Chapter 165: As Death Approaches

Opening his eyes from a desperate, life-or-death gamble, Ye Dong felt as though everything had changed!

"This feeling is incredible! Is this the 'fusion of water and fire' that Master emphasized during our cultivation?"

With a sweep of his hand, Ye Dong dismissed his hand seals, gripped the Prison Flame tightly, and spun around to face Huang Wuchang's sword rain!

"Boom!"

Golden and silver lights burst forth, and Ye Dong and Huang Wuchang were thrown back a few paces simultaneously!

At that moment, the shifting sands finally came to a halt. The two men stood facing each other within a distance of twenty meters, while Guang Qi, lying on the ground, could only marvel as he watched Ye Dong withstand Huang Wuchang's Maoshan Sword Splitting Technique head-on.

"It seems he truly is the one chosen by the heavens!" Guang Qi, who had long harbored a bitter resentment toward Ye Dong, could no longer contain the tumult in his heart. "It appears Ye Dong actually has a chance to kill Huang Wuchang! Ye Dong can live, but Huang Wuchang must die!"

He had not overestimated Ye Dong; rather, he had underestimated Huang Wuchang's recovery speed.

"Good lad, you've actually reached the realm of the 'fusion of water and fire'!"

Huang Wuchang snorted coldly, withdrew his sword array, and looked up at his surroundings. To his surprise, he found himself right in front of the massive stone door he had tried so hard to enter. Within that stone door lay the corpse of Sikou Xuan, whom he had yearned for day and night!

"Fortunately, the catalyst is still beside the door, or else everything really would have been ruined by Guang Qi!"

Huang Wuchang sneered. "Guang Qi, old man that I am, I've finally made it here. Aren't you furious?"

Seeing Guang Qi lying paralyzed and unable to move, Huang Wuchang laughed even more gleefully. "Don't be impatient, I'll devour your soul right now! It will spare you the torment of the samsara cycle—though since your soul will be scattered to the winds the moment I'm done, what samsara could there even be for you?!"

Hearing this, Ye Dong couldn't help casting a glance at the fallen Guang Qi. *"This ambitious plotter is still here. Whether he lives or dies is a question; if he dies, I lose a helper against Huang Wuchang, and Huang Wuchang will gain an increase in yang energy by absorbing his soul. But if he doesn't die, he'll just rack his brains trying to have me killed!"*

He then shifted his gaze to the three women still trapped inside the cages, and a wave of panic gripped his heart. *"If they are brought inside, it will certainly be a dead end for them."*

*"Yet Huang Wuchang is too powerful. Though I am much stronger now, I still cannot be his match. Can I risk everything to stop him from opening the door?"*

Ye Dong's gaze drifted, his mind still unable to settle. *"With all his demonic arts, even if I tried my utmost, I wouldn't be able to stop him from opening the gate. Damn it, if it comes to that, I'll just wait until he opens the door and find an opportunity to destroy Sikou Xuan's corpse instead!"*

*"Very well, I'll play guerilla warfare with Huang Wuchang, delaying his entry into the stone chamber as much as possible. Once he goes inside, I'll charge in and wreck Sikou Xuan's body!"*

*"Yes, that's the plan!"*

Having made up his mind, Ye Dong shouted across the space, "Huang Wuchang, you cannot kill him!"

"Whom I choose to kill, and when, is none of your business, brat!"

Huang Wuchang wore an evil grin. "Don't worry, once I've consumed him, your turn will come soon enough!"

Suddenly, he halted in his tracks, lifted the immobilization spell on Guang Qi, and chuckled, "Guang Qi, I'll give you a chance. If you can kill He Wentian, I'll spare your life. How about it?"

*"Such a vicious trick! He wants us to slaughter each other while he goes off to open the stone door!"*

Ye Dong's gaze grew ice-cold as he stared directly at Guang Qi on the ground!

***

"What? You're willing to spare me!?"

Guang Qi seemed unable to believe his ears and asked again, "Really!?"

"Really. Just like last time, you trade He Wentian's life for your own! This old man never breaks his word."

Huang Wuchang gave an evil, mocking laugh. "As for whether you have the skill to survive, that depends on your own fortune. A gun won't kill him—use my dagger instead."

Regaining more and more of his primordial spirit, Huang Wuchang was brimming with confidence. He tossed a dozen talisman papers and a dagger to Guang Qi, and without any fear of a sneak attack from behind, he turned around and walked straight toward the massive stone door.

It seemed he truly understood Guang Qi's character thoroughly.

Guang Qi gripped the blade and the spirit talismans tossed to him, his eyes fixed on Ye Dong with venomous hatred!

"Guang Qi, have you reached this point and you're still willing to let him use you? He only wants us to kill each other so he can open the stone door all the sooner!"

Ye Dong said, righteous indignation burning in his chest. "Besides, even if he lets you live, he will undoubtedly subject you to every kind of torment. Can you endure that kind of humiliation!?"

"My time has run out, and you can see that, can't you?"

Guang Qi slowly struggled to his feet and let out a cold laugh. "If I lose my life, what use is there in talking about any of this?"

Seeing that Guang Qi remained obstinate and unrepentant, Ye Dong felt a mixture of murderous intent and pity for him. "Since you are dead-set on fighting me, I have no choice but to kill you once more!"

"Ah!!!"

With a roaring shout, Guang Qi actually charged forward with his dagger in hand!

"Meet your end, Guang Qi!"

With no more words to be said, the two immediately clashed in close combat!

Huang Wuchang threw his head back in wild laughter, strode up to the door, and began channeling his arts to open it.

Suddenly, Guang Qi lowered his voice and hissed, "Ye Dong, listen to me! Don't stop fighting, put on a show for Huang Wuchang to see!"

Startled, Ye Dong had no idea what kind of malicious scheme Guang Qi was hatching, but he gritted his teeth and replied, "You treacherous scoundrel, who could ever trust you?"

"Ah!!"

Guang Qi deliberately let out a loud cry, then dropped his voice again. "That's right, I truly hate you. I hate that you obtained everything I dreamed of. But I hate Huang Wuchang even more, because he stripped away everything I once possessed! Only you can kill him now! My body is practically ruined from using the 'Soul-Return Talisman' and won't last much longer anyway!"

Ye Dong frowned. Letting out a theatrical roar of his own, he asked in a low voice, "What do you mean by this?!"

"I was already dead that day, but the talismans I burned were indeed connected to reincarnation. I pieced those crooked methods together from the 'Dragon Turns Phoenix' technique. I cannot occupy Chen Yong's body for too long, and now I am heavily injured. With Huang Wuchang ahead of me and your master and Officer Li behind me, there's no way out for me regardless!"

Seeing that Huang Wuchang over by the door didn't seem to care about his conversation with Guang Qi, Ye Dong finally had a moment to think. *"Out of every ten things Guang Qi says, eight are lies and the other two are nonsense. If I believe him now, aren't I just jumping into a sea of fire? Damn it, I'm not that stupid!"*

He said aloud, "Guang Qi, stop wasting your breath. I won't believe you. You almost killed me and Huiyan that day, and you stabbed Nianxue. Dammit, even if the roles were reversed, you wouldn't trust me either! I won't cooperate with you, so give up!"

***

Before the words had even faded, the force of the Prison Flame pressing down against Guang Qi's dagger increased significantly.

Struggling under the heavy pressure, Guang Qi managed a bitter smile. "Ye Dong, I am not asking you to cooperate with me; I am giving you a strategy. I am already half-crippled, but you are different. You have strength, backing, and brains. If you add the yang energy of my soul to your own, you might just be able to fight the current Huang Wuchang head-on!"

"What? You mean you want me to devour your soul?!"

Hearing Guang Qi's shocking proposal, even Ye Dong couldn't help starting, his eyes locking onto Guang Qi's face. "Guang Qi, dammit, stop playing your tricks! Just lie down on the ground and play dead right now, and I might spare your life. But if you still harbor wild ambitions to harm me and my companions, I will cut you down without a second thought!"

"Ye Dong, listen to me. From your memories, I know that you and I were cut from the same cloth. We merely stood on different sides and met different people. If I had known you before I went undercover, I might have been saved. But Huang Wuchang ruined me too thoroughly. The bone plum blossoms he planted in me made me neither human nor ghost. To keep those bone plum blossoms alive, I had to keep harming people and using living subjects for experiments. Yet none of this was my true path; I wanted to be a good person again, but it's all too late!"

Guang Qi's eyes were bloodshot. "Ye Dong, I've done too many bad things in this life. I betrayed the contact who went through life and death with me; I betrayed the organization that trusted me implicitly; I betrayed Officer Li; I betrayed Huiyan. Most importantly, I betrayed the original aspiration I had when I joined the police force."

*His eyes...*

In Guang Qi's eyes, Ye Dong saw a pure light—the light of repentance. Such a look could never be faked by a treacherous man.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz..."

Laughing heartily, Huang Wuchang continued working to open the stone door, the energy upon it emitting a buzzing sound.

Ye Dong furrowed his brow deeply and barked in a low voice, "Guang Qi, surely you know that having your soul wrenched out within a tomb means you will never enter the cycle of rebirth! Doing such an unvirtuous thing is something I will not do!"

"The Ye Dong I know isn't someone bogged down by petty hesitation! Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures aren't those your specialty? How can you possibly fight Huang Wuchang as you are now? Only by absorbing my soul for yang energy will you have a chance to trade blows with him in his weakened state! Stop hesitating. When you fought me that day, you remember how to use the Soul-Snatching Technique—come on, do it!"

No sooner had the words left Guang Qi's mouth than he unhesitatingly slashed across his own arm, blood immediately gushing forth like a fountain!

"Come on! If that dog Huang Wuchang isn't eliminated, even more people in this world will die!"

Tears streamed uncontrollably down Guang Qi's face. Enduring the excruciating pain, his trembling lips forced out the words, "I hate him! I hate him so much I want his body torn to pieces!! I beg you, you must kill him! I know I deserve to die, but he ruined everything I had, he harmed countless people—he deserves death even more!"

"Guang Qi, I understand!"

Hearing Guang Qi's heartfelt words, Ye Dong's eyes turned crimson. He let out an involuntary roar, whipped out a spirit talisman, pressed it firmly against Guang Qi's glabella, and activated the Soul-Snatching Technique!

"Agh!!!"

Extreme agony instantly spread through Guang Qi's entire body. A visible stream of soul energy slowly began to pull away from him, yet Guang Qi welcomed the torment with a smile. It seemed he had truly found his awakening.

"Ye Dong, looking at you, I feel as though I'm looking at my former, righteous self. After you escape this alive, remember to tell Huiyan... that Fang Juncai chose to turn back in the end..."

Having uttered his final words and left behind two tracks of repentant tears, Guang Qi closed his eyes forever.