Chapter 50

Xie Chang'an was walking alongside Zhu Huan.

The two appeared to be strolling leisurely, but in reality, they were scouring the area for traces of suspicious individuals.

The surroundings were bustling and noisy, and the citizens of Reincarnation City were immersed in their daily routines, seemingly turning a blind eye to them.

It was not raining, but Xie Chang'an still held an umbrella.

Now existing as a soul entity, she had to rely on this umbrella to manifest her presence.

Zhu Huan reached out to touch her umbrella, seemingly wanting to say something.

When he killed people earlier, he didn't even blink, resembling an Asura from the depths of hell. Yet, right now, he was gentle and harmless, like a true Buddhist cultivator, presenting a stark contrast. Anyone else would likely have been terrified out of their wits.

Xie Chang'an sensed no malice, so her expression remained as calm as usual.

"Are you trying to say that my umbrella is not sturdy?"

Zhu Huan nodded.

Xie Chang'an said, "I simply picked it up as junk by the roadside, and Zhe Er mended it so that it barely serves as a shelter for me."

Zhu Huan shook his head, implying that this was not a long-term solution.

Xie Chang'an's expression remained faint. "I know. Someone once told me that the Brocade Kasaya you wear can be forged into an umbrella."

Zhu Huan smiled slightly, tapped the gold-threaded kasaya on his body, pointed at her, and wrote the characters "Give to you" in the empty air.

Such a precious magical artifact, yet he was willing to hand it over just like that.

No matter how composed Xie Chang'an was, she couldn't help but feel a sense of confusion.

"You and I are mere acquaintances who met by chance. Why do you hold me in such high regard?"

Zhu Huan looked at her, merely smiling warmly and gently, like a bright pearl reflecting moonlight—softly glowing, pure, and immaculate.

Xie Chang'an asked, "Have we met before as old acquaintances?"

Zhu Huan shook his head.

Xie Chang'an had never liked owing favors to others. Had she encountered Zhu Huan in the past, she would have certainly expressed her gratitude before politely declining. But having died once, her temperament had become much more eccentric and peculiar, and she no longer cared for polite pleasantries and superficial rejections. Too lazy and unrestrained to bother with anything, she asked no further questions, nor did she mention the matter of the Brocade Kasaya.

Seeing her indifferent, Zhu Huan grew somewhat anxious instead and directly grabbed her wrist.

Xie Chang'an frowned, just as she was about to pull her hand back, she suddenly sensed a surge of spiritual power transmitting over.

The other party had actually opened his sea of consciousness to her!

Xie Chang'an was inexplicably astonished, wondering what kind of past connection she could possibly share with this demonic cultivator for him to be so open-hearted. But she knew well that there was no karmic entanglement between them. In the dozen or so years before she entered the Dao, she had spent every single day within the mortal Tang palace; how could she possibly know a powerful demon residing far away in the Reflection Bone Realm?

As for invoking past and present lives, that was far too illusory and unworthy of belief.

Such thoughts flashed through her mind. She steadied her focus and delved deep into Zhu Huan's sea of consciousness, immediately feeling a sharp intent to kill rush toward her.

A raging tide reflecting the sea wind, a white rainbow illuminating the heavenly light—such a tumultuous, dazzling, and bone-chilling presence!

It was sword intent!

Endless, boundless sword intent!

Her subconscious reaction as a cultivator made her lean back almost instantly, withdrawing from the sea of consciousness and even summoning the Liutian Sword.

However, that sword intent did not pursue her outward. It merely rested there, quietly unfurled, completely undefended against Xie Chang'an as it expressed its true nature.

She was slightly startled, suddenly realizing something.

"You are a weapon spirit born from a sword?!"

A spirit born from a sword meant that the sword itself had absorbed the essence of the sun and moon over a long period, eventually generating sentience and slowly cultivating into a human form. One could easily imagine the countless hardships involved in such a process.

While a demonic cultivator was at least born as a beast that initially began with chaotic spiritual awareness, weapons like swords, sabers, spears, halberds, and daggers originated from human hands and were lifeless objects from birth. No matter how much blood they tasted, they did not inherently gain more spirituality; at best, that merely accumulated the sword's malevolent aura.

Even the Rugu Sword in Zhu Xuanguang's possession and the Zhaohuang Sword of Mount Chishuang had never been rumored to produce a sword spirit, let alone achieve human form and awaken sentience.

Like Zhu Huan, he was perhaps one of the very few, if not the absolute unique exception, across millennia.

Pondering this, she suddenly understood.

"Did you think I was a sword spirit as well?"

Zhu Huan nodded, gazing at the Liutian Sword hovering beside her.

Xie Chang'an was silent for a moment, then turned the sword around and handed it to him.

"I am not a sword spirit. In my lifetime, I was a sword cultivator, and this is simply my sword."

By conventional logic, when a person died, their sword would either shatter along with them or become an unowned object. Yet the Liutian Sword had remained steadfastly by her side through life and death. Xie Chang'an could even feel that a portion of her soul had already merged with the Liutian Sword, which was why she was still able to manipulate this sword in her spiritual form.

This was likely the reason for Zhu Huan's misunderstanding.

Slender fingers tapped gently against the Liutian Sword, causing the blade to hum softly, rippling like spring water and raindrops falling before eaves.

Zhu Huan stood quietly and motionless, lost in thought as subtle shifts crossed his distant, absent expression.

Xie Chang'an did not urge him either.

His slightly bewildered gaze fell upon the young woman holding the umbrella before him.

A red umbrella and red clothes, stepping out of a sea of blood as if traversing the void.

At that very instant, Zhu Huan suddenly touched the sword intent residing within the Liutian Sword!

That was a resonance originating from the depths of Xie Chang'an's soul.

She had once possessed soaring ambition and boundless pride, yet she had also harbored monstrous hatred. Her sword intent flowed deep like still water, yet surged with glorious majesty, as if the dormant fragility of the present moment could transform into a thunderbolt of the nine heavens at any second, rising tall with shaking sleeves to shatter the light and depart.

Influenced by this deeply buried, domineering sword intent, Zhu Huan's own sword intent began to tremble slightly.

It was not fear.

Rather, it was an irrepressible excitement, the thrilling tremor of encountering a kindred spirit, and the impassioned surge of receiving a response after centuries of lonely wandering.

Even after draining human blood in the past, he had never experienced such resonance!

His mind shook violently, his glabella throbbing wildly, and his cultivation realm, which had remained stagnant for so long, faintly showed signs of a breakthrough.

Naturally, this was neither the time nor the place for a breakthrough. He forcefully suppressed the impulse, let out a long breath, finally reined in his wandering mind, and offered the sword back with both hands.

"It is a... good sword. But it cannot completely stabilize your soul. You still need... the Brocade Kasaya."

Having remained silent for so long, articulating every word with deliberate effort, his speech was somewhat labored.

Xie Chang'an was stunned. "Your Vow of Silence?"

Judging from the reactions of the fox and the others, the Vow of Silence Zhu Huan practiced had lasted for at least a hundred years.

A century-old Vow of Silence had been broken so easily overnight.

"I have searched the world for a hundred paths; Buddhist cultivation is merely... one of them."

He had once worn Taoist robes and wandered mortal Taoist temples, and he had also taken vows in Buddhist monasteries with a convincing demeanor, even abstaining from meat and fish to act as a preaching Buddhist cultivator here in the Reflection Bone Realm, attempting to imitate the footsteps of his predecessors to recreate cultivation. Yet no matter how he tried, he always halted and lingered before the Demonic Immortal realm, unable to advance even an inch.

Until this very moment.

Zhu Huan casually removed his kasaya and gave it a gentle flick. The garment immediately transformed into a fabric of mingled gold and crimson, flowing softly in his hands like a pool of water, shimmering with scattered golden light, seamless as heavenly craftsmanship.

This was the celestial-grade magical artifact, the Brocade Kasaya, which could morph into any shape according to its owner's will, also known as the legendary Heavenly Garment.

"Your sword intent helped me achieve a breakthrough, and I present this item to you in return. Consider it a courteous exchange; there is no need to feel indebted."

Zhu Huan handed the Brocade Kasaya over, his eyes reflecting the golden threads as if they, too, were dusted with scattered gold.

Xie Chang'an indeed needed this magical artifact. Otherwise, the cotton umbrella that served as her shelter would not only fail to withstand attacks from cultivators, but would likely tear apart with the slightest exertion, forcing her to find yet another dwelling place—how troublesome that would be.

Since she had not vanished into thin air the moment she died, she might as well embrace being a proper ghost.

She accepted the Brocade Kasaya. Golden light and crimson radiance flickered and flowed before her eyes, yet it felt as light as nothing in her hand, completely devoid of weight.

Zhu Huan said, "Refine it first; I will guard you."

This matter was best done sooner rather than later, and Xie Chang'an did not dawdle further.

"I am obliged."

Finding a secluded corner, the two of them sat cross-legged. She formed hand seals with one hand while channeling her spiritual power into the Brocade Kasaya with the other.

wisps of golden and red threads were unraveled by her spiritual power, only to be drawn toward the cotton umbrella hovering above her head, bit by bit becoming a part of the umbrella itself. It looked as though the revolving umbrella was actively coloring itself.

Previously, she had used paper-cutting to make herself a set of clothes and dyed the umbrella red to add a layer of protection, but after all, they were merely made of paper, fragile and lacking genuine substance.

Now, this celestial-grade magical artifact was slowly being refined into the umbrella. Since the umbrella was currently a part of Xie Chang'an's own body, the more magnificent and ethereal the umbrella became, the more vibrant and striking her garments grew.

Watching the pallor of Xie Chang'an's complexion gradually turn rosy bit by bit, Zhu Huan knew that from this moment on, Xie Chang'an could no longer be considered a mere ghost. Using the umbrella as her vessel and the sword as her conduit, she had transformed into a demonic cultivator akin to himself—not quite a traditional demon, yet no longer human.

...

Wu Ming walked along the most bustling street of Reincarnation City.

After entering the array, he had become separated from the others, traveling alone without keeping pace with anyone else.

This suited his intentions entirely, as Wu Ming trusted no one.

Within the Reflection Bone Realm, placing blind trust in others was the quickest and most miserable way to die.

Murong Zheng was a prime example. Believing himself clever for seducing one of Zhu Huan's maidservants to coordinate from within, he had thought he could capture his targets during the banquet, only to overestimate those good-for-nothings and ultimately end up without a single bone left.

At the time, Wu Ming had intended to wait for them to fight it out and then swoop in like the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole. Who could have foreseen that human calculations pale before fate, as everything ended far too quickly while an ancient monster capable of manipulating the Four-Response Bells emerged midway?

He had been forced to temporarily tuck away his petty schemes and reach a cooperative agreement with Zhu Huan and the others, first figuring out a way to escape.

However, he suspected that Xie Chang'an was keeping secrets and had not spoken with complete candor; perhaps she already possessed a method to break the array, yet stubbornly refused to inform them.

This was entirely normal within the dog-eat-dog Reflection Bone Realm, where no one lowered their guard against another.

That fox had clung so closely to Xie Chang'an on the surface merely to utilize her and find shelter for himself.

A faint, mocking smile touched Wu Ming's lips. Just as he prepared to change direction, he suddenly heard someone behind him say, "Stay your steps, young master. I see a dark aura between your brows, portending impending disaster. Why not let me cast a divination to ward off misfortune and resolve your troubles?"

He abruptly halted his stride.

Xie Chang'an had previously mentioned that Reincarnation City was an illusion created by an array. The citizens coming and going within the city appeared vivid and lifelike, yet in reality, they were merely phantoms generated from Zhu Huan's past memories. They lived out their daily routines independently, but it was impossible for them to initiate conversations with outsiders like Wu Ming and his companions.

A Taoist priest sat behind a divination stall, earnestly pitching his fortune-telling precision to a young scholar standing before him. The two of them were fully engrossed—one speaking with great enthusiasm, the other half-怀疑—completely ignoring Wu Ming's presence.

Wu Ming stared at the Taoist priest for a moment, finding nothing suspicious, and turned to continue walking.

"Hey, hey, I'm telling you, young master, don't walk away! Why won't you believe it? Not only is there a dark aura between your brows, but your eyes also harbor the aura of death. If you don't turn your luck around now, it will be too late!"

Wu Ming stopped, turned around, and lunged violently toward the Taoist priest!

His speed was blinding; in the blink of an eye, his hand closed around the priest's neck, yet he grabbed empty air.

Naturally, it should have been so, because none of these people truly existed.

Yet he stubbornly felt that the Taoist priest had been speaking directly to him just now.

"I know you can hear me. Stop playing the fool—who on earth are you?!"

Irritable yet deeply suspicious, Wu Ming's latter trait had allowed him to survive through countless perils.

The Taoist priest didn't even glance his way, continuing to babble incessantly while latching onto the scholar.

Wu Ming sneered, snatching a bloody long枪 into his grasp from the empty air. Flames flickered along the spearhead as he stabbed directly toward the Taoist priest's forehead!

This spear pierced through both yin and yang realms. As expected, the illusory figures—mere reflections in water and mirages in mirrors—were instantly shattered by the spear strike. Fragments scattered from Wu Ming's field of vision, then slowly drifted and mended themselves back together.

At that exact moment, he heard a light laugh from behind him.

"Do people in the Reflection Bone Realm these days all share such a violent temperament?"