Chapter 158: Uncovering the Conspiracy

To Ye Dong's utter astonishment, Lixing chose to help him even though he knew full well that Huang Wuchang intended to take his life!

"Lixing!?"

Seeing Lixing turn against him, Huang Wuchang narrowed his eyes, brimming with murderous intent. "You brat, do you also wish to rebel against your master?"

"Master, I heard everything you said!" Lixing's face was bathed in tears. "He Wei and He Lecheng were utterly loyal to you. Knowing they would be hunted down by Guangqi, they still risked their lives to help you escape, yet you—you ruthlessly ripped out their souls! How could you be so cruel?!"

"Hmph?"

Hearing Lixing's accusation, Huang Wuchang let out a bone-chilling laugh. "They were destined to die for your old master anyway! Saving their master's life at the critical moment was merely repaying the grace of my tutelage! One could say they died for a worthy cause!"

"You bastard! Do you not know that those whose souls are stripped away within a tomb can never transcend reincarnation?!"

Enraged by Huang Wuchang's brazen and psychotic explanation, Lixing stood with bulging veins, cursing at him fiercely. "You have committed countless evils; it is only right that those Daoist priests outside come to subdue you! You will die a horrible death! A horrible death!"

At Lixing's curse, Huang Wuchang laughed even more darkly and wildly.

"Hahahaha! History is written by the victors! Once this old master acquires SIKOU Xuan's thunder-forged body, neither Rihui nor Daoist Weizi will be any match for me!"

He grew increasingly ferocious as he spoke. "Dying a horrible death is utter nonsense! When I ascend to the rank of Dao King, let's see which ignorant netherworld emissary or Yama dares to summon me to the underworld!"

"What!?!?"

Hearing Huang Wuchang's wild and delusional words, Ye Dong finally understood the villain's ultimate goal!

"He actually wants to obtain the corpse of SIKOU Xuan, who was struck down by heavenly thunder after practicing the Soul-Fixing Immortality technique?!"

A chill ran down Ye Dong's spine. "But wasn't SIKOU Xuan destroyed by heavenly retribution? Can a corpse struck by divine thunder and dead for nearly two hundred years still be used?"

"Good heavens, no wonder he spent twenty years searching for someone with the 'Eye of Wisdom' to help him decode the secrets of the Three Realms Mantra. It was all to steal another body!"

"Yet he doesn't know the true art of body-swapping! Could he possess some other method?"

At this thought, he could not help but swallow hard. "To think he is doing all this just to possess SIKOU Xuan's body! And for this insane ambition, how many people have died unjustly over the past few decades?!"

"Yu Menglan's family, the crew of ghosts, those sacrificial pawns who died without anyone knowing their names, and the thirty-odd people who entered the Immortality Tomb with him today—all of them died violently because of his deranged ambition!"

"It is all the fault of this conscienceless Huang Wuchang, driven purely by his own selfish desires! Everyone is nothing more than a chess piece to him!"

Seething with rage, Ye Dong pulled hard along Lixing's long whip, roaring at the top of his lungs, "Huang Wuchang, you wicked scoundrel, you selfish monster, you piece of trash! My master will surely subdue you! Just wait, just you wait!"

"Hahahaha!"

Amidst his wild laughter, Huang Wuchang spat out his mantra: "Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost! If you must blame someone, blame their naivety and ignorance for willingly letting themselves be used by this old master!"

"Brother Tian, pull harder! We must break free from this villain's black claws!!!"

Seeing that neither Huang Wuchang nor Ye Dong would yield, Lixing poured every ounce of his remaining strength into pulling Ye Dong toward himself!

"Sizzle, sizzle, hiss!!!"

Though the divine dragon protective aura on Ye Dong was immensely powerful, the black flames of the high-purity Daoist Huang Wuchang were superior, evaporating the dragon energy until almost nothing remained!

"Brother Tian, put your back into it!"

Already severely wounded, Lixing seemed to push himself beyond his limits, coughing up a massive mouthful of black blood that splattered across the ground!

Seeing this, Ye Dong's heart sank. Lixing had already been gravely injured prior to this, and had taken the brunt of Guangqi's purple talisman afterward. His internal organs were now severely damaged, and he likely had little time left.

"Even if I die, I won't die at the hands of this scoundrel!"

Ye Dong let out a roar, his eyes turning bloodshot. "Lixing, hold on! I'm coming right over!"

"Aah!!!"

Consumed by blazing fury, Ye Dong tore through one layer of black flames after another. At the very moment his dragon energy was about to be completely exhausted, he finally broke free from Huang Wuchang's giant black demonic claw!

Freed from the clutches of the demonic claw as if a mountain had been lifted from his shoulders, Ye Dong sprinted toward the dying Lixing!

"Lixing, let's go!"

Ye Dong heaved Lixing onto his back, mustered every last shred of strength remaining in his body, and bolted back the way they had come!

"Damn it, he actually broke free!"

Seeing the duck cooked to perfection fly right out of his hands, Huang Wuchang flew into a rage, reeled in his black flames, and gave furious chase!

"Brother Tian, this path... has changed."

Lixing's eyelids drooped heavily, and he could barely speak, yet he forced himself to say with his remaining willpower, "The scenery of the Immortality Tomb shifts every few minutes. The last time Master led us in here, he suffered a massive loss of vital Qi because the return path changed. You must be extremely careful!"

"I know, I'll keep a sharp lookout!"

Racing frantically through his memories of the inbound path, Ye Dong darted through perilous, branching corridors. In the back-and-forth dash, he seemed to have shaken off Huang Wuchang's pursuit!

"Lixing, you have to hold on! You can't die here!"

Ye Dong continuously channeled his Samadhi True Fire into Lixing's freezing body, hoping to buy him a few more precious moments of life!

"Brother Tian, don't waste your vital Qi. Save it for your own protection!"

Lixing pushed Ye Dong's hand away with a bitter smile. "The last time we entered the Immortality Tomb, Master almost got his hands on SIKOU Xuan's corpse. But he miscalculated a single step; at the very last moment, there was a... mistake in how the pawns were utilized, causing the evil Qi of the Immortality Tomb to leak outward. To divert that Yin energy outside, he nearly lost his life!"

"Was that the Yin energy leak that caused the orphanage accident?" Ye Dong thought with a jolt. "So Huang Wuchang really did divert the Yin energy outward to save his own skin, just as Master said—what an absolute scumbag!"

"Brother Tian, what I'm trying to say is that Huang Wuchang fears neither Daoist sorcery nor demonic arts. The only things he fears are the Yin ghost powers within the Immortality Tomb—especially those trapped in the womb of SIKOU Xuan's wife, enduring the agonizing torment of mortal suffering!"

By this point, Lixing's face was deathly pale, and his pupils had begun to dilate!

"Lixing, Lixing!!"

"Brother Tian, my name isn't Lixing. My real name is Ye Shaoliang!"

With a heart aching with grief, Ye Dong clutched Lixing tightly. "Ye Shaoliang, Ye Shaoliang! I've got it, I remember! And my name isn't He Wentian, it's Ye Dong! Ye Dong!"

Lixing offered a bitter smile before coughing up another large mouthful of congested blood. "In this life, I haven't had many good brothers. You count as one."

"Right, you're my good brother! A good brother!"

"He Wentian, get your ass out here!!!"

Huang Wuchang's crazed roar echoed from outside the stone chamber!

Startled, Ye Dong dropped the special bottle of dog blood he had been clutching to the ground with a dull thud.

Lixing glanced at the specialized dog blood and smiled faintly. "Leave this stuff with me. Run, before Huang Wuchang catches up!"

"Ye Shaoliang!!"

Gritting his teeth through his tears, Ye Dong vowed, "I will avenge you! I will definitely avenge you!"

Lixing unscrewed the bottle of dog blood and offered a bitter smile. "Follow that stone path, and you'll reach the Great Buddha Hall. You must avenge me, or else Huang Wuchang gets off too easily!"

"Alright! Ye Shaoliang, farewell!"

Wiping away his tears, Ye Dong bid farewell to Lixing and bolted down the stone path without looking back!

Scarcely had he vanished into the distance when Huang Wuchang's figure materialized before Lixing!

"Master, we meet again."

Lixing sneered, lifting the bottle of special dog blood and gulping it down in great, frantic swallows!