Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 305 Breathing
As soon as he finished speaking, a burst of sword light erupted!
The first scream came from Cui Daocheng—all the Nascent Soul cultivators from the thirty-six sects who had split off from him and surrounded Mei Qiulu were pierced through by the sword energy.

They were originally surrounded by golden light, looking ethereal, but after being hit by Mei Qiulu's first sword energy, it was as if something covering their bodies had been punctured—a large mass of pus and blood, along with organs and bright red blood nerves, burst out with a snap, transforming back into the terrifying appearance of the Golden Core Corpse Demon that Li Wuxiang had seen before!
However, four of the humanoid figures didn't explode into these things; instead, they turned into a flurry of flying paper scraps. Li Wuxiang thought for a moment and immediately realized that among those four, there must be members of the Tianxin and Ranshan sects. The Ranshan sect had no Nascent Soul cultivators, and the Tianxin sect only had one left; they probably didn't come to the Great Calamity Mountain… Zhao Qi had become part of the Blood God; it must have been him who taught them the method to use talismans to draw a fake one!

Good lad, you can now guide the Nascent Soul cultivators of the Thirty-Six Sects!
The remaining thirty-two were immediately linked with Cui Daocheng. Cui Daocheng's appearance hadn't changed much, except that his body had turned a deathly gray, making him look like a stiff corpse. He cried out, "Junior Sister! You'd better think this through!"

As he spoke, the second scream came from Tang Xi and the fourteen Yang God heads. Their voices were even more shrill than Cui Daocheng's, filled with despair: "Master Mei! You are stubborn and incorrigible! You will bring disaster to the people! What has the world done to deserve this!"

These two sentences were then completely drowned out by a violent roar—the sword light struck the stone wall, the entire mountain trembled violently, and fine cracks converged from the middle of the mountain all the way to the top, with huge rocks and dust pouring down like a torrential rain.

Countless corpses clung to the mountainside, but before the sword energy of the Yang God Sword Immortal, they were utterly powerless! First, a large number were blasted apart by the sword energy, then another large number were blasted down by the falling earth and rocks, crashing densely into the sea of ​​fire below. The screams of agony rose and fell in waves, merging with the roar of the mountain, making this place truly resemble hell!
"Senior Brother Cui!" Mei Qiulu rushed over. "I've come to free you. Rest in peace!"

But the remaining thirty-odd Nascent Soul cultivators suddenly withdrew their bodies and disappeared into the towering flames and billowing smoke, leaving Mei Qiulu empty-handed.

The next moment, a huge, black python, resembling a dragon, appeared from the other side of the mountain, its body covered with bright red veins. It had thirty-three heads, with Cui Daocheng's in the very center and the remaining thirty-two surrounding him, looking like a giant human face flower or the mouthparts of a monster.

These human faces spewed out various magical treasures from their mouths, and a burst of mysterious light intertwined, blocking the third sword strike that Mei Qiulu had launched.

Then Cui Daocheng shouted, "Junior sister, this is not my fault!"

Similarly, a sword aura was unleashed!
This sword energy seemed to carry countless companion stars—it was far less intense than Mei Qiulu's sword light, yet the thirty-two magical treasures surrounding it shone brightly, distorting the space within the mountain when it was unleashed. Before Li Wuxiang could even discern its form, he had already clashed with Mei Qiulu in front of her—

The dust and smoke within the entire mountainside were instantly cleared away by the two fiercely clashing sword energies! The seemingly tangible sound waves blasted everything in this space against the stone walls. The mountaintop, which was already on the verge of collapse, was violently pushed back and re-compacted by this impact. Li Wuxiang heard a muffled thud from the mountain, as if an invisible hand had forcefully slammed mud and water into the inside of a pottery jar!

This terrifying force also affected the two of them—Mei Qiulu was protected by divine light, and after the smoke and dust dissipated, she still stood in the void, like a true immortal. But the Nascent Soul Corpse Ghost's body was brutally peeled away, pus and blood gushed out, and the blood and nerves on its body danced in the gale, almost revealing its entire spine.

However, Cui Daocheng and the thirty-two heads remained full of vigor, and in unison shouted, "Come! Come! Come!"

The surviving ghouls, upon hearing the summons, immediately transformed into a swarm of black arrows and shot towards them, merging with them. In the blink of an eye, the ghouls filled their bodies, becoming even larger and longer than before, truly resembling a black and red dragon.

"Junior sister, you're not fighting against us, you're fighting against more than two thousand members of the thirty-six sects! Why can't you understand! When have cultivators in the world ever witnessed such a spectacle!"

The ghoul leaped forward, its body instantly transforming from blackish-red to a deathly pale white—countless human faces appeared, almost identical to the Blood God Li Wuxiang had seen in the Crimson Sky. The next moment, those countless faces unleashed their respective magical artifacts, shimmering with iridescent light and dazzling radiance, almost overpowering the crimson glow of the lava beneath the mountain, and transforming the dissipating mist into auspicious, seven-colored clouds—

"The Taiyi Sect doesn't just refer to the Sword Sect, Junior Sister!" Cui Daocheng shouted solemnly, "It refers to the Sword Sect and the Thirty-Six Sects! Now that the Thirty-Six Sects are working together, who is the true successor?! Why don't you understand?!"

His voice transformed into a whooshing sound, and thousands of streams of light around his body converged once again around Cui Daocheng's sword energy. This sword light was so vast and dazzling that even the magical artifacts swirling and dancing were almost impossible to discern their original form. Yet, compared to this sword light, they seemed to move extremely slowly, like slowly flowing starlight!

Li Wuxiang sensed the terrifying power of Cui Daocheng's impending attack—he lay prone on the rock wall, waiting for his chance, and could feel the continuous muffled sounds coming from inside the massive, majestic mountain, making his skin tremble.

He knew that the Great Calamity Mountain was likely to be destroyed again.

Cui Daocheng's sword light erupted! The seven-colored rainbow light instantly turned into an incandescent white light that filled the sky and earth. Li Wuxiang's eyes were almost blinded for a moment. Mei Qiulu's divine light was like a grain of rice under the scorching sun in front of this sword light, and was almost torn to shreds.

But Li Wuxiang saw that she neither dodged nor avoided the attack; instead, as the sword light rushed towards her, she raised her hand, brought two fingers together, and pointed from afar—

And so, the seemingly unbright incandescent light dimmed in an instant. For a faint golden ray, traveling against the wind, accompanied by the deafening roar of the collapsing mountain behind Mei Qiulu, hurtled straight towards the corpse dragon's face and pierced right through it!

The sword light vanished abruptly, but its residual power remained. In the remaining half of the mountain's interior, thousands of magical treasures from the Thirty-Six Sects floated in mid-air, along with the smoke, dust, and rocks—the sword strike unleashed by more than two thousand disciples of the Thirty-Six Sects seemed to have briefly altered the laws of fate between heaven and earth. Li Wuxiang felt as if he were in outer space, where everything had lost its weight.

Half of the mountain was slowly collapsing downwards, thousands of magical artifacts were slowly dimming, and the body of the corpse dragon was slowly, bit by bit, unfolding and disintegrating.

Mei Qiulu's true form still stood in the original void, while her Yang spirit stood at the end of the corpse dragon. The large hole that had been pierced through the dragon's tail by her was also rotating, as if a huge black hibiscus had bloomed.

The next moment, the Yang spirit returned to its physical body, and Mei Qiulu walked through the void, arriving in front of Cui Daocheng in three steps. His face and the faces of the countless heads were frozen. Mei Qiulu raised her hand and gently touched his forehead, shaking her head slightly: "Senior brother, this is not the right path."

The blood nerves on the stone dragon's body twitched, making it one of only two things in this space that didn't seem slow at this moment, along with Mei Qiulu. It desperately climbed on the corpse dragon's body, growing countless tentacles, trying to gather the slowly disintegrating flesh and blood back together.

At this moment, Cui Daocheng blinked and stared straight at Mei Qiulu. His bluish-gray eyelids trembled, and his cloudy eyes rolled, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't, leaving only a sense of bewilderment.

Mei Qiulu sighed softly, "Senior Brother Cui, you're awake." Cui Daocheng's eyes flickered, as if to say "Yes." But the next moment, his eyes slowly stopped moving, his expression seemed to clear again, and his blood vessels and nerves throbbed even more violently, drawing pieces of flesh back to themselves—

“…Junior sister, you…” he began, “Why can’t you think of—”

Mei Qiulu suddenly closed her eyes and gently pushed her fingers forward—

The corpse dragon, like a rope already stretched too tight, burst open violently. Patches of flesh and blood splattered around it, turning into large clumps of viscous, dark red mist. The exposed bones began to disintegrate, but the particularly thick blood nerve connecting them still struggled to contract, as if trying to turn the tide.

But when Mei Qiulu unleashed her true power, the blood nerve immediately seemed to be slowly sliced ​​apart, breaking apart inch by inch and turning into blood mist.

At this moment, Cui Daocheng's face also began to crumble, and everything in this space seemed to regain its weight and suddenly collapsed downwards!
Countless stray blood nerves and surviving ghouls leaped and clung desperately amidst the falling rubble, scattering in all directions like cockroaches in a swarm. But Li Wuxiang remained unperturbed, and still did not reveal himself. He nimbly and swiftly dodged through the dust and smoke, his eyes fixed intently on the lava below.

Because he had been on guard against Tang Xi and the fourteen Yang Gods within him—Mei Qiulu and Cui Daocheng had disappeared after their fight, and they hadn't shown up yet!
Like Mei Qiulu, he didn't believe for a second that Tang Xi and the people of the Thirty-Six Sects had suddenly changed their ways and started to care about the world. But he also believed that what he had said before was from the bottom of his heart—they were all completely captivated, just like how Senior Sister Mei and the others believed that the Heavenly Fate Master had come to help!
Once you're so engrossed, you'll never be afraid to fight or run away!

And there was that pool of lava, like a vast ocean—when the earth and rocks above fell into it, countless high waves of fire immediately erupted. This seemed to reveal something below.

At first glance, Li Wuxiang thought it was that huge rock, a rock that had fallen into the lava and hadn't yet melted; it was angular and irregularly shaped. But soon the rock was obscured by the other soil and rocks that had fallen into it, and he could no longer see it.

The second time he glimpsed it, he saw a whole rock formation crashing heavily into the lava from the mountaintop. This time, when Li Wuxiang saw it again, he noticed it had shrunk a bit, and its sharp edges seemed to have disappeared, like a piece of ice soaking in warm water, gradually melting away.

The third time he saw that thing was now. The corpse dragon disintegrated, the corpse demons scattered, and half of the Great Calamity Mountain began to collapse. The soil and rocks from half the mountain should have buried what was beneath the magma pool, but he saw that thing again in the same spot—

It became round, like a giant egg. It became brighter, as if it were about to melt from the heat of the magma, or perhaps... it was already shining all along!

Mei Qiulu stared at the face of Cui Daocheng before her—it had vanished, but a faint blue light remained, as if it were his soul. Mei Qiulu spoke softly to him amidst the deafening roar and the torrential rain of earth and rocks.

Something's not right, something's not right!

Because the shape of that thing seemed to have changed again... It no longer looked like a giant egg. Its surface began to have protrusions, and it became brighter. Even from such a distance and amidst the pervasive smoke and dust, Li Wuxiang could vaguely make out that those protrusions looked like strange and distorted human faces!
Just as he was about to warn Mei Qiulu, a strange phenomenon occurred.

The sound of the torrential rain and falling rocks began to subside, changing from a continuous, deafening roar to a sparse drizzle. After another three or four breaths, large rocks stopped falling, and only scattered gravel continued to fall.

Mei Qiulu also noticed something was wrong and immediately looked around. In just that short time, even the pebbles disappeared.

Only half of the Great Calamity Mountain remained, resembling a huge, dilapidated house—a house weathered by time. Lush vegetation sprouted from both the inner and outer stone walls, and in a short time, the gnarled grass and vines quickly covered the interior of the mountain with a thick layer. This force of life, the very body of the vegetation, forcefully held back the mountain's collapse.

The lava pool below then calmed down again, and even stopped bubbling.

Li Wuxiang could then see the thing inside more clearly—it was a huge egg, and something was growing inside.

The thing being conceived seemed to have many faces, those distorted faces almost bursting the eggshell. Li Wuxiang could now recognize them... at least one of the faces had once belonged to Tang Xi, while the rest should belong to the other fourteen Yang Gods.

The face's eyes were tightly closed, as if it had turned into an infant again, only much larger. Besides these faces, he could also vaguely see other things in the egg—feathers, scales, claws, hooves, tail, fins, horns, whiskers... These things grew together in a messy cluster, interspersed with those faces.

But slowly, another, even larger face emerged from within, its eyes enormous and bulging outwards. It lifted its eyelids amidst the lava and the pebbles, its fiery red eyes darting about. Li Wuxiang heard a deafening roar, like thousands of trumpets being blared in unison… This seemed to be its first breath in this world.

It inhaled a mouthful of magma, and the vegetation in the Great Calamity Mountain grew wildly, becoming extremely lush and shiny green, and soon bearing a dense array of fruits and flowers of various colors.

It spewed out another mouthful of lava, and the vegetation immediately withered, the flowers and fruits decayed, and everything turned yellow and withered.

With each breath, the whole world seemed to rise and fall. Li Wuxiang felt his body grow heavy; he could no longer lie on the ground. His throat itched, his stomach tingled… Many things, long-lost flesh and blood, had revived within him, filling him completely. He couldn't help but vomit—large clumps of writhing flesh immediately gushed from his mouth.

The next moment he realized that his entire seven orifices were filled with wriggling fleshy buds, and then he was turned inside out by himself—encased in his own wildly proliferating organs.

(End of this chapter)