The sealing sigil Yunxi sketched was the same script she had used to seal Mu Zijun's "Fate-Seizing Constitution." The two were linked. After she finished sketching, she flicked a thread of wind spiritual power into the sigil. It activated and shot out of the City Guard Office.
Yunxi rose and said to Cen Sen at her side, "Captain Cen, come with this Lord. We will see who stole the corpse."
"Y, yes."
Cen Sen had no right to refuse. Under the gaze of the door guards, he was swept away by Yunxi, leaving his other deputy behind.
Yunxi had always known that the scripts she received from the Wu Clan Ancestor were mysterious. She had not known they were divine script, nor that without a trace of Wu clan bloodline one could not cultivate them at all.
In the Underworld, to save Han Lian and the others, she had used a divine script called "Defy Heaven," reversing the outflow of her companions' soul power and shattering the formation that evil cultivators had set at the entrance to the Eighteenth Hell.
At the time she did not understand the power of divine script. She only wanted to save people. She used her own essence blood, soul power, and merit together to draw that sigil. It worked, but she was struck miserably by Soul Thunder.
After returning to the Weiyu Realm wounded, she immediately crossed blades with evil cultivators. It took a very long time to refine away the strands of Soul Thunder lurking in her spirit. The last trace was dissolved by merit when she advanced. That alone showed how heaven-defying the divine script was.
Since then, she had not used any of the last five sigils in the beast-skin booklet. The sealing sigil was the one she knew best. She could draw it easily. While the sealing script inside Mu Zijun's body had not yet dissipated, she used it as a guide to locate his corpse.
Soon Yunxi and Cen Sen arrived at Chong'an City's west gate. Beyond the west gate lay Chong'an Mountain, a place for tempering oneself. Many cultivators left the city from here every day.
Because of Cen Sen's order, the west gate was temporarily closed. Cultivators who wanted to leave gathered here, trading rumors and wondering why the gates had been shut so suddenly.
"Do you know what happened?"
"No idea. I have heard nothing."
"I heard not only the west gate, the other three are closed too."
"What? Then something big happened."
"I got no word of it. It does not look like anything either. The city-guarding array is not active, and there is no news of a beast tide."
"Do you think it is evil cultivators?"
"Watch your tongue. Do you want to get us killed? Do not bandy that kind of talk about."
Yunxi heard every word clearly and was unmoved. She locked onto two people at once, flicked her sleeve, and Cen Sen found himself standing at her side. Before he could ask a question, two figures dropped at their feet.
The sudden change drew the crowd's attention. No one dared approach. Cen Sen's black City Guard uniform marked his identity, and when Yunxi released the faintest hint of pressure, the onlookers stepped back two more paces.
The two who had toppled before Yunxi pushed each other up and stood. The steadier one, a middle-aged cultivator, bowed. "Senior, have my younger brother and I offended you, or violated Chong'an City's rules? If we have, we will accept punishment."
Cen Sen did not understand and looked to Yunxi.
Yunxi glanced first at the middle-aged man. Then her gaze landed on the overly quiet young cultivator beside him. He looked terrified, shrinking behind the older man, head bowed, not daring to look up.
Yunxi clicked her tongue twice. Without the guiding sigil, she would not have noticed that this timid young man was the "dead and resurrected" Mu Zijun. If they had made it past the gate, it would have been much harder to find them.
Cen Sen hesitated and bowed. "Senior Ran Xi."
The middle-aged cultivator's eyes flashed at that form of address. He grew even more respectful and wore the expression of a man ready to accept whatever came.
Yunxi smoothed her sleeve. "Yixian Gate truly deserves its reputation. This Yinxi Elixir is impressive. It hides even your evil energy cleanly."
As her words fell, the surrounding cultivators retreated again. No one dared to be careless when evil cultivators were involved.
When they had opened a wider circle, the four before them vanished.
"What happened?"
"Gone into thin air?"
"Tsk, tsk. Say you have no experience and you get offended. A high-level cultivator pulled them into a domain."
"Really? This is my first time seeing it."
The four being discussed were already inside a domain, Yunxi's newest insight, the Thunder Moves, Wind Runs Domain. She had merged wind attribute into a thunder domain to create this new field. Its attack power exceeded that of the Wind and Snow Domain.
Cen Sen edged two steps closer to Yunxi. The oppressive weight of the thunder domain made it hard to breathe.
The previously mild middle-aged cultivator finally revealed a ferocious face. "So you are Ran Xi."
He had not finished speaking before a purple bolt as thick as a baby's arm crashed down on him. He pitched forward. The disguise on his body shattered, and thin threads of evil energy seeped out.
The evil energy drew more purple thunder. In the space of three breaths, the middle-aged cultivator smoked from head to toe. There was not an inch of good flesh left. Only his wide, furious eyes and clenched white teeth showed he still lived.
The young cultivator who had been playing weak also raised his head. It was Mu Zijun, though this Mu Zijun was not the former Mu Zijun.
Cen Sen recognized him at a glance as the "corpse" that had been brought back to the City Guard Office. Now it was obvious that an evil cultivator had borrowed the body to return to life.
Mu Zijun glared at Yunxi. "Hmph. You old hag. You sealed my constitution."
Yunxi flicked her hand. A wind blade split his mouth open.
"This Lord is not old by any measure. You are the real old monster. The skin you are wearing is older than this Lord. Do not start. You stink ten miles with the wind. That rotten smell hits my nose. Hard to miss."
She even waved a hand in front of her nose, as if truly offended by the stench.
"Do not be smug, the evil god"
Yunxi did not intend to waste words. She flicked Zi Yan straight into his body.
"You—"
"Mu Zijun" toppled and rolled. Violet flames wrapped him completely. He writhed, trying to extinguish the fire, to no effect.
Only then did Yunxi look back at the middle-aged cultivator. With a sweep of her sleeve, she produced the Soul Capturing Mirror. He was no fierce ghost, but she could still forcibly extract his soul.
"How do you have—"
The man had not expected Yunxi to carry a soul weapon. He stammered a few words, and his spirit was sucked into the Soul Capturing Mirror.