HBWnovel Chapter 383 The Unyielding Soul
Chapter 383 The Unyielding Soul
Chapter 383 The Unyielding Soul
The back mountain of the Yuan family is a forbidden area for the Yuan family of Jiangling. No one except the heads of the Yuan family throughout the generations is allowed to approach the back mountain.
Yuan Daotong led Lin Fei to the back mountain of the Yuan family. Lin Fei felt that the back mountain of the Yuan family was extremely strange.
In the back mountains, it was as if a pack of ferocious beasts were lurking, ready to devour anyone they could find. As soon as Lin Fei entered the area of the Yuan family's back mountains, he felt as if pairs of eyes were secretly watching him.
Even Lin Fei, with his cultivation level, couldn't sense the presence of anyone around him. It seemed extremely eerie.
While there are indeed individuals in this world capable of secretly investigating Lin Fei and making it difficult for him to pinpoint his location despite his best efforts, they are few and far between. Undoubtedly, the Yuan family doesn't possess many such individuals. Otherwise, with so many experts, the Yuan family would have long since surpassed the three great families of Southern Tang; unifying Southern Tang and Northern Han wouldn't have been impossible.
That's why Lin Fei felt that the back mountain of the Yuan family was very strange. Recalling what Yuan Daotong had said before, he was afraid that the one secretly watching him was the monster of the Heavenly Dao that Yuan Daotong had mentioned.
As Yuan Daotong walked, he said to Lin Fei, "Originally, only the heads of the Yuan family could enter the back mountain of my family. But if something happens to me, the entire Yuan family will need His Majesty to appease us. Today, I, Yuan, will tell His Majesty the biggest secret of my Yuan family!"
Lin Fei comforted Yuan Daotong, saying, "You don't need to despair too much. As the saying goes, 'Man proposes, God disposes.' I refuse to believe that there is no way to break this so-called curse of your Yuan family!"
"Your Majesty need not comfort me. I had already prepared myself mentally when I asked to return home due to illness." Yuan Daotong said with a bitter smile, "It is a pity that my father passed on the Jiangling Yuan family to me in just a few short years before he passed away. I have no face to meet my ancestors in the afterlife!"
As they spoke, the two had already entered the deep mountains behind the Yuan family, which was the forbidden area of the Yuan family that Yuan Daotong had mentioned, a place that only the heads of the Yuan family in successive generations could enter.
Deep in the mountains, the trees all around were covered with talismans, as if they were used to seal something. In the distance, there were even more talismans that were connected together. Even from a great distance, one could still feel the heart-palpitating energy emanating from those talismans.
These talismans alone have probably already consumed a lot of the Yuan family's resources. I wonder what kind of monster of the Heavenly Dao is sealed inside.
"Your Majesty, please follow me." Yuan Daotong led Lin Fei into the large number of talismans.
Beyond the dense forest, one came to see rows of enormous pillars, each carved with patterns Lin Fei couldn't decipher. These pillars weren't empty; instead, they were bound with black iron chains, each holding a living person.
Those bound to the pillars appeared no different from ordinary people, yet they exuded no life force and emanated a strong aura of death. It was unclear how long they had been dead; they simply retained their physical appearance, their bodies showing no signs of decay.
What shocked Lin Fei even more was that he recognized the person bound by black iron chains on the outermost pillar—it was Yuan Yuanshan, the previous head of the Yuan family and Yuan Daotong's father.
Yuan Yuanshan has been dead for some years. Logically speaking, his body should have decomposed long ago, but it looks exactly the same as when he was alive.
It's important to understand that although cultivators possess far greater and more vigorous vitality than ordinary people, death is still death. Death is the most impartial form of time, regardless of your status or cultivation level. Everyone ends up the same after death.
Even powerful figures like the Three Sovereigns of antiquity and the Buddhist spiritualists would eventually have their physical bodies reduced to a pile of bones after death. Not to mention Yuan Yuanshan's cultivation level, which is far inferior to those figures.
Although Yuan Yuanshan had only been dead for a few years, his physical body was not so badly reduced to a pile of bones, but it was not as badly preserved as it was in life.
Even Lin Fei didn't know what state Yuan Yuanshan was in, whether he was dead or alive, so he asked Yuan Daotong beside him, "How is your father now?"
"Neither alive nor dead, neither human nor ghost. He is neither truly alive nor can he find peace." Yuan Daotong gave a bitter smile, his eyes filled with sorrow as he looked at his father: "My father suffered a more severe backlash than previous patriarchs because he forcibly extended his life. Even the ancestral formation of my Yuan family could not suppress his spirit. The reason I am here today is because my father's body has changed, which has led to his current state."
Just as the two were talking, Yuan Yuanshan's body, which was tied to the pillar, suddenly began to tremble violently and let out a series of low growls like a wild beast.
The Yuan Yuanshan of today is no longer the intelligent, wise, and far-sighted patriarch of the Yuan family that Lin Fei had met. Just as Yuan Daotong said, the Yuan Yuanshan of today has become a soulless walking corpse, merely a monster-like existence.
As Yuan Yuanshan struggled incessantly, even the pillar binding him began to tremble, as if Yuan Yuanshan might break free from the pillar at any moment.
Moreover, even the successive heads of the Yuan family who were locked to the pillars seemed to resonate with Yuan Yuanshan's struggle in some strange way. They all began to struggle at the same time, as if they wanted to break free from the pillars.
"Not good!" Yuan Daotong's expression changed: "My father's body has started to stir again. Recently, the stirring has become more and more frequent. If it weren't for the fact that I use the secret method passed down in my Yuan family every day to dispel the malevolent energy on my father's body, I'm afraid even this soul-stabilizing array wouldn't last long."
As he spoke, Yuan Daotong raised his hand and used his own true energy to draw a talisman in the air, while chanting, "The mysteries of Heaven's Dao, guide them into my body. Profound and mysterious, penetrating the secrets of Heaven. With my body, I receive the Heavenly Dao. Settle!"
The talisman that Yuan Daotong drew in mid-air solidified, as if it had simultaneously resonated with the talismans scattered around the dense forest, and all of them suddenly shone brightly.
At the same time, as soon as Yuan Daotong finished speaking, bursts of black energy emerged from the heads of the Yuan family's past patriarchs.