Transmigrated as the Villain’s Sword - Chapter 68

Due to the bombshell Ling Chenyan had dropped, those Lingxiao Immortal Sect disciples acting as the “human wall” finally began to move. As if receiving a collective command, they detached from the formation and drew their weapons, surrounding the two of them.

Ling Chenyan was undaunted. Her hands moved in a blur as she pulled out a handful of ambers. Just as she was about to toss them, Li Xiu stopped her in a rage: “What are you doing?”

Ling Chenyan saw the disciples’ attacks raining down on them; she reached out, grabbed Li Xiu, and yanked him from the spot. With a loud boom, the ground where Li Xiu had been standing was blasted into a massive crater. Li Xiu’s face turned ashen as he realized the one who had attacked was none other than his fellow disciple, Zhang Cheng.

At that moment, Zhang Cheng was like a wind-up robot—expressionless. Seeing his target dodge, he raised his sword and charged again.

Ling Chenyan looked at Li Xiu’s stunned face and snapped, “Stop shouting. They were controlled a long time ago.”

With a wave of her hands, over a dozen Lingxiao ancestors manifested before them, blocking the swarm of disciples. Although Li Xiu was shocked by his juniors attacking him, seeing Ling Chenyan so brazenly use the sect’s own ancestors to fight its disciples still sparked a trace of indignation.

“The strongest among these disciples are only at the Nascent Soul stage! How can you use the Ancestors’ Soul Stones against them? If you hurt them—”

Ling Chenyan turned to him. “Look closely. Are they still ‘disciples’ of your Lingxiao Immortal Sect?”

Her expression was so severe that Li Xiu was momentarily speechless. He instinctively followed her gaze. The disciples before them could no longer be called “cultivators”—or even “human.” Black mist swirled around them, their pupils were blood-red, and their spiritual energy was tainted with an evil aura. Their power had surged several levels; even with the Ancestors’ Soul Stones blocking them, the disciples were holding their ground.

Li Xiu’s pupils contracted. It wasn’t until he saw a disciple split in two right before his eyes—only for a mass of black mist to crawl out of the ruptured body—that he seemed truly shaken. He shook his head, muttering, “This is impossible. This is impossible.”

Ling Chenyan’s voice cut through his denial: “What’s impossible about it? You’re seeing it with your own eyes.” She glanced at his escapism and turned her focus back to the “human wall.”

The wall consisted of countless disciples. Now that one layer had peeled away, another lay beneath, encasing whatever was in the center. Unlike the outer layer, these disciples looked incredibly gaunt, their faces deathly pale. Some even had streaks of silver in their hair, as if their life force had been drained dry.

[Sys, what on earth is in there? These disciples look creepy.]

System: [Heroine detected nearby. Host, please be prepared.]

Ling Chenyan jolted. Lin Qingwan was here too? She scanned the surroundings. Lin Qingwan hadn’t appeared, but Li Si and Liu Su had been drawn over by the commotion. Before the two could scream in horror, Ling Chenyan moved like lightning and knocked them both unconscious, tossing out another dozen Soul Stones.

The previous souls began to fade, and the evil-fied disciples were mostly incapacitated. Ling Chenyan ignored the still-stunned Li Xiu and walked toward the human wall.

As she drew closer, a layer of disciples detached automatically and rushed her with swords drawn. Ling Chenyan used the same trick, throwing out the Ancestors’ Soul Stones. Soon, they were pinned down.

Step by step, she approached the center. More and more disciples peeled away. The further in she went, the more tragic their condition became—from the sturdy outer guards to the inner layer of dying disciples who only had a single breath left. Ling Chenyan watched a falling disciple; he took two steps toward her before collapsing with a thud, his body splitting open to release a cloud of black mist.

She dealt with it casually, her mind staying alert for the heroine mentioned by the System. Yet, even as she reached the very last layer of the wall, the heroine did not appear. Ling Chenyan saw the final circle of disciples; they were motionless now, piled one on top of the other to surround the object in the center.

She could vaguely see that the object looked like an egg. The closer she got, the more the unease in her heart intensified. Frowning, she threw out one last Soul Stone and approached cautiously. Prying away the final layer of the human wall, the object inside was finally exposed.

It was a throbbing egg—more accurately, it looked like a human heart. It was covered in crimson veins, and the crisscrossing grooves looked like blood vessels. Looking closely, she could see a flowing red liquid within. The egg vibrated rhythmically, a clear thump-thump sound echoing in the air.

Ling Chenyan stared at it, her own heart seemingly beginning to resonate with the beat. She felt an uncontrollable urge to bleed herself to feed this egg. She snapped out of it instantly and retreated two steps, gasping. [Sys, I feel it. This egg is the source of my unease.]

Her expression was grim. Looking at the dead disciples on the ground, she realized they were likely “nourishment” for this egg. If that were the case, the entire Lingxiao Immortal Sect had become a feeding ground for this evil creature. Zhen Xuzi was truly depraved!

[Sys, this egg cannot stay,] Ling Chenyan said.

The System was silent for a long time before speaking: [Life signs of the heroine detected. Host, please be prepared.]

Ling Chenyan spun around alertly. There were only dead disciples and a self-pitying Li Xiu behind her. No sign of the heroine. In a flash of insight, she looked back at the egg. She swallowed hard and asked with difficulty: [Sys… you’re not saying… this egg IS the heroine, are you?]

The System went silent for so long Ling Chenyan could feel its “speechlessness.” […It appears so.]

Ling Chenyan: “…”

She stared silently at the egg, a storm raging in her mind. How did the male lead save the world in the original story? Did he kill the heroine? But Lin Qingwan was the heroine! Or did they sign some secret contract?

The System spoke slowly: [Perhaps the author wanted to write about the male lead’s difficult choice between saving the heroine and the world, thereby glorifying their ‘great love.’]

Ling Chenyan fell silent. She looked at the egg and took a slow step forward.

Suddenly, a change occurred. Those disciples who were still struggling suddenly began to twitch, and then, before her shocked eyes, they exploded. Even the disciples already on the ground burst apart without exception. Blood dyed the earth red, and Ling Chenyan noticed with alarm that the blood on the ground was beginning to flow.

She moved quickly, grabbing the egg and stashing it into her storage space while watching the flowing blood. But she soon realized the blood wasn’t flowing toward the egg—it was sinking directly into the ground.

On the other side, the evil creature fighting Guan Luowei suddenly shuddered. It blasted Guan Luowei back and roared with insane fury: “How dare you?!”

It turned and flew off toward the center of the sect without looking back. Sensing something, Guan Luowei followed close behind. Wenxin glanced at the demon and the evil being, kicked Zhen Xuzi away again, and muttered, “What’s going on…”

Before he could finish, he felt the earth tremble. The ground began to crack rapidly, and a wave of ancient, extreme evil radiated from the northeast. It felt as if something sinister was about to descend upon the cultivation world. Wenxin slapped the sneak-attacking Zhen Xuzi away once more and followed the others.

Behind them, Zhen Xuzi crawled out of the ruins, spitting out black blood. His face was twisted and manic. Feeling the unusual fluctuations in the air, he laughed like a madman. “You really thought my Lingxiao Immortal Sect was easy to bully?”

He sat cross-legged on the ground, bit his finger hard, and traced a blood-talisman in the air, murmuring: “Ancestor, I use my own essence blood as a lead. I implore you to appear…”

The Soul Stones were a major trump card of the sect, but not the greatest one. Their greatest secret was the Ancestor who founded the Lingxiao Immortal Sect—the one who had repelled the extraterrestrial demons millions of years ago. After the war, she had vanished, founding the sect in secret and leaving behind a divine thought. If the sect ever faced total destruction, the Sect Master could wake her.

Zhen Xuzi’s eyes turned completely deep red. Wait for it, he thought. The Demon Race, and those two artifacts… I won’t let a single one of you go.

Ling Chenyan watched the shaking ground and the thickening evil aura. A bad feeling flashed through her mind, and she transformed into her sword form to hover in the air.

The ground cracked at lightning speed. In an instant, the entire floor of Wenxian Peak collapsed into a rain of rubble. The massive array hidden beneath the sect was finally exposed. Beneath the peak lay a massive altar. In the center was the same bizarre eye-pattern they had seen at Guize Peak. Currently, the eye was covered in a thick layer of red; the scent of blood filled the air.

Ling Chenyan knew instantly: it was blood. The blood of the disciples who had just died. The eye was drinking it!

[Host, get away! That evil creature is coming for you!]

Before Ling Chenyan could think of a way to stop the altar, she was startled by the System’s warning. She looked back to see the creature that had been fighting Guan Luowei charging toward her.

“Stagnation!”

The creature ignored the attacks from Guan Luowei behind it, using the stagnation spell on Ling Chenyan in an attempt to kill her in one hit. Overwhelming evil energy flooded toward her as the creature rushed forward like a hot knife through butter.

For a moment, Ling Chenyan wondered if she was truly going to die. She decided to push back with all her might. Although she knew “Stagnation” hindered non-evil beings and low-level cultivators, she still exerted every ounce of strength to lunge to the side.

The creature’s attack and Guan Luowei’s strike fell simultaneously. The creature was pinned deep into a crater, but Ling Chenyan was nowhere to be seen. Guan Luowei used her finger like a blade to pierce the creature’s skull, digging out the Evil Crystal and crushing it into powder.

“Yanyan…” Guan Luowei looked at the creature, which had turned into a puddle of rot, and hurriedly searched the surroundings. She called out her name frantically, but there was no response. Ling Chenyan had vanished without a sound.

“Stop looking.”

The youth, Wenxin, appeared beside her. Half his face was in shadow, his gaze fixed on a certain spot with an air of tragic loneliness. Guan Luowei’s body trembled; with red eyes, she followed Wenxin’s gaze toward a nearby mountain peak.

There, stuck between the ruins of a collapsed peak, was a sword—with only the hilt visible. At that moment, the sword hilt was shaking violently, trying to pull itself out of the mountain. Seeing the two of them watching, the hilt stiffened and stopped its shaking.

Wenxin couldn’t help but burst into a fit of laughter, mocking her without mercy: “How much power did you use to run away? You’re stuck so deep you can’t even get out! Hahahahahaha!”

Ling Chenyan: “…”

Guan Luowei: “…”

Author’s Note:

Ling Chenyan: Do you have any idea how much psychological damage this does to a simple sword?