Those Years When We Killed the White Lotus - 2.11

“You……You’re Zhang Daoling.” The evil ghost belatedly recognized the man in front of him and finally felt fear.

This person ……was the one who once sealed him and almost scattered his soul!

In truth, the feud between evil ghost and Longhu Sect was first instigated by a man named Zhang Daoling. At that time, evil ghost was the highest point of his life when he suffered a terrible loss and nearly had his soul scattered, his power taking a hard hit. If not for the years he spent slowly training himself up again, it was highly unlikely that he could have regained his former glory.

Only, he never expected that just as he was about to be come back to full strength, that damned calamity would appear again!

“Didn’t you know my name from the beginning?” Zhang Daoling looked at the evil ghost who was filled not just with enmity, but also with killing intent, and found himself even more confused than before.

Didn’t this ghost know who he was from the start? He certainly hadn’t forgotten the sentence the other blurted out the first time they met; Zhang Daoling’s money sword. If he knew who he was, then why was he so shocked now?

It was true the evil ghost had learned Zhang Daoling’s name from Bai Mianmian, but his knowledge of the human was limited to his name and the fact that he was a member of the Longhu Sect. How could he have anticipated this person was Zhang Daoling’s direct descendant, much less that person’s reincarnation?

“Time is limited, don’t waste it chit-chatting.” Lin Zisheng looked at the evil ghost, uncertain why he looked so stunned. Not that he had time to ponder that.

He wasn’t exaggerating, they really did have only one hour left. After that, although Lin Zisheng might still be able to control this binding array a little, if the evil ghost tried to fight him for it, he would be unable to resist for long.

Zhang Daoling turned around to see Lin Zisheng slowly starting to pale and understood at once the predicament they were in. No matter what, he had to finish off this evil ghost as soon as he could.

Clearly, Lin Zisheng’s strain could be felt not just by Zhang Daoling, but also by the evil ghost. The gaze he directed at Lin Zisheng was thick with killing intent – that he was here at all was all because of this person. As long as he could devour him, the others weren’t an issue. Even if this really was Zhang Daoling, he would have no need to fear him!

It’s just that no matter how great the idea was, trying to implement it was too difficult. The evil ghost discovered that Lin Zisheng seemed to be protected by an unseen barrier – his attacks weren’t doing any damage.

“Before I am no longer able to hold this formation, no one can attack me, and no one can leave.” Lin Zisheng smiled, paling more and more, but his smile held great confidence.

This confidence was not just in himself, but also in Zhang Daoling. He believed that Zhang Daoling could deal with the other within an hour!

After hearing his words, Zhang Daoling ran his hand along the money sword, leaving a sheen of blood on it.

To feed his sword his blood – it’s clear that Zhang Daoling was prepared to fight with all that he had.

After seeing this, the evil ghost was filled with hate. It was like this last time too. Just to get rid of him, Zhang Daoling was willing to sacrifice blood to his sword and almost managed to scatter his soul; it was only because of his shrewdness that he managed to leave after sustaining such heavy damage. Now he wanted to do it again!?

“Zhang Daoling, this time you won’t have it so easy!” Now that he had a Tian Yin Nv, how could he lose as thoroughly as he did a lifetime ago!

Looking at him, Lin Zisheng understood at once what he was planning to do. Going against the overwhelming force, he stood in front of Bai Mianmian and blocked the evil ghost’s attack.

【Host-daren, if you save Bai Mianmian now, then her fate will be no different from what we’ve seen, and you will fail the mission!】 001 yelled upon seeing Lin Zisheng’s action. What was wrong with Host-daren, that he would sacrifice himself to save the female lead!?

Lin Zisheng didn’t answer, simply standing in front of Bai Mianmian with a large smile. Golden light hovered over his palms, blocking the attack.

The current Lin Zisheng was not the same as the original Ying Qingxuan. Ying Qingxuan had already given up most of his life force and thus couldn’t possibly have activated his bloodline; it was only natural that he would lose to the evil ghost. His strength, on the other hand, was on a different level entirely.

Clearly 001 had noticed the difference too, and let out a sigh of relief.

But this wasn’t something Zhang Daoling knew. When he saw Ying Qingxuan stand in front of Bai Mianmian, he almost felt his heart stop. He felt the pain to the bottom of his heart – she was just a pest, why would Qingxuan do so much to protect her!

After a moment of distraction, Zhang Daoling noticed that Ying Qingxuan looked more haggard than before!

At this moment, Zhang Daoling acted faster than he could think. He leapt at Ying Qingxuan and dragged him out of the circle – as for Bai Mianmian? Heh, she’s just a pest, what could she be to him?

“Are you insane? Don’t you know that keeping on like this will drain your life!” Although ghosts were not exactly living souls, they still had life forces; using up too much of it would result in their souls being scattered.

“We cannot…” He coughed, before continuing, “… cannot let him get the Tian Yin Nv, or… or we wouldn’t be his match…” Lin Zisheng’s voice was weak as he looked at Bai Mianmian with worry.

Of course, he wasn’t truly worried about Bai Mianmian, just about the increase in strength she would provide the evil ghost if she was to be eaten.

“So what if he really did swallow Bai Mianmian’s soul, it’s not like he can win!” Zhang Daoling looked at Ying Qingxuan still worrying about Bai Mianmian, and he felt the strong urge to try shaking him awake. “To risk your life for a pest, is your life that worthless!?”

Zhang Daoling’s words pierced Bai Mianmian. That the person she had always worshiped, respected, and loved the most would say something like this, Bai Mianmian felt something shatter inside her…

“Do you see that, they don’t want to save you, they don’t really care about whether you live or die.” The evil ghost’s tone was filled with ridicule and his eyes with disdain as he watched the scene play out. “So what if you really love that person? What use is that when he will never put you in his eyes.”

Bai Mianmian was like a soulless doll, all that was left of who she used to be was an empty shell.

“So, just give me your body. As long as you give it to me, I will get you your revenge.” The evil ghost’s voice was seductive, his gaze when he looked at Bai Mianmian now thick with fervor.

As long as he could absorb the Tian Yin Nv, he would be able to obtain a huge amount of power. Besides, he would no longer be a ghost, but a human – and then, even if Zhang Daoling was a Celestial Master, what could he do to him?

“A-Ling, hurry up and stop him!” Seeing Bai Mianmian’s gaze becoming more and more vacant, Lin Zisheng knew that the evil ghost was about to succeed. If he really did prevail, then this binding circle would no longer work against him.

“It’s okay.” Zhang Daoling shook his head slightly, looking at the evil ghost with ridicule as if looking at someone seeking out their own death.

In this moment, Lin Zisheng wasn’t sure if it was just him, but the other felt familiar – as if he had known this person before.

Hearing Zhang Daoling, the evil ghost started laughing. He had thought this Zhang Daoling was the same as the one before, but now it looked like it was merely a coincidence that they had the same name. How could that Zhang Daoling make such a silly mistake?

To the evil ghost, everything was proceeding very smoothly, except for a minor hiccup where Bai Mianmian suddenly woke up when he was about to finish consuming her soul. Not that this was a problem for him where he was concerned, he simply swallowed the struggling pieces .

Looking at his brand new body, the Evil Ghost had on a satisfied smile. Hah, now he was finally a human – no, it wasn’t just that, he still had a huge amount of Yin energy on him on him. As long as he worked hard to train, sooner or later he’d be able to dominate over all three worlds!

Finally, his greedy gaze landed on Lin Zisheng. Now Zhang Daoling no longer held much attraction for him, but the fragrant scent of the strong True Dragon Blood running through Lin Zisheng awakened his thirst.

Originally, he thought that Lin Zisheng wasn’t too strong and had just a little bit of the True Dragon bloodline. But now that he had the Tian Yin Nv’s powers, he finally understood that he was wrong from the start. He wasn’t just the descendent of a human’s union with a race that had dragon’s blood, he was himself a Qiu Dragon – the closest to a true dragon any race could get!

“It’s almost over.” Looking at the Evil Ghost who was practically overflowing with greed, Zhang Daoling suddenly found him unpleasant to look at, thinking that it’s best if this ‘person’ was to disappear as soon as possible!

“Over?” As if hearing something hilarious, the Evil Ghost laughed as he looked at Zhang Daoling. “Yes, I suppose it is almost over, just that the person who can say it’s over is not you!”

Of course, this wasn’t the end, it was just the start; slowly the Evil Ghost discovered something wrong. It was as if there were countless little ants drilling under his skin. His face paled as he began to feel itchy and numb. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s corpse blight (尸斑：shi ban, 尸：corpse，斑：clearly visible blotches, in this case the result of a blight）, I believe you know of it.” Zhang Daoling’s voice was still cold, but with an infuriating undertone.

“That’s not possible, how could it be corpse blight?!” It was then that the evil ghost suddenly realised that, for some unknown reason, this body was rotting at an incredibly fast pace. Even scarier was the realisation that his soul was weakening as the body decayed.

“Because Bai Mianmian was dead from the start. She died at the time we were attacked by ghosts, even her soul was mostly swallowed.” Zhang Daoling smiled, looking at the evil ghost as if he was a joke. “She was just a tattered piece i kept moving with forbidden spells.”

He didn’t need to explain what was going to happen next for the evil ghost to understand. In the end it was just his carelessness; he felt that she was a little off when he first saw her, but he was blinded by the power she could have offered him, and now it was too late to regret…

Looking at the soul rotting together with the body, Zhang Daoling adopted a look of pity. “It’s all over…”