The Old Gods

Chapter 1067 Jade Corpse Mountain

This slowly flowing scroll of memories is, for Lu Ran, who is only 23 years old, the long river of history.

Over the long years that the faceless jade vessel has existed, most of its memories have become blurred.

In the long scroll, countless semi-transparent threads weave together to create a clear picture, only a vague and indistinct image.

Of course, there are also relatively clear paragraphs.

For example, the events that happened before her death, including the battle just now, were witnessed by Lu Ran from her first-person perspective.

Turning the page further back, you'll see scenes of her battling on various sacred mountains.

From Dragon God Mountain, she forcefully broke through the encirclement, carrying the head of the Rain Master;
Under the furious gaze of the paper doll, she held Hongzhu'er in her arms and brutally crushed the jade-like body in her embrace.

She shattered the Ghostfire Chrysanthemum with one foot and blasted through the sacred mountain heavily protected by the Burning Gate warriors;

Her rolled-up jade robe wrapped around the desperate pheasant, letting it transform into golden light and weave through it, unable to escape her grasp no matter what.

Jade Flute, Ox, Corpse-Suppressing Official
The more he looked, the gloomier Lu Ran's face became.

Later, a faint sadness appeared in his horrified, dead sheep eyes.

Within the vast Jade Venerable's vision, she shattered countless blood chains, her jade hand tore open the crimson robe that blotted out the sky, and then grasped one of Tu Feng's arms.

She weaved freely through the forest of bone pillars, knocking aside the leg of the armored guard. Her white robe surged towards Niu Zhengzheng like a tidal wave, and she smashed his throat with a single punch.

She grabbed Niu Zhengzheng's head and lifted it up violently, cruelly separating the body from its head, leaving only a lonely head in her hand.

She suddenly abandoned her attack on the mountain and rushed towards the swirling clouds in the sky. She was intercepted by Yan Shuangzi at the first moment and was cleaved back by Deng Yuxiang's sword. She crashed hard into the sacred mountain and then suddenly changed her trajectory.

Before the spider lilies blooming on the mountaintop completely withered, she forcefully crushed Bai Yanhui's false god body.

Mr. Bai, are you unaware of this kind of future?
Why doesn't he leave?
Lu Ran pursed his lips tightly, his eyes filled with icy killing intent, lost in the memories of her, his heart bleeding!

To trample on, to destroy.

Conquest, death.

She died too.

Imprisoned by Fairy Jiang's torrent of sword shadows, cut in half at the waist by Emperor Lu, and pierced through by ten thousand swords by Sword Master, his body torn to pieces.

Lu Ran slammed him to the ground, bombarding him relentlessly, and then brutally pierced his skull.

Therefore, the thoughts and consciousness of the Jade Venerables are indeed interconnected; at least it can be confirmed that their consciousness was interconnected during their lifetimes.

Lu Ran quickly flipped forward, only to find another long stretch of blurry images, making it impossible to make sense of anything.

Until a certain moment, Lu Ran's thoughts stopped.

He saw himself from a few months ago.

That was his first time exploring the borderlands. After being discovered, he accepted her invitation and went to her slightly raised fingertips.

In her eyes, she felt so insignificant.

She held it between her fingers, gently crushing it into a paste, then turning it into jade powder that fell in rustling sounds.

and many more!

What about the memories in between?

What about the memory of the enormous jade vessel building a white jade city wall and hiding away?

Why are they all blurry?

Lu Ran's expression was somewhat unpleasant. Wang Quan had indeed said that the memories of the dead were mostly vague.

Only the memories of the moment before death, and the memories of the past that are unforgettable enough, will remain in the painting.

Another point is that Lu Ran's current Forgetful Spring Divine Technique is only at the Jiang level.

Perhaps a higher quality image would allow for more vivid memories?
"Whoo~"

With a thought, Lu Ran's river of memories flowed once more, and large, blurry images came into view.

As he flipped through the pages, he couldn't help but look bewildered.

In the few clear images of the enormous jade vessel, his own figure appeared again and again.

No, she didn't see it with her own eyes.

It should be information obtained from the Jade Emperor's henchmen, and then the imagination unfolded from there.

Lu Ran destroyed one sacred mountain after another, including Thunder North Wind, annihilated the Martial Arts Jade-Faced Snake Group, and had a final duel with the Evil Spear Emperor.
"Whoosh~" The scroll of memories was too long, like an illusory river, slowly flowing around Lu Ran and Yu Zun's souls, circle after circle, getting longer and longer.

Lu Ran frantically traced the trail forward.

Until he saw a desolate land, and the crushed stone sculpture beneath her feet.

For some reason, the image is so clear.

She stared blankly at her feet, or at the crushed stone skull beneath her feet.

Is this a world of gods and demons?

Never mind, this scene is very important to her!

Lu Ran reached into the illusory river with one hand, and divine power surged in his palm.

"Uh." Jade Venerable's divine soul suddenly let out a muffled groan.

When Lu Ran first cast the spell, the Jade Venerable's divine soul uttered a few words, but ever since he successfully cast the spell, the Jade Venerable's divine soul has remained with its eyes wide open, floating blankly in the same spot.

At this moment, she suddenly moved, which meant that Lu Ran had really extracted this part of her memory!
"Whoo~"

Lu Ran clenched his fist tightly, and the illusory memory images rapidly condensed, mixed with a small piece of divine soul energy, and together they compressed and solidified into an ancient coin.

The small coin is round on the outside and square on the inside, and is also semi-transparent, containing this image.

The Floating Life Coin slowly flew into Lu Ran's palm, filled with a faint sense of sorrow.

This is assuming the coin didn't break.

If this ephemeral coin were used to strike a living being, the target would likely be completely overwhelmed by overwhelming sorrow, instantly losing their ability to fight. "Whoosh~"

The scroll of memory continues to stretch out.

Lu Ran travels upstream in the long river of memories of the Faceless Jade Venerable.

Fragments of memories transformed into floating coins, quietly suspended beside him, yet Lu Ran could no longer remain calm.

His expression grew increasingly complicated.

The emotions she carried in her memory seemed to be threatening to completely overwhelm Lu Ran; they were the endless sorrow that had accumulated throughout her long life.

Waves of bitterness and despair crashed over Lu Ran's body and mind like a monstrous tidal wave.

In the deepest part of her memory, he saw a scene that he would never forget.

That was a mountain.

A massive mountain of corpses, made up of countless white jade skeletons.

In the view of the faceless jade deity, the mountaintop was not even visible.
They are not the Faceless Jade Venerable, but rather her people.

They had all sorts of faces, but most of them were contorted in pain, dying with their eyes wide open.

They all had the same jade bodies, but the chest of each body had been cruelly hollowed out, as if something very precious had been taken away from them.

Before this mountain built from the corpses of the White Jade Clan, the Faceless Jade Venerable was clearly not the powerful, cold, and indifferent being he was now.

She was just a fragile and pitiful creature, watching all of this with a lost and bewildered expression.

She crawled forward, weeping, rummaging through the remains as if searching for a glimmer of hope.

She cried out in anguish, shaking the cold corpses in vain, hoping for a single response.

After an unknown amount of time, she collapsed onto the mountain of corpses.

He gripped his head tightly and shook it frantically.

Gradually, she broke down.
She slowly peeled away the corpses of her people, like a lonely and desperate child searching for a place to belong, and crawled little by little into the mountain of corpses.

She seemed to want to bury herself as well, to find a sense of belonging to her race, and to become a mountain of corpses together with her people.

Forever united as one.
In a daze, a sentence that the Faceless Jade Venerable once said resurfaced in Lu Ran's mind once again.

At that time, she was already a ghost, imprisoned in the Soul Prison by Lu Ran. Burning under the soul fire, a faint smile appeared on her face as she whispered to him:
"You haven't experienced real pain."

That was just the ghost of a henchman, and it's highly unlikely that it knew anything about this experience.

However, the minions were created based on the original body's essence, and that alone was enough to keep her from changing color under the ravages of the soul fire.

"Ding Ding~"

The coins clattered together, making a crisp sound.

In Lu Ran's palm, this coin was filled with piercing pain and despair.

Lu Ran lowered his eyes and looked at the dazed Jade Venerable Soul.

Faceless, heartless?
No.

She should have had a clear face, just like those of her clansmen who died tragically.

Perhaps, in that mountain of corpses piled up by thousands of her people, she became like everyone else.

Because her face is blurred, she can be anyone.

She would cry, feel sad, and be in so much pain that she couldn't control herself.

But perhaps her heart, along with that mountain of corpses, died in that same place as her people.

"Heh," Lu Ran's eyes reddened slightly, and he sighed deeply.

Due to the nature of divine magic, and also because of the extreme intensity of Jade Venerable's emotions, it was truly difficult for him not to be affected.

It now appears that the Jade Venerable's memories are incomplete.

Lu Ran did not witness how she rose to power or how she overthrew the gods and demons.

Perhaps it's because the divine power level isn't high enough that the search wasn't thorough enough?

Or perhaps for some other reason, Lu Ran had no answer for the time being. He dispersed his divine power and called out:

"Jade Vessel".

The enormous jade statue remained expressionless and unresponsive.

He remained silent for a moment, his eyes surging with energy. The Jade Venerable's divine soul swiftly flew over, converging before his two dead sheep before entering the God and Demon Sculpture Garden.

Under Lu Ran's control, they surged toward the still-unfinished stone sculpture, the Faceless Stone Venerable.

Previously, when Lu Ran built the Forgotten Spring stone sculpture in the garden, it took him more than a month and a half, because Lu Ran was absorbing the souls of the Forgotten Spring minions.

The soul is different!
Based on his experience in creating the Forgotten Spring stone sculpture, and considering that Lu Ran had previously slain a colossal jade deity and used its soul to forge a stone sculpture, he could roughly conclude that:
It takes 6 to 7 Jade Venerable Souls to complete the Faceless Stone Venerable in the garden.

Lu Ran gripped a handful of illusory Floating Life Money in his hand, his figure flickering.

The soldiers have already joined the battle to defend the sacred mountain. Jiang Ruyi is also on the mountaintop, constantly dispatching her elite troops and sending Qiang Xiu and Huo Xieseng to provide support in various regions.

Upon seeing Lu Ran return, she immediately raised her hand and placed her palm under his feet.

His profound sorrow instantly filled the entire summit of the sacred mountain.

"What's wrong with you?" Jiang Ruyi's heart tightened, and she asked in a low voice with concern.

Lu Ran did not respond, but instead asked, "Which sacred mountain is in the most critical situation?"

"From Dragon God Mountain."

"Hmm." Lu Ran's figure flashed and disappeared.

(End of this chapter)