Chapter 547

Chapter 547: Desire Is a Bottomless Abyss
Zi Zai sat cross-legged at the top of the mountain, lightly turning his prayer beads between his fingers. His expression was calm and natural, as if he had not noticed the gazes peeping in from outside at all.

The cultivators who had rushed over, following the light of the barrier, all had complicated expressions. They had not found any clues yet, but Zi Zai had already chosen his immortal mountain.

Did that mean he was already completely sure?

Someone thought for a moment, then shouted loudly: “Master Zi Zai, Buddhism values compassion. Master, could you give us a few hints?”

Another person quickly agreed: “Yes, yes, Master, just treat it as doing a good deed and accumulating some merit.”

A third person laughed and called out: “Monk Zi Zai, if you help us out, we’ll all owe you a favor.”

The crowd kept shouting as they watched Zi Zai nervously. They were not sure if he would help them, but there was no harm in trying.

Under so many burning gazes, Zi Zai slowly opened his half-closed eyes. He smiled calmly and said: “Fellow Daoists, Zi Zai does not know any hidden trick. I simply followed my heart.”

Followed his heart?

This explanation was too vague. It was not enough to win everyone’s trust.

They wanted to ask more, but Zi Zai did not give them the chance. His figure blurred and disappeared into the immortal mountain.

Someone snorted in anger and cursed: “He still calls himself ‘Master’? He’s clearly just a selfish man!”

Another person grumbled: “If you don’t want to talk, then don’t talk. Why make up such a ridiculous excuse and treat us like fools?”

A calmer cultivator said coldly: “We’re all competitors anyway. Why should he tell you anything? In the end, you still have to rely on yourself.”

The crowd left in irritation.

Yu Zhao stood where she was, looking at the immortal mountain. Zi Zai’s words, “I simply followed my heart,” kept echoing in her mind.

She and Zi Zai had barely spoken a few sentences before, so she did not know what kind of person he was. But she had met quite a few Buddhist cultivators. It was no exaggeration to say that among all the people she had met, Buddhist cultivators were the purest in their hearts.

One was one, two was two. They did not take sides, did not exaggerate, and they did not lie.

Yu Zhao was more inclined to believe that what Zi Zai had just said was from the bottom of his heart.

Follow his heart?

She looked thoughtfully at the hazy shapes of the immortal mountains. It seemed she needed to find herself a helper.

“Yu Zhao! Yu Zhao!”

Ye Cong Xin ground her teeth as she repeated Yu Zhao’s name. Her gaze swept across the surroundings like sharp blades.

In her sea of consciousness, the remnant soul snapped: “Ye Cong Xin! You can’t kill Yu Zhao. You should go complete the Third Trial first!”

The moment he said that, he regretted it.

Sure enough, it was like he had ripped off a scab. Ye Cong Xin’s face twisted with hatred as she roared: “Shut up! Shut up! Who says I can’t kill her? She’s dead for sure this time!”

Yu Zhao was like a huge mountain pressing down on Ye Cong Xin’s head. Only when Yu Zhao died could she happily welcome her new life without any worries.

“Ye Cong Xin, don’t forget our deal!” The remnant soul was angry too.

Back then, he had chosen Ye Cong Xin because her desire was the strongest and she was the easiest to control. But he had overlooked one thing.

Human desire was like a bottomless abyss. There would never be a day when it was truly filled.

When Ye Cong Xin had been sick and bedridden, all she wanted was to live. When her body slowly got better, she wanted to achieve something big. When she had achieved a little, she was no longer satisfied with her situation and wanted to compare herself with the strongest people everywhere she went.

But the person she chose as her target was someone she could not catch up with no matter how hard she tried. So her actions became more and more extreme, and she even gave birth to a Heart Devil.

If the remnant soul had known earlier that Ye Cong Xin would be so stubborn and treat Yu Zhao as her lifelong opponent, he would never have chosen Ye Cong Xin as his puppet in the first place.

Strangely enough, when he had first seen Yu Zhao, her fortune had been very ordinary, so he had not taken her to heart. He did not know when it started, but a thick layer of mist had suddenly appeared around Yu Zhao’s fortune, covering it up completely so he could not see anything at all.

He had not paid much attention to it back then. Now, his puppet was biting back at its master, and it was too late for regret.

Ye Cong Xin said coldly: “I haven’t forgotten. The condition for me to break our bond is to kill Yu Zhao! Now that the chance is right in front of me, you have to help me!”

The remnant soul snapped back: “Stop dreaming! You can’t kill Yu Zhao!”

Ye Cong Xin was completely enraged. She simply cut off the voice in her sea of consciousness.

Without that annoying sound in her head, Ye Cong Xin’s mood did not improve much. It felt like there was a ball of fire in her chest. The flames rolled wildly, burning through her limbs and bones.

She wanted to roar. She wanted to vent.

Just then, a cultivator flew past above her head on his sword.

Ye Cong Xin stared at that person’s back and, without thinking about it at all, swung her hand and flung out several black arrow feathers.

The cultivator in front, who had managed to enter the Third Trial, was clearly not someone easy to deal with. The moment Ye Cong Xin made her move, he sensed it. A large amount of pink smoke poured out around his body.

The black arrow feathers sank into the smoke and dissolved at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The cultivator turned his head. His peach blossom eyes were soft and shining faintly. In a low, magnetic voice, he asked slowly: “Did I offend the Saintess just now?”

Only then did Ye Cong Xin notice that this cultivator was very handsome. His figure was seductive and graceful. Most striking were those eyes, like they had hooks in them, able to tug at a person’s heartstrings with ease.

She stared fixedly at him and did not speak for a moment.

The man was secretly very pleased. In his heart he thought: [Sure enough, even a strong young woman has to bend when she meets me.]

But in the next second, a wave of bone-chilling cold burst out. The arrow feathers that had vanished in the pink smoke somehow gathered together again, merging into a huge axe that chopped down toward the man’s head.

The man was shocked and snapped his gaze back to Ye Cong Xin.

There was not a trace of a shy little girl on Ye Cong Xin’s face. There was only endless madness and killing intent.

The man cursed in his heart. A pink peach blossom bloomed in midair, wrapping around his body and covering him completely. The axe chopped into the peach blossom, and two powerful Dao Intents crashed into each other with a loud boom.

The man’s body was flung backward in an instant. His face was pale with fear.

His Art of Enchantment had actually been completely useless against the Saintess of Asura Prison. No wonder everyone said Asura Prison was full of emotionless lunatics!

He might not be able to beat her, but he could still run away, right?

Borrowing the force of his backward flight, he let the pink smoke around him carry him quickly off into the distance.

Ye Cong Xin watched his sorry figure flee and did not chase him. She only let out a long breath. Her mood finally felt a little better, and she was able to calm down enough to think clearly. If she failed to kill Yu Zhao, she had to leave herself a way out.

Passing the Third Trial and going to the Great World was the best way out.

She looked around at the immortal mountains on all sides and felt her mood drop again. In her eyes, every one of these mountains looked exactly the same. She could not tell real from fake at all.

She lifted the block in her mind and asked coldly: “Which mountains are real?”

Silence.

A long, long silence.

Ye Cong Xin grew impatient and snapped: “Do you still want to work with me or not?”

Threats. More threats.

The remnant soul felt very wronged, but in the end he still honestly pointed out a way for Ye Cong Xin to pass the trial.

Ye Cong Xin memorized the trick he told her. She first marked a few immortal mountains that could help her clear the trial, then continued to search in all directions.

Until the very last moment, she would never give up on looking for Yu Zhao.

“Be careful!”

With a shout of warning, Bei Ming Yan barely dodged an attack from behind. She turned her head and saw a man and a woman standing there, both of them looking at her group with unfriendly eyes.

Dong Fang Yue’s face was full of unease as she whispered: “It’s the Yin-Yang wanderer cultivators.”