Chapter 1789: Scheme Within A Scheme
Hongjun rejected Yin Jiuying’s words with every fiber of his being, but he also seemed to have no choice. He had to believe the revelation. Everything was laid out right in front of him!
He and his friends had battled Jiang Chen for countless loops and painstakingly set up their game boards, making each move with deliberate care. But it’d all been for naught! The G.o.d of Mount Tai had held them in the palm of his hands all this time!
What truly infuriated him wasn’t the betrayal, but that Jiang Chen was here only because of the mountain G.o.d. Corpse dao was the source of the zombies in this land and the reason why there was a corpse demon beneath them.
The G.o.d of Mount Tai had turned on the one who’d ambushed him and become the owner of the Land of Reincarnation in their stead. As soon as he finished his setup, he crafted another plan to “kill” the owner of the land.
Thus, the mountain G.o.d and so-called master of the Land of Reincarnation vanished from public view, leaving behind only a reincarnation guardian and inspector to ensure that operations continued smoothly.
The Corpse Refiners then bared their fangs to corrupt the corpse in the cavern, the original would-be owner, and refined it into a corpse demon. They fetched Diexi’s crystal coffin to anchor corpse dao so that it would reach the primary worlds from the secondary, thereby forming a connection with the corpse demon.
After the situation developed to this point, Hongjun, Pangu, and G.o.d would step forward to fight back against the Corpse Refiners and search for ways to resolve the corpse demon under Mount Buzhou.
And so it repeated, again and again, without fail and without pause. Having had it all revealed to him, Hongjun himself was able to use formula dao to verify what he’d been told.
……
“And what do you want?” A frowning Lu Yun kept his attention on Yin Jiuying instead of looking at Hongjun. “Why should I believe you?”
“It’s true, you shouldn’t. But you’re the one who created the h.e.l.l of Order, so all of this has to do with you,” Yin Jiuying responded matter-of-factly. “I don’t want you getting near the corpse demon because I don’t want you to die. The mountain G.o.d will get everything he wants that way!”
Deep-seated hatred flashed through his eyes. Yin Jiuying couldn’t accept having his closest friend lie to him and almost losing his life for a scam. The hatred never abated throughout the endless loops, slowly settling and etching itself into his heart instead.
He was like Jiangchen Xie now. While their resentment may not have been that overwhelming at first, a collection of three hundred and sixty-five lifetimes of it had been enough to turn him into a horrifying grudge corpse.
“Let Jiang Chen in so he can refine the corpse demon!” Yin Jiuying ground his teeth. “The people outside can’t hold him off, he’ll enter the cavern after he kills them. It’ll be too late then. The best course of action is to let him in now. Once he refines the corpse demon, it won’t be able to kill you!”
“But if he does, the entire land will be doomed and this will become a land of corpse dao!” Hongjun finally spoke up.
“Hahahaha!!” Jiangchen Xie laughed with a hint of derangement. “Senior, why do you think I exist?!”
He’d condensed three hundred and sixty-five cycles of resentment so he could kill Jiang Chen! Yin Jiuying had made full use of Jiang Chen when he pretended to partner with the other. He’d surrept.i.tiously collected Jiangchen Xie’s bitterness partially because he couldn’t bear to let the man die like that, but also to create an insurance policy against Jiang Chen.
Jiangchen Xie was no longer Jiang Chen’s descendant, he was pure malice against his once ancestor.
Hongjun fell silent again.
Lu Yun looked up and contacted Diexi through the Tome of Life and Death, conveying everything Yin Jiuying had just said. She could be the arbiter of truth and falsehood and decide what she wanted to do.
Diexi swiftly came to a decision. A gaping weakness suddenly appeared in her stance and she slipped, kicking Jiang Chen into the cavern. Before Leize and the others could question her, she made a quick shus.h.i.+ng motion.
The other powerhouses immediately understood that new developments had occurred.
“Lu Yun told me to let him in. All of us are to stay out,” Diexi said calmly to an Azure Dragon King on the verge of exploding with fury. She didn’t reveal Yin Jiuying’s words because she suspected that the G.o.d of Mount Tai was among them. He must’ve been by Lu Yun’s side all this time in order to keep an eye on the young man’s development, witnessing firsthand how Lu Yun walked the path of order and refined the h.e.l.l of Order.
Diexi was different because her name was in the Tome of Life and Death. She had an extremely close connection to Lu Yun and there were many things he could tell her, secure in the knowledge that she would keep his confidence.
And she would keep it. From everyone.
Including f.u.xi.
“Since it’s Lu Yun, something must’ve happened below.” f.u.xi nodded gently. “Our thanks to Your Majesty for your aid.”
The Azure Dragon King inclined his head in response.
“In that case, there is nothing further for me to do here. I take my leave.” He raised cupped fist salutes and left with a turn of his heel.
The boundless zombies that’d raged through the void vanished when Jiang Chen entered the cavern. Diexi frowned ferociously and looked up at the Dao King. He hadn’t done anything from beginning to end.
He sat cross-legged in the void, fully revealed to the rest. His attention was on the cavern. In Fairylands, Mo Yi paused from helping Qing Yu and the little fox meld two worlds together. She, too, looked in the direction of the secondary worlds.
“Should we not take a look?” Pangu looked worriedly at the opening. He was concerned for Lu Yun and Hongjun.
“No need,” Diexi shook her head. Three hundred and sixty-five versions of her marched out of the major cycle formation and sealed off the area.
……
Once inside the cavern, Jiang Chen released all of the corpse qi on him. It billowed through the air and subjugated all of the zombies inside. He met no resistance whatsoever and descended right to the bottom of the opening.
There was a zombie there, wrapped by a scarlet chain. It wasn’t as big as one might imagine—just the size of a regular human being. It was a female corpse and her delicate features were still beautiful in death. Long black hair trailed down to her ankles and a purple silk dress flowed smoothly over her curves.
However, her eyes were blood-red and four sharp fangs jutted out from her mouth. No one had imagined that the corpse demon Hongjun had been so wary of for so many eons would look like this! Not even Jiang Chen had antic.i.p.ated it.
“They let me in so easily?” Hesitation dogged his footsteps. Everything had been too smooth.
But despite his reservations, there was nothing else that could be done. His corpse dao had already become one with the corpse demon. It was the foundation of corpse dao and had reached great perfection.
“I didn’t think they’d do this to ruin my plans either. For all of my calculations, I overlooked Yin Jiuying,” rang out an ethereal female voice. “I’d planned on using the corpse demon to eliminate Lu Yun, then use you to kill the corpse demon, then have Yin Jiuying end you. Who would’ve thought that they’d let you in just like this?”
A figure of pale blue appeared jarringly in front of Jiang Chen.