Chapter 101: The Return of the Undead

Ning Changjiu looked at the alluring woman, coiled like a crimson spider within the vast bone prison. He took a defensive stance with his sword, not daring to attack rashly.

"Why didn't you kill us directly that day?" Ning Changjiu asked.

This bone demoness had at least a Longevity realm cultivation. Now, as the death qi from Linhe City slowly permeated the area, her cultivation was steadily rising. Soon, she would break through the barrier between the Longevity and Violet Palace realms. Given that she had definitely reached the Violet Palace realm before, it was impossible that she was currently imprisoned by a Heart Demon Tribulation from that realm.

Madam Bai smiled alluringly and said, "I followed Ning Qinshui all the way to the Imperial City. I lingered outside the city gate for a long time, mustering up great courage before finally entering. Since I got what I wanted, I saw no harm in letting you live. It's just a coincidence that we met again here. With countless paths available, you chose to walk straight into a dead end."

Ning Changjiu then asked, "What did you take?"

Madam Bai smiled slightly. "Every word I say to you is a gift. How can you be so ungrateful, young man, daring to ask so many questions? Do you truly think this elder sister has a good temper?"

Ning Changjiu remained unfazed and continued, "Then have you considered that none of this might be a coincidence?"

Madam Bai's expression grew colder. The silken charm in her eyes when she looked at the young girl faded, replaced by an eerie, corrosive Netherworld qi that threatened to rot anything it touched.

She was willing to play along with the siblings largely because she was suspicious of their appearance. Ning Qinshui's sudden departure for the Imperial City had been too coincidental, and his two disciples' return from the dead was too bizarre. At the time, she hadn't thought much of it; for her grand scheme today, she had withdrawn from the Imperial City after that night. But now, encountering the siblings again at this particular moment, she began to wonder if it was truly fate.

So, she had been probing, trying to discover if there were intricate, hidden connections behind them.

Madam Bai said, "If you know something, you may speak. If you can satisfy me, I can let one of you live."

Ning Changjiu said, "I do know some secrets, but I don't know if they are what you're looking for."

Madam Bai's apricot-shaped eyes flickered slightly as she smiled and said, "Tell me?"

Ning Changjiu calmly replied, "First, get us out of the city."

Madam Bai merely chuckled. "Are you scared senseless, or do you take me for a fool? Hehehe, it doesn't matter whether you speak or not. I'll just seize your soul and question it."

At the end of her originally melodious tone, her voice suddenly sharpened. Death qi, like a downpour of pear blossoms, enveloped the area, and from its piercing, chiseling aura, an extremely long arm of white bone sliced through the air like a blade.

Ning Changjiu had anticipated this and was already moving. Ning Xiaoling, also fully focused, gracefully evaded the opponent's attacks like a true spirit fox. She even had enough energy to sweep her sword horizontally, cleansing the ground with a rainbow light, killing the nail-like corpse shadows surrounding them.

Madam Bai ignored Ning Xiaoling's counterattack. Her dark eyes were fixed on Ning Changjiu's position. Just as Ning Changjiu leaped again to dodge a powerful thrust, another bone claw suddenly struck, precisely predicting his landing spot in mid-air and tearing towards his chest.

Ning Changjiu was airborne. As the sharp claw approached, he parried and swept his long sword, cleaving the deadly bone. As he fell, he stepped onto another bone arm attacking from below, then leaped again, landing on another white, snake-like bone arm. He swung his long sword left and right, moving nimbly, slicing the haphazardly woven bones into fragments one by one. His feet never stopped, treading on one of the bone arms,

as if using it as a staircase, rushing towards Madam Bai, narrowing the distance between them.

"Heh, walking straight into a trap," Madam Bai sneered. Beneath her voluminous skirt, eerie white bone arms rose like towering waves.

The bone arm Ning Changjiu was standing on suddenly collapsed, dragging his body down with it. Hundreds of bone blades were suspended high above, all aimed at Ning Changjiu, ready to strike like a volley of arrows.

Ning Changjiu's decision took but an instant. As the first bone blade descended, he took a step back, then immediately abandoned his offense, retreating dozens of steps, deftly dodging the bone blades' fierce assault.

Seeing her senior brother's disadvantage, Ning Xiaoling, after sweeping away a corpse shadow with her sword light, tossed her long sword. Like a freely flying sword from a cloud terrace, it soared towards the bone arms entangling Ning Changjiu.

Madam Bai gave a cold smile. The moment the young girl's long sword left her hand, her bones surged forward like snake eels.

Ning Xiaoling was startled and forced to retreat. She could only half-heartedly control her flying sword, which promptly fell to the ground, pinned by one of Madam Bai's bone fragments.

Ning Changjiu's cultivation realm was simply too low. Even with his agile footwork allowing him to dodge countless attacks, his injuries grew increasingly severe. His white robes were torn in many places, with blood seeping through. These injuries hindered his movements, and in the subsequent bone blade ambushes, he narrowly avoided death, constantly facing perilous situations.

Madam Bai tilted her head back, gazing at the increasingly vivid blood-red crescent moon. The crescent grew fuller, slowly expanding, and would soon become a full moon, following the same trajectory as the true moon, obscuring its pure moonlight and allowing the eyes of the Netherworld to gaze upon the human realm.

By then, any notion of fate would be irrelevant; she would be the master of the Netherworld, she would be fate itself!

A persistent irritation lingered in her heart that she couldn't swiftly kill Ning Changjiu. "Has my cultivation declined this much?" she wondered.

Her eyes slightly closed, and an image of a repulsive and chilling face with a pointed mouth and monkey-like cheeks involuntarily appeared in her mind.

"I wonder if you're dead or not..." Madam Bai's lips curved into a smile, and her murderous intent suddenly surged to its peak.

Her figure suddenly ascended, bathed in the light of the red moon. A colossal body, pieced together from tens of thousands of white bones, rose from the ground like a towering building.

"Since you're so good at escaping, I'll start with your junior sister."

Swish, swish, swish!

Three jagged bone arms stabbed downwards, piercing the ground and shattering boulders. Ning Xiaoling felt the suffocating chill approaching, like needles pricking her back. Relying on her spirit fox's instincts, she repeatedly dodged the three bone arms. However, her movements were much slower than Ning Changjiu's, and it wouldn't be long before the bone demoness would strike her down, gravely injuring her or killing her.

Ning Changjiu gained a moment to catch his breath. When he paused, everything around him was completely blocked by white bones, like a well constructed entirely of bones. Only at the very top was an opening for the moonlight to shine through, and there, Madam Bai stood suspended, blocking their last escape route.

Under the overwhelming power of her realm, Ning Changjiu's flashy Taoist techniques, sword arts, and formations were almost useless.

After Ning Changjiu had taken his stand, he gathered his power for just a moment, then his body, along with his long sword, shot up, piercing towards Madam Bai like a moth drawn to a flame.

Madam Bai knew well that this single sword strike could never kill her; it was more like a desperate, final stand from a reckless pugilist.

Had he run out of tricks? Madam Bai thought coldly, yet her expression showed no sign of relaxation.

Indeed... Madam Bai's red lips curled like a flower petal along the banks of the Netherworld River. She could clearly see that the young man's attacking sword was merely a feint. The true killing blow was hidden behind it: a sword intent as rough as sand.

That sword intent was identical to the one Ning Xiaoling had used to ambush her earlier, indicating it was a protective sword intent from the same school.

Madam Bai had anticipated this. Dozens of bone hands simultaneously formed seals, condensing Netherworld qi into an iron cage that surrounded the sword intent like a bird in a cage. On the other side, nearly a hundred massive bones condensed into a single giant palm, stirring up a monstrous Yin wind as it slammed down towards his head.

Just as victory seemed certain, Madam Bai suddenly shuddered. A white shadow flashed before her eyes.

In a swift blur, the red moon's color seemed to deepen... No, that was blood, blood overflowing from her eyes. Just as she was fully focused on killing Ning Changjiu, an incredibly agile snow fox had darted past unseen, its sharp claws striking at her eyes.

The snow fox struck and retreated instantly.

It was momentary blindness.

Madam Bai knew they couldn't escape her bone prison, but the brief darkness before her eyes brought a deep sense of crisis.

Under the giant bone palm, Ning Changjiu was slammed hard. He let out a pained groan, but the sword in his hand ignited with an unprecedentedly bright flame. Using the impact force of Madam Bai's palm, he was flung like a rapidly thrown sandbag towards the wall of the bone prison.

Like hundreds of bamboo stalks snapping at once, a cracking sound instantly erupted. Mid-air, Ning Changjiu and Ning Xiaoling exchanged glances, both understanding.

The snow fox transformed into starlight and re-entered her body. If its cultivation hadn't been so severely suppressed, it could have even gouged out Madam Bai's eyeballs just now.

But within this Underworld, even if all of Madam Bai's bones were shattered, she could reassemble herself completely.

Her pupils repaired themselves at an incredibly fast pace. As her vision returned, she saw Ning Changjiu and Ning Xiaoling escaping through the broken bone wall.

This should have been a futile effort, but after the siblings' figures vanished, she genuinely couldn't detect their aura. She could only sense a faint, ethereal ripple within the city.

In such a short time, Ning Changjiu and Ning Xiaoling naturally couldn't have gone far, yet they had vanished from Madam Bai's perception.

The moment they exited the bone prison, both understood instinctively and simultaneously activated the "Daoist Breath Concealment Art."

Almost all their auras were completely concealed, leaving only a faint, innate vital ripple, like a cicada dormant in autumn.

Madam Bai sighed softly.

"So many tricks."

She no longer had time to play with them.

Madam Bai's lower abdomen split open, and a hand, lustrous as white jade, gently emerged. Its fingers, like orchid petals, lifted the green porcelain bottle, then crushed it instantly. The woman murmured with a sigh, "I can only release you sooner."

Inside this green porcelain bottle was the soul she had nurtured, the very item she had risked infiltrating the Imperial City to obtain.

The green porcelain bottle shattered, and a shadowy spirit drifted out, slowly gathering into a human form.

Soon after, Ning Changjiu and Ning Xiaoling's hidden figures would be exposed once more, and they would be horrified to discover that the truly persistent evil spirit, the one who broke their Daoist Breath Concealment Art, was none other than the lingering spirit of their former master—Ning Qinshui.