Chapter 975: The Ruse of Self-Injury

Sha Xin and Shi Zhanfeng lightly touched the surface of the blood-red lake with their toes, landing beside the crystal coffin, standing on the water as ripples spread across the lake.

Sha Xin looked at the skeleton inside the crystal coffin, a complex expression flashing in her eyes. She took a deep breath and said,

"Fellow Daoist Shi, lend me some of your essence blood. After this matter is settled, I will not break my promise to you."

Shi Zhanfeng nodded without speaking, raised his palm, and heavily wiped it across the triangular bone sword, cutting a gash in his palm.

He secretly activated the star power within his body, and from the wound, strands of blood tinged with a hint of golden luster seeped out.

Seeing this, Sha Xin took out a Star Ripple Brush carved from white bone, covered with intricate hollow patterns, from her sleeve pouch.

With a flick, the brush, as if saturated with thick ink, soaked up Shi Zhanfeng's essence blood and began to move swiftly like a dragon and snake, rapidly painting on the crystal coffin.

Streaks of crimson blood turned into lines, forming a blood-colored runic array covering the entire coffin, merging seamlessly with the complex five-pointed star pattern on the crystal coffin.

Han Li frowned as he watched. The crystal coffin emitted a brilliant red light, trembling violently, causing the entire blood lake to ripple.

A layer of blood-red lake water spread like a living thing, enveloping the entire crystal coffin, transforming it into a huge blood cocoon.

With a loud "boom," a massive tremor occurred.

E Kuai once again attacked the bone chain formation trapping him, his momentum still overwhelmingly powerful.

The lightning-wreathed restrictive formation absorbed the star power contained in his attack and withstood the blow, but the cracks on the twelve bone-armored puppets around it doubled.

With a soft "crack," a sound was heard.

On the formation plate in front of "Little Zi," cracks also appeared on all twelve white chess pieces.

Her body trembled violently, and the part of her face exposed beneath the black veil was pale, devoid of any color.

Han Li noticed this, his expression tightening slightly, a hint of hesitation appearing in his eyes.

In the current situation, if he rashly intervened, he could not guarantee what E Kuai and Sha Xin might do. Moreover, he dared not assume that his sudden intervention would not backfire and cause some变故 with "Little Zi."

Although he was certain that this "Little Zi" was most likely Zi Ling, this was clearly not the time for recognition.

Just then, a dull sound suddenly came from the blood-cocoon-wrapped crystal coffin.

Following that, the blood water on the cocoon flowed down with a "splashing" sound, and the legendary holy remains were exposed from within.

Strangely, the crystal coffin that had held them had disappeared, leaving only a blood-red crystal slab supporting the corpse, floating on the blood lake.

The holy remains appeared without the grand异相 imagined; the corpse itself did not emit any particularly strong fluctuations, looking no different from an ordinary demon corpse.

But when Han Li's gaze fell on the blood-red crystal slab beneath it, a strange glint flashed in his eyes.

He noticed that the crystal slab was covered with incredibly profound runes, most of which he had never seen before. However, the small portion he could recognize already indicated that the slab's function was to suppress the blood energy on the corpse.

E Kuai looked over through the lightning, his eyes filled with growing greed, and he frantically attacked the formation trapping him once more.

Seeing this, Sha Xin's gaze hardened. She set aside all nostalgic melancholy and quickly formed hand seals before her.

She softly chanted, her ten fingers rotating like blooming petals, forming an extremely bizarre spell seal before her, and gently pressed her palm against her lower abdomen.

A white dazzling light then lit up from her lower abdomen. Her seemingly firm and fleshy abdomen emitted the sound of mechanisms turning, and the pale skin turned outward, opening like a lotus blooming.

"She actually transformed herself into a puppet..." Lady Liuhua remarked, somewhat surprised.

Han Li also frowned, looking very astonished.

As the opening in her lower abdomen widened, a dazzling blood-red light shone through.

Around the blood lake, except for Sha Xin and E Kuai, almost everyone who saw the blood light wore expressions of utter shock.

What appeared within the blood light was a living heart sealed inside a crystal ball.

Through the crystal ball, Han Li saw that the heart was still beating, contracting and relaxing, and he could even hear the sound of its beating:

"Thump, thump, thump, thump..."

At the same time, a strong life force emanated from the heart.

After extracting the heart, the opening in Sha Xin's lower abdomen began to close layer by layer, like lotus petals folding back, restoring it to its original state.

However, her entire aura weakened somewhat, as if half her strength had been drained in an instant, and her face turned deathly pale.

"Haha... I never thought that to guard this heart, you would nourish it within your own body without daring to take any of it for yourself. No wonder you've made no progress all these years, and your cultivation has even regressed. How utterly foolish!" E Kuai laughed upon seeing this.

Sha Xin, with her back to E Kuai, ignored him. She took out a beast pill and swallowed it, then held the crystal ball with both hands, her palms glowing with dazzling white light, intending to extract the sealed heart.

At that moment, a sudden change occurred!

Sha Xin's expression abruptly changed, and she let out a muffled groan.

A sharp white bone suddenly thrust out from her chest, piercing straight through her heart.

The white bone had a triangular groove, guiding the blood from her heart to gush out, instantly staining half her body red.

"City Lord Sha, my apologies..." Shi Zhanfeng, standing behind Sha Xin, said expressionlessly, twisting the triangular bone sword in his hand, and a sound of shattering came from her chest cavity.

Sha Xin immediately spat out a mouthful of blood, twisted her body abruptly, and struck a palm toward Shi Zhanfeng's head.

But he had already released the triangular bone sword, his acupoints suddenly glowing brightly, moving with extreme speed, sliding past her side. In his palm, a white bone dagger had appeared, which he thrust into Sha Xin's lower abdomen.

At the same time, he suddenly leaped up, snatched the crystal ball from Sha Xin's hand, and with a light tap of his toe, retreated to the other side of the blood lake, putting distance between himself and Sha Xin and the others.

Before everyone could recover from the sudden turn of events, another explosion sounded from the shore of the blood lake.

With a loud "boom!"

A large swath of silver lightning exploded, turning into countless silver serpentine bolts that shot in all directions, shaking the entire underground space.

Amid the lightning, countless white bone fragments scattered and flew, riddling the dome above and the surrounding rock walls with holes.

Han Li's pupils contracted, and he ducked down as a broken white bone blade spun toward him, shearing off the strange rock that had concealed him.

The bone chain formation trapping E Kuai finally shattered. All twelve bone-armored puppets flashed with white light and exploded.

The twelve white chess pieces also burst with a "pop," and even the entire black formation plate cracked. "Little Zi," who controlled the formation, was struck by the backlash of this immense force, her body falling backward as she spat out a mouthful of blood.

After breaking free, E Kuai ignored "Little Zi." He glanced at Sha Xin, who still had the bone sword piercing her chest, then looked at Shi Zhanfeng and laughed, "Great Prince, the heart is already in hand. Let me congratulate you first..."

"Hehe, thank you, City Lord E, for your help," Shi Zhanfeng replied with a full smile.

"So, uh... you two had already colluded," Sha Xin said, pulling out the triangular bone sword that had pierced her heart, frowning deeply, speaking word by word.

"City Lord Sha, forgive me. So, how was the ruse of self-injury that the Great Prince and I performed earlier? Was it convincing enough?" E Kuai laughed.

Sha Xin remained silent upon hearing this.

Earlier, when E Kuai was pursuing Shi Zhanfeng, she had not immediately intervened, wanting to see if he was truly on her side. But she hadn't expected that the two had still managed to deceive her.

She reached into her bosom and took out a small black stone bottle about an inch high, pulled out the stopper, and poured something into her palm—a golden, sand-like substance.

Sha Xin clenched her hand and wiped it over the wound on her chest. The golden sand immediately burrowed into the wound like living things, repairing the still-bleeding injury.

"Without the heart, you have no chance of resurrecting your master. I am willing to give you one more chance. How about sharing this holy remains with me?" E Kuai looked at Sha Xin, addressing her as 'master' for the first time.

"Little Zi, at all costs, retrieve the heart." Sha Xin did not answer him. Instead, her palm split open, revealing a metal ball the size of a dragon's eye.

"It seems you intend to resist to the end. Then don't blame me for not remembering old ties." E Kuai snorted coldly, leaped up, and landed toward the center of the holy remains in the lake.

Sha Xin waved her hand and formed hand seals.

The metal ball shot out, shining brightly in midair. A ten-zhang-tall wrathful vajra emerged from it, its body seemingly cast from copper and iron, engraved with an iron robe and cassock. Behind it were eight arms, all bare, with bulging muscles and prominent veins, exuding explosive power.

The vajra's eyes flashed red, and its eight arms struck out simultaneously, stirring up a violent storm of wind and thunder.

Seeing this, E Kuai sneered, raised a fist, and smashed it head-on.

The thousand-plus acupoints on his body flickered like a galaxy of stars. As his fist shot out, it roared through the air!

Countless fist shadows surged like a tidal wave, colliding with the vajra's eight arms. The air was filled with clanging sounds, rolling up violent gusts of air.

The entire underground space echoed continuously with deafening roars.

On the other side, "Little Zi," who had sat up again, had two strange puppets before her. One, though humanoid, had four metal wings on its back; the other, beast-shaped like a crouching tiger or leopard, had a young girl's head.

Under her control, the two puppets, one left and one right, one above and one below, charged toward Shi Zhanfeng.