Chapter 509
Such a night shouldn't be so silent.
Chapter 509 Such a night shouldn't be so silent.
"Let's get moving."
Yun's voice rang out again, this time with undisguised deep malice in his tone: "That way, you won't be frozen into an ice sculpture too quickly."
"Believe me, you don't want to experience the kind of pain that freezes and seals off your consciousness, thoughts, and ideas."
“However, it doesn’t seem to matter anymore…” Yun Shi’s voice began to drift away, “Afterwards, there are Windfall Hell, Thunderstrike Hell, Earth Rot Hell, Thorn Piercing Hell…”
"By the way, just a reminder, the flow of time here is 1/10000 of that outside."
"Let me see just how far the noble and powerful Lord Otsutsuki Isshiki can hold out!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Yun Shi's voice completely dissipated into the wind and snow.
Only Ōtsutsuki Isshiki was left alone on this desolate and cold ice field, the chill spreading through every inch of his exposed skin.
My limbs are becoming stiff and numb, and my thoughts are like rusty gears, turning slower and slower.
"No...no!!"
Overwhelmed by fear, he finally overwhelmed all pride, anger, and resentment, letting out a trembling roar of terror: "Otsutsuki Kumoshiki! You can't do this! You can't!"
But the roar could only echo across the pale ice field before being quickly swallowed up and disappeared by the boundless cold.
------
After an unknown amount of time, the wind outside stirred up dust.
Yun Shi, whose eyes were slightly closed, slowly opened them. The light in her beautiful eyes dimmed slightly, but what remained was a deep and unfathomable calm.
He raised his right hand and gently drew his index finger across the air above him...
scoff!
A soft yet clear sound rang out, and a narrow crack appeared out of thin air along the path his fingertips traced, from which a figure fell directly.
Otsutsuki Isshiki is no longer the imposing and arrogant figure he once was.
thump!
He knelt on the ground, his knees slamming into the earth with a dull thud. His head was bowed, his eyes open, empty and unfocused, his gaze unfocused and devoid of any spirit.
There was no anger, no resentment, no fear. He just knelt there, straight and hunched over, his hands hanging limply at his sides, his fingertips twitching unconsciously.
It was as if it had become an empty shell from which the soul had been extracted.
The soul named "Otsutsuki Isshiki" was tortured and abused again and again in the "Eighteen Hells" until it suffered a mental breakdown.
“Very good.” Yun Shi walked up to Otsutsuki Isshiki, looked down at him, and smiled slightly. “To be able to persist to the tenth floor, your will is indeed more resilient than I expected.”
Yishi kept her head down, unresponsive to the words spoken so close to her, but deep within her unfocused eyes, the still water, as if a small pebble had been thrown in, trembled slightly before gradually regaining focus.
"Heh...heh..."
A faint breathing sound, like a broken bellows being pulled with difficulty, came from not far away.
Yun Shi turned her head and looked in the direction of the sound. She saw Chuan Shi lying in a mess not far away, with a pool of blood beneath her. Her body was riddled with holes and mangled.
"Senior Yun..."
His head was turned to the side, his lips moved, but blood kept gushing out. His life was extremely weak, like a candle flickering in the wind, about to be extinguished at any moment.
Those dull, lifeless white eyes were open, their pupils slightly dilated, reflecting Yun Shi's figure. But the next moment, the pupils contracted slightly, as if trying to say something, but the gushing blood blocked his throat.
His white eyes reflected the image behind Yun Shiki, where Otsutsuki Isshiki, who had been kneeling motionless, suddenly sprang up!
One second ago, Yi Shi's eyes were unfocused and his expression was blank, but the emptiness and confusion on his face were instantly replaced by a ferocious killing intent.
dead!
The black rod in his hand instantly condensed, carrying all the power and speed he had squeezed out, and stabbed straight at the back of Yun Shi's head, who was facing away from him!
This sudden attack, launched at such close range and with such a treacherous timing, without any warning or hint of killing intent, seemed to have left Yun Shi completely unaware.
At this critical moment.
Bang! !
With a sudden, muffled thud, Otsutsuki Isshiki's movements abruptly froze, his ferocious expression instantly solidifying.
"puff……"
He spat out a mouthful of blood, stiffly twisting his neck little by little to look behind him, where he met a pair of white eyes that were inches away.
The veins around those eyes bulged menacingly, yet deep within them trembled with fear.
It's Kaguya Otsutsuki.
"You...you...you slut..."
Yishi opened his mouth as if to say something, but the gushing blood blocked his throat, and only more blood foam came out of his mouth.
When he finally turned around, he saw that Otsutsuki Kumoshiki had turned around at some point and was looking at him expressionlessly. There was no surprise on his face, only indifference.
How could that be...
When exactly did these two guys...?
thump!
The light in Otsutsuki Isshiki's pupils dimmed, and his body, losing its support, fell forward, kneeling on the ground once more, blood quickly seeping out beneath him.
Kaguya slowly withdrew her trembling hand, staring intently at Isshiki Otsutsuki, her eyes unblinking. Only after confirming that he had truly lost his breath did she exhale the breath that had been trapped in her chest and look up at Kumoshiki.
"Lord Yun..."
Kaguya's voice was hoarse as she looked at Kawashiki lying in a pool of blood on the other side, and hesitated before saying, "I'm sorry, Kawashiki's injuries are too severe, I..."
Yun Shi gave her a deep look, which made Kaguya's already tense body stiffen even more for a moment, and she subconsciously lowered her eyes.
"This was not included in the agreement we reached."
Yun Shi simply shook his head and said calmly, "You didn't attack me when I was casting my divine spell, and you killed Yi Shi just now. That's enough."
Having said that, he stopped looking at Kaguya and turned to walk towards Kawashiro, who was lying in a pool of blood.
Looking at Yun Shi's back, Kaguya couldn't help but recall that scene from long ago.
Back when Yishi sent her to invite Yunshi, Yunshi refused and turned to leave, just like now, saying a sentence without looking back.
"Your name is Kaguya, right?" he began. "You admire the Kawa style?"
With just this one sentence, she instantly pierced through her layers of disguise and struck at the secrets deep within her heart that she herself dared not easily touch.
That fear of one's own weakness and the possibility of being abandoned at any time, and the intense desire for great power that arises from it.
"Shall we make a promise?" he continued. "Someday in the future, I will kill Isshiki Otsutsuki."
"At that point, all you need to do is make the choice you believe is right."
At that time, just as right now.
Yunshi had already walked to Chuanshi's side, slowly bent down, ignoring the bloodstains on Chuanshi's body, reached out and lifted Chuanshi from the pool of blood, and then took a step...
Seeing that Yun Shi seemed to be leaving, Kaguya's heart tightened for some reason, and she blurted out subconsciously, "Lord Yun Shi, where are you going?"
Yun paused slightly, without turning around or even stepping aside. With her back to Kaguya, she calmly said, "No matter where I want to go, you can't stop me, can you?"
Upon hearing this, Kaguya's body stiffened abruptly, and Yun Shi slightly turned his head, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye.
“Next, we will leave this place and will never appear before you again,” Yunshi said meaningfully. “Do whatever you want. Otsutsuki Isshiki is also yours to deal with.”
“I think you really need him as a ‘sacrifice’.”
Looking into those deep, calm eyes, Kaguya felt as if, once again, she had been easily seen through by him. That's right.
She wanted to plant the divine tree, to absorb the life of this planet, and to obtain the fruit of the divine tree that could bring great power and change her own destiny.
A powerful and complete Otsutsuki body is undoubtedly a necessary offering for catalyzing the Divine Tree.
but……
If there were no cloud-style...
Even if she successfully planted the divine tree, devoured its fruit, and gained immense power, what then?
The Otsutsuki clan would never stand idly by and watch her devour a fruit.
At that time, she will face the attackers sent by her own clan alone, who are even stronger than Isshiki.
Thinking of this, that deep-seated fear crept back into her bones, and Kaguya opened her mouth, wanting to say something.
But Yunshi didn't give Kaguya any more chances to speak.
His figure, along with Chuan Shi, vanished without a trace from the spot.
"..."
Kaguya Otsutsuki stood there, silent for a long time, watching the spot where the cloud had disappeared, her eyes constantly shifting before finally settling into a deep silence.
A moment later, she turned and walked towards Isshiki Otsutsuki, her body floating lightly into the air, carrying Isshiki as she flew towards the distant horizon.
"We must find a suitable planting location for the sacred tree as soon as possible."
Kaguya was lost in thought, not turning around, and unaware that the Otsutsuki Isshiki behind her, who should have been completely dead, twitched his fingers almost imperceptibly...
Meanwhile, the ruins of the Kingdom of Grell, with their broken walls and crumbling walls, tell tales of past glory and destruction, casting shadows under the setting sun.
Yun Shi's figure quietly appeared on a steep cliff, placed Chuan Shi, whose aura was so faint as to be almost imperceptible, on a relatively flat stone platform in front of him, and took a step back.
"Sichuan style."
Yun looked at him, her voice revealing little emotion, and simply asked, "Now, you have a choice."
"My first option is to use my blood to save you. It can heal your physical and mental wounds, but the result will be the same as Grell's before you, with your life and death in my hands."
"The second option..."
But before he could finish speaking, Chuan Shi's closed eyelids twitched. He had no strength to open his eyes or make a sound; only the corners of his mouth opened and closed.
"..."
Yun's face showed the calm that she had expected.
He knew about the choice made by the Sichuanese.
Or rather, he already knew how Trump would choose.
The reason why Trump would obey him without question, respect him greatly, and even risk his life is because Trump gave him the opportunity to break free from slavery and gain an independent personality and respect.
For Chuan Shi, that sense of self is something heavier and more inviolable than life itself.
Therefore, no matter what he faces, even death, Kawa would never want to return to that helpless situation he once was.
Even if the person who can control his life and death is Yun Shi, who gave him a new life, it still won't work.
"It seems that I will have to spend the next two thousand years alone."
Yun's calm voice carried a barely perceptible hint of loneliness. She extended her right hand, her index fingertip touching Chuan's forehead, and whispered, "Then let us..."
"At the end of the journey, let's meet again with a new identity, and witness the end of everything."
hum!
As soon as he finished speaking, a slight tremor rang out, and the power of "Divine Art: High Soul Control," which involves life and time, acted on Kawashiro's riddled body.
The gruesome wounds on Chuan Shi's body, whether deep external injuries that revealed bone or internal injuries that ruptured internal organs, began to heal and recover at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The charred flesh peeled off, giving rise to tender pink granulation tissue; broken bones reconnected automatically; and damaged internal organs reformed... as if his body's trauma had been restored to its state before the injury.
In just a few breaths, the horrific wounds on Chuan Shi's body disappeared without a trace, his skin became smooth again, and even his pale face regained a faint tinge of color.
However, this miraculous scene only extends to the physical body.
His brain, his spirit, his soul, had also suffered severe damage in the previous battle, even more so than his body; that was beyond the repair capabilities of "High-Level Soul Control".
To repair it, one would need to use "divine soul life," but that effect is tantamount to brainwashing.
The Yun style respects the choices of the Chuan style.
He raised his finger that was touching Chuan Shi's forehead, and as his finger rose, a semi-transparent phantom, identical to Chuan Shi's appearance, slowly floated out with its eyes closed.
With a thought, Yun sent it into his "Eighteen Hell Realms," specifically the tenth level, "Sand Time Hell."
The space of "Sand Time Prison" is not a place of knives and fire. As far as the eye can see, there is only an endless desert, with the scorching sun shining high, baking the endless sea of sand.
Time flows at the slowest level in the Eighteen Hell Realms, almost to the point of stagnation.
The soul that enters it will only be trapped in this endless, hopeless, and unchanging desert, and can only keep walking.
In the near-eternal passage of time, one cannot feel the physical pain of hunger, thirst, or exhaustion, but must endure loneliness and nothingness, and consciousness will be gradually eroded and weathered away like grains of sand.
This also means that for those damaged and dormant souls, the consumption of their souls in this place is minimized, which is exactly the meaning behind Yunshi sending Chuanshi's soul into "Sand Time Prison".
At the top of the cliff, the evening breeze grew cool.
The cloud-like robes fluttered gently in the night breeze as it gazed upon the soulless body.
Looking at that face, Yun Shi was momentarily dazed, her memories flowing backward, back to the very beginning.
Many, many years later, in that underground base, under that dim light.
Orochimaru would then scrutinize the corpse of the Otsutsuki clan member with greedy eyes...
[Foreshadowing Recap: Chapter 1 - Such a Night Should Be Silent and Still]
boom!!
Just as Yun was lost in thought, a loud roar erupted from the distant horizon, shattering the tranquility of the night.
Yun Shi snapped out of her reverie and turned to look in the direction from which the roar was coming.
Suddenly, at the southeastern horizon, a streak of light tore through the night and fell straight to the earth, turning the night sky a dark red and causing the ground to shake violently.
Yun knew that it wasn't some kind of meteorite from outer space.
That was the divine tree planted by Kaguya Otsutsuki.
Yun Shi knew even better that Yi Shi was not completely dead.
Kaguya offered Isshiki's body as a sacrifice to the Ten-Tails' larva. Isshiki would have half his body eaten, leaving only his upper body to escape in a sorry state and eke out a living, like a rat in a sewer, lying dormant for a thousand years.
This is exactly what Yunshi wanted.
"The supporting actors have entered the stage." He smiled and said softly, "There's only one last step left."
As soon as he finished speaking, Yun Shi's figure gradually faded away, disappearing as if blending into the night.
Such a night should not be so silent...
(End of this chapter)