He was a sinister, cold-hearted young man.
His long hair faded from black to red, with streaks of deathly pale white running through it. His skin was so pale it was almost translucent, and his blood vessels were faintly visible beneath it.
His face was exceedingly handsome, even pretty in a delicate, feminine way. One of his narrow eyes was red, the other silver, and the perfect proportions of his features made him unforgettable.
Yet that "pretty" face wore a bloodthirsty, cruel expression, and his calm gaze held a disregard for life. His close-fitting long robe, black with red accents, constantly gave off a pungent stench of blood.
He stared at Zhang Lexuan indifferently, then lifted his foot and planted it on her head.
"It was you! You did this!" With her head pinned beneath the young man's foot, Zhang Lexuan's expression twisted instantly, her voice full of fury and venomous hatred.
"Ming Zhao! You rat who hides his head and shows his tail, you Evil Soul Master beast anyone would be justified in killing! Shrek won't let you go. Sooner or later, you'll pay for these blood debts with your life!"
"Is that so?" The young man pressed down gently, grinding the rough sole of his shoe against Zhang Lexuan's delicate face.
"It doesn't matter. Let them come. I don't care, because you'll fight for me. You'll take up arms for me and wield your blade against your former teachers, elders, family and friends, until the world ends."
"Pah! Dream on!" Zhang Lexuan's face contorted as she tried to gather her last trace of Soul Power and self-destruct, blowing this beast who deserved to be cut to pieces to death.
"Even if I die, I'll never bow to you!"
The young man looked down at her and pressed harder with his foot, forcibly interrupting her self-destruction.
"You'll understand." The young man smiled faintly, raised his right hand and snapped his fingers with a crisp crack.
The festive sound of gongs and drums rang out once more. Accompanied by an eerie chant that made the scalp crawl, two groups of female ghosts emerged from the red mist again, carrying a bridal sedan chair.
They danced around the young man and Zhang Lexuan. Stepping through stiff dance moves, the female ghosts scattered paper petals into the air, sending them fluttering around the pair.
The wedding music grew increasingly fervent and rousing.
The female ghosts carrying the bridal sedan chair swayed their way over to Zhang Lexuan and stopped. They set the chair down and gently lifted the curtain embroidered with the double-happiness character.
Dressed in scarlet wedding robes, a tasselled coronet on her head and a translucent red veil covering her face, the ghost bride stared fixedly at Zhang Lexuan with lifeless eyes.
Snap-
Another snap of his fingers.
Lengths of red silk flew out of the bridal sedan chair, twisting through the air like slithering snakes. They swiftly landed on Zhang Lexuan, coiling around her neck, chest, waist and limbs and binding her tight.
The young man had already removed his foot from her head. Before Zhang Lexuan could resist, the red silk wrapped around her dragged her toward the bridal sedan chair.
Only at that moment did Zhang Lexuan finally understand what she was about to face.
"No..."
"No!!!"
Looking again at the two female ghosts holding the curtain open beside the bridal sedan chair, they wore eerie red hats that covered the upper halves of their faces, leaving only the lower halves exposed.
But on closer inspection, they were unmistakably the female inner-court disciples who had died not long ago when the human-fat candles were lit!
After being dragged into the bridal sedan chair, Zhang Lexuan sat in the ghost bride's original seat. The ghost bride herself turned into a phantom, seemingly overlapping with her.
At the same time, candle flames lit up one after another inside the bridal sedan chair, casting a layer of indescribably netherworldly color over its scarlet interior.
"Let go of me!"
"Let me out!!"
Zhang Lexuan finally panicked, her eyes filled with utter terror as she struggled desperately inside the bridal sedan chair.
But she was already weakened from exhausting her Soul Power, and red silk bound her body all over. No matter how she struggled, she remained tightly bound to the seat of the bridal sedan chair.
Outside the bridal sedan chair, the rousing wedding music came to an abrupt stop.
The ruined woodland fell silent once more.
The next second, a piercing scream came from inside the bridal sedan chair. Ghostly green flames from the human-fat candles flew from their holders and landed on Zhang Lexuan.
The flames burned across her skin, using her body, her flesh and blood, and even her soul as fuel.
The searing pain that reached deep into her soul made Zhang Lexuan lose control of her mind in an instant. Her eyes rolled back, and she wailed as she strained to stick out her tongue.
Gradually,
her body became incorporeal.
It overlapped with the ghost bride, who had already become incorporeal, and slowly the two became indistinguishable.
The ghost bride's face, blood streaming from all seven orifices, gradually took on Zhang Lexuan's appearance.
She wore a blissful smile and exquisite makeup. Tassels and golden ornaments shaped like phoenixes spreading their wings adorned her silky black hair. Her scarlet wedding robes set off the graceful curves of her slender, supple figure, and her small, jade-like feet wore a pair of exquisite red embroidered shoes.
Even Zhang Lexuan's hands held a red embroidered ball tied with a red silk bow.
The ghost bride, Zhang Lexuan.
"My lady, the auspicious hour has come..." The young man cast aside his earlier malice and indifference, a gentle smile on his handsome face.
Inside the bridal sedan chair, the ghost bride raised her head, a shy smile of incomparable beauty appearing on her stunning face.
"My husband..."
The next instant,
the female ghosts in red dissolved into the wind, and the young man and his ghost bride faded away together.
The ruined woodland returned to an eerie, deathly stillness.
Aside from the destruction caused by the blood moon, not the slightest clue remained at the scene. Not even a trace of Soul Power lingered; there was nothing at all.
An unknown amount of time passed.
A figure descended from the sky in a frantic rush, accompanied by terrifying fluctuations of Soul Power, and landed amid the ruined woodland.
His clothes were unkempt, and he smelled of alcohol and meat. His white hair was disheveled, and he hadn't even wiped the grease from around his mouth.
"Damn it, I'm too late!"
The newcomer panted heavily, his cloudy old eyes bloodshot. His eyes were red, and he was panting like an ox.
Most striking of all were the nine Soul Rings circling him.
Two yellow, two purple, four black, and one red.
He was none other than Xuan Zi the Taotie, a member of the Sea God Pavilion, deputy commander of Shrek's Inspection Corps, Shrek's second strongest expert, and a Level 98 Super Douluo.
Trusting Zhang Lexuan, he had thought that as the inner court's senior sister, who possessed a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring and had reached the Soul Douluo realm, and with eleven inner-court elites at the Soul Emperor realm or above accompanying her, no matter how incompetent they were, they couldn't possibly come to grief at the hands of an Evil Soul Master at the Soul Saint realm.
With their team's composition, let alone an Evil Soul Master at the Soul Saint realm, they would even be capable of fighting an Evil Soul Master at the Titled Douluo realm.
So Xuan Zi had gone off to drink without a worry, taking a mouthful of wine and a bite of meat, happy as could be.
But only after he had finished drinking and tried to contact Zhang Lexuan through the Inspection Corps' unique method of communication, receiving no response even after a long wait, did Xuan Zi suddenly realize that things seemed to have slipped beyond his control again.
Following the direction the Inspection Corps members had taken, he eventually arrived here.
At the place where their bones were buried.