding from the sand. “Don’t you feel the weight of this sin?” he asked, his voice filled with anguish.

After he spoke, his expression turned savage again, as if he were instantly possessed. “Sin?” a different voice said through his mouth. “What sin? As long as I get this Spirit Liquid and increase my lifespan, I have a chance to break through to the Spirit Tree First-Cycle Realm!”

Wu Yi’s face returned to normal. “You are already a Spirit Tree Realm expert! Why use such cruel methods to satisfy your own selfish desires?”

“Hahahaha… what do you know? What is the Spirit Tree Realm? I will enter the Immortal Cycle, the Dao Fruit Realm! I will ascend and become an immortal!” Wu Yi’s face turned savage again, his eyes flashing with a vicious light.

His words shocked Qin Haoxuan. He had thought the controller was a demon cultivator, but it was actually an elder from his own sect.

Wu Yi’s eyes glazed over for a moment, then he roared, “Leave my body, Chi Lian, you demon, leave my body!”

“Leave your body? I went to great trouble to control you with the Soul-Transfer Technique. Do you think I’ll let you go before I get what I want?” Wu Yi licked his lips, his face turning savage once more.

“You’re not human! You treat the lives of so many disciples as if they were nothing! Even being struck by lightning and blasted to dust would not be enough to atone for your sins!”

“With their aptitude, they had no hope in cultivation anyway. To die for me is their blessing!” Master Chi Lian declared, his eyes burning with desire. “As long as I get this Spirit Liquid, I can increase my lifespan and have a chance to attack the higher realms! In the future, who in the Taichu Sect will dare to oppose me? Who will dare to oppose our sect? Struck by lightning? Who would dare strike me?”

Wu Yi climbed to his feet, the confusion in his eyes fading away, replaced entirely by a savage expression. It seemed Master Chi Lian was now in complete control.

“Yo, there are still two who aren’t dead. Not bad,” he sneered, his eyes glinting with murderous intent as he walked toward Qin Haoxuan and Ye Yiming. “But you two know too much. You must die.”

His sinister words jolted Ye Yiming from his meditation. He quickly deduced the identity of the controller. “It’s Master Chi Lian, the junior brother of the Ancient Cloud Hall’s master! He’s a Spirit Tree Realm expert!”

Hearing this, Qin Haoxuan’s heart sank. It was the Ancient Cloud Hall again. Although Master Chi Lian couldn’t use his full power through the puppet, his hundred-plus years of experience made him far more dangerous than any ordinary Twentieth-Leaf cultivator.

Just as he was about to attack, Wu Yi’s face suddenly twisted in agony. He collapsed to the ground again.

“You will not use my body to commit any more evil! Because of you, my hands are already stained with blood!” At the critical moment, Wu Yi’s consciousness was fighting for control again. But he quickly failed, and the savage expression returned to his face.

“I was only going to use your body from time to time, but since you insist on resisting, I will have to shatter your soul,” Master Chi Lian said coldly. “These two must be eliminated, and I must have that Spirit Liquid. No one can stop me!”

“Chi Lian, the sect keeps a strict account of the Spirit Liquid! You’ll never be able to smuggle this much out! The Ninth Elder will inspect your jade vial when you leave!”

“Oh, you’ve reminded me,” Master Chi Lian said, a thoughtful look on his face. It was true that the specially made vials would be checked. He glanced at Qin Haoxuan and Ye Yiming and suddenly smiled. “I’ll just use their two vials. And even if I didn’t have theirs, there are plenty of others in this manor. I can just kill a few and take theirs. As for you, for daring to defy my will… you will have your soul shattered!”

“No…”

As the word left his lips, Wu Yi’s face showed a final, fearful struggle. Then, his expression froze. He stood motionless.

One breath…

Two breaths…

Three breaths…

For three breaths, Wu Yi remained frozen, his eyes filled with a look of extreme, agonizing terror. Then, a wisp of green smoke rose from the top of his head. The light in his eyes flickered once, then was extinguished, leaving only dead ash.

“Soul-Shattering,” Ye Yiming whispered, his voice filled with shock. “Such a cruel method!”

A moment later, the savage and cruel expression returned to Wu Yi’s vacant face. The real Wu Yi was gone forever. The body was now completely controlled by Master Chi Lian.

His eyes, glinting with a blood-red light, fell playfully on Qin Haoxuan and Ye Yiming. A smirk touched his lips. “How strange. A piece of trash from the Nature Hall and a new disciple somehow managed to survive. A pity. You still have to die.”