From a loser to an immortal sage

Chapter 510 The True Face of Night Shadow Immortal

When Nightshade Immortal's black sword, accompanied by a foul wind, slashed down, my back teeth ached from clenching them.

The spine of the Cloud Shadow Sword left a red mark on my palm—this was a sword that Wen Chen had reforged for me using millennia-old cold iron, and his small words were engraved on the inside of the hilt: "A Yao breaks all laws".

At this moment, those marks are pressing against the thin calluses on my palm, like the warmth of our interlocked knuckles when he used to hold my hand and we practiced swordsmanship.

"Beware of the vengeful spirits within his sword!" Fairy Mingyue's scream, mixed with the incantation of Immortal Venerable Xuanfeng, pierced the eardrums.

I turned my head to avoid the black light, but saw a translucent little girl peeking out from the blade, the rabbit lantern in her arms flickering on and off—her lips were clearly saying "Save me."

My breath hitched, and the heart-protecting jade suddenly burned my chest with pain.

Wen Chen's spiritual energy surged into my consciousness through the jade pendant, just like when he used to flick my forehead when I was distracted: "Look at the corner of his eye."

By the way, I noticed during the battle that the red lines at the corners of Nightshade's eyes faded a little each time he commanded a wronged soul.

I bit my tongue to clear my head, and twirled the Cloud Shadow Sword, deliberately exposing an opening on my left side.

Sure enough, as the black sword grazed my left arm and blood splattered on the blade, the little girl's shadow suddenly solidified, and the light from the rabbit lantern made the red lines at the corners of her eyes fade even further.

"I see." I licked the blood from the corner of my lips, and the wound healed rapidly under the influence of spiritual power.

Nightshade's pupils contracted sharply—he probably hadn't expected that I could use his attack to extract the obsession of the dead.

Those imprisoned, wronged souls longed for liberation, and my spiritual power, imbued with the purifying power of Wen Chen, became their guide.

"You dare!" Nightshade's voice shattered into fragments, and the blood patterns on the black sword began to twist.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, I lunged forward and thrust my Cloud Shadow Sword toward the strange symbol on his chest—when he drew the symbol just now, I glimpsed that the pattern was exactly the same as the sealing spell on the forbidden stele of Cangwu Mountain.

Just as the blade was about to touch his clothes, he suddenly released the sword, which was now shrouded in black mist as it swirled away, leaving behind a scream: "You will regret this!"

"Chase!" Wen Chen's voice carried the force of a gust of wind, but he was stopped in his tracks by a gentle flick of Xuanfeng Immortal Venerable's whisk. "The barrier hasn't been restored yet; rashly pursuing him might lead to a trap." Xuanfeng Immortal Venerable's long beard fluttered in the night wind, his fingertips still clutching half a broken magic seal. "Let's observe the traces he left behind."

Only then did I notice that there were a few silver threads floating in the black mist from which the Night Shadow fled—these were immortal runes, fragments of seals that only remain in high-level cultivators who have been sealed.

Wen Chen strode over to my side, placing his palm on my still trembling wrist, his body heat seeping in through my sleeve: "Are you hurt?" His gaze swept over the bloodstains on my left arm, his Adam's apple bobbing, but in the end he simply shielded me behind him.

Fairy Mingyue approached me, holding a medicine bottle. Her handkerchief was still stained with blood from the earlier splatter, but her hand was steady. "My newly refined wound-healing pills are more effective than the ones you used to take." She put a pill in my mouth and then quietly tugged at my sleeve—this was the secret signal she used to give me candy when my fellow disciples bullied me.

I squeezed her hand; the sweet taste of medicine spread on my tongue, warmer than candy.

Elder Wu helped Immortal Venerable Xuanfeng to squat down in front of the broken stele. A faint blue fluorescence seeped from the cracks in the jade slip. He lightly touched the jade surface with his fingertips, and the blue light condensed into tiny characters that floated in the air: "The seventy-two peaks of Cangwu Mountain were all wiped out in one night three hundred years ago."

Records from the Enforcement Hall at the time showed that the Mountain Lord had once invited a reclusive immortal to suppress his inner demons… He suddenly paused, his brows furrowing as he looked up. “That immortal’s Daoist title… is seven-tenths similar to the aura of the Night Shadow Immortal.”

"The one who disappeared three hundred years ago?" Wen Chen's voice deepened.

I remember him saying that there is a book called "Hidden Immortal Record" in the Immortal Realm, which records powerful beings who have retired or disappeared. Among them is an Immortal Venerable who proved his Dao through "Slaughtering Dao" and was sealed away by the other immortals because he was too fond of fighting.

Could it be Night Shadow...?

"Look at this." Fairy Mingyue took out a yellowed ancient painting from her sleeve. When she unfolded it, it was the "Spring Lantern Picture" that I had seen in Cangwu Mountain. Next to the rabbit lantern in the little girl's arms in the painting, it was written in very small characters: "Presented by Uncle Yeying".

My heart skipped a beat—the youngest daughter of the mountain lord from three hundred years ago actually called Night Shadow "Master Uncle".

Wen Chen rested his knuckles on his chin, a habitual gesture when he was thinking: "The immortal array that sealed him back then used the fortune of the seventy-two peaks as a guide."

If he breaks the seal..."

“Those wronged souls,” I suddenly interjected, “when he commanded the wronged souls, the blood patterns on his sword were exactly the same as the sealing spell.”

Perhaps he wasn't using the souls of the dead at all, but was being backfired by the sealed power, forced to maintain his human form through these obsessions?

Elder Wu's jade slip suddenly emitted a crisp sound, and a line of blood-red characters appeared: "Hidden Immortal Record, Volume Seven: Night Shadow, real name Xie Zhao, guest elder of Cangwu Mountain, sealed in..."

"boom--"

A muffled sound came from the sky, and black mist rose from the direction where the Night Shadow had fled, with the faint sound of swords echoing within it.

Wen Chen pulled me half a step behind him, Xuanfeng Immortal Venerable's whisk glowed with golden light, Mingyue Fairy gripped my sleeve tightly, Elder Wu's jade slip cracked with a "snap," and before the last line of text disappeared, I only had time to see "...Cangwu Mountain Soul Locking Abyss."

"It seems that Immortal Venerable Nightshade's challenge isn't just about challenging us," Wen Chen analyzed. His gaze pierced through the battlefield's wreckage of broken wood and rubble, landing on the churning black mist in the distance. His fingertips unconsciously caressed the protective jade. "A case from three hundred years ago has suddenly resurfaced... Ayao, do you think he's in such a hurry to reveal his killing move because he's afraid of something?"

I gazed at the stray strands of hair fluttering in the night wind around his eyes, and suddenly recalled the pleading of those wronged souls when they looked at me during the battle—perhaps the true face of the Night Shadow Immortal Venerable hides a secret more terrifying than the Path of Slaughter.

And we have only just begun to uncover the truth.

A dark blue lightning bolt suddenly exploded in the churning black mist of the sky, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end—a sign that a high-level cultivator was forcibly tearing through space.

Just as Wen Chen's palm covered the back of my sword-wielding hand, the dark figure tumbled out from the lightning. His black cloak billowed like a raven's wing, and the last red mark at the corner of his eye gleamed eerily purple in the moonlight.

"You already know my identity." Nightshade Immortal Venerable's voice was like a three-hundred-year-old rusted iron sword scraping against a stone surface. His gaze swept over me, Wen Chen, and Xuanfeng Immortal Venerable, finally settling on Elder Wu's shattered jade slip. A twisted smile appeared on his lips. "But I have even more secrets, secrets enough to shake the entire Immortal Realm."

My Cloud Shadow Sword hummed as it broke free from my palm, its tip pointing straight at his throat—this was the protective spiritual contract that Wen Chen had set up for me, which would automatically protect its master when it sensed danger.

Night Shadow didn't even flinch, letting the sword's edge press against his Adam's apple. He lightly traced the words "A Yao Breaks All Laws" engraved on the sword with his fingertips and chuckled, "Immortal Wen's affections are sharper than sword energy."

Unfortunately...

He suddenly raised his hand and gripped the blade, blood dripping from between his fingers onto the back of my hand.

Wen Chen's spiritual power surged into my mind like a scalding stream, and I was startled to realize that I had been distracted by his words—this was a grave mistake!

Two clusters of ghostly fire rose in Night Shadow's pupils. I instinctively reached for my sword, but then I saw blood droplets splatter on the engravings on the sword's spine from his fingertips. The small characters "A Yao Breaks All Laws" suddenly glowed with golden light, turning his blood into blue smoke.

"Pfft—" Nightshade staggered back three steps, the Xuanfeng Immortal Venerable's whisk already wrapped in golden light around his ankle. "How dare you!" The Xuanfeng Daoist robe fluttered without wind, the immortal patterns flowing like living things on the cuffs, "How dare you injure my junior in the Xuandu Secret Realm?"

Night Shadow laughed out loud, his figure began to blur, and my shocked face was reflected in his ghostly pupils: "Don't rush to investigate Cangwu Mountain, the gate to Soul Locking Abyss..." His voice was cut off by the sound of space tearing, and when the last word dissipated into black mist, I smelled a familiar scent - the scent of wormwood on those wronged souls just now, mixed with the smell of blood and rust.

"Ayao?" Wen Chen's hand touched my burning cheek, and I realized that I had unknowingly retreated into his arms.

His heartbeat came through his clothes, steady and strong, like the footsteps of him carrying me back to the bamboo house when I was exhausted from practicing swordsmanship. "Were you scared?" he asked softly, wiping away the blood of Night Shadow on the back of my hand with his fingertips. The blood droplet had actually condensed into a tiny "Yuan" character in his palm.

“He appeared on purpose.” I gripped his wrist, staring at the blood-red words. “He knew we would investigate a case from three hundred years ago, so he came…” I paused, remembering that when he gripped the blade, the look in his eyes wasn’t ruthlessness, but a kind of almost liberated madness. “He was provoking us, and also reminding us.”

This reminds us that there's something wrong with the Soul Locking Abyss.

The Fairy of the Bright Moon gently wiped the cold sweat from my forehead with her handkerchief; her fingertips were still trembling. "The way he looked at you just now... it was like he was looking at some kind of sacrifice." Her voice trembled, but she forced herself to remain calm. "I... I'll go get the 'Chronicles of Cangwu Mountain.' The scrolls from three hundred years ago should still be in the secret compartment of the Scripture Pavilion." Before I could reply, she had already lifted the hem of her skirt and run towards the Star Gazing Pavilion, the silver hairpin in her hair drawing a bright line in the moonlight—it was the birthday gift I gave her last year.

Elder Wu crouched down and picked up the half-jade slip. The fluorescence seeping from the cracks was dimmer than before. "A fragment of the Hidden Immortal Record..." he murmured, stroking his beard. "Xie Zhao, a guest elder of Cangwu Mountain, fell into demonic possession through the path of slaughter... Soul-Locking Abyss..." Suddenly, his finger stopped at a certain spot on the jade surface. "There are traces of erasure here!" He looked up, his eyes gleaming. "Someone deliberately erased the true reason for Night Shadow's sealing—not warlut, but..."

“He’s the one suppressing something.” Wen Chen continued, his thumb still rubbing the bloodstains on the back of my hand. “Three hundred years ago, Cangwu Mountain was completely destroyed, and Night Shadow was sealed away.”

If he were a guest advisor, he should have stood with the mountain lord through thick and thin.

Perhaps what he was fighting back then wasn't a demon in his heart, but something from the Abyss of Soul Locking?

Xuanfeng Immortal Venerable's whisk suddenly glowed white. He frowned, staring at the direction the night shadow had disappeared. "The black mist he left behind contained the lingering echoes of the Rebirth Mantra." He turned to me, his gaze now more inquisitive. "Why did those wronged souls he commanded only plead with you?"

I touched the jade pendant around my neck; Wen Chen's spiritual power still flowed within it. "Because of Wen Chen's purifying power," I thought, recalling the trembling of the wronged souls when they touched my spiritual power during the battle, "Perhaps they weren't controlled by Night Shadow, but trapped by something in the Soul-Locking Abyss. Night Shadow was merely..."

“Just a more formidable prisoner.” Wen Chen suddenly interjected, his fingertips lightly tapping the protective jade. “Ayao, we have to go to Cangwu Mountain.” His voice was soft, yet carried an undeniable firmness. “To the Soul-Locking Abyss, to see what exactly was sealed away three hundred years ago.”

I looked at the stray hairs at the corners of his eyes, ruffled by the night wind, and suddenly remembered the smile on his lips before the shadow disappeared.

That wasn't the arrogance of a victor, but more like... the urging of a guide.

“Alright.” I squeezed his hand, and the Cloud Shadow Sword emitted a clear ring in my storage ring. “We’ll set off tomorrow.”

The voice of Fairy Mingyue came from the direction of the Star Gazing Pavilion, tinged with urgency: "Ayao!"

I found the inscription on the painting "Spring Lanterns"!

It read... "Her figure flashed past the corner of the corridor, her skirt stained with specks of ink," and "Below the Soul-Locking Abyss, what is suppressed is..."

The wind carried her lingering voice past the broken monument, and Wen Chen's palm tightened almost imperceptibly.

As I gazed at the thickening black fog in the distance, I suddenly heard a very soft sigh mixed with the cry of a baby—it was the little girl's rabbit lantern that had lit up in my mind.

Some secrets need to be revealed.