The First Palace Lord Yama looked at the three ten-thousand-year ice coffins laid out in a row. He said nothing, only watching Yunxi to see what the little lass intended to do.
Yunxi first drew her soul back into her body, appearing before the three. She spoke calmly.
"Han Lian, Yun Chen, Xun Kun, return to your bodies. I am going to inscribe an array on you and take your soul power back."
Han Lian had lost her earlier ease. She pressed her lips together. "Ran Xi, are you sure about this?"
Yunxi answered in her usual even tone. "Whether I am or not, I have to be. Do not waste time, or my expenditure will only grow."
Yun Chen intoned a Buddha's name, removed the vajra bodhi prayer beads from his wrist, and looped them over Yunxi's wrist, then flashed back into his own body.
Han Lian drew out the icy lotus from the center of her brows and pushed it into Yunxi's body. "Our spiritual roots share the same attribute. If your strength falls short, draw power from the ice lotus."
With that, she returned to her body as well.
Xun Kun frowned. He cultivated the demonic path, incompatible with Ran Xi's power. Even so, he removed the openwork black mask from his face and held it out to her. "Wear my mask. It will stabilize your soul. As long as I live, I will find you."
Before Yunxi could respond, he too slipped back into his body.
Yunxi merely twitched her fingers and the openwork black mask sealed the upper half of her face.
She turned to the First Palace Lord Yama. "Lord, this junior will begin."
Lord Yama only nodded, his dark eyes fixed on Yunxi.
Feeling fully armed, Yunxi finally closed her eyes and redrew in her mind the inscription she was about to etch. Then her eyes snapped open. Her entire aura shifted.
She cut her fingertip with spiritual power, drew out three drops of essence blood, and, using her own soul force as the guide, began to inscribe.
This inscription was one of the final five in the beast-hide booklet. Its meaning was "defying heaven," an inscription the Wu Tribe had carved with supreme witch power to reverse the will of the Dao. It sounded anything but simple. Even if it succeeded, the price would be heavy.
Life and death were on the line. Yunxi had no other path and could only gamble. She was a descendant of the ancient Wu Tribe. Although she did not cultivate witch power, she possessed the bloodline. With a body of pure spiritual power, she might just barely complete the inscription.
So she used essence blood to carve the lines, while soul force, her source power, acted as the draw. Layer upon layer, perhaps it could unleash the effect of defying heaven. She even infused power of merit while inscribing. She refused to believe that with threefold stacking she still could not reverse the Breaking Formation and seize back the soul power of the three.
As Yunxi began, the First Palace Lord Yama's expression grew solemn. His brows slowly knit.
Yunxi felt like a floodgate about to burst. Essence blood, soul force, spiritual power, and merit surged out of her in a rapid drain, leaving her hollowed.
But the inscription was not yet complete. She could only grit her teeth and persist. As the golden lines slowly took shape before the ghost soldiers' eyes, her complexion paled further. The prayer beads on her wrist glimmered with gentle light and sent a soft current into her body. The icy lotus flickered in and out, pouring ice spiritual power of the same origin into her meridians. The openwork black mask anchored her soul firmly in place.
A rolling thunderclap rumbled across the black sky of the Ghost Realm. Thick clouds massed over the entrance of the Eighteen Levels of Hell. Purple-red light flickered within, as if it would crash down the next instant. The ghost soldiers trembled and instinctively edged closer to Lord Yama.
The First Palace Lord Yama raised his head, a crimson gleam flashing through his eyes. His voice sank. "Little girl, faster. You have been locked onto."
Yunxi knew she was locked on. She was forcing down the final stroke, but the stroke refused to land. She clenched her jaw, struck her own chest with her palm, and spat a mouthful of blood into the air, feeding it to the inscription.
As the blood merged in, the golden red light flared dazzlingly. Without wiping the blood at her lips, Yunxi flicked her sleeve and shot three inscriptions into the bodies lying within the three ice coffins, then collapsed to a seated sprawl.
In the instant the inscriptions entered their bodies, a purple-red bolt of thunder plunged straight toward Yunxi's head, only to be blocked by the Nine Nether Dragon Umbrella.
After taking three strikes, the Nine Nether Dragon Umbrella returned to Yunxi's dantian. In the next instant, the Seven Stars Soul-Shattering Staff flew out of her dantian of its own accord, meeting the second wave of purple-red thunder head on.
Yunxi could not spare a glance. Her eyes were fixed on the three coffins and the Breaking Formation. In the next breath, the formation began to flicker, then reversed, spinning in the opposite direction. The soul power that had been drained earlier surged back into Han Lian, Yun Chen, and Xun Kun, and the speed of recovery only climbed.
Only then did the First Palace Lord Yama nod. With a lift of his hand, he drew out the soul power within the formation that did not belong to the three and sealed it separately. On his own turf, there was no reason not to return the favor.
Five breaths later, the Breaking Formation ceased to operate. It crumbled, utterly useless.
Purple-red bolts were still falling over Yunxi's head, nine in total. The Seven Stars Soul-Shattering Staff and the Nine Nether Dragon Umbrella bore the brunt of most strikes, but when the last two descended, both artifacts had already returned to her dantian. She could only sit cross-legged and brace to meet them with flesh and blood.
A cracking sound rang out. All three ice coffins opened at once. Han Lian, Yun Chen, and Xun Kun flashed out, raced straight to Yunxi, and formed a battle array together, helping her withstand the final two bolts.
The three of them were blasted into a sorry heap, sprawling for a long while before they could struggle to their feet, as bedraggled as they could be.
Han Lian braced herself on the ground. "Ran Xi, how did you not think to dodge when the thunder came?"
Yunxi held a spirit stone in her hand and had a stalk of Xianling Grass pressed to her chest, replenishing her losses. She opened her eyes. "You think I did not want to? I had no strength left to move."
She had considered retreating into her space, but in front of the Ghost Realm's overlord she dared not act rashly. She could still explain taking out the ice coffins as moving their bodies from a portable medicinal garden. If she vanished into thin air, there would be no explaining it.
She had already steeled herself for a drop in cultivation. At worst, she would rebuild from scratch once she returned to Weiyu Realm. Han Lian and the others would drag her back to Weiyu Realm even if they had to.
By now, the First Palace Lord Yama had finished repairing the barrier of the Eighteen Levels of Hell. He looked at the four soot-streaked figures.
"You truly are newborn calves unafraid of tigers. That was soul thunder unique to the Ghost Realm. It targets the soul and serves as punishment. A single strike could scatter your souls to nothing. You survived because your accumulated merit is thick enough, otherwise I would be collecting your bodies."
Only now did the four of them feel the pain searing their souls. Fine purple-red threads of thunder coiled around their souls, releasing waves of thunder force that made them want to howl. Darkness swam before their eyes.
"Count yourselves lucky. You destroyed the Breaking Formation this time, so I will lend you a hand."
With that, the First Palace Lord Yama swept his sleeve and carried the four of them away.