Luo Ying’s ritual of sacrificing herself to the sword was interrupted. Her entire body was covered in sword wounds, and after being helped up by Little Skull, she leaned against the table leg. Seeing the ink dragon outside that had suddenly dispersed, as if scattered by some powerful force, Luo Ying’s expression showed a hint of bewilderment. It took her a long moment to come back to her senses, her gaze falling on Little Skull.
This skeleton was a ghostly creature. But the aura emanating from it was particularly clean and pure, so clean that even the vengeful spirits within the Longquan Sword avoided it at all costs.
What a good little skeleton indeed. She coughed softly, signaling to Little Skull that she was fine, and only then did it slowly move away.
Despite being afraid, afraid of blood, it still used its small claws to support her. And such a little skeleton liked to cling to that little girl.
Su Zhuyi also noticed the commotion outside.
She understood immediately and was instantly overjoyed, even finding Little Skull much more pleasing to the eye.
Although Little Skull hadn’t yet become a spirit of mountains and rivers, it was at least half a spirit of mountains and rivers. This kind of purely good spiritual creature was precisely the nemesis of the resentful energy within the Longquan Sword – it just depended on whose power was stronger. Little Skull had only been nurtured for five thousand years, while the Longquan Sword had existed much longer and had killed countless people. Looking at it this way, Little Skull was probably at a disadvantage.
Su Zhuyi stared at Little Skull, and then saw it reach out to hug her arm, rubbing its skull against her shoulder twice, before untying the green ribbon from its arm and saying, “Big sister, look, is it pretty?”
It waved the green ribbon twice and chuckled, “Little uncle gave it to me.”
“Little uncle?” Su Zhuyi was curious. “Who is little uncle?”
“He’s little uncle,” Little Skull answered innocently.
The ribbon seemed to have spiritual energy. Since her divine consciousness had been damaged earlier, she couldn’t tell what kind of magical treasure this ribbon was, so she said, “What is this for? A storage of magical treasure? Or an attack magical treasure?”
Many female cultivators liked to use ribbons as weapons – they looked beautiful when fighting and weren’t weak in terms of lethality. But this ribbon was azure green and quite short, so she didn’t know what it was for.
She watched as Little Skull untied the ribbon wound around its arm bone, straightened it with its claws, then tied it around its skull, wrapping it around its forehead in a circle and tying a knot.
“A headband?”
Su Zhuyi was stunned for a moment, then chuckled, “Who wears green on their head?”
“Little uncle always uses this to tie his hair,” Little Skull said seriously.
Little Skull’s little uncle was male! Probably a spiritual creature similar to it, so his aesthetic sense was equally bizarre – he liked wearing green hats? Su Zhuyi didn’t take Little Skull’s headband, but walked over to Luo Ying’s side and said, “Senior, you saw it too. Little Skull, he…”
“Big sister, my name is Wu’er.”
“Wu’er is pure and flawless, half a spirit of mountains and rivers. One of you has pure and good spiritual energy, the other has sword intent. If you join forces to suppress the Longquan Sword, you should be able to succeed, right?” Su Zhuyi crouched in front of Luo Ying. “I’m Wu’er’s master. Let’s join forces to suppress this Longquan Sword, how about it?”
“Good.” If one could live, no one wanted to die.
Just from that brief moment of contact when Wu’er directly seized the sword hilt from her hand, she already understood his strength. With such power, sealing the Longquan Sword again wouldn’t be difficult. Luo Ying glanced at the dispersed resentful energy outside, knowing there would be no immediate danger for now, and said, “I’ll recover briefly. In my current state, I’m afraid I can’t even manifest sword intent with my sword.”
The sword hilt used during the ritual was draining her life force, which was why she could continuously manifest sword intent while injuring herself.
This was sacrificing oneself to the sword.
She deeply admired that great master who had sacrificed himself. The seven fierce demonic cultivators outside and the demonic cultivator who used to suppress the sword body were probably also related to him.
“Good.” Su Zhuyi nodded in agreement, then sat down together with Little Skull.
“Wu’er, where have you been these past few days? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” She lied without blushing or her heart racing.
“Little uncle said I was summoned by him, and he’s also looking for a way to send me back,” Wu’er said, hugging Su Zhuyi’s arm. “Big sister, I missed you too. Little uncle loves reading books the most and has no time to play with me.”
Speaking of playing, Wu’er’s eye sockets seemed to light up, and the green ribbon wrapped around its forehead also glowed blindingly bright. It danced with excitement, “I want to see mountains, see water, catch butterflies, listen to the wind, listen to the rain, listen to singing…”
“Good, good, good, I’ll accompany you to all of them.” Su Zhuyi interrupted Little Skull’s words, then continued, “Wait, that sister in white clothes will perform sword techniques. You just need to grab that sword hilt and stand still without moving. Once you’re done, I’ll take you to see mountains and water, okay?”
“Okay! Can’t move at all?” Wu’er asked seriously.
Su Zhuyi nodded, “You can only move when I tell you to.”
“Okay, I understand.” It nodded vigorously, almost knocking its jaw off.
After about two more hours, Luo Ying stood up and gripped her own Qianlong sword tightly. She was still very weak, but barely manifesting sword intent wasn’t a big problem. After she moved, Su Zhuyi instructed Little Skull to grab the sword hilt. The moment Little Skull’s hand touched the sword hilt, the chaotic, scattered, ink-colored small dragons outside fled in all directions. The already dispersed ink dragons seemed to be further cut and torn apart, leaving only specks of black energy the size of small tadpoles.
The withered leaf on the table seemed to be dyed with new green, from the leaf stem to the veins, gradually gaining color and moisture bit by bit, like a tree leaf washed by rain – clean and transparent, with clearly visible life-filled veins. Just as the leaf was about to completely turn fresh green, suddenly, the already tiny resentful energy outside the cold spring surged frantically again, desperately crashing against the bubble and continuously merging.
Clanging sounds arose, and the surrounding spring water immediately churned violently, as if a water dragon were struggling restlessly.
A massive dragon roar echoed out. Luo Ying reacted extremely quickly, turning her Qianlong sword to emit a clear cry to block the dragon roar. However, Su Zhuyi was still affected by the impact and vomited blood again. At this moment, Little Skull, who had been standing in place feeling somewhat soft and powerless, as if the strength in its body had been drained and its bones had gone soft, began to wail loudly. Its cry was loud and resonant, directly suppressing the dragon’s roar.
“Big sister, you’re spitting blood! Big sister, don’t die!”
It wanted to run over to see how big sister was doing, but just as it was about to step forward, it remembered her earlier words and could only ask while sobbing, “Big sister, can I move now?”
Su Zhuyi wiped her mouth with her sleeve and shouted, “Don’t move!”
“Eep.” Originally sobbing and crying, being yelled at like this, Little Skull was forced to stop crying, resulting in just a small whimper.
Outside the spring water, two dragons appeared outside the bubble.
One was a black ghostly fire dragon condensed from resentful energy.
The other was the original sword body of the Longquan Sword.
Both dragons simultaneously crashed against the bubble, causing it to sway left and right and instantly become covered with cracks.
Luo Ying had already lost too much blood, and now she directly burned her lifespan blood as a sacrifice. Her Qianlong sword struck three consecutive slashes, and at this time, only a tiny bit of the original withered leaf remained – the Longquan Sword was about to be sealed again.
At this most critical final moment, the Longquan Sword struggled desperately and finally shattered the bubble. Su Zhuyi felt her entire body turn ice cold, as the freezing spring water directly froze her stiff, as if her blood had stopped flowing.
“Success!” Luo Ying swung her final sword. A silver dragon emerged from underground, lifting Su Zhuyi on its head and carrying her and Luo Ying out of the abyssal depths.
“Wu’er is your spiritual creature. Quickly summon it back.”
Bonded creatures could be directly recalled by their master after the master left, so Luo Ying didn’t worry about Wu’er’s safety. After saying this, she was completely exhausted and fell unconscious. Su Zhuyi sat on the dragon’s head, looking down at that skeleton below.
The seal had been sealed, meaning the Longquan Sword could no longer break out of the seal, but now Little Skull was still inside the seal. Whether it was because the Longquan Sword sensed danger, Su Zhuyi discovered that when she subconsciously used her divine consciousness to see more clearly, she didn’t feel the tearing pain in her primordial spirit again. She saw that Little Skull was still standing in place, looking up at the sky.
The seal had been restored, and the green leaf had merged into the paperweight on the table. It was a sound-recording stone, yet it locked the green leaf tightly without leaving any gaps. The two dragons that had shattered the bubble directly crashed toward Little Skull. It held the sword hilt in its mouth, biting it, with its left and right hands each blocking one dragon. However, the Longquan Sword’s power was too great – its arm bones broke, and its body was compressed by the approaching dragons.
The dragons were no longer dragons now, but like two black walls gradually closing in, wanting to crush the little white skeleton in the middle into powder.
However, as they approached, influenced by Little Skull’s spiritual energy, those two walls were trembling and thinning.
If they both suffered losses at this moment, wouldn’t the Longquan Sword be easier to subdue?
In that instant, Su Zhuyi had a crazy thought – if Little Skull sacrificed itself to the sword, would she have a chance to subdue the Longquan Sword? In her previous life, Little Skull never appeared. Bringing him out was going against the heavenly dao, so now let everything return to its proper track. And there was the unconscious Luo Ying beside her…
Su Zhuyi’s heart was trembling. She resisted looking at Luo Ying.
Her eyes stared at the abyssal depths.
In the abyssal depths, a pair of black hollow eye sockets stared back at her.
She knew Little Skull could see her.
He was waiting.
Waiting for her to say, “Wu’er, it’s done, you can move now.” Then he would run over joyfully and say, “I didn’t move, big sister. You’re going to take me to see mountains and water.”
“Big sister, big sister, big sister…”
The silver dragon carried her out of the depths, and she saw the sliver of skylight above her head again. It was clearly a warm spring day, yet that light made her feel cold all over and her eyes sting.
Su Zhuyi blinked and saw a teardrop fall. She was stunned, then bent down and took out the Wuding Gourd, pointing its mouth at the crack and shouting into that dark opening, “You can move now, come back quickly!”
She could no longer see Little Skull.
However, the moment she finished shouting, Su Zhuyi felt a ray of light fly into the gourd’s mouth. Just as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief, she panicked to discover that Luo Ying’s silver dragon sword intent could no longer support them and dissipated. Because she had bent down to probe into the opening, at the moment of falling, she was gently pulled downward by a force. Damn it, this is what you get for being soft-hearted! If she had maintained proper posture just now, she could have used her natal magical treasure to jump out, but now she was falling headfirst like an inverted onion!
Just then, a figure descended from high above, directly grabbing her ankle and flinging her upward!
This time, Su Zhuyi was finally thrown completely out of the crack, landing directly on a crooked fallen tree. She saw Luo Ying lying not far away, and despite being in the wilderness, there was even a tiger skin cushion beneath her.
Could it be that Luo Ying’s disciple Qinghe had come?
Qinghe – the one who had just flung her out was Qinghe!