Listen to the Dragon's Roar Return, the Phoenix's Cry Rises Anew

The next second.

"When!"

The broadsword fell to the ground.

The ghost messengers immediately stopped obstructing Guo Shuai and his companions and stepped aside.

Immediately afterwards...

"Thump!"

The Corpse Captain's knees buckled, and he collapsed heavily to his knees before Jiangnan!

It raised its bone claws and lashed out from its two large groin pockets, making a cracking sound.

He then turned around, waved his arms at the group of stunned ghosts and paper figures behind him, and pressed down hard.

"Damn it! How could I forget the rules set by our ancestors! Kneel down now!"

"Your Excellency has absolute privileges; you can bring as many people as you want!"

"From this moment forward, Your Excellency is our one and only king!"

"Splash!"

As the captain performed these gestures, the wedding procession behind him knelt down in unison.

Their bodies lay prostrate in the mud, expressing their submission to the Jiangnan.

Guo Shuai watched in stunned silence, his hands trembling as he held Circle.

"Holy crap, boss..."

"Why did they suddenly start self-destructive behavior?"

Han Fei also gasped in shock.

Without firing a single sword or spear.

That's incredibly powerful—it can make the other party submit.

It was more like robbery than her Plunder.

However.

Jiangnan, standing still, frowned slightly.

His deep gaze passed over the kneeling, rotting corpse captain and landed at the back of the group.

Amidst the eerie mass of people kneeling in the darkness, one person stood out conspicuously.

That's Tang Sirui.

He just stood there, frozen in place.

He didn't kneel, didn't move, and his eyes remained completely expressionless.

It was as if the memories had not been altered at all, as if the [Divine Edict] had not been received.

The bunny-eared woman beside him was anxiously tugging at his clothes, trying to pull him down to kneel with her.

But he remained completely still.

"Interesting..."

Jiangnan squinted.

[Divine Edict] directly erase and reshape cognition at the soul level, and even the bizarre cannot be immune to them.

But this man before him actually possessed the Word Spirit...

It's no longer working.

Without the slightest hesitation, Jiangnan activated the [Human Emperor Lamp] at his waist.

"Splash!"

Several chains shot out from the lamp, heading straight for Tang Sirui, who was standing there dumbfounded!

Just as the chains were about to touch Tang Sirui's body, a petite black figure suddenly darted out.

The bunny-eared woman delivered a powerful whip kick to the chain, deflecting it by half an inch!

He then stepped in front of Tang Sirui.

However, before she could regain her balance, her vision suddenly blurred.

Jiangnan's figure had appeared in front of her without her noticing, and he kicked her in the chest.

"Bang!"

The bunny-eared girl was sent flying backwards, crashing into a pile of rubble more than ten meters away.

Jiangnan didn't even glance at her, his thoughts subtly shifting.

The chain, which had been kicked off course, curved in the air and pierced through Tang Sirui's chest.

But...

The anticipated scenes of splattering blood or souls being torn apart did not occur.

The chains seemed to pass through the air, piercing directly into Tang Sirui's chest and exiting through her back.

It did not cause him any substantial harm.

Tang Sirui remained standing in the same spot, without even lifting her eyelids.

Standing at the back, Guo Shuai looked puzzled and couldn't help but scratch his head.

"Holy crap? Why is this happening?"

"Is this guy a ghost? Physical attacks and chains can't hit him?"

Just then, Albert's laughing and cursing voice suddenly echoed in his mind.

"You brainless brat, you've got it backwards!"

"It's not that the chains can't reach ghosts; it's that those chains are specifically designed to deal with ghosts!"

Guo Shuai was even more confused after hearing this, and asked in his mind, half understanding.

"Old Deng, are you saying..."

"Is this guy with his mouth sewn shut just an empty shell?"

"So that's why the boss's light isn't working?"

"That's right! That's exactly what I meant."

Albert replied approvingly, "Look closely at the front of that chain; those things are called coffin nails!"

"But it's a special Weird Artifact designed to target souls!"

"It can ignore physical defenses and directly seal and nail down the soul!"

"Plus that chain, it's practically an unparalleled weapon for forcibly extracting someone's soul!"

"The lamp in your boss's hand is definitely a terrifying Weird Artifact capable of imprisoning the souls of all things."

"And this monster before us..."

His soul had long since been taken away or completely dissipated.

"What remains now is merely a body that has been manipulated."

"Sigh~"

"If my escaped body hadn't been possessed by another soul, this would have been the case too."

"Unfortunately... there are no 'what ifs'."

After listening, Guo Shuai kept swallowing.

"Holy crap! That sounds like..."

"Why does the boss seem like the one who's a ruthless, unparalleled demon who kills without blinking an eye?"

"What if they use this on me in the future..."

Albert quipped in his mind, "What? Scared?"

"You're the one who's scared!"

Guo Shuai stiffened his neck, feeling not fear but ecstatic joy.

"I'm so glad!"

"Just imagine, if one day I'm about to die and my body is shattered, the boss can use this lamp to lock my soul inside!"

"In that case, wouldn't I be living a different kind of life again?!"

"Hahaha! With the boss backing me up, I'll never have to fight timidly again!"

"Activate mad dog mode now!"

Albert's lips twitched incessantly as he listened to Guo Shuai's indirect approach to achieving his goal.

"I can only say, as expected of you."

At that moment, Jiangnan reached out and patted Tang Sirui's cheek.

As the one who cast the Word Spirit, he knew better than anyone what had just happened.

There is no soul inside this shell.

That's why the [Divine Edict] failed.

It's like trying to use correction fluid to alter the text on a document.

But they discovered that there wasn't a single word on the paper. How could they possibly revise it?

The moment Jiangnan withdrew his hand, his gaze suddenly froze.

The moonlight reflected off the ring, allowing Jiangnan to see a line of text on Tang Sirui's middle finger ring.

[Huaxia Second Base - Iron Wall Squad]

Jiangnan raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? We're barely considered family."

The members of the China's official team have been reduced to soulless zombies here.

Moreover, they even mingled with the wedding procession from Soul Return Town.

"That would be interesting."

Jiangnan turned his head and looked at the rabbit-eared girl he had kicked away in the distance.

This thing is different from the empty shell in front of us.

She exuded a dense aura of death, clearly a pure zombie.

He strode over, grabbed the bunny-eared girl by her long ears, and lifted her off the ground with one hand.

"He..."

Jiangnan pointed at Tang Sirui, "Did you do this?"

Upon hearing Jiangnan's question, the bunny-eared girl suddenly stopped struggling.

It seemed that Jiangnan had only been testing the waters and did not actually intend to destroy Tang Sirui's physical body.

So she shook her head and spoke haltingly.

"He... is... my... husband."

"I... won't... harm... him..."

"It's... inconvenient... to... speak... now..."

"Wait... until... return... to... Soul... Town..."

"I... explain... to... you..."

Just those few short sentences.

Because of her stiff vocal cords and the effects of her transformation into a zombie, she held her tongue for a full minute before slowly finishing her sentence.

Jiangnan, who pursues absolute efficiency, was driven to distraction by the sloth-like speed of his speech.

"OK."

Jiangnan impatiently interrupted her and casually agreed.

The rabbit-eared zombie breathed a long sigh of relief, thinking that she and her husband were finally safe for the time being.

However, in the very next moment when she let her guard down...

Jiangnan did not loosen his grip on her rabbit ears with his right hand.

Instead, he extended his left index finger and touched the center of her forehead!

"By the words of God, my Soul Engraving, Eternal Vassal!"

"From this day forward, you are not allowed to lie to me!"

Tu Xiaowu's eyes glazed over for a moment.

She blinked.

His dark red pupils refocused, becoming clear as ever.

She is still herself, her memories remain, her will remains, nothing has changed.

There was just one more voice in my heart, very soft and faint, like a string stretched in the dark.

You can lie to anyone, but not to him.

"Name?"

Jiangnan asked.

Tu Xiaowu raised her head, her rabbit ears twitching.

"Slaughter..."

"Little... mist."

Jiangnan nodded.

He didn't look at her again, but turned around and glanced at Guo Shuai and the other two.

There was no extra expression, only a slight tilt of the chin towards the bridal sedan chair.

The meaning is clear: follow along.

Guo Shuai understood immediately and led Quan Quan towards the bridal sedan Circle.

Han Fei followed behind him.

Jiangnan lifted the curtain of the bridal sedan chair in the middle, bent down, and crawled inside.

The curtain fell, obscuring his figure.

Tu Xiaowu stood still, staring at the bridal sedan chair for a moment, then turned and walked towards the end of the procession.

Tang Sirui is still there.

He stood there, his eyes fixed ahead, watching the curtain of the bridal sedan chair fall.

He held the bamboo stick in his hand, remaining motionless.

Tu Xiaowu walked to his side, reached out, and touched the back of his hand.

There was no response.

She bit her lip, her fingers sliding down to grip his wrist.

"Come."

She pulled him along, taking a few steps forward until they reached the bridal sedan chair on the right.

She crouched down, lifted the sedan chair pole, hoisted it onto her shoulder, and then turned her head to glance at Tang Sirui.

Tang Sirui did not move.

Tu Xiaowu didn't say anything, but simply placed his hand on the sedan chair pole and pried his fingers apart one by one, making him hold it.

"Lift."

Her voice was very soft, as if she were coaxing a disobedient child.

Tang Sirui's fingers closed.

He gripped the sedan chair handle.

The movements were slow and stiff, but they were definitely firm enough to hold on.

The Corpse Captain, leaning on the human bone suona, stood at the front of the group, his empty eye sockets scanning the newly prepared team.

Three bridal sedan chairs, twelve ghost messengers, hundreds of eerie creatures, sedan chair bearers return to their positions, and musicians begin their work.

It raised its bone claws and waved them.

"Lift the sedan chair!"

The sound of suona horns began.

The team set off.

The bridal sedan chair drove out of the ruins of the Confucian Scholar Dojo and headed towards the Soul Return Town.

The eerie creatures played music and cheered, the ghost messengers silently guarded them, and the distinguished guest in the bridal sedan chair remained silent.

The group gradually moved further and further away, and was soon swallowed up by the night.

Only the light of the red lanterns remained, flickering and receding into the distance, growing smaller and smaller.

Finally, even the light disappeared.

The ruins of the Confucian Scholar Dojo have fallen silent once more.

On the cliff.

Confucius stood there.

He gazed in the direction the group had disappeared for a long time.

Then he spoke.

"And listen to the dragon's roar as it departs..."

"Phoenix Cry..."

"A continuation of the cycle..."