While I was in Mondstadt, I never imagined becoming a god.

Page 85

Its obsession is a field where glass lilies grow, their flowers blooming large, but no one comes to harvest them.

"No."

Another wisp.

Its obsession is a dock; the ship is about to depart, and it is waiting for someone who will never come.

"Not at all."

Next one...

Xu Chuan repeated it hundreds or thousands of times.

Every minute and every second, wandering souls are filtered by him and released from the control of spirit binding and command.

Then, the power of the Heavenly Nail Crystal purified their dark red, misty bodies, and they quickly melted like ice.

They were freed.

"Not yet."

Xu Chuan continued the screening.

The Heavenly Nail Crystal was rampaging through his meridians, while the Golden Light Mantra was desperately trying to restrain it. The two forces were locked in a tug-of-war within his body, causing his body temperature to rise to a level that should have caused a normal person to faint. But he did not faint.

My consciousness is becoming increasingly clear.

Floating dwelling.

One of the Yakshas, ranking second among the five great guardian Yakshas.

He perished in the depths of the Abyss of Layered Rocks during the War of the Demon Gods, where he and the sorcerer Boyang guarded the Taiwei Instrument Plate together, sealing the abyss rift with their own bodies.

Xiao has remembered him for hundreds of years.

His remains have long since become part of the rock strata, and his soul has been ground to dust a thousand times by the abyss.

But he's still here.

It is not a complete soul, but a fragment held together by obsession.

There is only one obsession—to hold on to it to the death.

If we can't find Zibai's three souls, we at least have to retrieve Fushe.

This is what Xu Chuan thought.

The Taiweiyi disc slowly rotated beneath his feet.

This magical artifact was the core component used by Fushe and Boyang to seal the abyss rift.

Xu Chuan infused the array plate with golden light, and the pale golden light spread along the remaining patterns, illuminating the engravings that had been dark for hundreds of years inch by inch.

The power of the ritual implements is fed back.

His golden light surged again under the amplification of the array plate, shooting outwards from his body like a ignited oil well.

The dark red tide of souls was largely purified by the golden light.

boom.

Xu Chuan's entire body suddenly burst forth with golden light.

It wasn't the kind of spreading that happened before; it was an explosion.

Light burst forth from his body, shooting out from every pore of his body.

He seemed to be burning himself, becoming the only light in this space filled with death and darkness.

The power within the Heavenly Nail Crystal merged with golden light.

The aura emanating from the Heavenly Throne mingled with his own power.

The icy blue seeped into the pale gold, and wherever the light reached, the wandering souls began to melt away.

Large swaths of dark red turned to ashes in the light, finally freeing them from endless torment.

Those wandering souls, imprisoned for hundreds of years, were finally freed.

Xu Chuan's eyes were sharp and piercing.

This was the first time he had pushed his power to its limit since he began practicing the Golden Light Mantra.

It's not a short burst during a battle, but a continuous, unending fire.

He didn't know how much time had passed—a day, two days, or...

Time lost its reference in this space; only the dark red tide of souls continued to surge, and only his golden light continued to burn.

His body is adapting.

The meridians are torn, healed, torn again, and healed once more.

Each cycle is a fraction faster than the last, and each time the meridians heal, they become a fraction stronger.

Flesh and blood are burned, and then reborn.

Xu Chuan was on the verge of his limit, but he was also undergoing a rapid transformation.

The shortcomings that I was once powerless to change, I now have the power to rewrite.

How could I possibly give up?

"If we can't even get past this hurdle."

Xu Chuan's voice was forced out from his throat, "Then how can you talk about controlling your own destiny?"

He let out a long howl.

The whistling sound pierced through the golden light barrier, through the dark red soul tide, through the array plate of the Taiwei Instrument, and through the boundary of this space.

His energy and spirit reached their peak at this moment.

The incredibly wondrous state that comes from being repeatedly tempered at the edge of limits.

The terrifying pressure from the outside world was no longer a burden, but a furnace that tempered him.

Every bit of pressure was hammering at him, every surge of soul energy was tempering him, and every moment on the verge of collapse was forcing out his deeper power.

If anyone were to witness this scene, even an immortal, they would likely be shaken to their core.

He has already sifted through tens of thousands of wandering souls, eliminating every single one, none of which were found to be floating spirits.

The crimson tide of souls remained endless. His sensory network had expanded to its limit, and the number of wandering souls under his control had become so vast that he could no longer distinguish one from another.

But there was still no floating dwelling.

"Could it be that my method is wrong?"

The Taiweiyi plate made a crisp sound at his feet.

Another corner of the array plate shattered, and the fragments were swallowed up by the soul tide before they even hit the ground.

The structure of the magical artifact was collapsing. Hundreds of years of erosion from the abyss, coupled with his reckless infusion of power these past few days, had finally caused the material of the array plate to give way.

Xu Chuan's projection magic activated instantly.

The shattered corner was filled by the projection, and the pale golden outline replaced the original material, fitting together with the remaining array plate.

He has done this countless times.

Nowadays, eight or nine out of ten Taiwei display panels have become projectors.

The original material had long since shattered, and it was through his projection magic that he repeatedly filled and reinforced it, allowing this magical artifact to survive until now.

But a projection is still a projection.

No matter how meticulously the repairs are done, it only delays the inevitable.

Xu Chuan's fingertips were trembling.

His body can withstand prolonged burning of energy, but his mind cannot.

This level of sensory exertion has already begun to blur the edges of his consciousness.

The murmurs seeped in again, not from the outside, but from the inside. The wandering spirits he controlled, their obsessions, were flowing back through the sensory network of spirit control.

Click.

Another corner of the Taiwei Instrument Plate broke off.

"Dragging this out any longer is not a solution."

Xu Chuan gritted his teeth, pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth, and used the pain to pull himself back to consciousness.

"With just the power of two Heavenly Nail Crystals, when will the purification ever end?"

"This strange space can perhaps only be cleared away in one go by the power of the complete Heavenly Nail."

In fact, he could leave at any time if he wanted to.

But Xu Chuan did not choose to do that, and has persisted to this day.

"But in that case, the floating house will also be reduced to ashes."

To be reduced to ashes is also a kind of liberation.

The wandering souls, completely purified by the power of the Heavenly Nails, are no longer trapped in this space, and no longer repeat their last obsessions before death.

They vanished, as if they had never existed.

For them, this may be the best outcome.

But this wasn't the result Xu Chuan wanted. His mind was racing with thoughts as he tried to find a solution.

Xu Chuan had pushed the Spirit Binding and Commanding technique to its limit, and the number of wandering souls under his control was still increasing, but compared to the almost infinite tide of souls, it was like a bowl of water being poured into the sea.

He can only scoop up so little that the probability of finding the floating fish after scooping it up is even lower.

It was so low that he began to have doubts.

Is Fushe really still here?

Or has the erosion of the abyss over hundreds of years completely extinguished that lingering obsession?

In a daze, a figure surfaced on the surface of consciousness.

Yura.

Xu Chuan's pupils suddenly contracted.

No, it's not Yura.

He was deep beneath the abyss of layered rocks, surrounded by an endless tide of souls, with the Taiwei Instrument Disc on the verge of collapse beneath his feet and two celestial nail crystals in his hands.

Yura is in Mondstadt; she couldn't possibly be here.

One of the rules of this space is to project phantoms from memories.

It draws people in unconsciously, bewitching them with the most familiar figures, swallowing them with the warmest memories, and then tearing them apart by the tide of souls when they are least prepared.

Fushe and Boyang held this place to the death, and the abyss used this method to wear down their will.

"Yura".

Xu Chuan read the name aloud.

"That's right, it's Yura."

He could have done the opposite.

Since this space intends to project illusions from memories to confuse intruders, he will do so willingly.

He wasn't led by it; he came on his own.

He wanted to project the image of that person from his memory into the rules of this space, making it think that he had taken the bait.

With this thought in mind, Xu Chuan immediately took action.

The projection magic is activated.

The cannon guarding him swayed, and the puppet's body began to deform.

It's not a fundamental change, but rather a projection and coverage of the external form.