Chapter 32: Returning to the Bones

Tu Lian’s screeching echoed through the ruins.

His agonized appearance was like someone waking from a nightmare years in the making, his mind still stuck in the moment before death.

A corpse puppet should have been nothing more than a dead thing, yet Xu Ning had unexpectedly awakened memories from its former life.

“Master…”

“Why, why, why…”

“You killed your junior brother, sacrificed all your disciples! Wasn’t that enough! I killed so many people for you! Collected so much blood energy! Why did you harm me!”

“All of this! Was it all for your golden core!—”

Tu Lian roared madly, both hands clutching his skull.

The blood aura coiled around him thrashed wildly, once again whipping up thick clouds of dust.

Watching Tu Lian spiral into madness, Sun Buping’s expression shifted unpredictably.

He had searched for Tu Lian for seven years, yet never found a single clue.

Only today did he learn that the massacre at Sun Family Village back then was merely Tu Lian gathering blood energy for the master he spoke of.

And this executioner’s fate? He had been refined into a corpse puppet.

Sun Buping had heard of demonic cultivators’ corpse puppet refinement methods.

The finer the corpse puppet, the more completely the deceased’s soul had to be preserved, to retain their battle instincts from life.

In the end, it meant a person died yet still found no release.

The firelight from that night at Sun Family Village returned to his eyes.

The dull thud of his father being pinned to the ground, his mother’s cries as she was dragged away, and the cold, rank dampness behind the water vat—all of it surged up from the depths of memory.

Sun Buping bared his teeth, his mouth full of blood.

“So that’s it…”

He coughed once, sneering, “You’re just a piece of trash toyed with in someone’s palm too.”

“Cough, hahahaha, hahahaha!”

“Drawing water with a bamboo basket—weaving a wedding dress for someone else to wear, hehahahaha cough!—”

Tu Lian whipped his head around.

On that rigid, dead face, fear had yet to fully fade before murderousness crawled back.

The two expressions pressed together, twisted into something utterly horrifying.

“Shut up!”

The muddled roar squeezed from its throat, and the blood aura around its body boiled over again, as if trying to forcibly expel that wisp of cyan light from within.

The moment the blood aura spread, even the collapsed wall foundations shuddered.

But the more it struggled, the less it could suppress the fear in its remnant soul—the entire corpse puppet teetered on the edge of losing control.

Sun Buping braced himself on his short blade and struggled to his feet.

Scattered talisman ash was lifted inch by inch from the ground, rising like a layer of gray-black mist from every corner of the ruins.

“Young Master Xu.”

He could barely stay upright, nearly falling several times.

“Step back toward the window.”

Xu Ning looked at him, an unease stirring in his chest.

“What are you planning to do?”

“I actually… knew he was here all along.”

Sun Buping pressed a hand against the half-collapsed wall beside him, a bitter smile spreading across his face.

“Didn’t expect to, cough, owe it all to you.”

Crack.

A crisp sound came from beneath the ruins, and wisps of pale white spiritual flames appeared in the courtyard without warning.

The blazing spiritual flames quickly joined into one mass, burning hotter and hotter.

The surging blood aura sizzled as it burned, melting away more than half in an instant.

“You! Die!—”

Tu Lian seemed to sense the crisis, suddenly letting out a screech as it dragged its broken body toward the two of them.

Sun Buping didn’t dodge.

He simply raised his hand and pressed a palm flat against Xu Ning’s chest.

Only then did Xu Ning see the blood-stained yellow talisman stuck beneath Sun Buping’s palm.

His expression changed drastically.

“Brother Sun!”

The instant the yellow talisman flared, Sun Buping used the last of his strength to roar.

“GO!”

Caught completely off guard, Xu Ning was hurled out of the courtyard by that tremendous force.

The next moment, Sun Buping’s hand pressed against the ground clenched violently.

Boom!

The collapsed guest room exploded once more.

Violent spiritual energy surged skyward, rattling the air with a fierce hum.

Xu Ning, sprawled on the ground, had no time to dodge.

The restraint on his wrist lit up, shielding him from the first wave of fire.

Almost at the same moment, a blazing white sword light flared from the direction of the back courtyard.

The sword light split through the surging black qi and vanished in a flash.

Xu Ning lay flat on the ground, his ears ringing without end.

It took a long while before he could finally lift his head.

The courtyard that had once been rather elegant was now nothing but complete ruins.

The firelight hadn’t yet burned out, still crackling atop shattered timber.

In the center of the ruins stood a black silhouette.

It was Tu Lian.

It still held its forward-lunging pose, but half its body had been blasted away.

The talisman nails in its chest had all burst apart, burned into stubs of charred ash.

Those dull eyes no longer held any of their former savagery—only a dead gray remained.

Xu Ning barely managed to stand, looking around, but found no sign of Sun Buping.

“Brother Sun?”

From the other side of the ruins came a very faint cough.

Xu Ning followed the sound, and his expression changed drastically.

He hurried over.

Sun Buping leaned against the broken courtyard wall, still clutching that short blade.

Half his body was buried beneath charred black beams, blood seeping continuously from under him.

Seeing Xu Ning approach, a glimmer of light returned to his eyes.

“Sor, sorry…”

“No need. I know you did it to save me.”

Xu Ning knelt beside him, his first instinct to move the beam pressing down on him.

The charred beam was scorching hot, and he flinched back at the burn.

He ignored it and forced his hands against it again—only then realizing he had no strength left.

That last strike had drained nearly all the spiritual energy his meridians could mobilize.

His body felt utterly hollow, so of course he couldn’t budge a beam thicker than himself.

Xu Ning gritted his teeth, drawing on the dregs of spiritual power in his qi sea.

The man had just saved his life—he couldn’t give up now.

The restraint on his wrist flared again, and a sharp pain shot through his meridians.

Xu Ning let out a muffled grunt, cold sweat beading on his forehead.

“Don’t…”

Sun Buping suddenly spoke.

“Young Master Xu, don’t waste your strength.”

Their eyes met, and Xu Ning’s heart jolted.

He could see it—there was no will to live left in Sun Buping’s eyes.

Sun Buping’s gaze passed over him, landing on the center of the ruins.

Tu Lian’s form was already dispersing.

That cyan spiritual force of Xu Ning’s suppressed corpse puppets far more powerfully than he’d imagined.

Sun Buping didn’t know the reason, but he wouldn’t miss the opportunity.

In seven years, every talisman and artifact he’d gambled his life to amass, along with his cultivation and his very life, had all been bet in this one moment.

He had no heaven-defying talent, no destiny that turned misfortune into fortune.

Being able to gamble on this mutual destruction was, for him, already the best ending.

Blood foam bubbled up from Sun Buping’s throat, yet he still let out a low chuckle.

“Doesn’t feel… as satisfying as I imagined.”

Xu Ning was silent for a moment.

“Do you regret it?”

Sun Buping looked as if he’d heard something absurd, the corners of his mouth twitching.

“How could I regret it?”

“It’s just… a little tired.”

Wind blew in through the collapsed wall, sweeping ashes past the two of them.

Sun Buping endured the searing pain, fumbling out a blood-stained spirit storage bag and pushing it to Xu Ning’s hand.

“Young Master Xu.”

He gasped desperately, “This one… shares no deep bond with you.”

“By all rights, I shouldn’t ask this of you.”

Xu Ning watched him in silence.

“Inside are the things I’ve saved up over the years. There’s still a little left.”

“Not much, just consider it payment, cough!—”

He coughed up another mouthful of blood.

It was only after a long pause that he managed to finish.

“Please…”

“Take my ashes back to Sun Family Village outside Guiyan City.”

“The village is long gone, but, but there’s still a stone tablet. Leaving them there, will, is enough.”

“I… want my parents to know… I, I, I came home.”

Having said this, Sun Buping looked at him with desperate hope.

The light in his eyes was already beginning to fade, yet he still waited for his answer.

Xu Ning looked at the spirit storage bag.

“Alright.”

He drew a breath, gripping it tightly in his hand.

“I will deliver it. For certain.”

Hearing his answer, warmth bloomed in Sun Buping’s eyes.

He looked regretfully at the short blade in his hand, now devoid of any spiritual aura.

This was the coming-of-age gift his father had sought for him, yet it had never been given to him at his capping ceremony.

“This blade…”

Sun Buping gazed at the ruins.

“Burn it too.”

“If I carry it back, my parents might not recognize me.”

As the words faded, the corner of his mouth seemed to twitch.

But before that faint smile could take shape, the man had fallen completely silent.

“…”

Xu Ning reached out and closed his unshut eyes.

“I will take you home, Brother Sun. Rest well.”

[A new karma has been formed: Returning the Bones.]

[The guest elder assessment has encountered a disruption. Quest reward: Ten Thousand Swords Talisman, granted early.]