Front Line of the Beast Tide, Part 29

When the sun rose over the Eternal Night Forest, demonic energy was expelled by vitality, and the endless night turned into day, a fissure suddenly appeared above the forest, a fissure forcibly rent open by an overly abundant vitality.

Su Qing’s and Ye Mingshi’s consciousness, along with countless surging lights, first forcibly squeezed into this fissure, then passed through a long tunnel, and finally, suddenly arrived in another world.

This world, logically speaking, should be the Myriad Beast Forest’s personal cave abode, like a spider web to a spider, it was the opponent’s lair.

Su Qing had prepared for a desperate struggle, but what met her eyes was an endless expanse of grass.

Emerald green grass filaments grew quietly, covering the entire space with a layer of fuzzy new green.

Even the gnarled tree roots exposed in the air were covered with green grass.

The grass was the most common kind found by the roadside, nothing special.

But precisely because of this, Su Qing recognized it at a glance: it was Xiaocao, Jiang Xiaocao.

Although she had guessed that someone outside was delaying the Myriad Beast Forest, allowing them to purify so smoothly in the spiritual world—

But Su Qing had not expected this person to be Xiaocao.

‘Xiaocao, when did he become so powerful?’ She had no idea. Was it because she didn’t understand him well enough?

Almost simultaneously, Su Qing found her physical body.

She had lived in the Eternal Night world for four years, and her physical body had also slept here for four years.

Su Qing had already prepared for the worst: her physical body turning into nourishment for the forest.

By then, regardless of talent, she would have to learn from Senior Sister Wei Yue and walk the path of a ghost cultivator.

But fortunately, Xiaocao had protected her physical body very well.

He had woven grass leaves into a grass cocoon, wrapping her inside.

Four years had passed. This body, aside from some muscle shrinkage, a slight loss of weight, and some bone mass reduction, had not undergone any significant changes.

Although Su Qing felt an involuntary heartache, she also knew that lying for four years without eating or drinking, and still maintaining her current state, was extremely rare.

Not only her physical body, but the physical bodies of all the others were also protected within finely woven grass cocoons, quietly sleeping.

Su Qing saw that many of their bodies slowly began to stir, seemingly signs of impending awakening. It seemed everyone had emerged from the Eternal Night Forest.

This was good news.

However, they weren’t all body cultivators by origin, so their physical conditions weren’t very good.

Their auras were terrifyingly weak, like candle flames in the wind, ready to extinguish with a single breath.

Fortunately, all the demonic energy in the Eternal Night world had been converted into spiritual energy by Su Qing.

As more and more people awakened, the cracks in the spirit space grew larger.

The overflowing light, transforming into pure spiritual energy, began to flow back into this world.

Grass filaments rustled, sprouting fresh, tender green, growing taller in the blink of an eye.

At the same time, those wrapped in grass cocoons eagerly absorbed the overflowing spiritual energy as if thirsty for rain after a long drought, replenishing their depleted dantians, meridians, and even shattered physical bodies.

Everything was like spring, bursting with vitality.

All things slowly revived under this gentle, bright spiritual energy.

Su Qing no longer thought too much.

She found her physical body, gathered her thoughts, and dove into her celestial aperture, wanting her spirit to enter her body.

But for some unknown reason, though it was her own body, she couldn’t get in.

She circled around it a few times, but just couldn’t find a way to enter. Was this reasonable?

It was indeed strange.

According to the basic cultivation knowledge Su Qing had learned, with the exception of soul possession and other specific circumstances, the original body and spirit were inherently matched.

Unless one had a unique talent, like a ghost cultivator, generally, the physical body had a strong attraction to the spirit, so it wouldn’t be that the spirit was right beside the body yet still circling outside, unable to enter.

Although she had been lying down for four years and her body had weakened, her foundation was still there, and it wasn’t so fragile as to be unable to accommodate her spirit.

In fact, everyone else weaker than her had successfully awakened, yet her physical body remained in slumber, which was very puzzling.

She could even see the grass filaments around her anxiously twitching, almost growing to her eyes to get a closer look.

An insight suddenly struck Su Qing.

She understood the reason. Before she went to find the Heart-Protecting Mirror, as certified by Rainbow, her spirit strength had already reached Golden Core.

And after the last purification, all the demonic energy accumulated in the Eternal Night world had been completely converted into spiritual energy by her. Then, in this process, her spirit strength had very likely reached Nascent Soul, or even higher, Transform Spirit, Spirit Transformation…

This was originally a good thing, but unfortunately, her physical body remained at early Foundation Establishment.

Even if she was a body cultivator, her physical strength far exceeded that of an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator.

However, trying to accommodate such a powerful spirit was like forcefully stuffing an elephant into a wine barrel.

One could imagine the kind of damage her physical body would sustain after her spirit entered it.

Although this sounded a bit masochistic, Su Qing honestly felt it would be quite good if she could use this to refine her body, as the first step of body refinement was precisely destruction.

However, this way, the destructive intensity might be too great, and by then, her body might completely disintegrate, beyond repair.

Su Qing was still hesitating when an uninvited guest suddenly appeared.

In that instant, a charred shadow plunged into this space.

His eyes flashed coldly; sensing something, he instantly moved to the end, shattered one of the grass cocoons, gripped a human’s neck with one hand, forcibly dragged the body up, holding it in mid-air, while his other hand reached towards her dantian!

This body was naturally Ye Mingshi’s.

She, however, seemed to feel no pain at all, her facial expression changing frequently like a broken tape, as if two personalities resided in one body, fiercely fighting for control.

Su Qing realized that Ye Mingshi’s physical body was struggling for control with the forest spirit inside!

Although she didn’t know the origin of that dark shadow, this was a critical moment.

They absolutely couldn’t allow a conflict between the clam and the snipe, letting the dark shadow profit from it. Otherwise, all their efforts would be in vain.

Clearly, Xiaocao had the same thought as her. Overwhelming grass filaments, like a net cast from heaven, lunged at the dark shadow. Su Qing transmitted via divine consciousness, [Xiaocao, I’m here. Kill him first!]

Xiaocao’s joyful voice instantly came through, [Su Qing!]

But this was no time for reminiscing.

The grass filaments, under Xiaocao’s control, flashed forward, binding the dark figure’s lower body and continuously climbing upwards, attempting to interrupt his spellcasting.

However, Taihe Zhenren’s Spirit Transformation cultivation was not so easily dealt with.

A drop of blue water fell from his fingertip.

The moment it landed on the ground, it suddenly ignited into a fierce blaze, instantly driving away the grass leaves. This fire was the fifth-tier spiritual fire, Tidal Flame.

This person, attacking with a fifth-tier spiritual fire, must surely have a great background.

But Xiaocao’s goal was merely to delay him for a moment, allowing Su Qing to turn the tables.

She was now so poor that she didn’t even have a physical body, only her spirit remained.

Su Qing hadn’t learned any spirit attacking techniques, but at this point, she couldn’t care less and acted purely on intuition.

Since she feared that spirit damage to her body would prevent her from returning to it, entering this person’s body should be fine, right?

If her spirit was strong enough to also damage that person’s body, it would serve her purpose.

And if the opponent’s spirit was stronger, injuring her, perhaps she could seize the opportunity to return to her own body.

It was a win-win scenario, no matter how you looked at it.

Su Qing seized the brief moment of Taihe Zhenren’s distraction, used all her spiritual power to violently collide with his celestial dome, and forcefully squeezed inside without explanation.

In terms of cultivation, she was indeed beneath him, but a contest between spirits might not necessarily be a losing battle.

High-level cultivators often guarded vital acupuncture points, and their entire being was impenetrable like a sealed container, their aura extremely harmonious.

But note that what attacked him this time was not a single move or technique, but a charging elephant.

And an elephant that had been confined in a godforsaken place for four years, only now released.

Su Qing had said it herself: she truly hadn’t learned spirit attacks.

But with the arrow on the string, it had to be fired. She fully leveraged the Body School’s legacy. Whether she could do it or not, she would charge in blindly first.

Spirit attack was indeed the most ruthless move. With this single strike, she actually caused a Spirit Transformation powerhouse to waver for a moment, his spirit churning.

Taihe Zhenren pressed two fingers together, sealing his Baihui acupoint, enraged, “Who are you, to use such a sinister method abhorred by the Heavenly Dao?!”

Her senior sister’s teachings always advocated striking when the enemy was vulnerable.

Seeing Taihe Zhenren’s spirit unstable, Su Qing attacked again. She vaguely understood something: learned knowledge would not be forgotten.

She recalled the map of human spiritual veins and acupuncture points, memorized to be engraved in her mind when she first learned to draw spiritual energy into her body, which now reappeared before her eyes.

No matter what realm one cultivated to, the basic acupuncture points and meridians in the body remained unchanged.

If she simultaneously invaded these acupuncture points and meridians—

This time, with one impact, she almost embedded half of her body into this shriveled physical body.

Her spirit collided with Taihe Zhenren’s spirit. In an instant, fragments of the opponent’s memories exploded into Su Qing’s consciousness like sparks. But she had no time to think carefully, only concentrating on fighting for control of the body.

She was an outsider, originally repelled by this body, but Su Qing discovered something very interesting: Taihe Zhenren was also an outsider! This body, with its extraordinary talent, was obtained by him through soul possession and fusion!

Even though he had refined this body to be as proficient as his own, an outsider was ultimately an outsider.

Slowly, Su Qing was the first to gain vague five senses.

She felt the existence of a hand.

Without hesitation, she slowly withdrew that hand from Ye Mingshi’s chest, then plunged into her own chest with a fierce dive.

This body had already been charred by the explosion, and now an anomaly of left-right combat appeared. Taihe Zhenren’s lifelong dignity was completely lost here.

Seizing this opportunity, the crawling grass filaments grabbed Ye Mingshi’s body and quickly retreated.

The situation changed in an instant.

Staying here, the roots deeply buried in the ground suddenly boiled, like living demon beasts.

At the same time, Ye Mingshi coughed forcefully, slowly opened her eyes.

Her consciousness returned to her body, and correspondingly, the forest spirit was repelled by her.

‘Who?!’

However, the forest spirit, having seized a human body and defied heavenly judgment, had no way back. It could only seek another person for soul possession.

And Su Qing, squeezed inside Taihe Zhenren’s body, discovered that this cramped human body now contained another consciousness. It wasn’t the forest spirit; who else could it be?

Su Qing then belatedly realized that Taihe Zhenren was not only the highest cultivated person present but also a rare single wood spiritual root, indeed suitable for the forest spirit to possess.

But why were three “people” crammed into this one room? It was really crowded.

But never mind. Someone fighting over it meant it was good stuff. Su Qing was already rolling up her sleeves, ready for a fight. But then she heard Xiaocao’s voice again, [Come back quickly!]

Su Qing decisively returned to her original body.

Xiaocao whispered, [Earth Mother is coming.]

Over the years, although he had covered every corner of the Myriad Beast Forest with grass filaments, this place was ultimately at the very edge of the Sword School’s thirty-six cities, almost stepping out of Earth Mother’s territory.

And under the forest’s deliberate manipulation, it had been contaminated by demonic energy for a long time, severed from the earth for a long time.

Pure spiritual energy was insufficient, unable to provide the conditions for Earth Mother’s manifestation.

He had originally planned to fight to the death, forcibly fulfilling the conditions himself.

That was why he had let Taihe Zhenren in, then sealed off the retreat.

Who would have known that when Su Qing’s spirit returned, she would actually bring out all the demonic energy from the Eternal Night Forest, converting it into spiritual energy? The pure spiritual energy nourished all living beings, and inadvertently fulfilled the conditions.

Earth Mother?

Su Qing silently chanted her name.

At this moment, in what was clearly a sealed underground world, a soft, clear breeze suddenly swept through.

Amidst the entanglement of grass filaments and roots, colorful small flowers suddenly bloomed on the ground.