Jin Heyi had previously set up a Great Formation of Corpse Refinement and refined a dao immortal into a zombie, yet he still said he couldn’t afford to provoke the six princes. It wasn’t that he couldn’t defeat them, they simply came from much more impressive backgrounds, making it unwise to offend them.
Jiangchen Wushang’s skeletal fortress s.h.i.+p was a heaven-defying treasure, half vessel and half zombie, and capable of withstanding even shots from a weapon of war. However, it’d been crushed by the Deaf Prince’s crystal mountain on Levitating Island.
The crystal mountain was but one of the treasures the Deaf Prince possessed; the East Sea court wasn’t going to let the apple of their eye head out from home without a plethora of powerful treasures to protect himself with. What the court gave him, he could naturally activate. Even Jin Heyi couldn’t afford to make the Deaf Prince his enemy, let alone an immortal ghost.
Golden light radiated from the Deaf Prince’s body, scattering all of the dark yin energy in the water. The floating corpses disappeared, leaving behind only the immortal ghost clinging to the Deaf Prince.
It shrieked with pain, looking around in terror as it struggled to get off the prince. However, there was something unusual about the golden light. It seemed to be a ghost’s natural bane, and this particular ghost was nowhere near as powerful as Yueshen. No matter how the immortal ghost struggled, it couldn’t break free, and it gradually faded out of existence.
Yueshen was Yueshen Jixiang, one of the twenty-four divine kings, reborn out of the Ninefilia Specter Fostering method. She was so powerful that if she wanted to hide herself, only Lu Yun would be able to see her. In contrast, this immortal ghost was visible to everyone, including Qing Han, Lu Yun, and the little fox.
“That’s for your att.i.tude, you little piece of s.h.i.+t!” sneered the Deaf Prince. The golden light around him thickened as the faint shadow of golden armor manifested on him. Its luminescence caused the immortal ghost to grow fainter, until it was on the verge of dissipating.
“Wait, Your Highness!” Lu Yun transmitted.
“Oh?” The Deaf Prince turned to Lu Yun, the golden light emitted from his armor dimming. “Do you want the little ghost, senior brother Lu?”
“The real tomb is very dangerous. Since the immortal ghost was born here, it’s the perfect guide.” With a wave of his hand and a black twinkle of h.e.l.lfire, Lu Yun called the ghost from the Deaf Prince.
The yin energy in the water had been scattered and the independent ecosystem broken. Sensing Lu Yun’s terrifying power, the immortal ghost looked at him with pain and resignation.
Here, yin and yang were in disarray, and heaven and earth were reversed. Even Lu Yun couldn’t make the right call himself. The immortal ghost, however, proved to him that they’d entered the real tomb. This was a water tomb!
The Deaf Prince’s armor had cleared the area within half a kilometer, but outside, it was still pitch black. Strange shadows hinted at unknown terrors. The corpses floating about had formed a natural corpse formation to defend the tomb owner.
“Who were you, and where is the tomb owner?” Lu Yun turned to the immortal ghost and channeled some of h.e.l.l’s energy, his eyes blazing with black flames.
Unlike Yueshen, who’d been made into an immortal ghost and had her memory erased, this woman had become an immortal ghost through natural processes, so her memories were still intact.
“This… this servant is milady’s maid!” The ghost grew even more translucent under Lu Yun’s flame.
“No s.h.i.+t you’re your lady’s maid,” Lu Yun frowned, “tell me something useful.”
The immortal ghost was terrified out of her remaining wits. She’d first been injured by the Deaf Prince’s golden light, then the h.e.l.lfire. Her spirit wobbled so unsteadily that it almost scattered.
“Let me,” Yueshen said suddenly. “Send her in.”
Lu Yun nodded. Yueshen was an immortal ghost as well, and a powerful one at that.
Once her master sent the ghost to h.e.l.l, Yueshen waved her fingers to sooth the ghost’s fracturing soul. h.e.l.lfire hadn’t hurt her; it was the Deaf Prince’s golden light that had done the damage.
“Her name is Tinglan and she served Doctor Poison Su Xiaoxiao herself. She doesn’t know where her mistress was buried. She was only born and drawn here because someone uttered Su Xiaoxiao’s name.” After a pause, Yueshen continued, “After Su Xiaoxiao’s death, Tinglan volunteered to be buried with her mistress and committed suicide within the tomb. That was before the great war of immortals. Su Xiaoxiao’s final resting place wasn’t on Levitating Island, nor was it in the monster spirits’ sacred land. Someone moved her here later.”
Lu Yun nodded.
“Be careful, though. There’s another immortal ghost here who is several times more terrifying than Tinglan.” Yueshen’s tone grew serious. “The doctor of poison was a master of both medicine and poison, and her maids had learned a thing or two from her.
“Tinglan knows medicine, while Guanqing, the other maid buried here, acquired her mastery of poison! If Guanqing has turned into an immortal ghost as well, she will be an immortal ghost, enveloped by poisonous gas. That makes her even more dangerous than a vicious ghost.”
“Guanqing....” Lu Yun looked down at the luopan in his hand. “Here lie the tombs of yin and yang. If Guanqing has become an immortal ghost, she should be in the fake tomb! I get it now. There’s two tombs because of the tomb owner’s two maids!” Realization dawned on Lu Yun.
Su Xiaoxiao’s maids had volunteered to be her burial goods and committed suicide as their final duty. Their obsessions had turned them into something akin to tomb keepers, guarding their mistress’ outer-coffin.
Due to the influence of the two maids, there emerged a layout of two tombs to protect their mistress. The real tomb was guarded by Tinglan, while Guanqing had entered the fake tomb. Once someone violated a taboo, Granqing would turn into an immortal ghost and kill anyone who entered the fake tomb.
The two maids had been peerless immortals before committing suicide, and they were highly determined. That had allowed them to become one with the tomb and facilitate its evolution.
In other words, they’d become immortal ghosts out of loyalty to their mistress. Naturally, they wouldn’t remember where Su Xiaoxiao’s coffin was; they’d erased that memory themselves.