“Return....”

“My soul....”

Two eerie voices echoed in their ears.

Concern about Qing Han’s curse swiftly evaporated, replaced by a deep-seated fear of what was happening. The two corpse coffins really had come to life! They were vomiting mouthfuls of yin energy that shattered even the golden radiance of the Celestial Exorcism Armor.

In the blink of an eye, darkness descended over the group and restricted their consciousness. They remained perfectly still, floating in the water.

……

Complete chaos gripped Levitating Island. There were still many immortals who’d refused to leave, as they’d built a life here during the island’s millenia of development. To their horror, the inner sea of the island turned black on this day.

Countless terrible monsters swarmed from the dark waters and attacked the immortals on the banks, dragging them into the water and eating them.

Outside Kunpeng Palace.

House Donglin had sealed off the premises; they were here for Xin Mou.

Beigong Yu, Aoxue, Hongxiu, and Lü Cho, a peerless immortal serving Beicang Qiong, joined hands in a group defense to prevent House Donglin from entering.

However, circumstances didn’t allow them space to fight over the girl now. Waves of human-headed octopi and other chimeras of humans and marine creatures emerged from the black inner sea. The Donglin immortals struggled to keep the monsters at bay, and ended up allying with the defenders of Kunpeng Palace to deal with their common enemy first.

……

“Dammit, don’t force me to pull my trump card!” Lu Yun pulled Qing Han behind him. Though his arms weren’t particularly strong, they were unwavering. The sudden motion sent Qing Han’s heart racing, and his face flushed a pretty red.

Pop!

Emerald light flickered through the air, making way for a seed to sprout in the void. A pink flower slowly unfurled, sweeping away the yin energy around it. Lu Yun, Qing Han, Diexi, Su Xiaoxiao, and the Deaf Prince stood on top of the stamens, while the little fox had fallen unconscious from gibbering fear.

“Thank heavens I retained my seed storage even after dying.” Su Xiaoxiao patted her voluminous chest in relief. Realizing she’d said something she shouldn’t, she cautiously turned to check the reactions from the group.

The Deaf Prince hadn’t heard anything, while Qing Han and Diexi bore no reaction whatsoever. Su Xiaoxiao stuck her tongue out. These people didn’t seem to care that she’d been raised from the dead.

Seed storage was a powerful storage technique. Unlike storage treasures, which could be robbed or destroyed, a seed storage was a special space created by oneself, accessible only by the owner.

After Su Xiaoxiao’s return to life, her seed storage had come back as well. Many of her treasures were within it, including a seed she’d counted as one of her most precious possessions, one that had yin-countering properties. It quite surprised her to see the seed sprout and grow into a leafless flower.

……

“Wow, so many yum-yums!” exclaimed an ecstatic voice. A figure rushed into the vast ocean of yin energy, making it boil over. Various piercing screams rang out underwater, stirring up powerful waves that turned the ocean into a frothy mess.

“I should’ve called Ge Long over earlier, things would’ve been so much easier.” Lu Yun seriously contemplated the need to bring Ge Long on his next tomb raid. The second his servant had charged into the miasma of yin energy, the looming pressure bearing down on them dissipated.

“Let’s go!” Lu Yun turned to his new envoy.

“Hm? Ah!” Su Xiaoxiao sprang into action after a befuddled pause, activating the pink flower beneath their feet. Its color deepened from pink to violet as it exploded with blinding light and blasted a hole into the great dome of yin energy.

With a hand seal cast by both hands, the violet flower grew at tremendous speed and took them up into the air.

“Return to me...” came the whisper again, followed by an enormous, sinister hand grabbing at the now dark purple flower.

“Such potent corpse poison!” Su Xiaoxiao’s eyes turned pale green with excitement. “It mixes soul venom with the poison of yin energy. I’ve never encountered this kind of poison before!”

As a master of both medicine and poison, all things poisonous fascinated her. She forcefully met the giant black hand with her porcelain one.

Bam!

A great collision sounded underwater.

“My… soul!” the whisper grew into a hoarse roar. A giant face roughly five hundred meters wide raged madly.

“You!” Su Xiaoxiao immediately recognized the face of the corpse coffin. “You two failed to execute your plot against me, so you turned into corpse coffins to suppress me, then stole my soul!”

Snarling softly, she soared into the air and manifested an agile, emerald sword. It burst into thousands of strands of sword energy and slashed at the giant face.

“Grawwwl!!” the face screamed with pain and shot back into the thick clouds of yin energy.

“You’re not going anywhere!” exclaimed Su Xiaoxiao as she ran after it.

“Come back!” Lu Yun hurriedly stopped her. “This body of water is going to transform into a Great Formation of Corpse Refinement soon. Forget it and get us out of here!”

A chill running down her spine, Su Xiaoxiao unleashed twin beams of violet and cyan radiance. In response, the rooted flower sprouted thin petals and sent crimson light soaring into the sky.

Ignoring the laws of gravity, the strange flower barrelled out of the sea.

Bam!

A detonation set off in the black waters as a five-hundred-meter-wide violet flower with thin petals bloomed at the center of the inner sea. In that moment, every zombie in the sea howled with fear and frantically rushed toward the shore.

Hum.

The violet flower hummed, emitting rays of crimson light that isolated the great inner sea, clearing its inky depths at a speed visible to the human eye.

“Flower of the dead… the Hell Flower...” Lu Yun murmured, staring at the flower beneath his feet that was slowly morphing from violet to crimson.