The smile on Bai Yu’s face remained unchanged. With a reverse palm strike, he slammed his hand down onto the heads of the several elders protecting him with overwhelming force.
The elders never expected to be attacked. They were killed instantly, looks of utter shock still frozen on their faces.
Without even glancing at the corpses, Bai Yu continued speaking to Chen Zhou. "You... you aren't the original evil spirit that inhabited that shell, are you?"
Chen Zhou’s eyes narrowed slightly. He neither admitted nor denied it.
"There is no need to deny it," Bai Yu continued as if stating a simple fact. "Evil spirits are powerful, but they lack thought. They are merely anomalies that act according to certain rules.
"But you... you have a clear consciousness, a purpose, and emotions. You don’t actually need to be so guarded against me. We are the same kind, are we not?"
"Who the hell is the same kind as a freak like you, neither human nor ghost!" Lord Rat spat from the side in dissatisfaction.
Bai Yu was not angered. He raised his hands, and countless tiny fleshy strips sprouted from the surface of his body once more. Like tentacles, they coiled around the severed limbs of the Sword Sect disciples scattered across the square, absorbing them into his body.
His aura seemed to recover and grow slightly stronger.
Having finished this, Bai Yu simply looked at Chen Zhou. "In truth, we are not enemies. We can cooperate. You have succeeded, and I am close to success as well."
Chen Zhou could feel that Bai Yu currently possessed more than just one aura; there was also a heavy concentration of resentment and slaughter.
He had imprisoned all those souls within his own body, becoming a ghost in every sense of the word.
Seeing that Chen Zhou appeared unmoved, Bai Yu did not lose heart and continued.
"You should also know that the Golden Buddha is about to be born. When that happens, how could the righteous path of immortals and buddhas ever tolerate existences like us? But if we join forces, at the very least, Thousand Isles County will certainly be ours."
He spoke with apparent sincerity, yet his eyes were deep and inscrutable.
Chen Zhou arched an eyebrow, his tone remaining flat. "Indeed, I am aware of that. It seems you know quite a lot as well."
The smile on Bai Yu's face widened, as if he had found a kindred spirit.
"In this world, only the standing and abilities of an evil spirit are supreme. You successfully possessed the body of an evil spirit and gained a foundation.
"And I have also found a way to steal a divine name and condense faith. We are natural allies!"
As he spoke, he suddenly waved his hand, and charms radiating a cold, ghostly Qi scattered into the air, dancing around him.
"Watch closely. On such an important Immortal Celebration Day, as an ally, you should witness this with me."
Bai Yu took out the white paper collected from the refugees—the one covered in crimson thumbprints—and slammed it directly into his own forehead, jamming it into the damaged brain tissue.
Chen Zhou felt a phantom pain just watching it.
Lord Rat even folded his arms relaxedly, preparing to enjoy the show.
Death energy and ghostly Qi collided as the charms flew out, accurately embedding themselves into specific positions around the square. They instantly lit up secret patterns already carved beneath the bluestones, which had long been soaked in blood.
A massive summoning array suddenly flared to life on the square's ground, enveloping countless terrified townspeople. The core of the array was centered directly on Bai Yu himself.
With a look of near-maniacal certainty, Bai Yu laughed wildly.
"Hahaha! With the sacrifice of everyone in this city, I call forth my Zhenjiang Shrine!"
"Offer up the resentment of ten thousand lives to complete my ghost immortal body!"
He intended to use the townspeople in the square as sacrifices to forcibly summon the Zhenjiang Shrine he had nurtured for years. He would then use the immense resentment generated by the sacrifice to forcibly suppress and merge with the backlash from the white paper, completing his final metamorphosis!
However—
One breath, two breaths...
The light of the array flickered violently, but the expected sight of that paper-made shrine descending upon the square did not occur. There was only the river wind blowing across the square, bringing a hint of damp fishiness and a deathly silence.
The wild laughter on Bai Yu’s face froze, replaced by bewilderment and disbelief.
"No... impossible!" Bai Yu stammered. "My shrine... the evil spirit I spent so much effort nourishing with ghostly Qi... why can't I summon it?!"
He keenly sensed that his connection with the Zhenjiang Shrine had not been cut—evil spirits were immortal and indestructible—but that thread of connection seemed to be obstructed by something. It felt like death energy.
"Is it you? What did you do?" Bai Yu's multi-tonal, mixed voice struggled to speak.
The ultimate measure he had painstakingly prepared, the trump card he thought was foolproof, had actually failed at the most critical moment!
He was unwilling to accept it.
Chen Zhou simply smiled. "Sorry, but I never agreed to be your ally."
Bai Yu’s mind shook violently, and the power within his body instantly spiraled out of control, backlashing against him.
He suddenly let out an agonizing scream, clutching his forehead tightly as his body convulsed. The white paper stuffed into his skull now seemed to have turned into the most potent poison, clashing with the ghostly Qi in his body.
Lord Rat let out an uninhibited sneer and kicked Su Zhiyuan, who was beside him.
"Hey, old man, look. This is your 'Immortal.' Doesn't he look like an idiot?"
Su Zhiyuan was too submissive to argue, nor did he dare to look directly at Bai Yu’s grotesque form.
Even now, he felt like he was in a dream. How had a perfectly fine Immortal Celebration Day turned into a sacrificial feast for evil spirits?
How could the true face of the White Jade Immortal be such a terrifying ghost?
Then what did all those years of diligent service, even doing many things against his conscience to follow the White Jade Sword Sect’s lead, amount to?
In Bai Yu’s violent struggle, he suddenly stumbled and nearly fell to his knees.
"Why..." he spoke with great difficulty.
Chen Zhou’s tone was calm. "Since our paths are different, we cannot conspire together."
But when Bai Yu raised his head again, the indifference and depth in those eyes had vanished. They were replaced by a complex expression of immense pain, clarity, and resolve.
At this, not only did Lord Rat arch an eyebrow, but even Chen Zhou, who usually showed little emotion, had a faint flicker of surprise in his eyes.
Under that level of erosion and backlash, this person's consciousness could still retake control?
Jian Huaishuang first struggled to steady himself. Facing the direction where Lord Rat stood, he bowed solemnly, his voice raspy yet clear.
"Senior."
Then, he turned toward Chen Zhou. Without any hesitation, his knees struck the cold, blood-stained bluestone heavily as he prostrated himself, performing an incredibly solemn greeting.
"Junior Jian Huaishuang bows in gratitude to the Lord for the grace of bestowing the medicine!"
He already knew that this Bone God whose face he could not see was the 'Lord' the senior in black had spoken of.
Just now, while his body was occupied by Bai Yu, Jian Huaishuang’s consciousness had not completely sunk into oblivion.
Instead, he had been like a prisoner trapped in an abyss, forced to witness everything in the most direct and brutal way.
He had seen Bai Yu’s true form as a mass of flesh, seen Sect Master Guo Shouren’s twisted loyalty and desperate sacrifice, seen the true purpose of the square’s array, and perceived even more clearly that his own body was nothing more than a vessel painstakingly cultivated by Bai Yu.
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