Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 296 The Flying Immortal from Beyond the World
This is Kong Jingci's face.

As she spoke, another identical face, which should have belonged to Kong Jingyu, emerged from the neck below and silently looked at him.

Kong Jingyu never spoke. Since Li Wuxiang met her, her expression had always been calm and indifferent, which made him often overlook her presence.

But now her expression has changed, becoming joyful and happy, as if she has found the most beautiful thing in the world and is completely immersed in it.

An unnamed rage welled up in Li Wuxiang's heart—what kind of world is this?!

Suppressing his anger, he asked, "Do you remember who you are?"

"Me? I am..." Kong Jingci paused for a moment, then said, "I am Kong Jingci?"

But it wasn't just one name that was spoken; there were many other names, the names of other faces. These voices, when combined, sounded like the howls of evil spirits, eerie and terrifying.

She still remembers her name.

Li Wuxiang asked again, "Do you know what you've become?"

The face laughed: "I know, hehe, Fellow Daoist Li, do you think I'm not good-looking now? Fellow Daoist Li, don't be afraid, I've become an immortal! I've become a celestial being! Think about it, if cats and dogs saw you, they'd find you bald and disgusting, wouldn't they? That's how immortals are. Come and become an immortal with us, and you'll know the wonderful feeling, and you'll know how beautiful you are!"

She still speaks logically; she doesn't seem completely insane.

Perhaps... the word "completely" can be removed—Zhao Qi's temperament was completely different before and after his death.

Li Wuxiang glanced at the vast night in the distance and softened his tone: "It's not impossible for me to become an immortal, but Junior Sister Kong, you have to tell me first how you became immortals. Have all the people on your side become immortals?"

Another head was lifted up by another neck, and it opened its mouth to shout: "You idiot, Fellow Daoist Li is trying to trick you! He has no intention of becoming an immortal! Stop talking!"

Li Wuxiang recognized this face... It was Tang Qilang from the Tiangong Sect!
Kong Jingci's face immediately turned angry as he looked at Tang Qilang: "You're not allowed to speak ill of Fellow Daoist Li! He's always been cautious, so of course we need to find out the truth—"

As soon as she finished speaking, more than a dozen faces were lifted up by her neck and shouted all at once—all saying that Kong Jingci had been tricked.

Kong Jingci seemed to be provoked, and frowned: "If you bother me again, I won't let you live! Shut up!"

Suddenly, a bright green light shone from her neck, almost making her skin translucent. Li Wuxiang then saw what was inside—it looked like the magic gourd she had been carrying.

Hidden within the flesh and sores of the neck, the gourd seemed to sprout numerous blood vessels and meridians, spreading throughout this enormous and terrifying body. To Li Wuxiang's astonishment, it resembled a heart.

At that moment, the gourd turned slightly, and most of the things connected to it immediately detached. The dozen or so heads that had been lifted up instantly lost their strength and fell back down. The body that had been wrapped around and drooping on the dozen or so giant trees also became even softer—Li Wuxiang heard a crackling sound and saw the contents of the body fall to the ground and into the grass like rain, immediately hissing and rising into the air.

Kong Jingci raised his eyebrows and shouted, "Are you still going to talk or not? Are you still going to talk or not?"

Tang Qilang's head was still being held aloft. Their bodies formed a giant circle, with Kong Jingci on the east and Tang Qilang on the west. He straightened his neck and said, "Junior Sister Kong, what are you doing?! We agreed that we're all one, you can't just rely on your abilities to do whatever you want, if you don't stop I won't be polite!"

"Bah! Who told you to ruin my plans?!" Kong Jingci cursed angrily. "I love Fellow Daoist Li to death! I didn't dare to say it before, but now that I've become an immortal, I realize I was possessed by a demon! I want Fellow Daoist Li to become an immortal with me, but you insist on going against me! Are you going to say it or not? Are you going to say it or not?"

The words "I love Fellow Daoist Li to death" made Li Wuxiang's heart tremble slightly.

They are indeed very similar to Zhao Qi now—after death, not only do their personalities change, but they also find it difficult to hide their thoughts, and they will speak them out casually.

Could she be saved? Were these people even salvageable? Several thoughts raced through Li Wuxiang's mind—it must be because of the True Lord of Fate. These undisguised, naked thoughts, this greedy and urgent tone, perfectly matched the True Lord of Fate's authority. The Kitchen God's need for sustenance was merely a facade; the underlying logic of this authority was the desire to possess everything, the obsession with survival…

"Fine! If you want to be willful, then I won't hold back!" Tang Qilang shouted, his neck glowing.

A red glow emanated from his neck, illuminating its surface until it was partially translucent. Li Wuxiang then saw something blood-red and intricately branched inside. At a glance, he recognized it as the Yi Jin Jing of the Tian Gong School.

With the slightest movement of the Yi Jin Jing, most of the connecting strands on it were immediately shaken off. The body, which had been falling apart as if it couldn't bear its own weight, froze instantly with the movement of the Yi Jin Jing, as if it had turned into a stone sculpture in an instant, before falling from the giant tree.

Upon landing, the thing seemed to shatter into pieces. Only then did Li Wuxiang realize what it was made of—it was actually a person. It was like a person who had been broken up, then kneaded back into a ball, with many veins growing between them and connecting them into one.

After the fall, various colored lights immediately appeared on the necks of the others. Kong Jingci and Tang Qilang stopped arguing, and a dozen voices clashed in a chaotic mess. Li Wuxiang saw that the body seemed to have gone mad, sometimes revealing a patch of scales that opened and closed, sometimes protruding countless deformed and curled claws, and sometimes having thick, black hairs like steel needles emerge from the blood and pus, trying to act as feet to make the body move again.

A thought flashed through his mind, and he immediately stared intently at the necks of the remaining heads, then gasped—

It was all magical treasures, all magical treasures possessed by disciples of the thirty-six sects. They were wrapped in this twisted shell, just like their organs... Kong Jingci's magical gourd could heal injuries and illnesses, and its function in this shell seemed to be to revitalize it and make it a part of the whole.

When Li Wuxiang first saw Tang Qilang's Yi Jin Jing, he thought it looked like a super-sized neuron, and since the name contained the word "Jin," it seemed to be both a nerve and the tendons that connected them together in this body.

These things, these magical treasures, were all refined from the respective sect's most prized treasures of the thirty-six sects. As for the sect's most prized treasures... they were originally separated from the Ninth Prince's dragon body!
So... Kong Jingci said that the immortals they became were "celestial beings from beyond the heavens"?
Are you referring to the Ninth Prince who came from beyond the heavens? They fused their magical artifacts with their physical bodies... and they felt they had dragon bodies!?

There are hundreds of disciples from the thirty-six sects on Mount Dajie. If it was the work of the Fate-Supporting True Lord, there should be dozens of such monsters, not to mention those at the Nascent Soul stage. If they also turned into this monstrous state—

While they were making a ruckus down below, Li Wuxiang immediately slipped diagonally into the distant woods to pick up Lou He and Zhao Yu and return to the cave to deliver the message.

But as soon as he left, the body, after bursting into a commotion, immediately calmed down and fell silent.

Then Li Wuxiang felt as if a strong wind was following him, like his spirit moving through the dense forest.

They are together again!

Kong Jingci was still inside, and Li Wuxiang was still wondering if he could rescue her. So he raised his hand and unleashed a sword light, trying to temporarily force her back. But as soon as the golden light shot into the dark forest, it was immediately enveloped by a large cloud of mist and disappeared in the blink of an eye, as if it had been swallowed up!

Tang Qilang's voice rang out from behind: "Look, look, you love Fellow Daoist Li to death, but Fellow Daoist Li doesn't appreciate your feelings and even wants to kill you! You idiot!"

Kong Jingci's voice snapped, "Shut up! Fellow Daoist Li is feeding me! You love him to death, but you're starving him too! Don't you think it tastes good?!"

A series of soft, fragmented noises immediately arose, as if the other people inside that body were also chiming in, saying how delicious it was.

These sounds startled Li Wuxiang... This thing could even withstand his Nascent Soul sword energy! Not only could it withstand it, but it seemed to enjoy it quite a bit!?
It seems that this Yin spirit cannot deal with it—the Yin spirit sword energy is condensed from the true energy within the body, but this thing has form and substance, and it needs a real flying sword!

He had previously considered leading them around to see if he could shake them off, but now he twisted his body and charged straight towards where his own body was standing.

He hadn't gone very far, and it had only been a fleeting moment when he spotted the tree by the stream. However, only Lou He was standing under the tree; Zhao Yu seemed to have vanished—had she run away?

At that moment, a chilling wind arrived from behind. Li Wuxiang threw himself into his own body and shouted at Lou He, "The corpse demon is here! You go first!"

Lou He seemed stunned, standing there staring at him. His eyes darted around in their sockets, as if they were alive.

Lou He is acting strangely!

But Li Wuxiang had no time to think. He simply unleashed the small sword within his body and sent it flying towards the direction from which the yin wind was coming, shouting, "Junior Sister Kong! I don't want to become an immortal yet. If you still want your lives, let's talk another day!"

This was the first time he had summoned the Nascent Soul Flying Sword from his physical body—a sharp and incomparable golden light shot out, as if a golden lightning bolt had suddenly exploded, illuminating this small patch of dense forest and a large stream as if it were daytime!
The trees were swept away by the sword energy, turning to dust with a deafening roar; the stream was churned by the sword energy, instantly vaporizing into a white mist. This intense sword light finally revealed the corpse demon's form; a wisp of black mist rose from its body, immediately weakening the light by seven or eight tenths. But within that light was a genuine, refined flying sword—this small sword, imbued with blood energy, pierced through layers of miasma and was now penetrating the corpse demon's body!

Li Wuxiang heard a series of shrill screams, some from Kong Jingci, some from Tang Qilang, and others—this corpse demon was actually flying in mid-air, its figure appearing and disappearing, as if it were both in the mortal world and in the sacred mountain!
Li Wuxiang's sword blasted a large hole in its body, from which a blue, eerie light emanated, presumably destroying one of the people and their magical artifact. It was unclear what role the artifact played within the body; the corpse demon's body immediately began to sway and spin in place. It bumped into a giant tree, whose trunk seemed to melt instantly, becoming part of its body, making it even more precarious.

Tang Qilang shouted, "Look at your Fellow Daoist Li! Idiot, he's gone, he's gone!"

Kong Jingci also poked his head out from among the branches and leaves, glaring at Li Wuxiang: "Fellow Daoist Li! You've gone mad! Ah, you've gone mad! There's a path to immortality, yet you refuse to come! You've broken my heart! The True Lord will not forgive you!"

Li Wuxiang glanced quickly at Lou He beside him, then caught the flying sword in his hand: "Junior Sister Kong, if you don't leave now, I won't be polite."

Kong Jingci seemed to want to say something more, but Tang Qilang shouted, "He's a Nascent Soul cultivator! He's a Nascent Soul cultivator from the Sword Sect! The people of the Sword Sect are ruthless, you idiot! Let's go ask our masters! Only our masters will allow a Nascent Soul cultivator to become an immortal, but by then it won't be your turn to love him! You idiot, let's go!"

His Yi Jin Jing should be able to control this body. Kong Jingci wanted to speak, but Tang Qilang's neck twitched into the dark forest, and his body immediately began to float and drift, as if it had turned into a wisp of green smoke and disappeared into the void.

Only then did Li Wuxiang immediately turn to take a closer look at Lou He.

Upon seeing this, he was initially delighted—the dark, ominous aura surrounding Lou He was gone, as if he had survived a life-or-death ordeal and secured his own safety.

But the joy turned to shock the next moment... The tribulation will disappear once you survive the life-or-death ordeal, but what if the person is already dead?
Because Li Wuxiang could no longer sense the spiritual energy circulating within Lou He's empty shell, it was as if his entire life force had dissipated, as if the two eyeballs swirling in his sockets were actually living things, insects, about to—

They crawled out.

His eyeballs popped out of their sockets—two bloody eyeballs ripped his face apart, and then his entire face split open. But it wasn't empty; there was real flesh and blood inside. It was a face that looked as if it had been peeled off, covered with bright red veins that wriggled and twisted, climbing up his entire body from the exposed face and then burrowing deep into the skin. As a result, Lou He's body went limp and turned into a shapeless mass similar to the corpse demon from before.

Then, with two gurgling sounds, two faces emerged from the thing.

"Li Wuxiang, I've survived my tribulation! My tribulation is over! Hehe, haha!"

"Master... I'm so happy! Master, have I become an immortal...?"

(End of this chapter)