Chapter 141: Moon Seven Sacrifices Flesh, Reckoning the Soul's Debt of Gratitude

He let out a long sigh. Even with the countless helpless dilemmas of this black horse body, it was beyond his reach, and there was no room for complaint.

"Senior Wuyun, since you died, you should have just stayed good and dead. At the very least, you should have left a cultivation technique suited for a horned beetle horse to practice, right? I can't possibly cultivate my past life's technique all over again and walk the same old disastrous path, can I?"

Coincidentally today, while cultivating, he was together with Yue Qi. In the past, whenever they sat near the little bug, they went individually. But today, feeling irritated and seeing Yue Qi dozing off in a daze, Gantuo simply sat back-to-back with him.

An old monster and a little brat—what common language could they possibly share? Absolutely none at all!

As he muttered to himself, he heard Yue Qi humming in his sleep: "You're the one who died! Even if everyone else died, my master still wouldn't!"

Gantuo suddenly opened his eyes wide. The little bug, who had been chanting scriptures for years, bulged his eyes, abruptly stopped chanting, spat out a mouthful of immortal blood, and roared in disbelief: "I've chanted for so long, yet not even a trace of Senior's soul has attained reincarnation. How is this possible? How can this possible?"

"Were you sleeping stupidly from stealing too much wine?" Gantuo flew into a rage. At this critical juncture, everyone was still pinning their hopes on a dead person, completely devoid of fighting spirit!

The little bug's sudden murmuring woke Yue Qi up. Clueless about what was going on, Yue Qi replied when asked, "I don't know whether Master Wuyun is dead or not! But I feel like he isn't dead! If he were going to die, he definitely would have finished explaining all the loose ends first!"

Gantuo and the little bug furrowed their brows deeply. Loose ends? At that time, Yue Qi was just a five-year-old toddler; what could he possibly understand?

Feeling somewhat wronged, Yue Qi continued, "When Jiayou Ke was possessed by the Free and Unfettered Emperor, he spoke a total of three sentences, but Master Wuyun only answered two of them."

Gantuo's eyes widened as if a crucial memory had been struck. Once the recollection unlocked, the scene appeared right before his eyes.

It was indeed the dialogue between the projection of the Free and Unfettered Emperor and Wuyun's Dao-words. Just as Yue Qi said, despite there being a three-sentence exchange of questions and answers, Wuyun had only spoken the first two!

Given Wuyun's habits, this was simply not right. Even if he were facing death, he would have finished speaking his mind.

With a wave of his hand, Jiayou Ke—who was living a blissful life with Jueli—slowly drifted over. With Wuyun gone, Jiayou Ke's status was no longer special; as a mere minor guard of the Hundred Flower Valley, reaching the height he had today was enough for him to brag about for tens of thousands of years.

Hearing Gantuo's inquiry, Jiayou Ke willingly let Gantuo inspect him, yet no abnormalities were found. After that Emperor's presence finally vanished into his body, only some residual imperial aura remained.

Waving his hand to dismiss Jiayou Ke, the black horse Gantuo widened his dark eyes. All signs indicated that Wuyun's death was full of loopholes. If he wasn't dead, where on earth was Wuyun?

Suddenly, he thought of Long Yi, who had remained utterly silent throughout. A thunderclap echoed through his mind!

This old swamp-dragon had followed Wuyun the earliest and understood him the most. Since Wuyun was dead, why did he...

Recalling the expression on Long Yi's face carefully, aside from squeezing out a river of tears, there wasn't much of the expression one should have over the death of one's own parents. This simply defied logic. Especially since Long Yi had practiced the technique surpassing the God Realm imparted by Wuyun; that debt of gratitude was greater than his own...

"Long Yi!"

Gantuo beckoned him over. Seeing the latter drunk and blowing bubbles—each bubble containing a dreamland, which was once the supreme divine skill of the Tiger-Faced Immortal—Long Yi was now using it to place the Six-Talented Ancestral Dragon inside to perform filial piety, make up for past emotions, and resolve former grievances.

"Let me ask you, is Senior Wuyun dead or not?"

Long Yi was momentarily stunned and said, "Does it matter whether he's dead or not? His divine soul was shattered, his body usurped by evil ghosts, and the four imperial treasures were given to you. You said he's dead, so he's dead!"

Yet, Long Yi's lukewarm expression was brimming with suspicion.

"Senior Wuyun treated you so well, yet you're so eager for him to die!" Sensing something was amiss, Gantuo voiced his previous suspicions. Just as Long Yi shook his head and was about to deny it, a wisp of fine vapor drifted out.

Gantuo had seen this kind of vapor many times before. He summoned Old Bear and the Battle King over. The latter was clueless, thinking something momentous had happened.

Once the two of them figured out the sequence of events, Gantuo prompted, "Do you think Senior might still be around? Should we turn back and search for him?"

The Battle King dared not agree, but Old Bear suddenly leaped up, carefully inspected the surroundings, and finally fixed his gaze on Long Yi.

Long Yi snorted, opening his mouth reeking heavily of alcohol, and said, "What, do you expect me to have hidden Senior away?"

As soon as he said this, the wisp of vapor atop his head underwent a noticeable change. Even when Gantuo looked closely, he could only find that it was merely alcoholic vapors emanating from Long Yi's body.

However, Old Bear was dumbfounded, and burst into tears of excitement: "Senior, you hid yourself so thoroughly! It must have been this old swamp-dragon on purpose, locking you inside!"

Long Yi's expression changed drastically, and he suddenly pointed at Gantuo, shouting, "You stupid bear, aren't you afraid this horse will eat us down to the very last bone? What Senior? Where is Senior?"

Hearing this, Gantuo immediately understood. He shook his head and sighed, "My second life was given to me by Senior. I understand now."

Suppressing the internal conflict in his heart, he took out the remaining three imperial treasures—all ninth-grade imperial treasures: a withered wooden staff, a leather pouch, and a long saber.

However, these imperial treasures were covered with tiny speckled pox-marks, looking as if they had grown mold. Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be countless vengeful spirits.

This malevolent energy had been somewhat contained thanks to the little bug's years of scripture-chanting and salvation rituals. Otherwise, it would have broken through the seal of the Ten-Day Formation Diagram and ground against the Emperor's Bones.

"The Seven-Section Heaven-Leveling Emperor Staff! The All-Life Immortal-Transforming Emperor Pouch! The Demon-Slaying Soul-Shattering Emperor Saber!" Gantuo recited them one by one. After lifting the seals, he broke the Emperor's Bones into four pieces, swallowed the largest piece himself, and pressed a smaller piece against each imperial treasure before handing them to Long Yi.

Long Yi was ecstatic. The moment he reached out to take them, the terrifying might emitted by Gantuo's Emperor Bone fragment pinned him flat to the ground for a long time, unable even to raise his head.

As a Great Immortal Perfection, he was two major realms apart from the Emperor's Bone; how could he dare to offend the might of an Emperor?

Yet, if the black horse's parents could take them, why couldn't he?

Gantuo snorted and cast layer upon layer of arrays and prohibitions before the Emperor's Bone could be controlled by Long Yi. Acquiring three pieces at once, Long Yi was thrilled and divided them on the spot: he gave the staff to Old Bear, the pouch to the Battle King, and fondled the saber himself with reluctance, praising it unceasingly.

"You have the fate to take them, but no命 to use them. The malevolent poison and baleful energy on these are far too heavy. Weigh the risks yourself!" After issuing this warning, Gantuo looked into the distance toward Rongya and sighed, "I thought bringing out the imperial treasures at the very end would be the ultimate variable, but it seems I was wrong!"

He stood up to go adjust the battle formations of the immortals of Hundred Flower Valley. The moment he left, Long Yi trembled violently. The imperial treasures beneath the Emperor's Bones began to shudder, leaking a trace of sinister poison.

This energy, resembling a withered skeletal demon, drilled directly into Long Yi's body, frightening Old Bear and the Battle King so much that they simultaneously tossed away the burning-hot imperial treasures.

This tossing caught Gantuo's attention, and he transmitted his voice: "Stop looking for trouble. If you open the arrays on the Emperor's Bones without sufficient strength, the imperial might could shatter your divine souls!"

He said this aloud, but then feeling it was inappropriate, he turned his head back—only to look on in utter foolishness.

Without knowing how the three imperial treasures had broken their seals, their malevolent energies surged forth and rushed entirely into Long Yi's body. Even the little bug sprang into the air, howling at the top of his lungs, but his desperate, screeching cries were entirely in vain.

In an instant, Long Yi reverted to his true form. A gigantic black dragon appeared, and furthermore, black and red lights were erupting from within its body, melting and burning away.

Long Yi's final words finally burst forth: "It shouldn't be like this..."

A pang of heartache struck Gantuo, and he sacrificed his Emperor Bone. To his dismay, after shattering into four pieces, the Emperor Bone's might was not particularly formidable; instead of suppressing the treasures, it was knocked apart by the imperial artifacts.

Even when he recalled the other three pieces and restored them to their original state, he still could not stop the transformation happening within Long Yi's body—he was entering the demonic path!

Things having reached this state, the little bug comforted him: "As long as he doesn't die, even demons can be good or bad. Let's join forces to capture him and persuade him toward goodness!"

Old Bear and the Battle King were instantly grief-stricken. Just as they were about to tearfully beg Gantuo to use the remaining life-saving imperial might to suppress the situation, an untimely voice rang out.

"Return my four imperial treasures! Return my four imperial treasures!"

As the hoarse voice echoed, everyone simultaneously thought of a certain Immortal Emperor—Granny Sihao!

Could it be that Immortal Emperor Sihao was not dead after all, and a residual soul was hiding within the imperial treasures?

Turbulent waves surged in everyone's hearts. Meanwhile, Yue Qi waved his hand and shouted toward the dragon: "Master, you've come out!"

Above Long Yi's head, a wisp of a cloud slowly rose. This was a cloud that Wuyun had often struck onto the back of Long Yi's head as a decoration in the past; looking at it now, it carried profound significance.

If one didn't look closely, this tiny cloud was hardly noticeable. Thinking there might be a trick, Old Bear was the first to crowd forward, asking a few questions to verify Wuyun's identity, and then shamelessly said, "Senior, Luohuawu rescued ten Fox Immortals for Long Yi, the little bug rides on green leaves, Jiayou Ke won Jueli and remains entangled with Daoyuan, why are the Battle King and I still so lonely to this day?"

Only a roar came from the tiny cloud: "You deserve to be single! And you, this old swamp-dragon, just keep drinking, drinking, and drinking. I shouted ten million times, and you didn't pay me the slightest bit of attention, thinking I was just heart-demons invading your body and driving you mad!

"You—especially you, Gantuo—no wonder you were struck down by the artifact spirit. There was a fine road you refused to walk, so why did you follow the Emperor Snake's sword? The moment that sword was touched by the Emperor Snake, it birthed a new artifact spirit that's been racking its brains trying to throw itself away!

"I should have come out much earlier, but if the imperial treasures hadn't masked my presence, that terrifying hatred-sword spirit would have discovered me, and all of us would have been dead as a doornail!"

Wuyun cursed and roared in succession, finally stopping Old Bear from shouting for Jiayou Ke, and said, "Don't bother shouting. My current state is a matter of life and death unknown; even I don't know what to use to reshape my body. A thousand thanks and ten thousand more—this Duomi Evil Ghost usurped my body and my memories of the sky over Qianluo; he will take the place of my divine soul and endure endless suffering!"

As secret after secret was revealed, Gantuo's face turned ugly, because ultimately, everything was still within Wuyun's calculations. Although the route had deviated slightly, everyone was alive after all.

"These four imperial treasures cannot be given to anyone!" Wuyun yelled, only to be rebuffed by Gantuo—how could things that had already been given away ever be taken back? Especially since they had been given to the mother of this very body.

"Senior, you don't need to guess and test me. My life was given to you, and though I won't give it back to you, if I harbored any malicious intent toward you, I would have surrendered it immediately!" Gantuo swore the most venomous oath possible, making Wuyun feel somewhat embarrassed. Wuyun said, "You misunderstood. If these four imperial treasures are mishandled by you, the sect and faction of that poisonous hag Sihao will track you down. You are no match for them; you'd just be fish on their chopping board. Therefore, the imperial treasures you gave away still need to..."

Wuyun shared the crucial details with Gantuo, then sighed again, "I can be considered blessed in disguise this time. I've shaken off the curse of the Emperor Tyrant and escaped the meticulous divination and calculations of the higher beings. The only trouble is that reshaping a physical body is harder than ascending to heaven!"

"This new body must be one-in-a-million for cultivation to proceed without obstruction, to achieve the status of Immortal King and Immortal Emperor. Furthermore, it requires the fusion of soul and flesh to forge a true self that is carefree and independent."

As Wuyun spoke, everyone watched in stunned silence as Yue Qi put his actions into motion.

The latter took a knife and carved a piece of flesh from his own palm. Once it hit the ground, the flesh grew rapidly in the wind, forming a child. Afterward, Yue Qi punched himself in the nose, and the immortal blood gushing from his nose was poured into the child's body.

Finally, seven souls emerged from the top of his head. Just as he was about to slice them, he was sternly rebuked by Wuyun!

"You silly child, don't do anything foolish! Once these souls are incomplete, you will never be able to achieve the status of Immortal Emperor here. You—you're going to drive me to death!"

Yue Qi paid no heed to Wuyun's words whatsoever. He scraped a small fragment off all seven souls to form a tiny soul-avatar, which he struck into the child, saying, "When I came here, I was young, ignorant, and understood nothing. Now that I've grown up, I finally understand the words my father and mother said to me before I left. They told me to use my life to repay you."