The Immortal Emperor Returns C319 – Reuniting Body and Soul!

Curls of True Energy snaked all around the purple-haired woman's physique as Yan Wushuang's three-foot-long-bladed sword hummed gently.

Swoosh!

A long, white bolt of cloth shot at Chu Xun like a spear.

Chu Xun evaded it only to be met by the cold, merciless glimmer of Yan Wushuang's sword tip.

Bang!

Chu Xun raised a hand and blasted it aside.

Swoosh!

Next came another two bolts of white cloth, glimmering as brightly as a flash of white light.

With coils of purplish Immortal Qi imbuing his arm, Chu Xun seized the strips of white cloths and jerked hard, dragging the woman towards him.

The woman planted a foot into the ground swiftly to steady herself and it turned into a tug of war with the long white bolts of cloth between them.

Seeing his chance, Yan Wushuang quickly attacked with his sword.

“All right, Bratty Yan,” grumbled Chu Xun, “You're really getting on my nerves.” He shook the white cloth vigorously, sending a burst of Hong Meng Immortal Qi into it. The cloth acted as a conduit for the Immortal Qi to travel through and the burst of energy blasted the purple-haired woman away.

Quickly, Chu Xun raised a bare hand to slap away a Sword Qi energy bolt aimed at him and lunged at Yan Wushuang, delivering two quick punches that stupefied so badly he could not retaliate.

Bang!

Another punch barreled straight into Yan Wushuang's stomach.

“Arghh...” Yan Wushuang groaned, feeling his insides roiling so painfully he could hardly swallow his saliva.

Bang!

His three-foot-long sword fell out of his hand.

What happened next was a one-sided bludgeoning with Yan Wushuang at the receiving end of the beatings – his protective aura hardly worked against Chu Xun's fists and the former's cries of pain was enough to illustrate his agony.

“You Devil! I'll fight you!” Yan Wushuang cried angrily, his entire self burning with Internal Breath.

But his defiance was quickly stifled with Chu Xun's heavy slap into his chest that felt like a sledgehammer.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Yan Wushuang shielded his face as he screamed.

“No! Please! All right! Enough! Stop, you Devil! I give up!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“All right, Devil! Enough! I give up! I surrender! NOO! Arggh! What a brute, you! Argggh!”

Shrieking like a pig, Yan Wushuang rolled on the floor as the beatings went on with bruises all over him and he could do nothing to fight back.

“Please stop! Lady, help!”

But the purple-haired woman only stood by and watch, showing no indication at all that she intended to help.

“How dare you raise your voice at me, Bratty Yan! You're ten thousand years too early for that!” Chu Xun pummeled incessantly with Yan Wushuang's shrieks of pain continuing.

Insolent pup thinks of colluding with this woman to rob me upon hearing that I've gotten a pair of Fire-Amber Bamboos from his father! It looks like he really needs a good walloping!

“All right, please! Stop! I give up! Immortal Chu!” Yan Wushuang squealed for mercy with all his dignity and pride forgotten.

“Justice, eh?” hissed Chu Xun. Bang! Bang!

“Calling me the Devil now, did you not?” Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Trying to defeat me, eh?” Bang! Bang!

Chu Xun's punches might not be able to inflict wounds on him, but Yan Wushuang still felt awfully pain nonetheless.

“Please... Immortal Chu... N-Never again... I'll do nothing of the sort again... You're a hero, an honorable person...”

Yan Wushuang tasted the consequences of his actions.

At long last, when Chu Xun stopped, Yan Wushuang looked so mournful as if on the verge of tears.

“Lady, you tricked me,” Yan Wushuang whimpered, his hands covering his face.

“I agreed to help you, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm no match against his powers,” said the woman earnestly.

“...” Yan Wushuang nearly crumbled with regret.

“All right, Bratty Yan, away with your hands. Let me have a look,” said Chu Xun teasingly.

But Yan Wushuang stubbornly refused to bulge. He could not afford to allow anyone to see his swollen, misshapen face now filled with bruises while deep inside, he grimaced, how could you, Father!? You left me to such a brutal evildoer!

Chu Xun's facial muscles convulsed and twisted and he slowly transformed back into his original appearance.

That came as another blow for Yan Wushuang – Chu Xun was not ugly at all; instead, he looked dashing and handsome while he looked like a beggar!

“All right, let's go,” said Chu Xun.

With that, the company of three set off. With the wealth of the Yan Family, Yan Wushuang had no shortage of medicine and ointment that helped with external wounds, which he used on himself during the journey. The remedies worked so well that by the time they reached the airport, he was fully healed.

Prior to boarding their plane, Chu Xun wondered if he should first visit Qianlong Mountain instead of going straight back to the capital. He remembered promising Tang Rou that he would take her with him for her pilgrimage when he left the Mountain. Jiu You remained there still too.

After giving it a thought, Chu Xun decided to first go to the capital. He had only just managed to improve the purple-haired woman's perception of him and the inclusion of Tang Rou into their number might just give her the wrong impression.

With Hua Qingwu's soul in her keeping, it was important for him to return her soul to her body.

After almost a round-the-clock flight, they finally reached the capital where they first headed to the Fire Dragon Palace.

Yan Chong, Lei Bao and the others were already expecting him.

“Nothing happened after I'm gone, I hope?” asked Chu Xun.

“No, Master,” replied Yan Chong like a dutiful butler, “Everything's fine.”

“We heard about your joining hands with Yue Fandie, Lord of the Palace of Tetrachy, against the Broken Souls Cult and your success,” remarked Lei Bao, “It brings us great joy.”

Chu Xun's face froze, however. Sourly, he remembered how the plans had failed when it was revealed that the Li Kun, Long Feiyang, and their cohorts who stepped into his trap were actually imposters.

Chu Xun introduced to the others the purple-haired woman and Yan Wushuang.

“Have you dined, Master? I'll have the servants prepare some food,” asked Yan Chong.

But Chu Xun declined it. The matter of Hua Qingwu took precedence. He left Yan Wushuang there and led the woman to Dragon's Back.

Once there, the purple-haired woman was awestruck to meet Emperor Ao. Never had she known that there could be so powerful and omnipotence a being on Earth which incidentally was also a living kin of the Ancestral Dragon.

“Greetings to you, Senior,” she greeted with a reverence that amazed Chu Xun.

“Earth is getting crowded, I must say,” said Emperor Ao, “And here I was, thinking that Chu Xun is the only cultivator of the lost magic of Immortality here on Earth. Your mere existence is a marvel, lady.”

“Well, here's a gift as a token of our first meeting.”

Chu Xun gawked with dropped jaws. That was a little golden bell. An Immortal Weapon!? A high-tiered Immortal Weapon?!

“Thank you so much, Senior,” answered the purple-haired woman as she took the gift and shook it gently. The bell gave a little crisp ring and faint little ripples of golden sparkles broke out carelessly and destroyed one of the nearby mountains.

Fortunately, in the magical domain of Emperor Ao's Purple Mansion, any damages to the terrain could magically rebuild itself.

Chu Xun gulped hungrily and thrust a hand at Emperor Ao.

Emperor Ao chuckled. He waved a hand to conjure something, and then he placed it in Chu Xun's hand.

Chu Xun's expectant smile turned stiff and he threw what looked like a goblet of wine in his hand at Emperor Ao. A goblet of wine?! Is that what he just gave me?!

“Gimme one too, one of those quaint little bells you just gave her,” scowled Chu Xun.

“That's an Immortal Weapon, not some cabbage you can easily pluck off a garden. I only have one of those,” grimaced Emperor Ao in return, irritated by Chu Xun's greed.

“Come on, Ao you old senile! We've known each other for decades and you'd never given me not so much as a 'meeting gift',” grumbled Chu Xun.

Old senile?!

Emperor Ao's glare turned deadly and what happened to Chu Xun next turned out to be no different, if not worse, than Yan Wushuang – with just one hand, Emperor Ao pinned him down and began raining blows on him.

“JUST YOU WAIT! WAIT TILL I BECOME A NASCENT SOUL AND IT'S PAYBACK!” roared Chu Xun in the midst of his shrieks of pain.

“All right! STOP! I need to ask something!” screamed Chu Xun at last, desperately keeping his face shield. This old senile must be really jealous of his good looks, he thought.

Emperor Ao did not neglect to land another couple of punches before he finally called it quits. “That's what you get for not respecting your elders, brat.”

Despite any qualms about Emperor Ao, Chu Xun knew full well he was too weak. Even with the Firmament Chain, the most powerful being on Earth was nevertheless a veritable monster in his own right as an immensely-experienced Nascent Soul to whom killing Chu Xun could come as easy as a child's play to him.

“How could Little Wu's soul be with her? Moreover, inside Little Wu's Lovesickness Tear, I saw the flashes of memories I shared with Jing Hong,” Chu Xun asked.

Turning solemn, Emperor Ao stared curiously at the purple-haired woman.

“Let's first return Little Wu's soul to where it belongs.”

As soon as the woman saw Hua Qingwu's body inside the ice sarcophagus, she turned flustered and anxious.

“What's wrong?” Chu Xun asked, noticing her apprehension.

The woman ignored him as if she barely heard him. But tears welled in her eyes and rolled down the curvature of her cheeks. She clutched a hand at her chest, panting hard.

“Are you well?” asked a worried Chu Xun.

Emperor Ao's eyes sparkled a hint of realization and he waved an arm, conjuring a barrier of light to shield the woman from Hua Qingwu's sarcophagus.

With a stumble, the woman collapsed to the floor with her knees giving way. Still clutching at her heart, she panted and broke into sobs.

What in the world is going on?! A dismayed Chu Xun could not make anything of it and gave an inquiring glance at Emperor Ao.

“We talk later,” the latter replied curtly. With a wave, the Lovesickness Tear inside the woman's earring glided into the air towards him.

“Wait,” Chu Xun hastily took out the Soul-nourishing Lotus.

“Ah,” muttered a surprised Emperor Ao, “This Lotus will help increase the probability of success.”

The Lotus sat in Emperor Ao's hand and flames shot to life – the flames that only Nascent Souls could conjure. It was said that such flames could burn literally anything, making it even more potent than even the flaming dragons of the Nine Heavens Burning Formation spell.

A veritable monster who was an experienced Nascent Soul indeed, mused Chu Xun as he watched the Lotus crumpled in flames and turned to crisp black soot. In the ashes, something gold and liquid-like sparkled.

With several quick hand seals, the liquid resembling molten gold flew to the ice sarcophagus in Emperor Ao's direction and entered through the center of Hua Qingwu's forehead.

A rush of golden light fountained out from inside the ice casket, bathing Hua Qingwu's body in a rich luster of gold that her dewy skin gleamed like a shiny dress of many-hued sparkles and she looked like a fairy from Heaven. After quite some time, the deluge of golden light finally subsided.

Next, Emperor Ao began using his arcane magic to redirect Hua Qingwu's soul back into her body. The crystalline bead of the Locksickness Tear shimmered brightly. Looking closely at it, one could almost see various scenes flicking through like a slide show.

Emperor Ao emitted a soft grunt, made a quick hand seal and thrust a finger at the Tear.

Swoosh!

The bead of Tear turned purer and more pristine, glittering despite being only a transparent object with many colored hues like a faceted diamond.

Then everything around them turned translucent and foggy as if the bead of Lovesickness Tear had released a thick white fog engulfing them and a humanoid figure materialized. Slowly, the appearance of the ghostly figure slowly turned more recognizable with greater and finally, matching resemblance to Hua Qingwu lying inside the sarcophagus.

“Little Wu,” Chu Xun murmured, unable to hold back himself. He knew that it was only her soul, but he just couldn't keep his brimming emotions in check. His eyes turned red and wet and his hands balled into fists as his fingernails dug into his flesh.

As ethereal as a mist before sunrise, Hua Qingwu's ghost looked so delicate that anything more than a whisper might make it disappear.

Whether if it was just a hallucination, or was it just because he missed her so much, Chu Xun saw Hua Qingwu smiling at him amidst the layers of the misty fog.

“Little Wu,” Chu Xun's eyes grew wet with tears as he reached out to grasp the love name of his sweetheart affectionately. Hardly aware of himself, his hands came up to grab at her image.

Bang!

In his haste, Emperor Ao slammed a hand into him and sent him flying away.

“Do you want her to never wake up again?”

The ghost of Hua Qingwu remained very delicate and fragile and was only maintained using Emperor Ao's arcane magic. Chu Xun's blunder could have disintegrated her soul, and she might never be able to remain whole ever again.

Chu Xun's head dipped dismally as a deep, muffled grunt escaped his throat like a wounded beast.

The pearly, semi-transparent image of Hua Qingwu passed through the ice sarcophagus and gently descended, lowering herself back into the body of the true Hua Qingwu. All that was left to do was the ritual to merge both body and soul as one.

Yet no matter how Emperor Ao tried, the diaphanous ghost adamantly resisted fusing itself back to Hua Qingwu's body.

Leaving him with no other choice for souls of any deceased could only maintain being in such state for only so long, Emperor Ao resorted to more forceful methods to force the ghost to return into its original body. Still, nothing he did worked.

Chapter end