The Return of Stars to the Jianghu

Chapter 225 Soul Tearing Through the Void Tunnel

Luo Yifei stared at the suspended figure under the searchlight, his heart sinking. If it weren't for the Soul-Summoning Bell protecting him, he would probably be in the same state by now. He made up his mind that when he returned to Fengyu Mountain, he would find a way to retrieve those divine artifacts without damaging the foundation of the mountain's protective array.

The Abyss slowly approached.

Liu Xuanfeng hovered in the void, his posture twisted and bizarre, as if he had been bound by invisible ropes and carelessly discarded. His signature gray robe was tattered, as if torn by invisible claws, the strips of cloth slowly drifting in the almost stagnant force field.

His eyes were tightly closed, his face was ashen from blood loss, his lips were cracked and purplish-black, and he was completely lifeless, like a dilapidated doll abandoned in a galactic graveyard. What was even more chilling was that he was not still, but like the corpse in the diving suit, he was being dragged along by that viscous, light-repelling dark force field, sliding extremely slowly but irreversibly into a deeper depth—a place of absolute darkness that even searchlights could not penetrate.

His body spun slightly as he glided, and fragments of his gray robe fluttered around, revealing his equally bloodless skin and several strange, deep wounds that showed the bone—the edges of those wounds were smooth, not like those cut by a sharp weapon, but rather as if they had been instantly torn apart by some powerful energy.

“Life signs… extremely weak! Nearing the brink of death!” An astronaut in charge of life monitoring reported in a trembling voice. The curve representing Liu Xuanfeng’s vital signs on the screen had almost become a straight line on the verge of disappearing.

"Lock onto him! Prepare the robotic arm!" Jing Yun's voice was calm, but his eyes were grave. He knew all too well that in this bizarre spacetime, any routine operation could lead to unpredictable consequences.

"No! That force field interference is too strong!" another astronaut responded urgently. "Energy readings are erratic! The robotic arm control system is being interfered with by an unknown magnetic field, and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed! Forcing a grab might..." He dared not finish his sentence, as forcing a grab could very likely tear that already fragile body apart completely.

Luo Yifei's heart clenched suddenly. Liu Xuanfeng's condition was a hundred times worse than expected! Just as everyone was anxious, Sun Li (Huang Yuyan) suddenly opened her eyes. In those eyes that belonged to Huang Yuyan, but were now burning with Sun Li's will, a sharp light flashed.

"Too late!" she hissed, her figure surging forward, instantly closing in on the thick, transparent alloy of the porthole. Her hands flashed, forming hand seals so fast they left afterimages. A pure and condensed spiritual energy surged from her body, not as an attack, but as two pale golden, semi-transparent ropes of spiritual energy, like two living serpents, ignoring the submarine's sturdy bulkheads—a projection of energy from a higher dimension!

Two ropes of spiritual energy, ignoring the barriers of spatial distance and the viscous force field, precisely wrapped around Liu Xuanfeng's floating body. One bound his waist and abdomen, while the other tightly coiled around his limp wrist. The ropes shimmered with golden light and instantly tightened!

"Ugh..." A faint groan, like air leaking from a broken bellows, escaped from Liu Xuanfeng's cracked lips. The moment the spiritual energy rope touched his body, his tightly closed eyelids twitched violently, as if forcibly stimulated in an endless nightmare. His unfocused pupils seemed to struggle to focus, only to be dragged back by the heavy darkness.

The soul-summoning bell in Luo Yifei's hand suddenly emitted an unprecedentedly clear and melodious sound! "Ding—!" It was no longer a slight tremor, but like a stone thrown into an ancient well, it spread out a visible ripple with a warm white light! The ripple spread out from Luo Yifei as the center and instantly swept over Liu Xuanfeng's body.

The next second, Liu Xuanfeng's eyes snapped open.

"I'm alive! Hahaha, I'm alive!" Liu Xuanfeng suddenly burst into laughter.

Luo Yifei's muscles tensed instantly, and he almost instinctively took a half-step back. The remaining spiritual energy within his body surged and ebbed at his fingertips as he warily stared at the seemingly crazed Liu Xuanfeng. The Soul-Summoning Bell trembled violently in his palm. Its clear, resonant hum not only failed to subside but also resonated strangely with Liu Xuanfeng's laughter, turning into a shrill, tearing sound, as if issuing a frantic warning.

"Watch out!" Sun Li (Huang Yuyan) shouted sharply, reacting even faster than Luo Yifei. Her hands, which had been holding the spiritual energy ropes, suddenly tightened, the pale golden ropes retracting like startled snakes, weaving into a thin spiritual energy barrier in front of her. Her eyes, sharp as knives, locked onto Liu Xuanfeng, and the fluctuations of her spiritual energy suddenly became violent and unstable. Clearly, Liu Xuanfeng's sudden "resurrection" and maniacal laughter had exceeded her expectations and posed a significant threat.

"What's wrong with you? I'm Ma Jierui." After saying that, Liu Xuanfeng saw his image reflected on the black screen on the wall. "How did I become like this?"

“Ma Jierui, a member of the second team of the icebreaking squad in the Africa project,” Jing Yun said calmly.

Liu Xuanfeng—or rather, Ma Jierui, who possessed Liu Xuanfeng's body—looked around blankly, his eyes filled with immense confusion and horror at the unfamiliar environment and his new body. He tried to raise his hand to touch his face, but his body was stiff and sluggish like a rusty puppet; his arm only twitched and lifted a few inches before falling limply to its side. This body had clearly not yet adapted to its new "master," or rather, two consciousnesses were engaged in a silent and fierce struggle within this dying shell.

“Team Leader Jing, confirm the identification code… It’s Ma Jierui! Ma Jierui from the ‘Icebreaker’ team 2 of the Africa project!” An astronaut stared at the encrypted data stream that popped up on the control panel, his voice trembling with shock.

Jing Yun's gaze was sharp as a hawk's, fixed on Liu Xuanfeng's face, which bore the same expression as Ma Jierui's. He nodded slightly, confirming the information, but the solemnity between his brows remained unchanged. A project team member who had been missing for several years had appeared in the body of an otherworldly cultivator in such a bizarre way, appearing in this spacetime rift where even the laws of physics seemed blurred. The dangers and secrets hidden behind this were far beyond imagination.

"Ugh... Ugh..." A painful, unintelligible groan suddenly escaped Liu Xuanfeng's throat, even more intense than before. His body jerked violently, as if struck by an invisible electric current, the muscles beneath his gray robe spasming and bulging unnaturally. His eyes, which had just been filled with confusion, were instantly filled with a completely different, extremely intense pain and rage! Deep within his pupils, it seemed as if a ghostly green flame was burning—a boundless hatred and struggle belonging to Liu Xuanfeng himself, forcibly suppressed and dragged along.

Liu Xuanfeng's hands suddenly clawed upwards at the void, his fingertips slicing through the air with a shrill sound, as if trying to grab the invisible hand dragging him into the abyss. "Get...out of the way!" A hoarse, broken voice, yet filled with the pressure of furious spiritual energy, was squeezed out from the depths of his throat, completely different from Ma Jierui's previous tone.

The soul-summoning bell in Luo Yifei's palm seemed to have been thrown into boiling oil; its buzzing instantly turned violent and shrill! The warm light flickered violently, its surface scorching hot, as if it would melt in his hand. The bell's sound was no longer a warning, but rather a desperate cry and struggle on the verge of collapse, forming an eerie resonance with the desperate roar emanating from the depths of Liu Xuanfeng's soul. Luo Yifei felt a chilling, bone-piercing intent surge through the bell, violently assaulting his consciousness—the pain of Liu Xuanfeng being torn apart and dragged, the icy summons of the abyss's darkness, almost freezing his thoughts.

"His...his soul...is being forcibly ripped away!" Sun Li (Huang Yuyan) cried out, her face deathly pale as she maintained her spiritual barrier. As someone with powerful divine sense, she "saw" the terrifying scene more clearly than anyone else: Liu Xuanfeng's tattered soul was being tightly bound by a strange, viscous, gelatinous force originating from that absolute darkness, like a predator dragging its prey, bit by bit, irresistibly pulling it into the dark depths that even a searchlight could not penetrate! As for Ma Jierui's consciousness, it was like a parasite accidentally stuffed into an empty shell, drifting aimlessly within this body that had lost its main soul, exacerbating the body's collapse.

"Lock onto that dark area! The source of the energy interference is there! High-power focused scan!" Jing Yun's voice was resolute, breaking the brief silence within the submarine. He realized that the root of the problem wasn't Liu Xuanfeng, but rather the all-consuming darkness within it. The Abyss's engines roared, the ship slightly adjusting its attitude, all detection beams converging like invisible javelins towards the writhing darkness behind Liu Xuanfeng.

"Warning! Warning! Extremely high intensity negative energy reaction detected! Intensity... intensity exceeds the threshold! Still rapidly increasing!" The piercing alarm was forcibly suppressed, but the frantically jumping scarlet data and sharp notification sounds on the control panel made everyone's hearts leap into their throats. The curve representing the energy reading shot straight to the top of the screen like a runaway rocket.

"No! The scanning beam is completely absorbed! We can't analyze the internal structure!" The operator's voice was filled with despair. That darkness was like a greedy black hole, devouring all detection methods.

Just then, Liu Xuanfeng's soul, which was being dragged along, seemed to sense some kind of opportunity, stemming from the faint disturbance brought about by the Abyss's scan, or perhaps from a final outburst of pure survival instinct. His eyes, burning with pain and rage, suddenly turned towards Luo Yifei—no, they stared intently at the frantically ringing soul-summoning bell in Luo Yifei's hand! His eyes were filled with indescribable complex emotions—a sliver of desperate hope amidst despair, and… a resolute determination that disregarded everything!

"Bell... lend me... power!" As Liu Xuanfeng's soul was being torn apart, it let out a silent yet soul-shaking roar towards the direction of the summoning bell!

Almost at the same instant his thought was uttered, the Soul-Summoning Bell in Luo Yifei's hand erupted with an unprecedentedly brilliant light! It was no longer a warm white halo, but instantly transformed into a blazing silver light with a metallic sheen, almost burning! An overwhelming and uncontrollable force, completely beyond Luo Yifei's control, erupted like a volcano that had been dormant for millennia, flowing through his connection with the bell, transforming into a visible silver lightning bolt that tore through the void, ignoring spatial distance, and fiercely striking the viscous darkness that bound Liu Xuanfeng's soul!

"boom--!"

Without a physical roar, an energy storm powerful enough to tear the soul apart exploded on the spiritual level! The submarine's sturdy alloy bulkheads emitted a teeth-grinding groan and trembled violently! All electronic screens were instantly engulfed by frantic static, and the lights flickered wildly, as if in a death throes!

"Energy overload! Shield critical!!" The shrill alarm finally tore through the suppression and echoed throughout the cabin.

Amidst the violent turbulence, Ye Xuehan dug her fingers into the edge of the control panel, her knuckles turning white from the force. Forcing herself to remain calm, her voice pierced the shrill alarm with exceptional clarity: "All ships! Emergency energy diversion! Main engines on standby, prioritize maintaining life support systems and basic shields! Captain Jing, we must retreat immediately!"

Jing Yun's fingers flashed across the violently shaking control panel, precisely switching to manual operation. His muscular arms unleashed terrifying strength as he forcefully turned the steering wheel. The Abyss's massive body emitted a painful, twisting metallic groan in the void, tilting and rolling backward with near-out-of-control movements, trying to escape the tearing force of the invisible energy vortex. The ship's shield generators emitted a dying shriek, and eerie blue light flowed and flickered wildly within the bulkheads, illuminating every horrified face as if it were a ghost.

"Shield stabilized at 10%! We are moving out of the core impact zone!" Ye Xuehan's voice pierced through the alarm, carrying an almost cold calm. Her hands became a blur on the auxiliary control panel, forcibly separating the remaining energy from the non-core system and injecting it into the shield and attitude engine.

Luo Yifei felt as if his right arm had been struck by an invisible giant hammer, or thrown into a furnace! The silver lightning released by the Soul-Summoning Bell, tearing through the void, not only drained the little spiritual power remaining in his body, but also brought an extremely violent backlash! The power surged wildly through the meridians of his arm, like countless red-hot steel needles writhing in his blood vessels, causing excruciating pain, blacking out his vision, a sweet taste in his throat, and a trickle of scarlet blood uncontrollably spilling from the corner of his mouth. But he gritted his teeth, his right hand as if welded to the bell handle, letting the power scorch his flesh and soul, his gaze fixed on the porthole—the silver snake-like lightning had precisely struck the viscous darkness that bound Liu Xuanfeng's soul!

"Zi la——!"

The depths of the rift were not the expected emptiness. Countless twisted, writhing, and indescribable shadows writhed and intertwined within, radiating a malice and chill a hundred times stronger than before! The dark power binding Liu Xuanfeng's soul tightened its grip like a venomous snake whose tail had been stepped on! The silent roar emanating from Liu Xuanfeng's shattered soul instantly transformed into an extremely piercing soul scream, as if being pierced simultaneously by billions of ice needles!

"Ughhhhhh—!" This time, not only did the soul fluctuate, but the body possessed by Liu Xuanfeng (or rather, Ma Jierui) also emitted a shrill scream! The dying body convulsed and rolled violently in the void, its gray robe completely shattered and scattered, revealing skin covered in bizarre wounds, rapidly losing its last trace of color. His features were distorted by extreme pain, his left eye burning with the overwhelming rage and resentment of Liu Xuanfeng's true self, while his right eye was filled with Ma Jierui's bewilderment and deep-seated fear—the two consciousnesses within this collapsing body were stimulated by this sudden external force to clash and tear each other apart even more violently!

But in the midst of this extreme pain and chaos, Liu Xuanfeng seized the fleeting opening created by the silver lightning!

His soul, almost completely detached from his body, struggled violently at the edge of the rift! Using the extremely brief energy chaos created when lightning cleaved through the darkness, like a drowning man grasping at a last straw, his broken soul erupted with a devastating, life-force-driven power, managing to retract a small section! A nearly transparent hand, composed entirely of pure will, gripped the edge of the rift tightly, as if trying to pull him out of the all-consuming abyss!

"Lock onto that rift! All recording devices at maximum power! Quickly!" Jing Yun's voice was hoarse. He had caught that fleeting opportunity, even if it was just a glimpse. All the external sensor arrays on the Abyss's hull, disregarding the risk of being burned up by high-energy radiation, thrust their detection beams like surgical scalpels, relentlessly piercing the dark rift that had been cleaved open by lightning and was rapidly healing!

Deep within the rift, the churning shadows seemed to be utterly enraged. A deeper, thicker, and seemingly timeless chill, like a tangible black tide, surged forth from the rift, instantly engulfing Liu Xuanfeng's mental hand gripping the edge, and sweeping towards his shattered soul at an even faster speed! At the same time, this newly born and more powerful dark force, like an invisible hammer, slammed heavily onto the Abyss's shaky shield!

"Warning! Shield overload! Energy core is about to melt!" The main control computer uttered its final, desperate cry.

Just then, a circular portal of light suddenly opened up at the rear of the submarine. At that moment, everyone on board knew what it was: a teleportation array or a spacetime tunnel.

"Spacetime curvature anomaly! It's...it's a stable passage!" Ye Xuehan's voice trembled with disbelief for the first time, her eyes fixed on the circular entrance that had suddenly appeared on the main screen, emitting a soft white light. It was like a pure pearl set against a raging curtain of darkness, forming an absolute contrast with the all-consuming gloom around it, exuding a sense of stability that was both heart-pounding and alluring.

Jing Yun's pupils suddenly contracted! The gate of light appeared without warning, as if it were the only possible way out of this desperate situation, but the timing was so fatal—the shield was on the verge of collapse, Liu Xuanfeng's soul was being swallowed by an even more terrifying darkness, and the Abyss itself was like a withered leaf swaying in a storm!

"Target locked!"