Killing Dao Fruit
Chapter 142 - 139: Golden Official Returns, Hearing a Great Secret

Chapter 142: Chapter 139: Golden Official Returns, Hearing a Great Secret

What surprised Wang Yuan even more was that the soul of Nie Hongying differed significantly from the souls of other Daoist Soldiers.

The souls of other White Tiger Elite Soldiers, who were damaged, had long since become muddled and incapable of communication, knowing only to eat and drink.

This was the normal situation.

Unless one was born with an unusual life chart, or harbored great hatred, injustice, revenge... or had arranged corresponding Daoist rituals while alive.

Otherwise, most people had already become a completely different form of life after death and transformation into ghosts, no longer possessing complete spiritual intelligence, and there were barriers in every aspect when interacting with the living.

Moreover, the souls of these Daoist Soldiers had been cruelly harmed and were even more damaged.

But the soul of Nie Hongying, which looked extremely ethereal, did not follow its instincts to consume the Dharma Food.

Instead, she kept circling around Wang Yuan, emitting anxious ghostly chirps from her mouth.

To others it might be hard to recognize, but all three of them, including Wang Yuan, could hear clearly.

It was: "Mission! Mission!..."

"Dharma Master, General Nie seems to have a very strong obsession.

Even though she is close to having her soul scatter, she still continues to perform her final mission from her life driven by instinct.

And she seems to feel a great closeness to your aura, be it the military skill of the White Tiger or the official energy of the Qiu Tiger, both giving her a rare sense of trust.

I think, she is now seeking your help," said Lady Peach Fairy, the most experienced among them, summarizing the situation at a glance.

Wang Yuan didn’t hesitate, he reached out his hand toward the group of ghosts gathered at the stern of the boat and uttered in a low voice:

"Collect!"

A gust of cold wind then enveloped the group of ghosts into his palm.

Whizz—!

He also collected the small boat into the Wanxiang Bag and then leaped ashore with one "Five Ghosts Moving Mountain" maneuver, holding a "Soul Summoning Incense" that had been enchanted, and he sprinted along the Luoshui.

Huang Wu and Lady Peach Fairy, turned from solid to ethereal, floated lightly behind him like they had no weight at all, riding the cold wind.

"Mr. One-Eyed" was in charge of bringing along the large black dog, Old Black.

"Eh? Into the mountains?"

After racing five or six miles with the power flowing through his body and his feet barely touching the ground, Wang Yuan unexpectedly found that the "Soul Summoning Incense" started pointing from the riverside towards a range of high and steep mountains.

But he could tell that this was actually the shortest path to Yunjing City, at least manageable by a powerful third realm Dao General.

"Little Ghost Carrying Palanquin! Imperial Decree!"

He casually threw out a few papermen drawn with talismanic script, and in the midst of a strong gust of cold wind, they transformed into a ghostly chill-inducing paper palanquin.

Lifting Wang Yuan, it rushed into the dense forest.

Cliff, ravine, valley cracks, bush... no matter how complex the terrain, it couldn’t slow down the paper palanquin in the slightest.

After half a "two hours" and several changes of "Soul Summoning Incense," they finally located their target.

—A tall figure, disheveled, covered in mud, and extremely bedraggled, was staggering yet resolutely walking on the road back to the capital.

"She... she was supposed to have scattered her soul, why is the corpse still moving?"

Huang Wu couldn’t help but exclaim.

They had thought they were searching for a body that had already fallen, completely unprepared for the scene before them.

Even though her soul had left the body, Nie Hongying’s physical instincts were still strong, and the first thing they did was reveal Wang Yuan’s arrival.

She stumbled over to him, grabbed his hand, and though her eyes were lifeless, without any focus, she urgently said:

"Mission! Mission!"

Seeing her lifeless eyes, Wang Yuan sighed deeply:

"General Nie’s three souls and seven spirits have indeed scattered, but her obsession has not, nor has the breath of loyalty and righteousness in her heart.

It is this power that transcends life and death which drives the body of a Dao General to climb out from the Luoshui on her own and continue... to complete her unfinished mission!"

Seeing Nie Hongying like this, all three of them felt a pang of sorrow.

This gradually decaying Court, not only housed those corrupt officials who did not regard people as humans, the ennobled public figures unconnected with worldly concerns...

But also countless people like Nie Hongying.

They were the true backbone of Yan Han.

As long as they existed, the Great Yan Dynasty might endure rains and winds, but the soul of Yan Han will certainly not perish!

It certainly won’t!

A moment later.

Ringing, ringing, ringing...

Huang Wu stepped solemnly to the beat, dancing with the "Yin Yang Heart Bell" on her ankles, which with the power of "Soul Stabilization," calmed Nie Hongying’s body.

Wang Yuan and Lady Peach Fairy then set up the "Soul Summoning Altar."

Utilizing the mighty power of the "Small Book of Life and Death," they used her body as a medium to forcefully summon back Nie Hongying’s scattered three souls and seven spirits.

By this time, Wang Yuan had nothing to hesitate about.

Even if all the pieces of the vase were collected, it would never be the same perfect vase again.

Apart from the "Small Book of Life and Death" and the "Earthly Que Golden Book," no one could prevent her soul from scattering completely.

Thus...

Wang Yuan formed the Five Senses Mandala Seal with his hands and shouted lowly:

"Five Senses Altar City! Rise!

Golden Official... return to your place!"

Hu——!

In an instant, a cold wind arose in the woods.

A burst of colorful brilliance surged from the top of Wang Yuan’s head, countless talismanic scripts looking like bizarre flowers and strange trees, layers of towers and palaces piling up, eventually transforming into five dazzling and intricate Dharma Altars.

One blue, one red, one black, one yellow, one white.

The blue altar city’s brilliance was already resplendent with an owner, the other four altar cities appeared dimmer in color, for they were still missing four of the Five Senses officials.

Still stunned, Nie Hongying instinctively saluted Wang Yuan with a fist, leaped, and jumped into the white altar city.

As soon as the two merged, the brilliance surged vastly.

Wang Yuan’s own Taoist skill also surged significantly.

He did not bother to feel the changes in his own cultivation but hurriedly opened the "Small Book of Life and Death."

He reached out and vigorously erased the words "soul scattering" listed under the newly appeared biography of Nie Hongying.

Eradicating this line of text completely.

With only 12891 points of "Yin Morality" left, instantly 10,000 were consumed.

Inside the Golden Official Altar City, Nie Hongying’s soul, which seemed forcibly bonded like porcelain fragments, immediately began to coalesce like time reversing, merging into one.

Her eyes gradually regained their agility, adding a bit more of the female general’s inherent sharpness.

Before they could ask why she returned, she turned to Wang Yuan, saluted again, and said solemnly:

"Golden Official Nie Hongying, greets the Dharma Master!

Dharma Master, the Great Yan has troubles, there are major changes in the fortune of the nation propelled by the Winter Official..."

Moments later, after hearing Nie Hongying’s account, all three faces became somewhat solemn.

One reason was that the "Small Book of Life and Death" was not omnipotent. After Nie Hongying was pulled back from the brink of soul scattering, her memory loss was extremely severe.

Apart from the mission as her obsession, only the deeply ingrained "White Tiger Military Art" was mostly intact, while the rest were somewhat vague.

The second reason was...

"Leaping Dragon Gate, eating the heart and liver, the flood snake devours the Holy Infant Pill!

By the bank of the Turbid River, drums flutter, the Red Dragon falls from the Yunhe Bridge!"

"The divination for the nation’s fortune sounds like another special ’Killing Banquet’.

The latter part, the Red Dragon clearly symbolizes the fortune of the Great Yan country, but why does it also involve ’Yunhe’?"

Wang Yuan and Huang Wu looked at each other, suddenly feeling as if they had fallen into a huge net from the beginning.

Actually.

After successfully dealing with the "Owl God Tomb," both Wang Yuan and Huang Wu intended to explore the past of "Yunhe."

Not just to retrieve the lost memories and relatives of the little ghost girl.

But also for the silently suffering Grandma.

As the "Dragon Qi Prohibition" gradually weakened, the numerous grand tombs built by the dignitaries of the Great Yan on Beimang Mountain over two hundred years would become desirable again.

Grandma’s actual body was there; as a tree demon, she could hardly move while her consciousness was dormant.

Previously there were no means, but now they hoped to find Huang Wu’s mother, Wang Yuan’s aunt, Grandma Longhuai’s biological daughter.

Also another locust tree demon with a thousand-year lifespan!

To see if they could help Grandma recover.

And to clarify what exactly had happened over these years and why she had never returned to Beimang Mountain.

Although the clues at Luoyang Royal Mansion had already been severed, "Yunhe County" itself was a very clear clue.

Since "Yunhe" was likely a sealing title, it should be easy to find out which clan members had been stationed there in the past.

It shouldn’t be difficult to follow the vine and find the root.

But now the mandate from the Imperial Dragon Guard is to go to Yunhe County, involving the significant secrets of Great Yan’s peril also centered in Yunhe County...

The numerous unexpected factors combined made Wang Yuan suddenly feel a profound sense of inevitability.

Seeing the tribulation energy, which had subsided after his induction into the new identity, beginning to stir again, brewing his second encounter with calamity.

He exhaled deeply:

"It seems now that this trip to Yunhe County will absolutely not be an easy one!"