Chapter 150: Are You Afraid of a Killing Spree?

Within Tong Yi's sea of consciousness, Jiang An's spiritual projection suddenly appeared, suspended in mid-air and looking down. Tong Yi's mental sea was divided into two distinct halves: one crystal clear, and the other turbid and murky.

He would deal with that later; Jiang An's objective was clear. He flew directly toward the spiritual platform deep within the sea of consciousness. Soon, he caught sight of Tong Yi's soul essence, and his brow furrowed.

On the platform, Tong Yi's soul took the form of a greenish, hazy sphere of light. Coiled around this sphere was a black, misty snake that darted joyfully back and forth, flicking its tongue as if thoroughly nourished by the soul's energy.

Seeing this, Jiang An raised his right hand. A blinding brilliance flashed across his palm, shining directly onto the black snake upon the light sphere. With a sharp hiss, the black snake opened its mouth in agony, wisps of blue smoke rising from its body before it instantly dissolved into a mass of black mist that merged into the green sphere, creating a pattern where black existed within green, and green within black.

Jiang An quickly clenched his fist and withdrew the light. Otherwise, harming the black snake would also injure Tong Yi's soul—at best resulting in idiocy or madness, and at worst, coma or death.

This black snake was truly troublesome. After pondering for a moment, Jiang An devised another plan.

Direct attacks would only cause the snake to shrink back. Thus, he had no choice but to use himself as bait and lure the snake out of its den.

Approaching the light sphere, Jiang An suppressed his killing intent, then extended a finger right in front of the black mist. Sure enough, once Jiang An deliberately emanated the pure scent of soul essence, the black mist shifted, condensing back into the snake's head. It first sniffed cautiously, and sensing no reaction from Jiang An, it immediately cast aside its politeness. With a snap, its white fangs shot out and sank deeply into Jiang An's finger.

Jiang An remained completely motionless, allowing the snake head to bite, swallow, and suck. Encouraged by this, the snake head grew even greedier, for Jiang An's essence was far more delicious. The black mist churned once more, materializing the snake's body. In the blink of an eye, the entire black serpent tunneled out from Jiang An's finger—head, body, and tail emerging from the light sphere one by one.

Now!

The moment the final wisps of black mist cleared from the light sphere, it returned to a pure, unblemished hue. Jiang An instantly withdrew his hand and formed a hand seal, sealing off his entire body. Feeling the black snake thrashing with excitement inside him as if it were in its element, the corner of his mouth twitched. He shifted his hand seal, and with a sudden *boom*, raging flames instantly erupted all over his body.

The fire burned from the inside out, omnipresent. The black snake had nowhere to hide, and all its frantic struggles and rolling were in vain. It was gradually refined by the flames, and within moments, it was completely eradicated.

Jiang An let out a sigh of relief, though his complexion looked rather poor. After all, this was a self-harming method, but such minor injuries would heal after a couple of days of rest.

Noticing that the light sphere's radiance had dimmed somewhat due to the contamination and parasitism, Jiang An channeled a portion of his own pure soul essence into it before departing the spiritual platform.

Soon, he returned to the expanse above the mental sea. Although the black snake had been eliminated, the damage it caused remained—namely, the vast expanse of murky, turbid water. Facing this situation, one particular spell was ideally suited.

All arts between heaven and earth could be termed magical arts, and these could be further subdivided. For instance, immortals could wield immortal arts, Dao lords could use Daoist arts, while those handed down from the primordial divine race were known as divine arts—generally referring to spells of special might intermediate between immortal arts and Daoist arts, such as the Art of Facing the Heavenly阙 (Que). Arts created by later generations in imitation of divine arts with identical functions were termed "Great Arts."

The Rainbow Great Arts were the collective designation for the seven great arts created by Jiang An himself. Their power was extraordinary, far beyond the reach of his current Foundation Establishment cultivation. However, as their creator, even though he could not yet execute them in reality, he could borrow their intent to use them within the sea of consciousness. The last time Jiang An infiltrated the hacker Aiden's mental sea, he had used the intent of the Orange Thorn Art from the Rainbow Great Arts to destroy Carty's three-headed hound seal. This time, Jiang An would employ the premier art among the Rainbow Great Arts: the Crimson Dawn Art.

The Crimson Dawn Art was virtually the bane of all dark and evil miasmas, belonging to the category of large-scale offensive spells. It was precisely what was needed at this moment.

Jiang An closed his eyes, pressed his palms together, and began to chant incantations. After several breaths, he parted his hands, revealing a three-finger-wide gap between them. A circular light sphere resembling a red gem was born in the center of his palms. Then, Jiang An lifted his hands in an offering gesture, and the red light sphere soared straight into the clouds, vanishing from sight.

*Rumble!*

The next moment, a boundless, crimson sun abruptly manifested in the sky, illuminating everything. It cast its gold-tinted crimson light across the entire sea of consciousness, radiating infinite light and heat. That half of the turbid water immediately receded like foam encountering a blazing fire. By the time the crimson sun vanished, the sea of consciousness had completely recovered its pristine clarity.

In the real world, Jiang An opened his eyes and wiped the fine beads of sweat from his forehead.

It was finally resolved.

He looked once more at Tong Yi on the bed. She was still elderly, because although the evil art had been eradicated, the depleted life essence could not simply return on its own. However, who asked Jiang An to have obtained the Purple Capital Spirit Tree just before this?

Condensing the Hatred-Longing Physical Form had only consumed the vast majority of the Purple Capital Spirit Tree's vital energy; a small portion remained sealed within his body, which could serve precisely to replenish Tong Yi's essence and nourish her soul.

Besides, even without the Purple Capital Spirit Tree, he still possessed the three vital essence spheres of the black lion, black leopard, and black bear harvested via the Neon Rosy-Cloud Art, though they paled immensely in comparison to the Purple Capital Spirit Tree.

Thus, pressing on with his efforts, Jiang An grasped Tong Yi's hand and channeled the incomparably pure life energy of the Purple Capital Spirit Tree into her body.

The unconscious Tong Yi immediately underwent a transformation. Her hair grew thick once more, gradually turning black, while the canyon-like wrinkles on her face vanished one by one. Her skin plumped up anew, her cells regaining their vitality. Within moments, she transformed from an elderly crone resembling a withered tree back into a radiant, breathtakingly beautiful young maiden as bright as spring light.

This time, her red dress and black hair complemented each other to perfection.

Slowly withdrawing his energy, Jiang An awakened Tong Yi.

Tong Yi opened her eyes drowsily, her vision meeting Jiang An's gentle, smiling face. Subconsciously, she reached out wanting to touch him, only to suddenly realize that her hand seemed to have changed—tender, white, smooth, and delicate.

She sat up abruptly and pressed her hands to her cheeks. The loose, wrinkled sensation was gone; what she touched was undoubtedly full of collagen.

"A mirror! Give me a mirror!"

Smiling, Jiang An handed her a mirror. Tong Yi brought it close, gazing at her lovely face from left to right. Her raven-black hair fell like ink, and her beauty surpassed that of immortals. Instantly, two streams of crystal tears slid down her cheeks. Having regained her youth, she never wanted to lose it again.

However, what she feared losing most of all was his affection!

*Hey!*

Without a trace of warning, Tong Yi suddenly leaped up and tackled Jiang An, planting a fierce kiss on his cheek with her red lips. Then, clinging to him like an octopus, she buried her face in his broad chest and cried out loudly, "I don't care whether you said you also liked me just now to comfort me or not. In short, I'm sticking with you!"

Jiang An chuckled. As expected, this was the true Tong Yi—bold in love and hate, albeit momentarily lacking a sense of security.

"Xiao Tong, let me ask you formally once more: are you willing to stay by my side? It might be dull, and it might be dangerous, but I can't bear to part with you, so I'm asking you..."

"I'm willing! I'm willing!"

Tong Yi responded loudly like a madwoman, jumping for joy like a twenty-year-old child.

Jiang An suddenly felt a profound sense of peace. At that moment, he felt no desire to fabricate excuses for his fickle heart to prove himself in the right. He only knew that he had followed his true inner desires, feeling content and at ease.

"Alright, get up. Rest for a little while, and then I'll take you on a tour of Southeast Asia!"

Jiang An picked her up, placed her back on the bed, and replied, "Naturally, I'm taking you to kill people—to drag out the ones who harmed you, hack them into pieces, and scatter their ashes! Are you afraid?"

A gentleman takes revenge ten years later, but an immortal takes revenge before nightfall.

"A murder vacation?" Tong Yi's expression paused for a fraction of a second, and then she shook her head. "With you here, I'm not afraid!"

"Good. There's no need to keep secrets from you now: alongside the world of ordinary people, there exists another world—bizarre, omnipotent, respecting only the strong, and locked in a struggle for fate with heaven and earth. Once you step into it, you can never step back out. Killing is merely the first step."

Jiang An said with utmost solemnity.

*(PS: Jiang An remarked: "Before Jiang goes off to hack people to pieces, I need to make some preparations to avoid capsizing in the gutter. I hope fellow Daoists will bring out the good treasures from your storage bags—recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, and tipping support can never be too many. Immeasurable Heavenly Lord, Amitabha!")*