📖 Chapter 1318 - Woman in Blue

16 May, 2024

Sitting cross-legged atop the mountain in the World Realm, Wang Baole suddenly seemed to notice something. He glanced up at the vault of heaven and slightly narrowed his eyes.

A moment ago, he had vaguely felt as if someone’s divine will had swept over him. However, this divine will was rigid and inflexible, seemingly only searching for laws of the outside world.

And right now, Wang Baole’s whole body was permeated by the law of joy. Over the past few months, the laws of the outside world in his body had been completely concealed.

This was closely related to his cultivation base in the fifth step. Not only could he make use of any Dao, his fine control was also at the pinnacle. Thus, it wasn’t difficult for him to hide himself perfectly.

If he were in the fourth step, then his concealment wouldn’t be so thorough. After all, as the sourcepoint of a Dao, his involvement with the outside world would be too deep to hide.

“The waters of this Source Universe Dao Void run very deep…” Wang Baole retracted his gaze and closed his eyes, resuming his meditation. The Joy Seed in his body emitted innumerable tentacles that grew continuously within him.

Just like that, three months passed, and Wang Baole’s Joy Dao had reached an even more perfect level. At the same time, he had received the kindness of the villagers beneath the mountain many times. It seemed that those cultivating the Dao of Joy were generally kindhearted. Perhaps this was related to the essence of this natural law.

And Wang Baole felt very approving of this kindness.

However… he was very clear that in Source Universe Dao Void, being kind was nothing good. It was like a bright torch in the dark night; if it couldn’t keep out the darkness, then its final outcome would be to be extinguished.

This was the case for this village of the Joy Branch. One night, as Wang Baole sat meditating atop the mountain, he suddenly opened his eyes and looked into the distance at a nearby mountain range.

What he saw was total darkness, with nothing out of the ordinary. If he looked closely, he could faintly make out the shapes of trees and plants in the weak moonlight. However… it was too quiet.

Perhaps it was this quiet that let Wang Baole hear the echoes of a strange song.

“I will never be reborn, your back fills my heart…”

This voice belonged to a woman. It was full of resentment and eeriness, and even a sense of sorrow, as if there was an unwilling scream in there that couldn’t be released.

When the song fell into Wang Baole’s ears, his whole body trembled violently. He felt as if there was a pair of invisible hands gripping his heart, trying to rip it out of his body.

At this moment, the shadowy mountains in the distance suddenly turned transparent. Although the moonlight was faint, it seemed to penetrate exceptionally well through this transparency, allowing Wang Baole to see this dark world much clearer than before.

Now, he could see… there amid the mountains, a woman in a blue dress was walking forward. Her head was lowered, and black hair draped over her shoulders like a shawl. She was extremely tall, even to the point where she seemed like a mountain herself, and there were drops of blood dripping down her face that was hidden in her black hair.

Hundreds of blurry figures floated all around her. These figures sometimes turned into rhythms and sometimes returned to human form. Together with the giant woman, they slowly moved toward the village beneath Wang Baole’s mountain.

The woman’s singing became clearer and clearer.

“The pain of lovesickness tears me apart…”

“Who yearns for whose return?”

Wherever they passed, the transparent mountains were dyed red with dripping blood, and all kinds of vegetation withered. The resentment in the voice became stronger and stronger, and the suppressed sorrow seemed on the verge of exploding out.

Wang Baole’s mind rumbled again, and he instantly used his Joy Dao to suppress his reaction. Narrowing his eyes, he looked at the blue-clothed woman and her entourage in the distance. With his current understanding of this world, he didn’t have to think very hard to guess her identity.

She was a cultivator of Ear’s Desire City. However, it was obvious that she was on another level compared to the two he had encountered in the red mist. Those two had only been able to unleash short sequences of notes, not a complete song.

But now, not only was there complete music, but there were even lyrics.

And this song even affected Wang Baole, which showed that this blue-clothed woman was definitely an almighty being in Ear’s Desire City.

“Did she come looking for me? Or does she want to destroy the Joy Lineage branch village at the foot of the mountain?” Wang Baole’s eyes flashed coldly. Meanwhile, in the village at the foot of the mountain, the joy cultivators all woke up as well. They unleashed their power one after another, causing joy intent to fill the air. It was as if the torch that was about to go out in the darkness was still barely holding on.

This joy intent spread rapidly, seemingly radiating the power of teleportation. Beams of light slowly emerged from the ground all around the village.

Although it had declined greatly, the village was a legitimate branch of the Joy Lineage, after all. The villagers were always being hunted, so they naturally had some methods for self-preservation. This teleportation was one of them.

When the beams of light all connected above the village and formed a complete dome, the whole village would teleport in that instant.

However, the cultivator from Ear’s Desire City this time was too strong. The evil and eeriness in her song affected everyone in the village, causing all the joy cultivators to feel as if their hearts were being gripped tightly. Their complexions turned pale, and their vitality also withered rapidly.

This affected the power of their joy intent, and they couldn’t complete their teleportation immediately. In fact, the beams of light distorted under the eerie song, and even seemed on the verge of collapse.

Wang Baole sighed softly. He had lived here for half a year already, and since he approved of this village, there was no reason for him to just stand by and watch now that someone had come to find trouble.

Thus, as the light of teleportation flickered in the village, the Wang Baole looked at the blue-clothed woman in the distance with a smile on his face. As soon as his smile appeared, the law of joy erupted from his body, turning into an invisible wave of emotion that rippled into the surroundings.

Wherever it passed, the withered plants came back to life, and the bloody color of the mountains was washed away. Even the transparent heaven and earth were forced back to their normal state.

The blue-clothed woman in the distance suddenly stopped in her steps. The songweavers around her, seven or eight in number, immediately halted, turning from rhythms back into human form. Smiles uncontrollably rose up on their faces, and the moment they smiled, their bodies and souls abruptly collapsed.

Taking advantage of this momentary reprieve, the beams of light in the village below the mountain finally connected into a dome, activating the teleportation formation. The joy cultivators in the village disappeared in an instant as the blue-clothed woman slowly lifted her head.

Under the light of the moon, the woman’s face could be seen through the gaps in her black hair. Her face… was bleeding from all seven orifices, and there was a deep black bruise on her neck.

Her eyes were profound and mysterious. Flickering in her pupils was the faint figure of a woman, dancing gracefully and singing a song filled with malice and resentment.

“With the falling night rain, a wicked lantern glows…”

“Casting light on the empty stage above all those empty rows…”

“The one who should have come will never arrive…”

“The one who should have been there is no longer alive…”^[1]