Summit of the Old Gods-Chapter 1146 - 1066: Jade Corpse Mountain

This slowly flowing scroll of memories is like a long river of history for the 23-year-old Lu Ran.

In the long existence of the Faceless Jade Venerable, most memories have become blurred.

In the long scroll, countless threads of translucent silk are interwoven, unable to form a clear picture, only a shadowy image.

Of course, there are relatively clear passages.

For example, the events that occurred before her death, including the recent battle, Lu Ran witnessed her fight with Fairy Jiang from her first-person perspective.

Flipping back further, there are scenes of her battles at various Divine Mountains.

At Conlong Divine Mountain, she carried the head of the Master of Rain, forcefully breaking through the encirclement;

In the angry gaze of Rou Paperman, she held Red Candle, ruthlessly shattering the jade-stoned body in her embrace.

She stomped through the Ghost Fire Chrysanthemum, broke through the heavily protected Divine Mountain guarded by the Burning Gate’s Soldiers;

Her swirling Jade Robe wrapped around the despairing Huang Que, letting it turn into golden light and shuttle within, unable to escape from her grasp.

Jade Flute, Karma Bull, Corpse Suppressing Official...

The more he looked, the more somber Lu Ran’s expression became.

Until later, even in his chilling Dead Sheep Eyes, a faint sadness appeared.

In the perspective of the Great Jade Venerable, she shattered countless Blood Chains, tore open the sky-covering Red Robe with her jade hand, and then grabbed an arm of Tu Feng.

She roamed freely among the forest of bone pillars, knocking aside the leg of the Divine Armor Guard, her white robe surged like a tide towards Niu Zhengzheng, punching through his throat.

She lifted Niu Zhengzheng’s head high, cruelly separating the body, leaving a lone head in her hand.

She suddenly abandoned attacking the mountain, rushed towards the Black Cloud Vortex in the sky, intercepted by Yan Shuangzi at the first moment, and slashed flying by a cut from Deng Yuxiang, crashing hard into the Divine Mountain, abruptly changing her trajectory.

Before the Other Shore Flower at the mountain top fully closed, she forcibly crushed Bai Yanhui’s Pseudo-God Body.

Did Elder Bai not foresee such a future?

Why didn’t he leave...

Lu Ran tightly pressed his lips, his eyes filled with icy killing intent, immersed in her scroll of memories, his heart bleeding!

Trample, destroy.

Conquest, death.

She has also died.

Imprisoned by the Sword Shadow Torrent of Fairy Jiang, cut in half by Emperor Lu, pierced by a thousand swords and dismembered by Lord Jian Yi.

Slammed to the ground by Lu Ran, bombarded wildly, and her head fiercely stabbed to pieces.

Thus, the thoughts and consciousness between the Jade Venerable’s original selves are indeed connected; at least it can be confirmed that their consciousness was connected before death.

Lu Ran quickly flipped forward, encountering another large segment of blurred images, impossible to make sense of.

Until at some moment, Lu Ran’s heart stopped.

He saw himself from a few months ago.

That was when he first went to explore the borderlands, discovered and accepted her invitation, went to her slightly raised fingertip.

In her perspective, he was... so insignificant.

Pinched between her fingers, gently ground into flesh, turned into falling jade powder.

Wait!

Where’s the memory in between?

What about the memory of the Great Jade Venerable constructing the White Jade City Wall and cowering?

Why is it all blurred?

Lu Ran’s expression turned somewhat grim, indeed the Spring of Oblivion had said that the memories of the Dead Souls are mostly blurred.

Only the memories right before death and those deeply engraved in the past remain in the scroll.

Another point is that Lu Ran’s current Divine Technique of Spring of Oblivion is only of River Grade.

Perhaps a higher quality could access more clear memories?

"Huh~"

Lu Ran’s heart moved, and the river of memories flowed again, with large segments of blurred images catching his eye.

As he flipped through, he could not help but be surprised.

In the few clear images of the Great Jade Venerable, his figure kept appearing again and again.

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

It should have been information obtained from the Jade Venerable Minion, then expanded in imagination.

Lu Ran destroyed many Divine Mountains like Thunder North Wind, annihilated the Martial Artist Jade-faced Snake Group, and finally dueled with the Evil Spear Emperor...

"Huh~" The scroll of memories was too long, like an illusory river, slowly flowing around Lu Ran and the Jade Venerable Divine Soul, round and round, growing longer and longer.

Lu Ran frantically traced it back.

Until he saw a desolate land, saw the Stone Sculpture crushed under her feet.

For some reason, this scene was so clear.

She stared blankly at her foot, or at the crushed stone head beneath it.

Is this the world of the God Demon?

No matter what, this scene was very important to her!

Lu Ran reached into the illusory long river with one hand, Divine Power surging in his palm.

"Ugh." The Jade Venerable Divine Soul suddenly let out a muffled groan.

When Lu Ran first cast the spell, the Jade Venerable Divine Soul had said a word or two, and ever since his spell succeeded, the Jade Venerable Divine Soul had remained wide-eyed, hovering in place.

This sudden movement meant Lu Ran truly extracted her memory!

"Huh~"

Lu Ran’s hand continually clenched, the illusory memory image condensed swiftly, mixed with a small piece of the Divine Soul’s energy, compressing into an Ancient Coin.

The small coin was circular outside, square inside, also semi-transparent, carrying this image.

The Floating Life Coin slowly flew into Lu Ran’s palm, exuding a faint sadness.

This was even without the coin breaking.

This Floating Life Coin, if used to strike a living being, would likely engulf them in overwhelming sorrow, rendering them incapable of battle.

"Sigh~"

The scroll of memory continued to unfold.

Lu Ran ascended against the current in the river of memories belonging to the Faceless Jade Venerable.

Segments of memory transformed into Floating Life Coins, quietly hovering beside him, yet Lu Ran could not remain calm.

His expression grew increasingly complex.

The emotions carried within her memories seemed to want to entirely drown Lu Ran, an endless accumulation of sorrow from her long existence.

Waves of bitterness and despair crashed over him like a tidal wave, ravaging and engulfing Lu Ran’s body and mind.

In the deepest part of her memory, he saw an image he would never forget.

It was a mountain.

A vast Corpse Mountain built from countless White Jade Corpses.

From the Faceless Jade Venerable’s perspective, the peak of the mountain was nowhere in sight...

They weren’t the Faceless Jade Venerable; they must have been her clan members.

They had various appearances, yet all were twisted in agony, unable to die in peace.

They shared the same jade stone bodies, with each one’s chest gruesomely hollowed out, as if something precious had been taken.

In front of this mountain of White Jade Clan corpses, the Faceless Jade Venerable was clearly not the powerful, cold and indifferent being she was now.

She was just a fragile, pitiful creature, looking at it all lost and forlorn.

She climbed forward crying, rummaging through the corpses as if searching for a glimmer of hope.

She wailed and hopelessly shook each cold corpse, praying for any response.

After an unknown amount of time, she collapsed onto the Corpse Mountain.

Desperately clutching her head, shaking furiously.

Gradually, she broke down...

She slowly pried open her clan members’ bodies, like a lonely, desperate child searching for a place of belonging, inch by inch crawling into the Corpse Mountain.

She looked as if she wanted to bury herself too, to find a sense of belonging with her clan, to become one with the Corpse Mountain.

Forever merging into one...

In a daze, a phrase once spoken by the Faceless Jade Venerable surfaced again in Lu Ran’s mind.

By then, she was already a Dead Soul, imprisoned by Lu Ran in the Soul Prison, her face showing a faint smile amidst the burning Soul Fire, whispering to him:

"You’ve never experienced true pain."

That was just a Dead Soul of a minion, likely unaware of this experience.

But since the minion was modeled on the original essence, even so, it was enough for her to remain unflinching under the torment of Soul Fire.

"Ding ding~"

The Floating Life Coins touched each other, producing a crisp sound.

In Lu Ran’s palm, this Coin emanated bone-deep pain and despair.

Lu Ran lowered his eyelids, looking at the expressionless Jade Venerable Divine Soul.

Faceless, heartless?

No.

She should have, like those tragically deceased clan members, a clear visage.

Perhaps, in that mountain of corpses made of countless clan members, she became everyone’s likeness.

Because of the blurred face, she could be anyone.

She would also cry, feel sorrow, be in such anguish beyond control.

Perhaps her heart, along with her clan members, died in that Corpse Mountain.

"Ha..." Lu Ran’s eyes reddened slightly, letting out a deep sigh.

Due to the nature of the Divine Technique, and also because of Jade Venerable’s extremely intense emotions, it was really hard not to be affected.

Now it seems, the Jade Venerable Divine Soul’s memories are incomplete.

Lu Ran did not see how she rose up, how she overturned the God Demon Camp.

Perhaps it’s because the level of the Divine Technique is not high enough, so the retrieval is not thorough?

Or maybe for some other reason, for which Lu Ran presently had no answer, he dispersed the Divine Technique and called out:

"Jade Venerable."

The colossal Jade Venerable was expressionless, showing no reaction.

He was silent for a moment, eye energy surging, the Jade Venerable Divine Soul flew swiftly to his Dead Sheep Eyes, constantly contracting, flying into the God Demon Sculpture Garden.

Then under Lu Ran’s control, it surged toward the yet-to-be-completed Stone Sculpture·Faceless Stone Venerable.

Previously, when building the Spring of Oblivion Stone Sculpture in the garden, Lu Ran took over a month and a half because he absorbed only Dead Souls of Spring of Oblivion minions.

The Divine Soul is different!

Based on the experience of crafting the Spring of Oblivion Stone Sculpture, combined with previously killing a colossal Jade Venerable and using its Divine Soul to craft a Stone Sculpture, he could roughly conclude:

It takes 6~7 Jade Venerable Divine Souls to fully complete the Faceless Stone Venerable in the garden. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Lu Ran clenched a handful of ethereal Floating Life Coins in his hand, his figure flickering.

The soldiers were already engaged in the defense of the Divine Mountain, Jiang Ruyi was also at the peak, constantly coordinating skilled troops, sending Qiang Xiu and the Fire Evil Monk to various critical areas for support.

Seeing Lu Ran return, she immediately raised her hand, placing her palm as a support beneath his feet.

And his intense sorrowful feelings instantly washed over the entire Divine Mountain Peak.

"You...what’s wrong?" Jiang Ruyi felt a tightness in her heart, softly asked with concern.

Lu Ran did not respond, instead, he asked: "Which Divine Mountain is in the most danger?"

"Conlong Divine Mountain."

"Hmm." Lu Ran’s figure vanished in a flash.

...