C1777 Lunar Meridian's Desire to Live
Puff! Puff!
Voodoo Charms collided with the luminescent barrier of the Dragon Slaying Stage, only to be absorbed and consumed by the platform.
Within the secluded little world of the Dragon Slaying Stage, the peculiar green spells and the Cosmic Order seemed to be at odds, disintegrating into dust upon contact.
As the Voodoo Charms turned to ash, Yu Yuan, the master of the Dragon Slaying Stage, caught a glimpse of a hidden scene.
A secluded Starry Sky Forbidden Zone devoid of living creatures, where only spirited bodies akin to Voodoo Shades wandered, crafting a ghostly world reminiscent of the underworld.
"The Wraithlands!"
Standing beneath the glowing canopy, Yu Yuan's face was grave. He was convinced that the world he glimpsed through the Dragon Slaying Stage, as the Voodoo Charms disintegrated, was indeed the Wraithlands that Han Miaoyuan and Youyu were exploring!
It must be a Star River Mysterious Realm overrun with ghosts!
The Root of the Lunar Meridian appeared to be the Wraithlands, which aimed to transform the Everlands into another Wraithlands using Jiang Xingwen and the Voodoo Charms.
Driven to desperation by Soul-Capturing, it had no choice but to embark on this path.
"Yu Yuan, what's going on outside?"
Jin Rourou gathered all the medicinal formula emblems and stepped out of the secret chamber. Seeing the Dragon Slaying Stage enveloping Thylethlume, she instantly sensed trouble.
Yu Cen, the patriarch, along with other members of the Yu family, emerged, equally concerned.
"It's neither the Yu family nor the Sacred Hands; it's the Skyreach Consortium," Yu Yuan said with a slight frown and a hint of a headache. "Jiang Xingwen from Abyssal Dawn has been seduced by external malevolent forces and has used members of the Su family to activate the Voodoo Charms."
He offered a succinct explanation.
"Yu Lili and Feifei have gone to the Skyreach Consortium!" Yu Cen exclaimed, his anxiety palpable upon hearing the news.
"Feifei, Yu Lili..."
Yu Yuan, adept at multitasking, surveyed the area. As expected, he couldn't spot the two in Thylethlume. After a brief hesitation, he materialized above the Dragon Slaying Stage.
From his elevated position, he utilized the Dragon Slaying Stage's heightened senses and perspective to observe the Skyreach Consortium's division.
He observed cultivators with ghastly green complexions and darkened eyes, transformed into Voodoo Shades. Their bodies exuded a chilling aura, threatening to turn the branch office into a Land of Terror.
Many cultivators who had traveled from distant lands fled the consortium in a frenzy, their cries echoing like tormented spirits.
Among these individuals were cultivators whose Mindscape bore the Voodoo Charm, with the spell beginning to fuse with their Lunar Spirit.
Yu Lili and Yu Feifei were also among those fleeing.
The difference was that Yu Feifei hadn't yet reached the Lunar Spirit Stage, and her earthly soul hadn't undergone transformation, so the Voodoo Charm seemed to bypass her.
However, within Yu Lili's Lunar Spirit, a Voodoo Charm had manifested!
Whoosh!
Yu Yuan soared through the sky, appearing before Yu Lili and Yu Feifei with lightning speed. A strand of his spiritual thought pierced directly into Yu Lili's mind, attempting to extract the Voodoo Charm from her Lunar Spirit.
Sizzle sizzle!
Upon contact with Yu Lili's Lunar Spirit, his spiritual thought was devoured and dissolved by the Voodoo Charm!
Despite his formidable level of cultivation, the might of his spiritual thought was no match for the Voodoo Charm, unable to separate it from Yu Lili's Lunar Spirit.
As he prepared to execute the Soul Severing Strike, the Voodoo Charm had already fused with Yu Lili's Lunar Spirit, rendering them indistinguishable.
"This is troublesome!"
Sensing the gravity of the situation, Yu Yuan took Yu Lili and Yu Feifei with him, casting Yu Lili into the Dragon Slaying Stage's little world. He then safely escorted Yu Feifei, untouched by the Voodoo Charm, to Thylethlume.
"Don't leave this town!"
With those parting words, he returned to the airspace above the Skyreach Consortium and addressed Gao Qin, who was also aloft, "Have everyone disperse! Those who have been turned into shadowmancers by the Voodoo Charm must be either confined or eliminated immediately!"
"Voodoo Shades! How did they turn into Voodoo Shades?"
From hundreds of meters away, Gao Qin fumbled with a crystal ball, desperately seeking assistance from the Chamber of Commerce Headquarters.
"Ah! The calamity isn't confined to the Serpent Spine Mountains; the Abyssal Dawn, Sundering Isles, and even the Bloodbrawlers are facing the same plight!" Gao Qin had been better off not knowing, but once he connected with the consortium, the full extent of the disaster became dreadfully clear.
"Jun Chen, Feng Zhong, and Zhou You have just forced Sages Lingxu and Huanmiao to flee into the extraterrestrial! The Skyreach Consortium is currently short on combat power, and the outside world is in turmoil. What are we going to do?" Gao Qin was in a state of panic.
"We must kill those who need to be killed."
A kindly-looking old scholar materialized, a basket of books slung over his back. He surveyed the disarray of the chamber and nodded respectfully to Yu Yuan. "My name is Xuan Ge, and I serve as a counselor here, ranked just below Jun Chen. Given the importance of the Serpent Spine Mountains branch, the president has assigned me to oversee it. The responsibility of safeguarding the Yu family has also been entrusted to me."
After introducing himself, Xuan Ge casually drew a book from his basket and began to move through the chamber's hall.
With the book in hand, he struck at the cultivators who had turned into Voodoo Shades, their complexions and irises tinged with green.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The book, wielded like a brick, caused the head of any struck cultivator to burst open like a watermelon, whether they were Voodoo Shades or residual souls.
The gentle-looking scholar struck with the speed of lightning, relentlessly killing those who had become shadowmancers.
He had no interest in detaining them; it seemed he found it too bothersome and instead opted for immediate execution.
The majority of those he killed were members of the Skyreach Consortium, as well as representatives from the major empires' noble families.
"Xuan Ge!"
Gao Qin's face turned pale. He wanted to intervene, but he hesitated due to Xuan Ge's status. Instead, he shot a pleading look at Yu Yuan, signaling for him to intervene.
"He's right," Yu Yuan said, shaking his head.
...
Elsewhere, Yu Yuan, embodying the Lunar Spirit, glared at Jiang Xingwen and demanded, "How dare you do this before me?"
"It was instructed to activate the Voodoo Charm only upon meeting you, Yu Yuan," Jiang Xingwen replied, her voice devoid of fear, her expression mocking. "You may kill those turned into shadowmancers, but you can't break the Voodoo Charm. You can't revert them. The only one who might be able to lift the Voodoo Charm is currently in the Wraithlands."
"And the Wraithlands," she continued with a cold smile, "is the sacred ground for ghosts."
Jiang Xingwen cackled with glee, "Just wait and see. The new Voodoo Charm it has devised can plunge the entire Everlands into chaos in no time! Apart from Youyu, it alone can unravel the charm!"
"I am merely its herald, tasked with revealing the Voodoo Charm to the world."
Beside Jiang Xingwen, Su Yan, along with the cultivators from the Su family and Abyssal Dawn, were gradually turning into Voodoo Shades. These individuals were the spark that would ignite catastrophe. They were the harbingers of disaster. Should Jiang Xingwen position any one of them in a densely populated area of cultivators, it would set off a calamity.
The slow pace was deliberate, to avoid alarming the enemy, ready to unleash a tidal wave of Voodoo Shades in a heartbeat!
"It looks like it's using the Voodoo Charm to bargain for its freedom."
After listening to Jiang Xingwen, Yu Yuan quickly deduced that the contingency left by the Lunar Meridian was a safeguard for the future.
"I'll keep you here for now." Yu Yuan huffed, directing his Lunar Spirit at Su Yan, and demanded, "Is she also someone you're prepared to sacrifice? Your own disciple. Would you truly do anything for the Lunar Meridian?"
"If this world turns into something akin to the Wraithlands, becoming a Voodoo Shade is her only chance for survival." Jiang Xingwen's eyes blazed with fervor as she eagerly anticipated the Everlands transforming into a realm akin to the ghostly Wraithlands.
"I won't allow it!"
From the Dragon Slaying Stage that shrouded the Yu family, a rainbow of arc light soared, enveloping Su Yan.
The arc light then whisked Su Yan back to the Dragon Slaying Stage, where she was left alongside Yu Lili.
Strangely, despite being afflicted by the Voodoo Charm, Yu Lili, upon arrival at the Dragon Slaying Stage, was not consumed by the Lunar Spirit; her heaven soul and dominant soul remained intact.
And the Voodoo Charm, sustained by her Lunar Spirit as its spirited body, did not disintegrate into ash on the Dragon Slaying Stage, unlike previous charms that had instantly turned to dust upon arrival.
In a daze, Su Yan and Yu Lili slowly came to their senses on the Dragon Slaying Stage.
"Where am I?"
Su Yan surveyed her surroundings, finding herself in a completely unfamiliar silver-white world, utterly bewildered.
Hiss!
Jiang Xingwen's consciousness, concealed within Su Yan's mindscape, was pierced by a streak of icy light and instantly wiped out.
Yet, the Voodoo Charm embedded in Yu Lili's Lunar Spirit had already fused with her, leaving Yu Yuan somewhat at a loss.
The icy light and Soul Severing Strike could obliterate the Voodoo Charm, but it would also mean the end of Yu Lili's Lunar Spirit.
"At least the Dragon Slaying Stage can halt those afflicted by the Voodoo Charm from turning into shadowmancers for the time being."
With this thought, Yu Yuan, in the real body of the Skyreach Consortium, instructed Xuan Ge, "If they haven't turned into shadowmancers, capture them alive and bring them to me. I can halt their metamorphosis!"
"Oh, alright!"
