Chapter 138: Bewitched and Enchanted!

“Boom!”

A tremendous roar shattered through Donglin, wild and chaotic spiritual energy crackling across the night sky like electromagnetic sparks.

A sword slash cut through the air.

Perhaps even Mo Xiaoye hadn’t fully grasped why she had lost before the crimson tidal wave swallowed her whole.

At that very moment, just as Jiang Lin was about to perish explosively—though he cared little—a gentle breeze brushed softly across his face, calming the blood within his body that was on the verge of collapse.

Similarly, the Black Fox, about to be obliterated in the wave of the Severance Sword, barely managed to maintain her form.

The massive eight-tailed black fox, smoking as if scorched, fell from the sky and crashed heavily onto the ground.

The red blood that had flowed over Donglin City gradually faded away.

The blood-name array barrier enveloping Donglin City shattered like broken glass, dispersing into countless fragments of spiritual energy that dissolved into the air.

“Mr. Kong...”
“Brother Jiang...”

Kong Baba bowed respectfully to Jiang Lin.

Jiang Lin was genuinely surprised to see Kong Baba appear in Donglin City.

But recalling the fox demon’s earlier mention of a certain scholar, he suddenly seemed to understand.

Could this fellow be the “Ning Caichen” of the cultivation world?

“Kong Yuge! You’ve finally... come...”

Behind Kong Baba, Mo Xiaoye, unable to maintain her huge form but unwilling to revert to a small fox, used her last spiritual energy to transform into a human shape, lying prone on the ground.

Though Kong Baba did his utmost to preserve her final form, the blood-name array imprinted within her had been destroyed.

Inevitably, the backlash from the blood-name array and the suppression of the Great Dao would utterly shatter her divine form, even preventing her from reincarnating.

Kong Baba turned around and looked at the woman in the black dress lying on the ground.

Though her face was pale, faint makeup still adorned her features. Her black dress was torn in places, revealing glimpses of fair skin, yet she remained beautiful.

He approached the black fox and slowly crouched down, cradling her in his arms.

Mo Xiaoye struggled a few times, unwilling to be touched, but with so little strength left, her resistance was more like a tender plea.

Finally, she gave up struggling in his embrace and quietly gazed at him.

Looking at the woman in his arms, Kong Baba shook his head. “My name is not Kong Yuge.”

“Oh? Then what do you go by now? Last life’s Kong Yuyue?”

“Not that either.”

Holding her gently, Kong Baba said slowly, “How about... just call me Baba...”

“...Kong Baba? Hehehe... Kong Baba...”

The woman in his arms was initially stunned, then burst into a soft, tinkling laughter.

“That’s not so funny...” Kong Baba’s face flushed with embarrassment.

“Hmm...” The woman looked at him tenderly. “It’s really not that funny.”

“Then why are you laughing?”

“Because I want to.”

Watching their affectionate exchange and their dialogue straight out of a melodramatic romance, Jiang Lin felt the icy sting of overwhelming affection raining down on his face like a barrage of dog food...

It was like a scene from “Return of the Pig Princess” playing out nearby:

“Do you love me?”

“I love you.”

“How much do you love me?”

“I love you very much.”

“How much do you really love me...”

Unconsciously, goosebumps rose on Jiang Lin’s skin.

Still, he quietly pulled out a handful of melon seeds from his storage pouch.

Kong Baba glanced at Mo Xiaoye and sighed softly. “Why bother?”

Mo Xiaoye blinked at him. “What do you think?”

“Even if you sacrificed three million lives to find me, so what? You will be consumed by the blood-name array’s backlash. The Great Dao will not tolerate...”

“You are my Great Dao.”

Before Kong Baba could finish, Mo Xiaoye interrupted.

Her gaze remained fixed tenderly on him.

It was hard to imagine that not long ago, she had been a fierce eight-tailed black fox ready to kill.

Now, she was just an ordinary girl who wanted nothing more than to quietly lie in the arms of the one she loved until death.

The two looked into each other’s eyes in silence.

After a long while, the woman in the black dress trembled as she reached out, touching his cheek, her voice growing faint:

“Do you know what I originally intended? I wanted to activate the blood-name array, sacrifice three million people because of you, and appear before you at my last moment, consumed by its backlash!

In the end, I wanted you to remember me forever! To never forget me in all your lifetimes! Even if I become a permanent pain in your heart, I want to live within you!”

The scholar shook his head. “Why make things so difficult?”

“Why make things so difficult?” The woman smiled, eyes narrowing into beautiful crescents. “Because I like you, and the fox tribe’s way of liking someone is so unreasonable...”

The woman in the scholar’s arms was like a porcelain doll pieced together from shards, riddled with cracks, as if she could shatter at any touch. Her spiritual energy barely flowed anymore...

“Hey... poor scholar... did you ever... truly like me?”

“Ping...”

Like porcelain hitting the ground, the woman in his arms shattered into countless glowing points that drifted into the night sky like fireflies, swirling around him.

Thousands of glowing motes slowly rose.

Suddenly, above Donglin City, dark clouds gathered thickly. Lightning flashed and thunder roared as overwhelming spiritual energy amassed in the sky.

This was the punishment of the Heavenly Dao.

Most cultivators, upon death, could transform into spiritual energy and return to nature, as poets say, “turning into spring soil to nurture the flowers.”

But the realm of demons has its own path, the Buddha Lotus Holy Land its own way, and the Dao Method world its own Dao. Even the legendary Exiled Celestial Demon has its own path.

Every cultivator has their own Dao.

And in the vast world made up of nine continents, called Haoran World, there is also a grand Dao.

No rules, no order; Confucian rites and sages once established countless rules across the nine continents. In the Confucian-led Haoran World, these rules subtly blend with the Great Dao.

Perhaps the blood-name array would not provoke the Heavenly Dao’s punishment in the demon realm or the Exiled realm.

But in Haoran World, an array that sacrifices millions of innocent lives crosses the line of the Dao of Haoran World.

“Brother Jiang, I have some matters to attend to. Could you wait for me a while and then we can go have breakfast together?”

Kong Baba withdrew his gaze from the sky and bowed to Jiang Lin.

Jiang Lin cracked a melon seed. “Breakfast? Who’d dare come out for breakfast with Donglin City looking like this?”

“Ah, that’s not quite right. How about I make a bet with you, Brother Jiang? What if there is breakfast?”

“In that case, I’ll treat you to Chunfeng Pavilion.”

“Hahaha, a gentleman’s word...”

Jiang Lin spat out a seed shell. “A promise cannot be broken.”

Kong Baba bowed once more and then strode toward the gathering thunderclouds as if climbing steps.

“Tsk... feels like I’ve been tricked,” Jiang Lin muttered, leaning against a pillar with a slight smile.

Above, the figure in the azure robe paused.

A wave of his long sleeves stirred the gentle breeze, gathering the trembling spiritual energy into the faint shape of a cute little black fox.

Meanwhile, in Linhai Academy by the coast of Wutong Prefecture’s western region, an old man lying on a desk slowly opened his eyes, wiped his drool, and cursed under his breath.

On Mount Bailu in the east of Wutong Prefecture, an old man lying by the river, constantly having his beard nibbled by a white deer, yawned and muttered curses as he scratched his foot. “Truly a living ghost.”

In the south of Wutong Prefecture, an old man at the academy tumbled off his bed with a “thud” and rubbed his aching back.

By the northern Tian Lake, a little girl shook an old man’s shoulder persistently until he finally woke up.

In the central region of Wutong Prefecture, though a thousand miles from Donglin City, an old man in an academy slammed his hand angrily on the desk, swept aside his sleeve, and stood at the door.

“Scholar Kong! You are so bold!”

Five Dharma images appeared in the sky above Donglin City, their voices booming like thunder.

“Greetings, esteemed elders.” Kong Baba bowed to the images in the air.

“This fox activated an evil array. The consequences must be borne by her. Such is the rule!”

Kong Baba folded the gathered spiritual energy of the little black fox into his arms.

“The blood-name array is indeed an evil array, but it was triggered by me. I accept responsibility and am willing to bear the consequences on Mo Xiaoye’s behalf, hoping she may reincarnate and start anew.

If there is karma, it is my own doing. Moreover, aside from cultivators’ lives—which are always at their own risk on the path of cultivation—the common people who died tonight will be healed by me!”

“Nonsense! Reversing yin and yang! Life and death are involved! Even Yin-Yang practitioners dare not do this! Do you know what you are doing?!”

Kong Baba scratched his nose sheepishly. “Heh heh heh, defying the heavens.”

“You!!!”

A white-bearded elder trembled with rage, itching to kick him.

Another elder spoke slowly, “Kong... Baba... young brother, why do this? Why obstruct your own Dao path?”

Kong Baba looked at the black fox in his arms and smiled gently, lifting his head. “I have thought through my own Dao.”

“Deluded!”

The elder who had been rebuking fell silent, tossing his sleeve in frustration as the Dharma images slowly vanished.

The other elders shook their heads knowingly and dispersed without further words.

As the images disappeared, the gathering thunder coalesced into a massive thunder dragon swirling and expanding, illuminating the night sky with lightning that seemed ready to swallow the world.

The black fox curled tightly in the scholar’s arms, trembling uncontrollably...

“Don’t be afraid... don’t worry... I told you... Baba is here...”

The scholar gently comforted her, his gaze soft, lost in thought.

“Boom!”

Suddenly, the thunder dragon’s lightning descended in slanting bolts...

“Damn it, I knew it—besides my master, few people in the Sun Moon Sect are normal...”

Jiang Lin muttered with a bitter smile as he watched the man in the sky.

Drained by the Severance Sword and then forcibly kept alive by Kong Baba, he was utterly exhausted and closed his eyes with a smile.

That night...

Jiang Lin slept soundly...

Though...

The thunder was a bit noisy...