From a loser to an immortal sage

Chapter 511 Hidden Secret

I gripped Wen Chen's hand tightly, my knuckles turning white from the force.

As the lingering notes of the Moon Fairy were swept away by the wind, the rabbit lamp in my sea of ​​consciousness suddenly became incredibly hot, as if it were about to burn through the barrier of my sea of ​​consciousness.

The warmth of Wen Chen's palm seeped in through our clasped fingers, and his thumb gently caressed the bloodstain left by Night Shadow on the back of my hand—that wound had long been healed by his purifying power, leaving only a faint pink mark, but now it throbbed with each heartbeat.

"A-Yao?" Wen Chen turned his head, the stray hairs at the corners of his eyes ruffled by the night wind. "What are you thinking about?"

I gazed towards the Star Gazing Pavilion. Mingyue's skirt had already disappeared behind a pillar, leaving only the faint, still-wet ink of a tattered inscription in her hand, casting a blurry shadow. "A smile before the night shadow vanished," I licked my dry lips. "It didn't seem like an escape, more like... waiting for us to catch up."

Wen Chen's pupils contracted slightly, and the jade sword trembled gently at his waist, as if in response to my words.

Xuanfeng Immortal's whisk suddenly swept past us, a few fallen leaves, enveloped in white light, landing at our feet—remnants of the black mist left by Night Shadow, now sizzling under the purifying power. "His black mist was mixed with the Rebirth Curse," Xuanfeng frowned, gazing at the fallen leaves. "The Rebirth Curse is for guiding souls, but those wronged spirits wailed upon seeing you, it's more like..."

"It's as if I possess something that can untangle their predicament." I touched the jade pendant around my neck; Wen Chen's spiritual energy still flowed within it, making it feel incredibly warm. "Perhaps what the creatures in the Soul-Locking Abyss fear isn't Night Shadow, but rather..."

“It’s the power of purification,” Wen Chen finished for me, tapping the heart-protecting jade with his fingertips. “That’s why Night Shadow deliberately lured you into making a move.”

Ah Yao, we have to go to his old haunts. When he looked up, his eyes were filled with a familiar resoluteness. "Mount Cangwu is too far away, but I remember that the 'Spring Lantern Picture' mentioned that Night Shadow set up a formation eye in Qingming Valley three hundred years ago."

The inscription that Mingyue just found should be related to that place.

Qingming Valley.

As I silently recited the name, the rabbit lamp in my mind flickered twice, as if confirming something.

Elder Wu approached unnoticed, carefully placing the fragments of the Hidden Immortal Record into a jade box. His beard was adorned with starlight-like glimmers: "This old minister has investigated, and the Qingming Valley ruins do indeed contain Night Shadow's notes."

Before he was sealed away, he instructed his disciples to seal important items there. He adjusted the jade hairpin on his nose—a habitual gesture when he was thinking—"But the valley's mechanisms are treacherous; this old minister tried three times, but never reached the core."

"With Wen Chen here, the traps won't be a problem." I smiled at him, and Wen Chen gently squeezed my palm, a reassuring touch.

We set off just as dawn broke.

Qingming Valley is located in the northwest of Cangwu Mountain, and requires passing through three layers of misty forests.

Wen Chen rode the Cloud Shadow Sword, and I sat behind him, able to smell the faint scent of agarwood on his robes.

The wind rushed into my sleeves. I looked at the surging sea of ​​clouds below and suddenly remembered the little girl's rabbit lantern from last night. She cried and said, "Big brother said that if the lantern is lit, I can find my mother." But I could clearly see in the black fog that her "mother" had long been eaten away by the resentment of the Soul Locking Abyss, leaving only half a face.

"We've arrived." Wen Chen's voice interrupted her thoughts.

I looked up and saw a crack in the mountain wall in front of me, with green vines climbing all over the stone wall, and the two characters "Qingming" faintly discernible in the faded cloud patterns.

A broken stele stood in front of the crevice, its surface covered with incantations, and at the bottom was a deep mark, as if it had been cleaved by a sharp weapon—the same pattern as the broken stele in front of the Star Gazing Pavilion last night.

As Wen Chen drew his sword, Xuan Feng's whisk had already swept across the broken stele. "Suppressing Spirit Incantation." He touched the stele's surface with his fingertip, and the incantation suddenly glowed red. "Someone has recently disturbed this place."

“It’s Nightshade.” I touched the deep marks on the broken monument; the feel was exactly the same as the black mist blade energy Nightshade had unleashed. “He’s guiding the way.”

Fairy Mingyue took out a fragment of the inscription from her storage ring. The ink blots slightly blurred in the morning breeze: "It says 'Azure Nether Array Eye, Soul Locking Pivot'."

"Ah Yao, look, there's a cinnabar dot here." She pointed to the bottom right corner of the tattered page, where there was a tiny red dot. "I checked ancient texts; cinnabar dots are symbols used by array masters to mark key points."

Elder Wu leaned closer and squinted to examine it, then suddenly gasped: "The location of this red dot... completely overlaps with the crack on the broken stele!" He trembled as he touched the crack on the broken stele, and the moment his fingertips touched the stone surface, the entire mountain wall suddenly emitted a muffled sound.

"Watch out!" Wen Chen pulled me behind him, and the jade sword hummed as it was drawn from its sheath, the purifying power on the sword spreading out like flowing water.

I followed his gaze and saw a black, blood-like liquid seeping from the cracks in the broken monument, crawling along the stone's texture to all sides—it wasn't blood at all, but some kind of living thing, each drop carrying the wails of a vengeful spirit.

"It's the resentment from the Soul-Locking Abyss!" Xuanfeng flicked his whisk, a white light blocking the black liquid three feet away. "Night Shadow was indeed trying to lure us into triggering the mechanism!"

Mingyue's hand trembled as she clutched the tattered page, unaware that ink had smeared onto her wrist: "There's another half-line after the inscription... 'When the pivot is activated, the suppressing force appears!'"

Where the black liquid crawled, the cloud patterns on the stone wall suddenly lit up with golden light.

Only then did I realize that the faded patterns were not decorations at all, but dense runes—each rune was wrapped with a thin chain, and the end of the chain was locked with a dark blue bead.

When Wen Chen's sword light illuminated the bead, I gasped: "That's... a Soul Bead?"

“It’s a sealed soul.” Elder Wu’s voice was hoarse. He reached out to touch the nearest bead, but Wen Chen stopped him. “Don’t touch it.” Wen Chen stared at the struggling figure inside the bead, his eyes as dark as the sky before a storm. “These souls have been corrupted by resentment; touching them will backfire.”

I gazed at the soul beads, and suddenly remembered the wronged souls driven by Nightshade last night—the pleading in their eyes was identical to the souls within these beads. "Nightshade isn't controlling them, it's..."

“It’s just stalling for them.” Wen Chen suddenly interjected, his sword blade lightly grazing a soul bead. The moment the purifying power touched the bead’s surface, the living soul inside lunged forward, its mouth clearly shouting, “Save me.”

Wen Chen paused, and the light on the sword shone even brighter. "These souls are entangled by the things of the Soul Locking Abyss. Night Shadow uses runes and chains to drag them away, preventing them from being further corrupted by the deeper resentment."

He was sealed away three hundred years ago, possibly because...

“Because he couldn’t hold on any longer,” I said softly.

Suddenly, the rabbit lamp in my mind vibrated violently, and a scene flashed before my eyes: a blood moon in the sky, a man in black kneeling among broken tombstones, his long sword stuck in the ground, and churning black mist behind him.

His back was covered in bloodstains, yet he continued to carve runes on the stone wall. With each stroke, a soul bead was pulled out of the black mist and locked into a chain.

"A-Yao?" Wen Chen's voice was filled with concern. He reached out and touched my forehead. "Your face is very pale."

I shook my head, suppressing the images in my mind.

Suddenly, a muffled rumble came from beneath my feet, as if some enormous creature was churning underground.

Wen Chen's sword trembled violently, Xuan Feng's whisk strands stood on end, Ming Yue's knuckles turned white as she gripped the tattered page, Elder Wu staggered two steps to steady himself on the broken stele, the black liquid on the stele receding at a visible speed, revealing eight newly carved characters below:

"Once the pivot is activated, the talisman will be released."

The roaring sound grew closer, as if something was rising from the ground.

I stared at the dark crevice in front of me and vaguely saw a huge outline taking shape. Stone chips fell down and hit the bluestone slab with a crisp sound.

Wen Chen's back was ramrod straight, and I could feel his spiritual energy surging within him, like a fully drawn bow—while the being in the darkness was slowly opening its stone eyes.

The roar made my eardrums ache, and as stone chips rained down on me, I finally made out the outline of the dark figure—a stone giant that was at least ten feet tall, with rusty chains wrapped around its joints, and every step it took shook the mountainside, causing dust to fall.

The same spirit-suppressing incantation as the broken stele was engraved on its forehead. Where the eyes should have been, dark red light was now seeping out, like two balls of will-o'-the-wisp that could not be extinguished.

“This is the guardian of the ruins!” Wen Chen’s voice was as deep as a block of black iron. He pulled me behind him, and the jade sword hummed as it shook away the stone chips within three feet.

I was held protectively in his arms, and I could hear his heart pounding like a drum—not out of fear, but out of intense fighting spirit.

Xuanfeng Immortal Venerable's whisk suddenly grew three feet tall, and silver threads wrapped around the stone giant's ankle: "The Spirit Suppression Spell has been corrupted by resentment!"

It now only recognizes destroyers! Before the words were finished, the stone giant raised its hand and threw a punch, wind blades wrapped with rubble coming straight at its face.

Wen Chen spun around and swung his sword, condensing the power of purification into a light shield that smashed the rubble into pieces with a "clang".

I took the opportunity to wipe the stone powder off my face and glimpsed Fairy Mingyue making a hand seal with her fingertips. The tattered page of the inscription floated in her palm, and the ink suddenly flowed into glowing runes: "A Yao!"

It has a cluster of eye-like structures on the back of its neck!

The location is the same as the cinnabar dot on the torn page!

Elder Wu leaned against the broken stele, panting heavily. Blood beads stained his beard—he had bumped into it when he was knocked down by the shockwave.

He shouted at the top of his lungs, "This old minister remembers that the guardian of Qingming Valley recognized him as its master!"

When Nightshade set it up, they left survivors, so they need to use...

"Use the Rebirth Mantra!" I suddenly shouted.

The rabbit lamp in my sea of ​​consciousness burned my temples, and the images of the living souls locked in the soul pearl surged up again—when Night Shadow knelt in the blood moon carving runes, he was clearly chanting the Rebirth Mantra.

The stone giant's fist struck again. I bit my tongue, and as the metallic taste spread, I murmured, mimicking the lip movements I remembered: "Soul returns to the netherworld, thoughts return to dust..."

Wen Chen's sword suddenly paused.

He turned his head to look at me, his eyes filled with surprise and even more trust. Then, the jade sword shone brightly, merging with the rhythm of my chanting.

The stone giant's movements were a beat slower, and the runes on the back of its neck glowed with golden light—a sign that it had been cleansed by both the power of purification and the rebirth mantra.

Xuanfeng's whisk seized the opportunity to entangle its wrist, and the fragment of Mingyue's page transformed into a beam of light that shot straight at the array's core. With a "crack," a fissure appeared on the back of the stone giant's neck, and the dark red light suddenly contracted.

"Seize the opportunity!" Wen Chen shouted, his jade sword piercing the crevice like a swimming dragon.

The purifying power surged into the stone giant's body like boiling water. I saw the soul beads bound by chains suddenly tremble, and the souls' mouths changed from "Save me" to "Run!"

The stone giant let out a muffled roar, and stone chips flakeed off its body, revealing what was embedded inside—not flesh and blood, but countless soul beads.

Each bead is drilling into its core, as if feeding something.

"It's absorbing living souls to increase its power!" I gripped the protective jade pendant tightly. Wen Chen's spiritual power surged into my bloodstream through the jade pendant, burning my eyes with a soreness.

Suddenly, the rabbit lantern in my sea of ​​consciousness exploded into a warm light, and the images of those living souls became clear: there was a young pageboy in a blue robe, a girl holding a rag doll, and the little girl who held the rabbit lantern last night—they were all shaking their heads at me, their mouths forming the words "Don't come any closer."

"Ayao, back off!" Wen Chen suddenly grabbed me and rolled to the side.

The stone giant's palm slammed down, grazing the top of my head, and the ground cracked open in a spiderweb-like pattern.

I looked up and saw that three silver threads of Xuanfeng's whisk had been torn off, the edges of Mingyue's tattered page were charred, and Elder Wu was huddled behind the broken stele, trembling.

Wen Chen's sword blade was chipped, but he smiled, his eyes reddening: "A Yao, the Rebirth Curse you just used... was it taught to you by Ye Ying?"

I was taken aback.

Fragments of memory suddenly flooded back: the black-clad man in the blood moon turned around, his face covered in blood, yet he smiled at me: "Little girl, this Rebirth Mantra should be recited like this..." So it wasn't an illusion, but a memory left in my mind by Night Shadow?

The red light on the stone giant suddenly dimmed, as if it had been shocked by this memory.

I seized the opportunity, drawing all the light from the rabbit lamp into my palm, and shouted at the soul orb at the core of the stone giant: "Didn't you want me to save you?"

Help me now!

The soul beads suddenly trembled violently, the little pageboy's soul floated out of the beads, the girl's rag doll also floated up, and the little maid's rabbit lamp resonated with the one in my sea of ​​consciousness, the warm light merging into one.

The stone giant let out a piercing roar, and the resentment surrounding it began to dissipate.

Wen Chen seized the opportunity to slash at its knee with his sword, Xuan Feng's whisk entangled its arm, and Ming Yue's light arrows kept shooting towards the array's core—with a final roar, the stone giant collapsed, and in the rising dust, a bronze box was revealed on the stone platform behind it.

"It's a manuscript!" Elder Wu stumbled over, his trembling hand about to touch the bronze box, but Wen Chen stopped him: "Wait." He used the tip of his sword to lift the lid of the box, inside lay a book wrapped in black silk. The words on the cover were blurred by resentment, but I recognized it at a glance as Night Shadow's handwriting: "The Soul Locking Record".

As I reached for it, my fingertips had just touched the cover when the rabbit lamp in my mind suddenly went out.

The words in the book seemed to come alive and float up, drilling straight into my sea of ​​consciousness: "I use my soul as a guide to lock up the evil creatures in the abyss for three hundred years."

Now, exhausted, I only hope that those who come after me will see this record and know that what lies sealed at the bottom of the abyss is not a vengeful spirit, but...

"It is the ancient artifact 'Wheel of Annihilation'," Wen Chen suddenly said.

He stared at the book in my hand, his eyes so dark they seemed to drip water. "I have read in ancient books that the Wheel of Annihilation can reverse time and space, but it will also trigger the calamity of heaven and earth."

Nightshade didn't seal himself away back then; he sealed away the World-Destroying Wheel to prevent it from being used by evil people.

My hands were shaking as I turned the pages.

The last few pages depicted the Wheel of Destruction: a colossal bronze wheel, inscribed with time-reversing runes, its center locked with a ghostly blue bead—exactly identical to the soul beads at the core of the stone giant. "He used living souls to delay the Wheel of Destruction's awakening..." My throat tightened, "So those vengeful spirits last night weren't controlled by him; they were taking the blows for us."

Fairy Mingyue leaned closer to look, tears falling onto the pages of the book: "So he wasn't crazy, he just couldn't hold on any longer..."

Xuanfeng Immortal Venerable gently covered the book with his whisk, his gaze intense: "The Wheel of Annihilation is about to awaken. Night Shadow led us here so that we would take over his burden."

Elder Wu suddenly grabbed my wrist; his hand was as cold as ice. “Young friend, the last page of the book says… ‘The Wheel of Annihilation is locked at the bottom of the Soul-Locking Abyss; only the one who can untie it can guide the soul.’”

"The soul guide..." He stared at the jade pendant around my neck. "It's you."

The mountain wind swept the fallen leaves past our feet.

I gazed at the book "The Soul Locker" in my hands; the words on the pages swayed in the wind, like the last words of a shadow in the night.

Wen Chen's fingers gently covered the back of my hand, and the warmth of his palm came through the book cover, like an inextinguishable light.

"Ah Yao," he lowered his head and kissed the top of my head, "no matter what lies ahead, I'll be there."

As I gazed at the surging sea of ​​clouds outside Qingming Valley, I suddenly remembered what the little girl had said last night: "Big brother said that if the light is on, we can find our mother." Now the rabbit lantern is out, but I can see a darker place—at the bottom of the Soul-Locking Abyss, the eerie blue light of the World-Destroying Wheel is slowly climbing up to the Ninth Heaven along the earth's veins.