Chapter 157: Meng Ziyi

The voice was like the chiming of silver bells, casual and light. Hearing it was enough to make one picture a young maiden chuckling softly in playful mockery.

The dark clouds in the sky receded, and Shebi appeared once more, his expression still rigid and lifeless, the aura of death in his eyes as tangible as substance. He looked around his surroundings, then suddenly struck out toward an empty space high up in the ninth heaven.

The void shuddered, a massive whirlpool forming like water as layer upon layer of ripples spread outward. Yet, nothing was there at the spot he attacked. Immediately after, another soft chuckle echoed, and following that, a snow-white precipice faintly materialized in another corner of the highest heavens.

When Shebi saw that white, mist-shrouded, pristine cliff slowly emerging in the high heavens, the dead light in his eyes flared violently. His form twitched slightly, but he stopped himself, speaking in a cold and rigid tone, "So it is you. You actually dare to show yourself."

Within the void, a pristine precipice floated unsteadily like a reflection in water. At least half of the snowy cliff was shrouded in white mist, and looking deeper into it, it seemed as though endless worlds were hidden within the rolling vapors.

Seated upon the immaculate cliff was a maiden dressed in purple, her head tilted slightly and leaning against one shoulder. Supporting herself with both hands behind her, she leaned back leisurely. A pair of flower-embroidered shoes edged with golden thread dangled off the edge of the cliff, swinging back and forth in relaxed contentment. The snowy cliff itself was remarkably smooth, and beneath the shroud of mist, three blood-red, arcane characters seemed to be inscribed upon its surface.

She let out a soft laugh and said, "Why would I not dare to appear? Aren't both you Wu and the Heavenly Court trying to force me out? Now that I am here, I would like to see what you can possibly do to me. Even if all twelve Ancestral Wu came together, and Dijun and Taiyi arrived in person, what could they do to me?"

Her crisp voice and relaxed tone delivered words of earth-shattering magnitude. The most supreme existences between heaven and earth were spoken of by her as if they were mere mountain demon kings, devoid of the slightest shred of reverence.

Naturally, this was Meng Ziyi. Nan Luo's hair was somewhat disheveled, and the Green Hue Sword in his hand was gripped tightly, trembling incessantly. He was utterly astonished by Meng Ziyi's appearance. He still remembered the first time he saw her, when she was in that valley and he had carried her all the way using the Law Manifests as Heaven and Earth ability. Later, during his battle with the Mosquito Taoist, she had suddenly appeared to save him once, only to vanish for many years. When they met again, she had been hunted across billions of miles by that same Mosquito Taoist, nearly losing her life.

What left the deepest impression on Nan Luo was that smile of hers, with her eyes curved into crescent moons. It was infectious, causing one's mood to inexplicably lighten. He still remembered when they were in Luoling Mountain, one of her arms was pitch black, and foul-smelling black blood constantly oozed from the wound on her shoulder. Yet, upon seeing Nan Luo, her smile had remained unchanged, her eyes curving into crescent moons as she laughed.

He had never imagined that when Meng Ziyi, the one who had rescued him from the Taiyin Stele, appeared once more, her bravado would be so immense. When she left the Mountain of a Thousand Turns and Ten Thousand Miseries before, it was to hide from the great divine beings of heaven and earth. Yet now, she was casually proclaiming that even if all twelve Ancestral Wu gathered and Dijun and Taiyi came in person, they could do nothing to her. Looking at her nonchalance beneath that light smile, the heavy burden of being trapped in a cage inexplicably lifted quite a bit.

The Samsara Pen had vanished once again, seeming utterly confident in this painted prison, harboring no fear that Nan Luo might escape.

Just as Meng Ziyi finished speaking with that light chuckle, Shebi's aura surged violently, the energy of death rushing into the clouds to form a blanket of grey mist. Before he could strike, however, a pitch-black pen appeared directly above the void where Meng Ziyi resided.

The pen moved like a dragon or a snake, sketching a dark blade into the void. Immediately afterward, the Samsara Pen merged completely with that black blade, slashing directly toward Meng Ziyi. The void remained silent, devoid of any earth-shattering momentum, like a knife slicing gently through the surface of water.

The trajectory of the blade was erratic and bizarre, leaving no trace to follow. Yet Meng Ziyi simply looked at Nan Luo, chuckling softly with her eyes curved into crescent moons, as if silently mocking him for being ambushed yet again and calling him an utter fool.

Nan Luo was alarmed, blurting out, "Be careful! That Samsara Pen is dangerous!"

Even as the words left his mouth, the black blade, fused with the Samsara Pen, had already passed right through Meng Ziyi. By the time his voice trailed off, the blade had pierced all the way through, seemingly unable to check its momentum, and slashed into a distant snow-capped mountain. In absolute silence, the snow mountain was cleaved cleanly in two. Perhaps years later, amidst some violent rainstorm, it would finally collapse with a deafening roar.

Shebi moved, taking a single step that brought him right before Meng Ziyi. His fist was like a mountain peak, capable of splitting mountains and shattering earth, carrying an aura of absolute death as he struck toward her. Yet Meng Ziyi merely laughed in her crisp voice, "How could this possibly touch me?" Without casting another glance at Shebi, she extended her delicate white hand, swept it across the void, and vanished instantly.

Suddenly, a chill gripped Nan Luo's body. Looking up, he saw petals of snow drifting down from the high sky, while close by in the nearby void, a flash of purple robes faded into nothingness.

High above in the heavens beyond the nine firmaments, the void rippled, and the white precipice manifested once more. Meng Ziyi was still seated on the edge of the snowy cliff, though she now looked slightly disgruntled, her lips pouting as she glared at the snow falling from the sky.

She suddenly called out toward the upper heavens, "How truly annoying..." Then, turning her gaze back to Nan Luo with a beaming smile, she said, "If not for that ice woman, I would have already rescued you." At that moment, she was still shrouded within the falling snowflakes of the high heavens. Upon hearing this, Nan Luo assumed she was wary of Xuanming's snow, and hurriedly warned her that the snowflakes were about to land on her.

Meng Ziyi chuckled, "It doesn't matter. In this state of mine, they cannot attack me at all... Only when I am in the process of saving you do I leave an opening for them to pursue and injure me. What a pity that the ice woman actually figured this out."

Hearing this, Nan Luo finally understood. She was not afraid of Xuanming's power; rather, the act of rescuing him was the sole vulnerability that left her exposed to attack. Right now, she existed as if in another plane of reality, transcending the heavens and earth, as if completely untethered from this world entirely.

He recalled that year in Luoling Mountain, when she set up a formation to communicate with the Mountain of a Thousand Turns and Ten Thousand Miseries, she had mentioned that many people were searching for her and had already discovered her. She had also spoken of the wheel of reincarnation between heaven and earth being thrown into disorder. Why, then, had she suddenly appeared now?

*Rescuing himself?*

When this thought first crossed Nan Luo's mind, he paid it little heed. But once the idea rolled over in his consciousness, a wave of profound shock washed over him! A great tremor shook his heart as he thought darkly: *If she truly came to rescue me, could the fact that I fell into such a perilous trap actually be the result of someone's deliberate calculation?*

*Could everything have been staged just to lure her out? Was it all meant for her?*

With this realization, he no longer had time to piece everything together in an orderly fashion. He opened his mouth and shouted, urging Meng Ziyi to flee quickly, while rapidly blurting out his own conjecture.

As Nan Luo shouted at the top of his lungs, Meng Ziyi merely swung her gold-threaded floral shoes and chuckled lightly, "You've only just realized? You really are quite foolish..."

Mid-sentence, her expression suddenly shifted. She looked up toward the empty space to her side, only to see that the Samsara Pen had somehow drawn a circle within a radius of a thousand miles. The circle was as black as ink, and the moment it formed, it felt as though that vast expanse of space had been entirely excised and isolated from heaven and earth.

The instant Meng Ziyi saw the black circle complete its formation, she swiftly patted the snowy precipice beneath her and vanished in a flash. Nan Luo watched intently. From his perspective, these three Ancestral Wu had likely been waiting specifically for Meng Ziyi's appearance. Now that she had shown herself, they certainly would not let her slip away so easily.

Right at that moment, high up in the ninth heaven, the Mountain of a Thousand Turns and Ten Thousand Miseries suddenly materialized right at the edge of the black circle. Nan Luo could tell that she was attempting to escape, but failed to break through.

A sudden jolt of alarm struck Nan Luo's heart. *The Wu clan specifically set this trap to lure her out. This formation must have been prepared long ago...*

Before his thoughts could fully settle, a cold, hard voice echoed in his ears: "Wind... arise..."

A fierce gale suddenly whipped up, howling bitterly.

"Rain... fall..."

A torrential downpour poured down, every single drop as heavy as a mountain, every single point capable of stripping away a soul.

The divine ability Shebi had displayed earlier was merely a light breeze, yet it had nearly cost Nan Luo his life without him even realizing it. This time, however, the wind howled furiously. Though it lacked the element of surprise and the silent, eerie subtlety of before, its sheer destructive power had multiplied manifold.

The moment Shebi's voice rang out, Nan Luo transformed his sword into a silver river, merging his entire being within it. Even so, he could only manage to protect himself, utterly incapable of launching a breakthrough, remaining trapped in the cage as if resigned to his fate.

This was the second time he had been locked inside a cage, and the third time he had been trapped. The first time, at Cangmang Cliff, he would rather have died than lose his freedom or live in such a manner. The second time he was trapped, he had been willing to risk having his soul scattered to the winds just to abandon half of his spirit. Yet this third time, an abnormal, profound silence enveloped him.

The wild wind roared, rain as heavy as mountains dropped relentlessly, and snowflakes capable of freezing the human soul fluttered in absolute stillness, entirely unaffected by the wind and rain. Beyond the nine heavens, the pitch-black Samsara Pen traced arcane and unpredictable runes across the void, each one vanishing into thin air the moment it was formed.

*(PS: Seeking collections, seeking red tickets...)*