Chà Chà Novel

The sudden system alert rang through Song Liang’s mind like an alarm, snapping him to attention. He immediately unmuted 3085.

【What’s going on?】

3085 answered urgently. 【This is a hidden main mission. Usually, only instances ranked S or higher can trigger one. It happens when the original owner thought the host could never accomplish something, only for the host to get a chance to pull it off.】

3085: 【If you hadn’t wished to be bound to Xie Yun at the end of the second instance, you would have been sent straight to thirty years later. By then, Xiushui City would already have been destroyed, so there wouldn’t have been a main mission to save it. But you made that wish!】

Song Liang: 【So the will of this world sent me back thirty years, to a time before Xiushui City fell, and that triggered the hidden mission.】

3085: 【Exactly.】

3085: 【To consolidate their rule over Xiushui City, the Zhong clan secretly fed a demon human flesh and blood. The demon grew more powerful, and the people sacrificed to it turned into demon thralls.】

3085: 【In the end, it devoured Zhong Ying, the thirty-sixth city lord, and his son Zhong Qi, becoming a Demon King. It intended to use its domain to devour every resident and cultivator in Xiushui City.】

3085: 【Immortal Venerable Shuanghua eventually stumbled upon the Demon King’s trail and slew it. But by then, the thralls had devoured the city’s people. The domain had saturated Xiushui City with demonic aura, leaving it uninhabitable. To keep the aura from spreading any farther, Shuanghua had no choice but to destroy the entire city.】

【This hidden storyline is extremely difficult. You won’t lose any points if you fail to complete it, but if you succeed…】 3085 sounded increasingly anxious. 【You might unlock the hardest mode of this S-rank instance.】

Song Liang: 【What does that mean?】

【You’ll face an entirely new storyline. The script you have will be worthless, and Zhong Yue’s story will change completely. You won’t know when you might die, and you’ll lose every advantage you have as a transmigrator.】 3085’s voice trembled. 【Host, I don’t want you to die.】

Song Liang replied, 【I won’t die.】

3085: 【Everyone dies. You could only come to me in the first place because you’d already died once.】

Song Liang: 【But if I give up on this hidden mission, I might lose a chance to change both the original owner’s ending and my own completely. Right?】

3085: 【…Yes.】

Song Liang’s lips curved.

“Then it’s the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Xue Yan turned to look at him.

In his mind, 3085 was still trying to dissuade him. 【But how are you going to save it? The will of this world automatically steers events back toward the original plot. In the novel, Xue Yan’s injuries weren’t this severe. Jing Feishuang reached the forest in time, and he soon recovered his full cultivation. Even then, he barely managed to kill Qu Feng and couldn’t save Xiushui City.】

【In this timeline, your intervention turned a minor injury into a serious one. Even with the Spirit-Locking Ring keeping his spiritual energy from leaking out, he still hasn’t recovered his full strength. You don’t even have spiritual roots. How are you going to save Xiushui City?!】

Song Liang: 【Who says I’m doing it alone? There’s Yun Yao, Jing Feishuang, Chen You, and all those other cultivators.】

3085: 【???】

3085: 【Can’t you see they’re already running?】

Song Liang: 【They won’t get away.】

3085: 【?】

Song Liang turned to Xue Yan.

“I need spiritual energy. A lot of it.”

“All right.”

Without a second thought, Xue Yan reached for the wrist bearing the bodhi beads. To his surprise, Song Liang drew his hand away and reached for his neck instead.

Xue Yan went still. A touch of warmth brushed the vulnerable skin of his throat. An instant later, the restraint around his neck was gone.

Click.

3085’s voice trembled. 【Host, I don’t want you to die.】

Song Liang replied, 【I won’t die.】

3085: 【Everyone dies. You could only come to me in the first place because you’d already died once.】

Song Liang: 【But if I give up on this hidden mission, I might lose a chance to change both the original owner’s ending and my own completely. Right?】

3085: 【…Yes.】

Song Liang’s lips curved.

“Then it’s the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Xue Yan turned to look at him.

In his mind, 3085 was still trying to dissuade him. 【But how are you going to save it? The will of this world automatically steers events back toward the original plot. In the novel, Xue Yan’s injuries weren’t this severe. Jing Feishuang reached the forest in time, and he soon recovered his full cultivation. Even then, he barely managed to kill Qu Feng and couldn’t save Xiushui City.】

【In this timeline, your intervention turned a minor injury into a serious one. Even with the Spirit-Locking Ring keeping his spiritual energy from leaking out, he still hasn’t recovered his full strength. You don’t even have spiritual roots. How are you going to save Xiushui City?!】

Song Liang: 【Who says I’m doing it alone? There’s Yun Yao, Jing Feishuang, Chen You, and all those other cultivators.】

3085: 【???】

3085: 【Can’t you see they’re already running?】

Song Liang: 【They won’t get away.】

3085: 【?】

Song Liang turned to Xue Yan.

“I need spiritual energy. A lot of it.”

“All right.”

Without a second thought, Xue Yan reached for the wrist bearing the bodhi beads. To his surprise, Song Liang drew his hand away and reached for his neck instead.

Xue Yan went still. A touch of warmth brushed the vulnerable skin of his throat. An instant later, the restraint around his neck was gone.

Click.

Song Liang caught the black Spirit-Locking Ring and gave him a knowing look.

“Did you know all along that the ring was meant to keep your spiritual energy from leaking out so your wounds would heal and your cultivation would recover faster?”

“…This isn’t the only Spirit-Locking Ring the Taixuan Sect has sold.”

“I thought so.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Something very interesting.” Song Liang winked at him. “Something that will let you walk my Dao and me walk yours.”

A sudden sense of foreboding seized Xue Yan. He grabbed Song Liang’s wrist.

“The Yaoshang Sect’s library holds thirty-seven thousand and sixty-one volumes. Among them are ancient texts recording the three thousand Dao arts of the cultivators of old—”

“…”

Song Liang cut him off without mercy.

“Are you sure you want to discuss Dao arts with me when we’re standing between life and death?”

Xue Yan faltered.

Before he could speak again, Song Liang prompted him:

“Spiritual energy.”

Xue Yan pressed his lips together and grasped the wrist bearing the bodhi beads. Without realizing it, he tightened his grip until the beads dug into Song Liang’s skin.

Song Liang couldn’t help laughing.

“Gently, Your Venerableness. I’m a delicate, fragile mortal, you know—mmph!”

Before he could finish, Xue Yan’s grip tightened sharply, as though he meant to break Song Liang’s wrist. Then, as if afraid he actually might, he let go the very next instant. Only those green eyes remained fixed on Song Liang, cold and fierce.

For an instant, Song Liang was reminded of him in the previous two worlds. He smiled, but there was no time to dwell on it. He glanced up at the sky, then at the crimson figure taking shape in the churning mist among the ruins behind Xue Yan.

“Your Venerableness, can you take the great demon’s head and save me and my city?”

Xue Yan held his hand tightly and said nothing.

Song Liang seemed to know his answer. With a faint smile, he slipped his wrist free and calmly took a step back.

“I’m off.”

He tossed the frost-white longsword into the air and copied Jing Feishuang’s sword-riding seal. The blade wobbled a few times before steadying. He stepped onto it and soared above the city lord’s residence without looking back.

The next instant, blinding sword light erupted behind him. Sword energy carrying a terrifying intent split the ground beneath the entire ruined estate. Rubble crumbled to dust wherever it passed. The earth shook and gave way in sections, revealing what lay beneath—

An enormous demon serpent, coiled upon itself in layer after layer. It was pitch-black from head to tail, its scales hard as armor and edged like blades. Countless demon thralls swarmed around it, severed human limbs churning in the mass of flesh and blood. Human skins stripped of flesh and bone strained their mouths open in soundless screams. Their limbs twisted as they poured out of the pit and rushed toward the living flesh of Xiushui City.

Jing Feishuang and the cultivators who had stayed behind looked down at the horrifying sight, despair beginning to creep over them.

Could so few of them really kill that many thralls?

Yun Yao watched in silence, then raised a hand and withdrew her parasol.

“The immortal sects accept offerings from the mortal world. It is our duty to protect it. But Xiushui City is already doomed. I have my sect’s disciples to think of. I cannot stay any longer.”

Jing Feishuang said nothing. She had no grounds to stop her.

Chen You, too, found himself torn. The Tianluo Dharma Sect rarely involved itself in mortal affairs, but his own sect had made hunting demons and protecting mortals its duty. If he left as well, how could he ever face his own Dao again?

But if he stayed, what would become of the young disciples beside him? His junior brothers and sisters had only just begun their cultivation. Was he supposed to take them to their deaths with him? He couldn’t do it.

Below, countless thralls overran Xiushui City, and heart-rending screams tore through the streets. Above, cultivators fled in panic on their swords. The whole scene was a hell on earth, as absurd as it was bitterly ironic.

“Fellow Daoist Jing, do you still think being a mortal isn’t so bad?”

The voice at their ears jolted them back to the present. Jing Feishuang whipped around, her eyes widening.

“…Young Lord?!”

Song Liang stood behind her on a frost-white longsword, clad in crimson brocade, though he had no spiritual roots of his own. His long hair streamed in the wind and the hem of his robes snapped around him. Powerful, familiar spiritual energy coursed through him, and the sword beneath his feet gave off an equally familiar presence.

Jing Feishuang recognized the owner of that spiritual energy and that flying sword almost at once. Astonishment robbed her of speech. Across from her, Chen You and the others stared openmouthed.

Immortal Venerable Shuanghua’s life-bound spirit sword. Immortal Venerable Shuanghua’s spiritual energy. Who in the world was this man? Wasn’t he supposed to have no spiritual energy? How could he ride a sword at all, let alone Shuanghua’s own life-bound blade?!

“Cultivators, immortals, even that Heavenly Dao you put your faith in—when disaster strikes, none of them will spare a thought for anyone else.”

Song Liang took a palm-sized object from inside his robes. His gaze settled on the cultivators fleeing in every direction.

“I want to cultivate so I can hold the sword in my own hand, instead of leaving it in someone else’s.”

Jing Feishuang caught sight of what he was holding and looked at him in surprise.

“What are you going to do?”

Song Liang did not answer. He poured his divine will into the object. In an instant, white light flared along the perimeter of the vast city, and a deafening hum rang out.

Every fleeing cultivator heard it and jerked their head up. Countless streams of spiritual energy crossed and intertwined overhead, forming the outline of a great array that sealed off the entire city.

The city’s defensive array was now active. It would let people in, but no one out. Only a Mahayana cultivator could break it.

The cultivators’ faces changed. They shot upward, trying to escape before the array closed completely, only to watch it seal right before their eyes. They were trapped inside the city.

Furious, they hurled their spiritual energy at the array in a frenzy, but it sent them hurtling back. Below them lay a hell overrun with demon thralls. It did not take them long to realize who was responsible. They wheeled around on their swords and surrounded Song Liang.

“Have you lost your mind?! Zhong Yue, you goddamn lunatic!”

“Xiushui City belongs to your Zhong clan! What does that have to do with us? Let us out!”

“Your clan brought this on itself! Why should we pay for what you did?”

“We’re just independent cultivators! We were only passing through!”

“…”

Yun Yao had been preparing to leave with her disciples. Now she, too, was furious.

“Zhong Yue, how dare you! Open the city’s defensive array at once!”

“If you can kill me, go ahead. If you can’t, spare me the shouting.”

Song Liang looked at them coldly and sent his voice into every ear with his spiritual energy.

“Listen carefully. As long as Xiushui City stands, you live. If Xiushui City falls, you die with it!”