FCRCG Chapter 58

Xie Yun raised the dagger in his hand, carefully examining the bloodstains on the blade. “It’s a pity you can glimpse the lifespans of all things but cannot foresee your own death.”

To glimpse the lifespans of all things was the ability of Tai Xu’s artifact. However, the jade bracelet on Tai Xu’s wrist had already lost its luster, indicating that his divine power was nearly exhausted.

Tai Xu closed his eyes and sighed, “You will not succeed.”

His wound continued to bleed, yet his face showed no signs of fear or panic as if he didn’t care about life or death.

Xie Yun sneered, “How do you know I won’t succeed? Any small change can affect the final outcome. That was your own teaching.”

“I will seize the new Mountain God who is about to be born,” he stepped forward half a step and continued, “Without your guidance, what will he become?”

Tai Xu remained silent, having lost too much blood and on the brink of death.

Xie Yun hesitated no longer. He put away the dagger and cast a spell, extracting the last bit of divine power from Tai Xu and merging it into himself.

Tai Xu’s body became transparent until he completely vanished from the spot.

—

Nan Deng suddenly came back to his senses, his face extremely grim.

In the dungeon, Xie Yun looked up and gazed at the small umbrella floating in the air. “Is this your artifact? What, are you going to kill me?”

He did not know the purpose of the artifact. But in that brief moment, Nan Deng had seen everything.

The rabbit head poked out from his pocket, its red eyes staring at Xie Yun.

Xie Yun also saw it and let out a cold snort.

The bamboo umbrella was withdrawn. Nan Deng pressed the rabbit head back into his pocket and turned to leave the dungeon.

Xie Yun felt a bit regretful at the sight. His probing gaze also fell on Lian Yi, but Lian Yi did not exchange a glance with him and followed Nan Deng out.

After walking out of the cold, damp corridor, Nan Deng stopped. “He cannot die yet.”

“Why?” Weng Ping Ran, behind him, was puzzled but still had Lin Jiu order some tonic for Xie Yun to prevent him from dying due to extreme weakness.

“He has separated half of his soul, cultivating in the form of a resentful spirit.”

Nan Deng turned to look at the dark dungeon and said in a low voice, “He is the fog-shrouded specter.”

Weng Ping Ran was shocked. “He is the fog-shrouded specter?”

That method could hardly be called cultivation; it should be called feeding.

In Xie Yun’s past memories, Nan Deng saw the whole story of his encounter with the previous Mountain God Tai Xu, and all the events that followed.

Initially, Xie Yun was no different from most Celestial Masters—dedicated to his duties and reverent of the gods.

He had good talent, worked hard, and handled matters calmly and steadily. When there was a vacancy in the position of elder, he was the first to be appointed.

Due to the special status of Celestial Masters, most would choose to fall in love with and marry another Celestial Master. Xie Yun was no exception.

However, later, his fiancée died during a mission, and it was Xie Yun who sent her soul to Yezhang Tower.

Xie Yun did not have deep feelings for his fiancée, only feeling somewhat regretful.

A Celestial Master with such good talent, her soul was much stronger than that of ordinary people after death. Yet, she could not escape the erosion of resentment, becoming hideous and unrecognizable.

Hearing that the Mountain God had recently appeared in the area and occasionally responded to some pleas for help, Xie Yun decided to try his luck. He did not send the soul to Yezhang Tower immediately but carried it with him.

He was very clever and secretly followed the Earth Spirit. Sure enough, he saw the Mountain God.

Xie Yun was overjoyed and knelt before Tai Xu, holding a clay pot containing the resentful spirit in his hands. “I beg you to restore her consciousness so I can speak a few more words with her…”

Tears streamed down his face, making him appear like a man who couldn’t accept his wife’s death.

Tai Xu shook his head. “I cannot do that.”

The resentful spirit and the evil energy had merged into one, essentially becoming the evil energy itself. Removing the evil energy would be equivalent to refining it.

Xie Yun was very disappointed and couldn’t help but voice some thoughts, believing that there must be a way to suppress the malevolence of the resentful spirit.

Otherwise, these Celestial Masters worked hard to cultivate spiritual arts and labored all their lives, only to end up the same as ordinary people.

Although he was interrupted, Tai Xu was not angry or impatient. Instead, he found Xie Yun’s words somewhat interesting.

“You have a point. Celestial Masters have meritorious deeds in quelling ghostly disasters,” he pondered. “However, if one does not wish to be a Celestial Master anymore, no one can force them.”

Celestial Masters had a status above ordinary people, with high stipends and often enjoying different treatments.

Compared to them, Earth Spirits had even less choice. But Earth Spirits were more pure-hearted, with no desires or wants.

Xie Yun was not willing to give up. He still kept his fiancée’s soul and tried various methods on it.

One time, when the soul saw an item it loved most in life, its behavior changed.

Xie Yun thought this was a key point and went to Tai Xu again.

Tai Xu, however, said, “Your wife has not been dead long, and her soul carries an obsession. Over time, the obsession will fade.”

Besides, what the Mountain God could not do, he certainly could not do.

As for what experiments Xie Yun conducted on the soul, Tai Xu did not know and had never suspected.

Because of this matter, he and Xie Yun became familiar with each other. Sometimes, Tai Xu needed Xie Yun to convey some information to the Celestial Masters in the inner court.

However, Xie Yun processed this information vaguely and did not mention to others that he had met the Mountain God.

He began to take an interest in Tai Xu, quietly observing his every move and learning everything about the Mountain God.

With his casual inquiries, he gradually learned quite a bit.

For example, the jade bracelet on Tai Xu’s wrist was his unique artifact, capable of glimpsing the lifespans of all things, even the roadside flowers and grasses.

Tai Xu could also see Xie Yun’s lifespan, but he did not tell him directly: “You should pay more attention to your health and not overwork yourself.”

The future cannot be fully predicted, and lifespans are constantly changing, not fixed.

Tai Xu appeared very young, but he was actually three hundred years old.

“You’re only three hundred years old?” Xie Yun was surprised. “But in the ancient records…”

The inner court preserved some ancient texts, tracing the tracks of the Mountain Gods back to a long time ago. Yet, Tai Xu had only been the Mountain God for three hundred years.

“Yes.”

Seeing the strong curiosity on Xie Yun’s face, Tai Xu told him, “Before me, there were many Mountain Gods.”

But he had only met the previous Mountain God, who had taught and guided him.

The succession and continuation of the Mountain Gods were very special. Tai Xu was born in the natural forests, initially as an egg.

“When I hatched, I was just a soul,” Tai Xu said. “Later, I became a human for a period of time, and then, I became who I am now.”

Ghost, human, god.

He had briefly experienced both of his previous forms. In the early stages, his divine power was still unstable. When sensing too many resentful spirits around him, he would automatically transform to avoid being harmed in human form by the resentful spirits.

Hearing this, Xie Yun hurriedly asked, “Then when you are in soul form, won’t you be affected by the evil energy?”

Tai Xu paused for a moment before replying, “No.”

His essence was not that of a resentful spirit; he was merely in a soul state, inherently different from ordinary resentful spirits.

Tai Xu was born as a Mountain God, possessing divine power and an endless lifespan. He bore the responsibilities of a Mountain God.

However, like Celestial Masters, Mountain Gods had choices.

Mountain Gods could be injured and weakened, but they would not die.

Unless they no longer wished to be a Mountain God, in which case, a strong will would influence all things, leading to the birth of a new Mountain God.

There could be many reasons for not wanting to continue as a Mountain God. Mountain Gods also had emotions and could fall in love.

Yet, Mountain Gods were immortal. To spend a lifetime with a loved one, they would have to relinquish their status as a Mountain God. Otherwise, they could only watch their loved one grow old and die.

Or they might simply feel tired and weary, wishing to use their limited time to do what they wanted.

“Precisely,” Tai Xu sighed, “Three hundred years is quite enough.”

He was also considering stepping down. When the new Mountain God was born, he would need to find them and teach them as the previous Mountain God had done for him.

By then, he would no longer be immortal, and his divine power would gradually wane.

He could choose to become an ordinary human or simply fade away.

Xie Yun anxiously pressed, “Why do you want to step down? It’s only been three hundred years…”

Tai Xu was silent for a moment and didn’t explain much. “I do not seek immortality.”

He had a very gentle and introverted nature, and his artifact was a non-lethal jade bracelet.

Xie Yun had seen various items stored in the jade bracelet, which Tai Xu would occasionally take out and examine like treasures.

At this moment, Tai Xu was looking down, rubbing the jade bracelet, not noticing Xie Yun’s unusual gaze.

Tai Xu genuinely intended to step down and was preparing for it.

Xie Yun continued to serve him diligently, thoughtfully preventing others from disturbing him and never revealing what he knew.

Until the end, the guardian spirits sensed the birth of the new Mountain God and immediately went to find them.

Tai Xu wanted to go too but was captured by the long-prepared Xie Yun.

Xie Yun was most skilled in spells and formations. He trapped Tai Xu and used a formation to extract his divine power.

Tai Xu was already at his weakest, far less powerful than before. With his divine power suddenly taken, he had no strength to escape.

He looked at the uncharacteristic Xie Yun and calmly asked, “Why?”

Confirming that the Mountain God was trapped, Xie Yun stepped forward slowly, a smile appearing on his face.

But the smile quickly faded, and he murmured as if talking to himself, “You want to be human, you can be human. If you want to be a ghost, you can be a ghost… When you don’t want to be a god, you don’t have to be a god.”

He sighed, “I envy that.”

Long ago, Xie Yun began researching Tai Xu’s divine power, wanting to use it for himself.

Since the Mountain God was not omnipotent, there had to be a way to suppress him.

In the formation, the divine power extracted from Tai Xu was absorbed by Xie Yun, transforming into his own spiritual cultivation.

He closed his eyes to carefully feel it and sighed again, “If only the newly born Mountain God were me.”

With his divine power nearly exhausted, Tai Xu could be easily injured by the dagger. Xie Yun kept him locked up for two days and tied him up.

Tai Xu tried to reason with him, “What you’re doing is meaningless.”

“Of course, it has meaning,” Xie Yun fully revealed his true nature, looking down at him condescendingly, “I want to be a god too.”

He intended to steal Tai Xu’s remaining divine power and then find the new Mountain God.

His strength grew rapidly. Maybe, after he killed the new Mountain God, he would also become a god.

If he couldn’t kill him, he would control him.

Eventually, Tai Xu’s divine power was exhausted.

He had originally planned to fade away after stepping down, not wanting to continue as a human either. But Xie Yun’s actions accelerated this process.

When the last trace of divine power was extracted, Tai Xu closed his eyes and dissolved into the air.

—

After killing Tai Xu, Xie Yun found traces of the Guardian Spirit.

He deliberately spread false information, making others believe that the Ghost King had appeared, and led them to pursue it.

Sensing Tai Xu’s aura on Xie Yun, the Guardian Spirit was furious, roaring that it would tear him apart.

However, Xie Yun had absorbed Tai Xu’s remaining divine power, and there were many Celestial Masters nearby, deceived by the illusion array and attacking it together.

The Guardian Spirit was severely injured and realized it couldn’t win.

Of course, Xie Yun’s condition was only slightly better. The peak power of the Chaos God was even above that of the Mountain God.

Xie Yun was also seriously injured by the Guardian Spirit. When he finally stabilized the situation and the Celestial Masters arrived to support him, the Guardian Spirit had disappeared.

Throughout, he never saw the new Mountain God.

After this battle, Xie Yun was nearly dead, his body unable to recover.

Perhaps due to his strong resentment, he managed to separate half of his soul.

Dark mist surrounded him, and a hoarse voice identical to his own emerged.

Just then, a servant entered to change his medicine. The mist suddenly pounced, biting the servant’s neck and draining his living soul.

Xie Yun felt his power increase again and a smile appeared on his pale face.

“If I can’t be a god…” he gently stroked the swirling mist and whispered, “then I’ll be the strongest ghost.”

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