A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Immortal Realm

Chapter 975: An Act

The two of them landed on the surface of the lake beside the crystal coffin, and faint ripples were spreading over the surface of the lake beneath their feet.

A series of mixed emotions flashed through Sha Xin's eyes as she gazed upon the set of remains inside the crystal coffin, and she took a deep breath, then said, "Please lend me your blood essence, Fellow Daoist Shi. Rest assured, I'll be sure to follow through on the promise that I made to you."

Shi Zhanfeng nodded in response, then swiped his sword over the palm of his own hand to create a gash, out of which blood that was tinged with faint hints of golden light began to flow.

Sha Xin immediately pulled a Star Wave Pen out of a pocket in her sleeve, and after dipping the tip of the pen into Shi Zhanfeng's blood essence, she began to make a series of inscriptions onto the surface of the crystal coffin.

The lines of blood essence flowing out of the pen quickly came together to form a crimson array that encompassed the entire coffin, fusing as one with the existing complex pentagram diagram on the coffin.

The coffin began to glow with radiant red light while also trembling violently, causing the entire lake to ripple and churn.

A layer of blood rose up from the lake like a living creature, encompassing the entire coffin to form a giant crimson cocoon.

A resounding boom rang out as E Kuai unleashed another almighty attack against his restraints, and the array around him was able to withstand his attack once again, but the cracks on the bodies of the armored puppets also increased further in size and number as a result.

A faint crack rang out, and a crack appeared on each of the twelve stones on the array plate in front of Xiao Zi as well.

At the same time, her body shuddered violently, and her complexion had turned deathly pale beneath the veil of her bamboo hat.

A concerned look appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this, and he didn't know how to proceed.

If he were to intervene now, there was a very good chance that he could be targeted by both E Kuai and Sha Xin. On top of that, if he were to rush in recklessly, there was also a chance that he would only hinder Xiao Zi rather than help her.

At this point, he was mostly convinced that this Xiao Zi was indeed Violet Spirit, but this was clearly not the right time and place for a reunion.

Right at his moment, a dull thump suddenly rang out from the crystal coffin, and the cocoon of blood around it flowed back into the lake to reveal the holy remains.

Strangely enough, the crystal coffin had completely disappeared, leaving behind only a crimson crystalline slab that was floating on the lake of blood with the holy remains laying on top.

The unveiling of the holy remains wasn't accompanied by any astonishing phenomena, as one would perhaps expect. In fact, it wasn't even giving off any formidable energy fluctuations ,and it appeared no different from an ordinary body.

However, Han Li could see that the crystalline slab beneath the body was riddled with extremely profound runes, most of which he had never seen before. Thankfully, the small portion of runes that he was able to identify were enough to tell him that the purpose of the crystalline slab was to suppress the body's bloodline power.

An urgent look appeared in E Kuai's eyes as he stared intently at the holy remains through the ball of lightning around him, and he began lashing out at the surrounding array once again.

Meanwhile, Sha Xin made a hand seal while chanting an incantation, then gently laid a hand over her own lower abdomen.

A burst of radiant white light instantly appeared over her lower abdomen, and a string of mechanical clicks rang out from what appeared to be her flesh, following which her fair skin spread outward like a blooming lotus flower.

She's modified herself into a puppet!

Han Li was very surprised to see this.

After her lower abdomen split open, a burst of dazzling crimson light erupted out of the opening, and everyone around the lake of blood with the exceptions of Sha Xin and E Kuai were stunned to see that there was a beating heart contained within a crystal ball inside the crimson light.

Not only was the disembodied heart beating vigorously, Han Li could hear the sound of its beating all the way from the other side of the lake.

At the same time, the heart was releasing tremendous life energy, and after the heart was revealed, the opening in Sha Xin's lower abdomen slowly closed again.

However, her aura had become noticeably more feeble, while her complexion had also turned very pale, and it was as if she had suddenly been sapped of half her strength.

"So you've been keeping that heart inside your body this entire time, yet you haven't dared to take anything from it! No wonder your cultivation base has only been regressing over the years. What a complete and utter fool you are!" E Kuai chortled with mirth.

Sha Xin paid no heed to him as she quickly devoured a beast core, then cradled the crystal ball with both hands as white light began to radiate from her palms, commencing the process required to free the heart from its seal.

Right at this moment, a muffled groan suddenly escaped her lips as the tip of a sword came protruding out of her chest, piercing straight through her heart in the process.

Half of her body instantly became drenched in her own blood, which Shi Zhanfeng twisted the hilt of his sword viciously, upon which a tearing sound rang out from within Sha Xin's chest.

Sha Xin threw up a mouthful of blood, then swung around to swing a hand at Shi Zhanfeng's head.

However, Shi Zhanfeng had already released his bone sword, and all of the profound acupoints lit up over his body, elevating his speed to an extraordinary level as he slid past Sha Xin before driving a bone dagger into her lower abdomen.

At the same time, he abruptly sprang up and grabbed the crystal ball out of Sha Xin's hand, then retreated to the other side of the lake of blood in the blink of an eye.

At the same time, a resounding boom rang out, and a vast expanse of silver lightning erupted in all directions, causing the entire underground space to tremble violently.

Interspersed throughout the silver lightning were countless shattered bone fragments that pierced a myriad of holes into the surrounding mountain faces and the ceiling above.

Han Li hurriedly ducked down right before one of the bone fragments sliced off the top of the large rock that he was hiding behind.

The array of bone chains had finally been broken by E Kuai, and the twelve armored puppets exploded amid an eruption of white light.

The twelve white stones also exploded, while the black array plate was shattered into pieces. As a result, Xiao Zi was struck by immense backlash that sent her flying back through the air while blood came gushing out of her mouth.

After freeing himself from the array, E Kuai took a glance at Sha Xin, then turned to Shi Zhanfeng with a smile as he said, "Congratulations on obtaining the heart that you so desire, Your Highness."

"It was all thanks to you, City Lord E," Shi Zhanfeng replied with a smile.

"So the two of you have been working together all along," Sha Xin spat through gritted teeth as she pulled out the bone sword that had pierced through her heart.

"What do you think, City Lord Sha? His Highness and I put on quite a convincing act, did we not?" E Kuai asked with a smile, and Sha Xin offered no response.

Earlier, Sha Xin had chosen not to intervene when E Kuai was trying to kill Shi Zhanfeng precisely because she was trying to see if Shi Zhanfeng was truly on her side or not, but in the end, she had still been fooled.

She reached into the front of her own robe to pull out a black stone vial that was around an inch in height, following which she pulled out the stopper before tipping out what appeared to be some golden sand onto the palm of her own hand.

She spread the golden sand over the hole in her chest, and the sand instantly entered her body like a colony of living creatures to mend her wounds.

"Now that you've lost the heart, there's no way for you to resurrect the Devilish Lord. I'm willing to give you one more chance to share the holy remains with me. What do you say?" E Kuai asked.

Instead of answering his question, Sha Xin pulled out a longan-sized metal ball as she instructed in a determined voice, "Xiao Zi, retrieve the heart at all costs."

"Looks like you're determined to go down fighting. In that case, I'll grant you the heroic death that you desire," E Kuai harrumphed coldly as he sprang toward the holy remains at the center of the lake.

In response, Sha Xin tossed the metal ball up into the air, and it transformed into a giant Arhat puppet that was over a hundred feet tall. The puppet was wearing a kasaya that was forged from metal, and it had eight arms, all of which were bulging with muscles that looked as if they contained immense explosive power.

A burst of red light appeared in the puppet's eyes, and it thrust all eight of its palms forward at once to release a burst of tremendous force.

A disdainful sneer appeared on E Kuai's face as he threw a punch in retaliation, and over a thousand profound acupoints lit up over his body as he unleashed a wave of fist projections.

The fist projections clashed against the eight arms of the Arhat puppet to produce a string of resounding clangs, and formidable shockwaves were sent sweeping through the air in all directions, causing the entire underground space to quake and rumble violently.

On the other side, Xiao Zi had sat down with her legs crossed once again, and a pair of strange-looking puppets had appeared before her. One of them was a humanoid puppet that had four metallic wings on its back, while the other resembled a prowling feline, but had the head of a young woman.

The two puppets immediately sprang at Shi Zhanfeng from different directions at her behest.