Chapter 450: Deathtrap

Chh!

The serpentine scepter’s eyes lit up with unearthly red light, then fired a crimson beam, which struck the power sealing the bronze box.

The seal’s power melted like snow and evaporated without a trace.

Then, the lid of the bronze box slowly opened.

Everyone present’s eyes widened. All of them wanted to see what the Demonic Womb looked like as soon as possible.

Dong!!

However, before they could see the bronze box’s contents clearly, a strange rhythm, like the beating of a heavenly drum, reverberated throughout the auction hall.

A series of agonized shrieks followed.

Xiang Yong was closest to the box, so he was the first to suffer. ?This Origin Palace cultivator of the Nine Provinces Pavilion collapsed limply to the ground before he even knew what had hit him.

Nearby cultivators?fell?like waves of wheat beneath a scythe, their faces contorted with agony as they?collapsed, unconscious.

It was just a strange rhythm, but when it rang out, it left the vast majority of the cultivators in attendance shaken and dizzy!

Within their private room.

Huo Yunsheng shook from head to toe, then fell to the ground with a thud.

Zhang Yuntao, Qian Tianlong, Sun Feng, and Ren Youyou grunted in pain, then sank into unconsciousness as well.

Ling Yunhe, Qing Ya, Bai Wenqing, and Yuan Heng suffered the rhythm’s effects too. All of them fainted.

“This…!” Wen Xinzhao struggled to her feet, a hint of agony on her perfect, beautiful face. The moment she tried to stand up, she lost consciousness.

In the last moments before her awareness left her, she saw Su Yi, who was seated beside her, reach towards her, as if to keep her from falling…

Then, everything went black.

A sigh resounded throughout the private room.

“I just knew no one would be stupid enough to auction off a Demonic Womb….” Su Yi held the limp, unconscious Wen Xinzhao in his arms, furrowed his brow, and muttered to himself.

……

“Dammit! Someone used the Demonic Womb to bait a trap!”

In another room, Gu Cangning’s face was hideously contorted, and he was seeing stars.?The rhythm dealt him a serious blow too.

“Run!” The old woman bellowed, and the silver light in her eyes surged. Her aura spread out around her, terrifying beyond limit.

As she spoke, she grabbed Gu Cangning’s shoulder, turned, and charged out of the private room.

Dong!!

The strange rhythm rang out once more, like the roaring of a primordial demon god.

The woman’s head buzzed, and she staggered back, then collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

As for Gu Cangning? He’d already lost consciousness too.

……

“This… What’s going on here?”

The Nirvanic Winds Holy Son’s expression changed dramatically, as if he dared not believe what he was seeing. He felt a chill in his hands and feet.

When the strange rhythm first rang out, he immediately noticed that the woman in black now held a blood-colored, lotus-shaped lamp, one that hadn’t been there before.

The lamp’s crimson light swayed, and mysterious and inscrutable fluctuations emanated from it, neutralizing the power of the strange rhythm.

“You still haven’t figured it out? I just borrowed a bunch of ancient treasures and took advantage of the Spiritbend Assembly to bait my trap.” The woman in black flashed him a charming smile. “Now, it’s time for the harvest.”

The Nirvanic Winds Holy Son gasped. “The Demonic Womb….”

“That’s right! I’m the one who put it up for sale. Without such a treasure acting as bait, how could I catch Wen Xinzhao alive so easily? And how could I help you eliminate that Su Yi?”

The woman’s lips were red as fire, charming and enticing, and her beautiful eyes shone with utter confidence and composure. “Go bring Wen Xinzhao back.”

As she spoke, he raised her blood-red lotus lantern and walked out of their private room.

“Where are you going?” The Nirvanic Winds Holy Son couldn’t help but ask.

“Naturally, I'm going to reseal the Demonic Womb.” She didn’t so much as turn her head to look at him. She sighed, “Although this operation went smoothly, I paid an enormous price to borrow the Demonic Womb’s power… Forget it, even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand…”

Waves of shock coursed through the Nirvanic?Winds?Holy Son’s heart.?This woman sure hid herself awfully deeply!

Without any further delays, he got to work.

On his way, he saw that all the cultivators in attendance were unconscious and helpless as lambs to the slaughter; they didn’t react to his presence at all.

He paid them no need and hurried to the private room where Su Yi and his companions were.

When he pushed open the door and entered, he saw that the Cloudsky Divine Palace members were similarly sprawled out all over the floor.

“You really are unseemly.” The Nirvanic?Winds?Holy Son let out a cold, disdainful laugh. He looked around, then saw the reclining Su Yi, as well as Wen Xinzhao, who was still in his arms.

“Tch, this Wen Xinzhao really is a peerless beauty, no different from an immortal or a fairy. If I could use her as a furnace for dual cultivation, it would bring utter ecstasy.”

He felt a fire burn in his chest, and he couldn’t help but lick his lips.

Wen Xinzhao’s beauty was enough to topple a crowd, yet now, this peerless beauty lay limply in Su Yi’s arms, completely unconscious.

Any man would find it difficult to control themselves upon seeing this.

The Nirvanic Winds Holy Son took a deep breath and suppressed the fire burning within him.

The woman in black said that they had to capture Wen Xinzhao alive. In the past, the Nirvanic?Winds?Holy Son might not have cared.

However, after everything he’d just witnessed, he was afraid of her. He naturally dared not act recklessly.

“What a pity that such a peerlessly beautiful woman will fall into Jade Angelica’s hands. How will she be any different from helpless prey then?” The Nirvanic Winds Holy Son sighed, then walked up to her.

When his gaze landed on Su Yi, he almost couldn’t suppress his hatred.

“Su Yi,?we meet?again. Alas, you’re unconscious, and you cannot watch what’s about to happen to you. It’s truly a pity.” The Holy Son sighed, then laughed. “But rest assured; I won’t let you die blissfully unaware. No, I’ll use your body to refine a corpse puppet.

“Then, I’ll use your soul to refine a Netherworld Lantern, leaving you unable to either live or die. You’ll be helpless to do anything but watch as your soul gradually transforms into lamp oil, and you’ll be one with the Netherworld Lantern forever.”

The Nirvanic?Winds?Holy Son seemed incomparably smug and gleeful.

But it was then that Su Yi, who’d been facing away from him the entire time, turned to look at him. “Is that so?”

It was just three light, airy words, but they went off like a sudden crack of thunder, startling the Holy Son so badly that his scalp numbed and he almost jumped.

His eyes widened, and he couldn’t help but blurt, “You… You… Why are you still conscious?”

Su Yi turned the rest of his body around, supporting the unconscious Wen Xinzhao by the waist as he said, “If I weren’t conscious, how could I possibly have learned how much you hated me, you whipped dog?”

Whoosh!

The Nirvanic?Winds?Holy Son turned tail and fled.

He was scared. He’d gone into this thinking that Su Yi was already helpless prey. Who’d have thought Su Yi wasn’t influenced in the least?

When he thought about Su Yi’s terrifying combat prowess, how could he possibly dare stay?

“Die!” said Su Yi. His eyes shone with incomparably sharp blue light.

Whoosh!

Strangely, it was as if Su Yi’s forehead split apart, and a streak of glittering blue radiance shot forth. It condensed in midair, forming an incomparably condensed little blue sword.

It was only about an inch long, and it looked almost formless and illusory. Its surface was covered in densely-packed, inscrutable Dao markings.

The Divine Slaughter Sword!

He’d condensed it through the power of the One Strike Divine Slaughter Incantation.

After reaching the Grain Avoidance Realm, the terrifying power of Su Yi’s soul was enough to contend with Spiritual Manifestation cultivations. Through the tempering of the Universal Self-Embodiment Sutra, his divine sense had grown incomparably pure and condensed.

The Divine Slaughter Sword was originally designed to target the souls of Origin Dao cultivators. How could the Nirvanic Winds Holy Son possibly block it?

The Nirvanic?Winds?Holy Son had only just fled through the doors to the private room when his body went rigid and he felt a rending pain in his soul. He fell to the floor with a thud, his hands on his head as he convulsed, almost as if he were having a seizure.

He gasped for breath, and in just a few blinks of the eye, his legs gave out beneath him.

He was dead.

His handsome features were hideously contorted, with pain, bewilderment, and bitterness written all over his face…

This monster of the ancient era would never have guessed that he’d survive the thirty thousand years of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness, only to die at the hands of a young Grain Avoidance cultivator...

It was easy to imagine how unwilling he was.

Su Yi rose, then placed Wen Xinzhao in his wicker chair.

When he saw her painted eyebrows knit together in agony, he instinctively reached out to smooth out her forehead.

“You look best this way. Just consider this a nice nap.” Su Yi laughed soundlessly, put his hands behind his back, then turned and left the private room.

……

Meanwhile, on the jade platform.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

Yet another wave of strange, rhythmic sounds suddenly resounded from within the bronze box. It seemed the living thing within was eager to emerge, and it was emanating an increasingly terrifying and unearthly aura.

The woman in black looked solemn. She raised her blood-colored lotus lantern to neutralize the effects of the rhythm.

Her hands formed a seal, and her mouth muttered obscure, ancient syllables. She chanted, seemingly in an attempt to communicate with the Demonic Womb within the bronze box.

Upon closer inspection, her brow and temples were drenched with sweat, and her expression was increasingly grave.

Moments later, she coughed up a mouthful of blood, and her delicate frame wobbled.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

To her relief, the Demonic Womb within the bronze box finally returned to its former stillness, and?its?terrifying, unearthly aura receded like the tide.

Even that strange rhythm disappeared.

She hurriedly took out a black talisman and used it to reseal the bronze box. Then, she formed a hand seal and gently tapped the talisman.

Chhhh!

The black talisman transformed into the strange lines of a restriction array and melted into the bronze box’s surface.

Only then did the woman in black let out a long, turbid breath. She raised her hand to wipe the sweat from her brow, then muttered, “Your Eminence, please endure just a little longer. The Radiant Epoch is not yet upon us, and it’s yet not the best time for you to come out….”

Suddenly, a calm voice said, “With your Ghost Serpent lineage’s Xuanmu Stabilizing Talisman, you’ll be able to seal the Demonic Womb another three months at most. When the time comes, no number of talismans will be enough to suppress the Demonic Womb’s power.”

The woman in black instantly stiffened up, then whirled around, only to see a young man blue. He looked calm and detached, and he was walking right toward her.

“It’s you!?” The black-dressed woman’s expression shifted erratically, but then, she flashed him a charming smile. “So, Young Lord Su, you recognize the Xuanmu Stabilizing talisman?”

As she spoke, the crimson lotus lantern in her hands turned. She faced the approaching Su Yi, and waves of aura silently expanded around her curvaceous, slender frame.

She might have looked like she was smiling, but in truth, she was preparing to face a mighty foe!